The Island

It took some work, and a lot of persuasive language, but I managed to convince Kyle not to kill Devin. At least for the time being. We didn’t trust him though, we were smarter than that. Devin became a member of the group again though, or at least as much as he could. He and Kyle would go hunting together and bring back food while I washed clothes. I know, it’s a little sexist, but we couldn’t leave Devin by himself. And I wasn’t strong enough to fight him if he attacked me. So it continued to be that way and everything seemed like it would be alright.

One day Kyle went out into the woods to look for food. “Niki, I’m going to leave Devin here.” He said. “I don’t feel like dealing with him. I’ll tie him to the tree for you.” I nodded sternly and he went to get Devin. After he left I sat down in front of Devin and talked to him.

“Hey.” was all I said. He gave me a smug look and responded accordingly.
“Well hello. Here to ask me which execution I’d prefer right?” I shook my head.

“No. I wanted to talk to you. I don’t really know you and I want to.” He looked surprised for a second but quickly recovered.

“Well what do you want to know?” I thought about it for a while. I wanted to know everything. As much information as I could soak up. Then I decided on one.

“What’s your family like?” He cocked an eyebrow at me so I elaborated. “You know, do you have any siblings, any pets? Are your parents married, or divorced?”

“Oh. Well… ummm… My parents are still married, happily. And I don’t have any siblings. I never really wanted a brother or sister though. Especially not a little one. We have a dog. She’s a german shepherd mix. Really cute. She’s my best friend actually.” A darkness swept through his eyes. A look of sadness and mourning. Tears welled up in the corners of his eyes.

“Why do you even want to know anyway? So you know how many letters of condolences to write after you kill me?” I looked away, I couldn’t think about that. It was too hard. “You are, aren’t you.” I looked back at him, confused. “You’re going to kill me.” It was a statement, not a question. As he said it the tears overflowed and two slid down from the corners of his eyes.

My mouth opened slightly but nothing came out. I thought about it for a while. Then I gave him the best answer I could. “I don’t want to, and I hope I don’t have to. But that depends on both of us, not just me.” I stood up and got ready to leave. Why had I asked about his family? It didn’t do any good. All it did was make him cry and I had to watch. If I turned away I was a coward. I did it and now I had to see the results. As I started to walk away he yelled at me.

“You cowardly bitch! You won’t kill me! You’ll make Kyle do it! Does he know what you did to me? What you do to everyone. You get them to like you, to really care about you. Then you push them away! And you stab them in the back! You lead them on and you just can’t stop once you’ve started!” Each insult felt like a punch in the gut. I ran into the hut and curled up into a ball, desperate to block the noise. I stayed like that until Kyle came back, we had enough clean shirts anyway.

After an hour I swallowed my pride and went outside to see them both. To my surprise Devin was still tied up to the tree. “Kyle, why is he still there?”
“Niki, I heard the insults all the way in the woods. He deserves to be there.” My frustration boiled over. I couldn’t stand it anymore. Treating people like animals, it was horrendous. My face burned with anger and I started yelling at the boys.

“I cannot believe you Kyle! After everything you’ve seen you still think it’s okay to leave people tied up like animals? Only boys would think of doing such things! Boys, not men! Yes, Devin has made a lot of mistakes but that doesn’t mean that we chain him up to a tree! Who are you to decide how to punish him for what he’s done? What right do either of us have to condemn him to this?”

“Niki…” He began, “You know just as well as I do that if we were back home he would be put in jail for most of his life for what he’s done. Any civilized society would do the same.” That just made me more angry, and I exploded again.

I turned his own words against him “Kyle, you know just as well as I that this isn’t civilized society! All those rules that we used to live by are gone! Vanished into thin air! And who made you the leader anyway! Talk about civilized society. When did this turn into a dictatorship?”

“It’s not a dictatorship. It’s just that I’m the only one here who is capable of keeping everything in check.” I could tell as soon as he said it he regretted it. Normally a response like that would have silenced me for a while but I didn’t care, I just kept going.

