Survival Of The Fittest

((G001: Arizona Butler - V7 Start))

She leaned over, looking down into the depths of the lake. A face gazed up at her from below, the features hard to make out through the murky water. She cocked her head as she assessed it, mesmerized by what she was seeing. One of her hands was raised and hovered over the surface. Arms came up from below to embrace her as she was pulled under. It was strangely comforting as she was dragged further down. She let it envelop her, she gave in to it, found a peacefulness in letting her guide take over. The light began to fade as she fell, she felt it disappear from over her eyelids.

The stillness of the lake was broken as Arizona burst from below the surface, taking in large, heaving gasps of air as she did so. Her fingertips clawed at the edge of the lake as she pulled herself up and out, the water falling off her. She panted as she remained there on her hands and knees.

"Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck." She heaved and her eyes welled up. She straightened up and rested on her knees. A hand went up to move her waterlogged hair out of her face.

She stayed there, looking out at the lake and the mist that was settled upon it.

The only sounds her ragged breathing.

(G050- Saffron Fields: Start)

Saffron had awoken amidst the trees near the lake, in a spot of shade that let her feel the cool breeze while for the most part avoiding the heat of the sun. For those first few moments of waking up, the pleasant air had been comforting, like she had just woken up from a peaceful nap.

But as soon as she opened her eyes and saw her surroundings, everything else came back and hit her hard. The kidnapping, what she was expected to do, and what was expected to happen to her. She had been put on this island to kill and die, two ideas that she wanted nothing to do with. She sat in her spot among the trees, part of her mind still refusing to believe that something like this could happen. It simply didn't make sense that the universe would allow this to happen, let alone let it happen for the seventh time.

Saffron closed her eyes and tried to meditate. She did it quite often at home, and it usually helped to calm her nerves, but it was understandably not as effective here. She put her hand to her chest, holding her crystal close. She didn't actually believe that crystals had any special powers, but she thought that the comfort of her favorite necklace may assist in easing her nerves.

Her eyes opened in surprise when she heard splashing about nearby. She planted a hand on the ground and lifted herself up, grabbing her pool cue in her good hand and holding it like a walking stick and jabbing the tip into the ground. She didn't think that she could use it as a weapon, nor did she intend to. However, it was still a decently-sized pole, so it could still be used for utility.

She turned and saw Arizona Butler, who she was decently familiar with, completely soaked and on her knees facing the lake. Using her new pool cue as part of her stride, she moved forward and approached the other girl before speaking out, trying to keep her tone gentle despite her mounting nerves.

"Arizona? What happened?"

Her head jerked around at the sound of the voice. It was Saffron. Arizona knew Saffron, it wasn't a close bond, but there was something there at least. They knew each other. That was better than nothing. But what did that mean anymore? That was hard to say. Everything had been changed. Whatever the world they knew that was gone right? The guy—Danya—had given them a whole speech on that.

The question she had been asked was simple. But it was also loaded. She knew what had happened. There was no way she didn't. She was sure Saffron must have known as well. There was only a limited number of things it could have been. There were only so many ways she could have ended up soaking wet. But Arizona didn't know why she had done it. Whatever urge had taken her had passed but...for the brief moment she had still succumbed.

How did she process that?

"I don't know." She said, breaths still ragged. "I think I tried to drown myself."

Saffron kept her movements slow and steady, not wanting to unnerve Arizona any more than she already was. She couldn't say for sure exactly what the other girl's deal was, but from her response, she definitely wasn't in her best place at the moment, and Saffron couldn't blame her.

She lowered herself to get at eye level with Arizona, getting them on even footing. She still held on to her pool cue walking stick, which was still being held as straight vertical as Saffron could manage with her movements and posture. She rested her paralyzed hand on her own knee and started talking. She knew that she didn't have a lot to offer, but maybe she could do enough to help out.

"Do you want to talk?" She didn't want to dig into the idea of Arizona possibly trying to kill herself, at least not yet. She didn't want to risk scaring her off or angering her while she was clearly in a fragile moment.

Breathing was, uh. Breathing was hard. Andy'd had that happen before. Most of his worst moments were struggling for breath, walls closing in (How many walls? Zero. Trick question. He was in the woods somewhere, and there wasn't a goddamn wall to be found.).

