Chapter five.
"The new danger zones are at six am B2, and noon D4, at six pm D6, and at midnight B4. Keep up those killings students, there's still a lot of you left alive, you should try and change that," the loud speaker came across the island.
"I bothers me that we're being left alone," Lance said, looking at his 'weapon'. It hold him that there were a few people closer to them, but not close enough they needed to be worried. "I don't like this. I mean, I know this is a big island but should there be more people coming to where the houses are?"
"Maybe they all think that, and so no one wants to go into a house because someone might be in there, waiting to kill them?" Alex offered, shrugging. "Why does it matter? The longer we can be left alone the better. I rather not have to kill anyone else if I don't have too."
"Yeah, and when we're the only ones-" Lance started.
"Don't even talk about that! We… we're friends, we're not going to kill each other," Emily said. She hadn't been crying for a while, something that Lance was proud of. Lance wanted to help her, but he wasn't sure she had it in her to kill someone. Emily and Leo couldn't win this thing, and Lane knew it. He was sure that Alex thought the same thing. Hell, as long as he could kill Frederic, Lance was fine with having Alex being the one who lived. Besides Emily, he was the only one in the room with any fire power, and the only one who would use it.
"That's right. Everything is going to be fine. We'll," Leo didn't look at Emily as he continued, "we'll think of something. We won't all die."
Lance thought it was stupid. No one could honestly believe that. After all, there were no ideas any of them had come up with other than to sit here and wait as long as they could before they had to move. As long as they could before they were all killed. "Hey Alex, there's someone near by, we should go and check it out," Lance said, getting off the chair he had been sitting on. The bedroom was their base in the house, as it only had one window with thick curtains on it, and they had brought in some chairs from the dining room table. It looked like there was only one person near by, and hopefully they wouldn't have a gun or any kind of good weapon. He saw Emily tense up and go back to clinging to Leo. She had finally started to letting go of him and now she was back to it. Why wasn't Emily dating Leo instead of Frederic? She spent more time with him, at least as far as he could tell, and seemed so much more comfortable with him than she was with Frederic.
Alex nodded. "Right. Let's go and check it out." Alex got up and the two started to the back door, where the person was. After they were standing outside, looking for whoever it was, "Lance, why did you come out here too? I mean, you don't have any weapon that could do any good. You should just wait inside until I figure out who's out here."
"Because there'll be nothing I could do in there either. I can at least try and help you out here. Alex, I think that out of all of us you have the best chance at being the one to win this thing. If I can help that, then I will," Lance said.
"Lance…"
"Just promise me something. When you make it out of this, tell my sister I'm sorry I wasn't the one to make it."
"You're just as bad as Leo," Alex said, frowning. "You won't stand a chance at anything if you've already committed yourself to death, and you won't be able to help me." He paused. "But, if I am the one who makes it out of here, I'll tell her. I know how much your sister means to you."
"Thank you. The dot's not getting any closer too," Lance said, pointing in the direction where the dot was.
It hurt to think about his sister though. He'd never see Alice again, would he? It seemed even more cruel that he was chosen for this when he thought about Alice. She was only eight years old, and she had been diagnosed with chronic leukemia last year. It was horrible, and he had seen her in the hospital so often. Now that Lance was thinking about it, his parents were going to have to hunt down another donor for her, since Lance could be her bone marrow donor. It was in remission right now, so hopefully it would stay that way. It wasn't like he was ever going to see how long his sister lived now. It was always something in the back of his mind, as it would be impossible not to think about it, but had been able to put it out of his mind until now.
"Lance, how close is the dot? I think I'm going to go and check it out," Alex said, snapping Lance out of his thoughts on Alice.
"Are you sure?" Lance asked, before walking next to Alex to show him where the dot was himself.
Alex nodded, "right, wait here."
XxXxXx
Alex walked away from Lance. Lance was so stupid! Sure, Alex had already come to the same conclusion that Lance did, that he was going to be the one who made it off his island if any of there group did, but to just give up… Alex was tempted to turn around and kill Lance now. He was just going to get in his way and it would be better if he killed Lance now and got it over with. And that crap about his sister was almost too much. Alex knew Alice was sick all the time, some serious illness that required Lance to disappear and have to go to the hospital every so often, but that shouldn't be what he was thinking about right now. Alex had siblings. Alex was one of seven, with only one younger than himself. Only two of them were actually full blooded siblings, as his father liked to sleep around, but they all lived together. It only gave him more of a reason to win this to see them all.
Alex held the pistol tightly. Out of all the people that were dead, only a few surprised him. He thought Sammi would still be alive, and part of him was convinced she had killed someone. He was surprised that Linex had been killed, being as smart as she was. Alex had been worried that Linex would be one of the people he would run into issues with later on. If he hadn't been the one to kill James, Alex would have thought it would take a lot to take him down. Speaking of Sammi though, what surprised him more than anything else had to do with her little group. If her whole group had met up, what he would think would be likely with what he knew about them and the fact that over half of them died in the same time frame, not that it meant everything, then why didn't they all die at once? Out of their group Dustin and Hannah were still alive. He couldn't see Hannah killing anyone. Dustin maybe, but not Hannah. Then again, maybe that was how she was able to kill them all. If no one thought you were capable of doing something, they won't think you'll be able to do it.
