Survival Of The Fittest

((David Worth continued from Butter First, Then Honey))

It was funny, really. He'd barely even thought of the other contestants. Of course, that was before they started dropping like flies. It almost made a sick sort of sense based off of when they'd died.

Oakley ...

"Fifth vote, and the second person voted out of Survivor: Year of the Terrier ... Oakley." Oakley got up with a smirk as he handed over his red buff.

"Yeah, well. I'll do better when I get on the real Survivor."

Ethan ...

Sixth vote, and the third person voted out of Survivor: Spoiler Alert ... Ethan.

Ethan nodded as he handed over his yellow merge buff. "You guys drive me crazy," he chuckled. "Good luck."

"Ethan, the tribe has spoken."

David just shook his head at that. Oakley had overplayed himself, causing everyone to turn on him as soon as they could. Ethan had tried to become the leader, but it didn't work out for him. He'd been pegged as a man to beat. An unusual case, given that it was still the premerge. He joined the production team after that and had been a steadfast member, helping both record and test challenges. As he blinked he noted the morbid irony: Ethan's name was the third called. He'd been third to die, just as he'd been third eliminated.

He looked at the road they had reached. It was cracked and somewhat blocked, but otherwise blank. Was this it for him? And the rest of them?

(Jack Kilgore continued from Ursa Major Meltdown)

Jack was pretty sure he just got dumped like a bad boyfriend. He found it pretty fucking embarrassing really, either he just got lost and couldn't find Matthew at all, or that guy just decided to up and dip on him. If that were the case though Jack was clear in his eyes. Matthew was a bit of a annoyance anyway so if anything it was all his fault. What could've Jack possibly been doing wrong? What was wrong with strength in numbers or whatever the hell?

Still though, he preferred any company over no company, and that night he found the solitude rather uncomfortable, as much as he wouldn't like to admit it. For the fact that he had no one to talk to combined with the idea of him losing any semblance of firepower he had gave him too much time to stir in his own thoughts. It was bad to say the least.

The morning wasn't making things any better. Jack started counting in his mind, he wasn't sure how many students actually went on this godforsaken nightmare of a school trip but eleven of them dead in one day was both unnerving and it caught him off guard. Damn, these people are moving fast. Just doing the math in his head, he can confirm that in just... Uhh... At some point the numbers would dwindle, he wasn't really able to estimate how long it'd take until this game would end.

He decided that he was going to try to fix those problems. He wasn't sure how though, it was just a bullet point in his mind. Just a little thing he could do, who knows maybe at some point he could slowly increase the magnitude of his checklist until he had "Get out of here alive" as a valid option.

The morning afterwards, he got up and started wandering again. No plans on where to go or why, staying still simply didn't seem like an option unless he wanted to be a sitting duck. Ducks get shot hes pretty sure.

He started scatting to some made up tune, if only for the reason that the silence was absolutely killing him.

((Billie Sommerfield continued from Butter First, Then Honey))

Billie continued to push forward over the uneven ground, doing her best to keep up with David despite her aching arms. She had no idea where they were going, but at the same time, she didn't feel like asking. She doubted that David had any particular destination in mind, and even if he did, who cared? It wasn't like anywhere was safe on this island. The only reason that she even left with him in the morning instead of staying where they had taken shelter the previous night was that of the two options, this was by far the less boring one. The two of them didn't seem to have many interests in common, but at least he hadn't pulled out a barrage of cringeworthy jokes like the morning's announcer had done.

Strangely enough, the announcement itself hadn't made her feel nearly as bad as she expected. Like, yeah, it was terrible that those people had died, but she hadn't known any of them that well, and hearing their names within a sea of other terrorist blathering made their ends feel far away, almost like characters from a novel rather than real human beings. In another lifetime, she could have perhaps gotten to know them (or at least know enough to decide for sure that she didn't like them), but at the moment they were just words. It was probably pretty fucked up for her to think of it that way, but then again, she was under no illusions about being a well-adjusted person to begin with, and of all the problems she had at the moment, fixing that was pretty damn low on the priority list.

She came to a stop just in front of the road, taking the moment to rest her muscles before the two of them continued onward. Maybe the slightly-more flat terrain would make things a little easier from now on, but she doubted it. Life was never that convenient; at least not for her. For all she knew, just beyond the bend there'd be a fallen tree or something blocking it, or a river, or something else equally annoying. What a pain.

Her expectations for the path ahead would probably have kept lowering even further had her thoughts not been interrupted by a sound coming from nearby, a noise that sounded like... singing? She turned to David, lowering her voice a bit as she spoke.

"Hey, do you hear that?"

By the time he realized his new company, it was already too late.

((Quentin B. Skinner continued from Things Are Going Well. Maybe Not As Well As They Should, But We Have To Start Somewhere.))

Not wanting to test the durability of his ankle, Quentin had chosen the stable road over the forest. And for some time, this worked. Wherever the road led to, he was certain to arrive before nightfall. Maybe he would even find a better bed than the last one.

It was when he reached a curve in the road that Q decided to take a break. And he surely wasn't gonna do so in the middle of the road. Time for some bush-diving.