There had been blood, screaming, too much to keep track of. Too many things coming at him all at once, so that he couldn't focus on anything except the buzzing in his head and in his fingertips. He stayed sprawled out in the dirt where he'd first awoken, clinging to the bag his head had been resting on. Too much, too much, the screaming, the gunshot, the understanding that he didn't want to acknowledge crushing him.

Also, this stupid foofy-ass bird was eyeing Andy up and down like a real motherfucker, and he wasn't about that shit.

B024 ANDY SILVERMAN: START

Andy had wanted a bird when he was little. Having a pet that could talk to you had sounded like the coolest fucking thing in the world. Also he had wanted to teach it to swear. He was a man of simple pleasures, even as a kid.

His parents had been against it for obvious reasons, and now, with this stupid-ass parrot glaring at him with what Andy could only call pure evil in its beady black little eyes, he couldn't help thinking they'd been onto something.

Fuck off, he mouthed at it. It hopped closer, turning its head from one side to the other.

"Fuck off," Andy hissed, with all the breath he could muster. It was well within swatting range at this point, but his limbs felt too heavy to move.

The bird stared him straight in the eye and then sharply pecked his hand.

Several dozen meters away where Arizona and Saffron were having their somber moment by the lakeside, a single echoing word shattered the peace.

"MOTHERFUCKER!"

When she'd first awoken, it was near some kind of manor house. She'd wandered for a few moments before reality had set in. There was a bag laying next to the door of the manor, labeled "B059." Much like hers - though instead of a textbook, there was a shotgun. The sight of it, and the absence of its owner, made this all the more real. Though she had doubts her situation wasn't beyond worldly assistance, she thanked the Lord nonetheless.

That was her first call to prayer. It was a short one. Thanks for waking up out of sight of the others. Thanks for the second chance at finding something to defend herself with. All she could ask for was guidance. It was then she remembered that however long it had been since they were knocked unconscious, she hadn't taken her pills. There wasn't time to panic, for she heard them rattle in her bag almost immediately.

Thank you.

If she was afflicted, it would take some time to set in. She collected all she could from the bag and moved on, down the path to lower ground. It wasn't long before she came across running water, and she followed it to a lake. The shotgun was far heavier than those she'd seen tucked into the doors of her uncle's passenger airplanes, and the end of it seemed much wider. She always found the idea of having to use one of those things to survive after a crash mind boggling. There was precedent to justify acting upon God's creation in such a mercenary way, but she wasn't sure she had the stomach for it. It took a few moments for her to understand the controls - it didn't break open like those survival weapons, but swiveled to the side like an old western gun. The size of the shells gave her pause.

The next call to prayer came as she arrived at the Lake. As she saw the sun glinting off of the surface of the water, a switch seemed to flip in her mind. The fog seemed to lift, if only just. The faces of her peers, their screams - it seemed to come into focus. Wincing at the light of the sun, she felt dizzy. Confused. Like she'd used to.

No. I can do this.

Kneeling by the lake's edge, she set the gun and the duffel bag next to her and rinsed her hands in the water. Looking to the sky, she began to pray once again - this time, aloud. Though clasped, her hands were shaking.

"Heavenly Father, I thank you for giving me the strength to continue. I thank you for your protection, and guiding me to this place. The beauty of your creation gives me hope. I... I need to know what to do. I need to know if this is a test of yours, or an act of man. If it is yours, I hope I can meet your expectations. If not... please, help me understand what this is supposed to mean. I want there to be a reason for this. More than anything, I want to be spared of my affliction long enough to help those who cannot help themselves. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen."

She reached into the duffel bag, and opened the bottle of pills. She was behind. Everything felt hazy. More would help. It had to.

Please.

Unable to hold them steady, she promptly upended the bottle of pills into the lake. Caroline could only watch in horror as they sunk further into the water. She reached into the water to attempt to save any of them, but the few that she held fell to pieces in her hands.

"Please, no! No!"

Caroline looked around helplessly. The sound of profanity from some distance away caused her to look up, seeing Saffron, Arizona, and a seemingly enraged Andy Silverman some distance away. Wordlessly, she slung the shotgun across her shoulder and began to walk in their direction. A look of abject horror on her face, she found herself unable to put words to her thoughts.

