Everyone for Themselves

Chapter 22

February 19, 1991

Chapter 22-

"Attention campers, a camper is dead. I repeat, a camper is dead. Good luck."

Eric sighed sadly. It was only the first hour, and already, a camper was dead.

"I bet the murderer killed 'em." his brother muttered darkly beside him.

There was no doubt in Eric's mind that he was, unfortunately, right. They walked in silence for a while, each lost in their own thoughts, until Roberto spoke up again.

"Who do you think died just now?"

This question made Eric think. Each one of the 8 campers (including himself) had their own weakness, even if he couldn't tell what they were. Marissa's, he knew, was mud, bugs, and, really, anything dirty at all. The others, he wasn't so sure about.  So, "I'm not sure..." was his only reply.

***

I know their weaknesses. All of them. 

I'm surprised these numbskulls haven't figured it out yet, but, you know, we ARE talking about the 25 campers who've died in only about a month or two. So, because I'm so kind and generous, I guess I'll give them to you.

Roberto: Losing. If any of them had actually been paying attention (and I know none of this was mentioned in the story), Roberto cannot STAND to lose. He throws a huge fit if he loses a video game, but, since he is so experienced, it doesn't happen very often.

Eric: Bullying. Not towards other people, but towards himself. If you remember, when Paul called him names and made the impression that he was weak... Well... You saw what happened. Eric doesn't get bullied, and when he does... That's that.

Gwen: Money. Or, shall I say, greediness. As you know, she was, in the beginning, only in these games for the money. Now, of course, she's in it for Serenity and survival, but if the mention of the prize was brought up again, I'm sure she would change her mind.

Marissa: Well, these idiots WERE right about one thing. Marissa is not a neat freak, she's more of a... Oh, how shall I say it... A priss. Yes, that's it. A priss. She does everything HER way in HER style, no questions asked, and she absolutely does NOT get dirty. The problem is, she got everything she wanted back home, and she's determined not to let that change. And what she wants now... Is to win.

Violet: Shyness. Back home, Violet stayed out of everyone's way - she had very few friends - and used to think that if you didn't mess with someone, they wouldn't mess with you. Now, she knows that's wrong, but she hadn't interacted with anyone enough to realize what else is wrong too.

Olivia: Carelessness. As you saw before, when being accused of murder by Marissa, Olivia just shook it off. Usually, that'd be a good thing, but in her case, Olivia cares slightly too little.

Serenity: Trust. If her heart tells her someone is worth being trusted, she immediately believes it. In fact, most of the time, her heart is right, but what she doesn't know is how wrong her heart is about to be.

-Trent

***

"I'm tired!" Roberto whined to his more than irritated brother. "Can we please stop for the night?"

Gritting his teeth tightly, Eric struggled to not lose his temper. Ever since the announcement of the dead camper had been portrayed, Roberto had been nothing but whiny. Every sentence that came out of his mouth was a complaint, and Eric had just about had enough of it.

"You know what? Fine," Eric muttered. "But we'll have to sleep in shifts, in case the murderer comes along."

"I call sleeping first!" Roberto cried childishly, and ran up to a tree, leaning against it comfortably.

Eric's face flushed with anger as he grumbled to himself furiously, spitting out an almost inaudible, "Fine." before sitting in between two intertwined trees, feeling absolutely livid.

Soon enough, Roberto was snoring loudly. It took Eric a moment to realize that, even if the murderer DID come along, he was completely weaponless. Searching around, he snatched up a long, thick stick, which he sharpened on the edge of the tree next to him. It wasn't much, especially compared to the gun he knew the murderer had somehow possessed, but it wasn't nothing.

After a short time, however, Eric's eyes began to get droopy. He hadn't been paying attention to how long he had been sitting there, but, even though he predicted he had been there at least two hours, he was too tired to wake Roberto up for his shift. So, not knowing this may possibly be the worst mistake in his life, he lay his head against the tree and fell asleep.

The sound of heavy footsteps and the vibrations of the tree he was leaning against woke him up a short while later. Instinctively, he jumped to his feet and waved the pointed stick like a spear in the air. Roberto had already woken up, and he had a tense and frightened expression plastered on his freckled face.

"The m- murderer?" he just managed to get out before a person wearing a mask burst into the clearing, gun in hand. Jumping back, fear pulsing through every vain in his body, Eric made a thrusting motion with the stick towards the masked person, as of threatening to stab them.

"Nobody move." a rough, raspy voice said gruffly, although Eric could tell it was a girl. So there he stood, frozen in place, as the murderer aimed the gun for their heads, but didn't shoot. Without Eric or Roberto seeing it, the murderer smiled a devilish smile. A beautiful smile, a smile that almost never crossed their lips, but it was a smile that meant only one thing. Murder. And with one motion of their finger, the trigger was pulled. But which head was it aimed at?

A body slumped to the ground, and a piercing, terrified scream struck the air. The echo of the gunshot reached all the remaining campers ears, and it sent shivers down all of their spines, because each of them knew that yet another camper had just lost their life to these terrible games.

Eric, his eyes wild and full of terror and fury, his mouth still open in a scream that no one would ever forget, hurled the stick at his villainous captor. The murderer dodged easily, and aimed the gun straight for their head.

"MY BROTHER! WHAT DID YOU DO TO MY BROTHER?!" Eric screamed.

"The same thing I'm about to do to you." The murderer said softly. And fired.

Unfortunately, the bullet just missed his heart, but Eric fell to the ground anyway, not yet unconscious nor numb, which is one of the worst deaths to encounter. Pain like fire spread all through him, encasing each one of his limbs in its grasp. 

The pain was so horrible, that if Eric weren't so weak, he would've released another bloodcurdling scream.

It was so fierce that he knew he would never, EVER experience anything like this again.

It was so shocking that he barely even noticed the dark, flowing pool of blood that was quickly forming around his body as he slowly faded away.

But that was nothing compared to the pain in his heart after seeing the death of his twin.

----------

Trent's Comments: And here they go, one by one. It's only girls, now. The main suspects, and the three targets. Final five. I would wish them a sincere good luck... But that's not my job.