AN: I'm sure everyone who is reading this is shocked… A new chapter that didn't take 6 or so months for me to post. I've got a window of time right now so I am hoping to get done with this story over the course of the next month ( or month and a half).

Thanks for the reviews, and to JWEarl: I have a response to your question at the end of this chapter.

Enough chit-chat for now. On to the story.

Character's Not Listed as Dead:

The Bride and Groom

Christina Evans (Chrissy) - The Bride

Robert Philips (Bobby) - The Groom

The Friends of the Bride and Groom

Emily Stone - The Maid-of-Honor

Victor Ford (Vic) - The Best Man

Mary Medina - The Sullen

Julie Graves - The Outcast

Tom Lane - The Stranger

The Bride's Family

Amy Marshall - The Tyrant

Denise Arnold - The Peacekeeper

Amber Evans - The Tease

Nicole Evans (Nicky) - The Risk Taker

Daniel Marshall - The Mogul

Melissa Marshall (Lissa) - The Flower girl

Joseph Marshall (Joey) - The Ring bearer

The Groom's Family

Allen Philips - The Reverend

Lewis Philips - The Loner

Others

Dorothy Rose - The Stripper

Chapter 10: Click

"What was that," Nicky said looking back towards the inn. They had only made it a short ways up the trail when they heard the echoes of the explosion.

"Whatever it was its behind us, not in front of us," Daniel said impatiently. "We have to keep moving."

"But it could have been an explosion from the inn," Nicky said with deep concern.

"Nicky, if you're just going to slow us up you can go back to the inn," Daniel said sternly.

"Don't worry about that Nicky," Allen said as he placed a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "Whatever that was came from beyond the inn. Far enough away that it wouldn't have affected any of the others who are at the inn. Just remember to watch where you're going. Whoever the killer is may have set traps." Allen directed the last part to both Nicky and Lewis. Both of the teens gave Allen a firm nod.

The group continued on. The path they were on was fairly level and well enough kept that they were able to travel quickly. That was until they discovered Cort's body.

The smoldering remains of Cort's body still lay in the middle of the trail where he had finally succumbed to the fire. His body continued to burn long after his death, and if it were not for his running shoes, which were in surprisingly good shape considering, they would not have been able to identify him. Cort was basically ashes.

Allen stopped the group for almost five minutes as he said a prayer over Cort's remains. Daniel paced impatiently the entire time. To Lewis, Cort was somebody he had just met, so it was hard for him to be more concerned for the loss of Cort over the situation they were in. And to Nicky, who had seen Alli's horribly mutilated body, Cort's remains seemed relatively tame.

Allen rose from his position over Cort's remains. He looked somber, but he was not crying.

"We should keep going," Allen said matter-of-factly. "We will already be cutting it close to get to the marked location by noon."

Lewis walked over to his father to give him an embrace, but Allen stopped him by grabbing his arm firmly. Allen gave Lewis a reassuring nod and he turned to follow Daniel who had already started walking quickly up the trail.

Nicky walked over to Lewis and put her hand gently on his back, giving it a short rub.

"We have to keep going," she said. Lewis nodded and the two of them followed side-by-side a short distance behind Daniel and Allen.

Emily was the first of those who needed to change clothes to make it back downstairs. She saw Amy was standing nervously to the side and Julie, Vic, and Tom, who were anxiously waiting for her.

As she reached the bottom of the stairs, Emily made a quick bee line into the lounge where Mary and Dorothy were still waiting for Denise to get dressed.

"Be careful out there, Mary," Emily said.

"You too! Are you sure you won't reconsider going to the docks with us?" Mary asked.

"No," Emily said as she walked away, not giving Mary a chance to argue her position again.

"Ready?" Vic asked impatiently. "Anyone else you need to say goodbye to before we leave?"

Emily turned to Amy, "They'll be alright, don't worry. Just stay safe out there, OK?"

Amy gave a very weak nod. Emily turned and walked out the front door of the inn followed by the members of her group. They went around the inn to the trail that led to the bar and the abandoned town. The location that had been marked on the map that they were going to was a significant ways beyond the town. They were only a short distance past the backside of the inn when they heard the grenade explode. No one in the group suspected that the explosion had meant the end of Ray.

