Survival Of The Fittest

[[Jackie Myrie and Allie Walworth continued from When The Bite Just Isn't Sharp Enough]]

Early in the afternoon of the third day, a large girl and a small girl approached a modest church. Jackie wasn't quite fond of churches- her family had never pressed religion on her as a child, and whenever she entered a church it felt as though the building itself judged her. It was annoying.

The nearly fifty hours since her outburst had passed surprisingly peacefully- relatively harmless companion, no run-ins with psychos. So far, so good. All she had to do was get some sort of weapon and she was set to go. During their trek, she'd considered still more methods with the options they already had- rocks and sticks were everywhere, and Allie had a first aid kit, which involves chemicals and syringes... one could work with that. For self-defense, of course. Jackie wasn't that far gone, like those other dumbasses she'd been hearing about on the announcements (really though, she was just jealous that other people had gotten weapons. Some people with good weapons were even stupid enough to lose them! Ungrateful bastards).

Much of her pondering had been interrupted by the girl who had since introduced herself as Allie Walworth. After her outburst in the forest, the girl had followed her- she wasn't so bad, really. Definitely not as bad as some of the other idiots in their class. Of course, if they stayed together long enough it would eventually do way more harm than good (especially with that pesky asthma she kept making them stop for)... but she didn't have to think about that right now. In the meantime, it was nice to have someone keeping her sane.

"Let's check out that church. We haven't had a roof over our heads in a while." They were headed in that direction anyway, really- but hey, communication couldn't hurt.

As they neared the large doors, Jackie motioned to Allie to stand by- they'd done pretty well at the whole staying away from crazies thing so far, best not to waste such a good streak now. She carefully opened one of the large doors- only to learn that a church should not be judged by its cover.

It was just... destroyed. There wasn't really a better word for what she was seeing at the moment. The windows were gone. The pews were mostly gone. Dust was everywhere... and so were... "Oh God, gross." Several bodies (what was left of them, anyway) furthered the sacrilegious image laid out before her. "You might not want to come in... lots of dust. Might irritate your lungs or whatever. I'll be right back."

Jackie did not want to go in there at all... but she had a duty here. Sacrifice was necessary to survive in this place. She entered and crept around the building, careful not to step on any of the rubble. From what she could tell, there were three... corpses here. She tried not to look at them. It made her want to throw up. Soon, she found what she was looking for- a dust-covered duffel bag. Awesome. Now let's get the fuck out. She grabbed it and half-ran towards the door and back out into the open.

She smiled at her partner in crime. "Looks like we've got lunch."

((Allie Walworth, continued from When The Bite Just Isn't Sharp Enough.))

"Alright," Allie nodded. No one would fight them at a church, right? Allie swore she remembered a rule about fighting on Hallowed Ground. "Sounds like a plan."

Allie trudged along behind Jackie as they approached the entrance, keeping an eye out for signs of a trap, or anything like that. It was calm, quiet. They hadn't encountered any crazies while they were walking. Well, they pretty much hadn't encountered anyone, and that made Allie slightly nervous about all this.

Jackie motioned for Allie to wait outside while she went in and checked. Allie nodded and stayed put, throwing her bag down and slumping down against the wall. She opened the door and took a look inside, commenting on how gross something or other that was in there was, before advising Allie not to go in. Allie sighed and nodded.

She nodded again. "I'll wait out here."

Allie waited, taking to counting the number of bricks on the wall while Jackie did whatever it was she was doing inside.

She was content with staying outside, really. Sure, she was bored, but she wasn't going to risk going into the church. Not with her asthma. Eventually, Jackie came back out, smiling and holding a duffel bag, saying that she'd picked up lunch or something. Was there like, a dead animal in there or something like that? Allie wasn't a fussy eater, not in the slightest, but the thought of eating a rabbit or something made her feel queasy. The skinning it too. They didn't have knives or anything like that. Hopefully it was just bread. Wouldn't be awkward that way. She could maybe grab some berries, make a quick jam to go with it, so long as she could find something that was edible.

