Survival Of The Fittest

((Kai Rosado-Prince continued from Reefer Sadness))

Marshall's departure had been an unwelcome splash of reality after the pleasant interlude of sharing the joint around the campfire. Kai and Cali had let him go without protest, only making sure he had all his supplies and the gun he'd picked out from the collection. It still hadn't felt like they were doing enough, even if Kai was at a loss for what else they could have done. Marshall was determined to track Evie down. Kai had decided to do his best not to wonder about it. He'd told himself before there were really only two ways that could go.

Early in the morning, he and Cali had gathered themselves and returned to the lake to finally get rid of the remaining weapons. Derek's gun, the spear, the billhook. One after another, they went into the water and sank out of sight just like Jacob had. Too little, too late, but better than nothing. Kai had spent some time telling himself that one too.

He didn't have any kind of platitude for what they'd heard on the announcement on the walk away from the lake. Kitty and Salem's names had come up again, of course. At this point Kai expected to hear about them more than he didn't. Kitty had won another prize. Just another thing to hammer home how little he'd actually done to stop her from killing. Lily had done something to get herself killed. The only comfort to be had was that Marshall had made it through the night.

It was the sound that had cut the announcement off that had left Kai on edge for hours afterwards. The explosion? Something had clearly gone wrong wherever Danya and his people were holed up and monitoring the island. Kai's thoughts had been left in a tangle trying to parse what they'd heard and what it meant.

Coming up on noon, he was no closer to a firm conclusion. He and Cali had found their way back to the trapping camp by happenstance more than design and stopped there to rest. Kai paced in a circle around the firepit's seating area while Cali rested. The combination of uncertainty and aimlessness kept him from being able to sit still.

"...Maybe we could head up the mountain a bit to try and get a view. See if anything noticeable has changed." He was talking half to himself. He'd been at it for a while. It felt like the only way he could even start to organize his thoughts. "I don't know how far up we'd be able to go, though, the upper pass has been cut off for a while now..."

((California Fox continued from Reefer Sadness))

Returning to the trapping camp brought with it mixed feelings. It had been where California had first encountered Kitty along with Meena, and while one of them was now dead, Kitty had continued to survive and kill despite what she or Kai had tried. California wondered if her own failure to do anything in the immediate moment had been part of the course. As she thought back on her initial actions after waking up she didn't regard them highly. But Kai had brought them back, not with any greater plan in mind, and while California didn't have fond memories or good feelings about the place she wasn't going to push for moving on. She was tired and aching from the mornings trek.

The explosion had spooked her, coming as it did over both the speakers and then in the distance from the island. Something had happened and California had spent the morning filtering paranoid scenarios of the terrorists blowing all their collars up through her head. After everything they had been through it would have been a sudden destructive end, but she had no idea what the AT may have been capable of. Anything could have been possible. There was no guarantee that they would get an announcement in the morning either.

She stretched her limbs out as she sat on one of the available log seats that were placed in a circle around the firepit, watching Kai as he paced around her. He appeared deep in thought, as he had been ever since the announcement had been interrupted that morning.

"The collar should beep if we go too far right?" She offered, "So we could just keep hiking until it tells us to stop."

What a stupid idea.

[[Cut to Jezzie Stark, crouched behind one of the cabin walls, gun held close to her chest.]]

Admittedly when she heard the end of those announcements, she let herself be a little hopeful. Maybe the terrorists blew themselves up. Maybe the government finally got their shit together. Maybe they could actually go home.

But common sense hit quick, and so did reality. Nothing had happened since that announcement. Nothing about them confirming the game was still going and that they should keep killing, but also no announcements from any apparent saviors.

At best, even if all the terrorists stupidly killed themselves, they were on their own, and God knows how long it would take for anyone to find them, if there was even anyone still alive to be found.

And at worst? Who knows how easy it is to get a stock explosion sound effect. The assholes regularly took whole classes and forced them to kill each other, psychotic pranks were very much on the table.

And if she was being honest, her money was on the latter.

That’s why she was hunting again. People were going to have their guard down, thinking they could do something during the non-existent scramble the terrorists were having. She just wanted to find a few, take them out, and then move on. Maybe lay low until things were finally over.

