Sole Survivor

[Cyco†]

((Continued from Stopping for the Night))

Andrew had been successful in escaping the new dangerzone in time, but he continued to just keep running his scrawny ass off anyway. Maybe something inside him thought that if he ran long or fast enough he could escape the game and the island and everyone on it. He pumped his legs through the dirt until they were aching and every step was a timult of pain, his daypack clunking heavily on his back and the strap wearing into his shoulder.

~~~

He stopped. It was killing him, he had to stop. Then it was killing him to stand still, and he had to walk for a moment to keep from falling over. Andrew wasn't sure how far he'd run, but he couldn't see the hotel anymore. The grass had gotten tall. His chest was tight and his head spun like a motherfucker, and he wanted to vomit but his stomach was empty. The tears on his face had dried and were now sticky and uncomfortable. His friends were dead, and all of his hope had gone with them.

'What do I do now?' he thought to himself. He was still feeling the shock of losing two of his best friends. The team had imploded. Andrew half-wished he'd just been killed along with them; it was kind of like at the end of a movie, when someone important left or died and the audience (himself included) was left with the feeling of closure, but no one ever thought about what it would be like for their survivor(s) to go on without them. He could relate to them now. Something wouldn't let him end it for himself, though. Maybe the knowledge that sooner or later someone else would make the decision for him. Maybe the fear of death, or of killing himself, at least. Or maybe the basic instinct to survive. Either way, he was now alone in the middle of a field and it had started to rain.

He crouched down and put Zed's weapon on the ground so he could rummage through Nich's pack and find the map. It said there were some ruins of an old mansion down to the southwest and a church to the east. Neither sounded very appealing, but the latter beat the former in terms of shelter. He dug out Nich's compass and with some effort figured out which way was east.

'I just hope I lost that bald motherfucker. Sonofabitch, why'd he follow us? We weren't even playing...'

"You fucker," he whispered, "we weren't even playing."

((Continued in Um Gottess Willen))