Grosse

[Cactus]

OOC NOTE: We'll just go ahead and pretend that this was posted prior to the active topic, and prior to the announcement. I've been working on this for like...two weeks amidst some horrible writers block and a really over-active real life. So sorry to hold everyone up and shit.

((Adam continued from In Your Honor))
((Ryan continued from In Your Honor))
((Keith continued from Desperation))
((Kallie continued from High Voltage))
((Wade continued from Complicated Questions))
((John continued from Rinse, Repeat))
((Bill continued from In Your Honor))

---

I gave it all I gave it up then
I took it in and got enough but
I try to cancel out
Whatever I can't laugh about


As he left the wet, slimy jungle behind him and emerged from the smallest of breaks within the foliage, Adam Dodd wasn't really thinking much of anything at all. Since he'd scrambled away from the imminent danger that the Graveyard had been bringing them, he'd been completely seperated from all of the rest. Bill, Izzy, and Dorian; none of them were anywhere near him, and for the first time in a short while, he was alone.

There was a part of him that was used to it, his experiences from the first Survival of the Fittest leaving him slightly paranoid when gathering in groups - and why not? The groups that he'd been a part of the first time around had all imploded fairly quickly, and this time around, every time he'd managed to find himself surrounded by people, bullets seemed soon to follow. It wasn't a coincidence, and thinking back to the pessimistic beliefs he'd held upon waking up, Adam wondered if maybe he'd been on to something with all of that. Sure, groups gave you protection, and gave you people to talk to, but it also encouraged noise, and a heightened sense of panic when in a survival situation.

It's that emotional side of things. Nobody with half a heart wants to see their friends and peers get slaughtered. No matter how many times you see something like that, it takes a toll on you. Anyone who says otherwise isn't human.

Up until this point, he'd all but forgotten about the rain that'd been pouring down for what was now days. At this point, it wasn't anything more than a nuisance, but that nuisance could be very dangerous if it didn't end up stopping. Hypothermia, sores, and other wonderous skin diseases could be in store for all of them were they not to dry out.

All of them...Christ, who the fuck is even still alive? There hasn't been an announcement in days, and for all I know, there could be four of us left standing. In which case, I'd put my money on...

Adam's thoughts trailed off. The mere thought of murdering his friends brought a shiver to his spine. A feeling in the pit of his stomach made him grimace as he pushed through the last few branches between him and fresh air. The thought itself; that was nothing to Adam. He'd killed so many times that it was becoming easy now. The problem?

He didn't feel like he'd have much of a problem murdering his friends. Which in itself, was a HUGE problem.

He was about to deliberate more on the fact that it was very possible that he was now a sociopathic serial killer with very little remorse for his victims, when he instantly recognized his surroundings. He had arrived back at the Sea Cliffs, the place where he'd woken up this time around. It looked pretty much the same, maybe give or take a few corpses and a bad smell, but that was to be expected. People WERE dying, left, right, and center. Hell, he'd just come from murdering someone, himself. Sure, you could say that it was self-defense, but when did you draw the line? How many times can you kill in self-defense before you're just fooling yourself? Adam didn't know, and he wasn't sure that he wanted to find out the answer to that question.

Probably a few less than fifteen, that's for damn sure...

Sighing, he brought his eyes up to look about the area. His instincts were sharp, and his mindset had been; for the better part of the last few years, paranoid. He'd walk into rooms and be wary of anyone who was in the room; his trust of strangers shattered completely. That part of him was obviously slipping, as he'd failed to notice the person standing essentially right in front of him, back turned, looking down off the cliffs.

Alarm bells immediately going off, Adam raised the M1 and cautiously pointed it at the un-named student. The kid held what looked to be a fairly dangerous-looking assault rifle, and in the back of his mind, something tugged at his memory. He'd seen that before, and recently...

"Hey, man."

Without even turning around, the boy in front of him seemed to know that he was there. Adam raised his eyebrows and started to worry. He wasn't THAT loud in his approach, so how was it that...

