Survival Of The Fittest

((Caroline Ford continued from Dead Moon))

Caroline stopped in her tracks. Something was following her.

Ever since the real voice told them all about the sins of their classmates, she’d felt its presence.

A conductor to the discordant choir of false voices she’d continued to ignore.

Why can't you find her? Useless.
Where are you?
Where are you? Clueless.

If she slipped up even a bit, she knew it would take her.

She waited, hands gripping the shotgun tightly. God willing, she wouldn’t go quietly.

[Regina Petrov Continued From Hear. Fear. Here.]


After leaving the cliffs, Regina, with her companions old and new in tow, made it all the way to the north of the island before the rain began as the afternoon set in. With the weather conditions being less than ideal for exploration, the group decided to find as dry a place they could in the woods and settle down for a while in order to wait out the storm. The trio worked together to make a small camp area, and before long they were settled in. A fire seemed like a bad idea, as they weren’t particularly looking to alert anyone else to their presence, so instead they sat in the dark of the woods hoping for the rain overhead to pass quickly.

Minutes turned to hours as they waited for the rain to give, but it didn’t seem to be stopping anytime soon. Luckily for them, the trees kept the downpour from feeling too overbearing. But after a few hours of sitting around, Regina was beginning to feel restless, and she felt like she just needed a moment alone to get her bearings. Making up an excuse of having to pee, Regina left her bag behind at their makeshift campsite and disappeared off into the woods on her own for a bit.

Honestly, Regina just wanted to think. As she wandered through the trees, doing her best by following her compass in a single direction so as not to lose her way back to Matthew and Faith, she let her mind wander as well. Abel was dead, that much was made into fact this morning. There was no way to change it now. It still hurt, her chest tightened every time she thought of him, but she needed to keep her focus on those who were still alive.

Camille, her best female friend in the world. She was alive.

Adonis, her prom date and friend dear to her heart. He was alive.

Valerija, her stalwart leader. She was alive.

So many of her friends were still here, somewhere on this island, and she could still find them. She could still see them again. If she tried to list all the people who she wanted to find, she’d be listing them until morning. Everyone in their class meant something, if not to her than to someone else. She looked up at the falling rain and sighed, letting the warm droplets wash over her face. It was as if even the earth was crying for them. However, right now Regina had no time to be sad. If there was one single person she knew she needed to find as soon as possible, it was dear, sweet Caroline.

Caroline was her responsibility, yes, but she was also her friend. She had a love for that girl, and the worry in her stomach was only getting worse with every moment she wasn’t in her sight. Caroline was smart, she knew how to take care of herself, Regina knew this. But in the worst-case scenario, she knew the girl would need her to make sure she stayed calm and stable.

Regina made a promise to look after her. She intended to keep that promise.

In the near distance, she could see a figure among the trees. In the rain and darkness of the shade, she couldn’t see them well. She moved closer, intent on finding out who it was, and stepped on a fallen twig, snapping the wood in half, and alerting whoever it was to her presence.

It all felt so wrong. Every shadow was an endless void. Every gap in the canopy of the trees reminded her of an open door in an airplane. Inviting her to make one mis-step, to fall endlessly into a black abyss or a grey expanse of clouds and rain. A plunging feeling rose up in her stomach, the kind of feeling she had when she looked down from a great height, or the bottom of an incredibly deep pit.

Where are you now, Caroline?

"Vertigo..." Caroline whispered, cocking her head at the bizarre shapes. It looked like a photo with the exposure turned way up. Everything just blending together into a twisted morass of browns and greens and grays, water running the colours into the tiny puddles all around her. Like fuel dripping onto a wet tarmac, running with the rain into a tiny divot in the pavement that old men covered in engine grease would scowl at. She'd thought it was pretty before she knew what it was.

This wasn't pretty. She was lost, the rain was soaking through her clothes, and she was cold. So the forest looked lost, and cold, and soaked through with so much rain that the colours were running from the trees and into the ground. It came down in sheets. There was a rhythm to it, if she listened.

Like steps. Left, right. Left, right. Following behind. Far ahead. Do you even know?

Danya. Dead peers. There was an urgency in her desires. Violence begets violence. This wasn't the place for her, not alone. One wrong step, and she'd fall into a deep pit. Fall from the sky, from the island. To crush depth, where the pressure would crush her into a tiny ball of confusion and broken person bits.

Soon.

"Broken person bits." Caroline whispered, letting the words roll off her tongue. Trying them on. How well were they even held together? If she took another step, they might just all fall to the ground. The rain would drain the colour from them, blend them into the dirt and mud. A grey puddle, sinking into the earth.

Caroline put a hand to her ear, covering it to see which side the sounds she was hearing were coming from. The water marched on. Left, right. Forward, and backward. Wind whipped from every direction at the same time, it seemed. Intense enough it didn't sound like rain anymore, just radio static.

Liquid life falls from the sky, and all you hear is dead air? Shameful.

They march on, they march on. Each one of them, out of a hole, off of a cliff. Pouring over the waterfall with all of the colour they brought with them. Each step leaving more bits of themselves.

Have you seen pieces of her?

A girl?

Which girl?

