Survival Of The Fittest

((continued from House of Boo))

James' legs ached; he finally slowed his pace as he became surrounded by flowers, first to a jog and then an exhausted walk as he looked back over his shoulder. He didn't see anybody.

"Holy," he gasped, breathing heavily and trying not to keel straight over, "...shit!"

Fucking Boos. He'd always been so spooked by them as a kid, although he'd never actually met one before. It was just as bad, if not worse, than he'd imagined. He could still smell the overpowering stench of Biggey's foul breath on his clothes, and it made him gag just a bit. The rifle felt heavier than before; it was uncomfortable.

As he scanned behind him his toe caught sharply on a rock and he was pitched forward with a yelp, landing face first in the flowers. Some of them laughed at him as he got quickly back to his feet, and he told them to "fuck off" but that just made them chirp more incessantly. Aggravated, he ripped a few of them out of the earth by their stems and tossed them to the side, their agonized screams effectively setting an example to the others, who shut up quickly.

'Relax James, come on,' he told himself, trying to control his racing heart as he walked off his sprint. He felt really out of it, too. Like something was off. He popped another aspirin, hoping they'd start kicking in soon. 'Gotta just focus. Snap the hell out of it.'

A chrysanthemum means truth.

A white rose for silence, a yellow rose for jealousy.

A white lily for purity, an orange one for hatred.

A camellia reminds one of death.

The language of flowers...it was simply Nadine had picked up in her spare time. To wake up surrounded by such artful works of nature left and right, as though she were a princess surrounded by her subjects, only did well to remind her of such. It was a petty, useless skill, she knew.

Why her mother encouraged all of her daughters to take up flower arranging was probably for a reason entailing a depth of idiocy Nadine couldn't even begin to comprehend. Did she think it would enable them to become more refined? Acquire skill in a high-class art? Attract a man?

...Don't make me laugh.

Ah, but she didn't want to think about that right now, did she? There were more pressing matters at hand...like the vial held up to the sun carefully in her dainty fingers. The way the light pierced right through it, the contents crystal-clear, one would think it was just water or something.

Of course, whoever thought that might be thinking second thoughts if they gulped it down.

Nadine Willowbrook sighed, looking about her with a seemingly bored and bothered look. She REALLY didn't want to do this... this REALLY wasn't her thing. Would Mr. Danya pretty please let her sit out of the game? Can she just go home now?

But of course she couldn't, could she? Not that she liked home, but it really was a bother not being able to go wherever she pleased. Such an inconvenience.

Oh right, she'd better start worrying about people coming to kill her, right? Well, that wasn't about to happen. That is, if she kept her wits together and played her cards right. She wasn't an expert at this ridiculous game called SOTF, but... eh, she'll learn the ropes as things moved along, yes?

Well first of all she'd have to find that fanatic boyfriend of hers...

She stood up, brushing her ebony black hair to the side, brushing away at the hem of her sundress, simple and modest, yet prim and presentable. She brushed off her white leather sandals and adjusted the white ribbon tied around her slender neck... They wouldn't deny a girl to look after her appearance after she'd likely been simply thrown onto the island, would they?

The bastards.

She gasped in surprise as there was a sound of a body crashing against the vegetation. She turned around to see a boy there...someone she didn't recognize. But naturally he must've been a student right?

Well he couldn't have been anyone noteworthy. Or else she'd have remembered his name, let alone his face.

"Um...Are you alright?" She asked cautiously, standing at a distance. She didn't move to help him, or approach him. The vial disappeared inside her pocket. "Are you hurt? Do you need help or anything?"

She frowned. She hadn't approached at first, because it seemed as though...

...was it just her or did he look kind of....disturbed?

James was at first a little startled when a girl appeared suddenly in front of him, seven burgundy tentacles twitching restlessly from under her yellow sundress. He jumped back a little, a murmer of surprise escaping his lips.

"Whew, sorry," James sighed, a little embarrassed. He tried to keep his eyes off her writhing appendages, so he wouldn't seem rude. "I'm fine. You just surprised me is all, I thought you were a--"

Wait. There was no way she'd believe him about the Big Boos.

"--ah, um...you know, playing." Good save. "I'm not playing," he added quickly, releasing his grip on the rifle with one hand and letting it rest at his side.

....

....What's up with this guy? Nadine tilted her head to the side, her large black doe-eyes gazing at him curiously. From the expression on his face, the way he looked at her was as though he thought she was some kind of...

Monster? Now why would he think something like that? Being someone who minded her looks, she didn't really think of herself as that much of an unsightly person...

Nevertheless, she for now decided to be understanding... but that was when she saw the rifle at his side. How could she have not noticed before?! He could've easily killed her...

...that is, if he wanted to.

