A/N: Hello all. My name is M.C. Ashley and this is Pyrrhic, my novel that owes its existence as an Americanized homage to Battle Royale. Inside you will find a vast array of characters as they struggle through the turmoil of a group of high school students now being forced to kill one another when they were supposed to be graduating in only a few days. Partially I would like this intro to warn those who are squeamish about violence to ask yourself if you feel comfortable continuing with this story. I do not intend to ruin anyone's spirits who might not appreciate the content of this story. Not that this work will be all blood, gore, and sexual depravity with every passing sentence, but I know that there are those out there who will not be comfortable with what I have written. This work is not intended to provoke uproar or cause anyone to stumble. There will be scenes that may push the line of the T rating I have given this story. I have no wish to be graphic and blase about the subjects covered in the novel. Instead I wish to use them to provoke serious discussion about the issues involved and, providentially, give you something you can sit back and enjoy. I'm sorry for the long and what some may seem as needless disclaimer, but I wished to be clear what my thoughts were on the subject.

Now on to the fun stuff. I've been working on this novel for over a year now. It's seen many different changes, from character names to motivations for why people act the way they do. I intend for this to be 54 chapters long (with an epilogue), of which I have written half of it. It is also my intent to publish at least one chapter here once a week. This may not always be the case, but I will work to the best of my ability to keep this updated frequently. Life, as always, will get in the way. Since I have also been doing this for four weeks now on Fictionpress I will upload the past four chapters here as well.

If there are any grammatical, spelling, or continuity errors then please feel free to let me know. I would like my reviewers to give me an honest appraisal of the material. I need constructive criticism to get better as a writer, and I hope I can do the same for anyone else I review for as well.

Now that that's all said and done, please, sit back and enjoy.

Dramatis Personae:

Gwen Abernathy- science club member

DeQuan Andersen- basketball player/track runner

Tyler Bronson- football player

Joshua Carpenter- valedictorian/track runner

Don Carr- mercenary

Kylie Chalmers- cheerleader

Sonny Chance- football player

Xenia Daugman- band member

Sandy Foreman- cheerleader

Ryan Gomez- basketball player

Beth Gorman- band member

Darren "Corporal" Hawke- English teacher/former soldier

Hanako Heyerdahl- swimmer

Shinji Heyerdahl- loner

Patrick Iverson- private investigator

Jackson "Tank" Jefferson- science club member

Jackie "Dunce" Jones- repeating senior

Tina King- swimmer

Tyra King- "vampire"

Nathaniel Knight- author

Max Levin- Army recruit/wrestler

Danson Macabre (Dan Marsh)- foster child

Mack McLean- football player

Shawn Phillips- chorus member

Dana Riley- cheerleader

Benjamin "Ben" Rogers- football player

Mark Sanchez- Admiral

Mary Jane "MJ" Sanderson- salutatorian/cheerleader

Helmut Schuwald- exchange student

Zelda Swift- band member

Marie Summers- cheerleader

Jason Tennyson- science club member

Chase Traviss- basketball player

Tom Tucker- chorus member

Monica Williamson- chorus member

Part I: Final Exam

"Farewell, Halcyon Days."

— Unknown

Chapter 1

Joshua Carpenter stared out into the lonely countryside near Bladenboro, North Carolina and sighed, wishing the bus would hurry up and get them to Wrightsville Beach, and that his dream would leave his mind. He ruffled a hand through his jet-black hair, and looked into his reflection in the bus window, noticing the brown eyes that stared back at him, as he pushed aside a rogue thought about wishing to know who'd given them to him.

"What's wrong, Josh?" Hanako Heyerdahl asked, pulling Joshua from his train of thought.

"Huh?" he asked, as he looked into Hanako's dark blue eyes. "What did you say, Hana-chan?"

Joshua continued to stare at her, wondering what she'd done to entertain herself once he'd gone to sleep, not even once trying to stay awake to talk with his girlfriend of almost a year's time. Hanako had dazzling cerulean eyes, shimmering black-brown hair, stood just an inch beneath his six-foot frame, and was the school's champion swimmer, who'd led the team to victory in states the past year. She, like the majority of the students there, was the same age as Joshua, eighteen.

"She asked what was wrong with you, genius," Mary Jane Sanderson said, as she picked herself up from her seat in front of them to look at Joshua. "You're quiet. You've never been quiet for as long as I've known you. Usually you won't shut up."

Joshua turned to her and found his best friend since childhood, where they had met at the Catholic school Joshua's guardian had placed him in once she had obtained legal ownership of him. MJ had wavy red hair that she normally placed in a ponytail, cheerful green eyes, and was a little taller than him, a fact she never let him live down.

Joshua rolled his eyes and stuck out his tongue. "Ha-ha, MJ, very funny."

"But she's right," Hanako said. "What's wrong with you, Josh? You're never like this."

"I had a bad dream. Nothing to worry about."

"Uh-oh," MJ said. "That's never good to hear."

"What does that mean?" Hanako asked, looking at the redhead.

"I know you two have been dating for a year, so that means that you haven't quite been able to have the same amount of experience with this moron as I have. Whenever Josh says that there's nothing to worry about, then we should all start heading right to the nearest bomb shelter."

"Come on, MJ, you're just oversimplifying things," Joshua said. "There's nothing wrong."

"If I am then why don't you share your nightmare with us, ace?"

Despite his reluctance, Joshua smiled, knowing MJ only called him by the old nickname she'd given him years before as a child when they both knew that he needed to open up or whenever she just felt like it. "I had a dream where the bus was hijacked by terrorists and then we were all in two days time murdered when no one paid the ransom. There, are you happy now, MJ for bringing up such a morbid dream?"

"A bit, but don't you feel better now saying it out loud?"

Don't agree with her, don't agree with her, don't agree with her, don't agree with her, Joshua thought, but realized his face was telling her all she needed to know.

Hanako laughed heartily and smiled at Joshua. "Maybe you should stop watching so many movies, Josh."

"Oh don't do that," MJ said. "Then the poor thing won't have anything left to do with his time."

"Hey, take that back!" Joshua snapped. "I happen to have a wide schedule of stuff I do on a regular basis, and you should know, hothead, since you've participated in every single one of them save for what I shall list now: I'm the track team's one hundred meter sprint runner-up, the guy who works on my off time at the nearest Salvation Army, the one who helped to organize that prom you told me you so adored, and, oh, wait just a second, aren't I the one and only valedictorian of this whole school? Yeah, that's what I thought, Ms. Salutatorian. What now?"

MJ looked over at Hanako, saying, "Isn't he so cute when he gets angry?"

Hanako laughed. "He's got his charms."

"Hey, you're not supposed to agree with her!" Joshua blurted out.

Hanako hid a smirk. "You mean you don't think you could ever be cute or that I would ever think you look cute?"

"Uh…I, um—This is your fault for backing me into a corner, MJ!"

"Sheesh, calm down; I was only joking," MJ said, holding up her hands.

Joshua massaged his forehead. "Why does my best friend have to be a woman? And an argumentative ginger at that?"

"Because no one else would take the job," Chase Traviss said from the seats next to Hanako and Joshua, making Chase's girlfriend, Marie Summers, laugh.

Joshua had known Chase for about four years—two years before his guardian had died and had instructed him to change schools to East Lincoln, because it was where he was meant to go, whatever that had meant. Coincidentally MJ had gone with him when her parents moved to the same county. Chase had been the first person Joshua had met in the new school, and the two had quickly discovered that they shared a mutual love of basketball, and, even though they cheered for two very different teams—North Carolina and Duke, respectively—they'd developed a lasting friendship. Chase had blond hair cut short, blue-gray eyes, and was a few inches shorter than Joshua. Although he would never admit it out loud, Joshua was jealous of Chase for his natural basketball talent, and he had never beaten, despite playing him over many times in one-on-one games.

Marie shook her head and flicked the back of Chase's ear, saying, "Now be nice, Chase. You're not supposed to let him know no one likes him this soon."

Marie smiled at Joshua, revealing her sparkling white teeth, which her braces had finally taken care of after having with her for three years. Marie had long, flowing blonde hair, green-black eyes, and was the tallest cheerleader on the squad, which hosted three other members on the bus that day. Chase and she had been going out since early their senior year, and had gone through three separate breakups, but they'd always ended up back together a few weeks later. Joshua and Marie had suffered a wedge in their kinship thanks to Chase constantly having to choose between the two of them. Joshua normally didn't care that Chase was going out with Marie, as he went on dates all the time with Hanako, but he had gotten more possessive than he cared to recall and Marie had called him out on it, something he wished that he'd handled better.

"And yet you still claim me as your best friend, Chase," Joshua said sardonically.

"Nah, that's out of pity, Josh," Chase said, winking.

"Why must everyone gang up on me?"

"Because it's your lot in life, ace," MJ said. "You're doomed to forever wander the earth tortured by your friends and the people you love."

"Hurray for me."

"Now who's making fun of my good friend?" Max Levin asked, situating himself on an armrest near Joshua. "That's my job."

Joshua sighed, resigned to his fate, as he looked at Max, another friend he'd found at East Lincoln from something that had interested them both, this time national politics. Both Max and Joshua had founded the school's first and only Independents Club, which had been designed to bring out some awareness to the problems both the Republican and Democratic parties had caused, but very few students had wished to join them. Max had almost given up, but Joshua's general stubbornness to admit defeat inspired him to keep with it, and they managed to gain some more group members thanks to their efforts, but even still their club was the target of jokes for its being different.

Max had his hair in a buzz cut, mostly in preparation for his coming trip to boot camp for the Army, as he'd enlisted, and was prepared to join up once school ended in early June. He had piercing green eyes, bronze skin, and was the tallest out of all the students, save for DeQuan Andersen—the co-captain of the basketball team with Chase, the team's point guard—but Max was still quite intimidating to look at.

"Thanks, Max, that's exactly what I needed: One more friend to pile on what seems to be Make Joshua's Life A Living Hell Day," Joshua said.

"Oh, it seems we've offended the poor thing," MJ said.

"Yeah, and I know what would cheer him up even more," Hanako said. "How about we invite my brother over here?"

Everyone laughed except for Joshua, who kept sighing, but by then he was used to the abuse.

Hanako's twin brother, Shinji Heyerdahl, looked nothing like her, and many of their fellow students had assumed they weren't even related, which he took much offense to. While Hanako had taken after her mother—a Japanese accountant from Shinjuku—Shinji had always looked like his father, who had been a KFC sales representative to Japan, which had allowed him to meet their mother. He was farsighted and wore horn-rimmed glasses instead of the contacts Hanako wore, mostly because he despised them, but more because his father wore them as well. Much to his chagrin, Shinji had gained his father's time-honored Scandinavian features, which included his dull sky blue eyes and brilliant blond hair, which he'd dyed to look more like the way he wanted it to, namely more Oriental. Shinji and Joshua had been on bad terms ever since Shinji had figured out that Joshua was going out with his sister, making him refuse Joshua's attempts to get to know him. Whenever he tried, Shinji always ignored him and left the room.

"For some reason, I don't think that's a good idea," Joshua said.

"Okay, Josh says it's a bad idea, so let's do it," Chase said. "Who volunteers to ask him to come over?"

"Oh, I'll do it," MJ said. "I'll tell him that Hanako's lover wishes an audience with him."

"Hey, we're not—" Joshua started, but he was interrupted.

"Yeah, we know, Josh, we know, you're the only moral man left in the world, so you'd never do it yet," Chase said. "A shame too."

"That better not mean what I think it means," Marie said.

"Just kidding, sweetheart."

"So are we still going to ask him over?" Max asked.

"Sounds good to me," MJ said. "I'll ask for the biggest loser to walk over here real quick."

"Ooh, call him Shinji-baka; I'm sure he'd appreciate that," Hanako said.

Joshua laughed. "Now let's be fair to the poor thing, Hana-chan, and not call him an idiot. He gets enough abuse from you. He hardly needs MJ to add it on to him. Then again that does sound like a good idea. Why do you people bring out the worst in me?"

Hana-chan was Joshua's nickname for Hanako, developed from his many pathetic attempts to master the Japanese language, which was one of the few things he'd ever had a significant difficulty with. Hana was Japanese for flower, one of the few words Joshua had been able to retain, and he found it very clever that it happened to be a shortened form of Hanako's name, which meant "flower child." While he'd been forced by his adopted mother to learn Arabic, Hebrew, and Spanish—all of which he'd learned from his private tutors—the nature of the Japanese language had proved more difficult than he could have mustered originally, when he'd tried to learn it to impress Hanako.

"Who are you calling a poor thing?" Shinji asked from in front of them, surprising them all.

"Oh, hey, Shinji," Joshua said, keeping a straight face. "These morons I call my friends were trying to get me to pick on you, and I was defending you. I probably should have picked my diction to describe you a little better, though, so my bad."

Shinji huffed and headed to the back of the bus in order to reach the bathroom, which he shut behind him loudly, while Danson Macabre smirked for reasons unknown as he watched the scene unfold. He sneered at Joshua when he realized he was looking at him. Feeling a tense concentration of unknown origins, Joshua looked away from him.

"Man, he is creepy," Marie said, shivering.

"Actually Shinji's a nice guy once you get to know him," Hanako said.

"No, I mean, Danson. What kind of a parent names their kid Danson Macabre?"

"They don't," Max said.

"Huh? I'm still new to this school, you know. Well, was, now that we're about to graduate."

"Danson's a foster child. His real name's Dan Marsh Jr., but his parents died in a fire when he was just seven, and he's been kicked out of foster home to foster home ever since then. He legally changed his name two years ago."

"Yeah, to Crazy McSatan Worshipper," Chase said, laughing at his joke.

"Now we don't know if that's true," Joshua said. "Just because the guy dresses in black and listens to death metal doesn't mean he's a Theistic Satanist."

"Just because you're in denial and you wish to see the best in everybody doesn't mean you're always right, Josh," MJ pointed out. "But don't let him fool you guys at all, he really does think he's a Satanist…well a Theistic one, but he won't admit it because that means he'd have to admit Danson is a lost cause."

"Must you explain every single facet of my personality, sweetheart?"

"When you do it for me, I'll stop, but until that day that will never come, I'll take up the slack for you."

"What's the difference between the Theistic Satanists and Satanists in general?" Hanako asked.

"Your regular run of the mill Satanists just view Satan as a figurehead for the personification of evil, and just want to do whatever they feel like doing when they want to," Joshua explained. "Theistic Satanists see him as God and worship him as a deity."

"And Danson's definitely a Theistic, then," Max said, scratching his chin as he bent down closer to them and whispered, "Did you hear what he did to Tyra King?"

"Oh, not this again; listen, just because—" Joshua said, but he was interrupted.

"Denial!" MJ shouted, silencing her best friend. "Continue please, Max."

"Thanks," Max said. "You guys know about vampires, right? The spooky we're gonna suck your blood types?"

"Along with every other civilization in the known world," Joshua mumbled.

"Well here in America there are people who think they're actually vampires and they play this weird game called—" Max said, but he was interrupted.

"Vampire: The Masquerade," Joshua finished for him. "But what idiots who don't know any better say is that the people involved really think they're vampires, when the vast majority of them are just in it for the role-playing, you know, for fun. Just because there are some lunatics like Rod Ferrell who take things too far, it doesn't mean that every single member of the game thinks they're a real vampire."

"But there's still the minority who think they are," Max said.

"Yes, no one's denying that—"

"Denial!" MJ shouted again, eliciting laughter from everyone but Joshua.

"Anyways, before Mr. Denial here gets a chance to talk again, I'll tell you how Danson managed to convince Tyra to start it up, and now that's why she's all messed up in the head now," Max said. "Tyra thinks she's a vampire that's in training, so much that even Tina's getting scared of her."

Tina was Tyra's identical twin sister, who was sitting away from Tyra and was busy sleeping near the front of the bus. Soft-spoken and idealistic, Tina had taken her sister's transformation harshly, falling into a depression that only recently others had learned about.

"Now why would he do that, Joshua?" Hanako asked.

"Why do I always have to be the devil's advocate?" Joshua asked. "Why can't you people just deal with these things and move on? We all have phases in our lives. I used to have anger issues, but I changed my mind and decided not to get that mad ever again. It's just like that old saying, 'Well behaved women rarely make history.' It's the same principle."

"So now you're connecting vampirism and Satan worship with women's rights?" MJ asked.

Sighing, Joshua lowered his head. "I just can't win, can I, God?"

He was saved a response from his friends when they were alerted to the voice of their English teacher and chaperone, Darren "Corporal" Hawke, nicknamed so because of his former rank in the Army, where he'd seen action in Kosovo before he'd become a teacher. "Well, well, my wonderful and amazing students, it would appear that we are a good hour away from the beautiful North Carolinian beaches."

"Boo-yah!" Benjamin Rogers, the captain of the football team, shouted out.

"Yes, thank you, Ben, but here's what I really want you to be pumped up about: This weekend will be the last time we may ever see each other as a whole class and I also wish to celebrate that with you before we arrive for your senior trip. You see, I've been a teacher for many years, but I must say I've never had a class as engaging and fun to teach as you have been. Now if I can have my favorite students come up to the front to help me deliver these drinks so we may toast the beginning of a wonderful weekend. You two know who you are, so come on teacher's pets."

Joshua smirked and got up to follow Max, who waited for him to get past Hanako in order for them to reach Darren at the same time. When they arrived, he beamed at them and passed out the trays that held some cups that held tea inside of them to deliver to the others.

"Now you two I'm going to miss the most," Darren said. "You two are the single most amazing and smartest young men I've ever had the pleasure of being around. It will be a great shame when you have to leave forever."

"Ah, come on, Darren, it's not like we're on our deathbeds here or anything like that," Joshua said, sharing a laugh with Darren and Max.

Taking the left side of the seats, Joshua gave all of them a drink, and left two with Hanako, who agreed to hold his while they waited for them to finish delivering the drinks to all thirty students on the bus. Finishing almost a minute later, Joshua and Max left the trays in the back and returned to their seats.

"To the class of '16!" Darren said, raising his cup.

"To the class of '16!" thirty students repeated, as they drank their tea.

Joshua gulped his down, wondering what the odd taste in his mouth was, but then finding that the bus seemed to be spiraling out of control. It took him a moment to realize that the bus wasn't what was moving around and he slammed into the window, knocking himself out, while everyone else in the bus fell down save for two men: The driver, who took an alternate route from the other buses they were with, and Darren Hawke, who just nodded in contentment as they all lost consciousness from the drugged drinks, knowing his plan had finally had come to fruition.

30 students left

A/N: Thanks for reading this, everyone. The next chapter will continue to focus on Joshua as the main viewpoint character for now. Until next time...

2: Part I: Final Exam: Chapter 2

A/N: Hello all and welcome to the next chapter.

If there are any grammatical, spelling, or continuity errors then please feel free to let me know. Thanks.

Chapter 2

Joshua Carpenter coughed as he opened his eyes, as they he with a hazy vision he was unaccustomed to. He shook his head and coughed some more, as he tried to allow his eyes to adjust to the brightness of whatever room he was in at the time.

A cold metallic object brushed up against his neck, and he instinctively grabbed it, finding not the silver cross necklace that Sister Grace had given him years before as a final present, but a collar that surrounded his entire neck. Frantically searching around for his necklace, Joshua found it as well, allowing himself a sigh of relief. His eyes now fully recovered, Joshua found himself in a classroom, with every one of his classmates that had been on the bus staring back at him.

"Anyone else feel like this is their first hangover?" Joshua asked, expecting them to laugh, but hearing nothing.

Rubbing his eyes, he looked again, finding that everyone had similar collars on their necks and that they all shared the same doomed look. Checking the front of the class to better understand his surroundings, Joshua found Darren Hawke looking back at him.

"My, my, I never thought you'd be the last one to wake up, Mr. Carpenter," he said in a tone Joshua had never heard him use before. "I must admit that I thought that you would be one of the first."

"Wake up?" Joshua repeated. "What…What happened? I thought we were on the bus."

His eyes shifted to the desk beside him, where he found Hanako sitting next to him, a look of horror on her face.

"Oh, you were, Joshua, you were," Darren said, smirking. "However we had to change things in order to stay on schedule. You've all been out for two days."

"Two days?" Gwen Abernathy, the president of the science club, asked. "We've been out for two days?"

"What the hell kind of drugs did you spike our drinks with, you freak?" Monica Williamson, one of the three chorus members in the room, asked as well.

"Name calling does not suit you, Ms. Williamson," Darren said. "From here on out you shall refer to me as Corporal. Is that understood?"

Monica furrowed an eyebrow.

Darren brought out a Kel-Tec P-32 semi-automatic pistol and pointed it at her. "Is that understood, Ms. Williamson?"

"Yes, sir!" Monica shrilled. "I mean, Corporal!"

"Very good then," he said, lowering his weapon and holstering it. "Now to answer your question we used a variety of drugs to make sure you stayed under for as long as we needed. Some of you," he looked at Max Levin, "proved to be a bit resistant to our first batch, so we had to try a second one to put you down."

Joshua shook his head, having vague memories of thrashing around on a table in a room that was on a boat in the sea somewhere. He knew it had been on a boat because of the smell of the ocean air and the way it had rocked back and forth as the boat traveled over the water. It didn't make sense, though. None of this made any sense to him. Why was their English teacher threatening them with a gun? Was he still having a dream? If he was then he could wake up any minute now.

"Now if there are no further interruptions we can start," Darren said, checking his watch, and nodding. "Not too bad, even with the unforeseen debacle. Now, you might all be wondering why your wonderful English teacher is treating you this way, so I shall go ahead and inform you of why: Because you have all been selected for a wonderful project that shall help to rebuild America to its proper state. But in order to do so, twenty-nine of you need to die."

A collective gasp ran out in the room.

"You can't be serious!" Kylie Chalmers, a cheerleader, cried out. "Corporal!" she added when Darren made a move to his pistol.

Darren smiled. "Oh, I believe I can be most serious, Ms. Chalmers. Dead serious you could say." He laughed, as if sharing a private joke. "Anymore questions?"

No one had any to say aloud.

Joshua looked to his left, finding Mary Jane looking back at him, and he forced a smile on his face, but she didn't return it, making him cease his attempt to try to calm her down. Max also gave him a look of concern, but they were both stopped from having a conversation when Darren spoke up once more.

"Now let me explain myself very quickly: You are all going to kill each other in the span of three days at the most. There will be one winner and he or she shall be the only one left alive at the end of the experiment. Beside me you will see a collection of backpacks that have various items in them that shall help you in your quest to eliminate your fellow students. Some of you may find keys in them. They open up lockers down this hallway that will give you weapons that could not fit in your backpacks. I shall call you out one at a time, most likely in a random way in order to spice things up for the cameras. Oh yes, I forgot to mention that, didn't I? The entire area is filled with cameras to watch your every movement.

