Survival Of The Fittest

((Cassie Chao V8 START))

Cassie Chao awoke enveloped in darkness.

She didn't panic immediately. After all, she was actually rather fond of the dark. To her the dark signified the end of a long and stressful day, wrapped up in several layers of blankets, hiding away from an often overcomplicated world. It reminded her of her bedroom, the curtains drawn tightly to block out the sun's blinding glare, so absorbed in her work that she often forgot to turn her lamplight on and instead rely on the comforting glow of her computer monitor.

But she was not in her bedroom. Nor was she seated on a packed school coach, listening to her music and trying to sleep it out to cope with the long journey. She was seated upon cold hard wood, a chill running down her spine and her head throbbing as she realised she was slumped at an awkward angle. 

She'd reach up to her neck, feeling something tight and metallic wrapped around it, her breathing steadily increasing. She hated wearing things around her neck, whether they were chokers or necklaces or ties, she always felt like she was choking no matter how loosely it was worn. She wanted this thing off her more than anything in the world, it was too tight, she felt like she was getting asphyxiated as she felt around for some kind of unlocking mechanism. In desperation, she'd wrap her hands around it, tugging at it forcefully to tear it off.

But in the end she couldn't, nor would she continue to attempt to do so as the memories began flashing back, and she pieced together which were dreams and which were reality. The auditorium. The black masks. The loud bang. The spray of crimson. The screaming, oh god, the...

No. Nonononononono, she can't be... This can't be... 

She'd scramble and feel around the room she had woken up in, realising quickly she was trapped in a small rectangular space. Three wooden walls and a wooden door, with a thin sheen of light just below her feet, and the seat she sat upon appeared to have a hole in the middle. There were two bags by her feet, one familiar, one not. She suspected she was in an outhouse of all places, stumbling slightly as she got onto her feet, still recovering from her involuntary slumber as she reached out for the door to slowly - and hesitantly - turn the handle. Her eyes squinted as the door slowly opened and sunlight seeped in, her worst suspicions confirmed as her chest began to tighten up.

No.. Oh god, no, no no no NO!

She'd shut the door quickly, lock it, then slump back against the wooden seat and curl up into a ball, burying her face against her knees as she tried to shut it all out, tried to will herself back awake from this ungodly nightmare, force herself to turn back time through sheer willpower alone. She couldn't be here, she just couldn't, she refused to believe the reality presented to her. There's no way that they had been... That Mr Ramos and Mr Perez were...That she was expected to...

I want to go home.
I want to go home.
I want to go home
I want to go home.
I want to go home
I want to...

((S056 — Madeleine Molliqaj: Game Start))

A knocking came from the other side of the door.

"Hey! Hey, are you OK?"

Every time Cassie thought she was about to calm down, something else would set her off as the reality of her situation continued to become more and more clear.

It occurred to her as she kept her face buried that she had been moved to this spot deliberately, by hand. Someone out there had... Touched her, maybe without even wearing any gloves or appropriate PPE. The thought alone left her feeling violated, disgusted, unable to stop thinking about what those sick twisted people could have done to her whilst she was unconscious.

Then, just as she found herself spiralling into her own head, she was suddenly snapped back to reality by a knock on the door.

She'd gasp, then clutch her mouth, her eyes darting for her bag. In a state of panic she'd quickly reach down and unzip it, seeking out whatever she could get her hands on to defend herself with.

"ST-STAY BACK!" she'd cry out. "GO AWAY OR I'LL SHOoooooe?" she'd say, a look of confusion in her eyes as she retrieved a skiing boot of all things, blinking and suddenly aiming it at the door like a handgun. "O-or I'll SHOOT!"

Madeleine didn't know exactly what the girl behind the door had, but even her... weird sword thing wasn't gonna protect against a bullet. Raising her hands up in an attempt to show that she was calm before realising that the girl couldn't see her anyway because there wasn't a window or the door or anything! "Alright, alright, I'm backing off. As she said that, she moved around to the back of the outhouse, confident that the girl couldn't shoot her there.

It was funny. Back in Kosovo, she had faint memories that her apartment block didn't have a working toilet. So they had to crowd around two or three hastily dug outhouses and take turns, bringing their own paper. Seeing one here in the middle of the snow brought back some memories.

