Survival Of The Fittest

((Continued from You Can Run...))

Night had long since begun its descent on the island, and if not for the clouds looming overhead, the sky would have been painted a fiery sea of red and orange. Instead, darkness seemed to have already swallowed the island whole, and the wind had picked up considerably in the past few hours. It tore through the trees, howling and moaning as it blew across the island. The smell of copper and rotted flesh assaulted Viki's nostrils as she stepped over the foliage of the jungle and exited the treeline.

From her current location, the area around the storehouse appeared to be deserted, although at first glance, the facility was much larger than she had expected it to be. The word "storehouse" on an island like this had brought to mind something reminiscent of a small shed. Instead, she found herself staring at a large warehouse-like structure that rose two stories from the ground. It reminded her of some sort of fortress... exactly what they would need to survive another night on the island.

I'm so tired... it's been three days...

There didn't appear to be many windows in the building ahead of them, and the front door appeared to be the only entrance to the building. If they could barricade it up, she, Evan, Gabe and Steve could stay there as long as they needed to recuperate... or at least, until the area became a dangerzone. Gabe definitely needed time to rest, recollect, and think things over. He probably needed it more than any of them... and then there was Courtney's death. Viki had never quite known the whole deal behind Steve and Courtney, only that there was more to them than met the eye.

She'd never prodded into the subject, seeing as she was good friends with Serenity. Truthfully, she had been afraid to ask questions for fear of accidentally putting herself into the middle of more drama than she cared to be in. Assuming that the guys were either right behind her or would rendezvous with her shortly, Viki didn't wait around on them to catch up and, instead, found herself quietly pushing her way into the storehouse. It was dark inside, and looked to be completely empty.

The bottom floor was nothing impressive... several large stacks of crates lay piled up within the corners of the storehouse, and a card table had been set up in front of the stairwell. Her immediate thoughts went to how easy it would be to use the nearby crates to block the windows and doors so that they would go undisturbed for the night. The crates looked heavy, though, so she'd definitely need the help of the others to accomplish such a task. There was one semi-small room downstairs that she couldn't see into and a flight of steel steps that lead upward, to the second floor of the storehouse.

Overall, it was a much more desireable location than the lagoon had been. At least if they stayed here, they'd be inside when it finally started to rain. Besides all that, in a building as large as this, they had a decent chance of finding some sort of supplies, or at the very least, getting some rest. All the boys looked fatigued, and Gabe looked as though he'd been through hell and back. Rest was something they were all in desperate need of.

Viki let out a light yawn but didn't venture out of the doorway of the warehouse. They'd need to check the area before they settled in for the night. After all, they certainly didn't want any uninvited guests popping up out of the shadows when their guard was down. It had already happened once before when Blood Boy had shown up out of virtually nowhere and tried to slaughter them all at the lagoon. Somehow, they'd all managed to avoid any sort of major injuries and had come out of the battle pretty much unscathed. Next time, though, they might not be so lucky.

She found herself quickly lost in these thoughts, and lingered in the doorway, awaiting the arrival of the rest of her group.

((Continued from You Can Run...))

Steve had been quiet for the majority of their journey to the storehouse. He hadn't really stopped to process just what had happened with Courtney. It was his fault that she died. She was an outsider whether people would admit it or not. The foreign exchange student. Not to mention, having Kara Holmes as her cousin couldn't have done any favours for her reputation at Southridge. It was difficult, because the night he'd spent with Courtney was one his favourite memories, but nothing had ever come of it. They had both been to stubborn and to stupid to pursue it. That and in the back of Steve's mind the entire was

Serenity...

Steve's eyes widened when he realized that she was here. How could he have been so stupid to not even think about her.

A noise from up front indicated that Viki had entered the storehouse. As he quickened his pace to the door, Steve drew his Garand into position. It was a careless move by Viki to not wait for at least one of them.

Barging through the door Steve was relieved that Viki hadn't been attacked, and was standing just inside.

"Don't do that again eh," Steve mumbled to her, "Could've been someone waiting and all that."

((Evan and Gabe from You Can Run ))

Seeing Viki move slightly ahead of the group made Evan arrive just before Gabe, but only shortly after Steve. Steve had a much more lengthy stride than Evan, so Evan always seemed to be coming in after him. It was almost metaphorical. As Evan came through the door, he watched as Steve stumbled through and was surprised by Viki. Evan, on the other hand, was looking forward to catching up with her. He manouvered himself over next to her and non-chalantly looked about the empty storeroom. Well, almost empty...