"For future reference, I point you to the maps inside each of your desks. Would you kindly take a look at them now?"

Joshua grabbed his first, but felt his muscles tense from the sudden movement, as if they hadn't moved in weeks. Ignoring this minor irritation, Joshua took a look at the map, finding that it was designed around an island in an unknown ocean. The island was thirty-three miles wide and eleven miles tall, and had multiple areas on it divided into different grids. On four separate parts of the ocean that appeared on the map were four dots that the map referred to as "Patrol Ships."

Joshua looked up at Darren, and found everyone else doing the same.

"For purposes of security, we cannot reveal which area of the world you are in, on the off chance that one of you delightful scamps manages to get a hold of a radio and call for help," Darren said, smirking. "Not that this is very likely, but it helps to be a little bit prepared when doing something others would deem barbarous. They do not see the glory that you shall help achieve by participating in this wonderful experiment. America has lost its way, has done so ever since the Sixties, and no one ever tried to stop the moral degradation of our society, so that is why we came here to enlighten them. Aren't you all proud of your futures?"

He beamed at them, until he noticed Joshua's hand raised up. Amused, Darren said, "Yes, Mr. Carpenter. What is it?"

"Corporal, sir, do you remember that talk we had the other day about why some students have the need to plagiarize?" Joshua asked.

"Yes, yes I do, Mr. Carpenter. I said they should be shot in the back for laziness. But I cannot see what that has to do with anything that I have told you just now."

"Well, normally I'd agree with you, Corporal," Joshua said. "However there is something that needs to be brought you your attention."

"And what would that be?" Darren asked.

"Oh, I don't know, maybe the fact that you've plagiarized the entire plot of Battle Royale."

To Joshua's surprise, he heard laughs come from the direction of Chase Traviss, Danson Macabre, and Jason Tennyson, another member of the science club. He dared to look at his right and witnessed Hanako suppressing a smile.

He was brought back to the situation at hand when he heard Darren laughing and beating his hand against the chalkboard in the front of the room. "And once again while I teach, you have proven yourself my favorite student, Mr. Carpenter. But I must say that I haven't plagiarized it completely."

"No?" Joshua asked. "So there aren't any collars rigged to explode around our necks, we're not stuck on an island to kill each other, there aren't any ships patrolling the borders of this island to make sure that none of us escape from here by sea, and you're not just some ersatz Kinpatsu Sakamochi?"

"Coincidence. While there may be similarities, our reasons for doing so are much different than those of the tyrannical government in the story. Vastly different. Is there something you need to ask, Mr. Levin?"

Everyone turned to Max, who seemed to be suffering from some sort of seizure. His arms and legs were shaking violently and his face turned pale.

"No…No, Corporal," he said, still shaking.

Darren shrugged and returned to his message. "Did they have the entire island wired with cameras with the intent to broadcast the whole thing later to enforce a corrupt nation to change its way?"

Joshua shook his head.

"Well then, I can assure you that there has been no plagiarism. Anyone else wish to debate the wonders of plagiarism and delay the inevitable?"

The class nervously looked around everywhere but at Darren.

"Well that works for me," he noted.

"Enough of this farce!" Shinji announced as he stood up and slammed his fists on his desk. "I demand that you release us immediately!"

"And why should I do that? Give me a reason…or is it because you're scared, Mr. Heyerdahl?"

"Bullshit! I am nothing of the sort! This is inhumane and abominable and I want it to end immediately!"

Darren situated his hand near his holster, letting Joshua know what he was about to do. Hanako gasped, and Joshua winced.

Clearing his throat, Joshua said, "Yoshitoki would do well to sit down before the boom and the resulting fatal trauma."

Shinji turned to eye Joshua, who directed Shinji to Darren with his eyes, letting him in on what was about to happen. Growling, Shinji sat down begrudgingly.

"My, my, Mr. Carpenter, how noble of you," Darren said, his hand now away from his sidearm. "I don't understand, though. I was always under the assumption that you and Mr. Heyerdahl didn't like each other."

I hate you, Shinji, but not enough to let you die, Joshua thought.

"Certain differences between two people don't constitute a reason for one to see the other dead," Joshua said, crossing his arms. "Corporal."

"What surprises on our first ever experiment," Darren said. "I wonder what the rest of this will reveal. What fun we shall have."

He smiled at Joshua, who ignored him to look at Hanako, who was noticeably less tense than before. She sent him a calming smile.

"My students would do well to learn something from his admirable example: Do not be like him," Darren said. "Here on the island there is no such thing as mercy, nor of kindness or gentleness or anything that displays weakness. Weak people die and they are the ones who never win. You must be strong and kill to win." He paused, looking out at all of them. "Look to the person on your right."

Joshua turned to face Hanako, who, being on the edge of the class, didn't have anyone to look at.

"Now you will find a small slip of paper in your desks. Take it out and write these words on it three times: 'The person to my right is going to kill me if I don't fight back.'"

Joshua cringed, knowing Hanako would do nothing of the sort, but he recalled the gun Darren wore to his side and calmed himself down. He told himself that they were just writing down words, and that they didn't mean anything if they didn't let them.

Taking out a pen from the desk, Joshua wrote, "The person to my right is going to kill me if I don't fight back" three times.

It's just a psychological tactic to wear us down, Joshua thought. I'm not going to let it come true. We'll fight this and find a way off this island. Please, God, I know I'm not Your best servant, but all I ask is that they haven't tampered with my cross. If they have we're done for. Please let me take Hanako, Chase, MJ, Max, and anyone else to safety so that we can wait for help. I can bring us help, but I need Yours first.

"Now look to your left," Darren said.

Joshua turned to look at MJ, who looked outwardly calm, but since he had known her for so long, he knew this was just a mask for the terror she felt, which he couldn't blame her for. He was amazed he was taking this as well as he had.

"Now write, 'The person on my left is going to kill me if I don't fight back' three times."

Joshua did as instructed, hating himself every time the pen came down to write something on the paper. Why am I so weak? he asked himself.

"Now look all over the room."

Joshua gazed at the twenty-nine students that had been hijacked from their senior beach trip and sighed.

"Now write, 'Everyone in this room is going to kill me if I don't fight back' three times."

Resigned to his fate, Joshua wrote the notes his teacher had given him.

"Now was that so hard?" Darren asked, still smiling.

Out of the corner of his eye, Joshua noticed Helmut Schuwald's right hand raised in the air.

What is he up to? Joshua wondered.

Helmut was from Germany and was the school's first exchange student, an honor it was quite happy to have. Joshua and he had even become friends.

Darren called on him. "Yes, Mr. Schuwald."

"I have a question, Corporal," Helmut said.

"Ask away, son."

"Why should I be included in an experiment that is based on bringing about change in America? I am from Germany and have nothing to do with this country at all. Is there a possibility that I can be excused from this exam of yours and return home to Munich? I shall report nothing of this until after you have finished."

"Shut up you damn, Nazi traitor!" Sonny Chance, the football team's leading linebacker, shouted as he stood up to look over at Helmut. "I say we kill him now and save ourselves the trouble!"

To Joshua's shock, a couple of students seemed to nod in agreement. Helmut widened his eyes in terror.

He's bluffing, Joshua thought. He wants to buy us time, hoping that maybe that someone will come and rescue us. At least that's what I think he's doing.

"There will be no blood shed in the school," Darren said. "So you may sit down, Mr. Chance. Save your threats for later, when the game begins."

Sonny glared at Helmut for a moment, but eventually sat back down.

"To answer your question, Mr. Schuwald, I must say no," Darren said.

What color left in Helmut's face retreated into the recesses of his skin. "But why, Corporal?" he asked. "I am not American."

"Be that as it may, you chose to come to school in America, a country so evil and wretched that it whores itself out to the world, allowing others to come and gain its many diseases. Had you been smarter you would have chosen a better country to get exchanged to, but you have not, so you pay the price of your actions."

Helmut grimaced.

"An admirable try, though, I must say," Darren said. "I wondered if you would be cowardly enough to ask that question, and it appears my suspicions have been rewarded, so I thank you."

Helmut sat silently at his desk. Joshua tried to give him a look to show him his concern, but his attempt was blocked when Helmut looked away from him.

"But on to bigger and better things, my students. We shall be starting very soon and I must get you in the proper mood for the killing."

"This isn't fair!" Marie Summers cried out. "We're high school students, not your damn army of private killers!"

"Why thank you for volunteering, Ms. Summers," Darren said as he aimed his pistol at her head, firing before Joshua could react.

However, Chase Traviss did, leaping from his desk beside Marie and pushing her out of the way, just as the bullet penetrated his body, piercing his left lung. Marie fell into DeQuan Andersen's lap, who tried to soften the impact, and was able to do so without incident. He tried to help her stand up, but he was too distracted by the body of Chase, which fell down to the ground and unearthed Marie's former desk.

"Chase!" Joshua shouted when he found his voice. "No!"

He can't die, Joshua thought. Not him. You can't take my friend from me like this. Not like this.

Joshua looked over and discovered that Chase was still barely alive, his body now convulsing from the wound, and with noticeably difficult breathing.

"Chase!" Marie squealed when she regained her balance and started running over to where his body was, but Darren prevented her with a warning shot he fired up into the ceiling.

"You survived the first attempt, Ms. Summers, so I'd suggest you try to avoid a second," Darren said, brandishing his pistol.

Marie looked back and forth between her former English teacher and Chase, wondering what she could do.

"Pick up your desk and place it back to where it was," Darren said. "Now."

Trembling, Marie grasped her overturned desk and tried not to throw up when she noticed Chase's blood on it. Having trouble at first, it took her a few moments to finally pick the desk up and sit back down in it.

Joshua stared at Chase, seeing his friend gasp for air, but finding he could only bring in the bare minimum. He had to do something, but what? How could he save his friend? Could he? Was it even humanly possible to save his friend?

"This is exactly what I was talking about earlier," Darren said, shaking his head. "Heroism means nothing on this island. You are enemies. If you save one person, they will cause your death. Do not end up like my least favorite student, who I shall now kill for his incompetence."

Joshua took a deep breath and raised his hand, knowing what he had to do now.

"Yes, Mr. Carpenter?" Darren asked, surprised at the gesture.

"With all due respect, Corporal, you're making a mistake," Joshua said, hoping he had phrased his sentence without fear of reprisal.

"How so?"

"The purpose of this experiment is to get us to kill one another, am I correct?"

"Yes, why?"

"Corporal, if you kill Chase, then you deny your future audience the chance to see us killing one another. It would only be you, the instigator, killing a defenseless teenager, and that would not help your message, now would it?"

"Then what do you suggest, Mr. Carpenter?"

Joshua tried not to look at Chase, who was trying to get his attention in-between gasps for air. "Let me do it."

Joshua listened as almost everyone in the room gasped. He wished there was some other way to do this, that he could get Chase to a hospital and have him treated, but he knew that no such choice existed and that Chase would either die a slow death that could last for hours, or have this happen to him.

Darren looked at Joshua with amusement in his eyes, which soon developed into a short burst of chuckles, but descended into maniacal laughter.

"This is why you are my favorite student, Joshua!" he said, still laughing. "You never cease to amaze me! So many surprises! Yes, yes, of course you may kill one of your best friends! Be my guest!"

Pushing himself up from his desk, Joshua ignored the glances everyone offered him—including Marie's death glare—continued over to his dying friend, and sat down beside him, his face emitting serenity.

"How's it going, Chase?" Joshua asked.

Chase let out a weak laugh. "Had…better days, man."

"Haven't we all?"

Chase gagged for a moment and spit up the blood that had collected inside of his mouth.

"I don't want to do this, man," Joshua said, shutting his eyes to fight the tears that wanted to leave them, eventually forcing them to back down. "I can't do this to you. I've known you far too long. You're one of my best friends."

"Yeah…that's right. Best friends. Never had…a best friend before you. Always too different and too…stubborn to get along with anyone. You're too stubborn naturally, so…it was easy for you to like me."

Chase gave a weak laugh and Joshua tried to smile, but failed miserably.

"This isn't fair, Chase," Joshua said.

"Aren't you the one who always told me…life wasn't fair?" Chase countered.

"Yeah, but it's one thing to say it than to…"

"Mean it?"

"Yeah."

"Then by God hurry up and mean it, idiot. You've got to…be strong. Get the rest of them out of here…alive. You're a stubborn damn fool…you'll find a way."

"Chase, can you forgive me?" Joshua asked, almost whispering.

"Course I can," Chase said, his tone lowering every time he spoke. "You…are a very good friend…Josh."

"They won't think I am."

"But I'll know. That's all that matters now. Can you get them off…the island?"

Joshua nodded.

"Good," Chase said. "You've always got a plan."

"I don't want to do this, Chase," Joshua said. "You're my friend."

"Who better…to save me then? Just like…when you saved me…the first time."

"Saved you? What do you mean?"

"Didn't have any religion before…you. You changed me. Made me…see things a lot…more clearly. Owe you everything. This is…final favor to me."

"I'd save you a thousand times over, Chase."

"Then do…one last thing for me, Josh."

"Anything, Chase."

"Make…promise."

"Of course."

"Make sure…this bastard…dies."

Joshua eyed Darren, who seemed to be enjoying every single moment of Chase's prolonged agony. "Nothing would make me happier, Chase."

"Then do it…quick, Josh."

Joshua nodded, grabbed Chase's neck, and twisted it with all his might, killing Chase the moment his neck snapped. Once again the class gasped in collective alarm and Joshua could feel the eyes of twenty-eight students judging him behind his back. Joshua knew he had one last act to perform and closed Chase's eyes, allowing him to look like he was in peace, at least on the outside.

I can't cry, he thought. I can't let myself cry. I've got to be strong. Oh no, Chase, what have I done? I killed you. Oh my God—I killed one of my best friends!

He rose up and returned to his seat, trying to cover his face so that no one saw the first tear to exit his eyes, eventually succeeding in his attempt to get rid of them. Glancing at Marie, Joshua witnessed the hatred filling her eyes and wondered if he deserved to die for what he'd done.

"Now that's the initiative I like to see!" Darren announced from the front, gaining their attention once more. "Such beauty, such friendship, and such ruthlessness all in one! I am so proud of you, Joshua!"

Joshua wanted to shout out a phrase his old guardian had specifically banned him from ever using, even to his worst enemy. However he felt the disappointment she would have if he went back on his word and shut his mouth, and looked forward instead to show how his teacher wouldn't intimidate him. He'd murder Hawke for treating everything that had happened as if it were some epic event that needed the biggest ham in the room to act out. He felt Hanako's sympathetic eyes on him and let himself look at her, knowing that at least one person understood him.

I'm going to kill you, Darren Hawke, he swore. One way or another I'm going to see you die before my time's up in this world. I am going to ruin you and this experiment.

"We are off to such a wonderful start!" Darren exclaimed, as he beamed at his former students. "Not even six o'clock yet and we're one down!"

Darren turned his back to his students, writing on the board, which let someone near Joshua slip him a note. Examining it, he recognized MJ's neat handwriting.

Don't give up yet, Ace. You did what you had to do to save him from a terrible death. You'll find a way for us to get back home. You always do. — Your Constant Admirer

Joshua looked over to MJ and found her winking at him. He smiled, unable to stop himself. MJ had always been able to cheer him up. Knowing the note wouldn't be something Darren would approve of, Joshua stashed it in his pocket and looked forward, feeling revulsion for himself.

Hanako nodded at him when he turned to look at her, letting him know that she'd seen what was written on the letter as well. Now he knew he had two people to back him up. Looking over at Max, Joshua noticed that his friend was still suffering from whatever had bothered him upon his waking up. Concerned, he wished he could find a way to talk to him, to let him know he needed his support if they were going to survive this reckless experiment intact. Oddly enough he felt a wave of something that felt like sympathy from Danson Macabre, who was sneaking glances at him every now and then for reasons that were unknown to Joshua.

As was usual for him when it came to his ability to sense other's emotions, Joshua recalled his former guardian, the late Sister Grace, who he knew had granted him with the strange gifts that she'd used while still alive, as well as amplifying his own. But for what purposes he'd never been able to find out, as she'd died two years previously.

"So that sums up everything I have said from the beginning," Darren said, which brought Joshua's attention back to him. "Are there any questions?"

No one answered him.

"Very good, now I shall proceed to the remainder of what you need to be told just before we let you go, but I shall reiterate some because I know there are some of you who have yet to develop the mental capacities to hold the information I give," Darren said.

Darren eyed Jackie "Dunce" Jones and Xenia Daugman, both who were near the bottom of the senior's GPA ranges. Jackie was a repeating senior, but Joshua knew the real reason why she had suffered from bad grades: Jackie had undiagnosed auditory processing disorder, and no one but Jackie and he knew the truth. He had only found out by accident and had offered to help her after that.

She's not stupid, Joshua thought, wishing he could say that out loud. She just has a learning disorder that's easily rectifiable if you had ever taken the time to get to know her, Darren. She lets people call her "Dunce" because she's ashamed of the problems she has. Xenia, on the other hand, is just plain dumbness incarnate.

Darren continued to speak, while Joshua reminisced, "There will be one winner out of all thirty—I mean twenty-nine of you. It is kill or be killed, although I do not rule out allying with your fellow students, because they can be used or twisted into whatever you need them to do or be. Use this to your advantage. At the time when there is only one person left, my people shall grant them safe passage back to the States if they so choose to do."

Why word it like that, Darren? Joshua asked. What do you have planned for the "winner" here?

It bothered Joshua that he referred to his teacher by his first name, but Darren had insisted upon it when it became apparent that he liked Joshua, so he couldn't help but call him that, even when he wanted to demean his authority.

"Now we discuss the collars on your necks," Darren said. "As our resident Battle Royale expert so bluntly stated, the collars all have explosives inside of them. These are not meant to kill you unless we are forced to do so. You are supposed to kill each other, not us. The bombs are set to go off if someone has not died within a six-hour time span. The purpose of this is to make sure you do what we have told you to do; otherwise you could just roam around and not have a reason to kill each other. There are several danger zones in the island we shall discuss now that will cause the collars to explode if you enter them, but also serves the purpose of dwindling down on the areas you can access, which means that you will be forced to encounter one another. The school—which you can see on your maps is located in the center of the island—is designated M-5. For now this will be the only area you cannot enter, for obvious reasons. No Shinji Mimura wannabes here thank you very much. Then again I think I just killed the closest analogue that we have." He laughed. "What? No one found that funny?"

Damn it! Joshua thought, not even bothering to chastise himself for his swearing. He has done his homework. Still, I can't help but feel there's something he's lying about, but what is it? Gah, why can't these psychic powers be more defined? What's the point in having them if they don't help me? What would you do, Sister Grace?

"Now you must be wondering who the 'we' I keep referring to is, so I'll go ahead and answer your question," Darren said, pausing for a moment. "We…are the Sons of the Constitution come to pass judgment on a country that has lost its way!"

Joshua froze, his eyes widening as he tried to decide if what Darren had just said was true or not. He knew all about the Sons of the Constitution; how couldn't he?

"Who the hell are the Sons of the Constitution?" Ryan Gomez asked.

Joshua paused as he felt the turmoil inside of Max's heart and looked over to him to see what he could do. He finally realized why Max was acting this way, and mentally slapped himself for not being smart enough to get it beforehand: Darren had been the one to encourage Max to join the Army, saying it had been the best time of his life, yet here he was now betraying everything he'd sworn to do as a soldier and a teacher.

"Don't you watch the news, idiot?" Jason asked.

"No, so why don't you fill me in, nerd?" Ryan asked.

Jason clenched his right fist as he pushed up his glasses with his left hand. "Shut up. The Sons of the Constitution were a secret terrorist group that was found out by that writer, Nathaniel Knight."

My brother, Joshua thought, as he slowly began to think about why this was all happening to him.

"Anyways, they were planning to blow up the Pentagon, Sears Tower, and the Space Needle, but the writer found out about them and infiltrated them, using what he found out to alert Homeland Security. After that he wrote a tell-all book that exposed them to the world and caused several of them to be arrested when evidence from the book was used to find them. I thought they caught all of you two years ago."

"Very well researched, Mr. Tennyson, but you did say that you wished to be a reporter when you graduated from college," Darren said. "But you are wrong on one point: They didn't catch all of us. You are aware of the term 'sleeper cells,' am I right?"

Jason nodded.

"I was in one such sleeper cell and managed to evade capture. I gathered those of us left and became the leader of the organization. Eventually I came up with this idea and decided to practice it on my students, which would seem to be you, as I just happened to transfer to the school last year in order to meet some of the brightest minds available."

Darren's eyes fell on Joshua and he knew that his former teacher knew that he was related to the man who'd exposed them, but he didn't show it on his face. But did he? Surely he would've said something about it by now. Joshua paused and calmed himself.

He must've done some research on Nathan and figured out about Sister Grace's system, Joshua thought. Then he decided to get back at him by having me be brought into this program to kill me and get what he wanted done at the same time.

"But that's all in the past now, so I've given up on doing things the way that we would have acted had we not been found out," Darren said. "We are a new group now, and revitalized. We are the Sons of the Constitution and so are you."

"To hell with that!" Max shouted. "You shut the hell up, you goddamned traitor! I won't hear another word out of you! You betrayed the greatest country in the world!"

"Oh, really, Mr. Levin? The same country that houses members who can't find it on a map or knows more about their favorite band, instead of how each branch of the government works?"

"Probably because that stuff's gay," Sonny said.

"My point exactly," Darren said. "Sit down, Max, or I'll explode your collar right now."

Darren presented a detonator in his hand and almost pressed the button, but Max sat back down, sparing his life, but wounding his pride.

"Now isn't that much better?" Darren asked, laughing as he placed the detonator back in his place. "Anymore issues we need to discuss?"

No one answered Darren's query.

"Splendid, than it would seem that it is time for me to allow my students to leave in the fashion I deem necessary," Darren said. "Be sure to remember this is a danger zone once you leave the school, so no coming back to kill me please."

Joshua cringed, knowing that Darren was about to do something that would split him up from everyone he cared about.

"I'm thinking about letting the couples all go together, because that would be so sweet, don't you think?" Darren asked, smiling.

Joshua turned to Hanako, who was just as surprised as he was. He knew that both of them had expected Darren to split them up in order to cause them some stress, but here he was, offering to let them go out together. What was he plotting?

