Survival Of The Fittest

((Finn Grant continued from In Situ))

It was dark by the time Finn reached a ramshackled looking town by the sea. It was getting late and he needed to find a place to rest for the night. Slowing his pace, Finn gazed into each building he passed as he walked along the boardwalk, inspecting each one carefully to see if it was a suitable place to sleep. Each building seemed to either missing a wall, a ceiling or had crumbled down all together.

Continuing to walk along the unstable boardwalk, a small building positioned next to an overlook caught Finn's eye. He squinted in order to try and get a better look at the building and it seemed pretty much intact. Exhaling heavily, Finn set off towards the building.

When Finn reached the building it turned out to be a men's and women's restroom. He grunted in annoyance; it was typical that the only intact building he could find was a toilet. Out of habit, Finn looked for the door with the men's symbol on it and reluctantly opened the door and went inside.

As soon as Finn walked through the door a horrendous stench filled his nostrils. He gagged and gripped the back of his hood, pulling it around his neck to the front and pressing it over his nose.

It was pitch black in the bathroom so Finn slapped his hand against the wall and fumbled for the light switch. He slid his hand up and down the cold tiles until he felt a hard plastic square. Finn flipped the switch and waited for the room to illuminate, but it remained black. He flipped the switch backwards and forwards several more times, gaining speed with each flip, however he soon gave up and released an annoyed grunt.

Crouching down on the floor, Finn unzipped his duffel bag and plunged his hand in, gripping hold of the handle of his torch. Pulling the torch out, Finn pointed it in front of him and turned it on, lighting up the room in a spreading beam, leaving the darkness hugging the corners of the room. Finn ascended off of the floor and shone the torch around the bathroom. The room had an eerie feeling to it, but Finn wasn't prepared to go back down to the boardwalk and search for another place to stay the night.

Finn decided on sleeping in the corner nearest to the door, positioned near the sinks. With his hood still pressed over his nose, Finn sat down underneath one of the sinks and pushed his bag right into the corner of the room. He slid himself down and laid his head on his bag before curling up into a ball and closing his eyes.

---

Finn awoke to a loud voice echoing around the room. He propped himself up with his arm and stared around the room with a dazed look on his face. It was then that he realised that the voice he was listening to was the voice of the man named Danya calling out the first announcement. Finn pushed himself off of the dirty floor and sat upright, trying to make a mental note on the death list. The only names that stuck in his head were of course Joe, Jason and Theodore Fletcher. Theodore had killed two people and it was very unlikely that he killed them both by accident or self-defence. Finn would have to be very careful around Theodore if he ever ran into him.

When the announcement finished, Finn rubbed his eyes and looked around the room. The only source of light in the room was a square of light shining out of the cracks around the bathroom door- it must be morning. Turning his torch on again, Finn made his way to one of the toilet cubicles and lifted one of the tank lids off of the toilet. He then walked over to the bathroom door and propped it open with the tank lid. Light suddenly filled the room and Finn was briefly blinded by the light, causing him to raise up an arm to shield his eyes.

Turning back to face the room, Finn entered it once again to collect his stuff. As he walked over to pick up his bag, Finn caught his reflection in the mirror. He froze then walked over to the mirror and stared intently at his face. For a brief second he didn't recognise himself; blood and dirt stained his face and there was a large bruise on his jaw. At the sight of the blood, Finn started to gag, he needed to get it off of him.

Sliding his hoody off, Finn gripped hold of one of the sleeves and held it under the tap, soaking it in water. He scrubbed his face and hands frantically until all of the blood was off of him and his skin was bright pink. As he watched the blood run down the sink, memories of the previous day flooded his head.

Finn slid down to the floor and put his head in his hands as he thought about the event that happened yesterday. He couldn't help but think that all that all that occurred yesterday was his fault. If he hadn't of gone into that room and tried to get the gun Jason would still be alive. It was his fault that Jason was dead.

No. It wasn't his fault. It wasn't his fault that Jason had attacked him. It wasn't his fault that Joe went crazy and killed Jason. It was all their fault.

