Day 1 10:01 AM

Jewel Siu Tung (Girl #10) had never been much of a lone warrior in school; she was in constant need of the security that the clique of pampered socialites she hung out with could supposedly provide her with, never daring to brave the halls of Bray Wood without being flanked by one of Frankie's lackeys. It seemed only fitting that she now progressed through the wilderness of the forest in tandem with a group of female cohorts, though she considered this motley crew to be only barely acceptable for a girl of her status. Sue Cathcart (Girl #3) was leading the pack, sporadically aiming her Uzi at the surrounding shrubbery whilst Anne Priestly (Girl #11) covered the girls' backs, nonchalantly trudging along with her Colt 45. held loosely in her shooting hand, seemingly indifferent to the possibility of an impromptu ambush. Jewel, Sylvie Becker (Girl #15) and Daisy Donahue (Girl #4) marched along in the middle, furtively surveying the undergrowth for attackers and anxiously checking their watches to see how much longer it would take them to reach the infirmary. Jewel knew they were the most poorly armed members of the group – her nunchaku and Daisy's whip would hardly provide ample defence against an assailant armed with automatic weaponry and if Sylvie had anything better in regards to armaments she was certainly managing to keep it well hidden, having refused to show any of the girls, even Daisy, her weapon.

"How long will this take?" hissed Jewel under her breath, silence – according to Anne – was of paramount importance when they were travelling out in the open.

"It'll take as long it takes, don't drop the pace!" responded Anne, slightly pushing Jewel forward as she did so. Jewel scowled: she wasn't accustomed to being bossed around, least of all by a non-entity like Anne.

The group continued onward. Despite the inviting glow of the sun and the greenness of their surroundings the atmosphere was tainted with fear and paranoia, partly because the wind's continued rustling of the bushes instilled each of them with a momentary sense of panic.

"Daisy, I'm frightened," confided Sylvie in a whisper to Daisy.

"Join the club," replied Daisy, "but Sue and Anne are right, we need to make this trip because if we don't…"

Daisy's train of thought was cut short by the abrupt movement in one of the nearby bushes. On this occasion however there was no doubt that the rustling was as result of something other than a light breeze; the unmistakable figure of a schoolboy stood squatting behind the sinewy layers of bramble, though whether he was preparing to attack or simply cowering in terror was unclear.

"I'll check it," said Anne, gripping her pistol and quickly licking her lips. She advanced towards the bush with remarkable confidence, gun at the ready, eyes widened in anticipation.

A yelp emanated from the bush, Anne raised her pistol and aimed. Edward Devereux (Boy #3) meekly stood up from his hiding place; arms raised defensively, a look of total mortification imprinted upon his face. Anne snorted with unconcealed derision and slightly lowered the pistol, glaring at Edward hostilely.

"Talk about an anti-climax," she huffed, "can we move on now?"

Sue shrugged her shoulders; Jewel consented with a quick nod whilst Sylvie simply gazed blankly at the small figure that stood trembling amongst the bushes.

"Daisy?" said Anne flatly.

"Perhaps," ventured Daisy "we should take him with us?"

"NO!" chorused Anne and Sue indignantly. Daisy narrowed her eyes slightly and stepped away from the others and approached Anne.

"The more people we have who aren't trying to kill us, the safer I feel!" she said through gritted teeth.

"Even if we have to take a nut-job like him?" sneered Anne in response.

"What do you think Jewel, do we bring him or ditch him? Or to be more exact, do you want to spend the remaining hours of your life with Edward Devereux?" asked Sue.

"Err…" began Jewel, "quite frankly, no"

"Well there you go," said Anne triumphantly, "we-vote-no-on-the-weirdo."

"Wow your wit's killing me - whatever happened to being, like, humanitarian Anne? He'll probably die if we don't take him" retorted Daisy, taking another step towards Anne.

"Well I'm more than happy to finish him off now to save him an agonising wait for an unavoidable death, if you want." said Anne with calculated menace. She turned to face the quivering Edward, gave a coy smile, raised her pistol and mimed firing it.

Edward gave a muted gasp, turned on his heel and darted back into the forest.

"Good work Anne, is it any wonder you're the premier bitch of Bray Wood?" Daisy's contempt was transparently obvious; Anne looked at her and shrugged unconcernedly.

"It's a living. Unlike you I just don't…" Anne's reply was prematurely ended by four gunshots, each of which originated from the opposite side of the path. Anne collapsed; the blood flowed freely from her wounds, her mouth now wedged open in an unflattering gape and her glazed eyes lolling up and down. She'd been an ungainly sight in life and a downright hideous one in death. There were a few moments when the girls stood still, trying to digest the information, their eyes maintaining an unwavering gaze on Anne's lifeless corpse.

The was a warrior like cry from the bushes behind the stupefied girls; Phil Argyle (Boy #15) charged from the greenery, trampling the brambles and bracken with his hefty feet as he sped towards the girls, an MP5 slung around his shoulders, bouncing maniacally against his thigh. He shot towards Jewel, a chunky blur of blue blazer and cream shirt and before any of them had time to react he'd hoisted Jewel onto his shoulders – with seemingly very little effort – and hurtled towards the bushes, lightly skipping over Anne's body whilst Jewel frantically tried to free herself from his grip.

