Survival Of The Fittest

((Courtney Bradley, continued from Sometimes Sanctuary isn't that Far Away...))

Sure, Courtney was a cross-country runner. Sure, she had stamina. But everyone has their limits and after almost two days of walking, running, hiding and generally just fearing for her life, Courtney had reached them.

Her head was spinning, her feet were killing her. Her body was screaming at her to just give up. But she had to keep moving. They were gonna find her otherwise. Get her. Kill her. She had to... she had to... Courtney kept walking. Couldn't stop. She didn't deserve this. But then, none of them did. What made her so special? Almost three-hundred people were probably in the same situation as her, right now, what made her the exception? She'd let someone die. Why should she be let home? No. He fell. She had nothing to do with it. It wasn't her fault! Courtney yawned. No, couldn't admit she was tired. Just like she couldn't admit she let him die.

Oh God, what was she thinking. She was a mess right now. That was the problem. She was a mess right now and she needed to sleep. What were her parents thinking? They were probably watching right now with their heads in their hands, watching their daughter have a breakdown on public TV. Michael -he'd always hated being called Mike- was probably cheering for her. Or out boozing with his friends. He was like that.

Courtney shivered. It was probably early morning but it was still dark, getting cold really quickly. She threw her bag to the floor, untied the jumper around her waist and put it back on. She'd need the warmth. Freezing to death would suck.

She knelt down and put the bag back over her shoulders. A couple hours... surely a couple of hours of sleep couldn't hurt. She could sleep, clear her head. Then when she woke up, she could think. That'd be grand. Courtney wiped her eyes and looked around. A beach? She used to love the beach. Even back home, though, the beach probably wouldn't have been the best place to sleep under any circumstances, but she didn't have time to be picky. Courtney walked over to some rocks. Maybe if she leant on something people wouldn't see her if they just like, walked past. It seemed like a sound plan for the time being, if a little uncomfortable.

She was cold, she was dirty, she was tired, she was a killer and she was going to die. The sequence just repeated in her head. Over and over. Courtney threw her bag down next to her, propped herself up against a rock and closed her eyes, letting the tears flow down her cheeks as she tried to force herself to sleep.

((Rekka Saionji continued from What She Came For.))
---Day 2---
That... had been close. The steady, low beeping of his collar as he passed through the greens had slowly began to beep faster and faster as Rekka had fled the long way from the area. His thoughts were focused on Dawne the entire time that he ran, thinking back to what in God's name her motives could have been. Why had she pointed that gun at him? Why had she tried to kill him? She must have lost her mind to actually shoot him. His hand brushed over his cheek where hot lead had torn away the skin, blood staying with his fingers as he pulled them back into view. He was weaponless, he was lonely, and frankly, he was scared. The wilderness could do nothing compared to the fear that he felt then as he launched himself forward, step after step away from Dawne.

And after he had fled far enough for the beeping to finally stop; so did he. The fedora he had clenched in his hand was crushed from the pressure he was putting on it, the crescent moon dotted with tears. And with a deep breath, he swung the hat back onto his head; beginning a slow wander to nowhere inparticular. Just away from those Greens. His breaths were pained, and labored for the next few minutes as he pushed on with this somber pace. And finally his concentration was broken with a very soft explosion seeming to come from miles away. Only he knew exactly what it was. This was not some random noise of combat, that was Dawne's collar exploding. And he knew it.

"One step."

What was there left for him?

"Two step."

What would he do now?

"Three step."

"Give up."

Jikan sank to his knees, his hands falling heavily to the soil with a dull thud. Tattered and weathered nails dug at the loose dirt as he sought any respite he could find for his pain. A loud, anguished scream; reminiscent of a beaten dog wretched from his throat. And the crescent moon that adorned his forehead hit the ground. The bag that he had so haphazardly swung over his shoulder fell to the ground, landing with a loud thud, containing nothing more than food, first aid, and clothes; The knives that he had improvised clanging in his pockets.

