Survival Of The Fittest

Just off the beaten path, overlooking the tundra forest a fair distance away from the trail, a dim light could be seen behind the constant snowfall.

The source of this light was a small cave hidden away from prying eyes. Well, to call it a cave was a generous descriptor, more accurately it was a rocky overhang that was exposed to the elements. It wasn't much on its own, offering only a meagre shelter from the unrelenting weather, but it had seen a few improvements that made it much more welcoming. The first being a small campfire, complete with a metal grill that had been placed on top of it. The second - and perhaps more obvious - was the small survival shelter that was constructed in the corner, sticks and foliage bound together with torn rags and cordage, along with a fluffy blanket covering its only entrance.

Around the late afternoon before sunset, the blanket found itself getting pulled aside, offering a glance of the cosy dwelling within. Several more blankets lay strewn across the floor, along with an occupied sleeping bag near the back huddled up against the wall. And emerging from the rudimentary shelter was a young woman with a scarred face, a duffle bag and sniper rifle slung over her back as she took care to close the shelter's entrance behind her.

((Lillian Larsen continued from Cat Scratch Fever))

Lily didn't have much in the way of camping experience. She remembered attended summer camp almost a decade ago, before Friday the 13th put her off the idea for good, but it wasn't exactly a comparable experience to what she'd gone through over the past three days.

Amaryllis, however, knew a thing or two about outdoorsmanship. It was a topic they discussed not long after leaving the mines, as they considered their options moving forward. Figuring that the town and research station were too popular to be truly safe, they decided to make use of Amaryllis' experience and make their own shelter, find a spot not marked on the map to claim and call their own. Then once a base of operations was settled, they could finally focus on figuring out some kind of game plan.

They didn't set off immediately, their first port of call being to drop by town and search for supplies. Hardware stores, general stores, anywhere with backroom storage areas that were relatively safe from the elements. After an hour or so they managed to find a number of useful utility items in reasonable condition: A metal grill, a small pot, several blankets and some light cordage to name a few, all stored away in the spare dufflebag Janice had left them with. It wasn't much, but it'd be enough to make life out in the cold wilderness just a little easier.

Finding a spot to set-up shop proved to be a harder undertaking, though by the evening they had managed to find the overhang that would become their home for the next two days. The first night was cold, spent huddled near the campfire under a mountain of blankets, relying on one another's body heat to make it through to morning. Come the next day they quickly got to work, Amaryllis teaching Lily how to set up a shelter using sticks and twine, along with many other survival skills that she'd learnt from her past ventures into the wilderness. 

It was during that second day, whilst out exploring, that their encounter with Katelyn played out. The mood soured somewhat afterwards, neither girl making much in the way of small talk for the remainder of the day. But things brightened up closer to nightfall, when Amaryllis returned to camp with a white hare she'd caught. Though it paled in comparison to the previous day's hotpot, it was nice to have a hot meal nevertheless, Amaryllis teaching her a thing or two about how to prepare wild game. They ate half, then left the rest in the plastic container that once held her BKA meal, storing it outside since the elements made for a natural fridge.

After emerging from their shelter, Lily made her way to that container and fetched a piece, munching down on a strip of barbecued lapine before washing it down with a glug of water. This was their third day encamped, their stay extended on account of the horrific weather. She had hoped it would've died down by now, give them a chance to venture out further, but if anything it'd gotten even worse. As such they didn't want to spend much time outdoors, though there were only so many hours either of them could spend cooped up in such cramped conditions. Besides, there was something she wanted to do. Something she'd been meaning to do since yesterday.

She put on her knitted hat and lifted up her rifle, venturing out into the open. The snowfall had lapsed briefly, enough that she could make her way down towards a wooded area, making sure she was still within sight of the camp as she made her way over to a shaded spot that overlooked the rest of the forest. There she lay down on her front, cocking the rifle and aiming it ahead of her.

In the distance, further down the mountain, stood a small snowman. Beside it were two sludgy piles of snow that were once two more, a former trio they had set up for target practice. Amaryllis hit one, Lily another, the last left for her though she ended up using up all the ammo they were willing to spare trying to hit the damn thing. The fact that she never quite landed that last shot pained her, almost as much as the scarred hand that threw her aim off every time she pulled the trigger. Amaryllis was the better shot by a long stretch, there was a reason why she trusted her during yesterday's encounter after all. But she needed to prove that she could return the favour, that she could be relied on should a similar situation arise where the tables were turned.

Three bullets, That's how many she was ready to spare. If she couldn't hit the snowman within three shots, she'd return to their temporary home with her head hung in shame.

She cocked the rifle, the snowman's head within her sights, taking a long deep breath to steady herself.

