What if I told you...

[MK Kilmarnock]

((Jerry Fury continued from It's a Snap))

"Mother FUCKER!"

Jerry kicked the rusted remnants of a tin can that had conveniently been situated at the base of the radio tower. This was right around where he woke up, if memory served. Just moments before, the boy had flown into a rage upon news delivered to him via the announcements.

No, it wasn't the announcements themselves that drove him into a frenzy, though that was a terrible piece of news definitely worth revisiting. No, the worst of it was that he and Matt had just managed to cross over that bridge under the cover of dawn to try and scrounge up supplies ("Maybe they got like, twinkies and shit," Jerry distinctively remembered suggesting with hope at one point). Then, lo and behold, they get across the bridge and hang out for all of thirty minutes, the announcements go off.

Now, that would have been all fine and dandy, except consulting a map identified the bridge as part of the new 'danger zone', effectively trapping them on this side of the island. Falling into what he perceived as a serious tactical error, Jerry dragged his foot for a few extra half-steps in order to kick the can again. It banged against one of the supports of the radio tower and bounced back, narrow missing his knee and tumbling through the dirt.

"So whaddaya make of that?" Jerry finally said to his sole companion, huffing and gesturing up to one of the visible speakers oh-so-conveniently attached to the radio tower. "I mean, I guess it tells us how THAT got there."

Jerry was standing around 15 feet away from the body of one Jennifer Wallace. He dared not get any closer. Something about her eyes just... man, a corpse's eyes were FREAKY when they were all open. He never really paid attention to Noodle's face, couldn't look at it after she suffered a fate that, as he reminded himself, she totally brought upon herself with nobody else to blame. But man, Jennifer.

"She was hot when she was alive, so yeah. That kinda sucks. And who the fuck was THAT!?" Jerry gestured to the other body not terribly far from Jennifer. Her head... her head wasn't in the best of condition, and it brought to mind a melon smashed on the pavement after being dropped in a Lucky's parking lot. "Too many names. Too many... other names. Can't fuckin' keep track of who's icing who. I hope you're writing this shit down, man."

[Privyet†]

((Matt Moradi continued from here.))

Jerry was yelling again, and interestingly enough this time he had a decent reason. They were stuck on this side of the island - the place was big, but being limited to only one half of it made Matt feel nervous. Like he wouldn't have as many places to run and hide when things started to turn south. The announcements weren't much of a concern to him, however. Just people he didn't know who would've tried to kill him eventually. Competition.

Still, coming face to face with one of Nancy Kyle's victims wasn't exactly high on his list of things to do. Jennifer Wallace. She looked pretty good, all things considered. I mean, she was as dead as they came. Rigor mortis definitely had enough time to set in and flies were starting to show up, but still! She didn't look half bad right about now.

Next to Jennifer was someone remarkably less good looking, however.

"Fucking shit. Who the hell is that?" He had absolutely no idea. Maybe another one of Nancy's victims, or maybe they just happened to have died close to Jennifer. He wasn't really keen on figuring it, right now. Right now, he was hungry. He needed food. Maybe he shouldn't feel so hungry after seeing two dead bodies? Well, Sandy kind of raised his expectations. Rotting, waterlogged corpse? Now that was something that could make him reconsider eating.

"Nancy Kyle did this, I think. She's a fuckin' bitch. We should kill her if we see her. Alvaro, too. Fucking prick."

Sure, Alvaro hadn't killed his friends. That didn't matter. What mattered was that Alvaro was dangerous. Sure, he could appreciate him removing some of the competition for him, but he might not survive a second run in with him. He didn't have anything. He felt naked. And hey, he figured Jerry was going to turn on him sooner or later.

"Hey, uh, Jerry. Can I ask you for a favor? It's kinda big."

[MK Kilmarnock]

Jerry jammed both his hands in his pockets and looked over his shoulder at Matt.

"Kill them?" he asked, quirking up one eyebrow all 'The Rock' style. "That's something I wouldn't have expected out of you. Unless you've finally figured out how this works?" Jerry did his best bit of dramatic flair by pulling his hands out of his pockets and holding them outward in some 'heeeeeey!' gesture that he hoped at least looked a little good on camera. Either that or he looked like a tool. But fuck that, he was a LIVING tool, and that meant he wasn't coming in last place in this little game.

"Kill or be killed and all that shit. If Nancy and Alvaro are bad news, we can get rid of them." He killed before - in self defense, he was quick to remind himself - and had no particular qualms about killing again if it meant he got to live to see another day. "But I don't like the sounds of this favor."

He turned his shoulder in so he could more properly face Matt. "What is it? Don't be like 'please don't kill me', we already covered I'm not capping your ass or I would've done it on the bridge. Probably while spouting some James Bond one liner like... uh, I don't fuckin' know."

Jerry thought for a second.

"I'll cross this bridge when I come to it. How's that?"

[Deamon]

((Travis Lynch continued from Wash It All Away))

Finding Toby's killer had turned out to be extremely easy, something that was both incredibly ironic and upsetting. Not that it truly mattered. The next few minutes would decide what the life expectancy of some people was anyway.

