Survival Of The Fittest

((Tabi Gweneth continued from Still in the Dark))

Her body felt warm, but plesant. It was a gentle warmth, glowing from within her. A warmth that somehow lessened some of the edge of what she would occasionally see.

Tabi saw bodies, bodies of students that had died long ago. They were scattered across the ground, bent across in unnatural angles. There was a foul stentch that eminated from them corpses. The smell of blood, decay and what Tabi desperately hoped wasn't loosed bowels rose up into the air. The smell, mixed with the stale sweat the had drenched her bullet ridden shirt, made her want to puke first, and bathe later.

And yet the warmth was able to restrain her. The warmth was able to keep her in check. The warmth that transfered from Ivan's hand to her own. The warmth of them together.

When they woke up. They still were entwined in a tight embrace. They had said little, merely exchanging morning kisses, glad that they were still in each others arms. Glad they were together.

They eventually departed from the beach that they had spent the night in. While they walked they had held there hands together, and that was how she was able to keep her emotions under control.

Tabi and Ivan had said nothing yet. Perhaps there was nothing that they should say. This was nice. Holding hands, staying in the silence.

The folliage grew denser as they walked, resembling woods that they had seen before. Then again, this whole place was full of woods. It was hard to think which woods they were in now.

The two of them final stopped when they heard the announcements. Danya had called her out, at how she had rejected whatever 'prize' they were giving to her. She was fine with that, she couldn't claim that weapon, she couldn't give him the satisfaction.

Her lips curled down at the thought that it was still there. He wasn't taking it back. Which meant somewhere....someone was killing their fellow classmates because of her...

Tabi's hand squeezed tightly around Ivan's own. She took in air in long, slow breaths. She still had his warmth. She was still holding onto the man he loved.

She just had to keep squeezing.

(Madeleine Smith continued from I Was a Teenage Hand Model)

If you looked at her performance from a statistical point of view, Madeleine had been playing a fairly good game. She'd had a kill under her belt, gotten over it without lasting psychological damage (at least not visibly), and run into a number of dangerous individuals without getting into a violent incident. Moreover, her rations were still lasting decently, and her weapon, albeit slightly used, still had a good supply of ammunition. In fact, the mere fact that she had been assigned a gun put her ahead of the pack by a considerable margin. Statistically speaking, she had quite a few things to feel happy about.

So why did she feel so wasted?

It had to be the guilt. Here she was, so concerned about staying alive, and she'd done almost nothing for anyone else. She had her health, she had a weapon, and she was keeping them all to herself. When she had even been offered the opportunity to fight against the people holding her on the island, she'd refused. Furthermore, when was the last time that she'd put in the effort to fulfill Jonathan Jarocki's request regarding Anna Chase or try to find Violet? And what had happened to Liz and her army? She had so many obligations, and she was ignoring them all for her own self-interest. That was what was draining her.

Sitting against a tree in the thicker part of the woods, Madeleine stared blankly at the drawing pad in front of her. How easy it had been to draw whatever had come to mind, and now...where had her imagination gone? When she was still in school, it had been so easy to just go to some corner and sit by herself, losing sight of the part of the world that she wasn't drawing. But she couldn't shut the world out anymore. For the first time that she could remember, people needed her, and she couldn't just sit in the corner and pretend that other people didn't exist.

"Why did I waste my life on this?" she wondered to herself, and stowed the pad back in her bag. And not a moment too soon, as she heard someone...no, two somebodies. And they were walking in close synchronization, as if walking together. This could mean a number of things, and as the noises drew closer, she took the gun from her bag once more. She had made a promise never to use it again except in self defense, so whoever it was would have to go first.

"Who...who's there!" she asked shakily, trying to see if she could see the approaching people through all these trees.

((Ivan Kuznetsov continued from Still in the Dark))

Ivan's right hand swung in time with the soft, feminine fingers that gripped it while they walked. He and Tabi woke up to find another day, another rising sun to greet them. More importantly, though, they had found each other. Somewhere in the night, each of them had made a silent agreement to watch over the other. Each time Ivan looked over to the girl walking along with him step for step, he felt a renewed passion to uphold this agreement for as long as was physically possible.

The knapsacks slung around their shoulders or hoisted by their backs brought back a strange feeling of home to him. Sometimes, it was almost as if the pistol he clutched in his left hand was the only think keeping this from being a normal walk to school. Just a stroll to Bayview Secondary, that's all this was.