Maybe that was what Lance and Leo were up too. If they got him to believe that they wouldn't be able to anything then it would be easier to shot him in the back later. Maybe he should just turn around and kill them both right now. He'd leave Emily alive though. He could use her still. If nothing else, when the time came to take out Frederic, it would be nice to have some leverage. Alex stopped moving. Was he really thinking of using Emily like that? It was one thing that if he killed Lance or Leo, since they both had resigned themselves to death and it would be more of an assisted suicide by this point, but to use Emily… He wasn't sure he could do it.
There was movement, and Alex turned to face where it was coming from. It was only then that he realized that he had moved a good distance from where he had started. He'd have to quickly move back after he took care of whoever was out here. That dot didn't look so far away. He needed to find it or give up and go back to the others.
"Who's there?" Alex called. A stupid idea, but if the other person didn't have a gun then he was still okay. He would just have to shoot whoever showed up and let that be the end of it. Unless they were smart enough to do something before him, but he didn't see that happening. He had to take it as a possibility though.
"D-don't shoot, please," Nina said softly, accent thick. She looked awful. Her hair was a mess and her clothes were ripped and torn.
Alex shot her in the chest and turned away to leave. He felt bad for her. He wondered if she actually had understood any of this or if she had even- Alexander felt someone grab onto his neck and start to strangle him. The arms were not that strong, but he dropped his gun as he tried to them off of him. Whoever it was jumped onto his back, and Alex tried to throw them off. They were so heavy. Alex started to shoved hit whoever it was that was on him. He was going to die if he couldn't do something! There was only one dot out there and…
Alex panted when he finally threw the person off, he was panting, trying to get air back in his body. He felt a hard kick into his side and he rolled over, trying to stop them from kicking him in the stomach again. He reached for his gun. Another kick, hard, and Alex cried out in pain. He finally got a look at who was attacking him. Nina? He had just killed her! He could see the hole in her shirt where he had shot her. There was no blood? She kept kicking him, and Alex was starting to fear this was how he was going to die.
Suddenly, she stopped and turned to face another direction. She started yelling in a language that he didn't understand, before falling to the ground. Alex quickly grabbed his gun and shot her in the head. Let's see her get up after that. Alex pulled himself into a sitting position, looking at Nina more closely. She had a blow dart in her neck? Alex started to look around, who else was here?
"Alex, are you okay?" Damien asked, walking over to Alex.
Alex smiled. "Damien, you were the one who saved me, right?"
Damien nodded. "I wasn't going to let her kill you." Damien walked Nina and checked her over, before taking her shirt off. "I thought so. It's a bullet proof vest." Damien took the vest off of her and gave it to Alex. "I think you need this more than I do."
Alex took off his shirt before slipping on the vest and putting his shirt back on over it. This would help if and when he ran into someone with a gun. Unless they actually tried for a headshot or for his limbs. He just had to hope that their was no one that would try that. Hopefully. "Thanks. I'm staying with Lance, Emily, and Leo over in the houses over there." Alex pointed in the rough direction he had come from, or at least he thought he come from. With all of that rolling around he had lost where he had come from for sure. That was bad. If he didn't get back to the others they were going to die. Leo and Emily couldn't do anything and Lance was worthless. "At least I think that's where I came from."
Damien frowned, "Well, leave them there if you can't remember where they were. You don't want to get killed trying to find them again. You don't want to wonder into a danger zone and get killed. It would be stupid if you died trying to save someone else. They're going to die sooner or later. Everyone in going to die sooner or later and there's nothing that can be done about this. Only one person is going to make it out alive, and trying to help your friends isn't going to do you much good."
Alexander was quiet a moment, before looking right at Damien. "Then why did you help me? You should have let me die if you are thinking it wouldn't help you-"
"It won't help me to keep you alive, but you're my friend and I'm not going to let you get killed. Not by some stupid girl," Damien said.
"So, according to your logic you shouldn't be trying to keep me alive. You should have let her kill and then killed-"
"What? Do you want to die Alex?"
"No."
"Then shut up. I trust you Alex, and I think we can make it to the end and we'll figure it out from there. Forgot about Lance, Leo and Emily unless we're going to go and kill them," Damien said, pausing after that. "Do you think you could kill them Alex? If it came down to it, could you do it?"
"I don't know. It's one thing that I killed Nina and James but-"
"So, you were the one who killed James?
"Yeah, he was going to kill Leo."
"I'm surprised that Leo didn't kill James first."