The one you loved? The one like a smallerversionofyoutheoneyouleftbehindtheonewhoisgoingtotryto KILL YOU!

"No one is going to try to kill me, I'm fine. I just need to find-"

Now you've done it.

Caroline whimpered. The one thing she'd been trying not to do, she'd done. Engage with them. Make them real. Now that she'd done it, they were definitely coming for her. The choir. The conductor. Danya. Most importantly, anyone who knew well enough that a tiny broken pile of human pieces wasn't going to much of a challenge to fight, not when she couldn't hear anything through all of this noise.

It's okay. I'm prepared. I can do this. I just have to shoot the bitch four or five times, like I told Daria. Sounded like I was really going to do it when I said it. Like it was right. Like I really could, little ol' me. I can do this. I can do it. I'll do it. "I'll do it if she comes here, I'll scare them away, it'll be okay, just gotta get out of the rain, find someone safe, take shelter, wait for rescue." I know what's happening to me, that's half the battle, right? Understanding "a problem before I can deal with it, well I can deal with it."

Snap goes the twig. Snap goes your neck.

Whispers came to an abrupt halt as Caroline heard a sound break through the white noise. She adjusted her glasses, speckled with raindrops as they were, and cocked the shotgun, watching the cylinder rotate into place. Five shells. Four or five to offer if she could hang on.

Caroline spun to face her hidden assailant, and squeezed the trigger. The concussion from the gunshot broke through the white noise, replacing it with a high-pitched whine. She pulled the trigger again and again, the metal guard around the trigger digging into her knuckle each time she did so. Lead pellets ripped through the foliage, tearing bark from trees and sending wet leaves fluttering to the ground.

Some of the pellets also sent a person fluttering to the ground.

A person who really stood out in the sea of grey.

Caroline ran over to see who it was, and suddenly discovered a brand new way in which she could be broken.

Loud bangs in quick succession. The silence of the woods ripped apart. A white hot pain that seared through her torso. Her body hitting the ground with a squelch, lying prone in the mud, looking up towards the sky. All her eyes could see were the spiraling branches and leaves of the trees as they tried to block out the sky, and the rain falling down between the cracks in the covering. Her breathing was ragged and every time she shuddered out a breath it sent another shot of numbing pain shooting to her brain.

It was strange. Her chest and stomach felt hot, as if they were on fire, but the rest of her felt cold as ice. She could feel herself trembling as if she were locked outside in a blizzard. She struggled to move her arms, but found that she couldn’t lift the left at all. No matter how hard she tried, the limb remained on the wet ground of the woods, not responding to her wishes. Her eyes fluttered to the right, and she moved her head as much as was possible. She tried to look at her arm, but she couldn’t see it from her position. She tried to will herself to sit up, but again her body betrayed her and left her lying in the mud.

Her right arm twitched, and she was somehow able to drag it from the ground, and lift it to her belly. She pressed it into where the pain was. It felt warm. Warm and wet and sticky and burning. It wasn’t a familiar feeling. She didn’t know how to process it. Her hand pushed down, and she felt it sink into a pool of wetness. The pain was numbing in a way, and she heard a soft whimper gurgle out of her throat. She almost didn’t recognize it was her own voice at first. It sounded so rough and broken.

She lifted her right arm again, pulling it up where she could see. Even in the darkness and rain, the crimson color that coated her hand and arm was unmistakable. Blood. Her blood. She was bleeding. The rain pouring down on her was washing the red liquid from her hand as she stared, but the stain of the blood was hard to remove. Her eyes were wide and her breaths became more erratic and labored. She felt something build up in her throat and hacked out a sickly cough, more red stickiness came shooting from her mouth. The coppery taste attacked her tongue and dizzied her mind. She knew she was crying. She could feel the tears as they slid down the sides of her face and joined with the wetness below her. Or was it all just the rain? She couldn't be sure.

A wet noise beside her.

She turned her head and looked to the source. A familiar blue skirt. Her eyes flickered up to see more. A white blouse. It too wet from the rain as it covered everything. Wispy red hair. Glasses. A freckled face. A face that looked different from before but still so familiar that it made Regina smile. She did it. She found her.

“Caro...line…” She said, her voice raspy and weak.

“Regina! Regina, oh God, I’m sorry, I’m sorry I thought you were - I don’t know who I thought, what I thought - I just… Oh, Christ no…”

Caroline dropped the shotgun into the dirt, falling to Regina’s side and taking hold of her hand. Her eyes darted down to the many small holes that pockmarked her body, each bleeding out slowly, pooling into one large red spot on her chest.

“We… let’s get you… come on…”

She still had some strength left. Enough that Caroline didn’t have to drag her all the way to the tree, out of the worst of the rain. Enough that she could be leaned up against it, even if she winced and cried out and made awful, awful noises.

noises YOU made her make, you stupi-

Regina. I can help. I still can.

“It’s gonna be okay. I promise. It’s, it’s my turn to help you now, right?” The desperation in Caroline’s voice was palpable as she hoped in vain that her attention might give her friend some sort of relief.

My friend. Were you really my friend? I didn’t want to- “-didn’t want to hurt you. I didn’t want to be a burden. Please, I didn’t mean to do this.”

