There are some things a man just can't run away from.

[NotAFlyingToy]

If there had been time, Hansel would have scoffed at Joe's melodrama, his over-acting and cliche response to a death. If there had been just Hansel and Joe, Hansel would've explained what, exactly, the point was to all of this. If there had been time, Hansel would've ensured Joe didn't feel any pain, didn't suffer overmuch as he put a bullet between the boy's eyes.

But then Maddie showed up, again.

With a loaded gun.

Again.

"Give me a fucking break," he said, keeping the gun pointed at Joe's chest.

"You cuh-han't pull that t-tuh-rigger faster than I can, and I'm a damn sight more experienced. How about you don't move, and you wuh-hon't have more blood on your hands."

He nodded at Joe.

"You're still fucking wrong. Ain't no meaning b-behind any of it. Why are you stuh-hill looking?"

[ViolentMedic]

A new voice. Another person running after Hansel. Shouting for him not to move.

Don't move? Don't move?! It was too late to ask for that. It was too late to do anything but shoot. Why couldn't she just shoot while he had his gun pointed at him?

Joe wobbled a couple of steps forward to where he'd dropped his scythe. He knelt to pick it up and almost fell over. As it was, he couldn't quite summon the energy to stand straight, instead staying on one knee with one hand on the scythe.

"Nothing else... to do..."

Kill Hansel. Find Travis. Kill Travis. Turn gun around. Finish. That was all that was left. To kill. Maybe Hansel was right. He'd have an eternity after this to think about any meanings behind all this.

"Don't jush... juh..." Joe shut his eyes for a moment, clenching at the stab of pain going through his jaw. "Shoot or run. Shoot or run." He dug the butt of the scythe into the ground and stood up, leaning heavily on it.

He hoped the girl listened and shot while she had the chance.

[VoltTurtle]

Maddie gritted her teeth at Hansel's response.

Pull the trigger faster than her? Unless he could read her mind she would at least get the first shot if he's just going to ignore her like this.

Maybe he meant he could fire faster than her. Admittedly, that was true, he was using a gun that was much more suited for actually firing bullets than her gun was. Even so, she had an ally in Joe, and that could easily be a deciding factor.

Speaking of, Joe picked up the scythe that had been on the ground. He did so weakly, mumbling something while having to use the scythe to stand up, but he did so. Maddie recognized that this was probably going to be her best opportunity. If she fired, Hansel would have to do one of two things, focus on her or focus on Joe. If he focused on her, that would be Joe's chance to skewer him with the scythe. Alternatively, if he focused on Joe, Maddie could keep shooting at him from relative safety.

Maddie took aim at Hansel's center of mass. She held her breath and steadied her hands and her grip. She couldn't afford to completely miss this shot, she needed to at least wound him. Hansel had to go down, here and now.

She fired.

And for a second there, caught in the moment of taking down one of the island's most unrepentant killers, she completely forgot about her own sense of self preservation.

[NotAFlyingToy]

Despite all his exposure to gunshots - his own, others, ones echoing in the distance as his classmates fought to extend their lives and extinguish each others. Despite his near constant closeness to them - feeling them kick against his palms, crunch against his skin, explode and reduce whatever they hit into powder and liquid and fractured solid - he'd never quite been able to get used to the sound.

But when Maddie fired, it seemed inevitable, pre-determined, that he'd suddenly be yanked back by the right cheek, as if a fishook had embedded itself in his face. Warm, sticky blood splashed over his good shoulder, his neck, as he stumbled forwards a few steps, shock keeping his voice to a short, gurgled grunt.

But there was nothing surprised or reactionary about the way he gave Maddie a short, furious glare before raising the pistol in Joe's direction, the barrel pointed towards the other boy's torso.

The moment hung, and Hansel felt like it stretched forever - the smell of the water, the grass, the coppery taste of blood in his mouth and the unnatural feeling of air hitting his tongue where it shouldn't be coming from - dull, throbbing pain covering the entire right side of his face. Maddie's expression. Joe's expression. The weight of the gun as it sat in his right palm, the weight lessening as his left hand - gimp hand - curled around it to steady it and help control the recoil.

Then, the moment was over.

Two shots burst forth.

One per assailant.

[ViolentMedic]

For one moment, Joe thought that was it. That Hansel was finished, because he'd gotten hit in the face and there was blood and shots to the face was meant to mean it was over. And his hand slid down the scythe pole a few inches. He almost fell.

But Hansel wasn't finished after all, no matter how much of a mess the girl had just made of his face. And Joe came to his senses and straightened up, and took a step forward.

The gun was on him. Last chance. He could... he could...

Another step.

The gun went off.

Joe was midway through taking his third step when all the wind just got punched out of him. He stumbled. His legs buckled and he slid down, leaning on the scythe. Clinging to it, like if he could just keep standing... if he was standing, he wasn't done.

