“Asshole. Fine, whatever. Go running around alone. I won’t be there to save you this time.”
I could tell that cut him deep. He narrowed his eyes and winced then glared at me like he wanted to punch me in the face.
“I’m not alone,” he replied. “Reggie is coming. So is Sherri and McKinsey.”
I started to laugh. “So that makes it a good idea?”
“Fuck you!” he shouted and stormed out.
Clenching my fists, I stared after him. He was such a stubborn asshole, only concerned about himself. We were all going through something, but Trevor had to make everything about him.
“Well that was awkward,” Chase mumbled.
I glanced at him sideways. “Don’t you guys have a hunt or some shit to go on?”
“Aye, aye captain,” he replied and gave me a sarcastic salute.
I filled the rest of my day with random jobs around camp. We’d worked out a pretty good system that kept everyone busy. It was simple, but efficient. We took turns either hunting or doing everything else and since Chase and his gang were chasing pigs and Reggie and Sherry bailed on Amber, me her and Chloe spent half the day gathering water and fire wood.
“Do you think we’ll ever go home?” Chloe asked in a voice that reminded me how young she was.
I paused to answer and Amber jumped in.
“Of course we will. I’m sure someone is out there right now looking for us.”
“You think?”
“Sure. But it’s a big ocean. I remember reading about a guy that was lost at sea on a raft for 52 days. They found him, they’ll find us.”
“How long have we been missing?” Chloe asked.
I shrugged and looked at Amber. She laughed and shrugged back at me.
“I don’t know,” we said in unison.
“After we drop the wood off do you guys wanna see if we can catch some fish? I don’t know about you, but pig is getting really old.”
“I wish I knew more about plants and stuff,” I started. “All those berries back in the trees, but they’d probably kill us.”
“I wanna go fishing,” Chloe blurted out.
“Yeah? Then let’s go fishing,” I replied. “How are we going fishing Amber?”
She started to laugh. “Gonna use some of those spears Keyon made for their pig hunt.”
“Spears huh? So, we’re officially like island people.”
Amber giggled then started down the trail toward the cave. We stacked the firewood near a wall then grabbed a few spears and headed back out.
It didn’t take us long to make it down to the water. The sun was blazing like someone was holding a magnifying glass over us and the only reprieve was the breeze that seemed to grow a little stronger every day.
A flock of seagulls cawed above us and for a moment I forgot how terrible my life was. I looked at Chloe as she splashed in the surf, chasing the schools of minnows. I watched Amber stalk into the shallows with her spear held high. Life wasn’t so bad.
But then reality dawned. My parents were gone. I was stranded in the middle of nowhere, eating feral pigs and whatever edible creature we could pull up from the sea. And my brother had run off into the jungle like an idiot.
“Hey!” Amber called. “You gonna help out or what?”
Shaking my head, I focused my eyes and smiled. “Yeah…show me how it’s done.”
For the next couple of hours, we tried our best to spear a fish. We ran around the water stabbing hopelessly as silver and gray streaks darted by just out of our reach. It was tiring, but fun and helped keep my mind off things.
It felt normal, like the most tourist thing you could try at a tropical resort. But we weren’t tourist and we definitely weren’t on a resort. It was life and death for us and at least the island was crawling with pigs because we were terrible at fishing.
“You’re supposed to be teaching us,” I said to Amber as she stabbed the twisted stick into the sand.
“No,” she laughed. “No, we’re learning together.”
I kicked my foot and splashed water on her. Globs of the sea rolled down her head, spiraling into her crimson hair before dripping down her shoulders. Giggling she dove at me and we both fell into the waves.
I sat up in the surf and she straddled my legs then and kissed me and wrapped her arms around my neck. “Do you think it’ll be like this when we get home?” she asked with a thoughtful look.
“Like what?”
“Us…I like this. I like being with you.”
“I like being with you too,” I replied and tried to hide the fact that I was blushing.