She threw her duffel bag to the ground nearby. There had to be something in there that they’d given to help with this why. Medical supplies, at least. Maybe something that might dull the pain. This wasn’t how she wanted to see Regina, at all. All she’d ever seen of Regina was a pleasant smile and reassurance. Someone real. Never this much pain, or this much fear. That was supposed to be her. Caroline was supposed to be the one who needed help.

Unzipping the duffel bag, she recoiled in horror to find instead of her things, it was stuffed to the brim with shotgun shells and a grisly mass of twisted gore. Where she’d expected to find clothes, food, and a first aid kit she found only several disquieting shades of red, glaring at her. Taunting her.

“Wh- no! No, there’s supposed to be -”

Caroline turned to look at Regina. She was real. This was real. Looking back to the bag, she dug her hands into the shells and gore, feeling around until she could make out a plastic box. She dragged it out, setting it in front of them. It was pristine, the blood seemed to run right off of it. Or, there wasn’t any. There wasn’t any blood in her bag at all, she realized. Only on Regina, and on her hands.

Opening it, she looked down at the array of supplies. The right tools to help her, if there was any way. Only, even with a first aid kit Caroline didn’t have the right tools to deal with this.

What have you done?!

Sputtering through tears and the voice she was certain was her own screaming in her mind, Caroline confessed her inadequacies to her fallen friend.

“Regina I - I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to - I don’t know how to do this. What - what do I do? I need you. Please don’t die. I can’t be alone out here. Tell me what I have to do.”

Caroline was above her, and she was upset. Regina was just happy to see her. The girl knelt beside her and took her hand in hers. She was so warm. But it felt so different from the heat burning in her chest and stomach. This was a gentle warmth. Regina squeezed her hand, not wanting to let her go. It felt so good to have her here. Even if this terrible thing had happened. The clouds in Regina’s brain were beginning to drift away, and for a moment she felt like she was back to normal. She understood what had happened, and what was going on. The shotgun laying at Caroline’s side was all the evidence she needed to figure out the truth.

She’d been shot by Caroline.

Regina whimpered when Caroline began to attempt to drag her out of the rain a bit. Regina did her best to use what was left of her own strength to help the girl, but every slight movement would send waves of awful pain crashing over her body. She let out a bevy of small, weak sounds of discomfort as she was dragged backwards and finally propped up against a tree. The entire way Regina did her best to power through the pain. She didn’t want Caroline to feel any worse that she was sure she already did.

After all, she knew that Caroline didn’t do this on purpose.

Caroline started to dig through her bag as Regina sat against the tree. She wanted to calm the other girl down, but it was hard to find the words when she was trying to keep the pain at bay. Now that she wasn’t lying flat, she had a better angle to look at the wounds. The entire front of her white tank top was stained red, multiple holes dotten her front, all of which were gushing more and more thick red blood with every ragged breath she tried to take.

The sight of it made Regina shudder and gasp in fear.

Was she going to die?

Caroline was back in front of her, her first aid kit splayed open, and Caroline sobbing and trying to figure out how she could fix it. But Regina knew better. There was nothing in that box that would help them right now. Tears began to stream down her face and blurred her vision a bit. Regina wasn’t going to get to go home. That was a fact. This was where she was going to die.

Regina thought of her parents. She hoped they wouldn’t see this. She hoped they would be okay. Caroline was crying and begging her not to die. Regina coughed again, more blood spilling from her lips and filling her mouth with that terrible taste. She reached up with her hand, still stained red from the blood, and gently caressed the side of Caroline’s face, turning it so she would look at her.

“Listen to me... “ She fought to get the words out. Slow and deliberate.

“It’s gonna be fine, okay?” She hacked again, a mist of red shooting from her lips.

“...’m sorry. My fault. I scared you.” She pulled the girl in and wrapped her arm around her quivering shoulders. Regina felt her own body start to quake as more tears fell from her eyes.

“You gotta live, kay? Please. You have to promise.” She released her, and as they came apart, she looked Caroline in the eyes and did her best to put a bright smile on her face.

“I’m glad we were friends. Y’know?”

The feeling of wet fingers against her cheek caused Caroline to break the terrified gaze she had held down into the pit of gauze and needles before her. Regina had a certainty in her voice, marred as it was by blood and fear; it made Caroline to push the box of supplies aside and shuffle closer. She took Regina’s hand and listened to the other girl speak, intently. The blue of her eyes seemed to make everything else fade, even the red that now stained them both.

I can’t survive alone. I can’t make it withou-

She always wanted Regina to touch her cheek like that. There was a kind of comfort she had to admit to herself she’d always wanted. From Regina, in particular. Maybe that was why she’d always been so capable of helping Caroline center herself. More than her parents, or her therapist. Maybe even more than her faith, as terrifying as that thought seemed.

There was no time to even wonder about that, now. The only time she’d ever get to experience Regina running a finger gently across her cheek was when it was leaving a small trail of blood. Under a tree, in the rain, in a place neither were meant to be.

Caroline nodded as Regina tried to calm her.

“I promise. I won’t leave you here.”

She even managed to smile, through the blood and tears. Caroline found in her face the fortitude to do the same. As Regina’s strength ebbed, Caroline found herself holding her hands even tighter. Mental barriers that once impeded her ability to speak now seemed to lay flat, so long as she focused on her friend.