There was always the off chance she could get a fire going too, but now she was just thinking of random things. Getting tired. Allie yawned.

"Alright, that sounds good." She said, pausing for a second. "Um, did I mention I'm into outdoors cooking and stuff?"

She probably had somewhere down the line, but Allie thought it was best to re-iterate, even if she had. "So, like, if you give me a minute of two I could probably find something to go with whatever's in the bag."

((Annaliese Hansen continued from Just Like a Hangover, But Without All the Fun))

Annaliese walked on, so wrapped up in her thoughts at she appeared to be in her own little world.

The shock of watching one of her classmates attack another, and then in turn get killed, had not worn off. She'd walked, slept, got up and walked some more and still she felt numb about the whole thing. ‘What does that say about me?'

Rather than engage in a session of extreme navel gazing, Annaliese turned the Frankie and Erika situation over and over in her mind. She had volunteered with the Amnesty International group. She had seen pictures and videos of the genocide in Darfur. Hell, for that time she was a part of PETA, she'd watched some truly warped-ass videos about animal testing and slaughter house conditions. They were far worse that what she saw with Frankie and Erika.

She knew about the kind of mindless violence and callous, twisted actions that lived in the dark recesses of the human soul. But she had never seen them in real time, committed by her peers.

Literally, by her peers.

Not just people of her age group or socio-economic standing. But her classmates. The other kids she had grown up with, hung out with, spent time with. Maybe that's what was so hard to wrap her head around. The fact that these were people she knew. People with upbringings like hers. And yet, here they were, attacking each other. Killing each other.

They were good people. Products of good upbringings, good educations, and good homes. They were Americans, damnit. They were supposed to be beyond things like this. She couldn't even figure out who was the bad guy in that situation. Frankie had seemingly attacked first, but revealed that Erika had really cast the first blow by stomping all over his heart while they were still back at school.

That thought made her stumble. No wonder so many of her classmates were dying. No wonder so many people were killing. They had all be transported to their own mini Columbine! People were using this as an opportunity to avenge past slights and injuries. And given what bitter little pills most of her classmates were, the body count would only shoot up faster as people realized that this was the chance they had secretly dreamed about.

"Wish I had taken that class on peer counseling now, even though it would have meant taking that zero people. Who'da thunk it would have come in handy in a situation like this?" she muttered. "Irony, thy name is Ms. Clark's claim that that class would have changed my life."

She noticed a chapel not too far away. It was a very unthreatening and friendly looking structure. It was almost as is if the universe had heard her and personally responded by giving her a safe place to rest and regroup. "Sanctuary," she softly cried out in her best Quasimodo impersonation.

Altering her course, Annaliese approached the building. She spotted two girls loitering around out front. Once she was a little closer, she recognized Jackie Myrie. Frequent visitor to the library that Annaliese was, she'd seen Jackie there plenty of times. "Hola, ladies!"

Annaliese Hansen. Imagine running into her here. Jackie and Annaliese had met, of course- she was one of the library's "regulars", probably there to do research and print fliers for her various causes. Jackie had to admit- only to herself, of course!- that she had always felt intimidated by Annaliese Hansen. She was just so... legit. So smart, so interesting, so much better at pulling off Jackie's style... every time she entered the library, Jackie's very being filled itself with envy, resent... and fascination. And of course, here she was, showing off her flair until the very end.

"Annie! It's good... well, no. It sucks to see you here. But... hi." Shit! If there's a weapon in that bag... Allie would've been meek enough to let me have it, but Annie... "We were about to sit down to eat. You could sit a while... if you want."

Allie shook her head. No reply on her offer to cook. That was fine, really. She probably wouldn't have accepted an almost complete stranger's offer to cook for her either. No big deal, she didn't mind. She was about to ask again, though, just for clarity's sake, or if she hadn't heard her the first time or anything, when she heard someone greet the two of them. Well, if had to be the two of them, no one else was around. Well, Allie didn't think so. She took a quick look around just to make sure.

