The Missing

by Kiersten Modglin

  Had one of the other members of our group planted it? James or Noah were the only ones who’d been away from the three of us, but we’d kept an eye on James most of the time and, for all we knew, Noah still hadn’t returned from doing whatever the hell he was doing.

  So, what then? Where did that leave us?

  We had to believe someone else was on the island. Someone who, at the very least, knew what had happened, and at the worst, had constructed the whole thing. But why? What did they want with us?

  Harry believed we should tell them all. He said everyone should have the information we did, that it was only fair. Ava and I thought differently. We’d seen both Noah and James acting foolish and pigheaded since we’d arrived, and that was without the knowledge that we were potentially meant to be fending for ourselves and taking each other out one by one in some sort of Hunger Games-esque challenge, so I was worried things would only get worse if they knew what the note said.

  Our side of the argument won out when I pointed out that Noah was the only one with a weapon.

  So, as the weight of our newfound information sat heavily on us, Harry tucked the note into his pocket and we made our way back out to the shore, where James finally had both a small and large fire going.

  “This work?” he asked when he saw us heading his direction across the sand.

  Harry bent down and studied both fires closely before standing back up. “You did a really good job, actually.” There was a sincerity in his tone that seemed to catch James off guard.

  “No big deal. I was in Boy Scouts as a kid,” he said, shrugging with his hands in his pockets. “It’s one of the only things I remember.”

  “Well, you’ve done really well. We’ll want to set up a sort of ramp with different logs, so that when one burns out, the next one replaces it and keeps the fire going constantly, but we can do that later.” He sighed, rubbing his hands together. “Now, this isn’t going to be a foolproof process, but if we can find the largest seashells with a big base to hold water and then some palm leaves, I can try to construct something to hold condensation from the sea water we’ll gather.”

  “Will that work?” Ava asked.

  “In theory?” Harry said, obviously unsure. “Maybe. But it’s not guaranteed. It’s why we need to look for an actual water source…and soon.” He glanced toward me, then at my shoulder. “You’re already starting to get sunburned.”

  I followed his gaze toward the red patches on my shoulders. I’d be willing to bet my face looked the same. “I burn easily,” I told him. “No big deal.”

  “Out here it is,” he said. “We don’t have aloe or salve to treat the burns, so they could easily get infected. Not to mention that they’ll make you dehydrate quicker. You need to stand in the shade whenever possible.” He directed me toward the shade with the wave of his finger. “Anyone else starting to burn?”

  Ava checked her own dark shoulders and shook her head. “I’m good.”

  James did the same, shoving back the sleeves of his white T-shirt quickly before confirming that I, with my pale skin and freckles, was the only one who had managed to burn in just a few hours on the beach.

  “Well, she’s also the only one wearing hardly any clothes,” James said, his eyes trailing down the length of my body in a way that made my stomach tighten. I wrapped the sarong around myself tighter, keeping my arms folded.

  “Well, it’s not exactly like I was packing for a trip here, was I?” I demanded.

  “Hey, you won’t hear me complaining,” he said, his hands up in the air innocently, though the devilish look in his eye didn’t evaporate.

  “Anyway,” Harry interrupted firmly, “we need to get to work. The sun’s already higher in the sky, and once it reaches its highest point, it’s going to be miserable out here.” He looked back toward me, where I now stood several feet away. “If we’re going to look for fresh water and others on the island, we should get this done in just a few minutes and then head out. The good news is, most of our search will be covered by the trees, so you won’t burn anymore for today.”

  “So what are we looking for?” Ava asked, glancing out toward the ocean. “Seashells?” She started walking toward the sand without further prompting.

  “Yeah”—Harry joined her—“the biggest ones we can find. We want something that can hold quite a bit of water since we don’t have any pans or bottles of our own.”

  “Are you sure you don’t want me to help?” I asked, feeling useless standing there watching as the three of them searched the shore.

  “You can look for leaves,” Harry called back after a moment. “The biggest, cleanest palm leaves you can find. Just stay in the shade.”

