Survival Of The Fittest

((Cameron Herrig continued from Call Me Maybe))

Everything had fallen apart. At least, in terms of the sanity of everyone on the island.

In the time since they'd left the pub Cameron and Enza hadn't seen anyone else. To call whatever they were doing organised was a stretch, they were just wandering. Eventually they had come to the asylum. Signs of life had been visible during their travels of course but another living person wasn't a thing they'd met. Ultimately it was for the best, Cameron only really wanted to find two other people. That sounded harsh and of course there was no real way to sugar coat, she felt dirty putting value on peoples lives the way she was but Vanessa and Coleen were the most important people on the island, Enzo notwithstanding as they were already with her.

Speaking of Enzo, Cameron was glad for the company they offered her. It was better than solitude by a long way. It was another layer of protection, both physically and mentally. Their friendly presence helped kept Cameron sane. As the days had gone by with them not encountering another person bar the occasional glimpse of a figure moving in a window and other sightings of that sort Cameron had seriously started considering the theory that the island was haunted. She had brought up as much to Enzo at one point but after a few minutes of discussion they'd both just let the topic drift away into the ether.

Eventually the asylum had loomed over them and they'd taken the plunge of entering its decaying structure. Quickly they had found signs of violence and bodies. Eventually they had set up in what was essentially a fat storage closet. The room was massive and full of random junk. Cameron could safely say it looked like shit, granted her hair was also going that way after three days of no washing and hard sleeping. Her pickaxe lay against one of the many metal shelving units in the room as she sat cross-legged munching on one of the random protein bar things they had been given.

She listened as the names of some people she knew and some she didn't were read out. Yep, things were well and truly enveloped by anarchy. Any chance of it just being a select few people killing was out the window as new names kept appearing. Thankfully neither Coleen or Vans made an appearance. In the meantime she decided to check how Enzo was holding up, since they had seemed beaten down by what was happening back at the pub.

"How you feelin' Human?"

((Al continued from Start Your Day With A Smile))

Al found himself back in the Staff Area. The place where he left Mia and Serena. Was it really a day ago? The corridor seemed so weird. But, he walked to a different location instead. When he opened the door of the Storage Closet, there were spiders webs and it was dark. That were not good circumstances for him to fearlessly enter it. But.

Be a man. Get over it.

Not only over the darkness. But over Vanessa as well.

Al had to move on. He could not be on the island whining about it. He needed to focus. Progress.

Crying was not a solution. What was, however a solution was to change his plan. He should be rational, not emotional. Do not think about Vanessa. Think about what he could do now, on the island.

So when he further moved into the big room, he saw a familiar face. And familiar fingers of a guitarist.

Cameron.

The one Vanessa searched for. Back in Cochise, she spent time with Vanessa. All the time. While he had never really had the chance to do so. Would Vanessa be glad if Al brought Cam and her together? Would she like him again, then? No. She would never like him. Al hoped she regretted not staying with him, though. If they had stayed together, they would have found her together.

But Al could not get why Vanessa wanted to meet her, instead of him. Why she was so much more important to her than him. Alessio was just as interesting as Cameron. Why not him? He could play guitar as well. He was a human as well. Heck, he was weaker than Cameron, needed more company than Cameron. No, no, no, wrong thoughts. He was strong. He could be alone. Stay alone. Without her.

Momentarily, he had no idea what to do in the situation. He was confused, angered, felt bad.

Alessio looked at Cameron Herrig. Frowned. No word to her. He picked up the weapon from the shelf and eyed it. Why was it lying around? Was it her assigned weapon? A pickaxe like the ones from Minecraft? A useless aesthetic item or even useable as a...weapon?

((Enzo continued from Call Me Maybe))

Vincenzo thought a fair bit on whether it had been a good idea to leave Tessa behind. She hadn't been fun to be around, but maybe there had been an inkling of something there. A plan, at the very least. Like, totally, one hundred percent valid of Cam to point out that she'd been a raging, condescending bitch, but... The nucleus of an idea was there. Enzo didn't know whether or not Tessa's plan would have worked, but they weren't going to get an opportunity to try it out.