No, that wasn't absolutely true. If this was a normal walk to Bayview, there was more than just the gun keeping the illusion from being complete. Tabi would not be there to hold his hand and provide him with her light. In a matter of less than a month, Ivan would have graduated high school and left Bayview far behind for bigger and better things. He would have gone to college to get a token degree; it merely would have been a fallback to his true ambitions of being a tennis player. He thought he had his goals set... so set, in fact, that he was willing to drop everything but his family for them. His mother, his aunt, his brother, they'd always be a part of his life whether he liked it or not, but nobody else was supposed to be a permanent fixture. Ivan lived for himself.

Only I live for her, now.

Ivan tightened up his hand for just a moment or so to give Tabi a playful squeeze. If only she knew just how important she was to holding him together in this hell. She was the only good thing this island ever gave him; he wouldn't be surprised if it was the only good thing it gave anybody. Let the terrorists and their announcements be damned, along with all who would dare approach or hurt them today. The morning, the day, the evening and the forest they were walking through were all theirs. How unfortunate it was, then, that train of thought was harshly derailed when a voice reached out to them.

"Who...who's there!"

With a scowl etched into his countenance, IVan tugged on Tabi's arm and ignored the nagging sting that revisited his own. The best thing to do would have been to ignore the voice entirely and try to avoid the direction it was coming from, but the short visibility offered by the forest made this a dangerous option. The girl, whoever the hell it was, wasn't trying to sneak up on them since she had made her presence known, but Ivan had learned long ago that scared children, even girls, can be dangerous or even deadly. He knew this first hand, as much as he wished he could leave the experience long behind.

"Get behind me", Ivan commanded Tabi. There was no room for discussion nor debate, lest a bullet strike before they were done bickering. The softness of the moment and any that he might have carried in his expressions and voice were now gone. His right hand moving to steady his dominant left, Ivan stalked through the woods in the direction that the voice had come from. Clearing his throat, he called out deliberately. "Nobody looking for a fight, but we're armed. If you are too, keep your weapons pointed at the ground."

He didn't exactly expect his request to be heeded, but it would be a nice thought if nobody had to point a gun or knife at another person in his presence today. His own pistol, part of the ill-gotten spoils from Clio, remained pointing downward as to not be hypocritical. Ivan and his weapon were at the ready, however. Even as he revealed himself, he was ready to defend himself and his... girlfriend... at a moment's notice or threat.

{{continued from Down The Road, Not Across the Street}}

Why is it so hot?

Maria limped along through the woods, every step with her wounded leg sending burning pain up it. She figured that after the while, the pain would...well, not exactly go away, but become less of a problem. But if anything, it felt like it was getting worse. Her walking was getting slower and slower, and the pain was dominating her thoughts. She had to do something, anything to get her mind off of it.

So she played some Tetris.

In her mind.

...

♪ Doo, doo dodoo, doo dodoo, doo dodoo, doo dodooooo, dodoo doo doo doo doooo ♪

As far as Mind Tetris goes, it was a pretty good try, but sadly, the pain kept punching through with every step, demanding that it be recognized, and it kept screwing up her game and messing up her rows, and after the third Game Over in a row she finally just gave up, trying to find something else to occupy her mind with. Something other than all the death and murder and violence she'd been exposed to over the past week.

She still remembered the announcements. Apparently she'd made it to the halfway point of the game. For a brief moment, she felt a sense of relief, until the knowledge that she and Max were the only ones out of her little circle of friends to do so, and then the survivor's guilt kicked in on top of everything else.

"Maxwell Lombardi continued his red hot streak by taking out Cassidy Wakemore."

That part in particular hit her like a punch in the gut, and when she heard it she couldn't help but just come to a halt, her brain simply shutting down amongst the guilty thoughts and the reminders that all she had to do was wait until no one was looking, and then just tug on her collar. She ended up having to be goaded into walking again, and it took a while for her brain to come back on-line, so to spe-

Wait, what was that smell?

Maria suddenly became aware of her surroundings, finding herself at the edge of a burnt-out clearing that looked like a flash fire wiped out anything it could.

Seriously, what was a that smell?

It smells like...

Her eyes went wide.

Barbecued pork.

Oh God, she just had to come right back here, didn't she? Of all the places on this island she didn't want to return to, this was one of the highest on the list. Maria caught something out of the corner of her eye. She couldn't tell for sure what it was without looking straight at it, but it was probably...

DON'T LOOK AT IT

Maria about-faced and hurried away as fast as her injured leg could take her, gritting her teeth through the pain in her leg and in her shoulder as she pumped her arms.

