Survival Of The Fittest

((Brendan Harte continued from The Ones You Trust))

Brendan wasn't sure what to do anymore.

The other day he and Alba had been unsucessful in trying to find Ty and they spent hours on trying to be hopeful in finding him. But they finally gave up on that and then they both made their way over to the bridge as it was getting darker outside. They had managed to meet up with Jon and they made a plan to stay somewhere else for the night as the bridge would have been too open for them to get attacked by anyone who came across them. They made their way over to the asylum and they each got a room in the wards to rest in for the rest of the night.

Brendan wasn't able to sleep at all. All he could see when he closed his eyes and tried to force himself to sleep; were Jerry, Bernadette and Jaime's dead bodies and he never wanted those images in his mind again. He had been laying on his rusty bed for hours on end, staring up at the ceiling. Not really thinking about anything. He couldn't really concentrate on as he was really exhausted and hungry.

The announcements blared into life about two minutes ago. Brendan heard his name again on there. He didn't need the reminder that he was a fuck-up but he couldn't say that to the terrorists' faces. There had been more killings. Three by the same guy. The thing was, was that Brendan felt like he was giving up on caring. They were all going to die in the end. Even the person who 'wins'. They were not going to be the same person anymore. They were going to be dead on the inside. What was the point of this?

Brendan sighed softly. He shouldn't be like this. He had to continue to be positive for Alba and Jon. Just for a bit longer. He had to continue to put on a front. But he hated pretending. Everything was going to go to hell soon. He was having a gut feeling. A very bad feeling.

Brendan slowly but surely sat up on the bed and swung his legs over the side. He let out a yawn of tiredness. His stomach was grumbling. He had to eat something. He leaned over and his picked up his bag from the floor. He unzipped the bag and he froze as he stared into it. He still had Jon's revolver in there. He should remember to hand it back to him after he had finished off his bar that was now in his hand.

As he took a bite out of the bar, he wondered if the other two were going to be awake and leaving their rooms soon.

((Alba Reyes continued from The Ones You Trust))

Alba sat up on the bed as the announcement played out. The sound woke her up and she immediately got into position, ready to hear what was coming up. Ty wasn't on the announcements, nor were Bryony nor Kimiko. It was hard to hear Brendan get credited for Jaime's death, just as it was to hear that Fiyori killed someone. The announcement said Brendan killed Jaime after a fight. That told Alba that they were framing Brendan as a villain, so it was likely people would come for him.

Yesterday was a quiet day, but it wasn't an effective day. They had wandered around, but they didn't find Ty. They eventually met Jon and went into the asylum for the night. Alba locked herself in one of the wards and slept awkwardly. It had been a rough day after seeing Jaime die and Jon nearly kill Brendan. She wasn't sure how much sleep she did get, but she had to hope it was enough. They had a lot more searching to do today, and she needed to be sure that Brendan and Jon were still with her so that she could join them in their quest.

Alba stood up and stretched a bit. She then grabbed her pants and hoodie off the floor and put them back on. After a week of wearing the same clothes, she wanted to dress down a bit as she slept. It didn't help much, but she was alone (relatively) and wanted to do something to make her feel a little more comfortable.

Granted, she was tired, hungry, her teeth hurt, and her hair was a greasy, ratty mess. It wasn't likely she'd get to deal with those any time soon, so she tied her hair back and took comfort knowing that if she did get off the island, she'd make sure she bathed every day and take better care of her teeth.

She grabbed her bags and the rifle, then walked out and towards Brendan's ward. She walked to the door and knocked.

"Brendan? Can I come in?" she asked.

She quickly glanced around the hall. It didn't look like anyone was around, but getting out of the hall would surely put her in a more peaceful state.

Brendan pulled a face of disgust as he chewed on the bar and swallowed it down his throat. They really did taste so horrible. But it was still something to eat. So he couldn't even complain about it. He took out a water bottle, took off the lid and he took a few small sips of it. It helped a little to clear his sore throat slightly.

