Fallout

"Look... I know how this is gonna sound, but you gotta understand, I ain't no lesbian," LaShonda says as she takes the offered canteen from Jade. "I don't got any problem with it, but you know if we weren't here, and I wasn't high on whatever they're feedin' us..." she glares momentarily at the canteen in her hand, then shrugs and drinks from it. "Well, let's just say there's no way this would've ever happened."

"It's cool," Jade says. "I never did anything with other girls before I got here either. You do what you have to do."

"Yeah, well... at least I'm feelin' more normal again." She laughs for a moment. "Damn, I'm on some island in the middle of nowhere, I'm being chased by fifty horny men, I'm buck naked and I just got down with another woman. And I said it feels normal. This is so unbelievably fucked up!"

"Why are you here, LaShonda?" Jade asked.

"That's kinda personal, don't you think?"

"Exactly how much more intimate would we need to get before you felt like you could share something personal with me?"

LaShonda laughs again. "Okay, you win. And it's simple enough. I live in a shitty place, and I want to get me and my family out of there. I figured I could handle this; it's not like the place I come from is a lot safer, and at least on this island, the guys don't have knives and guns."

Damn, Jade thought. I never really thought of myself as privileged, until now. I guess that's part of BEING privileged, you don't know that you are.

"How 'bout yourself?"

I'd rather not tell her... but it's not like I can refuse after she told me. "I'm here for my father. He's going to die unless I can get my hands on a lot of money, and fast. He doesn't know I'm here, and I'm really hoping I can keep it that way."

"We're on camera, Fox. You know that, don't you? If he sees the show -"

"My father would never watch this crap," Jade says with conviction. Still... I never REALLY thought about that. Dad won't see it, but plenty of other people will. I might end up famous from this... this might ruin my life even if I win. A tear forms unexpectedly, rolls down her cheek.

"Hey, you all right, Fox?"

"Hell no," Jade says, wiping the tear away. "Nobody on this island is all right. But, we have to keep it together."

"So... what are we gonna do now?"

"Hm?"

"Well, don't take this the wrong way," LaShonda says, sitting up a bit, "but I still want to win this thing, and we can't both win. I'm sorry about your dad, but we all got problems. My family isn't dying right at this moment, but if we don't get out of the hood, it could happen any day."

"We're all here to win. I get it. If we were standing in front of the prize right now, I'd try to shove you out of the way and grab it, with no regrets."

LaShonda nods. "Still... you were right about one thing. We can't both win, but we could all lose. If every girl on this island gets caught, that's it for all of us. So, it makes sense to help each other out a little, don't it?"

Jade nods. "That's the way I see it."

"All right then. Let's see what we both got for supplies, and see if we can trade anything."

Jade picks up her pack and spills it out, and LaShonda does the same. Jade notices that they're both carrying the black backpacks which belonged to the men at the start.

"Would've been nice to find one of those," LaShonda says, pointing at the orange.

"Here, take it. I saved it for you."

LaShonda blinks once, then nods, and picks it up. "Thanks," she says simply. Then she continues, "They didn't stock much out here on the beach. I got the men's map at moment one, from the first guy I took down. It shows where all the supplies are - well, most of 'em, probably not all. This was this first water I've found since moment one, but at least I knew to ration what I had."

"Do you know what these are?" Jade says, holding up one of the mystery packets.

"Oh, yeah. That's pocket fire. That's dangerous stuff, it's illegal most places. There's a powder in there, when you open it up and the air gets at it, it'll start smokin'. About half a minute later, it catches fire. It'll burn really hot for about ten seconds, and there's no way to put it out except wait for it. Throw water on it, and it'll just keep burnin'. They probably gave it to the men to start campfires with."

Good to know, Jade thinks. She looks over LaShonda's stuff. "You don't have much to trade, but I lost my first-aid kit. I could give you a couple of these pocket fires for some of your bandages and a couple of other things."

"I got a better idea," LaShonda says. "How about I take everything, and you get jack shit."

Suddenly, LaShonda slams into Jade and pins her to the floor, an arm across her throat and one hand raised high, holding a sharp blade which looks like a broken piece from a large seashell. Jade struggles at first, but when LaShonda leans on her and cuts off her air, she realizes how helpless she is, and stops fighting.

"I don't want to cut you," LaShonda hisses. "You stay down, and I won't have to. Now, when I ease off, you're not gonna even try to fight back, you got that? You're gonna get over into that corner and lie down on the floor with your hands behind your head, and then I'm gonna take what I want from your pack and leave. You try anything else, and I'll stick this into you. Don't you fuckin' make me do that."

"Why?" Jade manages to whisper.

"How did you know I was comin'?" LaShonda demands.

Jade tries to shake her head, but the pressure on her throat increases.

"You said you were savin' that orange for me," LaShonda says. "You were waitin' for me here, don't you fuckin' deny it. I want to know how you knew I was comin' this way, bitch!"

LaShonda pulls back enough for Jade to draw in a breath. "They showed me," she says, straining to get the words out. "The Director... he told me you'd be here. He wanted me to come this way so I could... so they could get us on camera." Tears start streaming down Jade's cheeks.

