Survival Of The Fittest

((Matt Vartoogian continued from Prayer for Someone Who is Somewhere Dying))

Matt woke up to the screeching sound of the speakers.

Another day, another announcement. Matt and Finn had made they're way to the hotel once it'd stopped raining. They'd gone upstairs and found a few rooms with running water; Finn took one of the rooms, Matt the other. The top part of the hotel seemed like a bad place to hole down in for too long. He wasn't well-armed, and the area lacked escape options should someone else come. Matt knew that Finn had Joe's gun from earlier, but he hadn't asked Finn about it. It seemed like a bad question to ask. However, the sheer size of the area and number of places to hide did make it highly defensible. If he'd had a gun, he could just hole up in one room for quite some time...

Matt and Finn hadn't had anything to talk about that night, so they just sort of shot the shit and passed time with smalltalk. Nothing too significant; they were never close, and Finn seems somewhat standoffish. He didn't trust Matt, which was reasonable, but made Matt a bit on edge. Finn seemed to be a little bit smarter about things than the other people he'd spent his time with, which made him dangerous. Or it would, if it weren't for the gimp leg. They'd gone they're separate ways for the evening, and Matt made sure to barricade the room with the old desk, as well as use the chain to lock it. Couldn't be too safe, right?

The announcements got Jacquilyn's death this time around. Matt felt a bit empty at that; sure, he hadn't executed the kill, but he'd sure as hell helped make it happen. And now he could coast by without anyone knowing that he had blood on his hand. It felt a bit dirty, but "fittest" meant a lot of things. Strategy was the only weapon he had, and so he was going to use it. Let the KKs and Hansels kill; they'll get their comeuppance eventually. Theo and Max already had.

And then Garrett's name came up. Andi. He got taken down while probably fighting a bigger threat. Matt snorted and shook his head; it hadn't been like he and Garrett had been friends, but they'd worked together briefly. Andi was also someone to watch for.

"Sorry, Garrett."

His biggest regret was that Garrett had taken his knife.

Matt had run out of bread and crackers the past evening, so he opened one of the energy bars and took a bit. It tasted terrible, but he was hungry. Another bite, another swig of water. He tossed the stuff back in his bag. They needed to get moving to some place better. They also needed to find someone who could protect them.

Matt walked over to the desk and began to drag it across the room.

((Finn Grant continued from Prayer for Someone Who is Somewhere Dying))

At first, Finn was reluctant to go back into the hotel; the last time he was there it hadn't been a pleasant experience to say the least. However, it had been getting late, and Ami, Bella and Garrett were nowhere to be found. When Finn entered the lobby, things were slightly different than when he had seen it last time. Both Summer's and Mara's bodies were missing which pretty much confirmed that Mara was still alive. He didn't spend too long pondering on the disappearance of Summer's body though, as himself and Matt couldn't stand the sight or the smell of the lobby, so they hastily made it upstairs to find a room.  

That night, Finn insisted on sleeping in a different room to Matt. This was partly because he liked having privacy and partly to do with him still not trusting Matt yet. They had barely been with each other a day, and Finn didn't know him too well from school. For all Finn knew, Matt could be conjuring up a plot to kill him in his sleep. It would be the perfect opportunity. Finn was weak from his leg wound and if Matt killed him, he would get a gun out of it and one less person left in the competition to worry about. It was because of this that as soon as Finn got into his own room, he slid a heavy chest of draws in front of the door to stop anyone from coming in. By the sounds coming from the adjoining room, Matt seemed to have the same idea as him. Great minds think alike.

When he awoke the next morning, Finn decided it was about time to have a shower. He managed to find a few small bottles of shampoo and shower gel in one of the cabinets in the bathroom and a dust ridden, formerly white towel and dressing gown in the room's wardrobe. Finn stripped his clothes off, being careful to slowly peel his skinny jeans over his injured leg and tossed them into the shower. He stepped in, but left his right leg dangling out of the door. He wasn't sure if he was supposed to get his wound wet, it might ruin the bandages and he'd be in the same position again as he was yesterday. He would clean around it later.

Finn twisted the knob on the shower to turn it on, which was immediately followed by a low rumbling sound from the pipes. After a few moments of rumbling, a jet of ice-cold water spluttered out of the shower head. In response, Finn let out a high pitched squeal and pressed himself against the wall, trying to get as far away from the stream of water as he could. He'd forgotten that there wouldn't have been any hot water on the island, the hotel probably hadn't been in use for years.