Cautiously, Allie turned round to find herself staring up at a tall, pink-haired girl. A tall, pink-haired girl that Jackie apparently knew. Allie was pretty sure she'd seen her somewhere before too, but for the life of her she couldn't quite remember her name. That was to be expected though. Allie'd spent the best part of the year off sick, she didn't really have much time to memorise names.

Luckily, she didn't have to, with Jackie quickly saying her name. Annie, or some longer variation of it, maybe Annalie or something. Allie didn't particularly care that much, if she was being honest. If they were back at school Allie might have talked to her once or twice before getting sent to the school nurse for something of other, struck with another illness and kept off for another fortnight or so. Even out in the depths of wherever-the-crap-they-were it'd probably end up somewhere similar. Only without the sickness part. Allie realised just how likely it was that she would end up getting sick, without any of the perscriptions and over the counter drugs her parents made her take. She had the allergy medication, though. The epipen, too. She actually had something of use.

"Yeah," Allie nodded, tried to disguise the fact that she had absolutely no clue who Annie was, nor why Jackie hadn't screamed and ran away from her yet. "You're welcome to join us, I guess, I mean.... I don't mind."

"Thanks for the invite, guys. My dogs are barkin'." Annaliese gratefully dropped her bag on the ground near the girls before gracelessly flopping to the floor. Smiling at the twosome, she tried to make herself comfortable by folding her legs Indian-style and resting her forearms on her knees. She cocked her head to one side, studying Jackie's friend of a moment. The girl looked familiar, but Annaliese couldn't place a name with the face to save her life.

"Sorry for staring," she blurted out, unable to contain herself. "But you look super familiar. Do I know you?" Realizing the stupidity of the question, she quickly corrected herself. "I mean, do we have any classes or anything together? ‘Cause you look super familiar. Did you have Mr. Liatsis for English Lit. Theory?"

She moved onto the next topic without waiting for a reply. "It's awesome of you guys to let me join you. Here, let me contribute to tonight's festivities!" She grabbed her bag and began to rifle through it. "I woke up sicker'n a dog, so I haven't really done a lot of eating. My stash is still pretty decent. Although, seriously, did they have to give us plastic water bottles?"

As she pawed through the bag, her fingers brushed against the metal circle that was still hidden within. ‘Oh yeah. This thing. I found it when I was with Frankie. I wonder what the hell it is.'

Slowly withdrawing the object so as not to startle the other girls, she held it up and turned it back and forth, examining it. "Holy cow. Does anybody know what this thing is?"

Annie seemed friendly, at least. That was good. She even joined in and brought out her own food, spouting some environmental science teacher-type nonsense about how water bottles are bad for you or whatever. Perfect. They would have a little picnic. As far as Jackie was concerned, everything was fine as long as Annaliese Hansen knew who was boss around here.

And then Annaliese took out her weapon. Jackie couldn't remember what it was called but she'd seen one before. She'd had an ex who was obsessed with exotic weapons.

"Holy cow. Does anybody know what this thing is?"

That fucking bitch got something as badass as that thing and didn't even know what it was. It had blades sticking out of it! How did she not know it was a badass fucking blade thing?

No no no. Stay cool. Let's not ruin this.

"Holy shit! You got one of those?!" Ahem. Seriously. Calm down. "It's like... a blade. Kind of. I think it works kind of like a ninja star." As she explained the weapon to the girl (which might not be the best decision but oh well), Jackie realized something- Annie already has a weapon. So if there is something in that bag I picked up- awesome.

"Well, I'm pretty hungry. We should probably dig in. You said you could cook, right?" At least, she thought she'd heard Allie say something like that. Didn't matter right now though, she just needed to see what was in this bag. Jackie began to reach for her dust-covered prize from the church.

"Hm?" Annie asked if she knew her. "Oh, um, I don't think s-?"

Before Allie could finish though, Annie elaborated, asking about English Literature Theory or something like that. Allie couldn't even remember if she was taking a class like that. The teacher's name didn't ring any bells, though.

"No, I don't think so. You, uh, probably have me confused with someone else." Allie shook her head. "I'm Allie, though. Allie Walworth."

