Survival Of The Fittest

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

As usually, fuck all happened in the grand island adventure of Danielle Bird. The snow storm kept up through all of the eighth day and she decided then and there that she wasn’t going to wander through the fluffy white hell again until it calmed down. At least she wasn’t alone this time. She hated being all alone in some abandoned building before, so she was more at ease now than a few days ago. The choice of company probably could have been better, but she wasn’t going to complain too much. At least she had Kaede by her side again. With that she was pleased.

But another day brought more deaths. One that stuck out was Molly killing her brother. That came as a surprise. She had no idea what would possess Molly to kill Lúcio, but she couldn’t imagine it was done out of murderous intent. Maybe it was, but Dani couldn’t picture it personally. It was still a shame though, especially since Dani had always wanted to hook up with Lúcio. If nothing else, it would have been worth it just to spite Aracelis. Then there was Juanita making another two kills, and boy was Dani still bitter about not being given a weapon by anyone else in the group. But that was a horse that was most certainly mulch by this point with how much it had been beaten.

The rest of the day passed uneventfully until night once again returned and soon the ninth day.

Another round of announcements, more deaths. Ashlyn was dead, killed by her own sister which was… yikes. Lots of sibling murder these last few days. It made Dani grateful to be an only child if nothing else. And unlike with Molly, with how big of a body count Kitty had she was doubtful it wasn’t deliberate.

But the real kicker was Josh James dying.

That one hit particularly hard hearing it, and Dnai wasn’t even sure as to why. It wasn’t like she liked the creep and her kidnapping by his hand was still a prominent spot in memory. So why was she upset? She just kept fixating on it, the rest of the announcement almost not even registering in her mind at this point. By all rights, she should be glad he is dead — ecstatic even! But she couldn’t even muster up the feeling of satisfaction that the creepy murderer who kidnapped her and probably would have raped her was finally put down.

All she could do was furrow her brow, and frown as she continued to fixate on it.

Karin eventually left without a word, but Dani honestly couldn’t give a damn about what she did.

Didn’t take long for Dani to leave as well, heading off in her own direction. Fortunately the snow had calmed down enough for Dani to actually get her bearings and know where she was going unlike the last time she wandered out into the snow. Snow was still shitty, but beggars couldn’t be choosers she supposed.

As she walked through the snow, she managed to gather her thoughts enough to figure out why she was upset. It wasn’t so much Josh dying that bothered her, it was the sense that she lost her chance at closure for what happened on the first day. So much had happened to her in just that one day that it had permanent residence in her mind. Not just Josh kidnaping her and dragging her across the island, but also her interaction with Billie, her interaction with that guy behind the door that had locked himself in there, and that one girl who stood there and watched as she was kidnapped. All this time had passed and she wasn’t exactly over it. She talked with Billie’s corpse, which helped in that moment to an extent but it was cut short by someone shooting at her.

All this time she played out scenarios in her head, building herself up for a potential interaction if paths crossed again. But now Josh is dead too, and who knows where that girl that watched her get kidnapped was. Dani would love to yell at her if she could, but knowing her luck that will probably be when Hell freezes over and pigs ballet through the sky.

Some time passed into her trek through the island, and she had started to feel somewhat better about the situation. Not a whole lot, but enough. Fresh air, quiet and just thinking was good for processing emotions. By the time the research station appeared into view, she was mostly over it.

But it was funny in a way, she thought as she crossed the distance between herself and the station, that after all this time she was back to where it all began. She wouldn’t be able to go to the gym since that was now a designated “Enter Here To Get Your Head Popped” zone, but some other parts of the station were still available as she recalled. At least, for the time being, she’ll get much needed warmth after this trek through the island’s snowy landscape.

She wanders the station for a bit, eventually finding herself entering a basement in the quarters basement. She looked around the abandoned area, checking to see if it was safe. All she could find was nothing but left over junk from the people who previously ran this place and a couple of corpses from dead classmates. At least that explained the smell.