“I wish we had more time. I thought if I just saw you, saw your smile - everything would be okay. You always made me feel like I didn’t have to be ashamed or stupid. I never thought I’d be so broken I’d hurt you too. You didn’t deserve this. You…”

To say the next few words was a struggle for Caroline, though no more than she knew Regina was going through.

“You were loved.”

Caroline was still crying, but it was okay. Regina was sure she’d be alright. Seeing the smile on the other girl’s face made her happy. It almost made the pain vanish for just a moment. Caroline was apologising now, but she didn’t have to. Regina knew she didn’t mean it. This wasn’t supposed to happen. None of this was. They should be home now, having finals, with graduation around the corner and one last summer before everyone inevitably went their separate ways. The weren’t supposed to be here. Caroline wasn’t supposed to be crying. She wasn’t supposed to be dying.

It was starting to get hard to focus on Caroline’s voice. It sounded muffled and far away. Her vision was getting blurry, but that could have just been the tears clouding her vision. Or the rain was just getting in the way. She wasn’t sure. Her mouth was so dry, even with all the wetness around her, she felt like her tongue was made of sand all of a sudden. She tried to lick her lips to moisten it a bit, but it didn’t do much to help. And worst of all was her head. It was one of the most intense and awful headaches of her life. It was so bad that she couldn’t even concentrate on anything Caroline was saying.

She wanted to hear her though.

She could feel her heart going a mile a minute as she struggled to move her head close to the girl. She could still see her. It was blurry but she could see her. It felt like her ears were covered. She couldn’t even hear the sound of the raindrops anymore. It was all overcome by this white noise blasting through her eardrums. She couldn’t focus. Her heart was beating so fast, she felt like she couldn’t breathe.

She began to gasp for air, taking long harsh breaths and clawing at her chest with her right hand. Everything was spinning. She still felt so unbearably cold. Like she was locked in a freezer. Her body was shivering so bad. She knew Caroline was there, but she couldn’t see her anymore. She couldn’t see anything. She wondered if her parents were watching. Were they crying? Would they be able to move on? She didn’t know. She hoped they’d be alright without her.

She wished she’d made move fun and creative videos. She wished she’d made more friends. She wished she had gotten the chance to see more of the world. She wished she’d been able to see Camille before the end. She wished it didn’t have to be the end. She wanted more out of her life. She wanted a family. She wished she wasn’t going to die a virgin. Camille would probably laugh. She wanted to make her family proud. Was she able to do that at least? Were they proud of her? Did she do alright in the little time she’d had?

A light.

It was bright, but she could see it. Through the haze and the spins and everything else she could see it. It was right there. It felt so warm and it felt comfortable. Through the light there was a hand. It reached out for her. It was big, and sturdy, and it made her want to reach it. Her body was still shaking, and she was still sputtering blood and gasping for air, but she forced herself to reach out. It was right there in front of her. The hand was getting closer, and behind it an arm and then a person came into view. She couldn’t see them clearly. She reached forward as best she could and tried to grab the hand. It was just outside where her fingers could reach. SHe felt like she needed to grab it. It was suddenly the most important thing in the world. Her skin had become pale and her eyes were beginning to get cloudy, but still she pressed on, reaching out with all her might, desperate to see who it was.

And then the smile she’d seen a thousand and one times before came into view, and she knew who it was. She laughed a choked laugh and felt even more tears spill from her eyes. He’d come to pick her up. Of course he had. Their whole lives together, of course at the end it would be the same. The hand reached forward and took hers. He smiled at her. She smiled back.

“рад тебя видеть.” She muttered breathlessly as she felt what was left of her energy drain from her body and her mind slip into the darkness around her, until even the light ahead of her was swallowed.

Abel had come to get her.

The last breath spilled from her mouth, and the hand that had been so desperately reaching forwards dropped to the wet ground. Her head drooped forward and the bright blue of her eyes faded into a cloudy grey. Regina’s smile, at least, remained in tact as she left the island and her classmates behind.


G43 - Regina “Gina” Petrov - DECEASED
138 Students Remain

Colour drained from Regina’s skin, as if the rain was washing it away too. Her strength ebbed, hands falling from Caroline’s grasp limply, slick with blood and water. Looking into her glassy eyes, it was easy to imagine the darkness on the other side of the tiny, convex panes.

Before long even Regina’s warm smile was as cold and dead as everything else.

Caroline reached up and helped Regina close her eyes for the last time. She slumped down against the tree next to her. Sniffling. Shaking. Eyes scanning the woods nearby, as if the person who did this would leap out at any moment.

No, not from the woods,

that girl was right here,

sitting right next to the person they’d destroyed,

broken apart by the broken parts of her mind,

deprived of even being able to atone for it

because she was well past making her own choices,

aren’t i?

Something that sounded like a person shearing apart broke through the white noise of rain on thick brush. The agonized scream that clawed its way from Caroline’s throat seemed to drag along with it everything she’d had left to feel. The love she felt for Regina, the compassion she felt for everyone else trapped here, and even the hate and confusion she felt for the terrorists. All expelled into the humid air, condensing and running into the dirt with everything else.