Before he had the strength to stand, the sun was directly overhead. And when he finally did stand, his legs moved on their own. He was a ghost; a shell of his former self. Why did she shoot me? Why didn't she come? This thought kept him company from noon, till dusk, and then until dawn.

---Day 3---

Apparently his wanderings had led him to a beach; this was the first thing he noticed as his mind finally awoke from his stupor. Just a little while ago he was surrounded by sparse trees and rolling fields; now his boots felt uneasy in this sandy shore. Waves quietly lapsed onto the beach all around him, and... there was a figure. As his mind recovered from it's stupor, he witnessed a girl kneeling down in front of her bag. Going for her weapon? Jikan had been shot before, he was having none of it again. Little did he know how innocent Courtney's act really was, but paranoia wasn't completely wasted in this situation. And then as she wandered off, finding some rocks and sitting in front of them, Jikan thought to himself. As much as he tried to rationalize the situation, he just couldn't. His mind was too awash with so many other things, so many other fears as he found himself drifting down the beach towards the water. The bag on his back felt awkward and heavy.

And then a realization hit him. It was dark.

...

Have I been really been walking all night?

Either way, he needed to sit and rest if this were the case. Whether or not his legs pain could out-scream the pain in his heart, he still knew consciously that tearing a muscle would be a very bad idea. His eyes fell to his right arm as he massaged the wrist hurriedly, subconsciously fearing what would happen if that particular issue popped up.

He sat on the sandy shores, his bag quietly being rolled from his shoulders. Every single noise he made sounded one hundred times louder. The soft clanging of the metallic buckles hanging freely underneath his trench coat. The sound of his makeshift knives clanging. As quiet as they were, every single one worried him. Using the bag as a pillow and a prop, he laid down, staring at the small rock formation that he presumed a killer sat behind. His left hand slid into the pocket of his trench-coat, retrieving the knives and sliding one loop over each pointer finger. Best to be prepared.

And here he sat, waiting for dawn.

It all came back into focus.

Courtney opened her eyes and found herself greeted by the sun's glare, forcing her to shut them again. She should've found somewhere shady to sleep, not right out in the middle of the beach. Right, lesson learned. She wasn't planning on falling asleep on a rock again any time soon anyway. There had to be a village or something... well, even a mud hut would be a step above a rock on the beach, really. She'd have to look for a village or something later. It'd take her mind off of everything. She'd need something to take her mind off everything. She'd get how she was before, worried that everyone was out to get her. She couldn't let that happen again. Had to keep focused on something.

She was sweating again from the heat. God, it was warm in the day. Courtney took her jumper off and tied it back around her waist before getting to her feet and slung her pack over her shoulders. She walked a couple of tired steps, before she found a shadier spot.

The Announcement sounded. Twenty-One more deaths. Twenty-One more of the year were dead. Shit. Just... Shit. Courtney tried to block it out. But no, she couldn't find a way to cut it off, short of sticking her fingers in her ears and screaming, and she really didn't want to waste the energy. So, instead, she sat back down, cross-legged, and listened to some fat pervert list off the names of her now-dead classmates.

Courtney couldn't express the relief she felt when her name wasn't mentioned on the announcements. Maybe... maybe it wasn't her fault. Maybe she... No, she could think about that later. For now she had to find something to focus on. Courtney got back up to her feet. She was, again, apparently nowhere near any of the Danger Zones, so she wouldn't have that to worry about. What she did, however, was finding a weapon. Three days ago, she wouldn't have considered needing a weapon, like, ever. Funny how that sorta thing works out in the end.

((William Sears continued from Rest and Relaxation))

Noise.Slice!SLIPPING!FALLING!!!

THUD!




Owww...

Will's first thought was that the he was lucky that he had actually gotten some sleep and that the time he had seen the sun coming up had just been a dream. His second thought was "Why the hell was I sleeping in a tree?"

As Will properly came to he noticed that the noise that had awoken him was the speakers installed around the island, and that Danya was presently giving the second announcement he had heard. Unfortunately, hitting the ground had caused him to miss half the announcement, and before he could figure out what he was doing the voice over the speakers had reached started reading out the list of danger zones. This was the part Will needed to hear, and the part he needed to check against his map. And to do that, he'd need to find his bag. In the time it took him to realise that his bag was still wrapped around him he managed to miss all of the locations the voice had read out. No need to get the map out now, he'd just have to stay in place and pray that he didn't explode.

