Survival Of The Fittest

((Katie Agustien continued from I've been waiting for that kind of lie, satisfaction guaranteed))

They’d stolen a bit of shelter in one of the more rundown buildings in the village. It wouldn’t have been anybody’s first choice of a place to stay, almost entirely destroyed and open to the weather, but that was the point. Katie didn’t want to end up somewhere other people would be. Right now, she just wanted to be with Saffron; she’d had enough of other people stressing her out, dragging her this way and that, pushing her to her anger point. Spending time with Saffron, with her girlfriend, was just the tonic she needed, for some of her anger to dissipate instantly just by her mere presence.

Maybe that was how they could just spend the rest of their time on the island, for however long or short it would be. Just the two of them, together and alone from the outside world. They wouldn’t be able to avoid the outside world forever, sure, but a quick check as to whether the people they ran into were friendly or not, an exchange of greetings and shared histories if they were, and then they’d carry on their separate ways.

Katie hadn’t brought the subject up yet, though. Especially not in their night together in their scant shelter, huddled in each others arms, talking about everything and anything until it grew pitch-black around them, and she could barely see Saffron, but she could still feel her arms wrapped around her and her fingertips trailing down her spine and through her hair, and it was every bit as good, exhaustion slowly claiming them as they murmured sweet nothings and ‘I love yous’ and sharing kisses before falling asleep in each others arms.

For that brief moment, before her eyes closed and she passed out, Katie had believed that nothing could ever go wrong from that moment forwards.

Morning had shattered that illusion, of course, as they’d packed up their things and started moving onwards to the crackle of the announcements. As much as she wanted to, she couldn’t just spend every day with Saffron as if they were on a date, walking hand-in-hand from place to place, on a little sightseeing tour. People were dying around them. Friends and loved ones. Every single day, the number waxing and waning but never completely decreasing. Bryan was dead. An eternally friendly face, the perfect hype man, a great spotter to boot. He’d always been too good for Katie, far as she saw it. Quinn was still killing. Once upon a time she’d wondered whether they could be a thing, or at the very least share in their experiences, taunted and punished for being a lesbian in the sporting world.

Erika had killed. By poison, no less. Hardly an accident. Hardly a peaceful or pleasant way to die, either. Katie had had to stop for a moment at that announcement. She’d realised that she’d started shaking once they were moving again. The words she’d said on the first day were thrown into a brand new light, now, and if they’d given her inner turmoil before, this was a typhoon raging away inside of her, not looking like it was going to stop any time soon.

She was going to have a talk with that girl again. Mark her words.

---

Katie looked at Saffron’s hand as they walked, a sad smile creeping onto her lips, but as soon as she looked at her face, it shifted and became brighter, warmer. She could no longer feel completely safe, completely at ease, completely invincible, but it was impossible for her not to feel some sense of happiness and euphoria at finally running into Saffron. They couldn’t keep this going forever, like she’d realised the previous night, but she felt as though they could make up for time lost and for time stolen for them, just for a little while longer.

Heading back to the Lookout had been her idea. She’d never had a chance to appreciate the view whilst up there, there’d been a couple of teeny tiny events happening around her that had stolen that opportunity away. But there had to be a reason a vantage point had been built. It could be one last moment of relaxation. A chance to enjoy the view together, before they came back to reality and worked on survival.

Of course, nothing could ever work out as nicely as all that.

“Oh, fuck…”

Katie squeezed Saffron’s hand, staring down at the body of Tristan O’Hara.

(Saffron continued from I've been waiting for that kind of lie, satisfaction guaranteed)

Bliss. That was one of the best words to describe how Saffron felt after being reunited with Katie. Considering everything else going on around them, one could say that it was misplaced bliss, but she didn't care to look deeply into it. The facts of the matter were that Saffron was happy, and she was making Katie happy too, so it didn't matter what else was happening. If anything, Saffron valued her even more now, as her only source of light on this wretched island.