"Should we go back?" Emily asked after they had decided it was not an immediate threat.

"No, we should get our chore over with as soon as possible," Vic said as he continued on the trail.

"Yeah, but the others may be in danger," Emily said as she followed Vic.

"In case you hadn't notice, we're all in danger right now," Vic said without turning around to face her.

"I know that Vic, but maybe we should warn them that there could be traps," Emily said.

"I think they probably heard the same thing we did, and I guess I figure they know there are traps," Vic said. His tone didn't change. Normally he would have drawn out the condescension in his statement, but the delivery was flat. "Hell, this whole thing is one big trap."

"This may be a trap of some sort, but even if it is it may still be possible to rescue Lissa and Joey," Tom said with a bit of authority in his voice.

Vic gave a slight shrug to Tom's statement as he kept walking.

"If you didn't really think that we'll be able to rescue the kids, or you just don't care about them, why are you coming along?" Tom asked arrogantly. Tom had only known Vic for a few days, so he really was confused by why Vic was going with them if he didn't care one way or another. Emily knew, though, why Vic had come along.

"Guess I'm hoping whoever is killing my friends will decide to show themselves when we get to the end of this little journey," Vic said as he looked back at Tom with a hint of accusation in his eyes.

They continued on walking. Their pace was not as fast as Daniel's group, due to the more uneven trail and different level of motivation. But they did not find many reasons to stop along the trail either.

Chrissy, Bobby, Denise, and Amber came down the stairs together not long after Emily and her group had left. Mary and Dorothy came into lobby while Amy, Chrissy, and Amber were saying their goodbyes to Denise. It was in the middle of this that they heard the echoing explosion of the grenade going off. It wasn't very loud, but it was clearly an explosion.

This of course led to a few minutes of everyone expressing how careful they should all be. To Amy, being careful at this point was the last thing on her mind. In all of the discussion and waiting that had occurred this morning, it took all of her reason to remind her not to just go rushing to one of the indicated positions on the map. Her emotions ran from debilitating sadness and dread from the disappearance of her children to shock and anger over the fact that the other guests were concerned with anything other than her children. That left very little room for concern about anything else.

It had barely registered with her that her parents were missing or that there was any danger to anyone else aside from her children. Even the confession of the blackmail and her affair and the humiliation and shame that came with it had practically gone from her mind.

The rational parts of Amy's brain reminded her, though, that she had to take others with her if she wanted what was best for Lissa and Joey. If she got lost out there, or injured, then how was she helping them? No, an organized plan, and waiting for others to pull their heads out of their asses, was best. It was the only way. And that was the only thing that kept Amy from going out on her own.

They were on the trail and moving quickly. Amy could barely remember saying goodbye to Denise, if she even had. Her sisters, her parents, her husband, all of that was secondary right now.

Normally, Amy would never have let Nicky go off with another group had the situation been different. But in a sick way, she was happy Nicky had offered to go with that group. It meant Amy had someone in that group she could trust. As for the group of Chrissy's friends, Amy had hoped Chrissy and Bobby, or even Amber, would have gone with that group to keep an eye on them. But that hadn't happened. At least Nicky was an ally within another group.

As they walked, Amy occasionally heard Chrissy, Bobby, or Amber talking. Mostly they seemed to talk to each other, but sometimes they addressed her. She replied as they would expect, but she was not really that aware of anything they were saying. A few times they asked to stop, which Amy always denied them. Besides that, it was mostly the others saying they were sure that Lissa and Joey were fine or that they were making good time. Amy had a watch, and knew that every second was leading to her children's eminent death, so making good time to her was arriving well before the noon deadline. Early enough couldn't be too early for Amy.

Amy hadn't put much thought into what condition Lissa and Joey would be in when and if they found them. She hadn't even really thought about them being in any of the other locations. To her, they were waiting patiently at the end of this trail. And if they arrived a moment too late, they would be dead. The thought hadn't really crossed Amy's mind that her children might already be dead and that this might all be a trap.

