Chapter Five: X marks the spot

When Richard returned with the rest of the bathing team, he was surprised and pleased to find that the X was making good progress. With almost the entire group working on it all at once, they were moving more quickly than Richard had even expected.

Two days later, they had the two portions of the X totally complete and they were ready to lug it up to the clearing and finally install it. The whole group of survivors was abuzz with excitement over this development. No one named names, for fear of jinxing it, but there was one clear thought on everyone's mind: that their old friends and loved ones down in the city of Honoré might see their beacon and be able to join them here in the safety of their meager compound. The mere possibility of what this X represented charged their little society with an electricity it hadn't known in ages. Richard too felt hope begin to bubble inside of him, despite himself. The logical part of him knew that it was a long shot, but even his analytical mind couldn't stop the racing rhythm in his chest that started every time he thought about it. It evoked that one, dangerous word, the one that he hadn't allowed himself the luxury of enjoying for the past two months: maybe.

The installation of the X was spread out over two days. The first day was just spent preparing the installation site, climbing the trees and using the machete to remove key branches in order to maximize visibility. They also chopped strategic notches into the wood that would serve as the anchors for the corner ropes that would support the weight of the X. The following day, early in the morning Richard and Ronnie took an installation team to actually apply the X. The situation proved more complicated than they had realized, and they had to abandon the idea of using the notches as anchors for the X, having to cut different grooves further up the way. After many hours full of sweat, splinters, and scrapes, the team stood back, hands on hips, and took in the sight of what they had created.

Days passed and Ronnie scheduled regular scouting teams to head up to the X on days that the water teams wouldn't pass it on their way up to the plantation. In that way, they kept careful vigil over their beacon and made sure that it was still standing every day. After one heavy rain storm, they climbed the mountain to the X and were unsurprised to see a portion of the banner had torn and fallen during the night. They spent a good portion of that morning making on-site repairs and re-erecting the X back to its former glory.

After testing the new hold and deeming it stable enough, the team finally gathered up what remained of their supplies and headed back down the mountain.

Richard was bringing up the rear when he saw Ronnie slow his pace so that Richard would catch up to him.

"We need to talk," Ronnie said.

"What about?"

"The doctor. Something's gotten into him lately. He snapped at someone this morning because they forgot to reload the traps with bait."

Richard hummed in thought, looking down at the jungle floor to watch his step.

"Do you know what that's about?" Ronnie asked.

"I have a hunch." Richard looked up to see the other man pass him a "go on" expression. "The young man, Trevor. He's been sick now for over a week. Holden won't say so explicitly, but I think he's getting worse."

"What's wrong with him?"

Richard shrugged. "That'd be a question for the good doctor. I assumed it was just the flu originally, but now I don't know. Based on the way Holden is tied up in knots over it, I wouldn't be surprised to find that it's something more serious. And he's frustrated by his lack of supplies. Feels he can't actually do any good without the proper equipment and medication, for which I can't really blame him."

The pair grew quiet after that, until Ronnie finally stated, "We need to talk with Holden. Get him to tell us what exactly is going on."

"Agreed."

"If the boy needs medicine, we need to find a way of getting it for him."

"Agreed," Richard answered just as readily, which appeared to surprise Ronnie who was apparently expecting greater pushback. But he would be wrong. Richard had been watching this particular problem advance steadily for some time, and his concern over it had been mounting alongside Holden's. He had a feeling the time for drastic measures was fast approaching, and if that was the case, then they wouldn't have the luxury of avoiding a return to crypto territory anymore.

An hour later, as the team approached the camp, they increased their pace when they heard raised voices echoing from the cave. Richard and the others burst into the cave to see two men, Rudy Kent and Edward Fry, engaged in some sort of indistinguishable screaming match. There was also a child who was crying, being comforted by a worried-looking Mrs. Beecher, and several other people were gathered around the men, throwing in their two cents about the conflict but without fully engaging. In a flash of movement, Edward finally threw the first punch and the wife of Mr. Kent let out a scream. In an instant, Fidel and Dwayne descended upon the pair and struggled to pull them apart.

"Gentlemen!" Richard's voice boomed through the acoustics of the cave like a cannon, causing all other activity to come to a screeching halt. The two men in question shut their mouths and begrudgingly looked over at the inspector. He eyed them both sternly, said, "A word," and then turned and walked back out of the cave.

Richard was standing halfway down the slope, his arms crossed over his chest and facing away from the mouth of the cave when he heard the pair of footsteps approach and then stop a few feet behind him. He turned and looked at them both, irritation brimming in his expression but barely keeping it from boiling over. He passed a glance back up at the cave and noticed that the lookout was trying very hard not to look their direction.

"Walk with me," he said, turning to the left and heading into the thick jungle. Richard was silent for several seconds, leading them further into the trees and occasionally bending down to pick up some sticks for firewood. It didn't take long for the other two men to start copying him and also begin collecting sticks.