Why is it so hot?

It was just as hot as when that girl caught fire, and she could hear the screaming again, the horrible screaming cursing her for what she did it was probably karma for what she did karma was why Duncan and Cass was taken from her and why she couldn't go a single day without seeing someone die right in front of her or getting shot at or getting beaten to within an inch of her life and the burning bunkhouse it was as hot as that but it was only a fraction of what that girl felt while she burned to think if she had just gone a different direction when she left the town center this whole thing could've been avoided it's kind of funny how one little decision could lead to such disasterous consequences yeah it was pretty funny wasn't it ha ha ha ha ha hahahahahahaHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA

And now she was on the ground. When did she end up on the ground? She honestly didn't remember, but she just started crawling forward. Just kept crawling ever forward, fighting through the pain as she just kept crawling and crawling and maybe if she just kept crawling she could just crawl right off the island and into a decent bed and just sleep. Just sleep forever and never wake up and WHY IS IT SO HOT?

Also, she was starting to feel kind of woozy? Why? She didn't really know, but oh hey look there's somebody over there it looks like a girl with some blond streaks in her hair and she was with some guy but where did she see that girl before?

Wait a minute.

St. Paul.

The mall.

Horrible bee murder.

"...Tabi?"

((Jackie Myrie, continued from Poise and Rationality.))

Over the past couple of days, Jackie had, for lack of a better term, fizzled out. While she had encountered that bulldyke Reiko, she'd spent more time sleeping and looking for the goddamned bathroom than doing anything interesting. That was a problem.

With a record like that, she was never going to get home.

So she made a gameplan. It was kinda a shitty gameplan, since it only had three things on it and she was planning on doing two of those anyway, but it was a gameplan nonetheless and it helped her get some degree of direction in what had turned into aimless wandering. The plan was pretty simple, and went something like this:

1. Find Annaliese Hansen
2. Stab Annaliese Hansen in the stomach.
3. Find a way to sleep without actually having to sleep.

The first two she'd planned since they'd met, the problem was just putting in the effort to trek across the island in hopes of finding her, and as for the third one, unless she was a Bond villain she wasn't going to achieve that one in a hurry, but hey, shoot for the stars, right?

The third one would be the more useful anyway. She spent like, five minutes getting the wood chippings out of her hair last time she fell asleep. Jackie shrugged. She may as well have gone to sleep on the shitter.

So, with her plan in mind, Jackie kept walking through the woods until she found someone. Shouldn't be all that hard, considering everywhere she went she met like 20 people who all left wherever she bumped into them wanting to kill her, but hey, she hadn't met anyone while walking between these scenes, which meant she figured her luck could change any minute.

As luck would have it, after a while she stumbled into- oh hey, was that another standoff waiting to happen? How many of them had she been in now? (For those keeping track at home, that would be four, now. Yeah.) Jackie cursed and hid behind a log, knife in hand, getting a faint sense of deja vu about the whole situation.

She poked her head up, again, from behind the log, and hoped she could just quietly observe.

((Janet Binachi continued from "Grace" Under Pressure.))

Janet was not happy.

This statement, by itself, was not overtly surprising. She was hardly happy even when she was back in the real world. Contented, maybe, but almost never "happy." Happiness had always been one of those things that happened to "other people." People who played sports, who got along with people, who had someone to turn to when they were upset about something.

In other words, the people who were Janet's opposite.

This has nothing to do with why she is unhappy now. Right now, she had spent the better part of a day searching for a stupid river so that she might wash her clothing and her body. She was covered in blood, in sweat, and, as she had discovered in an unhappy surprise, some small flecks of what she could only assume was brain matter. That may have been her morbid side showing up, though. She was fairly certain that the boy she had killed's brain had not splashed that much, but... one could never tell.

After her day of searching, Janet discovered two things: one, this island was bloody fucking hot (not really a new thing), and two, her sense of direction was something akin to a blind man in a meadow with... some metaphor that actually made sense. It pissed her off even more that they were now in, she was nearly certain, the same section of forest that they had left in the first place.

"It doesn't make sense, Jay. I swear, I was walking in a straight line, and then suddenly we're passing that boy's body again. At least... I think it was his. Kind of hard to tell when someone is missing most of their face...."

A sound ahead of them sent her heart racing. She stopped short, straining her ears and eyes. She heard... yes, voices. One male, one definite female. No, wait. Two female. One far quieter than the other.

Janet pulled her gun out of her waistband, trying to remember everything her father had once told her about using a gun like this. That had been so long ago; Father had kept promising to take her to the shooting range one day, but never did. Just one more regret.

