Survival Of The Fittest

((Continued from: I've Stared Straight into the Sun...))

Continuing on, and moving away from the beach, Adam continued his slow trek along the island. He'd been most places, and he'd still somehow been able to avoid any semblance of psychopath. It was a good fortune that he hoped he'd be able to avoid. The rain had changed to a light drizzle from a heavy downpour, which Adam was thankful for, as the heavier the rain was, the heavier that his pack became, soaked down with all of the water. It felt good to think of such a trivial thing to be concerned about. He was surprised that he wasn't more weighed down by all of the items that he was carrying, although the majority of them were some he considered crucial for surviving this sick game in the first place. Adam quickly ran a bit of an inventory on himself. He still had his shoes, and one layer of clothing. He missed his Leafs jersey, but in this downpour it was likely just as well that it had been lost. He carried a shotgun in his hands, one of the most powerful weapons in the game. He was lucky - the shotgun was still fully loaded and still had ammunition to spare. Suppose he did come across someone who wanted to kill him, he would be ready. In his pockets, he carried his wallet (somewhat of a force of habit, really, he hadn't thought to take it out and place it in his pack), and the small, yet powerful Mauser M2 that he had retrieved from the corpse of Andrew Lipson. His pack contained several small items, like his CDs, CD player, a taser, and a baseball bat that stuck out from the pack. He had grabbed the last two items off of the bodies of two more of his classmates, hoping that at some point they'd be of some use. He more or less just wanted to be well protected, and the fact that he had two guns more or less assured him of that fact. It was, however, his mind that he needed to keep sharp - someone with a rope, a chain, or even pepper spray could easily kill someone with a gun if they weren't paying enough attention. As such, Adam tried to keep his mind sharp, every so often taking enough of a bite out of the bread in his pack to drive away the hunger, and not even needing to touch the water to chase away his thirst. That WAS the plus side of rain, even if it made the area squishy, slippery, and difficult to maneuver in.

With nobody in the group with him, Adam's thoughts moved over the events of the game, most recently his discovery of his best friend's corpse. The discovery had hit Adam really hard, as Andrew was the kind of friend who Adam was always able to count on, no matter what. Now that he was dead, it seemed that a huge ally - was gone, just like that. To think that someone he knew was dead was a strange feeling, although death; especially in the last few days, was nothing new to him. He had seen his fair share of bodies, seen many people get wounded, injured, and even killed. It was the kind of experience that changed people, that much he knew. It was the reason that the families of soldiers always noticed a change in their loved ones once they came home from the wars that they fought in. Seeing such death, such killing...it could really do a number on a person. In essence, what the students of Barry Coleson High School had been transformed into were soldiers, some of them accepting their roles, most trying to fight it.

The problem that Adam saw, was that; and he hated to lose hope, he really did, there wasn't any actual way to get off of the island. Danya had people surrounding the island - that much was true, at least he believed it to be. The collars that they wore could be detonated at any time - Adam had seen this first-hand. It was sick, it really was. To think that at any point in time, their collar could start beeping, and then explode. With no warning. If Danya had been paying attention to his tirade, Adam wouldn't have been surprised to hear the beeping noise that would end it for him. He was glad he hadn't, at least he could feel thankful for that. It just seemed like it was a foolproof operation that Danya had going on - maybe the only way to get out truly was to win?

But it just doesn't seem like that made all that much sense. One of the early announcements had announced the death of someone named Sydney. Danya had mentioned that Sydney was the survivor of the previous program that his men had run. So why, he wondered, did he not get off the island at all? If he survived, then why did he have to participate in this game?

The only thing he could think of was that in the end, perhaps none of them were intended to get off this island at all. Perhaps that was what fate had dictated to them.

Well, I'm going to have to change my fate, then...

Stopping at the edge of the ravine, he looked down into the large crack in the earth. It didn't seem to contain any blood, any bodies. That was a relief. Sighing, he continued on, his mind racing yet still trying to keep any eye out for any other people that may come his way.

(( Coming from Starting Place for B#54 ))

Maybe we should have waited a little longer before leaving the warehouse…

Those where the thoughts currently running through the mind of Fredrik Hughes after having fallen for his third time in the slippery, muddy form the ground had became in thanks to the earlier downpour of rain, now no one than a drizzle of mist. Which is still bloody annoying…

Pushing himself up from the piece of muddy ground he currently lay against, using the sleeve of his jersey to wipe the remnants of mud from his face. Though he wasn’t very happy in the act of doing so, but his jersey was already far-gone to the mud. The chest area along almost completely covered in the dirty substance…

Sighing to himself in the disaffection of the current situation before pressing on, he figured heading toward the mountains would of course be the best idea at the moment. As that was the only clear world he had got out of Glenn, besides the whole ‘at the mouth’ which could hopefully be figured out upon arriving at their first location.

