Falling Down

[Super Llama†]

"J-Jimmy? Oh, Jesus, it's you! I mean it's m-me, Eddie! Christ, you almost g-gave me a heart attack."

Laeil relaxed as she heard the figure reveal himself as the Eddie she and Jimmy were looking for. "Well, that's good news." She said flatly as she closed the distance between them. She stopped suddenly as Jimmy started whispering something to Eddie, but she wasn't able to catch what he was saying. He's hiding something from me... She thought to herself, her mind running through what would warrant him keeping a secret from her at this point. Eventually, she gave up. She was in no position to pry, what with Jimmy keeping a close eye on her (well, as close an eye as he could manage), and now that they'd found Eddie he'd likely join on that as well. Besides, she still had her own trump card that she was hiding, so they were even on that front. Looking behind the both of them, she strode towards the body lying on the ground. With his pale skin, she almost mistook him for a corpse until she noticed the slow breathing. He could just be unconcious, or...

Scrutinizing the body for a moment, she knelt down, stealing a glance at Eddie and Jimmy for a moment before speaking right into the boy's ear. "If you're concious, I highly suggest you show it right about now." She said calmly, reaching around and touched the side of the blade to the side of his neck, just light enough for him to feel it. "Otherwise, my sword could use a nice coat of red right about now." Her voice took on a more malicious tone as she spoke this last sentence. She wasn't stupid. She wasn't about to kill a potentially innocent bystander with those two nearby as witnesses, but she didn't want to rule out the possibility that he was just playing dead for the chance to launch a sneak attack.

[Pigeon Army†]

So, they're all pals? What in the name of Keanu Reeves is going on here?

Michael wasn't too ready to trust anyone after what had happened at the bridge, and it seemed like Abel had fled when Michael...knocked myself out? Got knocked out by Abel? This is all very weird and bleary.

Michael didn't have time to continue contemplating about how weird and bleary everything was, as he felt the cold touch of a steel blade against his neck.

Oh, come on, who threatens an unconscious guy?

...

Aside from the fact that I'm not actually unconscious, but that's irrelevant.

Michael was careful not to react, breathing the same way he had been and not moving, though his racing heart was making it hard.

"If you're conscious, I highly suggest you show it right about now. Otherwise, my sword could use a nice coat of red right about now."

Michael stayed completely still, only breathing as he always did. To her, he was unconscious, and he would stay that way until they were gone.

Well, there's no way I'm going to say howdy-do and tag along with these guys now.

[DetectiveArcher†]

((Sorry for holding the thread up for such a short post.))

A quizzical look crossed Eddie's features. If Lyn was going to help them, why would Jimmy hide his pistol? Wasn't her assistance proof enough that she could be trusted? Damn, but you're an idiot, aren't you? Just because she's helping you now doesn't mean she won't try to kill you later. He quickly pushed the thought aside. That couldn't be true. He didn't want to believe that Lyn could be considered a threat. Then, why hadn't he said anything about the pistol yet?

Giving a quick nod to Jimmy, the thin girl passed both boys, kneeling next to Anders' unconscious body. When she pressed the blade of her sword against the pale skin of the boy's throat, Eddie reached for Lyn's shoulder, before he stopped his shaking hand. Pulling the sweaty hand back, he hissed sharply, "W-what are you doing? He's f-freaking asleep! And even if he w-wasn't, he hasn't d-done anything to us!"

He swallowed sharply, taking a step back next to Jimmy. He didn't have anything against Lyn, but the way the black-clad girl spoke and handled her sword made Eddie's skin crawl.

[blastinus]

Jimmy wasn't able to fully see what Lyn was doing. He couldn't see whether or not the person on the ground was breathing, and he wasn't close enough to hear her whispering. So all it looked like to him was that she was checking the people on the ground for signs of life. And then when Eddie walked up to Lyn and started talking to her in a soft voice, the half-blind man began getting very curious, especially when Eddie suddenly moved away from her and took up a position beside Jimmy. What with all these strange occurrences, it dawned on him that something was most assuredly up.

So....what? Am I supposed to say something now? Give me something to work with, people!