She turned to signal that Jay keep quiet, then continued forward, eyes straining for a glimmer of movement. The wind shifted slightly, and a terrible smell assailed her nostrils. It smelled like overdone pork. She gagged slightly.

The squeezing reply from Ivan brought a smile to her face. Reassurance of the decision that she had made. It was better to not think about the weapon that she refused and what would happen to it now. Instead she resumed her focus on the man she loved. It was odd, she felt like she was supposed to say something to him now, but was unsure as to what it could be. Despite there time spent together, there was little that she knew about him. He had a brother. That was all the information that she could claim knowledge of. They had stared at the stars, but after that, what did this brother and Ivan do?

What did Ivan do in his spare time? What was life like at his house? What did he like? What did he want to do before they were kidnapped?

She opened her mouth but a voice that wasn't her own spoke before her. Her mind was whipped back into focus and her head darted at the sound. She was trying to the source of the voice. Who was the voice? She had recognized it once before, but she couldn't quite put the name to it yet. There was nobody to be seen.

Tabi was given little time to look, however, as Ivan jerked her back. The beating in her chest began to accelerate again. Ivan's hand had gripped tighter around her fingers. Gazing up to his face, the gentle expression had faded away again, now it was back to the intensity that Ivan always showed when they were under some threat.

Tabi gulped when Ivan ordered her to stay behind her, nodding gently. A looming sense of familiarity to this situation was growing inside her. She had been down this road before. She had seen the end result.

Please...not again...

Ivan was walking away from her and into the distance. She stretched her hand out towards him, but he was long out of her reach. The arm hung for a moment, pleading to feel him, as if it could extend to where he was. Seconds past, and the quivering limb drooped down to her side.

Her other hand covered her face, a finger weaving in between her lips, acting as the restraining bolt. Ivan's steps made little noise, but Tabi could hear the thunder in his steps. She felt herself take a step forwards. She needed to follow him...

"...Tabi?"

She froze. It was a new voice. At least, it sounded like someone was speaking to her. It was a quiet rasping sound. The sound came from behind her.

Tabi blinked. Air rushing out of her, chilling her hand. Her body laboriously turned to face the noise.

Her hand dropped beside her.

There was a body that was splayed out on the ground. It was crawling towards her, if one could call it crawling. The body wore nothing but an undershirt and bra. The skin was dyed in chaotic splotches of crimson along it's shoulders and chest. The body was covered in black and purple spots, as if it had fallen down a great distance. There was lighter blotches of red hovering around the collar, the stains trickling down it's neck.

Despite how alien it appeared to be. There was no mistaking it. No mistaking the mop of black and blue hair.

"M-Maria!"

Tabi rushed over to the drummer of Blank Nation. When she got a better glimpse of the face, she had to resist the urge to gag. The bruises were worse on her face. Crusted blood had fallen from Maria's nose to her chin, and a similar streak had fallen from her brow to her eyebrow. Her blue eyes had lost the vibrant glow that Tabi had remembered from her.

She rushed to drape an arm around her. Gently she placed her hand on her side, for fear that anything more would cause her to fall to a million pieces.

"Maria! What..."

Tabi hesitated. Did she even want to know the answers to her questions? The answers scared her...

"What...what happened to you? Are you alright?"

"I-I'm sorry if I startled you. I d-didn't mean to." As Ivan walked into view, Madeleine did as well, following his instructions to keep her SMG pointed towards the ground. Her attention was immediately drawn to the gun in his hand, presumably just as his own was drawn to hers. The two of them were armed fairly equally, and whoever shot first would probably win, regardless of the relative difference in power between the two weapons. Unprotected as they were, it would only take one shot. Not that Maddy planned to test that out. She'd had enough bloodshed for her entire life.

"I-Ivan, right? I'm...my name's Maddy," she said, adding in hastily, "Oh, uh...d-don't worry about this. I'm, uh...not...I'm not playing." Much to her advantage, Madeleine actually recognized this fellow, mostly because of the name. It was hard to hear about somebody named Ivan and not be able to remember him at a glance. If only it was so easy to remember what the fellow was like, but by appearances, he seemed to be the sort who didn't charge in guns blazing. That was a good start at least. Also, judging by how he had his own pistol lowered, he was probably a man of his word as well. That was another good thing to note.

