la guerra de los santos

[Jilly]

((Abel continued from the bridge))

After a little wandering around, Abel found himself in a hamlet on the shore. The map implied this place was pretty much just occupied by fishermen and pescatarians and shit. Maybe the fishing question wasn't that much of a non-sequitur.

There was what looked like a church up ahead, kinda stately but in a kinda bogan way like it was five miles down the road from the Tudors and shit. His stomach rumbled and his feet hurt so it was as good of a place as any for now.

He rapped on the wooden door; no one replied. He cracked it open and peeked in. Didn't look like anyone else had the same idea or would be around to object, so he stepped inside and closed the door a little too hard.

It was a rather simple room, just a few decaying pews, an altar, windows, that kinda thing. There was enough natural light you didn't need a flashlight at least, even on a cloudy day such as this. Somehow it was even more muggy than the air outside.

Abel took a seat at one of the pews a row behind the altar, bouncing a few times just to make sure he wasn't going to fall through. He tugged his damp shirt a few times before pulling out the bag of vegemite flavored chips from his bag and got to eating.

After a few minutes he stopped and placed the lava lamp on the altar before returning to his seat. He chomped on the chips and kept one eye on the door.

[Ohm]

Jevaun and George wandered for a bit. It was only a little while after they had left the building they had been in, that they would stumble upon another along the shore. A hamlet of sorts.

Slowly, he opened the door and peeked in with his gun out, leaning against the front of the hamlet as he did so before taking careful steps inside.

Everything about the area around him had told him what he needed to know and this room silched the deal. Abandoned fishing equipment littered the place: poles and lines, buckets strewn about and a few knocked over, and whatever remained of the worms they used long gone.

"Everything clear here." He said, leaning against the wall. A casual posture betrayed by his jittery hands, one of which he hid in his pocket.

[Sh4dE]

George followed Jevaun and nodded. Apparently they were in a town of sorts. Pranay wondered who used to live here and what happened to the original villagers.

The fishing equipment lying around looked interesting. Maybe something can be crafted out of that. He kept that in mind.

While wandering Pranay thought about the whys of their abduction. He knew why he was picked for this contest, but he couldn't figure out what connected him and Jevaun yet. Whatever crime Jevaun seemed to have committed, he didn't want to talk about it. Presumably, he did things much worse than Pranay. Either way, it must have pissed off people who sought justice by going as far as to trap him on an island with other criminals to kill them or be killed by them.

He had his theories on who could have been behind this, but he needed more proof to confirm them. This is exactly why he needed to figure out whatever it was Jevaun was hiding from him. It was the reason Pranay kept him alive in the first place. George began to inquire Jevaun and began rambling about some ideas on why they had been picked.

"So. What are you doing in your free time? Maybe we are from the same internet community, maybe we have the same hobbies. Maybe we were selected because of a common physical activity. What did Jack call this again? Survival of the Fittest? What a joke. If they would have picked only very athletic people, they wouldn't have picked me. You doing any sports? Have you ever murdered someone before? Do you like Pink Floyd? Ever pissed off someone recently? Come on, think about it. We need to find out who's behind all of this."

What sick twist would it be if they had been forced to kill each other simply due to being active on the same Pink Floyd fan forum.

[Ohm]

Jevaun rose from the wall, having stopped leaning against it once George made his entrance and started wandering through the room. All the while rambling a bunch of questions, jumping from point to point making it hard for Jevaun to keep track of it all, but he caught some of it.

Criminal activites, school, similarities, pissing someone off, Pink Floyd. All of it just dropped on him.

He lifted his left hand out of his pocket and started fiddling with the handle on the side of his gun as he thought over this with a frown. Naturally, they needed to figure out what it was that brought all of them under these people and their little game, but like this?

This interrogation?

"If grafitti counts, then I guess I did some. Don't listen to Pink Floyd, never have, never will. Did some football years ago, not anymore."

He answered with distaste, his eyes drifiting across the room before settling on George. His head slightly tilted as he stared at the other boy.

"Haven't killed anyone, you?" He said, as his fingers curled and tapped around the handle of his gun.

[Sh4dE]

"No, obviously not. But who knows who else is on this island. The guy from earlier was pretty hostile, so who knows what he's done. He looked very shady with his edgy Jason Vorhees hoodie."

George sighed. Pranay decided to not comment on the ignorant Pink Floyd comment. Whatever, it was his fault if he missed out listening to DSOTM before dying.