Oh, fuck me with a stick, that's Atwell. No wonder.

Of the people that Adam actually associated with at Southridge (of which there were very few), Ryan Atwell was the best in the outdoors, so being able to move around with little noise so that others wouldn't see him was something that Adam assumed he was probably very good at. All of those summers tree-planting had given Ryan an appreciation for the outdoors, about which he'd mentioned during the couple of times that they'd spoken.

"I passed you in the jungle, about twenty minutes back. I was GOING to stop and say hey, but you looked a little indisposed with your own thoughts, so I just kept on going. Where's your group?"

The boy finally turned around, and Adam saw that he looked just as he had the last time he'd seen him. Wet, dirty, but still with that gleam in his eye. Obviously, he hadn't found his buddy yet, either.

"We got seperated," Adam sighed a bit as he answered. "The graveyard became a danger zone without any warning, so we all just kind of scrambled out of there as fast as we could. Now, I'm just kind of...looking around. No luck finding your buddy Portman, huh?"

Ryan shook his head, and smirked. "Not really, no. I'm just taking a few minutes to evaluate."

Raising an eyebrow, Adam shot Ryan a questioning look.

"Evaluate? How's 'we're all fucked' for an evaluation?"

At that, Ryan laughed out loud, and shook his head a bit. He wore a soft smile, which confused Adam. Perhaps the boy wasn't understanding the full gravity of the situation, in which case he'd be in a world of trouble.

"What? No! We're not fucked. Actually...we're very fortunate. You, in particular."

So what does that say
There can't be anyway
I've done my worst and no one knows


Blinking in surprise, Adam couldn't believe what he was hearing. In fact, it outraged him a bit. Of all of the things that he considered himself, fortunate was DEFINITELY not one of them. "Are you out of your fuckin' mind? FORTUNATE? Ryan, I don't know if you've been keeping up on current events, but we've been captured by an evil terrorist and his gang of asshats, and are being forced to murder each other in a demented game of last-man-standing...and out of everybody in the world, I'm the only person who's been 'fortunate' enough to get to play it TWICE."

Ryan nodded at him, and motioned him over.

"Yeah, I know. That's one way of looking at it, sure. But when you really think about it, we're very fortunate. This whole experience, this whole thing...well, it gives you a better appreciation for life, and what's important. Seriously, come here. I want to show you something; not push you off the cliff."

Hesitating a moment, Adam finally allowed himself to slowly wander over towards the other boy, his curiousity getting the better of him. Ryan seemed to be wearing rose-coloured glasses, because if he was truly giving that old 'appreciation for life' crap, Adam knew that he was going to be very sorely disappointed. When people were trying to shoot at you, murder you, and otherwise do their best to erase you from existance, it really made being a John Lennon-type optimist a little difficult. As he stepped next to Ryan, careful to stand on the opposite side of where his assault rifle's barrel was pointed, Adam shrugged.

"Alright, what is it? What'd you want to show me?"

Ryan gestured out over the landscape below. While the sea dominated most of the view, there was a definite part of the island that they were still looking out over, and there seemed to be a great deal of activity within the area below. As Adam stepped up to the cliffs, he saw at least three other small forms below him, a pair of people, and one single one, moving quickly over the distance. Ryan gestured with his head towards the people below him, and began to explain what he meant as he stood next to Adam.

"I've had a lot of time to whither in my own solitude, so to speak, and I've come to the realization that we're all lucky. In the long run? Maybe not. Maybe we're all just as 'fucked over' as the rest of them, but at this moment in time, this exact moment in our existances? We're the lucky ones. I know it doesn't really make a whole lot of sense to you, and I can see that. You're staring at me as though I've got a pair of heads and only half a brain to go between them, but just give me a second to hear me out."

Raising an eyebrow, Adam nodded a bit, still not seeing Ryan's point.