These two weren’t who she was hoping for (where the HELL is that bitch who killed Dani damn it?!), but not the worst she could’ve seen (would Jacob have even agreed to talking right now, after those announcements, or would it have been on sight?).

Whatever. She could live with it.

All that was left to do was for Jezzie to wait for the guy-was his name Kai, she thought it was Kai-to get a bit more distracted, and she’d strike.

Kai slowed in his pacing as Cali spoke up. "Maybe," he said. One hand strayed to the collar around his neck, fingertips lightly tapping the metal. "Do you remember if we were told how long we had, before- you know-?" He had managed to avoid seeing the results of the collars being detonated so far. He'd seen a lot of other awful things, sure, but he didn't particularly want to add that to the pile. More importantly, he didn't want it to be Cali's neck or his own that he saw the inside of.

Heaving a sigh, he turned back towards where Cali was sitting with their bags. Retraced his steps back through the groove his near-manic walk had cut through the snow. It was calming to remind himself more concretely that she was there.

"If we are able to get a look at things, and something has changed, do you think we should head towards it?" It was something to do. A goal of some kind. Kai needed something to focus on.

“Don’t think they said,” Came California’s reply as she dug around in her memories, trying to unearth the relevant piece of information from under layers of traumatic detritus. It was a hard ask given all that had happened throughout the days. Events and information stacked on top of each other, paper upon paper, sorting through the collection was daunting, especially as she tried to avoid particular memories of a conversation on a beach.

Kai still paced around, slowing as he took in her words and considered them. Meanwhile California rolled one of the cut logs around with her foot. The sun was shining at its peak, basking the area around the camp in a golden glow as the light reflected off the melting snow and haze.

“Yeah,” She said, nodding slightly once, before nodding again with more conviction. “We should, and should we maybe try and get others?”

Finally, the boy took his cue.

Jezzie took in a breath, trying to steel herself.

She could do this-she CAN do this. She’d already killed six people. Two more wouldn’t make anything worse.

She did what she did to survive. People wouldn’t like it, maybe hate her for it, but unless they went through this themselves, they couldn’t criticize her for it.

Not a word left her lips as she stepped out of cover and began shooting.

She couldn’t tell people she was the hero, but everyone loves a good antihero.

If Kai had been about to respond to her, he never got the chance, the gunshots saw to that. The serenity of their little corner of the island, bathed like it was in the golden noon sun, was shredded and torn apart by the roar of the gun and the turbulence it brought with it, as the bullets scythed through the air. It shouldn't have felt as shocking as it did, the sudden appearance of an assailant and their ambush, it was after all the objective of the game to kill. But California was still knocked out of her reprieve when the figure stepped out from the bushes and poured fire towards them.

She leapt to her feet quicker than she expected, but if she was to look back on her actions that would have been the thing she pointed to as her worst decision. Across the days she had been nearby to guns going off multiple times, but there on the tenth day was the first time she had been directly shot at. It was sobering and terrifying all at once. As the bullets flew towards her, California thought she could see some pine needles in their assailants hair, a surreal detail that her brain got stuck trying to parse before she was struck in the shoulder.

The heat tore through her jacket, and her top, the projectile severing her skin and shattering bone. The momentum and force generated made California stumble back, one of her feet got tangled on a log. The same log she had been casually rolling around seconds earlier. Her balance tipped in one direction and just like years prior, California felt her control leave her as her feet slid out across the snow and dirt, sending her in one inevitable direction, despite her attempts to stop her slide.

Bark approached her face as she fell towards the log seats that ringed the fire pit. Meanwhile a small arc of blood sprung out from her wound in a mockery of a sculpted fountain.

Then the car hit the barricade, and California didn't see or think anything.

It had been easy to forget that they were standing relatively out in the open. Stupid of them. Kai had been so distracted by questions and possibilities that he had forgotten about reality just long enough for it to catch up to them.

The ringing in his right ear had never completely gone away, but he'd gotten used to it. It came back in full force as the air was split by gunfire.