"I see our natural skeptic wonders why I'm letting this happen," Darren said, as he looked at Joshua. "Mostly because I'm such a romantic at heart."

More like you want us to kill each other to spice up the video you're going to send to the States in order to show that even people that love each other can kill the other, he thought.

"So, in honor of the performance given by my favorite student, I am allowing him to leave in conjunction with Ms. Heyerdahl," Darren said. "Now come up here and take your packs, and leave before the others do, or you'll end up wasting precious time."

Then that means I can't take… Joshua began to think, but finished his thought when he looked at MJ, who sighed as she watched Hanako and Joshua stand.

"Then that means I'll have to take two women," Joshua said.

Hanako gasped, but Joshua had been around her enough to know she was faking it and that she knew exactly what he was planning. At least he hoped so.

"Oh, and why's that, Mr. Carpenter?" Darren asked, amused.

"Because I've been cheating on Hanako with MJ ever since we started dating," he said. "MJ and I have been going out for years."

Joshua turned to MJ in an attempt to make her corroborate the lie, but before she could act, Darren laughed, saying, "Oh, yes, I'm sure the pure of heart Joshua Soterios Carpenter could have the gall to do such a thing. Nice try, Mr. Carpenter, but your lying needs some work."

Joshua sighed and turned to MJ. "Meet you at the AB, MJ," he said, knowing she would understand him.

Taking Hanako's hand, Joshua walked with her to the front of the room and took a random backpack, while Hanako took one to her right. Glaring at Darren, Joshua led Hanako outside the room into the hallway that led to the open double doors that invited them to enter the unknown island, and an unknown future.

29 students left

A/N: Now that they've been forced into being the first participants of the experiment, the next chapter will focus on Joshua and Hanako as they deal with their uncertain future. Until next time...

3: Part I: Final Exam: Chapter 3

A/N: Hello all.

If there are any grammatical, spelling, or continuity errors then please feel free to let me know. Thanks.

Chapter 3

1

"Josh, can't we stop?" Hanako Heyerdahl asked, her voice weary. "I'm tired. I can't keep up with you."

Joshua Carpenter halted mid step and turned to her, realizing that the brisk pace they'd kept ever since leaving the school had been too fast. He paused, knowing that doing so wouldn't distract him like he'd wanted. He gazed at Hanako and tried to smile at her, but failed. Before he knew what was happening, Joshua's eyes allowed several tears to fall from his face and he collapsed on the ground.

He became aware of Hanako's gentle touch a moment later when she sat down beside him and held him close, letting him cry until he was ready to speak. Joshua cried a long time, unable to stop himself.

"I killed him," he said, sniffling, while trying to wipe the tears away, but failing when he just missed his eyes and brushed his cheek instead. "I killed Chase. What kind of monster am I?"

"You're not a monster, Joshua," Hanako insisted, wiping his tears for him when she noticed he couldn't. "You did a good thing back there."

"Did I? It looked like assisted suicide to me. Ha, just a fancy term for murder."

"Maybe, maybe not, but what else could you have done? Would you rather let Mr. Hawke kill him instead? Or would you rather give Chase a few minutes of life left in order to give him a proper way to die?"

"It doesn't matter why I did it!" Joshua shouted. "I killed Chase! I murdered him, Hanako! Who the hell does that?"

Hanako flinched. "A good friend, Josh, that's who," she said, trying to offer a disarming smile, but he disregarded it.

"Some friend. Four years I've known him. Four years, Hanako. He's the only guy I've ever been best friends with besides Max. And I killed him!"

"To save him."

"Because killing has always meant saving someone."

"Not all the time, no, but think, Josh. Why did you do it in the first place? Why would you even consider it in the first place?"

"Because I thought I was helping him. I didn't want to…but it was the only thing that made sense. I couldn't let Darren kill Chase, and I didn't want him to die slowly, but that doesn't mean I should be the one to kill him. It's inhuman."

Hanako frowned as she witnessed another batch of tears descend from Joshua's eyes.

"Enough of that, Josh!" she shouted. "You're always the one telling me to lighten up and face the harsh realities of life so it's high time that you do it yourself!"

"What realities?" he asked. "That one day I was going to kill Chase by choice?"

"More than that, idiot," Hanako said. "Aren't you the one who always helps out other people when they're in need? Selfless Fool, isn't that what they call you at school?"

"Yeah, so?"

"So it's time for someone to help you out, Josh. Whether you like it or not, there was nothing you could have done to save Chase. He chose his fate, he chose to take that bullet for Marie, and he chose to let you offer him some peace. Didn't you see the look on his face when you twisted his neck? He was grateful! He was glad that you had the nerve to care enough about him to risk getting yourself killed by asking a question that anyone else would've been denied! You gave him some peace in his last moments, Josh! Can't you see that? Wake up to reality and be a man about it!"

Joshua quivered as he shut his eyes, trying to fit this facet of Hanako's personality with what he knew. He'd never seen her so passionate before about anything, save for the aikido matches they'd had, which she'd always beaten him in. In there her mind was only focused on winning, because nothing else mattered, an attitude he was gazing at right now.

"Did you have to be that blunt, Hana-chan?" he asked, trying to smile. "I do have feelings, you know."

Hanako gave a sigh of relief. "Joshua-baka," she said, shaking her head.

"It's a character flaw. Did Chase really…look grateful when I killed him?"

"Absolutely, Josh, because he understood why you were doing it. You damn, selfless idiot."

Joshua laughed; it felt good to laugh. "Between you and MJ, I don't think I'm ever going to meet a sweet, innocent woman in my life," he said. "You two really know how to beat me down to build me up."

"Because we're the only ones left to take care of the only idiot that we both care about," Hanako said, rolling her eyes. "How she's dealt with you this long I don't want to know, but something about you makes her stay."

"Charming personality, rugged good looks, and I'm smartest guy in the school, possibly the entire world. Can't see why she'd be interested at all."

"Let's not get too cocky, Josh."

"Anything for you."

Joshua situated himself against a tree as he stared out into what looked like a mini rain forest. Lush plants of varying shades of green dominated the land, preventing him from surveying all his surroundings. The smell of the ocean reached his nose, making him realize Darren hadn't been lying about that. He paused, reflecting on Chase's last words and balled his fists. He'd make good on his promise. He'd trained for worse.

"Thanks, by the way," Hanako said, breaking him away from his thoughts.

"For what?" Joshua asked, intrigued.

"For making sure Shinji didn't get himself killed. I know that you two don't really like each other, but it was good to see you try to save him from himself."

"I don't hate your brother; he's the one who hates me. I just deal with the guy. If he wants to be angry at me that's his problem."

"Still, it was nice of you to do that."

"It was the right thing to do. I just hope he sees it that way."

Joshua craned his neck to look up at the sky, as he examined the trees, finding that they looked similar to the ones that his brothers had told him normally resided in areas near the equator. But the purple coral tree to his right told him next to nothing besides that about their position in the world.

Now if I can only see the stars— Joshua thought, but the booming thunder and the downpour of a tropical rain interrupted him. Very funny, God.

He sighed, wishing that he could somehow stop the rain.

"What's wrong now?" Hanako asked.

"I was trying to figure out—" Josh started, but he paused for a second.

"Why'd you stop?"

Joshua held his finger up to his mouth. "Need to think for a moment."

Hanako nodded, and gazed at him for a while as he paced around.

There's something wrong in Dodge, Joshua thought. But what? What is it that's making me uneasy to speak right now?

Rain hit the two of them from above, making Joshua wipe away the water that had accumulated on his neck, which brought him a source of inspiration.

"The collars!" he suddenly exclaimed, causing Hanako to jump. "The cameras!"

He looked around, trying to locate the surveillance devices Darren had claimed to have all over the island. Joshua found the nearest camera about twenty yards away from them, hanging from a tree branch.

Son of a…they actually work; he wasn't lying, Joshua thought. That means they can read our lips if they need to, so that's out of the question. Sign language? That could work if I pick the right one, because he told me a while back that he knew it and showed it to me. Now what about the collars? If Darren really has done his research, then that means that the collars are also devised with a sound chip to let them know everything we're saying. Crap, what are we supposed to do to work against them?

Joshua beat his fist against the tree. "Dang it, he thought of everything!"

"Who?" Hanako asked, standing up. "Who thought of everything?"

"Our wonderful former teacher. Cameras to watch our movements and possibly to read any signals we give each other, as well as these collars to monitor whatever we say. Damn it."

Hanako tensed up.

"Let's get out of the rain first," Joshua said.

They both moved to their right in order to get under a rock formation to avoid the rain.

"Still got a plan, though," Joshua said, mostly talking to himself. "Probably all I should say about that."

He turned to Hanako, who waited for him to speak again, but when he didn't, she said, "I guess you can't tell me, can you?"

Joshua shook his head. "Let's forget about it for now."

"What was it you told MJ back in the school?"

Joshua turned to look at Hanako, who had an odd look of concern on her face. "It's an old joke of ours," he explained. "'Meet you at the AB' meant that we were going north, because we both wanted to see the Aurora Borealis and the only way we knew how to get there was heading north when we were young. It's been our way of saying we're heading off in order to meet at the extreme north of wherever we were at. Here, check this out."

Joshua offered her the map and Hanako read over it. "What do you want me to see, Josh?"

Wait a second, I know a way past these idiots, Joshua thought, laughing out loud. Why didn't I think of this before?

"What's so funny?" Hanako asked.

Joshua pressed his finger to his lips again and began to sign in Japanese what he wanted Hanako to do. Hanako picked it up a moment later after she figured out just what Joshua was trying to get her to understand.

Possibility that they can hear us speak, he signed. Can't speak in Japanese that good or I'd do that, so this'll have to do for now.

For some reason Joshua had always had an easier time figuring out a language's form of sign language than the actual spoken part, a skill that had confounded him as much as his family. Sister Grace had always encouraged his polyglot tendencies, saying that it would prove useful later on in his life. While speaking Japanese fluently was something it would take him another two years to grasp, using Japanese sign language came naturally to him, and would be invaluable to them. He highly doubted anyone in the Sons of the Constitution would care about learning a foreign system of sign language. He knew that Hanako knew it as well because of her younger brother, Kensuke, who'd been born deaf and had died when he was only eight years old.

He pointed at M-2, and signed, School's M-5, so this would be what MJ and me would understand as the rendezvous point. Besides, it's on a natural hilly area, which will be a nice little defense if we ever get attacked. Many an army's lost a battle because they attacked a bunch of people on a hill. It's the incline that gets them. We'll be just a little bit safe for now. Unless it's been turned into a danger zone from the time we end up there, then we'll have to make do somewhere else.

What a coincidence, Hanako signed. It works perfectly with that old joke of yours.

No such thing as coincidence; just providence.

Do you think she'll help us?

Joshua furrowed an eyebrow. You don't think she will?

Hanako's bottom lip twitched. It's…just…it's just this stupid experiment. I don't feel like I can trust anybody.

Joshua nodded. I'll get to that later, but first thing's first, we need to make sure we can protect ourselves. Look in your pack for your weapon and I'll look for mine. Oh, and it's safe to talk now.

"It's hard to see you sign in the dark," Hanako said. "I'm lucky I caught all that you were telling me."

"Don't worry about it, Hana-chan. I'll think of something else we can use later on that isn't as difficult to follow."

Joshua inspected his backpack, finding a day's worth of rations and water, some flint to start a fire, a flashlight, a compass, a first-aid kit, and a metallic baseball bat.

A baseball bat? Joshua thought. Seriously? I demand a do over. Oh well, I can already say the flint's no use to us. All a fire's gonna do is attract people over to where we are. Should only use it when I know that the only people left are people that I can trust with my life. The flashlight will come in handy, though, and the compass and first-aid kit.

"They can't be serious," Hanako said, bringing Joshua's attention to her.

When he noticed what she had in her hand he laughed, enjoying whatever irony God had intended in the exchange.

"They gave me a katana!" Hanako protested. "A retractable katana that fits in a backpack! Of course I would be the one to get a freaking katana! Oh this isn't racist at all."

Joshua snickered. "Calm down, Hana-chan. You might invite some unwanted visitors our way. Besides, it's not like you haven't practiced with a katana before."

"Yeah, but that's…that's different. It was for self-defense classes then."

"You used a katana in a self-defense class? Good Lord what the heck kind of crime do you get in Japan that you need a freaking sword to protect yourself out on the streets?"

Hanako glared at him.

"Kidding, just kidding, Hanako," he said, his arms in the air.

Hanako shook her head and sighed.

"This does limit us somewhat," Joshua noted, checking out his baseball bat. "We don't have anything long range, not unless we want to chuck our only means of defenses at people. Oh well, there's probably a reason for all this, just haven't found it yet."

Cracking his neck, Joshua stared out into the rain, noticing that they were near a small creek. Feeling one of the urges he always obeyed, Joshua grabbed his flashlight and pointed it out into the darkness, trying to locate something that he didn't understand.

"What are you doing?" Hanako hissed. "You're going to give us away."

"No one near us," Joshua said, pointing to his head. "I'd feel 'em."

Guiding the flashlight's beam to the left on a whim, Joshua discovered that the red-whitish glowing eyes of a spectacled caiman were looking back at him. Shutting off the flashlight, Joshua dealt with the newest revelation.

Spectacled caiman? Joshua asked himself. They only live in Central and South America, but I don't remember hearing that they ever lived on any of the islands in the Caribbean or anything like that. Wait a second, didn't Patrick tell me that there were some that were introduced into Cuba? So that means that these could be introduced to the island as well. If I could only get a look at the stars, then I could figure out where we were and contact them. They've helped prepare me for almost any situation, because they said that Sister Grace told them to always be prepared, no matter how stupid a situation sounds. Jessie made me memorize the eye glows of hundreds of animals, and she told me it was because I needed to know just in case I ever got into trouble with any of them late at night. Don told me how to fight just about anything, but I'm not really in the mood to go out and brawl with a caiman just now. Still have to wait for the storm to pass to make any sense of where we are, though. Doesn't look like it'll be that long.

Now that brings me to getting off this place. Even if I don't have an idea of where we are, Mark can track it in a second flat, or at least he should. The others will hear it too and help out in any way they can. I just have to get to that hill to get a better signal.

"What's on your mind, Joshua?" Hanako asked.

"I think I have an idea of where we are," Joshua answered. "Don't have any proof yet, though, so we'll have to wait for that and meet up with MJ in the meantime. Gotta wait for some things to clear up."

"What do you suggest we do now?" Hanako asked.

"Do you mind walking in the rain?"

"Kinda, but I can see you've got something in mind, so I have to say that I'll be happy to deal with it until you get whatever you want done."

"Knew I could count on you," Joshua said, leaning over to kiss her.

"Have I ever told you that you're able to handle tough situations well?" Hanako asked after they broke it off.

"Once or twice before, why?"

"Because any other person would be freaking out right now. I'd be freaking out if I didn't have you next to me. This whole thing is crazy. I'm scared, Josh. How are you able to not have any fear at all?"

Joshua chuckled as he stood up. "You think I'm not scared to death?" he asked. "I'm downright terrified, but this is the only way I know how to deal with my fear. 'Fear is the body's response to that which it knows can harm it. Use your fear to calm yourself and find a solution, or so help me God I'll kick your sorry ass to kingdom come.'"

Hanako stood up and eyed him for a moment. "Where did that come from?"

"That was my mother, Sister Grace. That crazy nun."

"I've never heard a nun with that bad a mouth."

"That's because she wasn't really a nun or Catholic for that matter. Sister Grace just sounded like a cool name to have. Still more moral than me somehow."

"I highly doubt that."

Joshua smirked as he clutched Hanako's hand and led her out to the darkness of the island. "The truth's always weirder than the words we use to describe it."

Hanako smiled and went out in front of him to examine their surroundings, and accidentally touched a tripwire on the ground. Joshua, sensing it before it could be fully released, jumped out in front of her and shielded her ears and body with his own, just as a flashbang grenade exploded near them, sending them twenty feet in the other direction.

His hands cushioned Hanako's head as they hit a tree, and the right side of his face grazed it, scourging his skin. They collapsed on the ground, Hanako hitting it first and was further pressured by the descent of Joshua's body onto her own. He felt a ringing noise in his ears and suddenly nothing.

2

Hanako blinked twice when she opened her eyes, finding that someone's blood was on her face and was fogging her vision when it touched her pupil. Terrified, Hanako wiped it away, and realized for the first time that Joshua was on top of her.

"Joshua?" she asked, but when she received no response, Hanako used her left arm to pull herself out from under him and felt his body fall to the ground.

Hanako turned herself over and examined her body for wounds, finding that she had a few scratches, but nothing that would have caused the blood that had been in her eye. Looking over at Joshua she found his faced turned away from her and his body completely still.

"Joshua?" she asked, once again receiving no response.

She approached him and touched his face, finding that the right side of it was all but completely messed up. Without proper medical attention he could even die from the blood loss, but she noticed that he was not bleeding as much as he should have.

"Hanako?" she heard him ask, as he shook his head.

"Joshua!" she yelled. "You're alive!"

"Hanako, are you there? I can't hear you."

"What? But Josh I'm right here!"

Joshua turned to his other side, wincing at the pain he felt throughout his body. Looking over, he found Hanako, and his head bobbed for a moment, as a hand touched his wounded face and he howled in surprise. Hanako rushed to his side and tried to pin him down so that he wouldn't inadvertently hurt himself again and calmed him down.

"What's happening?" he asked, his voice disjointed.

"Josh, I don't know, but there was an explosion and—"

"Hanako, are you even talking to me? I can see your lips move, but…" he trailed off, his face twitching every now and then.

She paused, staring at him as she moved her face next to his. "Joshua, can you hear me!" she shouted.

He stared back at her, still twitching. "Oh, God," he said. "Oh no."

"Well, well," the voice of Darren Hawke said from Hanako and Joshua's collars. "It seems you activated one of my traps."

"Traps?" Hanako repeated. "You didn't say anything about traps!"

"Hence why they're called traps, my dear. Traps aren't nearly as efficient if you know they're around you. Paranoia could cause sufficient harm, but it's not as fun as the moments when an unsuspecting fool kills themselves in one they couldn't see coming."

Joshua stared at her mouth. "He left traps?" he asked, his voice still not at its normal pitch.

"Yes, didn't you hear it?" she asked, unnerved.

"Not good. Look at me when you talk please."

"Why?"

He signed in Japanese sign language, Deaf.

"What!" Hanako yelled, eliciting little reaction from Joshua.

"Calm down, Hanako," Joshua said, voice faltering, as he pretended to shield his ears at her outburst.

"That can't be true."

He frowned and then nodded. "Got any antiseptic in your bag?"

"I—Yes, but, Josh, we really need to—"

"Antiseptic first, then everything else."

Frowning, Hanako reached for her backpack and found the antiseptic from the first aid kit.

"Give it to me," Joshua said, his voice firm and finally normal.

Hanako handed it to him and watched as he applied it to his face, showing the barest of hints that it hurt him. She waited for him to finish and he stared back at her, his face a bruised reflection of its former self.

"Is it that bad?" he asked, smiling despite the graveness of the situation.

"No, no, it isn't," Hanako said, holding up her hands.

To her surprise, Joshua laughed, but stopped a moment later when he grimaced.

"Don't do that," Hanako said. "You're going to hurt yourself."

Joshua shook his head. "Too late for that," he said.

"Don't even joke about it! Your face is riddled with—Oh."

She reexamined his face, finding that she had misjudged the rate of his wounds, as the antiseptic had helped wipe some of the blood out of the way, revealing he had several scratches that had been sufficient to release blood, but his face was mostly intact. Joshua smiled at her and cracked his neck, offering a low-pitched "Ouch."

"But I swear it was worse than that."

"In case you haven't noticed, I heal fast," he said, standing up and stretching his arms.

"But what about your—?" Hanako started to ask, but realized she was away from his eyes, and moved to face him, asking, "But what about…you know?"

He shrugged. "I guess…I'll have to get used to it."

"Get used to it? Joshua, you need a doctor!"

Joshua stared at her, his face deadpan. "In case you haven't noticed, Hanako, getting a doctor is the least of our worries now." Then he signed, Reading your lips will suffice. "We have to get out of here and once we do, then I'll worry about this setback."

Losing your hearing is just a setback? Hanako asked.

"Yes, I know how I sound, but I'm not letting myself lose control, because I can't have you under any more stress than you already are," Joshua said.

"But what about yourself?" Hanako asked.

"I'll deal with it. It's not the worst thing that's happened to me."

Before Hanako could react, Joshua smiled, took her by the hand, and then moved forward to their next destination.

29 students left

A/N: In the next chapter we'll shift views to Dana Riley, showing how she's dealt with the Experiment. Until next time...

4: Part I: Final Exam: Chapter 4

A/N: Hello all.

If there are any grammatical, spelling, or continuity errors then please feel free to let me know. Thanks.

Chapter 4

Dana Riley was ecstatic at the thought of leaving with Tyler Bronson, even if it meant that they would most likely get killed. She didn't mind; all she wanted was to spend her last days with him. She was going to die, anyways; the doctors had told her so.

Of course she'd been horrified when Chase Traviss had been shot defending her best friend, Marie Summers, but she didn't know him. She only knew of him from what Marie had told her and she couldn't care less about him. He could have won the game and lived the rest of his life in peace, but she couldn't, no matter what happened. Dana was going to die either way.

It wasn't fair; none of it was fair. She had always been healthy, despite a couple minor ailments that had afflicted every single child for centuries. Dana had found out just two months before about her condition due to the unnatural swelling she had in her head, one the doctors had pronounced as a twelve-pound malignant tumor, and one that they most likely couldn't cure thanks to its placement on her brainstem. She had immediately begged for any form of chemotherapy, something the doctors had agreed to, but quickly found was not the proper way to deal with the situation, as nothing they did managed to successfully curb the tumor.

Dana tried to keep a straight face when they gave her the amount of time she had left, but it had quickly ended with her crying for two hours straight, with her father and mother unable to console her. The pain grew so intense that other doctors had prescribed antidepressants for Dana to take, which failed to help her mood at all, and, in her opinion, just made things worse.

Her father had tried to sue the doctors for not being able to heal her, but the court had thrown it out immediately; the judge had laughed at the poor excuse for a case. Dana knew that he wanted to kill everyone who was taking his daughter away from him, even though her mother had tried to calm him down, but he wouldn't hear it. The reason that he gave her was because he wanted to punish those who harmed others, especially those that failed to live up to the jobs they held. It had always been his dream to rid the world of wicked people, and that was why he'd trained to be a police officer, but they had taken him off of the force for killing an unarmed man who'd raped an innocent woman three times in the course of one night. Her father had called it justice, but those he served with had called it an execution, leading to him losing his job. Dana had always said he'd done the right thing, which was a small consolation to him, because he loved her more than anyone else in his life, including Dana's mother. But none of that meant anything to her now, since her father would be alive in two day's time, and she wouldn't. There was nothing that anyone could do for her now.

