A/N: Major props go out to angel2u. You are honestly the most awesome person ever. You guys have angel2u to thank for my updating. angel2u has been pushing me to update. I've got a tonne of homework, but I'll do my best to update on a semi-regular basis.
Chapter 8
The plane was gone. Only a wing remained. The center of the entire camp was demolished; ripped away from the survivors during the monsoon that swept across the island like the hand of God. 11 days they had survived and then the storm had hit. Most of their gear was gone, swept into the ocean with the plane. They all knew that they had to start all over, and that their chances of rescue had diminished now that the plane had disappeared; there was nothing for the searchers to see from the air.
The survivors of Flight 29 DWN were taking inventory of all they had left after the storm.
"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" Daley asked Lex, Nathan, Melissa and Taylor, the only four castaways at their camp.
"Just get the bad news over with." Nathan replied.
"Well, we're almost out of packaged food. Everything got thrashed, including all the fruit we collected."
"That's okay, we'll just pick more." Melissa said optimistically.
"Where?" Eric asked, walking into camp with one of his beach chairs. "All the fruit trees got stripped in the storm."
"We'll find more." Nathan said, irritated with how happy Eric seemed. "What else?" he asked Daley.
"Well, with the plane gone, we don't have a solid place to store things or a marker to be seen from the air."
"And the radio was on board." Lex complained.
"Maybe that plane heard us." Melissa argued. During the storm, Nathan had almost gotten electrocuted trying to contact a plane that had responded to their SOS transmission.
"Yeah, and maybe there's a Tooth Fairy." Eric replied sarcastically,
"That's not funny."
"Well, if they heard us they'd probably be here by now!"
Eric and Melissa glared at each other as Jackson walked into camp with their tent over his shoulder. "Well, we're down to one tent." he stated, throwing the tent onto the ground.
"What?" Eric exclaimed in indignation. "We're all gonna sleep in the same place?"
"Eric, could you be a little more negative?" Nathan asked.
"Yeah, he could be." Sierra walked up and surreptitiously put her hand on Jackson's back. He casually draped his arm around her shoulders. "I've got my hammock, and any supplies that were in my cave. All in all, it's not much."
"You said there was good news?" Melissa turned her head to Daley. She had noticed the obvious display of physical attraction between Jackson and Sierra and couldn't bear to watch it.
"Well yeah!" Daley nodded enthusiastically. "None of us got hurt." They all looked down, sombrely. Though three of their little group had been trapped out in the storm for an extended amount of time, they all had emerged relatively unscathed.
"Guys I can't believe that it's been…eleven days!"
"Try three years." Sierra muttered.
Jackson squeezed her shoulders in comfort before looking at Nathan. "Look, its simple. Okay, we just have to rebuild. Why don't we just-"
"Okay, I am so sick of this teamwork thing!" Eric exclaimed, jumping out of his seat. Everyone began arguing against him.
"Eric, just keep your big mouth shut, for once in your life." Sierra rolled her eyes at her twin brother's antics. She still hadn't forgiven him for blowing Jackson's secret.
"Everyone's arguing about all these chores and rules and schedules! I'm starting to worry about the one thing that I care about most: me."
"There's a surprise." Sierra glared at him. Everyone else stared at him in shock. Eric raised his arms in aggravation and stormed away from camp.
"Eric, come back!" Melissa chased after him.
"Jackson, go after him." Daley pleaded.
"It's his choice." Jackson shook his head in defeat, as sick of Eric as his sister was.
Daley looked pleadingly at Nathan. "We're falling apart!" she cried, despairingly. She threw down her ever-present clipboard and walked after Eric. Nathan watched her go before following. Lex, not wanting to get left behind, chased after them.
Jackson looked down at Taylor, who was sitting forlornly on the cooler. "Well, what's your opinion?" he asked sarcastically. She continued to look at the baron stretch of sand in front of her. "Yeah, of course." Jackson shook his head as he bent to pick up the tent. He exited the campsite with Sierra in tow.
Eric was off with Taylor building a shelter for himself. Actually, Taylor was more of a hindrance than a help; she hadn't said a word since that morning.