It had seemed as though this place had a fair share of action on the island. There were fresh footprints everywhere. Not to mention the body of Troy lying no more than a dozen or so feet away from where they were standing, lying in a pool of congealed blood that seemed to have came from a wound in his neck. Evan recognized the body right away. He knew Troy quite well from school. They weren't tight, but they did share many classes and sporting events together. And now he was dead, his lifeless eyes almost staring back at them. Evan motioned to Steve to take notice of the body.

"Aw geeze" he said, "we need to get him out of here. He's probably full of germs and I can smell it from here." Evan walked over to Troy's boots and picked them up. "Steve, can you give me a hand over here?"

Meanwhile, Gabe had been trying his hardest to stay close to the group, but found himself trailing more and more as he slipped in and out of bouts of melancholy. Gabe could be immature at times, and he found death especially hard to deal with. All his friends were dying, and the love of his life was included. He was teetering between bouts of depression for his fallen friends, and bouts of anger for the sick fucks that were doing this to them.

He moved into the storehouse just in time to see Evan lifting the feet of what seemed to be a dead body. Then he lost it. Gabe prompmty fell to his knees, bent forward, and vomited. It was a foul tasting brew erupting from his gullet. It was fortunate they hadn't eaten much, or there would be much more nasty half-digested chunks. For the most part it was just liquid. He wiped his mouth on his shirt, and rose to his feet. He didn't even care if anyone had seen him do it. Now was not the time to be worried about saving face. There were survival matters at hand.

((Quincy Archer continued from Sadist))

An interloper arrived, pressing his right hand to his left arm, in order to stop the bleeding from a recently created wound. Quincy Archer's panic had subsided since his flight from the mess hall, to be replaced by a cold, focused anger. "Shoot me from behind, will you? You spacky little cunt." He chuckled to himself. "You'll get yours, one way or another." If Quincy was to survive, then somehow the shooter would die here, and that was good enough for him.

The fingers in his right hand were turning white; he was pressing them so hard against his wound that the blood was being forced out of them. Yet the alternative was worse; Quincy knew above all else that he was not going to die from this little cut, oh no. He looked up and smiled when he saw a building from between the trees. "C'mon, Archer. Just a few more steps and you can rest, that's it." He stepped up to the back wall of the storehouse and fell against it with an audible clunk.

He grimaced. Oh, bollocks. He could faintly hear noises inside the storehouse; someone else had gotten there first, but was he playing or wasn't they? Quincy could swear it was a group of people inside, so it was likely to be a friendly bunch, but a team of killers wasn't unheard of.

He squatted down against the wall, just in case he needed to cut and run, pulled out his first aid kit from his day pack, and began to tend to his wound.

Steve had grabbed Troy's corpse's arms and was giving Evan a hand with moving it for all of 5 seconds before Gabe began to vomit. Steve dropped the corpse's upper body, which landed with a dull thud, and proceeded over to Gabe.

Placing his hands on Gabe's head Steve spoke to his friend, "Come on man. You have to get up and fight through this shit. There is no way we can get out of here without you and you know that. You have to realize that what happened to Kara, doesn't have to happen to everyone else."

Steve turned and walked back to the corpse, and finished moving it out the front door with Evan. As they were walking back in, Steve spoke to Evan.

"Dude. We need to keep an eye on him. I know we haven't always seen eye to eye, but for the sake of Gabe, we can't let him do something rash and get himself killed. And on the subject, would you mind keeping an eye on Viki. She scared the shit out of me walking in here without any of us. Yeah she's okay, but damn, thats the kind of shit that can go wrong in a big hurry."

Viki had found herself somewhat lost in thought in the time since she had entered the storehouse, and Steve's sudden entrance startled her. She jumped slightly, only to calm down almost immediately when she realized who had entered the facility. He quietly reprimanded her for entering the storehouse by herself, and Viki simply nodded in affirmation. As Evan moved into the storehouse, Viki started looking around the building once again. Somehow, during the time she had been standing there, she hadn't noticed the coppery smell emitting from the building.

She became more aware of it as Evan spotted it. Troy McCann. She hadn't known Troy all that well, but that didn't change the fact that seeing his body lying in a pool of its own blood was absolutely disgusting. And yet... she immediately recalled when she'd entered the examination room at the hospital several days prior and had literally fainted when she'd come across the corpse of Heather Tilmitt lying on the examination table. The memory wasn't a pleasant one at all, but what disturbed her the most was that she didn't have the same reaction to Troy's body.