The loss of her natural hair had been the worst part for her to take]. She had always had amazing blonde hair—a gift from her mother's genetics—that Dana had enjoyed straightening and grooming. Everyone loved her hair, though her main objects of interest had been the guys she'd dated throughout middle school and high school. They had always loved to play with her hair and stroke it while they cuddled after their nightly exploits.

Now Dana had been forced to wear a wig, something she hadn't revealed to any of her peers, and especially not Marie, who Dana was afraid would tell everyone else if she ever revealed it to her. As far as her classmates were concerned, there was nothing wrong with Dana Riley.

Not even Tyler had known about her circumstances, even though she had really wanted to tell him every time they were together, but she couldn't. Not yet. Not until she could fully take him away from Kylie Chalmers, a fellow cheerleader who'd been going out with Tyler ever since East Lincoln had lost in the playoffs back in November. Dana had understood why he had to stay with her, because he needed some time to figure out things in his life. He'd recently been accepted to NC State with a full ride to play as the Wolfpack's future wide receiver, but his father wanted him to go to Wake Forest and play there instead, even though they hadn't offered him anything, just because he had gone there himself.

Dana could forgive Tyler for acting like this and stringing Kylie along the way, because she knew he really loved her; he had said as much himself when they had spent the night together. There was no way that he would lie to her; he had always been honest to her. Tyler told Dana everything about himself, something most guys she'd dated had been afraid to do, but not him. Tyler was special.

Tyler always kept his promises, and had never led Dana astray before, not even once in their two-week liaison. He was there for her and she was there for him, and that was all she needed. If she died with him, then it was all worth it.

Dana looked to the front of the classroom and watched as Joshua Carpenter and Hanako Heyerdahl left them behind to become the first participants in the experiment. Dana had always thought Joshua was probably the nicest guy in the school, except for Tyler, but even she had to admit that Tyler had done some bad things in his life, while Joshua seemed to be the epitome of perfection. She had secretly wondered what dark secrets he kept to himself, because everyone had flaws. Joshua had just killed one of his best friends, so he obviously wasn't perfect, even if he was doing it for some grand and noble reason that escaped her. In the short conversations Dana had had with Joshua, he was constantly polite, attentive, and genuinely thoughtful, even if she could pick up on the fact that he really wasn't in the mood to talk.

How Joshua and Hanako had ended up together, Dana didn't know, because she had always thought that Joshua and Mary Jane had secretly been going out for years, based mostly on the way they acted with each other. Even if they didn't show any display of affection toward each other like everyone else seemed to do, Joshua and MJ had both seemed to have a special connection Dana had only seen in people who were dating each other. Hanako was a generally nice person, but Dana had never talked with her much, so she assumed that Hanako didn't care for her. However it looked like the two of them were doing okay, so she didn't mind, even if Joshua had just killed someone.

If anything, she felt grateful to Joshua for killing Chase, because it would allow her the chance to leave the school with Tyler in tow, ready to face the last moments of their life together. She would even let Tyler take her again if that was what he wanted to do. He had always been a gentle lover, one who seemed to respect her and her wishes, no matter what he was feeling at the time.

But when Darren Hawke announced the next name of the one leaving after Joshua and Hanako, Dana knew that everything was going horribly wrong.

"And now for our next couple," Mr. Hawke said. "I believe that you are currently seeing someone in this class, is that not correct, Mr. Bronson?"

Tyler nodded and stood up, seeming to glance in Dana's direction, making her heart leap with joy, but when he turned to his left and took Kylie's hand. Dana panicked, almost standing up and yelling at him to take her with him, but she tried to calm herself down. Tyler was only joking, right? He was going to go to the front of the classroom and then announce to all the students there that he was really in love with Dana and that Kylie was nothing more than a misbegotten whore he was sorry he'd ever been involved with in the first place. That would put that egotistical bitch in her place for sure, and then Tyler would look over to Dana and stretch out his arm to her, saying that he loved her and that he was ready to leave with her. Dana would accept of course and exit the school with him in order to spend their last moments together.

Tyler never once looked at her, and instead seemed to be focusing primarily on Kylie, who looked scared. Tyler grabbed both of their supplies and left the room without glancing or even leaving a note for Dana, causing her to stop herself once more from jumping up and confronting him.

He…Tyler left me, Dana realized. He doesn't…love me.

Mr. Hawke said something vague and incoherent, and Dana saw the blurred out visions of Tom Tucker and Zelda Swift leave to grab their supplies.

This—This can't be happening! Dana thought, biting her lower lip. He left me for her! He told me he loved me! He was going to leave her! Tyler, why did you leave me for that skank?

Dana became aware of the fact that tears were leaving her eyes and she wiped them away, noticing that the haunting eyes of Danson Macabre were sneaking glances at her. Stiffening up, Dana looked away from him and his horrible appearance. Danson always wore a black hoodie, black pants, and a crimson cross splattered with fake blood around his neck, all of which creeped Dana out more than she wanted to admit. She had always wondered why the school had never put him in an insane asylum where she knew he belonged. No one liked him or talked to him, except for that crazy vampire Goth chick Tyra King, but she was just as repulsive as him, so Dana understood why they hung out.

Tired of thinking about Danson, Dana thought about Tyler instead.

He's playing with her first, she thought. He wants her to think he loves her more than me and then the moment he's done with her, he'll come find me, and then we can be together forever. He does love me.

Dana smiled and tried to stop herself from letting out a small laugh.

But if he isn't doing this for me, I'll kill him, Dana thought. Those who do harm to others deserve to die. That's what Daddy always told me. Thanks, Daddy. I love you.

"It's time to leave, Ms. Riley," Mr. Hawke said, bringing her attention to him.

"Yes, yes, it is, Corporal," Dana said, standing up.

Approaching her former teacher she smiled and he smiled back. Then she chose a backpack and left the room, knowing she had to track down both Tyler and Kylie to discover the truth. Examining her backpack, Dana found the key to the locker that gave her a fully loaded double-barreled shotgun, and knew that someone was on her side.

She would bring judgment to the wicked.

29 students left

A/N: Next week will focus on Tom Tucker and Zelda Swift following their leaving the school and what lies in store for them. Until next time...

5: Part I: Final Exam: Chapter 5

A/N: Hello all. Glad to see you back here again. I hope you enjoy the next chapter.

If there are any grammatical, spelling, or continuity errors then please feel free to let me know. Thanks.

Chapter 5

Zelda Swift sat with Tom Tucker underneath the shield that Tom had found in his backpack as the rain poured down. It was a Body Bunker riot shield and had barely fit inside of the massive locker they'd found it in.

Tom had stuck the riot shield into the nearest tree once the rain had started, in order to keep them dry, and in order to plan out their next course of action.

Zelda grabbed her long chestnut hair and wrung it to get out the excess water, while Tom accidentally splashed her with the water that had gathered on top of his black hair, causing her to teasingly glare at him. He smiled and she peered into his dazzling jade eyes, a feature she had always enjoyed.

"I don't know what to do, Zelda," Tom said. "This whole thing is crazy. Can you imagine some of us killing each other?"

From the moment she'd learned that her entire class had been taken from their planned senior vacation in order to kill each other, Zelda had panicked, thinking that she would end up separated from Tom. But thanks to Joshua's actions, she'd left the school with him in hand. Zelda and Tom had been going out for almost a full year, but had been involved once before in a disastrous six-week relationship that had almost prevented both the band and the chorus from performing well.

"How can you say that, Tom?" Zelda asked. "Didn't you see what just happened not an hour ago in that classroom?"

Tom frowned and looked away from her for a moment.

"Tom?" Zelda asked, snapping her fingers in front of his face. "Answer me. Did you see what happened back there or not?"

Tom sighed. "He didn't want to."

"It sure looked like it to me."

"He was trying not to cry, Zelda."

"Or maybe faking it to make us all think that he's really a good guy."

"Listen to yourself, Zelda. We're talking about Joshua here. Since when has he done anything wrong to anyone? He's practically perfect."

"You and I both know that's not true, Tom."

"All right, fine, he did beat up and almost kill that guy from Lincolnton, but did you see what that creep was going to do to MJ?"

"I don't go to basketball games, or watch cheerleaders," Zelda said, glaring at him for a moment.

Tom sighed. "I did that one time. One time. Anyways, since you weren't in the Lincolnton gym, I'll tell you the full story."

"Oh, please do."

"Your sarcasm's very much appreciated. Apparently MJ had been dating a guy from Lincolnton for about a week, but she'd broken it off because he was a bit too, um, insistent about something she wasn't willing to give up just yet. While the cheerleaders and her were all doing their stunts during halftime, the guy—I don't remember his name, so I'll just call him Dave—and some of his friends just attacked the cheerleaders, trying to go for MJ, and drag her off to one of their houses or something like that, but then Joshua came in and kicked all of their sorry asses."

"I heard he had help almost killing them," Zelda said, crossing her hands.

"You heard wrong," Tom said. "Took all five of them on at once, and did it so fast that the police officers that got there to try and help out didn't have anything to do but cart off five unconscious would-be rapists to jail."

"You're kidding."

"No way, Zee. I was there, so I can tell you. I even gave the police a full report."

"Then enlighten me."

"It happened so fast, I could barely understand what was going on, but when I did, I saw Dave and his gang of losers knocking down the cheerleaders who were holding MJ up in the air, which caused her to fall and almost crack her skull on the ground. Then, just before she could do that, Joshua came out of nowhere and softened her fall, allowing MJ the chance to avoid getting hurt. It was almost like he was psychic or something, because none of us could've gotten there in time to stop it. Anyways, right after he made sure she was okay, Joshua wheeled around and started whacking Dave right in the face with one of those signs that the cheerleaders had been waving in the air right before those guys had attacked."

Tom laughed.

"What's so funny?" Zelda asked.

"The sign said, 'Let's beat up the Wolves'. He actually cracked it because he hit Dave so hard. Just when I'd registered that, two of the other guys were about to gang up on Joshua, but then he dashed right past them and grabbed one of the guys that had fallen down when some of the cheerleaders ended up collapsing on him."

"Why would he do that?"

"Hold on a second, beautiful, let me finish first. Anyways, he grabbed the guy and flung him over at the other two, causing the first guy to knock them out when he collided with them, but that's not all. The first guy was still conscious and ended up rolling into the opposing team's water cooler, which fell on him and drenched him completely with some really cold water, just as he passed out from the strain."

"You said there were five guys, right?"

"Yeah, the fifth guy tried to make a break for it, but Joshua leapt over some of the cheerleaders that were still on the ground to reach him, and did some crazy judo move or something to completely knock him out. I heard later that the guy soiled himself too, and I'm pretty sure that's what Joshua was going for."

"So then it was over, right, Tom? So all I heard about him beating them up after that was false?"

"No, that was true."

"You mean he really did do that to all of them? Tom, how can you even start to defend him for doing that?"

"He couldn't help himself, Zee," Tom said. "He was caught in one of those, what do you call 'em? Berserker rage, that's what it was. Joshua was pissed, especially since they had attacked MJ. I'd probably do the same thing if you'd been assaulted like that."

"So what he did afterwards is justified in your opinion?" Zelda asked.

Tom frowned. "Uh…no, but I can at least understand why he did it. Luckily MJ stopped him before he broke Dave's face too much. They say that even the best plastic surgeon in the world couldn't fix that wreck."

"This is fun and all, Tom, but you're not helping me believe that Joshua didn't kill Chase because he wanted to. It seems to me that he has a past history with anger."

"Yeah, but still, I tell you he killed Chase because he had to. He didn't want to do it, but because he was Chase's friend, he wanted to at least make his death honorable, I guess."

"How is dying supposed to be honorable? He killed his best friend! What kind of monster does that?"

"Would you rather have Mr. Hawke kill him or have Joshua kill him?"

"Neither one! Why did he have to die at all?"

"Calm down, Zee. I'm sorry; I didn't meant to rile you up like that. But you've got to understand something real quickly."

"Oh, and what's that?" Zelda asked.

"We're probably going to have to kill people on this island," Tom said.

"You aren't seriously considering—"

Tom held up his hand. "Damn straight I'm seriously considering it," he said. "I don't know about you, but I know some of our fellow classmates here all too well, and some of them are going to try and kill us. This experiment is just going to let them run wild with some of the fantasies they've had in their heads for a very long time."

"But…there's no way they'd do it, not even the weird ones."

Zelda realized how much she'd changed her opinion since the beginning of the argument, but not once had she ever believed any of her classmates were willing killers. The emotional trauma from the potential fight was something impossible to comprehend.

"You've got a lot to learn about people real fast. We're in danger here, Zelda, or didn't you see that our English teacher is trying to get us to kill each other."

"But he can't make all of us do it. Not all of us are going to kill each other."

"Yeah, and they'll be the first ones to die. The only people who're going to make it out of this alive are the ones with the guns."

"We can't kill people, Tom!" Zelda shouted, as she got out from under the riot shield and stood away from him. "How can you even think about that?"

Tom moved out from the riot shield and placed a hand on Zelda's shoulder. "You think I want to kill them?" he asked, as she turned around to face him. "Do you think that I want to kill some of the only friends I've had in my life?"

"But why would you even propose to do something like that?"

"Because I want to keep you safe! If we pool our resources then maybe we can find a way off this island and back to America, but we can't do that unless we both work together and use the weapons they gave us to protect each other!"

Zelda paused and looked Tom in the eye, finding the truth in his words.

"We only kill the people that try to kill us," Tom said. "If we find some others like us who don't want to fight, then maybe we can increase our chances of surviving. Just trust me, Zee, I'm going to help get us out of here."

"Do you really think we can do it?" Zelda asked.

"Sure thing, beautiful," Tom said. "Now let's check out these backpacks for stuff to protect ourselves with."

Zelda smiled, not even caring that the rain was messing up her hair. "Thank you, Tom," she said. "Let's do it together."

Tom smiled with her and grasped her hand as they came back under the riot shield to find their backpacks. Zelda checked hers first and found a machete in it. Brandishing the sleek weapon, Zelda wondered what Mr. Hawke expected her to do with it, since she couldn't possibly attack anyone in such an ugly way. Looking over at Tom, Zelda found him holding a note that was attached to a pistol.

"Says here that Mr. Hawke wanted to provide a little fun by adding both offensive and defensive weapons in some of the backpacks," Tom said, checking out the pistol as he took its safety off. "Huh, my old man had something like this. Says he got it from my great-grandfather, who pried it off the hands of a dead Nazi in one of those concentration camps."

"So we've got a pistol and a machete," Zelda said. "I don't want to use them, not even once, Tom."

"If we're lucky we won't have to. Unfortunately I don't think luck is on our side right now. But that's okay; at least I'm here with you."

Tom leaned over to kiss Zelda, as she allowed a sense of temporary joy to enter her mind. She knew it wasn't true, but she felt safe in his arms then, and she closed her eyes, which cut off her chances of seeing the dual electrodes enter Tom's back, who'd slumped over in her lap, seemingly dead.

Screaming, Zelda checked the electrodes and tore them out of Tom, knowing that someone had just shot him with a Taser. She looked around frantically for whoever had shot him, but couldn't see anyone in the dark of the night, and the rain further obscured what little vision she had.

She knew a little about Tasers, since her father had made her carry one with her all the time to fulfill his desire to have his daughter protected at all times. The Taser was, by nature, designed to simply stun and incapacitate those it latched on to, but Zelda felt that the combination of the rain and the electrical current that ran in the Taser had killed her boyfriend. However, she never had a chance to prove her hypothesis, as an unknown assailant beat her in the back of the head with a tree branch.

Looking up for the last time in her life, Zelda saw the maniacally grinning face of Xenia Daugman looking back at her, just as Zelda closed her eyes, entering a dream she could never wake up from.

28 students left

A/N: Thanks for reading. Next week will focus on Marie Summers and the arrival of an unlikely ally in her time of mental turmoil following Chase's death. Until next time...

6: Part I: Final Exam: Chapter 6

A/N: Hello all and welcome back.

If there are any grammatical, spelling, or continuity errors then please feel free to let me know. Thanks.

Chapter 6

1

Marie Summers strode out in the open, never once noticing the rain falling down onto her face. Her mind wouldn't let her; there was no reason for her to acknowledge that which was meaningless. The sharp rain didn't matter, the island didn't matter, the people that she had once called friends didn't matter, and the teacher that had shot Chase didn't matter.

All that mattered was finding Joshua Carpenter.

He'd taken away the only thing that mattered to her; the only man that she'd ever felt close to. They'd had their hard times, Marie would never say otherwise, but that didn't mean that she didn't care about him. None of her older boyfriends could ever get anywhere near Chase when it came to the intimacy they'd had together.

Now he was dead, killed by his best friend.

Marie had always liked Joshua; it was hard not to. He was the only guy that was able to get along with just about everyone, even if they hated him, like she knew Shinji Heyerdahl did. He'd always been nice, and had helped her out with the complex algebra she'd needed to grasp in order to get some college credit to use in an attempt to become a Tar Heel, even though he personally hated math and the University of North Carolina.

What had changed? Why would Joshua kill Chase? Hadn't they just been talking and laughing two days ago? She didn't understand any of this.

Chase, why did you do it? Marie asked herself, wishing he were there to answer her. Why did you jump out and save me? Why didn't you just let me die? I can't go on without you.

Marie paused as she stood next to one of the homes that had been constructed weeks previously on the island by the Sons of the Constitution for the purposes of the experiment, saying that it added to the suspense of the game. Marie didn't know this, and if she did, she didn't care; all she knew was that the clouds weren't the only ones that were unable to stop themselves from crying. She slumped beside a rock, not even caring that she opened a wound she'd gained weeks before in a fishing accident, one that had been caused by her younger brother, who'd accidentally knocked Marie down and made her cut open the back of her head. The staples that the doctors had placed there had been hideous and she'd thought that no one would think she looked beautiful anymore.

But when she came back to school two days later, she found Chase waiting there at the front doors with a bouquet of flowers in one hand, and a card in the other, one that he'd made himself. The smile he'd had on his face had been the only thing that Marie had needed that day, and she never once thought about the staples in the back of her head, at least until it had been time to take them out a week later.

No, she recalled the only bright spot in the entire debacle, the smile on Chase's face and the gifts he'd taken the time to buy for her with money she knew his father—a triple-divorcee with a meager job as a janitor for the Catawba Springs Elementary School next to East Lincoln—didn't have. Chase had used the spare money he'd gained from working at Sports Cage, where he stayed in the back washing dish after dirty dish, and receiving little to no payment. Even with the small amount he'd gained, Chase had made Marie feel much better than she had since the accident. No one else did that for her.

But now he was gone forever, a corpse lying a room built solely for the purpose of telling thirty high school students that they needed to kill each other.

"I need your help, Chase," Marie said, trying to fight back the tears. "Come back to me."

Marie slapped herself, knowing that she wasn't acting right.

I'm scared, she thought. I need to know what I'm supposed to do. Where am I supposed to go from here? What can I do, Chase?

Marie sobbed as she crumpled herself into a ball, just watching as the rain fell down from the night sky.

She didn't know what to do or if there was anything she could do. The one thing she did know was that she had a loaded XM29 OICW—an assault rifle that doubled as a grenade launcher, or so the instructions had told her—in her backpack. Marie had never held a gun before in her life, and had never had to, as she didn't share her father's views on hunting animals for fun. Her mother had discouraged her from going out on his many hunting trips anyway, leaving her with no opportunities to hold such a brutal and deadly weapon, and yet Marie felt as if she'd always known how to use it if the time came.

Marie pushed herself up off the ground and grabbed the rifle, taking off its safety in order to do what she had to meet Chase, even if it meant that his murderer stayed alive. Odds were he'd end up dying sometime during the experiment anyway.

"I'm coming, Chase," Marie said, ready to pull the trigger.

"Wait!" a man's voice cried out from the bleakness of the night, causing Marie to drop the assault rifle in surprise. "Don't do it!"

Marie looked up to find that Danson Macabre was standing in front of her as he panted, looking as if he'd been running for a very long time. His black hair tinted with red highlights glimmered in what light there was and his pale complexion made him look like a ghoul on the prowl in its native cemetery. Marie shivered, both from the cold of the rain and the figure that stared back at her.

"You can't kill yourself!" Danson continued to shout. "None of us should do that at all!"

Marie's face resonated her shock; she'd always thought that Danson hated every single one of his classmates, and cheerleaders weren't exactly his friends either. The only people she knew that talked to him were Tyra King and Joshua Carpenter, but he talked to everyone, so he didn't count. Never once had he ever showed any interest in her life, and certainly not like this.

"Why do you care?" Marie asked, feeling more tears leaving her face. "Since when have you ever cared about any of us?"

"I know I don't show that much interest in anyone at school, but it's not because I don't care! I'm just…I-I…I don't fit in well at school…or anywhere for that matter."

Marie stopped crying as she saw the look on Danson's face. She'd never seen him show this much emotion in such a short period of time. He was normally either entirely apathetic or laughing when someone ended up doing something stupid in class. Not once had he shown concern or that he viewed himself as an outcast. A sudden feeling of shame filled Marie, as she knew she had been a part of those who'd ridiculed him.

"I'm sorry," Danson said, looking away from her. "I just…I couldn't let you kill yourself, Marie, not after what happened. You can't let this happen, not while Chase's killer is still out there."

Marie picked herself off the ground and stared at Danson, finding sympathy in his eyes. "It doesn't matter!" she protested. "How am I going to find him?"

"The same way I found you: I listened in on what he was planning. I don't know if you were listening, but you were mumbling where you were heading when you just got your stuff back at the school. I was scared that you would end up killing yourself so I ran after you as soon as I could."

"Then you're not playing?"

"Of course I'm not going to kill anyone. That's barbaric and unworthy of my time or my resources. No, it's the people like Joshua that we need to worry about. Stone cold killers like him aren't going to let us have the chance to leave this island. We need to stop them before it's too late, but I thought you might be the one who wanted to make sure that he never hurt anyone ever again, so I stopped you from killing yourself."

"But why would you even care about me?" Marie asked, eyeing him closely.

"Because I once saw my father kill his best friend when he had a chance just like Joshua did with Chase, and I never forgave him," Danson said firmly. "I can't stand to see injustices like this ever happen again."