Which kind of left them in an uncomfortable headspace, trying to decide whether they'd rather take the 'safe' option or at least go out knowing that they'd tried their hardest. In the end, Vinny supposed they'd erred on the side of caution, and more importantly, on the side of what Cameron was doing. Enza was hardly a yesman, but Tessa could have had the greatest idea in the world, and if Cam hadn't gone along with it, they would have had a real hard time choosing to split away from her.

Fact was, Cameron was one of Vinny's best friends, she was somewhat injured, and she was all they had right now.

Moving around the place hadn't come to much over the past day or so, which was, well, shitty. After encountering three people on the first day, within the first while of moving anyway, Vinny had felt sure that they'd be in for a few more people. Friends, hopefully, but if not at least folks they could work with, get... something going.

Enzo hadn't got that far ahead in the plan yet. More numbers, more safety was a nice theory, but there had to be something else the Cochise students could do as a group, right? They had their share of smartasses and innovators, creativity and hard work. Between all of them, there was surely something that could be done about this situation. Maybe they were just delaying the inevitable, refusing to accept that their own ability to actually affect this situation was sickeningly limited. They didn't have a miracle idea for breaking off the island. They didn't even have an idea. Trying to stay safe was nice in theory. And that's all it was, theory.

If Cameron wasn't there, Vinny would have been freaking out, end of story. They managed to talk, had a few half-hearted conversations here and there. Still been enough to keep them both going. Sometimes the company was enough on its own. In this scenario, it wasn't really, but it was better than nothing.

Today had started off feeling like it was possibly going to be a Girl Day, but then had sank back into ambiguous nothingness by the time Enzo had been awake for few short minutes.

Strangely enough, numbing was an interesting side effect of some motherfucker making jokes about people dying. Bradley had died, and Enzo had never thought they'd have a second to spare on Bradley, but they'd never wished the guy dead. Plus, being Brady's cousin and all... fuck. It was just... fuck.

"Shitty, thanks for asking," they murmured back in response to Cameron. Their eyes were closed, and it was a force of will not to clunk their head backwards against the base of the shelf they were propping themselves up on.

"...I'm really glad ice cream husband isn't here."

That was the slimmest of consolations. Brady wasn't here. He was safe.

"Yeah at least Brady and B.B. are alright." Selfishly Cameron had forgotten about Brady and B.B. until Enza had brought them up. She wondered how they were doing and coping with what had happened. She hoped they were alright and that eventually everything would turn out OK for them. Cameron didn't want what had happened to ruin their lives. They couldn't have done anything to chance or stop it. Cameron didn't want them to carry what had happened with them their whole lives.

"Is it a boy or girl day by the way? I want to make sure, y'know since don't want to be rude." Cameron's question may have seemed low on the totem pole of things they needed to worry about but she had always been careful to make sure to confirm. It just felt more polite to check and make sure.

Obviously the real reason she was asking was that it was something to talk about so they could stay distracted. Something they could hopefully spiral off into a fully-fledged conversation. Just something to take away from the oppressive silence. Cameron just needed some form of noise to take her mind off everything. She normally had music to listen too or at least have Vans around to talk too. Her mind being allowed to wander always lead to dark thoughts, and she didn't want to experience them in the situation she was in.

Letting out a sigh Cameron leaned back.

"I don't know what to do Human."

A second person. Enz...

and the two talked. Like friends. Like close friends. As if Enza was.

Grr.

Had Al ever had someone he talked that way? Ice cream husband. Cute term. But no. He did not. He had wasted so much time in school. He had never had a friend so close like that. He had no Enzo for Cameron. He had no Cameron for V.

Al was trying to not let himself be consumed by a tunnel vison, so he stopped. Thinking. Emotionally.