Dani sighed. At least she was alone here right now. She could let her guard down a little and relax. She moved and sat down on an old crate, sighing to herself. She thought that maybe if she started singing then maybe she might feel in a better mood. It had been more than a few days since she sang. She was alone anyway, not like anything would happen.

She cleared her throat, picturing a melody in her head, then the words rose from her lips into the air.

"Find me in your dreams,
'Cause you won't see me after tonight.
Dancing here with you, I never felt so alone.
Find me in your dreams, I won't stay but I won't go.
Find me in your dreams or stay alone.”

[Enter That Girl.]

Another long trek. Quieter than ever. Over a week of intermittent violence, broken up by lengthy periods of fear and reflection in the bitter cold, of weighing shelter against safety, judging whether a probable confrontation was worth the comfort of walls and a roof. Over a week of it, over half of the captives dead, and Evie had her share of scars to show for it.

A full ache in her flank when she turned her body, courtesy of Alex Avanesian. A searing pain in her neck if she tilted it the wrong way, courtesy of DeMarcus Miller. Callouses on her feet, throbbing aches in her wrists, and a carefully-bottled well of guilt stowed within, alongside the growling stomach and the hardening heart.

Surely it was almost over? Surely she couldn’t be expected to drag herself much further to reach the finish line? At least the fresh air was nice. The long walk brought some warmth to her limbs, worked out the stiffness of the night’s sleep. Small silver linings.



Once she reached the research station, Evie was on guard again. Here was shelter, shelter meant competition for its use. It hadn’t taken long to reduce a class of teens to animal behaviour, just as the so-called game’s name implied.

The walkie-talkie at her waist beckoned Evie’s attention. No. Not yet. She’d summon Claire once she was settled, not risk drawing her someplace unsafe and then be unable to call her off. Why? Well, she did essentially owe the other girl her life, didn’t she? Despite everything, that still merited some consideration.

Meanwhile, the sleeping quarters called. She and Claire had slept there many nights ago. She’d learned about Liya and Steve’s deaths the next morning, had her first big outburst at the news, let out the frustration she’d always been so good at holding back before. How much things could change in a week, back then Evie had been so sure she was destined to die. Now? Now she struggled the banish the idea that she was fated to win, that Lady Luck wanted her to make it.

Faint sounds upstairs turned Evie away from the rooms above, and the dining area was now off limits. So the killer fished out her flashlight, and moved towards the stairs down to the basement. Perhaps that was where Kelsey had been hiding this whole time?

The soft sound of singing greeted her when the door opened. A voice she recognised immediately: Danielle Bird. Chloé’s number one competition for the title of Queen of the School. A pragmatic voice told Evie to simply walk in and shoot her, putting it off would only make it harder, give her more time to personalise the victim and come up with reasons not to do it. It told her she’d already committed one regicide, why not another? But that voice was drowned out by an excuse masquerading as caution: what if Dani wasn’t alone? The mounting smell of decay reaching her nose suggested… she wasn’t sure what it suggested, beyond a need for a careful approach.

So instead, Evie the Killer readied her new gun, braced it against her other arm holding the flashlight in a reverse grip - hey, movies couldn’t be basing that on nothing, right? - and slowly entered the basement. Light preceded her, illuminating the steps lest she die from an embarrassing fall, and warning Dani of her approach in advance.

When Evie turned the corner, she found a girl alone.

She didn’t lower her gun.

With the opening chorus completed, Dani prepared to start singing the first verse. That was until the shine of a flashlight entered her line of sight, shining through the basement. Dani paused her singing, staring in the direction of the light’s source. She silently cursed to herself, in part that someone just had to come in and ruin the one moment of peace she tried to allow herself, and in part because she was stupid enough to think she could even let her guard down like that.

But at the same time, maybe it was someone she knew?

“Kaede?” she called out to the newcomer approaching her location. “Is that you?”

The newcomer turned the corner, the light of the flashlight pointed in her direction. Dani’s eyes squinted, a hand raising to cover her vision somewhat to help make out who she was staring at. She couldn’t quite make out any details through the dark, but she could see-

Her eyes widened as she made out the familiar sight of a firearm, illuminated somewhat by the lumens of the flashlight.

