Survival Of The Fittest

((Dani Bird continued from Honor Among Thieves))

The fifth day came and went, so did the sixth day. All in that time Dani just sort of wandered the old mining town in a bit of a haze, unsure of what to do with herself. As far as she was aware her group more or less disintegrated and scattered to the winds, not even a real clue as to where any of them went off to. She made some half-hearted attempts to track any of them down, but that plan was quickly scrapped after about an hour's search and the sun started to go down. So she ducked into a building to take shelter for the night and to stay clear of the elements.

Sixth day rolled around and yet she opted to stay inside the building she held up in as snow began to fall. “As soon as it does,” she told herself. “I’ll go outside and keep looking for the others.” But after several hours the snow showed no signs of stopping, and she began to realize that it wasn’t the weather she was scared of. It was the thought of not finding anyone or what they might do to her if she did find them.

Something really bad happened at that bar, and she wasn’t sure how welcoming everyone was going to be when she found them.

Worst still was the news that the day six morning announcement brought.

Rebekah had died.

Dani felt strangely sad at hearing her death, and she wasn’t really sure why. Having been on this island for so long she had thought she had grown used to the idea of people killing and dying. But when she heard Rebekah was gone…

Dani had always liked Rebekah. She was a charming girl and out of all the others on the cheer team, she honestly liked her the most. She recalled homecoming and having come in third place. That incident was devastating to her pride and normally she would have been rather upset at whoever had beaten her, but Rebekah was more upset that she won. The poor girl honestly thought Dani would hate her for beating her. Dani might have been a little jealous, sure, but she didn’t want one of her friends to be upset over it. So she did her best to comfort her, of course, because Dani did feel on some level that Rebekah did.

And now Rebekah was dead.

Rebekah was dead. Jack was dead. Her group was somewhere.

This whole thing was one gigantic mess and the reality of the situation weighed down on Dani. Like one of those horrible nightmares that one couldn’t wake up from.

But as the sixth day passed and day turned into night, the thoughts of the recent deaths on her mind and the lack of any social interaction in literal days now made Dani feel a sense of utter, oppressive loneliness.

The worst thing about that loneliness, however, is that Dani was never truly alone. She was stuck with herself, and her mind filled the silence with all sorts of strange thoughts. Thoughts she had no real control over. And as the day went it was becoming harder and hard to suppress the darker thoughts.

By the time the seventh day dawned and the announcement came. The announcement shed some light on what happened at the bar, but by the time she actually heard it she hardly cared anymore. She was determined to get moving again, if nothing else it was to try and silence the thoughts that kept her company in the depths of her loneliness.

So she gathered her things and headed out into the elements once more. Almost immediately she regretted her decision as the heavy snowfall chilled her to the bone. She almost turned right around and headed back into the building, but she managed to call up her willpower to keep moving forward.

She managed to trudge her way through the town, all the while cursing herself for not bringing warmer clothes. Eventually reaching the housing area of the town, she quickly darted into the nearest home she could access. Once inside she patted herself off, casting the snow from her body, then doing everything she could to keep herself warm. After about an hour she managed to warm up enough to build up the urge to explore more of the house.

Didn’t take her long to find a corpse. She was startled at first, and wondered if her luck was just so bad that she kept walking in on murder scenes. But as she closed in, she realized it was a familiar face. One she hadn’t seen since that first day: Good ol’ Wheelchair Girl, down on the ground with bullets in her and her chair not too far from her.

Well… Wheelchair Girl wasn't her name. No, her name was… What was it that the announcer guy said? Someone defended against a home invader? Billie Sommerfield! That was it! So her name was probably Billie given she was dead in a house, and that would mean her killer was…

Salem.

Dani frowned at that, but was quick to move on as she looked at the dead body of Billie.

“Hey there, Billie.” She said, casually as if greeting an old friend. Maybe it was because of the loneliness, but Dani felt like she needed to say something to her. “I see you ran into my ex. Well… ‘Ran’ might not be entirely appropriate given your situation.”

She gave a dry, almost sheepish chuckle.

She sighs, “It’s really impressive you managed to get this far, but where did that get you? Hm? Meanwhile everyone has probably been underestimating my chances, but guess what? I'm still alive and everyone who probably thought that is dead!”

The corpse didn’t respond, which was unsurprising but that didn’t deter Dani.

