Survival Of The Fittest

((Cisco Vasquez continued from The Moment of Truth))

((Because it's been two weeks, dammit.))

He had barely eaten, barely slept, barely washed in the last 24 hours with more than half the students that arrived here dead and the announcements to give him something to pay attention to.

But most of all, Cisco Vasquez was scared as all fuck as he found himself at the crumpled remains of a cell phone tower that according to Mike Maszer would have helped them figure out exactly where they were in the world. Yet it wasn't the repeated realization that he and whoever was left on this island were probably in the middle of goddamn nowhere. No, he realized that when he woke up on a flatbed truck beside Carol Channing('s songs on a vinyl).

Of course, there was no escaping the realization that Death either was or had been here. Or several other people had been here carrying out Death's will. Nothing else could really explain the two corpses gathering maggots and other vermin to the hellish stench that emanated from them, around a collapsed and rusting structure. Unless he'd started hallucinating, which wasn't entirely out of his ability what with him eating whatever Mike or Josee could spare for him and barely getting any sleep.

But that wasn't what was scaring Cisco either.

See, the last time he thought he had wrapped his mind around something that actually needed doing was barely a day ago, and he was surprised he had focused himself on that direction long enough to get where it was supposed to lead him. Although his bag had gone missing back in the Woods, he even managed to put aside his differences with his arch-nemesis (something quite easy to do in his erstwhile fragmented state of mind) and follow him until they emerged from the swamp. From there, the cellphone tower was in sight, a mangled yet very visible marker. it inspired him, invigorated him.

Even though he had no idea what would happen next, he began to make the ascent up the mountains with his remaining strength, stopping whenever he thought he saw something moving that wasn't Josee or Mike. It might have been that he was starting to hallucinate there as well. But he did eventually find his way up here, and when he did, he realized he'd gotten here first out of his group.

Thus, what scared Cisco was that this single impulsive action had left him up here separated and with nobody else in sight that he could 'trust.'

He was alone for the first time in who knew how long.

And vulnerable.

But mostly alone.

ALONE.

"No need to worry," he told himself in a shaky wheeze, "the others would get here soon." At least he told himself that for the first 15 seconds after he stopped. Then he stopped telling himself that, switching it for "They'll be here soon! I know it!" followed by "Oh god please be here somebody" and eventually trailing off and dropping sentence structure altogether and collapsing into incoherent mumbling.

The only thing he could cling to that didn't emanate an intolerable stench was his ever-loyal "music." And that was only if he didn't open the sleeve it had slumbered silently in since he left the Key and the little boat Liberty.

With other people.

And with Death in hot pursuit, waiting for a moment like this to catch him alone.

((Josée Trembley continued from The Moment of Truth.))

It had been a seemingly long and tiring journey, but up in the distance, Josée could vaguely see the top of an unstable and rusting cell phone tower; that must have been where Cisco had rushed off to. The mountains were getting steeper and steeper, it was getting tricky for Josée to keep moving as her breath began to get fainter, but managed to scramble to the top to see Cisco staring up at the tower, clutching his vinyl-shaped lifeline as he did. Josée began to catch her breath as she managed a smile. "Well this is it aright, good thing we're not looking for a cell signal." She chuckled as she went over to lean on Cisco's shoulder for breath for a couple of seconds, then straightened herself and realised that Mike was still behind her, and OC was... Josée didn't have a clue where he had got to, he was following them, right...

Come to think of it, Josée hadn't seen him since they started their journey to the tower. Looking out nervously into the distance, shielding her eyes from the sun with her hand. "OC! Are you out there!" She shouted, completely forgetting that she was supposed to be keeping quiet. "Hello!" She was actually starting to get a bit worried, what if something had happened to him? He had only just found him and he could have already died as soon as Josée turned her back. Josée knew that this island was dangerous... But was it really that dangerous?

((Meredith Hemmings continued from The Gods Hate Us))

Meredith, otherwise known as Pandora Black, had finally left the tunnels, fairly convinced that Celeste was not returning. It wasn't that she wanted Celeste to return, no, but... Meredith would have appreciated the company? It sounded cheesy to say, but yes, she wanted to follow Celeste to wherever she was going, but Celeste didn't seem to want any company except her supposed boyfriend. Whatever. It was over now, and Meredith was alone, just as it should be. She couldn't really imagine herself partnering up with anyone anyway. It wasn't like she was the most relatable gal in the park.

