Several hours later, Elsa woke up with a start on the beach and, gasping, bolted up into a sitting position. Slightly confused and not remembering where she was, she panicked and scrambled to her feet, only to end up sprawled in the sand again after she stepped and slipped on the water-filled jar which had fallen onto its side. With a cry she landed on her back, the sand cushioning her fall, and she stayed there for ten seconds before rolling onto her stomach. She lifted herself up with her arms and sat back on her legs, taking in her surroundings. The overturned jar she'd tripped over sloshed with water and reminded her where she was and why she was out there.

Elsa had gone out to get more water, and once she'd collected enough to fill a jar's worth she decided to take a break and laid down in the heated sand, intending only to rest a bit before returning to the cave. She underestimated how tired her body was, and without meaning to she'd fallen asleep. How long she'd been out there she didn't know. The sun had moved quite a bit though so she guessed at least a few hours had gone by.

"I better head back." Standing up, Elsa stretched her arms above her head and winced at the cracking her bones made, the sound grossing her out immensely. As she stretched she hoped Anna wasn't being too hard on Hans. He didn't deserve to be treated like garbage. He seemed like a nice guy. Annoying as hell, but nice. She couldn't understand why-

She froze with her arms extended up in the air in mid stretch as her ears picked up a strange noise.

What was that sound? she wondered, hearing a buzzing noise that was coming from somewhere in the distance. She dropped her arms to her sides and squinted to see if she could spot anything, staring out toward the sea. The sun made it hard for her so she used her hands to block the light out. She didn't see anything.

Maybe I'm hearing things, hallucinating. It was a frightening thought, losing her sense of reality.

Elsa waited and watched, listening with open ears. The sound did not fade away or disappear. The volume increased, and then she spotted a dot in the sky above the swirling white clouds. A UFO? was her skeptical thought. Yes, that's exactly what it was. Not an alien space craft, but an unidentified flying object, because so far Elsa was unable to tell what it was.

But as it came closer and the buzz grew into a rumble, Elsa was flooded with shock, excitement, relief, and a hint of dread. She saw a plane. The question was, did the plane actually exist? Was it actually flying toward the island? Or was the plane merely an image her mind was projecting? But was it even possible to hallucinate sound as well? So many frustrating questions.

And she was about to find out if it really was a mirage or not.


Panting, Elsa dashed through the woods as fast as her legs could carry her with the canteen strapped around her neck, slapping her back rhythmically, and her arms protectively around the jar. She was in such a rush, but she had to tell Anna and Hans what she had seen.

A plane. The UFO she'd seen coming toward her had in fact been a real live plane. She'd watched in awe as it flew over her and circled around the island several times before heading back the way it had come. The whole time Elsa waved her arms and jumped up and down, shouting. And though she doubted the pilot heard what she screamed, there was no doubt he saw her waving madly. Which meant, finally, rescue would be coming to take them home! Finally the three survivors would have a warm bed to sleep in, a real house to live in, and an endless supply of food to eat and water to drink. No more dirty caves, no more scavenging for food that wasn't there, and no more drinking water from the wings of planes.

I'll get to see Olaf again, Elsa thought excitedly. She wished that with a blink of her eyes she could be by her little brother's side at that very moment. But all she had to do was wait a bit longer, just a tiny bit more. Soon she'll be off the island and holding her brother in her arms once more. Now that she knew rescue was on its way, waiting didn't seem so bad anymore.

The first thing Elsa planned to do when she saw her brother again was hug and kiss him like she'd never done before. She'd engulf her brother in her arms and cry a river- she was ready to burst already just at the thought- and she'd tell him how much she loved him and missed him. And if her brother ever asked her to play with him, no matter what it was he wanted to play, Elsa would stop whatever it was she was doing and play with him. And when it was time for bed Elsa would read him bedtime stories. And if Olaf didn't want to hear any of the books he had in his collection, then Elsa would make up her own story, adding silly parts that would make her brother laugh and giggle. Tears of happiness clouded her vision and she had to pause in her running to brush her eyes clean so she could see where she was going.

Nearing the cave, Elsa picked up speed, careful not to trip and smash the jar, though now that she thought about it they wouldn't be needing it for much longer, if at all. Still, she held on to it just in case and flew through the entrance. Beaming widely and exclaiming with a gasp, "Guys, you won't believe what I just-"

The words she was going to say were cut off short and the jar she held slipped in her grip. Elsa's jaw dropped at the sight she saw in front of her.

A good part of the drab floor was splattered with some kind of dark substance. From where she stood it was hard to tell what exactly the substance was, but she was able to identify it as blood when she saw the red stuff coating Anna's hands and clothes. A portion of what looked like cooked meat sat in the girl's lap and she was enthusiastically eating it, picking and plucking chunks off and greedily slipping them into her hungry mouth.