He let out a coughing sound and tried his best to hold back anymore. He wondered if he could rest for a while longer. Alba and Jon wouldn't mind, right? His hand gripped on the bottle a bit. No, he couldn't afford to laze for even one second. If he wanted to make Alba more proud of him, he had to try harder for both her and Jon.

He could hear footsteps outside his room and then he heard the person knocking. His head whipped upwards as he heard Alba's voice and he automatically felt himself smile. Alba was the one that he really needed to talk to right now. He didn't want to bother Jon right now. He felt closer to Alba and he still wanted to make sure that everything was going to be okay between him and her. He didn't want to let her down again. Not after Jaime.....

He put the bottle down onto the ground and then he put the half-eaten bar back into his bag. He stood up from the bed and his vision got dizzy for a few moments. He really wasn't doing so well. He was still smiling, but the smile was more weak now.

"S-Sure..... You can come in, Alba." He called out to her, staying right beside the bed and he rubbed his hand over his arm awkwardly. "I couldn't sleep anyway...."

Alba stepped into the room. She saw Brendan sitting on the bed, energy bar in hand. Alba hadn't eaten yet, but she'd likely snack on a bar as they started to walk away. They didn't have time to waste, after all, so a breakfast to-go was her best choice.

"Yeah, I didn't sleep well either," she said, moving behind the door and putting her back to the wall.

She kept the rifle pointed to the ground.

"But whatever, I'll shake off the drowsiness. Have you seen Jon yet?"

Brendan had a heavy heart about Jon right now. The announcement would possibly make Jon less trustful of him again. He wondered if things were going to be okay. Possibly not. But he had to keep positive. This was no time for him to be down. He was supposed to be in control of himself. At least Alba was here to keep him on his toes. He had to be there for Jon this time. He couldn't run away from his responsibility. Not anymore.

Brendan shook his head and managed this time to actually get himself up to his feet without getting another dizzy spell. "No, not yet. I think we should let him rest for a while longer." He paused briefly. "Although, the announcement.... Maxim and Fiyori...."

He went silent and looked down at the ground. He wanted to block their names out of his mind but he couldn't deny the truth. Maxim had killed someone. Fiyori had killed again. He didn't know what to feel about either of them. He didn't know which one hurt more. Just hearing two of his friends, one being his former crush, just shattered his heart deeper.

"Alba, do you think I can really be a good person? I don't want to be a despicable murderer anymore. I want to be someone you can be proud of. I want to help you and Jon get to the end of this. Even if I end up...." He trailed off, looking back up at her. "....You know."

Brendan had to say it. He didn't do why. It was driving him crazy. It was strange. He had grown closer to Alba in a way. He wasn't sure what feelings he had towards her. Maybe it was love. Maybe he finally found his own true love. Even if it was in the worst situation possible. Maybe he was losing his mind. He didn't care. He had to say it.

"I know that I am going to sound like I'm delirious for saying this but.... I want to be the guy that you can be in love with because I.... I'm in love with you, Alba."

There. He said it. Did he really just confess like that? What was Alba going to think? He was actually scared of what she would say back.

Alba turned her head down slightly when Brendan mentioned Maxim and Fiyori. It was hard to think that their friends were killing again. There couldn't be too many people left, so it was likely they'd only run into killers at this point. Alba wondered how some of them could make it nine days without killing and realized how envious she was of those people.

Brendan continued to talk. He was asking her if she thought he could be a good person. Alba was prepared to tell him exactly what she had been telling him over the last week. Obviously, she thought he could be a good person, and she was going to make sure he was on the path that showed he could be that person.

However, this led into some other confessions. Alba had forgotten that Brendan confessed to her yesterday, and now he was directly telling her that he loved her. Her mouth fell open slightly. Was this seriously happening? The first time she got confessed to had to be in the middle of Survival of the Fittest.

Alba looked slightly away from Brendan for a second. She wasn't sure what she was supposed to say now. Part of her was touched, but the other part was confused. Was he really in love, or was it the island stressing him out? She probably made things worse by kissing him the other day in that moment of passion. Was that a sign that she loved him, or was that her just letting some horniness out while she was highly emotional? Alba decided she needed to speak, but also had to work out everything in the process.

"Um...let's start from the beginning," she said.

