SOTF Archive/SOTF Classic

It shouldn't have been like this. They should have hid. They shouldn't have gone out in the open, like Brendan wanted. But now there were people, people Maxim didn't know, people Maxim didn't care about. And there were consequences.

The first to show up was a girl who looked positively deranged. She had been the one to interrupt Maxim's counter-conversation with Brendan and now he was concerned with her when he shouldn't be. It was one of Brendan's faults when it shouldn't be, especially in a situation like this. It was exactly why he'd redirected the conversation in the first place.

But that wasn't even the most frustrating part of this. There was someone else, a girl, someone who Maxim wasn't even sure if Brendan knew or not, watching them. He didn't like this, not anymore. He was fine with this being just between the two of them, but now there was so many people there.

Especially that third one over there that Brendan noticed-

*BANG*

There was no way of telling right now whether it was effective, but it didn't stop Maxim from hitting the ground. They were so close together, the gunshots so loud, Maxim felt like his stomach was in his throat again.

But in a moment, it stopped. The gunshots were gone, and so was the source.

And so was Brendan.

"Brendan? Brendan!" Maxim yelled to a beach empty of Brendan. The only people left were the two girls, and just like the first day Maxim had no reason to stick around with them.

He shouldered his bag and sprinted towards where the other two boys disappeared.

Brendan was not going to die like this.

((Maxim Kehlenbrink continued elsewhere))

Dot, for the first time of the island, genuinely feared for her life. The other times, she was just scared. This time, someone shot at her. A stray bullet could have hit the side of her skull, vomiting blood and brain on the side, adding a kill to the shooter.

She defended herself, in a way. When she heard the gun shots, she crouched. Dropping Iz's head and her taser but covering her head with her arms. She wondered if she was the target or if it was Brendan and his friend. She felt guilty thinking about it but it was probably her friend that was the target.

The shooter could have been Ty. He could have been the one shooting at them. If it was him that shot at them, she hoped Brendan knew what would this mean. He shouldn't beg for mercy when he confronted him, but for a quick death. At best, Ty would shoot Brendan in the chest a couple of time then landing a bulet inside of Dot's head and the other boy too. At the worst, Ty would tear Brendan limbs by limbs then whack her with his limbs until she died.

However, against all odds, it didn't happen. The person she assumed to be Ty ran away.

Something else that surprised Dot was Brendan's reaction. He could have just left too. Well, he did that but he went for the shooter. Was he trying to be the good guy? Nobody on the island could be a good guy as long as there were more than one person alive.

The second that two lives coexisted here, it became a war.

A battle for survival until a single student won.

Brendan, of all things, didn't do something selfish. Perhaps she was wrong about him, maybe he wasn't so bad. He did kill Bernie but maybe she had it coming. Maybe the same way that Iz deserved to die after she killed Asha. She bit her lips. She tried to remember her before all of this but nothing could come up. Like a dry spell during an exam, her mind was empty.

She realized her life because a before-and-after. Like the people who lost their legs in an accident. These people had lives before they lost their limb but it totally changed when they lost them. Their lives were before-and-after's.

That was the thing that was happening to her. Her life before SotF was normal. She lived a boring life. Kept a boring diary and a boring Tumblr blog. She studied boring school stuff. She hated every single seconds of it but she didn't know it, yet. She enjoyed those boring things. Boring biology, boring Internet, boring mom, boring college plan, boring everything.

When she landed on the island, it changed. Everything change. She learned things about her. How she hated her life before all of this, who she was, the person she had become was much more interesting. That "after" Dorothy was a survivor. She killed someone. She cut her head off. She carried a taser and a knife, and she knew damn well that she could kill again. She was something so much more... fun. It wasn't the right word.

This whole thing wasn't fun or amusing or anything like that. It was horrible. But the "before" Dorothy was worse. She never complained, never spoke loudly, never screamed or swore. She became someone who was free despite having her wings cut off by a collar around her neck.

She opened her eyes. They were gone. The boy, Brendan and the shooter, all left. She reached out for her taser and stared at Iz's head, leaving it propped up on a rock.

"You know, I wonder if we could have been friends if we had a second chance," she said to the head, "I'd probably hate you anyways but I would probably not cut your head off."

Silence.

She understood what she was.

She had became a monster.

((Dorothy went to Hell!))

Quick quiz for you all:

You're on a beach with a bunch of people you don't necessarily know.  There might also be other people nearby.  You hear gunshots, so do you run towards the noise or away?

By the way, you might only have a few seconds to make your decision.


Candice had not been so quick with her decision.  If anybody had been shooting at her in particular, it would've probably been a big problem, but luckily that didn't seem to be the case.  They might've been shooting at Brendan... well, judging from the announcements it wasn't like there might not be someone out for his blood.  Or it was just some random nut and they'd opened fire on the people who were standing out in the open.


After everybody had disappeared from view, there was a moment where Candice had the crazy thought that she should follow after them too.  She must've finally been going mad from being on this island.

I should go make sure nothing happens to Brendan.

Hadn't she just, not-figuratively-but-literally ten seconds ago been thinking that she was afraid of Brendan?  And now that bullets were part of the equation she'd entertain the idea of going out of her way to involve herself on his behalf?  What stupidity was that?


Well...

He might've done wrong, but I don't think anyone deserves to be killed here.  We should try to save everybody.

Candice's thoughts might've been something like that.

It wasn't that she was being particularly noble.  After all, the moment they'd been dumped on the island, everyone had probably had the initial reaction that they should cooperate.  She wasn't special in that regard.

She had just failed to have naive thoughts like that knocked out of her.

She wasn't heroic, just stupid.  And besides...

The most important thing...


Candice stood there thinking about how she should help Brendan out for only a moment before acting.  There was no time to waste here, so she needed to hurry.  She needed to move quickly.

She needed to get away from the fight.


Any old jackass can have thoughts about how everybody should get along, or about how they should put their lives on the line for everybody regardless of what they've done.  But unless you actually do it, it doesn't count.  That was what she was lacking.  Then again, that was how she'd always been, wasn't it?

Like when she'd spent the better part of a week hiding away from people, because what if she couldn't trust them?

Like when she'd couldn't push herself to take action early on, because what if it got her into a bad situation?

And finally, right now, she was just straight-up running away.  It was painfully obvious what her problem was.


"I'm a coward."


((Candice Banks continued in Rivers of Sadness and Mutual Need))