Survival Of The Fittest

((Marybeth Witherspoon continued from Woods of Paranoia))

When it's nighttime, being in the dark is a given. It made little difference whether the darkness was outside or under tons of rock, it still was darkness. This was about a good reason as any for Marybeth to have decided to take shelter in the tunnels.

After running from that blaze that had incinerated Francine, Marybeth hadn't found much else interesting. Partially because she had no idea how to actually navigate with a compass and map, but also because she hadn't seen anybody from her time walking around the island. She would have thought that with over two hundred kids, it wouldn't be too hard to find somebody if she walked around long enough. Then again, the island seemed a lot bigger than it looked on the map.

The only proof that there were people on the island was that she'd seen a few of them, and then Danya had gone on and blabbed about all the people that had already been killed. What a killjoy. Marybeth would have rather preferred to have discovered all the killings herself, and then made up wacky inane theories on who did the killing for what reason. But instead, Danya went and just straight up told everybody who had killed whom. How would she start rumors when everyone was as informed as she was? Or more informed since she hadn't seen anybody for most of the day.

Marybeth would have thought that the narrow tunnels would make it easier to find people, as long as people were in there. Not so much the case though, as the tunnels kept winding and branching and then reconverging and then branching again. She'd lost track of the time, and of course, Danya's crew had been nice enough to take away her only timekeeping device: her cell phone.

All the walking had made her tired, so Marybeth decided to stop for a break to eat and drink. She tried to cradle the tiny flashlight between her shoulder and neck as she dug through her daypack, but it easily slipped out and clattered across the rough stone floor. Marybeth let out a small curse and chased after it. The flashlight skittered a few feet and stopped, its beam illuminating a few meters farther down the tunnel. In the beam, Marybeth could make out a person lying on the ground.

She froze. If somebody was there, it wouldn't be wise to just run up and chat them up. Not until she could recognize them as not being one of the named killers on the island. She held her breath, slowly shuffling back, and watched the dim form in the tunnel.

There was no motion from the other side. Whoever was there, they hadn't acknowledged Marybeth's presence at all. Perhaps it would be safe enough to venture closer. Reversing her steps, she walked up to her flashlight and picked it up, then trained the beam on the figure up ahead and walked cautiously up toward it.

She soon discovered why the body wasn't moving. When you had something like an axe stuck in your head, it made it hard to do anything that had "being alive" as a requirement. With the damage the small axe had done, it wasn't easy to make out who had been the unfortunate victim. She swept the light over the corpse. He was stocky, built, and probably on the football team. That was as far as she could guess from there. She could cross-reference these facts with the names she had written down as Danya announced them. Having found the body filled in a lot of the details of the story that may have surrounded his death.

Marybeth eyed the axe. It had sunk quite deep in, and retrieving it wouldn't be easy. On the other hand, an axe was a much better means of self-defence than that joke of a weapon that had been assigned to her. How was she supposed to do anything with a hand-cranked egg beater? Besides beating eggs, but that was hardly useful when there were no eggs around either. She put the flashlight back down on the ground, and then tightly grasped the handle of the small axe with both her hands. She pulled with all her might, but the axe didn't really seem to want to move. Oh, it shifted slightly, but freeing it from the other's skull was another story.

She planted a foot on the corpse's shoulder, and then gave another hard yank on the handle. Evidently, adding leverage to the body made it far easier to move the axe. Easy enough that the force she had used to pull the axe was enough to bring her, axe in hand, stumbling back several steps right into a wall. Head met rock and stars flashed for a moment from the impact.

The hit knocked her bearings out for a moment, and she slid down the wall to the floor. If she was going to take a rest, now was as good a time as any. At least she now had an axe.

[Clap For The Killers --> Logan Reynolds]

To say Logan was in a bad mood would be an understatement. The day before, he'd lost just about all of his resolve, and the only thing keeping him going was a vague desire to get his personal belongings back, hoping they were still where they'd presumably been left in the tunnels. But apparently, even that was easily complicated.

Night had fallen about halfway between the Sawmill and the Mansion, from which Logan had originally planned to enter the tunnels. So instead of travelling through the night again, he'd decided to make camp in the woods. Of course, after he woke up, he learned that the Mansion had been made a danger zone, and that, somehow, even more students had been killed than on the first day. Fabulous news. So he could be extra depressed/cautious on his extra long detour around to the mines entrance. He hadn't even considered just yet that he'd have no idea how to find where he'd first woken up, travelling from the other end of the tunnel system.

He arrived in the non-mine tunnels fairly early, by cutting across the mountains instead of skirting around them, then heading into the bowels of the island without any particular care for where he was actually headed, besides making sure he was pointed in the general direction of the Mansion end.

