Survival of the Weakest

9

Pazia, Haydn & I emerged from the tent. The smell of fresh air was just what I needed. Bo turned around; he was still positioned outside the tent as he was told, but there was now a small crowd outside.

"You alright?" he asked. I nodded, and he handed me Ryley's death card. I sighed as I handed it to Haydn, who oversaw keeping them all safe.

"Ah, thanks," she said. "Well, she wasn't the organiser. But I don't think anyone suspected her."

There were a few people standing outside the tent, trying to see what we were looking at.

"Is... is Ryley really dead?" Colin stammered.

"Yes," Bo lamented. "She got killed."

He stepped back and held onto Jelka, who was right beside him. "No... who could've killed her?"

"That's what we're going to try and find out. Who's not here?" Pazia said. "Oh, Florian and Brycin. And Haruko. I'm surprised your scream didn't wake them up."

"I'll go wake them all up," I said.

"Ok. Once they're up, come meet me in the storage tent. We still have to check to see who's knife was the one that was used."

Bo and I walked over to the tents. He went to Haruko's tent, and I went to Brycin's tent, where I assumed Florian would still be. Sure enough, when I unzipped the tent a little, the two were in there, sleeping. I smiled at how cute they were, then stepped into the tent to wake them up. Florian stirred first, lifting his head off of Brycin's bare chest.

"Valerie?" he mumbled. "Why are you in here?"

"Someone's dead," I said. "We have to find out who did it."

Brycin lifted his head up. "Someone is... dead?" he said tiredly. "Who? And what happened?"

"Ryley. She was murdered."

The two of them sat up and looked at me in disbelief.

"Ryley... that's the one with the pink hair, right?" Florian asked. "Why the hell would anyone kill her? She never even said anything."

"I don't know," I admitted. "But we're going to try and find out."

We walked out of the tent. Brycin headed towards the others, but Florian grabbed my arm, stopping me.

"Valerie, last night, when I ran past you- I wanted to tell you what happened," he started.

"Oh, you don't have to."

"No, it's probably important." Florian pulled a piece of paper out of his pocket. "So, that afternoon, I was just walking around, when I heard someone talk about being the organiser."

I froze. "You- you heard someone?"

"I didn't hear what they said, but I definitely heard them say the word 'organiser'. And I got scared that they'd seen or heard me, so I ran back to my tent. That's when I ran past you. I hid in my tent, but no one came after me. When Bo said he wanted to talk about the organiser with the group, I was way too scared to go. So, I went to Brycin and told him what had happened."

That explained why he was sleeping in there this morning, and also why I didn't see him in his tent last night.

"Then we fell asleep. I was falling asleep and waking up again a lot because I was scared. And during one of these times, Brycin was gone, so I went to look for him. And when I walked out of his tent, there was a note on the ground." Florian handed the piece of paper to me. I unfolded it and it read:

"Florian. I know you heard me. And I know what you heard. So, you're next. R."

"This- Who wrote this?" I gasped. I didn't recognise the handwriting.