But what to do now? Just stare at one another until somebody moved on? Maddy was about to say something additional, but thought better of it, instead adjusting the rolled-up sleeves on her blouse. "So I uh...that is, I..." she mumbled, at a loss for anything to say that would break the ice. "Have...have you seen Anna Chase? Umm...recently, I mean?" At the volume she asked that question in, it was going to be a wonder if Ivan recognized what she said at all.

There were many, many things that Ivan expected to see, or even feared might be waiting through the foliage. Right now, the last thing he needed was for somebody to pop out and try to attack Tabi or himself. After all the things they'd been through and all the time that went into their forged bond, he wasn't about to let everything fall through the cracks now. That was why he was ready to lift up his weapon at any time if the presence decided to be a threat, and he was more than willing to end it before it had a chance of ending either one of them.

The strain of having to make a snap-decision was lessened when a voice predated the appearance of whoever it was standing nearby. Whoever it was sounded just as nervous as they were, walking on eggshells to avoid injury. With the way the female voice stuttered over the words of peace and pacifism, Ivan couldn't help but wonder if Tabi was a ventroliquist. The owner of the voice, herself, came into view to meet with Ivan face to face. His arms tensed up when he saw that the girl was armed, but the pieces of himself that had been softened up by Tabi were nagging at him, holding him back.

She's safe. She's not going to attack Tabi or you.

Her gun is pointed at the ground, she's heeding your warning.

The girl introduced herself as 'Maddy', but had left out the last name. Madelyn or Madelein, one of the two... there were two Maddys in school, weren't there? Ivan had heard that name on the announcements at least once, which very well could have meant one of them was dead, but which one? Little did it matter, except the ommission of a last name kept him curious regardless. Somewhat more striking was that Maddy had mentioned him by his name almost immediately, even given his attempts not to interact with nearly anybody from the school. Such a personal greeting, with no clear intent to harm, managed to calm Ivan down enough to where his tactical slouch had relaxed into him standing at his full height, with only one hand on the pistol rather than two in a tight grip. At least he was taller than somebody on this damn island, for once.

"No, I haven't seen Anna. We're also not playing. Now that I've figured out what the noise was, we can-"

"Maria!"

Ivan's blood turned to ice when he heard Tabi call out to somebody. This wasn't how it was supposed to be at all. Damn it, they were only supposed to identify the threat, neutralize it in any manner possible, then get the hell out of here without snagging on to any more barbs. Instead, the russian turned his attention towards his companion, and found her attending to an underdressed, overinjured wreck laying on the ground. He felt a twinge of shame in having his first thought be just how much of a threat this new arrival wasn't, not in a state like that. As long as they wouldn't have to take this 'Maria' along, he'd be fine. It was supposed to be just him and Tabi, the two of them surviving as long as possible, and large groups certainly wouldn't help.

"... I'm sorry, we really need to leave", Ivan flatly said to Maddy as he stepped towards Tabi, looking back at the armed teen to see just what her reaction was. She probably wasn't just acting friendly, but one could never be too careful. Not after some of the shit that had happened.

"What...what happened to you? Are you alright?"

Well where to start i guess i got beaten up a couple times and accidentally killed someone and got trapped in a burning building and watched almost all my friends die and

"A...a lot of things." Maria said, summing everything up nicely.

All her friends...

Wait a second.

"...Max?"

Maria weakly pushed herself up to a kneeling position, letting out something halfway between a hiss and a whimper as her leg burned in pain. She then looked behind her.

...where was Max?

Maria's blood would've ran cold if it wasn't so damn hot. No, no nononono where, where is he? She was supposed to stick by him, she was supposed to keep him safe for as long as she could, or in her condition at least try.

WHERE THE HELL WAS HE?

"No...where is he?" Maria was getting frantic, and it showed. "M-Maxwell Crowe. He's got hair. I-I mean long hair. Blonde hair. I-I was supposed to stick by him, c-cause he's the only one left." She tried to get to her feet, but the pain and the wobbliness kept her down but damn if she didn't keep trying because she couldn't let Max die he was the only one left please don't die please don't die please don't die he's the only one left don't die don't die don't die don't die don't die

Suddenly the world veered too far to the right and Maria hit the ground with an audible thud, eliciting a cry of pain as she landed on her bad shoulder. One look at her injured leg would be enough to judge that she was in no condition to be walking under her own power. What skin that could be seen through the denim and the dried blood was an angry red, and it was pretty clear that the injury was in the early stages of an infection.

Maria wasn't deterred, though. She couldn't let the never-ending pain in her leg and the wooziness and the fact that it was just so damn, unbelievably hot stop her. Unfortunately, it sure as hell did. Every time she tried to lift herself up even just a few inches, everything went all WHOOOOOOOA and she just fell again.

