Survival Of The Fittest

((Aaron Hughes continued from Failing to Reappear))

Aaron had gone quite a ways from the infirmary. Aileen had caught up, somewhere in there. Charlie hadn't. No real surprise. Losing people was an inevitability. Better her than him. Whatever had happened, Raidon hadn't followed him here. That would be good enough for now. Maybe later they'd meet up again. It would be problematic if they did. Tactically atrocious. Aaron had chosen the logical path when dealing with the island's most dangerous living player. The problem was, that sort of thing only worked once. Next time, both of them would be gunning from the start.

And then there was Aileen. They had been moving at a good pace, Aaron being sure to keep close enough that she could see him and far enough that she couldn't really interact with him. She was going to be livid. He knew this. It was just a matter of dealing with it in the right way, of mollifying her properly. It was going to be a bit tricky; after all, losing teammates seemed to be one of the things Aileen took hardest. Now, though, it was down to just the two of them. There were no more allies to lose. Aaron was a bit nervous about the effect having such reduced manpower would have on his chances, but he would deal with it.

They were at the docks. It had seemed a good place to lay low for a while. Here, they could wait out a good portion of the remaining time in relative safety, in all likelihood without too many people coming to bother them. It also made sense from the perspective of continuing the ruse. Its proximity to the water certainly implied a chance for escape or rescue. He might not even have to say more.

Part of the dock was blown apart, probably by some sort of explosive. Aaron drew his pistol, and slowed. Best to let Aileen catch up, to make sure nobody was lurking. If another player was here, they could be in big trouble.

As he crept forwards, the announcement played. The name of the girl he had hit rang a bell; he was pretty sure she'd killed someone. A player, then. Raidon's partner, probably. Good. The weaker the other boy was, the better. Charlie's death was confirmed, and most of the rest of the island was made a danger zone. They'd definitely picked a good location.

A quick check revealed that nobody was nearby. That settled, Aaron headed towards the damaged dock, intent on seeing just what had transpired. He gestured to Aileen and called, "Hey, over here. You should see this."

((Aileen Borden continued from Failing To Reappear))

And now Aileen wasn't sure what to think.


No really. She wasn't sure what to think.


As she moved behind Aaron, she was in a daze. That scene back there had taken a good deal of liveliness out of her. Her framed green eyes, once full of emotion, even of the cynical sort, had taken a glaze in them and seemed to stare off into space. She staggered by, her facial features looking even more pale, making her freckled face look like paper dotted with specks of blood.

What was there to say?

Aileen found herself feeling quite ill since earlier. She was feeling better, but still. Once they had made it to safety, she had thrown up again due to the stress and the impact the flashbang had on her on their way here.

And DuClare- Charlie- hadn't made it. Raidon had killed her. And this time it was clear; it was Aaron's fault. He murdered that girl, and in turn Raidon murdered Charlie. Now that she'd calmed down, she was... more than a little annoyed at Aaron, to make an understatement. But most importantly of all, she was scared beyond belief. She wasn't sure if she should stick around any longer. There was no progress. They only succeeded at killing Milo and leaving a large part of their group to be murdered. They didn't even make it to the boats, just because of one suspicious belief that Aaron had. This sort of thing had been going on for a while. He would never make sure everyone got out alive. Richard, Lily, Charlie, and probably those people at the gazebo had died that way. He never took those five seconds to make sure everyone was safe.

To be honest, she wanted out after earlier. Maybe she could make progress on her own. She probably couldn't get the collar off, but she could probably put up some sort of subtle signal. Maybe starting a fire on the beach like in Lord of the Flies, or perhaps use some kind of mirror or similar object to put up a glare. Perhaps someone would notice. And heck, maybe Charlie was right. Those boats knew where the island was. It was probably no longer a secret.

It was possible, wasn't it? When she first woke up on the island, she doubted that something could have been done about her situation. She doubted Aaron when he said he wanted to escape, but trusted him anyways. But she understood now. It was possible. She was just doing the wrong thing. Aileen could probably accomplish a lot without him around. He did a lot of really dumb shit that cost them many of their team mates. What's worse, was, he really didn't seem to give a shit.

So here they were, at some kind of docks. Aileen stared into the water after placing her things on the wood.