After staring at the jet of water for several seconds, Finn finally decided to take the plunge. He screwed up his eyes and tensed his muscles before thrusting himself under the shower. Finn gasped as the freezing water trickled down his body. Having a shower wasn't turning out to be a pleasant as he'd expected it to be. He grabbed the shower gel and squeezed the whole content into his hand, smothering every inch of his body in it. He scrubbed furiously, making sure to get all of the dirt off, before grabbing the bottle of shampoo and doing the same with his hair. Finn bent down and picked up his soaked clothes that he'd been standing on then wrung them out under the jet of water and watched as a stream of black water trickled out from them.

Once he was finished, Finn turned the shower off and stepped out of the shower. He stood there shivering briefly before picking up the towel and feebly drying himself off. Dropping the towel, he slid on the dressing gown and picked up his damp clothes out of the shower, then exited the bathroom. Finn headed towards the balcony where he hung his clothes over the railings for them to dry off. He paused for a moment and stared out across the island. He could imagine that it might have been a decent view when the place was in its prime, but now everything just looked run-down.

Finn went back inside and let himself fall onto the bed. He stared up at the ceiling, spread-eagled with his dressing gown opened up to air himself out. That was when the morning announcement came on. Nothing on the announcement particularly caught his attention until Garrett Wilde's name was read out. He was one of the people Matt was with when Finn first came across him, one of the people they were supposed to be looking for. Finn didn't know if Garrett and Mat where particularly close or not, but he could imagine that Matt would be pretty upset at the news.  Finn rolled his eyes at the thought of having to deal with a sobbing Matt anytime soon. He sighed and placed his hands behind his head, attempting to enjoy his last few remaining minutes of relaxation before he would be interrupted by Matt.

After about a minute, Matt managed to get the desk out of the way of his door. Now all that separated him from a potential intruder was the chain. That was probably sufficient to protect him, at least for a few minutes, and now he wouldn't have to get all sweaty after taking a shower.

Matt quickly stripped off his clothes in the bathroom, and he was pleased to see that there was still soap and towels in their normal places. Matt began running the water, placing his hand underneath to check the temperature. It was something he always did at home, check the temperature with his hand to make sure that the water was warm enough. Here, the water was frigid. Matt scowled in disdain as he realized that the water wasn't going to warm up. At least it gave him reason to shower quickly.

He was in and out of the shower within a matter of minutes, and he quickly dried himself off. Matt walked over to his bag; he'd been wearing the same clothes for five days, and he needed to change, badly. Matt looked through the clothes he'd taken from his personal bag before he'd abandoned it. He had a blue pair of shorts, a few pairs of black boxer briefs, a few pairs of black socks, a maroon v-neck, and a navy v-neck. It was a bit cold to be wearing shorts, but maybe he could justify it if he also wore his jacket? Fuck, they were supposed to be in LA, where it was never below like 70. And where there wasn't rain. He settled on wearing his dirty jeans, but with the maroon shirt. Better to be dirty than cold, after all.

Once Matt had repacked his bag, he unlocked his door and walked to Finn's room.They needed to decide on a plan; they couldn't hole up in the hotel forever. He tapped on the door three times.

"Finn, it's me. We should figure out what we're doing."

After several more minutes of relaxing, Finn began to hear footsteps outside of his room. He knew it was Matt, but he didn't bother getting up. Then he heard three knocks on his door, followed by the sound of Matt's voice. He sounded quite calm, perhaps he wasn't as upset by the news of Garret's death as he thought. Finn released a breath of air and sat up.

"Okay." Finn called out.

Getting up from the bed, Finn pulled the dressing gown tightly around him and tied it up. He hobbled over to the chest of draws blocking the door and began pulling it out the way. It took Finn longer than he had expected to drag the chest of draws out of the way. He was stood on one leg as he didn't want to put pressure on his injured one. It took him almost double the amount of time than it normally would, and Finn had to keep on re-assuring Matt he'd be done soon.

When the draws were finally out of the way, Finn unlocked the door and opened it up. He greeted Matt with a nod. He was surprised to see that it didn't look like Matt had been crying; maybe he was just trying to act tough in front of Finn.