Trav hadn't properly spoken to Jerry since he had caught him during their sparring practice. He hadn't thought anything of it, people never enjoyed getting slept to begin with. So it was understandable to him that someone like Jerry hadn't wanted to discuss it or even think about it. It had probably destroyed the entire facade he had created around himself. But those thoughts were too emotionally charged, so Trav shut them out. He didn't even know what had happened beyond Jerry stabbing Toby and Toby ending up dead.

Obviously the picture that painted was one where Jerry was guilty and Trav, for his part, was having a very hard time trying to be calm and rational when presented with his best friends killer. This wasn't just someone who had taken liberties in a sparring session. Someone like that could be dealt with, Trav knew this because had done it before. Sometimes people needed to be reminded that they weren't hot shit.

Which brought him back to Jerry Fury.

Trav hoped the fact that Jerry was talking about killing along with Matt while stood next to a corpse when he and Cass arrived wasn't an omen of some kind. Still, he prepared for the worst and hoped to be surprised. It was probably naive of him to think like that, but he didn't want to hurt Jerry if he didn't have to. Despite everything that had happened violence was still the last resort.

At the same time. He needed to know.

"What happened Jerry?" He called out to the pair.

[Privyet†]

Matt shrugged. So Jerry didn't take him as the type of guy to go out of his way to kill psychopaths. That was fine. "Well, I'm ah, a big fan of self-defense. Gotta get them before they get me, right? Preemptive strike and all that." In a way, he really couldn't say that he didn't appreciate Alvaro and Nancy. Less people on the island meant less people who were going to try and kill him sooner or later. And he could appreciate the transparency, too. Knowing that someone was going to try and kill him. That was better than guessing.

"Pretty good," said Matt, sounding not at all that enthused with Jerry's sharp wit and one-liners. Time to pop the question.

"Well, uh, I was wondering if you could give me your gun. I mean, I'm unarmed, and uh, I'm a great shot. I used to go shooting all the time." Matt was lying. He hadn't held a gun in his entire life, but he figured that it couldn't be all too hard to figure out. And hey, he was on Pissfuck Island. He'd have to learn or he'd lose, and he wasn't keen on losing. It was like getting thrown into the deep end. Sink or swim.

Two people. Jesus, this must look bad. Talking about killing people standing over a bunch of dead bodies.

Matt was going to yell back that they didn't kill these people when one of them called out Jerry's name. He knew Jerry's name. It was Trav.

"Oh shit."

[dmboogie]

((So. That was what a murderer looked like.))

Just another kid. Not a miserable wretch, hollow and haggard, haunted by the weight of their crimes. Cass supposed that would require significantly more self-awareness than Jerry was showing, talking of killing while surrounded by death. They hadn't been able to make out all of the two boys' conversation during their approach to the tower, just enough to get the gist.

Was that what passed for idle conversation, now? Nothing but plans, the boring pragmatism of Wade without any of his morality, the willingness to fight of Irene without her drive to only hurt those who "deserved" it? Was there seriously nothing the two of them would rather be doing?

If that was the case, then Cass supposed they would to just follow Trav's lead and play along. This was his show, after all; his decision to do what he would with whatever justification Jerry gave him for killing his friend. Maybe it had been an accident. Maybe a misunderstanding. Maybe he was just a murderous asshole. As much as they would have liked to try and assume the best of Jerry, he hadn't exactly given them much reason to, yet.

Cass stood to Trav's right, slightly behind him. Hands in their pockets, trying not to glare. Only trembling a little. They knew that Jerry and Matt had, at the very least, one knife between them; out of sight for the moment. Cass and Trav were both unarmed; and though Trav had his MMA experience, Cass had never been in a fight in their life.

For now, actual violence remained an abstract concept; one with consequences that rippled through the world around them and left myriad wounds in its wake, but always invisibly; just out of sight. Cass could only hope that it would continue to remain that way.

[MK Kilmarnock]

Oh. Oooooh no. Ooooh no, oh man oh fuck oh no oh FUCK.

Jerry was staring at the one person he didn't want to run into on this island today. And with him having the distinct impression that some of the same names were starting to appear on those morning lists, that was something of an accomplishment. See, Jerry didn't remember hearing Trav's name at all. That meant that he obviously hadn't died (well... duh), and he hadn't exactly killed anybody.

Well, not yet. Boy oh boy did he seem about ready to flip that switch.

"Just in case you were wondering?" Jerry mumbled to Matt, tense and at the ready to start running at a moment's notice. Every strand of every muscle in his legs was telling him, over and over and over again, to run. "I'm not giving up the gun, 'specially not right now."

His calves weren't shaking, he lied to himself. He could win a straight-up fight against Trav, he fibbed again.

He remembered just how that kick felt.

"What, do, uh... hef... you mean here?" Jerry gestured. "Yeah no, this, um... this ain't- this wasn't us, dude." Of course that wasn't what Trav was referring to, but it was the topic Jerry wanted to stick on for the moment. "We got here and uh, Nancy Kyle, I think Matt said? Her? Yeah. Her."

