Start for Girl #5

[Cactus]

Most people are lucky enough to avoid the hell that is to be kidnapped. Those that are unfortunate enough to be taken away from their homes, their families, a great many don't survive. If they aren't sexually assaulted, they're often killed and buried in fields somewhere, their parents never again to know where their little girl went.

So how the fuck am I so lucky to manage to get myself kidnapped not once, but TWICE?!

The name's Amanda Jones. Sound familiar? It should - my father's the vice president of the United States. If you'll remember, a few years back, a high ranking US senator's daughter was kidnapped by eco-terrorists trying to make a statement on the destruction of the Earth's rainforests. What they ended up doing was getting themselves spread all over the walls and the floors of the building they were keeping me in. That's right - that senator was my dad, and that senator's daughter was me.

This is crap! For the second time in my not-so-long life, I've been kidnapped by terrorists, had guns pointed at me, and am basically fighting for my life. I've seen dead bodies, and I've seen blood, gore, and guns. I've seen them up close and personally. Most people who get to experience this are in their twenties, their thirties. They suffer emotional trauma but are lucky enough to have trained professionals who deal with that kind of thing.

Me? I'm SIXTEEN, I have enough trouble dealing with my boy problems. In fact, that's really the only problems I'd like to be dealing with - that and how much homework I have to catch up on after a few missed days of school.

Looks like everything's about to change.

Sitting in the open field, alone and weary, Amanda Jones pulled herself into a hesitant sitting position. Her mind was racing with a million different thoughts, and her stomach was stewing with a certain fear - the fear that for the second time, nobody knew where she was.

Scenarios raced through her mind - her dad was an important person - surely the airline would let the school know that none of them made it there at all, and a massive investigation would be launched. Sooner or later, it was likely that the United States government would find these terrorists and get them out. Get them out, if it weren't for the collars on their necks. Those collars, which she fingered a little, kept any of them from really getting saved. One press of a button and they all died.

"Fuck!" She swore aloud, not really caring that in her current position, if anyone were to drop by, she'd be a sitting duck.

Glancing at her pack, she saw it was the same rather large camping back she had brought along on the plane. I'd best look through it to see if they took anything from it...

Everything seemed to be in order as she rifled through the bag. Her playing cards, wallet, cell phone (which didn't work, as luck wouldn't have it), a spare shirt, her MP3 player, sunglasses, and other random items she found she probably wouldn't need during her stay on 'Death Island' as she heretofor dubbed it. One thing was oddly out of place though, and that was the baseball bat that she found sticking out of her bag. Picking it up and hefting it, she found it to be made completely of wood. It was relatively heavy, but looked like a rather normal baseball bat - aside from the ugly looking nail sticking out of the end of it.

This must be my weapon, huh? Some fucking weapon.

Amanda sighed. She wanted to go home, this wasn't exactly what she was feeling cut out for. Regardless - if she was going to participate in the game, she would play to win - that was just regardless of anything. Could she kill someone? Probably. There was enough pent up anger in there to unleash on someone, but could she kill her friends? Her classmates?

She looked at the ground, and fell over in frustration. As she lay on her back, she carefully moved the nail-bat from one hand to the other. What about Adam? If the terrorists had been on the plane, he would undoubtedly be here on the island too. Would he be playing the game, killing anything that moved? She doubted it. Knowing Adam, he would be gaining allies, and trying to create a plan. That is, if he wasn't already dead.

Amanda shuddered at the thought. As much as she wished it, Adam wasn't her boyfriend, simply due to the fact that she didn't think he knew how strongly she felt about him. They were friendly outside of school, as most people were with him, and they had hung out a couple times, but Amanda had never thought to make a move on him, and see what he did. Most girls would wait for the guy to make the move - but not her. Amanda fancied herself a go-getter, and usually went and got what she wanted.

Perhaps that was what she needed to do, was find an ally. Better yet, find Adam. If he wasn't playing, odds were he'd be trying to find a way to get out, and if they put their combined intellect together, well...maybe they would find a way.

Hesitating, though, Amanda looked at her map, and to her dismay, saw how large the island was. Great. I'm looking for one guy on a huge island with tons of people, at least a few of which would likely shoot me on sight. This is going to be like finding a needle in a haystack - provided he's not lying dead in some ditch somewhere.

With at least a temporary plan in mind, Amanda rose to her feet, slinging her pack over her shoulder. Now was a time for action and instinct before thought, but still, she couldn't resist thinking - 'where the hell do I start?'

Glancing at her map, she began to walk to the north.

[Slayer†]

Not too far away, David Jackson (Boy #18) was once again making sure his Smith & Wesson .375 revolver was loaded. He had been wandering the island for some time now, trying to avoid confrontations if possible, even though Danya instructed the students to kill each other.
Pfft...fuck that! No fucking way I'm going to kill anyone in my class. he thought, spitting on the ground.
As he walked, he saw a familiar person ahead.
Wait a second...is that her? It looks like her, but I'm still far off. This is great! I might not be able go go into the MLB like I always wanted, but if she's who I think she is, helping her will make me more famous than a fucking rockstar! And besides, I never did talkt o her about...that...
"Excuse me for a second!" he addressed her, walking towards the girl.