Amy had heard others talking about how Kyle, Alli, and Bruce had died, but her mind wouldn't connect that kind of suffering to her own children. Who would be so cruel as to want to bring any suffering to her sweet, innocent children? That concept was unfathomable to Amy.

"Amy, stop!" Chrissy said to her. Amy hadn't noticed, but Chrissy had gotten in front of her and was now physically stopping her. Chrissy had her hands placed firmly on both of Amy's shoulders before Amy had really noticed her.

Amy saw that Chrissy was sweating profusely. Amy looked behind her to see Bobby with his hands on top of his head. He was also sweating a great deal and breathing very hard. Amber was basically in the same shape, but she had her hands on her knees as she tried to recover.

"I know you don't want to stop," Chrissy said between gasps. "But we've been walking, hell we've been running at times, for well over an hour. We have to have a break or we'll pass out."

For the first time, Amy noticed how much she was sweating and how hard she was breathing. Her legs burned, but that kind of pain was easy to block out right now.

Amy let the others rest for a few minutes before insisting they start again. Amy knew they had just lost at least five minutes, and she swore to make up that time when they got moving again.

Denise, Mary, and Dorothy stared at the boat. They were several feet from the dock, but they were all a bit hesitant to go further. Even though Troy was not confirmed to be deceased, none of the three of them expected to find him on the boat ready to take them back to shore. Emily had told them that she had checked the boat the day before and had not found him there. In fact, no one had seen Troy since Dorothy had left him the previous day.

"Maybe you should wait here, since your pregnant and all," Dorothy said to Denise. Denise did not reply immediately, so Dorothy gently put her hand on Denise's shoulder. Denise seemed to come out of her daze and she gave Dorothy a short nod. Dorothy didn't figure Denise would be much use if there was trouble on the boat, both because of the pregnancy and Denise seemed to still be dazed by the loss of her husband.

"Should we go check it out?" Dorothy said to Mary hesitantly.

"Guess if we want to get off this island we'll have to," Mary replied, but she let Dorothy take the lead.

The two women walked onto the dock, taking their time to look over the boat before really approaching it and boarding.

"Did you hear that?" Dorothy asked.

Both women paused, but Mary shook her head to indicate she hadn't heard anything.

"It doesn't really look any different than when I left if yesterday," Dorothy said in a whisper. Nothing really did seem out-of-place, but Dorothy felt more scared then she ever had before in her life.

"Where do you think Troy would be?" Mary asked.

"I think his cabin is down those stairs."

They cautiously went down the stairs and checked the door and discovered it was locked. They decided they would need tools to get in so they went to look for them together. They found a toolkit, and in particular a crowbar in the engine room. That was also when they discovered that the engine had been sabotaged.

The engine was in horrible shape. Tubes and wires were cut and various fluids were on the floor.

"I think it's going to take more than a casual knowledge of how engines work to fix this," Mary said in a disgusted tone. "This boat is fucked."

"Let's figure out what happened to Troy then try and find a radio," Dorothy said wanting to remain constructive.

On their way back to Troy's room they checked on Denise, who was waiting nervously. They then went to Troy's room to break-in. It took a few minutes using the crowbar to get in, and the only reward waiting behind the door was Troy's bullet riddled body.

"There's nothing we can do for them," Amy said to Chrissy, Bobby, and Amber. "We should keep moving."

Chrissy and Bobby were hovering over Ray's body, which was mainly in one piece but was a bloody mess. Ray's body lay a short distance away from Sara's horribly disfigured corpse. Charred pieces of Ray and Sara lay all around.

Amber crouched facing away from the bodies crying into her hands. She had only caught a glimpse of Sara's body, but that had been enough to launch a fresh wave of fear for what had become of her parents, her niece and nephew, and for what might still happen to her and her sisters.

"Please, we have…," Amy started but was interrupted.

"These were some of our best friends, Amy," Chrissy said angrily. "We can take a moment, we'll still make it."