He took a step back.

"'Sup, bro?"

[Deamon]

Trav looked at the corpse and then turned his gaze back to Jerry. The other boy tried to play off his question as referring to the nearby corpse. Trav just shook his head.

"No Jerry, what happened with Toby."

[MK Kilmarnock]

((Skippy skippy))

Balls. Trav wasn't buying it. The dude was hounding the one topic Jerry wasn't comfortable with, the one most likely to cause some trouble. Hell, who was he kidding? He knew he was going to be in for a world of trouble when he stabbed Noodle.

Not that they weren't all in a ration of shit the moment they got kidnapped by terrorists, but that's dialing the scope a wee bit too far back..

"Right. Noodle." Jerry laughed nervously. "Look, uh-"

The laughter broke nearly immediately. "She fucking attacked ME, dude!" Jerry insisted at practically a scream, thrusting one arm out in a wild attempt to illustrate his point. "Matt will back me up! What that fucking announcement doesn't say is she started like, beating the shit out of me, throwing wild fists here and there! Like fuck man, I didn't know what to do! So I had a knife, and I just kinda... and then, uh..."

Jerry threw a heel at the sand, stomping it in frustration. "She fucking called it! She got what was coming to her!"

Geez. He wasn't really sure he meant to say that last part.

[Deamon]

She got what was coming to her.

Trav didn't know if what he was being told was the truth or not. But it didn't matter at that point.

He dropped his pack of his shoulder and started to move towards Jerry.

[MK Kilmarnock]

Jerry started backpedaling.

No, he didn't start trying to take back what he just said, replacing it with an apology, an explanation, some supplementary material. He literally started to pedal back with his feet, knowing that if Trav got his hands on him, he would likely start hitting Jerry with no end to the beating in sight.

Trav was gonna kill him.

"Nice knowing you, Matt!" was all Jerry managed to squeak out before turning on his heel and starting to book it.

((Jerry Fury, continued in a thread that exists solely to cover my own ass))

[Privyet†]

Okay, so maybe Jerry was afraid of Travis, that wasn't a big deal they could both probably take him WAITWHAT

Jerry was running away. This was, hm, a sticky situation. Does he run after him? Does he run away from Travis? What the fuck is he supposed to do now?

He looked between Travis, the direction Jerry ran off in, and the corpses. This looked bad. This looked real bad.

"Don't kill me." choked out Matt. He could hardly talk. Sure, he was staring down someone who was probably keen on beating him to death. And sure, he was totally unarmed. From a certain point of view, Matt was ripe for killing. Practically begging for it, if you asked someone like Nancy or Alvaro or Isabel. He had to start talking his way out of this, fast.

"Listen, I didn't even help him kill, uh, Toby. He was gonna kill me too!" He was starting to yell. He hated yelling.

[dmboogie]

For a moment, Cass felt sorry for Jerry; being hit with the entirety of Trav's newfound coldness. They supposed it had been a bit too soon to accuse Jerry of having any sort of callous dignity. Blustering and flailing, scared half out of his mind while he pleaded for his life. It wasn't hard to imagine him making the worst mistake of his life in a flustered haze of pain and fear. That didn't justify anything, of course, but maybe it meant he didn't deserve everything that was coming towards him.

That shred of sympathy was blown away as Jerry dared to wash his filthy hands of guilt and blame everything on the dead, tried to imply that it was only just that Toby had died before Trav could say goodbye to her. As he fled, abandoning his hapless companion to be ripped apart by blind, righteous fury; devoured by oft-beaten dogs who now knew only hunger and the ripping of flesh.

Thankfully, Trav wasn't a metaphor and Matt would go on with his life. Cass was taken aback for a moment as he broke down, absolutely convinced that he was about to die. While Jerry's terror - of one who would only think about the pain they had caused when they were about to face consequences for their actions - was darkly satisfying, it looked like Matt's worst fault was his really shitty taste in friends.

Cass felt slightly sick to their stomach; knowing that even though they wouldn't hurt Matt, that didn't make his fear any less real, make their accidental death threats any less direct an attack upon his sanity. Even if it was illusionary, for the first time in their life Cass now held absolute control over another human being's life; and they would have given everything to go back to being safely useless.

"You don't - we're not gonna hurt you," Cass mumbled shamefacedly, believing in Trav's better nature to make those words true. "We're not like him."

[Deamon]

Trav stood there not knowing how to respond to Jerry just turning and running away. He was about to follow Jerry when Matt started blurting out nonsense he didn't care about. Trav just turned to look at him before shaking his head as Cass spoke.

"Cass is right." He had been saying that a lot recently.

He adjusted how his bag was sitting on his back.

"But I'm going after Jerry."

With that he set off at a steady pace after Jerry. He wasn't going to let him get away.

((Travis Lynch continued from Wombo Combo))

[dmboogie]

Cass nodded. Turned to Matt, said "Sorry about, uh. This. Stay safe?"

((Then they followed Trav without another worried glance back.))