The night that they spent together was the first restful one that Saffron had on the island, and it left her feeling fully rejuvenated. Not only that, but it solidified something inside of her. Waking up next to Katie just felt right. She wished that she could do that every morning, for the rest of her life. Saffron already had a lot of strong feelings about her, but she had never felt them more intensely. She knew that Katie was the girl of her dreams, the person who she would gladly intertwine her soul with. She just didn't know how she didn't realize it sooner.

When the announcements came and brought them crashing back down to reality, she kept Katie's hand in hers the whole time as the list of the dead was read off, with their killers' names added in. She felt Katie squeeze her hand a little tighter after a few of the names were stated, but she didn't show any discomfort. She would be there to support her, no matter how bad it got.

They headed off into the uncertainty of the island, mapping out their next destination.

---

Saffron ascended to the lookout platform alongside Katie, and she couldn't help but feel a twinge of excitement. Katie had told her about it, and it sounded like a perfect idea to her. A wide view of the whole island, despite everything, would probably be absolutely breathtaking. In the back of her mind, she was considering getting out a few of their crackers and a little bit of water, and making sort of a picnic date out of it. It would be cheesy, and possibly the most meager picnic ever laid out, but she was more focused on wanting to do things with Katie.

And then those hopes came crashing down as soon as they reached the platform. Greeting them at the top was the blood-soaked body of Tristan O'Hara, and Saffron shared Katie's shocked reaction. She knew that he had died, and that he had been stabbed, but the announcement didn't tell them where it had happened, leaving that as an unpleasant surprise for them to find on their own.

Saffron felt herself getting more sickened the more that she looked at the gruesome sight, so she averted her eyes and tried to spare Katie from any more pain as well. She lightly tugged on the other girl's hand and spoke to her. "Katie, Katie. Look at me, please. Don't stare at him. Look at me."

It wasn’t the first time in his life he’d slept outside, but it was the first time since waking up on the island, in Survival of the Fittest. Even in the tropical heat, the absence of sunlight cast a slight chill on the forest. In a place where dry was an entirely relative term, that little temperature difference meant a lot.

It meant huddling under a tree, staring ahead and silently willing the sun to come back out. Just for him. Just one last time.

The abysmal final chapter of his life had been illuminating, at least. For all he’d felt like he was finally starting to understand himself, for all he’d smugly looked down on the evident lack of sincerity and courage in his peers - he’d never imagined being so wrong about everything.

From the moment he understood true fear at the end of a noose, to the callous self-deception that he felt permitted him to hurt and kill with abandon, Tyrell had found one way after another to ignore reality.

The reality was, he wasn’t made to be any better than he had been. Nothing could change that. Almost every single person he’d ever cared to try and love had ended up betraying and abandoning him. For the longest time he thought they just hadn’t understood.

Now more than ever it was becoming clear that they understood perfectly clearly who he was.

Mom had every chance to grow a spine and call the cops, call CPS, call anyone on her husband, but she didn’t.

His sister had never once done the same. She just fucked off and left them in that house, knowing who he was. Maybe she thought they weren’t worth saving. All Ty could remember was loving his sister, and coming to understand what true hatred was when he finally realized what had happened. He wished she knew that.

Elliott abandoned him. Maybe his promises of setting him and Ty up on the west coast weren’t empty, but it didn’t matter after he killed himself. Over a girl. It was all the same, in the end.

He thought he had a friend in Lorenzo. Someone who maybe saw the world the same way. It certainly seemed like it all of those nights they’d spent wandering town, getting into scraps, breaking into abandoned buildings, getting messed up at concerts they weren’t supposed to go to. For the longest time he’d always wanted to have a friend that he didn’t have to pretend around. Someone honest.

Then one day he was honest, and all Ty had for him was menace and hate. What else could he have for a rapist? There was no clearer demonstration of just how shitty a person he was that he couldn’t see past it, and help Ren. Make him understand what he’d done. Do whatever he could to make amends. That would’ve been what a decent person might’ve done.

Ty couldn’t have been that kind of person, because all he knew how to do with someone like that was inflict pain. Torment a dying old man, as if a few scattered instances of psychological torture could somehow make up for an entire childhood’s worth. Out Lorenzo’s crimes to the world, as if it wouldn’t further ruin Artem’s life. Try and murder him, as if watching him die would be less painful than trying his best to help his friend reconcile with his worst impulses, as he had tried in vain to do for himself.