Darkness soon swallowed him, and where he'd been aware of Daisuke following him until then, it didn't take long until Logan could barely see his hands without holding them inches from his face. Lucky he had a flashlight, then. He fumbled around for it, and turned on the beam, which was fortunately still at full strength. What was unfortunate was that, after a few more minutes of walking, it fell upon a person who looked to be unconscious, but was certainly wielding an axe.

[[Daisuke Nagazawa continued from Clap For The Killers]]

The trip had been fairly silent for the most part, since Logan was in a sour mood and Daiuske wasn't the type to really try to bring someone out of their shell and talk to him. For the most part, he simply tagged along with Logan as they made their way back across the island towards the tunnels where they had started their ill-fated campaign against villainy. As much as Daisuke believed it was the only good thing he could possibly do, he still couldn't bring himself to abandon Logan in order hunt down the players that plagued the island.

The idea of leaving Logan behind genuinely worried Daisuke. Not only did he fear being off on the island alone once again, not knowing who to trust or who to even target in his search for vigilante justice, he feared that Logan wouldn't be able to defend himself properly if someone with killing intent attacked him. Knowing that Logan felt like he couldn't kill someone made Daisuke second guess Logan's ability to fight, as if the fact that he was the only one who was willing to kill meant that he was the only one who could do what was necessary to protect them both. He followed Logan silently throughout the day, silently keeping a lookout for possible assailants, before Logan made camp for the night somewhere in the middle of the woods.  

Danya's morning announcement tempted Daiuske to try to convince Logan that what he proposed was necessary, but it seemed like the night's rest coupled with the morning news hadn't made Logan feel much better about his decision. The usually unperceptive Dai felt that now was not the best time to return to that order of business. Instead, they both silently and diligently made their way back into the shafts of the underground tunnel system, searching for Logan's missing personal effects.

Once again, the darkness of the tunnel surrounded the pair as they began their search for Logan's personal bag. It felt like an unlikely goal, but at least it was something to work towards instead of just sitting around, and it was a common goal that could keep them together. After that... who knew?

It wasn't long before Logan's flashlight caught a glimpse of something unusual. It was an unconscious girl slumped up against the wall of the tunnel with an axe in her hand. For the first time in what felt like ages, Daisuke spoke to Logan. "Do you think she's alright?" he simply asked his partner, unaware of the dead body slumped in the darkness beside her.

She didn't know how long she had rested for. The darkness made it hard to gauge the how much time had passed. What Marybeth did know was that she had finally found some people. Living people.

Well, actually, they had found her. Not that she was going to split hairs over it.

There were two guys, or at least it looked like two guys based on the shadows cast by the flashlight they had. Apparently, they thought she was asleep or something, since they were busy talking amongst themselves instead of talking to her directly. Just because she was sort've slumped against the wall didn't mean she was out cold. People just needed to catch a breather every so often.

"Of course I'm okay," she said in response to the stupid question one of them had asked, "does it look like anything is wrong? Besides the body over there." Sluggishly, she pulled herself to her feet, taking care to keep the small axe held behind her. Marybeth was reasonably sure that if they thought she had a weapon, they'd be a whole lot less hospitable. She shuffled over to where she had put her flashlight down earlier. It was much more difficult to do it while trying to hide something behind your back, but she somehow managed to retrieve the small flashlight. However long she had been resting for, it wasn't long enough to drain the whole battery.

"So, anything interesting happen to you guys? Besides getting kidnapped and thrown onto this island, obviously. Me, I saw somebody get burned alive yesterday. Looked pretty horrific." In truth, Marybeth hadn't seen too much since the flare had been way too bright to see much of what happened, but filling in the blanks wasn't too hard. Recalling the event sent a slight shiver down her spine. That scream.... "Sounded it too. It's nothing like the movies."

There was a weight missing from her shoulders. Marybeth cursed inwardly when she remembered that she had left her daypack a few feet away. Unfortunately, that was in the direction of the two boys. If things got bad and she had to run, then she wouldn't have any food or water for at least a few hours. Considering how hungry she felt now, that was probably a bad idea too. If only she could find a way to get to her daypack without setting off any fireworks....

Not long after the pair's arrival, Marybeth acknowledged them, probably just resting then, not truly asleep. Not that it mattered to Logan, in all honesty. He was more concerned with the matters of the present, not what might have been the past, as it made no difference to his own situation. And frankly, he'd stopped caring what happened out of his immediate area a while ago, given that what was happening in the here and now was usually likely to kill him.

"Of course I'm okay, does it look like anything is wrong? Besides the body over there."