Not long after sitting down, he heard two very worrying sounds.

Some sort of humming coming from the right.

A faint voice whispering something from the left.

Behind him was the mountain. A few meters in front of him was the street. No way to run. A classical pincher-attack.

Shit.

Quentin gripped his gun, unsure if giving a warning shot would help or condemn him.

In the end, he waited.

David paused at what Billie said. He listened and, yeah. He heard someone singing, kind of. As if they forgot the words to the song. And the tune itself.

"Yeah. I don't know what they're singing, though. Almost as if they forgot the song." He listened. "Yeah. Just making it up as they go along. You think they're okay to be around?" There were two of them, even if his partner was, less than fully mobile it couldn't be too bad. They were singing. It probably meant that they were trying to cope with the situation. Or that the person in question was stone cold fuck nuts.

Yeah, let's just to with trying to cope.

If there were ever a possibility that Jack could somehow sit down at home and watch himself right now, he would absolutely be yelling at himself to shut the fuck up and listen, there are people talking. Of course he's being more of an actor this time instead of taking an audience role so Jack would continue to keep singing to himself, the song was starting to slowly morph into just the Mario Bros. Theme after he started running out of ideas as to where to take the song. It didn't matter anyway if he was fucking Mozart or not, and he was pretty sure Nintendo wouldn't care.

Continuing to act in a manner that would make himself start screaming at him to do better, he reached a curve in the road and stopped in the middle of it. He looked down and decided to start opening his bag at this moment, looking for his map just to see where the hell he was. Standing in the middle of the road sounds like it'd be bad in hindsight, but he was sure he could spare a minute or two to try to get an idea as to his location.

Billie ignored David's question as leaned back in her chair, biting down hard on her lip as she looked around, desperately scanning the area for any sign of movement. Coping or crazy, it didn't really matter to her - the fact that this person was out of sight was a big enough problem regardless. No matter what this person wanted, there'd be no point just waiting here until they were taken unawares - despite the relatively flat ground here compared to the rest of the island, she was under no illusion that she'd have any chance in an outright chase. After a brief moment of hesitation, she sat up and called out into the woods, doing her best to muster as much frustration into her voice as possible.

"Hey, I don't know what you want, but you can quit it with the mouth noises already. I've had it up to here with assholes screwing around this fucking island. You had better either beat it or come out where we can see you. " She paused for a moment, the catharsis of finally getting to vent at least a fraction of the anger that had built up over the past couple days pushing her a little farther than she had initially intended. "Or, uh, I can promise you're going to regret it."

With that, Billie finally shut her mouth, shaking slightly from the adrenaline rush of her verbal attack while an uneasy feeling began making its presence known in the pit of her stomach. With the "weapons" she and David both had, her mouth may have potentially written a proverbial check that her actions couldn't cash. Hopefully whoever it was didn't feel like calling her bluff.

Quentin blinked, slightly confused.

Was the voice adressing him or the humming person? Both options kinda made sense. Anyway, the girl said she was armed, and given this being SOTF odds were in the favor of this being true.

Better to not risk getting shot over nothing.

"Okay, I am coming out," Quentin exclaimed loud enough. "And I got a gun. But I ain't want no trouble right now, so no worries." This sounded less reassuring than it had in his mind, but whatever.

With a grunt he rose from the ground, using a tree for help. Then he walked out of the woods.

Who greeted Q was Jack Kilgore looking through his backpack. Quentin knew Jack, albeit they weren't friendish close. More bothlikemovies-ish close. Definitely not someoneIwouldtrusttonotkillmeonSOTF-ish close.

The girlish voice on the other hand was nowhere to be seen.

"Uh... hi?"

"Uh ... hi?"

The large guy, Quentin, appeared in their view. He said he had a gun, and he did seem to be holding something. There was also another guy, who was literally standing in the middle of the road. As if he didn't know where he was. Hopefully meaning where on the island, rather than not knowing the general situation.

David just looked at Billie, then at the pair in front of them, then back to Billie.

"If you have anything, now's the time to bring it out."

Ah shit, fuck, shit, that was a threat. Make him promise that he was going to regret... Talking? Jeez, overreacting much? He stood up and brandished his weapon, paying no attention to his bag at the moment.

"Hey, hey hey, I have like an axe or something, I will fuck you up if you decide to-"

As he was talking shit, he started to realize that someone was also talking at the same time as him?

Jack turned towards the other voice and found... Uh... Tarantino. That wasn't actually his name, Jack just always called him Quentin Tarantino in his mind.

"The fuck?" When the hell did he get here? He questioned for a moment whether this kid was the one that made the threat before the first thing denying that fact came to his mind.

"... You're not a girl." He said like that was new information.

Wait were there other people here? After a moment of pure confusion he just looked over to the side and found the peanut gallery.