What have I done?

"H-hello?"

G034: Yuki Hayashibara-Start!

On the shore of the lake, Yuki woke up with a start. The scene of Ms. Garcia being executed was still fresh in her mind. The video of the pink haired girl killing her best friend as well. All she could do was hyperventilate as her mind raced.

What’s going to happen to her? Why was she here? What did she do to deserve this? Where were her sisters? Last time she saw them, they were in the crowd during that man’s presentation. Hopefully they were okay, and maybe somewhere nearby. Of course, that was wishful thinking. Surely, finding them wouldn’t be so easy.

She steadied her breathing, trying to figure out her next course of action. The first thing to do was obvious: find her sisters. Yuki looked over at the duffel bag and took a closer look. Inside was food and water, a first aid kit, and other assorted items. One of those items was a map of the island. Just what she needed to get around.

Next to the bag was a metal briefcase. Yuki could only imagine what was inside the briefcase. It looked like one of those briefcases in films that contained a gun. She nervously reached towards the metal briefcase and undid the locks. It opened and what Yuki saw puzzled her. It was full of money. That was unexpected. Annoyed, Yuki closed the briefcase. What good was money in a situation like this? Were they trying to bribe her?

Over in the distance, Yuki saw two girls. One of them was on the shore holding a pool stick, while the other looked like she had taken a swim. Cautiously, Yuki zipped up her duffel bag and carried it, along with her belongings and the briefcase and walked over to the two girls.

“U-um,” Yuki stammered, “Excuse—”

Suddenly a voice rang out, startling her. It was then, while looking around that Yuki had noticed another girl kneeling at the edge of the lake, praying towards the sky. Quickly stealing herself up again, she walked towards the girls.

“H-hi.”

Survival of the Fittest would be a really shitty fucking thing to be happening if it was actually happening, but it wasn't, so everything was cool.

Axel was like... 70% sure. Maybe 60%? Y'know, maybe he should freak out anyway, just in case?

[B004] AXEL FONTAINE: START

So he'd woken up all pissed off which was probably the right way to wake up given the circumstances, and there was all this shit he remembered, and all the fucking blah blah blah gunshot blood everyone's going to die whatever, but then he looked around and he saw a tentacle, in a box, with a knife attached to it, just kinda... waving around. Existing. Being a fucking tentacle with a knife, just chilling next to a lake or whatever like it was Cthulhu's lamest baby, "oh shit look at me, I'm real dangerous, I've got a real shitty knife," Axel could tell it was a shitty knife even from a distance even though it was kind of a weird thing to be thinking about when faced with a fucking Tentacle With A Knife, a phrase he just kept repeating to himself because it was what was happening for some reason.

So he was mesmerized because holy shit, what, right, and then he saw his best friend was fighting a bird.

Well, first he called it a motherfucker. Now he was trying to punch it. Axel looked at him, and then back at his other best fucking friend Tentacle With A Knife, and came to the honest and logical conclusion that he was probably tripping balls.

What were the chances that he was actually on Survival of the Fittest, anyway? Low. Like he wasn't gonna do math but low. And there was a flailing tentacle, and also Andy fighting a bird, and none of that made any kinda goddamn sense, so yeah, he was going with "tripping balls" as the most logical explanation. He saw... some other people, too, a little while off. Arizona, he thought? And something with an S, and... some other girl, no idea. Whatever. The lake there were at was kinda pretty, but maybe that was also cause he was tripping. He really didn't want to think too hard about this?

He looked at... it needed a catchier name. Tentacle knife. Knife tentacle. Knife...acle? Knifacle. He was going with that. Knifacle just kept on fucking going, huh? He wondered if it was actually there, if it was worth trying to grab it, but on the off chance that it was just a real thing that was there for some reason it was probably going to stab him, and that seriously wasn't how he felt like spending his day.

... This was all really stupid, and he was pretty sure he was stone sober, but he was going with his explanation until someone proved him wrong.

"No. Not really."

Arizona felt like shit. That wasn't surprising. She'd say it was understandable all things considered. Because there she was, soaked through, on an island where she was expected to kill or die. Arizona ran her hands through her hair. No doubt sending water everywhere.