"…Let Daley boss herself around for a change." Eric was saying. Taylor continued sitting there, catatonic. Eric laughed to himself. "Actually that's pretty funny. Best thing of all is that I have nobody in charge of me. So! I don't have to listen to anything Jackson has to say, ever again." Eric gave a sigh of relief as he turned, finding himself face to face with the aforementioned leader. It took everything Eric had not to give a yelp of shock. Jackson looked at him blankly. "Well, uh, that's just the way it's gonna be Chief." Eric walked past him. Jackson glanced over at Taylor, who was staring out at nothing.
Jackson and Sierra walked up to the rock face of the waterfall. The water levels had risen due to the storm, so the loud rumbling had reached a near-deafening level. "So, what exactly do you have up there?" Jackson asked her, watching her carefully as she slowly began climbing the cliff.
"Actually, not that much. A little food, our sleeping bags, the matches, and some wood. That's it." Sierra called down as he began to climb behind her.
"But still, not much is better than nothing."
"True." By this time, she was already hauling herself into the cave. She turned and helped Jackson is as well. "So, how exactly are we going to get this stuff out of the cave?"
"Easy. One of us will climb back down, and the other will throw the supplies gently back to them."
"You couldn't have told me this before we were both up here?"
Sierra sighed and settled cross-legged next to the fire pit. "You keep saying that we have to talk about last night. I figured this is the perfect place; no prying eyes, no interruptions. It's perfect."
"You're perfect," he mumbled.
"What was that?"
"Nothing." They sat in silence as Jackson allowed his flaming cheeks to return to their normal, tanned colour. "But we do have to talk."
"I know. Relationships are a bad idea here. If something happened; if we broke up, there would be no hiding from each other. There would be no time to heal. Last night was wonderful. I felt human again for the first time in a long time. But it was also a close call. With the absence of rules and ideologies, who knows how far we would go? Last night is proof of that. If Eric hadn't shown up when he did, we would've woken up this morning regretting what had happened. There are too many consequences to think about. And we should be focused on getting rescued. Now that there are more people here, we may actually have a chance of getting rescued and getting off this island." Jackson nodded his head slowly. These were the same arguments he was going to use on her, but, coming out of her mouth, they sounded wrong…like she was trying to convince herself as well as him. "And-"
"Do you care about me?" he asked.
"What?"
"Do you care about me?"
"Well, yeah, you're my best friend here. Hell, you're my best friend anywhere; my other friends don't know I'm alive."
"I mean, do you like me?"
"Jackson, I just said-"
"NO!" Sierra jumped back a little at his frustrated tone. "Do you like me like me?"
Sierra flushed a brilliant red. "Well…I…um…"
"You said I make you feel human again, right?" Sierra nodded and he moved closer to her, so he could see the miniscule droplets of sweat running down her neck. "I haven't felt this way ever," he whispered. "Look, forget what I said earlier, about not having relationships. We've got so much stress and pressure on our shoulders right now; we need to remember what it's like to be human." He leaned forward and nipped her earlobe before bending his head and laying soft kisses intermingled with light nips and sucking on her neck. Sierra threw her head back and moaned. He worked his way across her collarbone to her other ear. "I need you. Crashing on this island is the best thing that ever happened to me because it brought me to you."
"Jackson…" Sierra sighed his name and leaned forward to capture his lips with hers. Their tongues battled back and forth. Sierra's hands tangled in his sandy blonde hair while Jackson's hands splayed across her back. Jackson ripped their lips apart when he felt that she needed to breathe, and he proceeded to leave bright red marks all the way down her neck to her pulse point. "Jackson, what about the others?"
"Screw the others. I'm sick of having to deal with their bullshit drama all the time. I just want to worry about you and me. That's all I care about."
"But…" Sierra moaned as he lightly bit down on her shoulder. "But, you're their leader."
Jackson pulled away, panting slightly. "I'll resign. Daley will be a better leader, and she wants it so damn badly, she can have it."
"You would do that for me?"
"I would do anything for you." At that, Sierra fused their lips together once more.