“Not Kaede! Not Kaede!” she sputtered out in a panic as she started to get up from her spot on the crate to potentially make a run for cover.

Evie was, in fact, not Kaede. She was taller, less well-meaning, and better armed.

“Hey, don’t get up,” Evie began. It was almost instinctual, the compulsion to politely avoid disturbing anyone. But it carried with it an edge of command: the same dance she’d recognised with Fitz, with Chloé, with Lara. The one with the gun leads, the one facing it follows; Evie chooses the steps, but neither truly gets to refuse the floor.

She tilted the flashlight down a few degrees, still illuminating Dani’s face but not dazzling her quite so much. She seemed to be alone. Evie could - should - just shoot and be done with it. But cold blood’s a different beast to panic or mercy. She can’t. Her trigger finger won’t squeeze.

She tells herself it’s because she has questions, not doubts.

“You just sitting down here in the dark all by yourself?”

She still didn’t lower the gun.

Dani froze in place when she was told not to move, looking like a still shot from a paused movie. Dani was smart enough to know not to try her luck with an armed gunwoman. She was smart enough to know that even at her fastest, bullets were a lot faster and she wasn’t willing to find out if the Matrix was full of shit first hand. Slowly she reserved course, moving to return back to her sitting position on the crate as her mind ran a mile a minute.

Dozens of thoughts raced through her head. How could she get out of this? Could she get out of this? What could she say to get out of this? And most importantly: don’t give her current hostage taker a reason to shoot her.

Her eyes darted around, wild and scared, looking for anyone or anything to potentially get her out of this situation. Of course, there wasn’t anything and even if there was…

Dani’s eyes darted back to the gun pointed at her.

She gritted her teeth, her hands gripping at the edge of the crate tightly.

This was bad.

Really bad.

She couldn’t quite make out her captor’s face through the shadows. Voice sounded familiar, but panic made it difficult to recall where or who. She had a gun which… Honestly didn’t narrow it the fuck down given how many people Dani met with guns or heard on the announcements shooting people.

She was asked a question.

How was Dani supposed to answer that? Tell the truth? Could result in her head getting shot. Or worse, it is assumed that she is lying and things get ugly fast until the “truth” comes out. She could lie… But if she is found out to be lying, then bing, bang, boom, dead. But also, maybe if she told the truth there could be a way out of this?

Only one way to find out. Not like there are many options and if she sat there quiet for too long she might get shot anyway by an annoyed gunwoman.

“I-I am alone right now, yeah.” She admitted. “Unless you, uh, count the dead bodies and the rats.”

She chuckled a little at her joke, sounding a bit forced and awkward. But maybe the attempt at humor could ease tensions? Dani wasn’t sure, all she was sure of was that she really didn’t want to get shot right now.

Her mind flashbacked to the first day, thinking of all that happened…

Things really do come full circle sometimes as it seems.

“But, uh, I’m not too sure who you are?” Dani admitted. Her eyes widened a bit, sputtering quickly to backtrack her statement. “Not that I don’t know you! I-I just can’t see you too well is all and, uh, you know, been a while since I may have seen you…”

Behind the light source, Evie's expression was for her alone. She scowled in consternation, trying to remind herself of the choice she'd made: it was her life on the line, when one boiled it all down, why risk that hesitating? Why not just point and shoot?

More excuses were summoned up: she had limited ammunition and shouldn't waste it when she could move closer, she needed to be sure Dani wasn't lying and it wasn't an ambush, anything other than accepting that she couldn't do it. That her gut refused her brain's commands.

Anyway. Dani was asking her a question. Unsurprisingly, she sounded terrified. Unlike with Iris, Evie couldn't even attempt to reason her way into not deserving it... but it still stung her ego. She found herself thinking back to the recently-deceased Josh, a similar encounter with him, alone in a large space, at a disadvantage to the taller, stronger boy. That was her now. Big. Imposing. Dangerous. That was what it was to lead the dance. It gave her pause: she didn't want to evoke such fear. Surviving, winning, going home, those were much easier to reason away as being acceptable than the human costs that came with them, the fear, the pain.