The fact that he wasn't lifting a finger to attack her right now? That was at least a good thing. Good weapons made people dangerous. But good weapons made people into good assets as well. Maybe she and this boy could reach an understanding?

She smiled a bit, offering him her friendliness. She crouched down a bit, hugging her knees, as a way of making herself look non-threatening and harmless. The look she gave him, warm and kind, seemed to offer him an understanding, receptive ear.

"That's alright. You surprised me too," she murmured quietly, looking at her feet, her white toes poking through her sandals. "I'm just glad that you didn't decide to attack me there and then. I mean, even if I HAD a weapon...I probably wouldn't know what to do with it." She bit her lip.

"There are people out there...they're playing, aren't they? They're out there, and I don't know what to do. I'm just glad you showed up. What if it hadn't been you that suddenly showed up? What if it was one of them?" She looked away, rubbing her eyes a bit, which were starting to well up. "What would happen in that situation? What would I do?"

James was glad the octopus woman meant him no harm, although his ears perked up when she mentioned "them". Did she know about the Boos after all?

"Well," he offerred, holding up the Garand, "why don't you come with me? I may not know what I'm doing here but, uh...wait." He was confused. "You don't have a weapon?"

Nadine looked up, eyes widening. Warm gladness filled them.

"Could...could I? I mean..." She smiled a bit. "If you don't mind me tagging along...I'll probably be just a burden to you, but I'll try to keep up! I just don't want to be all by myself right now..."

Nadine blinked slightly at his question.

....Well, she supposed she would have to show it to him....

"Well, it's not that they didn't give me one, I just don't consider it a weapon. I don't really know what it is or what to do with it." She reached into her pocket and took out the vial of clear liquid, showing it to him. "...Not very useful, is it? Do you have any idea what it is? It doesn't look useful to me, but it's all that I have..."

((Brenden continued from Carnage))

Brenden stumbled out of the forestation and found himself in a field of flowers.

How beautiful. All these flowers, all so fresh and full of life. Yet with one wrong pluck they die. Kind of like us on this island.

Brenden spat on the flowers. It was ridiculous. He'd been walking for some time since his little near fiasco at the hospital, and hadn't found anyone. The Indiana Jones inside him was horribly disappointed in the lack of use his bullwhip was seeing, but he knew he had to be smart about his victims. Unfortunately for Brenden as he now realized, he had been issued a very distinct weapon. If he were to beat someone or choke someone with the whip, the marks would be easily recognizable to anyone who found the corpse.

There was a bit of noise coming from about 50 yards away from Brenden, and he moved to see who it was. Turned out to be two people Brenden had no recollection of knowing. One of them however had an M1 Garand.

Perfect.

"Oi, you two! Are you playing or not? Its Brenden Bedard."

"No idea." James didn't know what to make of the vial either. Was it holy water? Maybe they could use it on...

Someone else showed up, whom James recognized from class. Brenden Bedard, and he introduced himself accordingly. James waved and answered "No!" but he was a bit uneasy, because Bedard had always seemed like the just the cold calculating type to play this kind of game. He decided not to bring it up.

Nadine took the vial back and placed in her pocket when she heard the newly arrived presence behind her... Her eyes widened slightly. She vaguely recognized the figure from her class. Brendan was his name? Something like that? She never really got to know him that well enough to remember his name...

Upon seeing the weapon in his hand, she immediately got up to her feet and moved behind James, looking somewhat nervous and apprehensive... surely if something went wrong he could take care of things, wouldn't he?

When it came to the point where one guy had a whip and the other had a rifle....personally? She'd rather much stand behind the one with the rifle.

"Um... I'm not playing," Nadine murmured hesitantly, looking rather fearful towards the newcomer. "What about you? You're...you're not going to try and kill us are you? Please say that you aren't! I don't want to fight...."

((B45 start))

A small voice rang out. A small one, but one that most normal people could hear.

"You... guys aren't playing, right? I really hope you aren't."

Luis Chezinski (Male Student no. 45) forced a soft smile, his hand clasping a bottle of Aerosol. The look on his face showed neither fear nor madness, although he was feeling alot of the former. His eyes scanned the field of flowers, from each and every person that was in sight. James Brown, a boy with a rifle. Nadine Willowbrook, a delicate girl who was slightly cute in his mind. Another boy whom Luis didn't know personally, but he had seen him around school. Three different people, two of which Luis felt extremely safe being around. He shivered slightly, the can of Aerosol becoming fairly cold in his hands.

Luis brushed his fingers through his hair, sighing softly. He forced himself to continue. "Well... I guess I'll say that I'm not playing this game either..." The blond boy pushed his can of Aerosol into his pocket, throwing his black bag over his shoulder. "I need to stick with someone. I j-just don't feel safe. You guys don't mind it if I stick with you? I've got no one else to be close to. I'm all alone in this game. I need some allies to back me up. Please?"