Nathan and Daley were sitting discussing what to do next. Nathan was acting like a lovesick puppy dog, agreeing with everything Daley said. Jackson stood watching them with his arms crossed. "Which of them would be the better leader?" Jackson thought to himself. "Daley's stubborn enough to get what she wants, but she's also crazy bossy, which would drive everybody nuts. At this point, Nathan would just agree with everything Daley would want to do, so he'd be useless. Even though I'm renouncing my role, that doesn't mean that I'm abandoning them. I've gotten them this far, but nobody trusts me now that Eric blew my secret. Except Sierra." Jackson grinned at the thought of his…Well, one could call her his girlfriend. The thought made him happy. He'd had girlfriends back in Fresno, but none of them could hold a candle to Sierra. They had returned a few minutes ago, carrying everything that Sierra had in the cave. After about 15 more minutes of kissing and making out, Jackson had scurried down the side of the cliff to catch everything that Sierra threw to him. They would have held hands back to camp, but 1) Their hands were full, and 2) They didn't want to get caught. She had left him to take a swim in the ocean when they had returned and settled all the supplies in. He had considered going with her, but she had denied him, swaying her hips seductively as she sauntered away from him. For a girl who hadn't been around guys for three years, she sure hadn't forgotten how to tease. He turned away from Nathan and Daley, and went to sit on the wing of the plane, staring out at the ocean. Sierra was far in the distance, trying to coax a shy dolphin towards her. She was wearing a brown and turquoise bikini that fit her just right. She had told Jackson that she had been forced to take some of the other girls' luggage from the plane as a precaution.
Jackson sat on the place wing, contemplating what it would have been like to be completely alone for three years. His facial expression grew serious as he considered that he might be in that predicament at present. 11 days; Nathan was right, they had been gone for so long with little sign on rescue. And now he was considering giving up leadership of the group of survivors. It was true; he was tired of all the group drama and Daley would make a way better leader than he did. "And it's not like I'm giving up on the group; all the decisions will still affect me. I just can't make those decisions anymore." So immersed was he in his thoughts that he didn't notice Melissa climbing up the wing towards him until she was right in front of him.
"Hey," she greeted him. "Planning our next move?"
"Yeah, something like that." he replied, gazing out at the water. The dolphin was swimming away from Sierra and she was laughing as it playfully jumped out of the water.
"Well, I'm not worried." Melissa assured him. "You know, Eric's just being Eric and Taylor's never been much help anyways, but Daley and Nathan aren't competing anymore and you know I'm on your side, so…all you've got to do is figure out a way to get us all on the same page." she finished brightly.
He shot her a sarcastic glance paired with a lopsided grin. "Is that all?" He sighed. "You know Mel? I don't think everybody wants to be on the same page."
She looked worriedly at him, and he hopped off the wing as Sierra trekked onto the beach. He threw her a towel, which she wrapped around her body. He followed her back to camp, where she ducked into the one tent they had and changed into a pair of jean short-shorts and one of Taylor's red tank tops. They were about to enter the jungle for some 'alone time' when Lex converged upon them, grabbing their hands and dragging them away. Melissa, suspicious, followed them at a discrete distance.
They passed Daley telling Eric off about taking one of the camp knives to use on his shelter and entered a different area of the jungle.
"I didn't want to tell anybody until I knew it was going to work." Lex was saying. "With everybody being so down, now might be a good time to show it." Lex's voice trailed back to Melissa as she crept quietly behind them. They came upon a black tarp lying on the ground.
"What is it?" Jackson asked.
Lex lifted one edge of the tarp, revealing its contents. "Ta-da!" Jackson crouched beside the tarp and Sierra stood behind him. Melissa could not see what was going on with them in her way. "What's the matter?" Lex asked, noting Jackson's serious face.
"It's good Lex, it really is." Jackson replied.
"So, what's wrong?"
"I don't know; it makes me feel like we're in bigger trouble than I thought." Jackson looked up at the young boy and stood up. He wandered deeper into the jungle.