Because that was the deal. She'd be anything else she needed to go home but she wouldn't be cruel.

"It's me, Evie."

She tried to affect a soft, calming voice. She was good at that, adjusting her presentation to suit the situation she was in. But even the social chameleon Evie McKown couldn't hide how forced the tone was. She was a three-time killer and still pointing a gun at its intended target, after all. Maybe she could turn it around though, imply that she herself was just being cautious? Just like she'd turned Lara away from discussing Chloé.

"Not, uh, your bodies, right?"

So that was the plan. Get a little closer. Calm the situation a little. Get a clear shot. Let it be quick, painless, a surprise.

So, she still didn't lower the gun.

Evie...

Evie McKown was the one holding a gun at her. The same Evie McKown that killed her friend and fellow cheerleader, Chloé. Well, wasn't this the fucking cherry ontop of the death game sundae. So it seems like Dani wasn't going to get out of this by invoking social clout. Perfect. Just perfect. And Evie had a body count of three now as she recalled, so Dani could feel her chances of survival slipping.

Evie came closer, gun still aimed at Dani.

This put Dani even more on edge, but it wasn't like she could do anything. Briefly, Dani considered that Maybe if Evie got close enough she could swing her leg to knock the gun out of her hand? No that was a terrible idea. Plus if she missed, Evie would shoot her anyway. She really was at her mercy right now...

"No, they were here when I got here." Dani said. "I couldn't kill anything if I tried. All I got was bracelets."

Dani sighed.

How is it that she was someone's gunpoint hostage twice? And in a basement again no less.

"Shit has been bad for me since day one, and here I am, coming full circle."

"I can relate,"

Was Evie's response a natural instinct to carry on a conversation, to relate and sympathise? A little bit, yes. It being something that came naturally to her made it that much easier to ignore that it was also intended to put Dani at ease. Because Dani was suffering, had sufferered, might continue to suffer if left to her own devices. She was all alone, possibly losing her mind, singing to herself in a basement she shared with corpses, unarmed, cold, and hinting at how much worse things had been before this sorry scene. It was easy for Evie to buy into her own notions of mercy, when all Dani seemed to have to look forwards to was more misery.

"Alex was the first person I met, and he tried to impale me on a spear. Then I recovered for a few days, then Chloé tried to shoot me."

Technically, that last part was true. No need to dwell on the provocation. She did enough of that when she was alone with her thoughts.

"Then DeMarcus also tried to shoot me, and he hit Lara instead. What's your war story?"

There, wasn't that nicer? They were talking now. Sharing.

Evie had, of course, still not lowered the gun.

Oh Christ, this shit again? Dani wondered if she had some sort of sign nailed to her scalp that said “unload your island trauma on me”? At least Karin had the decency not to put a gun at her face and make her a captive audience. Was this Evie trying to put her at ease? Trying to compare experiences so they can find an element of commonality? Well, Dani was a little distracted by the gun in her face.

And then there was the whole killing three people thing. DeMarcus and Lara she couldn’t really give much care for, especially that creep DeMarcus, but it was Chloé being killed that Dani took umbrage with. Why couldn’t Evie have shot Aracelis? Out of all the girls on the cheer team, Aracelis was easily the one Dani didn’t like the most.

Thinking about it, where was Aracelis? She could not recall if she had come on the trip, and she certainly didn’t hear her on the announcements if she did. And if anyone in her brief group ran into her they didn’t say jack about it. The fact that Rebekah, Chloé, and Ashlee died before Aracelis was a crime. The fact that she herself might die here before Aracelis was an even worse thought.

But she would have to put that aside for now as Evie was asking for her story now. Dani was hesitant, eyeing the gun nervously, but what else could she do? Say no? She got the feeling that might not go well since Evie did her little story and still had a gun trained on her.

“I, uh, well… Where do I start?” She said, heart pounding in her chest as continued to stare at the gun in Evie’s hand. “I guess… Well, first I woke up in the gym of this place, wandered around the area for a bit, got kidnapped at gunpoint and literally got dragged across the island.”