"We've barely lived out half of lives, let alone had any time to actually experience life. It's a shame, when you think about it. A shame that we won't get to experience it all, but a shame that we don't see it for what it is when we've got it standing in front of us. All of us here, in this game? We're all screwed; you know this better than any of us. But think of the appreciation that you have when you're fighting for your own life. You want to live more than ANYTHING. You need to live, it's exactly what drives you. How many people have you seen who've resorted to killing in order to save themselves...or someone that they loved?"

The bitterness didn't even take a moment to appear on Adam's face. It was basically already there from when Ryan had started. Had he known that this was the road that this conversation was going to go down, he'd probably have just moved on. This sounded like shrink-talk. He'd tried that - it'd failed, miserably even, and given the current circumstance, he didn't want to waste the time. More out of respect for Ryan (and because he'd been one of the only people in school who hadn't looked at him as though he were O.J. and had just crashed the Goldman family reunion), Adam continued to listen, and didn't interrupt, only nodded.

"Yeah, of course...you've seen shit that'd turn the strongest of men into crying little babies. You're essentially a war veteran, in a time in which the only wars are being fought over oil and fear; neither of which are truly feasible things to be fighting over. It shouldn't happen, but I would guarantee that you're the one guy on this whole island who has a desire to get out of his alive that's overpowering any of his other emotions and senses. If I were a betting man - and sometimes, I can be, but I'd put my money on you. You've got that appreciation for your time on this mortal coil, and you don't want to waste it. More than any of us, who've just gone through life taking it all for granted. Take a look at those two..."

Raising an eyebrow, Adam followed Ryan's gaze and looked down at the two figures far below them.

~~~
One more day to fool them all
One more day to drop the ball
One more day to fade away

~~~

Keith Jackson wasn't having the best of days. Not only had he stumbled upon a rape, and hadn't had the stones to do anything about it, but he'd abandoned his group of friends - possibly the only people who he'd actually been able to trust while on the island, and for the sole reason that he'd gotten paranoid and decided that he couldn't trust them in the first place! He'd been frightened, and scared, but now he was just pissed off. What kind of a man was he? He liked to convey an image of strength about himself, but here during this horrible disaster of a week? Keith had been a fucking pussy. At least, that's exactly how Darnell, or Guy would have said about the whole thing.

Fuck, Guy...

Part of the reason that he'd left the jail had been the fact that he couldn't take the sight of his good friend's head, just sitting on the ground, staring up at them all with that look of pure, unadulterated horror on its face. Guy had not died well; that fact was blindly fuckin' obvious to anyone who'd seen it, and that girl, Alice? She'd obviously gone and lost her marbles around the time that she'd opted to pick it up and carry it around. So ditching her had been an easy decision. Ditto for Boxer Carvalho, who'd never been a guy that he'd liked hanging around with in the first place, and not someone to which trust was generally applied. The dude was a meathead, and had been all hot at Darnell for something. Which of course, brought him to Darnell. Darnell'd killed a few people, and the way that Boxer seemed to be pissed at him seemed to be a general indicator that the circumstances behind the killings were not at all warm, fuzzy, and accidental. So friend or not, Keith couldn't take it anymore. He'd bugged out, and he'd left Kallie behind; the one person who he'd been interested in keeping around him in the first place.

As he'd wandered onto the beach, walking along the shoreline beside a cliff face, Keith wondered exactly how the rest of his original group had managed to come out. There hadn't been an announcement in quite a while, and it gnawed at the pit of his stomach, not knowing if he'd have to watch out for certain people. Maxie Dasai was another; being the rape victim he'd come across. Not a word about any of them. Perhaps they'd all packed up and gone home.

"Yeah, really...don't I fuckin' wish..."

At this point, Keith wasn't really sure how to proceed. He was drained; the rain coupled with the stress and emotional disorder that he'd been going through over the past week had stripped away all but the most basic of instincts. Survival seemed to be paramount, but he wasn't sure how to do it, or what to think about how to proceed. He'd lost everyone that had meant anything to him - sure, they weren't all dead, but alone, and without each other? Likely, they were as good as dead anyway.