At Lex's crestfallen expression, Sierra said, "I'll talk to him Lex. It's a great idea; I wish I'd thought of it." Sierra jogged after him. Lex covered up whatever was under the tarp and turned to leave. Melissa hid herself behind a tree as he passed, then moved to go after Jackson and Sierra. They had been acting weird all day, and she wanted to know what was going on.
She entered a small clearing. Jackson was standing in the center with his hands on his hips and his head tilted towards the sky. Sierra slowly approached him and wrapped her arms around his waist. She buried her head in between his shoulder blades. Melissa inhaled sharply and hid behind a tree, peeking her head between branches so she could see.
Their voices wafted to her on the breeze. "Jackson, you know that Lex was only trying to help."
"I know that, but still it-"
"Scares you?" Melissa saw Jackson nod his head. "I'm scared too Jackson. I've always been scared."
Jackson turned and wrapped his arms around her. "But you should have to be scared anymore. We should have been rescued by now. It's not fair to you."
"It's not fair to any of you. But it's happening."
Jackson sighed and buried his head into her shoulder. "You're right. We have to roll with the punches; we can't start freaking out about the future. I'll apologize to Lex later."
"Good." Sierra turned to walk away but Jackson ensnared her waist between his arms, pulling her flush against him.
"I'm not done with you yet." Jackson lowered his lips to hers and pressed her up against a tree close by. Melissa turned and fled.
"I can't believe him! That lying, cheating…LIAR!" Melissa couldn't believe what she had seen. Jackson and Sierra? And after everything he had said about having no relationships on the island. He had lied to her face and was now stabbing her in the back. "How could he do this to me? It's not like I like him like that any more, but still! I thought he liked me back! Am I not worth a long period to get over?" Melissa's thoughts were reeling. All she could see was the two of them. "It all makes sense now! They've been touchy-feely since yesterday, but they've always been close. How did she get so close to him having only known him for a couple of days?" Melissa hated the new girl; she had completely taken her spot in the group.
By this time, Melissa had wandered into Eric's clearing, where he was trying to cut down a tree with one of the camp knives. Taylor was sitting on a log nearby. Taylor! She was the one person she could tell about Jackson and Sierra. With her big mouth, Taylor would have the news all over camp within the hour.
"Hey!" Melissa greeted her, a large smile on her face. "How's your foot?" Taylor stared at the blank stretch of sand in front of her. "You haven't said much about what's going on." Melissa mentioned. At Taylor's blank stare, Melissa felt her temper flare up. Everyone was acting like it was opposite day! Jackson wasn't following his own rules; Taylor wasn't speaking. "I wish you wouldn't ignore me!" Taylor didn't flinch. "Taylor, this isn't funny!" Melissa bent to examine Taylor's face. "Hey, are you okay? Taylor?"
Jackson and Sierra walked back to the edge of the jungle. They released their grip on each others hands and casually strolled back into camp. Jackson bent to assist Lex with mending a camp chair that had been damaged in the storm. He quickly apologized for his earlier behaviour and Lex beamed at him.
"It's alright! I just thought it would be better to plan ahead."
"It's a great idea Lex. I'm proud of you."
Lex smiled brightly at him as Nathan and Daley walked into camp, discussing shelter plans.
Melissa ran into camp. "I've got a problem." Everyone looked up. "It's Taylor."
"So, what else is new?" Nathan laughed
"She's totally non-functional!" Melissa protested.
"That's not new." Everyone laughed.
"This isn't funny! Everything that's happened…it must have just put her over the edge or something; it's like she's in shock!"
"She hasn't said very much." Lex added.
"She hasn't said anything!"
"That is weird." Daley commented.
"So, what should we do?" Lex asked.
"Jackson?" Daley looked at their leader, who remained silent as Eric stormed over from the supply bin.
"Nothing! Stop trying to run peoples lives!" he told her.
"But Taylor's hurting!" Melissa told him.
"She'd be fine if you left her alone! Back me up on this one, Chief! You heard me say it: everyone for themselves."
"It is?" Lex looked amazed.