Slowly, the panic and confusion began to wear off and Will returned to the task of getting his bearings. The sound of waves against the shore had a calming effect on him, and he dimly remembered hearing it late last night when he'd decided to climb a tree. In hindsight, the choice was probably a good one, what with nobody to keep watch when he slept. He'd just have to choose a better tree next time. Or find somebody else. That was what he was trying to do, after all. Of course, if he found some girl he'd probably end up staying awake all night taking their turn, but Will didn't think he'd mind that as much. Perhaps if Hilary had stayed that's what he'd have been doing last night instead of wandering and hiding.

But today the first order of business was finding out exactly where he was, and whether or not he was safe. Gathering up his hat and his stick, Will straightening his clothes and headed toward the sound of the water.

The beach itself was beautiful. This program sure did choose some wonderful locations as a backdrop for all its horror and suffering. Will had gone camping by the beach with his family once, and that was definitely what this was reminding him of. It seemed so peaceful. That was, until he spotted the figure standing up a short distance to his left. Will ducked behind the nearest tree as quickly as he could.

A whole day and I'm still not good at this? I'm dead.

While it was still dark out, his vision began to fade. First tunnel vision, then a softening black sensation. Rekka's thoughts were too scattered to focus at all on his vision however, and as such, he just let it fade. Let the scene that he couldn't really see fade away into blackness. And when the fatigue he didn't even realize was there washed over his body, his eyes closed on their own. His thoughts suddenly became pictures, and without realizing it, he had fallen into his own mind.

---
The blackness began to fade away. The sudden light brought his mind back to focus on the world itself. His memories were a little bit foggy. Like had the most horrible dream. Something about another high school... It didn't matter. It was chilly out, and as his vision came back into focus, the smell of sweet salty air captivated his nose. Pushing himself to a sitting position, his head swiveled to and fro, noting that he was once again on his parent's boat. His father was manning the net, and his mother was nowhere to be found. He stood finally, wandering towards the cabin. It appeared to be mid day, and for whatever reason, he couldn't remember a thing.

As he strode into the cabin, he heard a yell from behind. "Rekka! Come help me with this!" His father, apparently getting ready to pull the net back in. His head turned to face his father, yet he was greeted with something else. It had suddenly become pitch black. While the voice was definitely that of his father, and he had been there just a minute before, there was now definitely a different figure draped over the nets. A soft wailing reached his ears, and as he took a tentative step towards the figure, the door of the cabin slammed behind him with a shrill scream coming from inside. He quickly spun on his heel, tugging at the handle; yet it wouldn't budge. Horror began to overtake him, his focus rapidly changing between the figure and the damned door. And each time his eyes met the sea, the figure, and the corner of the boat that it stood at seemed almost closer.

The wailing became louder and louder, and finally Rekka realized that the approach was no trick of the mind. Something was making the boat smaller, something wa-

And then the figure stood from the net. It was most definitely female, and as her hair fell into view, he noted it's unnatural blonde coloration with green and red haphazardly added...

Dawne.

And that ominous wailing was replaced with a laughter. Dawne's shoulders began to rock heavily; and then she finally turned. There was a Skorpion in her hands, clenched around it like a schoolgirl would carry a book. She was laughing maniacally, and she raised the gun to his head. He could feel the cool steel of the barrel press against his temple, and before she could pull the trigger, she was cut off by the PA of the ship coming to life with a deafening screech.

"Do you kids know what ma-

---

-kes Uncle Danya happy?"

Rekka awoke with a start to the announcement, a cold sweat having broken from his pores during the nightmare. It had been years since had a nightmare like that. As he solemnly listened to the announcement, he found himself panting in residual fear from the images that played for his mind while his subconscious tried to work out the events of the days prior. His attentions to his own body were cut short by the first name announced by the man that held their fates in his hands.

