The Island

After we buried Michelle, Brittany and Derek wanted to go exploring, so we let them. They weren’t helping with anything anyway. Though I was a little concerned about the two dumbest people in the group going to explore the island, I decided not to say anything. Brittany was stupidly excited to face the dangers of the wilderness. “I can’t wait to go exploring!” she exclaimed to Derek “It’ll be just like a scavenger hunt looking for stuff.” Derek gaily agreed and they sped off into the dark maze of trees.
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Despite my initial excitement, I started to get scared when I could no longer see the beach. All was quiet in the forest and the trees were so thick that I could barely see the sky. The leaves and twigs crunched under my pink high tops. After a while I whispered to Derek “Derek, how do you not make noise when you walk?” It was true, he was making absolutely no noise, and he didn’t respond. “Derek?” Still no answer “Derek!” Now I was scared. I didn’t want to be alone; I was scared to be alone. I gave one last cry of desperation “DEREK!” But he still didn’t answer. I decided to sit in that spot and wait for him, my lips quaking with the effort of holding back tears. A growling noise echoed from the bushes. I screamed.
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I heard an almost inhuman scream echo from the trees behind me. Suddenly I realized that it was a scream of fear, coming from Brittany no doubt. I figured it was nothing but turned around none the less. I laughed on the inside she probably was attacked by a falling leaf. But then she screamed again. This time it was closer though so I could tell I was getting closer to her. The scream was so loud now that it hurt my ear drums. I hadn’t thought about the fact that there might be wildlife on the island, but it was a possibility. With this in mind I found a large branch from the ground. It was thick and heavy, and I was sure that it would drive away anything that could attack them. I tentatively called out “Brittany?” her answer was surprisingly close to him
“Derek! Is that you?” she sounded genuinely scared, but of what?

“Who else would it be girl? Brad Pitt?” I walked forward and came of the trees into a small clearing. Brittany was backed up against a tree on the side where I had come in, a look of terror on her face. When she saw me she hugged me briefly and pointed with a shaking hand to some bushes in the small clearing. It was almost dark outside and in the dim light I saw a pair of glowing eyes staring out at us. I bent down to the ground and picked up a small stone. The creature growled lowly. I then stood back up and threw the stone as hard as I could into the bushes. As soon as the stone hit its target an animal with red fur leaped out of the bushes heading straight for Brittany. She screamed an inhumanly loud and high scream; it echoed in my ears and sent birds flying. A split second later I swung the branch clumsily and wildly, almost hitting Brittany. I then heard a loud thud and saw something land in the grass to their right. When it didn’t move I hesitantly walked closer and tapped it with the branch, instantly retaliating from it. But is still didn’t move. I assumed it was dead, or unconscious. Gently rolling it over he saw it was a fox. Its red orange fur was coated with blood where I had hit it. Its skull was crushed. Knowing that it could be cooked I brought it back so Alec could butcher it; Alec’s father was a butcher. Brittany looked revolted and paled when she saw the crushed skull, but put up with it as they walked towards the beach.
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I was relieved when I saw Derek and Brittany walk onto the beach, though Derek had a dead animal over his shoulder. I had heard an awful scream, presumably Brittany’s, coming from within the forest earlier. There had been a good discovery though while they were gone. We weren’t the first people on the island, and the people previously stranded on this island had left everything behind including pots and pans, knives, a first aid kit, 3 packs of matches and non-perishable items like canned stews and soups. Also a large bag of unopened rice. I had no idea where these people had gotten these items, but I was too grateful for them to ask questions.

The first thing I did with the supplies was use a pot to boil water from a small pond they had found not far into the forest and clean Tiffany’s cut. Tiffany’s reaction to this was hilarious. “Ok, I can clean your cut now, I just need to boil some water to use and then I can bandage it.” I had told her.
“What? You can’t put boiling water on it that will hurt so much!” she actually started crying and I had to explain to her how I would let the water cool down before I used it, which I did. Once it was cleaned it was wider than I had originally thought and I was worried that I might have to cauterize it in order to close it completely. I had also made the mistake of saying this out loud which sent Tiffany into hysterics.

“What does cauterize mean?” she had asked. I unwillingly explained. This sent Tiffany over the edge screaming and thrashing around. I had to call Carrie over to calm her down as I bandaged her forehead. Sweating and exhausted from dealing with Tiffany and helping Alec cook the fox meat I again used my shirt as a pillow, this time for myself, and laid down on the sand close to Kyle, noticing how he turned towards me when I laid down. With Kyle close to me, I felt safe and drifted to sleep quickly.
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As I listened to Niki’s breathing slow as she fell asleep, I thought about her deeply. She had been so good with Tiffany today, despite her constant crying and protesting. The only mistake Niki had made was mentioning cauterizing the cut in Tiffany’s forehead. I had never seen somebody become that upset in such a short amount of time. I was surprised that Niki even considered cauterization as an option. The accident seemed to have toughened her, made her less squeamish. It was interesting, but it made me wonder. Had she always been like this and just never let her true self show? Or had the accident truly changed her that much.

My thoughts were interrupted by Niki suddenly jerking in her sleep. She then started mumbling incoherent things to the air. Eventually I could make out some of the words “Don’t, don’t... no, not Kyle no. No!” She sat upright and looked terrified, tears streaming down her face.

“Are you okay?” I was hesitant but I decided that talking to her couldn’t hurt. What I hadn’t expected was her reaction. As soon I had spoken her teary eyes found me and she embraced me in such a tight hug that I almost tipped backwards. “It was so real, you were dead, Kyle you were dead in my dream but you're not, you're alive. Thank god I was so scared.” She started crying even more now and I could feel the tears soak through my shirt. I rubbed her back and gently rocked her back and forth as best I could. It seemed to be the best way to calm her before, but it didn’t work as well now.

I whispered to her “It’s ok.” But this only made it worse. She wound her arms around me even tighter and buried her face in my shoulder. Her nails dug into my side and I winced slightly in pain, gasping. It was different to have her nails dig into my side rather than his shoulders. My side was softer and more sensitive. “Sorry.” She said thickly, her voice still heavy with tears.

“It’s okay. But how come you won’t calm down?” I was honestly curious. Why wouldn’t she let go of me? Not that I minded, but it didn’t seem like her.

“I dreamed you died in the crash. I saw your eyes stare up at me. I felt your cold skin. You were dead, and it seemed so real. I actually thought you were gone. Then I woke up to find you alive and breathing and I'm worried that if I let you go, you’ll go away again.” Her voice broke on the last statement. I was touched beyond words. I had no idea that she felt that way. It brought tears to my eyes, but I held them back. I needed to support her now. On this island all we had was each other and if one person faltered, another certainly would. Crying now wouldn’t do any good. I tried to think of what to say, but I had no idea what to say to her. So I just held her and let her cry herself out for what seemed like hours until she relaxed in my arms. We lied down on the sand and fell asleep with my arms wrapped around Niki protectively.