Surviving the Refuge (Survivalist Reality Show Book 2)

by Grace Hamilton

  That seemed to settle Geno’s concerns. He nodded his head and leaned back against the couch, relaxing a bit.

  “Will the rain break this godforsaken humidity?” Tabitha asked, dabbing at her neck with a wet cloth before raising her chin to let the breeze wash over the damp area.

  They were all carrying around wet cloths lately, trying to stay cool. No matter how much they sponged away the sweat, there was always more.

  “That’s the blessing of the afternoon rain,” Wolf offered with a grin. “You get hot, the rain cools you off. It’s the humidity after a real storm passes that can be the worst.”

  “And remember to drink plenty of water in this weather,” RC lectured. “When you stop sweating, that’s when you’ve got a problem.”

  “Alright, any questions about what we need to get done today?” Wolf asked. When no one responded, he gave a curt nod. “Okay then, let’s get to work and then reconvene by the picnic tables before the afternoon rain sets in. I want us to go through a quick demonstration before we rustle up lunch.”

  A collective groan had sounded at the thought of going outside, though it wasn’t a lot better in the house. In fact, Regan preferred the shade of a tree with the breeze coming off the water. It wasn’t exactly cool, but any air moving was better than nothing. Wolf had several oscillating fans going off the solar power, but they didn’t do a lot of good to combat the humidity. She longed for the days of indoor air conditioning.

  Lily walked out of the room first, heading for the open front door. Regan followed, hoping to try to talk with her. Her heart went out to the girl. Being a preteen was hard enough. Hanging out with your dad and grandpa and four complete strangers wasn’t likely at the top of any teen’s list.

  “Hey,” Regan called out. “I was wondering if you could clue in a non-native as to what I should be expecting from a hurricane.” She’d said it half-jokingly, hoping to break the ice.

  Lily froze ahead of her, and Regan thought the girl was going to blow her off until she turned her eyes to the sky and then looked back to Regan honestly, rather than with a sarcastic scowl. “They’re not always so bad,” the girl admitted. “They cool things down a lot, and most of them aren’t strong enough to do more than bring a few trees down.”

  As they passed by the corner of the house, they stopped to check the rain barrels. It was a habit Regan had gotten into at any time she left the house. Water was one of the most valuable commodities. It was up to each of them to ensure they were set up for success. Later in the season, Wolf had warned them they’d have to start storing water pretty carefully, and not rely on near daily rain showers, but for now they could be a bit more casual about expecting Mother Nature to provide this resource, at least. Still, Regan liked to be sure.

  She stopped to adjust a screen over one of the barrels that was positioned under the eaves of the roof. There was a gutter positioned directly over the center of the barrel. It acted as a siphon for the water that would hit the roof, run into the gutter, and eventually the barrel. The screen kept out the large bits of debris that fell from the trees onto the roof. It hadn’t rained the day before, but Regan knew it would today—they might as well protect against leaves now. The barrels were currently half-full and from the look of the sky, they’d be replenished yet again that afternoon.

  Another thing she couldn’t get used to—daily rain showers. Wolf had told her that, during some summers, they’d nearly been able to set the clock by them. Thankfully, they were still early enough in the summer that they got an occasional day without rain, but RC and Wolf had both warned her that that would end soon enough.

  As Lily and Regan moved away from the house, Regan looked ahead to the clearing. They walked toward the water desalinator that sat on a platform made of cement bricks. It was where the seawater was heated to create fresh drinking water for the residents as a supplement to the rain barrels, when needed.

  “Would a hurricane blow someone like me away?” Regan joked.

  Lily stopped, turned, and looked her up and down before she nodded her head. “Yes, some of them. My dad told me they can turn things like tree limbs into speeding bullets. He says they can pierce a person’s body. We haven’t had one like that when I’ve been around, but he’s seen them.”

