It's Just A Day

[Super Weegee]

It was going to be okay. She'll be fine. She'll be back up in no time-

-Another gunshot from behind him. Angie went down.

Matthew dove to the ground just as the second gunshot rang out and hit Shauna. Scrambling to his feet, he looked over and saw the alive Justin, pointing another gun at him. They didn't make sure the monster stayed down.

Now it was his job to finish him.

Firmly grabbing the fore-end of the shotgun with his other hand, he ran to the side as he aimed it towards Justin's body and pulled the trigger. Since the shotgun wasn't pressed into his shoulder, the recoil caused the butt of the stock to slam back against him, eliciting a cry of pain from Matthew.

It was one of the most painful hits he's ever taken, but nothing will compare to what will happen if he gets shot.

"Just die already, you bastard!" he yelled out as he readied himself to fire again.

[MK Kilmarnock]

Two down, one to go.

Matthew was headed for Shauna's shotgun. Justin was already on his feet, having taken advantage of the time his last target had spent ducking for cover. Diving to the ground had probably saved Matthew's life, and on the opposite side of that coin it had also bought Justin some time. He fired at Matthew several times but with only one hand to hold the gun and shooting on the run, he had sacrificed accuracy for suppression. It seemed to do the trick; Matthew tried to make a play with the shotgun before he even had control of it and it nearly knocked him ass-over-keel by the looks. If it weren't for the fact Shauna had all but completely neutralized one of his limbs, Justin would have been thankful for the fact that shotgun had no spread and thus Matthew actually needed to aim.

He wasn't sticking around to let Matthew get another shot, closing the distance on his bag. 'Die already', Matthew had shouted.

Justin opted to decline the offer, firing more shots to scare Matthew more than anything. Best case scenario saw the boy hitting the ground again, maybe to steady himself for another shot? Justin ran a few possibilties while steadily attempting to empty the entire capacity of his most trusted gun. One hand meant he couldn't both hold his bag and shoot, but that bag was his life. It also meant the rifle would be lost, and Shauna's shotgun was all but unrecoverable at this point; taking Matthew on out in the open like this was too much of a risk. Run, run and fight another day. That's how cowards won.

Justin looped his good arm through the bag and hooked his elbow, taking it up with him. Thanking his lucky stars at his legs still being in mostly pristine shape apart from some pepper in his ass which affected sitting more than running, Justin tore off to some overgrowth to put obstacles between himself and Matthew.

[Super Weegee]

More of Justin's shots went wild as he picked up his bag and made a run for it.

Matthew remembered to put the shotgun against his shoulder before he pulled the trigger again. It didn't hurt nearly as bad as the first time, but his aim was still off since the gun doesn't have spread for some godforsaken reason. He shouldn't have to be that precise with a goddamn shotgun!

That doesn't mean that he wasn't going to keep trying as he pursued Justin through some overgrowth. If this bastard thinks that he's going to escape, he's got another thing coming. All Matthew needs is one good shot to take him down. Something in him is screaming at him to hide and find some cover, but he forced that thought away, focusing on his target instead.

There was some distance between them, but that didn't stop him from raising the shotgun again and taking a couple of seconds to aim. The running meant that his accuracy suffered as he fired once again.

"You're a dead man, do you hear me?!" Matthew yelled. He then raised his voice further, "You're dead!"

[MK Kilmarnock]

It took Justin just about all of his wits to fight the natural urge to shout something back. What little air remained in his lungs was better served breathing, helping to lengthen the distance between himself and Matthew. He had mental comebacks that nobody, on the island or off it, would ever hear but as most of them began and ended with 'no you', that was likely for the best.

