SOTF Mini

((Louisa Bloom continued from Open Deal))

The four had walked out of the town and made their way south. They just followed Josie, and soon found that she was leading them towards the slope. Louisa thought it looked pretty good. It may have been outside, but the slope did give them a vantage point, and so there was that at least.

The hike was pretty difficult. There were a lot of prickly plants along the slope that made it difficult to walk up. Louisa once again wished she wore pants on Announcement Day, as the gorse bushes continued to prick and leave marks along her legs.

Louisa was currently standing at the plateau of the slope, looking at the valley around them.

"Well, this place looks pretty nice," she said out loud.

We should be able to see anyone who comes this way. It might be hard to get down if a danger zone is declared, but we should be fine for the time being.

Louisa felt a bit nervous about anyone coming up the slope. On the walk over, she explained what happened in the Clearing, from the one-eared Dylan Walker coming out after being shot and mugged by Maxim to Clara Fox and her choice to shoot Louisa in a mugging attempt. They knew to look out for Maxim and Clara, although Louisa admitted to being more afraid of Clara at the moment. Maxim might have been acting out of fear and could be talked down. Clara didn't read like that.

Until then, Louisa turned back to her group and sat on the ground. There wasn't much to do at the moment, so she decided to get comfy and get to know the three with her.

"So, anyone feeling hungry?" she asked.

((Josephine "Josie" Luu Continued From Open Deal))

Josie had no idea where she was going. All she knew was that she had to keep moving. She couldn't allow herself to get ambushed. As they walked, Louisa explained what had happened to her before they met up. Apparently Maxim and this girl named Clara were both already playing to win. Louisa tried to justify Maxim's actions, but Josie wasn't buying it. That guy seemed to have no problem with shooting to kill, and he likely wouldn't back down, even to his best friend. She couldn't fault him for having a strong survival instinct though.

I don't think anyone here really wants to die...

She bit her lip as the thought passed through her mind. The group had reached the bottom of some sort of tall hill. The position at the top looked pretty secure, so Josie began climbing. It was a lot steeper than it had looked from the bottom, and Josie nearly lost her balance several times. When they finally reached the top, Josie looked around. The plateau gave a good view of the surrounding area, so nobody would be able to sneak up on them.

"Well, this place looks pretty nice." 

Josie turned, seeing Louisa sit down beside her bag. That seemed like a good idea. Josie was pretty tired from all the walking, and resting seemed like a good idea for now. At Louisa's suggestion of eating, Josie looked at her bag. She supposed that she had to eat sometime, even if she wasn't feeling very hungry at the moment. She set her axe aside as she began rummaging through her bag. She pulled out some sort of metal box, which she opened. Inside was some kind of meat, crackers and a brownie. At that moment, Josie remembered a quote that she and her friends used to say all the time when they ate lunch together in elementary school.

Always eat your dessert first...because you never know when you're going to die.

Josie gingerly picked up the brownie and took a bite, chewing slowly. That joke didn't seem quite so funny any more...

((Carlyle Shotton continued from Open Deal))

It didn’t seem as if Josie had had any plan other than “wander around aimlessly” after all. She walked with apparent purpose, but Carlyle couldn’t help but notice that they were meandering around, rather than heading directly to somewhere. It wasn’t too big a problem in his eyes, though. It allowed him to get a good look at some of the area they were being held in. It was a rather stark, bleak looking place, yet oddly beautiful in its bleakness, the thick clusters of trees especially. More importantly, it allowed Carlyle to actually see the layout of various sections, even if it was only from afar. If the location they were heading to didn’t work out, it would be a good idea to plan ahead for where else would be a good spot.

The trek also allowed Louisa to elaborate on what had happened to her before she met up with the group. Apparently she’d met up with Dylan Walker in a clearing somewhere. Carlyle hadn’t really spoken with Dylan that much back at school. He did know that she was prejudiced against minorities, despite seemingly being one herself. Still, no matter what she’d been like, she did not deserve to have her ear shot off and her stuff stolen. Then, Clara had arrived and that had been when Louisa had been shot.