In fact, it barely seemed to phase her. She simply looked at it, crinkling her nose a bit from the smell. Had she really become used to the sight and smell of dead bodies surrounding her? Was that normal? Healthy? Probably not, she surmised. Evan seemed rather put off by the sight of the corpse as well, and immediately decided that they should remove it from the area. As Evan moved over to the body and asked Steve for help getting it out of the way, Viki began to wonder what had happened to Gabe.

Her question was almost immediately answered as the other boy appeared behind them, immediately vomiting at the sight of the corpse. Viki frowned slightly as Gabe threw up before wiping his mouth off with his shirt. It wasn't like she could chastise him for getting sick at the sight of Troy's mutilated body. It was no different from what both she and Serenity had gone through at the hospital. If anything, she could sympathize with the football player.

Soon enough, Troy's corpse was outside. The pool of blood that had long since congealed on the ground was still a chilling sight, but in retrospect, it was far better than staring at a mutilated body. Viki simply stood in silence as the boys conversed among themselves for a moment, her eyes slowly moving across the darkened room in front of them. Her attention temporarily turned toward a window... she could have sworn she heard the sound of twigs cracking.

But there was nothing.

Nothing that she could see, anyway. Dismissing it as paranoia from lack of sleep, her attention turned back to the boys. Gabe seemed to be an emotional wreck, and Steve and Evan were both trying to be there for their friend. While it was an admirable quality, it left her a little out of the loop. After all, she was only capable of being so sympathetic about the fact that someone she hated had died. She felt horrible about that fact, but couldn't bring herself to be sad, or to even really care... despite the fact that it had affected their whole group so much.

She rubbed her arm lightly as her thoughts drifted back to the group she'd been with back at the hospital. She hadn't heard any of their names on the announcements yet, either as a killer or as being killed. No sign of them was a good sign, she supposed. She couldn't help but be worried about Serenity. She had always come off to Viki as a naive and trusting person, and she was one of Southridge's social elite... one of the "it" girls. She probably wasn't very safe out on the island. Viki really hoped she was okay.

Almost on cue, the announcements rattled off. The same voice from yesterday, the stuttering one, echoed out over the island, and it was only then that Viki realized that sometime in the little while that they had been in the storehouse, it had started raining. The fact that only three people had died came as almost a relief. At least it hadn't been ten or twenty like in previous days. Best of all, it was no one that she knew.

That meant that as of now, Serenity and Ianto were still alright. It put her mind at ease somewhat. Now that it was raining, moving out of the storehouse seemed like a bad move. It was a good time to get some rest from the game. Besides that, after having gone so long without sleep, the relaxing sound of the rain beating against the building was almost enough to put her to sleep. She let out a light yawn and remained quiet, waiting on the boys for some sort of guidance as to their next course of action.

It was a bit or tricky business dressing his wound, but Quincy managed. He was pleased to find the supplies he needed in his first aid kit. He craned his neck around to look at the wound in his arm and found, to his great relief, that it was relatively tiny. It would only require a small amount of disinfectant and a bit of gauze to treat. Quincy did not relish the prospect of getting stitches; he had been sewn up once before, during middle school, when he tried skateboarding for the first and last time in his life. Even with anaesthetic, it was a large inconvenience and he'd like to prolong it for as long as possible.

When the announcement sounded, with the same inexperienced reader at the helm, Quincy was wrapping a strip of gauze around his arm and trying to keep it shetlered from the rain by shielding it with his body. Bloody hell, has it been a day already? he thought with irritation. How quickly does time pass on this island? He cut off the gauze from the roll, checked to make sure it stuck, then got back up and walked over to the storehouse entrance, packing the first aid kit back up as he did so.

When he got to the door, he raised his hands above his head, wincing at having to move his arm and disturb his wound, and faced inside the storehouse, looking for the presence of other students. "Hello? It's Quincy! I'm unarmed!" he said with a wide-eyed expression. All the while, he kept thinking about the announcement's warning about the lack of kills. Let's see if I can't fix that.

The voice came seemingly from nowhere, but once again it was not Danya. It was the nervous stuttering voice. Luckily Serenity or anyone else Steve cared for were not listed on the announcement. His little moment of happiness and relief was cut short right after by the sound of another voice.