  Regan knew she looked properly horrified, her eyes wide and her mouth twisted up in perceived pain. “Oh my God. How do you dodge that? I mean, you can’t outrun a bullet and I don’t think any of us have Keanu Reeves’ Matrix-style moves,” she commented, hoping Lily was familiar with the movie. Still, her joking hid real nerves—the girl had to be exaggerating, right?

  Lily rolled her eyes. “We have hurricane windows. If and when a hurricane kicks up, we go inside. Don’t be an idiot and try to watch the storm outside if it gets bad. There are people who actually do that,” she said, shaking her head with disgust.

  Regan nodded her head. “Gotcha. Good to know.”

  Lily stared at her as if to figure out whether or not she was serious, and then shook her head and turned away. “I need to go feed the chickens.”

  “Oh, I’ll go with you,” Regan quickly volunteered.

  The chickens were a new thing for Regan. At first, she had been terrified of the big white rooster. He looked mean, but Wolf assured her he was a gentle soul. Regan didn’t feel so sure of that as she walked into the enclosed area, spying the rooster looking at them.

  “Has he ever attacked you?” Regan asked as Lily threw some grain out to the chickens.

  Lily shrugged. “Not really, but I raised him from a baby. He likes me.”

  Point taken, Regan decided, staring at the long spurs on the rooster’s inner legs. “How many chickens do you have?” she asked.

  “Ten. They should be hatching some eggs soon,” Lily said, opening a small door on the chicken house that resembled a traditional farmhouse in miniature. “See, that chicken is sitting on eggs. It takes twenty-one days for them to hatch.”

  “Exactly twenty-one?”

  “Pretty much.”

  “And, um, do you guys eat the chickens?” Regan asked.

  “Yes, that’s why we have them. We collect eggs from a couple and then eat others; we just have to make sure we have enough hatchlings to keep things going.”

  Regan shuddered as she stared at the brown chickens currently looking back at her. She really hated the idea of looking her dinner in the eye. Something about it felt incredibly wrong.

  Lily collected the eggs, handed them to Regan, and walked out of the coop.

  “Where are you going?” Regan asked, holding the six eggs in her cupped hands.

  “Look, I’m going to go for a walk on the beach. I’d like to be alone if you don’t mind,” Lily said pointedly. “Can you take the eggs back?”

  This hadn’t exactly been the friendly conversation she’d hoped to have with Wolf’s daughter, but Regan nodded her head anyway, guessing it would have to do.

  Wolf had assured her Lily would come around. Regan wasn’t so sure. Things had been great for the first couple days after they’d showed up on the island, but they’d been in a steady decline since. Still, Regan wasn’t a glutton for punishment and wasn’t going to push the girl any more than necessary. She watched as Lily walked away. Heading back the way they’d come, she took the eggs into the house to store in the wire bowl on the kitchen counter. Having fresh eggs on hand was a huge bonus of being on this island, she had to admit.

  With her day’s chores being focused on double-checking water supplies and helping with meals, there wasn’t much for Regan to worry about immediately in terms of chores. Each of them took turns patrolling the island. Someone was almost always out and about, watching and listening for any signs the island had been breached. Regan personally loved security patrol duty. Being outside and exploring was far more exciting than sitting around or cleaning the house.

  She thought about searching out Wolf, but figured he was busy. Instead, she decided to practice fetching the coconuts. Wolf had showed her how to shim
my up a tree, and Lily had demonstrated a couple of times more. It wasn’t as easy as Lily’s lithe body made it seem and Regan knew she could use the practice.

  She walked up to a palm tree, smacked the side of the trunk with her open palm, and stared up at it. She could see a couple coconuts hanging high above. She could do it, she assured herself. Regan stepped into the foot strap made from burlap and wrapped her hands around the base of the tree a little above her head before making the first hop onto the trunk of the tree. She wasn’t quite so good she could do it barefoot and wasn’t ready to try.

  Remembering the way, she’d watched Lily and Wolf climb palms, she shimmied up a few feet, not letting herself look up or down to gauge her progress—not yet.

  “Hey!” Wolf called out from below.