Clara was apparently the more dangerous out of her and Max. Carlyle could see that. From what Louisa had said, he’d just been looking for supplies, trying to stay alive longer. It still didn’t justify shooting somebody’s ear off, but it seemed as though he could be talked into stopping. Clara seemed to just be playing to win. She definitely sounded like someone to be avoided.

Eventually, they had all reached a large sloped area. Whilst the rest of the group seemed daunted by the height, Carlyle had been rather enthused about the whole thing. It was kinda like rock climbing, except softer, without ropes, and a little easier. Carlyle felt he could have reached the top first, but he had stayed with the rest of the group, in case anyone needed any help clambering up.

The plateau at the top gave an even better view of the whole valley they had been placed in. When he reached the top, Carlyle stood and looked across the whole place, letting out a soft whistle in appreciation. Louisa was right; it did look pretty nice. It wasn’t exactly the sort of view you’d want to paint and hang on your wall, but actually being there, actually seeing everything from this height for yourself gave a completely different feeling.

Oh, yeah, and we can easily see anyone who comes up the slope too, right. Perfect!

Louisa asked whether anyone was hungry. As she said it, Carlyle heard and felt his stomach rumbled, which he took to mean yeah, he kinda was. The walk to the slope had taken a while, and the slope had obviously used more energy than Carlyle had first thought.

“I sure am, man.” Carlyle said, sitting down with one leg outstretched, one bent, and opening his bag. “I could really go for, like, some pancakes right now.” Pancakes were pretty much Carlyle’s favourite food, and though he highly doubted there would be any pancake mix in the bag, it never hurt to hope, right? Of course, after a quick rummage round, it was evident that there were no pancakes, which kinda sucked, but there was bread, and Josie had what looked like a brownie, which was pretty sweet too.

“Ah well. Bread and brownies are pretty cool too.” Carlyle said, tearing of a chunk of bread, tearing the chunk into smaller chunks, and throwing a couple of these chunks into his mouth. Halfway through his mouthful, he remembered something from back at the town.

“’Ay! Phhblouispha!” Uh, woops. That wasn’t good. Carlyle hastily swallowed his mouthful, brushing the stray crumbs from his bag, before starting again.

“Uh, right, sorry. Yo, Louisa! Is your arm okay? You need to, I dunno, change the bandage or somethin’?”

((Kyle Williams continued from Open Deal))

The minority girl seemed to just pick a direction at random. Kyle honestly wondered why they were even following her when they could have just reached a consensus on where to go next. But he followed along.

Louisa explained what had happened, and who had cracked. Clara and Max were going around hurting people. Kyle made a mental note to not trust either of those two for anything or any reason. It was stupid, thinking that anyone would go through with the situation. To go around killing their own classmates was ludicrous. But Kyle had seen and heard about it happening again and again in each version of the Program.

Was he the only person who understood its true purpose? Was he the only one who saw what really had to be done if you were put in here? The thought depressed him. Surely, surely someone else had to have understood it. Another real patriot. He looked around at the others as they hiked up the slope. So far, they all seemed to get it too, at least a little.

Once they were all settled, Louisa asked if anyone was hungry. The others dug right into their rations. Kyle decided against it, even if he was hungry. "No, not me." He stood and surveyed the area. This was a little better, but in his opinion they were still in a bind.

Carlyle, after attempting to talk with his mouthful, asked Louisa about her arm. To be honest, Kyle had forgotten that was even an issue. But now that it had been brought up it had to be taken care of. "Right, you probably should change that bandage. I don't supposed anyone here has some proper medical knowledge do they? It sure would come in handy about now."

It was unlikely, but it was worth asking. Kyle looked up to the sky. A few days before, he would just have been by himself thinking about whatever came to mind. He wouldn't be talking this much to anyone unless they spoke to him first or unless he wanted to speak to them. But now he was far more talkative than usual.