Amber heard Amy make an anxious groan, which Chrissy and Bobby seemed to ignore. Chrissy and Bobby were having a conversation in whispers that seemed to be about what they should do with Ray's and Sara's bodies.

They didn't have any real supplies with them. They didn't have a sheet or blanket, so there was no way for them to cover the bodies. Chrissy and Bobby discussed moving Ray's remains off of the road, but decided they shouldn't move anything from the scene.

Amber agreed with Amy. She wanted to move on. She didn't like being around the dead bodies at all. Amber stood up and walked over to the still pacing Amy. She knew Amy was becoming more frantic, but she hoped her sister was still of enough sound mind to give her some support for a moment.

Without a word, Amy did put her arms around Amber and gave her a hug, but it felt very robotic.

"Shh… Don't worry, Amber, this is all going to be alright," Amy said, but she sounded as though she was trying to convince herself as much as she was trying to convince Amber.

Amber didn't know what to say to Amy in response, so she simply held onto her sister and wept quietly on her shoulder until Chrissy announced they were ready to go. Amy pulled back from Amber, but she gave Amber a kiss on the forehead and a reassuring rub on the arms before turning and hastily continuing up the trail. Chrissy, Bobby, and Amber followed, but continued to struggle to keep up.

"Thanks, Vic," Emily said quietly to Vic. Julie and Tom were walking a slight distance ahead of them, so Emily and Vic could have a conversation without being heard. As they had walked, Emily's hand had found its way into Vic's, which Vic didn't refuse.

"You don't have to thank me Em," Vic said in reply.

"Yes I do. I know you would rather be looking for whoever hurt Bruce, or looking for a way to go back to the mainland and get the police. Thanks for coming with me instead."

"I'm not so caught up in myself that you'd ever think that I wouldn't protect you, am I?" Vic said. For the first time this morning, Emily thought she heard Vic sounding a bit like himself. Emily gave Vic's hand a little squeeze but did not reply.

In truth, over the years Vic and her had been together, Vic had given her plenty of reasons to believe that he was too caught up in his own shit to care about her. Emily did love Vic with all of her heart, but she was not at all convinced that Vic felt exactly the same.

There most recent breakup had been precipitated by weeks of bickering about useless things. They had been living together and that had led to the typical sorts of fights. But Vic just didn't seem to be able to adjust to being with her all of the time.

The last straw with their relationship had come when Vic had missed a brunch with her and her parents. The brunch had been planned for weeks. Vic had missed it because he had gone out with Bruce, Bobby, and Ray the night before for what was supposed to be just one drink, but he had stayed out all night. On top of that, he refused to tell her what they had been up to that kept him out all of that night.

Emily had moved out that same week, and this had been the longest they had been apart of any of their breakups. Emily still had feeling for him, but Vic missing that brunch had been symbolic of every time he had let her down. Vic seemed to find a way to sabotage their relationship every time it got too intense.

Even though Vic had let her down so many times, and Emily did not believe Vic was capable of loving her the way she loved him, she had no doubt that he did care deeply for her. Vic cared enough about her to want to protect her on this island. She knew that Vic had come searching for the children so he could protect her.

"We need to pick of the pace a bit," Julie shouted back to them, interrupting Emily's thought. "It's getting close to noon, and we still have a ways to go."

The groups pace increased, but Emily and Vic remained a distance back from Julie and Tom.

"What do you think about Tom?" Vic said, changing the evaporated topic.

"I think that you cannot go around thinking everyone is the killer," Emily said carefully. "You have no more reason to think it was Tom as anyone else. You only suspect him because you don't know him."

"Neither do you," Vic snapped. "Sorry, but not knowing people is reason enough to suspect them right now."

"I think it was likely someone who was already on this island, and that none of us who were going to the wedding are involved," Emily said calmly. "If I'm right, then accusing others in our group and not trusting one another just plays into the real killer's hands."

Vic gave Emily a look that said he was unconvinced. "When we get to whatever is at the end of this trail, just promise me you'll stay close to me."

"I will," Emily replied.

Allen was happy that Lewis and Nicky were walking a short distance behind Daniel and himself. Seeing Cort's body in the condition it was in made Allen angry at himself for not pressing harder that Lewis go to the boat.

