Survival Of The Fittest

Usually…

In situations like this, where you find yourself waking up in a location that is all but unknown to you, with little to no memory as too how you got there – memory all but blank until this point, most people, tend to fall into a state of confusion and panic. But B37, fondly known as Greggory Archer to many, found no such emotion pressing into his thoughts as eyes awoke to find his form pressed against brown dirt, with bright green and yellow stocks rising up around him. Eyes narrowed ever so lightly against the sun currently hanging in the sky, knowing full and well that moving would probably be in his best interest but found himself unable to make the rest of his body agree with what his mind was coming up with.

Though slowly, and surely against all the odds his body had just laid out against him, Greggory slowly moved and pressed hands against the soft, dark soil that had probably been his sleeping spot for quite some time more than likely. Rising into a sort of halfway push up he moved his knees under his body, sighing out and moving to rest the full weight of his form against the kneeled position he had worked himself into, allowing himself to not only take in what little of the sights he could see through the rows of corn, but himself as well. He seemed okay, lifting his shirt upward somewhat proved he wasn't missing a kidney or anything, then again those stories always ended with you waking up in a tub of ice, not a middle of nowhere cornfield.

A scan of the general area if was in, it was gathered that no doubt, this was a cornfield, alright as that had been established for the third, or maybe fourth time now, he glanced about more. To his side rested his small messenger bag of stuff he had brought on the bus to pass the time until the students at Franklyn arrived where they where supposed too. Mostly contained smaller personal things, shampoo, toothbrush and toothpaste… the like, his MP3 player was also in there, a quick pat down along his pants told him that his cellphone must have been either removed or lost. To his left on the opposite side of him rested a forest green duffel bag of sorts, the bold black letter and numbers of ‘B37' glaring back at him in an almost harsh manner, as if a simple letter and numbers could do such.

Though grabbing at the bag, and dragging it closer to his form is when everything began to replay in his mind as if someone had put in fast-forward, only slowly down at certain spots. He had remembered having fallen asleep some short time after the buses had left the school, the sudden stop when the tires exploded some time later had launched him forward in his seat a bit, bouncing his head against the hard window as the bus forced into a stop. Groggy, and now head throbbing from hitting it – he tried to focus on the sounds of Midtown which where currently playing through his earphones. Though it was something much louder that shocked, and roused him up again – just in time to look out the window and witness the bus driver fall to the ground dead along with Mr. Duana.

Everything after that seemed to force itself into fast forward again as after Mr. Dolph was also soon killed, and one of there classmates was made example of, and riddled by the bullets of the assault rifles, leaving her corpse as well as that of the other three to start rotting in the mid-day sun. As they where herded onto the bus he took the closet seat he could get too, hugging at his stuff toward his body a little to tightly, it was the only thing he found he could do at that moment in time. Sure enough, the panic only increased when the other black-clad men, and the woman that seemed to be the ringleader of all this returned with gas masks on their faces, so this was it, he assumed. They where going to gas the rest of them, though at that point he didn't figure probably dying by poison gas would probably be a better death than what he could meet where he was going to end up.

His next thoughts came what felt like days later… but really it had only been hours. Eyes blinking, trying to absorb as too what was happening them. Once more the motion of fast-forward came into play as the movie that was played for them, as the movie ended and what they had found themselves in – this, this ‘game' Survival of the Fittest, a term that rang familiar from a little over a year ago, was explained to them, what they where supposed to do and what was to happen in the coming days. And before anyone was allowed to voice any thing a familiar sensation was placed over the him, and soon enough he found himself drifting off into another induced slumber.

The next thing he knew he was waking up in a cornfield… quite the time trip this was turning out to be, by the looks of it, it was getting closer to the afternoon hours. Lips pursing as to how he had been in a slumber he had been, and how lucky he had been that no one had stumbled on him and decided that killing the sleeping boy would be rather easy, but as he said, he was lucky enough to still be breathing. Pulling the issued daypack, he unzipped the bag and peered inside, starting to remove the object looking over each.

Water, food, a manual for the rules of the game, and other such though the last object he removed from his pack caused a slightly curious look to press against his features. It looked like a baton, but against his better judgment the small switch along the side caught his attention and pressed down against it, sending his issued weapon – the electro-shock baton into full gear, and issuing a yelp from him. Which he quickly covered up with his free hand, as the other one dropped the baton to the ground. Quickly gathering everything and returning it to the bag, opening his own and removing everything he figured he'd need before tossing the larger day pack onto his shoulder, grabbing the shock-baton and working himself onto his feet.

