Survival Of The Fittest

((Ellis Wheaton continued from Comedy Unfiltered))

After their forest confessions, Ellis and the others has spent the next few days quietly roaming around. They had moved from location to location, passing by signs of civilization and long forgotten tracks of their peers. After a few days of avoiding Danger Zones and other players, the group had found themselves in the Dining Room on Day 6. They took turns guarding the doors and ensuring they could wile the hours away.

As for Ellis, he spent the time thinking about what to do next. He had flipped the knife around in his hands for most of the time, giving himself a few knicks, but trying to become more familiar with it. He was taking charge of guarding now, letting the others sleep, if they could, while he thought about what to do next.

He glanced around at Jack and Kathleen, then to the bodies in the room. It was pretty grim finding more dead bodies, but it was becoming expected at this point. They had moved the dead bodies to a corner of the hall away from where they had set up.

Ellis continued to turn the knife in his hand. After his cathartic exposure of his family, Ellis had thought he'd feel much freer. But he soon realized he really wouldn't feel that way until he was off the island. While the threat of immediate death loomed over them, he knew he wouldn't truly be able to become the man he was meant to be.

"It'll all pass," he muttered to himself. "All the negativity, out with an exhale."

(Jack/Teddie continued from Comedy Unfiltered )

It's been two days. Yet, Teddie remained asleep. Jack's legs still hurt, they walked and walked and walked. He counted them lucky that they hadn't really encountered anyone so far, well besides Kathleen obviously.

Well, that wasn't really true. When they first came to the dining area there were bodies there, well they still are. But they were spread out around the area, bodies and blood left to rot. Even now the smell of rot and death still assaulted his nose, he both feared and longed for the time when the smell no longer bothered him.

Jack sighed. He needed to stop spending so much time inside his own mind. "I'm going to nap for a bit. Wake me up in an hour, or if something happens."

The idea of putting up his tent appeared in his mind but he decided against it. 'Too inconvenient to take down.' Jack turned his bag into a makeshift pillow and set it on one of the tables. He set his head on it and rolled over.

((Kathleen followed from where the others were.))

Kathleens legs hurt like shit. Like damn. Lots of walking. Kathleen felt...eerie. How they haven't encountered anybody else. How many people were on the island? Was it that little amount of people? Or were they just lucky?

"Huh? Uh, yeah, sure."

Kat then decided to sit down and keep a little watch. Just to rest legs. Not like she could get much sleep nowadays anyways.

Ellis quietly nodded at Jack's request and let him curl up to sleep.

Ellis wasn't feeling that tired himself, so he looked over to Kathleen. They hadn't really spoken much over the last few days, so she was a bit of an unknown. Clearly she wasn't up for killing him and Jack and robbing them, so that was comforting at least.

Still, he figured he needed to get to know her better. He didn't get to spend a lot of time talking with Eden before she died, and he was going to always regret that. Sure, talking to girls wasn't something he was comfortable with back home, but now was the time to make an effort. After all, he was a new man now that he had disowned his family. Maybe he could be someone who could hold a decent conversation.

"So...uh...." he said to Kathleen. "What's your favorite movie?"

Sleep came both easy and hard. Easy because of after so long on the island, frankly? Jack was fucking exhausted, there was a saying, "So hungry I could eat a horse." Jack was so tired he'd stab someone 28 times in the chest if it meant he could get a good night's rest. Worse still, he didn't even truly know what that felt like. All of his memories, ones that he himself made, were on the island.

This brings us to hard, hard because it required him to lower his guard. The same guard that he was required to keep up if he wished to survive. It's pretty fucking hard to truly sleep when you know there's a fair chance that while you sleep some opportunistic bastard could see you and slit your throat or some shit. Even in a group, the problem remains, everyone needed one kill no matter what. What's stopping someone from waiting until everyone went to sleep and then killing them? You get more supplies, you get the kill required to leave, and even more weapons!

Jack had barely got a good wink of sleep, every time he found himself clutching his scissors waiting for an attack. But at some point, you just get fucking sick of it, so that's why after a couple of minutes Jack was out cold. Curled up into a ball scissors still gripped.

One was asleep, and the other was not. Kat was zoned out, very much too preoccupied with her own mind to really pay attention to anything but the night. Sleeping was done with microsleeps. But...she was getting used to it all.

But when would she be forced to take a life, now that the roster is beginning to whittle away?

"Oh, hm?" She looks up at Ellis after the question. "Oh. Movie. Well, probably nothing you know. Well, maybe if you are into video games? It's called Сталкер." It sounds a lot like 'Stalker.'

"Science fiction film. Takes place in a fictional place called The Zone, where someone smuggles people in and out. This guide agrees to take a scientist to something called The Room, where apparently your worlds desires are fulfilled. You should watch it."

Kat seems genuine but...well...only one is getting out of this.

"Oh, neat," Ellis said as Kathleen explained her favorite movie. "I've never really seen many foreign movies, so I'll be sure to check it out-"

Ellis stopped. It was super unlikely he'd be able to watch this Russian science fiction movie. Still, it was cool to think about something to do when he got out.