"Considering the fact that you are both heads of your households, I am doing you the favor of not berating you in front of those who respect you the most," Richard said after a while of silence. "Though it bears mentioning that you could both do a little better at carrying that respect in the future. Now, what is it that has you two bickering like a couple of school boys?"

"It was the second time in three days that I've seen this one taking an extra bit of food from the pantry," Edward Fry started.

"It was for my wife!" Kent defended. "She isn't eating like she should, always giving extras to the kids instead."

"The rest of us have families too, mate. Why should yours get an extra helping?"

"Alright," Richard said, a warning tinge in his voice. "Believe it or not, we didn't come out here just to give your little tiff a change of scenery. Mr. Kent, I understand your desire to feed your family-"

"Do you?" the other man snapped.

Richard stuttered to a stop at that, blinking at the man in a moment of stunned silence. When he regained his voice, he quietly admitted, "Quite right," his voice holding more regret than he meant it to. Richard noticed the way Fry lowered his gaze, almost out of pity, and somehow that made it feel worse. "Allow me to rephrase: I can empathize with your desire to provide for your wife and children, but it doesn't change the fact that our resources are limited, and in addition to yours, we do have an awful lot of mouths to feed. The portion your family is allotted is the portion that is fair, and as hard as it is, I need you to stick to that portion."

"But Inspector," Fry began again, finally lifting his eyes back to Richard. "Why are our resources so limited?"

"How do you mean?"

"It's just that…we've all heard about the primary school pantry by now. Word has gotten around that it was stocked to the beams and our team just left it there."

"They were sticking to the mission. The task at hand was to gather supplies for the X project, and their hands were full. They brought back what they could."

"But that was ages ago, and we still haven't been back. Meanwhile, we have families trapped in this cave, scraping by on little more than one meal a day when there are shelves upon shelves of non-perishables just a few miles east from here, just sitting there untouched. It doesn't make any sense."

Richard looked back and forth between both men and noticed that, for once, they seemed aligned. It was one thing to hear Ronnie and Holden urging him to send another group down to Honoré, but hearing it from the other members of the group seemed particularly sobering. Slowly, Richard sighed and nodded. "Fair point. I'll discuss that with the others and we'll take it under advisement. All attention has been on maintaining the X recently, but you're right. Perhaps it is time to return our focus to resource gathering."

The men both nodded, pleased by what they heard.

"But in the meantime, I need you both to set good examples for those under you. I need you to treat each other with a little more respect and consideration, and I need you to make do with your own shares for now. We'll get more food; you'll just have to patient in the meantime. And do apologize to each other. With everything on this bloody island intent on killing us, we don't need to be at each other's throats, too."

Kent and Fry both turned to one another and apologized, sealing it with a shake, before all three of them returned to the camp with their meager bundles of firewood. Richard watched as both men went to their families and began apologizing for their behavior. Upon seeing their arrival, Dr. Holden and Ronnie slowly made their way over to Richard, who was knelt, stacking their bundles of firewood neatly with the others.

"So, what was all of that about?" Holden asked.

Richard's shoulders slumped and he rested his hand on his knee. "Desperation," he answered. Richard turned to the other two leaders and said, "I think we need to talk."


She felt something heavy land on her foot and it yanked her to wakefulness. "Aaoow!" she exclaimed, more out of surprise than actual pain. She looked down to see Cassidy staring up at her from where she sat across her ankles. The little girl had her shoulders hiked up to her ears and a remorseful grimace on her face.

"I'm sowy Ms. Bordey. I twipped," the child said in her high voice.

"Oh that's okay, angel," she replied, cupping the girl by the cheek. "I should get up anyway."

The sun was already fully in the sky. It was probably close to eight, which meant that it was strange she had slept in this long. Usually, sleeping on the rooftops, it was difficult to sleep past dawn with the sun beating down on you. They had realized early on that, while the beasts were very good at digging, they were not particularly good at climbing. After that discovery was made, they started making a living on the rooftops of Honoré. There were fourteen of them in total on this network of roofs, then further down, separated by some chasms in the city's grid, there was another little colony of rooftop survivors over on Le Clerc avenue.

She stood to walk over to the edge of the roof to see if their neighbors had a message today. No, their flag was put away.

Behind her, Cassidy laughed and squealed when her daddy appeared from nowhere to start chasing her. He scooped her up with little effort and blew tickling zerberts into the child's belly. He looked up and noticed the woman for the first time that day, staring off into the distance. "Catherine?" he asked. "Catherine, what is it?"

Catherine Bordey pointed to the mountain range. She turned her head to the father and daughter duo behind her. "Does that look like an X to you?"


Author's Note: Thank you so much for reading! Please leave a review and share with me your thoughts on this chapter. Then keep an eye out for the next update because chapter 6 is one of my favorite chapters in the whole story and I'm really excited for you to read it.