Chokepoint

[Malloon]

(Benjamin Lichter continues from Sic Semper Sanguinus)

"All around me are familiar faces."

After failing at his plan Ben didn't know what to do, or where to go, so he ended up going nowhere, and doing nothing but wander around aimlessly. At one point he had started walking back up the slopes that lead from the place with the vehicle depot, dormitories and the library, before stopping and realizing that he didn't really want to go back there. But he didn't want to turn around again, either. So he had walked in a circle, just for something to do.

"Worn out places, worn out faces."

Now, however, he sat on a rock and thought - or something that came close to it. The jumbles that went in and out of his consciousness weren't coherent enough to really call it thinking.  Mostly there was a theme of failure, but only in the abstract sense; he didn't focus on running from Maxim, losing Wade or not being able to burn down a building full of wood, not even on the fact he had failed to come up with a plan to survive or keep his good classmates alive. All that had created the sense of failure, but none of it embodied it like his feelings did at that moment.

"Bright and early for the daily races."

Whenever he thought of something to do, he remembered that there was no point, that he would only make the whole situation worse. Even, ironically, doing nothing, but that was simply easier.

"Going nowhere, g--."






So that's what he did.

[Privyet†]

The reality of what Matt had done a few hours ago had hit him - he had murdered Wade. Killed him in cold blood, not for any real reason. He couldn't help but think about what Wade's parents, whatever siblings he had, friends who weren't here would think about him. He figured that they wouldn't be too pleased, what with him being Wade's murderer and all that. They'd probably be pretty mad, actually. He had killed Wade for some nebulous, arguably not very good reason.

And, really, he didn't care that much.

He'd have had to kill someone sooner or later. If he didn't, he wasn't going to get off Shitfuck Island (population: him and a bunch of assholes) - he knew how this worked. So maybe killing Wade wasn't very justifiable. He didn't give a shit. He could dwell more deeply on his moral shortcomings when he wasn't in a situation like this.

Still, killing Wade only temporarily filled the Jerry Fury/Ben Fields/Nate Turner/Bart Capotelli (was that his last name? he could never remember) shaped hole in his heart. He was alone. Frankly, that wouldn't be an issue, but this was Shitfuck Island. Without any real direction, he wandered around. Maybe he'd find something to do, or a place to hide, or something.

He did find someone. Ben Lichter. He didn't know him that well. Had his back turned on him. Perfect opportunity.

Matt held the bloody pipe in his hand. As casually as he could, he said, "Hey."

[Malloon]

A jolt went through Ben at the greeting. Being snuck up on could still get a reaction out of him, it seemed. He wasn't resigned to dying just yet. He turned around to get a look at whoever had greeted him and dully replied "Hey."

He sort of recognised the greeter, remembering his name was Matt, though he couldn't remember from where. He wasn't much different from most of the people Ben had seen around. Dirty clothes, dirty hands, dirty weapon. In this case, a lead pipe, smeared with blood, like the pickaxe used by the girl with the eye-patch. Only difference being that instead of impaling someone, you'd have to beat... Ben blinked. You'd have to beat them to death.

The vivid image of Wade's caved in head appeared in his head, and he blinked back tears.

" You... you.. that blood...," Ben stuttered. No, wait! This couldn't be Wade's killer. How unlikely would that be?

But that didn't change the blood. The pipe had been used, and had struck someone hard enough to make them bleed. Whoever had done that, Matt, or a previous owner, Ben felt angry. Angry at the fact that someone would be cruel enough, stupid enough, evil enough to do something like that. And though it was irrational, all that anger got directed at Matt. Because he held the bloody pipe.

"Whose blood is that?" he asked, while unconciously grabbing the boot set beside him.

[Privyet†]

Matt looked at Wade and saw someone who was about to make a big mistake. He wasn't stupid. Ben thought - knew - that he had killed Wade. He was already asking questions about the pipe which made Matt's heart stop for a moment. Son of a bitch. He knew. He had to explain this, somehow. He didn't want to get into another fight. Not here, anyways. Fuck him that hill was steep. Falling down that would get you real dead real quick.

Ben started to grab at the boot beside him. Matt idly wondered if it was a steel toed boot. If it was then he might be in some trouble.. if not, well, this was going to be an unfair fight. A fight he didn't want to get into, admittedly, not because of the unfairness of it but because he didn't want to risk it.

Matt looked down at his pipe. It was bloody - the single reminder he had of his victim was rapidly drying onto it - and then he looked up to Ben.

Matt chuckled, a little bit. Ben. Kind of like Ben Fields, only this Ben was still alive and not half as friendly to him. It struck him after a second of thinking that maybe laughing wasn't the right thing to do in this kind of situation. Trying his best to salvage the situation, Mat's defense started off slowly and not at all convincingly.

"Uh, well, I got into a fight the other day. You know how it is." Matt looked down at the pipe again. The blood looked way too recent to have been from the other day. He never claimed he was a good liar. "Yeah. So.. uh, how are you?"