“We have got a gun pointed at us in common at least,” she said sardonically. “Though I doubt you got dragged across an island while it was pointed at you.”

She paused, thinking.

“How did you get this far anyway?” She asked, placing a hand on her hip and tilting her head. “Seriously, it was shitty just walking across this island. I can’t imagine what it was like for you.”

No response.

She sighed. “Right, not sure what I was expecting. Maybe I’m going a little crazy. It has been... a rough few days.”

Danielle was right. She was going insane.

It was another long trek to get here, but Lara had done so many of them at this point that it simply felt routine. She has had to have been across the island multiple times by now, but it did not deter her. If that was what it took to get her objectives completed, then so be it.

Ultimately, she had decided upon coming here rather than the research station for a multitude of reasons, the foremost being that she figured people would be too tempted by a warm bed to make any rational choices. Of course, now that it had officially been one week in this hellscape, most surviving people had probably wisened up, but it was still worth venturing the opportunity.

In any event, finding Danielle could possibly make this venture pay dividends. She was distracted, talking to the chilled corpse of Billie Sommerfield, who had perished the previous day. She had no idea of her surroundings, rambling on about nothing. Now was the opportunity that she needed.

Lara lurked in the doorway, her shadow looming just out of Danielle's line of sight. It was important to approach slowly. Carefully. No sudden movements, no loud noises.

When words and performative action had failed, real, tangible action was all she had left.

No, she was not a monster. Not a psycho. Nor a freak or the problem. She was someone who was desperate in a desperate situation, and acted accordingly. She knew it looked bad, but she made sure to explain to whatever freaks watching at home that she was not the villain here.

She just hoped most of the important people would agree with her, even as things got worse.

[[Fade in on Jezzie Stark, sitting in a closet at the end of a hall, both hands clutching a pistol.]]

She knew it would get worse not just because it always got worse, but also because she needed to keep going. She was going to kill more people because that’s just what happened in these things. She was going to have to defend herself from who knows how many classmates out for her blood. She needed to take things if she wanted them, and the easiest way to take was after killing, it seemed. And she wasn’t going to get off this island without a fight, and so she would fight with everything in her to leave this Hell hole. Morality was relative right now and she would not be swayed by those who said otherwise.

That was why she had sat in this closet in the first place. Another trap for another person to fall into. Wait for another person to find Billie’s corpse, start with the tears, give an explanation through the door about being there when the girl died and, if they didn’t recognize her from voice alone, shoot once they opened the door. Easy and simple.

And then Dani walked through the door.

And suddenly she wondered how the other girl hadn’t heard her heart beating like a drum. Or felt her eyes following her since the beginning.

She wouldn’t say love. Wouldn’t want to even risk it when this whole thing would only leave one person alive. But she also couldn’t lie and say she felt nothing towards the girl. She was pretty and always seemed nice and she’d heard the other girl singing once and it sounded so so pretty and she may have listened to that Hayley Kiyoko song and thought about Dani more than once-

She couldn’t do this. If she tried to point a gun at Dani she was going to break character and vomit from stress or something.

Fuck it, she’s waiting until the next person comes by. Dani Bird might end up dying on this island, but like Hell was it going to be by her hand.

Dani looked around where the body was, looking over towards the fallen wheelchair with a grimace.

“No little pickaxe thingy with you, I see.” She sighed. She supposed it was too good for her to hope that maybe it would still be around. “Either you lost it at some point til now, or Salem got a hold of it after shooting you. Sucks either way. I mean, could you imagine the irony? First day I tried to get you to give it to me and you said no, six days later you’re dead and I get the pick. Would have made this a really interesting full circle, huh?”

She chuckled to herself again. Honestly, it wasn’t that funny. She had no idea why she was laughing. Maybe the imagined scenario of her finally getting a weapon after all this time and it being the one she was denied way back at the start was just so grand in her perspective that it became funny to her.

“Of course I wouldn’t be so lucky, would I?” She sighed. “This whole time has been an absolute shit show. I got bracelets as a weapon, I’ve climbed a mountain twice, I’ve been shot at, I’ve been kidnapped — Oh yeah! Got kidnapped and dragged across an island! First day! Like, what the fuck?! Joey Gun Guy held a fucking gun to me and dragged me to a dingy, rat filled basement!”

