Author Here: Man, the next time I welcome questions, comments or suggestions, I'll remember to bring a sword, shield and tactical nuke with me. Seriously, if you have a issue with how I write or what, tell me. Just don't make it a personal attack. I freely admit I type horribly and I've apologized for it and am in the process of trying to replace my poor wore out Dell, but I only work part time and I'll do it when I can either A. afford to or B. Learn how to live without food or electricity.

Onwards and upwards.

(Oh, nearly forgot, thanks for the words of support.)

Chapter Two

How Did We Get From There To Here?

For the second time in two days, the Marines landed on the small island. This time, it wasn't a two man team in a raft like before, it was a chopper from the USS Wasp, a dark, gunmetal gray smudge out on the horizon. The helicopter, a venerable UH-1N Huey, has a crew of four aboard to carry the two survivors to the ship. And they were all armed. There would be no repeat of the first attempt to get them home, when the two corpsmen were ambushed , their own weapons turned against them and Jackson.

" We're going to get you two to the Wasp. They'll check you both out there and then we'll see about getting you two to Guam and then to home. That sound good to you?" Lieutenant Eric Flint asked them as he pulled the stick back and the chopper lifted off from the cursed island in a roar of whirling rotors. There was no reply. He glanced back into the seat and the twelve year veteran saw a sight he wouldn't have wished on anyone.

She had been brave for so long, fought so hard to shield her 10 year old brother from the worst of the disaster that had unfolded around them, but even the strongest have breaking points and Daley Marin had reached her. She had her head nestled in her stepbrother Lex's lap, wrapped in a green Marine blanket and was quietly crying her heart out as the small boy stroked her red hair gently, tears on his own face as he looked down at the island of their exile, now mercifully fading away into the distance. " It's over Day, we made it. We're going home." he kept reciting those words, almost mantra like to her as they rapidly approached the large ship.

As he did so, one thought went over and over through his head, one question, that he knew beyond any shadow of a doubt they would be asked a thousand times in the days and weeks ahead.

" How did we get from there to here?"

Even as that went through Lex's mind, it was going through Daley's as well as the helicopter slowly settled down on the forty thousand ton vessel .

The memories came to her unbidden, dark, ominous and full of pain, like razors or slivers of glass in her tired mind. But, even as dark as everything was now, there had been moments of happiness, friendship, and even love. And not from just her brother, but from two most unlikely sources: Nathan McHugh and Cody Jackson.

And it had all started on the morning of their eight day on the island. The day one of the vanished foursome had been found by Eric and Nathan, in the jungle almost a mile from their camp. She still remembered who stunned she had been when Eric McGorrill had run up to them, blurting out the shocking news.****************************************************************************************************************************************************************************************

" We found one of them, well, technically I did! you'd never guess who! It's the freaking pilot, Captain Chaos, uh, Captain Russell!" the skinny teen panted harshly from his run up the long hillside to them. Man, too much sleeping, not enough moving, went through Eric's head as he wiped seat from his high forehead, waiting their reaction with obvious anticipation. He knelt over , taking deep breaths as Daley, Taylor and Nathan looked at one another in surprise.

" Were the others with him?" Daley asked, turning and starting to run the way Eric had came from before the boy could even finish speaking, her bush hat bouncing on her mane of red hair as she went.

" Then we're not rescued?!" Taylor added, sounding disgusted and accusing all at once.

" I wonder if they found anything , where he came back from?" Nathan asked aloud, then took off after Daley, Taylor following him , her pink outfit making her easy to track going into the wilderness.

Here I go again! The beleaguered Eric thought, taking a last deep breath before plunging back onto the trail towards the downed pilot again. He took off running, one hand slapping at the battered and beloved little straw hat he invariable wore.

They had taken the dehydrated man back to Camp 29 Down. It hadn't been easy; Russell easily outweighed even Jackson, the largest of the teens , by a solid eighty or better pounds. It had taken them working in teams of three to carry him and Daley and Mel had both put their animosity over a necklace they had found earlier aside in order to berate Taylor for complaining about having to help.

