Brothers

[BROseidon†]

George had been surprised by how little he'd felt when he'd heard his brother's plane crash.

Sure, he'd gone through the motions of mourning, gone to the funeral, et cetera, but he never cried. He didn't destroy anything in a fit of rage. He'd just sort of felt... empty. He'd never been close with his brother, but he'd still expected to feel more. He felt like he'd heard about an old acquaintance dying, not his brother.

He felt marginally more when he'd heard that his brother's class had been abducted into Survival of the Fittest. Still, he didn't feel much hope for the return of his brother. The question of how much he cared about his brother returning home notwithstanding, he knew Matt didn't have a chance. The fucker sat in front of a computer all day. Sure, he was kind of smart, but he didn't know how to use a gun, or how to survive outdoors. Hell, Matt hated anything the sun, and all things nature.

Still, he clicked the stream to watch his brother's last moments, compelled more by a morbid curiosity than anything else.

He saw Matt crying, sitting next to a bus. Of course he was crying. George couldn't really fault him for it, though.

Someone else was approaching. A big, oafish-type guy. Shit, Matt was probably dead.

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It'd been over a week, and Matt was still alive. George continued to watch his brother on his computer, even after his parents had told him not to. He was impressed with what his little brother had managed.

He saw his brother encounter three killers on the second day, watched as he got out of a tight situation through a combination of luck and skill, going so far as to get a gun for one of his comrades. But he'd gotten separated from the group, was forced on his own. George watched as his brother navigated around the people he encountered, always on the edge of a fight, but never engaging in one.

He watched his brother accumulate food and water from every dead kid he stumbled across. He watched as his brother survived.

He watched Matt condemn a girl to death. It was in that moment that George realized something.

His brother was a much better actor than he'd realized. Nobody seemed to realize what he was doing. George only saw it because he was Matt's brother.

Then George saw Matt take on a new ally. George couldn't help but wonder what his next play was. How would his brother use this next kid.

He kept watching.