Funny how the ever present spectre of death forced people to be more sociable and agreeable with each other. Well, for some people anyway.

"We should get that taken care of before doing anything else. But I get the feeling we have some time to spend waiting. Maybe..." He sat down. "Maybe we should all get to know each other. I mean, we don't know how long we're going to last here anyway, so what does it hurt right?"

Louisa saw that everyone was feeling just as hungry as she was. Josie had already pulled out a tin and was eating a brownie, while Carlyle began eating some bread. Kyle wasn't hungry, so he just stood and looked around the area. Carlyle mentioned something about wishing he had pancakes to eat.

"Yeah," Louisa said. "I would love some pizza right now. I wish I could order from my family's pizzeria and have it air dropped into the valley."

Louisa chuckled as she pulled out some of her bread. She then heard Carlyle mumble his words before asking about Louisa's arm.

Oh geez, I completely forgot about that.

Louisa looked at her arm. The bandage was looking a bit redder than before. She sighed.

"Yeah, I better look at that. Lunch can wait a bit."

Louisa removed the issued coat and her cardigan. She pulled her first aid kit out of her bag and opened it up, removing the alcohol pads and bandages. She also grabbed the hand sanitizer and poured some out onto her hands.

"The wound wasn't that bad," she said to the others, rubbing the hand sanitizer on her hands, "but I guess a graze can get infected."

Kyle then mentioned that they ought to get to know each other while they're sitting on the plateau.

"Good idea," Louisa said. "Well, for starters, I'm the oldest of three kids, my parents own a pizzeria, although my mom is serving her military term right now. My hobbies include writing poetry and cycling, and I hope to be a famous poet someday."

Someday. That's wishful thinking right there.

Louisa began to unwrap the bandages around her arm. She didn't want the others to feel too worried about her right now, so she hoped they'd be up for chatting as well. She turned away so they couldn't see the injury.

[[Gwen Phonesavanh Continued From: This Land is Your Land.]]

The four kids who had invaded her lookout point were having a picnic. A full on picnic of all things in the middle of the Program. It wasn't just a picnic either, no, she overheard them, they weren't just eating, they were having a merry time discussing hobbies, talking about pancakes and pizzas and getting to know each other. Gwen almost laughed. It looked so absurd.

She had stayed hidden amongst the surrounding bunch of large bushes, trees and plant life which circled one of the clearings of the plateau observing the teens carefully and quietly. This was to be her camp ground at least for a little while, now they had her trapped in the bushes pretty much in hiding.

This was supposed to be her land and they had yanked it away and made it their land. Though, maybe it was always their land.

They were all Caucasians after all, well except for one of them, which Gwen found to be quite unusual. It wasn't usual to see an Asian hanging around white people, Gwen knew that personally. She examined their faces, she recognized one of the boys as someone she knew, a kid named Carlyle who was generally pleasant compared to most and now the Asian girl's presence made a bit more sense. It relaxed her a bit to see that, but still she wasn't sure what to expect from people after the encounter with Dylan.

People in the Program, were bastards, but that's just how things were. There was no trusting anyone, no matter how okay they supposedly were to people in school. After what he apparently did to Dylan's ear, Gwen could refer to Maxim Senders as a clear example of the type.

What made things even more iffy was the fact that they all seemed to be armed with potentially dangerous weapons. All of them, even the strange boy who Gwen didn't know other than recalling him being somebody who sometimes joined in on making fun of 'foreign kids,' not that she could blame him.

That's just the way life is.

One of the girls, the bright red haired one was injured. Louisa. She hadn't been killed by America after all. She had a gun too. Though so did Carlyle. In fact, all the white kids had guns of some kind from the looks of it and the Asian had an axe. Figures. Did all the Asians have axes?

Gwen decided then that she needed a gun too. Guns were one of those great equalizers, or so the military would make evident from their constant use of them. She could over power some students like Dylan, most girls and some guys, but when a gun was involved, she was definitely outmatched and wouldn't be able to do much about it. She needed the reassurance, mostly.

