Hoping to Catch a Break

[Wham Yubeesling]

"Surviving, for the most part."

To be honest, the ease in which Saachi had told Maxwell about the conviction she had was slightly worrying. The fact that someone could kill four, possibly even more people and admit so casually that they had no problem with doing so - when Maxwell apparently could barely even handle the fact that he was viewing this game in a strategic way, when the fact that the death of his friends increased his chances of winning this game was apparently enough to send him into some sort of self loathing tirade - bothered him more than he would like to admit. How quickly had it taken Saachi to adopt this viewpoint? How many people had she killed before the guilt for doing so had evaporated?

Had Maxwell killed Jasmine, had he taken revenge for Paris back during the beginning, back on those cliffs, how much guilt would he have felt about it?

How easy would it be for him to take more victims after that?

He didn't know.

At the very least, he supposed that this conversation with Saachi would allow him to be honest. To her and to himself.

"Being myself. Making sure that I last until the end of this game."

And at the very least, he supposed that this conversation would allow him to answer some of those questions he had left on the backburner of his mind. He smiled. Let his teeth show.

(don't challenge her don't challenge her don't-)

"Making sure that someone like you doesn't win."

[jimmydalad]

Surviving? That was annoyingly vague. Everyone was trying to survive, even the kids who refused to play the game and just sat on their high horses. In a way, this game was about pitting the different methods of survival against each other and seeing which one comes on top. That didn't clue her into what was going on in his mind or what his approach to the game was. She refrained from rolling her eyes at his response, but a small huff did escape from her mouth, turned downwards in an unsatisfied scowl.

At least he kept on talking. Saachi wasn't going to stop him, instead electing to lift the cleaver and holding the blade with her other hand. Ramona's blood was still warm as she let it drip over her fingers. It was certainly a peculiar feeling, the thick consistency reminding her of ketchup. She kept her eyes on Maxwell, however, trying to judge his reactions and waiting to hear more of what he had to say.

"Oh, really?"

Saachi let out an uncomfortable chuckle. That was certainly a bomb to drop on her. She didn't know how to react at first. Was he serious? His smile seemed to indicate he was telling the truth. She stopped playing with her cleaver, her hands frozen.

"Well, you certainly do have a lot of guts for saying that to my face, I'll give you that Maxwell." Saachi began. Her voice was an icy reflection of the look that she shot towards him. "Especially considering the fact that not only are you unarmed, but you've also got one of your arms in a sling. Your presentation certainly doesn't match with your intent, that's for sure. If that is your intent, that is."

Saachi could feel her hand instinctively tighten against the handle of the meat cleaver. If Maxwell was serious, then he had the potential of becoming a serious threat. Still, she didn't feel the need to be too worried. She had the weapons and condition over him. If Maxwell tried anything right now, he was certainly going to get killed. He wasn't that stupid. That's why she was still a little sceptical about the honesty of his words. No way was Maxwell that much of an idiot.

"Unless you thought a few whispers of sweet nothings in my ears will change my mind. Sadly, that's not going to work. I've come too far to just give up."

Saachi knew Maxwell wanted to make it to the end of the game, he told her as much. It was clear to her that he wanted to survive as well. He hadn't pulled the trigger though. Or maybe, he never had a chance to pull the trigger. Would the right words sway his judgment? Ideally, she didn't want to have more people going against her. She knew she already had a decent amount of people chasing after her. Having someone competent like Maxwell on their team didn't really sit well with her.

"I mean, if I were being honest with you, the only way you're going to stop me is to kill me." Saachi began, her words taking on a lighter, mocking tone. "And in reality, even if you somehow kill me, there are quite a few killers out there. KK comes to mind. You're probably gonna have to kill them too. And what about new players that spring up? They're gonna have to die if you don't want someone like me to win."

She set her bag down, wiped the blood off her hand onto a dry part of her clothes and began to search inside with it. She never once broke eye contact with Maxwell, her frown morphing back into a smug, all-knowing smirk.

"And, if you do all that, then wouldn't you be just as bad as me? I mean, sure, you can pretty up your plans by saying that we're the bad guys, but you're still killing. You're still playing the game and doing exactly what Danya wants you to do. And if you want to play the game, at least be honest about it. You told me yourself you want to make it to the end. If your way is killing off players, then that's fine with me. But don't pretend that you're being a good guy. In the end, you're still a killer and you're still playing to win. You're just playing by marginally different rules for now. At the end, you still need to be the last one standing."

Saachi could feel the item she wanted to find in the depths of her bag. She sat there for a second, letting the words sink in and keeping her characteristic smirk on her face. She was eager to see his reactions to his words, especially to see if he would defend his viewpoint. Saachi found the idea of killing players while still claiming the moral high ground hypocritical, so it was funny to her to see if Maxwell would still claim he was a better person than she was. A sudden thought came to her, widening the already dangerous, toothy grin on her face.

"If you do decide to play, I'm more than eager to help you down that path. Would you let me do at least that?"

[Wham Yubeesling]

"I think you misunderstand me."