" I don't want him to lay out there and die but I'm getting a hernia from trying to lug this guy. He ha to weigh three hundred pounds!' she had wailed.

" Fine, then you can give him a sponge bath to cool him off when we get there!" Mel had said, winking at Daley when she said it. Taylor wasn't the only one here who could manipulate people. Mel was capable of doing it, she simply didn't. Usually.

" EWWW!! Not even if he was Brad Pitt's brother!" Taylor had squeeled in outrage.

But she had shut up and actually helped, afterwards, to Daley and Mel's amused relief. And they had agreed to share the mysterious necklace between the three of them. An then, six hours after finally getting Russell to camp, he had awoken and given the news to them in a classic good news, bad news scenario.

" Well kids, " the battered, unshaven man had said, after drinking what seemed like half of the water in the camp, " the god news is , I haven't came across any dangerous animals here. The four of us saw a few monkeys and Ian swore he saw a big lizard, but we never saw a trace of it. The bad news is, that's all we found. A whole lotta nothing. And then, in the last big storm, I got separated from the three of them. I don't even know if they're alive or dead."

And that admission had seemed to break some internal all in Russell, who had cupped his head in his hands and then flung his sunburned face back, bellowing to the heavens above:

"It's all MY fault! I'm the reason we crashed here, not the damn storm. It's all my fault and now those three kids may be dead because of me!"

Daley nearly jumped out of her seat as a hand shook her.

A tall, brown haired petty officer, a twentyish woman with the name of Harrington on her uniform was looking at her , a trace of concern and pity in her stern , almost Oriental face. " Miss, we're here. You and your brother need to follow me. I'll take you to Commander Alexander, our chief medical officer. They want to check you to out, make sure you're al right." She held a hand out to lex, helping him off the helicopter as Daley unbuckled herself and rose.

I don't know if I'll ever be "all right" again, Lex either, for that matter. Not after the last month, Daley though to herself s she got down. The medic stepped in front of them and led the way to the door on the side of the command "island" and down into the bowels of the ship. As she stood at the doorway, Daley looked a final time off at the island they had left and fought tears, remembering them all.

A image of a slender , cinnamon haired youth with a hot temper and quick grin came to her . Goodbye Eric, you twisted joker, you had a lot more heart than you ever showed anyone, but you gave it all to save Jackson and Lex's. We'd have died then and there at the very start if you hadn't guessed what was really happening.

Another image, of a honey blonde haired young woman, with an acerbic tongue and a astonishing amount of empathy that she kept hidden because of her own fears came to her next. At least we made a kind of peace before you died Taylor. And I'll never forget how brave you were, standing up to that monster by yourself, knowing you didn't have a chance. But you did it anyway.

Mel and Nathan came next to her thoughts. He of the wild curly, hair, the dancer, the athlete and quiet, studious, China doll like, loving Mel, Together there in her thoughts as they had been in life It was ironic. The schism that drove her into Jackson's arms had driven Mel into Nathan's . A month ago , it would have been laughable, no it as like a tragic love story, one of inevitable doomed lovers. I'll miss you two almost as much as I already miss Cody. You two only had a few days together, but it made you both happy, even in the chaos. You were each others best friends and became our best friends too. And our family.

Ian and Jory flickered in her thoughts, but they weren't prominent. She hated it, but she'd simply never been close to them. Jackson and Ian had at least the chance to speak and Lex had spoken more to the shy Jory than any of her classmates. I'm sorry. I never talked to you two and now, I have the rest of my life to regret it.

Captain Russell came to her mind next. I hated him at first, then, I thought he was incompetent , useless, but harmless. And then, when he found out what had happened to Ian and Jory, he changed. And I hope if I ever have a child, I'm wiling to give it all for them like he did. He never had a chance, even less than Taylor. She knew what was coming at her and he didn't . But he may have been the bravest person I ever knew, except for Jackson.

And at that thought, it felt like a hole was being dug in her heart. Images of the tall, blondish brown haired youth she had fallen so completely and unexpectedly in love with threatened to shatter her completely where she stood. She couldn't do it. She couldn't say goodbye to him, not yet.

She turned and closed the door.