Eventually the pain in her throat and the empty space in her chest silenced her. Caroline drew her knees up against her chest, staring ahead at the twisted grey world through the water droplets on her glasses. Unsure whether she was staring up from the bottom of a pit, or down into one.

As she crossed the event horizon she found herself greeted by a host of dozens of leering silhouettes cast against the backdrop of the seemingly endless, lush forest. They differed in motive. Some watched with curiosity, or excitement. Others watched with sympathy, and more still with hatred.




Yet all of them watched.




They waited. Wondering what was next for her. For them.




Please, let me explain.

---

It kept her going at first, the idea that so long as she understood what was real and what wasn’t, there was hope. Reality, while unforgiving, responded to attempts to change it. All that she’d experienced told her that nothing on the island could be even remotely as horrible as what her own mind could conjure up. If she’d had her medication, that could’ve been a source of strength. Instead, she’d managed to lose that method of control within hours. No peer-turned-monster could be so pernicious or persistent as her own demons. There was no running away from oneself. No way to fight back in a place like this, not in any appreciable way that meant anything.

In her few moments of clarity on that first day, feeling the chemicals dissolve in her hands as she tried to claw the pills back from the lake, she understood what it all meant. Regardless of whether anyone else visited mercy upon her, she would always be at the mercy of her broken mind. Losing a friend was hard enough. Knowing she killed her even more difficult to comprehend or accept. It was painfully clear that she was hours away to watching whatever dignity and agency she had left melt through her fingers.

If it wasn’t the staggering numbness she felt, it was the way that everything seemed to fade and collapse together. Trees only seemed to be shapes she knew were supposed to be plants. It was difficult to see how the collection of steel and wood lying next to her was meant to be a weapon. In this light, words failed to describe what much of anything was. Even her hands didn’t seem like they belonged on the ends of her extremities. Just like the lead hail she saw pelting the ground outside didn’t seem to belong there either.

Caroline snuck a glance to her left, and at least saw what she expected to see.

“I never could’ve made up someone like you.”

Genuine kindness like Regina’s was no mistake. It had been a gift. Definitely not something she would have just hallucinated. No, she was special. For a time Caroline even thought that maybe her presence alone would see her through this. That she was now lying dead at Caroline’s side was proof enough to the contrary.

As she drifted away, she pondered what Regina had asked of her back on the island. It was no promise anyone could keep here honestly, if by life she’d meant getting out of here. It was hard to imagine that a person who sincerely made an effort to win this game would’ve been anything resembling sane by the end. Still, she supposed at least some baseline understanding of where vile imaginings ended and reality began was likely a prerequisite for survival.

Given that she found herself no longer sitting next to Regina, but instead at the juncture between a deep well and the open expanse of sky, she supposed it wasn’t meant to be that she survived.

How she’d wished that she understood her folly earlier on.

They encircled the well. Impatient. Some moved to shove her down, but were held back by the others. The din she’d come to expect from them all was conspicuously absent; it had faded with all of the colour in the world, the pain in her shoulder from the shotgun, and Regina’s life.

Caroline idly tossed a stone down the well, listening for the echoes as it bounced off the smooth stone walls. The darkness seemed to ripple as the pit fell silent. She glanced up towards the rainy sky, back towards the pit, and then to the figures surrounding her; engaging with it all in the way she’d been told so many times not to.

I made a mistake. I looked for truth in this place, but there wasn’t any. There was nothing real to hang onto here. The island, this forest, this moment – it’s all someone’s twisted invention. Malice made manifest. Holding on tightly only made it all slip away even faster. We stopped being real the moment they gave us numbers and dropped us into their story. All we can be here are half-empty fabrications, made from the parts of real people.

She offered a pleading glance to the crowd.

The parts they made me from must've been a bit defective. They're too broken to take any more, and too shattered to break any further.

So now what?

I want to climb back up there, to stand up and walk away. Leave her to rest. I made a promise, though. Not to leave her here. To live. What can that even mean in a place like this? Just wander the island, whittling my sanity down to a nub with each new horror?

A couple of nods. Some exchanges of excited glances. Others shuffled impatiently. Caroline shook her head.

I have faith in promises. Eternal life was made as one to me, by my Creator. I’ve lived in reverence of it my entire life, as best as I could. Despite what he made me to be, despite the role I was given to play.

I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to save myself if I didn’t know what I was saving myself from. I searched for some truth in all of this, in fear of being at the mercy of all of your falsehoods. I made a mistake thinking I could find it, and in thinking I needed to look for any truth other than the highest one.

I only need a moment to keep my promise to live. In spite of you, in spite of myself, I will.

Caroline stepped from the well, and past the crowd back towards the island.

---

Sitting under the tree next to Regina’s body, Caroline had been holding herself and staring out at the wilderness for some time, completely motionless. A casual observer might’ve supposed that the two of them both lay dead underneath the branches, Caroline having falling victim to some far less obvious calamity than Regina.

Life and colour returned to the world in an instant, as Caroline found herself suddenly awash with energy and focus. She stretched the tingling sensation from her arms and legs, and wiped the water and blood from her face. A fleeting lucidity moved her to action.