He couldn't breathe. For a stupid, stupid moment he thought he was having a panic attack.

Joe didn't look down. If he didn't look down, he didn't have to know and he'd be... he'd keep... he wasn't done. He couldn't stop.

But he couldn't move. He couldn't breathe. And that was when the pain from the bullet lodged in his stomach kicked in.

[VoltTurtle]

Maddie had actually hit Hansel.

Maddie was shocked that she had actually managed to hit Hansel, in the face no less. That had to be the first shot that she had actually hit out of all of them that she had fired on the island.

Then, Hansel glared at her, his bloodied face giving her the angriest glare that she had ever received in her life. Then he raised his pistol. Then, he shot Joe.

Then, he shot her.

Her abdomen was suddenly on fire. She felt her warm blood touch her skin as the wound began to bleed. Her jacket became stained with her own blood for the first time during her stay on the island, joining the dried blood of Nina and Veronica.

She didn't look down at the pain, she couldn't afford to examine her wound in detail, that would just let Hansel get another shot off. And she couldn't risk turning tail and running either, that would just be leaving Joe to die and Hansel to potentially live from one of their confrontations yet again. Plus, she might already be dead for all she knew from the wound in her stomach, she didn't like considering it but it was a possibility. She needed to finish what she started, make sure Hansel didn't walk away from this and kill again. Or worse, win and leave and never face the retributions for his crimes on the island.

She quickly loaded the gun-knife, she had gotten quite efficient at loading it, and took aim once again at Hansel. She fired, her hands shaking during the shot from the pain and adrenaline. She loaded another musket ball into the gun-knife, and prepared to take another shot.

As she did that, Maddie just hoped that she would live through all of this.

[NotAFlyingToy]

Hansel watched the impact of both rounds, believing the worst to be over. He relaxed his shooting arm, his gaze turning from Maddie to Joe, interested in the rreactions to the bullets rending flesh. He lifted his right hand, still burdened with the pistol, to press it gingerly against his newest wound. Searing pain greeted him, and his hand jerked away in reflex-

Another shot exploded, sending him diving forwards as the ground mere meters to his left erupted in a shower of earth and mud. He raised the pistol to return fire, heard it click, and immediately hurled it aside as Maddie began to reload.

He was too far away to get to her, and found himself suddenly in a familiar position.

Run.

He tore off like a runner from the starting shot, darting back towards his bag, his supplies, and snatched it all up on the run. The Saiga 12 shotgun dislodged and fell to the earth as he dug deep, found his rhythm.

And left the other two to their wounds.

((Hansel Williams, All I do is sell sincerity.))

[ViolentMedic]

His stomach was on fire. That was the only way to describe it. There was a lump of burning lead in his stomach and he couldn't move and he couldn't breathe and stuff was happening but he didn't know what. He heard more gunfire. He knew that much, and then...

And then Hansel ran. No. That wasn't right, he couldn't... he couldn't just...

Take a breath, take a breath, for the love of God—

Ragged breath. One ragged breath. A tighter grip on the scythe. Because Hansel couldn't be allowed to live. He was meant to die. Joe was meant to kill him, because Hansel didn't deserve to live, he deserved to be murdered, like what he'd done to Marcus. He deserved to hurt more than a bullet to the face. And if he didn't kill Hansel, the fire in his stomach and Michael lying dead in a puddle of blood amounted to nothing.

"No." He pulled himself back up and didn't look down—couldn't look down. "No. No." He didn't have the breath, and so that word came out as a rasp and nothing more. He kept repeating it, even when he had no breath to say it with his mouth kept forming the words. It was all that was in his head.

Hansel couldn't... he couldn't... he wasn't allowed, Joe wasn't done with him. Hansel was supposed to die.

Please, God, couldn't he do this one fucking thing right?

He tried to step forward. The scythe—the walking stick that kept him standing—slid against the ground and that was all it took to end the race. He collapsed. Hansel was already long out of sight. All Joe could do was curl up in a futile attempt to stop the burning. He couldn't even crawl after him.

[VoltTurtle]

Maddie fired another shot as Hansel ran away from the scene.

"Get back here!" She screamed, knowing full well he wouldn't listen.

Hansel couldn't be allowed to get away again, not after killing yet another person and wounding both Maddie and Joe. Maddie sighed, admitting defeat. Hansel was already long gone and there was no way she could run after him with her wound, she needed to treat it before she did anything else.

She sat down on the ground, opened her jacket, and looked at her stomach wound. It wasn't a pretty sight, it was a painful mess of blood, but the bullet thankfully did not hit any major blood vessels, at least that she knew of. It wasn't going to be lethal as long as she managed to treat it.