By most standards of morality, he and Lorenzo weren’t all that different now, he supposed.

Is it any wonder she left me to die alone?

As soon as he’d heard the announcements on the third day, he couldn’t help but keep going over their conversation in his mind. Wishing he’d insisted on staying with her. Wishing there was some perfect combination of words that might’ve made her realize it was the right decision.

She’d have been safer that way.

It hurt to know she’d had to kill someone, and now had to live with the same target on her back he had.

She must feel so alone.

There was no way she could have meant to do it. It pained him to imagine how she must have felt. She couldn’t even bear to think about mortality. It pained her to see snails get crushed on sidewalks after it rained. How does someone like that even manage to kill anyone?

Not easily.

Erika wanted to handle this her own way. Alone. That made sense at the time. He wanted to respect that. Seeing him die would break her spirit. Having him around, knowing how he killed Chris was too painful to bear. His reputation alone made him a target. It would all make it that much more difficult to survive.

She shouldn’t be alone. I failed her.

If she was going to lose him, if they were going to lose each other, it had to be on their terms, right? That kiss in the rain was a perfect way to remember one another. If she survived, he didn’t want her memories of him to be sullied with the indignities of a messy death.

It made sense at the time.

They were always honest with one another. That was what had defined their relationship. Accepting things they never imagined others would accept. They brought out the best in one another. It hurt to leave one another, but they both knew it was the best option.

She still loved me. She was the only one who did.

Shooting Desiree must’ve been a mistake. Ending another person’s life would’ve torn her apart inside. She should’ve never had to.

It should have been me.

The next set of announcements continued to crackle over the loudspeaker. Ty looked up, rubbing tears from his eyes.

”I'm sure you're all itching to hear what happened yesterday..."

More names. For most he felt indifference, others inspired cold hatred. There were only a few he was really listening for. A look of shock and confusion spread across his face as he heard her name again, having killed Blake Davis with poison.

Ty shook his head. He deserved it, no doubt.

I always hated that fucking kleptomaniac bootlicker.

Poison, though? She didn’t mention having poison. It was an extremely deliberate method of killing someone; however she’d done it, it was clear by now which path she was taking.

“Look - I know only one person gets to make it out. I know that. I know what has to happen.”

A path they could’ve walked together. Ty wanted to be the only one of them with blood on his hands. He remembered the look she gave him when he mentioned Lorenzo and the other killers. Even if she couldn’t forgive him for what he did, why not use him?

Something about this felt very wrong.

---

The only silver lining to the announcements was hearing Claude had finally lost it, or at least learned how to aim. Supposedly he lured Bryan into one of his patented philosophical lectures, and then shot him to death. Though he was enamored by the possibility of finally getting the sanctimonious bastard to admit his hypocrisy, thinking of what had transpired brought him no joy.

Was it supposed to?

Even the worst of him felt worn down and tired. Ty shivered, his eyes scanning his surroundings. The Lookout had to be close. Danya mentioned that Cammy had fallen from it and died, which meant it was high enough. He supposed it was entirely possible he'd have a change of heart once he looked down. There was still Lorenzo and Blaise to deal with, after all.

But maybe they’re not my problem.

If Erika managed to get a reward for killing Blake, and it was a weapon anything at all like she trained with at home, she would have a better chance than he could ever try and provide her. If she really was killing to survive, Lorenzo was a dead man the moment they’d cross paths. So was just about anyone else.

Maybe… maybe it’s all over.

The way that Drew and the others reacted to his very presence made it clear there was no going back. There wasn’t anything left to do that might in any way erase the stain of the mistakes he’d made, and no one left to care even if he did. The only person who cared had her own path to take.

It’ll be alright. It’s done.

Ty emerged into the clearing that led to the lookout platform, stopping dumbfounded just a few yards away as he recognized the two figures standing above a corpse. Katie and Saffron. The very people Erika had told him to protect, standing between him and yet another premature end. Much as he'd admonished Claudeson for his blind faith, he couldn't help but see it as a sign.

If there was any reason to continue living, this was it.