Out of nowhere, Annie pulled some food, water, and then, well... something, out of her bag. It looked like a weapon of some kind. Some kind of Kung-Fu movie ninja star. Allie had no clue what it actually was, but Jackie seemed to know. To be honest, Allie thought she kinda knew way too much about it. She was getting a little too excited over it. Well, knowing about it would be useful, right? They'd be less likely to accidentally maim each other with it. That was good for all of them in the long run. Getting accidentally maimed wasn't high on her list of priorities. Her arm was bad enough as it was.

Jackie said how hungry she was again, and went to fetch the bag she'd stolen from the church. What was in that thing, anyway? Jackie seemed awfully possesive of it. Allie was half expecting her to start calling it her precious or something. She asked if Allie said she could cook, and Allie nodded.

"S-Sure," Allie replied, a little shocked that Jackie had been paying attention. "But, I'll need some stuff and a few minutes, and possibly a lighter or something if you've got one handy, I'm not all that sure if, um, if I've got one."

((Lily Maclaughlin continued from Hearing is Believing))

Follow intrepid reporter Lily Maclaughlin as she risks her life to bring you the story in her three-part special: Bloodsport; Teen Gladiators, Followed by the ABC movie of the week.

Lily didn't know how long she ran, just that she had to put as much distance between her and Atwell

Miranda too, right?

as she could. She could feel the sun peering down from the top of the sky, so it wasn't still just morning. It helped that she was no longer in the forest, that she was in more or less open field.

The blood on Lily's face had grown cold by now, cold and tacky; in trying to wipe it off, she was sure she had only succeeded in smearing it a little onto her face, pushing it into her pores. The thought made her want to throw up. She'd been crying nonstop since exiting the woods; she wondered how she looked. Probably all ready for a newscast, what with bloodstained cheeks, a puffy face, and bloodshot eyes.

It was the church that brought Lily back to herself, if only for a moment. The building loomed into view like magic; she was probably too set on running from what she'd been an accessory to to notice it until now. She slowed back down to a walk; not much of a change, as she'd been jogging when her feet and lungs weren't carrying her anymore. A stitch in her side that she'd been ignoring greeted her, and for a minute she doubled over, breathing deeply to try and get rid of the needle that was planted in her side.

"Ah...Goddammit..." She said, and felt a little ashamed at it, considering what she was coming up on. Her father didn't make her choose a religion, but he was enough of a Catholic to make sure she didn't take the Lord's name in vain. Especially not in the presence of one of His houses.

Once the stitch was gone, Lily unzipped her daypack and pulled out the bottle of water she'd already opened. She unscrewed the cap and took a sip, and realized how dry her throat was from running. Her mouth might as well have been filled with sand.

She took another sip and let the water sit in her mouth before swallowing. Her hand crept up to her face, feeling the sticky blood that she'd left there, and she splashed some of her water on her cheeks. She rubbed, trying to clean the blood off. She wasn't sure if she succeeded, but she felt a little bit better. Only a little.

Lily replaced the bottle in her bag after closing it, and started walking toward the parish. Maybe she could've hid, let everything just blow over

Maybe you need to confess your sins?

and not deal with any of this.

As she approached, she saw three girls outside. It looked like they were eating lunch. The normality of the situation almost made Lily laugh.

Excuse me ladies, but how are you doing? Lily Maclaughlin here, I work for the school paper. What you guys doing, just sitting down for an afternoon break?

She didn't know if she wanted to deal with people, not after what happened last time. Funny how she'd been terrified of being alone just yesterday.

She kept moving forward in spite of her misgivings. She wiped her face with her hand again, hoping that the blood was completely gone by now. Not a good way to break the ice.

She was within earshot now, but she didn't have anything to say. Lily Maclaughlin, who'd spent years interviewing people she hardly talked to, was silent for the first time in her life.

"Hey." She managed, not even sure if the group heard her.

She didn't see the wicked looking bladed star that Annaliese had, otherwise she might've lost her nerve and went back to running.