[Cactus]

A voice, that was the last thing that Amanda had expected to hear in the wide-open field that she was wandering about. Spinning around to face whoever it was who was calling out to her, she immediately took notice of the gun in his hand.

And so it begins...I get fucked from the very beginning...

She looked at the boy, and sized him up. Thankfully, he hadn't shot at her yet. Perhaps he wasn't going to? Amanda mentally shook that off. She couldn't count on being that lucky - for fate had truly shown her that luck was not on her side. She opened her mouth and tried to sound confident as she held the baseball bat at her side.

"Hi! What can I do for you?"

Her eyes never left the gun.

[Slayer†]

"Well, you obviously aren't playing, or one of us would be dead right now. I called to you to make sure, since a player would have attacked immediately." David said, holstering the loaded gun. Now that he was close enough, he knew it was her, but he had to be sure. "You're the Vice-President's daughter, right? My name's David Jackson, just so we can recognise each other." David said, extending his hand while mentally cursing himself for such a sloppy introduction to the daughter of the second most powerful man on Earth. "No way I'm going to play this game."

[Cactus]

Hesitantly, but glad that she had found another human being who didn't seem hell-bent on killing her, she shook David's hand. She also silently cursed at the fact that everyone knew her as 'the vice-president's daughter'. Sure, it was a good way to be known, but sometimes she just wished she had her own life. Shaking David's hand, he looked at the bat she held in her other hand.

"Well, nice to meet you, David Jackson. I don't know about you, but I'm sure as hell not going to be able to do a lot of damge on anyone with this."

She looked him over. He looked VERY familiar to her. She figured she had seen him before somewhere. She figured it was now time to get some information off of this kid, to size him up a little.

"Were you on the plane with everyone else? What do you remember?"

[Slayer†]

"Yeah, I was on that plane. I remember those guys coming out of nowhere and restraining us, then forcing us to watch the videos and everything. basically you could say I remember everything up to being gassed and then waking up on the beach somewhere on this island's west coast." David replied, noticing that Amanda was looking him over. Clearing his throat slightly, he asked his own question. "If it isn't offensive to you, may I ask why you wanted to know that?"

[Cactus]

"Oh."

The question caught her aback and she blinked for a second before looking at David with a confident stare.

"I just wondered because you seem really familiar. I don't think I've had any classes with you or anything, but...I just can't put my finger on it, I've seen you somewhere before. Were you on student council? Oh, and have you run into anyone else? I'm guessing that probably everyone from the plane is here, right?"

[Slayer†]

"To answer your first question, I was the pitcher on the baseball team." David replied. "To the second, no I have not met anyone else, though I've seen the corpses of Anya Vendvmagli, Helena Van Garrett, and what I thought was Alan Shinwrath, the fire made it hard to tell. To answer your third question, I think it's safe to assume everyone on the plane is here."

[Cactus]

Corpses...did he just say CORPSES? Aw, fuck...

"Helena...Anya, and Alan...all dead? Wow, they really aren't screwing around here, are they?"

Amanda's thoughts went to her three fallen classmates. Anya she hardly knew but had done a science project with several weeks before. Helena was known as the head bitch around the school, but hearing of her death unsettled Amanda quite a bit. Helena was fairly popular and if she was already dead, that meant that obviously some of her classmates MUST be playing. As for Alan...she shook her head. Alan had it coming, as far as she was concerned. He was always kind of a mean guy. Looking at Dave, she realized he was right, she had seen him at the baseball games. A few of her friends had boyfriends on the team and she'd been to a few games.

"How about that, eh? All of this is for real. Damn. Hey, you didn't happen to stumble upon or hear anything about Adam Dodd, did you?"

She couldn't help it, as the boy was fairly close on her mind. She had been hoping to tell him how she felt about him on the trip, but this was certainly not what she had in mind.

[Slayer†]

"Last time I saw him was on the plane, but I think I saw his jersey in the coppice during that gun battle earlier." David answered with a slight shrug.
Why does she want to know about him? he thought briefly. Of course, then he remembered Jack O'Connor saying something once about her having an eye on Adam Dodd. He was a nice kid, though David wasn't friends with him.
So...it's true?
"I wouldn't suggest going after him though, any players here may go there, and you'd be in danger."

[Cactus]

The blood slowly drained from Amanda's face as David referenced a gun battle he had been witness to earlier on. Adam? In a gun battle? The concept seemed to baffle her, as she knew Adam as such a kind-hearted but gentle guy. He wouldn't hurt anyone EVER, unless they were putting a friend or loved one in jeporday, that she knew. She couldn't help but frown as many different thoughts went through her head.

Could Adam be dead already?

Amanda shook her head. She refused to believe it. She had to find him. It struck her that it was almost a strange obsession that she had, yet decided obsession wasn't the proper word. She just wanted to make sure she confessed her true feelings before she died, if that was how things were going to work.