"We're falling apart here Jackson. You need to do something!" Jackson lowered his head into his hands as Sierra sat protectively next to him. She knew that he was contemplating relinquishing his leadership for her, but she would never force him to. At the rate things were going, they were going to force him to resign. Or blow up at them.
"Yeah man! You're the leader; lead us!" Nathan piped up.
"You guys don't need a leader; you need a referee." Jackson replied.
"What does that mean?"
Jackson slowly stood. "I didn't want this job in the first place!" he replied angrily. "I'm not good at dealing with drama!"
"But that's part of the job!" Daley protested.
"Yeah, which is why I think you'd be better at it then me!" Jackson pointed at her.
Silence ensued until Daley asked, "What are you saying?"
"I'm saying that maybe I should step back and let someone else take a shot." Jackson turned to walk away from the shocked expressions. "I'm gonna go check on Taylor." He began walking down the beach. "You coming?" he called back. Sierra stood and scurried to his side, leaving the rest of the camp in a stunned silence.
"What just happened?" Nathan asked one they were out of earshot.
"I think he resigned." Melissa looked after him, noting how he placed his arm around Sierra's shoulder and pulled her gently into his side.
"So, how was that?" Jackson bent his head to look at the petite girl walking beside him.
"You know that you didn't have to do that, right?" Sierra responded, glancing up into his stormy blue eyes.
"I know. But I wanted to. I just can't deal with them. Like I said, they need a referee."
"Or a psychiatrist." Sierra mumbled.
Jackson laughed and kissed her hair. "Yeah, maybe they need a shrink."
They walked in companionable silence until they could see Taylor sitting on the log where Melissa had left her. "I think you should talk to Taylor alone." Sierra mentioned, stopping alongside him.
"Why?"
"Because two people may overwhelm her. Plus, you said that you were going to talk to her. If you make no progress, I'll take a shot at it."
"Okay." He bent his head to kiss her sweetly then went to sit by her. Somehow, Eric had beaten them there, and he was giving Taylor a pep talk on how not to listen to them.
Jackson slowly approached her from behind. "Hey." He shook his head a little; he was terrible with girls. The only girl that really got him was Sierra, which meant that Melissa and Taylor and Daley were lost to him. "Having fun yet?" He crouched next to her and looked at Eric attempting to build a shelter. "Look, um…" He paused to consider how to broach the subject. "Nobody here is as brave or as strong as they pretend to be, you know? You take a lot of grief." He laughed a little. "Of course, you give a lot of grief too. But I think you're the only one that's, you know, truly honest." He paused and waited. Of course, he wasn't adding Sierra into the mix. He was only speaking about the group from Flight 29 DWN. "If you ever want to talk…" Jackson let his sentence trail off, knowing that she knew what he meant. He stood and walked away, not noticing as Taylor slowly blinked and turned to look at him.
Nathan and Daley were on a mission. They passed Melissa and Nathan called out to her to follow them. Daley shrugged her shoulders, unsure of what Nathan was doing. Melissa ran to catch up to them.
Lex was with his piece of tarp when he heard Nathan call out for him. "Lex? Lex, come here!" Lex scurried behind.
Jackson was carrying two water jugs towards camp. "Hey, follow me."
"No clue." Melissa said in response to his questioning glance. He dropped the water jugs and turned to follow.
Sierra was sitting next to Taylor in the tent, watching Eric struggle with cutting down the tree when Nathan, followed by the group, walked towards the tent.
Nathan turned towards Eric. "Hey Eric!' Eric turned to look at him. "We're having a meeting!"
Eric waved his hand at him. "Yeah okay, I'll be right there!"
"What's going on?" Lex questioned.
"I'm calling a meeting." Nathan replied.
"What about Eric?" Melissa asked.
Nathan turned. "Hey, you coming?" Eric ignored him.
Jackson came up beside Nathan. "What's this about?"