Unsure of which way to head first, Gregg decided that just picking would be best, and after an interesting game of pick and choose with himself, and jumping up a bit in an attempt to gather his bearings, began heading toward where he had saw what seemed to be a house of sorts. Coming up the building, he glanced it over, frowning – wondering into buildings probably wasn't the best ideas, but sitting out in the open, or in a cornfield of all things, wouldn't be a good place to plan out a way to work through this – a plan of any sorts, any kind.

So moving in a sift manner moved to the house from the back side, glancing inward through the back door, everything – everything to be frozen almost, as if they had just up and left. Dishes still on the table, everything just seemed so… quiet. Gripping the door handle, he twisted it, somewhat surprised to find it open as he pushed the door open. Closing it slowly behind him, from his new position in the kitchen they seemed to be a staircase toward the back of the kitchen leading up the second floor, a small doorway leading out the kitchen/dining room set up, he following this into a hall, reaching the front area with the entrance, two openings on either side leading one into a living room and the other into another large room.

Sighing he moved toward the living room, settling near the coffee table and removing the map he had seen from the bag. Looking it over… thoughts racing.

"What's going to happen to us…"

Making her way safely, presumably without being seen, Tori finally reached a small house. It looked country like, and seemed suitable to sit and rest for a moment to collect her thoughts. She had already been lugging her heavy duffle bag across her shoulders for so long now, she needed to take a breather. This whole walk was for the purpose of hopefully finding her friend, yet, no one (except that Seth kid) had shown up.

She was already short one bottle of water, and didn't want to waste anything else in her bag. As Tori opened the door the house, hoping to be able to find something to salvage, she was startled by the boy in the living room. He was a stranger, and like most strangers (when it came to this game) were dangerous.

Quickly and without thinking, Tori grabbed for her weapon at her hips, clutching onto the metal dart. She didn't dare untie it, or even try to use it, reassuring herself that she had 'protection', just in case.  

"Who... who are you?" She stammered.

The first thing he heard that triggered the sense that he wasn't alone was the opening of the front door that he sat not to far away from, from his position on the living room floor, engrossed in the map spread across the coffee table and figuring his bearing by way of the compass that rested close by, a pen he had managed to locate in one of the drawers about the living room currently being used to make little notes along the map as he tried to carefully format some type of plan in his head.

The second thing being was when the figure appeared in the doorway of the room, Gregg reaching for the electro-shock baton that rested on the floor near his leg and pointing it upward and toward the girl, he noting how she too reached for something that was placed along her hips, he rather unable to see quite what they where in full – but they look like your common billiard darts that anyone with a dart board at home would have.

As the question was brought up, Gregg couldn't help but smile slightly. "I could be asking you the same thing, but because you asked first I suppose I'll be a gentlemen in this case."

Lowering the baton down, but not removing his hand he glanced once over the map quickly before turning and focusing on the girl standing still in the doorway. "My names Greggory, but I much prefer Gregg from New Jersey. And you are…?"

"Johnson, Tori Johnson." She replied. She was never really good at making small talk, so she just came out with what was on her mind.

"So I hear we have to kill eachother..." She began. "Well. As of right now, I really don't feel the need. In all honestly Gregg, I'm really tried, and just want to sit down for a moment to collect my thoughts. Is that alright with you?"

As she was saying this, she didn't stop herself from walking across the room to sit opposite to him, crosslegged on the ground.

Sure this guy wasn't an 11 on the 1-10 scale for looks, but there was something about him that had some spunk. For instance, his smile he had when he answered her question, well, actually, the fact that he answered the question at all. He could have simply thrown something at her like that other fellow she met along the way, to that figure which ran in the other direction.

Gentlemen. Tori hadn't heard that expression since she was little. Her grandmother used to say that a 'real' gentleman opens the door, hands his lady flowers and never, Never leaves his lady for a 'skank'. Tori had come to the conclusion back then, that the reason her grandmom said that, was due to that fact that, that was the exact reason her grandpa packed his bags.