She had no idea why she had done it. The moment had happened and she was trying to process that.

As she knelt there, a loud cry of motherfucker echoed out around the lake. The spell was broken.

Arizona's thoughts crystalised. She looked at Saffron and then realised there were people behind her.

Her eyes went back to Saffron.

"Thanks, but..." She looked away slightly. "We'll talk later I guess."

The telltale cry of motherfucker tore Saffron's attention away from Arizona and led her to look back. She realized that they had company all of a sudden. Quite a bit of company, actually. She felt a little twinge in her spine and started to feel a little crowded, but she didn't mention anything about it. She lightly touched Arizona's shoulder, just for a moment, and offered her a comforting smile.

"It's fine. Don't worry about it."

Saffron turned her head back to the girl who was approaching them. It didn't take much ti figure out that she was pretty scared, and Saffron would not fault her for that in the slightest. She remained in her crouching position next to Arizona and called out to the girl, hoping to keep things nice and peaceful.

"Hey there. You just wake up too?"

Andy's now-bleeding hand had given him the strength to temporarily Hulk out, panic attack or no, but this fucking asshole bird was not done hassling him. He had lunged up, taking a couple swings at it; every one missed, but it was the effort that counted, right?

Right. Right, right, right, ri-

Andy's ineffectual flailing at the bird kept him from fully gaining his balance even after jumping to his feet, and one of his ankles quickly tangled in the strap of his bag, so Andy promptly stumbled over it and fell back on his ass.

"Fuck you!" He snapped breathlessly at the bird. Stupid cockatiel-ass looking motherfucker. The bird fluttered up to a branch of a nearby tree and looked at him judgmentally. It seemed judgmental to Andy, at least. Fuck birds. Who needed them? Put them all in a rocket and send them into the sun. All they did was squawk in the morning and wake him up, and now attack him. Like everyone else he knew had the incentive to do.

Right.

Andy was freaking the fuck out.

He took as deep a breath as he could manage, and flopped back onto the ground, covering his face with his hands. Breathe. Breathe. Just... visualize the shit out of a waterfall or something calming.

There was a waterfall nearby, actually, and it was not calming him.

One, two, three, four. Breathe out, two, three, four.

One, two, three, four faces in his mind. The people he'd been able to see clearly while they were all strapped to chairs. Two girls on the screen, one teacher, one man with a gun.

He needed something solid to hold onto. He needed a drink. He needed his fucking therapist.

Andy kept his hands pressed over his face, just struggling to breathe normally and blocking out everything else around him. Too much. Too much.

"I'm awake, for now. I mean, I think I'm awake. This feels like a dream, doesn't it?" Caroline adjusted her glasses, looking out over the lake. Places like this had always spoken kindly to her. Inspired many late afternoons nose-deep into her sketchbook. Maybe even writing about, if she'd been brave enough.

It's hard to believe in darkness when you're standing in light like this.

Caroline's glistening eyes scanned the lakeside. Andy had crumpled to the ground. The bird seemed to have won. If it killed him, would they let it leave? Not much further from him, she saw a boy with red hair. Not like hers, but dyed. The tentacle in his hands seemed to be writhing. It seemed strange to her that there would be anything with tentacles in this lake. She continued walking towards Arizona and Saffron, and stopped just a yard or two away from them. Yuki was there too, though Caroline hadn't seen her approach.

Am I sure this is real?

Arizona, Andy, Saffron, Axel, Yuki. There was another boy, in the distance. He seemed to be waving at them.

Wait.

There were many more. All watching. Yet she knew, as well as she knew the weight of the shotgun or the smudges on her glasses, that they weren't really there.

You will sink. Dissolve. Decompose.

She spoke up to the others that she could discern, the confidence in her voice wavering as it became more and more difficult to structure her thoughts.

"I... I'm not well. I made a mistake, I can't find my medication. I think I dropped it, but I don't know if I really did. Regina was supposed to help me remember. Twice a day... Is she here too?"

It might've been at the bottom of the lake. Or like those she saw and felt and heard yet couldn't name, they might've not been there at all.

you're here. we're here. scattered rays and chemical dust.