It had taken the girl a great deal of time to figure out what her ultimate goal in the game was. Did she want to win? No. That would be sacrificing herself to the Beast. That's what he wanted! Meredith didn't want to feed that fat gluttonous pig any further. Did she want to kill and unleash her piteous human desires? Well, not exactly. Sure, it would be nice to get back at some of the idiots who plagued her past life, but she didn't want to sink to their level. That's not to say that she wouldn't kill if she had to. Sometimes there were no choices in matters.

She finally decided that her goal would be to get the word out. Inform people about their situation, anyone. Families, friends, whatever. It sounded sort of silly, like something a girl scout might do (okay, maybe not), but Pandora was already making head-way, right? Celeste had sort of scribbled in her Book of Life. She hadn't exactly wrote the emotional monologue that Meredith was expecting, but it was a start, yes?

Meredith would force everyone she came upon to write in her book, and after she was dead and her corpse was excavated from the island, her book would be discovered. It would sway people to tears! It would be published, and everyone would read it, and it would be amazing. Meredith would be somewhat famous. Dead, but a bit famous. It didn't even matter that half the letters and things that students wrote in past versions of Survival of the Fittest never surfaced above the game itself, but she wasn't letting her hopes die. Her Book of Life would not be a waste of time, and her pleadings would not be in vain!

After quite a bit of walking (Meredith decided she wasn't built for walking or other physical activities, sans some acrobatic training. See: her attempt at dodge ball during senior year), the girl came upon a slightly rusty structure. She could only assume that it was the cell phone tower that her map illustrated, but it seemed like anything but. Was this really a tower? It was so... dingy.

Meredith's mind was working in complete overdrive in order to figure out the symbolic significance of the cell phone tower, but she was coming up empty. That's okay. Not everything needed a reason or a meaning.

And then it popped into her head as if God himself were speaking to her. Right, it was so obvious! So clear! Cell phone towers represented communication! This particular cell phone tower was rusty and disused, obviously not usable anymore, so... why, yes. It represented A LACK OF COMMUNICATION! Holy Bloody Mary. Meredith dropped down where she was sitting with absolutely no regard to her safety or whether anyone was around to, well, try and attack her. She didn't care. This is what was important right now.

The lack of communication is a pivotal point to this game. People die due to misunderstands. People don't talk to each other because they're paranoid. Trust is rare, and people are hesitant to trust what anyone else says. But where does the Beast play into this? There's no lack of communication on his end, in fact, he communicates quite freely. Maybe that's the irony? But! What about-

Her pen scratched quickly across the paper in her notebook, and she was so deep inside her thoughts that she almost didn't hear a shout in the distance. It was a female voice calling for an "OC." Meredith's head popped up, black hair falling into her face, and she looked around through the veil of her dark locks. She didn't see this OC person, but then again, she didn't know who OC was. Was that a nickname, much like Meredith's own Pandora? Ah, maybe OC was his soul's name too!

I have my notebook out and stuff. I might as well go over there and ask if they wanna sign my book. No harm in that, right?

Meredith Hemmings gathered her things and walked over to Josée and Cisco. She didn't get too close, she kept her distance in case they were armed, but she let her presence be known. She managed something that one would consider a friendly wave and spoke, her voice slow and superbly dramatic as per usual. "I may not be OC, but my presence is just as welcome, right?" She gave a mysterious smile, hugging her book against her chest. "I'm just here to ask a favor, that's all. Nothing more, nothing less. Then I'll leave, promise."

((Mike Maszer continued from The Moment of Truth))

Mike had somehow managed to fall behind his own group. Their enthusiasm was wonderful, though, keeping his own energy and optimism high. They had a plan. They knew what they were going to do. They were going to make it off this island. For the first time, Danya's game was going to come apart at the seams.

And then, the worst surprise of Mike's island time came. All of a sudden, he found himself looking at the face of the biggest killer on the island.

"M-maxwell!"

((Maxwell Crowe continued from Down the Road, Not Across the Street))

"Huh?"

Maxwell seemed awfully confused for someone with almost a dozen kills under his belt, but Mike didn't have time to wonder about that. After all, the two boys had basically just bumped into each other out of nowhere. Mike knew there was only one thing to do: He had to protect his friends. He had to lead Maxwell away.

"Come get me, then," he called out, and took off running.

