Survival Of The Fittest

[Boy #14 - Alex White. Continued from Alone in the Dark.

Received permission to post up a new thread.]

Thump.

"Good."

Thud.

"Better."

Crack!

"Perfect."

Alex was getting the hang of a sling. For a while now, he'd been practicing with his new weapons as he walked. He had a trail to follow, one of broken cameras and the occasional brass bullet casing. She'd been there, that much was certain. It was just a matter of figuring out where she had gone. North or south, north or south. It would take a while to figure out where his prey had gone, but he had to remind himself that she wasn't his only prey. He had several others to track down and take down, and there would be plenty of time to practice during his hunt.

But Alex was far from alone out there.

For hours, Alex wandered around while following the trail of broken cameras, keeping a tally of how many broken ones he found and marking their locations on his map to the best of his ability. It may not have been completely accurate, but it gave him a good idea of how big the blacked out zone was. If someone wanted to stay hidden, that was a good way to do so. But it left a trail, and an easy one to follow at that. And it didn't seem the trail was going through the woods, just around the southern edge. Closer to the mansion.

"So, she's on the southern half. That is good to know."

Alex muttered to himself as he reviewed his map, every little mark representing a camera that worked or one that was broken. Between his inspections, he practiced with each of his new weapons. He slung rocks at trees and branches, at rocks and even at the birds, squirrels, and rabbits along his ever changing path. He sifted through the decent sized rocks he stumbled across and swung his bolas at thin trees, getting the hang of using the exotic weapon. He swung his glass shiv more than a few times, practicing how he would draw and attack with it, careful not to snap the blade. He punched and thrust with his right hand, adjusting the toothbrush shiv to ensure a damage attack should he end up in combat against someone.

Like Liz, or Maxwell, or Nick. Liz? She was a scrawny little bitch with a good throwing arm and nothing else. Maxwell? He was a glorified martial artist, but Alex was confident that he could hold his own against the striker. Nick? He was a mean bastard with a bad temper, but when it came to a fight, Nick was damn near useless. For all of Alex's preparation, the people he was going up against were not seen as the big bad villians that their kill scores made them out to be. They were just the students he knew back in school. No better, no worse. But that didn't change things.

They still needed to die.

Alex felt a little silly, weighing himself down with various rocks. But he tried to save every rock he remember his Dad talk about. It was under the pretense of helping Alex study up for history classes, but really? He was just showing off. But Alex never complained. It was something cool to learn, and he tried to pay as much attention as he could amidst the distractions of hiking. Stuff about flint, chert and rhyolite, felsite and hornstone. What to look for and where to find it all. What to use to work it. It was all idle work, picking up rocks that so much as resembled what he was taught to look for. But rocks weren't the only things he stashed. He was searching for a specific piece of wood.

But it was all idle work. Things to do while he searched and kept an eye out. Marked his map and kept track of where he was going. It didn't look like he was going to stray too far into the forest, keeping to the southern edge. There was no reason to go any deeper. He had his answers, he just needed to track down his quarry. It was just a matter of time. Alex wasn't about to go hungry, either. In his hunt for more dangerous prey, Alex had managed to take a few squirrels and a bird or two with his sling. Practice made perfect. Now he just needed to make camp and actually eat his meal, before he continued his hunt.

But Alex was far from alone.

It was just a matter of time.


Sooner or later, the other hunters would reveal themselves. And Alex was ready.

[Wow. So many people joined my thread. I feel so loved. [/sarcasm]]

More and more time was wasted, wandering around in the woods. Time Alex could have spent hunting down his prey, but instead spent following the trail, marking out the blind spots on his map. Time he spent making camp and lighting a fire, cooking his dinner of squirrel and bird. Both turned out a little crunchy, being roasted as they were, but Alex couldn't complain. It was a welcome departure from the bread and water he'd endured for the past few days. Two different types of meat, supplemented with a generous helping of pine needles and choked down with good old plain water. Feast of kings.

But he couldn't just sit around all day.

He had to keep moving and had to keep chasing down his prey, keep an eye out for any of his other marks. He could hear them, off in the woods or in the distance. The noises. He could hear the others out there, sneaking around. The snapping of a twig or the clack of some distance rock. Between all the sounds of the wilderness, he heard them. He knew they were there. Just beyond his sight, sneaking and waiting for the moment when he let down his guard. But they never appeared. Not one of them ever revealed themselves. Perhaps they were never there.