Aaron called out to her, saying that she needed to see something. She looked and... a damaged dock. Really now. It was like he wasn't even trying anymore. It was as if he was stalling for time or something.

"Oh good, a damaged dock. Have fun", she mumbled, as she sat down, her legs hanging over the water.

Thing was, the reason why she hadn't left him yet? Because she still felt like she had a friend, or at least was part of something. And to be honest, she was scared to go off alone. She remembered the one clip of SOTF that she saw. She shuddered as she recalled that clip of that boy ripping apart that girl's throat with his teeth after violating her. When she had first seen it, it gave her nightmares until the start of senior year, it was that disturbing. With that and everything that she had seen here in mind, it was clear that dying here would be a horrible thing. And to make matters worse? Apparently she and Aaron were among the last ones left; the numbers were now in the twenties. That was a horrifying thought. It meant that they were losing. Too many people had died.

She didn't want to die. Dying was a horrible thing, obviously. And what about her mom? She remembered what her face looked like when Dad died. She'd be all alone. Her mother was always protective of her, and if something happened to her... well, she didn't want to see her reaction. And all those people had families too.

Aileen never thought she'd say this, but she missed her classmates. Mom always told her that she would miss them when she graduated. She was right. She would miss them. Just not when she graduated.

Aileen opened the bag next to her to look through her supplies so she could see what she had, and spotted it. Aaron's notebook. She never gave it back after all. Now she was curious. What was in there? She lifted it up and investigated it. Up until now she hadn't thought of looking through it. Maybe she should. Perhaps Aaron would have been hiding things from everyone. At the very least, she'd be figuring out what he was writing the entire time.

And then she did an action she'd quickly regret. She opened it to a random page and started reading.

Aaron looked out to sea. Aileen didn't care. She was grumpy, sarcastic, but fairly easy to handle. Apparently, she was going to be sullen and surly about this all. That was fine. Those were easy things to deal with. He'd have to let her sulk, but they weren't going anywhere. If Aaron handled things right, she could even serve as a sort of alarm. If anyone stumbled across her, she'd probably become loud and indignant. That would be good warning. Aaron could hide out in the bait shop, perhaps. Maybe he could get some sleep.

There couldn't be many of them left now. Under thirty, though not by much. They were all corralled into a limited area, meaning encounters would increase. That, in turn, meant the death rate might not actually slow too badly. Aaron was guessing they had between one and three days left, slightly more if someone else got creative. It was possible there were other groups trying the same thing, though he somewhat doubted it. Attrition was eating its way through everyone at this point. In all likelihood, most of the other contenders were bedraggled and half mad. This wouldn't be all that challenging. After all, so far he had breezed through his time here, not on brute force, but on actually being intelligent. That was the secret. People played the game all wrong, focused on things besides the ends.

There was only one goal: winning. The way to win was not to blaze through everyone, like Lombardi and Brook and Hartmann and Kelly and so many others who were now dead or dying. It was to be smart, to play the good guy, to ensure you always held the upper hand and to never let anyone get the drop on you. It was to see your adversaries not exclusively as enemies, but as resources too. It was to never, ever reveal that you hoped to come out on top.

Aaron glanced back at Aileen. She was sitting, reading something. Keeping herself occupied. Good. Aaron wandered further out on the broken dock, making sure to step lightly and to test each place he put his feet. While a collapse would probably not prove fatal, it could be damaging to his weapon, and there was always the chance of being injured by debris.

Someone had clearly died here. There were stains that looked enough like blood, and he was pretty sure he could see something that was the remains of a limb. It was enough. Someone had used a pretty serious weapon here. Something like that would be nice to have, but there wasn't enough of the victim left to reverse engineer the killer's identity.

He made his way carefully back to safer ground, looking at Aileen again. She was still reading—

Aaron's expression clouded. She was reading his notebook, the one he had repeatedly asked her to return over the last couple days. She'd always hung onto it, though, always found some way to distract him and maintain control of it. She'd probably had it all planned out. She'd probably figured he'd be too distracted here to even notice what she had. She was trying to catch him out, trying to find something to blame him for. Maybe she'd been planning this for a long time. Maybe since Milo.

"Ah," he said, keeping his tone light. "You found my notebook. I have a few adjustments to make. Would you mind passing it over?"

There seemed to be a message to her in the book.

