by M H Ryan
Aubrey came running to us with a spear in hand, looking scared and angry. When she spotted us, she stopped an expression of relief washing over her face. “You guys made it. The way freaking Eliza was talking…we thought it was all over for you guys. I’m going to kick her ass for scaring me like that.”
“Sorry,” Eliza said, standing behind Aubrey and looking at us with unblinking wonder. “I didn’t expect…what I mean is, I had a bad feeling about this outcome.”
“Sweetie, that just shows that even your hooker’s intuition isn’t infallible,” Sherri said. “How’s Cass?”
“You guys have got to see this,” Kara said.
We followed her back to our camp, and I stopped cold at the sight of the platform we had constructed. A rock had crashed right through the platform. The logs were sticking up and the branches were scattered around it in broken pieces.
Cass, thankfully near the edge of the platform, looked unharmed and asleep.
“We almost lost her,” Kara said, holding her hand over mouth as she looked at the wrecked platform.
The black rock sitting at the bottom of the splintered wood steamed as it sat halfway buried in the sand.
“Eliza saved her,” Aubrey said. “She pulled Cass over a few seconds before that explosion.”
“It just seemed like she’d be better on this side,” Eliza said softly as she seemed to take an interest in the sand near her feet.
“You women…” I said, almost getting choked up but and then recovered. “You women are truly the best women I’ve ever known. You continue to put your lives on the line to save those around you. Eliza, I am sure you knew that there was also a chance you could have been hit by that rock.”
“There was a fifty-fifty chance,” Eliza said, now taking an interest in her hands, not looking up. “At least, that’s what I was feeling at the time.”
Aubrey went and put an arm around Eliza, squeezing her small body against hers.
“And to think I didn’t like you at first,” Aubrey said.
“You didn’t like me?” Eliza asked, looking up at Aubrey.
“Oh, that’s right, you’ve never been around other women besides your mom,” Aubrey said with wide eyes. “Let’s just say that Jack is right. These are some of the finest bitches in the world. Back on the mainland, there are some downright wrecked skank bags that wouldn’t offer you anything more than vapid comments and shit-talking. What we have here is special. I’m sorry I didn’t think you were going to be part of that at first.”
Eliza blinked, and I wasn’t sure she understood the brown-haired beauty.
“She means we’re chill, and we like you,” Benji said.
“And most other bitches out there aren’t,” Sherri said.
“You poor girl,” Kara said. “When we get rescued, your only comparison for men is going to be Jack and us girls. You’re going to be in for a huge disappointment in the human race.”
Eliza’s gaze swept over us and stopped on me. She once again seemed to undress me with those eyes, a look that seemed to amuse Sherri and made Benji look away.
“If you are the only people I find in my life, I will be happy. I can barely keep up with this many,” Eliza said, keeping her eyes on me. “I’ve never experienced the feelings I have. This is all so new to me. It’s overwhelming at times, but I can’t have wished for anything more in my life than what I have right here and now with you all.”
“Ah,” Aubrey said, squeezing Eliza again.
“And we’re lucky to have you, Eliza,” I said.
“You guys really like me?”
“Yeah, I like you, Eliza. I could put on conditions like you are incredible for what you’ve been through or what an amazing woman you turned out to be, living on an island by yourself, but that’s bullshit. We like you for who you are right now, and that’s a smart, beautiful soul that cares for the people around her even at the expense of herself,” I said.
She looked away, turning a shade of red.
“There’s things that you make me feel, Jack, when you talk to me,” Eliza said. “I’m not sure if this is normal…but it’s nice.”
“I have a feeling we need to have another talk, Eliza,” Aubrey said.
“What talk?” Eliza asked.
I cleared my throat and noticed Cass looking pale and sweating from her face, with more beads of sweat on her chest. I let go of the girls and walked to Cass, kneeling next to her as Kara did.
“She’s not looking good,” Kara said.
