Survival Of The Fittest

((Miranda Millers continued from Waking Up To Ash and Dust))

Yesterday had been a bit of a pain.

It wasn't just the little trick that the terrorists pulled on them. It wasn't just them having to leave the offices. It wasn't just her head feeling like a drill was slowly piercing the side of her skull. It was all that, and the fact that it had decided to rain later that day. Miranda brushed a bit of mud off her clothes. It hadn't been that bad, and living in Seattle had made her used to rain. And frankly.... she had dealt with worse.

Finding a bit of shelter for the evening had been quite a chore, however. The rain eventually stopped for the time being, though there was a good chance that there would be another go. Needless to say, the second the town stopped being a dangerzone it didn't take long for them to make their way into town.

Miranda had realized that it was the same town where she had seen Mara, Veronica, and Mike. It still looked like something after the apocalypse, even more so in fact. The northern part, though, looked a bit more cleaned up. It must have been where the richer people lived, based on the size of the houses. In fact, the house they were in was pretty much a mansion.

If she were to describe it, it would be something between "Ace Ventura's nightmare", "metaphor for current situation", and "kind of creepy". Animal trophies still hung on the wall, but they clearly hadn't been well cared for, as the skin had peeled back revealing bone. Whoever lived here really had a fascination with hunting. Well, that fascination wasn't helping either of them now.

Miranda leaned back into the back of the sofa she was sitting on, still feeling a bit nauseous. Her head had improved a bit since yesterday. Of course, an ache still remained, but sometimes she felt more like throwing up or sleeping rather than doing anything else. Well, that was another plus to finding somewhere indoors: it made it easier for her and Kat to rest a bit. The office was... okay, she guessed. It was good for that one night, and was much better than outside. But the lodge, as creepy as it was, was better in that regard. No one else seemed to had hid out here, but then again, you never know.

The only real problem, aside from the creepiness, was that it was cold. There was a fireplace, with a big creepy deer head watching over it, but she wasn't sure if it would still work. The sofa was a bit warmer against her skin, even if it had a musty smell. It wasn't an unbearable cold, but it was uncomfortable.

Her spear had been leaned against the armrest of the sofa, still waiting patiently.

Mara had killed again, this time Ray Gilbert. What's more, she won something. Pizza sounded good, just like cheeseburgers, or donuts, or ice cream and sausages. There was a lot of food going around that prior to the island, she would have avoided due to how awful for your body to eat. Now though, she would give her right pinkie for any of that. Even just a bite she would do it.

Miranda slid forward, picking up her bag by the straps. What she had, though, were the extra bars from Kaitlyn. And those... didn't taste very good, from the few bites she had. Sure, they were filling. But they tasted like the bizarre mixture of a shortbread cookie and a piece of cardboard. Very sweet, though with an odd texture. They were far from the most appetizing thing ever. At least they did the job, though, and weren't that bad. The label said "Datrex", and it noted that it had a decent amount of calories attached for just a quick bite. Not the best, but not the worst, in her opinion.

Unzipping it and pulling one out, she paused. Miranda looked at Kat.

"Do you want some?" she asked. "They're not particularly tasty, but it's... uh... it does the trick."

((Kat Tolstoff continued from Waking Up To Ash and Dust))

Kat hated rain.

It wasn't the fact that she wasn't used to it, though that probably made it worse. It was the cold, disgusting feeling she got from it that sucked so hard. At least they were inside the biggest house they could find - although the taste of the previous residents left something to be desired, combined with the lack of care given since whenever it had been abandoned and the still-persistent chill meant that it was just barely better than being outside.

There was also the matter of the announcement - Mara had won a weapon as well as pizza for a kill. The pizza sparked a hint of jealousy in Kat - food that wasn't the crackers, water, or energy bars they had given her. Other than that Mike Eastmund had killed someone, and Cody had subsequently pizzaed … killed him.

"Do you want some? They're not particularly tasty, but it's... uh... it does the trick." Miranda had some sort of bar in her hands. Kat was about to say no, but her stomach decided to channel a lion during mating season. Kat simply smiled, nodded and took the bar.

"Thanks." She bit down on it, chewed, chewed

Okay, if she wasn't in the middle of nowhere looking for a conveniently private hole in the ground to crap in, she would have spit the damn thing out and washed her mouth off. Here, though, she swallowed, and finished it off. It was crap, but it was … "healthy" crap.

