Survival Of The Fittest

((Cammy Davidson continued from Picking It Clean))

Her time alone allowed Cammy to really think about the situation she was in now and the actions she was going to take. One thing she knew she had to do was play the game. It was the thing that she at first would never have thought to have done, but in the current situation and with the things she had seen, it looked like there was no other way to get out of the island.

She was going to play the game her way though. If she was going to follow the whims of the creators of the game, she was going to play by her own rules. She wanted to feel like she had some control over the events around her. She didn't want to watch things happening all around her. She was going to be in the driving seat and she was going to hunt down the killers, alongside Garrett and Matt.

The next problem was going to be Kyran. She wanted him to come with her. After all, she was his closest friend not only on the island, but also in the entire world. They had been through so much together, his presence was almost like a rock. It allowed her to think back to her time before the island, before this game. It allowed her to remember that there was more to life than this game and that there was something waiting back home for them.

Right now, Kyran and Deanna were just being strung along, not having a clue what the other three were planning. She needed to tell them what was going on, or more precisely, she needed to tell Kyran what was going on. She had to convince them to join herself, Garrett and Matt. Explain their reasoning and hopefully, convince them that this was the correct course of action.

"Thanks for coming guys, I just wanted to talk to you alone, without Garrett or Matt." Cammy said to the other two, sitting down on one of the swing sets. The place they were in was relatively close to where Garrett was going to meet everyone. She kept that in mind so that once the conversation was over, they wouldn't take too long to get to the location specified.

She found it hard to look into the other two students' eyes as she thought about what to say next. She softly chewed her lip, lightly grinding her teeth on the bottom lip. She gripped subtly harder on the chains that held up the swing.

"Garrett, Matt and myself are going hunting. Can you please come with us too?"

[[Kyran Dean Continued From: Joy of Repetition - Kills You.]]

Hunting.

His voice trailed as he very softly repeated the word Cammy had just said. Was she really proposing what he thought she was proposing?

Kyran sat silently on the other swing next to Camilla, swaying slightly forward, hoping he wouldn't fall again like all the other times he'd been on one as a kid. He was also a tad larger than before though, so he also worried about collapsing the rusted thing. At least he was slim enough to fit on it.

He looked down onto the 'Whatever' scratch print skateboard a few inches from him on the grass.

Just yesterday Kyran and his daredevil-adrenaline-junkie subconscious had been hoping for some excitement, but if this was what he thought it was then it may just be too big of a jump from having a somewhat peaceful time just surviving out here with Deanna, to this.

Deanna was standing to the far side of the swing-set some feet away, clove cigarette in one hand, carpenter's tool in the other. Kyran had let Dee keep it, he didn't need it, but he figured she could possibly make some use out of it.

It was weird, they hadn't really talked since he'd found her. Cammy and himself that is. Till now.

She'd met up with them at the school late last night, she was already there when Matt had led them there. Matthew said that it was where Garrett told them to go before they'd meet up with him somewhere else in the morning. Matt had gone there already.

Kyran had no idea why they couldn't just stay at the shopping center with all those supplies, but he went along with it anyway, maybe it was to satiate his own desire to actually do something or maybe to have a chance to be together with a friend like Camilla again.

Before leaving with Matt, Kyran and Deanna had gathered what they could from the shopping center including a smooth looking raincoat he was currently wearing over his t-shirt and sighing into. It even proved useful yesterday due to the rain, which he could still see as dew on the quad's overgrown grass.

Kyran and Deanna had no idea what their plans were as everything seemed mostly on the down low and it made Kyran feel a little suspicious about Matt's motives. Matt said Garrett would explain, just bring the paper and they would talk about it tomorrow. They had rested in one of the buildings in this town nearby.

Needless to say, Kyran had kept at least one eye open that night.

He felt awful for dragging Deanna along when she clearly looked like she wasn't interested in leaving the shopping center, but didn't want to be left alone either.

Didn't matter now though, since the most recent announcement had declared that place a danger-zone anyhow.