"...our announcement, in fact, was Dawne Jiang. Miss Jiang decided that she couldn't, wouldn't hold her darling boyfriend Rekka back, and opted instead to stick around in a dangerzone. They say love makes you crazy, I didn't realise that meant 'stupid' too. Next..."

"D-Dawne?"

Did Danya know something about her motivations that he didn't? She... decided to leave him so she wouldn't hold him back?

And that's why she shot him?

The rest of the announcement was lost on the boy, even the danger zones. He began to sob, the other resident of this particular square of beach being the last thing on his mind. And really, who could blame him?

"I... Don't beleive it... Dawne couldn't be that stupid... I would rather have died with her than lived without. She was all I had at that God Forsaken school, and... Now I have nothing." His hand slid to his head, gripping the fedora that had somehow miraculously stayed on his head through his unexpected nap. And as he slid it over his face, he let out a sob. "No... She must have gone insane!"

At least she died a quick death. He could take solace in that.

((Shit Shit Shit, So sorry for the delay D:))

Courtney continued her search, but came up empty. There wasn't really anything that she could use, if she was honest. There were some things that looked like they'd be useful off in the distance, but Courtney didn't want to risk heading out into the open. Not just yet.

Crying. Nearby, too. Courtney looked around, but couldn't see the source of it. She took a couple of slow steps forwards. Didn't want to go far enough out to make herself a target if the source of it had a weapon, or if anyone else was hidden anywhere.

"Hello?"

Courtney caught a glimpse of someone slumped up against a tree. How long had they been there without her noticing? Had they been there before she got there? Courtney had no real way of knowing, really. She sidestepped, trying to get a look at them from a better angle before they noticed her. Maybe she knew them. Maybe it was someone who wasn't a nutjob like the rest of the people she'd ran into.

She managed to get a look at his face. Courtney was pretty sure it was a he, now. His name was ...Rekka, if she was remembering right. Dating, um, Dawne? Yeah, that was it. Well, dated, if the announcements were right. She was long dead. He really kept to himself, Courtney had never really talked to him face to face. Maybe a quick greeting, but never a conversation. He didn't seem the type, anyway.

Courtney made a slow approach, in an effort not to startle him. He seemed pretty... fragile, to say the least. Mumbling to himself. She got fairly close, still not sure if he had or not, and knelt down.

"Hey?" She asked. "Hey, are you okay?"

Same routine as yesterday, see someone, duck behind tree, check if it's Bounce or one of the others, sneak off, move on. Run into someone else, repeat. The only thing stopping Will from returning straight to this pattern was when he heard the girl call out. She was asking if he was alright.

Poking his head out to take a look, Will realised that this wasn't the case. The girl was talking to someone else and Will hadn't been discovered yet. The fact that there was some else here made Will uneasy, but he still felt confident to approach them. The girl seemed to be acting nice enough, she couldn't be a murderer. The other person could still be, but then Will would just have to save her from whoever it was.

Will snuck from behind his tree towards them to get a closer look. If he could figure out who these people were he'd be able to figure out just what to do. Ducking past another tree trunk he saw them. He recognised the girl instantly; her name was Courtney or something. He hadn't had much need to interact with her back at school, but she had always seemed a nice enough girl. The boy she was speaking to was harder to identify, with his head hidden beneath a hat like Will's. There was a suppressing number of students with them at Bayview, and Will couldn't quite figure out who was ripping off who. Will remembered all of them though, and hazarded a guess that the person sobbing before him was Rekka. The fact that he was crying was something Will thought he should have recognised earlier. Will didn't think a killer would be crying like that. He felt relatively safe with the situation, and though his suspicion had not left him completely, Will took a step foward.

Suddenly, Will stopped, realising just how stupid he had been. He was completely exposed before them. They wouldn't have to be killers to be startled enough to turn and shoot him. Will stood frozen, a scared grin on his face, as if awkwardly trying to imply that he wasn't actually there.