The rain was beginning to let up a bit - a welcome reprieve after days of straight precipitation. Vision was still relatively limited in most directions, but Keith knew he wouldn't have to worry about an attack from anywhere aside from in front and behind himself. To his right was the ocean, and his left was a sheer outcropping of cliff. Even still, he held a fairly powerful shotgun, and anyone who had designs about messing around with him would be...well, it wouldn't end well for them, unless they had some sort of long range weapon.

An' I sure hope it doesn't come to that. Not again, not anymore. 'Course, if it don't, it means I'm a dead man.

Glancing up from his gaze that had been following his footsteps on the sandy shoreline, Keith saw that he was being approached by a figure. He couldn't tell who it was; even if it were male or female, but it was coming at a decent enough speed that he tensed up and raised his weapon. Sometimes, shooting first wasn't entirely unnecessary, and he hoped that this wasn't one of those instances. Especially owing to the fact that shooting first in this instance would likely result in an inability to ask questions later.

~~~

"...they don't really see each other coming. At least, the one doesn't. We get a much better view of things up from this angle, don't you agree?"

Adam shrugged a bit, and shook his head.

"I don't see your point. If you're trying to tell me something about death and destruction; of loss and of waste? Save it. I've seen it all before, I've got plenty of experience watching people die. Too much."

Simply smirking, Ryan replied in the negative. This wasn't what he meant.

"I know that. That's the problem, though. You've gone through too much pain and suffering, that your own enthusiasm for life and living has disappeared. I've seen you walk the halls at school, looking like a guy who's constantly being tortured by his own past. It doesn't make any sense to me. Here you are, and you've been afforded one of the greatest gifts that someone can have - a second chance at life. You escaped from a situation in which the odds were insurmountable, and you got the chance to go back to normal life. So what were you doing with it?"

At this, Adam's face twisted into a scowl. "Y'know what, Ryan? I don't need you telling me how I've lived my own fucking life. Quite honestly? You don't know a damn thing about me. You think it's fucking easy knowing that I was the only one who came out of that? Do you really expect me to just get on wandering around with a stupid fucking grin on my face because I'm still breathing? Maybe they were all just numbers and names to you, but the people who died in the first go-round of this were my friends. They were my classmates, and I was fucking tight with them. All of these people...? Man, I barely know any of you. There's probably about four people - IF that, who I actually let myself get close to. Everyone else is just a name, and a number to me."

Furrowing his brow, the other boy shook his head a bit, and looked back out onto the scene below them.

"No, Adam. I don't. You're right, I don't know you. But I do know that right now? The people who are dying; the people who are getting killed around us? Those are MY friends. Those are MY classmates. Now, I'm sorry if you couldn't give a shit about anyone except your own little private clique, but I do. In my mind, there's only one person on this whole island who stands a chance of beating the system, of finding the secret passageway, so to speak. Let me give you an analogy; did you ever play Doom II?"

Nodding, Adam couldn't help but be intrigued. Doom was a game that he hadn't even thought about in years - though he didn't think he'd ever be able to play a first-person shooter ever again after what had happened.

"Yeah, so in that game, there are thirty levels, right? Thirty levels, and two SECRET levels. You've got to get to the fifteenth level and go through the secret exit in order to reach level 31. It's not an easy thing to do, either. You've got to hit a hidden switch, get through a tripwire that raises a wall, and get out of the level that way, instead of going the usual way out. Most people? They go through that area and don't think twice about it. They don't get to the secret level. And level 32? It's the same concept - you've got to find the secret passage in level 31, which is hidden right beside the normal exit, so everyone misses that one even more!"

Adam blinked a little bit, and scratched his temple. He knew what Ryan was talking about, but a part of him wondered if the boy hadn't gone and lost his mind, because he clearly didn't see his point.

"What I'm trying to say, Adam...most people here are going to take the normal exit. They're going to go out and get themselves killed. It takes someone special to know where and how to get out via the secret passageway, and find the secret level. Most people just go through to level 30 - if they can, and then they die. You, Adam? You played this game once, and you made it to level 31. You figured it out; which means you were smarter, and luckier than the rest. What you're not seeing is that you've got to go ahead and get to level 32. Only the best can get there, and out of everyone on this whole island, I think that you're the only one who can lead us to that point. The rest of us, we don't know where to start."

The blank look on Adam's face just exasperated Ryan even more.

"Christ, you're further gone than I thought! Fuck, Adam! I'm trying to tell you that as the only person in this whole place who's managed to win, you should know better than anyone what the weaknesses are, and what the best way to try an escape is! If you want to escape, you're the only person who can figure out how to do it! Maybe you die in the attempt - so be it, but hell, it's better to take the chance to get to level 32 than fail miserably and have to bust through the last fifteen."

Ryan looked out over the edge of the cliff and saw that the two figures had now seen each other, and seemed to be confronting each other.

"I know that if I were you, I'd be far more ready and willing to take my chances to try and get to 32. Look, something's going on..."

