Survival Of The Fittest

((Kimiko Kao continued from Empyrean))

Kimiko was sat in the corner of the room. She had been careful to make sure no corpses where near her, or at least as much as she could do that. Each of the four rooms had contained the corpse of someone she had once known. The one she had settled in had Abigail nestled in the corner but it wasn't her original choice. Kimiko remembered her from the beginning, she had been with Cristo, back when everything had started. Back when she had set out on the path she was now on. It had been an accident then though. She hadn't meant to kill Cristo and indirectly cause Abigail's death as a result. She couldn't say the same thing anymore.

She had avoided sleep as much as she could. She didn't want to see the figures anymore than she had to. After she had awoken, drenched it sweat yet again, she had been convinced that the corpse she had been sharing the room with was moving. So she had moved and that was how she came to be in the same room as Abigail. She didn't want to stay in the one-on-one rooms but the area was devoid of any living people which made it her preferred location.

The announcement had come not long after she'd moved. She heard her own name and the description of her murders as well as some others she recognised. Penelope and Raina, who had raised her hopes only to shatter them had both died and so had Coleen. Just as she had predicted it seemed she had gotten her revenge though. Enzo was still alive as well and for some reason Kimiko felt grateful for that. Counting up how many days they had been on the island and the amount of deaths that had been read out Kimiko imagined they must had been close to the end. She couldn't say for sure however and didn't want to try to guess what the actual number of students left was. She knew it couldn't have been many of them.

She dragged a bottle of water out of her pack and took a long drink from it. How many more days would she have to exist the way she was? She feared sleeping and each day only brought more pain whether it was physical or emotional. Kimiko found herself contemplating Ty's words about home as she realised that if she made it back she would be the new person that she had become during her time in the game. Whatever effect that would have on her life she couldn't be sure of but she knew that it wouldn't be positive.

Pouring some of the water into her hand Kimiko splashed it into her face. Her next move was a simple one, go back to the plan and wait until the end. She had supplies and weapons. All she needed to do was sit and wait. She pulled her legs in to cross them, she had changed her bandages for the first time since she had killed Nancy and the wounds Isabel had given her were aggravated. They hadn't seemed infected though, Kimiko had still poured some water on both of them in an attempt to keep them clean.

Abigail continued to lie unmoving in the corner of the room when Kimiko looked over at her to check before bringing her head back to look straight ahead. She took a deep breath as she closed her eyes and focused on breathing. She couldn't remember the last time she had meditated but her thoughts were a mess and she didn't know what else she could do. So she sat there, eyes closed, slowly looking inward, praying that she found something.

He'd ran faster than he'd ever really ran before. Faster than he had ran from his friends in the basement. Eventually, he decided to stop. He'd wait someplace and ambush her, and kill her. One problem to cross off of the list. One less person to kill. One person closer to winning and finally being able to stop. He looked down. Shaking. Adrenaline mixed with the fear that Serena was going to kill him. She had every right to, really. But to him, the fact that he had killed her friend was outweighed by the fact that they were here. On the island. She had always had the right to kill him. Only now was she taking it.

He hadn't noticed anyone in the room. He stood by the doorway, shotgun in his hands, waiting to hear any signs of Serena approaching. His eyes eventually moved forward, in front of him, and he noticed her. Someone. Drawing a blank. He couldn't remember who this was. Slowly, he put a finger to his lips, asking her for silence. Quietly, he whispered something just barely audible.

"Someone's trying to kill me," he blurted out. "Keep quiet or I'll kill you."

((Serena Waters continued from Thnks Fr Th Mmrs))

The screaming from Matt had stopped, but it didn't take a genius to figure out where he went. Wasn't exactly inconspicuous when he ran away, and even when the screaming stopped, his booming footsteps did not.

Back into these rooms again. The sounds emenating from the rooms were still there, but lower and with a faint drone to it. Her ears were ringing as she stepped down the halls slowly checking the rooms. One by one.

"You afraid of me Matt?" It's no use hiding, you coward!" She fired a burst into one of the rooms, as a measure to see if the pressure would get to him. Adrealine was still surging through as she screamed her words out.

"You see those corpses Matt!? That's you in a minute!" She crept closer to the back as she saw a brief flash of someone there in one of the rooms, wasn't Matt. It was someone with a messed up neck and a shit-eating grin. Serena fired at it.

Kimiko heard the pounding of footsteps against the hard floor and opened her eyes. Her meditation interrupted before she could come to any conclusion, she moved her hand up to rest on the gun waiting to see who the footsteps brought with them. The answer was a boy ran with a shotgun gripped between white knuckles who entered the room. He was running from something, Kimiko waited as he moved around to doorway in an attempt to hide while peeking out into the corridor. It would have been easy for her to shoot him then. All she needed to do was raise the gun and pull the trigger.