He was completely in a stupor. So much so that when Courtney began to move and first attempted to garner his attention, he didn't register the sound as real. Just as a halucination of his mind, recovering slowly from such a graphic and demented nightmare. His head was down, and the fedora he still wore masked his facial features. Everything he had was gone. Just plain... gone. He had never managed to make very many friends at Bayview. These people were so unlike him. So few enjoyed the outdoors like he did, so few appreciated the types of media he did.

But something clicked with Dawne. He had so little left to live for now that she lay, probably with her head blown off back in those greens. The imagined image racked him with horror. "I need to go back, I need to see her. I need to pay my respects, and probably get that wea-"

"Hey? Hey, are you okay?"

He was in disbelief. If the owner of this voice had any idea who he was, she should know the answer to this immediately.

So, he did what made the most sense. He asked.

"Do you have any idea who I am? Rekka Saionji? Da- no, Loved Dawne?"

"I just lost the only thing on this island that was worth living for." In an instant, his calm, patient tone changed. Sheer rage boiled in his voice at the BITCH who thought it was a good idea to console the widdower sitting before her. "HOW THE FUCK DO YOU THINK I AM?!" He finally looked up, his eyes meeting hers, tears staining his cheeks. No new ones fell, but the old seemed in suspended motion. Light from the breaking dawn made his cheeks shimmer softly, his face contorted halfway between rage and despair. "Do you have any idea what it's like to lose someone like that? She turned on me, she- she lost her mind!"

The lie he was forcing himself to believe being spread about the island, soon to become common knowlege; or so his subconcious hoped.

"She's gone! Just a few hours ago, and now she's gone! I have nothing to fucking live for, there's no way you can know what that feels like! THERE'S NO WAY YOU CAN KNOW WHAT I'M GOING THROUGH!"

He quickly forced himself to his feet, trying to regain his composure. He was pissed at this chick; and while the face was familiar, he couldn't place a name. But how could he regain his composure?

His mind, not only in an effort to accomplish this immediate goal, but also in an effort to bury the pain he felt, wandered to his idolization of the old Gangster films to which he lended thanks for so much of his attire and understanding of life in the lower 48. "Real men don't cry." Everything he had wrapped around this perceived beacon of strength, at the very least for the moment. "Real... men... don't cry." His mouth rolled the words about his tongue as he absorbed them. The meaning, the connotations, what that meant for him. While he did so, his hand idly fingered one of the clips that went to the Skorpion that was surrendered to Dawne just a few short hours ago. His voice was obviously still choked up, but he spoke with a new authority that he hoped to hold on to for as long as he could.

"I've got things to do. People to see. And whether they're alive or dead doesn't matter. When I get back here, you'd better not be here. For your own sake."

He spun on his heel, that awkward, disgusting excuse for a pack following in his wake. The next sentence that came from his mouth was laughable as he attempted to replicate those old-timey gangsters as well as he could; his choked throat making his voice crack halfway through, the entire thing sounding forced as it were. "Hasta-La-Vista, bitch."

His face was red, but she would never see it. He had a goal, he had something to cling to; even if it were only a vague, misunderstood concept.

((Rekka Saionji continued in The Various Downsides of Becoming "Paranoid as Balls"))

Courtney opened her mouth to reply, but was cut off. Bursting into tears, Rekka started shouting at her. No. That wasn't supposed to happen. That wasn't supposed to happen at all. He was supposed to be glad she- His voice rose to a scream. She wasn't expecting that, either. This was a bad idea. This was a really bad idea.

Hands raised, Courtney started to slowly back off, whimpering nervous apologies. He wasn't thinking straight. She had to say something clear, concise. Tell him she was on his side and that she'd help him. No. It wasn't worth the effort. He'd just take it the wrong way and try to fight her. She had no intentions of starting a fight with him- She had no intentions of starting a fight with anyone, damn it.

He stood up. Obviously he wasn't getting his point across sitting down.

"I-I!" She shouted back, more out of trying to make herself heard over his voice than out of anger. She wasn't going to show him how very close she was to pissing herself in a hurry. "I... didn't know! I, um, I don't know!"