  I huffed, turning away from them and beginning to search the tree line for any such leaves. Moments after I’d gathered a few under my arms, I heard a rustle in the jungle ahead of me. I froze, trying to decide where the movement had come from. Had I imagined it?

  I stood completely still, quieting even my breathing as I watched the trees blowing in the breeze. The visibility in the jungle wasn’t great. In fact, someone could disappear just a few feet in front of you, the trees close together as they were, and leaves, vines, and other greenery growing up in every direction. Whoever, or whatever, was moving could be just a few feet in front of me.

  Could they see me?

  I could hear the others talking behind me, several yards away with no idea what was happening. If I called out or bolted, it was possible I could be grabbed or attacked without them even realizing it had happened. I refused to look behind me, determined to keep my eyes peeled for any sort of movement.

  “Hello?” I called cautiously. “Is someone there?”

  A branch cracked, and I jumped just as Noah appeared in front of me, a cocky grin on his face. “Boo.”

  “Jesus, you scared me.” I placed a hand to my chest, my heart thundering under my palm.

  He cackled, eyeing the leaves in my hands suspiciously. “What are you doing?” He nodded his head toward the others on the shore. “Better question, what are they doing?”

  I couldn’t focus on his question, because at that moment, all I could see was what was waiting in his arms. Five large, green coconuts sat nestled between his forearms and his chest. When he noticed my stares and slack jaw, he jutted out his chest a bit more.

  “You like my nuts, hm?”

  I groaned, annoyed by the joke, but my throat was suddenly too dry to argue. “Where did you find these?”

  “Wouldn’t you like to know?” His brow shot up playfully, his dark eyes teasing me.

  “Noah, this is serious. Did you find more?” I turned to face the group, my hands over my head. “Guys! Hey! Look!” The wind carried my voice away, so they didn’t hear my calls.

  “Hey, I didn’t say I was sharing,” he said, and though I listened for the joke in his tone, I wasn’t sure it was there.

  I crossed my arms. “You don’t have a choice. We’ll all dehydrate if we don’t get something to drink.”

  “I thought Captain Lotta-Brains was whipping up a water machine in his underground bunker.”

  He could be infuriating sometimes. The cavalier way he acted, even when we were literally facing dehydration and death, made it impossible to deal with him. But, he was also the only one on the island who’d managed to find a source of hydration so far.

  “You know, you could try being nice to us. We’re all in this together.”

  “Calm down, Efron,” he teased, dropping the coconuts to the ground with a thud. He bent down, lifting one. “There are plenty more where these came from. Obviously, I’m going to share. I’m not trying to kill you all.”

  My throat tightened at his words. Why had he chosen to say that? That he wasn’t trying to kill us? Why did he use those exact words? I tried to push the thought from my head, convince myself that I was just being paranoid… But was I?

  “What’s going on?” I heard Harry’s voice calling from behind us. As I looked over my shoulder, I real
ized they had seen what was going on and were rushing toward us, seashells in hand.

  “You found coconuts?” Harry asked, pure joy in his voice as he reached for one. Ava fell to her knees next to me, letting out a tearful laugh with utter relief. Noah knelt down in front of her, reaching for one of the coconuts and pulling out his knife.

  “I guess you’re going to tell me this isn’t the right way to do it?” He eyed Harry suspiciously, placing the tip of the knife to its shell.

  “You could do it like that,” he said, his tone unfazed. “But it won’t work half as well as this.” He scooped one up and shuffled a few feet from us, lifting it over his head and slamming it down onto a rock’s sharp edge with one fell swoop. The coconut split open slightly, clear liquid spilling from its insides. Triumphant cries were heard from all around as he put his lips to the opening, gulping it down quickly. My mouth grew drier at the sight, and I felt my hands reaching for my own coconut without warning. When he had drained it all, he held it up, peering at the hole as he swiped the back of his hand over his lips. Then, he slammed the coconut into the rock again and again until it smashed—not in half like I’d been expecting, but into several pieces, its white, milky insides on full display.