[Malloon]

Matt chuckled, and Ben felt his anger flair. How could he treat this so lightly? Then Matt admitted to having been in a fight, though he claimed that had been yesterday. Could he be telling the truth? Maybe, Ben thought. It hadn't exactly been normal for him to get into fights, but then again, he had been avoiding people for most of his time on the island. With how many deaths were happening each day, he supposed that fighting might not be that unusual for others by now.

And while he mused on that, he answered Matt's question: "I'm fine." He wasn't, but he didn't want to talk about that right now.

How many fights left the weapon covered in blood? Bad ones, he thought. Ones that were unlikely to leave the other person alive. As much as a failure that he was, Ben knew he had never done that which he had been afraid of in the beginning: Let the island get to him, lose control, and hurt someone for no reason. Not even when he had imagined all his classmates would try and kill him. When he had forgotten the good ones.

But Matt clearly had. And he treated it like no big deal. Ben had failed, but Matt, Matt was a failure.

"The other--"

STOP! Don't provoke him! We can still--

"No! I won't stop!" Ben retorted hotly. He would tell Matt exactly what he thought of him. The days of the little boy crying on a beach were over. Gone was his live and let live attitude! Some things were wrong, and he felt no shame in believing that. He looked Matt straight in the eyes, clearly showing his anger and contempt.

"The other person? How are they? How much did you hurt them? What was their name?"

He would make Matt feel ashamed for what he had done.

[Privyet†]

Ben's only reply to Matt's question was a short, terse "I'm fine." that said more than that. Ben was pissed off. Matt could clearly see that on his face, and after that he didn't need to see anything. Ben was yelling at him, looking like he was going to do something crazy. That boot wasn't for walking, Matt figured, and he slowly raised his pipe. He wasn't going to use it, not if he didn't have to, but it helped to show that he was better armed than Ben. Try and persuade him to not do anything stupid that way. He asked him about the fictional other person that Matt hadn't spent any thought towards conjuring up aside from the fact that they supposedly existed and lost a fight with him. His reply was unconvincing at best and damning at worst.

"Uh, well - the other person. They're fine, actually. Just a little whack on the head and they ran away. That's all. What's wrong with you?"

Matt didn't feel ashamed. He just regretted killing Wade, now that there were immediate consequences. But mostly he just regretted talking to Ben. He didn't feel like he had to justify anything to him. Shitfuck Island didn't have any rules other than survive and it looked like Ben missed the boat on that.

[Malloon]

Matt's reply was a damned lie: "Just a little whack on the head and they ran away. That's all. What's wrong with you?" Ben stood up, incensed and ignoring the fact that Matt had raised his pipe. What was wrong with him? He wasn't the one who had hit someone in the head hard enough to make them bleed, hard enough that the pipe used for it got painted with blood. A blow to the head like that would kill. Matt was a killer. A killer who Ben should run away from before he killed him too and--

Wait. Matt was a killer. Matt had caved someone's head in. Matt hadn't been on the announcements yet. Right? Ben's face blanched at the realization. Matt had caved in somebody's head today.

Matt had killed Wade.

Ben looked at Matt in shock for a whole minute.

Then he snarled, and launched himself at him, boot in hand and screaming bloody murder.

Go for his eyes!

For once, Ben gladly obliged.

[Privyet†]

There Ben was - just staring at him. It made Matt feel uncomfortable but not guilty. He wasn't expecting to run into what seemed to be one of Wade's friends. Being faced with the direct consequences didn't make him feel guilty. He just felt like consequences on the island outside of being murdered in retaliation put a bit of a damper on everything. Not this guilt tripping stuff. Matt coughed, uncomfortable, and stared back in return. It took him a moment to think of something to say and what he said was cut off.

"So, uh, is something wrong, or - "

Ben ran at him, screaming like someone who was about to murder Matt, boot in hand and fuck you in his eyes. Matt had precious few seconds to react and he used these valuable seconds bringing his pipe back, trying to raise it above his head as fast as he could. At least that was how he would've liked to use them. How he really used them was by sputtering out a garden variety of swear words hand picked for just such an occasion and by also dropping his pipe. The "oh shit" he blurted out in reaction to dropping his only weapon was the loudest of the bunch and the one that could've been most easily picked out by Ben. Matt was afraid.

He quickly bent over to pick up his pipe, still swearing, yelling at Ben that this was all just a misunderstanding that if he'd only listen for a moment he could fully explain away whatever it was that he thought Matt had done. Just give me a chance you dumb motherfucker, he thought. I'll lie my ass off to you.

[Malloon]

(Minor gming approved)

Matt dropped the pipe, and started yelling something at him, but the blood was pumping through Ben's ears, and he didn't hear what. He didn't care what, either. All he cared about was hurting Matt, for killing Wade. He might have rationalized it later as doing it to stop Matt from killing anybody else, but he wasn't thinking of that. All he felt was that Matt deserved all that was coming to him.

He'd never really been in a fight before, so he did what he imagined what might give him the greatest advantage: Still screaming, he circled around Matt as he bent over to pick up the pipe, and jumped on his back, grabbing his throat with his left arm. Matt wasn't much taller than him, so this strategy worked better than might otherwise be expected.