Dani folded her arms, bristling to herself. She had no idea why she was venting to a corpse of all things. She knew she wasn’t going to get a response. Maybe it was the fact she sort of been pushing all this down and hadn’t actually talked to anyone about it. She had been busy, after all. Plus, two days of no social interaction was making her a little desperate for some kind of interaction. Corpse had a face and a name, so it’ll have to do if it meant that maybe her sanity wouldn't fray anymore.

“But you know the worst part?” She said. “Someone actually just watched it happen. Right in front of her.”

So, the great reveal. Not only was Danielle spilling her guts to corpse incredibly loudly, attracting murderers to her location, she also did not have a weapon to defend herself. She was assigned bracelets. That was practically more worthless than the vacuum cleaner she'd buried in the snow an entire week ago. Coming here and finding her was a waste of Lara's time.

God fucking damn it.

It was some extremely minuscule comfort that at least someone on this island was more defenseless than she was. Still, Lara knew that without a weapon of any kind, she was an extremely easy target for someone with any kind of firearm, which was probably most people by now. At least she had a fighting chance if someone attacked her with a melee weapon, considering her strength, but it was still a far cry. Danielle did not have anything that she was looking for.

Lara tempered the anger simmering in her blood. She ignored Danielle ranting about how she was kidnapped, or that Lara was the one who had watched. She didn't know Lara's name, and that was fine with her. It really had been one week since Joshua had stolen Danielle away. How had she managed to survive one entire week on this island defenseless? She had no idea.

As she moved to back away from the door to find something better, Lara's foot landed on a loose floorboard. The ensuing ear-piercing squeal the floorboard gave made Lara's blood run both cold and hot at once from anger and fear. The noise was deafening. Anyone could have heard that; someone dangerous, some unwanted interlopers, and especially Danielle. She clenched her fist. The day felt like it just started and yet it almost certainly could not get any worse.

As Dani kept up her monologue to the dead girl, she could feel her heart hurt over the details. Stuck with only bracelets as weapons? Climbing a mountain more than once? Shot at, kidnapped by some dick with a gun-fuck, what a shitty week. Not as bad as her own, she was certain of, but still pretty bad.

A part of her just wanted to get out and try comforting her. At the very least be someone for her to rant at and expect a response from. It was probably ridiculous, crazy even, but her heart kept beating faster, and the idea of making Dani happier even for a moment just sounded so so good, and maybe the idea of them traveling together could come up, and what could happen after-

Creeeeeaaaaaaak

Someone made a noise.

It wasn't Dani.

Jezzie hadn't moved a muscle out of this closet.

Someone else was in this house.

If she had been paying more attention to her surroundings, she might've done something smart and reasonable. Burst through the door. Hold them at gunpoint. Get Dani the fuck out of here before she could get hurt.

But her brain had been focusing on fantasies. Scripts that she had no say in creating and may well never happen. Her grip on what was going on around her as loose as the grip on the gun in her hands.

Until they weren't.

And so the first reaction Jezzie had was to tense her body completely, resulting in her finger moving just enough to pull the trigger.

It was hard to say what was more noticeable. The gunshot itself? Or the splintering of wood as the bullet went through the closet door, breaking a piece off, and embedding itself in the ceiling above?

Whatever the case, she didn't help herself with her reaction to the mistake.

"Shit-!"

((Kaede Tsurumi continued from Honor Amongst Thieves))

So Donovan got what was coming to him. Kaede supposed that it may have been a little harsh ... that is, if Donovan and Crystal hadn't been so stupid. The one she really felt sorry for was Jack - he hadn't done anything wrong. Well, maybe he shouldn't have treated it like a documentary, but "failed attempt at levity" was leagues above "actively escalating the situation." Even Juanita shouldn't have tried to force it the way she did, but, like Jack, the mistake was somewhat more understandable.

Still, Kaede was in an uncharacteristic mood. She was angry. Not scared, not nervous, but legitimately pissed off and angry. Mainly because of the previous day's "incident," but also because Kaede had been walking around aimlessly for the past day. She hadn't met anyone, and she was still a little too pissed off (and paranoid, don't forget paranoid), so that kind of added to the issue.

So when she burst through the open door, she did so without noticing (or even caring) who was inside, and the gunshot that she'd heard had become background noise. Like the idea of "I chose to do this, and for once, I'm going to have my way."