"Come on in." Finn said as he gestured towards the bed.

Matt waited while Finn unlocked the door. He began to get impatient with how long the other boy was taking, despite Finn's leg. Matt tapped his foot as he waited.

Finn opened the door, and wow did he look better than yesterday. With the dirt and grime mostly gone, the handsome boy that once walked proudly through the halls of Aurora High stood before him. Well, almost. Finn still had the gimp leg, and he was still someone who stood between Matt and home, but at least he now resembled something similar to what he'd once been.

Matt entered the room, following Finn to his bed. He sat down next to Finn, pausing for a second. What should he say? Did they need to exchange pleasantries again, or was that kind of a moot point? Should he be responding more emotionally to the announcement?

He put that all aside and took a deep breath before beginning: "So, uh, what do you want to do today?"

Finn made his way over to the bed and Matt followed. They both sat down and Finn stared at Matt. He was waiting for him to say something about the announcement, but instead he asked what they should do today. He found it strange how cool Matt was acting about the situation.

"Umm… well I don't think we're gonna find Bella, Ga- uhh and Ami anytime soon." Finn felt the temperature in his cheeks rise. He was so used to saying the names in a three that he had almost said Garrett's name. He hoped Matt didn't notice his slipup

"Maybe we should just stick around here for a bit?" Finn continued.

Finn stared intently at Matt trying to see if he could see any sadness in his expression. His curiosity over how natural Matt was acting was growing, and if he wasn't willing to tell Finn on his own, Finn would have to offer a helping hand.

"So… you okay?" Finn's eyes drifted away from Matt and stared at the floor in an attempt to make his question seem more casual, but Finn knew it sounded so obvious what he was doing.

"Yeah, sure, we can stick around here. You're right, the odds of finding anyone are kinda slim," Matt responded to Finn's proposition. Finn had a gun and could shoot anyone who caused problems for them. Eliminate others, keep his name off the announcements. It was already day seven, and he'd been successful thus far. He needed to keep going, longer and longer.

Then Finn asked if he was okay. Matt paused at the question. First, there was the question of how much Finn really cared. Sure, they were now travel companions, but they hadn't been exactly friends. How much did Finn really care about how he felt? Second, there was the question of how he should be feeling. He needed to stay strong, keep his head level in order to survive. Sadness was an emotion he could feel later, right? But there was also the fact that everyone was dying. Even if he hadn't been friends with most of the people who'd died so far, he'd known them. He'd had classes, conversations, interactions with all of them. Even those he hated, those who had caused him torment and frustration back in high school didn't deserve this. None of them did. He finally let out a sigh.

"As much as I can be, I guess? Like, I've seen a bunch of people, but mostly people I wasn't that close with. Like, I barely knew Bella and Ami, and Garrett and I weren't ever exactly close, but it's... weird... knowing that I was with Garrett yesterday and now he's dead, and that Bella and Ami are probably going to be dead too." Matt could hear how empty his voice was, how much his growing sadness towards everything was affecting his tone.

"And, like, I'm not even that sad for one specific person. I wasn't exactly a social butterfly, never really had any super-close friends, y'know? I don't know, man, I'm just doing everything I can at this point not to lose it. I saw what Theo was like by the second day." Matt paused for a second, before mustering a final utterance. "I'm not going to lose it like that."

There was a little bit of conviction in that last line. It was most of what he had left.

So Matt didn't even really know Garrett. That would explain his lack of emotion upon finding that Garrett had died yesterday then. Finn wasn't even sure why he assumed that the two of them were friends. After all, from what he'd experience so far on the island, random people group up all the time. His brief encounter with Sophie and Alex was a good example. Finn barely knew them and yet he momentarily allied himself with them. And then of course was his decision to join Matt, Garrett, Ami and Bella's group yesterday.

However, Finn still would have thought Matt would have shown some sort of remorse after spending several days with him. Then again, for all Finn knew, Matt could have just met Garrett yesterday just as he had. Finn hadn't even bothered to ask when Matt had met up with him, or maybe Matt had already told him and Finn just hadn't been listening.

