Rating: T for now.

Disclaimer: I do not own Hannah Montana. Based on the book Hatchet by Gary Paulsen.

Note: I have one final and two projects due tomorrow, so ya'll better be happy I'm posting the next chapter today! Thank you all for the lovely reviews and comments! If I could I'd respond to everyone and tell you how happy you make me, lol :) Now go read and review again!


12

Okay, so the spear idea didn't work.

Lilly stood perfectly still in the shallows of the cold lake, patiently waiting, as Miley sat on the shore and tore apart more birch bark into fine threads so that they would have extra fire starters if ever needed. Lilly waited, and waited, and waited. The small fish would swim closer, and she lunged time after time, but she was always too slow. Miley's laughter echoing from the shore constantly reminded her of that. She tried throwing the spear, jabbing the spear into the water, she basically tried everything except flailing about with the spear, and nothing worked. The fish were too fast. Once again, Miley was right. She would have to be fast to use the spear, and apparently she wasn't fast enough.

She had been so sure, so certain that the spear would work when Miley mentioned the idea yesterday afternoon. All night she had sat by the fire and listened as Miley told stories about growing up in Tennessee as she had carefully peeled the bark off the willow branches until she had a straight staff about six feet long and about an inch thick. She hung on the words of Miley's smooth, deep voice as she recounted Jackson's many antics and Mamaw Ruthie's sweet fall apple pies back in Crowley Corners as she had used the hatchet to carve the head of the spear, a thin piece off each time, until the end tapered down to a needle point. She had then carefully split the point up the middle for about eight to ten inches, jamming a small piece of wood between the two points to make a two-prong spear with the points about two inches apart. Then she had fallen asleep with her head in Miley's lap, extremely proud of her ingenuity and completely relaxed as Miley's voice washed over her and thoughts of lying in a big open field with Miley accompanied her into sleep.

And despite the crudeness of the spear she had slaved over last night, it seemed to have good balance when she had tested it out earlier this morning. It was just lacking in its effectiveness of catching fish. Or the fish were smarter than her. One or the other.

Lilly moved into the shallows of the lake, standing patiently until the fish came to her. Just as before, they swarmed around her legs. They seemed so plentiful and easy to catch, but no matter how many times she tried they were just too fast. First she tried throwing the spear at the fish. That method stood no chance, as the fish were frightened away as soon as Lilly brought her arm back in preparation to throw the spear. Next she tried lunging at them, with the tip of the spear just above the surface of the water and then thrusting it at the fish below. Again, no luck. Finally she actually put the spear in the water and waited until the fish were right in front of it, but still somehow the fish sensed the movement before she even moved the spear, and they flashed away.

"You're goin' to throw your arm out or stab yourself with how you're carryin' on with that spear," drawled Miley from her position at the shore of the lake.

"Hush. I don't need any comments from the peanut gallery. Do you want fish for dinner, or not?"

Miley just chuckled.

"Seriously. I slaved over this spear. I spent hours and hours on it. And now it doesn't work." Lilly complained, wanting to rip her hair out in frustration.

"Maybe you need somethin' to move the spear forward, faster than the fish. Like a bow."

"Yes…" Lilly drew out. "A bow and arrow." That's what she needed to make.

"Now come on Pocahontas, let's go eat some breakfast. You were in such a hurry to use your spear this morning, you forgot food."

The mention of food caught Lilly's attention and she quickly moved out of the water and put her shoes on, following Miley to the shelter where she had begun preparing a couple of turtle eggs next to the fire.

"Nice nickname. Does that make you my John Smith?" Lilly teased as she sat next to Miley by the fire.

"That depends. Are we talkin' Disney version or history version?"

"I don't know. Which one do you want to be?" Lilly smiled, enjoying their small flirting as Miley cooked breakfast.

"Well, history version is a little boring and probably untrue and Disney version is much more interesting and handsome, so I choose that John Smith," Miley contemplated, slowly turning the turtle eggs in the sand next to the fire.

"Wow, Miles. I'm speechless. You want to be with me?"

"Well, butter my butt and call me a biscuit! The blonde chatterbox is speechless!"

Lilly guffawed. "You did not just say that," she gasped, tears running down her face as she continued laughing.

Miley scowled. "Glad I amuse you. Now if you're done laughin' at my expense, your breakfast is ready."

Lilly continued chuckling as she ate the turtle egg and berries Miley handed her, unable to keep a straight face every time Miley glared in her direction.

