“But of course,” Kate said, shooting one last look at their unsuccessful fire. “So who were you before you came here?” Her blonde hair glinted slightly in the sun as they walked.

Sarah moved into the woods, not looking back to see if others were following; it would probably be easiest to hunt by herself anyway. Not that she had much experience with that. Glancing around, Sarah picked up a large rock. Not having any other ideas, she figured she could at least hope to stone some poor squirrel before the evening was out. She had been on a softball team in high school.

Darren laughed. “Oh, I know. I adore my accent. Your accent isn’t so bad yourself.”

Sarah stopped short when she saw a rabbit. Taking careful aim, she chucked the stone at the hair – just to see the rabbit jump out of its way. Sarah swore under her breath and, without thinking, practiced the throwing motion again. Just as she released the imaginary rock, something tweaked inside her head, as if the space inside her forehead was suddenly pinched. She realized what had happened a moment later when she saw the rabbit, laying still on the ground only a few yards away. Sarah approached it cautiously, and saw that it was still breathing. She prodded it with her foot, but it didn’t awaken. “Fuck!” Sarah said, abruptly too shaken to pick it up.

Darren laughed. “Better avoid that, then.”

Darren frowned. “Sorry about that. This place isn’t really veggie-friendly, it seems.”

“Oh, God,” Sarah held one hand up to her mouth while she – at arm’s length – picked the rabbit up with her free hand. It was still warm – still breathing – but it didn’t wake up. What had she done to it? Holding it out in front of her, Sarah took the animal back to camp, and dropped it on the ground. “There. Somebody else kill it – I can’t do it.”

“I can do it…” Anthony put his hand around the animal’s neck…and suddenly started to feel a warm energy fulfilling himself…. Then the animal was the “Oh, I feel great! WTF…?!”

“It’s okay,” Alex said giving Sarah a sympathetic look. He noticed the rabbits thoughts ebbing away and looked at it but instead saw Anthony. “What are you doing?”

The shock and hurt was evident on Alex’s face. “That rabbit had memories and thoughts like you,” he stated angrily crawling over to it and picking it up. “It is to be treated with respect even if dead.”

“We’re all going insane.” Sarah said, clasping her head between her hands. Already another headache was building, like the ceaseless waves of an ocean. “It’s driving us all mad.”

“I’ll have to adjust then,” Kate replied with a sigh. “We should probably head back. Just to be sure no one’s killed anyone.”

Sam looked up from building the shelter, “I am sure as hell not sleeping in there.” Sam explained quickly when they looked at her strangley when they saw what she had made.