"Do I think you can be a good person? Yes. I do. I know you want to be good, I know you know how to be good, and I know you're prepared to make sacrifices for that. I know you have a lot of self-loathing, but I think we all do at this point. I mean, the three of us have all killed at least one person here. We're all pretty lousy for that, but I think we want to be better than that."

"If you think you can help me and Jon reach the end, you're free to try. I'll help you get as far as I can. I'm serious about that."

Alba cleared her throat. She thought that saying all those things would help her understand if she was in love with Brendan as well. Now she wasn't so sure.

"As for love...um..."

She bit her lip. Her heart was beating fast, and she felt her body getting stiff. She scratched the back of her head. Then the words fell out of her mouth.

"...sorry...I don't know what to say right now..."

Brendan should have seen that answer coming. Definitely the worst time for him to say those words to her. He was trying not to feel more self-hating. It wasn't Alba's fault that he was such a screw up. It was his fault. He wondered if he could ever change her mind about him. Why did it hurt so much? He had to get out of this room. Get Jon and then they could do whatever they were going to do next.

"....S-Sorry, I'm sorry. I put you on the spot there, Alba. I shouldn't have said anything. I.... Sorry." He was trying not to choke up and he moved his gaze towards the door. "....I.... I'll go and get... get Jon...."

He moved towards the door and felt himself stop beside Alba for just a few seconds. He couldn't look at her. He felt like he wasn't allowed to now. He wanted to stroke her cheek. But he didn't. He was going to regret his words to her forever.

"....I can't make anyone happy. I'm sorry, Alba...."

He then walked out of the room and headed to Jon's room, feeling the tears rolling down his cheeks. He couldn't stop them. He couldn't do anything about it. He was always going to be a crybaby. He stopped outside Jon's door and he knocked on the door. Then he leaned against the wall, sniffing a little.

"H....Hey, Jon? C-Can we talk...?"

(( Jonathan Gulley continued from The Ones You Trust))

Jon, hadn't really slept at all again. He promised Brendan he'd stay and guard for the night. He may have dozed off while he was out there, but he wouldn't have known, if he did dream, he was dreaming about guarding the doors. Jon wondered if it was him sleeping with his eye open. Either way, earlier in the morning he decided to go to bed himself, nobody was coming in the night, so he was certain nobody would be coming around the time everyone was still waking up.

Jon was back at the Desert Plains Skate Park. He was just finishing up at the half pipe, rolling along the sidewalk towards a nearby bench to take a break. It was a nice day, not too many clouds, just another weekend, school wouldn't start until tomorrow. Jon sat down, his foot sliding the board back and forth. He stared at it, the thoughts of what he was going to do after school was over filled his head. It was kind of scary to be honest, he had no idea what he really wanted to do, hell, he wasn't sure if anyone at Cochise knew what they wanted. Jon was relieved to hear a familiar voice call out to him in the distance. Then a second one.

"Jon!"

"Ayyyyy! Ey, Jon!"

Jon looked up and saw Michael and Darius walking up towards him. Michael spoke up first. "Ey, it aight if we sit here with you?"

Jon replied; "I don't really see why not... How's things been with you guys?"

Darius spoke up, grinning. "Well, everything was going fine until Brendan decided to mess everything up." Jon stared at Darius for a moment, wondering what Brendan of all people could have managed.

"You know what he did?"

Jon just had to ask. This was going to be interesting. "Yeah?"

Michael interrupted Darius before he could speak; "That motherfucker forgot to say hi!" Darius only replied with a little nod and a 'mhm'. "We were all friendly to him and everything, and he tried to ignore us." "Yeah, what a douchebag!" "Michael set him straight though-"

Jon stopped at the last line, looking towards Michael disapprovingly. "You didn't... hurt him did you?"

"Woah, woah, naah, naah man, I just spooked the guy a little. Was honestly bustin' his balls, man!"

"Alright." Jon shook his head disapprovingly. He didn't get the dumb shit Michael did. The macho bullcrap didn't really impress anyone.

