Jade waits out the helicopter, then returns to the Safe House

Hidden behind a large rock and protected from sight by the leafy bushes, Jade watches from the far edge of the clearing as the helicopter lands and several people in white uniforms emerge. A few minutes later, they come out of the Safe House carrying a stretcher; Malik follows, now dressed in a gray jumpsuit - and, to Jade's surprise, leg irons. Well, I guess they've given him plenty of reasons to be pissed off at them, Jade thinks, and they've got him hopped up on the aphrodisiacs besides; he said himself that he was having a hard time thinking straight. It only makes sense that they'd restrain him, especially on a helicopter.

Good-bye, Kayo... I'm so sorry. You didn't deserve any of this. I hope your family understands.

With everyone aboard, the helicopter's engine powers up, and it lifts into the sky, turning out toward the sea and then flying out of sight. Before the sound of its chopping propeller is lost, Jade is already on the move, running back into the safe house and closing the door behind her. No point in running off before checking this place for supplies, she thinks to herself.

In less than a minute, she's infinitely glad she came back, as a closet in the corner contains something she would almost have been willing to trade everything else in her pack for - a pair of sandals. "Oh, thank God!" she says aloud, pulling them onto her much-abused feet. They're a little too large, but she doesn't care. The cabinet also contains a few bottles of sunscreen, of which she takes one, and an honest-to-goodness apple. It tastes like ambrosia to her, and she eats it core and all.

Let's see what I've got here, Jade thinks, and starts pulling everything out of Malik's pack. He had put her own pack inside it, so she still has everything which she did before. "Okay," she says aloud, "that's two first-aid kits, minus most of the bandages, and mine still has that shard of glass in it. Kayo had our map, but I've got a better one now. Two water bottles, his is larger. Four of these little mystery packets. Two food bars from Malik's pack. Two of these electronic map things, Malik's and the one I had before. Enrico's rope. My pager. And now, I've got more sunscreen and the sandals."

Jade consolidates the first-aid supplies into one kit, and adds them to the bag. She is about to fill her own water bottle when she has another thought. Malik's map is the most valuable thing I've got, aside from the sandals, she thinks. I need to protect it... if someone gets the chance to steal from me, they might not take an empty water bottle. I can roll up the map and put it in there, and use Malik's bottle for actual water.

She re-applies the sunscreen to herself, grateful for the dance lessons which have made her flexible enough to do a fair job on her own back, and puts the used bottle back in the cabinet, taking an unopened one to carry with her. I don't need two of these things, she considers, looking at the electronic map devices, and decides to ditch Malik's while keeping the other one. They know Malik is out of the game, she thinks, but they might activate this other one again.

The device, the food bars, and the rope all go into Malik's larger pack, leaving her with the four unknown packets. "What are these things?" she wonders aloud. They're about two inches square, and full of what feels like a powdery substance. They would be easy to open, and Jade is about to do so when there's a soft beep from one of the two map devices - Malik's, not the one in her pack. One of the buttons is flashing yellow, and she presses it. A familiar face pops up on the screen.

"You," she says to the Director.

"Hello again, Fox," he replies.

"Is Kayo going to be all right?" Jade asks.

"That's nothing you need to -"

"Tell me, or I'm ending this conversation right now," Jade says. She picks up the device and holds it high above the floor, ready to smash it down.

"If you break it, that counts as tampering with camera and sound equipment," the Director cautions. "That will disqualify you from the games, and ruin any chance you have of taking home any winnings."

Jade mutters a quiet curse, and puts the device back down on the table, glaring at the screen.

"But, since I'd rather you didn't just turn it off either," he continues, "Kayo's condition is stable. She's receiving good medical care. It's too early to say for certain whether she will keep her leg, but she's got every chance. That was an extremely foolish thing you did, jumping from that line like that. You're very lucky you both weren't killed, Jade... I thought we'd talked about that."

"Yeah, well, I'm not keen on getting gang-raped by a dozen men," Jade says. "Even with whatever you put in the water."