After reassuring himself, Finn raised his head out of his hands and released a sniff and a sigh before wiping away a tear that had started to form in his eye.

((Mara Montalvo continued from Decathect )))

Mara didn't make it very far from the lighthouse point. She ran, carrying her new bag and her new gun. Somewhere in the woods she slumped against a tree. She slid down until she was lying in the dirt and passed out.

The next time she woke was a few hours later. Blearily she opened her eyes and listened. She had no idea where she was or how she'd gotten there. The last she remembered was the lighthouse with Mike and Hansel. The announcements said that Hansel was the one who'd killed Dan. She was right. He was a murderer.

"I....escaped a murderer...."

She fell back asleep.


She woke up another hour later. Mara stood, feeling a little better and walked. Where ever she was, there was a sign that said "RESTROOMS" pointing up ahead. She walked up to the small building. There were two doors. She chose the one with the little triangle shaped woman.

It was dark inside. She stuck the bag by the door to keep it open and allow the light. She plodded up to the sinks and looked in the mirror. She looked like a horror movie. Mara pulled a face. She turned the tap and some murky water came out.

The girl stripped her shirt off and started splashing the water on her face. Clouds of red collected in the sink basin. She stuck her head under the faucet and with her good hand she rung out her hair, watching the cotton candy colored water pour down. She stuck her shirt in the basin and let the water run over it

Now her reflection was cleaner with her soggy black hair hanging around her face. Mara felt fragile. She sort of wanted to cry. Instead she bit her lip, turned off the water and left the bathroom.


She went outside and sat on a bench that overlooked the scenic view. Next to her she placed her shirt to dry. Digging around inside the bag she found the first aid kit with disinfectant spray. She opened up her palm. There was a gash in the middle with two floppy pieces of flesh on either side. Mara sprayed her hand and yelped. She reached into the small pocket in her skirt and pulled out a tiny case. She'd ditched her bag so it was the only thing of hers she still had left. She did not appreciate that this was her keepsake.

Mara opened the small case and inside was a needle and a small packet of black thread. Rebeca had given it to her before she'd left the house. "One of your buttons is a little loose," she said. She shoved it in her pocket absently. She'd tossed it into the bin at airport security and then put it back in her pocket, not thinking about it.

"That bitch must be laughing her head off," she grimaced.

She tore open the thread's plastic wrapping and started trying to put the thread through the eye of the needle.

"Into the eye the thread goes, a steady hand will end your woes."

_______________________________________________________

"Into the eye the thread goes, a steady hand will end your woes."


"Will you hurry up? I don't want to stand here all day."

Mara huffed and crossed her arms. In the mirror in front of her, her pout was reflected back. At her feet sat her sister, trying to thread a needle.

"One sec, -ranta" she mumbled, part of the thread in her mouth.

Rebeca finished threading the needle and swept a piece of her hair back into her messy bun. She got up onto her knees and pulled back the fabric. Rebeca tilted her head and looked in the mirror to see the effect. She put the threaded needle down and picked up a pin cushion full of pins. She pushed the pin cushion against her glasses, sliding them back up her nose and then pulled one of the pins out with her teeth.

Rebeca set the pulled fabric against the back of the dress and fixed a pin to it. The process was repeated on the other side.

"It'll be done tomorrow if I don't have much homework. Plenty of time in advance before your next uh...show-"

"Pageant"

"Mmmhmm..that," she said, starting to sew. Mara jumped.

"OW! You stuck me! Watch it. That hurt," she grumbled.
_______________________________________________________


Her mouth set in a thin line as her shaking hands tried to thread the needle.

"Laugh it up, 'beca."

Lying out is hoody on the floor in front of him, Finn began examining it in the dim light. From what he could make out in the faintly lit room, his hoody was now more red with blood than it was grey. In disgust, Finn screwed up the hoody into a tight ball and tossed it into his open bag; he wasn't going to spend the rest of his time on this island drenched in someone else's blood.