She tried to look up at Tabi, at that guy he was with, telling her they need to get moving or something, at the other girl standing by. She tried to look at them best she could.

No wait, now Tabi was standing a few feet to the right.

Wait, now it's to the left.

Dammit, now there were six of them! QUIT MULTIPYING!

She just had to tell one of them to stand her up and maybe give her a push in the direction she came so she could go back and look for Max. That's all. She opened her mouth, and out ALMOST came a cascade of vomit, instead held back by sheer willpower as everything refused to stay still and her brain felt like mush and her leg just wouldn't stop hurting.

And then the smell of barbecued pork came on the breeze.

And Maria just started to cry.

Why did her leg have to hurt so much?

Why did everything have to hurt so much?

((Jay Holland continues from 'Grace' Under Pressure))

He'd been spacing out again. He'd been spacing out near constantly, ever since he'd first began to tail Janet. Lost in his mind, he could barely manage weaving through the thick woods. More often then not, Jay's journey was filled with awkward stumbles and even more awkward pauses. Janet had done most of the talking, a rare occurrence. But that was just another sign of just how much the game had changed him.

Ask me a week ago, what I'd be doing today? Gettin' high. Getting absolutely baked, puking on someone's tent. Instead I'm trailing a two time murderer through the woods. We've got a full tank of gas, a half-pack of cigarettes, it's night, and we're wearing sunglasses. And we're just about in Bat Country too. Fuck excitement. Fuck adventure, I want to get stoned, watch scooby-doo and wank to-

Why am I even talking about that? Focus Jay. Focus. You're trailing a murderer. You're trailing a murderer, someone who could flat out turn around and shoot you, and how would you stop her? You wouldn't be able too. It's fuckin' hot today. She'd turn around and shoot you. My throat- fuck, my throat is such a little bitch. I'M such a little bitch. I didn't stop her from shooting- shooting. The kid. Him. Whoever. I didn't even know his name. I shot him, I barely know his name, and now I'm trailing his killer so I won't die a virgin. This is fucking ridiculous. Should have just fucked Maria's corpse, I wouldn't be having this problem. Ew. Fuckin' crap, I'm going fuckin' loopy. And she's gonna know. Janet is going to find out, realize I'm a bad ally, break my face. I need to get away. No, no no no, that's bad, running is bad, that never accomplished anything. Just- just stay near Janet, stay by her side. She won't kill you. Let her- NO, NONO NO bad Jay, fuckin' pussy, fuckin' useless, fuckin' fuck fuck!

And so he continued, running schemes through his mind, panicking more and more with each step he took behind Janet. He wanted to puke his guts out, from cowardice or just plain nausea he didn't know. He thought back to Maria, the crazed girl with a hacksaw, standing over her corpse. A shiver ran through his spine, and he cleared his throat uncomfortably. Minutes. Maria had disappeared for minutes, and she'd been killed.

How in the fuck had he lasted so long?

The faire should have been the end of it, he had decided. Jay Holland should have been shot to death at the fair, skewered by one of Teo's crossbows, or broken apart by whatever kind of fucked up tomahawk Nick LeMonde had been given. He'd panicked straight away, expecting the worst. In a way, he had been right. Janet could sweet talk him all she wanted, but Jay knew that deep down, she'd kill those boys again in a heartbeat.

Not that he'd do much to stop her. Not that he COULD stop her. She had him under her spell now, and as hard as he fought against it, Jay couldn't help but stay close to her. Why that was, he wasn't too sure. Chivalry? His ill-timed attempt at not being a fuck up, for once in his life? His dick? A combination of all the above, mixed in with some fourth thing that he couldn't even fucking begin to describe?

He knew there were faults in his logic. He barely had logic to begin with. But it didn't matter either way did it? Jay couldn't escape. He could only tail the girl, watch her beautiful ass bob back and forth and pray for the best.

She's like... a black widow. That's what she is. Oh Jesus fuck, why'd I have to chicken out on JoJo? I could be with Jojo right now. Fatty John is dead. Someone killed him too. Same with that Daniel kid... Holy shit. I'm the only one left. Outta' all of them, I'm the only one left.

Janet was talking again, a slight tic of anger present in her voice. Jay could understand why. It seemed as if they'd never leave the forest, and the sight of the dead had bugged him right the fuck out. There had been more then the kid Janet had beaten to death. They were at the halfway marker now. The crows were having an all you could eat buffet.

