To my readers: I know several characters weren't really "introduced", but I wanted them to appear at least once, even if very briefly before they die/do something very important.

"Both Pete and Krissie lie there… and Susie, too…" sighed Darla, as she and Belinda crossed zone E12 on their map. Currently, in the small port in zone B11, they were relatively safe. Though they didn't find food or water, as no one lived there, it was an ideal spot to hide. There was little chance of enemies coming from too many directions, and Belinda's Ingram was a winner weapon in the Training. There were a few small boats floating on the water, on the side of one of them, quite sadly, they could clearly see the name Krissie.

Becky's death shocked Darla the most, as they had known each other since elementary school. The small, silent girl burst into tears intermittently, sometimes staying quiet for a while, then holding on to Belinda trying to control her sobs.

"Someone will pay for this!" Belinda raised her gun with one hand, and caressed Darla's head with the other.

"Thanks for being here…" Darla wiped her eyes, and accidentally touched the bandage on Belinda's shoulder "oh! Sorry! Does it hurt…? What… what happened to your arm, really?"

Belinda smiled a little forcedly, then took the bandage off.

"I could have taken it off some time ago, but I thought I'd show it off on the class trip, when we'd be on the lakeshore in bikini… I almost forgot about it."

On her shoulder, there was a large tattoo of a black rose.

"Darla, you know it's my favourite flower… the rose is the symbol of life and love, but if it's black…" Belinda grinned towards her Ingram.

Darla at first couldn't say a word from astonishment.

"But… what did your parents say?"

"Oh, forgot to mention that too, eh?"

Belinda used to cope with her problems alone, while Darla usually got over them by talking about them with her friends.

"What's the matter, Bel?"

"My parents are so occupied with their divorce and arguing over every little thing but me, that they didn't even notice I left, let alone when I returned home!"

"What?! But Bel! They've been married for nearly 20 years and…"

"Darla, where the hell do you live?! Yes, they're divorcing! And always argue about our two apartments and the money, I am nothing but a secondary little problem!"

Darla lived in a happy family with both her parents and her sister, and so far thought the Sykes family spent its days in perfect harmony as well, with Belinda as the only child. She didn't even notice that in the last few months her friend never wanted to make a girls' night at theirs.

I'm such a selfish person!

She hugged Belinda.

"Hey, stop having pity of me! Oh… well, okay. I'm glad you're here for me, uh."

They looked at the endless sea, and soon their thoughts went back to Lily. Where could the strong, determined leader be? She might be wandering alone, wounded and scared!

"Arnie, may I take a nap?" Edward McGrant (Boy #8) lay on a bed yawning.

"Just sleep, I'm not tired anyway… and I'll be on guard."

"And I have these…" Eddie pointed at the knife and the gardening scissors on the bedside table.

Arnie nodded and left the room. Ten minutes later he took a peek inside, and noticed his best friend was already sleeping peacefully.

Arnie, forget about your fireworks already!

Sorry, but I can't. They can even be useful now…

Then, slowly and cautiously, knowing he had not much time, and some "eager player" could pass by at any moment, he snuck out of the house, over to the shop, and exited with a bottle of rubbing alcohol and three large rolls of paper. He didn't find any of these inside the house… oh well. Now he had them.

He stayed in the kitchen on the ground floor, placed the pepper on a coffee filter and soaked it in alcohol. Once done, he put it all in the storage room, on a shelf where Eddie was unlikely to find it. Then he took three boxes of matches, and, using a plastic knife, as a metal one would be very dangerous, he patiently scratched off the head of each single one of them; the powder soon was placed beside the pepper on the filter.

When he first saw fireworks as a little boy, he decided he wanted to do this as an adult too. But from the day he accidentally set his brother Dean's (how he cried!) teddy bear on fire, he paid much more attention to the techniques. So far, it was him, Arnie, the young master of fireworks, the one asked to literally set alight the bigger school parties; on New Year's Eve they had to ask the police's permission too, but it didn't matter, the wonderful result was a perfect payback…

"Oh, hi, Eddie!" when his friend arrived downstairs around nine o'clock, Arnie was busy cooking some instant vegetable soup "sit down, it's almost ready!"

Though Gabriel Donaghy (Boy #4) was blown in the face with the pepper spray at around eight AM, it was nearly half past nine when he regained his senses.

What happened?

His cheeks were still slightly burning.

"Tom…!"

Thomas Reed (Boy #9) lay prone on the ground, with a bloody wound on his head. He was still alive, though: Gabriel could see he was breathing.

Gabriel quickly picked up his crowbar: he clearly could knock him out with it, and it was a matter of luck he woke up first, and stood up. He would have never wanted to kill… After some insecurity, he leant down to get the pepper spray as well, when Tom suddenly opened his eyes, and grabbed his arm.

"Aah!" Gabriel fell back, as the stronger boy jumped on top of him.

While they struggled, Tom managed to get hold of the pepper spray, but Gabriel's reflexes were quicker, and he kicked him in the stomach with his knee.

Damn it, shit! He's my friend! We went to McDonald's with him and Mark, like two days ago!

As Tom fell back, Gabriel jumped up and hit him on the forehead with the crowbar; as blood sprayed on the handsome solist's thin white hand, something clicked inside of him, and his vision went red. He didn't stop, and kept on hitting him, nearly out of his senses, his light blue shirt and orange T-shirt becomingdotted with red…

About two minutes later he noticed everything was bloody, including himself, the floor, the crowbar… and where Tom's head used to be, now lay a weird dark red object, shaped like some odd abstract statue.

Gabriel jumped up at the speed of light, and, with the pepper spray in one hand and the crowbar in the other, he ran to the bathroom on the ground floor, knelt beside the toilet, and threw up everything that was left in his stomach.