In the midst of her conversation with the corpse, a loud creaking of a floorboard was heard coming from the direction where she had entered. Dani swiveled her whole body to face that direction, eyes wide as she stared intensely. Someone was here, they were listening to her and watching her.

“Who’s the-”

Before she could even finish her question, a loud gunshot rang out from nearby. Dani gave out a startled shriek as she quickly fell to the floor. Heartbeat now racing, she began crab walking backwards, putting herself further into the abandoned house. She kept backing away as quickly as she could until she could hide behind a corner, pressing her back against the wall. She panted heavily, her eyes darting around trying to see if she could find something she could use to defend herself. But as if the universe wanted to continue to remind her that, no, her luck really is that god awful, there was nothing that even remotely seemed like it would be useful in view.

Panic started to take hold as she realized she was alone in the house with at least two other people, one with a gun. She thought that maybe this was some sort of trap, leaving the back door of the house open so people would seek out shelter from the snowstorm, then corner them from both sides and shoot them dead.

“Fuck, fuck, fuck!” She stammered out quickly. “Why does this fucking shit have to happen to me?!”

There are always avenues for some situations to become even worse, and those avenues will most likely be followed in order to produce the worst possible outcome. Lara believed that she was currently in one of those situations. Not only was Danielle alert and aware, there was also a gunman with poor trigger discipline hiding somewhere she could not see them. She needed to leave, immediately.

Lara skittered around the corner that she came from, doing her damndest not to alert the gunman of her presence as she was fleeing. Triangulation of sound proved to be effective for shooting something one cannot see, and the way that the door had splintered upon impact meant that the wall would afford very little protection for her. Even a single shot from a low-caliber handgun could prove to be fatal here.

She made her way over to the exit door, quietly fiddling with the lock as quickly as she was able to. When she heard the click of the lock unlocking, she let out a sigh of relief that she had no idea she'd been holding. She wrenched the door open before stepping outside into the cold snow. Not only was this a waste of energy to pursue, there were probably other students flocking to the area to secure a kill or out of a sense of morbid curiosity. Lara did not feel like encountering any of either sort.

Lara sprinted out into the snow, getting as far away from the housing units as her tired legs could carry her.

((Lara Bullock continued elsewhere))

Most of the time, she liked to say she had everything under control, that there was nothing she couldn't handle, she was perfect.

But sometimes, even she questioned what the fuck she was doing.

Like, fuck, what is she supposed to do now? She was going off script as it was by not getting the trap ready, at this point anything that remained of said script was shredded and thrown into a fire. What were even her options at this point?

Stay with the original plan? Her element of surprise was quite literally shot and anyone with working ears and a brain probably wouldn't trust the girl crying in a closet she just sent a bullet through.

Try to talk with Dani? She was sitting in here and spying on the other girl for how long, with a gun she wasn't being as careful with as she should be? Yeah, great idea, next she should go have a knife fight with Kitty, it would go just as well.

Stay in the closet? Literally not an option, she was going to be found and probably forced out soon enough, so why even bother.

Getting out might be the best option at this point. There was no way of getting out of this with a win, so may as well make the loss as minimal as possible.

One bullet and some wasted time. Small price to pay, all things considered.

Jezzie didn't even try to be quiet as she opened the door and rushed to an unoccupied room.

She didn't really care about letting the cold in the house as she left the window open.

She had more important things to worry about.

[[Exit Jezzie Stark, slipping through a window and into the snow.]]

((OOC: Skipping turn order to exit))

Hearing rapid movement from just around the corner, adrenaline in Dani’s veins spiked. They were coming for her! But she was not going to die here! Not today!

Hefting her bag she sprang to her feet, darting to the front door of the house, unlocking it and throwing it open. The cold air blew in, carrying blinding snow with it but Dani ignored it. Better to be safe and alive than comfortable. She ran out of the house back into the snowstorm and disappeared from view.

((Dani Bird continued in We Can All Agree Snow Kinda Sucks, Right?…))

Kaede grunted. With all the footsteps, it sounded like people were actually there. She looked around. Nobody. The single bullet hole in one of the walls. Goddamn.

She just looked around, found a couch, and collapsed.

((Kaede Tsurumi continued in We Can All Agree Snow Kinda Sucks, Right?))