okay folks, here's a nice long chapter for you all ... hope it tides you over 'til I can get the next chapter done ;-)
"When Darkness Falls"
They had been gathering fruit for several hours and hadn't realized just how far from camp they had wandered. Although Jack had been right about there being fruit in the upper branches by the caves, it still didn't amount to very much. So they had moved further into the jungle to get more, hoping to scout out a better source at the same time. While the task of gathering fruit was tedious, neither of them complained as each was enjoying the other's company.
Kate had just climbed back down out of a breadfruit tree when a gust of cool wind swirled around her. She felt goose bumps break out along her arms from the sudden change in temperature and looked over at Jack. With a slight frown creasing his forehead, he looked up at the sky and grimaced at the dark clouds he saw moving in swiftly.
"I guess we're in for a shower," he said drolly, quickly stuffing some of the fruit into his bag.
Kate's reply was cut off as a loud peal of thunder crashed above their heads, causing them both to jump.
"Come on Kate, we'd better get back before the storm hits."
Tying together the corners of the shirt they'd been using to catch fruit with, Kate hurriedly jammed the bulky wad into her pack. Hefting the bag onto her shoulder, she looked around and frowned at their surroundings.
"We've gone a bit further than I realized," she called out, shouting to be heard over the sound of the wind rushing through the trees.
"Think you can get us back to the trail before it gets worse?" Jack called back.
"Yes, as long as we get there before the rain starts," she shouted. Her words were partially drowned out by another crack of thunder, but Jack got the gist of what she was saying and nodded.
They had only gone a few yards when Mother Nature decided to mock her words. The wind abruptly seemed to stop, causing them both to pause and look at each other in confusion. Then, much to her dismay, the first heavy raindrop struck her on the forehead and the winds resumed with even greater fury; howling through the trees with a vengeance.
She was just about to yell that they needed to hurry, when all hell broke loose. With a loud crack, which she initially thought was just more thunder, a branch broke off from high above. Catching sight of it at the last second, she jumped back and turned, pushing Jack out of the way. Surprised at the suddenness of her action, Jack fell backwards and the two of them rolled a few yards down the hill.
"You okay?" he shouted, his hands automatically skimming over her body to check for broken bones.
"I'm fine," Kate reassured him, nodding her head while she checked him for injuries. "Branch fell," she explained loudly and pointed back up the hill.
Following her gesture, he looked up and saw a branch, easily as thick as a telephone pole, lying in a splintered mess on the ground where they'd both stood only seconds before. Swallowing reflexively in shock, he could only nod his head and choke out a startled "Thank you".
Taking a shaky breath, he got to his feet and reached a hand down to help her up. She accepted his hand with a grateful smile and pulled herself up. She had just gotten to her feet, when another explosion of thunder rocked the skies and threw open the gates to the storm.
Blinking her eyes against the wind, she motioned for them to make a run for it. He nodded his agreement and pointed ahead of them questioningly. With a shrug of her shoulders, she indicated that she didn't have any better suggestion and gestured for him to lead the way. She followed him through the jungle, which had turned dark with the gloom of the storm, and shivered with trepidation. Even though they had been here for some time now, it always surprised her just how quickly the sky could become dark when the rain came. As if shutting off the hallway light, Mother Nature seemed to switch off daylight with the abruptness of an impatient parent at bedtime.
Sometimes, the rain came in stages, working its way from a misting to a downpour, but not this time. With only a handful of fat raindrops as warning, the skies opened up and let free the flood from above. Not even the dense canopy of trees above was able to protect them from the rain. Within seconds, they were both drenched and the solid ground had turned into a slick quagmire of mud that alternated between sucking her feet 6 inches into the ooze, and sending her hydroplaning across rocks coated in the slippery muck.
She struggled to keep her eyes trained on Jack's back, but the rain was so intense, it felt like she was trying to look through a waterfall. She followed the motion of his faint outline as he too, fought to navigate the suddenly treacherous terrain.
"Jack!" she yelled, striving to be heard over the roar of the storm. Catching up to him, she tugged at his shirt to get his attention. "Jack, we need to find some cover and wait this out."
Even though she stood not two feet away from him, he could barely discern her words. He nodded in reply, knowing that words were useless in the din of the rain. He looked around, hoping to catch a glimpse of somewhere promising, but to no avail, as he could barely see 6 feet ahead of him.
He turned to ask her if she had any idea where they were, but the grim shake of her head told him that she was as turned around as he was. He motioned for her to follow him up the hill, hoping that they'd find some shelter further up. She nodded her quick ascent, and followed as closely behind him as she could. She saw him lose his footing and grabbed onto his backpack to steady him, a futile gesture considering their difference in size. Her action caused her to careen into him, nearly sending them both tumbling. He reached back and held out his hand for her to grasp, pulling her upright again. Still holding her hand, he continued up the hill, trying to find something, anything, that would offer cover from the rain.