That latest announcement was terrible; many more of his classmates had died including his good friend and co-worker from the movie theatre, Harry Hanley - who managed to take out yesterday's top killer Max, before dying. But the worst thing from the announcement was finding out the opposite of a friend being killed.

Sean Mulcahy, a friend Kyran had since grade school, had executed another student, seemingly on purpose. It just - it left Kyran with so many questions.

Pirate? Did he lose his mind?

Kyran looked at Cammy for a second and then looked toward Deanna then back to Cammy again. He just wanted to simply talk with her. Sure, he wanted to find out what Cammy had experienced over the past few days here compared to his own, but he really just wanted to talk about things that had nothing to do with the island too, like he had done with Deanna. He definitely didn't expect this.

"So," Kyran began in a hushed, flat tone as he turned away. "You're going to kill people."

(Deanna Hull continued from Joy of RepetitionJoy of Repetition)

She coughed, choking, as Kyran stated the obvious.

"Shit. That is what you mean."

Granted, Dee would totally have referred to it as 'hunting', too. If it'd been her idea to go around trying to take out presumably dangerous killer classmates. Which it wasn't. But calling it hunting kind of made it sound less insane. And it have Deanna a few precious seconds of wishful belief that they were gonna go out and hunt fish or rabbits or wild turkeys instead.

Dee preferred hiding to hunting. It didn't need a special name to distract you from what you were really doing. Well, maybe for Kyran, who would've called it 'laying low'.

But there wasn't going to be much more hiding in this game. She knew that. And she concentrated for a moment and tried to think about what to say, but all that was going on there were confusing zigzag patterns telling Dee she was hungry and tired and didn't want to say the wrong thing and get discharged from this terrible militia that they might be forming, because then she'd be on her own and her hunger and fatigue sure as shitcakes wasn't going to get any better if that happened.

Unless Kyran was going to call bullshit on this plan, go off on his own, and let her keep following him. Which she didn't really want to do either.

"I can't really help much, but I'll... Kyran if you want to group up I'll come too."

Cammy stayed quiet, staring out into the distance as she heard Kyran's words. She felt so distant towards Kyran, even though he was only sitting next to her. She lightly pushed herself forwards, letting it swing slightly. She made no effort to go any further and after a moment of hearing chains creak as they struggled to support her weight, she stopped moving.

"Yes I am." Cammy responded, the honesty drifting through her words as they floated around the empty quad around them, filling their surroundings with a life that was absent before. No dead bodies were in the area. The place seemed almost like a haven, a place of peace that was detached from the rest of the murder, where death was the only certainty.

"Thank you Deanna." She gave her a subdued smile. Deanna wasn't the issue for her though, right now, she needed to talk to and convince Kyran. After taking a deep breath, she started talking, still looking at the horizon.

"I've seen far too much death to just idly sit by and wait for my life to pass. This entire game, I have felt like I had no control over anything that happened. People keep on dying and people will have to die. These are the sick rules that the creators made. They have failsafes, backup plans. They've been organizing this game much longer than any of us had played it, that's for certain."

Her face scrunched up in physical displeasure, as if the words she was saying were filled with poison. She pulled back the sleeves of her hoodie and gripped roughly onto the chains. They were still wet from yesterday's rain and she could feel the drops travel down her skin, erratically moving about as her arms began to shake.

"You think I want to do this? To kill my classmates? I'm trying to keep as many people alive. If we kill the killers, then maybe the deaths will slow down. Give us more time to do something. Maybe someone will find us? We'll never know if we don't have time. I'm trying to make the best out of a horrible situation."

Her anger and frustration became more prominent as the chains began to rattle due to all of the shaking that Cammy was doing. She was trying to control herself, moreso for Kyran as she knew it wouldn't be fair for her to take out her frustrations on her friend. She was finding it hard though.

"I don't know about you on the island Kyran. I don't know what you have seen, what you have experienced. I've seen a lot though. I've seen people dead who I saw moments ago alive and I've seen groups who have just given up and want us all to commit suicide. I saw Carlon and Alex die, right in front of my eyes. I am sick of just sitting around, waiting for something to happen. I want to feel in control."