“It’s crazy,” she said and cast a smile that spread across her face. “It’s like…I feel like I’ve known you forever. You make being here feel like it’s on purpose. I just don’t want this to change.”
“It won’t,” I said reassuringly and kissed her again.
“I just want you to know…I, I—”
“Guys! I caught one! I caught one!” Chloe suddenly screamed.
Smiling, we jumped up and rushed toward her. She was further out, in waist deep water, jumping up and down with her spear stabbed into the sea.
“Look, look!” she pointed as we got closer.
Her spear had gone through the tail of a massive silver and blue fish that seemed to change colors when the sun hit it. The fish was wiggling around trying to free itself as a cloud of its blood floated into the water.
“Holy shit Chloe! You’re my hero,” I said and hugged her with one arm.
“It was just swimming around like it didn’t even see me and then bam! I got him. Now what?”
Amber shrugged her shoulders. “You have to like, grab it Daniel, so it doesn’t fall of the stick. And hurry up…that’s a lot of blood.”
“Okay. Chloe, you ready?”
“Yeah.”
I nodded then dove under the water and tried to grab the massive fish as it twisted and flopped around. It was slimy, and the water didn’t help, but eventually I managed to get a good grip on it and picked it up.
“Oh my God!” Chloe shouted. “It’s huge!”
“Hurry up and get this thing back to the beach before I drop it.”
Chloe held the stick up while I wrestled to keep the fish in my clutches. It’s was strong and trying to fight the waves and walk at the same time was getting tricky. As we closed in on the shore the fish must’ve senses the peril because he suddenly started to thrash more violently than ever.
“Hold still,” Chloe snapped.
“It’s not me. This damn fish is going crazy.”
Chloe shrieked then the spear fell from her hands just as the fish twisted and snapped away. He went flying into the air, freeing himself from the spear as he splashed down into the water.
“No!” Chloe shouted.
But it was too late. The fish shot off into the water, leaving a trail of blood in its wake. I frowned and looked back at Chloe, expecting her to start crying at any moment. She stared after the fish for a moment then turned back and glared at me. Her face slowly morphed into a smile then burst into laughter.
“You’re such a sissy Daniel.”
“Sorry,” I laughed.
“Well at least I caught one. Next time let’s try and get it back home.”
“Yeah…my bad. You wanna try again.”
Chloe gasped. “God no. That took forever. I’m ready to go.”
“Me too,” Amber added.
Still laughing, we gathered our things and began the hike back up the hill. At this point we’d walked the trail so many times it seemed like a quick jaunt around the corner. I was on autopilot as my feet trudged down the familiar steps.
“You think they caught anything today?” Amber asked as I held out my hand and helped her up the steep part of the trail.
“I hope so,” Chloe said from behind me. “I’m starving.”
“Me too,” I replied. “I’d kill for a slice of pizza though.”
Amber cooed. “Or a cheeseburger.”
>
I took a deep breath and I could almost smell pepperoni’s sizzling in an oven. My stomach grumbled loudly, and I winced as it twisted and tightened.
“Change the subject,” I groaned.
Chloe laughed as we reached the top of the plateau. I leaned over and placed my hands on my knees to catch my breath. Suddenly, Reggie came speeding toward us from back in the trees. His face was awash with fear and his clothes were drenched in sweat and dirt.
“Help! Somebody help me!” he screamed as he flailed his arms in the air.
CHAPTER 17
ROCK BOTTOM
We rushed up the hill, into the depths of the jungle where we’d never ventured before. Raspy tree branches and thick vines cluttered the trees and I pushed thoughts of Conner out of my mind as I ripped through empty spider webs.
Reggie ran in front of us, his frantic yelps were a tracking beacon when we lost sight. My heart thundered in my chest with panic. A million possibilities raced through my head, each one worse than the last. Reggie was vague. He had trouble speaking as he hyperventilated and stumbled over his words. The best I could make out was someone was in trouble. It was life or death and Trevor was involved. That was enough to send my mind spiraling down a dark hole, as the fear of losing another family member drenched me like a bucket of ice water.