But, he extremely regretted not being friends with more people. Not being closer friends to the friends he had. Regretting isolating himself. Wasting chances. He would die and no one would care.

Rational. These self-depricating thoughts were not rational. But what was now? He could just kill someone. Kill himself.

And there was nothing wrong about that. Because of the circumstances they were in. There were these two options. And other options that lead to these two options. Nancy, Isabel, Alvaro, Abby. They did it, too.

And he? These days he was there? A whiny boy, doing nothing but waiting to die, to be killed by someone. People like him were the reason why everybody on the island suffered. Extending the span the survivor (whoever that person will be) has to be tortured on this island by spending more and more time here. People like him, cowardly running away. Wasting valuable time. Letting the game last for weeks. Months?

How long?

Al wanted to cry. He could not image staying on the island for so long. That anybody wanted that to happen.

He raised the pickaxe and went forward. Steps. He tried to not make them loud. Still, he could not hold his breath and therefore breathed louder the more near he came to Cameron. He wanted to be able to strike it. So he aimed to strike the torso.

Someone is going to regret breaking his...heart? Soul? Conscience? Personality? Innocence?

Life.

"Amen to that."

Brady was special, but B.B was a friend too. Heck she'd introduced them both.

Vinny didn't wish that they were here, not in a million years, they just missed their company, which wasn't really the same thing. Maybe if they could speak on the phone or... or something?

"Eh, neither. Let you know if it changes."

It didn't usually change over the course of the day, but if Enzo knew anything about gender, it was that it didn't make any freaking sense to them. Dysphoria was fun like that - like some kind of jackass ninja of sadness.

They still didn't open their eyes.

"Wish I knew, Sardine. There's gotta be something we can figure out. There are, you know... people, and..."

They trailed off and shook their head.

"Yeah. I'm not so good at this am I? Thinking beyond six seconds."

Cameron saw and heard the attack too late. The pickaxe flew out of the darkness like a ghost had taken control of it and embedded itself in her stomach. Belatedly she saw the hands and arms that belonged to the person that had swung it.

Al...what the fuck?

At first there wasn't any pain. Just a dull throb.

Cameron looked at Al in surprise. Then the pain arrived and she slumped over whimpering, hands feebly pawing at the pickaxe.

She had heard once that being stabbed in the stomach was one of the most painful ways to die, since there were a lot of nerves and you would slowly bleed out. It was living up to that because an intense burning was spreading from where the pickaxe was stuck in her. She could also feel blood starting to run onto her hands.

This was what dying felt like. Weird. She had always wondered. She was crying now. She'd had dark thoughts before but she had never wanted to die.

Her breath was ragged as her mind raced through all the things she wanted to do, too many things.

Most of all though she wanted to see Peyote Coyote one last time.

It didn't look like she was going to get that chance.

It was a pretty gross feeling. Was there not a cleaner way to...kill? Pickaxes were used to destroy stone. Using it on human was cruel, even if he would destroy Stone with that hit.

So bloody. So painful to watch. Cameron won't survive that. Al knew that from biology class. He hit painful areas. Vital areas. Everybody in Cochise had a dream. Al wanted to become a vetenerian...and he kills. Cam and Van wanted to become superstars...and he destroyed their dreams. Al was not someone Al liked.

He oddly felt stronger now, though. Feeling that he was capable to hurt, kill. To be a person that is able to remove other people from this island. To let the game progress faster, let the end of the game come quicker.

But he felt regret.

No. Vanessa should feel regret. Van feels the regret.

Cameron was a nice person. But so was Abby. She seemed very nice back in Kingman, very charismatic, in the music store. That's why Van chose her over him.

It's her fault. He's guilty, too, but it's her fault. Why is he crying again? This was not a good moment to cry. He wanted to hide his tears from Cam or Enzo.

There was nothing he could do now, here. Cam was looking at him, shocked. This did not make him feel more comfortable. He stepped on her to pull out the pickaxe. Then, he went out of the Storage Closet. Without a word.