All he could guess from this activity was that the man on the ground was not dead, and Lyn had been threatening the man with her sword, and Eddie had been trying to stop her, but wisely decided to back off. Under this assumption, Jimmy stepped forward slowly, and said to Lyn, "Look, if the guy wants to be left alone, leave him alone. You're just going to scare him acting like this." Now that he thought about it, Jimmy's hands were shaking too. Apparently, it wasn't just the lying man that was being scared by Lyn's shenanigans. Still, stiff upper lip. If Jimmy backed down, his new 'pal' might wind up killing a guy who was probably just wanting to get a rest. And he would not let that happen.

Kind of hypocritical that you want to save one guy, but you're organizing a lynch mob to kill another, don't you think?

The thought had occurred to Jimmy, but so far as he knew, the person lying on the ground hadn't killed anybody. That was the difference.

[Super Llama†]

Laeil sighed as the unconcious person turned out to be just an unconcious person, and all she had managed to do was freak out her travelling companions. The paranoia must really be getting to her if she was pulling shit like this. Removing the sword from the boy's neck and standing back up, she looked back over at Eddie and Jimmy.

"Just because he hasn't done anything to us yet, doesn't mean he won't." She said, shaking her head as she decided to just drop the subject. It was then that, behind the two, she noticed another body, pack nearby, and walked between the two of them and over to it. In contrast to the other boy, this one was most definitely dead, apparently having smashed his head on a rock. What a shit way to go... She thought as she rifled through the pack, failing to find anything of any interest. She picked up the pack and tossed it to Eddie. "If you need anything replaced, now's the time." She said. "Remember to destroy what you don't need." It was then that she noticed something off a little ways further down the trail. It was rapidly getting dark, so it was hard to make out, but she was sure it was another pack, and made her way over to it.

Sure enough, it was another pack, surrounded by a pair of bodies; one decapitated, it's pants pulled down and a bloody mess between its legs, the other with numerous wounds on it's torso, like it was stabbed repeatedly. As she walked over to the pack, though, she felt her foot kick something. "Huh?" Looking down, she noticed something on the ground, a little smaller than a football. "What the hell?" Setting her own pack down, she bent over and picked it up, the object cold and clammy in her hands, and somewhat sticky. She noticed that it had a fairly human shape, and in fact it looked an awful lot like a...

...oh, shit.

She dropped the damn thing like a hot potato, the object hitting the ground with a soft thud. "Fuck!" She exclaimed, looking down at her hands, noticing in the fading light that they were covered in red, quickly wiping them off on the front of her hoodie. She had experienced a lot of revolting things during her time on the island, but picking up a dead fetus was in a league of it's own. She took another look down, and cringed as the homunculus-like thing almost seemed to be staring right at her, reaching out with her foot and rolling it over onto it's side.

As far as she knew, there were only two pregnant girls who went on the tip: Heather Tilmitt and Mary McKay. And Heather's corpse at the hospital was already one of the first corpses she had seen on the island (it was like seeing the aftermath of a scene from a violent slasher movie.) I guess that makes this Mary, then. As she examined the corpse, something she had heard from the announcements popped into her head.

"You see, there was a lot you all didn't know about Mr. Rapide, like the fact that he happened to be the father of Mary McKay's child! Well, Mary didn't take too kindly to the fact that Guy didn't want to protect her and their baby so... she cut off his testicals and killed him! Sadly, she didn't live long afterwards. My favorite loony-toon, Wade Wilson, saw what she did to Guy and decided to gut her like a fish."

"Well, I guess that makes this your handiwork, then?"

[DetectiveArcher†]

((Sorry, for some reason I was waiting for PA. I didn't even think about his character continuing to act comatose. Sorry for the hold up.))

Eddie let out a sigh of relief as Lyn took the edge of the sword away from Michael's throat. Even if she claimed to be a player, at least the girl could be reasoned with. The thought was reassuring. The sudden weight of the tossed pack interrupted his thoughts, almost knocking him off of his feet. "Huh?" He couldn't help but toss a confused glance at the thin girl.

"If you need anything replaced, now's the time. Remember to destroy what you don't need."

Looking quickly between the pack and Lyn, he managed a stuttered "thank you," before placing the bag on the ground and rummaging through its contents. The young eavesdropper could feel a grin spreading across his features. First aid, food, water. Everything he'd lost when he left his own pack behind at the tower could now be replaced.