"I'm Madeleine. Who are you?" The reality of the situation hadn't hit her, she knew that, so Madeleine enjoyed the calmness she felt before inevitably the death of two of her teachers and the realisation that they were all going to die hit her like a train and she broke down.

Madeline? Madeline... She didn't know any Madelines off the top of her head. There was something telling about her accent though, eastern-european she wondered? It reminded her a bit of her Bosnian friend Chackie's accent, from the times they had spoken over Discord chat.

Not that it really mattered, though the fact that she hadn't been shot or had the door kicked down was a good sign. She'd nevertheless kept her shoe aimed squarely at the door frame, breathing heavily as she pondered her next words carefully.

"C-C-Cassie... M-My name is Cassie!" she'd stutter, that collar around her neck feeling more constraining with every passing second.

Cassie. She knew there was a Cassie in her class, but that was obvious, wasn't it? They'd only taken kids from John Endecott. They were the ones who'd drawn the short straw.

"It's OK, C-Cassie..." Her breathing was a little shakier now, too. Maybe Cassie was getting to her. "I'm... I'm not gonna hurt you. I don't wanna..." Sniff. "I don't wanna hurt anyone." Letting her legs give out, Madeleine slid down the back of the outhouse, taking deep, shaky, rapid breaths. She could only think about Mr. Pérez and Ramos. How they'd died. All the blood and, and the noise and the scream she'd made when they died.

God. What would her family do if she died? Would they even get a body to bury or would they just have an empty coffin? What would Klinton do without her?

Quietly, the tears started to flow, Madeleine clasping a hand over her mouth to muffle the sound as best as she could. She knew it was coming, but she didn't want Cassie to know she was crying, because then they'd both just start crying and that would make it all worse. She was scared, she was so so scared that she'd end up like those two did and she wasn't young enough to die like that. Nobody should die like that.

The thought only made her cry harder.

Her breathing began to slow down and become steadier as she picked up on the shakiness in Madeline's voice, her hands still shaking but a slowly growing sense of guilt building up for frightening her like that.

There was always the possibility Madeline was trying to lull her into a false sense of security, make her put her guard down knowing she was (supposedly) armed. It's why she wasn't jumping straight to unlocking the door just yet, instead slumping back against the wooden wall that Madeline was laying against on the other side, just about picking up her whimpers and stifled tears. She'd find her own eyes starting to well up, thinking about her poor teachers, about her family back home, all the friends from her Discord community. She'd hold that boot against her chest, cradling it against her body.

"I... I don't wanna hurt anyone either..." she'd say softly, but loud enough for Madeline to hear her.

"I just..." she'd say, sniffling. "I just want to go home..."

Madeleine didn't reply, her quiet sobs the only noise coming from her. At some point, Madeleine dropped her hand from her mouth, tracing nonexistant shapes in the snow, not even bothering to wipe the tears that dripped onto her coat. She'd been so excited when she saw it in the thrift shop, and that was before she even saw that it was her size. It was just... cute. The perfect kind of coat to take to a skiing trip. But now all that time spent trying to color-coordinate her wardrobe for the skiing trip, picking outfits out for each individual day and even packing a little makeup for if she got any bruises or anything just felt meaningless.

Because they were all going to die.

Eventually, the tears stopped. Madeleine had thought that maybe she'd feel better after that. That all the sadness would have poured out of her eyes and onto the ground and she'd feel happy again, ready to get up and start trying to find a way out of here. But instead, she just felt empty. Cold, and not in the physical sense. Back home, whenever one of these things had happened, Madeleine had always tried to avoid hearing about it on the news. The idea of people her age dying, killing each other, being in pain for no real reason other than some madman's whims just gave her bad dreams.

Letting out a shuddery breath, Madeleine turned to the wall dividing her and Cassie.

"Then we'll go home." Her voice was croaky, throat a little sore from all the crying, but Madeleine ignored the slight twinge in her throat. Sitting here and crying until the sun went down wouldn't do anything. Wallowing in her own misery and thinking about how everyone she knew would be devastated by her death (and even the thought of dying made her feel sick) wasn't going to do anything.

Pushing herself up and grabbing her weird sword thingy, Madeleine took a few steps away from the outhouse. "They gave me a sword thing. I dunno, it looks weird but it's really sharp. I nearly cut my finger just poking it. If you want, I can drop it and you can come out." Cassie wasn't going to kill her. The poor girl was having another breakdown herself.