"Fuck...well...I, I don't care. I have to go find him. He's uh, a really close friend of mine and I'm worried about him."

Amanda tried uselessly to conceal the real reason she wanted to find Adam. Unfortunately it was already pretty obvious, and she expected that if David were perceptive at all, he'd probably figure it out.

[Slayer†]

David shook his head in understanding as Amanda fumbled around her own words. It was enough for him to draw his own conclusions, and it devestated the seemingly stoic baseball player. Trying not to act suspicious, he continued to speak. "You're in love with Adam, aren't you? Anyway, if you insist on finding him, I go with you. Whether or not you like it, you are the daughter of the Vice-President of the United States of America. You dying would be a major political blow to our country, exactly what they want. Also, you won't be able to tell him how you feel if you aren't alive." he took a second to breathe and continued. Really, he was patriotic, but he didn't care about any of that. Except maybe her being able to meet with Adam (Maybe I should've told her he was dead? he wondered, No, it wouldn't be worth it. Besides, if I'm right I don't want to see her reaction to that.), really he only cared about her surviving.
As that "Jarhead" movie said: "Fuck politics. We're here, that's all that matters."
"I know you think you can take care of yourself, and to an extent you can. But I know the island more than you do, thanks to the announcements I even know which members of our class were playing. Alone, you don't have the experience needed, if I'm right in assuming from your questions that you've somehow just woken up on our third day here. Not only that, but there's only so much you can do with a bat with a nail in it. By your leave or not, I swear to act as your bodyguard until we escape." as he said this to Amanda, David couldn't help but feel as if he were in the Terminator, trying to ensure the survival of one person for the fate of the world (or free world, in Amanda's case.) he quickly took out his map and showed her the marked areas. "These two places, the Lighthouse and Waterfall became Danger Zones minutes before you woke up." then he turned the map to a list of the students, with the names of Helena Van Garrett, Alan Shinwrath, Anya Vendvmagli, Terry Woodward, August Masbeth, Niniko Kishinawa, Sydney Morvran, and Tayli Vreeland crossed out. "Each crossed out name belongs to a dead student, please memorize that. We have to decide our next destination quickly, we are easy targets here."

[LadyMakaze†]

(resumed from: Girls #21- GAME START)

Madelaine trudged through the open field, walking in brisk strides. One hand gripped the bag that was slung over her shoulder, the other swung slightly by her right hand pocket, ready to draw her weapon should she fall into the presence into some unpleasant company. Never before had she felt so vulnerable. Constantly, reflexively, she turned her head over her unprotected back, watching and waiting before moving on again. She jumped impulsively at the slightest noise.

She felt almost defenseless, sticking out of the empty meadow like a stain on white cloth, an obvious target. Immediately, she felt herself wishing that she was back home, scolding her parents, looking after Miriam, her sister...what could they be doing at home without her? Perhaps they have found out by now? She clenched her teeth grimly... this game tore apart families and friends alike ...it was unthinkable. It was unforgiveable.

Anger and frustration clouded her mind momentarily, so that she did not even notice the presence in front of her until she had almost walked headlong into them. Startled, and realizing her foolishness, she cursed and ducked reflexively, crouching down low on the grass...though she knew it was useless.

Looking at the two: a boy and a girl...she realized that they had been talking for awhile long before she had literally walked in on them. And now, just because she had not paid attention for a mere second, she had put herself in a potentially dangerous situation. For now there was no place to hide, and almost immediately they would notice her.

[Slayer†]

In an instant, David had drawn the Smith &Wesson .375 revolver and aimed it right at the newcomer, perceving her as a threat to either him or Amanda.
"Don't move! Take out whatever weapon you have and place it at my feet. Now!" he ordered, making sure the new girl was disarmed. He never took his eyes off Madelaine as the grip on his revolver tensed. He couldn't explain his sudden snap at the girl, other than that she had startled him. Hearing nigh constant gunfire and screaming for three days and the two announcements so far were playing havoc on his nerves. Inside, he was still the somewhat cool and laid back baseball pitcher, but the game was making him rather jumpy and nervous.
Besides...she might be a killer. this constantly echoed in his head. He didn't know who he could trust in this game, and he had made a promise just a few seconds prior to this abrupt encounter.
Suarez was the one who always broke promises to pretty girls, not me. he thought with mild humor, but preventing himself from laughing.

[Cactus]

Amanda had blushed and been ready to respond to David's sudden display of bodyguard-ship when the new arrival walked almost right into them. Jumping back in surprise, Amanda was probably about as shocked as the other girl seemed. Looking at the girl as David pointed his gun at her, she looked her over. The girl didn't seem familiar at all. She wore a uniform, but that was what perked something up in her mind.

"Wait, David...I know her, it's okay..."

Amanda remembered the other girl from ...somewhere. Perhaps it was the gas, but her mind was still a little foggy. Her name didn't even come to mind...but Amanda clearly remembered that she had talked with this girl before, and had definitely had class with her...but what...she just couldn't remember what...