((Kevin Harding continued from instinct•algorithm))

It had not been a good night. Stung by insects, sore from the exertions of the previous day, and thoroughly covered in dirt, Kevin was glad when the sun rose. There were only two things that really put a damper on his mood. The first thing was the long list of deaths that greeted him in the morning. The second thing.... Well, it was the fact that he was headhunting now.

Of course, he wasn't exactly playing it safe. He was going after people who had already killed. It was the only way that he could possibly feel justified in doing what he did. Jail time would be welcome compared to dying alone on this isolated island.

There was only one thing left to do after he made his decision. He wasn't going to ask for protection or forgiveness from God. Not for him, at least.

He walked over to the church with shovel in hand, ready for a fight if it came to that. After a good... Well, he didn't know how long it took to get there. But it was a while, that was for sure. About 60 feet away from the front of building, he saw 4 girls standing right in front of it. He quickly ducked behind cover and observed them from there.

No good. I'll have to wait for them to leave first.

Annaliese was delighted and relieved when Jackie said she knew what the hell the metal circle of doom was. ‘Of course she would know. She works at the library, for Pete's sake!' Feeling very pleased and fortunate to be with knowledgeable people, she smiled at her companions. ‘I bet meeting up with Jackie and Allie was covered by today's horoscope. I just wish I could check it to be sure.'

Holding the ring up to examine it in the light, Annaliese tried to get a feel for the weight of it. Jackie had said it was something like a throwing star, which was awesome. It was definitely heavier than the stupid little paper throwing stars her brother liked to make. Although, those crappy little stars had some sharp-ass points and hurt like hell when one caught you on the skin.

Jackie brought up food again and Allie mentioned needing to get a fire started. "Hey, those first aid kits we have. They have a lighter in them, right?" Annaliese looked at Allie expectantly. She would have asked Jackie, but she seemed kind of busy at the moment. "I mean, most store-bought kits have one to sterilize the tweezers and junk. Don't they? It couldn't hurt to look, right?"

Eager to be helpful and repay the girls' hospitality, Annaliese dropped her weapon and dug out her first aid kit. As she was triumphantly pulling it out, a new voice joined the conversation. Looking up, she spotted Lily Maclaughlin. Lily worked on the paper, which had always declined to run any of the stories she had suggested on the grounds that Annaliese wasn't a staffer on the paper. Which, really, was to the detriment of the student body since there were so many important global issues that people were woefully ignorant about. But that was neither here nor there now, and it wasn't as if Lily had personally shot her down.

"Hey Lily," Annaliese called out, returning the greeting. "Come join us. Partake. In the. Hospit…" Her voice trailed off as she noticed a few, thin rust colored smudges and streaks on Lily's cheek. "Dude, are you okay? You're not, like, bleeding, are you?"

(Andrea Raymer continued from Can't Fall Down)

[Edited to correct my mistake with the bag]

Watching the three girls arrive, Andrea was feeling uneasy about a multitude of subjects. The whole numbers thing was getting to her.

The number of deaths, for one. This class was blowing previous SOTFs out of the water, which meant that either Bayview had been filled with psychos or there were just a hell of a lot more students in this version. Probably the second, given that Allen was Guy #136 or whatever the hell he was. Either way, those numbers weren't good. More students equaled a lesser chance of survival and a greater chance of horrible death.

The number of days, for another. Assuming how huge this class seemed, how many days did she have to work with? And that question led directly to a third number, which was the number of pills she had left. She needed to keep rationing them if she wanted to last, but ugh. That was no fun, and she felt herself getting more nervous the longer she went without them, and that nervousness just led to more jumbled thinking about numbers and stuff.

Then there was Allen. He was good enough company, he didn't seem to begrudge her multitude of quirks and was decent to talk to, plus they'd been swapping family recipes and shit and it turned out he knew stuff about camping and nature. But Andrea wagered that he'd soon tire of walking around the island aimlessly, having no idea what exactly they were trying to find. Not that she would blame him for that. Hell, only an idiot would blindly follow her forever. She'd come up with a couple theories about computers on the island and the like that could potentially get a signal out, not to mention Danya's penchant for giving students useful items or straight out planting them on the island. Her SOTF knowledge was at least useful in that regard. Still, the longer she kept things vague, the more transparent she probably became.