It was the limey from Southridge, Quincy Archer. Steve had never made an effort to talk to him, and didn't know a whole lot about him. Swinging his Garand into a firing position, Steve pointed the barrel right at the boy's chest.

"Why hello there. Now, this is just pre-cautionary, because with all the shit going on, I don't really know whether I can believe you are unarmed, and rather than risk the safety of my friend's as well as myself, I'm going to keep this gun pointed at you. Now that you know why I'm pointing my rather powerful rifle at you, I'm going to explain whats going to happen. We're going to search you to make sure you ain't lying to us. If you resist or try to go after one of us, I'll shoot you, and believe me when I say, I'm a damn good shot. If you want to leave right now, no questions asked, then do it."

In Steve's head his voice sounded a bit too crazy for his own liking. Was the game really starting to consume him that much? After all, here he was, with a gun, pointing it a kid who he shared a school with, ready to kill him in front of the world if the kid tried any funny business.

Quincy blinked at Steve and grinned sheepishly, lowering one arm and allowing his day pack to slide to the ground. "Do what you will. I got boxing gloves, which I won't be using unless I find a way to check my email here." It was a joke that was likely to go right over Steve's head, but Quincy couldn't resist making it.

Steve Digaetano was virtually an unknown to Quincy; the two of them lived in different worlds, and neither had sought each other out or given any acknowledgment of the other's existence. There was, however, a huge set of details that Quincy had heard, namely that of Steve's reputation within the football team. It was a stereotypical lifestyle, drinking like a demon and rutting like an animal, and whenever Quincy brought it into his mind he thought of Warren, who led a similar life, and grew angry.

"That reminds me," he mentioned. "You wouldn't have seen Warren anywhere, would you?"

It was certain that Quincy seemed a good deal less insane then some kid wearing a mask on this damned island, but the last run in they had with a stranger had left Evan and Gabe a might bit suspicious of him. The two looked at each other. Evan, seeking a sign of action from Gabe. Gabe giving Evan a look that seemed to say "I just puked, I don't want to have to deal with anything for a while". So Evan made the first move on Steve and Quincy's conversation.

"We haven't seen him. We haven't really seen many people. At least... i haven't. Anyways, he's not here, if that's what you're doing here. Why don't you try somewhere where there's more chance of not being found, like the forest?" looking back, Evan realized his last sentence wasn't it's usual coherent tone. The blow he'd done earlier in the small cottage was wearing off, and he was coming down. He'd forgotten all about the crashing. "Maybe... you should just, you know.... like, look for him there, or something" Oh God, I sound like one of my idiot underclassmen peers

Gabe rose to his feet, but remianed silent. He was resenting the horrbile taste in his mouth as he stood and stared at the corpse still lying on the ground in front of them all in plain sight.

Is he mocking me? Steve thought as the limey grinned and made some comment about boxing gloves.

Steve's thoughts were cutoff by Evan speaking up, basically repeating Steve's offer for Quincy to leave the area. It was good to see Evan taking a more assertive role in Steve's eyes. He needed Evan's help with getting Gabe back on track. Returning his attention to the matter at hand, Steve spoke once again.

"I'd take my friends advice. None of us have seen Warren, and we aren't looking for more company," Steve growled, "So boxing gloves or not, you've got 10 seconds to pick your bag back up, and get the hell out of here. If you ain't gone within my 10 seconds then you'll get to feel what its like to be shot."

Steve readied the rifle, pointing it at Quincy's chest once again. He found the safety and made sure it was off.

"One..."

Quincy dropped his smile immediately and began to back away from Steve. "So be it," he said to him, "but if you do see Warren, don't trust him. He betrayed me, and he'll betray you, too." And with that Quincy turned away and ran off, far away from Steve's unwelcoming rifle barrel.

Strike two. Alright. Let's try this one more time. If I get another pink slip, I'm playing this game alone.

((Quincy Archer continued in Dark of the Matinee))

"Good riddance." Steve mumbled with a snarl as he turned his back to the door.

Though Steve was doing his best to keep his composure the fact that mere seconds ago he was ready to kill someone if they poses a threat to his group scared the shit out of him. Steve sat on a nearby crate and examined the rifle in his hands. Steve couldn't help but think that eventually through his use or someone else's this weapon would end a life.

I really was ready to use you on that guy.

Leaning the gun up next to him, Steve faced Gabe who seemed to have recovered from his vomiting a little bit.

