The Eighth Announcement

[Megami†]

Eight days ago, four different schools in the city of Denton, New Jersey, set out on four various trips.  Only, they'd never return home.  En route to their destinations, the classes were abducted by a brigade of terrorists scouting the newest "talent" for their reality game show: a vicious game known as Survival of the Fittest.  The premise of the game was simple.  Kill or be killed.  The strong will live, the weak must die.  That was their slogan.  Students from all four schools were fitted with explosive collars, designated weapons and daypacks, thrown onto an uncharted island, and forced to fight until only one remained standing.

To date, five remain.

Those five are Bathurst High School's Bryan Calvert, Tori Johnson, and Mariavel Varella and Franklyn Senior High School's Ricky Callahan and Whitney Acosta.  Of the remaining five, the only student officially designated as a "player" is Mariavel Varella.  Others, most notably Bryan Calvert, have been categorized as "playing selectively".  Students such as Tori Johnson and Whitney Acosta have been labelled as "non-players" and are predicted to be fodder for one of the more ambitious competitors.  The projected winner, according to various internet polls across the world, is Mariavel Varella, the only member of the competition still outright playing the game.  However, in a game like Survival of the Fittest, you never know what's going to happen, and sometimes, dumb luck beats insanity and survival instincts.

It was getting dark outside on the island, and the eerie silence that had enshrouded the entirety of the island was perhaps even more chilling than the echoes of screaming and gunfire.  When the public access system set up across the island suddenly squawked to life, it shattered the silence and, quite possibly, startled more than a few of the remaining contestants.  The sound of a throat clearing reverberated in the microphone of the public access system for just a moment before the quirky, cheerful voice that the remaining contestants had to be familiar with by now spoke up into the microphone.

"Good evening, children.  What a wonderful night it is.  Just look at those stars.  Aren't they stunning?  For most of you, it will probably be the last night you ever see them, so take a good, long look.  But, not too long now.  I want you to put up a fight.  Congratulations, boys and girls, you are Survival of the Fittest's last five contestants remaining.  I'm sure most of you have figured that out by now.  Surely you've stumbled upon the bodies of the most recently killed contestants in such a limited playing field... but, if you haven't, please allow me to clue you in on who that corpse you just stepped on was."

He chuckled to himself as he stared down at the rather short list of names in front of him.  He was almost disappointed at how the game seemed to have suddenly stalemated in the final hours, and for a while, he'd considered randomly detonating one of the contestants' collars just to spice things up a bit, but had ultimately decided against it.  They always seemed to lose ratings after the first collar of the season was blown up.

"Early this morning, the first of the final ten, a Miss Jana Brown met her demise at the hand of Rob Adams.  It was almost sad, the way she tried to escape the gunfight between Rob and Miss Varella, and instead, wound up running, quite literally, right into the barrel of Rob's gun.  Definite case of wrong place, wrong time, sweetheart.  But, on the bright side, your brother is still around to share your legacy, because, and I guess you'll never get to hear this, he was never on the island to begin with."

"Things didn't quite come to an end in the park when Jana was tagged as a casualty.  When dear Robbie realized what he had done, he was devestated, and in a fit of rage, challenged Mariavel to a fist fight.  Now, if Miss Varella had been smart, she'd have shot him then and there and saved that pretty little face of hers a nasty beating.  But, she didn't, so the two went round and round in a quaint little fistfight.  Well, long story short, Mariavel wound up on the winning end of the fight, and in a last ditch effort not to die by some "psycho murderer" or whatever, Rob shot himself in the heart before she could strangle him to death.  I'm not quite sure what he was thinking, but whatever works.  Either way, Rob Adams finished as number nine in the final ten."