Allen was surprised that seeing Cort's body had not had a greater effect on him. If he had been told before they had come here that he would see the charred body of his only living sibling on this trip, he likely would have broken down in tears. Seeing Allison's body had prepared him for the worst, along with the adrenalin and knowing he had to be strong for Lewis, so he had been able to keep it together for the most part.

He tried to keep thoughts of his brother out of his mind as they walked. He knew it would do him no good. But nagging thoughts crept in during the silent walk. Thoughts such as wondering why Cort had decided, out of character, to come on this trip; why hadn't he spent more time with Cort with this rare opportunity; why had Cort always disappeared in the evenings? He wondered if there would ever be real answers to those questions, or if he would ever outlive the regrets.

Allen heard some stumbling behind him. He looked back and saw Nicky helping Lewis back to his feet.

"I'm OK dad," Lewis said as he wiped some of the dirt off his knees. It looked like Lewis had done a decent job of scrapping his right knee in the fall. Both Lewis and Nicky were drenched with sweat, as were Daniel and himself.

"Maybe we should stop for a moment," Allen said.

"I said I was OK," Lewis snapped back. Allen could see the embarrassment on Lewis' face over falling. Allen gave them a nod and turned around to continue on the trail. Daniel had barely stopped, so Allen had to walk faster to catch up. Allen gave a look back to Lewis and Nicky, catching a glance of Nicky putting a hand on Lewis' shoulder before they began walking again.

In the middle of everything, Allen was able to smile a bit to himself over Lewis and Nicky becoming friends. Thinking of how rare it was that Lewis took a chance on friendship made him think about how Bobby had come out of his shell when he went off to college.

Bobby had been an awkward teenager too. Bobby had been shy and unsure, with few friends throughout high school. Bobby had managed to meet good people, though, in college, and he had become a confident man. Allen was so proud of his older son and the man he had become.

Allen had just then thought about how little he had thought about the danger Bobby could be in on the other side of the island. Between all of the other things that had been happening, Allen was ashamed to think how little his older son's safety had come to mind. He realized that in large part, that was due to this older son being a strong, confident man.

Allen thought of the leadership Bobby had shown as the morning's events had unfolded. How strong and protective of Chrissy he had been. Allen was confident that they would be alright, they just had to be.

"I think the spot is just at the top of this hill," Daniel said as his pace increased to a near run. Allen tried to keep up, but Daniel was younger and in better shape so he fell a bit behind.

Allen could hear Lewis and Nicky running behind him, still some distance back. Allen was cognizant that if what they found at the end of this trail was not something they should see, that he would need to make sure they didn't see it.

Denise wished Mary and Dorothy would hurry up on the boat. They had given her a wave to say they were fine, but it had been a good 15 minutes since she had last seen or heard them. She was starting to get very concerned.

Denise had thought about sitting down, but with as pregnant as she was, she knew she would not be able to get up quickly. And she did not want to make herself any more vulnerable then she already was. With all of her tension and anxiety, her baby was joining in. Her baby seemed to be doing a tumbling routine inside of her, which was doing her nausea no favors.

Her nausea had seemed to get better the previous night, but with everything that had happened that day it had returned worse than ever. And she now had a slight fever.

Denise heard some soft noise coming from the boat which reassured her that Mary and Dorothy would soon let her know what was happening. This slight distraction made her not instantly aware of the warm liquid trickling down her legs. When she realized it, she was very confused because she did not feel as though she was urinating.

Then came a sharp pain in her belly, worse by far than any of the cramps she had experienced over their time on the island. She let out a short cry of pain as her legs gave out and she crumpled to the ground.

As she lay on the ground moaning, a fresh wave of pain hit all over her body that was bad enough to cause her to vomit. The world started to go dark as she heard Mary and Dorothy screaming her name, but she lost awareness before they reached her.

Amy was the first one to reach the clearing and to see the foot locker sitting on the ground 50 feet away. Chrissy, Bobby, and Amber were still a short distance behind her, so Amy took in the sight for a few seconds before the others arrive to see the same. The foot locker was wooden, and painted a dark blue. There was a latch on the front, but Amy could not tell if it was locked.