He almost didn't see it, but the unusual shadow to the right made him take a second glance. He stopped suddenly, causing Kate to run into him, and tried to peer through the gloom. Kate followed his line of sight, and her sharp eyes picked up what he saw.
"Cave?" she hollered, her voice hoarse.
Jack looked back at her and flashed a relieved smile. He nodded and gently tugged her in that direction.
What had at first appeared to be a small hole in the rocky hillside, actually turned out to be the opening to a cave, half hidden by vines. Hoping to find that the cave was empty, he motioned for Kate to stay still, while he checked inside. Satisfied that there were no other occupants, he gestured her inside.
While he had to stoop to get through the opening, Kate had little difficulty. The feeble light that managed to enter the cave did little to illuminate their surroundings, so Kate fished out her lighter and after a few fumbling attempts with hands shaking from the cold, she managed to get a spark.
Raising her hand high in the air, she scanned the immediate area. "Kate…"
Turning back to Jack, she saw him crouched on the ground, holding up part of a branch. Hoping that the wood was dry enough, she knelt next to him and held the flame to the wood. They each breathed a sigh of relief when the branch caught and began to burn. With the increased light, they were able to see that the cave, while small, was actually larger than they first thought. When she caught the dull flash of metal in the back corner, she motioned for Jack to hold the light steady.
"What's wrong, Kate?" he asked, suddenly realizing that she was still shivering with cold.
"There's something back here," she said and scrambled over to the corner before he could he could warn her to be careful. Not that it would do any good, he thought wryly, familiar with her independent streak.
"Look at this…" Kate said in confusion, beckoning him to bring the light closer as she brushed rotting vegetation from the top of something.
Waving the makeshift torch in front of him, he could make out the rough shape of what appeared to have once been a box of some sort. The wood was split, and even rotten away in some spots, but the broken metal clasp reflected dully in the torch's glow.
"It looks like an old crate," he said with surprise. He leaned forward, squinting at the faded markings, "It looks like Asian writing …. maybe Japanese?" he wondered out loud.
She pulled at the loose boards and found that the brittle wood snapped off easily into large chunks. Grabbing a fistful of what looked like hay from inside, Kate sat back on her heels and flashed a little smile of relief. "Well, whatever it was, it's kindling now."
Together they pulled apart the disintegrating box and made quick work of starting a fire near the entrance of the cave.
"Light? Check. Heat? Check. Hard ground? Check. It feels just like home now, doesn't it?" she shivered.
He gave a rusty chuckle at her observation, but became concerned with her trembling. He cast a disparaging eye at the ever-darkening sky just beyond the mouth of the cave and realized that there was little chance that they'd be able to return to camp tonight.
"You're shivering Kate. You need to get dry. You've still got that shirt in your bag, right? The one we were using to catch fruit?" She bobbed her head in agreement. "Okay, why don't you put that on and let your clothes dry. I'll see if there is anything else usable in here. Someone decided to keep a box in here, so maybe there's something else … "
While Jack investigated the back of the cave to give Kate some privacy, she hastily pulled off her sopping wet garments and tugged on the damp shirt that had been in her bag.
In the back of the cave, Jack held the torch with one hand, and awkwardly sifted through the contents of what remained of the crate with the other.
"I wonder if this was used as a Japanese outpost during WWII," he said, coming across a tin with what appeared to be a military insignia of some kind on it. Running his thumb over the foreign characters written on the side of the tin, he wondered what had become of its owner.
Up front, Kate pondered his words. "Could be," she said, vaguely remembering something from history class about Japanese soldiers being stationed on islands throughout the Pacific during the war.
Setting aside a few more rusty and battered tins, Jack paused when his hand came across a cold, smooth object. Pulling the object out, he held it up to the light and shook his head in disbelief. Opening the top, he took a sniff to verify its contents.
"You decent up there?" he called out to Kate.
"Yeah, and we're in luck …. the fruit didn't get too beaten up in the fall … so at least we have food."
Gathering up his findings, Jack returned to the front where Kate was spreading her wet clothes out on the ground near the edge of the fire. He shook his head and chuckled softly at what she was wearing. "Nice shirt, Kate."
Kate glanced down at the shirt she was wearing. It was easily 4 times too big on her and swallowed up her small frame. She gave a small snort of laughter. "Yeah well…beggars can't be choosers." Seeing what he had brought back, she looked up at him with raised eyebrows. "Is that what I think it is?"