  As he gathered the pieces, everyone else scooped up their own fruit and headed toward the rock, waiting to mimic what he’d done. One by one, we cracked the coconuts open. James got his on the first try like Harry. Ava and I each took three different hits to get the liquid to begin leaking, and Ava’s hardly came out even then, but that didn’t stop her from attempting to drain the liquid as quickly as she could. For a moment, we were all silent, languishing in the delight of the lukewarm and sickly sweet libation.

  Noah sat still, the only one who hadn’t made his way to the rock, still attempting to cut it open with his knife, an unrelenting stubbornness in his jaw that said he wouldn’t give up.

  “You know, it’s crazy. I’ve never even liked coconut juice. But right now, I can’t think of anything better,” Ava said, euphoria in her tone as she flopped back on the sand where she sat, one arm behind her head. She placed one of the pieces of coconut in her mouth, sucking on the fleshy meat of the fruit. Watching her, I did the same, wanting to get every bit of nourishment I could from it.

  Finally, Harry scoffed. “Come on, Noah, don’t be ridiculous. Just open yours like everyone else. You’re only going to dull your blade if you don’t manage to break it or slice your hand open.”

  “Yeah,” Ava agreed, propping herself up with one hand. “And if you do that, we can’t use your knife to get the rest of the meat out. That’s the best part.”

  “Who said you could use my knife anyway?” he asked, though he swiped the blade on the side of his swim trunks and stood up, finally making his way toward the rock.

  No one bothered to argue. At that point, I think we were all too unbelievably joyful to think about it. Instead, we rested on the sand, laughing and smiling to ourselves in pure delight. I heard Noah crack his coconut over the rock a few times and then his thirsty swallows.

  Once he’d joined us back in our unintentional circle, James sat up once again. “So, where did you get these?”

  “Yeah, where did you go today? Were there more?” Harry added.

  “Plenty more,” Noah said, expelling a belch.

  “Where at?” James asked again.

  “Not far from here.” We waited for him to say more, but he remained silent.

  “Are you seriously not going to tell us?” Harry asked pointedly. “We need to know.”

  “Why do you need to know? It can be my job to go and get them every day from wherever they are.” He paused and gave a lopsided grin. “As long as you keep me happy.”

  Harry wasn’t amused. “We’re going to need more than this. A lot more. It would make more sense to move closer to wherever they were. Was there somewhere we could shelter nearby? You were gone for several hours; you could’ve walked miles in that time. Did you mark your trail? Do you know how to find your way back?”

  “Calm down there, Indiana,” he said, Southern drawl on full display. “I know how to get there, yeah. And there were plenty more, but I’m not taking you there. For all I know, that’s the only reason you’re keeping me alive.”

  From behind me, James snorted. “Yeah, ’cause we’re all about to start killing each other.”

  Noah’s eyes darted to James, then back to me, and they widened. At that moment, I knew he’d seen the note. Or else, he’d been the one to plant it…

  “You didn’t tell him?” he asked, his eyes narrowing. He clicked his tongue, obviously pleased. “I underestimated you…”

  “Tell him what?” I feigned ignorance.

  Noah sat up farther, squaring up his shoulders. “The note is gone, so I’m assuming you found it.”

  “You put it there?” Ava demanded angrily.

  “Put what where? What are you guys talking about?” James asked, looking between us all.

  When no one spoke immediately, Noah smirked, leaning forward over his legs. “Do you want to tell him, or should I?”

  “Why would you do that, Noah? Is this all some sort of joke? Do you think it’s funny?” Harry spoke up, his voice quivering with anger.

  “What are you talking about? Of course, I didn’t put it there. I came back at one point to tell you all I’d found the coconuts, but when I saw the note, I left again. I gave it a little while, until you’d had enough time to find it yourselves, and then came back. I was testing you, to see how honest we were going to be with each other.” He ran a hand through his hair casually. “I guess now I have my answer.”