She pulled the trigger, and a sound of thunder rang out.

A moment later the bullet struck the ground in front of the snowman, but she didn't notice at first as the kickback caused her to yelp with pain, letting go of the rifle to rub her palm. Goddamnit, that stung.

She bit her lip and tried something a little different, letting the rifle rest on her left forearm as she adjusted her aim. She lifted the sights a little higher, steadying herself once more as she took another deep breath.

She pulled the trigger. Another bang, another miss, her aim even worse than before.

With a frustrated groan, she almost fired again in quick succession before taking her finger off the trigger, closing her eyes to compose herself. She tried to think back to yesterday, Amaryllis laying beside her, her hands guiding her own to hold onto the rifle correctly before helping her adjust her aim.

In her minds eye, she also couldn't help but think back to Janice mounted on top of her, her blade inches from her eyes.

She opened them, gripping the rifle tightly as she lined up her shot.

She pulled the trigger, one last time, grimacing as another bang rang out and her hand stung from the recoil.

This time, the snowman's head burst in a puff of white viscera.

Lily sighed, rubbing her hand as she sat back up. She looked up ahead, watching as the sun began to slowly set in the distance. It was probably about time she headed back, before Amaryllis started getting worried.

Amaryllis felt slightly nauseous. It had been this way since Lily left camp.

[Amaryllis Peszek-Byrne continued from Cat Scratch Fever.]

She listened closely as the shots rang out. Any extra would mean trouble, and that meant Amaryllis should hide. There wasn't much else she could do without the gun. With no hills to run to—only one to run down, as it were—and less and less territory in general with each passing day, she'd have to hope that she could find a tree or ditch or snowbank sufficiently occulted from views on high. Which meant one that she could not see from where she did sit, propped up against a rocky wall beside the entrance to their shelter, tucking her legs back into the sleeping bag that she had to remove before moving herself here.

Amaryllis watched Lily's target practice. Even from here she could see in her form the difference between the shots that missed and the one that didn't. Thankful though she was for the warmth, the undeniable fiero she felt seeing the snowman's head explode, there was a slight damper on her mood. They'd have to make one just to leave, soon. A keepsake snowman, right in front of a camera, maybe holding something cute. Amaryllis didn't have much pride left in her but it might be a day or two before she was gone enough to feel well doing that.

If they couldn't make it out, maybe the snowman could.

Once Lily was done shooting, Amaryllis watched until she couldn't see her silhouette anymore and then moved herself back into the shelter. She didn't want Lily to worry that Amaryllis had been out in the cold. She busied herself sorting through their provisions for the evening's rations, so that Lily could have something nice to eat when she got back. As much as Amaryllis liked hiking, she knew firsthand how grueling a wade uphill through snow, however deep, could be.

It was well and truly dusk by the time Lily returned to camp, carrying a bundle of sticks under her arm to add to their campfire. She didn't want to return empty handed, after all, especially as the temperature continued to dip and they became more reliant on their fire for warmth.

"H-hey..." she stuttered with a shiver, wiping snow off her shoulders as ducked under the relative cover of that rocky overhanging. "Ff-finally nailed the bastard."

She squatted by the fire, putting most of the sticks down before snapping one in half and placing it upon the smouldering embers. "It's getting colder out there, have a horrible feeling it's not going to let up anytime soon" she says with a sigh, taking off her hat to shake it clean of snowflakes. Much as she liked to think that her viking blood gave her an inherent resistance to the elements, she couldn't deny how much of a relief it felt to be back by their campfire again, huddling as close as she could get without getting herself burnt.

"Still, could be worse. Imagine most folk are too busy hunkering down to go around killing each other..." she adds, before furrowing her brow. "Well... Unless they're competing over shelter, I guess..."

So much for trying to look on the bright side.

She shifted from her mock-recline when she heard Lily enter the tent. No obvious signs of being caught any less groggy than Amaryllis wanted to look, good. She feigned some surprise when Lily announced the death of their snowman target prisoner child man but the pride was real, felt for the second time just as the first.

"I'm surprised it's been this long without something more serious," Amaryllis said, "the snow's been constant for a few nights, but as far as the wind goes, we've been lucky.

"We're in a good spot, then, given that we've basically made our own shelter. Nobody will be coming to look for us, because nobody knows we exist up here. Anyone who hasn't already made the journey up the mountain, each day of snowfall makes them less likely to try. It's almost like we aren't even with everybody else. We've slipped through our own little crack in the wall."

Amaryllis leaned in closer to the fire and warmed the cold of her mind. Because of course, it was also possible that someone—someone quiet, cunning, and patient—it was possible someone with enough supplies to camp out on their own had followed them up here, found a place where they could camp with a viewing angle on the campsite, and decided to wait until they were running low to move in to the relatively-a-mansion just around the bend.