There, he thought cheerfully, that's one less thing to worry about. Maybe my luck is starting to turn around. The good humored thoughts quickly disappeared as he pulled a wrinkled shirt from his newly gifted pack. Of course. This had been someone else's pack before he'd come along. Who cares, right? It's not like the guy who had it before is gonna come poking around looking for it.

But, that wasn't the point. He was just a vulture now, wasn't he? A scavenger living off of the leftovers of his dead classmates. The thought made his stomach roll. "I...I'm not sure I w-want this..." he mumbled quietly to himself, slowly folding up the garment. Lyn moved farther down the trail, entirely unmoved. Either she hadn't heard him, or she just didn't care. Eddie wasn't entirely sure which possibility was more likely.

Lyn stopped some distance away, before crouching to investigate something that caught her attention. Judging by her reaction, she didn't like what she found. Swallowing hard, Eddie shouldered his stolen pack and motioned for Jimmy to follow him. "H-hey Lyn...what're you looking..." His voice trailed off and his legs locked. Gore and blood soaked the ground around two horribly disfigured bodies. One was Mary McKay, which meant the other body belonged to...Guy Rapide. The memory of the young athlete's head spilling from Alice's daypack returned like a bucket of cold water. Oh, Jesus, Rapide. This is what happened to the rest of you?

Lyn carefully reached with her foot, toeing a small mass on the ground. Eddie felt the color drain from his face and his mouth go dry. His stomach rushed into his throat, bringing the familiar taste of bile with it. The small, bloody mess on the ground was Mary McKay's unborn infant. "Oh, fuck. Oh, God. Oh, fucking Christ." Covering his eyes, he fought down the urge to vomit. It wasn't easy.

Four dead bodies. Four lives cruelly cut short. For what? For some sick form of entertainment? Because it was funny? Grinding his teeth, Eddie couldn't hold back the tears beginning to well up in his eyes. "What k-kind of sick f-fuck would find this entertaining? This isn't f-fair. It isn't right. Nobody d-deserves t-to have anything like this happen t-to them."

He shook his head, slowly kneeling next to the bodies. Wiping his eyes, the boy fished out the clothes in the pack he'd been given. Carefully wrapping the bloody fetus in the wrinkled shirt, he lovingly placed the child in its mother's arms. Taking the pants that would have matched the shirt, he draped the clothing over Mary's face and chest, covering the woman and her child like a crude burial shroud. Using the pack's remaining clothes he made as close to another shroud as possible for the headless Guy as well.

Looking back at the boy with the broken head, Eddie slowly rose to his feet. Making his way to the corpse, he shrugged off his black oxford shirt. Coming to a halt next to the boy, he dropped the black shirt over the student's ruined head. It had been a while since he'd been to church, but still, the sniffling boy stumbled along with a few half-remembered prayers for the dearly departed.

Finally finished, Eddie returned to his pack, now empty save for the supplies, and shouldered it quickly. Taking his rifle in hand, he sniffed loudly. "I don't want to be around here anymore."

[blastinus]

When Lyn had moved away from the body, the first thing that Jimmy did was feel the guy for a pulse. He knew approximately where he would have to look, but still had to feel around a bit before the light thumping impressed itself on his fingers. The fellow was breathing, sure enough. Hearing the footsteps of his new comrades getting fainter, he looked up, and saw that they were examining something a short distance away. By squinting, Jimmy could barely recognize that one of them was signaling him over. Perhaps they had discovered something interesting.

More likely, they're just getting ready to leave, and they want to make sure that I don't accidentally get left behind. What could be so interesting down there?

Before standing up, Jimmy said in a quiet voice to the unconscious man, "If you can hear me, it would be a good idea to leave now. This place could be a danger zone at any time." It didn't matter much whether he had been heard or not. The guy probably would be hunting him after he woke up anyway. However, it did do wonders for easing Jimmy's conscience. Walking over to meet with Eddie and Lyn, he was about to say something funny when the two of them suddenly began freaking out at something. Looking down at what they were looking at, the half-blind man got a good idea why.

That thing on the ground, is that a baby? Why is there a baby on this island? Are these people so sick that they'll actually bring a kid onto their twisted show? And whose baby is it anyway?

Jimmy felt glad that he couldn't see the specifics of the baby, even before they covered it up with a shirt. If he had caught the monster who killed this kid in the act, he would have probably smashed the guy's face in without hesitation. This was the first time he began to feel rage towards the game itself, and a desire to really hurt something. Hefting the axe in his hand, he stormed off towards one end of the trail with a snarl. Where he was going, he had no clue, but wherever it was, it probably was free of mines. "You two do what you like here," he called behind himself. "I'm going to find someone to whack."

