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[Lord_Shadow]

It all happened so fast. Carlyle broke free and Damien was short one hostage. The upper hand now belonged to Kyle and Carlyle. Damien weighed his options for only an instant, before taking off and leaving his equipment behind. Kyle found himself unable to do anything but watch as he ran away. Carlyle yelled at him to stop him. The taser was in his hand, at the ready. He could stop him if he wanted. But he couldn't. Against all his rationality, Kyle could not bring himself to follow through. Instead he shook with silent fury. At Damien, at himself, at the Program.

"Coward" He mentally cursed himself. He knew, if Carlyle hadn't had broken free himself, that Kyle would not have had the guts to stop Damien from killing him. He probably wouldn't be able to stop himself being killed. He sunk his hand down, sunk his head and stared at the ground. "I'm sorry. I... I can't do anything. I'm a useless coward."

Carlyle would no doubt have some choice words to berate him. Kyle had just let a murderer go after all. But at the moment, he didn't want to dwell on it. He walked into the shed, saw the sorry state that Damien had left Amanda in. He fought back tears. Kyle took of his white shirt. He was down to the red one now. He covered Amanda's body as best he could, then saluted her as well.

Kyle wasn't sure if Carlyle would still want to travel together. Maybe he would, maybe not. "I'm tired of this all, aren't you? I just want to go home. I'm done Carlyle, I'm done. We can't save anyone. I can't even stop a known murderer. I CAN'T!" He yelled in frustration. He stormed out of the shed, dropped to his knees, and screamed at the sky. "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU WANT FROM ME? WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO US? P-Please. Tell me why." He collapsed to the ground. "Tell me why."

[Pippi]

In his haste to end Damien’s life, Carlyle’s scurrying through his bag had made the search for ammunition much trickier than it had needed to be. He’d inadvertently passed over it several times, and when he did find it, his rushed movements knocked the container sideways spilling the pellets into the depths of his bag. No doubt some would be lost forever now. He had one at least, and Carlyle hurriedly set to reloading the rifle and aiming it at where Damien had been.

It was far too late for that, though. Damien was long gone. Long gone, and Kyle was standing exactly where he had been before Carlyle had searched for ammo. As Carlyle looked over at him, all the anger and thirst for Damien’s blood evaporated as quickly as they’d appeared. The other boy looked utterly crestfallen and downhearted. Carlyle’s feelings had been replaced with similar ones to Kyle. Amanda had been murdered, and he himself had come perilously close. Louisa had wandered off God knows where. Their group, so tight-knit hours earlier, had completely splintered.

Kyle muttered something, then got up to go to the shed. Carlyle didn’t follow, didn’t want to see Amanda’s body again. Instead he focused on what Kyle had just said. Kyle was blaming himself for Amanda’s death when he didn’t need to be. Carlyle had been the one with her at the time, and either way, Damien had shot her as soon as she’d opened the door. There wasn’t anything either of them could have done. And Kyle had done a hell of a lot more than Carlyle anyway. He’d distracted Damien long enough for Carlyle to safely scramble away. All he himself had done was charge at Damien in a fit of rage, blinded utterly by the red mist. He hadn’t learnt from Gwen, it seemed.

Kyle was back, another layer of clothing gone. Carlyle guessed he’d done the same thing to Amanda as he had for Gwen. The boy was a good guy, through and through. Didn’t deserve what was happening to him, and definitely didn’t deserve to be beating himself up and yelling to the skies about everything he’d done wrong. Carlyle knew exactly where the guys was coming from, had felt and was feeling exactly the same emotions he was feeling. He needed to say something, to do something. What exactly that was, Carlyle wasn’t certain of. But he couldn’t leave Kyle a wreck on the ground. Slowly, awkwardly, Carlyle walked over to Kyle, leaving the rifle on the ground next to his bag. Tentatively, he put a hand on Kyle’s shoulder.

“Bro, I-uh... I... Bro... I know just what you’re, like, feeling and thinkin’.” Carlyle looked to the skies for a moment, hoping some flash of inspiration would suddenly hit him. “I dunno why we’re here, or what those guys in charge want us to do. I ain’t gonna lie and pretend like I do. And I sure as hell wanna go back home too. But...” Carlyle fell silent for a moment, still unsure whether what he was saying would make an ounce of difference.