"It's about what Eric's doing. And it's about all of us." Jackson took a seat on the cooler while Sierra sat in front of him. "Alright guys, we've been stuck 11 days and we're starting to have doubts. But I have no doubt in my mind; we will be rescued. It might be soon, it might be longer, but we will be rescued. We've survived a plane crash! We've found food; we've found water; we've found another survivor to add to our group!" Nathan nodded his head respectfully at Sierra. "We've been through sickness and storms, injuries and bugs! And we're still here! And I think there's only one reason for that. It's because we all play a part. We can criticize and argue and complain all we want. But the bottom line: we need each other! Every choice we make, it affects us all. So, we need somebody to keep us focused, we need a leader. Now Jackson has done a great job, but he doesn't want to do it anymore, and that's cool. But we still need someone. And not somebody to be the boss, not to order us around, but to keep us from spinning out of control. And I think it's pretty obvious who that person should be." Nathan looked full front at Daley. Everyone else considered her; Jackson and Melissa were nodding their heads. "We all need to take responsibility because, if we don't, it doesn't matter how long it takes for those rescue planes to come. We won't make it. It's as simple as that: if we don't stand together, we won't make it." There was a pause to let Nathan's words sink in. Jackson stood and slapped him on the arm. Sierra stood, smiled and nodded. Lex moved to stand next to Nathan. Melissa stood up as well. Soon enough, everyone by Taylor was standing, ready to take on the challenge of rebuilding.
"Timber!" Eric yelled, breaking their silence. The tree he had been sawing at began to fall. "No!" Eric shouted as it switched direction towards his shelter. "No, no, no, no, no!" Everyone regarded the now shattered shelter. Sierra bit her lip to keep from laughing while Jackson had an 'I-told-you-so' smirk on his face. "NO!" Eric stomped his foot like a child.
Slowly, a quiet laugh sounded behind the group of standing survivors. The laugh rose steadily in volume and joyousness until it sounded almost hysterical. They all turned to see Taylor nearly rolling on the ground laughing. "Now that is funny!" Taylor exclaimed. Everyone began to laugh along, mostly in relief. Jackson shook his head and resumed his seat. Taylor was okay, and that was all that mattered. That and the beautiful girl who had just sat beside him, laughing ecstatically. Once again, her laugh reminded him of orchids. A strange comparison, but it was exotic and happy. Jackson sighed with happiness.
"You are going to love this." Lex called to his friends. He was leading them along the same path he had led Sierra and Jackson earlier that day.
"Unless it involves pizza, I doubt it." Taylor yelled back as she stepped into a hole. "Ow! Lex! What did you do, set booby-traps?"
"I think I liked it better when she wasn't talking." Nathan muttered to Daley under his breath.
"I was afraid the storm would wash it all away, but I had it pretty well protected." Lex explained as they came upon the tarp weighed down with stones.
"Wow. This is the best looking chunk of plastic I've ever seen." Taylor said sarcastically, turning to leave.
She walked right into Jackson. "Wait." he commanded as he walked towards Lex.
"I started this right after we crashed. I just didn't want to show you guys until I knew it was going to work. Pretty soon we'll have our own source…for food." Lex and Jackson bent to lift up the tarp and reveal the baby garden.
"It's a garden!" Daley exclaimed, walking around to get a better view."
"There are tomatoes, squash, melons, corn, and carrots."
"Lex, this is incredible!" Melissa said as she kneeled down to inspect it.
"Where'd you get the seeds?" Nathan asked.
"Mostly from the packaged food, but I found some things growing wild."
"Wait," Eric interrupted, confused. "So you're saying, you planted tomatoes and we're gonna get, like, more tomatoes?"
"Yeah, that's pretty much how it works."
"That's like magic!" Taylor whispered, shocked.
"Lex, this is amazing." He smiled brightly at his step-sister. "How long before we get fruit?"
"Depends on the plant." Lex answered. "We should see something in about a couple months."
Everyone looked crestfallen.
"Alright, so the good news is, we'll have a decent food supply in a couple of months." Nathan said optimistically.
"The bad news is we might be here to eat it." Jackson added, always the pessimist. He turned to walk away, leaving everyone around the leafy garden.
A/N: Holy! Do you guys owe me or what? Actually, I owe you guys. Thanks for sticking with me. And I'm sorry about the wait. I sincerely hope it was worth it. Peace out, Fanpire.