Michael seemed to have gotten the hint that he may have gotten a little on Jon's bad side. He changed the subject. "So uhh, I gotta few quarters in my pocket, anyone want anything from the vending machine over there?" Jon was feeling kind of thirsty, to be honest. "Yeah, I'll take a coke or something." Darius requested some Lays. Michael had almost taken offense to that based on the way he spoke. "Lays!? Motherfucker you got all the options of the fuckin' snack kingdom, and you pick Lays? Man, the fuck's wrong with you..."

He still walked off to go get them however.  That left Jon and Darius to talk about things. "So... outside of that, anything else happen?" "Naah, not really, we laughed at a fat kid trying to skate, and talked about Junko's party." Jon shook his head. "I'm surprised you even remembered it, you were hammered!" "Well, I didn't!  I just remembered it sucked... Anyways, the main thing about it we were talking about was... weeelll..." Darius looked back between Jon and Michael. "Well, the abridged story is he's hoping to get back together with you." Jon nodded, looking at the ground, there was a grin forming on his face. "Oh..."

"The unabridged story however...." Darius said that louder than normal, as if he was intentionally trying to get Michael's attention. Michael barked back; "Ay! No!" Darius moved his hands through his own hair, pulling his bangs over his eye, then grabbing the sides of his hair, pointing it upwards. He'd then raise his eyebrows and squint, curling his lips into a weird smirk scowl combo. With the effort he was going into to mimic Mike, Jon knew this was going to be good.

Darius started, doing a pretty good impersonation of Michael's accent. "Aaaanyways!" "No! Stop you fuck!" "I kinda felt like shit about bailing on Jon like that, I mean, I fuckin' love him right?" "Darius, you cut that shit out right now!" "I mean, I was hoping, y'know, that we'd get back together or something..." "I will beat your motherfuckin' ass if you say what I think you're gonna-" "Like maybe, I could take him to the theater again, or Vacanti's or somethin'." "Dee! Seriously man!" " I don't know man, I just wanna be with him, hell call me weird, but..." "Dee no!" "I kinda wanna lick his scaaaaaar!" Jon felt himself blush at the last line.

Jon started giggling as Michael had reappeared from practically nowhere, throttling Darius with a headlock. Darius gagged through Michael's arm, jokingly trying to warn him. "He-ack- wants to lick your face scar Jon! Don't let him-urk- do it! That's one of the two ways he -uwak- sucks out your soul! I can't say the other way for the sake of any chi-hnng-ldren listening!"

"You fuckin' cock-snot, I should beat your ass with your own crusty body pillow you fuckin' snitch! Gaaah!" Michael turned away from the two, moving his heads through his hair. "Damnit Dee, that's the last time I'm tellin' you shit!" He calmed down almost instantly after. "Damn, man..." He turned around, handing Jon his drink, deliberately avoiding eye contact, his face bright red. When he went over to give Darius his chips, he slapped his hands together and popped the bag over Darius' head, getting crumbs all over him. "There's your fuckin' chips, fatboy." He walked back around, popping the tab open on the sprite he got for himself. He'd only gotten two gulps from it before Darius lurched up and pushed the can up, causing a portion of it to spill out on Mike. "Ah you fuck! Damn!"

Jon wasn't worried of an altercation happening between the two, they did this shit all the time. Even so, he was still more focused on what Michael had said, barring the last... uhhhh, yeah. That part. Michael sat by Jon, trying to wipe the Sprite from his biker's jacket. "Anyways... since I don't really got a choice, now... Yeah. I was... I was kind of hoping to talk to you about that. Well, not all of it, well, maybe that other part too, I don't know, like, maybe not, unless, like, y'know, you're into that sort of thing or anything."

Jon shook his head smiling. God he's such a damn dork. "Yeah... We can get back together, I told you that back at the party, remember?" Michael stared down at the ground, a mixture of relief and embarrassment glued to his face. "But... You're gonna have to work on you're attitude if you want to lick me." Jon's grin turned more smug. The predator had become the prey for once, and to be honest, it was pretty funny. "You can lick my scar all you want if you quit being a dick to people."