Despite their weapons or numbers, Gwen didn't feel too threatened. The fact they were having a picnic and having a friendly chat over pizza and pancakes told Gwen a little something about them.

They weren't taking the Program seriously, not like Gwen was.

They didn't have the backbone. There were always people like that every session, and she needed to take advantage of the fact. She continued to observe the group, trying to devise a way where she could 'pull a Dylan' (or a 'smart Dylan' at least, if that even existed) to gain one of the firearms and escape. But how?

Her mind clicked. Gwen pulled out the kit's lighter. She could have made a fire on her own, but she couldn't make any noise and needed to work quickly. She walked a bit away from the clearing to a more bush shrouded area of the slope to put together a few small twigs and leaves in a tiny pile. She flicked the lighter over it, producing a minor spark of fire.

Gwen used a short, long-dead branch with a few dried leaves to create a small torch then headed back over. Gently, she touched the fiery tip of the branch over one of the bushes until it started to develop in flames.

Then she dropped the branch onto the bush and moved, circling the plateau's clearing amongst the bushes to the other side, using the flaming bush as a distraction so she could find a better position behind the overgrowth without being seen. She kept her eyes on one of the students in particular.

Josie swallowed her bite of the brownie, grimacing at the taste. She hadn't expected them to exactly taste good, but still, she had kind of hoped that they would give everyone something to enjoy before they died.

Just as she was about to crack a joke about the food, something caught her eye. She turned and looked towards the other side of the plateau. Her eyes widened as she began to scramble to her feet.

"Fire!"

Hastily picking up her axe, she strode over to the bush to get a better look. Her heart pounded in her chest as she drew nearer to the heat of the flames. There didn't seem to be anyone there... The urge to run passed through Josie's head, but was quickly drowned put by the crackle of the flames.

For a moment, everything was alright. It was not something any of them would consider normal, but it was nice for now. The scene was quiet, almost as though they weren't in the Program at the moment. Louisa talked about herself, her hobbies, and her dreams.

Dreams.

For a moment, Kyle allowed himself to forget that by all probability, each of their dreams was dead. But that lasted only a moment.

That was when he noticed the smell of something burning. He wondered why that was. They hadn't started a—

"Fire!" Josie cried out.

Kyle stood stunned. This wasn't happening. Not now. He scrambled over to Josie's side.

"Stay back!"

This couldn't be accidental, or natural. Someone had to be here. But he couldn't see anyone.

His heart beat at what must have been a thousand beats per minute.

"Put it out. Water, dirt, use whatever you can." He barked as he knelt to open his pack.

They had to have something to help put out a fire.

A thought came to his head. Today, Kyle Williams might die.

He pushed the thought out and focused on extinguishing the flames.

Carlyle finished off his chunk of bread, and idly shook his head as Kyle asked if anyone knew anything about medicine. Really, he would have been happy just sitting here, eating bread at the top of the slope, but that wasn’t a viable option. Well, no, it was still an option, but one that, most likely, wouldn’t really end too well. He needed to get prepared, if only a little bit, even if it was just getting a little more focused.

Carlyle rolled his neck, feeling it click satisfactorily, before switching to a cross-legged position and picking his rifle up from where he’d placed it on the ground. He would need to keep the gun prepared at all times, just in case he needed it for self defence or something like that. It looked a lot more complicated than any of the modern images of guns Carlyle had seen. There was no cartridge thingy, and no visible way of opening it like a shotgun. He was sure he’d work it out though, so he opened his bag to search for the ammo.

Carlyle listened to the group talk as he rummaged in his bag for the ammunition. Thankfully, Louisa’s injury looked a lot worse than it actually was, apparently. Mentally, Carlyle breathed a sigh of relief. His hand brushed something that felt a little like a cloth bag, with what felt like a small book on top. He grabbed both of them and pulled then out of the bag, before opening the book, for that was what it was, and reading it. Carlyle smiled appreciatively at the book after reading a couple of lines; it appeared to be an instruction book for the rifle he’d been given, detailing exactly how to reload it.