Boy #9 Reed, Thomas – eliminated

21 contestants remaining

Josephine and Jacob Anderson (Girl #1; Boy #2) had breakfast at a picnic table they found halfway as climbing the mountain. They didn't meet anyone so far, though Jacob, as leaving the school, noticed a silhouette among the trees, it was probably Benjamin Booster (Boy #3). Luckily, he didn't seem to have noticed them.

"Jay…" mumbled Josie "should we go higher?"

"Why, of course!"

"B-but Jay! They…"

"If we stay down here, they can attack us from up there, hello?!" Jacob waved a hand in his sister's face impatiently "and these will be easier to throw down!"

Josie nodded sadly, looking at her brother's hand grenades.

Once around the top of the mountain, sometime before 10 AM, the siblings paused in the shadow of a large oak tree.

"Josie, these are fragmentation grenades… it's awesome!" Jacob sat with his legs crossed, almost quietly playing with one of them.

"Huh?"

"They don't simply explode, they throw shrapnel around. Another reason for coming this high" Jacob snickered as he read the instructions "if we throw this down to some people, the more the better, at least a few of them will get hit… and die."

Josephine, crouching near her brother, looked around worried. Was this really his kind and shy brother? The one now merrily planning to murder his classmates? And, moreover, he seemed not to feel any guilt.

George Adams (Boy #1) came to the conclusion that hiding south from the school was a bad strategy, for the houses stood way more crowded there than in other parts of the island, thus there was a higher chance of running into someone. Houses. Well, George could have hid into one of them without bothering too much; but hiding away wasn't definitely his style. Nope, he'd rather wander around the island. In the end, he was the popular, trendy guy – no one would dare killing him just like that!

He ate and drank a bit inside a small dead end, then stood up and took the way north. Maybe, if not hiding away, some neglected place to take some sleep would be okay. Around half past 10 AM, he reached a small, derelict house in zone C8, with the garden (if it could be called a garden, since the old wooden fence was merely present) overgrown by weeds.

Perfect. A few bugs and stingy weeds won't scare me off.

He made his way to the door in a few minutes.

Michael Spencer (Boy #11) hissed in fear as he saw a shadow in the garden. Someone's there to kill me!

Michael was not evil, antipathetic or unfriendly. The opposite, he behaved too much like a good boy. His ebony black hair was parted in a typical "mommy's darling child" way, in the middle, and it always seemed clean and silky. As the attacker of the soccer team, he was the idol of the sporty girls, especially when he brushed his sweaty hair off his childish, round light brown eyes, and looked up at the squealing fans… Moreover, he used to be a good student, a quiet, silent one, whom the teachers usually liked. Though he would have never killed, now, in the middle of the Training, he had no idea what to expect. If he shoots someone, it's only self-defense… Michael was scared. Though he used to be quite popular in the class, he hardly made any effort to be noticed apart from the soccer, just peacefully sitting in his desk studying. Once he dies, everything left to do was to find a new attacker, end of story… He pulled back in a corner shivering, and slowly cocked the hammer of his revolver. The instructions said it was needed before each shot with the Colt Single Action Army… The mysterious shadow then pushed the door open with a small creak, and entered. Michael stood in shade, the other one did not notice him yet. In the slight light he recognized George Adams' typical, charismatic face, with his short, very dark brown curls hiding his forehead, and his slightly crooked nose. He got really scared only then; for if it was, say, Arnie, Gabriel, or some girl not in Clan Lily, maybe, just maybe, he would have had a chance of survival. But George was a trendy, cool boy, Lily Bell's boyfriend (though Michael didn't keep track of them being together or not that very moment)!

Slowly… slowly…

Michael raised the revolver, and shot. Too bad it kicked unexpectedly hard; his hand shook and the bullet hit the wall above George's head.

"Aah!" George lowered his head, then jumped to Michael before he could cock the hammer again. The next moment he was already grasping his wrist, trying to get him to drop the revolver.

Michael didn't let go. He was desperate to live – and knew too well that if George had a knife or gun, he would have already used it. Then he suddenly noticed the bottle in his enemy's left hand; it was full of some transparent liquid.

Water? No… but what is it, then?

He couldn't read the writing on the label.

George noticed the direction of his look, and grinned evilly.

Oh, you'll see what is this very soon!

With a powerful movement of his thumb, he sent the tap flying to the ground, and, before Michael could recover, he spilled a few drops on his hand. It was very little, a few centilitres maybe…

"AAAAAHHH!" Michael dropped the Colt Single Action Army, and stared horrified at his burnt hand, as the skin and the flesh literally melted from his fingers in front of his eyes… his thumb and index finger went useless on both his hands.

George picked up the revolver; the hammer was cocked in a moment.

Michael wished he could run away, but George stood in the door. A bullet ran beside his face, then he heard the click again. George suddenly noticed the bottle was still open; since he would have never wanted to spill some sulfuric acid on his own hand as well, he knelt down for the tap.

This was enough for Michael; he jumped out of the window and ran off crazily. He heard two shots; at the second, he felt a hit in his right shoulder. It didn't matter; the pain, the blood wetting his white T-shirt, his useless hands, nothing: he wanted to live.

George swore a while, then calmed down. He got a gun, that was all that counted. He knew he couldn't stay in one place, though, maybe the shots would attract someone with a better weapon. He still had the sulfuric acid, a huge amount, perfect to kill: he hardly spilled any on Michael's hand from the 1,5 litres bottle.

He stepped out in the garden and went in direction of the school. He wanted to get to the church, to be precise.

May I ask your opinion about who seems dangerous/likely to win?