Survival Of The Fittest

((Chloé Delacroix continued from Mir ist Kalt.))

The night had rolled in without Chloé having had the chance to recruit anyone else. The need to keep watch over Lara- for both of their sakes- had kept her within eyeshot of the house’s front door all afternoon. It had taken longer than expected to treat the girl’s injuries anyway. She must have taken quite a beating.

With the rest of the afternoon Chloé had worked on their base. The defences that the original four had put up around the house had now been extended down the whole street, makeshift barricades at either end sending a signal to would-be intruders. She’d set up a fire on the road, borrowing Kai’s windbreaking strategy with an upturned table in place of an umbrella. It still wasn’t as perfect as his had been but the availability of dry wood from indoors helped immensely. This way they could see outside without wasting precious flashlight battery, and she’d already melted some bowls of snow and ice into potable water with its heat. Then she’d hauled more blankets and pillows back to the house too, in case Marshall returned having been wildly successful. That had seemed less and less likely as it got late. She had stayed up waiting for him, but eventually the day’s labours stacked up and Chloé had to accept she couldn’t stay awake until Marshall got back. She had told Lara that if he wasn’t back by morning, they’d go out looking for him.

That was, unless the announcements made it clear they were too late.

She’d slept restlessly despite her fatigue, disturbed by a combination of worry and the tired, defiant energy a determined mind can dredge up when you can’t help but feel you could have achieved more with the day. It was morning now, and she barely felt ready to get out of bed. Yawning, she picked up the gun from the nightstand where she’d left it within arm’s reach. Miserable as the night had been, at least she hadn’t needed it: nor the chair she now dislodged from under the door handle to step out onto the landing. She wanted to be with Lara in time for the next announcement. She was going to watch how she reacted, and be on hand to prevent another Kai situation. And honestly she didn’t want to be alone for this one. Even if Lara wasn’t exactly a trusted confidant yet, she was better than nothing. Chloé knocked on the door to the other bedroom.

“Hey. You awake in there?"

The sound of gentle snoring from the other room answered Chloé's question.

Chloé knocked again, louder this time.

“Lara?”

The snoring continued. After her own restless night, Chloé couldn’t help but envy the girl’s heavy sleep. It had taken a lot less than knocking to jolt her awake; twice she’d almost grabbed for the gun when the wind at the windows picked up. She didn’t mind being the one to stay alert, since she didn’t fully trust Lara with that duty yet anyway. Nevertheless it was bizarre to her that Lara’s body would let her sleep so soundly, given how easy it would be for one of the players to get the drop on her. Maybe she trusted Chloé already, which would be a good sign, or maybe she was just that tired. Chloé wondered when her own exhaustion would overcome her adrenaline. Hopefully they’d have more allies to keep watch by then. On that note, at least Lara would be well rested by now, so they could have a productive day ahead. That was only if they got started soon, though. With how short the days were there was no time to wait for daylight. They needed to be up and out by the time the announcements finished.

Chloé opened the door. She didn’t want to startle the girl, for reasons of self-preservation as much as courtesy, so she decided not to raise her voice any louder. Instead, she got closer, put a hand on Lara’s shoulder and shook her gently. Then she crouched down and whispered-

“Good morning, sleepyhead. It’s time to wake up.”

The sleeping form of Lara stirred slightly when the door opened, the sound being picked up subconsciously by her ears. Hnngh. When the hand gently, softly touched her shoulder, she still moved only a little. It felt nice, though. An undetectable sense of comfort spread warmth throughout her body. She hadn't felt anything like that in a while.

Just a few moments later, hot breath and warm words wrapped themselves in and around her ear. Her whole body lit up from warm to hot, a blush slowly creeping its way across her cheeks. Mmm. She hadn't heard words like that in a very long time. Something stirred deep in her chest, something which she could not give a name to or describe; something she'd only felt a select few times before, which she could count on one hand.

Wait.

This wasn't a dream.

Hold on.

Lara opened her eyes, swung her head around, and came face to face with the class president.

"Gah!"

“Woah!”

Chloé stumbled backward when Lara turned over suddenly. Luckily, neither girl’s instincts went for violent reactions. Chloé found her footing and made sheepish eye contact.

“Sorry! Didn’t mean to scare you. I knocked a couple times, but you didn’t wake up, so…”

It struck her that this would have been an uncomfortable invasion of privacy back on the mainland, but social graces took a backseat to survival here on the island. She didn’t regret waking Lara up this way- coming across as a creep was still safer than coming across as a threat, and it had worked where her earlier attempts had failed- but an embarrassed blush lit up her cheeks nonetheless.

“…sorry!”

Lara was still reeling from discovering the class president practically curled up into her shoulder, and almost missed the fact that she still wanted it there. It made Lara's blush deepen. She tossed off the blanket, flipping her body towards Chloé.

"W-While I appreciate the gesture of waking me up, uh, was it r-really necessary to get so c-close to me like that? Tapping me would have sufficed..."

She shook her head. God damnit, she really didn't need to be so shaken up over something like this so early in the day. Hell, the announcements probably had not even been broadcasted yet. Was she really this easy to fluster?