He was looking directly at Cali. Got a perfect view of the way her jacket tore and blood fountained from her shoulder. Everything slow-motion as he lunged for her, to catch her, to do something. Slow as everything was, he was just a little bit slower.

Burning pain erupted in a line across the back of his right calf, and Cali's name was lost in the wordless cry that escaped in response. Kai's momentum kept him going towards her, but he fell short. She hit the ground before he did.

He reached the shotgun laying on top of his bag before he reached her.

Self-preservation overrode panic for just long enough. Kai grabbed the gun. Forced himself up onto one knee.

Pivoted towards the trees, towards the bloody figure emerging from them, and pulled the trigger.

Jezzie had already been moving when the buckshot came.

She had hoped it would be easy - that girl Kathleen had gone down in one shot, and while the other one in the graveyard took the rest of the magazine, they also got hit multiple times. Shooting was clearly the best way to go at this point.

Then the clicks came. Once, then a second.

She didn’t wait for the third because that’s when she saw the shotgun.

Without even the time for another frustrated scream, she stumbled forward, tripping over a wolf pelt (why is there even a wolf pelt on the ground?) but keeping herself from falling completely.

For a moment, it felt as though something grazed against her back, but like with Letitia before, it seemed tripping had saved her from a bullet wound.

And like back then, if the adrenaline hadn’t been pumping before, it sure as Hell was now.

The snow crunched as the now bulletless gun was dropped, not spared a second thought.

Those went to the new blade she ripped out of her bag, one of the only two not yet stained with blood. Something she would change soon.

Sprinting like her life depended on it - because it did - she brought up the shovel and swung towards the boy’s neck, hoping whatever she hit was major enough to kill quickly.

It was a girl. Small. Dead in the eyes. Kai's racing mind fixated on those things as she threw down the gun and drew something else that glinted in the sunlight.

He mirrored her actions halfway, dropping the emptied shotgun once he caught up to the fact that no, he hadn't hit her. His ribs ached distantly from the gun's kick, and that was all.

The shovel swung towards him from the side, and Kai's arm flew up to block it in turn. The metal edge cut through his sleeve and into his forearm - a distant echo of the cut Meena had given him on the other arm - but Kai couldn't draw enough breath to do more than grunt in pain. He grabbed the girl's arm with his other hand, wrenching it and the shovel away from him. Tried to shove her back and off balance, but she was on her feet, and he was still down on one knee.

"Stop-" He gasped. That was all he could manage.

The shovel definitely cut into something, but not an artery or a vein.

For a moment, Jezzie wondered how it felt to get slashed in the arm with a shovel. That had to be surreal, right? If movies made her expect anything, it was machetes or axes or homemade knife finger gloves - no one really used a shovel.

Then a hand grabbed her, and the train of thought was back on track.

The guy - Kai, she kept forgetting - tried to shove her off, but she kept her ground. Only one leg versus someone who’s still standing? Easy win there.

He tried to speak, but he didn’t get more than one word out before her forehead collided with his face.

Improv was never her strong suit, but when the idea of weaponizing her own head abruptly came to her, she figured it wouldn’t make her face look any worse than it already did.

The air around the camp was split in two by the unexpected, distant CRACK of a gunshot.

Hero. Antihero. Anti-villain. It didn’t matter what it was they called Jezzie, so long as it wasn’t forgettable.

She had always wanted for people to pay attention to her. She wanted to be seen, noticed, and she always thought she was. Dad and Mom loved her and came to her every show. Seasill didn’t see her much, but called and skyped regularly. She was in every show the school put on. She was fashionable. She was a future star! She was worth paying attention to!

It was never an active thought in her mind, but in the very back of her head, she felt something else when the announcements went off, listing names of people she met here who didn’t know her: joy. Some sick, disgusting part of her was happy about it. Jack didn’t know her at all? His death didn’t bring her any tears. That idiot girl she met the first time she was in the graveyard got shot? Who cares, she deserved it. Prii dies, by her own hands no less, never realizing who Jezzie really was? Fuck them, how could they not know her name? Hell, even Janice not noticing her in the closet! Good on Lillian for taking the bitch out!