Jay nodded his head, even though Janet was ahead and couldn't see him.

"These woods are making me crazy. It's like, Blair Witch Project shit. Ever seen that movie? I hated that fucking movie..."

He trailed off, awkwardly clearing his throat. If he didn't manually stop himself, he was prone to rambling on and on, and the habit was growing worse with each passing day. He wanted to sing, but somehow "Carry on my Wayward Son" didn't seem appropriate material for a death game. After humming a few bars he dropped it, and the forest had fallen silent once more.

My life. Fucking ridiculous.

Suddenly, Janet dropped low. Jay wasn't sure just what it was, but he hit the dirt as well. She motioned for him to stay quiet, and he was all too happy to oblige. An upside of travelling with Janet was the girl had good ears. Much better then him stumbling about, getting shot in the gut.

Don't think about that, that's fucking terrifying. No thinking about that. No, think about Janet... think about Janet naked and think about her and no, not Maria, think, uh, think about Ros- oh... BBQ?

Jay's sniffed. Yes. Something was burning. His stomach growled noisily. His diet of crackers and water had left him starving for real food. As odd as it was, Jay was sure they'd stumbled upon a cookout site.

Did someone get a George Foremen Grill and some burgers as a weapon?

"Do you smell that? You.. You think it's food?" He whispered to Janet, trying to contain his enthusiasm.

He nearly laughed out loud at his thoughts, a smile once more present on his face. He sniffed the air again... It... wasn't burgers. No. No, something close... But... Odd. Jay had never smelt anything like it. There was something else with it, something he HAD smelt before, when he had accidentally rolled over and burned his neck hair on a cigarette butt-

"Oh fuck." He said out loud, slightly louder then he meant to. His hand went to his mouth as the smell wafted over again, stronger, more distinctive. Jay struggled to prevent himself from puking, trying to block out the mental images that were running through his mind. He'd never been one for gore flicks, but a scene from the second SAW movie flashed through his mind, a man trapped in a furnace, burning alive.

I turned to Alex, and I said, I said "Bet he tastes like chicken!"

His face had gone white. Jay lowered himself even closer to the ground, edging up beside Janet. His fear of the girl was gone. They were allies now, against whatever they'd stumbled upon. Awkwardly he retrieved his pistol from his back pocket, gripping it tightly, as he brought his other hand up, clutching his sweater against his mouth and nose like a makeshift gas mask.

"Janet... You see anything?" He said through his shirt, his words muffled and barely audible. A bead of sweat dripped down his brow.

It was too damn hot today.

(David Meramac continued from Down the Road, Not Across the Street)


Where were they? Any of them?

Simple question. Any answers forthcoming? And why did his head feel so god-damn light?

He leaned against a tree, another one of his frequent breaks from trying to move. It had been some time since he'd last eaten, and he'd run out of water yesterday. His stomach growled constantly, a threatening echo accompanying his every movement. His legs still hurt--they'd yet to recover from the frantic, panicked running of his first few days on the island.

Maria. Max. Sierra. Josie. Where the fuck were they?

Doesn't matter. Had to keep moving. Everytime he stopped in this damn place someone found them (Lombardi'd killed two of them, he'd hear the Announcements, he knew) and someone hurt them and then David remembered that he was in danger, that he wasn't simply going to be able to get the fuck out of here as he pleased, that it really was hopeless. What had they done? Found Maria? And now he couldn't find anyone and hold on this doesn't look like air and this doesn't taste you can't taste air...

It took him a few seconds to realize that he had fallen, and that his face was presently buried in the ground, dirt leaking between his lips.

David couldn't have said how long he laid there. He was too tired and beaten to even feel the aches anymore; there was nothing but his exhaustion. His vision flickered, occasionally succumbing to sleepy darkness and occasionally brightening with the daylight all around him.

What's that?

He stiffened, then struggled to his feet.

That smell.

Something cooking. Smelled like barbecued pork. Sure, there was something else there, something faintly nasty--burned hair or something, ick--but it still smelled of cooked meet and that was a delicious smell.

"Does..." he started, and then he tasted the dirt on his lips and tongue and spat, trying to clear away some of the cloying earth. "Does someone have food!" he cried, as he forced himself onto his feet.

Three more arrived while Jackie sat quietly, observing and waiting. Two boys and one girl. They were all too far away for Jackie to see whether they were armed or not, too far to put names to faces, too. Jackie didn't particularly want to risk sticking her head up further to identify them; not with the other three- Ivan and Tabitha and Madeline- armed to the teeth and pointing guns everywhere. The last thing she wanted to do was startle them and take a reflexive bullet straight to the head.