The dirt path having became a danger zone, he and his party of two… Jeremy and Heather who had came along from the warehouse group had thus been thus been forced into taking the much… less traveled, for lack of a better usage of words on his part, route.

Of course now that they had indeed came upon the edge of the ravine, he prayed dearly that he didn’t trip anymore because falling down something like that is nothing less than horrible. Gulping lightly as that light fear of heights begun to set in as he looked over the edge, he pulled himself standing upright and continuing along.

Really… If you think about, falling isn’t too bad. Really it’s what happens when you land that scares me… Fred thought lightly, glancing to his feet as he watched the pipe wrench in his hand swing about his side, he frowning at the thought of what Heater had said back at the warehouse about the wrench’s last owner.

“Oh, than Uriel's bottom Jaw was blown off with a flashbang in the mouth.”

Shuddering lightly, he shook the image from his mind and focused on more important things like, finding out where Glenn as, and the hell away from this large crack in the earth. Though still he just didn’t want something like what happened to a fellow schoolmate of his too well, befall him.

Glancing upward from his thoughts he was finally allowed to take in the fact that he wasn’t alone (well of course he wasn’t alone, with Jeremy and Heather he supposed it be better to say they weren’t alone) as no ten feet before them was another person.

Now Fred’s thoughts completely went into overdrive over who this could be, did they go to Barry Coleson, if so did they share a class? We’re on the soccer or hockey team together? Had he ever done something to make this person mad? All this was currently trying to check out in his mind already.

And this was before he noticed the shotgun.

Because when that happened, panic set in and everything starting going faster than before because he had heard of a shotgun-wielder with red hair in the announcements (though really if you tilted your head just right, the current person’s hair reminded him more orange than red…)

Why am I thinking about this! Someone with a shotgun is standing right in front of you. Finishing yelling at himself, he glanced oddly at the wrench in his hand. Well the guy hadn’t seen them yet, and as long as he didn’t turn around before they had chance to figure things out his plan could work it’s not like they could runaway, anyone with hearing could hear that… so really all he had was his plan.

Lifting his wrench into the air somewhat, he gulped again… “Oi! Don’t move and hands up… or I’ll…” He trailed, as he looked at his wrench with a sigh. Adding somewhat quieter, “Or I’ll bloody shoot… yeah, I’ll shoot.”

Even if he didn’t have a gun, the other person couldn’t see this… yet and Heather did have a gun so he wasn’t completely lying.

(continued from Start for B#54

Heather silently followed Fred for lack of better words towards a giant crack in the earth.

“Oi! Don’t move and hands up… or I’ll…"

Heather looked up at whom Fred was thretening to see the figure was holding a shotgun..

"Oh...shit"

Heather pressed a switch on the gun to eject the clip and slid the clip that she had in her hand into it. New clip in the gun, Heather raised her glock 17 at the boy holding the shotgun.

"Put down the shot gun, you dont have to give it up but you have to put it down."

Heather wrapped her finger around the trigger jut in case the boy tries anything.

Adam was almost completely startled at the intrusions. Whirling around in surprise, he wiped the water off of his face and sized them up and down. It was true that'd he'd gotten lost in his thoughts and hadn't seen any of them come close to him - which if they proved to be players, would be a very, very serious mistake. As of yet, however, Adam was uninjured, and that was most DEFINITELY the way he wanted to keep it. Although his mood didn't dictate it, he figured that the best way to react to these new arrivals, two of which who apparently just threatened to shoot him, was to just smile and be himself. His...normal, happy self, that is. Today, having a gun pointed at him was most definitely not something he liked seeing happen, yet it had happened already about four times in the past few days.

Great...wonderful...SHIT...

Looking the new arrivals up and down once again, he was surprised to make out the features of what could have been one of his buddies from the hockey team. To be honest, he wasn't sure. He was always embarrassed about the fact that he couldn't really tell the Hughes brothers apart. They always found it most humourous, and Adam, always ending up feeling somewhat absurd not being able to tell the difference, just called them both 'Hughes'. It was somewhat of a joke between the brothers and him, and he was, in a way, glad that someone he knew was part of the group that stood before him.

Holding his shotgun in one hand, he smirked at the new arrivals, and couldn't help but laughing at the situation itself.

"Hey, hey...guys, guys...let's not get too hasty on those trigger fingers, eh? I'm not out to shoot anyone, that's for sure. Unless his name is Danya and he's followed by a fat cloud of cigar smoke."