Should she mention it was Josh who did that bit? As bitter as she was towards him, it hardly seemed to matter now that he was dead.

“Then I got in a group with a few others, and that lasted for a few days before it fell apart.”

Because clearly they couldn’t have been trusted enough to not have her there watching everything.

“Was alone for a couple days on account of the blizzard keeping me kinda stuck inside. But, uh, I eventually went back out looking for Kaede or… You know what? Doesn’t matter. I was out looking and I got shot at for a second time. Wandered through the blizzard some more until I got to a cabin and was there for another day until the weather passed.”

That was about everything, minus a few important details. But if Evie really wanted to know, she could just ask clarifying questions. Not like Dani was in much of a position to say no.

“So… Yeah. That’s about it.”

It was impossible not to sympathise. Danger, loneliness, groups forming and splitting over the most minuscule of differences, it was all stuff she'd gone through, more-or-less. Just the reality of life when it becomes impossible to tell who's out to kill you. Well, maybe it was obvious that Evie wasn't to be trusted any more, she was standing there with a gun and three proverbial notches on her belt.

"Jesus, who even..."

Did she actually want to know who would even go to the trouble of kidnapping someone in a situation like theirs? Yeah, actually, that information could potentially be life-saving. At long last, Evie's gun came down, and she drew closer still. Close enough to more clearly see Dani's face. See her fear. See her hurt.

Was it such a crime to free her from that?

She wasn't going to survive either way, realistically. Like a scared animal, with its leg caught in a trap. She could leave Dani to her suffering, slowly bleeding to death so-to-speak. It'd be one less measure of blood on her hands, one fewer person's life to feel guilt over. Evie hated to hurt anyone, anything, it'd be so easy to just put the gun down and comfort her, keep her company... but that would be cruel, wouldn't it?

"Who would kidnap someone in a time like this? Why?"

Now she'd just... she'd just make sure Dani was distracted by talking, she'd make it quick and painless.

Evie had lowered the gun, but her arms were tensed, ready to move.

Evie was starting to lower the gun somewhat. A good sign as far as Dani was concerned as this may be her opening to try and wiggle her way out of this. A precarious position though, as Evie could just get mad and shoot her anyway. But so long as they were talking that was more time on the clock for Dani.

Of course, Evie wanted to talk about the kidnapping. Dani wasn’t exactly feeling keen on that idea. Until a few days ago she hadn’t really even told anyone what had happened. At least nothing specific. She didn’t even tell Kaede, her best friend, until she realized Josh James was her kidnapper when Wendy was confronting Karin. Could anyone blame her though? It was a traumatic experience and not one she really wanted to be reliving and reflecting upon in conversation. But here she was at gunpoint…

“You want to know, huh?” Dani questioned, trying to get across in her tone she’d rather not talk about it. “Since I don’t have the luxury of saying no to you… It was Josh James. You know the one? Lacrosse player, blonde, killed a bunch of people.”

Dani tried to look directly at Evie, giving her a displeased frown. What was Evie’s endgame here anyway, Dani wondered? Did she just want a reason to perceive Dani as a victim? Someone to be pitied and sad for? Or perhaps she was trying to find a reason to perceive it as a totally moral choice to kill her right then and there.

“I was outside one of the buildings, talking with some guy who had barricaded himself in it. Not sure who, so don’t even ask. So Josh sneaks up on me, grabs me, puts a gun to me, and starts dragging me away.” Dani explained, briefly looking at the gun in Evie’s hand before returning it to Evie’s direction properly. “Remember when I said I was literally dragged across the island? That wasn’t me being hyperbolic, he actually forced me to walk to the other side of the island at gunpoint. Pulled me into the basement of a church, made me patch him up and he…”

She trailed off, looking to the side. She thought back to a few days ago. When Karin admitted to being molested by Josh, Dani thought to herself that nothing like that had happened to her. Thinking on it now, being forced to relieve one of the worst experiences of her life, she was starting to think that wasn’t true. Josh had definitely touched her, she had thought that she had power in that situation. After all, she essentially led him on and allowed him to do it. But she didn’t have power there, did she? Dani bristled, her eyes narrowing with anger as memories resurfaced. Damn Josh, and damn Evie for putting her in this situation. She never wanted to be here, talking about this shit. She just wanted to take the time that she was alone to do some singing to make herself not feel miserable. Instead, she was stuck in this situation.