"But I can't…How could I kill him even if he killed Chase?"

"Because if you don't, then he'll just kill again and next time it could be you or me, and then he'd never stop until he won, if you can call that winning."

"Why can't you do it?"

Danson froze for a moment and Marie stiffened in response. She wondered if he was just trying to manipulate her into doing something she didn't want to do, but she was only fooling herself. Marie knew that she wanted to make Joshua pay for the way he had treated Chase. All she'd needed was someone to push her in the right direction.

"If I killed him, there would be no justice in it," Danson replied. "While I may be filled with righteous fury right now, that doesn't justify killing him. It needs to be done by the one Joshua hurt the most. You need to make things right, Marie."

"But what if he kills me?" Marie asked.

"He won't, not if you take him by surprise, and I'll show you how to sneak up on him."

"You never did tell me how you knew where he was."

"He's heading north to the furthest point on the island. He was going up there to plan out his next move and probably kill MJ and Hanako while he was at it. He was also mumbling it to himself as he left the school, or at least I'm pretty sure that's what he said. I could be wrong."

"No," Marie said, thinking it through. "That's exactly what he'd do. He's just been pretending to be nice the entire time, but now when he's about to die, he'll do whatever it takes to stay alive. I have to get rid of him…for Chase."

"Are you sure that you can do this?"

Marie grabbed the assault rifle and her backpack as she stared back at Danson. "If I don't then Chase will never be able to rest in peace."

"Be safe, Marie. My prayers are for your success."

"Thanks, Danson…for everything."

2

"Well that was fun," Danson said, watching Marie leave him behind as he let out a soft chuckle. "Took a little longer than I wanted, but I can always adjust for time. It's not like I have all the time in the world."

Laughing inwardly, Danson listened to the signal that Marie's collar gave off as she submerged herself into the darkness of the night. He could hear all of them, so well that he knew that someone had already died, killed by someone she hadn't seen coming until the last second.

He loved the device he'd gained from his former teacher, because it suited his purposes splendidly. Marie would be the first of many he would twist and subvert for what he wanted. More than likely, though, she would end up getting herself killed while looking for Joshua, since Danson knew that he was quite possibly the most dangerous contender in the game, save for him. It didn't matter, though. When the time came, he would do whatever it took to win, even befriending the others if he had to.

The obvious lies he'd told Marie had just made him so much happier. He'd never known his real father that much or cared to know him at all. If anything Danson had been the one to kill his father's best friend and framed his father for the fire, which had killed both his parents and the friend, doing it for nothing more than the feel of it. If he recalled correctly, he had only been seven at the time.

Ah, such good memories, Danson thought.

"Now," he mused, smirking all the while, "whom should I play with next? Maybe Tyra? No, I've got better ideas than that. That would be much too easy. She'll do enough damage by herself, anyways, right? If I can ever win this experiment, I have to remove all the key players from the experiment. Joshua, Max, Shinji, Mary Jane, Benjamin, Jackie, Helmut, Hanako, and Ryan are the ones I need to eliminate the most. But whom to pick? How about a grand combo of all nine? Yes, that would work perfectly."

Danson grinned as he set off into the rainforest, knowing that someone else was going to die very soon, and it wasn't even his fault.

28 students left

A/N: Thanks again for reading! Next week will focus on Tina King, as she dwells on the experiment and her sister's sudden changes. Until next time...

7: Part I: Final Exam: Chapter 7

A/N: Hello all. Glad to have everyone back for another round.

If there are any grammatical, spelling, or continuity errors then please feel free to let me know. Thanks.

Chapter 7

Tina King waited in the living room of the home she'd broken into after locating it on the map offered to her by her former teacher. She had found it odd that any of the buildings would be locked, especially considering the fact that wherever the island was, then surely it wasn't near any populated centers that she knew of. Then again she didn't understand the purpose of houses on an island that had no native occupants. Maybe the people that were forcing them to kill each other had added the homes to draw some of the players to them in order to allow for chances for them to find and murder one another at a faster rate.

If anyone passed by the white house they would know instantly that someone had blasted their way inside with a weapon they wouldn't want to mess around with, which was exactly what Tina was hoping for, but only to a certain extent. If another besides the person she wanted to come to the house arrived, they'd find a brand new Remington 870 shotgun staring them right in the face as she ended their life. Tina was taking no chances with the experiment, as she'd seen firsthand with her classmates what it could do to even the nicest student in the thirty that had been taken.

She sighed as she sat down on the loveseat, wishing that her tired body would just wake up and let her get away from the nightmare around her.

Tina had black hair that curled down past her neckline, light green eyes, and stood just above six feet tall. Her chestnut skin was covered with rain droplets that had gathered there once she'd given up on trying to brush them off.

Mr. Hawke wants us to kill each other, Tina thought, rubbing her eyes. I wouldn't be able to believe it Chase hadn't of died.

"Oh, none of this makes any sense!" Tina shouted out.

A silence passed in the living room, with the only noise coming from the outside, where the rain continued to fall in a staggering amount.

"Calm down, Tina," she told herself. "Can't go crazy just yet."

Slumping back to let the softest pillow on the loveseat allow her some mild form of comfort, she dwelled on her twin sister, Tyra.

Tina and Tyra had both been close to each other ever since birth. The doctors had said that Tyra had been holding onto Tina as they delivered her during the cesarean they had been forced to perform due to problems during childbirth. Identical in every way, the both of them had always enjoyed each other's company. They'd done almost everything together—piano lessons, acting in school plays, and other memorable adventures.

Reminiscing on their past exploits ruined Tina's mood when she realized that they weren't on as good terms now.

Her parents had called it a phase, but Tina had known better. The connection that she'd had with Tyra had been cut off the moment that she'd gone off into the lifestyle she had chosen as her own. Maybe if her little brother, Tyrese, hadn't died in the fire that had started mysteriously in their old home, Tyra wouldn't be like this. Maybe if the police had found the perpetrator—who'd never been successfully identified besides a vague age of around twenty—then Tyra would still be her best friend.

The Tyra she'd known was gone, taken over by this being that had grown distant from both her family.

No one except for Danson Macabre that was.

Tina first noticed the connection between the troubled Danson and the wounded Tyra when Tyra had started mentioning that she had joined a new group that was helping her come to terms with Tyrese's death. Her parents, convinced that she meant some form of church outreach group, didn't bother to press for details, saying that they were happy that she was making progress on her path to accepting what had happened with Tyrese and let the subject drop. But Tina, however, had felt something more sinister based off of the emotions she'd received whenever she was around Tyra. One night, when Tyra was going to head to one of her meetings, Tina followed her on her bicycle, in order to find out just who Tyra was talking to. The moment she'd discovered the truth, though, she'd wished she'd kept her conspiracy theories to herself.

They called themselves vampires, but in actuality they were little more than avid role players that wished to act out certain aspects of their feelings that the modern society of the world deemed inappropriate or downright sinful. Tina didn't pretend to understand the inner workings of the vampire subculture, but all she did know was that they had all taken advantage of Tyra's feelings.

Several men and women—whose ages ranged from around fourteen and forty-five it seemed—were all gathered around the newest member, or Tyra, who had dressed in all black and taken on massive amounts of makeup that gave her normally chestnut skin a paler tone. One by one the vampires would either touch Tyra in certain parts of her body and then leave or pretend to take a bite from her neck, looking as if they had achieved the highest form of ecstasy available to man. Finally, one last—male—vampire came over to Tyra's side and asked her some questions that Tina couldn't hear or even try to figure out as he spoke. She realized later on that the man was Danson, garbed in his usual attire and looking more malevolent than ever. Tyra answered all the questions with zeal on her face, always looking content, an emotion Tina hadn't seen her show in months.

Freaked out beyond anything she could describe, Tyra had fled from the vampire meeting, and cried herself, but couldn't fall asleep.

When Tyra came back late that night and walked past Tina's room, she feigned sleep, something that she would have to repeat several nights over, due to the presence she felt in the room late at night. It had started the night after she'd found out about what Tyra was doing, and a sudden menacing figure had appeared and stood over her, at first just watching, but later it would descend and hold its hands over her head, performing something she couldn't understand. Tina had always kept her eyes mostly closed during these encounters, afraid that whatever it was would sense her actions and do something more than what it already was. However, one night a week ago, Tina had dared to open them, and then discovered that Tyra had been the one that had always stalked her at night, causing her to panic when Tyra had left the room.

Tina didn't understand why Tyra was acting that way, but she was sure it had at least something to do with Danson's machinations. She'd seen a History Channel special on the vampire subculture, and found out that the majority of them didn't actually believe that they were vampires, but that they found enjoyment in acting out certain parts of their personality that they otherwise wouldn't be able to perform. But the changes that Tyra had gone through didn't seem to match up with what Tina knew was true.

A noise interrupted Tina's thoughts, causing her to grab the Remington and aim it toward the doorway that led into the living room. Standing up, Tina eased her way over to the front door, ready to take down whoever it was if they weren't who she wanted to be there. Hearing more disturbances, Tina decided to jump out and fire the moment she could find out who it was.

Yelling out to discourage whoever it was, Tina pulled over to the doorway and was met by the pale face of her twin sister, who shrieked in fear as she tried to get out of the way of the powerful shotgun.

"It's me, Tina!" Tyra shouted, holding her hands in front of her face. "Don't shoot me!"

Tina lowered the shotgun, and eyed her sister. The rain had taken most of Tyra's makeup off and her skin was now a runny mix of both white powder and her natural skin color. Tyra's light green eyes stared back at Tina's, letting her know that her sister had listened to her.

"Oh, thank God, it's you," Tina said, holding the shotgun in one hand and going over to and hugging her twin sister. "I thought you'd never come."

Tyra showed mild surprise at first, but gradually calmed down and hugged her sister back. "Why wouldn't I come?"

Tina broke off the embrace and gazed into Tyra's eyes once more. "Because I, uh, well…haven't been talking to you for a while."

"It's okay, Tina. It's not like I blame you. I've been going through some changes since…since Tyrese died. I haven't been the same, and it's been scaring you, because this isn't normal."

"Don't say that, Tyra. It's not because it isn't normal…it's just because it's, well, um, it's…"

"Not normal. It's okay; you don't have to be so embarrassed about it. I'm going through some things that you don't understand, but I can make them all better if we just get some time to talk about them."

Tina attempted a smile, but failed to produce one. Deciding instead to try a new tactic, she said, "Why don't we go into the living room and talk about all this? I'm sure we'll have plenty of time to do it."

Tyra nodded. "Sounds good to me, sis."

Tina led her twin sister into the living room and sat down back on the loveseat as she placed the shotgun by the side and relaxed, while Tyra chose to sprawl out onto the linen couch. They stared back and forth at each other for a long time; both unable to find the words they needed to say to break the silence.

Tyra took the initiative and spoke first, "Thanks for sneaking that note to me to tell me to come here to the houses, sis. I was so scared when Mr. Hawke started talking about this terrible game, but then I saw your note and I knew that all I had to do was find you and plan things out from there."

Amazed at Tyra's honesty, Tina managed to form a true smile. "I couldn't let you be off by yourself, Tyra, even with our differences."

"Are you scared by what I am?"

"Scared?"

"You never talk to me anymore, sis, and you don't even try to be around me," Tyra said. "I know it's because of this."

"It's not exactly what I…care for," Tina said.

Tyra nodded. "I understand, but you've got to understand, I feel so alive when I'm with them. They make me happy."

"I suppose if it makes my sister happy, I can at least deal with it."

"That's all I ask for now. So, what's the plan?"

"Plan?"

"You know, what we're going to do to make sure no one kills us, and to figure out how to get off this island without having to kill each other."

Tina paused, wishing she had thought out that far. "Um, I have no idea, Tyra."

"Then can I make some suggestions?" Tyra asked, as Tina tried not to stare at her canines, which she'd sharpened a couple of days before.

"Sure."

"We find some allies and find a way to hijack one of those boats out there. The more people we have the more likely we can win this."

"But who? Who would we choose?"

Tyra considered it for a moment, placing her right index finger on her lips as she stared off into space. "Joshua for one," she said.

Tina's eyes widened, and she almost spoke, but Tyra interrupted her.

"Yes, I know that we both saw what he did, but he did it for a reason, sis. How long have we known him?"

"Four years."

"Long enough to know that he's a good guy. Besides, he's Joshua, so he's most likely got fifty different plans on how to get out of here alive. That and it would be really useful to have someone who knows his stuff with us. Did you see the way he beat up all those guys at Lincolnton?"

"Yeah, and the aftermath."

"Even still, he did stop it when MJ came in. But you can't deny that he wouldn't be useful to us."

"Can't argue with that logic."

"Are you thirsty?" Tyra asked, looking over at Tina.

"Thirsty?" Tina repeated, furrowing an eyebrow.

"You know, when you get something to drink?"

"Very funny, Tyra. Yes, I am thirsty."

Tyra tossed her water bottle at Tina, who caught it just before it was able to slam into her face.

"You do know that I have one myself, right, Tyra?"

"Yeah, but I felt like sharing."

"Okay," Tina said, taking a sip as she noticed an odd odor emanating from the bottle. "Who else?"

"Helmut Schuwald."

"Why him?"

"Damn useful with a gun, or so I've heard. They say his great-grandfather was a member of the SS back in World War II, but he escaped punishment from the Allies by pretending to lie dead as they inspected the concentration camp that he'd been placed at."

"And you want the descendant of a Nazi to help us out?" Tina asked, taking one more sip of water.

"He's not one of them, if that's what you're implying," Tyra said, eyeing Tina as she drank. "I've talked to him a couple of times, and he's about as far from being a Nazi as humanly possible. Hates being associated with them."

"Then I suppose we can let him in. Who else?"

The strange odor filled Tina's lungs, and she coughed, but got over it quickly.

"Here," Tina said, tossing the water bottle back to Tyra. "Must be something bad in there, because it's making me sick."

"That would be the chloroform, sis," Tyra said, smirking.

"Chloroform?"

Tyra grabbed a small canister from her backpack and threw it over to Tina, who almost missed it, as she hallucinated two canisters being thrown at the same time. Using what vision she had left, Tina read the labeling, finding that the entire canister had been emptied, and that it was indeed chloroform. Tina looked up to find her twin sister staring back at her less than five feet away. She felt a dread tingling sensation all over her body and tried not to look at Tyra's canines.

"I don't understand," she said, coughing up a mixture of phlegm and blood into her lap.

"Normally chloroform doesn't work as an effective weapon in something like this game," Tyra said, snatching the Remington before Tina could gather her mind enough to take it herself, "so imagine my disappointment when I found that it was the weapon that I had been given to play with."

Tina coughed some more and tried to stand up, but the sudden movement tired her and she fell back into the seat.

"But then I remembered your naïvety, Tina, and I was emboldened to try it out by switching the contents of that canister into my water bottle, knowing that if I ever offered it to you, then you'd take it and drink from it in order to make sure my feelings weren't hurt," Tyra said, licking her lips. "'Use the weapons you've received to kill the unworthy, Tyra,' that's what Danson told me."

"That damn bastard," Tina said, trying to keep her eyes open.

"You could say that, but I can't have you ruining my lover's good name, sis, or keep you alive. I have to feed on you."

"You…what?"

"Shh," Tyra said, placing her index finger to Tina's lips. "It'll all be over as soon as possible, sis. Say hey to Tyrese for me."

Tina gagged on another volley of phlegm and blood that wanted to leave her body to fall on the floor. She tried to scream out for help, knowing that no one would be near her to help her out in time. With what little vision she had left, Tina witnessed her twin sister bending over and licking her neck, causing her to cringe.

Why are you doing this, Tyra? Tina asked herself. Why is this happening to me?

Tina managed to let a scream out as she felt the sharpened canines of Tyra King bite into her flesh.

It was the last thing she ever did.

2

Tyra King fed on the blood of her former twin sister, enjoying every time that the warm and crimson substance entered her mouth. It was her first time, and it was almost as enjoyable as her other first time, the night that Danson had taken her virginity following the first meeting she'd had with the role playing fools Danson had taken her to. All the blood in Tina's body seemed to gush out from her body, which remained alive, but only in the smallest sense of the word. The combined shock of all that had happened and the inhalation of chloroform had made sure that the last moments of Tina's life had been at the very least easy on her, or so Tyra thought.

She was careful not to drink too much, for fear that the chloroform had entered Tina's bloodstream, not that Tyra knew if that were even possible or not, but she wished to remain safe. Danson had promised her that the first time was always the best one, or so it would seem until the next moment Tyra would be able to take blood from another frail victim.

Unlike her lover, Tyra had become convinced that she was the type of vampire that fed upon the blood of her prey immediately, rather than the psychic vampire that Danson was. He had started her off as one, feeling that she would be better suited as one of the psychic vampires, who fed off of the life force that surrounded every living human being. To test it out, Tyra had stalked Tina as she slept late at night, always trying to find and sense the energies she needed to sustain herself. Even though she had felt the sweet power that slowly drained from her sister's aura, Tyra knew that it wouldn't be enough for her to live off of, so she had consulted with Danson once more to find a solution to the problem.

Danson had praised her at first for trying to figure this out on her own, which let him know how dedicated she was to finding her true place in the world, but also told her to slow things down, because Tina might become suspicious if she ever found out what Tyra was doing to her at night. Tyra had told him that it didn't matter anymore, since she had found her true place in the world as one of the real vampires.

Nodding, Danson had then taken the time to feed off of her as she allowed him to take control of her life force in order to satisfy some of his needs, and she fulfilled all the others the moment he finished.

Thinking back to the school room on the island, Tyra let go of her now deceased sister—who slumped down and collapsed on the floor, a pool of blood forming around her body—and dwelled on why Danson hadn't joined her when she'd left, since they had been offered the chance to leave with the person they were seeing at the time. Perhaps he didn't see her as anything but a lover and a food source.

"That had better not be it," Tyra said. "If it is, then he has another thing coming, doesn't he, sis?"

Tyra gazed down at her sister's body, marveling in how peaceful she looked, and knew that all of her victims would look like that once she was through with them. She'd convinced herself that it was impossible to call what she'd just done as murder, because it was the only way she could stay alive. People killed each other in wars, and no one ever called them murderers, because they were soldiers, fighting for the glory and the safety of their nation.

But Tyra knew she was no soldier; she was a vampire, simple as that.

"What should I do now?" Tyra asked herself, licking the trail of blood that had fallen from her lips.

The rain stopped outside the white home, but the darkness remained and called out to her, begging her to enter it in order to find others to feed on. Tyra closed her eyes and imagined the remaining students in her class succumbing to her attacks. If she kept feeding like she had with Tina, she might not need to satisfy her needs for a year at the most.

But she knew that she had to find Danson first and confront him about his own plans. Surely he could come up with a way that would get them both off of the island and back to their homes, where they could both feed on whomever they pleased.

Smiling, Tyra left the home for the thick blackness of the night, never once trying to look back at the corpse that had once been her sister.

She had more important things to worry about now.

27 students left

A/N: Thanks for reading. Next week we'll shift focus to Helmut Schuwald, as the experiment forces him to explore his past and just what he'll be willing to do to survive. Until next time...

8: Part I: Final Exam: Chapter 8

A/N: Hello all and welcome back. Thanks again to everyone who's participating and reading.

If there are any grammatical, spelling, or continuity errors then please feel free to let me know. Thanks.

Chapter 8

Helmut Schuwald took off the hat he'd found in his backpack and crinkled it to get rid of the rainwater that had collected in it. He sighed and examined the cave he'd located in the darkness of the summer storm that had obscured his vision, mostly the result of his losing one of his contacts from the constant wiping away of the rain from his eyes. He'd searched in vain for it, but had come up with nothing, leading him to use his one good eye—his left—to search for those that he knew would come and kill him.

The cave appeared to be manmade, as nothing in it—even with the blurry vision he had—seemed to be natural in any way. There were no stalactites or stalagmites at all in the cave, and the remnants of working tools were all over the place. Obviously some group—most likely working for the Sons of the Constitution—had take great care in the construction of the island to befit their needs. A group of army ants were gathered near the entrance, but luckily they weren't in the much-feared swarm form that Helmut had heard was never a pleasant experience to be around. For now they seemed content to leave him alone and stay out of the rain. Either way he gave them a wide berth.

Helmut had green eyes, blonde hair he kept cut to just below his ears, and stood at two inches below six foot tall. He was dressed in a poncho, which had conveniently been inside of the backpack he'd taken from the school when it had been his turn to leave.

Helmut closed his eyes, bemoaning the fact that he couldn't open both of them to see the world properly. Normally he had a spare with him at all times, but now he had no way of reaching them.

What a disadvantage, Helmut thought, using his ears to check his surroundings, just like his great-grandfather had drilled him to do if ever caught in an uncompromising situation. How can I hope to defend myself if I can't use my eyes to see the people who want to harm me? It's not fair. I shouldn't even be here at all…I could have saved us all.

It had been the perfect plan, one that he'd come up with the moment he'd learned everything he'd needed to about what Mr. Hawke had planned for them. All Helmut had to do was get off the island, delay the game for a while, and get help for everyone once he got away from whoever was taking him to Germany. He would have taken anyone's help, no matter the cost, because he had to save his classmates.

Although he had only known them for a year, Helmut had grown to enjoy most of the students he had met at East Lincoln. Most of them were kind, respectable people who he found himself loving even more every time they met. The first people he'd met in his first semester of his senior year had been Chase Traviss and Joshua Carpenter, who had found him trying to get into the front doors of the gym instead of the normal way. It had been embarrassing to learn of his foolish mistake, but Joshua had told him not to worry about it, because everyone made mistakes. Chase had then volunteered to lead Helmut around the school in order to help him find his way to his classes, while Joshua asked if Helmut wouldn't mind sitting with them during lunch when they discovered they both had similar schedules.

At first Helmut had been surprised by their generosity, as his family had always grown to hate Americans. They were all good for nothing fools who all wanted to take advantage of every other country in the world, a belief system that Hans Schuwald—Helmut's great-grandfather—had instilled in them all. Helmut, however, had never agreed with his predecessor's wishes, and had told the old man to his face that he was heading to America to get away from him and his family, because Helmut's mother had signed the necessary papers, and there was nothing that he could do about it now.