His expression brightened as he began to walk towards the two, visible relief evident on his face. Erika wasn't the only one who understood him. Katie did, too. He shouldn't have been so naive as to think otherwise.

"Katie! Saffron! I'm glad I found you guys."

Stopping a few feet away to catch his breath, he held out his open palms in a gesture of deference. An uncomfortable manic energy accompanied his ramblings, though he was too excited to notice how he actually sounded.

"Don't worry, I'm not - I don't want to hurt anyone. Erika, she - she told me to find you. After what I did she... she wanted to go it alone, but she told me to find you. Since we couldn't stick together, you know - she said that if anyone was worth keeping safe, it was you two. I wasn't sure I could explain myself to anyone but... Katie, I knew you could understand. What it's like to get carried away, lost in anger and hate. You... you believe me, right?"

She was shaking again.

Just like with Cammy’s body, she could feel the heat rising inside of her the longer she looked down. It wasn’t exactly the same scenario; she’d barely been close to Tristan, after all, and in fact a bunch of the stuff she’d heard about him had been far from savoury. But it was still a dead body, right in front of her, a body with a killer attached, a killer who could easily do the same to somebody else, to someone else she cared about, to Saffron…

Adonis. Adonis was Tristan’s killer. Katie tried to dredge up her knowledge of Adonis Cohen, tried to picture him in her mind, prepare herself for if he tried to attack again.

It was only then that she felt Saffron tugging on her hand, trying to tear her away from the body, pleading with her to look elsewhere. Their hands shook together, before Katie closed her eyes and took a deep breath, squeezing Saffron’s hand tightly, trying to let the security and warmth wash over her. She turned to face her girlfriend, slipping her free hand into theirs. It took several more steady, slow breaths before she could open her eyes again.

“I’m here…” she murmured. “I’m okay. I’m here.”

She gave Saffron another sad smile.

“Thank you, Saff…”

If this wasn’t a reality check that the honeymoon period was over, Katie didn’t know what would be. What were the chances that Tristan’s body would be the last one they saw on the island? Low, and decreasing by the day. She couldn’t keep on reacting this way every time she saw someone else’s corpse, inches away from blowing her lid, then bottling that anger up for later. But she also didn’t want to just become numb to the sight of them either. A life, no matter how short, where death held no meaning to her, where it was just something that happened? She might as well be dead already if that was the fate held in store for her.

Could she just turn around with Saffron and find another spot on the ridge to watch the sunrise together and pretend like they’d never seen anything? The thought had crossed her mind, more than once, but it just wasn’t realistic. Like she’d just thought, they couldn’t avoid seeing bodies. And if they pretended everything was hunky-dory, rather than doing anything to protect themselves, then they were practically inviting their own demise.

“It doesn’t really feel right, though,” she added, tracing her thumb against the back of Saffron’s hand. “Leaving him out here in the sun. You think we could-”

There was movement and a voice over Saffron’s shoulder, one that was instantly recognisable, and that froze Katie’s blood in her veins and wiped the trace of a smile off of her face. She squeezed Saffron’s hands once more, before moving around to face Ty.

There was something off about him. His hands were empty, his posture unthreatening. He claimed he didn’t want to hurt them, and that, if nothing else, Katie could believe. But his words reminded her of someone, of the guy draped in a sandwich board on the corner of the street near the boxing club, raving that the end was nigh, that they needed to repent now before the end of the world. The underlying hint of mania, a desperate desire for someone to believe him.

And that was the smallest thing she had to worry about with Ty.

“Wish I could.”

She could feel her knife in her pocket, pressing against her thigh, and she could feel the red mist falling again, as Erika’s words replayed in her mind, clear as crystal. She’d wrangled with them every minute of every day, spent countless rounds in the ring with them, her stance and thoughts on them shifting and changing like water. But now that Ty was standing in front of her, and now that she had all the information she needed, from the announcements and from his and from Erika’s words, she could only come to one conclusion.

Her own kills be damned. Erika had been right.

“You know my anger better than anybody, Ty,” Katie continued, struggling to keep her voice level, wading through quicksand. “You know how bad it gets. But never bad enough to fucking kill somebody. That’s not… that’s not something you can just do! Did Chris try and kill you first? Did Felix?