Darius roared in laughter behind Jon. Jon decided to play for double points that day. "Except him, do what you want with Darius." Michael was standing up now, and Darius quit laughing. Michael sat back down again, laughing a bit himself. He was about to say something else before an intercom interrupted them.

The voice sounded familiar, marking off names from Cochise. Jon heard Jaime, and Brendan, before Darius spoke up. "Anyways Jon, what's the deal with you and Brendan anyways? Why are you all buddy buddy with him even though he got us killed?"

Jon turned his head and couldn't believe what he was looking at. Half of Darius' face was missing, and he was still there, talking like nothing happened. "We could've got a good plan going if he didn't puss out and kill Jerry like that. Then you trusted him again, and where'd that get you? Hell, he couldn't even kill you when you asked for it, and he made you a murderer, what's with you Jon? Why are you hanging with him?"

"Ey, Dee... Shut the fuck up man. I got myself killed, and you got your dumbass killed too, man."

Jon turned back around, and saw that Michael was similarly mangled. His mouth was ripped open, and there was a large gash in the side of his throat.

"Brendan fucked up with what he did to Jerry, but at least he tried to stay with Jon, that's more than what you or I did."

"Yeah, but you wouldn't have went all gung-ho murderboner of justice if it weren't for what happened to Jerry, and I wouldn't have gotten split up from the group if Brendan didn't fuck up so bad."

"Yo, newsflash, I was already helping him try to kill someone, remember?"

"Still, if Jon's gonna hang out with Brendan like that, then I guess he's still responsible for what happened to me. If he really cared about you, he'd try to avenge you."

"Dee, he fucking did. He nearly gotten killed for it, twice!"

"Well, he shoulda' gone all the way if he wanted to see you again!"

Jon couldn't take it anymore, he got up and ran away. Behind him, he heard the two still arguing.

"Dee, you fucking idiot, you see what you did?!"

"What? He can't face the facts?"

"Man, fuck you... Jon! Jon wait up!"

Jon ran behind the half pipe. He buried his hands in his face, sobbing. They were still dead, and nothing could change it. He'd never see them again as they once were, they'd never have a chance to grow up, to live. They were all doomed.

Footsteps turned the corner. Jon felt arms wrap around him. Jon sobbed harder.

"Jon... It's okay. It's okay, it's not your fault... Jon, look at me. Look at me..."

Jon's eyes moved up. He was afraid of what he'd see.

Michael wasn't mangled anymore. He looked as he had before he was on the island.

"Jon... I'm sorry I can't be here for you, but... you're strong Jon. After everything that's happened, you've tried to do the right thing again. You've tried to change yourself for the better. Fuck it, if you can give Brendan another chance, you should at least give yourself one."

"But, we're all gonna be dead anyways. I don't want to make it to the end, I don't want to be the only one who goes home... There's nothing left for me."

"Maybe, yeah. But then again, there could be someone who has something left. Someone who hasn't hurt so many people to make it to the end. You could help them... Or... Maybe you could... try and make sure this never fuckin' happens again... I don't know... Listen Jon... Just because you think you're destined to die, doesn't mean you're destined to die a bad person. Something's been keeping you alive. Just... shit man, just try to hold out for just a bit longer. You've got all the time in the world to see us again. There's so much you could still do, and I'd hate to see you throw it away, Jon."

There was a feint knocking in the distance.

"Don't leave me..."

"Jon... I promise you, I won't."

Jon's eye opened. He was back on the island. His head still throbbed. He was still alone.

"H....Hey, Jon? C-Can we talk...?"

Wait, no... He wasn't alone. Not anymore at least. Jon took a moment to think about the dream he had. He saw what could be considered normalcy taken away from him again and again. The second part was right though. Michael was right. He had some sort of purpose, and he had to make the best of things. It wasn't going to be good ever again for him, but he could at least make it better for someone else.

"Y-yeah... Come in."

He had all the time in the world after all.

Alba jerked her head back up when Brendan began to leave the room. He was upset about what he did and didn't seem that pleased with her reaction. He said he couldn't make anyone happy, then disappeared to get Jon. Alba rubbed her forehead.

"Crap," she muttered. "That's not at all what I meant."