Maddie pulled out her first aid kit. She didn't know quite how to properly clean a bullet wound and she didn't have enough clean water anywhere nearby, all of her bottles were practically empty and she needed to refill them, but she did at least know how to bandage and stop the bleeding and she had the supplies for it. She took the gauze out of the first aid kit and wrapped it around her abdomen, while taking a bit of extra gauze and pressing down on the wound to make sure it stopped bleeding. After about two minutes of continuous pressure, the bleeding had mostly ceased, at least to a manageable point. She wrapped herself in another layer of gauze for good measure before standing again and zipping up her jacket.

Maddie turned to look at Joe, who was on the ground, curled up in a ball. He was wounded, it looked like he was in extreme pain and that he was a lot worse off than she was. He obviously needed help. Maddie considered just leaving him to die, but her conscience wouldn't let her, she was obligated to help him to the best of her ability.

Maddie managed to ignore the pain from her wound, leftover adrenaline still pumping through her body and dulling it, and walked over to Joe. She got down on the ground nearby him, first aid kit in hand.  "Roll over on your back, please, if you want me to be able to help you."

[ViolentMedic]

"B-but he's getting away," Joe mumbled. Hansel was long gone by then, but maybe he could still be caught. Maybe... maybe... but Joe wouldn't be doing it, not right now. He'd messed up. He hadn't swung the scythe down. He'd messed up and Michael was dead and Hansel was still going, and in what messed up world did that make sense?

Rolling onto his back was hard. In fact, he couldn't do it. Best he could do was uncurl a bit, even though that was a struggle on its own. The burning felt like it was spreading. Was that bad? Or was it good? Was it worse if he felt nothing?

He had to know something about stomach wounds, right? He had to... Dad had tested him on it before, that was one of the early things he'd picked up. Stomach stuff. Was there anything that... that... he couldn't remember. He couldn't remember a thing.

He squinted at the girl, trying to bring her into focus. He hadn't taken a close look at her when she'd turned up. ...He'd seen her before. Not just at school. He couldn't recall if he'd seen her at school. But on the island. Where had it... right. When he'd been standing over Miles and she'd entered the room with Rutherford.

"...I... I know you. You... you and R.J." What had been the name of the girl who killed R.J's murderer? He'd written it down on a post-it and thrown it away immediately. "You're... you're Madeline. R-right?" He tried to recall her last name. It seemed very important. If he could remember facts, remember names... he had to stay lucid, if he lost that he had nothing.

[VoltTurtle]

Maddie frowned as Joe brought up RJ.

She was still hurt by thoughts of RJ's death, or the deaths of any of her friends now that she thought about it. They were dead and she would never be able to talk to or have fun with any of them ever again, even if she ended up leaving the island.

She needed to stay positive though, for Joe's sake. She pushed away the thoughts for now and mustered up a small, warm smile before talking to him. "Yeah... that's me. Madeline. We met once, while you were standing over a wounded boy."

Joe had managed to uncurl a little bit but it was very obvious that that caused him a lot of pain just by itself, he probably couldn't get on his back like Maddie wanted him to. She took the gauze out from the first aid kit again. "I understand if you can't roll onto your back like I asked, you look like you're in a lot of pain."

She unraveled a bit of the gauze from the roll. "Just stay still and I'll try doing the best I can."

She gently moved Joe's shirt up his the length of his torso, doing her best not to cause any more pain, to see the wound. It was as worse than she thought it would be. If she thought her wound was a mess of blood, Joe's would be an absolute wreck. Her warm smile receded when she saw that. She had no idea if she could actually help Joe out here, he was probably going to die regardless of what she did. Still, she might as well help, she might just give him a few more hours of life.

She began wrapping Joe's torso in gauze, slowly and carefully. After she had the wound covered, she ripped a strip off the roll. "This is probably going to hurt, but I'm going to need to press down on the wound in order to help stop the bleeding."

With the end of that statement, she began pressing down on the wound with the gauze, hoping to slow the bleeding as much as possible without causing Joe any additional pain.

[ViolentMedic]

"Y-yeah, I—" He stopped talking for a moment. Most of the side of his face was a mass of pain, too. It seemed a lot less painful in comparison to his stomach, though. It was more important to keep talking and keep making sure he knew what was happening. He could deal with a bit of jaw pain. The lack of air was a problem, though. But there was enough. Just enough. "Yeah. Miles. He... he... I hurt him, but—can't remember... I was angry about something."

It was all so blurry. He'd... he'd killed someone, hadn't he? Yeah, Gabby, or... no, wait... Chuck. Yeah, it was Chuck. It was early, or he probably would have killed Miles for it. And he hadn't killed Miles. Someone else had. Couldn't remember who.

"Sorry, I... thanks. That's fine. Already hurts. I think hurt's better than... than... uh..."

He should have told Madeline not to waste bandages. She might—no, would definitely need them. But if no-one bandaged him up he wouldn't have a chance to keep chasing Hansel or to find Travis. So he didn't tell her. He just tried to stay still and quiet, though he couldn't stop the occasional flinching or pained noise, while trying to remember things.