Fuck it. I can afford to take a break.

Despite the paranoia and despite the desire to keep hunting, Alex just stayed where he was. He stayed at his camp and waited, passing the time with his rocks. Big ones, little ones, rough ones and smooth ones. Limestone and flint, chert and good old granite. Little more than extra weight he hauled around for the past few hours. But he still had the ideas stirring around in his head, the ones he'd written down in his notebook, the plans he had formulated. It was just a matter of actually putting them in motion. But it was that very thing that Alex was putting off. He felt almost silly out there, carrying around a bunch of rocks, hoping to make something useful out of them with knowledge that was well over ten years old, with knowledge he got from textbooks and television.

"Man... maybe I should be nicer to people. I was nice in school, already friendly with people and always offering a smile. Had plenty of friends, with a few really good ones. Just because they're all dead, dying or killing doesn't mean I should be all hostile and shit."

For a moment, Alex thought back to the logging road, to Ray and his friends. They'd stuck together for a long while, it seemed, and Alex had broken them up. Made them split up and run off in different directions. But they were friends. They helped each other, they watched each others backs and protected one another. They were probably a good team, too. Would have survived the game if they stuck together. But Alex broke them up. All because he figured it would be best to join his friends instead of continue to struggle against this damn game. All because he was going through that fucking withdrawal and wasn't able to think straight. All because he--

Stop it.

Alex sighed. There was no point in beating himself up over what was done. He couldn't change it and there was no taking back what he'd said, what he'd done, the threats he'd thrown toward Ray and Bobby and Neill. Surely they didn't deserve that though. Nick? He was a prick and deserved what he got, and the same could be said for Liz. But Ray? And what about Gloria and Micheal? Did they really deserve what he said to them? Gloria and Micheal... he should have stuck with them. They would have been alright. Gloria had a gun and Micheal had... something. But they would have been alright. He would have been better off staying with them.

Even after having scared them.

Alex was strong. He was a pretty big dude and could whoop some ass if he felt like it. Even after he'd had his outburst in front of Micheal and Gloria, he could have done whatever he wanted. He could have made them follow him. He could have made them work for him. He could have been in charge of his own little group and he would have a far better weapon by now, as he would have been able to simply take that gun from Gloria. But he didn't. Even after she had burst into tears once again, begged him not to hurt her, told him that she would do anything he said. Even after that, he did nothing. He just walked away. He just left them and walked away.

"I had my chance and I blew it. Story of my fucking life, it seems."

That's the way it was. Alone and in the wild. Or at least as close to the wild as he was likely to get. But he did remember the announcements and their mention of things like bears and poisonous snakes. So it was pretty wild out there. It would be pretty interesting to run in to one or the other. Take on a bear with sling and spear. Stumble across a poisonous snake. Already, Alex was thinking about what to do with either of them, and had to take a moment to laugh as one idea crossed his mind.

"Bear cavalry."

Oh god, that would be just great. Ride a bear in to battle on this fucking island. That would get some ratings, he was sure of it. But it wasn't likely to happen. But the other ideas, the ones that pertained to the poisonous snake, those were still viable. Find one, catch it. Use it. Maybe he could throw it at someone or use the poison on one of his shivs or the end of the Goedendag. Hell, maybe he could strap it to the end of a stick and just go around poking people and having it bite them. That would be downright hilarious.

Then again, snake was also tasty... he could just eat it. Ah, but he was getting ahead of himself.

Staring at the campfire and glancing at the sky, Alex let out a heavy sigh. Sitting around and doing nothing wasn't going to accomplish anything, and Alex didn't quite feel like staying there for the rest of the day and night. He wanted to be moving. He wanted to be hunting. He wanted to do something, anything at all, as long as it was productive. So he put out the fire and tossed away the rocks. He threw out the little things he'd gathered, the rocks and the wood and anything else he didn't need. Just to be certain that he wouldn't continue with those silly plans, he tore the pages from his notebook and added them to the fire before he put it out, just to be rid of them. He needed to do something productive. Something worthwhile. Something that didn't paint him as a paranoid survivalist.

But when it came down to it, Alex was still hunting. And he would continue to hunt.

Through the days and nights to come. Until he found his prey.

[Boy #14 - Alex White. Hunting in Overdose on Adrenaline.]