Billie was taken aback by David's question, realizing that despite travelling together for a day, she still hadn't told David what weapon she had been assigned. Like, he didn't seem like too bad of a guy, but the memory of her encounter with Dani still stuck in her head, and there was no guarantee that he might also decide that he'd be a much better custodian of her axe. It was much better to strategically avoid bringing it up in conversation, even if just to avoid the risk of shattering the illusion of having one decent person to travel with. Still, the downside of the decision was now rearing its head, and with how brazenly she had been slinging around threats, she was beginning to suspect that she had given off the impression of having something much more useful than what she actually had received, especially given the position of her hand tucked into the pack sitting on her lap. It wasn't much to work with, but hopefully the front of confidence she was putting on would be enough to stop David from hating her for dragging him along into this.

Putting that aside for now, the singing guy had just done as she had asked, and showed himself. Billie took a deep breath as she looked over at the scene, her stomach dropping as she saw him joined by another guy. One guy would have been manageable; she didn't know how good David would be in a fight, but the threat of two potentially concealed weapons might have been enough to scare one of them off. Two guys, however, would be much more difficult to deal with. As difficult as it was, she would have to be a little diplomatic, at least for as long as her admittedly low level of patience would allow her. Speaking in a little less aggressive tone this time, she called out to the guys on the road.

"Alright, finally. Maybe I was a little too aggro back there, but..." She cringed internally at having to admit fault here, but she did her best to push the feeling down for now. "Surely you understand that the issue with suddenly hearing nearby singing from somebody you can't see. Like, for all we know you're some lunatic who's been stalking us through the woods this whole time."

She paused for a moment.

"You weren't following us, were you?"

Okie-dokie. Things were now still awkward, but slightly more non-confusing.

Judging from their interaction, there had been no ambush. In fact, Jack and the girlish voice appeared to be strangers.

Said girlish voice had just arrived, rolling around a corner. It was Wheelie. Granted, that was just the name Quentin knew her as. He sure as hell didn't remember her introducing herself, and the wheelchair stood out as the most descriptive thing, so she was Wheelie. Wasn't like she had any right to object how he refered to her in his mind. Thoughts are free and so.

Anyway, Wheelie was accompanied by one of the David's of their year. The Survivor-David, to be clear. Q had applied for Year of the Diamond, but didn't make the cut for some reason. Maybe too many applicants? No one ever told him. Overall David fell into the same category as Jack. Nice guy in school, but Quentin was clueless if the same rang true on murder-island.

Jack had called him a non-girl, which was as true as it was a weird thing to point out. Wheelie meanwhile apologized for what she said earlier. Quentin accepted this apology with a nod, even if he wasn't sure if he had been the target in the first place.

Her question almost made him raise his hands to do a defensive wave, but Q remembered in time that he waas still holding a gun. So he just replied verbally.

"Nah, we only met seconds ago. I came from there..." He pointed behind himself. "... and got in the forest to take a sh- sit down and rest a bit. And then you three came along.

"Was kinda scary for a sec. Thought you were tag-teaming or something."

David followed Billie out to show the two people in sharp relief. Yes, Quentin and Jack. Jack he didn't know all that well. Quentin, though, he'd been an alternate for Year of the Diamond. He would have made it to the season had one of the other guys not shown up.

Anyway, Billie admitted that they were simply a little scared, and no, Quentin and Jack had no idea that Billie and David had been there, and in fact, both of them had come to this point independently. David just shook his head.

"Nah, we've just been exploring and we came across you. It's just that the paranoia's starting to set in, because, well ..." David motioned around, not wanting to state the obvious. "We're just hoping that the crazies don't come in before we can defend ourselves. I don't really have much. My item would actually do better if we were on Survivor."

"Hey listen, girl," It was the only name that was eluding him at the moment; he kind of knew David from the whole "getting third eliminated" thing.

"I'm no stalker and I'm sure as fuck not a lunatic by any means." He waggled a finger in front of him as he spoke. "I was just having a lovely time dealing with this whole ya know, island thing before showing up on this... Shitty-ass road. Not every day you see someone taken fucking hostage and gotta say, the cold? Ain't really my thing anymore."

David brought up his unfortunate weapon choice and it got the cogs in his brain working. He looked towards Tarantino, and back to the wheelchair girl, and then Tarantino again, to David now. As far as he knew he had probably one of the best weapons amongst everyone here. Ethical dilemmas formed in his brain, all of which were tucked further back in his mind for safekeeping.

He picked up his bag, realizing he had still left his on the ground and zipped it up. "Okay so like, that's why you two are being a thing now." He kept pointing back and forth between the duo. Unfortunately neither of the two struck him as good teammate material. One he just classified as kind of a nerd and the other is just straight up fucked here. At least Matthew had a fucking gun as much of a wannabe army guy he was. If Quentin was nice enough to swap weapons, that would be nice. Ooh, that's another idea. That'll just go straight to the back burner.

"I don't think I got nothing good either. Just this damn axe. Was hoping for a gun or something. And more shit too, they expect us to wander around the island with just six fucking bottles of water? I could count that on my hand, it's that muc-" He blinked, scratch that.

In response to Jack's comment about the water, Quentin shrugged.

"Well, I guess running this whole thing ain't cheap. They havta cut corners somewhere."

To be real, this wasn't his first theory. More likely the terrorists wanted them to fight and steal resources from each other. But bringing that up wouldn't do no good right now.