There was someone more recent though. So he didn't give her flowers, or buy her food. He was somewhat romantic in his own way. In her eyes that day, he was a 'gentleman'.

Coming back to the reality of the matter at hand, Tori held up her empty water bottle.

"Know if there's something I can fill this up with? Preferably water, of course."

The smile kept as the girl went about introducing herself, "Pleasure to meet you then Tori."

He didn't say a word if she sat down or not, as if he would have minded anyway, he had already decided lone before that there wouldn't be any reason for him to take part in this game, protecting himself – yes, but there wasn't a good enough reason on this island that he would kill because. Gregg kept watch on the girl as she made her away across the room and took a seat across from him, he sifting where he sat somewhat, moving to pull a leg out from under him.

Though, yes, he didn't know his girl at all – she didn't seem like the type that would hurt someone for no attempt reason. Then again, this was a game of life or death with the biggest prize on the line, so in truth he didn't know what there was to think of the girl currently sitting across from him. But Greggory being who he was, that being a person that trusts every one with little thought to it, something he'd might have to think over while here, still somewhere -- trusted the girl.

Though ever still, Gregg felt awkward in the sudden silence that had over laced the room, he figured with some sort of company would be better than just him, his thoughts, and his working on the map.

At the question though, his mind was brought out from it's thoughts, blue eyes casting over toward the girl lightly. "Well you can try in the kitchen, it's just outside this room and down in the hall in the back – I saw a sink coming in, but I don't know if they cut off the water to the island or not."

Tori looked up to meet his glace that was casted upon her. She liked his eyes. Not to mysterious but not 'just' blue either. Gregg seemed more and more interesting to her as she sat there.

"Na," She responded, "I'll get it later I guess. I'm sitting down now, not likely to get up for a while!"

She tossed to bottle into the corner, and adjusted herself so she was now held up by her elbows and knees bent in front of her. She didn't want to seem like she was just someone 'passing by'. If there was a chance she could make a friend, she would take it.

"So Gregg, working on the map eh?"

Hopefully that somewhat attractive smile of his would engage in conversation, even if to humour her for a short while till she knew where she had to go.

"So tell me, why do you think we're here?"

"That's a good question I sadly, can't answer. We where just supposed to be going on a camping trip, and then it turned into this… not quite what I was expecting to happen. But besides that, thinking on it, it's quite the clear answer as too why where here, least how I see it – whoever these people are that run this… game, they knew they could get away with it again, just like the year before; I suppose where here as that final step to prove to the government that nothing can stop them from doing this again, and again."

He sighed at this, frowning slightly though shook his head after a minute – glancing upward once more and slightly smiling as he did. "Sorry about that, perhaps optimism, though frowned upon by some will be helpful in these upcoming days."

The smile kept at her words at probably not getting up for awhile now that she was sitting, Gregg couldn't say much he hadn't walked far from the cornfield to this house so he really wasn't all that tried, or hungry for that matter and all food supplies that had been given to him, plus a pack of nutria-grain mini snack that his mum had packed for him that morning before he left to head off for school, he wondered now – what his parents where thinking, did they even know? And if they did what was happening now?

Pulling away from his thoughts of a life that now seemed so far away, he instead tried to focus on the present, glancing toward his map once made mention.

"Oh, yeah – I'm trying to figure out the distances between the points using the given information on the map, and some math skills, it isn't working as well as I thought. But if I can figure this out, and I can figure how to pace myself when I get ready to move when I need to, and not wear myself out trying to get from one place to another."

He mused again at this, tilting his had silently as eyes casted questions that his voice soon brought worth into words. "But, as I said I'm from a school called Franklyn in New Jersey, where do you hail from, because if this is anything like the last game then where in for quite a culture shock."

"Bathurst, and I could care less if there will or wont be a shock at all. Frankly, even if there was, it wouldn't matter. We all have to kill eachother anyways."

Tori had now moved, so that she was laying flat on her back, still with her knees bent. She moved her arms under her head so that it wasn't flat against the ground and closed her eyes.

"You seem smart. I never really liked math, I guess that's why I'm so tired. Didn't bother looking at the map or figure out distances what not. I just walked in one direction."

With her eyes closed, it was easier to imagine everything that was going on. She could place people and really get down to the details if she wanted too. It was something she got used to as a kid. She'd watch Law & Order with her dad and always be able to figure out who killed the person just by remembering little things. Did her dad even know she was gone? Could she even remember the last thing she said to him?