The two of them had made their way around the island's mountainous center, moving in a jagged spiral downwards from the tower to cover more area. Not that there had been anything of significance around the mountain. A few caves, one of which they'd spend the night in, but that was it.

Of course, UNDER the mountain might be a different story, but that would hopefully be a journey for a later day.

When they finally got away from the hills it had been on the north side of the island, and she'd gone along with Allen's suggestion to move on to somewhere new. The only place she really wouldn't want to scope out right now would be the residential area, given its chances of being packed full of murderous kids, but the chapel seemed harmless enough. And hopefully it would keep Allen along with her. He hadn't reacted too well to the last announcement, presumably because he was more normal and human than she was, what with her desensitization and snarky posturing and all.

They'd arrived just in time for Andrea to see the body with its collar detonated, determine that yeah, it was Jane Lindsberg, and force any pesky emotions back into their hiding places since she'd actually liked Jane. Ugh. And Jane's bag hadn't been around either, which was disappointing since she might have had something useful, or at least extra rations and a weapon that was less... explosive than their current inventory was. They were about to check the building itself, when the sudden arrivals of Annaliese, Jackie, and Allie had forced her and Allen back in hiding. Geez, how many "A" names were congregating here?

From that spot, it hadn't taken long for her to determine that those three girls were about as threatening as a ward of coma victims, which meant that it might be a half-decent opportunity to actually meet someone new here. Andrea wasn't hoping to team up, and didn't think they'd offer any valuable info, but this was a case where she figured they could safely be social. She glanced at Allen.

"Uh, want to say hi?"

And on his approval, she started out, only to see Kevin Harding making tracks right into her path. They collided.

"Hey!"

That hadn't been in the plan.

((Allen Birkman continued from Can't Fall Down))

It had been a long time since Allen had left the relative safety of the cellphone tower with Andrea. Kitty hadn't followed them from the ruined building after all, that much he was thankful for. They'd walked for a while all around the mountain, crossing a few streams along the way (which Allen very nearly freaked out about, reminded of his nightmare when he first woke up to find himself on the island).

When night fell, Allen had been extremely apprehensive about staying in one of the caves to rest. The first announcement had entailed that someone did just that, managed to disturb a bear or something and was promptly killed by it. Death by grizzly - something that Allen definitely did not want to experience. But then sleeping out in the open would just be as bad if some oportunistic murderer were to come by.

Fortunately they'd picked an uninhabited cave and were still all in one piece when they woke up the next morning. Right in time to hear the second announcement. A few minutes into the report and Allen had wished that a bear had crept in and killed him while he slept. One of his friends, one of the people he had been on the look for since meeting Andrea, had died at the hands of Maxwell Lombardi.

Oddly enough, Clio wasn't included on the list. She wasn't dead, but she hadn't killed anyone else either. Allen hoped that she'd somehow become incapacited, or had her weapon taken off of her, or something else that was going to stop her from killing again. There hadn't been much time to dwell on things though; he and Andrea needed to move on.

Even though he'd come to the tower to get away from the residential district in the first place, he'd suggested that the town would possibly be the best place to start searching for... whatever. He wasn't sure exactly what they were looking for and wished that Andrea had been slightly more specific, but the town sounded like a better place than, say, the middle of the woods. What were they going to find there? Nothing but trees and plants, no doubt.

So that was how they found themselves at the small church. A body was lying outside the entrance, the pair able to see it was the remains of Violetta Lindsberg. A large pile of sand with a crudely made cross was also visible a short distance away from the building, and from the looks of things, it was made fairly recently. If only he'd known that buried under that mound of sand was the mutilated corpse of Chris Davidson, the first person he'd met since the start.

Then again, it was probably better off that he didn't.

Then the girls came along, Allen and Andrea having to jump back into the bushes and peer out at them, watching them to see if they were a threat. The two that arrived first, he couldn't remember the names of them at all. Then Annaliese came along; he was able to recognise her instantly; who could miss her with her brightly coloured hair, not to mention all the times she went on about 'this cause' and 'that issue' back in school.