She shivered, and was unsure at first whether it came from the cold.

Lily nodded her head, her face softly illuminated by the campfire's flickering flames. "Suppose you're right, yeah. Got a pretty good thing going here."

A part of her began to wonder if they even needed to leave this place, poor weather notwithstanding. With Amaryllis' survival skills, they could probably remain hidden in this little spot indefinitely. Lay low and avoid the horrors going on around them, focus exclusively on their own survival. 

Like, what else could they hope to achieve? Escape? Nobody had escaped one of these games in over a dozen years, what could she do that countless others hadn't already tried? Reunite with her friends? Most of them were either dead or killing each other by this point. There was Dickie and Iris, both of whom were still alive somewhere out there, but the odds of bumping into them at this point were low. Playing in some form or another was out of the question, so perhaps this was their only realistic option. Just sit tight, grab a pint, and wait for all this to blow over. Somehow.

She looked up at Amaryllis, her face similarly illuminated. At least they had each other to rely on, granted it was hard to not feel like Amaryllis was the one doing most of the work. She was a survivor at heart, someone who knew practical outdoor skills like hunting and setting up a campsite. Lily though? She was just a city girl with a bleeding heart, someone who lacked the conviction needed to survive a game like this. Amaryllis was far more decisive, unafraid to act fast and make difficult decisions. Lily couldn't help but respect that about her. She figured that a girl like Amaryllis would probably survive on this island by herself just fine.

And yet, together they remained. Closer than ever, really. And for that, she was glad she decided to stick with her all this time, after pulling her out of that open grave. She doubted that she'd have ever made it this far without her.

"I..." she began, wanting to say something, before stopping herself. She turned away to gaze out at the horizon, watching the sun set in the distance.

The days were beginning to feel shorter and shorter.

---

Lily struggled to sleep that night.

No surprises there. Those same nightmares continued to plague her, often waking her up not long before the morning announcements. This time however she barely made it past midnight before her subconscious started acting up, stirring her from her slumber with more haunting images. Most of which were quickly forgotten, save for one: A lone body, formless yet feminine, hanging from a tree. Razor wire in place of a hangman's noose.

She found herself back in that makeshift shelter, huddled close to Amaryllis under several layers of blankets, her friend taking her turn inside the sleeping bag. Outside she could hear the wind howling, their campfire still raging, the fabric curtains they had set up just barely protecting them from the elements. It was strangely cosy, as much as can be expected really. They didn't have much room to maneuver, but given that they were relying on each other for warmth that wasn't a bad thing.

Still, now that she was awake Lily did her best to try and fall back asleep, rolling onto her side as she closed her eyes. She did what she usually did at times like this, when she awoke prematurely for one reason or another, and tried to comfort herself with pleasant memories from her past.

She thought back to last Halloween, which ended up being the last time she hung out with her best friend from Philadelphia. It was some small comfort that no matter what happened here, Brynn wasn't stuck in this mess too. Lily didn't want to imagine what she would've done in this situation, if she would've ended up an early victim like Tana, or fall to temptation like Fitz or Karin.

She then thought back to a more recent memory, where she happened across Derek whilst she was browsing that shop he worked at. Ended up having a lighthearted argument about what bands count as Goth Rock, one that was mostly a bit of cheekiness on her part. Even now she couldn't help but smirk, holding back the temptation to let out a quiet chuckle.

She then thought back a little further, around last summer to be precise. Thinking back to the time she'd spent with a boy by the name of Jack Monaghan. Jack was a bit of a scoundrel, to say the least. A true southie from a rival school, someone who liked to think of themselves as a bit of a bad boy, but in reality was mostly a harmless goofball. He was also responsible for many of Lily's firsts: Her first date that didn't end really awkwardly. Her first kiss. Her first real boyfriend. Her first...

Lily shifted under those blankets slightly. She missed Jack, even if things ultimately didn't work out in the end. She missed being that close to someone, missed having someone she could confide in, someone she could hold onto, someone who...

Her eyes flickered open, realising that Amaryllis had similarly rolled on her side to face her, still fast asleep it seemed.

She blinked, then rolled to her other side to face away, her cheeks flushing red as she did her best to return to sleep.

---

Dawn arrived, followed shortly by the morning announcement.

It was mostly more of the same, Lily hiding her head under her blankets to try and drown it all out. She just wanted to drift back to sleep, forget this stupid game and pretend for just a moment...

Her eyes shot open the moment a particular name was announced, her chest tightening up around her heart like a vice.