"I mean, definitely sounds cooler than my favorite. It's Animal House, by the way."

Ellis began tapping his fingers against his knee.

"So, in this 'Room' in Stalker, if it shows your desires, what would be in yours? You know, not including anything to do with not being here right now?"

"Pssht. I never really thought about it. Immortality would be sad, since you'd watch people you love die...but maybe it'd also be cool since your enemies can't meaningfully hurt you anymore. You wouldn't age a day, but they'd grow old and crusty."

She thought about it some more.

"Not riches because I feel like I would probably become a sell out. Power is...well, that'd just stress me out. Fame is the same with me. Hmm..."

A pause.

"I would say world peace, but everybody says that, so that won't be my official answer, but that's probably what I'd do. Maybe to just...have the motivation and energy to actually improve my skills and myself? Like, imagine how much you could do to make a meaningful life with all the motivation you need to make yourself better and good at what you want to do. It's the keys to a meaningful life, you retire, then die comfortably."

"But...yeah, probably something like world peace."

Jack slept like the dead. He was so deep in his long-needed rest that his body didn't even move. If not for the slow rising and falling of his chest, and his heartbeat you could confuse him for one of the many corpses that litter the island.

Yet, something inside him was stirring.

Waking...

So Kathleen's desires were larger than "the person I'm sexually attracted to" or "the career I always wanted." She clearly had loftier desires than Ellis could have. Still, it was nice to let her talk about this.

"Yeah, world peace would probably prevent this crap from happening to begin with."

Ellis twiddled his thumbs.

"I mean, I'd love to be on a large stage entertaining the masses with my OP ventriloquism skills. Could hopefully do better than Terry Fator and dominate Vegas."

He scratched the back of his head.

"But I guess it would be nice the the desire room showed me a loving wife and 2.5 wonderful kids too. I really would like my own family someday."

Jack rose with a start. Confusion etched on his face, as he looked around the area.

Where was he? Teddie finally woke up but so much was different. His outfit had changed, and his location had changed.

As he looked around even the people around him had changed. "Wh...What the hell happened?!" Teddie began to panic, memories of events he knows to have happened but not by his control. Like being in the passenger seat of a car, able to see but not able to really affect anything.

It was hazy. He felt like he slept longer than he did. His leg ached, he still felt cold and he was exhausted. Ellis was there, and so was someone else. Teddie racked his brain desperate to remember details. Kathleen.

Kathleen was her name, it had been a few days since Eden died. They walked a lot, and they barely rested. A lot of people had died. Tears began to run down Teddie's face as he tried to control his breathing.

"No matter what answer I give, or you give, none of it feels super...original, yeah? But then again, what is originality? Can anyone truly be different? Eugh. Philosophy..."

Don't nerd out now, Kat. You might scare them off.

"You're a ventriloquist?"

"Oh! Yeah, I am," Ellis said, surprised that Kathleen had latched onto that part.

"I mean, normally, I am when I have a puppet on my hand," he said, gesturing his right hand up so he could move his fingers and pretend his hand was talking. "I had one on the trip, but he wasn't in my bag when I woke up, so I have no idea where he's gone."

Ellis paused for a bit. Where was Armand in all of this? Was he a dumb trophy back at terrorist HQ? He didn't even want to imagine what those sick fucks would do with him.

"But otherwise, yeah, I can do the talking without moving my lips. Watch this."

Ellis kept his mouth slightly open but held his lips in place. He then pointed to his mouth and spoke without moving his lips.

"Hello, my name is Ellis. Basketball, fluff, mammal, paper, vivid."

He cleared his throat, then spoke normally.

"Those words have some of the hardest letters to say without moving your lips. So uh, yeah. Cool, huh?"

He asked that question without moving his lips. He really hoped this girl thought it was cool.

This would elicit a smile from Kat's lips, and a small chuckle.

"Wow, I mean, that's very impressive. Where would you even begin to learn that? Who teaches that? I mean, I learned some cool talents from YouTube, but I can't imagine you could that kind of skill off YouTube. Seems more...uh."

Kat takes a moment to think of a word...

"Not hands on because it isn't really much to do with your hands - other than the puppet. Lips on just sounds wrong. I think you get the picture, yes?"

She shrugged. "I learned lockpicking off of YouTube. Ever heard of Bosnian Bill or Lockpicking Lawyer? Used to break into abandoned buildings. Was fun."

Kathleen hopes this crowd is the non-judgemental kind.

Teddie took a deep breath and collected himself, used the techniques that Janet had taught him. Deep breaths. The color exercise. Calm down by choosing an unusual color and then noting everything in the room that had that color.

Purple.

Kathleen's scarf.

He sighed and tucked the scissors back into his bag. His skin was strangely warm to the touch and although he'd slept, he still felt exhausted.

"I'm sorry guys. Is it - Does it feel kind of hot? I'm going to take a quick walk to get some air."

Teddie got to his feet in a slightly wobbly fashion, picked up his bag, and left the dining area.

((Teddie Boyd continued elsewhere))