((Rachael Langdon continued from The Best Part of Waking Up))

When Rachael was younger, she was obsessed with a book series called A Series of Unfortunate Events. It was an interesting series of books, one that got Rachael excited every time a new book would come out in the Fall. When she read the final book, the series ended in a way she wasn't that familiar with: it didn't have an ending. The characters are alive, but the circumstances of the world and many of the mysteries were still unsolved. Now that she was older, Rachael could appreciate that kind of ending, now having an understanding of ambiguity. When she was younger, she was disappointed. How could no answer be better than any answer?

She was feeling something similar right now. A day had passed since her friends ran off, and there was still no sign of them. Since they left, Rachael felt unwell, eating very little and rarely speaking. She mostly spent the day cleaning herself up, changing into a different shirt and rebraiding her hair. She heard that Miles and Stacy discovered a dead body in the school, but Rachael refused to go near it. It had been someone close to Miles, and it must have been pretty horrifying to see.

The fourth announcement gave very little to feel relieved about. Corey, Michael, and Tim were all still alive, but now more Book Club members were dead. Arthur and Aria were murdered. The Book Club members were some of the only people Rachael felt close to, and they were dropping like flies.

But then Miles wanted to move. After finding the body, the three of them moved out of the school before finding the ruins of a wealthy neighborhood. They found a house to rest in, something they needed with Miles' condition. Stacy and Rachael were tasked to search the area for any supplies or people. It was likely the rain halted the search party's travels and they took shelter in one of the houses, so they needed to go.

Rachael found the search a little uneasy. Sure, Stacy was with her and had a gun, but the whole time they walked, Rachael wondered if each house held a dangerous person. Every time they walked in, she wondered if Maximilian could be hiding in a closet, or if Hansel was in one of the upstairs bedrooms, or if Summer was following them. All these thoughts made her want to hurry up with the search and get back to Miles. At the very least, she just hoped they could find someone they were looking for so they didn't have to be out much longer.

The two of them had just finished walking through one of the mansions. There was another mansion nearby, and she knew they needed to check it out.

"Um," Rachael said to Stacy, pointing at the second mansion "can we go back after we search this one? I'm, uh, worried about Miles."

((Stacy Ramsey continued from The Best Part Of Waking Up))

Stacy was glad to be finally out of the school. Not long after Michael and Tim left, Miles and Stacy discovered the body of their friend, Francis. Seeing his body in person was even worse than hearing about it on the announcement. Stacy wanted to remember her friends as how they were before they were dumped on this island, fit and healthy with smiles on their faces, but it seemed that wouldn't be the case. Now whenever she'd think of Francis, she'd always picture his contorted body at the foot of the stairs inside that run-down school.

After the ordeal of finding Francis, the group came to a mutual decision to leave the school. Tim and Michael had never returned with Corey which was also a factor which brought them to the verdict that they should leave. The three of them decided that if the other half of their group weren't going to come back, they'd have to go out and find them.

When the morning announcement came on, Stacy was lucky enough not to have any of her friend's names called out on the death list. This made a change, as by this point about half of her friends had been killed off. What did surprise her was that another one of her friends, Travis Webster, was on the announcement for killing someone. She hoped that the kill was a result of self defence and Travis hadn't turned into a brutal murderer. Although, this was probably wishful thinking, because the person he killed was Matt Masters and Matt definitely was not the type of person who would go around attacking people. Stacy didn't know Matt that well, but she knew enough about him due to the fact he was going out with her friend from cheerleading, Cassidy Kant. She could only imagine how Cassidy must be feeling right now.

Their search for the rest of their group brought them to a set of rather expensive looking houses. Miles was exhausted after their journey from the school so they decided to leave him in one of the houses to rest. He probably felt right at home in the house, it was pretty similar to the house he actually lived in if you didn't take into account all the dust and destruction in the house he was currently resting in.

As a result of the worn out Miles, Stacy and Rachael were left to search for Michael, Tim and Corey on their own. After searching several of the houses around where Miles was, the two of them decided to look in the two mansions further up the street. Stacy felt very cautious while investigating the houses, however, her shotgun she was carrying around with her gave her a slight boost of confidence. It was more than likely one of the better weapons on the island and she doubted anyone with a melee weapon would want to attack them when she could easily gun them down before they reached her. Of course Stacy didn't want to have to do this, but if it came down to a life or death situation she would definitely pull the trigger. She only really had to worry about anyone else who had a gun.

After their failed attempt of finding anyone in the first mansion, Rachael asked if they could go back to Miles once they had finished looking through the second. They had been away from Miles a long time now so it was probably for the best if they went back.

"Yeah, sure." Stacy replied with a smile.