Carlyle read and reread the section on reloading briefly, then set to actually doing it as Louisa started telling the group about herself, smiling wistfully as he did so. It felt almost normal, doing stuff like this; eating and talking. Sure, Carlyle already knew stuff about Louisa, and some stuff about Josie, and it really didn’t bring him away from the whole Program thing; it was hard to forget, what with the metal collars around their necks and the rifle currently in his hands. But it was just... nice, really. That was the best word, really, in this situation. Making the best of a bad job, that sorta thing.

Carlyle closed the book, and placed it back in his bag. Hopefully he’d followed it correctly; the powder and shot had been loaded. Best case scenario, he wouldn’t have to fire the gun, but if he did... he could only hope everything had gone okay. Louisa had finished speaking, so Carlyle opened his mouth to talk a little about himself.

For the third time that day, he was interrupted. This time though, his words could definitely take a back seat for the moment. There was a fire, way too close to be comfortable, and given the gorse bushes and grass, likely to spread quickly. The worst part, though, was that someone else was up here; someone who had started the fire. They weren’t safe any longer.

Thinking quickly, Carlyle grabbed his rifle in one hand and one of the litre bottles of water in the other. He hoped there would be enough left over for him to, y’know, actually drink, but right now, the fire was the most pressing concern. Carlyle scrambled up to join Kyarle and Josie, trying to unscrew the top of the bottle with the hand clutching his rifle.

“Alright, here goes nothin’.” Carlyle muttered, before sweeping the bottle through the air, trying to cover as much of the fire with water as possible. If this didn’t work, then the only option was back down the hill, most likely at breakneck speeds. Stuck between a fire and a fall. How quickly luck could change, eh?

((GMing and order skipping approved))

Louisa had finished dabbing the injury with some of the alcohol wipes. It stung, but the bleeding seemed to be going down. If she somehow managed to survive, she'd probably have a noticeable scar on her arm, one she could tell others was the mark from Clara's Kiss. Still, it wasn't as bad as it could have been, so Louisa was glad that an ugly scar was all she would get instead of nerve damage.

As she grabbed the roll of bandages, she began to smell something burning. They didn't make a campfire (in retrospect, it would have been nice to be warm, but it probably would have been a beacon to attract dangerous people), so she knew something was up. That's when Josie shouted.

Louisa saw a gorse bush burning. The other three were already making their way over to the fire to try and put it out. Louisa simply began to quickly wrap the bandages around her arm.

Oh crap, the entire valley could burn down if we don't stop that. We've got to put it out bef-

Before Louisa could do anything, she felt someone run up behind her, placing something cold and sharp to Louisa's throat. Louisa screamed as the person pulled her up off the ground and held her close. Louisa dropped the bandages on the ground and stood frozen in place. She was a hostage, and she knew that the wrong move could get her killed.

Oh my god, it was a trick. The fire was a trick. I'm the slow zebra the big lion preyed upon. Oh god, please help me. Someone please help me.

Louisa didn't move. With the blade to her throat, she knew she couldn't get her Beretta off the ground. She couldn't tell who it was, but she prayed it was someone who would go away once they got what they wanted. She wasn't ready to die just yet.

[[Became unexpectedly busy. GM-ing is approved.]]

"Shhhhhh... good."

Louisa was smart. There was no struggle. Unlike Dylan she knew not to fight back and knew when to cooperate. As thanks, Gwen gently loosened her grip on the girl's red hair, but continued to hold her up high and close.

The cold metal from Gwen's ice axe, pressed against the girl's throat, lingered. Granted, Gwen wasn't planning to do anything to Louisa if she didn't have to. Having the 'head' of her axe to the girl's neck made for quite a visual deterrent, but if she really wanted to hurt Louisa it was really the snow tool's spiked end that was truly dangerous. They didn't need to know that though.