I touched her head and pulled my hand back.
“She’s warm,” I said, feeling the sweat on my hand.
“Get her away from that rock,” Aubrey said.
“It’s not the rock. She has a fever. It might be a reaction to the poison leaving her body. Like a junky going into withdrawals.”
“So she can ride it out?” Benji asked.
“Withdrawals can kill you. I think this is the early signs, but we need our first aid kit. It has ibuprofen in it,” I said, looking at our raft.
“Fucking tentacle monster took it,” Aubrey said, pacing behind us.
“Shit,” I said, and felt Cass’s hand.
It was just as hot as her head and sweaty. She had to be pushing a temperature of at least 101. She wasn’t in any danger at that temperature, but I suspected it was going to get worse before it got better.
“She’s going to okay, right?” Kara asked, looking at me with a panic building in her.
“I don’t know, but we need to get something soon to get this fever down,” I said. “Do you guys know anything…maybe something natural that can take a fever down?”
Kara shook her head and looked to the others.
“I don’t know,” Aubrey said. “We studied some origins of medicine from plants, but I don’t remember them talking about a fever reducer.”
“Think guys,” I said, trying to remember anything from my life that might help.
Back in the States, something that was so readily available, cheap, and effective, didn’t really have much need for a natural remedy. I thought of the various trees and plants used to make recreational drugs, but I came up blank for anything that would help Cass.
A fever that got too hot for too long could do all kinds of bad things to her as her body struggled to survive. If we had a freezer, we could get her in ice, but no such things existed out here, and this island was warmer than most. Especially now, with the warm fog flowing through the island.
I hadn’t even thought much about the platform we had to rebuild. The rock had destroyed it, but that seemed unimportant compared to helping this woman laying on what was left of it.
“Holy shit,” Sherri said with her hand on her forehead and looking surprised. “My dad told me this on that camping trip. I had this headache, or at least I told him I did, but I mostly just wanted to go home. But he cut the bark off this tree and made me a tea with it. It didn’t taste great, but the headache I had, went away.”
“What tree?” Aubrey said.
“A willow tree,” Sherri said.
Aubrey lit up and said, “There’s some willow trees on Food Island. I remember seeing one near the lagoon. I thought it was so strange that it was there.”
“Holy shit,” Sherri said again. “You think it’ll work?”
“It has to,” Aubrey said, glancing at Cass and then to me.
“Okay, then, let’s get the raft in the water,” I said.
Chapter 22
The heat from the latest eruption had sent a fog blanket over the island, so thick that we couldn’t see more than twenty feet around us. As we got onto the beach, I could see the fog around the island also rose high into the sky, well beyond the trees, and made the island seem as if it was sitting high up in some cloud.
“We all can’t go,” I said, as we pushed the raft into the shallow water. “We can’t take Cass, and some of us will have to stay here in case boars or something else comes here.”
We removed all the wood and aluminum from the craft and kept on
ly a couple day’s supply of water. The rest of the supplies would stay on the home island.
“Well, I need to go to make sure you know what tree to even get,” Aubrey said.
“Yes, I agree, and Benji, if you’re up to it, I could use your bow for those birds,” I said.
“You have my bow,” Benji said, and bowed.
“You’re so fucking weird, Benji,” Aubrey said with a smile.
“Weird and proud,” Benji said.
“Then the rest of you stay here and see if you keep her cool,” I said and then jumped onto the raft. “And if she wakes, see if you can get some water in her. Just keep it slow, not too much too quick.”
“Okay,” Kara said, not looking that happy about it. “Just keep safe, guys. Keep him safe as well, ladies. Sort of a unique asset out here.”
“Oh, I know about his assets,” Aubrey said, grabbing my ass and laughing.
“Hey,” I said and slapped Aubrey on the ass.
“Oh my God, you just spanked me,” Aubrey said.
“Keep acting up and I’ll do it again,” I said.