((Mike Maszer continued in Endings & Beginnings))

---

A very confused Maxwell Crowe watched the other boy leave. He was clearly unstable to some degree. He vaguely recognized Mike, but couldn't get bring any specific memories to mind. Nothing from the announcements, he thought.

With a shrug, Max continued uphill, finally coming to the ruins of a cell phone tower. There were people there. There was also a girl impaled on the wreckage, just hidden from the others' view. Max froze. The girl... no, she didn't have blue hair. He shouldn't have been relieved, but he was.

He took a couple steps forward, and called, "Uh, hello. It's Max. You didn't kill that girl, did you?"

He gestured to the body without looking at it. He'd be fine if he pretended it wasn't really there.

"Also, have you seen Maria Graham?"

Okay, so it wasn't Death that caught him, or caught up to him. It was definitely Joseé Tremblay, the girl whose side Cisco had faithfully stuck to (among other things) looking for her crazed brother while he looked for his stuff and Joe...wherever Joe went.

"I may not be OC, but my presence is just as welcome, right?..." came the familiar voice of a familiar girl holding a familiar book to her chest. All three familiarities fell into one common theme as Cisco turned around to find the source.

"I'm just here to ask a favor, that's all. Nothing more, nothing less. Then I'll leave, promise."

Ah, Meredith. Or as she preferred to be called - complete with flourishes and tildes - ~*`PANDORA BLACK`*~. The one person even Cisco would admit was a bigger whore for attention than he was. And yet - somewhat predictably - he couldn't remember the last time she got mentioned within the announcements. He couldn't figure out why. Not at first. Maybe Death had the power to take on the form of some Abby Sciuto-like succubus too...though neither form's supposed seductiveness could break through his cloud of swirling thought patterns. Either way there was something eerily trustworthy in her presence. Like she wasn't really that much of a threat or Joseé would protect him (or worse came to worse, they'd both get him and make it painless.)

"Sure...uh..." he began, slowly getting back on his feet. He held his 'sweet music' under one arm instead of hugging it close to his chest as his arms had almost frozen in that position from holding it that way for the past few days. "What's that you got there?"

He couldn't help but eye that book though, his attention once again focusing on something so marvelously trivial that the book might as well have been pulling a Nietzschean stare back. Maybe that was Death's weapon instead of the scythe. No wait, Death wouldn't usually be that...obvious to use something out of an animé. Or maybe that's what they wanted him to think.

Fortunately, his slippery descent into panic was slowed by the presence of another person that didn't turn out to be his arch-nemesis.

"Uh, hello. It's Max. You didn't kill that girl, did you?"

I kinda wish I did.
"fuck i did not just think that," Cisco muttered out loud. Once again, fortune had saved him by showing him that Max didn't hear Cisco regretting thinking about wanting to kill someone out loud. Hopefully.

"Also, have you seen Maria Graham?"

That didn't stop him from giving a reply like he just got caught anyway.

"NO- I mean no...haven't seen her...what gave you that idea?" he stammered, sweat starting to bead down his forehead.

((Gracie Wainwright continued from Pretty Handsome Awkward ))

Gracie trudged up the mountain. Why, why had she even suggested this cell tower? She had no idea. Maybe she could post it and her fans could help her figure it all out. She stopped for a moment filled with a great wave of homesickness. Why'd she gone on this stupid trip anyway? Camping, with no internet, what had she been thinking?

As she neared the tower she could make out four of her classmates. She was surprised to see them gathered here. The sawmill, which had bunks and running water was virtually empty, but here on the top of the mountain, here they all were.

"Wow that didn't sound guilty at all," Gracie said breaking into the conversation as she came to a stop a few feet from them. "Who exactly have we not seen?"

((Teo Weinstock continued from Pretty Handsome Awkward))

As the trio crested the next rise Teo paused for a second to take another drink from his water bottle. Not much left now. During this short break Gracie had pulled ahead of the two boys and before Teo could drag her away she had already opened her big mouth. "Damn it." He muttered and he unslung his crossbow and motioned to Nick to keep his weapon at hand just in case. No matter how many times he had cautioned the girl on staying out of sight and being smart about approaching groups she would just skip over there like they were a bunch of girls checking out a new dress. Teo was honestly starting to regret bringing her along, even if it was somewhat of a nice sight to be watching the behind of.

Teo quickly ran through the mental list of killers as he glanced over the four figures. Maxwell, Josée, Meredith and Cisco. No, none of them rang a bell for him. Something nudged the back of his mind.