Finally, Lily Maclaughlin, newshound and slight annoyance from the school paper showed up. The good thing was that none of the four females ('Kinda outnumbered here, five girls to one boy,' Allen thought) were attacking each other on sight. They were friendly, and Andrea seemed to agree with his way of thinking, suggesting they go say hello to them.

"Sure, why not?" he replied, shrugging his shoulders. Truth be told, he was hoping he could team up with at least one of them. He knew that Andrea disapproved of having too many people in on her plan, but two people on their own seemed way too insignificant to actually accomplish anything.

So they got up to go introduce themselves, and bumped into another guy. Well Andrea did at least, Allen had held back slightly, but he was still surprised at someone coming across them. Andrea had shouted out, which would have given away their presence to the quartet over by the building. Allen just looked at the guy ('Kevin, right? Isn't he in my chemistry class or something?'), then glanced down at the shovel in his hands.

One strike of the digging implement round the head would likely be enough to send Allen to the grave, and then could be used to dig one for him afterwards.

"Y-you're not going to k-kill us with that... right?" he stammered, raising his hands in self defense and stepping back a pace.

"Hey!"

Kevin staggered back a step. Who had just bumped into him? He took a close look at the offending girl. Let's see... From those heavy piercings on her face, he guessed that it was Andrea. He forgot what her last name was, but that wasn't important right now. The truly important thing was the fact that this chance encounter happened while he was trying to hide.

"Jeez. What the hell are you doing here?" He frowned. "I'm kind of busy right now."

"Y-you're not going to k-kill us with that... right?" Kevin whirled around, shovel ready to strike when he saw the boy's nervous face. Charles? Well, he didn't really know the guy. But this wasn't time to be off murdering. Not until he did what he was supposed to be doing.

"Of course I'm not going to kill you." He lowered his shovel with some difficulty. "Stop sneaking up on me, seriously. I just want to get into the church and pray. But I don't think those girls would let me pass. That's why I'm trying to hide here." He pointed impatiently at this hiding spot. In truth, waiting around was incredibly boring. His passionate nature demanded that he rushed through the pack of girls and lock himself inside the church. But his brain overrode his heart this time. Fear was his ally right now.

He reevaluated his position. Andrea's shout might have alerted the girls in front of the church. Charles was scared shitless of his shovel, which admittedly could be lethal if he smacked somebody in the head with the edge. The girls might have guns, which was something he desired but couldn't get.

Damn that Vera. She must have gotten herself killed already.

In any case, he would have to circle around and wait for these people to leave.

"But I'm probably going to have to move to a different spot, seeing as how the loudmouth-" He pointed accusingly towards Andrea. "-might have attracted some unwanted attention to us."

[[OOC: Jackie actually has Violetta Lindsberg's bag. I apologize for any confusion, I'll be more clear about these things from now on.]]

No objections. Perfect. Under the faint sprinkling of dust, she could see "G116" in large, bold lettering on the bag. It was eerie- but not eerie enough to block her excitement as she unzipped the bag with a nice, loud fwzzzzzzzzp! Her lust for protection was satisfied by a uniquely, beautifully shaped blade poking out from under one of the loaves, making a defiant dent in the weak bread. Fucking perfect.

Steadily, carefully, her hands moved into the bag, moving aside any unnecessary objects in the way of her pri-

"Hey."

Shit. Yes. I get to use this thing already. She whipped the sweetass curly blade thing out of the bag to address the new arrival- and with good reason, apparently. She was covered in blood.

"Dude, are you okay? You're not, like, bleeding, are you?"

No no no. Bad move. Bad move. Some girl comes along trying to kill you, you invite her to eat your food. No, MY food. She held the blade in front of her, careful to keep it between her and the other girl- she looked kind of familiar. Shit, what was her name... Jillian? Something with that il sound. Camilla? No, that doesn't sound familiar. Damn. Not the point right now.

"Tell us where you're coming from and whose blood that is, and then maybe we can talk about food. We're not trying to die right now." Oh yeah, that was way better than the other time. This blade was sweet.