Looking at the group in front of him, he nodded with a smile to Fred.

"Hughes...what's up, bro? Been awhile, for sure. You guys, uh, you don't have to shoot me, eh? You haven't heard my name on any announcements yet, right? So you don't have to worry about me."

His smile faded a little.

"But no offense, even if you wanted me to give this up, it ain't happening. Not when there's fuckin' psychopaths like Jacob Starr wandering around."

Fred had to admit, he was a little more than relief to see that the person before them wasn’t who he had figured it to be… and instead someone he knew from school. “Oi mate…” He muttered softly, dropping his pipe wrench to his side glancing off sideways at Heather and Jeremy.

“Oh, he‘s alright. He’s a buddy of mine from school.” He mused lightly, turning back to face Adam with grin. “Sorry about the whole stick up thing… I saw red hair and a shotgun and figured you for Faust, who has been in the announcements these past few times so I thought the worse.”

Sifting his pack about Fred grinned a little more as he was addressed as just Hughes, “Still haven’t found out which twin is which? You should be able to tell I’m Fred by my…” He muttered, touching his jersey though as he looked at it discovered you couldn’t really tell it was a Manchester United jersey anymore. The bright fabric stained with dark mud… not to mention his arms, and legs, as well as smudges covering his face. “Well what’s left of my Manchester jersey that I’m the better looking one.”

Sighing lightly, he pressed a hand to his forehead as he took a step toward the other boy. “Speaking of twins, you haven’t seen Glenn have you… or anyone from the school that isn’t well dead or well crazy… Before I met with Jeremy here I was hiding out in the woods, of course those bastards made it a danger zone so yeah, but everything was kind of quiet out there, and I haven’t seen anyone besides a couple of familiar corpses. Though before I left the warehouse, Umi, and Aiden with a couple of other people showed up... so that's been it for me."

Adam couldn't help but grin as he looked at Fred's muddy jersey. "What, you and your MUD United jersey, hm? Seriously dude, you can't tell much of what many people are wearing in this mud. 'course, I decided to take a bit of a swim, so I'm nice and clean. But..." He shuddered a bit at the discovery he had made after his swim. "...let's not talk about that. Ah...let's see. I was actually looking around for my little group of friends. I was with Amanda Jones, uhh...Madelaine S..Shirohara, I think?, some big wrestler dude named Marcus, and, uh...Hawley Faust."

Adam could almost see the looks of the other kids changing to one of concern, but he held up his hands.

"Yeah, Hawley...one and the same as the one you've heard on the announcements. But, uh...I've gotta tell you...August and Terry, he had no choice. They attacked us, and he did what he had to do. As for Venka...that was just an accident. He got shot, gun went off...and, uh...yeah."

He shook his head as Fred asked about his twin.

"Glenn? Nah, I haven't seen him at all. I can probably give you a good idea as to who's dead and who isn't though. The hockey team, we're dropping like flies, dude...heh." Adam sighed loudly, trying to put some form of lightheartedness into what he was about to say, but there being no real way to do it.

"River Garraty committed suicide, far as I can tell. He was with us one minute, the next he ran screaming into a danger zone. Let's see...Alan Shinwrath is dead. Helena van Garret is also dead, I stumbled into her body. Cole Hudson from the newspaper, he's gone. Um...and my buddy Lipson, he's gone too."

At the last name on the list, Adam shook his head a bit. The fact that his best friend was dead hurt. It hurt a LOT.

Adam looked at the three of them and shrugged. "So what about you guys...you staying...going...? And Fred, who're your travelling companions? Sorry to say, girls...but I don't recognize either of 'ya."

Heather bitterly frowned at the boy's unusual behaviour in this situation. Lowering the Glock as Fred and the boy talked

"My name, It's Heather, and Silent Bob over there is Jeremy"

Heather said pointing back toward Jeremy.

"so who are you?"

Fred couldn’t help but feel somewhat sick over all that had died – so many he had walked down the same hall with back at school, or had been on the same team as. Brushing a hand over the stained jersey again, he found himself lightly frowning at Adam’s comment. “Mud, or clean still got to show my support, you know?”

Swinging the arm that held the wrench he lightly nodded as Heather introduced herself, and Jeremy hoping, no praying that Heather wouldn’t take the attitude she had taken with Adam that she had taken with Garrett, and then again with Umi.

“As for deaths that I know of, Heather’s informed that Uriel Hunter bottom jaw got blow out by a flashbang in the mouth. And Jacob Starr was hurt with some bullets to him, speaking of Jacob… Another guy named Garrett came by, wearing Rommel’s jacket. Seems Jacob killed the little firecracker, bloody git swear if I come across him.” Sighing again, Fred allowed his body to relax some before standing upright again.

