* * *

“As the sun sets, things are cooling down for the evening. Most of the girls seem to be aware that twilight is a bad time to go searching, so they’re finding a good place to grab an hour’s sleep. That’s been known to backfire on Babes in the past, but maybe tonight will be the lucky night.” In the Tidal Pools, Sonja is collapsing in a small cave high enough to avoid the tides. The water has washed off the mud that the young clerk was covered in from her time in the forest, and she almost seems peaceful as she sleeps. It’s difficult to imagine that she was so depressed when the viewers see her slight smile in her dreams. “Perhaps the adrenalin is doing wonders for her after all. I wonder if Amy’s quite so relaxed.”

Amy is not. Instead, the Irish mother is climbing across a narrow rock pillar, looking down at the golden pylon glittering underneath her. Glancing over the side and ahead at the rock face across from her, she notices a long metal cable leading down into the water. Suspiciously, she tests it, and finds it firm. A moment later, the red-haired woman is climbing nimbly down the rope, her bare ass silhouetted against the sun as she lowers herself into the water.

And gasps, almost screaming, as she reaches the bottom of the cable and finds it attached to a corpse. Amy falls into the water with a splash, meeting the staring eyes of Mi-Young. The young Korean woman’s corpse still suspended where Shen left her this morning, eyes bugged out and tongue lolling, with signs that a few brave fish have begun to nibble at her flesh. Amy shudders and crosses herself as she rises, and then reluctantly reaches out and closes Mi-Young’s eyes. “I’m sorry.” She whispers, thinking back to the woman who saved her life, who is probably another unholy display of this hellish island. Then she turns away, wading to the pylon and lightly touching it. She has a game to win.

In the carnival, Ling has tapped the pylon and is now attempting to sneak out, crossing the midway as silently as she can. As she does, the Chinese traitor sees a shadow moving across the field, and presses herself into the safety of a ruined tent. This time, she is safe. The shadow is not Saul – it’s Naledi. And she already has a victim to sacrifice to her mentor.

Seeing movement, she steps out into the open. Just for a moment. Long enough for whomever it is to see her. The movement is gone, and she sighs. And then she feels a whisper of breath behind her, and the tiny African girl looks up to see a much larger man behind her. “Saul.” She breathes.

Saul cracks his knuckles, pulling out his taser. “You gonna run?” He asks hopefully.

“Wait.” Naledi holds her hands up. “I know where another girl is.”

There is a short pause, as Saul’s brow furrows. Then he smiles. “You’re that girl.” He says. “Thought you’da been killed by Shen.”

“I’m better than that.” Naledi says, matching his smile with her own. “Let me take you to her. I want to… I want to see what you do.”

Saul chuckles ominously. “Sure, honey.” He reaches down, ruffles her hair. “Show me the way, and I’ll give you the show of your life.”

Zahida wakes slowly. Even in her groggy state, she knows that something is wrong, and she struggles faintly as she feels something heavy and wet around her neck. Her eyes are having trouble opening, and she clearly can’t quite remember what’s going on.

The camera snaps into focus as it pans out. The Afghani woman is slumped against a wall, standing on a flat wooden platform at a midway booth. There is something wet and pink looped around her throat in a noose, running up and over the central wooden pillar. Her ponytail has been pulled out of the way, so that it slaps down behind the noose, and her bikini is lying on the ground beside her. The camera pans across it to Naledi, who has passed out from agony, lying hogtied on her back on another wooden platform in a small but slowly growing pool of her own blood. Her beautiful yellow dress has been split open in the front, exposing her tiny breasts and cunt, and her belly has been very carefully split in the exact same way. Loops of intestines have been pulled gently out, and formed into the noose that covers Zahida. The much younger and smaller African girl is slowly waking, mumbling in pain through the thick cloth gag tied into her mouth.

“Wakey-wakey.” Saul is leaning against the midway booth, tossing a baseball up and down. “Welcome to the dunk tank, girls.”

Zahida’s eyes go wide. Naledi was supposed to be watching. How did she… Saul smiles. “Drugs are finally wearing off, huh? Good. We can start.” He pointed down below the twin platforms. “No water down there. You’ll just have to hang around until I can get some.” He tosses the first baseball at a small target directly between the two girls. Zahida tenses, but it flies high. “Oops.” Saul shakes his head with a wry smile. “I’ve never been very good at these.”

The second ball flies low. The third is far wide, slamming into Zahida’s face. She shrieks with pain as it snaps her head to one side, feeling blood welling in her mouth. “Clumsy me.” Saul laughs. Zahida barely reacts. She looks over to her friend, desperately hoping that the blood loss will keep her from feeling what is about to come.

On the second platform, Naledi’s eyes are hazy. Her expression seems to be fixed somewhere between pain and ecstasy. This is what she had always dreamed of – being a part of Saul’s cruel games. It hurts, though. It hurts more than she had imagined she could hurt. But it is beautiful. Tears well in her eyes, as Saul tosses the next baseball.

This one slams home. The platforms give way, and Naledi and Zahida both fall, only to jerk to a halt as they reach the limits of Naledi’s organs. Naledi’s body tears and pulls, and the pain that she feels redoubles as she lets out a scream of pain easily audible through her gags. Fighting for breath, the intestinal noose tightening around her neck, Zahida feels every one of her kicks drop her another half-inch, as she tears Naledi’s insides apart. She can’t stop, though. She needs to breathe. Needs to touch something solid.

Naledi’s eyes are wide, and she is screaming non-stop as her intestines tear from the weight being placed on them. She and Zahida both fall to the ground of the booths, and she writhes on the ground as her blood rapidly spills. Zahida gasps for air as the knotted intestines loosen without weight behind them.

A moment later, Saul is lifting her by her hair, until she is standing next to him. “Ruthless little bitch, aintcha?” He laughed. With a heave, he tosses Zahida over the small divider between the two booths, and she lands face-first on Naledi. As she does, the African girl’s lips begin to bubble with blood as she tries to breathe through the ruins of her chest. Zahida stares in horror as Naledi shudders beneath her. A moment later, she screams as a long, broken shaft of metal punches through her back, pinning her to the friend that she still doesn’t know betrayed her to this horrible death. The two girls scream as one as their breath is forced out of them, their blood mingling as they thrash and moan. Soon, blood is filling their lungs, and they shudder to a stop.

Saul smiles. “That was fun. Most girls don’t hold still to let me set them up like that.” He remarks to himself. “Have to find more crazies that like some day.”