Luis's smile became less forced. He hoped these people were friendly enough.

Good freaking lord, why can't I ever just get one or two people? I can take that easily, plus Jamesy here looks like hes tripping or something.

Fighting the urge to show his displeasure at the fact that there were now three people all seeming to want to align with each other, Brenden spoke.

"You know, I gave serious thought to playing, but there has got to be a way off this island, and to do that, you're going to need more than yourself. You need a team of people. If you guys can trust me, I'd like us to try and figure out a way off this island. I watched the second version of this game, since I kind of knew two people that were in the game. We can learn from their mistakes, and we can use the knowledge we have of the game to get ourselves off this island."

Yeah, and by us, I mean me. Rule #1 of a Last Man Standing Contest: Every man for themselves.

"Guys, uh..."

James was growing more and more uneasy as more people showed up. He scratched his temple, distracted by a distant buzzing. He looked around. Just what was that anyway? He discovered to his horror that the sound eminated from the colossal swarm of grotesque mutant insects that suddenly filled the sky, blotting out the sun as they descended voraciously upon the field of flowers. What kind of island was this!?

James pointed up to the top of the sky, his face aghast as he screamed at the top of lungs, "Killer bees with the heads...of raccoons!!" He felt almost paralyzed, and it required a vast amount of effort to raise the Garand and start firing randomly into the swarm.

Hm? More people? Nadine thought with a frown. Why were people showing up left and right? They were interfering... Couldn't she be given some time to secure her allies properly? Well there was Luis, whom she'd heard had a penchant for throwing childlike temper tantrums at various intervals....then again, she'd also heard he had a talent for healing...

Her eyes widened in surprise as the boy with the rifle suddenly went into a complete tangent of sorts, firing randomly into the field.

"Wh-what are you doing?! Are you crazy?! STOP IT!" She shrilled at him. To think she was CONSIDERING securing him as an ally... she decided it was time for a quick change of plans.

Quickly, she moved away from him, and ducked far back until she was standing behind Luis.

Her irritated expression suddenly melted into one of utter fear. She pointed an accusing finger at James, shouting, "HE'S PLAYING THE GAME. He's a killer! He's just acting, playing the disturbed guy! Someone stop him, already!"

Of course, whether or not that was really the case didn't matter in Nadine's mind. If others could be easily encouraged to play the game for her, then wasn't that the same as winning?

Luis felt a violent jolt coarse through his entire body when he head the loud pop that arose from the rifle James had. It sounded like a lightning bolt, but it was quite apparent that it couldn't have been one. Luis was unsure of how he should react. Should he turn around and run in the direction that he came from? Should he stay and try to calm James down? The boy didn't look like his mind was in the best of places. Maybe he was starting to go insane?

This wasn't the best of times for 'maybes' and 'what ifs, as Nadine ran right behind Luis, obviously stricken with fear. She pointed at the boy with the rifle and stated that he was playing the game, with made Luis just a bit confused. From the look on the boy's face, it was almost like he had no idea what they had been put through, like they weren't even playing a deadly game to begin with. The look on his face didn't matter much, as Luis looked back at Nadine with fear crossing his own face.

"W-Well!" he stammered, his hands reaching into his pockets. "Wh-What the hell d-do you want me TO do?!! I only have a can of A-Aerosol and a lighter-"

A thought appeared. Luis stopped for a moment. Was it really necessary to kill James? This was only a guess, but Luis actually thought that James could be very easily startled under the right circumstances. Maybe Luis could use this to his advantage. He fished his hand through his back, pulling out the pamphlet that was provided for all of the students, flicking his lighter into his other hand. He put the flame directly under the book, setting it on fire. Luis smiled, thinking that there was a good chance that he could scare James away without any unnecessary conflict. The chances were slim, but he was going to have to make due.

"Hold on... I th-think I'm going somewhere with this..." Luis flung the inflamed pamphlet outwards like he would a frisbee, hoping it at least startled the other boy enough. Golly, I hope this works

"Holy fuck!" Brenden yelled as he hit the deck.

Yeah James was certainly under the influence of something.

Brenden saw Luis light his pamphlet on fire and try to distract James with it.

"He's not a mosquito you idiot. Get down and I'll handle this." Brenden barked at Luis. Grasping for his bullwhip Brenden knew the only chance to get James to stop firing was to use his whip to restrain one of James' arms.

James had turned his back to where Brenden was as he fired at the imaginary Beecoons. Brenden slowly rose up and with one fluid motion of his arm, and a flick of his wrist, he sent the end of the whip hurdling towards James' right arm.