“Is that a promise? Kind of hot,” Aubrey said.
“Now I want to go,” Sherri said, pouting on the shoreline.
“We’ll be right back,” I said.
“You’re lucky I love Cass. Otherwise, I’d be fighting to be on that raft right now,” Sherri said.
“I’d kick your ass anyway,” Aubrey said playfully.
Sherri pushed at the back of the raft, sending us into the shallow waves.
“Be safe and come back,” Sherri said.
We paddled into the tame waves.
Eliza watched us as we left the shoreline and went over the first few waves. She looked concerned, and I wondered if it was her intuition or if she was just concerned for us. She probably felt both. She waved, and I waved back.
After a few minutes, we were on the open ocean. Leaving the girls back on the island wasn’t something that was easy for me, but we had to get used to the idea of splitting up as we found more survivors. Plus, moving Cass around didn’t make sense. Still, I didn’t like leaving them, and I was already missing them.
“Like old times, eh?” Aubrey said. “Just the three of us.”
“Yeah, it was just us three for what, like one hour?” Benji said, reflecting on the brief stint we had as a trio.
In a way, it felt like a homecoming. Benji and Aubrey had approached me on the party cruise with a sultry walk and hunter eyes. They were drunk at the time and probably just wanted a little fun with the deck boy. We had kissed, and I realized that I hadn’t really kissed Benji since then. We had shared a peck in Eliza’s cabin, but nothing like that first kiss on the deck of the boat. This felt like a grievous error that needed correcting soon.
Aubrey and I had taken things to another level, and then some with Sherri, but Benji had been more reluctant since arriving on these islands. On the ship, I had been attracted to Benji right away, with a strong physical connection. Even in a sea of beauty, she was still one of the most stunning women I’d ever seen. That body of hers. The hair. The comical bathing suit that covered a few things. Yet those few mysteries left made it seem as if she had on a snuggie.
That was then. Now, I had a different attraction to her. She was still all the other things, but those were beneath the person I knew her as now. She was braver than I could ever be. She saw the world in the most beautiful way, with humor and kindness. She recited movies and TV shows that I loved as well. Usually, that’d become annoying after a while, but with her, it just fit her. We shared the same taste in pop culture. I enjoyed and understood most of what she quoted.
Even now, as we make a medicine run across the ocean, she still took my breath away.
She glanced back at me, and I smiled.
“What?” she asked.
“Nothing,” I said and looked ahead at Food Island.
“Just keep an eye out for anything with tentacles,” Benji said, tapping her temple.
I nodded but I didn’t feel anything in the ocean but the static. Not that it was a guarantee. I had missed that tentacle monster. Another could be on us at any second. For now, though, I enjoyed the sweet static. Oh and the watchers. It felt like bitter flakes over ice cream but there they were. I didn’t get the sense that they would hurt the girls on the island, but I didn’t like it, all the same. Eventually, I’d have to deal with them, whatever they were. That much I knew. That was what Danforth knew as well.
“You feel anything?” Benji asked.
“Nothing dangerous,” I said.
“Good,” Aubrey said. “That will be a freaking first.”
I did wonder where the sharks were. We hadn’t seen one since leaving Eliza’s island. It was as if something was keeping them back from us. Even the tar remnants on the raft only prevented them from ramming our raft, for the most part. They still swam around us. The other thought was they were scared of something. I wasn’t sure how to feel about that. It was one thing to have sharks to deal with, but it was a whole different thing to have what sharks feared in the water. I would keep my mind open and hope nothing from below would come up to get us.
The large raft cut through the water with ease, and the breeze blew across the sail, allowing us to just watch the seas as we traveled. I began to think of the new materials we now had and what would be the best uses for them.
The wood panels would obviously go onto the new shelter we’d be building but I thought about the aluminum panels we’d pulled off the plane. There wasn’t enough to sheet a whole roof but perhaps we could use some of them for that, or even to waterproof a wall. One panel would probably be an excellent surface to cook on. I wondered if we could shape one into a pot. That would allow us to make soups and boil water.