"I can't imagine what you're implying," he says calmly. "But if there were something in the water, it would be perfectly legitimate. The contract you signed states quite clearly on page forty-two, paragraph five, that you consent to the use of 'performance enhancers.'"

"You're a bastard."

"Glass houses, Fox. But let's stop trading insults and get down to the reason why I called. It wasn't just to chat, you know."

"I'm listening."

"First of all, the device you're watching me on right now is not something you're supposed to have," the Director says. "Oddly, it seems there's no specific rule against it, but all the same I suggest you leave it behind. You'll find it won't work anymore after this anyway, and since you'll be responsible for it if it breaks, you'll find it more of a liability than an asset."

"I could do without the weight anyway."

"That's my clever Fox. Now, onto other matters... as you know, we had something of an informal understanding to the effect that you would be giving us a certain kind of useful footage; namely, action between you and the other girls. We're certainly very pleased with your scenes with Paige and especially Kayo, but you're going to have to do better than that. I mean, you didn't even try to initiate anything with the sisters. Do you have any idea what the entertainment value of that would have been?"

"You're sick, you know that?"

"I only provide what the audience wants - and the bottom line is, the only thing that's kept you from being flagged as a target so far is that you're giving us exactly that. But, you need to do better, or we'll have to give them something else they want. I'd really like to cast you in the role of the brave and resourceful survivor who dodges all the men and offers sensual comforts to her fellow girls... but given a little creative editing, we can just as easily portray you as the lesbian predator who gets a taste of her own medicine when the men catch up to her at last. If you prefer the former, then I suggest you find another cunt to lick, and soon."

Jade closes her eyes, struggling to keep her rage under control. For the first time in her life, she feels as though she could genuinely commit murder.

"Now, there's a match-up that the producers have been rather keen on," the Director continues. "You've met Malik, of course... I'd like to introduce you to his sister, La Shonda. The interracial aspect lends a certain aesthetic to it, I'm sure you'll agree; after all, you certainly seemed to enjoy yourself with Kayo. Take a look at this."

The screen switches to a map.

"This is a perfectly accurate map, unlike the one you started with," the Director's voice goes on. "You are the red cross in the center. Off to the right, you'll see the coast, and a blinking white circle making its way north along it. That, my pretty red Fox, is your target; Ms. La Shonda is using the strategy of following the coastline, which usually doesn't work out very well but she's been making excellent progress. All you need to do is follow the stream, and if you don't make unnecessary stops, you should be able to arrive at this safe house about an hour before she does." A blue square blinks on the map, slightly north of where the stream meets the sea. "Wait for her there... and the rest I leave in your capable hands."

"What if I don't want to play it your way?" Jade asks.

"Then, at some point in the next twenty-four hours, the producers will alert all the men in a half-mile radius of you to your position... and you'll never know exactly when they've done this, until they find you. This is our game, Fox; we hold all the cards and we make all the rules. Never forget that." The screen goes blank.

Jade stands still for a long moment... and then throws her head back and releases a piercing shriek of pure rage, pounding her fists down on the table over and over again, finally throwing herself down on the mattress and sobbing out the frustration and fury of all that she's been through, not just on the island but for the awful past few weeks of her life.

It's at least twenty minutes before she can calm down, and when she raises her head, the first thing she sees is the bloodstain on the mattress that Kayo left behind. "It wasn't for them," Jade whispers. "I didn't make love to you for their game or their cameras, it was for you. Please understand... I never meant to hurt you."

Jade stares at the spot for a long time, almost as if she expects it to answer. Then, she slowly rises to her feet. She takes out her first-aid kit and removes the shard of glass, then goes back to the mattress and stabs it into the stain. It penetrates through; the mattress fabric is surprisingly tough, but the sharp shard cuts cleanly through it. After a moment, Jade has removed strip of the dark red fabric, which she then ties into a lock of her hair, hiding it deep under the unkempt mop. "I promised I would stay with you, Kayo," she whispers. "This is the only way I can, now. And I'll promise you something else, too... somehow, some way, I'm going to get these bastards."

Quickly, Jade packs her supplies back into the bag, hoists it up, and then strides out the door without looking back.