She couldn’t keep her promise in the way Regina intended her to. With what little time was left to make such a choice, Caroline knew she was going to do it on her own terms. For all she resented her Creator for what she’d suffered through, she knew He had given her the strength to dictate her own path through this world, and out of it. For the strength she felt in this moment, she knew she would be eternally grateful.

The silver ring on her finger seemed to gleam amidst the grey, washed out world. The etched lettering read clearly: Choose the Right. Before it had just been a reminder of the standards she held herself to, a lodestone that would always point her to a righteous path. Maybe no one would understand what she was about to do, or what it meant. Surely some would laugh, or call her foolish and suicidal. Others might see it as a desperate sign of resistance.

Either way, she understood what it meant to her. Light shone in the darkness whether the darkness comprehended it or not. Caroline stood locking eyes with the mechanical aperture that had been watching this scene unfold. She spoke directly to it with renewed confidence and grace.

“I think I’ve had enough of this.”

She cocked the hammer on her weapon and pressed the stock against her bruised shoulder. The tiny white dot at the end of the barrel pointed squarely at the electronic eye peering down at her - the lone camera in the area which had captured Regina’s demise.

Beads of water fell from the tree above onto her glasses, threatening to throw off her aim. Caroline inhaled, and steadied herself. For the last time, she squeezed the trigger and felt the staggering recoil of the shotgun kick into her shoulder.

A gout of fire flashed before her eyes and she watched in satisfaction as a shower of sparks, glass, and twisted metal scattered across the woods nearby. A demonic hiss escaped from within the wreckage of the camera as a jet of flame and blue smoke erupted from its ruptured battery pack.

Content, Caroline threw the shotgun to the ground next to her duffel bag. As she sat back down next to Regina and the ringing in her ears abated, she could hear the steady beep coming from the collar on her neck.

Far from frightening her, she felt reassurance in the certainty of what was to come.

Caroline closed her eyes, taking Regina's hand as she met her creator in peace.

((Shauna continued from One Final Embrace))

Shauna stumbled through the forest, periodically glancing over her shoulder, stopping and freezing each time there was a sound which felt a little out of the ordinary. Any second. Any second now, Quinn or someone was going to leap out of nowhere and end her, like Danny had been ended. It was just a game to them, right? Just a sick game, letting her go because—because why even!? What'd Shauna do to deserve getting left alone when Danny was so mercilessly slaughtered? Answer: nothing. Follow-up: she wasn't gonna get left alone. She was being followed, she was certain of it. Just a matter of time. Just a matter of time just a—she couldn't stand this any more!

Shauna whirled and yelled out into the trees. "JUST COME OUT AND DO IT ALREADY!"

Her response was the booming blast of gunfire. Shauna shrieked and fell flat on her butt.

Silence.

That wasn't aimed at her. It was a ways off in the distance. She was alive. Shauna started to smile, then stopped. What the hell was she smiling about? Someone just got shot! She should—she should run!

She didn't budge from the floor, scooching up her feet to her butt so she could hug her knees to her chest. Someone was shooting, that left someone else in trouble. Someone in a spot like the spot she'd been in just a short while ago. They might need help, did need help. And she was just sitting here, thankful it wasn't her. Was that what another person, a good, kind person had died for? So that Shauna could sit around crying, waiting for somebody else to come along and kill her?

Maybe Quinn really was chasing her. Maybe Ty or Nick or someone who wasn't on the announcements at all really would pop out and cut her head off. And if that happened, she wouldn't be able to do a thing about it. But... but was that any reason not to try? Not to, not to look, at the very least? Maybe she could do something. Maybe she could help, if the tiniest bit.

She started to pick herself up. Another boom and she was right back on the floor, all but flattened out.

On second thought this ground was pretty good. No guns down here.

Shauna closed her eyes and swallowed hard. Be brave. Be brave. Be brave. She had a weird sword glove and contact lenses. She could do this.

She rose again, fiddling with her bag and the gauntlet, imagining... yeah, this was that bit in the fic where the meek mild-mannered hero finally stood up and did something heroic and it was the start of a great character arc and they went on to be the most badass—she dropped the gauntlet with a ringing clang that seemed to echo throughout the heavens. Shauna flinched, tensing up, every last nerve jangling with the noise.

Nothing. No boogeyman tearing out of the trees to rip her to pieces, gunshot blowing out her brains. Shauna shakily stooped to retrieve the gauntlet and then, clutching it in both hands, moved forward. The trees broke a moment, and there they were.

Two figures, side by side. Holding hands. One shredded to pieces. One with a bloody, scorched tear in their neck, head leaning back impossibly far. O-oh.

"Oh myGOD!" Shauna turned away, the gauntlet falling again. She buried her head in the crooks of both arms, shaking. "Ohgodohgodohgodohgodohgod."

That was a detonated collar. That was what someone with an exploded throat looked like. Did someone kill both of them? One girl—it was easier to think of her as 'one girl' and not Regina because Shauna knew she was Regina she recognised her—had definitely been shot but the other girl—Caroline, her name was Caroline—didn't look shot. A blown collar meant... what? She'd broken the rules, somehow. Shauna swallowed, stole a quick glance back, looked right at the, the corpses for a second, then past. Something mechanical. Twisted, exploded scraps. That wasn't the collar. Wait, a camera. She'd shot a camera?