That shotgun went off again and again; neither time sounded as intimidating when Shauna had fired it and neither time had struck true. Again Justin counted it a mixed blessing that the shotgun didn't fire pellets. It made fewer shots count, but the one that did was much worse than getting some honeycomb in his arm. When he looked back, he saw he'd succeeded in removing a line of sight between himself and Matthew. Before or after those shots were fired, he could not be too sure of, but if Matthew didn't hit him before he surely wasn't getting him now. The jubilation was short-lived as a pulse of bitter pain bled up Justin's arm while his body was reaching the bottom of the barrel of endorphins to pull on to combat the pain. He'd need to find somewhere to recuperate and lick his wounds, and that needed to be sooner rather than later or he'd risk losing too much blood.

Shauna. Angie, even more incidental. They had a worse day than he did but at least it was over for them. For them the fight, the nightmare, was over. Justin, on the other hand, knew that things were only going to get harder in the coming hours. In the futile attempt to survive, Shauna very well may have just killed him.

He prayed that wasn't the case and that Matthew's words were as empty as his marksmanship as Justin scampered away like a wounded animal.

((Justin Greene, continued in Pick Up the Pieces))

[Super Weegee]

Matthew let off another shot just before Justin disappeared from view. Like all of the other shots, it missed, although it was the closest to hitting him. After taking a moment to aim in his general direction, he tried to fire only to be met by a clicking noise.

He eyed the gun in confusion for a moment before looking back up and pulling the trigger again. Another click. That's when it hit him, he was out of bullets.

Gritting his teeth, he stopped in his tracks, panting, and grabbed the sniper slung from his back. Setting the shotgun down and going into a crouch, he searched around for Justin only to be met with more overgrowth. There was a moment when he could swear he heard footsteps and tried to look in its direction to no avail. That's when he was forced to admit to himself that Justin got away. There's no way he was catching up to him.

"FUCK!" Matthew screamed, resisting the temptation to throw the rifle to the ground. Slinging the rifle over his back and picking up the shotgun, he stood back up and looked towards where he thinks Justin ran off to.

"If you can hear me, know that I will hunt you down! I will make sure that you don't make it off of this damn island!"

Getting that out of his system, he turned around and began to make his way back to Shauna and Angie, taking deep breaths to calm himself all the while. God, that was...that was scary. He didn't know any other way to put it. One bullet to the head and he could've joined the girls in death. It didn't have to end this way. All it would've taken to save them was to make sure Justin was dead instead of just assuming he was while he was incapacitated earlier.

Shauna and Angie could've been alive.

His foot kicked something on the ground and he looked down to saw a...magazine? Scratch that, he saw a few magazines next to each other. Picking one of them up and seeing the bullets on the dirt, it was safe to assume that it was the ammunition for the rifle. Why would Justin lose something as important as this? He must have dropped them by accident.

That's...lucky of me, I guess...

Putting the bullets back in their respective magazines, he put them in his hoodie pocket and continued to walk until he could see the bodies of the girls, with Angie lying on top of Shauna. His anger made way to sadness as he stood over them.

"I'm sorry." Matthew said, fighting back tears. There wasn't any time for a funeral, he has to take whatever they have and get the hell out of here before someone else comes.

Pushing Angie off of Shauna, he began to search their bodies for ammo or anything else that's useful. After a minute or two of digging through their pockets, he found nothing except for the condom that Angie had, which he tossed to the ground. Standing up and rubbing his face with his hand, he figured that their bags might have what he needed.

It took a bit of looking around, but he eventually managed to find them near the manor as well as his own that he dropped during the chaos. While Angie's bag had practically nothing, he struck gold with Shaunas. Along with the ammunition for the shotgun, he found another weapon that looked like some kind of sword, meaning that he can throw away his worthless scissors.

He should've felt relieved that he wasn't completely defenseless now, but he reminded himself about what it cost.

Dumping the ammo and sword into his own bag, along with a second first aid kit, he returned to the bodies. Remembering something about Regina and Caroline, he moved Angie and Shauna's hands so that it looked like they were holding them. Like they were together in death. It was the least he could do for them.

"I'll get that fucker for the both of you." He rubbed his eyes in an attempt to get rid of the tears. "I promise."

((Matthew Hunt continued in Do it, Try it))