What caused Amy to scream was that the foot locker was clearly leaking blood. In fact, the ground around the foot locker was saturated with blood, so a puddle of shiny dark red fluid sat on top of the ground.

She ran to foot locker, blurry eyed from the sweat in her eyes. Her sneakers splashed in the puddle of blood causing droplets of blood to appear on her legs. She was barely aware of Chrissy and Bobby calling her name, or of Amber screaming, "Oh God no!"

Amy fell to her knees at the foot locker. It was not locked, so the latch gave easily. She threw the lid of the foot locker open. Inside the box, amongst all of the viscera and various fluids, she briefly saw two skinned, headless, handless, and footless bodies.

Amy was about to volley a fresh set of screams over what had become of her babies, when the knives sprung from the foot locker and crushed into each side of her skull. Thoughts of her children vanished immediately, replaced by confusion over what had just happened. Then she began to convulse, which allowed the knives to make quick work of her brain.

Amy's body slumped, putting full wait on the two knives that had ended her life. Amy's eyes seemed to stare intensely at their final, horrible sight.

Vic and Emily had caught up to Julie and Tom by the time they arrived at their foot locker. They stood staring, trying to adjust to the stench of rotting flesh. Emily then began having dry heaves, so Julie went to her and tried to calm her down.

"Should we go and open it?" Tom asked Vic.

"Be my guest," Vic said, looking to Tom to see his reaction. Tom looked like he was going to move forward, then thought better of it and stayed in his spot.

"It has to be a trap," Vic said. "Clearly, if those kids are in that box, their dead. So that box is probably booby trapped."

"But we still have to find out for sure," Tom said. Vic considered this. He looked over at Emily and Julie. Emily had seemed to calm down a bit, but she had begun to cry.

"Were early… it's not noon yet. How could the killer still kill them," Emily said through her sobs.

"Whatever happened in that box didn't just happen," Vic said calmly. "The amount of blood on the ground, the rotting, this didn't just happen. This has been here for a while."

"So what now," Julie said.

"You and Emily get behind that tree there," Vic said as he pointed. "Tom, get behind that tree over there." Again, Vic pointed, but to a tree on the other side of the trail. This would effectively split Tom off from Emily and Julie, but Tom did not protest.

Vic picked up a stick as the others got into position. "Vic, wait…," Emily said. Vic gave her a knowing look that convinced her he knew what he was doing. When everyone was safely behind large trees, Vic cautiously walked up to the box.

The ground around the foot locker was fairly undisturbed and debris free, so Vic wasn't too concerned as he approached the box. The long stick that he was carrying was not long enough to prevent him from having to walk in the puddle of blood around the foot locker. Vic was as willing as the next guy to walk in a thick puddle of blood, but there wasn't much choice.

The foot locker had dried trails of blood down the sides. It was clearly not locked, but the first trick was going to be undoing the latch. Vic extended the stick towards it and found he could not flip the latch up with the stick and open the foot locker at the same time. He would have to open it by hand.

He looked back to Emily and Julie and gave them a nod. He approached the foot locker so that it was just within arm's length. He flipped the latch up, and slowly opened the foot locker until he heard an audible "click." Vic let go of the lid and jumped backwards, landing in the puddle of sticky blood.

The lid slammed shut, and nothing seemed to happen for a second as Vic stared at the foot locker. Then, there was a loud thud, as the tips of two knives penetrated the lid of the box. The force of the trap had broken the latch on the foot locker, so it set slightly ajar being held up by the two blades.

Vic got to his feet and picked up the stick and pried the lid off of the blades, which caused the lid to fly open and the trap to snap together.

Tom, Emily, and Julie, sensing the danger had passed, approached Vic, who was looking into the foot locker.

"Is it them?" Julie asked hesitantly.

"Nope," Vic said. Emily and Julie only got to the edge of the blood, but Tom walked on the puddle to get a closer look.

"I think those are… goats?" Tom asked.