He had previously soaked his top in one of the sinks in an attempt to rinse the blood out of it which ended up turning the white stripes into a pinky/red colour. Finn was now wearing this top with a slightly repulsed look on his face, he would be wearing one of his other t-shirts if he could but they were all in his suitcase which was god knows where right now.

A shiver ran through his body due to the still damp top as he got up to his feet. He decided he'd go sit outside to dry off, but as he walked towards the bathroom door he heard a squeal from just outside the building. Finn froze for a moment then dropped to the floor and scurried over to his bag. There was someone - or possibly more than just someone - outside and by the sound of it they were in danger, which probably meant he would soon be in danger too.

Pulling his bag towards him, Finn dove his hand in and instantly felt the cool metal of the revolver. Taking the gun out, he placed it on the floor next to him before reaching in again and grabbing a handful of bullets; the gun hadn't been reloaded since yesterday and Finn wasn't sure how much ammo was still left in the gun. He held the gun far away from him, making sure not to point the barrel towards him, and began to fumble around with it until he saw the cylindrical chamber pop out of the side of the revolver. Finn pushed down hard on the metal rod that stuck out of the chamber and a clattering sound echoed around the room as a cascade of bullets fell from the chamber and scattered across the floor. With shaking hands, Finn slotted in six new bullets and slammed the chamber shut before slowly rising off of the floor.

As Finn crept towards the open door, he heard a faint voice from outside. He took another few steps closer and the voice spoke again. It was a girl's voice, and by the sound of it she appeared to be talking to herself.

Finn held his gun up in front of him and poked his head around the door in search for the girl. He found her a couple of feet away from the building sat on a bench wearing nothing but a bra and a skirt. She had her back to him and appeared to be looking intently at something on her lap.

Taking one more step out into the open, Finn stared at the girl with an uncertain look on his face, the dark skin tone and black hair looked awfully familiar. He opened his mouth to speak but quickly closed it. What if it wasn't the person who he thought it was? It could be one of the killers that were listed on the morning announcement. Finn shook the thoughts off and spoke tentatively.

"M-Mara?"

Mara squeezed her eyes closed tightly.  It was making her eyes tired trying to concentrate on the needle. Her injured hand shook too much to be able to actually thread the thing. From behind her, someone timidly said her name. She perked up. Next to her on the bench was the gun she'd taken from Mike. Her hand discretely slid away from her lap and toward the gun so that when she turned her head her hand was resting on it.

A piece of her wet hair was stuck in front of her right eye, but she could still see him.

"Hi Finn," she said, simply.

She supposed there was no reason to be embarrassed. Not like he would care about her toplessness. He was a friend and she didn't remember hearing about him during the announcement. However, the past day had put a dent in how much she trusted anyone, friend or not. Her fingers curled around the gun on the bench.

"If you're not going to shoot me, I could use some help. I'm tired and I'm not feeling great so put that away. I've got a boo boo."

Finn's grip on the gun tightened and he held his breath in anticipation as the girl's head started to turn. Releasing his breath, Finn threw his head back and closed his eyes as a smile began forming on his face. The girl did in fact turn out to be Mara Montalvo and Finn couldn't be happier to see her. It would be lucky finding a person with a sane mind on the island, let alone one of his best friends.

"Oh thank fuck for that." He said with a laugh.

Tucking his gun into the top of his jeans, Finn jogged towards Mara. When he got closer to her, Finn noticed a fierce looking gun on the other side of Mara that he hadn't seen before. It looked a lot better than his little revolver that was for sure. Finn saw that her hand was on top of the gun and for a brief moment, Finn thought that she was going to attack him. However, he quickly shrugged the thought of and put it down to her just being scared.

As soon as he approached her, Finn stood behind Mara, wrapped his arms loosely around her neck in an embrace and placed his chin on the top of her head. He could feel her damp hair pressing against his body, making his top even wetter than it was before. It was then that she mentioned about having an injury.