“I just woke up not too far from here,” Yuki said, “You wouldn’t have happened to have seen my sisters, would you?”

Yuki took a brief glimpse at the lake. It was very serene, all things considered. It almost made Yuki forget she was in a horrible game of life and death. She quickly focused her mind back on her current goal.

“One of them was wearing a fedora and has light green hair. The other has short, spiky hair and wears black Nike shoes.”

She looked down at the briefcase she was holding in her right hand.

“I woke up with a case of money next to my bags.”

Yuki looked over at the girl who had prayed, who had mentioned she had lost her medication.

“What kind of medication was it?,” Yuki asked, “I might have something in my bag.”

The world was doing a real good job proving Axel wrong all by itself, turned out.

Wasn't what was happening, really, but what wasn't. He ran his hands over the grass under him and it felt slightly damp but otherwise normal. There was that smell in the air, the one there was when it rained, he didn't remember the fucking word but there was a word for that for some reason. Maybe it had rained sometime recently, or maybe he was hallucinating, but probably not. The lake looked normal. The grass looked normal. He stared at the lettering on the bag nearest to him and the numbers stubbornly refused to shift.

B004

Number four, huh? Not bad. Like on a scale of all the dudes in school being fourth wasn't bad, there were some pretty hardcore what the fuck was he talking about.

Cool, let's take inventory again. He had bags, two of them, the numbered one and a second one that looked mostly empty. He kicked at the first bag which accomplished exactly shit and fuck-all except reassuring him that a snake hadn't gotten in there or something. Were there snakes? This felt like the kinda place that had snakes.

Andy was still fighting a bird, wait, no, now he was on the ground, his hand was bleeding and the blood at least looked damn real, hey. Hey, this was really happening, huh.

Axel glared at the Knifacle, the one remaining obstacle between him and the rest of the theoretical world.

You wanna dance, motherfucker?

He couldn't grab it, no, because it was flailing really damn fast and honestly whoever decided to attach a knife to a flailing tentacle was a goddamn genius but not the kind of genius he could appreciate right now thank you very fucking much. But hey, he'd won fights he wasn't supposed to win before. And he had advantages, like being a human person with limbs and a brain. After thinking about it for a moment he grabbed the second bag cause the first one looked heavy and hurled it at the stupid thing.

It tipped over, easily, which left the tentacle stabbing ineffectually at the ground and the bottom of the device it was attached to facing him. He crawled toward it quickly, grabbing at it without hesitation—

It stopped. Well, it moved a little further off of sheer momentum, and then stopped. Axel stared at it and he swore it stared back. Or maybe the suckers on it just looked like eyes, kinda, if you squinted.

Some new best fucking friend. Wasn't actually that hard to pry the knife out of its grasp, looked like it was held on with hot glue or something, which left an ugly residue on the handle but otherwise wasn't too hard to wrench free. He wasn't wrong about it being a shitty knife, either. Like a three-inch blade, maybe. Retractable, so that was nice. Better than nothing, right? Having a weapon was better than not having one. Y'know, for all that murdering he was supposed to be doing, or whatever.

Haha, yeah, about that.

He flipped the blade shut, slid it into his pocket, stood up, and dropkicked the stupid fucking tentacle knife box thing whatever so hard it hit a tree near Andy and scared off the bird he was fighting, making him the real winner of Silverman vs Bird 2018. Probably wouldn't make Andy feel better. Didn't really make him feel better, either.

Axel wanted to scream, but he didn't.

"I don't know how I'm supposed to know any of that" Arizona muttered from where she was on the grass.

She was trying to process her own stuff. The last thing she needed was all the questions. But here she was. What was she supposed to do?

"We just woke up so we can't help either of you with that." She eventually said, there was a short pause as she thought. "Sorry."

Could she not or did she not want to help? Honestly, the real question was if it even made a difference. They'd been given specific instructions about what they were expected to do. She assumed everyone remembered the last time Survival of the Fittest happened. It had only been three years prior. She had been a freshman. She remembered it. The one before that had a been a three-year gap as well. Six years in all. She didn't have many memories of what it was like during that one. She had been in 6th grade.

Saffron stuck close to her. She didn't want to admit it but she was glad for it.

"Did either of you hear the yelling?"