Author's Note: A million thanks to everyone who read, reviewed, followed or favorited! When I'm crazy busy and struggling to carve out time to write, I reread my reviews and remind myself how much I hate it when my favorite fanfic authors leave their stories unfinished. Happy 2016 everyone!
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"We're living off of fish, mostly," Rosalie said, as Bella stared out over the water. She found herself unconsciously scanning for a glimpse of Edward, but he had vanished from the bridge and she saw no sign of him on the opposite shore. "We have some packaged food like we got out of the vending machine, but we're trying to save that."
"That's nice," Bella said vaguely. For a moment she had felt almost euphoric at the realization that she would have a safe place to spend the night. But the minute had passed and now she felt completely exhausted. Just standing there under the heated glare of the sun was almost too much for her. She closed her eyes and could feel the beams burning on her eyelids. Her body felt impossibly heavy, and her mind seemed to be slowing down, turning sluggish.
Rosalie was saying something, but Bella couldn't quite catch the words. She swayed on her feet, and then suddenly there was a cool hand at her wrist, and Bella opened her eyes to see Rosalie looming over her. Bella felt a strange coolness on the seat of her shorts, and she realized that she had sat down on the shore, and the damp soil was soaking through her cut-offs. Under different circumstances it would have felt uncomfortable, but now she felt numb to everything except the overwhelming need to sleep. Blinking blearily up at Rosalie, she realized that she couldn't remember the last time she'd slept. It had to have been sometime in the last two or three days, but she honestly couldn't remember.
"Oh Lord," she was dimly aware of Rosalie muttering above her. "All right then, let me get you back to my tent. Come on. I can't carry you. I'm not Emmett." Bella allowed Rosalie to pull her upright, and every step towards the tent seemed to take more energy than she could spare.
"I don't know what's wrong," she heard herself murmur wonderingly to Rosalie. "I was okay a minute ago."
"It happens," Rosalie said shortly, "you know you're safe now, and so everything you've been through is finally catching up with you." Even to the barely-conscious Bella Rosalie didn't sound particularly sympathetic, but she steered Bella into a hot, dark tent, and nudged her towards an air mattress.
Bella couldn't lie down fast enough, and the worst thing of all was that now that her defenses were down and her mind was blank, the memories were creeping back. Every image she had tried to repress was suddenly whirling through her mind, too quickly to process. She felt chilled to the bone, and even though the tent was stiflingly hot, she was shaking as she stretched out on her stomach. She felt cold, nauseous, weak and delirious. It was like some hideous blend of a nightmare and the flu. Scenes of violence from the outbreak flashed through her brain, and for a time she was in some netherworld, halfway between awareness and unconscious. Then the darkness finally swallowed her, and she slept long and dreamlessly.
She woke slowly, in stages. She was aware of the heat first. It was the oppressive heat of a sweltering southern summer; Bella felt like she was being suffocated inside of the tent, but her body still felt too boneless and limp to move, so she lay as she was and drifted halfway back to sleep. At some point she heard voices, deep, male voices, quite close by, and her spine stiffened in fear before she remembered where she was and that there were men in the camp. She wondered vaguely if Edward was back, and then she was lost to unconsciousness once more.
The third time she woke she was immediately aware of her pressing need to pee. Her tongue was dry as cotton and her mouth tasted foul, the natural result of going over a week without brushing her teeth. She sat up slowly, becoming aware as she did so that there was no light shining through the canvas of the tent. The sun must have set while she was sleeping. It was a pity that it hadn't taken the heat with it. Bella stood, one of her knees cracking loudly as she put weight on it. She was still weak from lack of food, but much stronger than she had been before she slept.
On one side of the tent, there was a dull glow shining through the canvas, and she could make out the silhouettes of several people seated around some light source. A fire, she realized dazedly. They had a fire. She followed the brush of fresh air against her face, which led her to the opening of the tent. It was unzipped as much as possible, which Bella was grateful for. If they had zipped the tent up she might have died in there of heat exhaustion. She stumbled out of the tent, and turned in the direction of the fire.
There were two fires, actually. Maryann and Walter and their three children were clustered around the more distant one. Rosalie sat at the closest one, along with the older woman, Nora, the three Cullen brothers, and a blonde man Bella didn't recognize. There was no sign of the man with the bloody shirt. Bella observed the closer gathering in silence for a moment. Edward was back, and he was speaking quietly to Rosalie, almost whispering to her. For the first time Bella had seen, Rosalie was almost smiling a real smile.
Then a twig snapped under Bella's feet as she shifted her weight, and everyone on the island was suddenly staring at her. Her glance darted from each person to the next, before finally settling on Edward. His catlike green eyes were inscrutable as he stared at her, and the dancing flames cast twisting shadows over his bronze skin.
"Hello," Bella said, finally tearing her eyes from Edward and looking instead at Rosalie. "Um, where's the bathroom?" She didn't voice her sneaking suspicion that there was no bathroom on the island, since if it was true they were likely to correct her immediately. Indeed they did, for all three of the Cullen brothers burst into laughter. Bella fought to keep a frown off of her face. Each moment she spent with the Cullen brothers brought memories from high school flooding back, and most of them were not good. She remembered that laughter. They had laughed at her a great deal in high school, mocking her shyness and criticizing her inhibitions. Edward in particular had always been watching, always been laughing with those molten, angry eyes. The sound of his mirth was harsh, deep, and very familiar.
What was new was the unexpected flutter that she felt low in her stomach when Edward threw his head back and laughed, white teeth flashing in the darkness. Rosalie, who had reverted from a faint smile back to a vaguely bored expression, glanced at Nora, and as if on cue the older woman rose. "Well, we haven't got a bathroom, exactly, but why don't you come with me?"
Bella nodded and tried to ignore the sounds of laughter at her back as she followed Nora into the darkness.