"Cisco Vasquez took a page out of the ninja handbook in cutting the throat of Katelyn Wescott."

Son of a bitch he'd almost forgotten that. Stepping up the pace he helled at Gracie while pointing his crossbow at Cisco. "Gracie! Get away, he's a killer. The rest of you stand right where you fucking are or you'll get a crossbow bolt to the chest!" The four certainly looked moderately calm and collected but Teo wasn't about to take any risks. As soon as he found out what weapons they had and if they had any spare food thats when he might consider relaxing but right now he was on edge. Cisco had better have had a good reason for killing Katelyn.

Despite getting a fair amount of sleep and being comparatively hydrated and well fed Teo was feeling it. His hand hovered nervously over the trigger. Regardless of whether he knew it or not he really did mean what he said. The first person who moved suddenly was probably going to get shot.

A glint of metal shone off the sunlight and Teo narrowed his eyes glancing between the four frantically.

Was Maxwell carrying a gun? Maxwell; the name rang out familiar. The killer. Was it Lombardi or Crowe? Shit. He couldn't remember. Can't make mistakes. Teo panicked. Swinging the crossbow from Cisco to Maxwell he squeezed the trigger.

((Sorry, but the next announcement will be read soon and Josée needs to hear the sixth announcement to find out that her brother has killed someone.))

It seemed like OC was nowhere in sight, Josée turned to Cisco. "Shit." She muttered under her breath. "I don't think he's anywhere nearby, perhaps we should-" Josée was cut off by a new voice, Josée took a cautious step back when she saw a girl approach her with what appeared to be nothing more then a notebook and pen.

"I may not be OC, but my presence is just as welcome, right? I'm just here to ask a favor, that's all. Nothing more, nothing less. Then I'll leave, promise."

Josée wasn't sure what to think, it could be some sort of trap, perhaps this mysterious girl was trying to get her close so she could push them both off the mountain. "I don't know." Josée shouted back, trying to sound intimidating. "What kind of favour are we talking about here?" Josée couldn't help but notice that Mike had been stopped by someone a couple of feet down the mountain. She could faintly hear the words, "Come and get me." as Mike ran off in the other direction and out of Josée's line of sight. "Mike! Where are you going, the tower's this way!" She shouted to the other boy who seemed to just watch as Mike ran, "Why the Hell did he run away from you!"

Suddenly a nearby speaker was filled with gruff noises as the announcement began. Josée was preying that she didn't hear OC's or Remy's name mentioned but it quicky became apparent that Josée was out of luck.

"Our first man down was Alexander Seymour, who was stabbed by Remy Kim. The danger zone clock might have won the race with blood loss, but we're certainly crediting Mr. Kim for that one."

"Oh fuck! That's all I need!" Josée kicked the dirt in disgust, she was afraid that something like this was going to happen, and now it had. "Did you hear that Cisco? I knew this would happen! I knew if we left him alone, he would turn to beating the shit out of the first person who bloody breathed on him." She clutched her head in her hands. "How could I be so stupid. How can this day get any worse."

"Gracie! Get away, he's a killer. The rest of you stand right where you fucking are or you'll get a crossbow bolt to the chest!"

Josée turned to see a huge wooden crossbow pointed right at Cisco, Josée put her hand on his shoulder. "Cisco..." She whispered to his ear. "The day, just got worse." She turned to the boy who was threatening them and tried not to look suspicious. "Now we don't want any trouble. Cisco didn't kill her deliberately, it was all an accident. Please, just stop pointing that thing at us and we'll -"

The crossbow was fired. Josée screamed and dived on Cisco, knocking them both to the ground. Josée couldn't speak, she couldn't comprehend the fact that she was almost completely skewered. She hang onto Cisco for saftey, not wanting to look up, tears began to stream from her eyes.

((Skipping to get this out of the way. It'll be quick.))

Everything went to pieces in ridiculously short order. Max was confused by the somewhat guilty reply from the freaky-looking guy. He was then surprised by the newcomers. One of them called out the other guy on sounding really suspicious and killer-like or something. That was good. It meant Max wasn't the only sane one here. Maybe these other people would know what had happened to Maria.

Then one of the guys with the sane girl was talking, and he was telling them all to stay still. Apparently, crazy guy really was a killer. That... that made Max really hope that he hadn't seen Maria. It made him hope Maria kept far, far away from him.