There was another horrified pause.

"Let's Rock!" yelled a male voice from further down the path.

"Take cover!" shrieked the understandably panic-stricken Sue. Without a moment's hesitation, Daisy hurried towards Anne's corpse, snatching the Colt 45. from her friend's lifeless hands and ungracefully hurling herself into the bushes. With equal haste, Sue rushed towards the welcoming sight of the particularly large trunk of a nearby oak. Sylvie was left standing dumbstruck in the middle of the path.

Whilst Sue attempted to ascertain the whereabouts of the attackers and Daisy amateurishly struggled to load her pistol, Sylvie stood still. Each and every muscle had been anaesthetized by terror, she could feel her throat tighten, an illusionary coil twisting around her oesophagus and progressively constricting it. She couldn't breathe; she couldn't cry out, she was helpless. For a moment time seemed to cease, sounds became muffled and her vision blurred as tears streaked down her cheeks whilst she quietly prayed that it would all be over.

She got her wish.

Daisy, finally having loaded her pistol, looked up to see the stationary Sylvie tumble backwards and roll into the bushes as she was struck in the chest by a buckshot from Tian's shotgun. For a moment she said nothing, but then with a guttural roar she cried out,

"SYLVIE!"

She received no reply.

Tian and Fergal now stood on the edge of the pathway covered by only a few waiflike strands of grass and bracken, Sue raised her Uzi and fired, sending pebbles clattering into the air whilst Tian and Fergal frantically fired from behind their meagre cover.

"Save the emotion for later Daisy! I need your help!" yelled Sue at her distraught and hysterically weepy friend but her words were met with a deaf ear as Daisy slowly rose to her feet and dreamily skulked off into the woodland.

Jewel continued her struggle to free herself, clawing, biting, spitting, but all in vain. Phil wasn't even running anymore, the strain of having to exercise his flaccid legs having been too much, now forcing him to revert to a wheezing jog.

"What are you doing with me?" demanded Jewel, fearing she already knew the answer and giving a loud though ineffectual scream of "Help!"

"You and I have unfinished business," replied Phil with a grin that sent Jewel's perfectly toned stomach into a frenzy of repulsed convulsions.

Catching sight a tree trunk that was of adequate size for his purposes, Phil removed his struggling classmate from his shoulders and pressed her - with almost gentlemanly care- face first against the bark. In the intervening moments between his capture of Jewel and their arrival at this nicely secluded spot in the forest, Phil had mapped out with the meticulous precision of a skilled pornographer just how he was to proceed in his enjoyment of the fleshly pleasure that Jewel was now to offer him – regardless of whether she wanted to or not.

First stop, her skirt.

But Phil had mad one serious oversight in his appraisal of the supposed ease with which he could 'procure' what he wanted from Jewel. His slackened pace in journeying to this particular tree had facilitated his being unknowingly stalked by one of his classmates, a classmate who unfortunately at this moment in time was not only in an emotional state that could be most euphemistically described as disgruntled, but also happened to be standing directly behind him.

"You fucking scum!"

Phil turned. There was the muffled sound of a whiplash followed by the angry grunts of the assault's unfortunate recipient. The laceration inflicted by the whip ran across the bridge of Phil's nose, an angry red welt that further marred an already unsightly façade.

"Cunt," he said with frightening quiet.

"Blow me," retorted Daisy with a shrill and rather unhinged cackle.

With the palm of apelike hand Phil pushed against Daisy's cutely dimpled face, snatching the pistol she'd tucked into her skirt's waistband as she toppled backward. He raised the Colt. 45 and spun on his heel to face his intended victim. But Jewel had anticipated this. With the utmost of feminine grace she raised her right leg and arced it towards Phil's outstretched hand, easily kicking the pistol from his stubby fingers. The startled Phil had little time to respond and Jewel took quick advantage of this by driving her knuckles into his left cheekbone, an action that yielded just the faintest sound of a crunch. Phil was now out cold and for once it hadn't been as a consequence of his notorious binge drinking.

The girls looked intensely at each other. There was a pregnant pause.

"Let's book" offered Jewel, Daisy nodding in acquiescence as she picked up the pistol and graciously handed it to her new ally.
The gun battle was coming to a stalemate: neither of the parties had achieved any injuries and both were beginning to feel concerned about the quotient ammunition they were rapidly expending. Sue was the first to dash off into the forest, aimlessly firing a trail of bullets as she did so. It was only after a protracted debate that Fergal had eventually convinced Tian that it would serve them better to go looking for the AWOL Phil than to pursue a famously nimble female such as Sue.

A short timeafter they'd departed Sylvie sat up, nursing her sore chest. The bullet proof vest of hers had stopped the bullets but not the bruising and she was left with one considerable concern: had the impact of the shotgun pellet done any damage to the unborn foetus that was gestating in her womb?

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