(Jimmy Trejo continued elsewhere)

[Super Llama†]

Laeil stood back for the time being as Eddie and Jimmy approached, seeing the bodies. She silently observed as Eddie removed the clothes from a nearby pack, using them as makeshift burial shrouds for the bodies around them, before wrapping up the dead fetus and returning it to Mary. As she watched, she began to wonder. THIS guy wants to kill one of the biggest killers on the island? It seemed so ridiculous. He didn't seem like he'd hurt a fly, and yet was on a mission to kill a whole human being. She almost pitied him.

Pity. Now there's something she hadn't felt in a while. After she had killed Anthony, she had smothered the crushing guilt she felt afterwards under layer after layer of bitterness and hatred. And once she ran into Melina, she finally had someone (someone alive, anyway) to focus all of that on. Hunting her down became an obsession. It wasn't just about wanting to kill her anymore; no, she NEEDED to kill her. Even now, she found herself, when she didn't have anything else to think about, planning out what she would do if she encountered her again, to make sure she didn't run away a third time. There was no room for pity, or anything like that that got in her way.

Suddenly, she heard Jimmy's voice. "You two do what you like here, I'm going to find someone to whack." She had noticed him staring at the dead fetus up until Eddie wrapped it up. Then he stormed off down the trail, and Laeil couldn't help but feel irritated. What the fuck are you doing? One scene like this and he was just going to lose his shit and leave the group? Of course, she wasn't one to talk, seeing how she had lost her shit as well witnessing a similar sce-

Shut up.

She quickly grabbed her pack and chased after him. "Hey! Where the hell are you going? Wade's the one that did this! There's no need to split up!"

{{continued elsewhere}}

[DetectiveArcher†]

Eddie quickly scanned his surroundings as Lyn and Jimmy made their exit. The dead bodies made him exceedingly uncomfortable, as he slowly took steps to follow his comrades. Taking the scene in once more, the nervous student increased the pace of his steps. Did Guy's body just move? He shook his head, and absently chewed his lower lip, never once slowing or stopping. Relax, Eddie. They're dead, they can't hurt you.

The rational thought, did little to assuage his fears. The tattered remains of his nightmare still clung to the edges of his mind. The quick steps became long strides as he ran after the others. "Guys, wait for me!"

((Edward Sullivan continued elsewhere))

[Pigeon Army†]

Michael waited for several long minutes for the trio departed, and then opened his eyes. The events of the last few minutes, complete with cold steel to the neck, were stuck hard in his mind, swirling around in some sort of terrifying danse macabre.

Michael sat up and looked around him. It was deathly quiet on the Trail, a mood appropriate for what our hero was about to discover...

Abel.

Michael stared at his dead friend for a second. The rock wedged into his head, his still body nailed in place - it was all too violent and brutal for Michael, and he gagged before controlling his stomach reflexes.

The one thing Michael couldn't control, however, was his memory. And right now, his memory had chosen to blank out the events preceding Michael's unconsciousness.

And the only thing a lack of memory can possibly lead to is false conclusions. One of which Michael was coming to right now.

Somebody killed Abel and left me for dead...but who? Was it those three? Is it someone else...someone still here?

Michael picked up his tonfa, luckily still left behind by the trio.

What in the name of Keanu Reeves is happening?

[Namira]

((Bobby Jacks continued from: When We Die))

Rob wasn't sure whether or not he was going to catch up to Lenny, but so far there'd been a worrying lack of sightings. Following what had happened at the coast, Bobby was determined to catch up to the murderer. Killing was killing, it was true, but to not admit to it struck him as incredibly... false. Once you'd done the deed, no amount of claiming self-defence of other such get-outs could wash it away. Murder was murder, pure and simple.

So it was with a certain amount of distraction that Bobby emerged onto the trail. Perhaps you could say that he was overfocused, almost blinkered. Lenny had run away in this direction, therefore he had to keep on moving forward. As such, Bobby managed to pretty much slam straight into one Michael Anders.

What in the name of!?

It was almost like being snapped out of a daydream, and for a moment, Bobby simply stood there, stunned.