Jackie shifted her weight, trying to make as little noise as possible with all the chains and straps on her pants as she planted a hand on the floor to steady herself. It was times like these where her size was an advantage; if she was just a couple of inches taller she'd have been much easier to spot. Best not to dwell on that, Jackie decided, before karma came and kicked her teeth in for it.

Yeah, that would be pretty bad.

Jackie tapped her fist lightly against a tree trunk just to make sure. She wasn't a superstitious person but she needed all the luck she could get. Her heart was pounding right now, she was sure she was sweating like a bastard but she didn't want to check because that'd probably make noise and it'd be gross to have sweat all over her hands.

Deep, slow, quiet breaths. She could do this. She'd killed before, she could make it a double. A triple. Whatever it took to go home.

She just had to keep calm. That was the first step. It was simple, now that she thought about it, almost child's play but calling it that would probably mean she was getting just a little arrogant about the whole thing. She just had to stay quiet, try not to make too much noise breathing or misstep in some leaves during a tense quiet moment, and she'd make it through this whole thing unnoticed.

More importantly though, she had to keep hidden; make her presence known at the right moment. Wait for a straggler when the group ups and leaves, or for someone to stop paying attention for just long enough to allow her to sneak up. Jackie paused. What had brought this about? Jackie wasn't too sure herself. She just guessed and assumed that seven days on an insane island had finally caught up to her. As far as anyone else was concerned though, she had been ready to leave since day one, but now she had a plan, a motivation. Who cared how she did it? It was the reward that mattered. The ticket home was what did it for her.

She deserved it more than these people. She had dreams; she had her animals to care for. She had a family back home who'd understand everything their daughter did just to get home to them.

One quick stab with the knife. One step closer to going home.

Right now Jackie was an opportunist, not a coward.

Janet peered through the underbrush, trying to see something. She was aware of Jay sitting near her, mumbling something about food. This was no time to be thinking about one's stomach. She glanced a glare at him, then returned to her listening.

"It sounds like some sort of reunion over there. Two, three females... one or two males. It's hard to tell. I think it would be best that we either avoided them, or if you have some urge to attempt to socialize, we approach in a non-threatening manner. To be fair, though, I imagine that if any of them know my face, they would be very likely to kill me, or attempt to, anyway."

She shuffled backwards, keeping low to the ground. Then she heard someone shouting. Something about food. Dammit. All this food talk was starting to make her hungry. The smell in the air wasn't helping too much, though there was something off about it. It smelled like... like the time she had burnt her hair on a candle, when she was much younger. But it would take a lot of hair to.... Oh.

Oh. If that was what she thought it was... oh. Gross.

As Maria strained to get up Tabi found herself grimacing. She shouldn't be moving this much, she was a mess and she still didn't know what really happened. She opened her mouth, but found herself unable to speak. The fact that she was moving at all right now was both frightening and awe-inspiring. She struggled to come to terms with what felt stronger.

She started to ramble about Maxwell Crowe. She tried to remember the name and for a moment it was gone. She closed her eyes to picture him and instantly remembered the long blonde hair that Maria had talked about. He was a big music guy too, he really enjoyed vinyl albums too.

Maria's paniced declarations made Tabi leap back into conciousness. The Blank Nation drummer was scrambling to get up to her feet Tabi leapt up to her own, preparing to guide her along. But just as quickly as she had stood up, Maria fell back to the ground with a loud moan of pain.

"Oh my god, Maria!" Tabi said, rushing over towards her crumpled body.

Her medical skills were minimal, but it didn't take a doctor to see taht she wouldn't be able to walk on her own.

She knelt down to her friend. Tabi could hear the sobs coming out of Maria's mouth and instantly she felt herself trembling. Her hands moved around Maria's body, trying to lift her up to her chest.

"Maria...Maria listen to me. Deep...deep breaths. Breath with me now."

She let out loud breaths to try to calm her down. Was this how you were supposed to do it? Ivan had made it so easy. Was this how you were supposed to do it?

"We gotta get you out of here. Wrap you up...Listen I've got a spare shirt too...It's kinda dirty but..."

Her gaze turned back to Ivan. She wanted to ask him how to do it. How she was supposed to comfort her. She said nothing, and could only stare up at him for a second or two.

Tabi turned back to Maria, cradling her head close.

"It's okay...it's..."

She can't stay here...

"It's...going to be alright..."