((Alessio Rigano continued in Devil's Choir))

It wasn't quite right to call the noise that happened a 'thunk'.

It was heavier than that, like someone softening up a steak with a hammer.

It was along the lines of...

It wasn't....

It...

Vinny's eyes definitely weren't closed any longer.

"CAMERON!"

((Vanessa Stone continued from Sunset Boulevard))

Vanessa had a cloud hanging over her. Jae's name coming up on the announcement as a killer had ruined her morning, and more unproductive searching wasn't making her feel any better. She was getting tired of wandering down yet another fuckin' Camless corridor.

As she rounded her way into the staff area, she heard the footsteps of Alessio bolting down the opposite end, out of sight. She didn't catch a glimpse of him, not that she wanted to see him again so soon anyway, but the open door to the storage closet did catch her eye. Pained moans were emanating from within, and she couldn't just ignore that. Then she heard Vinny yelling her best friend's name, and she definitely couldn't ignore that.

"Yo, Cams?!" she called ahead, pushing her way into the dark room. "It's Vans! I'm coming!"

She wanted to be excited, and her face had lit up when she first heard the name, but that hadn't lasted. Vinny's yell had been packed with fear, and it was spilling over into Vanessa. She moved around the shelves as fast she could, searching for her BFF.

Nothing could've prepared her for what she saw. She couldn't stop herself: she screamed.

"Oh Christ, Cams!"

Through the haze of pain Cameron saw Vinny beside her. She tried to say something, maybe something comforting, she wasn't sure because no words came out. She felt bad that Vinny would have to see her die. She didn't want to be a burden like that. She was glad she'd at least found them though, she was lucky that she managed to find at least one of her friends. She hadn't managed that with Vanessa or Coleen.

That was her biggest regret. She hadn't found either of them. It was the one thing she had wanted to do and she'd failed at doing it. All she had wanted was to tell both of them how much they had helped her out when she needed it, even if they didn't realise. She felt so selfish and stupid about what she had done and how it had fucked up their relationship. Now she would never get the chance to try and fix that.

She coughed as something rose in her throat. Speaking was beyond her now, nothing she could do about it, her body was slowly shutting down. She was dimly aware of her parents back home and what they would do, then again they were busy sorting out a divorce. Cameron had never been close to them ever since the first issues back when she was fourteen, hell she spent more time in her basement alone than with either of them. Most of her time was spent with the band or Vanessa. Truth, was she was more worried about how Vanessa's mom Caitlin would handle everything.

Shit, Vanessa. She would be heartbroken. Cameron wished her throat wasn't full of bile so she could have asked Vinny to pass on a message to Vans...and Coleen, B.B., Brady. Fuck, she had let them all down, dying so quickly.

Slowly though her vision was fading, Vinny's face swimming in and out of focus. A numbness spreading through her body. Cameron didn't want to die but she couldn't find anything to help her fight it off. There was nothing left for her.

Then she heard the scream from her best friend.

Maybe if Vanessa had arrived a few seconds earlier things might have gone differently, but Cameron managed to at least see her face once more and as stupid as it was she didn't want Vanessa's last memory of her to be her lying on the ground bleeding to death.

Slowly and with great effort she managed to raise her right hand, palm and tattoo facing outward over her eye, a goofy grin on her face as tears ran down her cheeks. She forced herself to choke down the bile, managing to get enough air in her body for at least a word.

"S-sorry..."

Then her hand fell to the floor and she drifted away. An ocean of regrets left behind.

"Cameron! Cameron!"

They felt ill, hot and cold. This wasn't possible. One second Cameron was talking, the next-

Enzo didn't even know who it was, couldn't parse it, in the frantic instants after the sickening impact of-

"C'mon c'mon c'mon c'mon don't do this don't do this."