So he had left his family behind, finding refuge in the Chance family, who were all delighted at the idea of housing someone from another country. All except their son, Sonny, who disliked Helmut's attitude that seemingly made him look like he thought that he was better than everyone else. Helmut had tried to make it known to Sonny that he had no such views, but at the time his English wasn't as good as it was now, and Helmut had mistakenly called Sonny a foreigner, when in reality he had mangled the differences in the two difficult languages by accidentally saying the German word "fahren," while he spoke, confusing himself at the same time. The language barrier hadn't been easy to get over, and it certainly hadn't helped his relationship with Sonny, who he knew had just threatened to kill him in front of everyone in the class several hours before. Thankfully Joshua had known enough rudimentary German to attempt to teach him as much of the English language as he could, which Helmut had greatly appreciated at the time, but now he was worried for his friend.

At the time Helmut had thought it preposterous for any of them to kill each other, because there was no way it would happen. However, when Chase tried to save Marie from Mr. Hawke, Helmut had seen exactly what would happen in all of their futures if they didn't act quickly.

Chase is dead, Helmut thought, and Joshua was the one who killed him. Oh Lord, what is going on?

Helmut had almost been unable to comprehend what had happened to Chase once it'd occurred, but time had allowed him the chance to fully consider the truth of the deed. He was sure that he knew why Joshua had killed Chase, and that it had simply been an act of mercy, but even still he was afraid of the man he had come to admire.

Josh, why? Helmut asked himself. You didn't have to kill him. You could have let him die, rather than end his misery yourself. Better yet use it to demonize Mr. Hawke if he ever gets this video of his out, but why do it yourself and make us all think you're some horrific monster? You have your faults, but no one would've thought you could have done something like this. Why?

Helmut had always seen Joshua as a man of confidence, even when the world that stood around him collapsed, but when he'd gotten a chance to know him better, Helmut had discovered there was more to Joshua than he could have ever imagined. He had not been prepared to learn that one of his friends had admitted that they had killed someone even before the experiment. No one but a select few had ever been told, but Joshua had take Helmut into his confidence in order to tell him the truth.

No, I can't think about that right now, Helmut told himself. I've got to figure out what to do next here. Besides, I have nothing to worry about when it comes to Joshua. If he ever finds me in this game, he'll let me join him instantly, because I saw the way he looked at me once Mr. Hawke denied my request to leave. He saw what I was trying to do and thanked me for it. Or can I?

"Oh, I hate this!" Helmut said aloud. "I hate not being able to trust anyone in this awful game! Gottverdammt!"

He paused, wishing he could take back the expletive against God, but decided he would pray for forgiveness later, when he actually had a chance to collect himself.

What he wanted more than anything else was to be allowed the chance to have left the school with Jackie Jones, but Mr. Hawke's rule had explicitly mentioned that the people had to be dating, and Helmut had never garnered the courage to ask her out, even with his friends' attempted help. He'd first met Jackie the same day that he'd met the vast majority of his classmates, and was instantly stricken with her beauty, but unable to fully talk to her in her native language, leaving him unable to try and ask her out. The English lessons that Helmut took with Joshua had helped, but sometimes Joshua just wasn't good enough to translate from the harder German into what it meant in English, which he was always apologizing for, even though Helmut was having as hard a time trying to teach Joshua German as well.

Unable to fully figure out the language just yet, Helmut had decided to work as hard as he could to be able to talk to the people of his newfound country. It hadn't taken long, but Joshua had eventually figured out that Helmut was interested in Jackie and was also tutoring her as well, though for a different matter. Intrigued, Helmut had attempted to gather the courage to ask his friend to put in a good word for him with Jackie, but his fears had taken a hold of him, and he'd given up. Nonplussed, Joshua had tried to induce Helmut into doing it, but Helmut had been unable to follow through with it. Still Joshua had pressured him to ask her out, even after Helmut was more than fluent in English, but he was still finding himself powerless, as if he could never let himself ask a question that could irrevocably change his interactions with Jackie.

Even now, after a full year of being in America and learning the native customs and language, Helmut couldn't bring himself to ask her out. Joshua swore to him that Jackie was interested in him and that she was thinking about asking him out herself, but that she was shy as well. All they had to do was find some form of activity that the both of them would like and they could have their first date, but Helmut never acted on his feelings for her, which had frustrated himself to no end, and he knew that even Joshua, renowned for his patience, was getting ticked off at his inaction.

But there was no way that he could do it now, not with the experiment forcing them to kill each other. Even if they met, would Helmut be able to express his feelings for her, or would she try and kill him to stay alive? He hated everything about what was happening to all of them.

Why did this have to happen to me? Helmut asked. I was supposed to leave all of this bloodshed behind when I fled my family.

The whole reason he had come to America in the first place had been to get away from home. He had no one left to love but his mother, but he had selfishly left her behind, even though it had been her idea to flee. Helmut had seen his great-grandfather kill his father when the latter had found out just what the elder man had been in a past life. Helmut knew that he shouldn't have watched or even have listened in, but the scene had caused him to see every single detail and remember every word.

Hans Schuwald, the former "Vampire of Bolzano," had been a leading officer of the Schutzstaffel during the Second World War, and had even headed one of the many concentration camps in Bolzano, Italy. He'd been furious to learn that his grandson had found out about his past and appalled to discover that he didn't agree with him or his methods in escaping capture near the end of the war, forcing Hans to kill his son in the night and make it look like a nearby homeless man had committed the crime.

From that moment on, Helmut had sworn to leave his family behind, and desired to go to another country, preferably as far away from Munich as possible, which made the United States one of many choices for him to take.

But now he was beginning to regret his decision, even though he knew that there was no way he could have ever seen any of it coming. Helmut wasn't clairvoyant, and neither would he ever be so in his life, so why he worried about that he didn't know. He assumed that he was trying to find something to blame for his predicament, and blaming himself seemed as likely a solution as any, especially since he knew that most of the other students wouldn't take kindly to his attempted escape. He secretly wished that they would all see reason like Joshua had, but knew many of them wouldn't.

Helmut heard noises from outside the cave and grabbed his revolver, the weapon that had come with his backpack, and wished he could see clearly enough to aim if he had need to. It was a Smith & Wesson Mode1 500 revolver, one that had been noted as one of the more powerful handguns on earth, and carried in it enough bullets to take down many foes at once if he so desired, but Helmut prayed that he wouldn't have to fire it. He'd been forced by his family to have an appreciation for multiple guns from all over the world, and knew enough about them to be proficient, but at least then he'd had both of his eyes to help guide his bullets to their targets.

The noises halted in front of the cave, as their owner—or owners—stopped out in front of the cave opening.

Please just leave me alone, Helmut begged. Go find somewhere else to hide. I don't want to kill anyone.

The figure went against Helmut's wishes, however, and barged inside of the cave, revealing the tall and thatch-haired Sonny Chance. Sonny's surly brown eyes met up with Helmut's, and flashed anger.

"You son of a bitch!" Sonny cried out, as he revealed his weapon, a fire poker. "I'm going to kill you, you good for nothing Nazi!"

"I'm not a Nazi!" Helmut roared as he brought out his revolver and pointed it right at Sonny's forehead, ready to shoot to kill if necessary, making Sonny see what would happen to him if he lunged, so he backed down.

"Yeah, go ahead and prove me right, Hitler," Sonny said.

Helmut grunted. "This has to stop, Sonny," he said. "I don't want to shoot you, let alone kill you, so put the poker down, and let's talk about this."

"Oh sure, I'll do that, just in time for you to kill me. He said you would."

"I could do it right now, you know."

Sonny's eyes flashed from the revolver in Helmut's hands down to his fire poker, and settled on a patch of earth that he chose to sit on. Helmut joined him by returning to the section he'd lied down on earlier and looked at Sonny.

"What the hell do you want to talk to me about?" Sonny asked. "Want to wait to kill me for fun or something?"

"I don't want to kill you!" Helmut protested. "I don't want to kill anyone! I just want to get off this damn island!"

"Yeah, but I guess that didn't happen for you, did it?"

Helmut stiffened, knowing instantly that he'd been right about Sonny's state of mind following his attempt to get help for them. "That wasn't why I did that," he said, wishing he could get Sonny to listen to him. "I did it to save us."

"Oh really? Since when did saving us come to mean taking the closest boat away from the problem and leaving us behind?"

"When it meant that I could go out and find help the moment I was away from the island! I wasn't just thinking about me; I wanted to get all of us out of here by figuring out where we were and what I needed to do to find help."

"Sure you did," Sonny said. "I believe you. Yeah, I believe you want to get me believing in you so you can stab me in the back the moment it's turned the other way."

Helmut sighed. "What is it going to take in order for me to convince you that I do not want to kill you, Sonny?"

"Nothing, because you and I both know you've just been waiting for the chance to get rid of me for hating you, and now you have the perfect chance."

"But I don't hate you; I just don't like you."

"What's the difference?"

"If I hated you, I'd have shot you the moment I saw you come inside, but I didn't, so I don't."

Sonny furrowed an eyebrow, a movement Helmut could barely make out in the dank blackness of the cave. The rain, meanwhile, had stopped outside.

"That doesn't make sense," Sonny said.

"Blame Joshua," Helmut said, shrugging. "He's the one who taught me how to keep my anger in check. I did the rest."

"So you're helping that murderer now."

"He's not a murderer!"

"Then how did Chase die?" Sonny asked. "You're not going to tell me that Joshua didn't kill him, are you?"

"Well of course he killed him, but he's not a murderer," Helmut said.

"You're messed up, Helmut."

"Listen, it's like this: Josh did it because—What are you doing?"

Sonny lunged at Helmut, his fire poker waving itself in the air and heading right for his face. Panicking, he brought the revolver out and fired as he tried to dodge the attack. With his one good eye, Helmut saw the bullet penetrate Sonny's head and kill him instantly, just as the fire poker fell out of his hand to the mossy ground just beneath him.

"Oh my God, what have I done!" Helmut cried out, as he threw the revolver to the ground in disgust. "Schizer!"

Sonny's broken head allowed Helmut to see the damage he'd done, and he threw up on the ground beside him, unable to stop himself.

"Nein!" he screamed. "Nein! Nein! Nein!"

Yelling in German he barely understood himself, Helmut cried, trying to justify what he'd just done. Sonny had almost killed him, and he had shot him in self-defense, so it was as simple as that. Wasn't it?

But even with truth on his side, Helmut cried himself into despair in the bleakness of the cave, as a legion of army ants that he'd all bit forgotten about came over to and picked apart Sonny's corpse, slowly disintegrating him piece by piece.

26 students left

A/N: On that cheery note, next week we will return to Joshua and Hanako, as he delves into who he really is and tries to find a way to overcome his recent injury. Until next time...

9: Part I: Final Exam: Chapter 9

A/N: Hello all.

I've done something in this chapter I'd never tried before, which is to attempt to render sign language in narrative text. It took me some time to decide what I wanted to do with it. I finally decided to place every bit of sign language in italics, hopefully making sure that it's easy to designate when the italics signify someone using sign language and when it's someone thinking, as I've done in the past. Please let me know how you feel about this. I'd like to know what makes it easier for you the reader to understand what's going on.

If there are any grammatical, spelling, or continuity errors then please feel free to let me know. Thanks.

Chapter 9

Joshua Carpenter looked up at the sky and sighed, wishing that the clouds would get out of the way.

How can I figure out where we are if I can't even see the stars? he asked himself, as he led Hanako up the lonely hill. At least it's stopped raining, but still, God, couldn't You, Ya know, get rid of them for me now?

Hanako patted him on the shoulder. He looked at her and tried not to grin as he realized she was blushing. She must've tried to ask him something, but had forgotten about his deafness. He resisted the urge to make light of it.

"What's up, Hana-chan?" he asked.

"Back at the school when you told Mr. Hawke that you'd have to take MJ and me with you because you'd been cheating on me with her…you'd never…you wouldn't…"

Joshua paused. "Of course not. Listen, I love her and she's very dear to my heart, but I'd never cheat on you, Hanako."

"It's just, well, sometimes when I see you with her I get…jealous."

"Well, it's only fair. When I see you talking to other guys I get envious too."

"But it's not like it is between you and her, Josh," Hanako said, looking him in the eyes. "You're much closer than that."

"We've been through a lot together. I trust her more than…sorry, but even more than you, Hanako. I don't mean to demean you, but you don't know what we've had to get over together."

"Then can I know?"

"Well, you'd have found out eventually," Joshua said, his eyes looking away from her. "I hate keeping secrets. Switch between the two?"

"What?" Hanako asked.

Joshua signed the words Switch between the two? in a combination of English and Japanese sign language.

Still with this? Hanako signed as well.

He nodded. Have to be careful. The more your enemy knows about you, the less likely you can defeat them. We're taking a risk now even doing this.

If you don't want to, then you don't have to.

I want to.

I'm listening.

You mean watching.

Hanako pursed her lips and said, "Don't you argue semantics with me."

Joshua held up his hands and said, "Sorry, I couldn't help myself."

"I'm sure you couldn't, now let's go back to the way we were," Hanako said.

Joshua nodded and signed, Would you believe me if I told you I killed someone two years ago?

Hanako flinched and stared at him. You're not serious, are you?

Dead serious. Sorry about the pun.

But how? Why?

Idiocy. Thinking I was better when I clearly wasn't.

But who?

My guardian, Sister Grace.

The one who died two years ago? Hanako asked. You killed her?

More or less, Joshua answered. Depends on the definition of the word.

I don't understand.

I didn't either at first. I couldn't believe it.

Why don't you start at the beginning, so it'll make sense?

Joshua nodded and tried to remember everything the same way it had actually happened. My parents both died in a fire when I wasn't even a year old.

"How horrible," Hanako said aloud.

I've made my peace with it. Try not to speak please. I don't want to make this any easier on those terrorists. He cracked his knuckles and continued. Now, I was as good as dead in that fire, but not before someone came into the house, found me, and got me out of there. That someone was Sister Grace. I should tell you a little about her to help this make sense. She's psychic, and has always told me that she received visions from God. Now I can't verify that she ever did, but all I do know is that she claimed a vision told her to go to my parent's house and rescue me before I died, so I really couldn't care less about where it came from. She managed to get the police to let her take me with her to her home and she adopted me, claiming me as her sixth child.

Sixth? Hanako signed.

Let's just say I wasn't the first kid she'd ever found and raised based off of one of her visions, Hanako. I have had four brothers and one sister in my time living with her, although more than half of them were already much older than I was at the time.

How old?

Try sixty-three. That's Mark. He's our biggest brother. Took down his first demon when he was twelve. He works with the Navy in a specialized division that no one knows about. I only know because we tell each other everything.

I don't understand what you're trying to say.

Joshua frowned. I'm not explaining this well, am I?

It could use some work, Hanako signed.

Sister Grace finds people who she thinks will do something extraordinary some time in the future and raises them as her own. Oh, and she's not Catholic, or a nun; she just thought that Sister Grace sounded cool as a name. She found me, raised me along with three others who were older than me, and taught me everything I know. The only reason I'm as smart as I am today is because of her being the best, hardest, and coldest woman I've ever known in my life. Unfortunately, though, that's what led to me killing her. That and my own inadequacies as a man.

What happened?

I was tired of everything: The constant workload in things I didn't care about, trying to balance my busy schedule with learning martial arts and Hebrew at the same time, and other stupid, petty things that make me look like an ass in hindsight.

You never swear, Josh. What's wrong?

Talking about her brings out the worst in me. She was one, if not the most, moral woman I'd ever met in my life, but that woman could swear like a sailor and beat me up like it was no problem to her. He paused and frowned. I miss her.

Joshua sighed. I had an argument with her back in her house in Charlotte. I told her that I never wanted to see her face again and that I hated her. I wasn't…I was being stupid and foolhardy. She tried to calm me down by grabbing my shoulder, but I turned around and pushed her…much harder than I'd meant to do. It was like my mind forced her away from me. I don't even remember connecting with her body.

Hanako furrowed an eyebrow.

We were on top of the stairs during the argument and Sister Grace had her back to them, so when I pushed her, she fell down to the bottom. She was eighty-six years old and I pushed her down the stairs.

But you didn't mean to.

No, but I did want to hurt her. I was tired of her using me for something I didn't understand and wanted to go my own way, so I let my anger get the best of me, and she almost died in that house, but do you know what happened next?

What?

Paramedics came in and carted her off to the hospital, me in tow.

"What did you say?" Hanako said aloud, but corrected herself a moment later.

That old bat had had a vision some time earlier that day that showed me pushing her down the stairs, so she had called 911 in preparation for it, Joshua signed. She knew what was going to happen and she still confronted me about my idiocy. I am such a damn fool. I learned all that from the paramedics, who said an elderly woman had called 911 ten minutes before I even entered the house, telling the dispatcher that someone had just fallen from the stairs and needed immediate medical treatment, even though it was very likely they were going to die in the hospital.

That's…hard to believe, Josh.

Imagine hearing it as it happened, Hanako. It was bad enough to know that I'd just murdered the only woman who'd ever cared enough about me to make sure that I didn't die in a fire that should have killed me, but heartbreaking to know that she had known, in advance, that I was going to kill her. Then they got her on life support at the hospital.

Hanako looked up to see Joshua fighting back tears. He held his hand up when she tried to get closer to him.

Thanks, but I don't deserve any sympathy, he signed. Where was I? Oh, yes, the hospital. I got into contact with my family in our special way, but none of them could get to us in time, and that was when Sister Grace tore off the tubes and stuff they'd put in her to keep her alive. I was scared for my life; it was like she was coming back from the dead as a zombie or something to get back at me for what I'd done, but that wonderful woman was still alive, because her job wasn't finished yet.

And what was that? Hanako signed.

She looked me straight in the eye, like I'm doing with you right now, and she said, "Joshua, you had a moment of weakness and I do not blame you. Take this as my last gift in order to find your true path." Then she grabbed my hands with both of hers, sending forth this brilliant energy into mine that caused me to almost pass out, because it was way too much to handle at once. So when I opened my eyes, I found out that Sister Grace had died, a look of peace on her face, as if she knew that her place in the world was no longer necessary. I panicked and ran out of the room, unable to deal with what had happened.

Then what happened? Hanako asked.

I stayed there until Nathan came and told him what happened, Joshua signed. He wasn't mad with me as much as I'd expected, but he held me close and we both cried in each other's arms. The rest of them came soon after, I told them what happened, and then we had that argument where Don left off in a huff. I tried to stop him, but he told me that he wasn't needed with them at the time, and that I should focus on making up for all the mistakes I'd made, because that's what Sister Grace would have wanted.

So how does MJ fit into all this?

I was just about to get into that. She found out when I wasn't at school for three days straight, and actually called me the first, just to check up on me, but I didn't answer her. I didn't know what to say to her.

Joshua sighed. I realize now I made a mistake, but I wasn't ready for her then. I didn't want to face her and tell her what happened, so, as per usual, she came to me and made me realize what an idiot I'd been to leave her out of the loop. I told her what had happened and she helped me get through it. I owe her everything. Hearing my brothers forgive me was one thing, hearing it from Sister Grace was another, but none of them compared to hearing it from MJ. She said it'd be all right and that I'd be better for it. Of course that was the same year I almost killed her ex-boyfriend for trying to kidnap her during a basketball game, but that's a different story. Wow, that was longer than I'd wanted it to be. We can talk now, by the way.

"Why now?" Hanako asked.

"Bad stuff's over with," Joshua replied, his face calmer. "That and I'd really like to get moving on instead of staying in one spot."

"Have you forgiven yourself, Josh?"

Grabbing his backpack and walking off with her, Joshua nodded. "First thing that MJ made me do when she found me. Stubborn day-walker. I love that woman."

"I'm sorry for making you remember this."

"You needed to know."

"But the only reason I found out was because I was jealous."

"Reasons don't matter, only what we do after learning what we gained from the mistakes we have made."

"Did Sister Grace say that too?"

"Nope, that was my sister and sister-in-law Jessie, right before she died."

"Oh, how did that happen?"

"You wouldn't believe me."

"Try me."

Keeping up with the same pace they'd established, Joshua deadpanned, "She died fighting the Lernaean Hydra, or at least its most recent form."

"I don't believe you," Hanako said.

"Then you should probably thank God that Nathan isn't here to hear you say that about her. He gets very sensitive when it comes to his wife."

"You're serious?"

"When am I not serious?"

"You have a strange family, Joshua," Hanako said.

"Don't I know it," he added, looking up at the sky. "Yes! They're finally—um, yeah, they're doing that thing I want them to do."

Almost forgot about the collars and the cameras, he thought. You have got to be careful, Joshua, otherwise they'll catch on to your plan real quick.

Hanako helped save him by switching conversations, "Josh, do you think that we might have to fight anyone soon?"

"More than likely sooner rather than later," Joshua said. "We've both heard the gunshots."

"Maybe someone was shooting an animal in self-defense or to eat."

"Possible, but unlikely, especially with the feelings I've been getting."

"Feelings?"

"I guarantee you at least three people have died."

"How can you know that?"

Joshua halted mid pace and looked at Hanako more intently. "Do you think you can trust me, Hanako?"

"What kind of question is that?" she asked. "Of course I can."

"Then when I tell you with a straight face that I'm psychic you believe me?"

"I'd have to be an idiot not to. Your family's one thing…but you? You've always been different. You know things before they happen, before I even think them. I've always wondered if you were."

"Then when I tell you that three people have died, it is because I felt them crying out in pain when they did. Two women and one man, and the only one that I can tell you for sure is dead is Tina King, and that's only because I know her more than the others who died. Obviously the other two I'm not that familiar with or I would have felt their deaths just as much as I felt Chase's."

Hanako frowned when she saw the look on Joshua's face. "Maybe we should talk about something else."

"No," Joshua said, shaking his head. "We need to talk about this. There are at this very moment twenty-six students on this island, with at the very most three diverse killers on the prowl as well. You may know these people, but it's difficult to know them. There's no way in hell I'm letting you walk in blind into this game without at least explaining everyone for you just in case something happens to me."

"You haven't…You didn't see yourself die have you?"

"Not yet. There's no telling what could happen to me, so that's why I want you prepared, just in case."

"Okay, who can we rule out?"

"You, Tina, Chase, and me. That leaves twenty-six people I need to evaluate for you. I'm sure you know them well enough, but I've been around them longer than you, so excuse me for being such a prick about this."

"I think I liked you better when you weren't so serious all the time, Josh."

"I'd rather be joking around too, but when my safety, and the safety of the people I care about isn't looking that good, I know when to stash my jokes to the side and bring the seriousness forward."

"I was just kidding."

"I know that, but I'd like you to understand where I'm coming from, Hanako, since this isn't exactly the best situation in the world to be in right now. I've been trained for situations like this, so please get that I know what I'm doing here."

"And I do, Josh, and I appreciate your candor."

"Good," Joshua said, "because I'm starting with your brother."