This situation…

“Heh.”

Dani smiled, cynically.

“You know what’s funny?” She said, turning to look at Evie. “You kind of remind me of him. He held me at gunpoint in a dark basement, and here you are, holding me at gunpoint in a dark basement.”

If Evie was fishing to find any sort of proof that Dani was a victim, then fuck her. Danielle Bird was no goddamn victim. Josh was dead, and where was Dani? That’s right, alive. Almost everyone Dani ran into was dead by this point, but not Dani. No one would think poor Dani Bird, the rich cheerleader who most people probably dismissed as some dumb slut, would make it this far. But she did! She survived eight days in this snow blasted hell of a rock, and she will survive this.

“I didn’t want to do any kind of survival.” Dani thought. “I just wanted to be happy. I just wanted to sing.”

Well it worked. Not exactly the way she'd hoped for, but Evie's plan to get Dani talking seemed to be going well. Much like with Lara, all it took was causing her pain, bringing up subjects best left at the back of the mind. Yeah. She was distracted. But only because Evie had twisted the knife, even if mostly by accident. She'd only wanted to know who, hadn't really expected the full, vicious details.

"Sorry, I,"

She didn't want to be Josh. Especially not now that her instinctual terror of him so many weeks ago had been powerfully justified. This was because she'd hesitated, because she was weak. An innocent person was suffering, because Evie still didn't have the moral courage to go through with a necessary, stomach-turning evil. She'd always been a bit of a coward really, always too willing to shut up and play nice rather than be her whole, authentic, potentially-unpopular self, and she'd decided days ago that if she wasn't going to make it then she'd have the courage to die as herself. Or live as her.

"I didn't mean to bring that back up, I,"

No, she couldn't even finish that sentence. How would she even try? Blame Dani for engaging with the question, when it was her own fault for being unclear? When she was the one pointing a gun and making demands? When she was Josh?

Dani seemed to be saying something in response. Sound reached Evie's ears, but she didn't quite percieve it beyond a vague awareness. She was too far inside her own head for that. Gathering up all the willpower and courage she had on hand, pooling it to spend all at once. Forcing her own hand. No more twisting the knife, just driving it home. Let the poor girl die, let it be quick, let it be painless, let it be a surprise... and then over.

Rather abruptly, her arms came back up. She pointed her flashlight right towards Dani's eyes, just as she'd imagined doing to defend herself from Karin.

It was entirely likely, between the softness of her voice and the distraction of being dazzled, that the other girl might not have heard her either. But Evie murmured again that she was sorry.

Behind the light source, Evie's expression was for her alone. Dani didn't need to see the beginnings of tears in her eyes. No more hesitation. Just point and shoot.

So Evie raised the gun again.

It would seem to Dani that her little explanation and condamnation to Evie was more than the latter had expected. The look on her face, the way she babbled out an apology, couldn’t even finish a sentence, the look on her face… Far more rewarding than Dani had expected. Was it schadenfreude? Dani wasn’t sure if that was an apt description for how she felt in this moment, but it was close enough in her eyes.

“Except you did mean to bring it up,” Dani countered after Evie had fallen silent. “You could have just let sleeping dogs lie after I mentioned what happened, but you couldn’t even do that. Because you were curious, or maybe you just wanted an excuse to pity me.”

Feeling a momentum, Dani gathered her thoughts quickly, ready to speak her mind and vent her frustrations at Evie as she stood there. She was as good a target as any to unload her build up frustrations at. Billie’s corpse was one such target, but that was cut short. Large Girl was either dead or who the fuck knows where, so no yelling at her. So the next best thing would be Evie.

As she opened her mouth to speak once more, Evie flashed her flashlight into Dani’s eyes once more. Dani grimaces and squints her eyes to try and keep some of the light from her vision, just barely seeing the handgun in Evie’s hand being raised again.