“Why?” I demanded “Why is it that out of the two of us you think you’re more capable? Is it because I’m a girl?” The look on his face said it all. I knew he wasn’t sexist, but I couldn’t believe that after everything he’d seen me do, he still said that. “Well, let me clear things up for both of you then! Just because I’m a girl does not mean that I need a babysitter all the time! Yes, I like you Kyle, but I don’t want to be treated like an incompetent child. Let me remind you that I put down that deer, I cleaned every single body of our friends after they died, and I have been attacked twice and still survived! So don’t you dare impugn my strength, weather it be emotional or physical, again.” And with that I stormed into our hut. Leaving both of them to ponder my words.

The next morning when I woke up Kyle wasn’t next to me. I panicked and grabbed my knife. Rushing outside I was stopped in my tracks by the most unusual sight I’d ever seen. Kyle and Devin sitting around the fire pit together eating breakfast peacefully. And even stranger yet was the fact that they were talking! I mean actual civilized conversation. Shocked I sat down next to Kyle and served myself up some rice. “Morning guys.” I said.

“Good morning Niki.” They responded together. Now I was really freaking out. What the hell was going on? “So, what’s up with you guys?” I asked. Their lack of response told me enough. We ate the rest of our breakfast quietly, occasionally mulling over the weather. Later that day Devin helped me clean the dishes from that morning. He talked and joked and seemed to forget everything that had happened. That night we had a bonfire and I have to say, the three of us got pretty emotional. Devin eventually broke the ice though.

“So, how did you guys lose everyone?” he asked quietly.

I decided that I would explain before Kyle even opened his mouth. I felt this strange desire to prove myself now. I needed him to understand what we had been through. “Well I think it was a couple days after you left an argument broke out between Alec and Brian. Next thing we knew Brian pushed Alec and killed him, on accident. He ran away and I went out and brought him back. A little later Tiffany and Brian went for a walk together. When they came back Brian had been bitten by a poisonous snake. He died later that day. Tiffany took it really hard because before he had left they had confessed that they loved each other. Before I could stop her she killed herself out of grief.”

I paused to take a breath and wipe the forming tears out of my eyes. To my surprise they were both listening intently. “So then after that it was just the five of us. Me, Kyle, Cole, Carrie, and Derek. There was a horrible lightning storm one night. It was pouring rain. Kyle grabbed me and we ran into a ditch. I don’t know where Carrie went. When it was over we came back onto the beach and Carrie was hysterical. Derek had run out into the water for some reason, and while Cole was running to help him, he got struck by lightning. Derek drowned.”

Preparing myself for the hard part I took a deep breath. “A few days later Carrie had been out looking for food and came back with some berries. They ended up being poisonous and she said she had eaten lots of them before she brought them to us.” I felt tears burning at my eyes as I thought about what came next.

“She convulsed and vomited and shook until a fews days later when she went into a coma. I’m not sure exactly when it was but she just, died. So now it’s just the two of us, and you.” The look on Devin’s face was one of astonishment and surprisingly, grief. He didn’t say anything and without another word Kyle got up and Devin stood up with him. Kyle tied his hands to the tree and went into our hut. I stayed outside for the night, I wasn’t in the mood to deal with people anymore.

The next week went by slowly and with a sense of normalness that almost scared me. We adjusted to fit Devin into our routine and each day went by exactly like the one before it. Funnily enough, I started to get bored. Every day when the boys would go out hunting I would walk down the beach for a while. Then right before they returned I would sprint back to camp so they’d never know. I grinned to myself every time I thought about it. how amazing is it that even on this tiny island I could keep a secret, no matter how small or irrelevant. And every day I would walk further and further. At one point I was up to almost a mile. It was good exercise and allowed me to clear my thoughts. After a week though it started to get old and I simply stood for an hour. I stood in the sand and let the waves rush over my feet. I relished the feeling of the sand seeping in between my toes. Even when it was windy I would stand there and allow the breeze to mess up my hair as much as it wanted to.

Sometimes I would think about how lucky I was to even be alive. And how rare it was to see nature in the raw, untouched, state such as this island. I silently promised myself that someday I would return and bring my family here, in this life or the next, and tell my extraordinary story. I would talk about Cole and Carrie and all the others and honor their names. I swore I would never let them be forgotten, not even Vanessa.