Chapter 13
Effete- [eh-FEET] Exhausted of energy; incapable of efficient action; worn out.
The first thing Bella noticed when she woke up was that she was hot. Extremely so as though it were the middle of summer in Arizona. Blinking hazily to the world, she found herself staring straight up at the clear blue sky and off to the side of her peripheral she could make out the blinding glare of the sun. Coughing roughly, she jarred her body completely awake and felt the first throes of pain leech themselves onto her body. Moaning softly, she sat up slowly and found her head swimming with pain. Drawing a hand to massage one of her temples, the other planted itself in the warmed sand to keep her propped up. Once she had gotten a handle on the pain, she decided to check her body for the wounds she knew to be there. Gently reaching her hand down to her shirt, she lifted it slowly and studied the gash she had acquired. Before she could get a good look at the wound, a rustling sound behind her had her ceasing her motions and freezing in her spot.
"Oh good, you're up." came a surprised but familiar voice.
Her tensed shoulders relaxed and she turned her head to the side to get a view of the boy who had nearly given her a heart attack. "Just woke up." she confirmed before frowning. Her tongue felt thick in her mouth and she found it hard to swallow what little saliva was left. Talking, while easier than last night, was still a bit difficult. "What are you doing?" she finally was able to ask after much speechless flapping of her tongue.
Edward stood, albeit shakily, a few feet away. He was leaning against a palm tree, eyes turning from Bella's own to the coconuts a few feet above him. "I'm really hungry." He told her quietly. "I woke up, maybe an hour ago, and I looked around the area for food but I can't find anything. All I seem to come across are berry bushes and since I don't know what kind of berries they are, I'm not going to risk my health."
Bella released a short laugh. The action had her head ringing with pain and she groaned before holding her head in her hands.
"Oh. You okay?" Edward shuffled over to where she was sitting and removed the palm tree leaves from her lap. "How are you feeling?" he asked, dropping to his knees and sitting Japanese style beside her. Not giving her a chance to respond verbally, he lifted up her shirt and got a good look at her wound.
Normally Bella would be highly embarrassed and maybe even upset that a guy lifted up her shirt of their own accord. But he didn't lift it high enough for her to be embarrassed and she was in too much pain to care properly.
"Hm." he finally released her shirt after a couple of silent minutes.
Bella blinked at him calmly. Asking without words how bad she was now. Edward just shook his head and tried to stand up. "Trust me, it is better if you-" his words were cut off by the fact that his knee's gave out and he ended up face planting in the sand.
Bella watched in shock as the boy tried to get up but didn't even manage to lift his body from the sand. Turning his head to the side, Edward coughed as the sand had entered through the orifices located on his head. Brushing the sand from his nose, he looked over at Bella with hazy eyes. "It's so hot." He blinked his eyes lazily and brought his hand down to rest by his side.
Nodding in agreement, Bella knew the boy was as unwell as she. "Can you get up?" she asked, voice trailing off towards the end of the sentence.
Edward tried again feebly but only managed roll onto his back. "I'm so tired Bella."
The injured girl remembered that while she and the others had been eating off of the land for the past couple days, Edward had not. Being out in the hot sun without any food or water would be torture on the body and she realized that if not fed and given water soon, the boy lying down less a than foot away from her would die. This was all it took to shake her from her momentary stupor. She would not sit by and watch another peer die in front of her. So, mustering up as much willpower as she could conjure, Bella stood up and looked down at the boy. Blocking out the sun from his face, he locked eyes with her and frowned.
"What are you doing?" he asked wearily.
Bella didn't respond, after all it was pretty difficult with a dry tongue and sharp pains in the stomach. Instead of answering, she mimed eating and pointed to the trees. Leaning over, she picked up a couple of discarded palm tree leaves and placed them over his head to shade him from the harsh sun.
"Thank you." He whispered before his eyes flitted closed and his breathing evened out.
Taking a few short steps, Bella was happy to find that if she didn't think about it, then she could ignore the pain and did just this. Walking up to the palm tree Edward had been standing next to earlier, she looked up at the coconuts that rested near the top a good ten feet above her head. She shook the tree but her pitiful shakes barely shook the leaves. She continued shaking the tree for a few minutes but realized that the stubborn coconuts were not going to fall. So she leaned against the tree, breathing coming in irregular gasps. At first Bella was confused as to why she was so tired. Shaking the tree shouldn't have exhausted her so. But then it dawned on her the shape her body was in. Energy could not be wasted, she needed to find them food and fast before even sheer willpower couldn't get her up.
After her breath had been caught, Bella looked into the woods and sighed. She remembered Edward had said something about berries so she went in search of the bushes and hoped she knew what kind they were so that they could feast.
S.O.S
Jacob passed Quil the opened coconut and rolled his eyes at the whining girl sitting in the corner of the unfinished hut. "Oh! My skin hurts! When are we getting off this island?" tears streamed endlessly down the sunburned girl's cheeks. Lauren sat beside her, dragging a comb through Jessica's hair.
"It's your own fault." Felix scolded. "Who told you to sit outside and fry like an idiot?"
"Shut up Feefee! She's hurt!" Lauren snapped.
"What did you just call me?" Felix asked in shock.