Cammy stopped talking, her hands slackening in their grip as they slid down the chains and rested on her legs. For a while, she sat there in silence, looking forwards, her face unreadable. She then turned to look at Kyran in the face, pathetic in its' desperate features.

"And I want you to be there with me."

"Whatever."

What? Fuck you with that reply Kyran you dumb stoic jerk. If he was going to be pulling this kind of crap while Cammy Davidson was there vomiting her deepest emotions onto him, then Dee had half a mind to tell Kyran to screw himself and walk out of here right now.

"This..."

Because there were, there were times for the Kyran Deans and Deanna Hulls of this fucked-up show to continue to be aloof with each other or trade quips, to perpetrate the weird protective relationship they'd managed to forge. Then there were times for the Kyrans to get a move on and drag the Deannas kicking and screaming into accomplishing something, like when the Cammy Davidsons of SOTF asked what they thought about a little killer-hunting, and the Kyrans were supposed to either say 'yes sure let's do this insane thing' or 'hell no let's leave now and let this crazy bitch get herself killed'.

They were not supposed to say fucking 'whatever'. Especially when that could leave the Dees out there to maybe actually take a stand of their own.

"Yeah, OK, whatever.  Look..."

Dee didn't even like Cammy Davidson. The two of them had beyond zero in common. Dee did know enough about Cammy to guess this kind of thing was totally in character for her, though. And even though Kyran wasn't about to admit it, Dee knew that heading down this path would be the same for him. But Deanna Hull?

This was absolutely not for her. This was the dumbest plan ever.

"...I wanna stick with you guys."

Yep.

Kyran's response caused Cammy to be taken aback. The dismissive nature was like a stab wound to her heart and she didn't know how to feel at first. The only real feeling she could use was hurt. She confided in him and trusted him as a friend that receiving such a dismissive reply made her question how Kyran felt about her. Was making the decision to player hunt causing him to turn away from her?

She stayed quiet, her expression blank and her eyes wide open. She slowly tried to stoand up as she felt her legs grow stiff. It felt like she had to pull herself off the swing, gripping roughly onto the chains. She felt them strain a little and while there was a faint feeling of pain, she mostly was able to ignore it.

"T-thanks Deanna." Cammy muttered in a restrained response. She wasn't really sure what else to say or do except leave. Cammy could feel herself getting frustrated and angry and she didn't want it to get to the point that she would lash out.

"I guess I'll be going now. If you want to follow me, do so." Cammy addressed, moreso to Kyran than Deanna. She didn't look at either of them, instead opting to look out towards the horizon. She wasn't exactly sure where to go from here without consulting a map, but she didn't want to meet the others just yet. Then again, she wasn't really sure what she wanted.

"If you don't want to come with me, I guess I say good luck to you. Hope you have fun doing nothing." She couldn't help but let her frustration get out slightly as she continued to walk away from the others. What else could she do now? Her path was set.

((Cammy Davidson continued in Weakness In Us All))

Man, not this again.

"Cam, wait."

It's what he wanted to say, but Camilla Davidson had already stormed off dramatically into the horizon, leaving Kyran a bit dumfounded at her overreaction.

Kyran sighed, and then sat back down on the swing set, shaking his head once or twice before shrugging.

Why does she always have to do that?

Sad thing is, he'd known her a long time, enough so to know that this wasn't out of the ordinary for her, just more exaggerated now, with the stress of the island magnifying it ten-fold as it loomed over-head. She always had a tendency to cause a scene by making an over-dramatic point like that and then walking away when she was upset or angry, even when she was younger, so he was kind of used to it by now.

Didn't make it any less lame though. The 'what the fuck' look on Deanna's face said it all.

It almost made him chuckle if not for the fact he was still slightly irritated by her bitchy diction, dripping with definite disdain.

Really, what gives? These girls can be so confusing sometimes.

One word. It was one of his "go-to" words and Camilla had obviously taken it the worst way possible. Then he turned his attention to Deanna again, ready to give her some snarky words of his own. Something using the words: shut up, you're crazy, drown, and ocean - probably, but that most likely wasn't the best decision. They both did; taken it the wrong way. He just couldn't say any more than that in response to Cammy's big speech.

