I roll over and groan, rubbing my forehead. I've just finally realized how badly we all stink. When I open my eyes, I see Dash standing over me. Jumping up and over a couple of my sleeping classmates, I land on my feet in the sand, breathing hard. Dash approaches, looking a little sheepish.
"So, I've seen your belt. What's in it?" He asks, rather cautiously.
"Um… Black paint, some cord, a few bobby pins, some paperclips, I think I put some parts of a lockpick kit in there…" I reply.
"Did you say cord?" He asks, and I nod. "Maybe we should try to make some sort of fishing net out of it."
"We could try," I say, reaching down and pulling out the length of cord. I unwind it, and look at it rather judgingly before I sit next to him and we start knotting.
It's a few minutes before anyone else starts waking up, with Paulina popping her back like normal. She's the first to notice me and Dash sitting together, and she walks over.
"Where'd you get the cord?" Is the first question she asks.
"Danny has this belt he has some stuff in, like paperclips," Dash replies, and I nodd.
"I don't have much in there, and yes. I was taking cues from Batman and Robin," I tell her, smiling. She sits down next to me.
"That's cool," she says, and watches us as we finish it.
"Now that I think of it," Dash says, "Aren't the fish generally farther out in the ocean?"
"You're right," I reply, frowning. "Maybe the river has fish in it."
"That's possible," Paulina says, and we get back up and head back over to the camp where everyone's circled around the firepit. Jason is talking.
"We should focus on getting people armed, in case of another snake," he says, and Rachel nods. She's looking better today, actually awake and not dehydrated.
"Maybe we should start figuring out how to carry water and other things around," Jayden suggests. "Or move our camp up to the river."
"That would be a little too much work," Stacey replies. "We'd either have to disassemble the huts and carry them up there, or build new ones."
"You're right," Jordan continues. "Maybe some of us could try weaving baskets to carry bananas and fruit and coconuts in?"
"Yeah, we just have to find grasses and dry them," Thalia replies.
"We could use tree bark. I think they have made baskets of tree bark," Sam counters. "Or we could try vines."
"Well, I think while some of you are trying to make baskets some of us should continue exploring," Valerie says, shifting. "We don't know what other edible things or dangerous things are out there."
"I'll go with you," Dante volunteers.
"Me too," Shasta says.
"Alright, we should get going," Valerie says, standing up. Dante and Shasta follow suit, following her into the forest.
"Alright, so who's going to try to make baskets?" Sam asks.
"I will!" Jordan says, and Thalia nods.
"I think I'll lead another group up to the river," Dash says, and I hand him the net we made. He stood up and started leaving, followed by a good half of the group.
"I'll take some of you to go get more coconuts and bananas," Paulina says, and I stand up to go with her. She leads us through a skinny path that makes me thank whatever powers that be that I'm skinny. When we reach the coconuts and bananas, while people are climbing the trees I notice some more fruits.
"Is that starfruit?" I ask, and Paulina shrugs.
"I don't know what it is, so I never got any," she replies.
"I'll get one and bring it back to Sam," I reply, walking over to the tree and climbing up it. I grabbed the first fruit I came to, pulling it off the tree and then climbing down to help grab more fruit.
Twisting through the forest, I'm surprised how we make it through the natural obstacle course with as much as we're carrying. For the first time I really notice that we've actually gotten skinnier. One meal a day and physical activity can do that, I guess.
When we walk back onto the beach, we check the sky and notice that it's barely noon. We're getting faster at making our way around the island, and so we happily make our way to the camp to set down our load and head back for more. Sam had given us the go-ahead on the starfruit I had brought back, and so this time I climbed up the tree to grab some more and drop them down into waiting hands. Climbing back down, I picked up a coconut and some bananas, and took up the rear of the group as we wove our way back to the beach. It was nearing sundown, and when we set our load down some of the girls and a few guys helped with the basket-making. There were a few sloppy baskets on the ground, and I started the fire as the river group came back. Dash was holding the net, where a couple of silver fish hung. Tucker's grin was really, really wide.
The sun had fully set when we stopped to make sure everyone was here. Not everyone was.
"Valerie's group hasn't come back yet," Star says, worry in her voice.
"I'll go look for them," I volunteer, standing up. Jason and Jordan stand up too.
"We'll go with you," they say, and I nod, slightly inhappy. I could've moved as fast as I wanted to but oh well. Vanishing into the forest where Valerie, Shasta, and Dante had, I lead my group through the night, my sight seeing the tracks that they couldn't in the night. The moonlight also helps to light our way, until we didn't need to track.
There was a scream. Shasta's scream, and I picked up the pace. There were more yells and screams, Dante's and Valeries, and a blast of green light. We finally reach them, seeing Shasta cornered by a tiger with a burned spot on its shoulder. Not really thinking, I jump down with a yell on top of it. It roars and rolls over, crushing me against the ground. My breath was forced out of my mind but my knife's out and I'm on my feet as the sounds of the forest fade until it's just me and the tiger. My eyes meet its eyes, predator meeting predator, and it charged. I dodged, throwing a punch and hitting its flank. There's a crack- I think I broke its rib- and there's a roar of pain. It turns and charges me again, this time favoring its side. I attempt another dodge, but its ready and it pins me, its claws digging into my shoulder.
Now's my chance. I see the jugular in its neck, pulsing with every beat of its heart, and my knife arm is free. It may be bleeding, but it's still free. I bring my knife towards its neck, and too late it starts to rear away but the blade of my knife bites into its neck, slicing open the jugular and windpipe. With a roar, the tiger collapses on top of me, lifeblood draining all over my clothes and the light dying in its eyes. I can begin to hear my friends, and feel the pain in my shoulders from where the claws dug in.
"Danny! Danny!" Valerie's yell finally makes it through to me, and I focus in on her. "Are you okay?"
"I'm bleeding a little and I have a tiger on top of me… But other than that, I think I'm fine." Dante and Jordan and Jason are working on removing the dead beast on top of me and Shasta pulls me to my feet. I wince, and they see the tears in my shirt and the blood coming from my injuries. Valerie removes my bloody shirt, ignoring my wince, and then tears strips from her shirt to tie under my armpits and over my shoulders to act as bandages.
"You know… This could feed everyone for, like, days," Jason says, and Jordan nods. The two of them and Dante start to drag it towards where we came from. I start to take the lead, and everyone just follows.
We have to take it slow, what with three of us dragging around a dead tiger, and we reach the camp well after midnight, during the darkest hours of the morning. Thalia, who's on watch, sees us coming and walks over with a raised eyebrow.
"That… Is a tiger," she says. "And Danny… Is shirtless." Untying her sweatshirt from around her waist, she tosses it to me and I pull it on with a little bit of wincing. "You were attacked by it, apparently. Um… Are we going to eat it?" Jason nods.
"Yes," he elaborates, since it was too dark for her to have seen.
"Okay. That will be interesting," she says, and helps drag the tiger over to the camp. After we're there, the six of us curl up around the fire ring and drift to sleep.
"Another, slightly larger group of plane crash survivors has been found. Among them is Casper High student Lester Langis. Also confirmed dead are Nathan Langis and Mikey Cooper. The search is still on."
Jazz was in her room, watching the news on her computer with a sigh. She had just finished a post on the facebook page for the people still waiting for news on their families, and there were people already replying to her post.
There was going to be a vigil the next night, and she was going.