Yes!

"Okay, you win!" Jade says, shrinking back. "I'll do it, just don't shoot!" She reaches over and picks up the stick -

"STOP right there!" Enrico shouts.

Jade puts the stick down, as fast and hard as she dares. The rock tied to the end of it cracks against another rock on the ground. I hope that was good enough, Jade thinks.

"You really think you can get the drop on me again?" Enrico sneers. "Pass it up here... slowly! And if you make one wrong move, then first you get shot, and then when I'm done using my dick on you you'll get this gun shoved up your ass next, got it?"

Five seconds. "I understand." Jade takes the dangling handcuff and slowly lifts the stick from the ground.

"That's good," Enrico says. "Nice and slow. Go ahead and sit up. I can pull this trigger in half a heartbeat, don't think I won't do it!"

Ten seconds. "H-here," Jade says, holding it out. "It's heavy, I can't hold it like this!"

"Give it here!" Enrico steps in, cautiously, his finger tightening slightly over the trigger of his rifle...

Jade lurches forward, going for broke. The cuff comes down over Enrico's wrist and snaps shut, locking him to the stick, and even as he jerks the trigger of his rifle Jade swats at it with her other hand, knocking it off to one side. The shot punches into the sand next to her, where it sparks and sizzles.

"Oh, you stupid cunt," Enrico whispers, stepping back and cocking the rifle for another shot. The broken end of the stick, about three feet long and weighted down by the rock at one end, dangles from his wrist.

Several Hours Earlier...

Jade sat in the hollow of the huge rock as the sound of the helicopter's chopping rotor faded into the distance. In the dawning light, the beach looked serene and beautiful... it was almost sickening to think of how this place had been perverted to such a purpose.

A spray from a crashing wave splashed up high and caught the first rays of sunrise, looking almost like an explosion in the water... or a flare.

Jade blinked, then nodded slowly as an idea came into her mind.

A piece of driftwood, longer and straighter than most, poked up from the sand nearby, and Jake leaned out to take it and a rock sitting next to it. Then, she reached up under her hair and peeled off a small bundle, held in place by medical tape, wincing as the short hairs at the base of her scalp pull out. Within the bundle lay two small items: a small packet of pocket fire powder, and the flare.

Jade took a tiny shell from the sand, held it in one hand, and smacked it with the rock, shattering it into shards. Then she placed the sharp pieces between the packet and the flare, taping them back into a bundle, and then pressed it carefully against the side of the rock. The rock settled into a fork of three stubby branches at the end of the driftwood stick, and a remaining strip of tape held it in place for a moment... but it would have to be better than that.

"Needs must," Jade whispered to herself, and closed her eyes tight as she reached up and yanked hard on a small lock of hair, pulling it out by the roots. A quick glance around located some strong reeds, which she pulled from the ground with some effort and after twisting them together with her hair for added strength, used them to tie the rock more firmly to the end of the stick. A couple of practice swings satisfiee her that it was attached, good and tight.

"One good swat, and the packet should break open," she murmered, contemplating the rock as if it were a diamond. "Thirty seconds later, the flare goes off. I'm going to run into trouble, I can be sure of that, and this might be the thing that gets me out of it."

Later...

"That was the last fuckin' mistake you'll ever make," Enrico says as he raises the rifle at waist height, the stick cuffed to his wrist making it awkward to bring it to his shoulder - but as such close range, it hardly matters.

"You may be right," Jade replies. Any moment now... oh God, what if it doesn't work?

"What did you even think you were going to accomplish?" Enrico says as he takes aim. "You locked me to a stick, and you thought that was going to help you somehow?"

There! It's smoking! "Something like that," Jade replies, then quickly turns away and covers her face.

"What are you - YAAAUGH!!"

Enrico's shout is drowned out by the loud whistle from the end of the stick, which is followed by an explosive burst and then a high scream of pain. Jade turns back with her eyes narrowed against the bright flare which still burns on the ground at Enrico's feet, having blown off the end of the stick. Enrico staggers about with his hands clapped over his eyes, and Jade can see a thin trickle of blood oozing down his wrist from his face.

Jade tries to scramble to her feet, but her leg refuses to work. She falls back to her hands and knees, and under her hands is the Taser rifle.

She doesn't even think. Her hands slide into position on the grip and the barrel as Jade drops down on the ground like a sniper, raising the gun up to point at the screeching and writhing man in front of her, and she squeezes the trigger.

The kickback against her shoulder is harder than she expected; the muzzle velocity is low, but the projectile is much larger and heavier than a normal bullet. It strikes Enrico in the side, and his body stiffens as the shock hits his nervous system, dropping him to the ground where he lies twitching.

I really should have had a one-liner for that moment, Jade thinks, feeling an unnatural calm settling over her. Did I kill him? It's kind of scary that I don't really care.

Jade tries to stand up again, leaning on the rifle for support, and this time she's able to get up to one knee. Pushing hard on the shoulder stock, she lifts herself to her feet, balancing on the leg which still works. The other is an agony of pins and needles, almost responsive, but still mostly dead weight.

The men who were waiting here for me... they're all dead, she thinks. I can make it to the end, now. I'm going to win.

Jade stumbles forward, using the gun for a crutch, deliberately not looking at Enrico who lies motionless on the ground except for the occasional twitch. The flare has burned out, leaving a scorch mark on the sand.

It's a good thing I found the men's map, Jade thinks to herself as she makes her slow, painstaking way to the final goal. If I hadn't, I'd be heading for the wrong place right now. That's a pretty dirty trick, when you think about it. What's that?

Jade looks up into the distance, and sees a trio of helicopters flying in against the blue sky of the horizon. Of course, they're sending in the cavalry, she thinks. Even if I wasn't almost there, they'd probably call it Game Over - at least six people are dead, after all. I've still got enough time, though... if they think they're going to get here and stop me from winning, they're dead wrong. I figured out their little trick, I saw the map!

Suddenly, Jade stops in her tracks, looking at the larger Safe House about fifty yards away, and then back at the smaller one which is only a few steps from her.

"Everyone saw the men's map," Jade says aloud. "They must have known we would... we all had to realize halfway through the first day that our maps were printed wrong, so of course we'd do everything we could to see the maps the men had. And then we'd see how the small building was marked with the star, and think we're all so clever for discovering the trap... but it was just a star, it didn't say anything, it's a misdirection, it's -"

Jade's head snaps around to the bigger house. "It's that one!"

Forgetting the state of her leg, Jade turns and tries to run for it, but crumples after the first step. The helicopters are coming closer - there's no time left!

And she crawls.

Bit by bit, yard by painful yard. She tries to stand up and succeeds in lurching forward, then does it again, and again, struggling with all she has left in her to cover that distance, to win before they can stop her! She can feel the wind of the rotors on her back now... twenty yards to go... Jade screams out loud as she forces herself to rise, makes her numbed leg respond, stumbling forward - she falls against the doorframe, tumbles inside, and there in the middle of the otherwise empty room, a large brass bell with a hammer - and across the bell, the words "FINAL GOAL."

She can hear them come into the room behind her as she covers the last few feet and falls to her knees, taking up the hammer and swinging it down. The bell GONGS with a reverberation that echoes off the walls and lingers in her ears, and she slumps down to the floor as the white-suited men reach her side.

"I won," Jade whispers as they move her onto a stretcher, lift her up, carry her out of the house to where the helicopters wait on the pads. "I won... I beat them.

"I won."