  Regan felt her hands slipping at the moment she lost her concentration and looked down. “Crap!” she muttered before dropping to the ground. “Look what you made me do!” she grumbled.

  He laughed and moved toward her. “You’ve really gotten the hang of it. Want to demonstrate it to the rest of the group?”

  “Demonstrate? Seriously? I was only like five feet up! I looked like an idiot trying to climb that thing. I think you or Lily would be a better choice.”

  Wolf shook his head and gave her a quick kiss, grasping her by the elbows as if to press home his point. “You’ll do great. Plus, it’s better you show the newcomers—to prove it can be done even if you haven’t been doing it all your life.”

  Regan chuckled, leaning into him teasingly. “So, you’re saying you can teach an old dog new tricks?” she asked, her hand perched on one slim hip.

  He leaned down and kissed her on the lips again, for longer than before. “Yes. And now that you’ve practiced this, you want to help me out and learn another one? I was going to set up another desalinating tank. It’s one we’ve had stashed away in case the one we’re using is damaged. With extra people on the island, we’re going to need the extra fresh water—maybe not now with all the rains, but it’s never too early to start storing it for later. You can help me and learn how it works.”

  Regan gave a rueful look up to the palm and shrugged. “May as well. You never know, I may decide to move to my own island.”

  He laughed. “And live in a hut?”

  “Maybe.”

  “A hut will blow away with the first brush of a tropical storm.”

  “Buzz-kill,” she shot back, following him up the trail that led to the house along with its two nearby sheds.

  He opened the door to the first eight-by-eight shed, grabbing a flashlight off a shelf and turning it on to illuminate the small space.

  “I’ll carry the still if you can grab that copper tubing,” he instructed, shining the light on the tubing.

  Regan collected the tubing and grabbed the bucket Wolf pointed out as they left the shed. Once they were back in sight of the other desalination unit, which was in direct sunlight, Wolf got busy. There was a small open area under the unit, much like a brick oven. While Wolf worked on the tubing, Regan collected small sticks from the oak tree near the shed and palm branches to burn under the large vessel. The heat from the fire would speed up the desalination process.

  “What’s the copper for?” she asked.

  “As the water heats in the metal still, it evaporates into condensation. The condensation is going to collect inside that tube and flow into the bucket. There are a lot of different ways to do this, but I wanted something that could keep a steady flow of fresh water coming. If it gets to be chilly or we get a storm to stop the process, we’ll use the generator to heat water and remove salt.”

  She nodded in acknowledgement that she understood the process now. “We haven’t used the generator yet, so I’m guessing you’re saving it for an emergency.”

  “Yes. We have the solar power for now. I have about two hundred gallons of propane, but I want to conserve as much as possible in case there’s a severe storm and we don’t get solar energy for a few days. I also have no idea how long we’re going to need to live out here, and want to conserve where we can.”

  She shook her head, watching as he hooked up the tubing to the lid that would go on top of the stainless-steel container and be sealed. “Is there anything you haven’t thought of?” she asked.

  He smirked. “Plenty. I just hope we never need it.”

  “I can’t imagine what you overlooked. Other people are surviving out there, I know, but I bet they don’t have half of what you do.”

  He shrugged a shoulder as he worked. “I sincerely hope they do. I don’t want to imagine the devastation beyond the shores of this island—we saw enough of it getting here, but I hate to think of how widespread it might be.”

  She let out a long sigh. “Ditto.”

  Wolf rose from what he’d been doing and inspected his work—from what Regan could tell, the set-up was ready to go.

  “Good to go?” she asked.

  He checked one last time to make sure all of the fittings were tight, then nodded and dusted his hands off. “Yeah, and I’ll come back to check it later. You keeping track of time?” he teased.

  She pursed her lips in mock annoyance. “Time for that meeting?”

  “Time for that meeting,” he affirmed. “And we can have lunch afterward—it looks like the rain will hold off that long.”

  Regan followed behind him, sticking to the skinny trail through the trees. Wolf had long ago explained that the trees provided privacy as well as a windbreak. The coconuts in the trees were also a source of food and nutrition. So, as annoying as it might seem to have tight, winding paths, it made sense to clear out as few of the trees as possible.