Finn nodded in agreement as Matt continued to talk. He wasn't expecting Matt to go on that much; he didn't even really know what Matt was going on about. For some reason Matt had brought up that he was, to put it bluntly, a loser back at school which was something Finn definitely couldn't empathise with. Finn struggled not to roll his eyes. He wasn't going to sit here and have a pity party with Matt. Finn wasn't the type of person to offer words of condolence unless it affected him in some way.

Matt then went on to talking about Theo. Finn hadn't seen Theo at all on the island while he was alive so he didn't completely know what he was like on day two. Though Finn gathered by the amount of kills Theo ended up getting and by the way Matt had said it, that he probably wasn't in the right state of mind on day two. Finn could agree with Matt on the last point he made. SOTF wasn't going to change him; Finn was leaving the island the same person he was when he arrived.

When Matt had finished talking, Finn gave a final nod. He didn't really know what to say, Matt had gone off on a bit of a tangent. Finn continued staring at the floor and chewed on his bottom lip. He should probably say something, he didn't want the situation to get awkward.

"Oh, I was just wondering because I thought you and Garrett were friends."

Matt let out a bit of an awkward chuckle. He really had gone on for too long, hadn't he.

"Eh," Matt said, his voice still hollow.

Matt paused, growing unnerved as the silence between them extended. This was the part where he was supposed to say something, right? That's how conversations normally worked. He should say something.

"So, uh, you got anyone you care about out here? Other than Mara, that is?"

((Juhan Levandi continues from And I'm Not Sleeping Now))

The group spent the entire day holed up in that room on the top floor, making small talk. Honestly, there were a million excuses they could've used to explain why they stayed there. The rain was too strong, and Juhan had already used up one roll of toilet paper wiping away all the snot from his nose. They were still waiting for Bella, even though it was already more than a day since Ian last saw her, and the possibility of her just abandoning them was becoming more and more likely. It wasn't something he wanted to come to grips with yet, given her condition. He had an idea about what happened to her, but it wasn't really something Juhan wanted to think about. Aside from waiting, sickness, and the rain, there was also that gunshot fired a couple floors below them. Also the fact that there were hundreds of rooms in that hotel, and it would take pure chance for someone to find them.

In the end, however, it could be summed up to just one thing. Apathy. The sheer despair of the fifth day or so had faded and left Juhan in some twisted version of a hangover, if that was a thing, lingering on long after all the tears were gone. It made everything pointless. What were they supposed to do if the escape was gone? None of them could find an answer. Takeshi couldn't, Ian couldn't, and Juhan sure as heck couldn't. It was becoming more and more clear that Bella wasn't coming back to them, for whatever reason. Anytime they tried to do some good, it almost always got royally screwed up. There was no point in doing anything, so the only option left was to just spend their final hours doing nothing.

Eventually, small talk got tiring, and they decided that they needed to refresh their supplies. Water was not in short supply, but their food was, and none of them really felt like starving to death. There was one can of tuna left in the cabinet, but Juhan didn't feel like risking food poisoning. No more bullets had been fired in the hotel, and the rain had gone away, so there was no more excuse in just staying there.

Juhan was first out of the room. He didn't check for a while to see if they were following him, and only noticed they were still in the room when he was halfway to the staircase.

They were pretty sure there was no one else with them. Sure, by yesterday, they hadn't been as strict about keeping watch, and only stuck their heads out the door once every six hours, more or less, but there hadn't been any reason to be suspicious. There were odd sounds from outside, like something being dragged, or footsteps, but Juhan had heard plenty of that last night, even though no one came. All of it was attributable to the rats.

Keeping that in mind, Juhan cupped his hands around his mouth so that he could be heard across the hallway.

"Hey, you guys alright down there?"

((Takeshi Yoshikawa continued from And I'm Not Sleeping Now))

Takeshi exited the room as Juhan called down the hallway. He was still carrying the spear he'd found when they arrived at the hotel, hoping he wouldn't be put into a situation where he might need to use it.

"All things considered," Takeshi replied as he approached. There wasn't much left for any of them to say. Takeshi had lost track of how long they had been on the island. Time was beginning to lose meaning, and after so much death it had all started to blur together. If he survived his experience, he would remember it as flashes of death. I'd probably get to see all of the murders I missed too, since the sick bastards broadcast all of their other games.

"We'd probably be heading home about now, if we'd had our trip the way we planned. It's been...a while..."

