The Woodcutter

[AnimeNerd]

Officer Samuel Sparrow was involved in a fight with a dangerous criminal, and was killed in the struggle. Prince Charming was able to take the villain out, however, and died knowing he made the world just a little bit safer.

Hazel Sparrow had a weak heart, and was often not allowed to do many strenuous activities. Despite this, she managed to win first place in the marathon, and The Tortoise died with a smile on her face.

Eleanor Sparrow loved to swim, and hated leaving the beach with her family, enough to one day stay up late and sneak back to it. The high tide proved too much for her, however, and The Little Mermaid returned to where she belonged.

Chester Sparrow wanted to make everyone smile and laugh, and if using questionable substances helped him achieve this, he’d do it in a heartbeat. One bad trip meant The Mad Hatter returned to Wonderland, though, and it was only a matter of when.

Ella Sparrow had no fear in anything, and wanted the whole world to know it. Despite its markings of death, the spider did not get a scream or shout from her, as for once, Little Miss Muffet would not run away.

Cecil Sparrow adored his pacifier, and would use it day and night, twenty four seven, if given the chance. When broken in the night, the only witness were plush sheep, and Little Boy Blue would stay asleep.

Matilda Sparrow had accidentally taken too many sleeping pills one night, too consumed in her grief to notice what she was doing, or perhaps not even caring. No matter what was tried, Sleeping Beauty would forever remain in the world of dreams.

Scarlet Sparrow wanted freedom, and she’d get it any way that she could, even if that meant running away from it all. When she wasn’t prepared for what she would find when biking one day, Little Red Riding Hood never ran off the path again.

Alvin Sparrow was a mystery, a question mark that only made his wife scowl and daughter look sad, almost fearful. When the fire licked along his home, no one saved The Big Bad Wolf, and he died alone.

Elise Sparrow could do anything on her own, and would rather pull her hair out than ask for help. Despite bad weather, she went to camp, though was ill-prepared for the night, so only when morning came did The Ice Queen begin to thaw.

Ian Sparrow loved the water as much as he did the sky, and went into one or the other every day that he could. When he managed to become lost in one of the two, it seemed The Ugly Duckling found the place he truly belonged in.

Alistair Sparrow was a wild child from the beginning, never sitting still, loving the outdoors, and never satisfied unless he could do whatever he wanted. To this day, Maud could still say she remembered the sound made when The Giant fell back to Earth.

Maud Sparrow went to places that, if circumstances were different, she was not allowed in, and remembered every family member well, to heed the warnings those tales told. A Sparrow is a Sparrow, however, and so when Death’s call came, The Woodcutter would answer.

---

[[Maud Sparrow continued from Linear Functional Analysis]]

Maud Sparrow also had the worst sleep in her life in this place.

She wouldn't say it aloud. Doing so jut felt like it would be inappropriate, considering their situation. But still, couches were no proper replacement for beds. She had trouble just falling asleep in general.

It was probably no surprise she was the first one awake. Better to rise early than deal with that sleeping arrangement for another hour or two.

The surprise noise from unseen or unnoticed speakers got a jump out of her, though, as well as the flashing light of the device on her wrist. Enough to earn her attention and get a sentence out of her.

"What's this all about...?"

Had they said something about this? She couldn't remember. Her mind was too fogged up still with thoughts of an impossible creature eating college professors before being set ablaze or melted by whatever Rachana had in store for it.

The smaller than usual amount of sleep might've gotten to her. Just a tiny bit.

[NoLife42069]

(Heath Redfield continued from Linear Functional Analysis)

Heath was startled awake by the alarm-like noises that echoed around him. He wasn't even truly aware that he had fallen asleep. A part of him wished that he had taken one of the couches instead of sitting on the floor next to the door like a watchdog. Heath looked around with a feeling of vertigo, he tried to stand up but when his pistol clacked to the ground he stopped. "Shit... Was kinda hoping that this was all a dream..." While reaching for his fallen weapon he realized that his PDA was blinking.