The others had started to put out her fire more quickly than she thought, leaving little time for Gwen to seek the handgun Louisa had put down. It wasn't supposed to end up like this, but she had to think fast and luckily Louisa had stayed behind due to her injury. That was when she popped out from the bushes, hoisted Louisa into the air, kicked the handgun back a fair distance away from them both in-case Louisa escaped, then held her captive.

Carlyle was the first to turn around, running and pointing his rifle in their direction in response to Louisa's screams. He seemed to freeze when he saw her. He said her name, with the rifle still lifted reluctantly in his hands. She knew what that meant all from his expression and tone. Gwen, what are you doing? Why?

It's just how things were in the Program. Too many people just didn't GET that. Gwen pulled Louisa's head back to expose her neck in clear view for all three of them to see.

"Give me your gun and I'll let her go."

She focused attention on Carlyle. The other two, she tried to ignore. Her tone was serious but non-hostile or mean-spirited; this wasn't personal. She hoped he knew that.

Gwen felt 'bad' inside, but it was still something that needed to be done for better equipment. All he needed to do was cooperate, that was all.

"Don't make this difficult, Carlyle. Put the gun plus all of your ammo down, right here in front of me."

There was a moment’s hesitation in the negotiation with her friendly school acquaintance, but ultimately he did as he was asked, proving that he too was smarter than Dylan. Both the gun and a box of ammo were left on the ground a few feet in front of her and he even took a few paces back.

At first she wasn't sure if she could trust something to happen this easily, there had to be a catch. Gwen stared on cautiously at the three other students and moved forward to the supplies with Louisa in tow. She had the rifle now, but remembered that Louisa's handgun was still in the area. After this encounter, Gwen knew she couldn't let them keep that gun either or they would be a threat to her later on. She planned to make a move for the handgun too by using Louisa to possibly distract them while letting her go as promised.

When she was done gathering the supplies into her bag, Gwen nodded then shoved Louisa face first onto the ground.

Everything seemed to happen so fast. One second, all of Carlyle’s attention was focused on the fire, slowly dying thanks to the combined efforts of the group. The next, he heard Louisa screaming, and his attention instantly snapped back to where they’d all been sitting moments before. There was someone else there, Gwen Phonesavanh, grabbing hold of Louisa. She hadn’t been the most popular person back at school, but she’d seemed cool enough to Carlyle. Not that that mattered here anymore. A single word passed Carlyle’s lips, containing his confusion and distress. Nothing else needed to be said.

“Gwen?”

Gwen asked him to put his rifle down. Second time someone had done so today. Carlyle didn’t think Gwen’s intentions were as peaceful as Kyarle’s, though. It was odd, though. Her voice was serious, cold almost, but not to the point of being hostile, and she had simply kept Louisa hostage, rather than try and harm her. Carlyle could guess what she was trying to do; she wasn’t looking to hurt or kill anyone. Rather, she was simply scavenging, trying to build her arsenal up in order to defend herself.

Gwen asked Carlyle again, and for a moment, he stared right at her, gears working overtime in his head. Sure, she had assaulted Louisa, held some sort of axe to her throat, and wanted to take all of their stuff. But maybe that was reason to comply, so she’d leave them alone, so she’d let Louisa alone. She had said she would, after all. Plus, all she wanted to do was survive. Was that so wrong? Heck, was that wrong at all?

Slowly, calmly, Carlyle placed the rifle on the ground, with the ammunition beside it. There, everything had been done, without bloodshed, calmly and peacefully. Carlyle took a few steps back, waiting for Gwen to take his weapon. After another moment of hesitation, she did so, still keeping Louisa hostage.

Theere we go. Everything’s cool. Wasn’t like I was planning on firing that anyway. Everything’s fine.

Gwen seemed prepared to leave. She packed the ammo in her bag. She nodded at the group.

She shoved Louisa forwards, face first onto the ground.