Shauna glanced again, body halfway jerking around like it was on a string. Then she stared. There was a gun. Right there. A nasty looking one. So... there wasn't a killer around. It was just Caroline and Regina. And her. She was here and she could. Well. Um. Go and. Get that.

She turned her back, took a deep breath. She came over here. She could do this. If she went and got... that, then she could be, not safe, but protected, right? She shuffled around the two, inch by painstaking inch, trying to orient herself with the bits of camera, studiously keeping her back to the bodies. She just needed to—she tripped.

Shauna spilled onto her back, scrambled, then looked straight into a vacant-eyed stare. A smiling, terrible, vacant-eyed stare. Shauna yelped, rolled away, shaking her head wildly. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry! I just—I just wanted to...wanted..."

Grave robbing. She was grave robbing. She tried to look back. Her head didn't want to move. She put a trembling hand to her own cheek and pushed, forcing herself to look around.

"I'm sorry," she mumbled again, picking herself back up once more and walking over to the dropped bag and the gun. Shauna inhaled, exhaled shakily, picked it up.

She didn't feel more safe, with that heavy weight in her hand, she felt less.

(Jeff Greene continued from Watch Your Step)

Jeff had been walking for a while now. Funny though, he didn't feel tired. He didn't feel much of anything. He'd rolled out some bandages, tied them up in a sling. Probably wouldn't need it after a day or two, long as he didn't do anything stupid.

Like pushing someone off a cliff.

He winced and stopped in his tracks, staring at the sky in aggravation. That had to stop, right now. If he was going to tear himself apart over the past, he'd never get anywhere. He might as well just bash his own head in and get it over with. No, he had to move on, had to pretend that he never cared for a girl named Cammy.

But seriously, what in the world was he even thinking? He knew that she'd die, maybe even HE would have to be the one to kill her. No one was going to hurt her...he really said that with a friggin' straight face. What a friggin' joke that turned out to be! Stupid, stupid, arrogant, empty, pointless fluffy bullshit! Dangit!

He was about to punch a tree, then he remembered that his hands were full. This stupid shield! This stupid...everything! He should just...

Jeff was about to just throw the shield to the ground in rage when a gunshot interrupted him, followed shortly by another sound, almost like the pop of a cap gun. He paused, curious about the noise, and figured that he might as well investigate. Maybe if there was a murderer nearby, he could ask them to put him out of his misery.

No such luck. Just a confused girl standing over a pair of corpses. A quick look at the neck of one of the deceased, the smoking box of electronics nearby, not to mention the gun this girl was picking up, told him everything he needed to know about the scene. Looked like some kind of murder-suicide. Those freaks did warn them about the cameras.

Jeff didn't know what it was about his current state of mind, but the sight of a frightened girl waving a shotgun around...he wasn't nervous, was almost looking at it methodically, his mind going through the motions he needed to do to get the gun away. He had a shield, right? Maybe it'd block bullets? He didn't know. Didn't care, honestly. If it turned out to be useless, then that was his problem fixed there. Game over. He was done, and then he didn't have to worry about anything. Maybe he should test it, just to be sure...

"Bodies're still warm and you're already looting," he said, casually striding up to her from the treeline. "That's cold, kid."

((Faith Clementine Marshal-Mackenzie continued from Hear. Fear. Here.))

There had been a few minutes of something approaching tranquillity as she sat there, watching the rain slide off the leaf cover overhead and pool in puddles in the dirt just a few feet in front of them, propped up against a tree. The two of them had been walking for another few hours, and the rain had given them an excuse to stop, and that was fine by Faith's reckoning. There'd not been a discussion on where they were going, and there probably wasn't going to be, as they seemed to be moving just to move. She felt like she could relax now, just a little bit, with people watching her back for her.

Faith hadn't even thought about how long Regina had been gone for, before the dull thud-thud of shotgun blasts rang through the trees, sending birds scattering from their perches as they screeched warnings at one another. A scream followed after, a voice she didn't recognise as she cut through the trees, but it helped her stay in the right direction. It felt like the place was trying to stop her too, as she ducked under low branches, vines whipping at her arms.

The metal box that had been in her left hand crashed to the ground, breaking the silence that had been burning her ears, as the scene came into view.

Two bodies, both on the floor, the mud around them shining in the dim light. One of the bodies had familiar, blond hair that was speckled with blood. Both of them were completely still.

Faith was completely still, too, as she stood there.

Everything she could have done to prevent this felt like it rushed to make itself apparent as she stared. The awkwardness of offering to go with her, the weirdness of making sure they knew what time she'd be back, it all felt so insignificant now. Another person was dead. Another person she knew, because she hadn't taken care of them, again.

It left a pit where the bottom of her stomach should've been.

Some part of her recognised that there were other people around. A girl to the side of things, shaking as she cradled the shotgun awkwardly, the gruff sound of another guy. Faith sank to the ground, her legs splayed out infront of her, the rain pitter-pattering on the leaves above them, soaking through here and there. She stayed silent as she looked for a few more moments, before looking away, bringing her hands up to bury her face in them.