The morning announcement, the first of 14. Heath grabbed the gun, placed it into his pocket and then examined the PDA some more.

18/10/22 ANNOUNCEMENT AVAILABLE

PLAY RECORDING?

Heath looked at the date, then hit Y.

Dr. Sycamore's voice echoed from Heath's PDA.

[almostinhuman]

((Rachana Kumar continued from Linear Functional Analysis))

The others had slept about as soundly as one could, in these conditions. Rachana's brain was racing far too fast to manage it.

She'd only really slipped into sleep recently, propped against the wall with her supplies and weapons laid out near her. Much of her night had been spend determining what exactly she had grabbed from the machine shop, getting used to the heft of her - Harper's - gun, and keeping an eye out for any approaching threat, human or otherwise. It would have been better to properly sleep, but how could she? It was impressive Maud and Heath had managed it at all.

She did not get much rest, however. Their PDAs ensured that.

Heath played the recording from his. Counting Harper - who their captors seemed to acknowledge her hand in slaying - it confirmed five of the people dragged here hadn't survived the night. The beasts had only slain two of them; it seemed some of their fellow victims had deigned to take Sycamore up on the offer of winnowing the competition.

Disappointing. But expected.

The more pressing information was where the Prototypes had last been seen. Rachana quickly retrieved her map, cross-referencing it with the stated locations. If they were gonna start hunting - and Rachana had every intent to - it would do to make sense of where they all were.

[Namira]

There was a brisk knock upon the door.

((from Nightcrawlers))

[AnimeNerd]

The list of the dead provided a shock for Maud, visibly stepping back as it was read out.

Elizabeth. Elizabeth Rodney. Her bestie Lizzy.

She had killed someone.

Not just anyone. She'd killed Daniela. Her girlfriend.

She knew things weren't the best with the three of them. There was a bit of tension there. When the relationship was brought up, whenever the three of them were together, even just asking Elizabeth about it when they were exploring some place or doing yoga seemed to only lead to a quick subject change. Hard not to notice something.

But had it been that bad? Had Maud missed these signs so thoroughly? Or had she been ignoring them? Wanting to avoid hardships that just reminded her of home?

Elizabeth was her friend. Her best friend. Her first real friend that she felt she could say anything to.

Elizabeth had killed someone. Her own partner. Not even a day in and the woman had spilled the blood of someone she was supposed to be close to.

Maud felt her stomach twist.

There was a knock at the door.

Internally, she thanked whoever was on the other side for the distraction.

"Ah, wonder who that is."

Maud took a few steps in the door's direction, indicating she wanted to see, but didn't go to open the door itself.

[NoLife42069]

It disgusted Heath just how casual he was with the deaths, yet he still held a strange sort of respect for it. As the first name came up Heath was a bit startled that someone he had spoken with had promptly started the killing. "I should have ran him through when I saw him..." Heath muttered under his breath. More names came up, but they didn't mean much to him besides the fact that Harper was labeled death by neglect. The next one left him more confused than the first. "What the hell do you mean by subsumed!?" And the next left him just as gobsmacked. "A ROCKET LAUNCHER!? What the hell happened?!

YOU HAD A ROCKET LAUNCHER! HOW COULD YOU FUCK THIS UP!? Heath barely could wrap his head around where the prototypes were before there was a knock at the door.

In what felt like seconds his confusion was shoved deep inside, as Heath lifted his pistol into a ready position. He got up put his hand on the door and aimed. "I'm opening the door, unarm yourself or be shot. Survivors will be shot again!"
After waiting a few seconds Heath opened the door.

[almostinhuman]

The knock startled Rachana. She hadn't expected anyone to come out here. She began quickly gathering her supplies together and bagging them. Company or no, she wanted to get a move on and start hunting. She thought about telling Heath to drop the act, but the confirmation that their fellow captives might be hostile made her think better of it.

