Survival Of The Fittest

Hawley kept silent for the moment as he moved toward the back of the building. This place sure was alot better off than the clinic, glancing down another short hall he took note of the spiral stair case leading to the top of the tower, "Must be where the bastards where throwing those things at me..."

Adam snorted at Alan's comment. "Any warmer than the welcome they gave us?"

Looking at the staircase, he nodded to Hawley. "Yeah, seems like it'd make sense..."

Adam decided that the search would need to proceed upwards, and he began to proceed up the staircase.

"Well Adam, I must admit you got the better half of the welcome." Hawley mused as he followed behind, glancing through all the open doors leading into other rooms as they passed them. Hoping there wasn't anyone else hiding out in here...

Adam shivered as a rat ran across the floor in front of him.

"You've got a point there, that's for sure..."

As he spoke, something came to mind, and he turned to face Hawley.
"How's the arm holding up, by the way?"

He cocked a brow, lifting the said arm away from his side somewhat to look at redness there. "It's fine... just hurts when I move it. But I should be happy it didn't do anymore damage than it did." Hawley said, turning it over a little as the redness, and it some areas a little darker, spread from his wrist to some inches before his elbow.

Besides Alan's cut, he'd have to take care of this too. Though he didn't know very much on how to handle a burn.

"So..." Adam looked at Hawley. "See anything? I dunno, but this place seems fairly deserted."

Placing the weapon into the pocket of his jeans, he reached back and rubbed the back of his head lightly. "Seems so, this'll be a good place to stay I have to admit, least till it becomes a danger zone. There's beds... and from the top you could probably get a good overlook of the island."

Adam nodded at Hawley's suggestion.

"I'm going to go check it out."

Without waiting for a reply, Adam traipsed up the steps to the top of the lighthouse. He needed some alone time, to think things over in his mind. As he came to the top of the lighthouse, Adam saw that Hawley had been right, there was quite the lookout over most of the island. Adam could see little flashes of movement all over the place, mainly on the cliffs futher away on the island, and in the gazebo that seemed to be on the other side of the island. Looking over the space, Adam could faintly make out the clinic that they had come from.

That must have been where I started out...

He looked at the cliffs again. It was a fair hike from the cliffs to the lighthouse, but Adam couldn't help but look at what seemed like a figure in the distance. It was so far away that Adam couldn't tell any details, but he hoped to god that nobody had a sniper rifle.

He sighed. This wasn't a situation he was used to dealing with - the whole certain death at every corner thing. Adam had been lucky, he hadn't been shot, knifed, burnt, or stabbed. His two companions weren't so lucky. Alan might die if that wound kept bleeding the way it had, and Hawley was just a mess, with a bum knee and a burnt arm. Compared to them, Adam looked like a normal, everyday kid - carrying a shotgun, that is. Putting the shotgun down, he leaned it against the side of the lighthouse. It just wasn't fair, this whole thing.

Shoving his hands in his pockets, he frowned. As the sun looked like it was beginning to set, Adam had to wonder what time it was. Absentmindedly, he yanked his cell-phone from out of his pocket and looked at the blue display. Eight thirty. He replaced the little device back in his pocket. Usually at this time he'd be sitting down at home, probably watching some-

My cell phone!?

Adam looked down at his pocket with a look of utter shock. They had kidnapped them, set them down on this island, put collars around their necks, and yet they had neglected to take his cell phone away from him? Adam was pleased. If he had a cell-phone, he could call to the outside world and get help! Smiling, he yanked open his cell phone. There was two faint bars on it, he couldn't believe his luck. Not really sure what other number to call, he dialed in his home number. As he was pressing the last digit on the phone, it lost its signal. Adam looked at the phone and swore.

"Goddamnit...Motorola V300, piece of garbage crap ass phone! AUGH!"

He waited a few more moments, but nothing, no more signal. Adam sighed, and looked down to the water below. It just wasn't fair.

Hawley found himself watching as Adam left he standing still for a moment before he allowed his back to collapse against the wall forming about the stairwell, his body sliding down it as he came to rest on the stair. Right leg lying outright before his while his left was pulled up toward his chest, his injured arm nursed about his waist.

It felt almost as if his whole body was on fire, everything hurt to move and that bloody headache he had still this morning hadn’t left yet. Then again, the headache could be from the punch he had received from Alan just hours before… moving lightly he undid the pack from about his form and rested it beside him on another stair. Moving once more this time to remove the pistol from his pocket and had been pushing against his leg and laid it along side his other stuff.