Finn began to chew on the inside of his cheeks and his eyes wandered around the room as the period of silence between himself and Matt grew longer and longer. He was feeling incredibly awkward. There had to be something to say to break the silence. Finn could ask about Matt's life back at home, or ask if he had a goodnight's sleep, or even talk about the weather. He just needed to say something.

Much to Finn's relief, Matt finally said something. He exhaled a breath he was holding in and turned to Matt. It was actually a pretty good question that got Finn thinking, and also made him feel slightly depressed. Was there anyone else he cared for? All of his other friends were dead, it was literally just Mara. Pursing his lips, Finn looked down at the floor.

"Umm, no I don't think I do." Finn said glumly. "Stacey died near the beginning, on day two I think because of that Yukiko girl, and Miranda and Kat died a couple of days ago because of Stacy Ramsey" Finn said the two killer's names with a hint of malice in his voice. At least Yukiko was dead now, but Stacy was still roaming around on the island somewhere. He hoped that when she died it would be painful.

Almost immediately after Finn responded to Matt's question, he heard a voice coming from the corridor outside the room. Finn's head whipped to the door which was slightly ajar and listened intently in case he was imagining it.

"Did you hear that?" Finn whispered to Matt.

Another voice sounded outside the room, confirming that the voice wasn't in his head and that there was more than one person outside. Finn quickly leant over to the bedside table and grabbed his gun, holding it close to his chest. He eyed up the door and considered his options. Finn had already been almost killed twice in a week of being on the island and he wasn't going to put his life in danger again. True, whoever it was out there may not be dangerous, but Finn wasn't going to risk it. His gazed switched to Matt and then nodded towards the door.

"You go look." Finn commanded.

Finn sounded a bit angry, talking about his dead friends. Matt wondered what that felt like. Not the anger, Matt had felt plenty of that throughout his stay on the island. Anger at the terrorists, mostly. There had been moments of anger towards himself, for the mistakes he'd made. For not being strong enough to go for a kill, get a weapon. However, Matt hadn't felt anger towards any of his classmates. He'd feared them, pitied them, empathized with them, been frustrated with them, but he could only fathom the sheer rage Finn was keeping within himself.

Then the noise. Footsteps. A calling. People.

Odds are they were harmless, right? A killer wouldn't waste time wandering the halls of this hotel. Anyone intent on hiding could keep the door completely sealed, and there were too many rooms to look through. They were probably harmless.

"Uh, sure, but what if they're hostile? My only weapon was my knife, and I gave that to Garrett so... Maybe we ignore them?"

Finn probably wouldn't be dumb enough to give him the gun.

"Don't remind me," Juhan muttered under his breath.

Takeshi had a knack for saying the worst things. It didn't bother Juhan much during the first couple of days. Even after Francis' death, he could cope, he could manage. And back then, Takeshi's words were inspiration, they were encouragements. They gave Juhan even more reason to work for an escape. Every lamentation pushed him even further, told him that success was everything.

And now?

What else could Takeshi's words be? They didn't give Juhan reason to do anything. There was no longer some inspiration or some drive that could be pulled from these complaints. All they did was push the knife in further, embedding it, twisting it.

Juhan moved his mind to another thought, noticing that Ian hadn't gone out the door yet.

A small part of him worried. Two announcements had come and gone since they entered the hotel. The first one hit the most, since that's when the terrorists finally mentioned the escape plot's failure. After that, they told a much different story from what Ian told them. There was no way Juhan would be inclined to believe the terrorists over one of his closest friends, but that didn't mean there was no doubt. So many of his friends had killed. Theodore, Garrett, Hansel, and unfortunately, the list went on. It wasn't that much of a stretch to think that Ian might've changed some details.

"Takeshi, what's Ian doing?"

"Thinking too much, probably. That seems to be a side effect of being here." Takeshi rubbed the back of his head, looking down at his feet for a moment. As he looked back up, a feeling of discomfort washed over him.

"I have a bad feeling about something. I think we need to get out of here. I think there's a shopping center somewhere on the island. Might be worth visiting. I think I want to go there. That's where everybody went in that one zombie movie. Didn't see the end of it though, so I don't know how well it worked out for them all. Either way, I feel like the hotel isn't a good place for us to be right now."

((Takeshi Yoshikawa continued elsewhere.))