Amidst her packing, she could see Maud in a state of shock. Perhaps something in the announcements had disturbed her; she couldn't blame her for that.

"Hey," she called out, still putting things away, "you alright?"

[Namira]

Nobody there?

[AnimeNerd]

Maud waved away Rachana's concerns with one hand as the other grabbed the clarinet on her way to the door.

"Me? Oh, fine. I'm just fine."

She wasn't fine. Felt like everything she was used to was falling to pieces. She was supposed to know things about death, but they were all wrong here.

Death was supposed to be meaningful. Harper was a footnote for the situation at best.

Death was supposed to be respectable. Harper slipped in a pool of horse lube and shot herself in the head.

Death would only come from a person if one side was horrible person. Elizabeth was her best friend, and despite her faults, Daniela never seemed like she deserved anything like that.

Even in death, there were supposed to be people you trusted and cared about. Elizabeth had murdered her own girlfriend on day one of being here, and what would that mean for her boyfriend, or her best friend?

She wanted to vomit. She wanted to cry. She wanted to kick up a fuss and scream about how nothing is going right and she just wanted to practice with charcoal, damn it.

Maud took in a breath as she came to stand at Heath's side.

She wouldn't break here. She could control herself. Try to make things as good as they could be.

Because if death wouldn't go right for everyone else here, she would at least make sure it treated them correctly.

[NoLife42069]

Heath felt Maud come near him. It filled him with a bit more bravery than he cared to admit. Kevin thought back on the three times he went to the range, steadied his hands, slowed his breathing, and

Heath swung open the door and aimed directly at where a normal person at the door's head would be. Finger on the trigger, ever so slightly depressed.

[almostinhuman]

The gunshot jarred Rachana from her task, nearly done though it was. Her head whipped around to see what, if anything, Heath had shot.

[Namira]

The bullet passed through empty space. A knock and run.

Or else...

The back window of the cabin was lifted open and a figure slipped through, a cleaver clenched in one hand, dropping quietly to the floor.

They were lean. Pallid. Hairless. Their eyes were fixed on the closest person. Maud.

[AnimeNerd]

Apparently, Maud was going to be wrong about a number of things, on this island.

Even the expectation of someone staying at the door they knocked at when someone went to answer it-that was something she was wrong about.

She didn’t like it, being wrong about so many things.

She disliked the sight before her even more so.

It almost felt like time slowed down as she turned to look at Rachana. How her eyes tried to find the woman, only to stick to an entirely new figure.

It was pale-so very, very pale. Thin, like it had been too long since their last meal. No hair in sight, and whether or not it was because no hair could grow or it had all been shaved off was something her mind didn’t have time to think about.

Because Its eyes were on her.

It was coming for her.

And Maud knew exactly what was going to happen.

Her limbs reacted first, as the clarinet moved, bell end going straight for the side of It’s head.

Her mouth screamed only one word, knowing it would probably be it’s last.

"RUN!”

[NoLife42069]

Heath was surprised when his gun went off, perhaps he put too much pressure? Whatever the case he missed and all at once 3 feelings welled up inside him. One, a pang of relief for not putting one in some poor bastard's noggin. Two, surprise there was a knock at the door, so either this was a creepy version of ding-dong-ditch or something is happening. And three, disappointment for wasting a bullet and for missing the chance to improve his arsenal. When people were running around with RPGs and KS-23s who knows what else others have?

Heath went to turn around to make sure the others were safe "Nobody at the front-WHAT THE HELL!?"

Pale like someone who spent years away from the sun. Skinny like their last meal was 25 years ago. Hairless like a newborn baby.

REVENANT

"SHIT!" His body moved faster than his mind.

There was no aiming or steadying so that he didn't miss. Only pressure was placed on the trigger, followed by the force on his hand, the flash of light.

Maud told them to run. But what about her?

[almostinhuman]

Rachana didn't need to be told twice.

Without looking behind her, she picked herself and her things off the floor and booked it past Heath and towards the door.