((Matthew Hunt continued from Hear. Fear. Here.))

Sitting under one of the trees, Matthew watched the rain fall ahead of them. By the time he remembered to use the umbrella he was carrying for a while, it wasn't really worth it. Thankfully, he put on his hoodie earlier before it got too bad and it helped somewhat. At least the hood helped keep his head dry. Even though the rain was mildly annoying, it mostly felt peaceful. For being on an island of classmates turned murderers, anyways.

After he, Regina, and Faith left the cliff, they weren't exactly eager for conversation. Faith was probably still pissed with him for what he said before, so he tried his best to leave her alone. At this point, they were just wandering around aimlessly again, not really knowing where anybody was.

Regina left them a bit ago to take a piss, but she's sure taking her time with it. Maybe she really had to go or something.

The banging of shotgun blasts in the distance proved him wrong.

"What the-" Matthew said, standing up as fast as he could, "Regina?! Regina, Are you OK?!"

A scream answered him, which was all the evidence he needed as he immediately followed Faith as fast as he could. A couple of branches and twigs hit his face, legs, and arms as he did his best to keep up with her. The pain barely registered in his mind as only one thought ran through his head.

Please be okay, please be alive!
Please be okay, please be alive!
Please be okay, please be alive!

He pressed onwards and stopped behind Faith as he approached the scene and-

"Oh my god." Matthew said as his eyes widened and covered his mouth with his hand.

Two people dead lying on the ground. One of them with their head torn open, a pool of blood still leaking from the fatal injury.

The other corpse was the one who was shot and the wounds on her chest said it all about who was shot.

When he saw Regina's blond hair and face, that did it.

"Regina!" Matthew yelled out as he rushed over to her. There was some other people closeby, but he wasn't focused on them as he quickly got to his knees next to her body. Putting his one hand behind her head and the other on her back, he shook her desperately.

"Regina!" he yelled again as tears started to form in his eyes, "Can you hear me?! Say something! Please! Don't leave me! You're going to be okay!"

Maybe he can save her, he had his first-aid kit in his bag, maybe it's not too late, she's not really dead, she's just unconscious, it doesn't look that bad, maybe-

Someone spoke from a short distance away and Shauna yelped, her entire body jolting. The weapon in her hand started to slip and she stumbled, falling with the weapon to get herself underneath it and catch it before it fell, almost dropping to one knee in the process. Her head snapped around as she looked back over her shoulder, frozen like the deer with its hand in the cookie jar.

"I didn't do anything!" she shouted, instinctively cringing away from the presence. She turned the whole way around and backpedalled, almost tripping over her own feet in her hurry to clear a little more distance. Oh no, he was big. He was like a football player or something, wasn't he? Ahh, this wasn't fair, she hadn't even done anything and he was being all accusing, she only, well. You know. Just... picked up what was there. Yeah. There was nothing wrong with that. Grave robber.

She got there too slow. Maybe if she wasn't such a chicken, she could have reached them before, well, before this happened. She could have done something. She should have done something. She heard, she was close enough to hear. Maybe one of them died right away but that didn't mean both were dead and perhaps it wasn't and—okay okay, calm down, calm down calm down calm down calm down.

After a second, she realised that she'd said it out loud at least a couple times. Neither inside nor outside voice helped.

"I... it was like this when I got here," said Shauna. "I'm sorry! I didn't mean to—" she wasn't even sure what that was going. She didn't mean to. She didn't mean to see them die. She didn't mean to let them die. She didn't mean to be here. She didn't mean to anything.

“Yeah, I know. You just found them like this, right?”

Jeff already figured this wasn’t the girl’s fault. The scene didn’t look like something a shaking twig like herself could have done. More likely, she’d been attracted by the noise, just like he had, not to mention the two other people who just arrived.

Jeff noted the two arrivals. No clue who they were, but what else was new? Seemed like they knew the deceased since they were having themselves a good long weeping episode. Best not to disturb them, not out of any regard to tact, but because people always get jumpy and overreactive when they’re in an emotional state.

“Well,” he said, “seems like you need that more than they do. Might as well keep it. I’d try fighting you for it, but, you know, one arm. No point.” He turned to emphasize his immobilized arm, figuring he might as well be honest.

Realistically, using a shotgun one-handed would be a good way to have both arms in a sling. Besides, how would he even load the dang thing? Sure, he could hoard it for when he healed up, but he was trying to keep heat off of him for the time being. If he got into a fight, he’d probably have to kill the mourners too, and counting...yeah, that’s four kills in one day. Good way to rocket to the top of people’s hit lists.

He stepped up to the bodies, looking at the ragged hole where the bomb had gone off. They weren’t joking about the collars. Sick bastards...able to kill someone with the press of a button. Course, here he was, contemplating the merits of murdering three kids. How was he any better? This Danya guy set them up, but nothing here wasn’t there to begin with. Maybe if they pulled a gun on him in the “civilized world”, he’d be thinking the exact same thing.

Oh, right, he was just standing here. Probably should at least do the formalities or whatever.

“Jeff Greene,” he said, not angrily, just matter of fact. Why stir up trouble where there wasn’t any?