"I think so. It smells like it, anyway." He passed the bottle of sake over to her, saying, "Good old fashioned Japanese rice wine … here, a little bit might help with your chill."
Wiping the top of the bottle, Kate tipped it up at took a sip. Blinking her eyes against the sting of it, she made at face at the bottle. "Oh, that's awful, Jack."
"Not a great year, huh?" he smiled and tossed her a piece of fruit.
"I'm pretty sure this never had a good year," she grimaced. But as she took another drink, she decided that the warmth she was beginning to feel made up for the taste. "You're clothes are wet too, Jack," she commented. "Are you going to be okay?"
He shrugged off her concerns and moved a bit closer to the fire. While he knew he'd be more comfortable without the wet fabric clinging to him, he just couldn't bring himself to strip off layers; it was intimate enough in here as it was and he didn't want to tempt fate, or his hormones, by making it even cozier. The last thing he wanted was for her think he was like a teenager claiming that the "car had run out of gas" just to get her in the backseat; her respect was something that he cherished too much to risk by misinterpreting her signals. "I'll be fine."
Settling into an easy silence, they munched on their meagre supply of fruit and let the fire warm them. Kate passed the bottle to Jack, and for a moment, thought he wouldn't take it. But with a barely perceptible sigh of resignation, he took the bottle. He took a drink and immediately started coughing.
"Oh God, that is bad!" he sputtered ruefully, scowling at the bottle. At the sound of a snort, he looked up to see Kate fighting back laughter.
"Not a great year, huh?" she mimicked, with her eyebrows raised in challenge.
He just shook his head and chuckled softly. "You enjoyed that didn't you?"
Kate just flashed him a grin and reached for another piece of fruit.
They sat in companionable silence for a while, enjoying the now pleasantly warm cave; the mixture of heat from the fire and humidity from the drying clothes, making them both drowsy. With her eyelids drifting shut, she was starting to doze off a bit when she heard Jack add more of the wooden boards to the fire. She shifted to find a more comfortable position on the cave floor and saw that his clothes were still damp. Hoping that a bit more of the liquor would warm him as it had her, she passed him the bottle. He hesitated briefly, looking at the bottle for a long moment without taking a drink.
"I know it's pretty bad, Jack, but it won't bite", she said, watching him keenly from beneath a furrowed brow. She studied him as he took a sip, and then stared at the bottle in his hands.
"My father is an alcoholic. Was. My father was an alcoholic," he said. His voice was drowsy from the relaxing heat of the fire; the combined effects of exhaustion and warmth allowing his thoughts temporary freedom from the emotional prison he kept them in.
Propping her head up on her hand, she looked over at him, startled to hear him open up like that. Afraid that if she said something, it would break the spell and he'd clam up again, she simply looked at him and said nothing.
"That's part of what killed him," he said as he took another tiny sip, almost as if in tribute to his father, and passed the bottle back to her. He met her gaze briefly before turning his attention back to the flames.
Kate set the bottle aside and watched him stare into the fire. And just that quickly, he seemed to retreat back into his own private limbo. Typical Jack, she thought; as soon as he exposed some part of what made him tick, he put the walls back up, as if bracing for a condemning blow. Even half asleep, he seemed determined to keep his defences up. But this time, he had let her in. Not far, but for once he wasn't shutting her out completely.
"Part of?" she asked. "What was the other part?" she wondered, assuming it had been a car accident, or some other alcohol induced tragedy.
Me, he thought to himself, but unwilling to let that much slip out. His guilt over what he perceived to be his role in his father's final binge was still too raw.
He shrugged his shoulders noncommittally and twisted his body in the cramped space, trying to find a comfortable position to lie down in. Kate pursed her lips, knowing that there was more that he wasn't saying, but that now was not the time to push. It was amazing really, how much she had learned to read his body language. They'd not even been here 2 months, but in some ways, she felt like she had known him for so much longer. Since that day in the clearing, when she'd gotten a glimpse of the human inside the hero, she'd gained a new appreciation for the many emotional layers she now knew existed behind the capable image he projected.
"Here," she offered and scooted over, giving him room to stretch out a bit. He nodded his head in appreciation, and tugged their bags over to serve as pillows.
She was just starting to drift off to sleep when she felt his warm hand on her arm. "Thank you," he said softly, his voice sleepy.
"For what?"
"For not pushing."
She smiled softly in the flickering shadows and reached up to squeeze his hand.
"That's what people who care about you do, Jack …" she began, but drifted off to sleep before she could say anything more.
But Jack didn't notice her silence, as he too had at long last, fallen asleep.