"But at least the grafitti thing gives us a trace. Any buildings or trains in particular you sprayed? Maybe a corporation that caught you while doing so? Whoever put us in this must be very rich," George said frustratedly while tapping his collar.

Pranay saw that Jevaun was becoming suspicious. A clear sign of Jevaun hiding the truth from him. He's just downplaying.

[Ohm]

"I mostly stuck to street corners and walls, me and my friends would tag away like that. "

He closed his eyes for a bit and sighed, leaning against the wall again for comfort. It was a nice memory, reminding of the times he and his friends wandered along fleet street looking at the various works people had done over the years. What he wanted to do.

Not deal with this shit.

"Anyway, why are you so sure they stick me here cause of that? You do something like that?"

[Jilly]

munch munch munch

[Sh4dE]

"Wait," George said.

"Did you hear that?"

[Ohm]

Jevaun's shoulders tensed, his eyes darting across the walls. He could hear his own breathing as he did so. He did not know how long they stood there listening, hearing the water bask against the shoreline before pulling back. The sounds of nature in the distance and the wind going against the walls.

He couldn't hear anything else.

He quickly turned back towards George and, with narrowed eyes and baring teeth, hissed at him.

"What? No! Just answer the damn question-"

He harshly pulled the handle back on his gun and it fired, causing him to fumble with the grip he had on it. Almost letting go of it in the process.

[Sh4dE]

Pranay had never heard a gunshot. Well, that was a lie, but he never heard a gunshot from so close. Jevaun's gun went off and Pranay wasn't sure how intentional it was. George stumbled backwards and leaned against the wall.

"Fuck! Be more careful. You scared me."

George grasped at his heart to feel the adrenaline in his body kicking in and raising his pulse.

"Let's just...let's just calm down, okay? I know things got heated, we are all in a difficult situation. Just relax, okay?"

[Ohm]

The sound of a gunshot. One could say they have heard it across various media over the years. Music, television, video games... the works. None of it captures how it really is, the sudden rupture of sound that enters ones ears, the tiny ringing in the back that stays with you for a while, the sudden weight and after shake as smoke clears from the gun as you slowly realise that you have something that could easily take someone else's life away.

If not for the wall, Jevaun would have buckled from the suprise.

He tried to keep it from his face though, only showing anger whilst keeping his stare at George. Make it seem intentional.

"Relax? You've been asking me about home and criminal shit for the last minute, what's your game here?"

He kept his gun aimed at the ground now, and a fierce grip on it. Whatever was with it to cause the misfire, he was not letting another jolt from it suprise him.

[Jilly]

especially since all Jessie did was run around looking for payphones for half the book. Should've been called Running Out of Collect Calls or whatever Americans did in the 90s without mobiles. And what was up with the whole biological experiment """twist""" end-

-Abel stopped eating the chips and froze in place at the gunshot that sounded simultaneously too close for comfort yet far away.

[Sh4dE]

"Sorry, if I've asked too many questions, man," George said in a calm manner. Pranay had probably been too direct. He should dial down the interrogation. Jevaun was being suspiciously defensive, though.

"When I ask you if you've killed someone before, it's not because I think you have killed someone. But think about this: What do you think the people will do to us once only one person is left alive? This is called Survival of the Fittest. This must be some kind of selection process, some kind of sick job interview. They want us to become a killer, some psychopath, some killing machine, so it would make sense if the other people that have been selected might have already killed someone already. Like that is kind of the whole point of being trapped in here."

George took a breath.

"I'm a medical student. Maybe they picked me because of that? I don't know, man. I don't have more ideas than you when it comes to why we're here and what the purpose of this bollocks is."

[Ohm]

Jevaun took a deep breath where he stood, closing his eyes whilst doing so. He was taking in all that George was saying, a lot of it was starting to make a disturbing amount of sense. There was still something about this that didn't sit right, but Jevaun couldn't put his finger on it.

Nonetheless, he had to trust George and keep that trust. For whatever reason he decided that Jevaun needed to live and for that he needed to be grateful for.

The anger faded from his face and was replaced with a look of glumness.

"Yeah, yeah, sorry about that mon. Things are getting to me, I guess." He sheepishly replied. His other hand crept towards his gun and placed itself on top of it during all this. For comfort or for convinience, it was hard to say at this point.

"What now? Any ideas what we're gonna do?"

[Sh4dE]

"Hmm," George hummed.

"Maybe we could search the area?"