She had mentally prepared herself for the moment Kitty's name returned to the announcements. Much as she hated to admit it, deep down she knew it was coming eventually. That circumstances would align where Kitty would end up killing again, despite Kai's intentions to keep her out of trouble.

What she didn't expect, however, was to also hear Kai's name mentioned not long after Kitty's.

Lily found herself sitting up, her eyes gazing into nothingness as she crawled out of that shelter, making her way outside before slumping down onto her knees and staring into space. She felt like she'd taken a sledgehammer to the gut, feeling sick to her stomach, wanting to empty its contents all over the floor.

A part of her tried to rationalize the news, tried to look at it rationally like she usually did. She didn't know the full context for what happened. Maybe it was self-defence? Maybe it was all a big misunderstanding? Any number of things could've happened that led to that outcome.

But, none of those thoughts brought her any level of comfort. Because ultimately, there was only one takeaway from this news. One concrete fact she couldn't ignore.

Derek and Chiara were dead. And she could've done something to prevent it.

Lillian wasn't sure how long she knelt there for. Probably no longer than a few minutes, at most.

In that moment it felt like an eternity. Hours, days, maybe even weeks of idleness. Nothing but gazing in space, frozen in place, unable to do anything but stare into the abyss.

Her chest tightened, so much so she felt like ripping her heart free from her own ribcage. She could hardly feel the cold anymore, barely flinching as she felt the biting wind rush against her face.

All she could think about was that one moment. When she was standing out there in the cold, her hands raised in the air, a mere gesture away from saving Derek and Chiara's lives.

Lily used to believe that people were inherently good. Flawed yes, and prone to stupid decisions, but ultimately well-meaning. There was no spiritual basis for this belief, quite the opposite really. God in her mind was humanity's excuse for its own empathic nature, that people were inherently compassionate towards one another without requiring some greater spiritual incentive.

It all seemed so childish, in hindsight. To think she had been so naïve, when the world around her made it abundantly clear that was never the case. That when the chips were down, people do what people always do in times of strife: They kill. They steal. They commit horrific atrocities upon one another. A hundred thousand years of death and horror, and she had the audacity to think it wasn't human nature to embrace it wholeheartedly?

She wanted to believe them. Wanted more than anything for Kitty to mean it when she told her that she never meant to hurt anyone. Even when some small part of her knew this outcome was coming, she didn't want to make that difficult choice. Didn't want more blood on her maimed hands.

And how had they repaid her? By murdering one of the few friends she had left on this island.

What had she achieved, exactly? These past several days, what had she and Amaryllis done to prevent the horrors going on around them? Nothing. She had done nothing but sit on her ass as her classmates died one after another. How many of her friends would still be alive if she wasn't so much of a gutless coward? Illya, Corbin, Derek, Chiara... The list went on. They were hardly any better than the people pulling the trigger, more than happy to sit around as bodies kept piling up. When was the last time she did something that made a difference? The last time she did something that actually helped people?

Oh, that's right... It was when Janice Cresnar died choking in her arms. Don't hear her voice on the announcements anymore, do you?

Lily bit down on her bottom lip until she tasted iron, resisting the urge to scream into the snowy void that sprawled out before her.

No more.

She was done hiding. Done laying low, as her classmates butchered one another. She had the means to make a difference with her all along, and had instead chosen to squander that opportunity. All because she was too cowardly to try and make a difference. To make the difficult choices that would've saved lives.

When Lily finally broke out of her daze, the first thing she did was storm back into her shelter. She hardly said a word as she packed up her things, checking to make sure her rifle was loaded, before crawling back towards the exit.

She stopped just as she was about to leave, turning back to Amaryllis with a grim look in her eyes.

"I'm going to kill them" she stated, her voice filled with venom. "You can come help me if you want... Or, you can stay here. Stay safe. Up to you, really."

Lily looked away, gripping her rifle tightly as she tried to compose herself.

"Whatever happens... I..." she continued, taking a deep breath. "We had a good thing going there, for a while. I wish we could just stay here forever, just you and me..."

She glanced back, looking deep into Amaryllis' eyes, tears welling in her own. "But I can't sit idly by anymore."

On that note, she left the shelter without saying another word, slowly disappearing into the heavy snowfall that surrounded them.

((Lillian Larsen continued in Time, tide and river waits for no one))

When Amaryllis finally woke, Lily was already gone.

It was the kind of sleep that you didn't remember your dreams from—but you did remember the feeling, and that was an unpleasant one. Groggy she rose and found that she was alone, and that she knew nothing, least of all now.

It would be suicide to go out into the storm. They both knew that. Lily must not be thinking straight.

Amaryllis put her gear on and left the camp as it was. They would return, together. She would talk her out of it; she must.

[Amaryllis Peszek-Byrne continued elsewhere.]