He looked down and saw that the thing she had in her lap was her deeply gashed hand with a needle and thread sticking out of it. Finn's eyes widened in shock and his lips parted slightly as soon as he saw her hand. The sight of the mangled hand made Finn feel somewhat queasy the more he looked at it, he could only imagine how painful it must be.

"Shit, what happened to you?"

Mara sat up and dropped the needle when he came up and hugged her. Mara lowered her head and smiled. His sort were always a bit emotional. Her hand slid away from the gun. His chest was cold and damp against her; he must have either gone swimming or he was also doing laundry like her.

"Yeah. Nice to see you too."

He noticed her hand and the needle and thread she'd been fiddling with. She looked down at her open palm.

"Thread this for me and I'll tell you what happened."

With her right, uninjured hand she held up the thread and the needle.

"I was walking around and I saw this guy who does work with deaf kids I think, Dan. I started talking to him and then Hansel shot him in the head from the bushes. I ran away and got to this lighthouse and he showed up a little later. He found where I was and he had this big gun so I hit him in the head with a snow globe. Right after that happened Mike came in and he wanted to wait until Hansel, who, let me remind you shot someone, woke up so we could all hash it out like kumbaya. So I told him no way and tried to leave, but he wouldn't let me and threw me on the floor just as asshole number 1 was starting to come to. Anyway, he was over me and I grabbed a piece of glass from the broken snow globe," she said, looking at her hand, "and I stabbed him in the neck and...uh...I guess he's dead now. Then I got up just as Hansel woke up and grabbed Mike's gun right when Hansel was about to shoot me. But…he didn't and I ran out of there and now I'm here."

Finn took the thread and needle from Mara and brought it up to eye level. When Mara started to tell her story, Finn began to try and thread the needle. At first, he tried to put the thread through the needle in the state it had been given to him. However, after realising how ineffective this was, Finn wetted the end of the thread with his tongue and flattened it with his lips to make the tip stiffer and easier to insert into the needle. It took a couple of attempts to get it into the eye, but he finally managed to do it and finished it off by tying the end of the thread into a rough looking knot.

He held up the threaded needle in front of Mara in an offering gesture whilst he continued to listen to the end of the story. When her story came to an end, Finn was left with a stunned look on his face, his mouth creating a perfect O shape. He did hear her right didn't he? Finn stared at Mara with the same shocked expression for a couple of seconds as he tried to come to terms with what she had just said.

"Wait, what? You killed him?" Finn exclaimed in a high pitch voice.

For a brief moment, Finn looked away from Mara and gazed out over the water. He'd known this girl for years, yeah she was pretty bitchy at times but so were the rest of the group. He'd never thought she'd actually end up killing someone. The way she said it was so casual too, like it was just an everyday thing. Finn turned back to look at her with an almost distressed facial expression.

"Mike who?"

"Hi, yeah, thanks for your concern. I just told you someone shot a classmate I was talking to and then threatened to shoot me and you want to ask about the other guy. No big deal, though."

Mara took the needle from him. She grabbed the disinfectant spray and sprayed it down. She turned to the bag and noticed the patch. The bags didn't have names, but it had a letter B on it with a number which she supposed might not be the best thing to be running around with. Mara brought the side of the bag up and tugged at the patch with her teeth until it yielded. She tore it the rest of the way off with her good hand and threw it to the side.

"Football Mike. Mike W- something. Tall, beefcake kind of boy."

She was ready. Mara stared at the tip of the needle. The metal narrowed to a perfectly sharp point. She knew how to sew a button, but that was the extent of what she knew. Once when she was very young, maybe 6, her mother bought her and Rebeca needle point projects from a craft store. You used different colors of thread to make a little picture. Mara threw hers to the side and gave up before it was even a quarter of the way done. Rebeca made a picture of birds in a birdhouse and hung it on the door to her room. Mara knocked it down, but she just fixed it and hung it inside after.

Mara sighed and her eyebrows came up, knitting together in anxiety. Her fingers tingled.

"It's not like when he walked in I thought I was going to kill him. I had no idea he was going to walk in. It was bad luck."