"What are you talking about? Leo doesn't want to kill anyone. I'm sure Leo won't be able to hurt anyone."
"I think you're crazy. Leo has it in him to kill someone. I'm sure of it," Damien said, shaking his head.
"He said he didn't want to; I swear he said something about wanting Leo to just kill him when all of this started."
"I don't know what Leo's thinking, but I heard rumors he ran with Frederic for a little while."
"Frederic? Why would Leo run with Frederic?"
"Who knows? Leo and Frederic are still close if I remember correctly."
"I've been friends with Leo for a long time and I've never heard anything like this. I'm not sure I believe you. Who told you about all of this?"
Damien frowned. "I just hear things. You know that I live near Frederic. I do see him around and who he's with. You have no reason not to believe me."
"That's true, I don't have any reason not to believe you. I'm sure that you're telling the truth. It's just so hard to believe that Leo has it in him to kill people."
"Is it? I'm sure everyone has it in them to kill people. You never know what a person will do when it's you or them," Damien sighed. "We've been there for a while. We need to move somewhere. Do you want to try to go back? I am going to try and kill your other friends if you do."
Alex looked at his gun and then at Damien. "What if I won't let you kill them?"
"You would attack me?" By the calm look on Damien's face, Alex knew he already knew the answer.
"No. I couldn't do that. Let's not go back. If they have to be killed, then let someone else do it. I don't want to kill my friends," Alex said. "But if it came down to it, I could kill them if it meant that I'd make it out."
Damien frowned. "I wish it didn't have to be this way. Let's get going."
Alex nodded, and went along with Damien, away from Leo, Lance, and Emily.
XxXxXxX
Lance waited and waited for Alex to come back. He kept his eyes on Alex's dot. There were two dots, two dots, and then three dots, and then two dots after gunfire. Did… Had Alex gotten killed? No, he couldn't have gotten killed. Lance didn't want to believe it. Alex… Alex was going to be the one he wanted to win, or at least saw the best chance out of them for winning.
If Alex was dead, the only one in their group that could do anything was Emily with that gun of hers and she wasn't going to give it up. Lance walked back into the house. "I think Alex is dead."
Emily started to cry again, clinging to Leo. "Alex… Alex can't be dead! N-no!" She screamed.
"Emily, calm down. Lance, did you see Alex?"
"No, I didn't see him die, but I'm rather sure he is," Lance explained.
"Then don't say he's dead. We don't know anything right now if you didn't see it first hand. I don't want you to scare Emily like this," Leo said, harshly. Lance was a little taken back by the harshness. Leo wasn't normally this harsh with him. Hell, he wasn't normally that harsh in general. Leo then turned to Emily. "He might still be alive. So, don't worry about things."
Emily nodded. "Right. Alex has to be still alive."
Lance frowned. This was so stupid. People were going to die. They were going to hear of their friend's deaths until either they died or were the last ones left. That was the only option they had in this horrible game. "Stop it. Everyone is going to die Emily. There's nothing that will change that. Only one person is going to live through this and that's it."
Emily kept sobbing in Leo's arms. "Knock it off Lance. I'm not going to ask you again." Leo glared at Lance, and it made him feel a bit uncomfortable. There wasn't that harshness in his voice this time, it was a much darker this time and Lance felt a chill go down his spine.
Lance frowned, but nodded and left the room. All of this was awful. What was wrong with Leo? It was stupid that Emily would just stay in denial like she was. People were going to die. That was it. If Emily didn't understand that, it was just stupid on her part. It would get her killed. And how long was she going to stay in that bed and cry? It was so stupid. All of it was so stupid! Why did they have to kill each other at all? Lance punched the wall. He wanted to scream. Alex was probably dead and the way Leo and Emily were acting… Lance really didn't know what to.
Walking into the living room, he sat down in one of the chairs. This was supposed to be for something like population control, right? Let's just kill off students to there are fewer people left alive to reproduce. He thought the whole thing was so… how would it even work? After all, it wouldn't do a lot for anything else. Couldn't they just take a group of students, and just kill them all. No winner. Or, just let everyone draw sticks or something. Why did they have to kill each other? It was horrible.
Lance wished that there was some way they could actually get off the island without getting killed. Without everyone getting killed. The one person who lived… how horrible must it be to sole survivor from something like this? Lance almost wanted to find out. To make it back to help his sister. He wanted to see her again. To make sure that she lived as long as life as possible. He didn't think it was going to happen though.
Maybe he should just go in there, steal Emily's gun, before taking them both out. Then he would have a good weapon and go after people. He could kill everyone and… and…
He couldn't do it. He couldn't kill Leo or Emily. The only person he wanted to kill was Frederic and he wasn't here. He'd worry about it later. Right now, he was just going to sit here and wait until Emily calmed down to go and do something. He just needed to keep his eyes on the finder, wanting to make sure he was ready for when someone showed up near them again. He'd worry about what to do about things then.