Elsa bounced the jar in her arms so it was nestled safely in the crook of her arm once again and quietly assessed what she was seeing, not sure of what to think.

"What took you so long?" Anna asked casually, glancing up at her curiously while popping a sliver of meat into her mouth.

"I-I..." Dumbfounded, Elsa walked in slowly. To her left over by the wall lay Hans, sleeping soundly, shirts stretched out over his body used as blankets, covering him from neck to feet. Just looking at him covered up like that made her all hot. She figured when he woke up he would be thirsty again. She focused on Anna and the food she had in her lap. "Where did you... what is that?"

"It's food. So shut up and come eat," Anna said, patting the empty space beside her.

"But... where did it come from? And what IS it?" Elsa asked, wrinkling her eyebrows.

Anna lifted her shoulders in a shrug. "Why do you have to ask questions for? Just be happy I found us something, alright? We won't have to starve for a while," she mumbled. She reached for a wrapped t-shirt and pushed it to the spot where she wanted Elsa to sit. "I cooked some for you too. It might be a little cold so you'll probably have to cook it some more. It tastes better hot."

Nodding, Elsa asked how Hans was doing. With a glint of amusement shimmering in her eyes, Anna responded smugly, "He's been nice and quiet."

"Oh." Elsa remained fixed in place, some unknown force rooting her feet to the ground. The room suddenly filled with a deafening silence and she felt her pulse thumping in her throat as a wave of dread crept up her spine. When she left them, Hans hadn't been covered up heavily the way he was now. In fact, there was no logical reason for him to be bundled up so heavily considering it was way too hot to be blanketed with so much clothes as he was. She also noted he wasn't in the same spot he was before, and she was quite certain the very spot he had occupied previously was the same area that was now drenched in blood. A lot of blood.

Why was he moved? And where had all the blood come from? And why did Anna seem so relaxed and unbothered by everything?

Painstakingly slow, she half turned in Hans's direction and studied him from afar. She told herself he was sound asleep and fine, that the blood that dirtied the ground was not his own, that it belonged to whatever mysterious animal Anna might have caught. She assured herself that Anna would never do anything that would seriously hurt him. Yes, Anna called him names and belittled him a lot but she generally kept her distance from him.

So why did she have such a bad feeling?

The jar was becoming very heavy to her and the canteen strap around her neck seemed to be constricting and choking the air from her lungs. Elsa inched closer to where Hans lay and Anna quietly said, "I wouldn't go any further."

But Elsa didn't listen. It was almost as if she didn't hear the redhead's warning.

Hans is asleep, Elsa thought confidently, inching closer to his position, her shoes scraping the floor as she dragged herself closer and closer at an extremely slow rate, nervousness making her jittery and wary. He was always a heavy sleeper, she reminded herself. He could sleep through a volcano eruption.

He lay on his back by the wall, silent and unmoving, one arm sprawled out at his side, the only other visible part of him besides his head not obscured from view. One of Hans's eyelids was cracked open slightly, making it look as if he were awake. Shadows from the flames played across his body, and at one point Elsa thought his finger twitched. It didn't take her long to figure out the shadows were tricking her and she almost thought she heard them mocking her, laughing at her. She vigorously shook her head to clear it.

She repeatedly told herself he was sleeping and that was all. He wasn't dead, he wasn't a corpse. Everything was fine. Hans would wake up and he'd be the same as usual- in pain from his broken leg and a pain in the ass, but okay nonetheless. There was nothing to worry about. They were alive and well- or as well as one could be stranded on an island for as long as they had been- and they'd all leave the island with all body parts intact. Rescue was coming, so no one could die now, not when freedom was so close.

Swallowing hard, she pinched a shirt spread out over his limbs between her two fingers and hesitated. Where Hans's broken leg should have been the clothes lay flat, as if there was nothing underneath it at all, which freaked Elsa out. She didn't want to lift the cloth away to see what lay beneath- or rather what didn't lay beneath. But she knew she didn't have a choice. Because she had to be sure.

Anna vigilantly eyed her. She released a sigh and set her dinner off to the side, rising to her knees, ready to spring into action if necessary. Warily she saw Elsa hesitate and she silently told the other girl not to lift it. And then Elsa picked one end of a shirt up, one that was covering the area the leg would normally connect to the hip bone. And, sighing once more, Anna waited for the inevitable.

The reaction was instantaneous.