Aileen read it over many times once she opened the book and spotted it. She was a fast reader, certainly, but now she wished she wasn't. The grammar was atrocious, and the writer in her, if it said anything other than what it actually said, would have torn its hair out. Too bad it was something rather horrible. She wasn't even sure if she should even flip one more page.


Over and over.

Over and over.


The words were ingrained in her mind very quickly.

But she couldn't believe it. Now she knew everything. He'd been lying to her. He intended for that one thing to happen. Here he was, trying to save his own ass, while plotting horrible shit like this. If she had known this earlier she would have expected what happened recently ages ago. Heck, she would have left a long time ago, long before the boats had shown up. It became apparent what he was thinking. He... he was batshit. He was just using her.

The book shook in her hands.

She had to keep this away from him, continue reading what other kinds of horrible shit was in there, and then... get rid of it so he couldn't do what he had been doing to her and everyone who had joined up anymore. Or maybe she could confront him, and call him out on his bullshit, and then get rid of it. Either way.

Here she was, just following along like a naive little sheep. But no more. Here was where she drew the line.

And from behind her, she could hear Aaron. He had realized that she'd been reading it, and wanted it back. And the tone was as if he saw nothing wrong with what he wrote.

Slowly Aileen turned, barely concealing the amount of rage she had in her. But oh, one could tell just how mad she was. Because she wasn't going to tolerate this any longer.

"No. You're not getting it back", her voice came out quietly. But the tone had a layer of contempt.

She lifted herself onto the dock. Turning the book facing Aaron, she pointed an index finger towards the line in question.

dont worry, ailleen. milo was going to betray us. this is for all of our safety. its not out of control. i knew this would happen.

"Read this out loud. Do it. And then fucking explain. Now."

Aileen said she wasn't giving the notebook back. Even before she told Aaron to read the words, he knew what had happened. He knew what was wrong, and he knew how he'd probably end up having to handle it. It was a real pity for this to come up in this way. It was bad timing, and it wasn't what he wanted, but he'd been prepared for a long time.

"Damn," he said. "Hoped you wouldn't see that."

The key was consistency of vocal tone. He had to come across as unfazed. He had to buy a bit of space, too, so he took a couple steps backwards.

"Alright, Aileen," he said. "I'm going to give it to you straight, because you're my ally.

"Milo was a psychopath. I heard him talking while he was on watch one night, saying how he'd get us all, how he couldn't wait to stop having to act like a moron. He said we'd drop our guards, and then he'd deal with us.

"I lied about things, to spare your feelings, and, more importantly, Charlie's. Sometimes you have to lie to help people. I taught you that back at school, remember?"—lunch, water bottles, silly things, same principal—"She was fragile, Aileen. She could have lost it at any moment, gotten herself hurt. Hell, she did in the end. This whole time, all I've been doing is looking out for the group. Sometimes that meant dealing with problems, like Milo and Tom. But it's worked. You're safe, with, what, thirty people left? And we're closer than ever to a breakthrough."

And the whole time Aaron was talking, he wasn't meaning a word he said, and he was sure Aileen knew it. The unspoken dialogue was a lot more simple. He was giving her an out, magnanimously throwing her a rope and offering to rescue her from the pit she had dug for herself. It was so very easy. All she had to do was go along with the lies, and this would end find. Aaron would ditch her or get rid of her somewhere along the line, but it wouldn't be immediate. They'd both sleep with one eye open, but that was only sensible at this stage anyways. Things could continue as normal.

But Aaron didn't think she'd take that route. That was why he made sure his hand was hovering near his pistol. He didn't want this to get ugly, but eventual unpleasantness had been a forgone conclusion for a long, long time. Better to get it out of the way when he still held the upper hand.

There were a lot of questions that needed to be asked.

Aaron had started telling some sort of story about how apparently Milo was talking to himself about how he was plotting against them and how he had to lie to spare their feelings. Yes, because she hadn't been beating herself up over electrocuting a guy to death! And to be honest, lying to them was bullshit! Especially since he basically manipulated her into killing someone! God, why did she fall for it? It was beyond stupid and nasty. How did she not spot that he was this manipulative before?

In the past, she would have bought this story. Maybe? Actually, she didn't know. But in any case, whether or not she would have fallen for it before, now she wasn't buying it.