Only once the boy seemed comfortable with where he had chosen to stand did he finally look around the room he had barged into. Their eyes met and he raised a finger to his lips before whispering instructions to her. She would have laughed at them if she could. Instead she merely cocked her head as she looked the boy over. He seemed to be genuinely scared for his life. Kimiko meanwhile did not fear for hers.

She could hear the girl that was chasing him, she assumed it was a girl from the voice. She could hear her movements and taunts. She also revealed the boys name, Matt. He must have been the Matt she had heard about on the announcements. He had killed twice but despite that Kimiko knew she was safe, even considering his efforts to try and threaten her. If Matt wanted to succeed in hiding from his pursuer he would need to remain quiet. Kimiko could use that.

If he attempted to kill her he would alert his pursuer. Despite her relative safety based on the situation Kimiko knew better than to treat it like a certainty. Slowly she raised her hands up and stood. On one side of the room there looked to be the remnants of what she guessed had been a one-way mirror. Keeping her eyes focused on Matt Kimiko moved over to it. There were gunshots as whoever it was hunting Matt attacked a real or imaginary threat.

Kimiko kept her hands where Matt could see them as she crossed the room. Whatever was about to happen she knew it would be dangerous for her to stay where she was. As she reached the opening Kimiko placed a hand on the edge and vaulted over, ignoring the stab of pain from her shoulder and leg. The fight that was about to happen wasn't hers to become involved with, but based on the sound of the girls movements Kimiko couldn't risk entering the corridor for fear of being shot at.

Instead she hunkered down in what she assumed must have been an observation room when the asylum had been operational, her back up against the wall, and waited for the inevitable.

The fight was theirs to have.

Her only hope was that they finished each other off and left her alone.

She'd found him. Okay, Matt thought. Sure. Why not. No easy way out of this. For a brief moment he heard Serena open fire at something after taunting him. Trying to make him jump out, or something. He'd wait for her for about as long as he could. The other occupant of this room - the only other living occupant - had started to move around. Very quickly, he put a finger up against his lips as he had earlier. "Be fucking quiet," he whispered harshly.

He gripped his shotgun tighter. He'd have to do this quick. Quicker than she could react to. He ran down all the possible scenarios in his head -

Serena was getting closer.

No screaming. Trying to make as little noise as possible, he ducked out from behind the doorway and raised his shotgun to meet the general direction she was approaching from. Fire, pump. Fire, pump. He shouted before ducking back inside, continuing to yell.

"Fuck you," he screamed. "You're fucking crazy."

She heard the sounds of footsteps and whispering down the hall, her hands were shaking as the shots came down the hall. He finally showed himself, firing from his hiding spot, calling her crazy. Like he should talk.

One missed, but the other hit her leg. As it hit she let out a scream as she fell on the ground. She supported herself onto the wall with her free hand. She put her back to wall as her hand took hold of the hit area, she saw the blood on her hand and felt sick knowing it was hers.

"I'm crazy?! I'm not the one running around beating people to death for their food!" Her voice was hoarse as the words flew out. Everything felt terrible. Her left leg felt numb. Her hands was shaking. Her entire body was, but that was not going to stop her from letting him have it. She would let him know in so many ways how he deserved to die.

A brief flash again, A boy lay against the wall at the end of the hall looking at her, his legs were a mess of blood and bone. Mumbling incoherently as he thrashed in place. She pointed her gun and sprayed down the hallway.

"You think your family's gonna want you back after all you've done?!" Was that really his goal? Just to get home and ignore the consequences? He must have known they would never want anything to do with his psycho ass if he did get home.

Kimiko heard the gunshots from where she was sat and her heart started beating faster due to their proximity. She heard a scream from the girl as Matt's shots presumably hit her. The girl was yelling at Matt about him being crazy.

Meanwhile she had pulled her own gun out from her pocket. She had no intention of using it while the pair were fighting, but she knew she needed to be ready in case the survivor of the duel attempted to attack her.

As things were though she knew she was safest remaining where she was. Doing anything else could result in her getting hit by a stray bullet and then everything she had done would have been for nothing. That wasn't an option.

So she stayed sat in the observation roof, back pressed up against the wall listening to the fight, waiting to see what the result would be.

Matt started laughing. That dumb bitch. Figures that the moment she decides to try and kill him is the moment she decides to start shouting. "Call half the fucking island over here, why don't you?" he yelled, ducking out again, firing another two shots. Pulling back he realized that he hadn't been keeping track of how many times he'd fired this thing. Once at the tower.. another time at the beach - he couldn't remember how many times he fired at her when this whole thing started. Once, maybe? That's three.. four right now. Seven.

He ducked out again, firing another shot. And when he tried to fire it again - the clicking starting. He pulled back, throwing the shotgun to the ground. Getting closer. This was bad.