  “Will someone tell me what’s going on?” James demanded.

  “There was a note left next to our camp.” Harry pulled it from his pocket, shoving it toward James. We watched as he processed the words, then looked up, his eyes wide.

  “What does this mean?”

  “What do you think?” Noah asked, standing up.

  “Why didn’t you tell us when you found it if you weren’t the one who left it?” Ava asked pointedly.

  “I told you why. Because I was testing you,” he said simply, stretching his arms up over his head. “Why didn’t you tell me about it? Hm? You weren’t planning to tell anyone else, were you? If I hadn’t said anything, you three would’ve just kept it as your dirty little secret, wouldn’t you? You weren’t planning to breathe a word of it. Maybe you were even planning to act on it.”

  “What? Kill each other?” I groaned. “Get real, Noah.”

  “We were still processing it. We didn’t know whether to show everyone or just throw it away,” Ava argued.

  “And we obviously got no say in the matter,” Noah spat.

  “Well, you’d already seen it, so I don’t—”

  Noah interrupted Harry’s argument. “Yeah, but you didn’t know that at the time.”

  I needed to find a way to calm the rising tension. But as Noah raised his voice more and more, it seemed to be impossible. “Look, we didn’t see a point in telling everyone,” I said, interrupting Harry as he started to speak again. “We weren’t going to act on it. We didn’t see any reason to pit everyone against each other.”

  “But who left it? If not any of us, that has to mean there’s someone else on this island,” James said, his brow furrowed. “And if that’s the case, what if what they said is true? What if they’ll only let one of us off the island?” Something in his eyes darkened, sending a bolt of fear through my chest. I didn’t trust James with this knowledge. That was the truth. He was hot tempered and naïve, and I expected him to act impulsively.

  “That’s ridiculous,” I said, too quickly. “If someone else is on the island, they’re obviously just messing with us. They can’t seriously want us to…to…kill each other. It’s insane. We wouldn’t dare…” I trailed off. It was too unbearable to think about.

  “No,” Harry agreed with me. “No. They can’t. And even if they did, you’re right, we would never do it.”


  “You’d really rather be stuck in this place forever than even consider the possibility that they could be serious?” Noah scoffed.

  “Yes,” Harry and I said at the same time, and I continued, “because it takes more than just considering the possibility. If it’s real, if getting off this island means we’d have to kill each other…that’s just not an option.” As I said the words, my throat grew dry. I hadn’t thought about it like that until that moment. Was I really willing to give everything up? To never return home? To never see my husband, my parents again? To die on this island…

  “Yeah, I agree. This all feels like a setup anyway,” Ava said, then her face lit up. “Oh, you know what? Maybe we’re on a reality TV show.”

  James laughed, and Noah looked around, as if searching for the cameras. “Alright, guys… Bring out Ashton Kutcher.” He wiggled his head around a bit, dancing in place gleefully, but I noted the sarcasm in his tone.

  “It’s not the worst guess,” I said, suddenly feeling the need to defend Ava. “None of us has any idea what’s going on here. Ava could be right.”

  “Look, none of this matters,” Harry said, shaking his head as if forcing the thought from it. He pointed to the note in James’s hand. “All that matters is that we won’t be doing what that note says. We can’t turn against each other. We’re in this together, and we have to remember that.” He looked toward the sky overhead. “We were going to look for water, but if we know where the coconuts are, I think it makes the most sense to find shelter near them for the day. We can rest, rehydrate, and then start exploring the island a bit more tomorrow.”

  “But…” Ava said hesitantly. “Should we leave the beach? I mean, what if someone sees our SOS signal, and they come looking for us? How will they find us?”

  The question hung in the air as we realized she was right. We couldn’t leave the beach, not if we wanted to hold on to the hope that we’d be rescued, and we desperately did.

  “She’s right,” I said. “We have to stay close by.”

  “I agree,” James said. “But we should go get more to drink. That wasn’t enough.”