And there it came, he supposed. The backtracking. The changing of his point. The idea that somehow Saachi was morally superior than him despite the fact that she'd killed four people. Admittedly, that in particular wasn't what Maxwell saw coming. What he expected… he wasn't sure about, but he had envisioned something harder to defend against. Something that he didn't already have an answer to. Something he would have to put in the pile with all the other questions he didn't have an answer to. Maybe, he supposed, Saachi would have somehow thought of him as a threat, attempt to remove him from the equation despite the lack of success that endeavour would bring.

What Saachi had actually bought, however, was less than inspiring.

"I don't need to kill to achieve my goal. I don't need to act as if I'm some sort of hero. It's true that I would need to kill you to achieve that, it's true that I would need to kill someone like KK if I want to win, but odds are, I wouldn't have to. The person who won this game last time was the one who killed all the other people killing, so if that's any indication, I'm pretty sure karma is going to come to you sometime soon."

There was more than that, as well. He had been listening to the announcements, just like everyone else, and from what he had heard, there were some people who were willing to fight back. Kill the killers.

Make his goal that much easier for him to achieve. He took a step. Small. Circular. He imagined that it wouldn't be one putting himself any closer towards Saachi.

"All I intend is to be there at the end, when the time comes for someone on this island to be crowned the Fittest, and when the time comes, I - just like you - want to be the one person who makes it off of here."

And he supposed the more he said this, the more this plan actually seemed appealing.

And he supposed the more he said this, the more his previous actions, his previous thoughts, began to make sense.

And he supposed, the more he said this, that this would make all those previous thoughts in his head okay to think.

That this would allow him to be him again.

"And I know that this doesn't make me seem like the hero I look like I'm trying to be. I know that there's no way I can say I'm in the moral good for what I'm planning on doing, but before you reply, let me say this: I don't intend on winning this game."

He smiled.

Took a step closer towards Saachi, as the all too familiar heat, the tingling on his skin, the immense feeling of satisfaction wrapped itself around his body.

"I intend on beating it. I intend on making it end the way I want it to. I intend on making it so that nobody who plays will win."

[jimmydalad]

Well, so much for convincing Maxwell to start playing the game. It looked like her words only served to solidify his previous notion of making sure "someone like her" doesn't win. Which basically meant that Saachi had yet another person on the island that was going after her head. In retrospect, she really should've expected things to turn out this way. Her way of approaching the game could never really been seen as approachable and with the number of people she had and was inevitably going to kill, she could imagine that there would be those left behind who would develop a grudge against her. It felt like nearly everyone she had encountered wanted her dead. After a while, it really did get a bit tiring.

Almost immediately, Saachi withdrew her hand from the bag. If Maxwell showed any inclination of turning, she would've been more than happy to help. Since he confirmed himself to be an enemy, Saachi saw no reason to be charitable. The grin turned into a frown, holding her tongue at his retorts in an attempt to hold back her feelings, but couldn't stop anger emanating from her glaring eyes.

She remembered why she didn't like associating with Maxwell for too long. He was smug. So smug. The king of smugness. And that smugness irritated her to no end. It made her want to put him in his place and wipe that smug attitude from his stupid face. Before, she probably wouldn't have been able to. She would've held her tongue and moved on. Pretend nothing happened and let him take the victory. Things were different though and Maxwell didn't seem to recognise who had the power here. Saachi was more than happy to show him.

Once Maxwell had finished, Saachi stood up. Shooting an intimidating grin, she took a few steps towards Maxwell, tightening the grip on the meat cleaver as she did so.

"How inspiring. Aren't you just such a revolutionary? With your amazing ideas about how to "beat" the game. You certainly talk big for someone without any weapons, and I will admit, you're better than the kids who just sit around and do nothing."

Almost immediately, Saachi drove her foot into Maxwell's chest, throwing all of her power into bringing him to his knees. A rush of adrenal power shot through her and her eyes glinted with a manic satisfaction, enjoying the pain she was inflicting to the smug bastard as she looked down at him.

"That doesn't mean I'm just going to let you just waltz out of here after declaring that you're trying to kill me. You seem to forget who is the one holding the cards in this situation. Now, I'm feeling particularly merciful because you're one of the only people who's had a conversation with me without completely losing their shit, but if you stay around here for much longer, that may change. Get out."

[Wham Yubeesling]

The pride around Maxwell's body vanished the moment her foot went into his stomach.

The pain was brief. Sharp. Instant. His body was almost thrown back towards the ground behind him and when the world stopped spinning, when his vision found its ground, he was laying on his back. Viewing the ceiling.

Viewing Saachi above him, as she delivered her threat. Stated her… seeming mercy, towards him.

And he knew that just doing as she said, just leaving, just sparing her would contradict everything he had just said. How, he didn't know, but it felt weird. Felt wrong for him if he did this.

And he knew that if he just left, if he just left Saachi to feast on the reward of Ramona's death, then the other two - the two still alive - would never forgive him.

But it felt right.

He knew he needed to do it.

Because if he died here, if Saachi sent that meat cleaver into his head, then there would be no way he could achieve his goals.