“Eliza wants to see you naked,” Aubrey said.
I coughed and choked on my spit. “What?”
“We haven’t really told her about the details of… you know,” Aubrey said and then poked her finger through a hole she made with her other hand.
“Oh my God, Aubrey,” Benji said, covering her mouth.
“Oh please, like you don’t want to as well,” Aubrey said.
Benji glanced at me and then turned away.
“She seems a little naïve about things in that department,” I said. “I’m not sure it would be appropriate for me to be the one to show her things.”
“What?” Aubrey said, appearing shocked. “She’s full woman, trust me. She’s also nineteen, like two years younger than you. And she’s hot as hell. She’s like a small, female Tarzan out here. All feral and shit. You don’t like her in that way?”
“It’s not that I’m not attracted to her,” I said and tried to think about what it was about Eliza that was making me hesitant.
Aubrey was right. She was this hot little thing that truly amazed me becoming the woman she was when she had been by herself for so long. If I had been on these islands alone for that long, I would have swum into the ocean like Danforth in an attempt to escape. In the late of the night, sitting in her cabin, looking at the world she created around herself, I think I felt sorry for her, and I hated that.
The mannequins she made of her parents and all the protective stones and wood she gave names to seemed like a healthy way to deal with the crippling aloneness she must have felt every day. I came up with a theory about how she made it with her mental state still intact, and I thought it was due to her power. She probably knew, deep down, that we’d be here one day, and if she just lived long enough and did the right things to stay alive, she’d find us. It was a little grandiose, thinking me and the girls were her reason to live, but if I looked into that bag, I wouldn’t be surprised to find thirteen tokens inside. One for me, and then one for the twelve women that came from that ship.
“She is cute. I want to get my hands on that hair, though. It needs some help,” Benji said. “Poor thing. I can’t even imagine what she’s been through out here, alone. I mean, at thirteen, I was hating on my mo
m for not letting me get more money on my Xbox account.”
“I was doing pageants between track meets,” Aubrey said.
“You did pageants?” Benji asked.
“My mom was super pageant freak. She put me in track just so to make sure I had this banging body.”
“Sounds like I should thank your mom someday,” I said.
“Yeah, well, the pageant thing didn’t exactly work out for me when I kneed a judge in the balls for getting handsy,” Aubrey said.
“No?” Benji said, looking shocked.
“Yeah, some guy in a Member’s Only jacket creeping in the back went to ‘help’ me with my outfit. His hands went places, and then my hands went places, and then my knee as well. Floored the fucker.”
“Good for you.” Benji said.
While this happened many years ago, I felt my blood boiling, and my hands closing in fists. I wanted to find this man and hurt him for hurting my girl. I would start with breaking those grabbing hands of his.
“Yeah, well, I got in trouble for that. Bullshit. After that, I wasn’t really down for the pageants anymore and dedicated myself a hundred percent to track just so I’d have an excuse to get away from my mom,” Aubrey said.
“You’ve never told me any of this,” Benji said.
“I’m sorry that happened to you, Aubrey. If we get rescued, I will hurt the man that hurt you.”
“Okay, deal,” Aubrey said, shaking her head and smiling. “What are you going to do about Eliza though, for real? Even if we are alone for a few minutes with her, she asks a lot of questions about men and you and what it looks like and why is she feeling this way when she looks at you and on and on.”
“You know you don’t have to tell me everything,” I said. “But Eliza is a special woman, and I will treat her as such.”
“Just play doctor with her, Jack,” Aubrey said. “Let her see it.”
“Jesus, Aubrey,” Benji said.
“Bitch, please,” Aubrey said. “I’m not sure who’s thirstier, you or Eliza.”
“I haven’t seen this in Eliza,” I said. “She seems more confused and excited about everything than wanting to see me naked.”