“Faster!” Reggie shouted.
Up ahead, the trees started to thin, and the ground leveled out. Reggie came to a stop in the clearing then turned back and glared at us before pointing to a cliff that jutted out like a broken finger.
I took a deep breath as fear stabbed into my heart. “Trevor!” I shouted with a shaky voice. “Trevor, where are you?”
“Down here,” he replied.
I ran to the edge of the cliff and looked down. It dropped off at least a hundred feet into the sea, where gnarled rocks littered the waves as they rushed into a wide cove. Walls of solid blue played a dangerous dance, swirling into a frothy white cyclone, barreling through the scattered cobblestone and crawling up the sheer face of the cliff before retreating to the open water.
A few feet below where I stood, there was a rounded ledge that jutted out ten feet from the wall like a shelf. A few sparse trees grew in the corner. Their thin branches bore clusters of small green fruit at the end. Below that there was another ledge that poked out a little further and beneath that there was nothing, but a painful fate full of shards of fractured stones that looked like dragon’s teeth.
Trevor was on the first ledge laying flat on his stomach. His arms were stretched below him like he was reaching for something. Sherry was next to him screaming hysterically as she peered over the edge.
“It’s McKinsey,” Reggie managed to stutter.
“Trevor!” I yelled down.
He turned his head and looked up. “She…she fell. I need rope, I need…I need something.”
“Help her! Fucking help her!” Reggie cried out.
McKinsey was hanging from the bottom ledge by her fingers. Trevor was reaching his hand out, but he was too far away and from the looks of her trembling arms, McKinsey wouldn’t be able to hold on much longer.
The waves below pulsed in a greedy drone, growling as the bight stretched open it’s jaws. The water licked the rocks, climbing closer and closer. Chloe and Amber screeched and stopped beside me. Their eyes gazed over the ledge, drenched in disbelief.
Suddenly, McKinsey yelled in a voice that sent a surge of scorching, ice through my arms and down to my feet. Chloe covered her mouth and grabbed my wrist so tightly, the blood stopped flowing to my fingers.
“Hurry!” Trevor yelled.
My mind was flipping through thoughts like a hi-speed camera. I looked around for something, anything, but panic rooted me to the ground like an oak tree.
“Daniel!” Trevor screamed again, but it wasn’t an order, he was pleading.
“The vines,” I mumbled then wheeled around and tore off down the incline.
“Where are you going?” Amber asked.
I didn’t respond. I sped back toward the jungle, praying that I wouldn’t be too late. Ripping through the trees, I located a patch of twisted vines and grabbed them. They were thick green strings, twined around one another like braids. They hadn’t grown enough to turn into the tree-like bark I knew from back home, but they were dense enough to hold a person’s weight I hoped.
I yanked them down from the branches then pulled until several of them snapped loose and fell into my arms. Quickly bundling them together, I hurried back to the ledge. My heart tried to beat its way out of my chest with every step.
I stopped at the edge and looked over. “Sherry give me your hand,” I called out.
In a trance, she reached out and grabbed my arm. I pulled her up then slowly inched my way down next to Trevor. Unraveling the vines, I took several strands and entangled them even more, then wrapped one end around my waist into a knot.
“Help!” McKinsey roared with fear.
“Just hang on,” I called back to her.
With the other end of the vines, I lowered the makeshift rope down to the ledge below. The bundle of vines fell beside her and swung back and forth.
“Grab it!” I shouted. “Grab it and I’ll pull you up.”
Trevor scampered to his feet and stood next to me with a blank face. His chest was pounding and sweat was spilling down his forehead in heavy beads.
“Is that gonna hold?” he mumbled.
“You got a better idea? What the fuck we’re you doing?”
He didn’t respond and stared down to McKinsey as she let out another shriek.
“Just grab the rope,” I told her.
“I can’t…it’s too far.”