He was trying to comply with the guy's orders to stay still, trying to keep from spooking him, when he saw the crossbow-wielder's eyes dart downwards. Max followed their gaze, and saw his gun, sticking out of his pocket. He'd pretty much forgotten he had it, since the time where he panicked back near the start of the game.

Then a crossbow bolt closed the distance between Max and the guy, and embedded itself in his skull. There was a flash of pain and color, and he toppled to the ground. By the time he impacted, he was no longer thinking.

B019, Maxwell Crowe: DECEASED

((Nick LeMonde continued from Pretty Handsome Awkward ))

Nick had mostly ambled along behind Teo and Gracie with his new weapon, the pilfered katana. At the very least, he injured himself less on it than he did with the hunga munga. Gracie decided on the phone tower and he supposed that was just fine. It was another structure that could be used as a base and one that was less likely to attract as many visitors as the saw mill. All in all, not a bad plan.

Soon there were voices up ahead. Gracie went forward and Teo motioned for him to keep his sword at the ready. Nick nodded and held it up. Up ahead were the source of the voices and among them was Cisco who'd cut a girl's head off, if he remembered correctly. The girl with him pleaded with them when Teo raised the cross bow, saying it was an accident.

"He accidentally cut someone's head off?"

Just as he asked, the cross bow bolt went whizzing by and came to rest quite neatly in the forehead of one of the boys. Nick looked wide eyed at the boy for a moment, then at Teo.

"Hey! You just killed him, I'm pretty sure!"

He was in sort of a shock. But.......wasn't that hypocritical of him? He was a murdered too, or did he forget so easily? No, it wasn't that he forgot, just that he knew he wasn't a murderer. Maybe he'd killed someone but he wasn't a killer. There was no logic in it, but he believed it all the same.

He swallowed and looked at Gracie, then Teo again.

"I think you just killed him."

Meredith watched as another figure approached the group, another stranger that she didn't know. He introduced himself as Max (which one? probably the killer, that would be interesting, but she didn't exactly care) and asked if they had seen Maria Graham around. Meredith couldn't say that she had, so she kept her mouth closed, and her book gripped tightly in her hand. Why did people spend so much time wandering around the island looking for other people? It seemed to be the only goal of the godforsaken students. Couldn't they do anything else, aspire to plan anything else? Save themselves? Nope. They had to put themselves in danger in order to find other people.

Thank the gods that Meredith had no one to find. And if she did, she wouldn't actively search for them. She supposed she had a friend named Jessica, yes, but Meredith wasn't going to worry about her unless her name appeared on the announcements for kicking the bucket or they happened to run into each other. Meredith doubted the latter was too likely.

She turned her attention to Cisco and smiled when he asked about her book. "It is the Book of Life. Would you like to write a small monologue for your friends and loved ones? I'm collecting everyone's wishes in this book so, when I'm dead, this book can be found and everyone will know what we were feeling." She stopped herself and thought about it. It still sounded eerily cheesy, but she felt determined about it. Hopefully he would agree to it, or she would force him!

"Would you like to write in it?" she asked, pausing and looking down at his arm. "What do you have there?" she asked curiously... but Cisco became distracted, yelling about not seeing Maria. Geez, what was his issue? Meredith blinked and stared at Max, casually glancing up at the girl's impaled corpse. "From the looks of things, she may have been there awhile... Unfortunate for her. Even in death, I'm sure she feels the pain."

Another person approached and then another. Meredith merely stared calmly, her hands tightly grasping her book. Oh lord, now he was yelling about Cisco being a killer and pointing a crossbow at them. Meredith sighed in a bored sort of way and placed her hand on her hip. "It was a pleasure to meet you as well. Isn't this sort of sudden? I mean, you could just ask Cisco why he killed someone, you don't have to aim a-"

There was an unexplainable sound that penetrated the air, and Meredith ducked slightly, holding her book over her heard. "Aiyeee!" she cried. Had that boy really pulled the trigger on them?! What a misled idiot! They were just minding their own business, and bam. Who did the crossbow hit...? She looked over to see the girl, Josée and Cisco on the ground, cowering from the shot. They looked fine, so... Uh-oh. The boy who asked about Maria...? But he hadn't done a single thing... She slowly looked over at his body, the arrow imbedded in his skull, the blood drooling from the wound. Meredith covered her mouth slightly and stood there.