Stacy led the way out of the first mansion and made her way over to the second grand house. As she approached the second mansion, she made her way inside and held the door open for Rachael. Once they were both inside, Stacy scrunched up her nose in distaste to the new surroundings. She much preferred the other mansion to this one; she wasn't very fond of the dozens of animal heads dotted across the walls and the animal skin rugs.

The two of them began to walk down one of the corridors when Stacy heard the sound of muffled voices. She stopped in her tracks and gripped onto Rachael's arm to halt her. From what she could make out, the voices sounded quite feminine which meant they couldn't have belonged to Tim, Cory or Michael. Looking down at the dust covered wooden floorboards, Stacy noticed the faint outline of footprints leading into one of rooms further down the hall. In response, Stacy leant in close to Rachael and whispered as quietly as she could in Rachael's ear.

"There's someone else in here. Down there." Stacy said whilst pointing down the end of the hallway.

There wasn't much use whispering, the sound the door made when they first entered the mansion probably alerted the other people of their presence. Stacy just hoped that whoever it was in that room wasn't someone who'd been read out on one of the announcements.

Miranda flinched a little bit as Kat reached the bar. Sometimes she was still a little... concerned about her. Was that the correct phrasing? Maybe. But the point was, there was still something that made her jump, even now. Heck, Kat didn't even move that quickly. She just took it, nothing really all that shocking.

But she honestly couldn't help but smile a bit as she watched her begin to eat it.

Once Kat began to chew on the bar, Miranda slid out a second Datrex, the sound of unwrapping plastic briefly filling the air as she peeled away the wrapper.

It was a quiet moment, she had to admit. It was just two girls, eating weird tasting ration bars in a room where lots of living creatures had sacrificed their lives to decorate. Not that she was complaining, though. She actually kind of liked it. There was very little interrupting the silence.

Miranda softly nipped into the bar, tearing off a small piece.

Hopefully-


A sound.

For a second, Miranda looked like a startled rabbit, and looked up from her bar, eyes wide. She didn't hear that, did she? Maybe she just imagined it, but it sounded like the door opening. Her head turned towards the way her and Kat came, hoping it was just in her head.

A few beats later, and she heard another distant sound. She couldn't make out what they were saying, but it was a voice. A girl's, by the sound of it.

She knew what that was, and she hated it.

Slowly, she scooted closer to the edge where Kyoko had been leaned against, reaching down to coil her free fingers around the shaft. She had a feeling she was going to need to use it again.

"Kat, did you hear that?" she whispered.

Kat was … enjoying the treat that Miranda offered her. Yeah. That was the right word for a piece of food offered from a friend. At least they could "enjoy" something that was slightly better than the shit they were given. There was nothing now. Just the sound of chewing and a wrapper unfolding.

"Kat, did you hear that?"

Miranda had her fingers around her spear, as if something was

Okay there was something wrong. Or more specifically, someone wrong. Somewhere close to them, there were two people. One of them sounded familiar, but she couldn't put a finger on it. This could be good. It also could be very, very bad, as some people had to have gone crazy - hell, given that some people had at least three kills, it was pretty likely that some people were crazy.

Kat just nodded as she swallowed the remaining taste of her bar and gripped her knife in her hand.

Rachael was immediately creeped out by the mansion. There were animal trophies all over the place, most of them smelled terrible after years of decay had set in on then. Rachael had to remind herself that they could go back to Miles after this house. If there was no one around, all the better. If there was someone, hopefully it wouldn't be anyone dangerous.

Stacy pulled Rachael's arm and told her to stop. Rachael quickly stopped moving, her feet making a scuffing sound on the old floor. Stacy whispered that she could hear people in the next room. Rachael froze. A wave of panic suddenly came over her. She quickly put her free hand over her mouth. She now wished they had been a little more careful walking in. She couldn't convince herself that the people in the room might be allies. Her mind automatically assumed the worst.

Rachael turned towards Stacy and began to motion with her head back towards the entrance of the mansion. She didn't want to say anything too loud, but she hoped Stacy understood her suggestion.

"L-l-let's just go," Rachael whispered very quietly after uncovering her mouth. "Miles is probably worried about us."

((Minor GMing approved))

Stacy grasped firmly onto Rachael's arm and pulled her back as she attempted to turn around and leave. She seemed worried about the people in the room down the hall, and if Stacy was perfectly honest, she was too. There could be anyone in that room, maybe one of the confirmed killers, but Stacy had to be hopeful and believe that it could be one of their friends, or at the very least, someone friendly.