Her hands were balling into fists and unclenching, over and over, and she realised she had started moving closer towards Ty as she spoke. She didn’t stop herself.

“Erika told me something, you know? Before all of that happened. Pretty much the moment we woke up. Do you know what that was?”

Saffron wanted Katie to keep her attention on her and away from the corpse before them. Her reasoning was twofold. For one, it was good to keep Katie from panicking, but her other motive, as cheesy as it may sound, was to see Katie smile. She didn't know how many more chances that she would be able to see it, and feared that she may only get another chance if they made it to another evening together, so she wanted to savor the sight as much as she could.

She wanted no part in any of what was going on. Fighting had never been something that came naturally to her. Sharp comments, yes, but definitely not fighting, and that was even before she brought her disabled hand into the picture. Simply put, Saffron did not expect any fights to go well for her. Katie, on the other hand, she figured could do well since she was a boxer. But at the same time, she didn't want to make Katie have to protect her, and this new development made her fear that possibility.

And speaking of things that Saffron feared, Tyrell Lahti had now joined them. Tyrell Lahti, the killer. The multiple murderer, actually. That was a description that she never wanted to be applied to anyone even remotely near her, but she couldn't exactly do anything about it. Tyrell was here, he knew they were there, and he was talking to them.

And Saffron was freaked out.

She took a step back and noticed that Katie did not do the same. If anything, she was looking more and more agitated by the second. Katie had confessed to having a temper before, but Saffron had never seen it, probably because Katie was always so cute and giggly whenever the two of them were together. She put her hands on Katie's shoulders and looked between her and Tyrell, worried as to what may break out between them.

And between Tyrell's weird speech and Katie's aggressive approach, she feared that what would come next might be very, very ugly.

Ty hung his head as Katie admonished him for his actions. For him, in those moments, it didn’t feel like a choice. At least, that had been what he’d told himself. Of course there were any number of things he could’ve done in retrospect that wouldn’t have led to several deaths. A strong, good person didn’t lash out at the first opportunity. A better person would’ve kept their head.

He attempted to respond, his voice shaky and hollow. The flash of optimism he’d felt as he approached them had been quickly snuffed out.

“No, it’s not. I should’ve known- look, it was the first day, things were really tense. Chris did attack me, with her friends. Felix was a mistake-”

Tears welled in his eyes. Whatever emotional walls he’d been able to keep up before, he no longer had the strength to. In spite of the open vista before them, he began to feel a sense of claustrophobia as Katie moved towards him, almost cowering as she closed the distance. Though he was aware of Saffron’s presence, he found himself unable to look away. He had a feeling she’d deck him if he did, and he wouldn’t be able to live with himself if he threw a punch back.

He knew he would. He never could help himself.

“I’ve made nothing but mistakes. I don’t know how to even react to all of this, I was scared. I knew what people thought of me. I lashed out. I know I shouldn’t have, but I just… I didn’t care. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.”

His words didn’t seem to register with Katie, trite explanations for inexcusable acts. There had to be a way. There had to be a perfect combination of words that might make her understand. She had to. If he could just explain, if she’d just try to understand - maybe he’d have a purpose here.

I promised her I’d try my best. I’m trying.

I’m trying so hard.

Erika had told her something, the moment she’d woken up on the island. Something important. Ty couldn’t remember if she’d mentioned anything like that, shaking his head at Katie’s question.

The moment she woke up - it was here, wasn’t it?

Of course. This was it - the spot where Katie met Erika, after the terrorists had left her at the edge of the lookout. Where her journey began. Fate seemed to have drawn him here, in this moment, in this place, to listen to Katie. This was where she saved Erika.

This was where she’d save Ty, as well.

“What… what did she tell you, Katie?”

Excuses.

That was all Ty was giving her, as far as Katie was concerned. Excuses for inexcusable actions. So Chris had attacked him first. Sure. That she could believe. But then Felix had died after her, and he wasn’t claiming that to have been in self-defence. No, that one had been a mistake. A tiny little error, a minor slip-up. A lapse in judgement.