Wanted to ask how in response to Madeline's reassurance, but couldn't bring herself to just yet. The thought of what they were expected to do to each other was too horrible to contemplate, and she struggled to think of any alternatives off the top of her head that nobody else has tried over the... Eight was it? This had happened eight times now, right? Yeah, there was no way a girl like her could think of anything that nobody else hadn't already considered in any of the past kidnappings.

But for the moment she put that thought aside, slowly getting up onto her feet. "N-no, it's ok, I..."

Cassie looked down at her ice skate. Rouge had told her all about skating too, as she remembered trying it out several years back when she was a kid. She... Wasn't very good at it, nor did she expect herself to suddenly become a pro figure skater overnight. But she clung tightly onto it nevertheless, taking a deep breath as she looked up at the door.

"I-I-I'll be out in a second..." she'd stutter. She wanted to believe Madeline meant her no harm, desperately wanted to find someone she could trust. Someone who was in the same boat she was, and from the sound of things that appeared to be the case. Nevertheless, she'd hold tightly onto that shoe, not sure what exactly she was going to do if she got attacked but it probably had something to do with the blade on the shoe's sole.

With a deep breath, she'd slowly unlock the door and let it swing open, taking a few nervous tentative steps outside still clinging that ice skate to her chest, turning to the tall girl standing outside with the aztec weapon down by her side. After a brief pause, she'd raise a single hand and wave awkwardly at her.

"H-hi... S-sorry I lied about the, um, gun..."

Madeleine watched as Cassie came out, clutching an ice skate tightly. The blade on the bottom of it looked sharp, but looking down at her weird sword thing, Madeleine guessed hers was sharper. Realising that y'know, looking down at her sword as someone who was scared and coming out of their hiding place might look a little bad, she forced her head back up to Cassie, giving her a little wave back.

"No worries. I can, uh, kinda understand why someone would lie." Madeleine nervously giggled, trying to give Cassie a reassuring smile. "I guess an ice skate's at least kinda useful. Although, I don't see any ice around here. Just snow. I think they gave us a map, though. And, uh, I'm pretty good at reading maps." Dad was terrible with maps, so when they went on their hikes Madeleine always was the one in charge of it, because Dad would always get them...

She shouldn't think about Dad right now, or she might start crying again.

Swallowing down a lump in her throat, Madeleine continued, although she could tell she sounded a little uncertain. "Uhm, we could head into the cabin there and take a look, gather our bearings and then try to figure out where other people might be. Someone could be trying to escape." Although the idea didn't seem likely to Madeleine. There had been like, seven or eight... attacks like this, and Madeleine had never heard of an escape from any of them.

Watching Cassie patiently, she tapped her... whatever the heck it was called on the snow. It was starting to fall again, covering up the nonsensical shapes that she had traced while crying. Something about that being wiped out made her want to start crying again, but it passed as quickly as it came.

Cassie nodded her head, taking the occasional brief glance down at the aztec weapon before looking around, not terribly comfortable when it came to direct eye contact.

"S-sure, I'll just..." she'd begin, looking like she was about to turn around before pausing, and taking a cautious step back into the outhouse. She wasn't 100% comfortable about turning her back just yet, even if Madeline seemed very friendly from their interactions thus far. "Just need to grab my things"

As she was about to zip her bag back up, a thought would cross her mind and cause her to check her pockets, her eyes widening when she realised her phone was missing. Oh noo! Nonono, that's MY phone! It has all my pictures and my personal details and everything on it!

It shouldn't of surprised her that they took it, made perfect sense given the situation. But that didn't make her feel any less mortified at the thought of her mobile now being in the hands of someone else, or that someone would've had to remove it from her inner pocket whilst she was asleep...

She'd try to shake the thought off as she looked back up at Madeline outside, zipping her bag back up and heading out to meet with her again, bladed shoe in hand as she turned to the cabin Madeline was referring to. It was the first time she started taking in her surroundings properly, just barely glimpsing the corner of the building on the far end of a dirt path, with snow-covered trees surrounding them in what appeared to be a frosty forest of some description. She wondered whereabouts they had been sent, somewhere near Canada maybe? Or Alaska? She could only hope they weren't too far from home, relatively speaking.

"O-okay, let's go" she'd reply, ready to follow along and investigate their immediate surroundings.

