Saturday, July 17, 2010. Local time: 7:02 AM
Kurt and Lily made their way westward. The first danger zone, A-5, had just been activated, but it was up on the northern shore of the island and Kurt and Lily were in the south, so they did not worry much about walking into it.
They were more afraid of walking into someone else.
"Kurt," Lily asked, "where are we going?"
"There's some kind of fortress in the west," Kurt responded. "I think we'll be safe there."
"Well, do you honestly think we're the first ones to think to go there?"
Kurt had not thought of that.
"Shit," he said with a sigh. "You're right. If we go there and someone with a gun meets us, we're fucked."
Kurt and Lily had received a machete and hedgeclippers respectively, making them two of the worst armed students on the island considering many guns had been given out.
"Kurt," Lily said nervously, "we need a gun."
Kurt was going to say that that was obvious, but then he realized what she meant: they need to TAKE one.
Neither one wanted to play, but did they have any choice?
As they tried to think things out, a voice screamed out:
"SHOW ME YOUR FUCKING WEAPONS!"
Both Kurt and Lily jolted around to see who it was, and they recognized the shooter instantly as Vicky Rivas (Girl #21), a tall and strong Hispanic girl who was a known street hood. She started smoking cigarettes and weed at only age eleven and had been arrested for assault, being sentenced to community service, at age fourteen. Kurt and Lily forgot to even think of her when they were listing potentially dangerous students, but now she stood in front of them holding a Colt M1911 pistol. Kurt recognized the gun from using it at the end of Call Of Duty 4: Modern Warfare, his favorite video game of all time. That would be kind of ironic, he thought.
Kurt and Lily both slowly pulled their weapons out of their bags and put them on the ground.
"Nice try," Vicky said. "Betcha got guns hidden behind your backs don'tcha?"
"No we don't," Lily said nervously turning around and lifting up her shirt a little to show that she had nothing hidden. Kurt did the same.
Vicky paused.
Lily spoke again. "Are you gonna kill us?"
Vicky showed no expression on her face whatsoever. "That's the name of the game, girl."
Kurt and Lily braced themselves. This is it...
"Drop the gun," another voice, this time a boy's, cut in.
Kurt, Lily, and Vicky all looked and saw Neil standing on the edge of the trees holding Dirty Harry's gun, a S&W M29 revolver.
Vicky panicked, and fired a shot off in Neil's direction, ultimately missing him, before running off into the woods. Neil ran after her, but not to shoot her; he wanted to just make sure that she was leaving. Before long, she had disappeared.
When Vicky was gone, Neil turned to Kurt and Lily.
"Those are your weapons?" Neil asked blankly.
Kurt and Lily nodded.
"We need a gun," Lily said suddenly. "We won't make it very long with these."
Neil paused.
"You're right," he said finally. "So far I've seen quite a few people with guns."
"Like who?" Kurt asked.
"Bernie and Manny have guns, and they're together. Ursula, Alan, Jack, and Phil have guns too as far as I know. And of course Vicky too. But I'm sure there are more."
"Can we come with you?" Lily asked impulsively, somewhat regretting it immediately afterward.
Kurt looked at Lily in shock. They had decided earlier that Neil was someone to avoid, even though he had just saved their lives.
"I think you need to," Neil said. "You won't make it long without me or someone with a gun. But you need to keep up. Okay?"
Kurt nodded, and Lily said "okay."
"All right I think we should head eastward, bec-"
"We were heading to the fortress in the west," Kurt interrupted.
"That's not a good idea," Neil responded. "Everyone will think to go there because it seems safe. I think that's what the Administrator wants: confrontation."
"You're right," Lily jumped in. "But where do you think we should go?"
"Towards the library in the northeast," Neil said, pointing to it on his map.
There was a silence for a few seconds, before Kurt spoke again.
"Is there a way out of this?"
"I highly doubt it," Neil said stoically.
"Well I'm not giving up like that," Lily said, snapping her fingers at the last word.
"Well do you think anyone could figure a way out?" Neil asked.
"Alan," Kurt said immediately. "If I know Alan, that guy won't go down without trying."
"You trust him?" Neil asked.
"Yeah I do. We both do."
Lily nodded.
"Well," Neil said after a moment, "if we find him, we'll at least give him the benefit of the doubt alright?"
Kurt and Lily nodded.
"All right let's get moving," Neil said.
From there, the most unlikely alliance on the island made their way towards the northeast.
…
Ursula had run from the fortress where she was nearly killed by Warren (who was now dead himself, as she learned from the morning announcement) as long as she could, which was longer than she had ever run in her life. While not seriously crippled, the bullet that whizzed by her face hitting a wall that sent shrapnel into her cheek and left eye did sting. Fortunately she was not blinded by the debris; Ursula considered herself lucky.
Lucky? Lucky for WHAT? Lucky that she was not blinded early on in a gladiator battle? Luck was not on this island.
The more Ursula thought about it, the more she realized that she was angry at Warren for NOT killing her. Warren is dead and out of the game, so his problems are over, Ursula thought to herself.
I could end my problems too, she also thought.
Ursula eyed her silver Beretta M9, knowing that it could, in theory, take her out of the game for good. What if she won? She had no one to go home to; she was in foster care after her mother's murder and stepfather's arrest, and they barely paid any attention to her. She figured that leaving them would do nothing but save them money on food and clothes and school. It was not that they were bad people, and it was not that Ursula was a troublemaker; in fact, she had managed to not turn to drugs or alcohol or even cigarettes yet. Ursula just felt like her life was going nowhere, and being in this game was nowhere.
Ursula made up her mind. She picked up her gun, and put it to her temple. Just one squeeze and you're free, she thought...
But she just could not do it. No matter how miserable and hopeless she felt, she could not pull the trigger.
As she pulled the gun harshly away from her head, she broke down crying.
After crying for a moment, she remembered someone. Jack. He had actually tried to stop the gunfight between her and Warren. To her, that meant he was either caring or stupid. Ursula guessed (and prayed) that he was the former, and decided to find him. Thinking about it further though, she realized he was probably with his football player friends, Alan and Phil and Charlie (oh wait, he's dead too) and Derek (wait, was Derek here at all?) and maybe the team mascot Eric?
However, Ursula decided that she trusted all of the guys she thought of, whether they were here or not. She decided that if she was safe with ANYONE, it was Jack and his buddies.
Dead
Boys
#14, #15, #18, #17
Girls
#17, #5, #19
35 Contestants Remaining
(AUTHOR'S NOTE: The chapters are, hopefully, going to get longer from this point forward.
Also, in the next chapter, a truly badass character will rise.)