"Shinji?" Hanako said, shocked, as she and Joshua continued to walk forward.

He nodded. "If you like my candor now, you're gonna hate me in a second after I've had my say."

"I'm a big girl, Josh; I can take abuse toward my brother."

"He's going to come after me to kill me."

"Because I came with you and not him."

"Precisely. Shinji's never liked me, but he's always kept his reasons to himself, although I know most of them. He's had it out for me ever since our first aikido match."

Hanako nodded. "Which we know now was because of a vision you had."

"If anyone should be pissed off, it should be me," Joshua said, massaging wounds that had healed a year and a half ago. "I even told him I had to leave, but then he kept on in that pointless bout, almost killing me. I was lucky I could still see straight when I ran out of there to get to where I needed to be in time. If it hadn't been worth it, I'd say it'd been a waste of time to leave."

"It wasn't that worthless, Josh. It helped me get to know you a little better."

"Well that's always a plus."

"It better be."

Joshua smirked. "Which brings me to our relationship, which we both know that Shinji has never been a fan of. Guess it's because he hates me."

"There's something else you should know," Hanako said.

"What's that?"

"Promise you won't laugh?"

"Cross my heart and hope to…um, not die."

"Cute, but I'm serious here. I think he loves me."

"Sure he's your brother, he should…Oh. That love. What, um, what makes you say that?"

"He doesn't treat me like a sister, or not like any sister I've ever seen. He watches me all the time and says some things that, taken out of context, aren't something I would like to think about him at all. And then there's how he treats you. It's like he's a jealous lover, who had an ex stolen from him. He's creeping me out."

"You don't think he's just—"

Hanako interrupted him. "I've had plenty of time to think about this, Josh. He's been this way whenever I've been dating some other guy."

Joshua nodded. "Well that just makes things so much better."

"Twenty-five left," Hanako reminded him.

"Who to psychoanalyze next? Hmm…how about MJ?"

"Sure, if you feel like proving that to me. I trust you already."

"I'd feel better saying it out loud. Well, I've known her all my life, so there's a lot to say, but little time to say it in. She's our best bet for an ally on this island. The sooner we get her with us the better. Mary Jane's smart, athletic, and the toughest woman on this island right now, with no offense to you, Hanako. I know she's still alive too, because if she were one of the three people dead I'd probably be having a seizure right now."

Hanako pursed her lips. "Well you've convinced me. The only problem is making sure that she can meet up with us."

"What's the term in Japanese?" Joshua asked. "Nankurunaisa?"

Hanako nodded. "Things will work out somehow or it'll be alright, depending on who's translating it."

"And I trust they will. Okay, now onto, um, let's pick on Jason Tennyson."

"I don't really know him."

"Bit of a wallflower, but he's got a good heart. He and I have had a couple really good intellectual talks, especially about religion. Did you know he's a Muslim?"

"He's a Muslim? But he's white."

"And you're a Protestant Asian, but you don't hear me calling you out on it."

"Except for now."

"Except for now."

Joshua lifted himself up to get past a boulder that blocked their path and stood up on it as he offered his hand to Hanako, only to find that she'd already climbed it herself.

"I can take care of myself, you know," she said, smiling.

"I really should know better," Joshua said, smiling as well. "Anyways, Jason is one of the more levelheaded people here, but I'd say it's a possibility he might crack. Our best bet is to hope that he's with Gwen Abernathy."

"Why's that?"

"He's sweet on her. She keeps him down to earth. Unfortunately they're not even dating in any official capacity, so it's likely that she didn't get the chance to go with him when he left. Gwen's a nice person; a bit naïve, but nice."

"So we're hoping for Jason to have Gwen with him, and if he doesn't, it's likely that he could crack? Gwen as well?"

"I hate to push them down like that, but yes."

"The truth's the truth."

"'And if you put it any other way, you're just lying to yourself, kid.'"

"Sister Grace?"

"No, that was Don. He's a mercenary now."

"I don't even want to ask."

"It's probably safer that way," Joshua said. "Mind if I have the katana for a little bit?"

Hanako grabbed it from the scabbard and handed it to him.

"Thanks. Lots of undergrowth here that's getting in the way." He slashed a nearby plant and picked up some beanlike seeds, sampling the first one he saw. "Criollo? Yeah, it's delicate in taste. Better than finding out it was forastero. Way too many possibilities then. Still not conclusive, though."

"Pardon?"

"Nothing; testing a hypothesis; needs work. You can have the katana back now."

Joshua handed it to Hanako, who gazed at him for a moment, trying to figure out what was going on in his head.

"You know, now that I think about it, who makes a retractable katana?" Joshua asked, as they continued on their journey up the hill.

"I have no clue," Hanako offered.

"Guess it doesn't matter. Okay, twenty-two left, man this is taking long. DeQuan Andersen is going to be a problem for us. Him and Ryan Gomez."

"Why's that?"

Joshua frowned. "Because I killed Chase."

"And since they're his friends and also on the basketball team, you think that they could harbor a grudge against you," Hanako said.

"Precisely. That and Ryan was prosecuted a while back for sexually assaulting his ex-girlfriend. She dropped the charges, but he still got some time in jail for it because it just so happened that he was also in possession of some drugs then. If they do kill me, it would be a very good idea for you to run in the opposite direction and hope for the best elsewhere."

"Quit talking like that, Josh. I can't stand it when you say things like 'If they do kill me' or anything like that. You're not going to die and neither am I. We're going to get off of this island intact and safe."

"Sorry, but that's what happens when you're an optimistic-pessimist."

Hanako groaned, recalling the many conversations they'd had that had revolved around the subject. "There's no such thing."

Joshua shrugged. "Stay around with me for another year or two and you'll believe me. The point being that if DeQuan and Ryan do decide to kill me and somehow manage to join up together to do so, it'd be a good idea to stay as far away from me as possible."

"I'm not leaving you, if that's what you're saying."

"I'm not, but it'd still be a good idea."

"Just go to the next person on your mind."

"All right, all right, sensitive subject, I'm sorry, but I'm not finished yet when Ryan is involved."

"And why's that?"

"Because I also kinda…beat him up too."

"Why am I not surprised?"

"Because it's me, I'm guessing. Long story short I was contacted by Ryan's ex, who told me that the only reason that she'd dropped the charges had been because Ryan had threatened to kill her, but that she was tired of having nightmares about it and that she knew I could help her out, due to an incident I'll talk about when we get to Ben later on. So I did, beating him up when he attacked me, and he's hated me ever since."

"Okay, then we really need to stay away from him too."

Joshua nodded. "Sandy Foreman I would worry about too. She's not exactly the greatest woman in the world by any means, but she's not downright evil either, although I'm afraid she'll end up losing her mind a little bit on this island. She and Marie are real good friends, so she might try to go to her and help comfort her in a little—Damn it!"

"What?"

"I should be the one doing that. My God, I killed her boyfriend and don't even tell her why or that I'm sorry. She's going to come after us now! God damn it I should have thought this through!"

"Joshua, calm down!" Hanako shouted, slapping him in the face. "You can't think that you could possibly have thought everything through before you had to leave with me back then!"

Joshua massaged the blow to his right cheek. "Maybe not, but it'd make me feel better to think that I'd done something to help Marie. Ow, did you have to hit me so hard, Hana-chan?"

"MJ says it's the only way to get something through that thick skull of yours. She told me that if you ever went around complaining about how you 'Should have done this' or 'Should have done that' that I should smack you across the face and remind you that you're not perfect. I appreciate the fact that you care enough about the people in this class to wish that you could do things differently and explain why you killed your best friend, but I can't stand it when you lose your mind and start swearing and thinking that you've been imperfect like it's what you do all the time. You have to realize the fact that you can't do everything right, Joshua, so hurry up and figure it out right now before MJ gets here, otherwise we'll both have to knock some sense into you."

"Ouch, that hurts even worse than the slap," Joshua said. "You two are the single most vicious women I've ever met in my life, and Sister Grace used to waterboard me on a regular basis to prepare me for torture. What would I do without you?"

Hanako sighed, her temper cooling down. "You'd be an inconsolable wreck, now let's keep walking."

"Seriously, though, why do I even bother being mopey around you two?" Joshua asked, mostly speaking to himself. "I should know b—um, I should have thought that—I mean—Gah, this is hard to do without saying 'I should' every five seconds!"

Hanako laughed. "The reason it's so hard is because you can't help yourself, Josh. You have to make sure that you do things perfectly, or then you start to second guess all of your decisions."

"Only known me for a year and a half and she's already psychoanalyzing me. I have the most wonderful luck when it comes to women."

"That had better be a compliment."

"Sure, why not? Eighteen left. Shawn Phillips and Monica Williamson are, as you know, a couple, and really kinda keep to themselves. Still nice people, though. They have real good singing voices. I'm not one for chorus, but I do appreciate their talents. On the subject of chorus, I should add that Tom Tucker should be fine on the island, so long as Zelda Swift's with him. Zelda plays a mean saxophone solo, and she, on the weekends, volunteers at the Salvation Army that I work at sometimes. It will be highly unlikely that any of those four would kill anyone here. You never really do know, though. I hate this uncertainty."

"That makes fourteen."

"Yep, and now I'm about to say something I'm really not proud of, so—"

"If you so even much as say 'I should' or any variation thereof, I will kick you in the groin."

Joshua instinctively reached down to protect himself, making Hanako laugh. "If you insist, Hana-chan, I'll avoid it. I want to talk about Max."

"Oh yeah, he could be a great help for us!" Hanako proclaimed. "He knows the wilderness like the back of his own hand. I've seen him in action, you remember, on that camping trip we all took? He saved Marie from that black bear in the dead of night!"

Joshua nodded. "Which just makes this that much harder to say: I think he's going to lose it real soon."

"Lose what?"

"His mind, Hanako, his mind. I don't know if you paid attention in that classroom at all, but he was convulsing when he'd discovered what was going on. Convulsing…him convulsing is so out of character I'm not even sure how to deal with it. He's always been able to keep his cool and figure things out, but I've got a fair idea of what sent him over the edge. Oh, forgive me for saying this about you, Max."

"And what could that be?"

"Darren was the one who encouraged Max to try out for the Army," Joshua said. "Let's put it this way: It'd be like you finding out that I really had been cheating on you with MJ, except he's been cheating on Max and America with terrorism. Does that make sense?"

"In a pseudo-circular logical sense," Hanako said. "He won't go crazy, will he?"

"It's a possibility, but I know Max, and he's not going to give up that quickly. I suspect he's got a couple plans in his mind right now to get back at Darren, or even to find a way to get off this rock."

"That's thirteen," Hanako reminded Joshua, breaking him away from his thought process.

"If we see Dana Riley it might be a good idea to run," Joshua said, pulling a stray vine out of their path.

"Because of Tyler and Kylie?"

"Now we both know I don't have any proof about this, Hanako."

"When are you wrong about these things, Joshua? Wait, before you answer, let me put it this way: When are you wrong about these things when they don't pertain to you, Joshua?"

"Very funny, but I'm not perfect, Hana-chan."

"The sooner you realize that the better."

"A sane man would have found out by now that he shouldn't keep setting himself up for these little burns of yours. Unfortunately, I've never been one for needless sanity."

"Does that even mean anything?"

"Just let it sink in, if it hasn't blown your mind in a minute or two, then it meant absolutely nothing. But if Dana and Tyler have been dating behind Kylie's back, I don't see that ending well for any of us."

"So avoid all three at all costs?"

"Nailed it in one. Jackie could be an ally if we found her."

"She's certainly strong enough. I'm not still bitter about that, by the way."

"It's still my fault for not telling you sooner that I was just tutoring her instead of, well, the alternative."

"But it all worked out in the end."

"True enough," Joshua said, looking at the rest of the hill they still had to climb. "This had better be worth it."

"What had?" Hanako asked, sidestepping a collection of plants.

Joshua bent down to check the plants out, saying, "The climb. Well, aren't we the life of the party?"

"Who is?"

"Nothing, these plants are called dream herbs. Drugs in other words, I'm afraid to say, Hana-chan. Looks like we may have found out how the Sons of the Constitution got their funding." Joshua surveyed their surroundings and flipped off a nearby camera. "I think Helmut Schuwald would be a good pick. I have a feeling that he's just been in danger, but it passed recently. He seems to think he's still in danger, though."

"You're that close to him? You've only known him a year."

"And you for a year and a half, but it really depends on the amount of time I take to spend with people. Helmut and I have talked a lot, so I'm familiar with him. MJ and you are so close to me that I can almost know everything you're thinking about, but as a favor to the both of you, I refrain from prying, because then I'd just be a jerk."

"Thanks, Josh for holding back," Hanako said. "But Helmut also tried to escape and leave us behind, didn't he?"

"To a certain extent," Joshua said. "He wanted to find some help when he got out, hoping that none of us would kill each other in the meantime, but Darren picked up on all that and stopped him."

"What do you think of him?"

"I'd rather not say it aloud, if you know what I mean."

Hanako nodded. "Okay."

"If we find Helmut, it'd be easy to convince him to join us. He really trusts me a lot. Said so himself many times."

"Well, to be blunt, it isn't that hard to trust you, Josh, since you're just naturally charismatic and aware," Hanako said.

"You think so?" Joshua asked, almost running into a low-lying branch.

"Everyone thinks so, and you know it. There's a reason they call you 'Selfless Idiot,' you know."

"I thought they just liked calling me an idiot."

"Don't play coy with me, Josh. We all remember the story about how you helped out MJ that one night."

"At the game?"

"Your fake humility is very reassuring. No, the night Shinji kicked your ass."

"Oh, that. That's why everyone likes me? Huh, I should do that more often."

"Don't even joke about that! You almost died!"

"All right," Joshua said, holding up his hands. "No more joking. We're on eight now. Beth Gorman's very timid. I wouldn't be surprised if she was one of the three who died a while back. She's not the type of person you'd want involved in something like this…well nobody really should be, but a passive person like her isn't going to last as long as people like us."

"True," Hanako said, swatting away a mosquito.

"Xenia Daugman concerns me. She has always brooding about something and I don't like the way she looks at Tom and Zelda. Maybe I'm worrying about nothing, but she doesn't seem to be happy around them."

"So avoid her."

"Yeah. Mark McLean's an easy guy to get along with. Gentle giant, you know? Never had a problem with him. He could be a useful guy to have on our side. He's a lot smarter than he's willing to show sometimes. I think he likes being underestimated. Not in a bad sense, but more of a trolling kind of way. I'd be happy to have him join us."

"I can see that happening. He's always been nice to me."

"Which of course, doesn't mean much of anything when his life is on the line. We might be singing these people's praises, but that's the thing about this whole thing, Hana-chan: We don't know if we're right."

"I still trust your judgment, and mine, Josh. You've never led me astray before."

"That's always comforting," Joshua said, smiling. "We should avoid Sonny at all costs, especially if we end up meeting and joining up with Helmut."

"Because of Sonny's irrational hatred of him," Hanako said, nodding. "Do any of us even know why he hates Helmut?"

"Helmut swears it's because of a linguistic mistake he made, and for some reason Sonny hasn't forgiven him for it," Joshua said. "That's four. Hmm…Jackson could be a help to us. I can't see him wanting to kill anyone. I don't think you know him much, but I like him a lot. Plays video games like no other man on the planet. You know that Zenith novel series by that one guy that got turned into a TV show? There's a video game too, and he and I have logged a lot of hours online playing the game. He's really useless with real weapons. Then again there are the—forget it; he'll be fine. Maybe I should…no, I don't know that for a fact."

"Uh, okay…so whatever weapon he has with him is basically useless?" Hanako asked.

"That's good and bad, but if we want him alive, and I do, it'd be better for him if he could actually help defend himself. Hmm…I really don't want to talk about him. Not at all."

"Who?"

"Ben."

"Why's that?" Hanako asked.

"You'd get jealous," Joshua said.

Hanako raised an eyebrow. "Now I'm just intrigued."

"Okay," Joshua sighed, "I tried to stop you from asking. He's had his eyes on MJ for a while, and it pisses me off."

"And why's that?"

"Because he's a jackass, Hanako." Joshua paused. "I really need to stop doing that. Sorry."

"Don't apologize, just explain."

"When MJ and I first came here everyone thought that we were an item…and to be fair I can see why. We bicker like an old married couple. Anyways, when we first got to East, Ben decided it'd be a good idea to beat me up to show MJ that I wasn't worth it, and that he'd be the better boyfriend."

"How many days was he in the hospital?"

"Is it sad that that's the first place you go to when I talk about fighting someone, or just insanely funny?" Joshua asked.

"Neither, it just shows how easy you are to figure out sometimes," Hanako said with a wild smirk. "Go on."

"Okay, so I tried to convince him that we were just best friends and that I wasn't in love with MJ, but then he didn't listen to me, and I was forced to defend myself. I, uh, well, I tried to hold back against him…but it didn't work out that way."

"Because you holding back is still you being ruthless when you fight."

"Unfortunately yes. He lunged at me and I struck him in the chest, just as I sent a blow to his chin, breaking his jaw in the process. But that's not all, because MJ had also joined in and messed up his neck by chopping him when he tried to get back up again to fight us. Three seconds flat, Hanako. We beat him up in three seconds."

"A new record. You two should be proud of yourselves."

"Your sarcasm's appreciated. Oh, and it was two weeks in the hospital."

"Nice. I'm guessing he's been bitter because of that and hates both of you."

"He's made…certain passes at MJ since then, saying that he's going to get her if it's the last thing he does."

"Which is bad for all three of us if he finds us," Hanako said. "Make friends all over the place, don't you, Josh?"

"I guess not everybody likes me," Joshua noted. "Two left. Tyra King, we went over her on the bus, right?"

"Yes."

"Well forget everything I said about her then. I was being nice because I thought we wouldn't have to worry about her at all. We should be on our guard at all times when she's concerned. I think that she thinks that she's actually a vampire. How she deals with the contradiction involving the sun, I don't know. Then again that's not in the original mythos, but that's irrelevant. You don't even want to begin to comprehend the lore I've been forced to learn. She's liable to try and go for our blood."

"So earlier it was okay to describe her like that, because we might not have to worry about her, but when we do you take it back?"

"I'm not in denial at all, despite what MJ implied, because I try to be a little bit of a patient man when it comes to people I know and to not judge them quickly. However, we can't afford to do that right now, so the gloves come off."

"It's good to know where your priorities are," Hanako said. "That leaves just one more person, you know. Taking back some other things this time too?"

"Danson Macabre is probably the most dangerous man on this island right now apart from me, if I can be so arrogant," Joshua said, frowning. "He lies, he manipulates, and he changes people, Hanako. He's evil."

Hanako nodded. "So you really think he's a Theistic Satanist then?"

"Oh, heavens no. That man couldn't care less about God or Satan or any other figure from any religion for that matter. He answers to nobody but himself and does whatever he feels like doing. He's smart too, almost smarter than me, or at least I think so. He's never really applied himself in school, but I know better. He doesn't like me and I sure don't like him, despite what I'd rather believe. 'Only an idiot trusts that all men in this world can be good.' Sister Grace made sure to get that through my thick skull as soon as possible. She knew how naïve I could be sometimes. Danson's a danger to everyone right now, especially to those who he's been manipulating in the past."

"You think he'd kill us then?"

"No, he'd never stoop that low. He lives by this philosophy: 'I seek to harm those around me, but never do it myself.' He'll do everything but actually kill us himself. That whole thing is beneath him. He'll get us scared of each other and get us to kill everyone we come across because we're scared that we'll betray one another to win."

Hanako frowned. "So what should we do if we find him?"

"Don't listen to him, no matter what," Joshua said. "He can't be trusted, even if he's telling the truth, there's always a lie there. Oh, look, we're here."

Stretching his arms in the air, Joshua yawned as he surveyed the hill that had been labeled M-2. The trees of the rainforest below had stopped growing several yards behind them, leaving only rocks to traverse, but the land they stood on now was predominately grassy. He scanned the oceans, barely able to see anything in the pitch-black night, and located the lights of four different ships that surrounded the island as he turned around to find them.

"Well, turns out he wasn't lying about the ships," he said, sighing. "There goes that idea. Then again building a boat of our own would take time."

"Wouldn't the collars explode when they found out that we'd left?" Hanako asked as she stared out into the ocean.

"I'm guessing they don't have that long of a range," Joshua said.

"You guess?"

"Explosives aren't my specialty. That was more Don and Mark's area of expertise in the family."

"Well, I hope you have another brilliant plan, because I'd rather not have to rely on people who aren't actually here."

"Oh, I do, just watch me work out my magic here."

Joshua examined the area around them, finding two cameras that he could see for sure, and guessing that there was a third nearby to help triangulate any signals the Sons of the Constitution needed to pick up. Nodding, Joshua looked right up into the sky, which was mercifully free of clouds, allowing him to see what he needed to.

Slapping himself on the head, Joshua grabbed his backpack and searched for the compass, knowing he should've been tracking their progress the entire time, even if he'd had a vague sense of knowing which direction north was. Holding the compass up to his chest, Joshua waited for it to locate north, and followed it when it finally did. Looking up at the sky, Joshua picked out what he needed to know.

There's Cepheus and a little bit beneath it to the left is Cassiopeia and above both of those is Ursa Minor and Draco, Joshua thought. And this is north, so that means…

Joshua grinned, as he finished the calculations in his head. It felt good to be right. Thanks to the stars in the sky, as well as the information he'd gathered from the plant and animal species they'd encountered, Joshua had figured out where they were in the world. The island was definitely in the northern hemisphere due to the constellations he'd seen just then, as they could be in no other location at that time of the year. They were more than likely in the Caribbean Sea near Central America due to the presence of the diverse animals and plants only found there, but the clincher had been figuring out the longitude and latitude thanks to the position of the stars. Geography had been one lesson Sister Grace had taught him that he understood immediately, especially with the help that Mark and the others had offered.

They were next to Costa Rica, specifically on one of the sparse and unpopulated islands on the eastern side of the country. With the proper signal strength, he could send a message to his brothers that would lead them straight to them. It would take some time, but it would be worth the wait if it worked. The only catch was he couldn't show Darren that he was the one calling for help, because, if he did, Darren would most likely activate the collar, killing him before help arrived, but he'd prepared for that problem. Thinking up a solution had been easy.

Now came the hard part.

"What's on your mind?" Hanako asked, bringing him back to reality.

You can do this, Joshua, he told himself. You knew it'd have to come to this the moment you figured out how to get a message home. She'll understand.

"Hanako, it's time we talked about something very important," Joshua said. "We need to get this out of the way as soon as possible."