Glass shattered and water splashed everywhere as the jar Elsa had clasped in her arms disintegrated into tiny shards as it bounced and crashed against the solid floor at her feet. She stumbled back, and with her hands free she covered her eyes as if that could block out the ghastly sight she'd just seen. Even with her eyes closed so tightly they hurt she had the image burned inside her head- an image of Hans with one leg missing from the top of the thigh down. Gone. Severed off. Jagged edges of the skin, what remained of the bone, and a whole mess of blood was the only thing left of it.

And Elsa screamed. She screamed and ran without thinking. Out of the cave at full speed she sprinted. Running blindly. Blood pumping rapidly through her veins as she raced through the dense forest. Anna shouted for her to stop and her feet pounded the floor as she chased her. And all Elsa could think was, She killed Hans. She killed him.

And she's going to kill me too.

Hands grabbed her and Elsa jerked away, fighting them off. "Don't touch me!" she screamed, chills crawling across her skin at the other girl's touch. She kicked back with her legs, flailed her arms, spinning them like a windmill to keep Anna at bay.

"Elsa, stop! Calm down! Where are you going?" Anna caught her and spun her around, gripping her elbow, keeping her in place.

"Let go of me. LET GO!"

"Hey! Stop fighting me." Anna dodged Elsa's flying fists and cried, "What's your problem?"

One fist connected hard, smashing full force into her nose, knocking her back and releasing the firm grip she had on Elsa. Anna, stunned, staggered several feet back and gingerly touched her sore nose, wincing from the immediate pain she felt. Elsa clenched her fist, her knuckles red where they collided into Anna, her eyes on fire.

"You have the audacity to ask me what my problem is," Elsa seethed, her voice trembling with rage, "when Hans is lying dead back there." She jabbed her finger back at the cave. "DEAD. He's dead, Anna!" she exclaimed hotly. "He's dead because you killed him! You KILLED him and then you ATE him for crying out loud!"

Carefully rubbing her nose, Anna pleaded, "Let me explain so you'll understa-"

"Explain?!"

"Yes! Just...listen to me," Anna hushed. She came forward and Elsa flung herself back a step, bumping into a tree, placing even more distance between them. So Anna stopped, holding up her hands. "Relax. I'm not going to hurt you. Jeez. Look, I know you're troubled about... what happened. But really, I did it solely for survival, Elsa. You should understand that because, you know, in the wild the weak, old, and injured die. If a water buffalo were too old to travel the herd would eventually move on without it. They just abandon them like that and leave them to defend for themselves against predators. The outcome usually isn't good. But it's natural."

Elsa knew that. When she was younger she used to spend her time watching Animal Planet on TV. She loved watching the animals, and when a part came on that showed a poor animal getting attacked and killed by a lion or alligator she was always filled with sadness. And she always cried too. She remembered her father telling her that it was the way the food chain worked. In order for the lions to thrive they needed to eat, and in order to eat they had to hunt and kill another animal. "You're absolutely right..." she agreed. "In the WILD that happens. But we are not wild, Anna. We're human beings!"

Solemnly Anna bobbed her head. "That's exactly my point. We are humans. We're just as wild as any wild animal that exists." She licked her lips and tasted blood. She rubbed underneath her nostrils and came away with fresh blood at the back of her hand. "Hans is better off dead," she said huskily. "He was a useless piece of crap. He did nothing to help us. All he did was get himself into trouble."

It was true about him getting into trouble, Elsa couldn't deny that. "He didn't deserve to die." She imagined the suffering Hans endured as the axe sank into his leg, more than once. She heard his anguished cries in her head and wondered what his last thoughts were before he died. And he probably hadn't died right away either. The probable cause of death was blood loss. He would have still been alive once his leg was removed, she assumed, but he would have been bleeding profusely. And there had been a lot of blood and nothing to block the flow of it. "He could still be alive if you'd made a tourniquet and stopped him from bleeding to death."

"Oh, sure!" Anna flung her hands up in the air and let them fall, slapping her thighs. "Right. Like I would have thought of that. You're the doctor here," she said smartly. "I couldn't even bandage my own injury that first day. You remember that don't you? You made me help myself while you gave Hans all your care and attention. You were even there for him when he broke his leg, making sure he was comfortable... Oh, but when I felt like fainting a while ago you just told me to walk back to the cave by myself. You didn't even care until I dropped into the sand…" A realization came to her suddenly and her expression darkened. "Hold on. I think I get it now."

Elsa, not understanding, inquired, "What?"

"It all makes sense!" Anna stated brusquely, glowering at her. "You had a crush on him, didn't you?" she accused.

"What?!" Elsa's jaw dropped in astonishment.

A chorus of crickets chirped right on cue, keeping the awkward silence that would have come at that very moment at bay. The crickets alerted Elsa and she realized the sun was setting. It was getting dark fast. But neither of the girls moved to head back to the cave, and Elsa didn't plan on setting foot inside that place again, not after what she'd seen.