"Oh don't be silly, Miles is fine." Stacy murmured into Rachael's ear. "Let's go check it out; it might be someone we know."

Whilst still holding onto Rachael, Stacy took a step forward. She immediately lurched back as Rachael stood her ground. Stacy let out an irritated grunt and frowned at Rachael.

"Come on." Stacy hissed as she tugged Rachael's arm.

As Stacy heaved Rachael down the hallway, she could feel her trying to resist, but in response Stacy dragged harder. Their short trip down the hallway was creating an awful lot of noise. Stacy winced every time the pair stood on a creaky floorboard and there was the constant sound of scuffing feet as Rachael continued to protest to go down the hall. They'd pretty much blown their cover. With the amount of noise they were making, the people in the room would definitely know there was someone else in the house with them now.

The pair of them stopped a couple of feet away from the room. Stacy's heart was pounding. Perhaps they had made a mistake on investigating who the people in the room were. There was no turning back now anyway; even if they decided to leave right now, the people who were in the room were more than likely to come out and inspect on the racket that they had made walking down the corridor.

"Hello?" Stacy called out. Taking a deep breath, Stacy took a step forward and pushed open the door.

So she heard that too?

Then again, anyone could have heard that racket that followed shortly afterwards. A lot of creaking and shuffling came from the hallway. She wasn't sure what the person- girl?- was doing to make all this noise. Did they know they were in here, and were trying to unnerve them? Maybe there was more than one. But why all the noise? Maybe they didn't feel the need to be quiet when going down the hallway. That was somehow worse, like they were absolutely sure they didn't need to be stealthy.

Miranda sat and listened, holding Kyoko close to her. Eventually, however, the noise was too much for her.

Slowly, she lifted herself off the seat, spear in hand.

"I'll check it out", she said, her voice still in a whisper.

To be honest, she was a little nervous. Then again, what else was new? But the sounds, she had to figure out where they came from. Or rather, who, since someone was clearly behind them. She wasn't sure if she should look into it. But maybe it was. After all, it could be a sign of an ambush for all they knew.

She thought back to Kaitlyn and Baxter. Maybe she had been too jumpy with her, and maybe not jumpy enough with him. So it was clear that there needed to be a happy medium between the two. Maybe just take a peek at the hallway, and push them out if she needed to. Kyoko wasn't at all a bad weapon. Even if she couldn't stab them with it, she could hit someone with it, she had realized. Anyways, she was going to check that out, and at least try to figure out who it was.

It turned out, however, that she didn't need to.

The door opened on its own, revealing another familiar face. She knew Stacy. No, this one wasn't Mordetsky. Mordetsky had been killed the same day Naomi had. Stacy Ramsey did have a few similarities, though. Both modeled, for instance, and were flirtatious.

She kind of missed Mordetsky, in hindsight.

Not that she hadn't been on good terms with Ramsey, of course. She remembered seeing her at prom, and she was as far as she could tell, a nice and friendly girl. All in all, normally Ramsey wasn't a bad girl, but a lot of things had changed since they had been abducted. Ramsey hadn't been on the announcements, she recalled, but there was a chance of something happening.

What was interesting, though, was that she appeared to be carrying a frightened Rachael Langdon in tow.

It was an odd combo, in all honesty. Seeing the flirtatious Stacy Ramsey with the timid Rachael Langdon? Even now, there was something kind of surreal about that. Miranda briefly wondered about the series of events that lead to them spending time together. It was probably something she was never going to find out, just that here they were, both in the same place and standing in the doorway.

"Stacy?"

The door that Miranda was headed to opened on its own. For a split second, Kat wondered if the house they were in was haunted, but the two people on the other side of the door dispelled that. Rachel-something was at the door, but it was of little concern. It was the bunch of unpleasant memories from the other girl that worried and sorta pissed of Kat. Well, that and the shotgun she was holding.

"Hello, Stacy." Needless to say, given Stacy's idiocy back on the second day, this wasn't a friendly greeting. The tone was closer to "Here's a courtesy hello. Get out before I stab your ass."

It was then that Rachael began to regret not being more physically active in her life before Survival of the Fittest. Despite her request, Stacy was determined with going into the room where the people were. Rachael couldn't break free from Stacy's grip, so she was pulled down the hall with her companion. With every step, Rachael prayed they weren't walking towards any danger, imagining several dark scenarios that ended with the two of them dying in horrible ways. Finally, Stacy reached the door and opened it, calling out to whoever was in there.