Carlyle’s eyes widened, flicking from Louisa and back to Gwen. He didn’t know what she was planning, but it couldn’t be good. She’d said she’d let Louisa go; obviously that had been a lie. And there was nothing Carlyle could do, nothing at all. Nothing except for-

Carlyle charged at Gwen, hoping she was still off balance after shoving Louisa. His hands went straight for the rifle, grabbing it and trying to wrestle it from Gwen’s grasp. The weapon was the main factor here; take it away from Gwen, and she wouldn’t be able to hurt Louisa anymore. That was it.

That was all Carlyle wanted to do. Just grab the weapon, and stop anyone from getting hurt. That was it.

Gwen had only begun marching away when she heard the tapping of foot steps behind her. She twisted around too late, in time to see Carlyle take her by surprise. If there was one thing Gwen had never expected to happen here, it was the thought of someone running right at the person with the rifle. An ice-axe was one thing, but a loaded gun? It was insane.

The action caught Gwen completely off guard. Carlyle sprinted forward, rushing her with a shoulder block and nearly knocking her off balance with his large frame, but Gwen held ground, as difficult as it was. Both his hands grabbed at the rifle, almost tugging it free from her grasp, she struggled to hold on to it. It was an absolute difficulty as she had only been holding it with one arm, the other gloved hand occupied by her ice-axe.

Gwen's eyebrows furrowed, portraying an expression of disappointment as Carlyle attempted to wrestle the gun away from her. She'd let Louisa go free as promised, but he rushed her as soon as she did. No wonder it had been so easy, it was a trap. He had never planned to let the gun go after all, waiting for his moment to strike. She was right; there was no trusting anyone in the Program, not even Carlyle. People would do anything and things like this happened.

She attempted to lift the ice-axe, but he was too close, there wasn't enough room between them and doing so would shift her strength to one arm and cause her to lose the rifle as well. Carlyle was strong, he push forward, the moment happening within seconds.

The spike of the ice axe pierced through her shirt, sank into flesh and caught her by surprise, taking most of her attention away. The rifle's muzzle pressed up against her body at a slanted angle. The blast entered just below her chest-bone and exited through her upper back.

Gwen stumbled backward, her gloved hands instinctively tried holding onto the gun's muzzle to keep from falling, but the rifle slipped away from her fingers in seconds. The whole wide world seemed to be spinning 'round and 'round from her perspective; all four faces of this tandem caught her eye before she hit the ground.

Thoughts weren't working all that correctly as before. She saw Carlyle above her looking down, the story of her life.

He was spinning, the sky was spinning, everything was spinning. She wanted to say something and she tried to despite everything. Whether it came out coherent or not, she didn't know. Blood was beginning to flood her mouth after all.

"I always thought you were a nice guy. Sorry."

...I guess I was wrong.

The world kept spinning more furiously until the color started to fade into nothing. Eventually the spinning stopped and her vision of the world turned to black. Not that she would have minded. Just the way life was. Maybe what happens after would be a different story.

Better than this at least.

F23: Gwen Phonesavanh, Deceased. 37 students remain.

Of course Gwen wasn’t going to let the rifle go without a fight. Carlyle had expected this, been ready for this. Even though he knew Gwen was physically fit and strong, he was pretty sure he was stronger. Plus, he had the element of surprise, and most importantly, he wanted the gun a lot more than he was sure Gwen did. She just wanted it to build up her arsenal, she could get another one anywhere; he wanted it to protect people, to protect Louisa.

Even so, she put up a lot more resistance than even Carlyle had expected, especially seeing as she was holding onto her ice axe as well. For a few minutes, it seemed to be a stalemate. And then suddenly, in a flash, everything changed. The ice axe pressed into Gwen. Her grip loosened. Carlyle, caught by surprise, pulled the gun backwards, and somehow it ended up pointed directly at Gwen. In his hurried state, he didn’t notice that his finger had again rested on the trigger. One slight step backwards was all it took for Carlyle’s finger to slip and pull it.

Gwen fell backwards, almost in slow motion. Carlyle could do nothing but stare down at her, open mouthed, as the realisation of what he’d just done dawned on him. The rifle slipped from his fingers, just as Gwen hit the floor, and he wanted to say something, anything, an apology for what had just happened, something to comfort her, just... anything.