A mistake. Fuck that.

Ty looked distraught and sounded even worse, and again, Katie could believe that he was honestly feeling rotten inside. But for what reason? That two people were dead because of him? Or because he was being called out for it? She had no way of knowing for certain, but she couldn’t shrug off the feeling that it was the latter. He was ‘scared’. He’d ‘lashed out’. He’d messed up, but oh, he realised how bad he’d been, and wouldn’t she forgive him?

Wouldn’t she forgive him for killing two people who must have been so much more petrified in their final moments?

“She told me… she told me, before anything had even happened, before anybody had died, when I was still getting my bearings and realising where I was and what was around my neck… that you were going to kill.”

Katie could feel her anger boiling inside of her, bubbling up, and not even Saffron’s hands on her shoulders could stop her any longer.

“Not just one people, not even just Chris and Felix. She said you were gonna kill as many people as you could. And I didn’t want to believe it, I thought that if you’d kill it wouldn’t be until so much later when there wouldn’t be any choice. But then you killed Chris, and Felix, and I knew… I knew you wouldn’t stop killing because you’d convinced yourself you were doing the right thing, that you were doing it for her, that you were gonna keep cutting a bloody swath through our fucking class, just so long as they kept on being goddamn mistakes.”

That was it. That was the moment that pushed her over the edge, her own words, speaking out loud the thoughts that had been brewing silently in her mind until then. She shrugged herself free of Saffron’s grip on her shoulders, breaking away and rushing at Ty, swinging a fist towards his ribs.

For a moment, the red mist obscured all of her boxing training and routines. All she cared about was the feeling when her fists slammed into Ty’s body.

All she cared about was doing what Erika had said, and putting him down before he could do any more damage.

She had given up on him from the very beginning. Before he'd done anything wrong. She knew he'd fail. She knew what would happen. All she did was sick someone else on him, because she knew how hard Katie would fight to protect Saffron. She had Ty’s trust, and the knowledge to put him down.

It was perfect. Fated, even.

Suspicion had no place here. Everything Erika had asked of him, begging him to be better than his instincts. It hadn't sat well. Not after she killed the first time. Certainly not the second time, after she murdered Blake with poison. Ty knew there was something wrong, but he'd made excuse after excuse for her. Just as he'd made for himself. All she’d told him - lies, through a kind smile and a gentle touch. Manipulating his love, his self-sacrifice just to engineer his death, because she loved him too much to -

no.

She was too much of a coward to do it herself.

Every step he’d taken from the Temple had been for her. Every violent episode, each manic overreaction justified because his life was only so valuable as long as he kept her alive. Yet all she’d wanted was to have him out of the way, just to spare her the responsibility of putting him down herself.

for what?

Telling Katie how horrible he was one day, and being altogether worse the next. The one thing he’d never taken her for, she was.

hypocrite.

The one person he’d convinced himself would never abandon him, did so in a heartbeat.

coward.

The realization hit him nearly as hard as the blow to the ribs did, which he was too stunned to make an effort to block. The wild swing landed true, and Ty couldn't suppress a fit of coughing as pain shot up his side. Familiar pain - she'd hit the rib Wyatt had broken by the river's edge months ago.

His training left him, as panic overrode his senses. Fear washed over his face, and he fell back on a knee as he half-heartedly tried to block her assault. It wasn’t the measured, overwhelming response he’d relied on to carry himself through fights before. This was an older feeling. His heart had been splayed open, and Katie was taking every advantage she could get to put him down. Raising his arm to deflect a blow, he cried out as Katie’s fist tore the bandages off of his arm. Blood began to run down the now-open wound.

Ty cowered, and made no attempt to defend himself.

“P-please, stop!”

There wasn’t any point in fighting back. What would he even be fighting for?

No mercy.

Not after what he’d done.

Not after the death and destruction she’d already seen. So little, comparatively. Nothing firsthand. She should never have had to see any of it. Never should have had to see Tristan’s body, bloody knife wound garish and open. If the Tys, or the Quinns, or the Blaises of her class kept at it, she’d see more bodies like Cammy’s, gutted and bloodsoaked and ripped apart, except these would be intentional, done with purpose.