"Get what out of the way?" she asked, puzzled.

"You know how much we've talked about this issue and how much I told you that it didn't need to happen."

No we haven't, he thought. Quit lying to yourself. You've wanted this.

"I don't understand," Hanako said, moving closer to him.

Joshua tried not to frown, knowing it would give everything away to the cameras if he did. "We're gonna do it," he said, a seductive grin on his face.

"It?" Hanako asked. "The it?"

"None other, babe."

Joshua could see in Hanako's eyes and from her surface thoughts that she knew exactly what he was going for, but not why. "Why have you changed your mind?" she asked."I've been pushing this for months."

"Isn't it obvious? We could die any second now, and I don't know about you, but I'd rather know I had a chance to know you as best I can before we die."

"So that's why you want to do it now instead of earlier? Oh God, if I'd known this would be what'd make you listen to reason, I'd have arranged for it earlier."

"I'm glad you see things my way, babe. I'll start things off."

Hating himself every moment for taking advantage of the situation, regardless of the reasons why, Joshua, bent down, lifted Hanako's pale blue shirt, and pulled himself inside of it, while writing on her stomach his plan. He tried to avoid looking up at her breasts, but gave up when he noticed the white bra that barely concealed them.

Pulling himself together, Joshua used his index finger to spell out his intents on her skin, G-O-T P-L-A-N. F-O-R-G-I-V-E M-E.

Using his other hand, Joshua caressed the left side of Hanako's body, while she softened up. G-O-T H-E-L-P, he wrote. T-R-U-S-T M-E. S-O-R-R-Y F-O-R T-H-I-S.

"I've been waiting a long time for this," he said aloud, hoping whatever was in charge of listening in on them would relay only what he wanted Darren to think.

"Me too, Josh," Hanako said, despite the fact that he couldn't hear her, as she shifted her body every now and then to adjust to whatever he was doing.

Joshua took out the silver cross necklace Sister Grace had given all of her many children, and sent out an SOS to his brothers, knowing the high altitude of the hill and the lack of anything to break off the signal would bring it to them instantly. He'd never told anyone about the capabilities of the cross, not even MJ, because it was a closely guarded secret of the family. The crosses had been designed by Joshua's second oldest brother, Patrick, who'd worked on the device for years, eventually culminating in the final version each member of the family owned.

In fact, the cross had been the way that Joshua had contacted his brothers to let them know what had happened to Sister Grace. All of them had learned Morse code at an early age, mostly as a means to talk to each other, and partly because Sister Grace had required it anyway. To a person's first glance, the necklace was nothing more than a simple cross, but on closer inspection, one could find two different buttons on the side that were used to supply the dashes and dots necessary to send complete messages to almost anywhere on the earth, so long as someone else with the necklace was able to receive it.

Joshua ceased his message, and hit a third button, which would keep broadcasting the same message over and over again until one of his brothers acknowledged it. It was then that he noticed his left hand groping Hanako's right breast. Panicking, he pushed himself away from her and made up a plan on the spot by grabbing her katana.

"Who's out there?" Joshua demanded, scanning the darkness. "I want to know who's out there!"

Hanako, as unready for the situation as Joshua, stared at him, trying to figure out what had happened as she grabbed his baseball bat and joined him. "We don't want to hurt you, but you have to tell us who you are first!" she shouted.

They both stood in silence for a long time, with Joshua breaking up the silence first, "I was reckless, Hana-chan. I should've made sure there wasn't anyone near us when we started. It's my fault, even though it worked."

Hanako nodded. "At least we got part of the way there," she said, smirking.

"I'd rather go a little further, but it's not safe now."

Oh, thank God, she's not angry with me, Joshua thought, still brandishing the katana at the foe that did not exist. I'm lucky I was able to salvage the situation as quickly as I did, and that she understands too. This should fool Darren if he wonders why we just didn't start at it again too, so that's a plus.

"We should find cover," Joshua said. "There's no telling who's out there right now and what they'd do to us."

"There's a rock formation over there that could hide us," Hanako pointed out. "Let's try it out."

Joshua smiled and followed after her, wishing he could tell her out loud how sorry he was for taking things too far, but the grin she offered him when she saw his face told him enough.

All right, guys, I've done my part, Joshua thought. Now it's your turn.

26 students left

A/N: Next week will focus on Joshua's family, as they discover his message and meet to discuss what they can do. Until next time...

10: Part I: Final Exam: Chapter 10

A/N: Hello all. Sorry for the late post. I was out watching Oculus with friends, which, by the way, I was pleasantly surprised by. Having Karen Gillan and Katee Sackhoff (who both did a tremendous job) really helped.

I realized as soon as I started editing this chapter today that I got ahead of myself last week. I got my chapters mixed up. I promised last week that this chapter would focus on Joshua's brothers. However, this chapter will instead be about Darren Hawke and the Sons of the Constitution. Sorry for the mix up.

If there are any grammatical, spelling, or continuity errors then please feel free to let me know. Thanks.

Chapter 10

"I think you should look at this, Corporal," one of the operators working for the Sons of the Constitution said.

Darren Hawke eyed the man as he tried to remember his name, but gave up, citing that he had no reason to do so as a reason to quit. "What is it?" he asked.

"There's a signal coming out from somewhere on the island."

"And?"

"It's not from us."

Darren walked over to where the operator sat and looked at the screen that was broadcasting the signal. "What is it saying?"

"That's the thing, Corporal, I can't tell you."

"And why is that?"

"It's simultaneously broadcasting its message and blocking any attempts to read it by our instruments. It's in Morse code if that helps."

"Really? That is…quite complex; more complex than I would expect from any of the students here. Is everyone accounted for here from our side?"

"Yes, Corporal. All twelve members of our personnel are stationed inside of this building as we speak."

Darren scanned the room, finding the five soldiers that he'd handpicked from the remnants of the last members of the Sons of the Constitution, knowing instantly that none of them would be smart enough to perform something as complex as the signal. Looking to his side, Darren gauged the operators, who were all monitoring the students that were currently performing in the experiment. One of them could potentially send a signal like that, but he could not think of a reason why.

It has to be one of the students, Darren reasoned. But who? Oh, of course, it would be him.

"Who is monitoring Joshua Carpenter?" Darren asked.

The only woman in the room—Honovi, a member of the Walpi tribe who'd joined the Sons of the Constitution in hopes of reforming her people—raised her hand. "I am, Corporal."

"Describe to me what he has done within the past twenty-five minutes."

"Yes, sir. He is still with Hanako Heyerdahl, and has been conversing with her about his feelings on the other players in the experiment. He's basically given the same reports you issued us, but in more succinct detail."

Darren furrowed his right eyebrow. "He did, did he? I'm not that surprised to tell the truth. What else has he done?"

Darren took a sip from the black coffee in his hands.

"He recently tried to have sex with Hanako," Honovi answered.

Darren spit out the coffee, accidentally spraying Honovi with it. "He did what?"

Honovi washed herself off and didn't show the anger she felt at being covered with the scalding liquid, knowing the price for speaking against Darren. There had been thirteen members of the Sons of the Constitution on the island. Tim O'Brien had been the first one to die after he'd failed to keep Joshua and Max Levin under proper sedation during the trip to the island.

"Play me the tape!" Darren ordered.

"Yes, sir!" Honovi shouted as she rewound the recording of Joshua's progress.

"Stop there!"

Darren watched as Joshua talked to Hanako of his intentions. He looked at his face from three different angles, noting that he looked sincere.

Does he have the capacity to lie like that? Darren asked himself. I've seen him in action, and lying is anathema to him. But at the school…he kept a straight face when he lied about cheating on Hanako with Mary Jane. What is he planning?

Darren viewed Joshua forcing himself on Hanako, finding it very surprising that the normally moralistic student was acting so out-of-character. He recalled watching the progress that Joshua and Hanako had made, and the research they had been forced to do when it came to figuring out what they were saying to one another through sign language, which none of his subordinates knew. The propensity for deception was a likelihood even for someone like Joshua, but why he was deceiving and for what purpose he couldn't try to understand yet.

"If I may, Corporal, he seems genuine," Honovi said.

Darren nodded. "Oh there's no doubt about that. Why he's genuine is a problem for us, though. I know Joshua Carpenter, and this isn't him."

Suddenly on the screen Joshua broke off from Hanako and took out her katana, as he yelled out at an unknown assailant to come out of hiding.

"Was anyone else besides the two of them in the area at the time?" Darren asked.

"Checking," Honovi said. "No, sir. No other students."

"Then whom is he yelling at?"

"Perhaps he heard a noise and decided to break it off just in case someone was near them."

"Yes, that is a possibility. Deception, however, is far more likely."

"Corporal!" the original operator that had brought the problem to his attention yelled out. "The signal's gone!"

Darren turned to him. "It is no longer transmitting?"

"Not at all."

Darren frowned. "I suggest everyone remain on high alert. There is a large and likely possibility that someone knows where the students are now. We may have to leave on a moment's notice."

"Yes, Corporal!" eleven voices answered.

Was it really you, Joshua? Darren asked himself. What could you have used to send such a signal? Who did you send it to?

Sulking, Darren left the operators behind and entered his office, where he sat down to view the multiple screens they'd placed in there for him to examine the game alone. He viewed at the monitor showing Joshua and Hanako, who were now conversing among themselves about whether to start a fire or not in the secluded area they were in.

Joshua, if you win this game, I have big plans for you, Darren thought. I have big plans for any winner, to tell the truth, but if it's you, the reward shall be more than great for those who will view this video.

Darren chuckled, as he alone knew what would happen once the winner of the experiment arrived. What he hoped for was the feeling of despair that would come from seeing all the carnage they'd caused in the fight, and with that despair, find themselves easily susceptible to his words.

You should kill yourself, he would tell them. The weaker-willed the winner was after the game, the more likely they would do as he asked. They would then appear on camera and speak to the people of America, saying that even though they won the game, they realized now that there was no reason to return home, as only an evil and despicable country as America would allow students to harbor such hatred toward each other. Then, they would kill themselves right in front of the camera, further sealing all the careful planning Darren had taken in the experiment.

America would see her faults and despair.

Darren smiled, and looked from screen to screen, knowing he would soon have to deliver the first of several messages to his former students. With any luck they would be fewer in number by the time he had to do so.

Until that moment, though, he reclined in his seat, watching the violence before him and laughing. Even if someone had called for help, there wasn't near enough time for them to rescue anyone.

The students were as good as dead.

26 students left

A/N: Well I promised last time that the next chapter would be about Joshua's brothers. This time I really mean it. I checked and everything. Next time I'll do my best not to assume I remember where everything's at. Having fifty-four chapters and an epilogue will do that to you if you're not careful. Until next time...

11: Part I: Final Exam: Chapter 11

A/N: Hello all and welcome back. Thanks to all my readers.

If there are any grammatical, spelling, or continuity errors then please feel free to let me know. Thanks.

Chapter 11

"Locate that signal immediately!" Admiral Mark Sanchez roared in the Naval Offices of the Pentagon. "Now!"

"Yes, Admiral!" one of the many operators in the room shouted.

Mark held the cross necklace given to him by his mother in his hands, watching as it gave out the same signal over and over again. He already knew what it said, but he also needed to know where exactly it came from, because it would be useless if its source couldn't be found. Four separate lights flashed on the bottom side of the cross, but two of them switched off, changing from a bright red to a cool blue, and, a moment later, a third light did the same, much to his surprise.

Mark had white-gray hair that was slowly growing whiter with age, blue eyes that were sanpaku in design, and stood at three inches above six feet.

"We lost it, sir!" the same operator announced. "It's being blocked!"

Mark clenched his fist and sighed as he pushed a small button on the side of the cross, ending the signal. "There will be two phone calls in several seconds," he said, as the signal died. "They will claim to be Nathaniel Knight and Patrick Iverson. You will send the calls to my office the moment they arrive. If there is a man claiming to be Don Carr, he should be sent there as well."

"Yes, sir."

Mark groaned, wishing that the signal had stayed alive, but knew that it wasn't designed to be used for periods of time lasting longer than three minutes, due to the small size of the cross and instruments inside. He opened the door to his office and sat down as he waited for the inevitable phone calls from his worried brothers. He was the oldest of them, and needed to remain calm, especially since he knew that the likelihood of Nathan panicking was high, as he'd been in such a state ever since his wife, Jessie's, death. He hadn't gotten his job at the Strategic Tacenda Research And Neo-Goetic Extermination office by losing his ability to compose himself. The office demanded a man who could keep himself inward, focused on nothing but the task of preventing the world from finding out the truth of their reality. They simply weren't ready for it.

Sighing, Mark prayed that whatever had happened to Joshua had nothing to do with his job. He'd seen too many people die, Jessie among them. Too headstrong for her own good, his sister had defied his direct orders to save an entire village from getting eaten by the reformed Lernaean Hydra. Joshua wasn't ready for this job, no matter what Sister Grace may have said before her death. Mark wouldn't lose anyone else.

A moment later two phones rang on his desk and Mark answered them so they could start a conference.

Nathan's worried voice shouted out first, "Where is he, Mark? We've got to find him now!"

"Calm down, Nathan," Patrick said, maintaining the icy demeanor that they had grown accustomed to over the years. "We cannot panic yet. The signal ended, did it not, Mark?"

"Unfortunately yes," Mark said. "It isn't meant to be sent from as far a distance as it most likely is, and it ran out of power. However, we have managed to secure the entire message. I trust the both of you know it by heart now?"

"I, uh…no," Nathan said, apprehension in his voice. "I kind of…"

"Panicked and couldn't pay attention."

"Yes."

"Then I shall play it for you now."

Mark searched his computer for the file that had just been sent to him by the aides working on the disappearances of Joshua's high school class. He located the sound byte and played it loudly so Patrick and Nathan could hear it over the phones. A disturbing Morse code signal filled his ears, causing Mark to wish he didn't have to listen to it again.

When it finished, Mark said, "Do you understand it now?"

Nathan paused for a moment, clearly upset. "Guys, I thought I told you to go to bed an hour ago!"

Mark tried not to smile, but failed when he realized neither Nathan nor Patrick would be able to see him. Nathan was no doubt talking to his children, Marie and Grace, who were both five years old, and the only living remembrance of Jessie. What they were doing up near midnight he had no clue, but knew that Nathan had gotten less strict when it came to the rules after Jessie's death.

Nathan had dirty blond hair, brownish-green eyes, and was twenty-nine years old. In his life, Nathan had found his love for writing and had started his career as a nonfiction writer, who sometimes delved into a couple fictional subjects if the times called for it.

Patrick was the only child in the family besides Mark to have been raised without anyone else with him, and was now forty-one years old. He was the tallest member of their family, had green eyes, and brown hair. Patrick had become a private investigator following his raising at Sister Grace's house, and had managed to break several cold cases and bring many dangerous men and women to justice.

"Sorry about that, guys," Nathan said a moment later. "I'm going to repeat what I heard just to be sure I got it right. It goes: Terrorists. I didn't understand the next part, but then it went: Battle. Royale. Stars. Found. Near. Costa. Rica. Island. Caribbean. Hawke. Help. Lost. Ears. Send. Military. Not. Safe. No. Reply."

"Correct," Patrick said. "Now what does it all mean?"

"It means that our brother is in danger," Mark said, frowning.

"But more than that, he's given us a good idea of his location. 'Stars' and 'Found' must mean he's located wherever he is because of the stars in proximity to him. 'Near,' 'Costa,' 'Rica,' 'Island,' and 'Caribbean' are pretty much obvious indicators, but we still don't know exactly where."

"At least this proves it was a kidnapping," Nathan said. "An entire bus full of high school students just doesn't disappear off the face of the earth. 'Terrorists' must mean he knows they've been taken by, well, some group of terrorists. What did that part I missed earlier say?"

"SOTC," Mark answered.

There was a pause where the only thing Mark could hear from Nathan's phone was deep breathing.

"Are you okay, Nathan?" Patrick asked.

"Nathan, are you still with us?" Mark asked.

"Oh my God no!" Nathan suddenly shouted. "No! No! No! This can't be…no, it can't be happening right now!"

"Nathan, calm down!"

"This is all my fault! Damn it!"

"Nathan, please calm down," Patrick said. "Tell us what's wrong."

Nathan huffed from his phone. "This is all my fault. Do you know what SOTC stands for?"

"No I d—Yes I do," Mark said, eyes widening.

"It's the Sons of the Constitution!" Nathan continued to wail. "They're trying to get back at me, I know it!"

"Nathan, kindly shut up for ten seconds and return to us with your normal voice," Patrick ordered. "We need you to help us find Joshua and you cannot do that in your state right now. Calm down and relax."

To Mark's surprise, Patrick's harsh stance managed to cause Nathan to quit his mindless shouting, and there was silence in the room for ten seconds.

"I'm sorry, guys," Nathan said when his time was up. "I'm…I just, well, I know why this happened."

"Then enlighten us," Mark said, knowing most of the story.

"Well after Jessie died, I wasn't…myself. She had just given birth to Grace and Jessie Marie Jr., and then she went to…where she died. I was lost, and wanted to know what I had to do in life. That's when Sister Grace came and told me what she'd seen, and I did just what she told me to do."

"Which was to infiltrate the Sons of the Constitution."

"Exactly. I'd learned from a couple contacts that they were planning something big, so I joined up with them to figure out what it was and what they were all about. In that time, I discovered the plans to blow up the Pentagon, Sears Tower, and the Space Needle just in time to warn the proper authorities, who stopped them. But I thought that we'd taken care of them all, but whoever's in charge of kidnapping the students wasn't with them."

"Obviously not," Mark said, shaking his head. "I'm going to kill the idiots who failed to stop this."

"Calm down, Mark," Patrick said. "We need clear heads to get Joshua out of this alive. Let's finish dissecting the message."

"What does Battle Royale stand for?"

"It's a novel by Koushun Takami," Nathan answered. "In it a cruel government forces classes of students to kill each other for 'experiments' that are meant to show their constituents why they shouldn't rebel against them and other reasons. You don't think that Josh means all thirty of them are killing each other, do you?"

"Knowing him and his candor, I'd say yes," Patrick said. "But what's the point of all this?"

"What do the Sons of the Constitution stand to gain from all this?" Mark asked.

"Their whole reason for existence was to bring America back to the ideals that they viewed as 'American,'" Nathan said. "This doesn't make sense. Unless it's all just simple revenge…against me."

"I doubt it, though that may play some part in this. It can't be a coincidence that out of all the high schools in the world, the one that just happens to have one of us in it was targeted. What does 'Hawke' specify?"

"There was a Hawke in one of the cells of the terrorist group, and I don't recall seeing his name mentioned when we caught them. Wait isn't that the name of Joshua's teacher? Hasn't he gone missing too?"

"Yes," Patrick said. "It's possible that this Hawke survived the purges and took the remaining people in his cell to live to fight another day. I can check up on this the moment that we are done."

"That would be a good idea."

"Joshua is telling us something, though," Mark said. "Joshua wants us to 'Send' in not only 'Help,' but the 'Military' as well. I'm guessing he's in a compromising state as well, since he asked us not to reply to the message. He must be under surveillance as well as fighting his fellow students if they are indeed being forced to kill."

"That must mean they're heavily armed," Patrick said. "Knowing Joshua he also meant the students as well, so even if we rescue them, we might have some of them that have gone native, and started killing others."

"This is bad," Nathan said. "Real bad. What was that about 'Lost Ears?'"

There was a silence before Mark answered, "He must have lost his hearing."

"What? How?"

"You know as much as I do, Nathan. Whatever the cause, it puts Joshua at a much larger disadvantage than before. He may be the best defensive martial artist out of us all, but he isn't prepared for this. He's still…inert."

"Has Don contacted you in any way, Mark?" Patrick asked, his voice calm, but they could sense he did not wish to discuss their brother's situation further.

Mark frowned, knowing that the conversation would inevitably come to this point soon enough. "No, he has not."

There was silence for a moment. All three of them knew that Don wasn't on good terms with any of them following Sister Grace's death and the way that they'd handled it with him.

"Why am I not surprised?" Patrick said.

"But let's be fair to Don," Nathan said. "Why would he want to contact us right now?"

"Maybe because our brother's in danger, and this happens to be the only brother who hasn't disowned him."

"Maybe he's doing some research of his own."

"Either that or getting paid to topple some third-world regime," Mark said.

"You can't deny that he hasn't done his part to make the world a better place, you know. Myanmar used to be a cesspool, but now it's back to Burma and a democracy that doesn't oppress anyone anymore."

"After thousands died," Patrick reminded him.

"'As always, history will be the one to judge the works of a man, but I say to hell with history. History can fornicate itself with an electric branding iron as far as I care, so I tell you this: You judge what you do and don't give a damn what anyone says or thinks about you, because in the end only two opinions matter in the world: Yours and God's.'"

"As said by the woman who regularly thought it was a good idea to implement various forms of torture on us in order to make us ready for the world or whatever we encountered," Mark said.

"And also told us several times that just because she said it, it didn't make any of it true," Patrick added.

"Yeah, but hasn't it worked out to help us before?" Nathan asked. "How about the time Mark got captured by the Vietcong and they tortured you for days by feeding you all those psychedelic drugs, but by then you had gained an immunity thanks to Sister Grace forcing them in your system as a kid?"

"Perhaps, but it doesn't make it any better," Mark said.

"We need to end this conversation," Patrick said. "Need I remind you that there are more serious matters at hand right now than reuniting and forgiving a brother who will more than likely still be alive before the day's end?"

"Yes. For now we must split up and come back with any information we have found that could help us break this before Joshua or any of the other students get killed."

"I'll do some background checks on this Hawke character and see if I can find anything that could shed some light on where Joshua's being held."

"Work as fast as you can, Patrick," Mark said. "Time is a factor here."

"I will," Patrick said. "I'll be back with a status report as soon as possible."

"Godspeed."

Patrick hung up.

"What can I do?" Nathan asked.

"Nathan, to be frank, you've done enough work," Mark said. "Try to watch out for your family and wait for me to contact you."

Nathan paused for a moment. "Yes, brother."

He hung up.

Rubbing his eyes, Mark prayed, wishing for guidance in the matter at hand. Lord, I am not Your greatest servant, but I need Your help. You know all, but You ask us to come to You when we are in need, so here I am. Please, help us to find Joshua and his friends before it is too late. Please save him and keep him safe. He doesn't know yet what his place is in the world, or what he needs to do. Give him time. Amen.

26 students left

A/N: Next week will feature Joshua and Hanako as they discover someone who doesn't have their best interests in mind. Until next time...