~~~
Fill a head with sand just to make it better
I had the chance to beat it in but I never
I should have taken it right then
~~~

"KALLIE!"

Keith couldn't believe his eyes. Kallie Majors was alive, and she was standing right in front of him. Breaking out of his shell for a moment, Keith ran towards the one person he'd been at all hoping to see, but stopped suddenly when he saw the look on her face. Kallie saw him, but wasn't happy to see him. Instead, she looked downright furious with him. Grimacing, Keith knew that it was to be expected. He'd abandoned them when they'd needed him most, and he couldn't have imagined that things went all that well after he'd left. In fact, Keith couldn't say that he was all that shocked when she held up the sword, keeping him at an arm's length from her. Holding his hands up in a defensive posture, trying to look non-threatening, Keith looked at his friend and tried to figure out what to say. There wasn't really much TO say, however.

"Kallie, I..."

"Shut up."

The interruption wasn't totally unexpected either, for the look of annoyance and anger on Kallie's face really betrayed her emotions, but Keith was holding on to the hope that she wasn't contemplating running him through with the sword. He said nothing, and just waited until she broke the silence between them. It remained for a few moments, until Kallie's anger took over.

"What the fuck, Keith? I thought you were better than that! You just ran off and completely abandoned us! What kind of a friend gives up on those who care about him? We needed you, Keith, and you bailed! Everything just blew up in our faces after you left, and...I don't know if anyone else has even managed to stay alive!"

Looking sadly at the girl across from him, Keith shrugged a little, and shook his head. Of what he was about to admit, he was almost ashamed. Unfortunately, he owed Kallie the truth - maybe it was his feelings for her, maybe it was the fact that her words rang true, but he definitely owed it to her.

"I'm scared, Kal. I'm not sure what I've gotta' be doin' to protect everyone else, 'cause I'm scared. What good am I t'you guys if I'm too scared to think?"

Kallie shook her head. "We're ALL scared, Keith. You've got to man up, and face that fear. You running out on us was the worst thing that could have happened. If the place hadn't gone danger zone on us...I don't know what would have happened in there. We needed you to calm it down, and yo-"

Finally, he couldn't take it anymore. Kallie had the tendancy to lecture you when she was pissed off, and Keith knew that a full-blown lecture was what she was launching in to. At this point, he wasn't prepared to listen.

"You're not hearin' me, Kallie. I couldn't do anythin' about that situation. I saw how badly it was goin', and...I just did what I had to do. It gets to the point where I can't look out for anyone but me, y'know? Everythin' in my body was just screamin' to get the fuck outta that room, an' I did. I'm sorry if you feel like I left 'ya behind, but I had to get out of there. I hope y'can forgive me, 'cause I'm not the big, fuckin' guy that everyone thinks. I get afraid of shit too, 'ya know!"

Kallie, taken aback by Keith's outburst, hesitated, but shook her head.

"Forgiveness is earned, Keith. It isn't given. If you want me to let you off the hook for running off on us, then you're going to have to find some way to make it up t-"

For the second time within the past few minutes, Kallie found herself interrupted, but this time, the voice wasn't Keith's, and came from behind them. At the sound of it, both of them turned to look at the solitary figure, who was running down the beach, screaming at them with some urgency.