She trailed off. Shit. Shit. There went her one damn chance to turn it around, turn the argument in her favour. Was this even an argument? No, it was one-sided. Courtney couldn't get a word in either way. Hands still held up, Courtney continued on her slow retreat. She nearly tripped, managing to regain her balance just quickly enough not to make it too much of a problem.

He stopped shouting, and Courtney came to a halt. This was just nuts. Just like that he'd finished. He was done. Show's over, ladies and gentlemen, thanks for coming. Just like that he broke down again, sobbing. Despite his, well, "outburst." Courtney really did still want to help this guy, but he seemed like he'd just refuse again, in his delightfully eloquent way. But, no, he had to go ruin that as well, called her a bitch and then just left.

Courtney turned to leave, only to find herself confronted by a somewhat familiar face, grinning awkwardly. Will? That was it. Great. How long had he been there? Courtney figured she'd ask later.

"H... Hey!" Courtney struggled in her attempt to make the conversation that much less awkward. "So, what's up?"

'What's up?' That was a kinda odd question.

"Uh, we're kinda on Survival of the Fittest?" Will replied.

Of course, it probably hadn't been a real question, but Will hadn't known how to respond. It was clear she had just been trying to avoid the awkwardness of the situation, but as always that only lead to more awkwardness.

"Apart from that, not much."

The answer was completely automatic. Will didn't even realise how awesome he could have made the phrase sound. It just made him feel stupid for saying something so inane. This conversation wasn't getting any easier.

Suddenly Will was sent back to reality by the sound of a gunshot. It wasn't excatly nearby, but it was close enough to have a sense of immediacy. Even worse, it was from the direction Rekka had headed. Will suddenly remembered his warning.

"Oh shit..."

Will glanced around quickly. Up the beach seemed like the best way to get away from their current position. He lowered his stance and prepared to run.

"Uh, talk about this later? Come on!"

Will dashed past Courtney and headed away from the sound of the gunfire as quickly as he could.

((William Sears continued in All the Untested Virtue))

Courtney zoned out for a second.

If Will had said anything she wasn't paying attention. If she was honest, she was pretty much focused on getting off this beach as soon as possible. So she thought of a quick excuse, a quick way to get out of there. She rummaged through her pockets, pulling out her mobile. She probably couldn't get signal, she was sure of that, and even if she could, she'd forgotten to charge the damn thing before she left. But, she figured she could make a half convincing excuse up.

Courtney pulled it out of her pocket and tried to shield the blank screen.

"Sorry Will," She shook her head, sliding the phone back into her trousers. "I gotta rush off, something really big's come up."

Ignoring the fact that she sounded like she was trying to escape a buisness meeting rather than trying to avoid an awkward conversation on an island where she literally probably didn't have a single ally, Courtney didn't think she'd done too badly with that.

There was the small fact of the matter, however, that by that point, Will was long gone.

It took that fact a couple seconds to register, but when it did, Courtney frantically looked around. Where had he gone? He'd obviously just upped and left her out of nowhere. She looked down and noticed the very recent trail of footprints. Will must have gone while she was off in her own little world. Oh God, she was talking to no one and she didn't even notice. She was going nuts. She really had to be. Courtney started walking away, breaking into a slow jog as she got further.

Eventually though, Courtney had to stop. Sand in her shoes, among other reasons. She started standing on one leg. Courtney always found it easier to take her shoes off this way that way. She was kind of odd like that. Pulling her trainer off, she knocked the bottom of it a couple of times before brushing her ankle socks off and sticking it back on, quickly tying her laces before shifting legs and moving onto the other shoe. She removed it and-

beep.

God damn it. No. Not now. Courtney hurriedly put her shoe back on, neglecting to tie the laces. No time for that. She had to move. She had to run. Courtney sprinted as fast as her tired legs could take her.

beep.

beep.

Running the fastest she'd ever ran in her life, Courtney camed to a crashing halt, stepping on her shoelace and tumbling to the floor. The beeping subsided. Her shoe was about five feet away.

Courtney just lay on her back, panting.

((Courtney Bradley, continued in Cool Ranch.))
((Thread is now ooooover))