"Ugh, I didn't get a chance to make him sign of my Book of Life!"

Her eyes looked forward to Teo's, the killer, and she raised her eyebrows. "What was that all about?! I was trying to get these people to sign my book, and all of a sudden, you hellions come from wherethehell ever and kill.. that guy! What did he do to you?!"

After Teo explained himself, she would ask him to sign her book. It would probably be interesting to see what he would write, being a new killer and all. She smiled at the thought.

((Turn Order Is Me - Arscapi - Fan - Limisios - Rugga - Zombie. WERE MAKING THIS HAPEN))

And then there were five. Or six. A landmark like this was bound to attract a bunch of people and perhaps quite quickly with about a hundred students still remaining, living and trying to avoid being consumed by the same entity that was after him.

That wouldn't have been too terrifying had one of them not suddenly recognized him and pointed a giant wooden crossbow at his solar plexus. One little twitch of Teo Weinstock's itchy finger would send pointed karma back to him where he had dealt it out with the razor's edge of a circular sawblade.

"Gracie! Get away, he's a killer. crossbow-boy began. The rest of you stand right where you fucking are or you'll get a crossbow bolt to the chest!"

"Cisco...The day, just got worse." Joseé whispered to the lime-haired freak.

"No shit sherlock!" he muttered out of the side of his mouth, tilting his head to make it glaringly if unintentionally obvious.

Joseé then turned to Teo and his (equally) GIANT FUCKING CROSSBOW. "Now we don't want any trouble. Cisco didn't kill her deliberately, it was all an accident. Please, just stop pointing that thing at us and we'll -"

Cisco would probably have yelped out something along the lines of "I fucking told you people! I was just doing his-" if the next few seconds didn't progress as rapidly as they did. Before he knew it, he heard the crossbow go off, and suddenly he was being pushed to the ground seemingly toward the crossbow's direction. He didn't have time to hope that his "sweet music" - which he had been holding rather close to his chest - would deflect the arrow because not only did the ground suddenly rise up to meet his face, but the force of being pushed like that actually caused him to drop it to the side.

And then - predictably - things began to get worse.

The first thing that he saw when he pried his head up from the gravel and under Josie was the sight of Maxwell Crowe with an arrow jutting lopsidedly out of his skull. The corpse's eyes gave an incriminating stare into the distance as the first vermin began to scout out their hive's next feast and quickly (mentally) anesthetized the pain he suffered from slamming into the ground with Joseé Tremblay landing on top of him.

Death was here, and death was close. Of course, both of those had been true in Cisco's mind for some time. It was just that this was also the first time that Death decided to manifest its power to, well, inflict its namesake condition on someone in Cisco's presence since he took his own initiative with Katelyn a few days ago. And that meant not only was it here, close, and capable of manifesting its power in any way it so pleased, it as plenty capable of dealing it at any time to anyone through any messenger especially if they happened to particularly displease the Reaper. And that especially included Cisco.

He could hear ~*PANDORA BLACK*~ screaming. Unfortunately, his sense of hearing had become a bit...dislodged. He had to get up. He had to do something. As soon as he figured some measure of coordination had returned to him - which was about as soon as Teo Weinstock could reload the crossbow, Cisco put his hands to the ground and slowly began to push himself up. His torso was a lot more cooperative than his legs, which were still weighed down by Joseé clinging on.

The only thing driving him at this point was this almost-maternal urge to not be separated from his sweet music.

"So much for keeping a low profile," Gracie muttered under her breath. Honestly, she couldn't figure out what the boys had been thinking. First Nick and now Teo. She decided that at least what Teo needed was some target practice. She hadn't heard Maxwell's name in the announcements that she could remember anyway. So she was assuming that he hadn't been the intended target. Although honestly why was he just shooting at people. Nick had killed someone just last night, and yet they were letting him hang around.

Gracie decided it was the game getting to them. Hell, it was getting to all of them; she'd spent so much time fantasizing about getting home on the trip that she'd failed to notice she was climbing a mountain until it was too late to change her mind. However she was still doing her best to keep the crazy on the inside, unlike her two companions it appeared.

She stepped back towards the boys not sure what Cisco's next reaction would be. Pandora it seemed was just upset that the murder had interrupted her plans. Yep, I think if we stay here long enough we'll just all go insane. I wonder if I started a poll if people would vote. What could I do? Who goes crazy first? How long will it take for people to go crazy? What's the definition of crazy?