Now hit him in the face!

Ben tried, all the while clinging to Matt's back.

[Privyet†]

Just have to pick up the pipe. Give him a good whack and that'll get him out of here. He'll go running as fast as he fucking can when he gets a taste of this and holy fuck. Wade.. no, Ben was on top of him, on his back, trying to choke him out, grabbing his arm, trying to hit him in the face. Matt let out a short, heroic shriek that vaguely resembled a little girl's and started shouting. "Get the fuck off of me!" he yelled, trying to shake Ben off.

[Malloon]

Ben held on best he could, knees clamped onto Matt like he was a tree. Though trees didn't tend to move this much, at least, when he was climbing them. Matt was screaming and trying to shake him off, but Ben was also screaming and held on tight, trying to propel the boot in his hand into Matt's face. But Matt staggered, and Ben shut up for a moment, his feet shooting to the ground to stop them from falling, then coming right back up to keep him on Matt's back. In the short moment of stability he managed to slam his boot into the back of Matt's head.

"THAT WAS FOR WADE, YOU SICK FUCK!" he screamed in triumph, but the moment didn't last. Matt moved so unexpectedly that Ben lost his grip, slid sideways off Matt's back and started rolling and sliding down the steep incline they were fighting on, taking a small avalanche of rocks and dirt with him. He lost the boot along the way. Unable to stop his momentum, he slid ten feet over rocks and through plants, before coming to a sudden halt when the bandage around his left arm got caught in a thornbush. It tore, and the ketchup packet he had hidden in there fell out, but Ben didn't care. He didn't have to use it to fake his death anymore. He stood up angrily, tearing off the rest of the bandage and started running back up the slope as best he could, picking up the boot when he reached it. He had bruised his elbows and knees, but didn't notice for the adrenaline rushing through his veins.

Matt was going to pay for killing Wade.

[Privyet†]

Today was a learning experience. For example, Matt learned to try and stifle his laughter in certain sensitive situations. Another example - Matt learned what getting hit right in the face with a boot feels like. He let out a short yelp that vaguely sounded like him screaming "fucker" at Ben before managing to shake him off. It took him a moment to catch his breath after Ben went tumbling down the slope, to what Matt figured was either serious injury or death.

"Okay.. fuck, uh.." Matt wiped his face off with his sleeve. He was sweating like a fucking pig. Slowly, he bent over to pick up his pipe, hands shaking. So he'd just killed another person. If not now then Ben would be dead soon, anyways. Might as well check the body. Quickly walking over to the edge of the hill, Matt discovered something.

Ben wasn't dead.

In fact, he wasn't even that seriously injured.

He was just even more pissed off.

Actually, Ben was running right at him, this time looking like he was definitely going to kill him.

Matt raised his pipe and waited for Ben to get within a reasonable distance. Scrambling up the hill took an uncomfortably long amount of time but as soon as Ben came close enough to be hit with a pipe, Matt swung it down at him. Permanent solution to a temporary problem.

[Malloon]

Ben saw the swing coming, of course. It was telegraphed to all hell. He dodged out of the way, grabbed the pipe when it hit the ground and drove the boot into Matt's face. Matt dropped the pipe, and Ben hit him again and again and again and again, until Matt fell over, blood running from his nose, and tumbled up the hill. Ben looked in triumph as his loathed enemy went--

Wait, up the hill? How could Matt tumble uphill--?

He wasn't. He was still standing there, pipe in hand, fresh blood dripping from it.

Blood? Ben swayed dizzily, then dropped the boot. His hand went to the top of his head. His head didn't feel his hand touching it, but his hand felt wet. Had Matt--?

Hadn't he dodged? He looked at his feet, which made a wave of nausea go through him. His left foot was behind the other, like he'd tried to push off with it, but had slipped. Had he slipped?

He looked back up at Matt, but Matt wasn't there anymore. No, he was! No... everything was going... blurry. He swayed even more, the dizziness making it hard to stand up. Matt had... Matt would... no... His face bunched up and he almost started to cry, but all that came out was a small wavering gasp as he fell to his knees, then toppled over backwards. He lost consciousness as he hit the ground, and rolled limply down the hill, coming to a rest some twenty-five feet below where he'd started.

There was no choir as he died. No light at the end of the tunnel, no Mom, Dad, Minnie or Granddad to keep him company as he dreamt and awaited his return. Death was not like dreaming. It wasn't even black nothingness. It just... wasn't.

B046: Benjamin Lichter -  Dead
39 Students remaining

[Privyet†]

There went Ben. Two people in the same day, Matt thought. Only hours apart. He wondered if this would make him some kind of target in the eyes of self-proclaimed do gooders. He watched Ben fall down the hill, sliding towards the ocean. He could only guess if the second fall or the pipe was what killed him. The look in Ben's eyes right before he fell, at least, pointed towards the first one. He stood there for a few moments, back turned on everything else.

Then he turned back around, berating himself for letting his guard down.

((Matt Moradi continued somewhere else.))