Vinny didn't know first aid. They didn't know how this was meant to work. One hand was scrabbling at their bag the other was on Cam's stomach and christ and christ there was just so much too much blood, warm and spilling around their fingers, and Cameron was trembling, and coughing, and...

The bag opened, the first aid kit followed. What was in there? What did any of that stuff even do? This wasn't patch-up-better, this was surgery and anaesthetic and a team of doctors, not, not-

Not just Enzo.

"Cameron please, c'mon, please, keep your eyes on me, eyes on me! Okay?"

They were babbling. The kit opened and then spilled, a bandage unrolling and going bouncing across the floor, unraveling as it went. Enzo might have sworn and might not have sworn, and someone else was here now and it was two, three, four seconds before it clicked that it was Vanessa. The kit went forgotten, the other hand joined their first because that was what they did on TV and in movies, they put pressure on and that was supposed to be good and stem bleeding but christ, christ christ christ it was just welling up even further, and Enzo's hands were slick and hot and the ragged edges of the tear were rubbing against it and... and-

Cam raised her hand. She smiled.

"No! Don't you apologise! It's not- there's nothing to say sorry for- Cameron! CAMERON!"

No way. No way was this happening now. She was standing there, watching her best friend bleed out a huge fucking hole in her stomach, whilst Vinny was pawing at them accomplishing god knew what. This was the sort of thing you saw a movie, not something that actually happened right in front of you.

Her mouth was agape as her eyes pulled back, words trying to stammer out as if they'd make anything better, brain racing for the answer to what the hell was she supposed to be doing right now, every second wasted as Cameron drifted further and further away. She hadn't even responded to Cam's final apology, barely realised it was there; there was just too much to process, too much reality to face.

She'd been staring at her best friend's lifeless corpse for only a few seconds, but it was unbearable. This had to be a bad dream: she was still asleep, and this was all just a nightmare because she'd been quietly freaking to herself about this exact fucking situation for three days. Why the fuck wasn't she waking up already?!

No, she wasn't waking up, so this was real. Either she had lost it and she was trapped in her nightmare, or this was real life. Or both.

Her best friend had really just died in front of her.

"Get the fuck off her!" she screamed at Vinny, shoving them away and grabbing for Cam's lifeless corpse. She cradled her in her arms, feeling her warmth die out. Vanessa was completely helpless as the tears streaked down her face, her cries echoing out the room and getting lost in the halls of the asylum.

There wasn't anything they could do.

There wasn't anything they could do.

They needed a doctor or a paramedic or just someone who knew how to do more with, with, whatever they had here, instead of just them, who could use a stupid fucking phone and make stupid fucking videos on the internet and, and what the fuck was this- how was this- it couldn't, they couldn't...

Someone shoved them, it took again a second to realise it was Vanessa again. Enzo landed flat on their ass and couldn't even bring themself to move any further, to ...

Vinny wanted to be mad. To do anything.

They stared at their hands as Vanessa began to sob brokenly. Then their face clenched tight, eyes screwed up, and tears of their own started to fall.

Vanessa kept holding Cam, holding her closer than she'd ever before as she clung to the fleeting essence of her best friend. She felt her grow cold, in spite of her tears and shouts and begging for it to not happen, that this couldn't be real, that she wasn't really dead.

What was she going to do now? All their dreams, of going to college together, of rocking out together, just being best friends until they were both bones in the ground, all gone without any warning or build-up, like some sick twisted fuck of a joke. She'd just walked into a room, and everything had been fucked up in that one instant. Just like that, her best friend had been taken away from her.

Taken away from her.

Right.

Someone had done this.

She stopped her crying, if only for a moment. She tried to speak, but couldn't find the words. Enzo had been in there before, they probably knew what happened. They had to know.

A guttural growl of a question came out through her throat that had been so thoroughly strained by her sobs. "Who did it?"

She was starting to cry again. She shook her head, trying to stop herself, to get that vital answer from Enzo. She had to scream to keep talking.

"Who did this to her?!"