Breathing in a shaky breath he allowed his head to rest back against the cool cement walls of the lighthouse, it was such a nice feeling to his fevered form. Now he wasn’t personally pleased with this fact, but he knew something was bound to happen with his untreated knee and several other wounds he had gotten just in the day of the game.

An injured knee, a cut to his shin, brass knuckles to his forehead, a gun shot wound on his upper right arm, and now a burn wound making the rest of the arm hurt like hell. And now he had a fever… things where not looking up for him at all and just to think.

Less than an hour ago he was speaking of plans to do when he returned home – there was no returning home to him. The gut feeling had sunk as he watched Helena fall into a puddle of her own blood; dead, dead by his own hands. There was no turning back now he was a killer; there would be no future outside of this island.

Hawley figured already, he’d stay alive for as long as possible till finally he was brought down. Be it by classmate, a person he didn’t know, or maybe even one of the two he called his allies.

What be the case… he wouldn’t live to think about a future outside of this.

Outside of the lighthouse, Adam glared furiously at his cell phone. He tried moving around the lighthouse but to no avail. He couldn't seem to get that signal back from before. If he could only get through to anyone at all, they would all be saved. Adam swore again. All of their lives could depend on some shitty cell-phone that seemed to crap out at the best of times.

At the best of times....


****

"Don't forget to pack a toothbrush!"

Adam rolled his eyes, and looked at his mother standing in the doorway.

"Yes mom, I know."

"Oh, and don't forget shorts and a towel or two, I know you forgot those last time."

"Yeah, mom...I got it."

"Are you sure you need all those hockey jerseys? You won't be able to close your bag...?"

Adam turned around from his packing and looked at his mother with an exasperated expression. "Mom, I've packed a suitcase before! You remember, I've been on trips before, eh?"

His mother smiled, a mischevious grin on her face. "Yes, but I'm your mother, I have to nag you to make sure you do it."

He couldn't help but smile. "Yeah, I know, I know. So is Dad home yet?"

"Not yet, but I think him and Oliver are picking up something for dinner."

Adam nodded. Pizza again? Eh, it was okay. He felt like pizza tonight.

*****

Pizza...

Adam shook his head as he recalled the day before he had left on the trip. Had pizza been his figuretive 'last supper'? He looked at his cell phone again, and mumbled a string of explitives at the non-functioning device. It had worked, just a day or so ago...

It was when I called Alex...

*****

Adam sat on his bed, cell-phone closed, functioning on speaker-phone. He was speaking to a friend of his from work, a guy named Alex.

"...so, yeah...I don't know, I'm just getting those vibes off of her, you know? It seems like she's interested in me, but the next minute, she's gone, you know? It's so fucking frustrating, man!"

There was a pause, as Adam sighed.

"She's hard to read, I'll give you that. But what I think you should do is just go talk to her, tell her how you feel. Otherwise, nothing's going to be accomplished. She likes you, it works, that's great. She doesn't? Well, big deal, you move on. Guy, you can't dwell for too long. It'll drive you crazy."

Adam laughed out loud. "Yeah, no shit it'll drive me crazy. I...I just don't know, man. I should be able to say or do something, but I'm unable...as fucked as it sounds, I just can't, you know?"

Alex sighed on the other end. "Listen, man. Trust me. You say something, and either way, you're going to feel a lot better. I guarantee you, you do it, and in two days you'll feel like a whole new man..."

*****

Whole new man was right... Adam thought to himself.

It was a shame to him that his problems of two days ago were relative nothings as compared to the situation that he now found himself in. Cursing once more, he looked at the phone and sighed.

He couldn't help but look at his current situation. While he seemed to have, for the time being, secured two allies, he couldn't know how long that partnership would last. If Hawley died first, he wouldn't put it past Alan to attack him from behind. Adam knew Alan to be a fierce man if angered, and the way he had spoken about homosexuals took Adam the wrong way. He was a fiercely prejudiced person, and Adam simply just didn't trust him. Hawley was a different story though. He was an enigma, someone he couldn't figure out. Hawley had done something neither of them had done - he had killed someone. Yet whenever Adam had spoken to him outside of the game, he had always seemed like a quiet, yet nice, well spoken individual. He certainly had a not-so-optimistic outlook on life, and judging by the suicide attempt, he had his share of problems, but Adam found himself placing more trust in the other redhead than in the homophobe. He didn't know how long the three would last in an alliance, but he hoped it would surely be for as long as he was alive.

Sitting there alone with the only sounds begin that of the wind coming from the top of the lighthouse, allowed him to think. Course none of it was quite peasant, as he thought about back to the day this all begun. When his brothers more or less forced him onto this trip.