Too many details slipped, but the basics were there. Gabby was dead. Chuck was dead. Marcus was dead. Pretty much everyone was dead. Hansel wasn't. Travis wasn't. And they needed to be. Joe wrote their names on post-its a few days ago, and even though he'd shredded the post-its he still remembered writing it.

"I wrote your name on a post-it," he mumbled. Wilcox. That was the last name he'd written down. "Threw it away, 'cause you just killed R.J's killer."

[VoltTurtle]

Maddie didn't know really how to respond to Joe reminding her about how she brutally murdered Veronica.

"Yeah, about that..."

She didn't like thinking about it, but she might as well deal with her demons now, when she had the chance. "Don't feel bad for being angry at people. It's an understandable reaction to this fucked up situation we're in."

She paused, putting a bit more pressure on Joe's wound. "Veronica died because she killed RJ accidentally when she was trying to kill me. I got angry at my friend's death and I murdered someone because of it." She shook her head. "Avenging someone else doesn't really justify it though."

She coughed, catching it with the crook of her available elbow. She continued. "A sort of similar thing happened with Nina. She was hitting me because she was... rather justifiably angry at me. I was scared, I didn't want to die. So I reacted. She died."

She fell silent for a few seconds. "Heck, we were both angry at Hansel just now. Trying to kill him because of it. He's done some bad things, yes, but it's still amazing how the conditions that we're put in can cause us to get so violent so quickly."

She sighed. "But, anyway. All in all, I regret what I did. I wish there was a better way but things can just get out of your control so quickly..."

She realized that she'd been talking without letting Joe really say anything. "But eh... that's just me rambling about things. Sorry."

[ViolentMedic]

Joe did listen. He had trouble with it. He couldn't concentrate for longer than a few seconds before the pain distracted him again. It was enough effort just continuing to breathe. He picked up enough. A lot of regrets. But who didn't have regrets at this stage? Maybe people like Hansel. Not normal people.

"'Least you hit the right people," Joe muttered.

The pain was getting worse. He didn't think it could get worse. But every second proved him a bit more wrong. It was too much. He looked down, where Madeline was pressing her hands.

It was so bloody. It was familiar. The loose threads of thought that were all he could manage briefly connected, and he remembered Jason. Jason had been shot in the stomach. Joe had known then that it meant death. Maybe a slow one. But in a place like this it meant certain death.

...Shit, he was dying. He was actually dying. But... but wait, he couldn't... that wasn't right. He had something to do. He had to find Hansel. He had to find Travis. He... he wasn't done, he couldn't die now. He could still... maybe he had a few more hours... maybe he... he didn't come all this way just to fail again.

But he couldn't walk. He wasn't even sure if he could move his feet. Bandages weren't going to miraculously fix that.

He was... he was just done, wasn't he? All the medical care in the world wasn't going to get him fit enough to walk again. Let alone chase after Hansel. What was he going to do? Sit there and hope Hansel came close? Hope Travis turned up and came within strangling range? This was useless. He was useless. He'd always been useless, when he wasn't completely ruining everything in sight.

He could have done so much better. He could have killed Hansel. He could have killed Travis. He could have done something. But he didn't. And now he couldn't.

Joe grabbed one of Madeline's wrists. It was a weak grab. He tried to shove the hand away from his wounds, at the same time curling up slightly more.

"You're wasting bandages." The words sounded bitter and tasted coppery.

He wasn't ready. He wasn't done. But there was nothing he could do. Nothing Madeline could do. Short of some holy miracle there wasn't anything anyone could do for any of them.

[VoltTurtle]

Madeline's smile disappeared when Joe realized the reality of things.

She took her hand away from pressuring his wounds. "I... I know. I just thought I could buy you a little bit more time."

She put the roll of bandages back in the first aid kit, but didn't close it. She debated telling Joe how much time she thought that he had left. He might not want to hear that he doesn't have much longer left to live at all. Or, maybe he already knew how much time he had. Regardless, she might as well be honest with him. "If anything I'd say that you have until tomorrow morning, at best." She looked down at the ground. She couldn't afford to look in the eyes of someone who was dying. Not again.

She felt guilty over the situation. It was her fault that Hansel shot Joe, if she had actually disabled Hansel rather than just maiming him then both she and Joe wouldn't have bullets in their stomachs. She felt like she needed to apologize. "I'm sorry this happened. If... if only I had been a better shot you wouldn't be like this."

She sat in silence for a few moments after saying that. She needed to make this up to him somehow. "If you want, though, I can stay with you. Just so you don't have to die here all alone." Staying with Joe would be the least she could do to make it up to him. She bit her bottom lip slightly. "Dying all alone has to be one of the most terrible things that one can go through."