Gracie shook her head, okay focus. But focus on what, what do you say. Umm…sorry I think he was aiming for that other guy? So should stood still next to the two boys waiting to see what would happen next.

Nick's words seemed to fade in to the background as Teo quickly moved to reload the crossbow. He had practiced this exact event because he knew that in a real situation aka right now he would have to be fast. It didn't take him more than 20 seconds to replace the bolt and cock and load the bow, mostly thanks to the easy loader system that the modern bow came attached with. He could hear Meredith yelling at him and he looked at her dead in the eye.

"He was a killer. You've all heard Maxwell on the announcements. You should be thankful that I just saved your lives."

Teo was someone of action, rather than words, although he could be suave when he needed to. However right now really didn't need that part of him. Carefully watching the trio remaining he tilted his head towards Maxwell's corpse.

"Nick, grab his backpack and gear and pull it over here. You know the drill. Gracie help me cover him."

There. He'd done it. He'd killed someone, he was playing the game for real now and now his name was on the announcements it would only be a matter of time before people started shooting first and asking questions later. They'd have to move quickly. The problem was that since he had a group of three people in front of him were they going to kill them as well or let them live. It was a moral dilemma, they hadn't killed before so they were in fact innocent but on the other hand the more students were dead the better his own chances at survival.

It was a strange feeling this. His mind was already running through possible scenarios. He didn't feel a thing about killing Maxwell. No guilty conscience, no horror or feeling of remorse. In the parameters of this scenario he was doing the smartest thing and within the rules he knew he would be vindicated when it was all finished. That was the name of the game anyway Survival of the Fittest. Teo was playing, and he was playing to win.

While he waited for Nick to recover the gear he moved his crossbow from Josée to Meredith to Cisco. Josée didn't seem to be armed but Teo wasn't taking any chances and he kept an eye on her. A concealed weapon at this point would be very bad. Especially a pistol, he didn't want to deal with the chance of getting shot. Meredith seemed more interested in her pen and book rather than the staff she had. Meredith was always a bit weird and thanks to her impassioned anger at 'signing her book' when Maxwell went down rather than being shocked or even moved Teo was certain she had just jumped off the deep end. He'd have to stay away from her too. He turned his eyes finally to Cisco. Cisco was picking up some sort of record. Probably his weapon. He looked shaken and just a little bit unhinged. Cisco was another of the 'weirdo' group but Teo was confident he could take the guy both from afar and up close if needed. Plus the green haired boy hadn't killed anyone yet... unless...

"Hey Gracie. Grab that notebook full of the announcement listings. Is Cisco on it anywhere?"

Teo narrowed his eyes.

Josée held onto Cisco's waist; trying not to show that she was starting to cry. Sniffling, she slowly looked up to see a boy lying on the floor, an arrow sticking out of him. Josée gasped and stared at the boy who had shot him. "What the fuck are you playing at you idiot!" She gathered enough courage to speak, loudly. "You almost killed us and now you've-" The boy interrupted, but it seemed that he was ignoring her and yelling at someone else.

"He was a killer. You've all heard Maxwell on the announcements. You should be thankful that I just saved your lives."

Maxwell? Josée had heard a lot of a certain Maxwell over the announcements could it really be him. Looking over to the corpse, something didn't seem right. Even Josée would have expected someone who's killed so many students to be better armed then the boy lying on the floor was. He also probably wouldn't have approached them unarmed either.

"Nick, grab his backpack and gear and pull it over here. You know the drill. Gracie help me cover him."

They seemed to be ransacking him for supplies. Perfectly understandable for a group of mindless killers. At least they seemed to have some sort of order. Not that Josée was impressed. She worked up the courage to pursue her theory further. "So what does he have?" She shouted to the group. "I bet a killer like him would have a ton of guns and weapons that he could have killed us with." She managed to build up a small smile despite the fact that an innocent person could be dead. The boy who appeared to be the leader turned to her and Cisco.

"Hey Gracie. Grab that notebook full of the announcement listings. Is Cisco on it anywhere?"

Josée gulped. They hadn't forgotten about Cisco. Josée could tell that Cisco was probably terrified right now. Josée held out her hand for Cisco to grab in protection. Partly because she thought it would help Cisco feel slightly safer. But really because Josée felt like she was about to shit out all her vital organs in her own fear. "I promise... We'll get out of this." She whispered to him, her voice trembling.