She laid her left hand open in her lap. Mara bit her lip. She held the flap of skin taut. Her heart pounded. Slowly, precisely, she pushed the tip of the needle against the soft surface of her skin. Her eyes watered and she pulled the needle through until the knot at the end of the thread rested against the wound, bringing the thread's path to a stop.

"It-" she choked. "W-was....his own f-f-fault. I didn't-" she took a big breath. Her shaking fingers moved to the other side of the wound and held the skin. She let out the breath and pierced her hand again. "- mean to. His own st-stupid fault. Idiot."

((Nina Clarke's story continues from Good Day Sunshine))

Nina had walked pretty much randomly through the woods, only stopping to eat, drink and relieve herself.

So when she found herself going along a path, and finding two people she recognized as bully-types sitting on a bench, she was not pleased with the results of her randomly walking through the woods.

Nina wasn't sure how to react to this. On one hand, Finn and Mara were both absent on the announcements, so Nina was reasonably confident that neither were killers. On the other hand, both might be looking to kill.

But Nina didn't really know, so why not try and talk to them? Mara was...crying? That seemed out of character, so hopefully nothing was going on. Might as well check.

"Hey, what's going on?"

Finn felt a twang of guilt at Mara's first reaction to his question. He was worried about her, but finding out the details of why and who she killed was a bit more important than a cut hand.

"Yeah, I know the one." Finn said in response to Mike's description. He had never spoken to Mike before so he wasn't sure if reacting like that was out of the ordinary for him. Then again, this wasn't an ordinary place; Mara had killed someone for Christ sake.

Looking over Mara's shoulder, Finn watched her as she began to stitch her hand back up. A disgusted look infected his face as he continued to watch the needle being slid in and out of the bloody flesh. He wanted to look away from the gory mess, but Finn couldn't help but continue staring at her hand. Whilst Mara stitched her hand, she started defending herself about what had happened at the lighthouse and suddenly she began to cry.

Finn looked around awkwardly, unsure of what to do. He'd never seen her cry before and he wasn't sure if it was due to the pain of her hand or because of what had happened the previous day. Mara wasn't one to cry on account of her emotional state, so Finn put it down to pain.

Shifting his weight, Finn climbed over the back of the bench and sat down next to Mara. He sheepishly wrapped his arm around her shoulders and gave her a gentle squeeze for comfort. Finn was determined to get more information out of her for reassurance that one of his closest friends wasn't a cold hearted murderer. Turning his body to face her, Finn stared at her with concerned eyes, he'd try a softer approached this time.

"It was out of self-defence though right? I mean, you didn't want to kill him did you?"

A female voice called out to them from along the overlook and his muscles clenched in response, his hand instinctively gripped hold of the handle of his gun that was still tucked into his jeans. Finn's head whipped around to the direction of the voice and he relaxed once again after seeing it was only Nina Clarke. He groaned and leant in close to Mara.

"Ugh, it's Nina Clarke." Finn whispered to Mara. He swivelled his body around so it was more or less facing Nina and raised his voice in a louder, slightly aggressive tone.  "What do you want, Nina?"

She felt like she could taste blood again.

Mara continued her work. Her right hand was shaky and unsure. Unfortunately, she was a lefty. Her sewing was halting, and slow. Blood trickled out from around the thread and rolled down her hand. She pulled the thread tight and the split part of her palm came together, held by the black criss cross.

She sighed shakily. She could do this. She had to finish.

Finn came around and held onto her again. She shrugged him off. She was sort of busy at the moment.

"I'm not running around stabbing everyone so maybe you should be considering what he did to get stabbed!"

His question was if it was self defense and if she meant to kill him. She would argue that yes, it was done to save herself from harm that would have befallen her quickly had she not stabbed him. Had she meant to? Well obviously. That was a dumb question. The choice to stab him was a very fast one, having happened without much thought from her, sort of a reflex. However, when she looked up at him with the glass in hand she pushed it deeper. At the very least, she meant to hurt him. It was his fault for not letting her leave, for taking the side of an unconscious crazy person, for grabbing her, for throwing her down.