No way he could make sure they didn't win.

So he moved. Tried to get up. After a couple fumbles, after a couple attempts to do it one handed, he did it. Stood on his feet, again. Picked his bag up from on the floor.

And without a word, without a look back to the two corpses in the cabin, he left.

((Maxwell Lombardi, continued elsewhere))

[jimmydalad]

Saachi watched Maxwell pathetically stumble out of the cabin, hopefully realising what his place was in the game at the moment. As the first feelings of confidence and smugness started to ebb out a few seconds after she lost sight of Maxwell, she sighed softly to herself. That encounter certainly gave her food for thought. If Saachi was playing a purely rational, unemotional game, she should've just killed him. He was defenceless and in a weaker state than she was. Killing him before he could follow through on his ideas would've been a massive help to her game.

But there was something that stopped her. Like a little voice at the back of her head. She wanted to prove a point to Maxwell. Just killing him now wouldn't be satisfying to her. That's what she told herself at least. There was no way to 'break' the game like he loftily claimed. The terrorist group had done this before, plus judging by the technology they had and the fact they had an entire island under their control, she concluded there was no way in hell some random group of high school kids were going to come up with a plan to get off this island.

Plus, people had been playing from the word "go." Jay was evidence of that, and the fact that there were killers on Day 1. Each day she didn't do something, where she sat around trying to chase futile plans and escape the reality of the situation left more time for others to take the initiative and get the drop on her like Jay did. Also, with each day that passed, more people started to play and thus more legitimate threats she'd eventually have to deal with. There was also the problem of diminishing resources, they only had so much food for themselves before they ran out. Danger Zones, exploiting weapon advantages, she could probably go on. In the end, it all led to the conclusion that playing the game was conducive towards survival.

And yet, Maxwell said that a player hunter won the previous time. That was... not something she wanted to hear. She thought back to her first day, gaining strength from the fact that the winner did kill to push forward with her approach to the game. To hear that he was practically the antithesis to what she ended up pursuing took the wind out of her sails. She knew it was too late to turn back now, no point in trying to make amends. No one would accept it and if anyone did, they were probably retarded.

That was why she had to prove that things were different this time around. That she wasn't just a nutcase and a lost cause. That there was no way of 'breaking' this game like Maxwell claimed. Yes, she'll let him try, but in the end, she'll prove that she'll come out on top. Maybe it was at this point that she realised that she couldn't play a completely calculated game anymore. If she even was playing one up until now. The game was personal and that was the motivation she needed to pull from.

- - - - - - - -

She took the time to loot the things from Zubin and Ramona. It was a comfortable routine, giving her time to process the deaths and make sure she had everything she needed to survive and flourish in the game. She took the food, gaining enough for her to be able to live comfortably at least for a few more days. The game probably wouldn't last too much longer, but it always paid to be careful with these sort of things. Starvation didn't sound like a particularly fun death.

The real treat came when she found the weapon that Zubin had been assigned. First, she found the bullets in Zubin's bag. She could feel her heart jump. At first, she couldn't find the gun. Zubin couldn't have just been carrying bullets alone. It didn't take too long to find the gun, she just had to do a bit of searching around the house. While she wasn't sure exactly what type of gun it was, all that mattered to her was that it was a gun. That enough was exciting. Now, how to use it? She decided to check the bag again, wondering if there was something there that would help her understand what the gun was. Digging through, she eventually found a manual of sorts. Realising she had the time now that she was alone, she began to read, thinking it was more of a priority to learn how her new weapon worked rather than dealing with the bodies. Not like they were going anywhere.

- - - - - - - -

By the time she had finished, it had started to get dark. During the time, she practised reloading the gun and turning the safeties on and off. She was probably going to keep the safety of the gun off, not like she needed to worry about accidentally killing someone. She didn't want to fire the gun just yet and waste ammo. Besides, it was just pulling a trigger. It couldn't be too hard, right? She maybe had to take into account recoil, but apart from that, it wasn't too hard.

She probably should do something about the bodies. They were probably going to stink up the place after a while if Jay and Michael's bodies were anything to go off of. It was dark, but that hopefully means that the others wouldn't be skulking around. When she headed up, she did catch the outhouse that was relatively close by. That seemed like as good a place as any. She first moved Zubin. She decided not to remove the blanket from his head. While scavenging, she did everything in her power not to check out Zubin's head. She guessed it exploded and she didn't really want to see that. With the blanket still drapped, she slowly dragged the body towards the outhouse, jamming it in and making sure there was space for Ramona.

Then she dealt with Ramona. There was still blood seeping out of her head, but her dress was already so bloodied that Saachi didn't really care. She still didn't want to feel it on her skin too much, however. Carefully dragging the body so that the head rested against her chest, it took a bit more time for Saachi to get Ramona over to the outhouse. She did eventually succeed, however. With that done, she headed back to the cabin and promptly rested on one of the beds.

With it being one of the first times she had a chance to rest on a comfortable surface, it didn't take her long before sleep overtook her.

((Saachi Nidal continued in The Bad Bitches Club))