The first response was somewhat pleasant. It sounded like someone who recognized Stacy. Rachael looked in the room and saw two girls. The first, the one who called out to Stacy, was Miranda Millers. Rachael almost didn't recognize her without her hair, but Miranda was supposed to be a popular girl like Stacy, so it looked like they had found a friend. This might have been worth going to the room for.

The other girl was Katarin Tolstoff. Rachael knew she was a basketball player, and her greeting sounded like she knew Stacy as well.

"Um...hi," Rachael said to the girls in the room.

If these girls knew Stacy, it was likely they weren't going to be in any danger after all. Rachael now felt kind of embarrassed for how she acted moments ago.

Stacy held her breath as the door slowly creaked open. The first thing she saw was a girl standing up and looking straight at her with a spear in hand. Stacy's muscles tensed as her eyes kept locked onto the spear the girl was holding. At first she didn't recognise the short haired girl, it was only when she said Stacy's name that she realised who it was.

"Miranda." Stacy said with a sigh of relief.

Although she wasn't that close with Miranda, it was still better than having someone like Hansel Williams be in here. Stacy had only spoken with Miranda a few times, but on those few occasions, she had always been pleasant with her. Then again, given her reputation, she wouldn't have been that surprised if Miranda had gone and bitched about her to her friends soon after. However, there was a strange feeling she had within the brief moment she saw Miranda. Wasn't she on one of the announcements?

Before Stacy had time to expand on her thoughts, another voice greeted her. Stacy's eyes panned across from Miranda and down to the sofa where another girl was sitting. Her stomach sank and she squeezed Rachael's arm even tighter as she stared wide eyed at Kat. The last time Stacy saw Kat it had ended with Stacy pointing her shotgun in her face. Kat had a weapon in her hand too. A knife. The same knife she had tried to murder Miles with.

"Hello Kat." Stacy responded in a wavering voice.

The tension in the air was something you could cut with a knife. Well, maybe with Kyoko or the one in Kat's hand, actually.

Stacy had a gun, which wasn't good. She couldn't tell if Rachael had something, but that only made things worse. Kat had reacted rather... hostile? Hostile. That was it. And Stacy had that waver in her voice. Miranda tried to think back to when she first saw Kat at the airport. Nothing about Stacy, she recalled. Plenty about her stabbing Miles, which apparently, if the announcements were true, he survived. She had heard something about Stacy and Miles being a thing for a while, but did word even travel that fast on the island to know if Kat had done something to Miles?

Was there something she was missing?

Perhaps it was just island stress. She knew the feeling.

Her eyes flicked towards the gun. Gun versus two sharp objects. That was definitely an advantage in Stacy's favor if something happened. Sure, Kyoko provided a fair amount of distance, but not as much as a gun would. With a spear, you had to get a bit closer. It was even more true with the knife. Miranda had no idea if Stacy was a good shot, but she did have the upper arm in weapons.

Miranda's eyes went off the gun and looked for a way out if it did get worse. Stacy and Rachael were blocking the way they came, so can't go that way. There was probably another exit, no doubt. But Stacy could still shoot at them. For a second, Miranda recalled how she had been shot at shortly after she... met Kaitlyn. That had been a different gun, most probably, but she remembered how she tried to run away, only being certain once she far from the house that she hadn't been shot. It wasn't something she wanted to relive.

Feeling it a bit harder to breath, Miranda looked further around the room. Her gaze drifted towards the door with Stacy and Rachael, to Kat, to the coffee table with a vase perched on it, to the spear, to the gun, and back again.

Stacy was scared. In fact, she had every right to be, as Kat stood up, bringing herself to her full height. It was a miracle that Kat didn't act on her urges, which were mainly to do to Stacy what she didn't do to Miles - mainly make the dumb bitch a fucking pincushion.

"So, how are you?" she asked, stepping forward and pointing at Stacy with her knife. "How's Miles? He must really be in a lot of pain right now."

It was then that Rachael realized that things probably weren't completely okay between Stacy and the girls in the room. Stacy didn't sound too happy to see Katarin, and she squeezed Rachael's arm even tighter than before. Rachael let out a small groan when she did, but tried to stay quiet. They had clearly stumbled into something a bit awkward and unpleasant, and she had no clue how she was going to fit in with it.

Katarin walked forward, holding a knife towards Stacy. She asked about Miles. Rachael felt her blood turn cold. Was Katarin the one who attacked Miles?

Rachael looked to Stacy. She hoped her ally could handle this peacefully. Katarin looked ready to use that knife on someone, and Rachael prayed that it wouldn't have to be used.