All Alba meant when she said she didn't know what to say was that she wasn't sure how to respond. She didn't expect to get confessed to, and she wasn't sure how, or if, she could reply. She didn't want Brendan to think it was a rejection or that he was a screw-up. She was just surprised.

Alba walked over to the doorway and looked out at Brendan and Jon. Brendan asked to talk to Jon.

"Hey, guys," she said. "Please don't leave me out of this. Can I come over too?"

((Min-jae Parker continued from Gift for the Darkness))

Jae's hands weren't shaking anymore.

He was on his second cigarette of the day, and his head felt clearer than it had in a long while. He wasn't feeling hunger pangs quite so sharply anymore. Good old nicotine, doing its job.

Vanessa was dead. It was another unpleasant little jolt. Hazel's death hadn't been announced for whatever reason, but he wasn't far gone enough to start questioning whether he had really seen her die. He had the jacket back, after all, drying bloodstain on its inside lining and all.

Back at the asylum again. He always seemed to end up here, but then, so did everyone else. He had slept, sometime and somewhere. He didn't really remember. He had awoken with the feeling that he had dreamed, but he didn't remember those either.

Back where he started. He remembered that clearly enough, at least. Alvaro (who was now dead). Vanessa and Nancy (who were also both now dead). But Jae was still here, still limping along. If he kept going on down this hallway, he would eventually encounter the corpse that had once been Asha Sur. Asha and her killers were all dead too.

And Brendan fucking Harte was still alive.

Jae heard his stupid, whiny voice from several doors down. There were one or two others too, maybe that girl that Jae had seen Brendan with days ago. Fuck if he cared.

Every time he started thinking he had a handle on himself, back at school or in this hellhole, Brendan came along to fuck it up. And here's the thing: Jae didn't have a good reason for hating Brendan. He had just disliked Brendan for as long as he could remember knowing him, and that dislike had festered into contempt and then into disgust, and now - now he almost hated the very idea of Brendan. Brendan, much like Alessio Rigano, had been nobody before he got here and took up a weapon to end a life. But the nobodies, it seemed, were the ones who got to live here when they didn't deserve it, and something in the pit of Jae's chest turned sick and black and gnawed at him whenever he thought about that.

Brendan wasn't just always fucking normal things up for Jae with his presence; when things were bad, Brendan was inevitably there to make it worse. The counselor that Jae had been seeing back home had called Brendan something like a target for misplaced aggression; essentially, she said, when Jae was feeling bad, he zeroed in on something convenient to take those bad feelings out on, and Brendan was just an especially good punching bag. Jae had just managed not to roll his eyes when she laid it all out to him like that - he knew how taking his anger out on unrelated things worked, thanks, he'd been living with it all his life - but he couldn't deny that it summed Brendan up in an almost elegant way.

Brendan was a target. Here Jae was, drifting aimlessly again, having just lost everything, and then Brendan's voice floated down the hallway and hel-lo all of the teeth-grinding rage that Jae was just starting to think had drained away.

He stopped far away enough from the room that he wouldn't be visible to anyone who just glanced out the doorway. There were definitely at least two other people in there, and if Jae was remembering right the girl was armed.

But fuck. Did he really care if he lived anymore? Worst-case scenario, one of them shot him dead and then what? Then he was gone from here, that was what. Back into the ever-turning wheel of the universe to take his just punishment for what he had done, and then he could start over again.

Starting over didn't sound so bad.

Even if he had to deal with a few lifetimes as an animal or a ghost, that wouldn't be so bad. People were worse than animals. Being a ghost might be a so-called lifetime of want, but Jae was betting he'd be a pretty sick-ass ghost all the same. He would haunt the shit out of some people who deserved it.

He almost made himself laugh inappropriately again with that thought, but managed to suppress it. Quietly, he set the staff down so that he could retrieve the crossbow from his bag and load it. His hands were steady.

Jae leaned against the wall and listened to the scraps of Brendan's conversation with his allies, waiting.