It felt like a burn, whenever they asked for her name. She’d been in Salem, Massachusetts all her life and they couldn’t even recognize her!? She’s worked at the grocery store for years, you assholes!

But somehow, it was never the worst. The worst ones were the ones who did know, but hated her.

Maybe she wasn’t a good person. Maybe she was even a bad person. But for people to say it - for it to be all she was remembered for - it almost made her want to have died forgettable. For Salem to have shot her or Janice to have stabbed her or Juanita to have pushed her down the stairs into that creepy dark cellar. For the bus to have crashed or for a stagelight to have dropped on her skull or even for her to be another one of thousands or millions of nobodies who died in car accidents. But she was in too deep for that now, and anyone who did remember her was likely to hate her.

And maybe that’s another reason she kept going. Maybe she wanted to make sure someone remembered her without hatred. Even if it was someone she barely knew before, it was better than betting on someone more familiar, who might hate her in secret.

The winner had to be her, or Jacob. Preferably her, but if Jacob lasted long enough, and if they talked enough, and if things went badly enough…she would accept it. He was nice. He had a sister and a boyfriend to go home to. He had a good motive for at least one kill, and most people would see him more heroically than her just by that alone. And even if Salem was all he could manage morally, then she could do the dirty work. Seven, eight, nine - Hell, even a dozen. He wouldn’t need to kill more than once if sh

[[Jezzie Stark suddenly falls back, the snow crunching underneath her. A zoom-in towards her face shows off the bullet wound.

It appears to have killed her instantly.

After a second, the camera turns away, once more focusing on the important people in the scene.]]

Crack. The frame and lens of Kai's glasses under the girl's skull, closely followed by skin and bone colliding. His vision exploded into stars. He could feel blood streaming from one side of his nose down over the corner of his mouth.

He reeled back, getting a glimpse of searingly bright sky. Flailed to keep his balance. Tried to right himself.

CRACK.

Red paint thrown over the clear half of his vision.

The girl toppled backwards. Kai followed in her direction, gasping for breath as he collapsed into the snow. The world spun around him.

He waited for a third noise to shatter the sudden silence. Too stunned to do anything but wait for it.

It didn't come.

((The only noise that Kai heard was the barely audible crunching of snow underneath her boots.))

A trail of wispy, gray smoke rolled off the end of Kitty's rifle as she began to approach. She lowered the scope from her eye, rubbing her face to soothe the pain from it abruptly ramming itself into her socket when she fired. Her bones rattled from the echoes of the shot swimming around within her, and the ringing in her ears was louder than ever, drowning out anything and everything else for a few moments as she loaded another bullet into her gun.

To say this scene was unexpected would be an understatement. When she had left the listening station for the camp, she was expecting to find it abandoned, just like when she and Kai had wandered here after Ren's death, or at most for there to be a survivor or two she could either slaughter or scare off. Yet, to her surprise, she heard gunshots going off as she got close, and saw a distant scramble occurring among people she couldn't quite make out. When she looked through the scope to get a clearer picture, she saw him.

Kai. She had found him, and he wasn't alone. California was with him, and both of them were under attack.

A darker version of her would've simply waited, allowed the assailant to do what she couldn't bring herself to do, and then the two biggest obstacles to her survival would be out of the way. Yet, dark as she had become, she hadn't fallen so far as to allow her friends to die in front of her.

Instead, what had followed came as naturally to Kitty as breathing. One shot, and a damn good one at that. She smiled thinking about it, a sharp-toothed and wicked grin. If her dad was still alive, and her target hadn't been a person, she was sure he would've been proud of her.

She allowed the rifle to fall to her side, the end of the barrel dragging in the snow behind her as she grew closer and closer. After a minute or so of walking, she was finally close enough to see her friend and her latest victim clearly. She couldn't quite make out who it was that she had shot, given how badly mangled their face was, but Kitty shrugged it off. Whoever they had been, they weren't worth remembering, and she'd find out their name in the morning regardless.

Kitty only stopped her forward advance when she was close enough to be standing over Kai.

"Hi Kai!" she mewed, chipper in spite of the fresh kill laying at her feet. "It seemed like you and Cali needed some help! Mind if I take a look at your injuries?"