"Could be. Without the heads or skin, it's hard to tell," Vic replied. "But yeah, that could definitely be young goats. Either way, it's definitely not them."

"But why?" Julie asked.

"Well, there were only two kids and three locations to search, maybe we're the only ones who didn't find one of them," Emily said.

"And maybe this whole thing is just a big trap," Vic said. "Either way, I think we have learned all that were going to learn here."

"Oh yeah, what did we learn?" Tom asked.

Vic considered how much he wanted to give away before he replied, "I think those animals have been dead for a few days, and this trap is pretty sophisticated. Look at those little metal canisters in there," Vic said pointing inside the foot locker. "I think those are CO2 canisters to accelerate those knives. This must have taken time to put together.

"This has been planned too well for it just to be some random killer on the island," Vic continued. "This was meant specifically for us."

"How long do you think this has been here?" Emily asked.

"No idea… but the bodies of those animals are in a plastic bag," Vic said. "I think it just started leaking, or was punctured, recently. Maybe a day at most, or all of the blood would have soaked into the ground."

"Something else, Vic," Julie said. "That foot locker looks too long and heavy for one person to handle."

Vic lifted one side of the foot locker off the ground and clearly struggled to get it off the ground a foot. "I don't know, maybe without all of the stuff inside there I could manage it, but you could be right that it would take two people."

They all stood there considering all of this further. Then Vic seemed to realize how much animal blood he was covered in. "I need to get back to the inn and get cleaned up," Vic said walking back the entrance to the clearing. "Then we're getting off this fucking island."

The entire group began walking down the trail, as Vic considered the lie he had just told the others. On the trip here, Vic had an important recollection. Vic had told the others that they were going back to the inn, but he had no intention of going back there.

Lewis was really struggling to keep pace. Nicky and he were still behind by a significant distance from his father and Daniel, but they had also slowed their pace a bit from fatigue. Nicky was probably in the best shape of any of them, but she was also visibly tired.

Lewis could tell that Allen wanted to stay a certain distance ahead of them, probably to keep them safe but Lewis also thought it was because Allen wanted to be alone in his thoughts. Lewis obliged, because as the hike had gone on, he was more and more afraid of what they would find at the end.

Lewis knew they were close with how Daniel's pace had suddenly increased. When Lewis saw Daniel and Allen reached the top of the hill, he heard Daniel yell, "There! There!" Then both men broke into a sprint and disappeared from view.

Both Nicky and he also broke into a run. He barely heard the sound of commotion and Daniel's yell above his own labored breathing. Both Nicky and he desperately wanted to find out what was happening, though nothing could prepare Lewis for what they would see as they reached the top of the hill.

What Lewis saw when they could see Allen again was his father's disfigure face pouring blood. As he sprinted to Allen, he was barely aware of Daniel pulling bodies from the box on the ground.

"Dad! Dad!" Lewis screamed through tears as he arrived at his father's side. Allen was trying to hold his shattered jaw onto his face as blood shot like a fountain from his neck. Whatever had done this to his father, Lewis could see that the wound stretched from the base of the side of Allen's neck up the bottom of his nose.

Lewis grabbed at Allen's neck to try to stop the bleeding. Allen put his hand on top of Lewis' to help add pressure. There was barely any strength in his father's hands. Allen was trying to speak, but couldn't form words with his destroyed mouth. His mouth just pulled apart inhumanly as he tried.

"It's OK dad… It's going to be OK," Lewis said, trying to calm his dying father. "Get help!" Lewis screamed to no one in particular.

The blood continued to flow freely from the wound as Allen's eyes rolled in his head. "Stay with me dad, please!" Lewis yelled to try to keep his father awake, but his father had passed. Lewis gave up on the wound and just tried to shake his father awake as he cried hard.

"It's not them," Daniel said with relief, but Lewis barely heard him. He could also barely hear Nicky sobbing a few feet away from him.

Denise was almost able to walk under her own power as Mary, Dorothy, and she arrived back at the inn. The boat had been a bust, with the radio and the engine having been effectively destroyed, and on top of that she had become very ill. The walk back had seemed to take forever, with Dorothy and Mary helping her along the entire way.