Poor Hans...

The two girls stood separated from each other, one a bloody mess, hands hanging loosely by her side, unhappiness scrawled upon her dirty face. The other girl across from her was free of blood except for where the redhad had grabbed at her and had her hands balled into fists.

Anna's words rang and echoed inside Elsa's head.

Her? With a crush on Hans? Flabbergasted, she held her head in her hands and felt like bursting into a fit of giggles. For some strange reason the thought of her being with Hans was just too hilarious, too comical to even consider. The seriousness of the situation kept her from so much as chuckling, however. She kept her laughs under control and sobered up quickly, reliving what she'd seen back at the cave not too long ago, the pictures of what remained of Hans vivid and clear in her mind. She shuddered and rubbed her arms as if she were cold. "I never did have a crush on Hans. I liked him, yes, but in a sisterly way; as a friend. Nothing more."

Anna snorted. "So you say." She scrubbed her wrist to wipe off the blood she had smeared around it but her attempts were futile. Licking her finger, she rubbed her saliva onto the blood, and it helped a little. Still, there was too much of it and if she used her own saliva to clean it off it would take forever. Before going to bed she would need to bathe in the ocean and scrub herself clean.

"Explain to me this: if I liked him then why was I with you most of the time?" Elsa shot back heatedly. Her cheeks turned deep red then, and she turned away and violently crushed a growing weed under her tattered shoe, worn out because of all the walking she'd done on the island.

What was the use in arguing about this now? she thought, lifting her foot. The weed she stomped on flinched and jerked up a bit on its now bent stem and tilted to one side. It bobbed on its broken spine and drooped precariously low, no longer standing straight, appearing to be ready to tip completely.

"Oh that's not hard to figure out," Anna answered snidely, responding to her question. "It's not hard to use people, you know. That's all you were doing when 'you were with me,' as you say. You were using me. Why else would you be with me if you don't love me?"

"I..." Deflated, Elsa sank to a sitting position, pressing her back against the roughness of a trunk behind her. "I'm telling you the truth, and whether you believe me or not doesn't matter..." The question now was not whether she loved Anna or not. At one point it was, and she was never very sure whether the way she felt toward Anna was love or not. Maybe the reason she was so unsure was because it was all new to her still, being in love with another girl. After much thought she concluded that she did indeed love Anna in some weird, twisted way- but she came to that conclusion way too late.

The new question she needed to figure out: was it possible to love someone that murdered another cold-heartedly?

She decided that, yes, there were some people out there who may love or have loved a murderer. And she also decided that she wasn't one of those people. There was no way she could love Anna after what she'd seen. It just wasn't possible. She couldn't even bear her touching her now. And just knowing that part of Hans was digesting in her stomach made her want to heave.

Elsa yanked the crippled weed her foot had smashed out of the ground and twisted it in her hands, winding it around her fingers until its stem came apart and she had two halves in her hands. She let the broken weed fall. "I just... I don't... Why, Anna? Why did you have to kill him... now? Why couldn't you have waited a bit longer? Just a tiny bit longer," she said weakly, throwing her hands up in defeat. "If you'd waited a couple more days we all could have left this place..."

"Left?" That got Anna's attention. "And how exactly could that happen? Did you go ahead and build that raft you were talking about?"

Sadly shaking her head and wishing she had gone ahead and at least tried her raft plan, Elsa told Anna all about the plane. At first Anna laughed at her words, thinking it was a joke. Then she was confused and her confusion slipped away, replaced by incredulity. Despite her blood covered face, Elsa noticed how pale Anna became. She coughed and then was silent as she mulled this shocking news over and then tentatively said, "We're leaving the island then? Someone's coming to get us out of here?"

"Yes. I know the pilot flying had to have seen me on the beach. He was flying pretty low, like he was searching for something so he couldn't have missed me. There wasn't much he could do in such a small plane though; there was no way he could have helped us by himself. So he went off to get help and I imagine the rescue team will be here in the morning when they'll be able to see in the day time."

Speechless, Anna blinked, pulling on the skin of her neck right below her chin absently. "I see..." she whispered, her forehead creasing with worry lines.

The way she was acting made Elsa believe she didn't want to leave the island. That, of course, was farfetched. Why would anyone want to stay here when the island offered them nothing to live off of? There was nothing there for them. But there was something bothering Anna that had her worried and made her fidgety. Before Elsa could ask anything, Anna swore explosively. Sluggishly she started toward the cave. Then she stopped and half turned back, chewing on her thumb nail, glancing shortly at Elsa before she continued plodding back to the cave, leaving Elsa by herself to wonder.

AN: o.o Soo... that happened.