A/N: So, hey guys. Sorry for taking so long to update. I hope you all like this. Things will be picking up now-which means ACTION is coming! And, also, I would just like to thank my reviewers; which include Dally2, f29dwnaddict, and many others. Thanks guys! I have a favor to ask all of you, though. Don't hate me about it. So I entered in this contest and was hoping you guys might vote... I wrote a Twilight fanfic (I know, I know, the books and movies suck but I was trying to make a "better" version)...called Betrayal Isn't a Sin...and entered it in the Slash Backslash contest (which is held on this site). You can Google it. Vote for anyone you like, since the contest is awesome (if disturbing to a large number of people-mostly guys, but hey I'm a girl so whatever). It's slash, basically. Innocent and only T-rated (mine, at least). But, hey, wouldn't you like to help an author out? :)

Chapter Ten: Contact

Jackson's POV—

"You got wires, going in. You got wires, coming out of your skin. You got tears, making tracks. I got tears that are scared of the facts..."

Amazingly, I was waking up to the blaringly loud sound of Athlete's Wires, which was just plain weird. I groaned, eyes still closed, and covered my ears with my hands. Why the heck was music playing this early, anyway?

"Jackson, turn that off!" Taylor shrieked somewhere far away, her voice obviously muffled.

Turn what off? I just woke up, Blondie.

What can I say? I wasn't exactly a morning person.

I blinked; vision blurred, and felt around. I didn't feel a lump under me, and I couldn't feel the distinct shape of my MP3 Player so it couldn't be me, right? Unless I'd been sleep walking previously and I'd never done that before.

"I didn't do anything!" I yelled back, finally, as I managed to find my own MP3 Player.

I heard someone shift around beside me and I felt something hard hit my lower legs, twice. What the heck was that?

"You idiots, it doesn't matter, just shut up both of you!" Eric grumbled behind me, and then tried to kick me again.

Weird, I hadn't heard him call anyone an idiot yet I believe I'd just heard Daley call him that a lot.

I huffed and slammed my hand down on his side. He yelped, and just scowled at me.

"Stop that," I hissed angrily.

It wasn't my fault and personally I didn't like being yelled at and kicked when I woke up in the morning. It was too familiar, honestly. I hated the fact it was, but what could I do? As long as none of these bozos decided stupidly I was their punch dummy I should be all right (and they shouldn't have broken limbs), but I didn't enjoy the anxiety it got out of me—if that made any sense at all.

I sighed loudly, getting an evil glare out of Eric, and looked around, sunlight nearly blinding me as Lex slipped out of the tent. Oh, so he was awake. Huh. Nathan was still sound asleep, though, and he didn't seem to be about to wake up any time soon—luckily. I was used to Taylor's whining and Eric's sniping but I swear if I had to deal with another one of Nathan's moments I'd pull my hair out.

"I found it!" Lex exclaimed happily, but not before Ben Folds' Fred Jones Part 2 had started playing, just as loudly.

Were we really arguing that long? Great, now everyone was probably awake. I was going to get slaughtered. Well, assuming anyone had the guts to try. Eric kicking me was about the only actual violence that had been directed at me since we'd crashed on the second island.

"Found what?" Eric asked behind me, dumbly. "And chief could you maybe stop pinning me down? I swear I won't use my awesome kickboxing skills on you."

I rolled my eyes and stood up.

My back, of course, hit the tent and I once again felt claustrophobic in here. But, hey, I didn't get wet when it rained, right?

I then snuck out of the tent best I could and tried to be extra quiet to make up for the loud wakeup call that had probably somehow been my fault.

"You found my MP3 Player?" I asked curiously, peeking out of the tent.

Lex seemed confused. "No, it's something else," he mused, looking over a tiny, square object that was some pale sea-blue color. I frowned.

"What is it?" I asked curiously, my view obstructed slightly by his hold on it.

"An iPod," Lex replied curtly.

"Oh," was the only response I could offer. "Well, do you know who it belongs to, Lex?" I asked after a beat.

"No idea. Whoever it was is lucky, though. If it had rained it would've been ruined," Lex said.

I almost chuckled when I heard Eric say, "Luckily."

I yawned, then just waited for Lex to put the iPod away and go back to sleep. I didn't want him being out here alone after the attack.

"But whoever who owned this, maybe one of the rescuers," Lex began, while looking over the object, "must have just got it—it only has about three songs programmed into it."

I frowned again. "What?"

"Yeah, there's a playlist, it has a few songs on it, the two you heard and another song called What Sarah Said," Lex informed me.

I rubbed my jaw, beyond confused. Those were some of my favorite songs after all. It was natural for me to wonder about who had my same taste in music—even if the girly-looking iPod (it was this light blue-green color, after all) wasn't something I would have ever picked out. "What else is on there?"

"Counting Crows' album August and Everything After and a few songs by Wild Sweet Orange," Lex admitted. I blinked, but this time didn't say anything. My mouth was dry. Because, once again, two of my favorite bands. Jeez. What's going on around here?

Several seconds later, Lex cleared his throat. "Earth to Jackson?" he joked weakly, eyes looking me over as if dealing with someone with questionable sanity. I then realized I'd been gawking at the iPod, jaw slightly unhinged. Of course I was. I always had to act very "le freak".

"Sorry for spacing out," I said finally, shifting from foot to foot uncomfortably. "You go on to bed, okay? It's—what time is it?"

"Six fourteen," Lex replied, checking his watch.