  Regan and Wolf walked into a small clearing where everyone else had already gathered. Initially, the plan had been for Lily to do the demonstration, but Wolf had decided it was better for Regan to show the others. Personally, Regan felt like she was stepping on Lily’s toes and had expressed the sentiment to Wolf as they’d walked over, but he’d assured her Lily wouldn’t mind.

  “Alright, everyone. Regan is going to give you this demonstration. She’s practically mastered the art of climbing the palm tree and plucking coconuts.”

  Tabitha giggled. “This, I have to see.” She took a seat on one of the cypress tree stumps that had been left behind after the island had been cleared to make room for the house. Geno moved to stand behind her, his hands on her shoulders.

  Fred stood nearby, legs apart and arms folded across his chest. He was staring at the tree like it was his worst enemy. Seeing him, Regan mused that he could stand on his tiptoes and knock a coconut down if he really wanted to. He didn’t even need to climb the tree. Rounding out Regan’s audience, Lily and RC stood back with bored looks on their faces.

  “Alright, show them what you’ve got!” Wolf instructed.

  Regan wiped her hands on her pants and took a deep breath. Grabbing the burlap she was using as a foot strap, she stepped into it before jumping up and grabbing the trunk of the tree, using her legs to push up while her arms pulled her body weight. Focused with adrenaline, she managed to move faster than she had before and felt like she reached the top in no time at all.

  “Look out below!” she called out before batting at a coconut and knocking it to the ground. She reached out as far as she could to twist at another one then, letting it drop to the ground next. With the easy pickings gone, she reached up to shake at another bushel so that a whole flurry of the coconuts fell after that, and she ducked close back in to the palm’s trunk in order to avoid getting hit.

  “Good job!” Wolf called from below. “You can come down now.”

  Regan shimmied down the tree and high-fived Wolf before hip-checking the tree, feeling rather proud of herself.

  “Watch out!” Wolf called out, slamming into her and pushing her out from underneath a last falling coconut.

  The hard fruit hit the ground at the same time Regan’s butt connected with a series of roots and rocks in the sand.

  “Ow,�
� she moaned. “Not so hard.”

  Wolf reached out a hand, helping her stand up. “I told you not to stand under the area you were shaking after you get down. Climbing up and down a tree is enough to loosen coconuts by itself—you’ve gotta remember that. If one of those coconuts hits you, you’re going to get knocked out.”

  Lily snickered.

  “Are you okay?” Tabitha asked from the side, giving the teen an annoyed glance.

  “Yeah, just a bruised butt.”

  Tabitha laughed. “That’s what you get for showing off.”

  “I don’t think I’m going to be climbing any of those trees,” Geno grumbled.

  “If I can do it, you can do it,” Wolf commented.

  Regan wiped off her butt, wincing at the tenderness. But before she knew what Wolf was up to, he’d reached out and snaked an arm around her waist, pulling her close against him.

  She immediately pulled back, not used to the public display of affection. Wolf didn’t seem to notice her discomfort, though, and he leaned down to kiss her on the lips. Regan let him, but pulled back when she heard a snort and a few sharp intakes of breath. They had a rapt audience, and judging by the sounds she’d heard in response to the kiss, folks hadn’t been thrilled with what they’d just seen.

  Oh crap.

  Regan averted her eyes from the group, pretending to look into the trees after some sound rather than face her friends—or Wolf’s daughter and father. Wolf had just kissed her in front of everyone as if it weren’t a big deal. Until now, they had been doing a pretty good job of keeping their relationship quiet. They hadn’t necessarily been hiding it, but they hadn’t been flaunting it, either. That only made sense as far as Regan was concerned. It was in the early stages and Regan was still getting used to the idea of having a boyfriend. She’d never been the type to shout her relationship status from the rooftops or update Facebook each time she started something new, and having so little privacy in this new life hadn’t changed that one bit.