She was starting to get her strength back, though. And the pain in her belly and the spinning in her head had dissipated. The nausea and fever remained.

As they went back into the inn they saw that it was empty. No one else had returned yet, which was not surprising since it was just past noon.

"Here, lie down on one of these couches," Dorothy said as they helped Denise to one of the couches in the lounge.

"I need to go to the bathroom," Mary announced, then quickly left the room.

"I'll see if there's anything to drink," Dorothy said. "Do you think you can keep any food down? It might help."

"Maybe some crackers or something," Denise said. It felt so good to lie down that she didn't really care about food or water at the moment. Dorothy headed off to the kitchen.

Denise closed her eyes as the room grew silent. Then she heard what she thought was muffled crying in the distance. It was barely audible even in the silence of the inn.

"Dorothy, Mary, is that you?" Denise said loudly, but there was no response. She called for Dorothy and Mary again but still received no answer.

Denise sighed but decided she needed to find out who it was. With great strain she pushed herself to her feet and fought off the dizziness. She walked towards the back of the inn, past the stairs and the front desk, to what would have been Janice's room.

Denise opened the door and heard the sobbing quite. She walked into the room. It was empty, but the closet door was closed so she decided to check inside. Cautiously, Denise pulled open the closet door, immediately seeing Lissa and Joey inside.

"Aunt Denise," Lissa said as she jumped up and into Denise's arms.

"Oh, sweetie, are you alright?" Denise asked as she gave her niece a big hug. Lissa nodded her head.

"Where's mommy?" Lissa asked. "I woke up and we were here and I searched and searched and no one else was here and so I got scared and something's wrong with Joey and so I hid here with him."

"Shh, you're OK now," Denise said. "What's wrong with Joey?"

"I don't know," Lissa said slightly calmer. "He's awake but he doesn't want to get up."

Denise set her niece aside and went into the closet. Joey was curled up on the ground. His eyes were open and he seemed to be breathing. "Are you alright Joey?" Denise asked. She received some groggy moans back, which suggested he was just barely awake. Looking into his glassy eyes, Denise thought he had definitely been drugged, and that hopefully he would snap out of it.

It took all of her effort to pick Joey up, and to stand up herself.

"Come on, Lissa," Denise said. "Let's go out to the lounge."

Lissa followed behind Denise, grabbing her arm as they walked. Denise walked out to the lounge wondering the entire time why any of this was happening.

Deaths:

Amy Marshall - The Tyrant
Allen Philips - The Reverend

AN: I haven't come up with a name for chapter 11, so I'll give a different tease for the next chapter. I'm coming close to the end of the story, so in the next chapter a killer will be revealed. Maybe the only killer, maybe not!

To JWEarl: I don't want to go too much into detail about the killer(s) at this point, but victims are easier. Early victims were pretty much in the story to be victims, and the timing of their deaths is related more to the opportunities that I could create in the story line at the time of their deaths.

In the past several chapters, the character that have died were more important to the story, so I knew I had to get to certain situations to create the right murders. As an example of this, I knew I had to have a bachelor party to create the scenario for Bruce's death in the last chapter. Bruce's death was not the only reason for having a bachelor party on the island, but it was a primary reason.

I have known the ending of the story (the killer(s), the survivors) since before I began the story, and am still on track for that ending. I've also known the killer(s) motive and that certain things have had to occur in the story for the motive to make sense. Obviously, killing this number of people on an island is beyond any reasonable motive, but I hope the motive that I have come up with makes some sense in the end. You'll have to let me know!

Also, I had the order of the deaths and the contents of each chapter decided upon before I started. Only in chapter 8 until now have I been thrown off plan. My original versions of chapters 8 and 9 (and the beginning of 10) had to be significantly rewritten because the original story and deaths didn't end up working right. After I'm done with the story, I'll try and explain what the original death order was and why I changed it.

Hopefully, my rambling, self-indulgent statement has answered your question. Thanks again for reading and reviewing, and I look forward to future chapters of Green Villa!