Dad always told him to be his own man, don't be a sheep or pushover, and Kyran was not either of those. He certainly wasn't in the wrong here just because they decided to get offended by one word and start bitching or causing a scene.

Maybe there was some pride too, probably.

Pride that told him not to chase after Cammy like some kind of whipped dude, because that wasn't him, that so wasn't his style. Kyran was in no mood in becoming the dumb muscle of this hunting party either, like in some kind of role-playing video game. No way. That just wasn't his style either.

But yeah, you know what? Whatever. Dirt off shoulder and stuff like that.

These little annoyances weren't worth getting upset about, not right now at least, cause screw that. There was no point getting pissed about trivial things in the larger picture when there was possibly only a few days left to live, even if they were being totally unreasonable.

Just punch something, Dean, that will make you feel better.

---

A minute or so later, Kyran sat, knees up, on the skateboard to avoid the damp grass after spinning the swing he had just been sitting on, over and around the top of the set until its chain wrapped entirely over the metal bar above from where its chains hanged from.

He couldn't find anything to punch.

"This," he finally spoke as he carefully lifted the heart shaped necklace he was wearing to show Deanna. "Belonged to Dr. Angela Dean."

"My mom," he said with a short smile as he looked up at Dee to see if he had her attention, before letting it fall from his hand and back to his collar.

His mom had just given it to him before his class had left on the plane trip to Disney Land. It was a small joke to say that mommy would always be close by or something silly like that. He took it anyway, because why not, right.

"I wanted to be like her, before we got sent here - she's an animal doctor, you know; a vet. I wanted to help save lives. Not end them."

However, sometimes it was necessary to put animals to sleep. It was called euthanasia. He'd just chosen to avoid the harsh realities of it, but it was indeed a medical procedure and practice he was well aware of.

Kyran Dean didn't talk much about his goals with others outside of the closest people or even on his short video blogs, but it felt oddly relevant at the moment. It was weird and he kind of felt like he was saying too much, so he stopped, looked up at Dee again and said one last thing before shutting up.

"I'll only go, if you go."

Dee stared at him for a second. Or five. Fuck if she was keeping track.

Finally she answered.

"I don't want to kill anyone."

She'd show Kyran Dean what happened when you put the ball in Deanna's court.

"Um... yeah, duh."

You got something like that. It didn't even qualify as a joke, since Dee had no idea what she meant by it. Give Deanna heartfelt stuff about how your mother influenced you. Give her a chance to tell you what to do. Give her responsibility. Yeah, Dee's mom was a blackjack dealer who'd broken up some rich asshole's marriage and moved in afterwards. Dee's mom had waited her whole life, fucked the wrong guy and popped a kid at age 20, and what do you know, backed into love and wealth a decade and a half later.

So you give Deanna that, Kyran, and you get to wait at least five seconds while she scrambles for a better answer.

"But... even if we go with them we don't need to kill anyone, right? And we can probably have a better chance to help others--"

She bit her lip and now she was panicking even if she didn't look like it, beyond the aforementioned biting and rubbing her fingertips together and the heartbeat that was sending blood all the way to her forehead. Because now she was trying to back up these thoughts of hers. And convince more than just Kyran.

"We've been hiding until now and, well we'd be safer in a group. And I know you're gonna worry about Cammy and them if we don't go."

Ha. That'd help, for him at least.

"And I mean, I can't keep hiding, Kyran. Well, I can actually. I fucking can."

Dee scraped her teeth along her lips some more and tried to blink away the moisture; it didn't work too well, as if it ever did.

"That's the fucking thing," she said.

"You get it? I can. I know I'm probably not making sense, but..."

She trailed off without letting more than one tear spill and privately congratulated herself.

"Look, maybe I can explain later. Let's catch up to Cammy and go with them for a bit. We... like I'd be any good at killing someone anyway, but if you want to leave them later, if you don't like what's going on, then we can do that."

OK. OK.

(Deanna Hull and Kyran Dean continued in What Now?)