She remembered very well what she said to her gandmom. She finally got off her chest exactly what she thought of her, and how she was glad grandpa left because he's most likely much happier without an old bag as a wife. Oh yea, she remembered alright. She also remembered feeling horrible, because that was the first time she ever say her grandmom cry.

Shaking the memory from her head, Tori focused on talking to Gregg.

"Gregg, would you humor me for a bit? Tell me something I don't know."

Bathurst?

To say that Gregg's mind didn't go into the slight panic he should have felt earlier would be an understatement, if his girl was that meant a number of things. Namely if was that they weren't the only school on the island, even more so both of the schools were located in the same city of New Jersey, did that mean they had got the other high schools as well? They only others he could think of being Hobbsborough, and then that private Academy in the upper half of the city that he had went to once because of they had hosted a Quiz Bowl competition once when he had been in the ninth grade.

Then there was of course the most important issue currently running through his head…

Ali…

He didn't say much as he went about gathering up his passion, placing his map and compass in the pockets of his pants and shrugging his daypack on as he grabbed for his weapon, pushing himself into a standing position and looking toward Tori with a frown, "I'm sorry, but I have to go – if your from Bathurst, my friend is probably on this place, and… and well – I can't let anything happen to her, you understand?"

He began walking away, toward the door that the girl herself had entered through earlier, glancing back lightly. "Sorry that I have to leave so early, but it was nice to meet you – but I really can't stay knowing Ali might be out there somewhere, I have to find her…"

With a smile, and a light nod he threw a wave at the girl turning and moving toward the door and opening it, not sure where to start out but knowing he just had to move. He personally didn't even know if she was here, but he remembered Ali making mention of their class doing something around the same time as their camping trip, and if that was the case…

Gregg didn't allow much thought after that before he started out the door, now intent of finding his friend before the worse happened.

[[ Continued In the Industrial District; When the Silence Remains... ]]

Tori, though still laying on her back, opened her eyes to the sound of papers being stuffed away quickly. She didn't really have a chance to reply as Gregg quickly left the house. All she remembered yelling was, "Don't get killed!" as he closed the door behind him. She could fully understand wanting to find someone, stick with them and be safe. For him, it sounded like she might have been a girlfriend, or best friend of sorts. Knowing that she wasn't the only one wanting to find someone, she didn't feel so alone anymore.

It was this time that Tori missed him even more. Why can't I just find you? she asked herself.

Tori rolled over and layed on her tummy. She was tired. She didn't want to move. She missed him. Thoughts of what might have happend to him already started to fill her mind. What if he had gotten shot or hurt already? She knew he wasn't dead, not yet that was. He could definetly hold his own.

As her mind continued to wonder, she could feel her body becoming weak, and slowly, she began to fall asleep.

"Want some of my snack bar?"
"Uh, no thanks..."
"It's beautiful out here..."
"I guess I'll see you around..."

As Tori lay in her slumber, peacefully in her favourite memory, she could feel the sand beneith her. She heard the waves come up to the shore, and retreat back inside itself. She could hear the annoying sounds of the seaguls talking to eachother, conversing about the garbage on the shore.

Falling back into her memory, as if she was living it out again, she could feel the warmth of him sitting next to her. Not to close, yet to far either. Just close enough that she could tell he was nervous to be so close to her, and although she pretended like she didn't know, she knew when he was looking at her with that look in his eye.

She remembered how awkward things were at first, since she just Had to vent about her ex-boyfriend. And how things moved on from the outburst onto a new topic, as if it never happened. He was hungry, and though she offered him her snack bar (which she was really just trying to get rid of), he said no. Whether it was because he didn't want to take her food, or because he knew they were gross, she couldn't tell.

Just as quickly as the dream came, it was snatched away and replaced with images of bloody bodies, limbs torn, intrails becoming extrails, she heard the noise of the gun shots. bang, Bang, BanG, BANG!

Tori jolted up right, sweat dripping from her brow. As fast as her little feet could manage, she got up, looked at her map, packed everything in her bag and left the farm house immediately. She had always seen on T.V. that when a person got lost, they'd go north or what ever. At the moment, it seemed like a plan. Under careful watch of her eye, she left, making her way north as best as possible without wanting to be seen.