"GET OUT OF THE WAY! LOOK OUT, GUYS! GET DOWN! IT'S COMING RIGHT FOR YOU! GET DOWN, GODDAMNIT! MOOOOOOOOVE!"

As the figure moved quickly towards them, Keith did the only thing that seemed appropriate at the time - he pushed Kallie's sword down, and tackled her out of the way of whatever was approaching them. They fell to the sand with a hard thump, and Keith spun around to try and figure out just what exactly was going on. The person, a thin boy who looked familiar to Keith, ran down the beach, pistol in hand, and looked fairly deranged. Trying to bring the shotgun up from under him, Keith saw that thanks to the way him and Kallie had fallen, she was blocking him from doing so. As such, there was nothing that Keith could do except wait, and watch.

Keith and Kallie's saviour; one Wade Wilson, had been tracking his prey for a good two days now. Ever since he'd left Will, he'd tracked it all around the island, and finally had a bead on it. If there was one thing that he knew about the bastardly MSN Messenger man, it was that he couldn't swim, and he couldn't climb up cliffs. In which case, all Wade would have to do is outrun the little bugger. This was a lot easier, now that Kallie and Keith were out of the way.

"I've got you now, you little bastard!"

The little green man sprinted past where the two lay on the sand, and seemed about to pull away from Wade again, when he extended his pistol and fired two quick shots towards it. The shots struck the little man in the leg, and it collapsed to the ground, in pain, unmoving. As he raced over towards the little man, his attention was pulled for a moment towards the two figures lying prone on the ground beside the cliff face. Turning to them, Wade gave a look of relief.

"It's okay, guys! You're safe now! This fucker's been giving me the slip for the last two days! But noooooooooooooo, I FINALLY got him!"

Flashing them a huge smile, the only thing that went through Keith's mind was how absolutely mind-numbingly insane this kid seemed to be. Before he could say or do anything, the kid's head snapped to the side, from where he'd shot into the sand. His smile turned to a look of anger, and he immediately fired three more shots into the sand.

"SON OF A BITCH! GET BACK HERE, GOD DAMN YOU!"

Without any more hesitation, the kid took off running down the beach, firing shot after shot into the sand, wasting up at least a full clip before pausing to reload, and eventually running out of view. Neither Keith nor Kallie moved or did anything for a good, long few moments, before Keith slowly rolled to his right, and pulled himself up to his feet. He still couldn't believe what had just happened, and as he brought the shotgun up off the sandy beach, he brushed some of the damp sand off of the side of the weapon. Extending his hand to Kallie, he was almost relieved when she took it, giving him a similar look to what he was sure was stamped across his own face.

"How'sat, mm? You okay?"

Kallie carefully brought herself to her feet, and begrudgingly looked at Keith as she stood. Shaking her head, she sighed a little.

"No. It's going to take more than one little heroic move to make up for running off. But..."

Shrugging, her expression softened a little.

"...it's a start."

Nodding, Keith gestured to the way that Wade had come from, wary to go anywhere near the clearly insane individual. After a momentary pause, Kallie nodded, and the two started to walk down the beach without a further word.