With no time to react, Evie pulled the trigger and a gunshot rang through the basement and the muzzle flash illuminated parts of the dark basement not illuminated by the flashlight. In barely a fraction of a second the bullet crossed the distance between the gun and Dani, almost instantaneously impacting her skull. Flesh parted and bone shattered on impact as the bullet tore through her, her brain being ripped to shreds as the bullet traveled at four-hundred seventy meters a second, killing her instantly. Her head and body were carried by the momentum of the bullet, rearing back violently as the back of her skull split open from the exit wound and skull fragments threatened to fly off the corpse had they not been still attached by skin flaps.

The corpse toppled from the crate, falling to the hard ground of the basement with a sickening thud. Blood seeped out of the head wounds, beginning to form a pool of blood as the corpse of Danielle Bird stared off into the darkness.

S011: DANIELLE BIRD — DECEASED

Chloé had been bad, but Evie had only half-seen it in her frantic state. DeMarcus had been worse, but each individual wound was small enough on its own that one could view the bigger grisly picture with only moderate revulsion. As for Lara, Evie had been very diligent about not seeing the results of her large calibre mercy.

What greeted Evie’s eyes in the harsh electric light, what was indeed the only sight visible in the darkness below ground, was nothing short of horrific. Her stomach turned, but had little within to offer in protest.

A wordless grunt of pain erupted from her mouth at the Desert Eagle’s kick, but the recoil was neither strong nor fast enough to fully pull the beam of light below it away from Dani’s gruesome fate. It lasted perhaps a second, perhaps less. The details inscribed on their maker’s memory would last so much longer. Then, as soon as it had happened, it was over. A dull thud, an anticlimactic end to the two long journeys terminating here.

Evie let out a long, ragged breath.

She still had further journeys to brave. For Dani, at least, it was over. It didn’t have to hurt any more.

Evie had to keep reminding herself of that. That she’d done a kindness.

It didn’t feel like one.

Tears wetted her cheeks, and the killer at once felt guilty: what sort of person was she, to cry for the complete and final death of her own innocence, when the actual victim lay still-warm right before her? A monster, she already knew that. Evie the Killer. No. No no, it was merciful, she’d died quickly, she’d never again have to fear the predation of people far worse than Evie, no more cold, no more fear, no more suffering. Evie the Mercy Killer.

She just had to keep insisting it. Maybe if she could start believing it, it might de-facto become true.



Dani had been singing when Evie arrived.

A brief search had located as good a place as any to put the cheerleader to rest: side-by-side with Ashlyn Graves, under a bedsheet. As good a grave as the island could offer, and not alone.

Evie had had a song of her own stuck on-and-off in her head for the last few days. She didn’t feel like singing that one though, it was a mournful elegy about identity and grief, far too close to home by now. She wanted another.

After showing what respect she could to the body, Evie picked over the remains for supplies. Along the way she found a third corpse, accompanied by a dead flashlight, open medical supplies, and an enormous axe. Evidently the owner of all three hadn’t succeeded at healing himself.

Ultimately she settled on something happier, if a little wistful. A folksy little tune about simpler days gone by, barely audible below her breath.

“Lookin’, outside, waitin’ for your flashlight,”

Evie left the large boy and his large weapon where they lay. She’d only make matters worse trying to shift him, and the weapon would likely just be a liability. Not like she even had anything else she’d need to build a fire.

“to come out of the trees, you’re here to set me free,”

Indeed, besides her remaining food, Dani did seem to have nothing. In the darkness. Evie couldn’t even find the bracelets she’d mentioned.

“Smell of the fresh-cut grass, pocket of saved up cash,”

So Evie took the food. She left the first aid kit near Colm’s. Maybe someone would be glad for it later; Evie couldn’t be everywhere at once to put down creatures in pain.

“Following white… string… lights…”

And then she was gone. Three bodies left in the dark, four now on her conscience. She clicked her flashlight off at the top of the stairs, and was careful to steer clear of the dining area on the way out.

“Ride on Gravitron, spin me back to where I’m from…”

[Evie McKown prowls onward.]