[Pigeon Army†]

The head-on collision with one Robert Jacks shook Michael up a little, but the shaking up hadn't shaken loose the memory of what happened to Abel. So it was with little haste that Michael stepped back and looked up at the goliath that had just smashed into him.

"You."

He readied his tonfa, and moved into what he imagined was a threatening stance - of course, said threatening stance only succeeded in making him look more of a weak prat than he already did.

"My name is Michael Anders. You killed my friend. Prepare to die."

It was both a curse and a blessing that Michael had never, ever met Bobby Jacks, or even heard of him. A curse, because it would mean Michael was about to die horribly for even thinking of touching the angsting behemoth with a weapon.

A blessing, because that death would be relatively swift.

Michael swung the tonfa at Bobby's arm.

Hey, if David can kill Goliath, why should I not be able to avenge Abel?

[Namira]

The tonfa connected heavily with Rob's arm, numbing it but not forcing him to relinquish his death grip on his SIG Sauer. Right now, it was one of the only effectual weapons he had (having given away his carbine and pipewrench already), and he'd take a pistol over a sword any time. Needless to say, the sudden attack snapped Bobby out of his stupor (he'd barely registered what Michael had said) and he began to react almost entirely on fighting instinct.

Had he actually heard what Michael had accused him of, Bobby might have been inclined to talk his way out of the fight. Lenny was his man right now, not some kid who thought he had killed a friend of his. Unfortunately, the lack of a motive (at least to Rob) told him simply that the other was trying to take him out. Whether because he was a player or because he saw Rob as a threat, ultimately, it was still an attack.

The quarters were a little too close for Rob to bring his gun to bear, so he reverted to the weapon he was most comfortable with: his body. He lowered one shoulder and exploded forward. aiming the attack at Michael's chest. Given the size difference, it would likely send Michael flying, which was just what Rob needed at that time.

He'd then attempt to shoot at Michael. However, even as he pulled the trigger, Bobby realised that the shot was going to be horribly wayward, due to both the one-handed grip he was using and the slight injury to his arm. It would fly straight past his target.

[Pigeon Army†]

It would've been silly, idiotic for anyone to think, after attacking a giant with a tonfa, they would be spared from physical retaliation.

Michael, at this point in time, was silly.

The shoulder barge took our little albino hero completely by surprise, and he flew backwards into the jungle. His glasses flew off his face and shattered against a tree, and as he stood up, all he could see were blurs, like a smudged Monet.

Unfortunately for Michael, one of these blurs was pointing a blur at him, and that blur had just made a distinctive banging noise.

Is that...a gun? Well, that's...not...good...

Michael waited for the bullet to tear his flesh asunder, but after a brief few moments of nothing, he realised the bullet had missed. He sighed, and smiled to himself.

And that was when the landmine blew up.

Bobby's bullet had missed Michael, yes - but the bullet had collided with one of Danya's many clever traps on the island, and the resulting explosion was both deafening and bright. Michael couldn't really appreciate the morbid beauty of the erupting fireball, being as he was without glasses and trying to get the hell away so he could save his life.

The fireball burst through the jungle canopy, and then dissipated, petering out almost as quickly as it had started. Michael, hands raised above his head in some sort of feeble attempt at protecting himself, swore.

"WHAT THE FLIP! GOSH! GOSH! GOSH! A landmine! Who puts a landmine there?"

He got up and turned around to face the supposed murderer of his friend. Tonfa gripped tightly in his hand, he assessed the situation - he, a weedy albino, was intending to take on a six foot whatever brick shithouse (not that Michael used those words).

As Michael thought this over intently, there were a couple of snaps of rope behind him. His head jolted up, and he went to turn around.

"What was..."

Michael didn't even get to finish the thought, as a gigantic swinging log, another Danya trap that had been triggered by the landmine explosion, collided with the side of back of his head. There was a sharp snap, and Michael collapsed to the ground, neck broken.

The log came to a rest above the dead albino, who had just learned a valuable lesson: that coincidence was quite the bitch.

B106 - MICHAEL ANDERS: ELIMINATED.

[Namira]

"Rube Goldberg would be proud,"

Rob choked out a laugh, but wasn't really fooling himself. This ... wasn't something he could find funny.

Deliberately avoiding looking at the dead body, Bobby removed himself from the area as quickly as he was able to.

((Bobby continued elsewhere))