To make matters worse, apparently he lied to them about Tom as well, judging by the fact that he also mentioned him as well. According to him Tom was also a psychopath. So this was it? He had been lying to them the minute they got here? Okay, this was now reaching a new low. This supported her belief; she had to get away from him. She no longer felt in any way connected to him. He was in a way just as bad as those actually killing.

And it was sickening.

Heck, now he was even using their first meeting on the lawn that day, with Sarah and a bunch of other people, to make shit up. Apparently he had "taught" her you have to lie to help people. Oh really? All she remembered was Dungeons and Dragons and how Sarah was passing out. There had been no such "lesson" to begin with.

Unless....

Unless he had been lying to them even before they stepped onto the bus!

As he went on, Aileen's face contorted in rage even further. How dare he... HOW DARE HE...

She closed the book, making a small thud.

"Alright, I have a bunch of questions that need to be asked. First off, why did you have to solve the problem of Milo by manipulating me into KILLING him? That's worse than telling everyone the truth by FAR. Second, since when was a dehydration crisis a so-called lesson on lying? Third... third... why the fuck would Milo talk to himself about his plans?! He was far from smart, sure, but I think even HE would know better! Fourth, she only got hurt because YOU had went in and started shooting at Raidon, killing that girl and letting her die, so how was a lie supposed to protect her from that? Same goes with Lily and Richard! And finally.... what the fuck happened to Tom?"

Her voice had raised, and soon she was panting and seething.

"Damn it Aaron. I trusted you. I even thought of you as a friend, which is saying a lot. But you know what? This is bullshit."

She waved the book around with one hand.

"Do I have to look in here a bit more to find the answers?"

Aileen was upset. She wasn't playing along. Too bad for her. She slammed the book, then started in on her rant, demanding answers. It was a good thing Aaron always had answers ready. He waited until she finished before speaking again.

"That's about the worst thing in there. The rest is just lists of names and the like.

"Anyways, I have no idea why Milo talked about his plans. I just managed to ensure he served another purpose. I had to prove that we weren't a threat to the game, since all of you kept demanding details and I figured the people keeping us here might be getting a little jumpy. I used Milo to prove that we weren't going to do whatever that Polanski girl did, to keep a bunch of commandos with AK-47s or whatever from coming to pay us a visit. Allocation of resources, you know. Trust me, I'd have preferred to just ditch him somewhere.

"Charlie got hurt because she stepped into a firefight. She did it because she believed in our mission. I'd rather her sacrifice not be rendered moot by infighting. And, as for Tom, he was exactly the same as Milo. He was running off to betray us, trying to get a player to join our group and help him take us out. He picked the wrong one, and didn't know I was following to hear his traitorous plans. I didn't do anything to him."

And that was that, but Aaron knew, just knew, it wasn't going to be this simple. He wrapped his hand around the gun and pulled it from his pocket, still keeping it pointed at the ground. The threat had no need to progress beyond the implicit at this point.

An idea did occur to him, though, one he wished he'd thought of a few seconds sooner. If Aileen was reading the book, she wasn't ranting at him, and wasn't getting in his face. She was neutralized, for as long as she was distracted, leaving him free to act. Whatever happened here, however this alliance ended, it wasn't going to be with Aaron getting the short end of the stick. It was time to start stacking the deck in that direction, just in case. It always paid to have a backup plan.

"But, by all means, double check if you don't believe me," he added.

Oh really?

Oh. Fucking. Really?

The worst thing in there was names apparently. And who did they belong to? Probably killers, but now she wasn't sure what "other" kinds of names would be in there. Probably something like... oh, she didn't know, a hit list?

And Milo was being used to tell the terrorists that they weren't planning a Polanski style collar removal? Couldn't they have done something ELSE to prove that? Not, again, using a human life and ending it just to send out a message to their captors? Especially manipulating someone else into it without their knowledge? Really? They could have gotten rid of Milo in other ways if he was THAT suspicious. Not... oh god, must she repeat herself?

And he was still insisting that Charlie hadn't been murdered because of his actions! Bull. Shit. He had just ran in and shot up the place, leaving Raidon to kill her! And he still didn't respond to Lily and Richard as well. What about them, eh Aaron? Whose fault was that? And as for Tom... how did he know? Maybe he, gee she didn't know, didn't know Nick was a player, presuming that was the one he was trying to get to sign up? Sure that would not have been wise of him, but still not worthy of getting killed.