"I already said what happened. I was trying to leave before psycho woke up, he wouldn't let me, I ended up on the ground and I got him before he had the chance to do anything else. If he'd just let me go we wouldn't be in this situation."

The conversation had at least given her something else to concentrate on while she finished. She tied the end of the thread in a knot and searched the bag for gauze.

There was a voice and Finn announced who it was. Nina Clarke. Finn had a hand on his gun so she figured he had it covered in the event someone decided to be a ranger for justice or something. Mara ignored her and unrolled gauze.

Finn reacted like a prick, as expected, and Mara just straight-up-ignored her, which might've been even worse. Nina was tempted to just walk away, but something Mara said caught her attention.

"Wait, you...what happened?"

Then Nina processed what'd happened.

"You...you stabbed someone? What...what the hell happened?" Nina moved back into her left foot, just in case she needed to run. They both seemed to be armed, and Nina definitely didn't have the ability to fight with her fucked-up left hand. She wasn't sure if either or both of them were killing, and she wanted nothing to do with this situation if either wanted her blood.

Still. Might as well try and piece together what happened.

"Okay, who got stabbed and why?"

Mara paid no attention to either Finn or Nina after he whispered to her, she just continued trying to fix her hand as if she was in her own little world. Then again, he couldn't blame her for just getting on with it, after all there was no threat from Nina and she'd need to mend her hand quickly before it got infected.

Apparently, Nina had overheard part of Mara and Finn's conversation and had started to freak out. Nosy bitch, if she was going to eavesdrop, she could have at least done it properly and listened to the full story before making assumptions. She started to back off but then stopped much to Finn's disappointment; it looked like she was going to stick around for a bit longer.

"Oh, I'm sorry I didn't know there were three people in this conversation." Finn snapped whilst glaring at Nina. "And for your information, she was the one that got attacked."

Finn was cautious about giving too much away to Nina, he didn't want her getting the wrong idea and running off and telling everyone that Mara was a murderer. Saying that, by the morning everyone on the island would have found out what she had done anyway. If Nina wanted any more information, he would leave it to Mara to tell her. Besides, it was her place to say, not his.

"Also, you didn't answer my question." He said as he continued to stare harshly at Nina.

"She obviously wants to annoy us, in answer to your question. She's going to badger us to death."

Mara took the end of the gauze in her teeth an wrapped it around her hand. Once it was wound a few times she took a piece of medical tape and secured the wrap in place. She pressed her hands together and then separated them. A few specks of blood came through and stained the gauze, but otherwise, it held up.

She took a deep breath and wiggled her fingers. It still hurt quite a lot, but this was better than before. Now all that was left was for her shirt to finish drying and she'd be back about the way she was before. Mara looked at the bandaged up hand. She was probably going to have a scar or something. She frowned and thought about it. She concluded it didn't upset her terribly, no one ever really looked too close to the palm of her hand anyway. It wouldn't detract from her appearance.

"Didn't your parents teach you manners? You cop attitude with us after eavesdropping and then expect us to respond to your order that we tell you something? I don't think so."

She waved her injured hand. "Shoo. Run along. Maybe you'll learn something for the next group you accost."

Nina was feeling pretty fucking pissed after that statement. She took a breath and spoke.

"Okay, really? Are we still in school, with you thinking you have the right to boss me around like you're fucking worth anything anymore? We're dead, all dead, we just haven't actually died yet but we're still good as fucking dead. None of us are going to make it off this island  and the one person who does is basically going to be mentally destroyed."

Nina took a breath.

"So fine, I will leave, but when everyone finds out if one of you is a killer, someone somewhere will make you pay. And your looks and wealth and your bitchy attitude will do nothing to save you." Nina looked between the two.

"And may I just suggest that neither of you trust the other. Only one person goes home, after all, not two. Have a nice fucking day."

((Nina Clarke's story concludes in Nemesis))