I nodded slowly. "Go on back to bed. Um, can I keep an eye on that iPod, though? You know, make sure it gets back to its owner?"

Lex narrowed his eyes suspiciously, but then just handed it to me. "Okay. Just don't lose it."

"I won't," I promised.

I wasn't about to—I wanted to find the owner, of course. I had to have proof I wasn't going crazy, either. I mean, if I started asking about who owned a sea foam blue iPod I wanted to have said iPod at hand to show what I was talking about.

Lex just nodded and yawned, too. He rubbed some sleep out of his eyes, then turned back to the tent. "See you later, Jackson. Try to rest or something."

I didn't feel like resting, though. I was wide-awake now, wired. I thought over what I was going to do while everyone else was asleep. I decided on cutting down some bamboo, maybe for a new shelter (that I could fit in), and picking up some firewood.

I put the iPod in my jacket pocket, and walked off—grabbing the camp knife before I got too far away and headed into the woods.

I froze at the edge and thought over yesterday. I could almost feel twin yellow-amber eyes watching me again and the hairs on the back of my neck rose. I looked around cautiously, and then went back for my spear as well. It never hurt to be careful, now did it?

I wandered through the woods, using my spear as a walking stick, until I came to a bunch of bamboo, which made a sort of tunnel how it arched over my head.

I grinned faintly and then went to work—cutting, cutting, and cutting.

"Cody?"

I blinked. Why was Melissa out here? And why was her voice all funny? "Yeah, Mel, what is it?"

I heard a giggle and I glanced back to see—nothing, actually. "Melissa, that isn't funny; come out now."

"Why should I?" the voice asked, from a different point now.

I whipped around and saw a flash of tan. Did Melissa own any tops in that color? I couldn't remember. She must have, though. No one else here knew my first name.

My eyes were a little wider and my grip was a little firmer, my knuckles going white as I clutched the camp knife. "You're scaring me, Mel. Think about what happened yesterday?"

There was that giggle again, oddly girlish. "And what happened yesterday?" the voice asked, from behind me.

I turned around slowly, knife held out. I just came face to face with a blonde—a blonde who was not Taylor.

Holy freak...

"Who are you?" I asked, hesitantly. I took in her dark ashy blonde hair, her brown eyes, her freckles, the tan sweater she was wearing, and more, as I looked her up and down. I hadn't ever seen this girl before.

How did she even get here? Is she a castaway, too, then? Or are there other people...?

"You can call me Em if you like, Cody," she responded, her sentence ending with another now annoying giggle.

"How do you know my name?" I asked, taking a step back hesitantly.

"I just do."

"How do you know my name?" I asked, through gritted teeth. This girl was freaking me out. How did she know who I was? Had I known her at some point?

I felt something vaguely cold on my arm, a breeze almost, and looked down to see her hand on my arm.

What the h- is going on?

"What...?" I began, so tongue-tied I couldn't form words.

Was she...a spirit, or something, then? That would be...different...

Her hand moved up my arm and I couldn't stand it, that cold tickle. I dashed off. I knew I shouldn't show my back to a potential opponent but I was probably just going crazy, so who cares right?

"Leave me alone!" I yelled over my shoulder, back at this Em. She hadn't moved, just stood there rather sadly.

"Run a little farther, Cody!"

What the heck does that mean? I wondered about it only briefly, before I tripped on a rock and slammed into a tree—a vaguely soft tree. Well, maybe it wasn't a tree...

"Hey! Watch it...oh..."

I was stunned, on my back end, and not exactly sure what to do except look up at the tall, scrawny blond guy (who vaguely reminded me of Eric) in front of me. Well, at least this one was solid.

"Who are you?" he asked.

Good, he doesn't know my name either.

"I'm J-Jackson."

No way on earth did I just...stutter? But I had, somehow.

"Nice to meet you, I'm Luke," the guy said, holding out a hand for me to shake.

I just looked at it until he pulled it back.

I then noticed he was carrying about a dozen odd-shaped fruits. They reminded me vaguely of prunes. Oh, so he was gathering food, too. That probably meant he wasn't from a civilized area. Of course, who knows? Maybe he was an eccentric billionaire who liked to live on random Pacific isles and carve out a life.

"So...how did you get here?" he asked me, as if he wasn't exactly surprised.

"Plane crash..."

"Oh, that's a new one."

I blinked. What did he mean by that?

"We got a boat-wrecker a few months ago," he said, as if he could hear my unspoken question.

That at least wasn't too creepy.

"What do you mean by 'we'? Are there more people living here?" I asked, somewhat hopefully.

Please say there's a whole resort full of people here and you're just a weird hippie...

"Yeah, there are about a dozen of us," he responded, nodding.

I grinned. "Great! I'll get the others..."

"Whoa, whoa, whoa," he said, putting his hands in front of him. "There are more of you?"

"Yeah, about a dozen, actually," I said, realizing we had equal-sized groups. How odd...

"Wow. Yeah, this'll be different. I'll, um... How about you bring everybody here, okay? I'll wait. Like, go sit on that rock," he said, pointing to a boulder farther up the hill. "You just bring them here..."

I nodded, slightly wary. If his group were dangerous this might not end well. We had two knives at least. Maybe we'd have one person go ahead first—me—and then the others would follow? ...Sounded better than doing nothing.

"See you," he called after me, as I walked off without another word. I waved back at him, my shoulders tense as I once again showed a maybe enemy my back.

A/N: Sorry if that was rushed. I needed action fast, fast, fast. Anyway, review and tell me what you liked and didn't like, if you would. Thanks.