After a breakfast of berries and turtle egg, Lilly banked the fire with a couple large pieces of wood and set off up the lake to find wood to make a bow as Miley stayed behind to continue work on the fire starters and gathering wood for their continuously hungry and consuming fire. Lilly stopped at the berry patch for a snack and noticed they were starting to become overripe. They would be gone soon and she made a mental note to tell Miley to pick as many as possible after she found wood for her bow. She picked a few and ate them. They were full and sweet and when she picked one, two or more would fall off the limbs to the grass below and soon her hands and cheeks were covered with red berry juice and she was full.

The thought surprised her. Being full. She hadn't thought she'd experience the feeling ever again, had known only hunger here. But one turtle egg and a handful of berries and she felt full. She glanced down at her stomach and saw that it was still caved in, did not bulge out as it would have with a couple hotdogs and a smoothie at Rico's. Her stomach must have shrunk. And she noticed a hunger still there, but it wasn't screaming at her like before. This was a hunger that she began to know would always be there – a hunger that made her look for things, see things, hunt things. A hunger that would hopefully keep both her and Miley alive as she strove to become something she never thought she would be – a hunter.

She swung her eyes across the berry patch, making sure there wasn't a bear at her back, and then moved down to the lake. She held the spear in her hand out in front of her, moving the brush away from her face as she walked, and when she came to the water edge she turned left. She didn't know what she should be looking for, not knowing the type of wood that would make a good bow. But she figured that it would need to be strong and slightly flexible, something with a snap to it, and hoped that she might find something suitable along the lake, near the water.

She saw a young birch tree, found that it was springy, but it didn't snap back with enough force. Neither did the willows. She needed something else. Something that wasn't too bendy but also wouldn't snap on her when she went to shoot an arrow.

Lilly turned to head further up the lake, and just as she started to step over a log, an explosion under her foot terrified her.

"What the - !" She screamed out as something like a feathered bomb blew up and away in a flurry of leaves and she fell to the ground, bruising her tailbone in the process.

It had been a bird, about the size of a small Cornish game hen only with shorter stubby wings and a smaller tail. She got up and brushed herself off. The bird had been brownish grey and speckled, and apparently not all that smart as Lilly had almost completely stepped on it before it flew away. Half a second more and she would have stepped on it.

And caught it. And eaten it. She and Miley would have been feasting on bird.

Maybe, she thought, she could spear one. It would probably taste like chicken, just like the chicken Robbie Ray would bake in the Stewart's oven with some garlic and salt until it turned golden brown and crackled and bubbled in its own juices…

Lilly shook her head to drive the picture out of her mind as she felt her salivary glands begin to act up. Now was not the time to start dreaming of food again. It would only make her hungry for something she could not have, and she had a bow to make. A bow that would hopefully be bringing them food in the near future. She moved down to the shore, where there was a tree with straight branches. When she pulled on one and let it go, it had a nice vicious snap to it and she knew she had found her wood. She chose a limb that looked to be the right size and width and began chopping where the branch joined the tree, carefully, as the wood was hard and she didn't want it to split.

She was concentrating so hard at taking small hits to the limb that at first she didn't hear it. A small persistent whine, like the bugs that tried to drink her dry every day, only more steady. And this had an edge of a roar to it, something like an engine might make. The sound was in her ears as she chopped away, thinking of her bow and how she would shape it and the food she would catch with it, and it didn't register in her brain until she had cut the limb nearly off the tree.

Plane! The whining noise was the sound from the motor of a plane, far off but it seemed to be getting louder, coming for them. They were going to be saved!

Lilly threw the limb and spear down to the ground and ran for their camp, the hatchet still firmly in her hand.

"Miley!!! Plane!!! Fire!!!" She screamed as loud as her lungs would allow as she moved as quickly as her legs would take her. They needed to get on the bluff and signal to the plane with the fire and smoke. She put all of her life into her legs, jumping over logs and moving through the brush like a ghost, like the Indian ghost of Pocahontas, running and swiveling and knowing the forest as she ran. Her lungs were heaving and the sound of the engine was louder, closer now. It was coming in their direction!

"Miley! Start the signal fire!" She yelled again as she got closer to their camp. The plane might not be coming right at them, but it was definitely coming closer and she could see it all in her mind now, the way everything would be when they were rescued. They would get the fire going nice and strong and the plane would see the smoke and circle back around the lake a few times, coming closer to the tree tops and the water each time, looking for them. It would be a float plane with two large pontoons, and it would land on the water gracefully before the pilot stepped out, amazed that they were both still alive.