With Cassie following behind her, Madeleine made her way slowly to the log cabin in which she'd woken up. Everything here looked so overgrown and mossy and abandoned. A few tents, barely clinging to their tent poles as the wind tried to blow them away, the aforementioned log cabin that looked more like the tree it had come from, and the outhouse. And now that she wasn't stumbling blindly in a panic, she could see a little jetty, and...

"Well, there's a lake there. Frozen over, so maybe your skates'll actually be useful!" Madeleine forced a chuckle as if any of this was funny. Although, managing to miss an entire frozen lake was a little funny.

Moving on quickly, Madeleine entered the cabin. There wasn't much furniture, but there was a massive wooden table that Madeleine set her bag on, pulling the map out and setting it down on the table. Tables weren't supposed to feel fuzzy from all the moss growing on it, so Madeleine couldn't help but cringe as her fingers brushed against it.

"OK, so we're... here. You can see the lake." Madeleine pointed at the lake and campground next to it. "So I guess our options are... staying here for a while, maybe look around and see if there's anything useful. We could go down that twisty path and head to the mining town. Or we follow down the other path and head to that research station."

Cassie followed slowly from behind, cradling her ice skate like it was an injured puppy, her eyes darting about to keep an eye out for any unwanted observers. So many trees, so many potential hiding spots. Good for them, of course, but also good for anyone who was already on the hunt.

Had anyone decided to start playing right off the bat? She struggled to think of who out of her classmates had it in them to do so, but as that awful video pointed out, you couldn't trust anyone when the chips were down. And after a decade of these kidnappings, she had no reason to believe things would be any different this time around. People were scared and stupid, and like most animals you never know what you can be capable of when backed into a corner.

She dreaded to think how things would have played out if she had a real gun back there, when Madeline knocked on her door...

On the bright side, there was indeed a frozen lake. So maybe she could put those ice skates to good use after all.

She looked around the log cabin as Madeline lay the map out, having a quick little explore of the moss-covered hut. She felt uncomfortable about touching anything, unsure what she could catch from the various green growths, hoping she wasn't inhaling the spores of some disgusting toxic fungus and start growing green patches on the inside of her lungs. She'd then head over to the table, looking over the map Madeline had spread out. Truth be told, she wasn't super confident about meeting other people, much preferring the idea of staying somewhere relatively quiet rather than heading to what looked like the two big population centres.

"I-I think we should look around first, see if there's anything useful around here?" she'd ask. Useful for what exactly, she wasn't sure, the cabin itself was stripped pretty bare from the look of things and she doubted there was much to find in those tents. But it at least delayed having to leave and risk bumping into more people.

Cassie wanted to stick around for a while and look for stuff. Madeleine understood why pretty well: she was a little antsy about the idea of heading to somewhere where they might meet more people, especially people who could already be listening loud and clear to Danya. Staying here sounded a lot more preferable. But at the same time, they couldn't stay here forever. Danya mentioned Danger Zones that would blow their collars up. She didn't fancy that.

"Alright. I dunno if there's actually anything outside, but we can chill here for a while." She didn't fancy going out into the cold when this log cabin provided some warmth, but there might be something. So they'd step outside at some point. There probably wasn't anything of value inside, but maybe the terrorists had forgotten a cell phone or something.

As if.

"So, uhm, Cassie, what kinda stuff are you into? Hobbies and stuff?"

Cassie wasn't all that keen on heading out into the snow again herself, mossy décor aside at least the cabin was relatively warm. She'd look around the the least mossy chair before sitting herself down, placing her bag on the table and unzipping it again, curious as to what else she had been assigned.

"Huh?" she'd respond, briefly looking up at Madeline. "Um... I like to draw a lot, I guess?" she'd reply, before realising that she maybe needed to elaborate a bit. "I like doing... Um, animations. Like gifs and short cartoons and stuff..." she'd say, never being all that great at small talk, at least not when it came to talking to people in person as opposed to via a keyboard.

She'd pick up what appeared to be a first aid kit, opening it up to take a closer look at it's contents. Gloves, painkillers, scissors, anti-fungal cream, a lighter... Quite a fair bit of useful items they had packed with them, and from what she saw they hadn't taken the small box of disposable face coverings and her bottle of hand sanitizer.

"Wh-what about you?" she'd ask, realising she should probably ask her the same thing.