"What about my brother?" LaShonda demands, and Jade sees the **** in her eyes. "Was that all bullshit, to get on my good side? WAS IT??"

"No!" Jade chokes. "I swear, all of that was true! I met him, he saved my friend, he's off the island now! I... I knew you were coming here, they set it all up... but I didn't lie to you, about anything!"

LaShonda's eyes burn into her for a long moment. "One way or another, we'll both be off this island in a couple of days, tops," she says, her lowered voice even more dangerous than her shout. "You'll go home, and I'll go home. And when I see Malik again, I'm gonna find out whether you're tellin' the truth or not. If you are, then that's the end of it. But if I find out that you're lying to me right now, then I'm gonna find you. I don't care if it takes me years to do it, I'll find you. And when I do, you're gonna wish you died here. You hear me?"

Jade nods, as much as she can.

"Now, when I let up, you're gonna turn over and crawl into that corner. You're gonna stay there until you hear me go out that door. If you try to get up, or you come after me thinkin' you can take me from behind, I'll crack your fuckin' skull." LaShonda hesitates, and when she speaks again, her voice is softer. "Whatever else you did, you cleared my head, and I owe you for that much. So I'm gonna leave you here without beatin' your lily-white ass, so long as you stay down 'till I'm gone. But don't fuck with me. Got it?"

"I got it. LaShonda, I'm sorry-"

"Save it. You said it yourself, we're all in it to win. I'm gonna win by kickin' some ass. You can try to win by being their whore, if that's what works for you. Now... get in the corner."

LaShonda lets off on the pressure, and Jade coughs hard, trying to get air through her throat again. She looks up at LaShonda with pleading eyes, but there's no sympathy there, and the other girl raises the knife higher. Without any further hesitation, Jade rolls over and crawls into the corner, lacing her fingers behind her head and staying down. She can hear LaShonda going through her pack, and then a moment later, the door opens and then closes again.

Jade turns around, wiping away tears. The door is closed but not locked. Slowly, rubbing her hurting throat with one hand, she gets to her feet and goes to peek out. LaShonda's footprints can be seen briefly on the wet sand before a wave comes rolling up to wash them away.

"I'm sorry," Jade whispers again, and then closes and locks the door.

Jade's pack is still on the ground, emptied of its contents. She picks it up and looks at it, and then sets it aside.

She left me all the food bars, hers and mine, Jade realizes. Probably she doesn't want to eat anything else that's dosed... she's going to try to make it the rest of the way without eating. It probably won't make much difference, she could have enough of it in her system to last a few days now.

Jade moves the cushions aside, looking for anything else. She took the big canteen, but she left the smaller one, Jade realizes with relief. The one with the map in it! I've still got a chance, with that. My pager's still here, of course she didn't need that. And here's the electronic thing, she probably already had one of those and didn't need mine. Wait... this one IS the one she had - Malik's had a scratch on the screen. She must have taken that one by mistake. Of course, she took Enrico's rope - at least she didn't tie me up with it. What's this?

Jade flips a cushion aside, and finds one of the packets. She missed this one! I don't know what it might be good for in the end, but it's definitely something to hold onto. And that's it. Except - Jade glances down at her own feet. The sandals... she didn't take them. She could have, but she didn't. Maybe she was afraid I'd try to kick her in the head if she tried to take them off my feet - no, she had me pinned down, she could have told me to take them off if she'd wanted them. Who knows? Maybe she'd rather go barefoot. Or... maybe that was her way of cutting me a break. Maybe she realized that I was only doing what I had to do.

"You can try to win by being their whore," echoes in Jade's head.

Is that what I'm doing? Is that what I've become? The tears well up in her eyes again, and drop down her cheeks. There's no denying it... I came out here to meet LaShonda because that's what they told me to do. Sure, they might have sent half the island after me otherwise, but I still went along with it.

She looks around the hut, which suddenly feels unbearably hot and confining, like an oven. "I have to get out of here," she whispers to herself. Jade pulls the map from the water canteen and fills it up, putting the items separately into her pack - her small green pack, not the larger black one that she got from Malik. That one is gone. The electronic device and the pocket fire follow. All four of the food bars go down her throat; there's no advantage in saving them for later at this point in the game. A quick check under all the cushions confirms that there's nothing left to be found.

From now on, I play only to win, Jade thinks to herself as she opens the water spigot again, takes a drink, and then lets the rest drain onto the floor. It's doubtful anyone else will come this way, but if they do, they won't find anything useful.

As Jade lays a hand on the doorknob, she suddenly realizes something - there are no windows, and no peephole in the door. Someone could be waiting right outside, and there's no way to know it. To make matters worse, the door opens inward, so she can't open it a little ways to take a peek and expect to be able to shut it again if there's someone behind it. The translucent walls show shadows outside, but someone could still have approached the hut and made their way around to the door without being seen.

LaShonda made it out, she thinks. I would have heard something if she hadn't. And I can't stay in here forever; I have ****, I have to trust to luck on this one.

Carefully, as silently as possible, she turns the knob and unlatches the door...