Blinking he gave an odd look toward Adam at the mention of Andrew, “I thought he didn’t come on the trip…”

(continues from http://s10.PLACEHOLDERLINK/SurvivalOfTheF...90&#entry566665 )

Jeremy nodded and sia,d "Yeah I'm Jeremy." Jeremy was relived that Fred knew this boy. It would have been really pressing their luck if they matched up with a boy with a shotgun, that's not what Jeremy wanted. Standing there he thought about what was happening in the warehouse.

Had it erupted into a fight yet? Or were they working together. it didn't matter now, maybe they had another ally to help find Fred's brother. If not then they know it's at least 1 less person on this island playing the game.

Adam shook his head with a scowl.

"Nah, he didn't. Of course, did that stop those fuckers? No. They kidnapped him. Believe it or not, the fuckers kidnapped a kid in a wheelchair to play this sick game. As saddening as it is, I'm not surprised he's gone. Fuckin' sucks though. The guy was like a brother to me..."

Realizing what he had said after he had said it, Adam blushed intensely. Fred was looking for HIS real brother, so he was sure that how he had felt looking for his best friend was probably nothing as compared to what Fred must have been going through.

"Speaking of brothers...if you're looking for yours, I might as well give you a hand, if you'd like. I'm looking for some people myself. Mainly, um...Amanda and Hawley."

Adam blinked though as he took a few mental steps backwards.

"Hold up one second - Uriel Hunter is dead? Fuckin' eh, man. That little bastard threw a couple molotov cocktails at Hawley and I. Burnt up my Leafs jersey, actually. I suppose I can't kill him again if he's dead though. Damn." He grinned. "I wanted retribution for my damned jersey. Cost me 'bout a hundred bucks, you know?"

Looking at the other two, he blushed a little and held out his hand towards Heather. "Shit, sorry about that. Name's Adam. Adam Dodd."

He shrugged, and looked into the deep ravine.

"So, you guys want a hand?" He smiled.

Fred’s frown kept as he listened to Adam say about what had happened to Andrew, he glancing down toward his feet lightly wondering if they could be able to find Glenn in time before some psycho found him first. And his brother would end up hurt… or even worse…

Biting backs thoughts of the worse, he couldn’t help the chuckle that escaped him at the story of what had befallen Adam’s dear Leaf’s jersey, and hearing that he supposed a bit of mud wasn’t as bad as say, if it had been burned. Though at Adam’s offer to join up in there little rag-tag group, he found himself quickly nodding his head.

It wasn’t that he didn’t trust Jeremy or Heater, quite far from it… it was just for him having someone around who was at least familiar helped calm his speeding nerves, “You’re more than welcome, we currently are quite differing in the weapon’s department. I mean, Heather’s got herself a gun, and a GPS scanner. Jeremy here drew a sickle, while I was unfortunate enough to draw some bloody nunchaku, though now in thanks to Heather I currently have his pipe wrench, and a couple of flashbang grenades on hand as well.”

Adam nodded to Fred, all the while glancing at his companions and sizing them up and down. They didn't seem like the most battle-ready bunch, but it seemed like they WERE ready to go and should be able to defend themselves if necessary. He smiled a little smile, and without wanting to reveal all that much, he chuckled slightly.

"I'm, ahh...well, I'm fairly well-armed. You needn't worry about me."

Looking again into the ravine, he shrugged at Fred.

"So whereabouts have you guys been looking? D'you guys have a plan, somewhere you'd think that he'd think to meet up with you?"

"I don't think any of us where worrying about you, we can see that your quite well-armed." Fred said flashing a grin, as he removed his map and flipped it over looking for their current location, and to where the mountains are.

"At the moment we're heading to the mountains, I managed to get Glenn on his cellphone though it was all kinda fuzzy and only got 'mountains' and 'at the mouth' so I figure heading the mountains would of course be the best opition, that and Heather has a GPS scanner so that also helps in our little search."

Hearing that Fred's brother was at the mouth of the mountains Heather pulled her map from one of her vest pocket and looked it over.

"Well the mouth of the mountains could be at the mouth of the caves, I'd say we head there"

Heather pointed to the caves that were nearby,hoping that Adam wouldnt blast them in the back.

Jeremy stood there, Adam was apparantly well armed. He wondered what that meant exactly, but he didn't care. If Fred trusted Adam, then that was good enough for Jeremy. He wouldn't argue with any of them, they were his ticket out of here, people he could trust and find a way out with.

Still holding on to his sickle he listened to what Heather had said. Then he said, "That sounds about right...caves..." He knew they would find him, dead or alive, especially with Heather's GPS.