Oh the many answers Logan could give to that. Lots of things looked like they were wrong, including 'the body over there', which he hadn't noticed until it had been pointed out to him. What else looked wrong was, well for starters, the explosive collars on everybody, the axe in Marybeth's hands (and the weapons he and Daisuke were carrying, themselves), and that they were all in some pitch black tunnel on an island in the ass-end of nowhere. So many things that were wrong. But they weren't exactly immediate concerns, or ones that hadn't already been addressed, save for the weaponry. So that's what Logan gave his attention to.
"Well, that there's a dead body over there, and you're holding a bloodied axe, that looks sort of wrong to me."

A pretty frank response, to be expected, really. Logan had a penchant for tactless comments that went beyond simply not lieing. But, as with so many other things that no longer mattered, tact was out too. Indeed, he was already reaching for his own weapon, that vicious looking pick that he had become quite certain was the kind used for clubbing seals. How lovely. Still, yet again, dead seals weren't a pressing matter either. Logan didn't much care what the brutal device was intended for, or at the very least, it wasn't something he wanted to dwell on whilst raising it in part-defense, part-threat, against a fellow student.

No, no thinking about the blunt end crushing bones.
No dwelling on the sharp point dragging corpses across the ice. Certainly not on the trail of blood it must leave behind.
It's just a symbol.
Just an icon to say "I'm well armed, don't attack."
It's not for brutal murder.
It can't be.

That's what the boy told himself. He was quite sure he'd keep to that conviction.

He hoped he was sure.

(Hate to double post, but it'll be two weeks tomorrow, and I don't want Logan to go inactive over politeness. Marybeth really does need her death soon, though.)

As it turned out, he wasn't sure. It was too easy to envision the girl attacking for whatever reason, to see himself lash out in retaliation, to imagine the sharp pick piercing flesh and tearing muscle. Logan had no intention of seeing any of that for real, and didn't trust any of the three of them not to make it happen.

"You know what? I don't want to know. Well, I do, but not at the price I'm imagining right now."

That was true enough. He wanted very dearly to know why the corpse was dead, why Marybeth was holding the apparent murder weapon, and why she seemed so casual about it all. He wanted even more dearly not for anyone to die in the process of finding out.

"So I'm out."

And with that, Logan turned tail and left, moving at quite a brisk pace. Not a run, nor a jog, but a very fast walk, aided by his already long stride. He didn't want to look afraid, that would probably just serve to invite attacks, but just as much, he didn't want to be in that tunnel any more.

A few minutes passed, and the boy found himself outside, at a different entrance to the one he'd come in through, looking at the rising sun. Just how long had he been down there? Logan knew it had been late afternoon, verging on evening, when he and Daisuke had gone in, but early morning already? He decided he really needed a good timepiece.

[Logan Reynolds --> "Can You Hear Me Now?"]

Sadly, or maybe fortunately, the two boys decided to turn around and go the other way. No worries about starting up something crazy and violent. Marybeth was just too tired for that.

She watched as they left, leaving her in the darkness with her fallen flashlight and her daypack. Also an axe. Marybeth gathered up her belongings, and withdrew a piece of bread to nibble on.

After a few bites, she put the bread away and started off down the dark tunnels, with only her flashlight to guide her. Hopefully she'd be able to find something interesting sooner or later. Just as long as it didn't involve too much screaming and dying.

((Marybeth Witherspoon continued in Out and In))

The others left. Left Daisuke alone, in the darkness, waiting and wondering. There was something wrong with the girl. No way around it. It made no sense for her to be down here with a weapon, alone, lacking a good explanation. He hadn't been able to stop her, though. Hadn't been able to force himself to stop her. Why? He'd resolved to stop the killers, hadn't he? He was the strong one, right? Logan had gone off. Their partnership was over, and the reason for it was that Logan couldn't kill. And yet, Daisuke had just choked.

This bore some thought.

And so, Daisuke sat down against the wall, resting and thinking. Trying to recapture that feeling of exhilaration from earlier. Trying to once again feel that surge of confidence and certainty. He could do this. He could do it.

He took deep breaths. Thought back. He'd had Kris in his sights. Had her at his mercy. He'd been afraid, but so had she. They had been ready to die to eliminate each other. That's what he had to do. Give up on surviving. Prepare himself completely to die making a difference.

He repeated it in his head, a mantra, trying to focus: I will make a difference, I will make a difference, I will make a difference, I will make a—the announcements started going, a different voice this time, wrong time of day, but he tuned them out, ignored them, kept his focus—difference, I will make a difference, I will make a difference, I will make a differen—

He was cut off by an explosion.

Daisuke never knew what hit him.

B 148: Daisuke Nagazawa ELIMINATED