Matt spoke what might as well be his last words.

"You're a fucking idiot - you know that? - the only reason Aiden's dead is because you didn't kill me back at the gym. You dumb fuck!"

More shots came flying down. Serena could barely count her luck on how she hasn't been killed yet. She had slumped into another room as the shots echoed all over. Boom. Boom. Before the sound of clicking came instead. He shouted once more. That's all they've been doing since they found each other. Must have sounded; hell probably were insane. Him mostly though. Not her.

"Because I thought there was some actually humanity in you back then! If I knew what I know now, I would have run you both over!" Oh, if she had known, if only she had known. Then both Aiden and Mel would have been here and not this horrid excuse of a person.

She heard the sound of something hitting the floor and it clicked in her mind. Had he gone out of ammo? She can get him right now and he's done for! She hobbled outside the room and used the wall for support as she edged closer to the door of his room. It was difficult as her right leg almost gave out on her and the spikes of pain, as if someone were peeling out the insides. She held a firm grip on her gun with her left hand, her right hand on the wall. It would all be worth it.

Once she got close enough to see the inside, she could see the hint of flannel to the side. She fired into it, her hands shaking so much that her aim was going all over the place. Her beathing erratic as the pain in her leg started pounding at her. "Just give up Matt and I'll make it quick!"

She heard more yelling and more gunshots, but despite that Kimiko remained where she was.

They were shouting back and forth at each other, throwing taunts and curses at one another.

The sounds of violence was all she could hear and the worst part was it seemed to be getting closer.

He had another gun. He just had to get it out and then she'd be dead. That was all he had to do - all he needed was a few second's time. And then the gun started firing again. Matt yelled and jumped forward, towards the doorway and out, towards Serena. He sees her and he lunges at her, eyes filled with something indescribable and terrible.

He lunged at her like a madman. Eyes filled with hate and murder. He tackled her to the ground; wrestling for the gun as fiercely as he could. She crashed down hard on the ground, the pain in her leg becoming unbearable. The feeling reverberated through her as if to say you fucked up dumbass. Eventually he yanked it out of her hands and stumbled over her trying to get up. She saw that her bag had flown off into the doorway when he hit her. Realising this, Serena did the first thing that came to her mind.

Serena hurriedly crawled over and zipped open and flung her bag's contents onto the ground. She made a grab for the two first things she could get. The can of sprite and some scissors. Once Matt started getting up, his head turned towards her with the gun in his hands, Serena threw the can at his face, nailing him around the eyes before forcing herself up and lunging at him with the scissors, wildly stabbing and slashing at him.

This might have been the first time he was ever in a real fight. An actual, life or death situation - that was something he'd never gotten into before. Hundreds of thousands of years ago, maybe something like this might have happened. Today - well, most people wouldn't even imagine something like this going on. Not for something as simple and understandable as survival. The simplicity of it, really, robbed it of the virtue of being understood. In the 21st century? This?

Yes! Of course. He tackled her, doing everything in his power to get the gun out of her hands. And when he did, he tried to stand up. And when he tried to fire it? A can to the face. Matt let out a short screech of pain, yelling and dropping the gun, cursing and clutching his face. And then she was on top of him, stabbing him in the face. This was the first time he'd ever seriously been wounded - flailing, he managed to grab her by the hair and pull. And then he was on top of her. Still fighting, stabbing him. Screaming from who knows anymore.

And whatever he could do to her then, he did. He started beating her, not even thinking about the gun he still had anymore.

For a brief moment, Serena had him. If she had just hit him the neck, she could have killed, but instead she hit him in face over and over again. She wanted him to hurt, to feel what his victims felt when he took their lives like it was nothing. But then he took a killer grip on her hair and dragged her down to the floor. She felt the weight on, but she never stopped swinging at him or screaming for that matter. It was all about the hurt now.

And then the punches rained down on her continuesly, her face was bludgeoned over and over by him. Her eyes went to black as he punched. She felt her mouth go numb and her nose broke and teeth loosen.

"Sto-" She tried to say before a side hit to the head stopped her. He just continued and continued. Her mind felt like a haze. She needed to do something. She tried stabbing with the scissors, but he wouldn't stop. Panic spread through her like wildfire.

there must have been something she



If she just



shecould



pleassto-

idontwanttodie

...

Serena Waters deceased

Slowly, he stopped. His fists hurt. She was dead. Finally. He got off of her and briefly considered the notion that she was alive. He could see that she was not but still he took out his rifle and shot her once in the head to make sure. He looked back, searching for some sign of that other person. Gone, as far as he knew. Smart. He looked down at the corpse. As good as any other, he figured. He ran a hand across his face and pulled it back, hissing slightly. Pain. He called out.

"Where are you? It's over. She's dead. I killed her." And that was all he said.