Survival Of The Fittest

((Reiko Ishida continued from Darken Your Clothes and Strike a Violent Pose))

They were all dead.

Reiko didn't quite believe what she had heard that morning. Ben and Jacob were gone. The rest had all died long ago. It felt like a different lifetime when the names of Amber, Paige, and Reika had been announced on that fateful first day. It was like she was an entirely different person now than she was back then. Of course she was. You don't kill seven people without changing. Would things have been different, if she found her sister, her friends in that first day? Would any of them still be around now? She didn't know the answer. She did however, still have one last hope.

Sarah.

Sarah was still alive. She didn't know what her girlfriend thought of her anymore, whether she even was her girlfriend still. She didn't know, but what she did know is that she wanted to find her. Needed to find her. She was her last chance at redemption. If that was even a thing for her anymore. If Sarah wouldn't immediately shoot her on sight. God knows she would if she were her. It was hope against hope. But it was still hope.

Reiko had been wandering for who knows how long, and had somehow managed to not run into anyone. Which probably turned out for the better. The news of her only living friends dying hit her rather hard, especially hearing of Ben's death. They may not have talked very much in the last year, but he still held a special place in her heart. Not that she would ever admit it. Jacob's passing had also been sad to hear, but at least now he could be with his beloved. Assuming the afterlife existed. If it did, well, she was well and truly fucked.

The girl found herself looking at a lighthouse, which judging from the map wasn't very far from her last relatively known location. It wasn't much, but it would be a good place to rest. Maybe there was a bed inside. Reiko managed to stop herself from charging into the building, on the off chance that someone might be in there. She instead opted to wait it out for a bit, leaning on a tree and taking a sip of water, to see if anyone would appear on some part of the building. She didn't want to get shot after all.

((Mia Kuiper continued from Facile Princeps))


Mia sat, daydreaming as she watched the clouds float by on the sea-breeze. She listened to the waves crash against the rocks far below, and there was a flock of some kind of sea-bird nesting in the rocks, making a quiet ruckus. She reclined beneath the shade of the beacon-housing's roof, lying back in a relocated chair and just relaxing.

She'd spent the last day like this as well, and she felt quite pleased with herself for choosing and reaching such a pleasant destination. Grasping the cap, she took up the water bottle by her side, taking a few more gulps as she emptied it. She needed to be careful with rationing for now, she didn't want to have to abandon her prime position. It was lucky she'd never been the most voracious eater otherwise she'd have been in- she turned her head sharply, something catching the corner of her eye and tore her attention away from quiet self-contemplation. She hit the floor with haste, empty water bottle still in hand as she swallowed the last gulp that still lingered in her mouth.

Still prone, still surprised and still shaking quite a bit she drew her rifle from under the seat, caressing the cool metal in her hands. Crawling on all four limbs she approached the tower's edge, lying down again in as comfortable a position as she could muster. She fumbled with the little safety latchy thing, pointed the gun away from user and pushed the stock into her shoulder uncomfortably and the ammo-box caught on the concrete floor.

"Aaah, for fff-"

Still berating herself under her breath she pushed herself up, crouching on one knee and resting the rifle's barrel on the bottom rung of the guard-rail. Stock, shoulder, flicky, off... left hand... She groped around with her left hand on the rifle's barrel before grabbing it at the likely-looking place at its stock. She looked through the scope... took off the lens-cap, looked through again. Searched frantically for her new arrival... and...

It looked like it was that nice japanese midget girl she'd met in the library... Rei.. Reika! Mia relaxed for a moment before her brain caught up with her eyes.

No, too dykey. It was Reiko. The one who kept popping up on the announcements. The one Danya had mentioned that first day when Reika had died. Something about evil twins slipped into her head and left just as quickly as she started to panic. She blinked, clearing her eyes as she tried to take careful aim.

The bullseye moving up, down, circling, stopping... resting against her target's head, shoulders, chest as she breathed in...

She scrunched her eyes as she squeezed the trigger and the gun belted the baritone shot out and the force whacked her in the shoulder. Her head snapped to the side, surprised momentarily by the metal casing that shot out of the barrel, ricotched off the railing with a loud ping and bounced off the window behind her, cracking the glass.

It was enough to distract her from correcting her balance, and she fell on her butt indignantly. Still grasping the rifle tightly she peeked timidly over the edge.

With a crack, the tree branch above Reiko seemed to explode at its base, causing a quiet yelp as the splinters began to shower onto her. The small girl scrambled around to the other side of the tree, pulling her gun from her shorts and grasping it in both hands. Not like it was going to do her any good. Judging from the sound, she was dealing with someone with a really, really big gun.

Reiko cautiously stuck her head around the tree, looking back at the lighthouse. She scanned the building, starting from the door and working her way up to the top. The shooter was up there, picking themselves off the floor in a huff. As she suspected, they had some sort of rifle or another. Well that made running out of the question. So where did that leave her? Fight? Hide until the other person left or got bored? For whatever reason, Reiko felt she needed to get into that lighthouse.

One thing was for sure. She wasn't going to just let the other person shoot at her all they want. Releasing the magazine from the gun, she looked at the holes on the side, indicating how many bullets she had left. Three in the magazine. If she remembered right, that meant there was one in the gun itself. So she had four bullets left. Not good. Inserting the magazine back into her weapon, Reiko let out a deep breath.

Just one shot. She could only afford to use one shot.