"It's a cute nickname right?" Lauren looked over at him and smirked. "I would name a dog Feefee and since you remind me of a dog I thought it was perfect."
"This is the part where we walk away." Angela spoke quietly, latching onto an enraged Felix's arm and dragging him away before he could lash out at the snickering girl.
Once Angela had gotten Felix closer to the beach, the boy seemed to snap out of his angry stupor and growled. "She. Called. Me. A. Dog."
Angela patted his back comfortingly. "I know. It's okay though, don't take it to heart. You know how Laruen is."
Felix shook his head, body shaking with barely suppressed rage. "Feefee. She called me Feefee!"
Angela opened her arms to give him a hug and Felix stalked past her. Dropping her arms, she sighed and watched Felix walk over to where he had begun making the second hut. Jacob had already gathered enough sticks for one wall but had stopped when Quil woke up from Jessica's complaints. No one had given him his daily coconut so Jacob took it upon himself to give his friend his breakfast.
"Out of all the things for them to manage to keep from the ship-wreck, a comb? Really?" Jacob had walked over to where Angela stood and was shaking his head with annoyance.
"I know." She smiled up at him ruefully. "Where did Mike go?"
Jacob nodded towards the woods. "He's helping with gathering the sticks. But he's so slow."
Angela watched the boy they were talking about, exit from the woods with a few sticks in his arms. Leisurely the boy walked over to the pile of accumulating sticks and dropped his load. Afterwards, he gave a brief hello to Felix before heading back to the woods. The whole escapade took all of five minutes. "Wow, he really is slow." Angela frowned before glancing back up into Jacob's distraught face.
"She still isn't back yet." Jacob stated, eyes raking over the beach for his lost friend. "Something must've happened." His face seemed to fall at the thought and Angela noticed he seemed paler.
"Jacob, maybe you and Mike should go out looking for her. I think if there's two of you, you might be able to find her."
Jacob nodded once in affirmance. "Me too. But why Mike? Don't you want to help me find her?"
Angela nodded sadly. "Unfortunately if I leave, then Felix will probably massacre the girls, there will be no one to gather the sticks and Quil will be forgotten."
A short laugh from Jacob and then he gave the girl a quick hug. "Okay. We'll be back before sunset." Jacob then headed for the woods where he knew Mike to be slacking off.
"Check the beach! I'm sure Bella wouldn't have slept in the woods last night." Angela called to him from her spot.
Jacob nodded and waved to show he heard her, then went in search for Mike so that they could comb the woods for Bella.
S.O.S
Bella lifted the dark colored berry closer to her eyes and rolled it between her thumb and index finger. She applied to much pressure and accidentally busted the supple skin of the berry causing dark purple juice to run down her fingers. It smelled sweet, but so did most berries. Bella had a strange feeling this berry wasn't one to be consumed and dropped it quickly before wiping the juices off onto her dirty capris.
Moving on to survey another bush, she made sure she stuck close to the beach for fear of losing her way and leaving Edward to fend for himself. A few feet away from her previous spot she spotted a brightly colored bush fraught with yellow berries. Nearly foaming at the mouth, Bella rushed to the bush and reached out to snatch a bright berry, only to squeal and retract her hand when the bush pricked her finger. Eyes narrowing, she noticed that the bush was littered with thorns. Being mindful of this fact, she reached out more carefully and plucked a yellow berry from the bush. A small smile broke out across her face when she realized that she knew what kind of berry it was and that it was edible. Bringing the berry to her lips she opened her mouth and dropped it on her tongue. Immediately her teeth came down and smashed the berry down to a pulp within seconds. The sweet liquid coursed over Bella's taste buds and her eyes closed in appreciation to the taste.
Not being one to dawdle, Bella quickly, but cautiously loaded up her shirt with the berries. Keeping one hand holding her shirt up to keep the berries in their spot, she used her free hand to deplete half of the bushes' stash. After eating a few more, she made her way back to where Edward was lying down and sat beside him. Removing the palm tree leaves, she poked him in his cheek then pointed to the berries she had acquired. The boy being as tired as she, he could barely lift up his hands to eat them. Bella watched him pitifully eat a couple berries and new she was going to have to feed him herself. So she brushed his weak hand aside and held a few berries above his open mouth. She dropped them into his mouth one at a time until he had a mouth full and she waited for him to chew and swallow before repeating this process. She fed herself some as well and they ate in silence. Once all the berries had run out Edward smiled at her softly.
"Thank you." He whispered.
She nodded silently and watched as the boy fell back asleep. A sigh escaped her lips and she re-covered him again with the palm leaves. Standing up shakily again she decided to try her hand at getting the coconuts again. Staggering over to the tree, she glanced up at it despairingly. Before she could even consider a way to get the coconuts down, a hand landed on her shoulder and ragged breathing gasped in her ear.
"Bella." The voice was thick with tears. "He's dead! I killed him!"
A/N: Hm, maybe I'm not giving people enough time to read the chapters between updates. (Aka, am I updating to frequently?) My reviews have dropped…unless the quality of the story has gone down? O.O If it is the story, I apologize greatly for boring you and I will try harder to make it less boring—but what is it about the story that is dissatisfying?