Who was Aaron kidding?

Nothing he could say at this point could make her want to listen to him again.

Oh, and Aaron? Pulling out a gun wasn't going to solve anything. Because guess what? She was the only ally he had left. And now she was completely enraged. If he shot at her and attempted to kill her, he would be on his own, and he wouldn't have anyone else to listen to him since he murdered two people, one of which he had been with since day one. He was blowing his chances if he did that.

"Aaron, that doesn't change the fact that you made someone kill another without them knowing what was going to happen. That doesn't change that you ran in and shot a girl causing two deaths that could have been avoided! That doesn't change that you lied about Tom! That doesn't change a thing! It only makes you look worse if you don't own up to it! Oh, and by the way? Put the gun back. PUT THE FUCKING GUN BACK! No, seriously! Not only will you kill someone, no one will listen to you if you shoot me. You'll be out of allies, and you know what? It'll be your own fucking problem!" she yelled.

She took a deep breath and moved a loose lock of auburn hair out of her face. And she opened the book once more to a random page. None the less, she kept her eyes on Aaron. Now that he had his- Lily's- gun out, she wasn't sure if she should keep her eyes entirely in the book.

"Look" she started more quietly. "If I see any more shit like I saw in here, I'll read it out loud, just for our audience at home, got it?"

And so, this was what it came down to, in the end. Aaron couldn't say he was surprised. A little disappointed, perhaps. He'd really thought Aileen was smarter than this. Had he known how this would all turn out, how little use she and Charlie would end up being, he would have just sent them to the boats. He hadn't wanted to see them dead, not when it didn't have any advantage for him. They had been useful, in their own ways. That had let him sleep safely at night. For that, he bore them no ill will.

Aileen, though, she had earned his ire in many other ways. The number of marks against her was increasing by the second. Aaron let her rant, let her keep talking, let her keep digging her hole. All the time, his own anger was mounting. So, this was how it was going to be. Aileen was going to betray him, and, beyond that, she was going to threaten him. She was implying that she had some power over him, that she could maybe get out of this by making him worry that killing her would somehow hurt his chances, by making him think that she was going to mess up any hopes he had for life after the island. That was pretty clever. A good start. Maybe she'd learned something after all, but it was too little, too late.

And so, as she threatened to read out of the book, Aaron leveled the pistol at her. It wasn't like there was anything else incriminating in there. It didn't matter. That wasn't what this was about. Aileen thought she held all the cards, but Aaron had planned far too well for this to hurt him.

"I don't think you should do that, Aileen," he said, and for once his anger manifested in quiet tones. He'd been holding back a lot over the past few days, and he was done with it now. He decided, in that moment, that Aileen was dead.

"You're forgetting a few things. Our group, we've been pretty quiet. Everyone who actually met us and could identify us by name is dead now, or, if not, is playing. No one is going to listen to Raidon when he swears I'm the bad guy.

"More than that, you're right. I did kill somebody. I killed somebody who was allied with a player, somebody who, if I recall correctly, killed a couple other people. That almost makes me a hero, you know, taking down the people who are preying on the innocent. And it occurs to me, now that I think about it, that you killed someone innocent too. Why, there's nobody alive to say otherwise, and we all know how wonderfully condemning the announcements were when you killed Milo."

A grin, here. Aaron had always delighted in making the final move. There was a time for discretion, but there was also a time to allow the reality of a situation to sink in, to allow other people to realize just how badly they had lost. He made sure to keep his gun trained. If Aileen was going to make a move in desperation, it would be now. He had to be ready for that. Winning didn't mean he could afford to be stupid about it.

Oh look at him! Smiling all smugly while pointing a gun on a woman! Yup, true hero material there. What made Aileen trust him, again? And seriously, he forgot announcements. And the fact that, again, must she repeat herself? He ran out and shot a girl who was probably minding her own business before they got there. Even if she was a player, there was still the fact that his name had been on the announcement, and it was going to be on there once more if he actually pulled that trigger and managed to kill her.

He wasn't even being subtle about the gun anymore. Instead he was directly pointing it at her. Kind of typical of him, now that she thought of it.