"Well buddy we're pretty fucked ain't we? I mean, after all it seems like all those freaks and nerds are out to kill everyone, and we were part of the crew that labeled them as such," Steve said, slightly smirking at the twist of fates that had been thrown on them, "All those kids who I just blew off, cause I had better things to do. Look at that assclown Blood Boy. He's trying to kill everyone out here, because he probably thinks its cool. Its cool to take revenge on someone who made fun of you by killing them."

Heh, Blood Boy. Why can't I remember his real name. I know it. I saw it on a class list once for that substitute we had. Isn't it like Nate Harris...

Steve's thoughts trailed off as he looked from Viki to Evan and finally once again his eyes came to Gabe.

"Viki you said earlier that Kara's murderer's name was Nathaniel Harris. Guys, that is Blood Boy's real name. He killed Kara."

Nathaniel Harris... Blood Boy.... Kara's killer... no, MURDERER! Nathaniel Harris... Nathaniel Harris... NATHANIEL FUCKING HARRIS!

Gabe was stoic. His emotions had broken. Were he a stronger type psychologically like Evan under pressure, he'd remain formulaic and cohesive. But he wasn't strong. He was just a kid. They were all just kids. And this was a grown up situation. What Gabe would give off as having everything together was a charade. He was just a kid, still in high school. Never even been to his own graduation yet. Never had the chance to smile in a black gown and take a picture next to his proud family. Never even worked a job outside fast food.

Nathaniel Harris... he was a kid too. It just went to show that some kids are immature, but others are just troubled. Where Gabe would fuck up by losing the big game, Blood Boy would fuck up by killing his peers. And fuck up he did, because he'd let Gabe live.

Nathaniel Harris... Blood Boy.... Kara's murderer... child-killer...

Gabe stood up, his mood unbroken by the news that his assailant had also been his girlfriend's killer. That the boy who'd attempted on Gabe and Evan's very lives had already brutally caused more damage to Gabe than a gun or knife ever could. He stood fully erect in the storehouse, not concerned over his friend's panicked expressions or the dead body on the ground in front of him. He meerly shot a brief glance at all of them, turned to the door and began to walk out.

Nathaniel Harris... Blood Boy.... Kara's murderer... child-killer...

He had a name now... he had a name and a reminder of that person's location each passing broadcast by that sick fuck Danya.

Nathaniel Harris... Blood Boy.... Kara's murderer... child-killer...

"Gabe! Gabe!" Evan cried out, arm outstretched in a futile attempt to break through the emotional barricade Gabe had put up. "Gabe, don't you fucking do it man. I swear to God Gabe, don't you fucking walk out that door! Gabe!" Evan called out again. It was the first time Evan had ever seen Gabe so taken by a task. It was as if he were watching the last thing he'd ever see his best friend go off to do. "Gabe, please don't!"

Nathaniel Harris... Blood Boy.... Kara's murderer... child-killer...

Gabe stepped out the door into the broken sunlight and stopped just outside. He wasn't in control of his actions or his thoughts. A concious Gabe would have listened to his friends' pleas for sanity. He would have stayed with the last ones alive he cared for, the ones who could protect him from harm and who he too could protect. But sane Gabe was gone now. Sane Gabe was dead.

Gabe stepped out further into the wilderness, unsure of where his feet were going to take him.

((Gabe continued in ))Weighing In

((Evan continued elsewhere))

"Son of a bitch." Steve mumbled as he packed up his gear, grabbed his rifle and raced for the door to chase his best friend.

He got to the door and found that Gabe had already managed to disappear into the jungle.

"GABE! Gabe you dumb bastard get back here!!!" Steve hollered into the wilderness. Just as Steve expected no response came from his friend. The look in his eyes had changed the minute Steve said Blood Boy's name. Gabe was but a shell of himself, and it was Steve's fault.

Turning back to where Viki and Evan stood, Steve spoke to them.

"Look, I'm going after him. I thought I wouldn't see any of you guys again after I woke up, and when I found you, it was the happiest moment of my life, no lie. I don't want to lose any of you again. Like, I don't want to leave you guys here, but its my fault Gabe took off. If he dies trying to do something stupid, then its on my hands. I have to go after him and stop him. You two should stay here. Make sure you have a quick exit plan if someone dangerous shows up. If I find him, I'll bring him back here."

With that Steve turned back around, readied his gun, and took off jogging speed into the woods, hoping to God he had gone the same way Gabe went.

I'll find you dude. I'll find you if its the last thing I do.

((Steve continued elsewhere))