---

“Oi, you prat get out!” He remembered Benjamin saying to him as he more or less pushed him out the car, Hawley hardly having time to recover before his luggage was thrown at him by the other half of the twins, Robert.

Robert grinning brightly as placed a camera atop the luggage, that Hawley made managed to catch to so degree mind you, “Remember, take loads of pictures. You know how mum is about her photo albums.” He mused, facing his red-haired younger brother. As one eye was lightly covered my shaggy locks of hair, the other glaring curses.

Hawley didn’t say a word, just admitted a low and angry sound of annoyance and over-all disapproval for the whole ‘Operation Trip’ as Matthew had so fondly named it. And more over the fact that he was here in front of the school with the rest of their classmates as they bided their parents, and family farewell and boarded the bus that would take them to the air port.

But they where here because they wanted to be, they weren’t being forced into this my four nitwits…

Turning back to face the twins he found himself watching as Robert hopped back in the car, both waving and saying goodbye and like that… they drove off, leaving Hawley in the wake.

Oh, he was pissed. He’d say that much… well at least think it.

Sighing he turned on his heels, passing of his luggage to the men in charge of putting them where they needed to go and taking his carry-on with him as he boarded the bus.

Never guessing he’d hate the trip more than he already did.

---

Thoughts were halted a rather violent fit of coughs erupted, rocking his whole body before it stopped and he was allowed to lean back against the wall. Eyes casting about as he tried to search for anything worth looking at, because he didn’t plan on moving from this spot for at least a little while. After a moment, and finding nothing, he just silently closed his eyes.

A nap would be nice, though he knew he wouldn’t be able to fall asleep at least sitting here and listening to the silence was somewhat soothing.

As Alan tore one of the bedsheets to make a crude bandage for his facial scar, he wondered why he even bothered to show up for that plane trip. He could have just blown them off, since it wasn't an official school day. Then again, Alan had never missed either an official or unofficial school day in his life.

More time seemed to pass by without little thought to it, and Hawley soon found his sitting position growing rather uncomfortable. Breathing in deeply he pushed himself up, using the wall as a sort of support to hold him up on his shaky legs and keep from collapsing back against the ground.

Reaching down he pulled his bag back onto his shoulder, and the gun into his hand and begun back down the stairs to the ground floor. Hand raised and pressed against the wall as he led himself down, stopping every few moments, as another fit of coughs would come through. Allowing him to recover before continuing downward.

Glancing about as he reached the bottom he didn’t see Alan, somewhere in the back of his mind hoping the boy hadn’t passed out from the blood loss yet… but he was sure the other boy could handle himself. Moving slowly the red head made his way into the kitchen, allowing the bag to drop from his shoulder at the entrance and he move to sit at the table. Resting the weapon on the table top as well as his flushed face, arms curled about his waist.

"Why couldn't that first-kid kit come with Advil." He muttered weakly, hand reaching up to rub a spot on his forehead as he waited for the other two to finish thier searches of the lighthouse.

Up on the top of the lighthouse, Adam couldn't help but shake his head. It seemed that his phone wasn't going to work at the present time. Looking into the wind, he peered at the cliff face far in the distance. He could see a couple shapes up there, presumably people. He wondered if they were getting along any better than they were.

Figuring that there wasn't much else to be done at that point up there, Adam wandered down into the lighthouse. As he passed by the bedroom, he saw a small blood trail leading down the stairs. Instantly, he was alarmed. Did someone come in and kidnap or kill his allies while he wasn't looking? Inwardly, he swore. Carefully holding the shotgun (that he hardly remembered scooping up as he came inside), he carefully made his way after the blood trail. It seemed to lead into the kitchen. Stepping into the kitchen, shotgun pointed in front of him, he just saw a pained-looking Hawley. Relaxing, he lowered the shotgun. Stepping over to the table, he sat down opposite of Hawley, and looked at the other red-head.

"You okay?" He motioned at Hawley, taking notice of the pained expression on his face.

Hawley glanced up at Adam when his voice reached his eyes; odd he hadn’t even heard the other boy coming which was a pretty bad thing, just to think what would have happened if it hadn’t been Adam. Sighing to himself his pushed himself up into a sitting position on the chair, as he placed a hand to his forehead for a moment before dropping it back to his side. “I think I might have a fever but I can’t tell…”

Casting a glance toward the other boy he found himself sighing once more, removing his glasses from his face and placing them down on the table. Placing his hand to his forehead again, but still wasn't sure his whole body felt hot so it was a rather useless second attempt.