And oh look. He was insisting he wasn't a villain, because Aileen had killed someone too! Never mind that someone manipulated her into it. Plus, you know, the issue of the fact that the announcements had alluded to it being a collar removal attempt, if she remembered correctly. There was no time to check, but Danya had gone out of his way to remind everyone that collar removal won't work if memory served right. Running out and randomly shooting a girl and then killing another for yelling at you compared to trying to remove a collar would be completely different in most people's eyes.

Well then!

Things had to have been said.

"Aaron, kill me and you're on your own. Honestly. Who will you manipulate after this? Who will save your ass? Will you just... kill everything in sight once you're done with me? That makes you no fucking better than, oh let's say, Lombardi! Yeah, remember him, ran around the island killing everything apparently? I'm guessing that will be you after you kill me! Am I correct?"

A thought popped into her head, and she lifted the book up so he could see.

"Okay, I'll strike you a deal. One! I'll stay. We'll get rid of this notebook and I'll be in charge. You keep your mouth shut, and I'll protect you. We'll find a way off that doesn't involve killing anyone else. Two! I leave without trouble, taking this with me, and you'll be off on your own without killing anyone. Or three! Shoot me! Shoot me and then go on a killing spree since all your allies are dead and you put yourself in a bad spot because of it! Or whatever it is you'll do!"

She prayed to god that he didn't take the third option. Her heart was racing from both fear and anger, and sweat was pouring down her face. She was mad at Aaron, and yet, well, she had a gun pointed at her. Of course she'd be scared.

"Make a choice, Aaron. Go on, do it."

And that was that. Aileen was ignorant of one of the key tenets of negotiation: you should never make an ultimatum unless you are willing to accept all the options you offer.

She had contrived to force Aaron's hand in every way possible. She was goading him, insulting him, saying he was like Lombardi. Of course he wasn't like Lombardi. Lombardi had been an idiot, drawing everyone's attention and making himself the highest profile target on the island, reviled by players, wannabe heroes, and noncombatants alike. That was a terrible way to survive. It was the method of someone too caught up in their own newfound freedom, someone who had taken their eyes entirely off the end goal.

Aaron wasn't like that. He knew what he wanted, what he planned to do. He was going to win. Aileen had placed herself in his way. He actually did consider her alternatives, of course. The first one was tempting. He could go along with her, let her think she was in charge, let her call the shots and figure out for herself how futile everything was. Then, when her guard was down, he could get rid of her. The problem was, at that point, she might see it coming. She would surely be more prepared to defend herself than she was right now. She could even be laying a trap of her own, planning to kill Aaron as soon as he dropped his guard in the slightest. This was clearly the most opportune moment for getting rid of her. Anything later would be too risky.

Letting her go wasn't an option. As she pointed out, there weren't many people left in the game, and fewer still were potential allies. If Aileen was allowed to roam unchecked, she would warn them about Aaron, would let them know what he was up to. That would mean he would have to be even more suspicious of everyone he met. He would have to assume that they all knew. That was out of the question.

And then there was the last option. Kill her, make his own way. It was doable. It would mean starting over, but Aaron had been ready to do that for a long time. It wouldn't even be too hard. After all, he could back up his story better than almost anyone left in the game, and he was armed and mostly uninjured. He wasn't going to go on some killing spree. That was idiotic and counterproductive. he was going to play it cool, play it smart, and come out on top. There wasn't a shred of doubt in his mind.

Aileen said it was time to decide. Aaron agreed completely.

"Goodbye, Aileen," he said, and pulled the trigger.

Okay, he knew what to do, right? She gave him options. Three of them. He knew what the smart options were, and which one was the stupid decision. Aaron was smart, certainly. He was capable of making decisions. She had tried to appeal to his logical side, telling him that killing her would put him in a bad spot. Of course it'd put him in a bad spot! He'd be alone, and then what? Oh hey, let's go manipulate the shit out of Reika's sister or someone along those lines? Kill everything?

So she left him to make his choice. Aaron could figure this out.

Of course he would.

Right?

Wait, why was he saying "goodbye"?


A cracking sound.


Aileen felt herself fall over to her side before she realized what happened, her cheek hitting the wet wooden dock. A sharp pain had hit her in the right side of her chest, and she reached up, only to notice that there was something warm and wet there. A rapidly spreading red shape had stained her light purple blouse.