Somehow, in the end, it was Gwen who ended up apologising to Carlyle. She’d always thought he was a nice guy. Great way of showing it, huh? Had this whole thing just stemmed from some misunderstanding? This whole thing could have been easily avoided. But fate had decided that it hadn’t been avoided, and it had led to the death of a girl, a seventeen year old girl.

I always thought you were a nice guy...

“I... I didn’t...” was all Carlyle managed to say, before he slumped to his knees, staring at Gwen’s body, too shocked to do anything else.

((Resuming old post order of myself-Skraal-Pippin-Lord_Shadow))

Louisa closed her eyes as she heard her assailant whispering to her. The girl was glad Louisa wasn't resisting. Louisa knew it didn't matter that much. This girl could easily press down and drag the blade across and she wouldn't have to worry at all about Louisa making noise. But the girl didn't. She kept the blade close, but didn't move. She was after something, and Louisa was the meat shield to ensure she got it.

The assailant kicked Louisa's gun away.

Okay, that's fine. I don't want to get shot, and she's not going to risk taking it. No one has to use it. We don't have to fire.

The others were now facing them. Louisa heard Carlyle call the assailant "Gwen."

Gwen? Gwen Phonesavanh? I thought she was friends with Carlyle? How could she?

That's when she remembered: she's in The Program. Maxim shot and mugged Dylan, Clara tried to kill her, and Gwen would put a blade to her throat. How could she think that everyone would be like Carlyle and the others?

Gwen pulled Louisa's head back, showing her neck off. Louisa let out a small cry and closed her eyes. Gwen was holding her ransom, for Carlyle's gun. Just like Clara, it was all about the guns. None of these kids had ever held a gun, and yet they were all everyone wanted. Louisa figured they were good for intimidation. Death could come quicker with a bullet than a knife. Probably made it easier to perform.

That's when Louisa heard Carlyle step forward. She opened her eyes and saw that he was indeed setting the rifle down. Louisa watched as he laid his ammo and gun down for Gwen to take. That's when Gwen began to push her forward. Louisa knew she was Gwen's until Gwen got the rifle, but then what?

If this is really the moment I die, whether it be from a knife to the throat or a bullet to the back, I just hope the others are okay. Carlyle, Kyle, Josie, Tori, Dylan...... Maxim......

Suddenly, Louisa felt Gwen push her to the ground. She tried to shield her face by putting her arms in front of her as she slammed against the dirt floor. She kept her face to the ground. She didn't move. She didn't want to move. Gwen let her go. What?

Wait, she could still shoot me in the back. Just stay still. Don't do anything. Don't give her reason to fight.

Louisa heard some quick footsteps. She looked up and saw Carlyle rushing towards Gwen. He was actually trying to wrestle the rifle away from her. Louisa rolled over on her back and began to crawl back.

Oh god, what's he doing? That's just going to inspire Gwen to kill him! Oh god, what are we going to do?

That's when Louisa remembered her handgun. Gwen had kicked it away, but no one was going for it. Louisa got up off the ground and tried to look for the Beretta.

Wait, I'm actually prepared to kill Gwen. Fuck, what's happening to me? I'm becoming the National Executor! No! I'm not! I'm going to drive Gwen away! Make her leave! No way-

That's when she heard a loud pop. Louisa let out a scream and turned back to Gwen and Carlyle. Her eyes widened as she saw Gwen stumble back. Louisa covered her mouth with her hands. There was a red stain forming on Gwen's chest. Gwen fell to the ground. Louisa heard Gwen apologize to Carlyle, and then stopped moving. Carlyle slumped to his knees.

Louisa stood frozen, keeping her hands over her mouth. She could feel tears begin to well up in her eyes. She just saw someone die. Gwen was dead. Someone in her class was already dead. Louisa began to lower her hands from her mouth.

"Carlyle?"

Louisa didn't know what else to say.