Planned for.

She sunk back into her routine, even as the blood rushed through her, drowning out Ty’s pleas for mercy. He had sunken in on himself, fallen to an angle she wasn’t used to fighting, one that she should never and would never have fought someone from.

She didn’t hesitate for a moment as she swung at his ribs again, jabbing towards his neck and down towards his abdomen.

Blood splattered against her knuckles as she roared.

Saffron squealed when Katie lunged for Tyrell and took him to the ground with a vicious punch. She mounted him and continued her assault, landing punch after punch as Saffrom watched.

But this situation was all wrong. It wasn't at all like what Saffron had pictured when Tyrell first appeared. She had hoped for a peaceful passage, or if a fight had to happen, she imagined that it would involve Katie bravely fighting against an aggressive Tyrell who was trying to attack them. But instead, what she got was a hellaciously angry Katie relentlessly pounding on a helpless Tyrell who was begging for her to stop.

No, no, no, this isn't right, this isn't right.

This wasn't the Katie that Saffron knew. She knew a lovely girl who had a bit of a temper problem, but could hold on most of the time. She knew someone who loved talking and being really affectionate. Someone who she had spent the entire last night embracing and reassuring that their lives still had plenty of meaning left.

Seeing Katie like this was completely different. It was as though she had been possessed. It scared her.

"Katie!" Saffron cried out, hoping that her pleas would get through to her girlfriend. "Katie, stop! Please!"

He knew this. Sometimes Katie got a little bit ahead of herself. Boxing had always been her outlet, and anger powered her vicious strikes just as much as form and footwork. If he was still there, if he hadn’t succumbed to the first hit, he might’ve been able to use his reach and experience to defend himself, to put her down before she ended him.

If.

She went low first, just like he often did. A sharp jab to the ribs, and a cross to the liver just below it. People often called the liver the human body’s off-switch, because a sufficiently hard hit could send anyone down to the ground. It worked on Lorenzo, and worked just as well on Ty himself.

Struggling to even stay on his knees, Ty put a hand up to protect his face, but with his vision blurring and his movement sluggish from the pain, he only managed to raise his arm a half-second after Katie’s fist met his jaw. Unable to withstand any more, Ty fell spinning to the ground.

There was an impossibly silent, impossibly dark gap between the moment he felt the hit and the moment he came to, tasting blood and dirt. Though he tensed up, expecting her to continue, he felt nothing more. The assault was seemingly over.

Ty rolled slowly onto his back, wincing through tears as his body reminded him what was broken. Half-coughing, half-weeping, he curled into a ball on the wet ground, cradling his wounded arm and shaking uncontrollably.

Saffron had stayed her hand, if only for a moment. Looking up, his bloodshot eyes met Katie’s. Pleading, though to no one in particular.

“Wh...why?”

She’d fought, in a sense, with Ty before. They’d sparred and trained together on a number of occasions. Never a full on fight before; there was still a notable weight and size difference between the two, after all. Occasionally she would slip with her punches and misaim, or get frustrated with her performance, or she’d just had a bad day at school prior, and she’d swing harder and land glancing blows that would have made some of her classmates stumble, but they’d just shrug it off and chat it out through drinks of water afterwards.

Nothing like this. She’d never seen Ty as weak as this, as pathetic, begging for a reprieve he didn’t deserve as she continued to rain blows down upon him.

Even in her fury, she could feel that something wasn’t right.

His head lolled back as her fist connected with his jaw, and in the moment between the hit and Ty collapsing to the floor, Saffron’s voice broke through to her. She blinked, hands still balled into fists, hanging by her sides, breathing heavily. More pleading, more begging for her to stop.

This time, she listened.

She turned to look at Saffron as the flames in her eyes dwindled and burned out, and she saw just how frightened and upset her girlfriend was, the fear etched across her face. She looked back down at Ty, whimpering in the dirt. No longer a threat. Or, rather, never a threat, not since she’d laid eyes upon him here at the lookout point. He wasn’t going to hurt her, or hurt Saffron, or hurt anybody, was he?