"Next to die, finishing eighth overall, was Elizabeth Ebert.  It seems dear Elizabeth had been hiding in the bushes when Jana died, and throughout the gunfight between Mariavel and Rob.  She saw Mariavel kill Jana, and she saw Rob die, and the crazy little girl decided she'd be Wonder Woman and kill Mariavel before she could kill anybody else.  The funny thing was, Beth didn't have a weapon.  She charged out at Mariavel, who promptly laid her flat with Jana's crossbow.  Miss Varella was on quite the roll this morning.  I mean, she killed two of the final ten herself and was indirectly responsible for the death of another of the final ten.  Kudos, darling."

"Moving right along, though, Vesa Turunen was the next name on our list of kills, offed by another fan favorite, Damien Carter-Madison.  What a fight, let me tell you.  Even I thought that the Dame was going to be crushed to death by the giant that was Vesa Turunen, and how differently things turned out.  Size doesn't matter in this game, kids.  This fight was a fine example of that.  Damien claimed victory in the battle, and even granted Vesa's dying wish of covering his body with that wretched flag he carried around with him.  I'm quite impressed, Mr. Madison.  Your mother would be proud."

"But, oh..." Danya continued in a mock melancholy voice, "You'll never be able to hear those words, will you?  You see, kids, Damien Carter-Madison was #113th to die in this round of Survival of the Fittest.  After a very bloody and painful battle with Mariavel Varella outside of the schoolhouse, Damien managed to stumble all the way to the park, all the way back to the bench where he'd killed Roland Kelly not all that long ago, and he died there, of blood loss, on that bench.  Damien's death put us at the final five for this competition, and that, children, is you all."

Danya couldn't help but smile inwardly to himself.  Survival of the Fittest was coming to an end once again, and soon, a new winner would emerge from the island.  A new winner would shake his hand.  Danya's own fingers subconsciously reached up to run his fingertips along the quite visible scar he'd received during his last meeting with a winner of the game, but instead of a frown, a quite devious smile formed across his face.  After all, he had such fond memories of that other contestant.  He couldn't help but grin with glee when he wondered how this new winner might react to their long-awaited meeting.

"And so, what now, kids?  Five of you remain.  If none of you die in the next twenty-four hours, you all die.  So, I ask you, look back at your time on the island.  Look back at your time before.  For four of you, you have, at most, twenty-four hours to live.  What is it that you will do to make an impact on this game?  Mariavel Varella, you've been fighting your whole life.  What's another twenty-four hours?  Will it be you that eliminates the rest of the competition and emerges as the victor this round?  Bryan Calvert... what are your intentions?  Only one of you can win, you know.  Will it be you... or Tori?  What about you, Tori Johnson?  Are you willing to die so that Bryan can live?  Are you willing to live with yourself knowing that he'll die?  You, Ricky Callahan, you claim you've made your choice, but when push comes to shove, would you really kill yourself to save her?  Whitney Acosta, will you let him sacrifice himself for you?  Is your opinion of yourself so high and mighty that his life means nothing?"

"These are the questions you have to ask yourself, kids, and the answers won't come easy.  Within the next twenty-four hours, all but one of you will probably be dead.  Make peace with whatever God you believe in now, because time is of the essence.  Say your goodbyes, because only one of you is going home.  In light of the fact that only five of you remain, the park will now become a dangerzone.  When the sun rises tomorrow morning, the hospital will also become a dangerzone.  Your final playing field will be the schoolhouse... so appropriate, isn't it?  School was the place where it all started, and school is the place it'll end.  Congratulations on making it this far, children, and I believe one of the other contestants had the right mindset when she stated... the world is watching."

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That Pesky OOC Stuff:

Now, there's only one thing I really have to address OOC here.  The hospital will go dangerzone in the morning.  That means that you have till December 1st to completely finish out the scene you're writing now and get your characters out of the area, which is over half a month, so I think that's more than enough time, 'cause it seems like you guys are almost through anyway.  But, I just wanted to get this posted up to have an accurate account of what's going on on the island, so I hope you enjoy.  The school will be the final playing field, as stated, because that's what everybody was in favor of.  It's almost over, guys!