~~~
One more day to fool them all
One more day to drop the ball
One more day to fade away
~~~

"...life comes, and it goes. Just like that. There's very little rhyme or reason to it, it just happens like that. You know this. Those people down there? They could have died just then. But they didn't. Who can say why, except for maybe them, and the kid with the gun. We're alive, they're alive, and there's some reason for it all. I don't buy the religious crap that people sell, but maybe it's all part of the cosmic game. It's all...it's all just another game, when you think about it."

Blinking, Adam couldn't believe what he was hearing. Ryan had never seemed to be someone who thought in philisophical terms; hell, he wasn't the kind of person who waxed philisophical all that much himself. Sure, he gave the odd 'why the hell is this happening to me' thought, but such existential philosophy wasn't something that Adam usually thought in. Interestingly enough, Ryan was talking in terms that were familiar to Adam. Games were something that he knew very well.

Too well.

"It's all a game, bud. In someone's mind, it's all a big fuckin' game. But...say that you've got a point. Say that I have got the capability to find this...'secret level' of yours. If that's the path to lasting through this game, then what the hell is this 'super-secret' level of yours, hmm? Last time I checked, we've got two options, here. You win the game, and stay alive. You lose...you die."

Ryan smirked. "I figured that would be obvious to you. The third option, of course, is-"

"Escape."

The third voice came from behind them, causing Adam to spin around instantly and raise his M1 in the direction of the new voice. Much to his surprise, there was not one, but two people standing in front of him. One was familiar to him, but was not the one who'd spoken. It was hard to forget the large frame of Bill Ritch, and he wasn't the kind of guy who you'd have a hard time picking out of a crowd. Adam had to admit, it was damn good to see him. Of course, he wouldn't let his guard down - in fact, it was just the opposite. For as happy as he was to see Bill, it was the guy standing next to him - the one who'd spoken out, that concerned him. It was a guy that Adam didn't know, nor did he recognize from around school.

That's not saying much, but it's hard to know if Bill's chumming around with this dude, or is getting held at gunpoint...

Before Adam could say anything, though, Ryan had stepped forward and beaten him to the punch. An air of familiarity seemed to permiate with these three, and for the first time in awhile, Adam felt like an awkward outsider, wanting desperately to be able to fit in with the crowd, but finding himself unable.

At least, it'd been awhile since he'd even wanted to fit in.

"John Sheppard. Well, I'll be damned. It's good to see you, man."

The tall boy; John, he assumed, smiled at Ryan, and nodded.

"Likewise, the feeling's mutual. I overheard your little conversation, and I'm inclined to agree, escape is definitely our best option."

Bill spoke up now, piping his two cents in. "Yeah, I, um, don't want to die here. Adam, I hope it's okay, but I invited John along...I know him from class, and...well, he's a really good guy..."

Shaking his head, Adam blinked a few times. He had absolutely no idea what was going on here, and Ryan, Bill, and John all seemed to be talking to each other without saying a damn word. Which worked fine for them, but for Adam, it simply just made his head spin. There were connotations floating around, and inference was being reached, much of it without Adam's direct input. How much of Ryan's spiel had they been listening in on? Escape was all well and good in theory, but nobody'd ever been able to make it work, before. Hell, Adam himself had tried to figure out something, but everyone had died before he'd been able to come up with a solid plan. Hawley, Amanda...they'd been on board with trying to figure out an escape, and Adam knew that with that group, they probably could have figured something out. Now...? Now, he wasn't so sure. While it was true that he had more knowledge about the inner workings of SOTF now than he'd had the first time, Adam wasn't sure what to do with all of that information. He'd have to do some serious thinking, which wasn't an easy task when trying to stay alive. He had to try and make sense of all of this.

"Alright, so let me figure this fucker out. Ryan, you've been talking about me having the capability to get us to some super-secret level, which - in theory, will let us escape the game, and fuck over the system. You believe that because I've won this game, I know what to do, what not to do, and everything in-between. Bill, you've managed to go ahead and make yourself a new friend, who seems to have some pretty strong opinions on the subject himself. All three of you don't believe that there's any other option, and that I'm going to somehow manage to lead you guys to your freedom?" Adam shook his head. "You do know how absolutely insane that all is, right? I'd like to believe that escape is possible, but as a logical conclusion, it's almost damn impossible to pull off."