I stepped to the side and tried to swing the rope closer, but it snagged onto the jagged ledge. I didn’t want to risk cutting it, so I knelt and tried to gently maneuver it around.
“I’m slipping!” McKinsey screamed.
The rope came free and I swung it toward her again. “Grab it now!”
It drifted past her then swung back again and she shot her arm out and latched onto it. Her sudden weight against the vines pulled me forward and I nearly fell from the ledge myself. Trevor grabbed me and we both stumbled to the ground.
“Come on,” he said as he stood back up and helped me to my feet. “Hang on McKinsey. We’re gonna pull you up.”
Working hand over hand, Trevor helped me reel the rope in as McKinsey dangled below. It was tiring work, but she was slowly getting closer and closer. I could hear Amber above me shouting words of encouragement while Reggie yelped with panic.
“A little more,” Trevor said.
“Hurry…please hurry,” McKinsey squealed.
I could feel her starting to move around as the rope pulled tighter against my waist. It started to sway from side to side, rubbing against the rock.
“Stop moving!” I shouted, but her frantic cries drowned out my voice.
My feet started to slide across the pebble-covered surface. Her momentum was dragging me forward and if she didn’t stop, we’d both fall to our death in the rocks below.
Suddenly, the rope snapped tight and yanked me off my feet. I landed on my ass and tried to scuttle backward.
“It’s breaking! It’s breaking!” McKinsey hollered.
Trevor rushed to the edge and looked over. “Give me your hand!” he demanded. “You’re close enough…just give me your hand.”
I crawled backward until I was able to get to my feet.
“Pull her a little higher Daniel! Hurry, it’s about to snap.”
I grabbed more of the rope and wrapped it around my arm, yanking back with all my might. There was a loud snap and then the rope went slack and I sailed backward, slamming into the craggy wall behind me.
“I got her!” Daniel groaned as he leaned across the edge.
With the rope dragging from my waist, I hurried forward where Trevor had grabbed McKinsey by her wrist. She was kicking her feet like she was in a swimming pool, shouting and wig
gling madly.
“Trevor, I’m gonna pull you up,” I called out.
He nodded, his face bright red from straining and slick with sweat. I grabbed his legs and started to pull him back. He grunted and moaned, but McKinsey was screaming like she was being burned alive.
“Stop moving!” Trevor snapped in a voice between anger and pain.
I pulled even harder, but suddenly Trevor started to scramble his legs then he cried out in a voice that made the hairs on my arms stand on end.
“No! No!” he yelled.
I looked over the ledge in time to see McKinsey tumbling toward the bottom. Her arms and legs swam through the air, but did nothing to slower her descent. Her cries for help were piercing, her body falling in slow motion as everything ground to nearly a stop.
There was a realization on her face that I knew would haunt me for the rest of my life. Her eyes stared right through me, boring into my soul, begging for a miracle that I didn’t have. All I could do was watch and swallow the pain and horror I felt, knowing that very second was her last.
Trevor looked like he wanted to jump over the side after her. I grabbed him and pulled him away just as her body hit the rocks below with a sound that brought me to my knees. Trevor collapsed into me and in that split second, the world stopped moving and every childish belief I’d ever held onto burst into nothing.
CHAPTER 18
PARTING OF WAYS
“What!?” Chase growled. “What the fuck did you say to me? What the fuck did you just say?”
His eyes were bulging from his head as he roared in anger. His fists were clenched tightly at his side and dried blood painted his arms from the pig they’d just skinned.
I looked him in his eyes, hesitant to repeat the tragic news. Keyon and Antonio were standing beside Chase, sharing apprehensive glances, but that was as much help as they were going to offer. Hanson was standing behind him, rocking on the balls of his feet. He knew Chase wasn’t stable.
“She’s dead Chase,” I said again in a solemn tone.
“No!” he shouted and lunged at me.
His hefty paws slammed into my shoulders. I flew backwards, stumbling to catch myself before falling into the dirt.
Overboard: Deconstruction Book Four (A Post-Apocalyptic Thriller) Page 14