“Killing Damien, yeah? That wouldn’t have answered anythin’. Trust me, you ain’t the coward here. You just saved my life, man. If you hadn’t said anything jus’ now... man, I dunno how to thank you for that. But yeah, you’re no coward. Runnin’ round killing your friends, doing it jus’ cos the General guy says so? If that ain’t cowardice I dunno what is.” Carlyle paused again, wondering whether his points were just circulating round and round. Hopefully the intention of his message would reach Kyle, even if his actual words made no sense.

“You couldn’t save Amanda. Neither could I, man. It all just.... jus’ happened too quickly. An’ I know why you’re beatin’ yourself up ‘bout it. Ever since that latest announcement, I’ve been blamin’ myself for Josie’s death, even though I couldn’t have done nothin’ about it. Trust me, bro. Don’t think killin’ anyone’s gonna make a damn bit of difference. It’ll just make things worse for you.” Carlyle trailed off, sat there silently, awkwardly for a few moments, then stood up and walked back to his bag and rifle.

“Let’s go then.” He murmured, voice solemn. “We’re still a team, right? You, me, Louisa?”

[Lord_Shadow]

Carlyle tried to cheer him up. Carlyle was a good friend. The words made little sense for the most part, but Kyle got their intent. He got himself up as Carlyle got himself ready. There was only thing left in Kyle's mind to do. Just one thing to focus on and hold on to. Find Louisa, make it at least to her side. If they could do that, maybe Kyle could get by.

"Carlyle, we're not a team anymore. We're an ideal now. You, me, Louisa. We're the only moral people left now. And so we have to live. We have to make it to the end."

He sprung up, taser at his side.

"Program be damned. You, Louisa, and I will be the final three and that will be the end of it. These military men have some grand idea and purpose for this? I think not. I think this is a pointless waste of time, and I intend to prove it. By surviving."

He saluted the nearest camera.

"This is Kyle Williams, civilian. For now and forevermore, that's how I intend to stay. I'm more of a patriot than anyone idiot who took part in this. That's all I have left to say, sirs." He dropped the salute, before adding. "Actually, one last thing. With all due respect, fuck the Program. Williams out."

He turned toward Carlyle.

"Let's find Louisa."

((Kyle Williams continued in Step Two: ?.))

[Pippi]

Whether Carlyle’s words had made sense or not didn’t seem to matter in the end. What had mattered was their intent, and Kyle had understood that perfectly well. He had got up whilst Carlyle was busy getting his stuff together. Apparently, they were a team no longer. It was just him, Kyle and Louisa against the world. That sure sounded like a team to Carlyle, but he understood what Kyle was trying to say. They weren’t a team doing exactly as the General said. They were a team with an ideal, knowledge of what they needed to do, and what was right.

At least, Carlyle hoped they knew what they were doing. And whether it was the right choice or not. It was the humane choice. But when it came down to being humane or being alive, Carlyle couldn’t lie and say it was a hard choice.

Still, they would have to cross and burn that bridge when they came to it. Kyle said something to the camera, about how he was more of a patriot than any of the “players” in the game. It was short and succinct. Carlyle sure wished he’d been able to do so a few seconds earlier. He considered adding something on, but as had already been discovered, speeches of any kind weren’t his forte. Instead, Carlyle looked up at the camera, head tilted slightly, and nodded after a moment’s pause.

Carlyle was about to follow after Kyle, when he remembered something. Damien had left his bag, and pitchfork behind. His ballistic knife too, although Carlyle didn’t know the first thing about putting it back together, and it’d take too long to do so anyhow. The supplies and pitchfork would definitely come in handy though. Quickly, hoping Kyle didn’t disappear out of sight, Carlyle transferred the useful stuff from Damien’s bag to his. Food, medical gear, another jacket. Carlyle felt an odd twinge of guilt at essentially stealing someone else’s stuff, even someone who’d just tried to kill him. Least it proved he was still human, which was more than could be said for some people after all this.

Picking the pitchfork up in one hand, and holding the rifle in the other, Carlyle took one last look at the shed, where Amanda’s covered body lay. Then he followed after Kyle, to find Louisa.

((Carlyle Shotton finally continued in Step Two: ?))