Ryan nodded to Adam, but smiled. "Sure, it's crazy. But it certainly beats the alternative. You've spent so much time beating yourself up and being depressed, and all fucked up that you've forgotten how to use your creativity. If anyone's going to figure out how to escape this game, then they're going to have to think of something that's so off-the-wall, so absolutely fucked up that Danya, and none of his people will have thought of it. I can't imagine that you've never run a scenario in your head about getting out of this game. There's got to be something that you've thought of that had merit. There are enough people here who're willing to try. People like Neil Sinclair, who's obviously already been thinking of fucking the system over. Find someone like that, and you're golden. Maybe put some of those ideas into place. Maybe get to level 32."

He couldn't believe what he was hearing. These people genuinely believed that escape was possible. And yet...there was something in Ryan's voice, something in his argument that made so much sense to Adam. Something seemed to click into place. Logically, why not try and get out? It isn't like he was doing anything different from before. He'd tried to escape before, and failed.

I also got really fuckin' lucky, and outlived everyone else.

As Adam debated internally amongst himself, John stepped up, and took charge of the moment. Everyone was waiting, and they were waiting on him.

"Well? Are we getting out of this dump, or not?"

Now you've been taken
You won't stop shaking
Embrace every minute
You're all that's left in it

All of the options, and all of the different situations ran themselves through Adam's mind. Sure, Ryan was right. He'd thought of countless ways that he could have beaten Danya's game, aside from being the last one alive. He'd started out the first game thinking that he could escape, that he could get out without harming anyone. He'd been so innocent, and so pure. He truly believed that escape was possible, and that him and his friends would be able to do it. Hawley, Amanda, Madelaine...they'd been so confident. All of them had been. The four of them, plus Marcus and David, they would figure out the game's weakness, exploit it, and be gone.

And then they'd all died, and Adam's innocence; his optimistic hope, it had died with them.

Or so he'd figured.

When it was all said and done, the odds of Adam making it to the end again, they were astronomical. Not to mention that he was wounded. It was a fact, really. Adam Dodd was going to die in the next four days. He'd been telling himself that, almost trying to will it to happen. He'd been doing that, until now. Ryan's words had awakened something within him, and he felt as though his life was coming full-circle. As he felt his optimism reawaken within himself, Adam finally let out the first smirk that he'd shown in almost two days, since he'd been with Izzy and gotten separated. He now knew what he was going to do.

"Ahhh, fuck it. We get out, or we die trying. Isn't any shame in giving it the old college try, especially if we're all supposed to be fucked, anyway. First order of business - we've got to figure out a way to get the collars off. That's the hard part; everything after that is a piece of fucking cake. If we can find any kind of electronic equipment - or fuck, tools even...we're laughing. Best place to look is probably the barracks. So...fine, you guys've fucking convinced me. Hope you're all happy. Let's do this."

Not really knowing what exactly he was getting himself in to, Adam began to walk away from the sea cliffs, with Bill and John nodding in agreement and starting to head back into the jungle. When he realized that Ryan wasn't following, Adam paused and turned around.

"Coming, man?"

Ryan shook his head, and smiled.

"I'll catch up with you guys later. Gotta look after a friend, first."

Understanding, he nodded. "Right, Portman. That's fine, Ryan, but...you've got to know...that if I CAN figure something out, and make it work...you know that I can't wait for you guys. If I've got an opportunity, I'm taking it, no matter who's there with me."

"Of course, I understand. I wouldn't expect it to be any other way. With any luck...we'll meet up shortly."

"Here's hoping, my friend. Thanks for opening my eyes."

As he turned around and followed John and Bill into the jungle, Adam chuckled a bit at Ryan's choice of words. Luck was something that they all needed in abundance, and there just wasn't enough to go around. In Survival of the Fittest, it just never seemed to be enough. Of course, perhaps this time'd be different. The way that Adam looked at it, the world owed him something for living through the first SOTF. That had been hell, and to go through it again wasn't something that Adam had been all that eager to do. No, this time, maybe luck WOULD be on their side.

Karma had been a bitch for long enough, and now Adam was going to go ahead and return to favour. To Karma, to the fates, to cosmic justice, and the cocksucking son-of-a-bitch who called himself Mr. Danya.

It's not happening
Some other day you'll fool them all
One more day to drop the ball
One more day to fade away

((EVERYONE continued in the escape but Wade))