She saw all of this as she ran for Miley and the camp, hoping she had been able to start the fire in time. They would be going home tonight! This very night they would sit with her mother, and father, and Oliver, and Robbie Ray and Jackson Stewart, eating a huge meal of steak and mashed potatoes and gravy, and would tell them all about the plane and their adventures. She could see it all now. It was so close.

She got to the camp finding Miley absent and saw her up on the ridge. The fire was blazing next to her, growing in size. Lilly ran around the edge of the ridge and scrambled up like an animal on four legs, stopping and panting to catch her breath next to Miley. She mimicked Miley's pose and stared up at the sky, shielding the sun from her eyes as she tried to see the plane in the bright blue sky.

"It's goin' away." Miley whispered, as if afraid to say the words. But they were true. The sound was becoming fainter, the plane was nowhere in sight.

Lilly dropped to her knees, frantically adding more grass and leaves to create smoke, and adding more wood until the signal was a raging bonfire. But it didn't matter. The sound was long gone now.

"Look back," Lilly cried as all the pictures that had run through her mind on her run over here began to fade like the sound. They faded away like lost dreams, like lost hope. "Come on! Turn around! See our fire, see the smoke!" She was screaming now, willing the plane and pilot to hear her.

But the plane kept moving away and soon she couldn't hear it even in her imagination, only the sounds of Miley's quiet crying and the birds happily chirping as if nothing had just happened. The plane was gone.

"Lilly?" The voice startled her out of her thoughts.

"Yeah?" Lilly replied, trying to hide her worry. Something in Miley's face chilled her to the bone.

"No one's comin' back for us, are they?"

Lilly tried to remember how to breathe. Miley was the chipper, optimistic one. If she started to doubt things…Lilly knew she couldn't hold it together. Not on her own.

"Of course they are," she said a little gruffly. "They just haven't found us yet."

"It's been over a week now."

"I know."

"I think that plane was our only hope. And they didn't see us."

Lilly exhaled deeply, not knowing what to say. Miley was right. "That just means they're still looking for us."

"That's not what that means, Lilly." Miley's eyes were filled with tears. "They're not gonna search forever. They stop lookin' after a while. They declare us dead." Her voice broke on the last word.

"C'mon, Miles." Lilly turned to face her. She pet the soft auburn brown hair away, brushing it away from Miley's face. "It's going to be okay."

"But -"

"It is." Lilly said, hoping her voice was more soothing than she felt.

Miley's hands shaped into fists. "No one is gonna rescue us!"

Lilly suddenly felt like someone had punched her straight in the chest, knocking the air from her lungs. The look on her face must have been the last straw, because Miley stopped trying to quietly hold back her tears and just let them fall as loud, heart-wrenching sobs took over her body. She suddenly knew then with great clarity that they would not get out of this place. Not now, not ever.

That had been a search plane. It had come as far off to the side of the flight plan as they thought they would have to come. But it had not been far enough, and the plane had turned back to continue searching in the other direction. In the wrong direction. They did not see the fire, they did not see the smoke, they did not hear Miley's cries or Lilly's screams or her mind yelling out for them to turn back.

They would not be returning, as Miley said. She and Miley would never be leaving this place now. They would never get out of here.

Lilly sunk to the hard ground below her next to Miley and stared out at the lake, the bonfire cooking the side of her face and her body as the sun blazed down on her, watching as the clouds of ash and smoke from the signal fire blew up and marred the clear blue sky. All for nothing. She felt the tears start and was unable to stop them as they mercilessly fell down her cheeks, cutting through the smoke and ash on her face and silently falling onto the cold hard stone below.

Gone. It was all gone. Everything. No bows, or spears, or fish, or birds, or turtle eggs or berries…it was all just a silly game they had been playing. They could play for a couple of days, but not forever. Not through the winter, not until they saw their next birthdays. They could not make it if someone didn't come for them someday. Someday soon.

She could not play the game without hope, without a dream of going home, without a reason to survive just one more day. But the plane had taken all that away from her and there was nothing left now. The plane was gone, her family was gone, all of it was gone. They would not come. It was just her and Miley, and nothing to do but wait for a rescue that wouldn't come and a death that surely would.


Questions, comments, or concerns? Man, I almost felt like crying myself when I read over this. How about you guys?