Marco: We're the five little monkeys. Well, six. Three of us already fell off the bed. Now there are only three of us left. Monkey Cassie. Monkey Tobias. And Monkey Marco. [gives a few halfhearted oooh-oooh-ooohs, scratches himself under the arms]
Cassie: You're scared, aren't you?
Marco: Yeah, I'm scared. Of course I'm scared. Ax could die. And we're getting ready to go into the Yeerk pool with half our usual fighting force. Half! That is unless another one of us keels over in the next couple hours. Which could happen.
—Animorphs #29: The Sickness
"Last week we were five. This morning, three. And now we are two."
— Pella, Blake's 7, "Power"
Soon I will be drawing far less characters in these scenes, I assure you.
Charon: Thou man-makked, ey? Wellwise. (You killed the human too? Nicely done.)
Cio: Ah! Nay!
Oscar: Keh! Then only three had to die to get in here. Well done, Yab.
Cio: Ah! Nay!
Oscar: Keh! Then only three had to die to get in here. Well done, Yab.
— Kill Six Billion Demons, right around the middle of The Heist.
"What's wrong everyone? Now this is just a quartet... trio... duet.... solo... Ah, but why? Leaving the accompaniment all alone..."
— Brook, One Piece
Dutch: He came to get the body. He's killing us one at a time.
Billy: Like a hunter.
Billy: Like a hunter.
Dorothy Gale... you're all that's left!
—The Nome King, Return to Oz
One by one the file downloads had stopped. One had signaled that it would try to decoy SecUnit attention away from the others, and three acknowledged. One had heard screams from the control center and diverted there to try to save the humans trapped inside, and two acknowledged. One had stayed at the entrance to a corridor to try to buy time to reach SecSystem, and one acknowledged. One reported reaching SecSystem, then nothing.
"We're not even the Seven anymore, we're down to five. We're dropping like fucking flies."
— Homelander, The Boys (2019)
Goh Hanma: Can't you believe it? Half of us are gone, just like that...
Monokuma: And sooner or later, it'll be less than half of you!
Monokuma: And sooner or later, it'll be less than half of you!