Bah. She had things to do with Chloé today. It was time to be productive, time to get important tasks done. She shook her head again, getting most of the blush off her face. First things first, she had to get dressed.

She'd already taken her sleeping shirt halfway off before she remembered that Chloé was still in the room.

"..."

Her face reddened again.

"Uh, can you give me some privacy? I need to get changed."

Judging by the tone of Lara's voice and the blush she was sporting, Chloé intentions had been misunderstood. It hadn't occurred to her that Lara might take the 'whispering in the ear' thing the wrong way, because she wouldn't have thought of it like that herself, but Chloé realised she wasn't sure what Lara's orientation was and now she was overthinking the intimacy of it all and wincing and wishing that she'd just thrown something at her from the doorway.

"I didn’t want to startle you!”

Chloé managed to stop herself before she got too defensive. Wincing, she took a deep breath. Better to just move on and leave the embarrassing misunderstanding behind them.

Lara turned away, hopefully trying to do the same. Or at least, she hoped that until her shirt started to come off. Chloé quickly averted her gaze.

“I think you’ve got the wrong idea! I really was only trying to wake you-”

They spoke at the same time, and it was only when Chloé paused that Lara’s words registered and she realised it had been another misunderstanding. This one was even more awkward than the first. Chloé was glad she wouldn’t have to reject any advances at least, but that didn’t mean she knew what to say in this situation either. Slowly, she turned back to Lara, silent. All she could do was hope for something, anything, to take their minds off-

Bzzzzz.

"Oh no," she said out loud, "anything EXCEPT-"

"Good morning kids! I hope you're not too chilly out there…”

Lara could only stare in disbelief as Danya chose this exact moment to begin the announcements. Really? Now of all times? Lara let out a slight grunt in frustration before lowering her shirt back down. It was now time to perk her ears and take note of all the killers who had struck yesterday.

Jezzie Stark.
Kitty Graves.
Daenerys Todd.
Joshua James.
Russell Fitzroy.
Alex Avanesian.

All of this new information was processed and digested in Lara's brain before the sun had even come up. Two names stood out in particular.

Kitty had struck again, making this her third kill in the past two days. She was absolutely someone to avoid, and considering that she now had practice murdering people, she would be dangerous in a fight. Perhaps she could be taken down at long range, but it sure wasn't going to be Lara doing the deed. She would leave that task up to some of the more foolhardy members of their class.

The second name on her list was Joshua James. The lacrosse player who nobody could ever remember the name of. She had only seen him briefly on the first day, but apparently he had someone taken a turn for the worse after kidnapping Danielle. Those were his choices to make, though. Lara had no part in his seeming descent into madness. She had no intention of 'redeeming' her sports mate or anything of the sort. Josh could sort out his own issues. He was a grown man.

After processing the list and memorizing it, Lara brought her gaze back up to Chloé, expectantly awaiting her reaction to this new information.

For a brief moment, Chloé was vindicated. Kitty had killed again. Kai and Marshall were wrong. She had been right. It wasn’t a pleasant feeling, it was anger and grief and worry, but it was vindication nonetheless. It didn’t last long.

Jess was dead.

The illusion of vindication fell apart in a split second. She had been wrong after all. Marshall, brave Marshall running off after her into the dark, he had been right. Maybe if she’d gone after him, maybe if she’d helped… of course she’d known something was wrong, Jess had left too many clothes behind, she could have acted before the cold set in...

She’d promised, back on the first day, that she’d get everyone off the island. That meant every death on the list was a failure on her part. But keeping Jess safe hadn’t been an empty promise, it had been her responsibility. Hers was the only death she could have realistically prevented.

Then it sunk in, what that meant. That she could have saved Jess. She could protect her group. This plan of hers, it worked. It was the argument, the group falling apart, that was where it all went wrong. She wouldn’t make those mistakes again. She would get people to stay. And the more people they recruited, the less people would die. No more sitting around waiting for Marshall to return, hoping people would just show up, busying herself with barricades and beacons. Chloé looked up at Lara. All hint of embarrassment was gone from her voice, the awkward exchange of mere minutes ago forgotten. There was a deeper shame behind her words now.

“I can’t let this happen again. Get changed. We’ve got a lot of work to do.”

((Chloé Delacroix continued in The Domesday Book ))

She couldn't let what happen again? What was she talking about? Lara sat, staring at Chloé as she quickly walked off the scene. Chloé's whole expression and demeanor had changed drastically once Jess's name was called off on the announcements. While before that had been a look of something akin to vindication, her look after had been nothing short of utter defeat. Why had it been like that? Was there a possibility of...

Oh.

Suddenly, everything clicked into place.

Jess had been apart of this mysterious group Chloé had told her of. This mysterious group she'd yet to see anything of, and now had a dead member. What if the group was just Chloé and Jess, and now fifty percent of the group was gone? Lara could only wonder if the class president had ensnared her with the promise of a group to get her to tag along with whatever plans (or lack thereof) she had in mind.

Quickly getting dressed, Lara slung her bag over her shoulder and exited the houses with Chloé, ready to see what plans she had in mind.

((Lara Bullock continued in The Domesday Book))