She’d promised to herself to protect Saffron, and she’d promised she’d do this by driving off anybody who tried to harm her. If they wouldn’t listen to words, they’d have to listen to force. If they tried to hurt Saffron, she’d show them no mercy.

Did Ty, right now, fit any of that? She was starting to feel sick, but thinking about Chris and Felix on the announcements, and Tristan’s body right next to them, made her feel even worse.

There were so many things she could have responded to Ty’s fearful question with. That anyone who was a killer was a threat to Saffron, that he’d proven all of Erika’s fears correct, that she couldn’t trust that he wouldn’t wander off and kill someone else if she did nothing. None of them felt right to say anymore.

“I don’t want to hear your name on the announcements again.”

She walked over towards Ty, leaning down to pick up the crowbar that had spilled onto the ground.

“C’mon, Saff. Let’s go.”

Katie turned and started walking. They could talk later, once they were away from here.

Everything had felt right just a few short hours ago. Now nothing did.

((Katie Agustien continued in Zero Sum))

Saffron was still shaken as Katie picked herself off of Ty. There was no question that she had won the fight. The only uncertainty was whether it could actually have been called a fight in the first place. It was more like a beating, with Ty doing absolutely nothing in his own defense while Katie rained down on him with a flurry of punches.

She was thankful that Katie had stopped her assault, but still... she shouldn't have snapped like that. That was just another of the cases that proved that there was something seriously, seriously wrong with this island, and the people who had put them there. This attack would never have happened otherwise, and Saffron's faith in her girlfriend wouldn't be being tested in such a way.

She looked back at Ty, still on the ground, and forced herself to turn away. Ty wasn't a threat, not even close to one, especially now that Katie had taken his weapon. However, even though Katie wanted to protect her, she sincerely wished that she wouldn't have to see her pull out that crowbar, or for that matter, see Katie doing anything like what she had just witnessed again.

She followed Katie's lead away from the platform, keeping close to her so that she could talk whenever she was ready.

(Saffron Fields continued elsewhere...)

Ty’s head was spinning, overwhelmed by sensations he’d never wanted to be so well-acquainted with. The taste of blood, the feeling of fresh bruises forming, the needle-like pain of a fractured rib. He kept coughing, his breath having not entirely returned to him since Katie knocked the wind out of him. At one point he thought he was choking on a particularly hard piece of bloody phlegm, only to spit it out and discover a tooth.

Not the first time.

After a few minutes spent slipping in and out of consciousness, he managed to crawl to his duffel bag. It was splayed open, though none of his meagre supplies were missing. Just the crowbar, his last remaining weapon.

“F-fuck.”

He attempted to stand, but instead only managed something of a stumble. Mud-covered hands fell back onto the duffel bag, crushing his last loaf of bread completely. Ty reached in to grab a bottle of water, unscrewing the cap and trying in vain to drink some. Most of the water made it down his throat, but enough spilled everywhere else to be frustrating. His hands were shaking too much.

Life, whatever he had left, seemed to have become a blood-soaked comedy of errors. He stumbled towards the edge of the Lookout platform, tentatively peering over the edge. It wasn’t a short drop, but it certainly wasn’t as far as he would’ve liked. There was always the chance he bungled it somehow, and ended up surviving broken and in more pain at the bottom. No doubt he’d regain consciousness to discover Claudeson standing over him, trying his very best to monologue him to death.

How would they announce that?

Through blood and a split lip, Ty managed his best impression of Danya.

“'Tyrell Lahti survived falling from the lookout platform, but died when Claudeson Bademosi lectured him to death! Great job Claude, we’ve got some steak and a rocket launcher waiting for you at the yacht!'”

A raspy laugh echoed out from the platform. Ty turned away, doubling over as he felt arcs of pain shoot out from his ribs. Familiar, unrelenting hurt. He wanted more. As much as he needed to suffocate his thoughts, to erase everything he’d learned.

He kept laughing, until he found himself screaming, collapsed at the edge of the platform.

Ty kept going, until the torn feeling in his throat and the damage to his body forced him to bear his agony in silence.

Why didn’t you just kill me?

((continued elsewhere))