Brendan was relieved that Jon did turn him away. He was glad that the other boy was willing to actually talk to him. He really must have done something right yesterday. He didn't mess up with Jon and he felt a little happy about that. Still, he was feeling down about Alba. That was his actual first confession to a girl. To tell her that he was in love with her. It wasn't like how he used to get crushes on almost everyone he saw before. No, it was his real feelings. He wasn't going to stop loving her. Not ever.

He wiped away his tears quickly with the back of his hand. He didn't want Jon to know that anything was wrong. He had to be okay. Just pretend to be okay. Everything is fine, everything is fine, everything is fine.

He was opening Jon's door and peeking in at Jon before he heard Alba's voice behind him. She didn't want to get left out. He didn't mean for her to think that he was going to give her the cold the shoulder. He wasn't going to do that. He wasn't like that. He wanted Alba to stay close to him and Jon.

He turned towards Alba and he gave her a genuine, sweet smile. "S-Sure, Alba. You can come over. I don't want to make you feel uncomfortable." He said honestly, then he held out his hand towards her. "I want to make things right again. Let's do it. The three of us. Together."

Everything is going to be fine....

Jon sat up as Brendan stayed outside, talking to each other. He rubbed his eye, shuddering for a moment as he tried to process what he just woke up from.

He didn't quite understand it. It started out fine, then turned into a nightmare, like what seemed to be the norm at this point. It changed at the end though, something was different, and Jon didn't feel scared. He didn't feel alone. Despite the disturbing visions, they didn't necessarily seem horrifying.

Things were looking up at least. They weren't good by any means, but Jon could come to terms with the fact they weren't. There's no point in being miserable anymore, since it doesn't really help anyone. The best he could do was tough it out until he really knew what the plan was from there...

As they both talked outside, Brendan mentioned trying to fix things. It's... well it's a bit late for that, but there's no point in not trying, so why not?

Jon stared at the floor for a moment, before looking at the two.

"So... disregarding the obvious, are you guys doing okay?"

It occurred to Jae that there was probably something ironic about sending Brendan on his way back into the cycle of things when the prospect of just going himself was starting to look pretty good.

But fuck, right now, right in this moment, he felt alive again. His heart rate was starting to pick up, he took in deep lungfuls of air and smoke. For the first time in days, his hands were steady and his vision was clear.

Brendan moved. He was the only one out in the open now. A target.

Jae closed his eyes and counted backwards from ten.











He opened them again and pulled the trigger.

Brendan looked back and forth between Jon and Alba. He was asking if he and Alba were both okay. Brendan honestly hoped that he and Alba were going to be fine. But that was wishful thinking. Nothing was going to be alright between them. At least, not right now. Maybe he could get a chance to sort things out with Alba later on. Right now he had to focus on what the three of them would be doing next.

"I think that Alba and I am do-"



......

He felt something embedding itself into his stomach and it made him let out a gasp of surprise and sudden agony. He couldn't even get a chance to realise what happened to him as he was falling backward and he landed awkwardly onto his back on the ground. He couldn't think or breathe for a few seconds.

What just happened to me? Who, who, who...?

"Okay, yeah," Alba said. "Let's do things right."

Alba turned back and looked into the room. She wanted to make sure they didn't leave anything in there. Odds are they'd all start searching for Ty and anyone else they could think of, so it'd be easier if they had everything they needed then. Once she saw the room was clear, she turned to see the guys and begin their morning conference.

Unfortunately, that wouldn't be happening. As Alba turned back to face Brendan, she saw him get hit in the stomach and fall to the ground. She didn't hear a gunshot, but when he hit the ground, her eyes widened. It was an arrow. She quickly looked down the hall.

"Jae!" she muttered at the sight of the assailant.

It was the same as the chapel gardens a few days ago. Jae was there, and she shot Brendan. Unlike last time, Alba was ready for him.

"Jon! Get Brendan!" she shouted as she moved slightly into the hall.

Alba raised the rifle in Jae's direction and screamed. She pulled the trigger, sending a hail of gunfire down the hall. For the first time in her life, Alba fired the rifle with the intention of killing someone. It was horrible to think she had to do this, but she didn't have time to think. Jae shot to kill, and she made Brendan a promise that she intended to keep.