What if Ray accepted the trip offer

That did just make me think of something else though.

Obviously they wanted Ray there.

And if Ray had gotten there in time to join the others, Will still would've had another way there. But they wanted Will with the group presumably to make it easier to track their movements as well as toy with Julie's emotions more first.

However. After running Ray off the road, it would've been smarter for Ben to take Ray with him if they wanted him there. Because I'm guessing Ben got there by boat. And he had the time, since it's stated that Ray was found alone. It would've ensured Ray's presence, and they would've had him as prisoner. Sure, Ray got there, and had the will to do so, but it was dumb of them to rely on that, a number of things could've gone wrong with Ray getting himself there. And it would've deprived him of medical care. Really the only benefit to the way they did it was Ray tiring himself out en route, but that clearly did no good.

So your telling me that after the events of the first film neither had a gun on them? It is just a film, it would have made sense for either of them to have one. The scene on the plane would have been awkward what with customs and all but even that could have been explained, just go by boat. Also Ben manages to kill with a hook on his hand, a bit of brute force could have got the job done a gun is just quicker, Julie had an axe at one point, look at Jamie Leigh at the end of Halloween: H20 a axe got the job done.