Reiko turned, getting out of her cover and aiming her weapon at the figure at the top of the lighthouse. Holding the weapon in both hands, the girl took another deep breath and pulled the trigger, firing a single round before turning back behind the tree. With any luck, they'll think she was more armed than she was and stop shooting.

Mia couldn't see a thing. The dykey oompaloompa had disappeared without a trace and all she had to show for her shot was an exploded tree branch. Unless of course the gun was so powerful that it had blown Reiko's body right out of existance, taking the surrounding area out with it.

She frowned. Somehow that seemed just a little bit unlikely. She watched for a moment or two more before, satisfied the earthbound girl had absconded, she turned away and stood up in the most scorned manner she could. Her head tilted slightly as she considered the fractured window. It was a shame, really, marring such a nice lighthouse like that with a shell casi- She hit the floor immediately as the window behind her shattered, the fwip and pop of the bullet and gun coming in quick succession.

She covered her head with one of her arms reflexively, and thankfully pointlessly, and as soon as she'd registered she hadn't been cut to shreds by the glass she scrambled across the floor for her rifle. Shaking, she considered returning fire, but that was crazy, the murderous little bitch obviously had better aim than her, and besides, her stupid fudging arms wouldn't stop shaking. She rushed back inside on all fours.

She packed her bag frantically, shoving everything back into it willy-nilly, still hugging the floor as best she could. Water, food, books all went back in the bag. She ripped the zipper closed, threw the shoulder strap over her back, got to her feet and ran for the staircase.

She pounded down the first couple of steps before stopping, flinging the rifle back to the firing position and scopelessly scanning the the lowest tiers of the building with its barrel. No-one. She shouldered it again as she thundered down the metal steps, the structure clanking and reverberating as she descended. She slipped down a trio of the narrow steps, barely righting herself against the balustrade. Relenting for a couple of seconds she aimed the gun downwards again. Reiko still hadn't entered, and Mia continued running frantically.

She hit the ground going fast, thudding her back against the wall. She checked the rifle, flipped the safety back off one last time as she edged closer to the door.

She peeked out. Reiko was where she had been before, watching. Mia drew back again, closing her eyes as she tried to think. She couldn't outshoot the other girl, even with the rifle she had. She wasn't used to it yet. It wasn't like the maple flatbow she'd become so familiar with at home... and no-one had ever shot at her during sunday archery practice...

Which meant she'd have to outsmart the stupid little harlot. An idle thought that had popped into her head 6 days prior formed at the front of her mind. It seemed it'd come into prescience after all.

Plan A.

She locked and lowered the rifle, crouching as she swung her bag in front of her. Rummaging amongst the top layer of inventory her hands clasped the length of hickory stoppered with rubber she'd been carrying around since day one.

She resealed her bag, stood up, took her 'weapon' in her right hand, steeled herself, and lobbed the plunger in Reiko's general direction before screaming.

"GRENAAAADE!!"

And then she ran like hell.
psyche.

Judging by all the noise coming from the lighthouse, Reiko had missed. Either that or there was more than one person in the building. Not like she had been aiming to hit or anything. One way or another, the loud metal clanging indicated someone was working their way down the steps and to the presumably single entrance, which Reiko happened to be looking at.

The girl caught a brief glance of the other person before ducking back around the tree. She felt like she had seen the other person before, but couldn't quite place where. Probably in the hallways or something. Whatever. The point was that they were in something of a comprimising position. If Reiko moved, then she'd probably get shot. If the other person moved... well, she wasn't going to shoot them, but she wouldn't blame them for thinking that. She would have to think of somet-

There was a yell, and then a clack against her tree. Her adversary had thrown what she claimed to be a grenade, something which didn't bode well for her. The best she could do was to stay behind cover and wait for the explosion.... which seemed to be taking it's sweet time. For that matter, since when did grenades make a clacking sound?

Reiko poked her head out from around her cover, just in time to see the other girl, who's name finally came to her, bolt across the grass. Mia Kuiper. She was... strange to say the least. Strange, but she wasn't about to blow her head off. Looking down, the small girl had to supress a smile. Something about the absurdity of seeing the so called "grenade" laying on the ground by her tree was amusing. Returning to the other side of the tree to grab her bag, Reiko ventured into the lighthouse, now that she had managed to flush out it's occupants.

Mia absconded right the fuck away from the lighthouse, her pleated skirt flapping around and threatening to trip her as her feet pounded towards the trees. She wasn't going to stop running before she was sure she wasn't about to suddenly hear gunshots, specifically gunshots directed at her back, and that would take quite a while.

((Mia Kuiper Continued Elsewhere))

The inside of the lighthouse was more or less what she had expected. That is to say, not much. Still, anything indoors was good enough for her. Reiko took a couple moments to make sure no one else was in the lighthouse, climbing the spiral steps to the top. The view of the island from the top of the tower made the island look almost peaceful. It was hard to believe so many people had died on this island.

After spending a moment or two looking at the view, Reiko descended the steps again, back to the bottom. There was no one there, which was good. Unfortunately, there also didn't seem to be much in the way of bedding or anything soft to rest on. So in the end, all that effort had been for nothing. Kind of like everything else she had done so far.

Deciding that there would be no point in sticking around, Reiko exited the lighthouse. Picking up her things, she pulled out her compass and map. She didn't know where she wanted to go, but she couldn't stay there. The only thing she could do was head back in land, which she did.

((Reiko Ishida continued in The Kindness of Strangers))