So that was the choice he had to make, then?

Aileen felt herself tremble out of fear and pain as she held the wound, her heart struggling to pump blood. Her eyes were full with tears. This was it. He just went and shot her. She was... she was, for all intents and purposes, dead. Only a miracle would save her now. And those didn't exist. She knew those didn't exist. Some part of her wished that she would be rescued at the last minute by some sort of boat like earlier, but she knew that wasn't going to happen.

She'd... she'd lost. Aileen had allowed herself to be manipulated. She had allowed herself to be controlled, used, and tossed aside. He'd managed to get her to murder someone and to indirectly endorse murder without her realizing it. So he didn't care about them after all. His behavior was just some warped justification to get what he wanted.

She? She was an idiot. She had fallen for it hook, line and sinker.

But Aaron wasn't going to make it any farther than this. No one would trust him. He wasn't going to find anyone else to manipulate. Who would there be?

That was her solace, to know this. The one thing that gave her hope in these last minutes. Aaron would be brought to justice. He wouldn't get away with his hands clean. This was a fact.

One thing she could do in her last moments was to make sure this happened.

The notebook lay in front of her head after she dropped her. Right behind her was the ocean, still purring in rhythm with her heartbeats. Aileen slowly reached out and grabbed it, and soon pushed it towards the ledge of the dock behind her as best as she could.

It fell into the water with a plop.

"Look. Bad move, Aaron", she whispered, her voice coming out with difficulty.

There. He wouldn't hurt anyone ever again.

But oh! She didn't want to die. She didn't want to die. What would happen? Aileen wasn't sure how she felt about the afterlife. Did it even exist? Aileen hadn't figured it out for herself. If she saw everyone who died, what would happen? Would Milo forgive her? Would Charlie, Tom, Lily, and Richard be happy to see her? What about Reika, or Trevor, or Melissa? Or Sarah, for that matter?

Would she see Dad again? Would he forgive her for this, too?

Seeing Dad again. That would be nice, actually. She missed him, so much.

She missed everyone.

But who will miss her?

Aileen wasn't sure about how to answer that question.

Maybe it was the thought behind her actions that counted. She was just with the wrong person at the wrong time. Maybe that was her purpose, not to be a pawn, not to escape, but to do the right thing.

Dad would be proud. So would Mom if she saw this.

Her vision darkened significantly, and she closed her eyes.



There had better be a good library in the afterlife.


G022 Aileen Borden- ELIMINATED

Aileen hit the docks. She just sort of lay there, finally pushing the notebook into the sea and telling Aaron that he had made a mistake. He couldn't begin to fathom what she was talking about. All she'd done was destroy the evidence before he could get to it to do the same. He was going to say something, to gloat, perhaps, but it was clearly meaningless at this point. Aileen wasn't moving, wasn't breathing. Game over for her. It was strange, standing there, on the docks. Aaron realized that, for the first time since the game began, he was truly alone.

That was an odd thought. He'd figured it would happen eventually, but not this soon, and not quite like this. There were still probably twenty to thirty people left. That meant it wouldn't be optimal to be on his own quite yet. Fortunately, he was a fairly unknown quantity at the moment. Maybe three or four people could tell about what he'd done. They would have to be dealt with or avoided, ideally the latter. Then, there were the big killers. Anyone with over two kills probably counted. The right choice there was to shoot on sight.

The good thing was, at this point the killers would likely just weed each other out. Everyone would go gunning for the big names. It was exactly where Maxwell had gone wrong. Winning wasn't about killing as many people as possible. It was about killing the one other remaining person on the island, and about making sure you were in a position to survive doing so.

At the moment, Aaron had a couple of choices. He could stay at the docks, wait things out to the degree possible. That was good for staying alive. On the other hand, he could venture back towards the center of the island, and see what he could do as far as finding a replacement team went. That had the advantage of providing greater firepower and a better shot at actually making his way to the end of things.

In the end, he decided to venture forth. He had his lies in order, and he knew what he would have to do. It wouldn't be so hard, not now. He had a plan of action, and a goal.

Nothing would go wrong.

He didn't look back at Aileen's body as he walked away from the docks.

((Aaron Hughes continued in Whistling in The Dark))