8. Wild at Heart

"Listen," James told Marlow. "There's a refueling team coming to the North end of the island in three days."

"You should come with us," added Mason.

"To the north end of the island? In three days?"

"Yes, we're getting out of here."

Marlow began laughing, cupping James's face and patting his cheek. "You can't get to the North end of the island in three days!" he cried, suddenly serious now. "At least not on foot."

"That's what we're going to be traveling in?" cried Slivko.

"I've seen worse," admitted Tilda.

"There she is," breathed Marlow happily.

"Well, that's just lovely," said James.

"She sure is. You're damn right."

The small water vessel seemed to have been crafted from the airplanes Marlow and Gunpei had crashed in all those years ago.

"Does this thing even float?" asked Slivko, peering closely at the boat.

"Gunpei and I spent six years of our life building this. She's called the Grey Fox. She's floats. And she does a lot more than that. She's our ticket out of here." He went on to tell them what it was built from, confirming Tilda's earlier theory.

"So you built it out of your old plane parts?"

"We sure did. And some other stuff that landed on the island - now that was something. No people with it though."

"You've got to be kidding me, that thing?" mumbled Nieves in disbelief.

"'That thing' is your only hope of getting off this island alive. Now I know she ain't pretty to look at-"

"I think she's incredible," remarked Tilda.

"Well thank you, Ma'am. It's nothing a couple of extra hands can't fix. Now, unless you've got any better ideas, I'd say we'd better get cracking."

"Right." Tilda threw down her kit. "You heard the man, let's get to it, folks."

"I like your attitude," chuckled Marlow.

While they got to work - minus the help of Nieves - Mason went to take as many photos of the Iwis and their village as she could. She even taught them how to use the camera so they could take some photos of her there in and amongst it all.

"Slivko you know what you're doing there?" asked James aboard the boat, the Grey Fox.

"Yeah, I sure do. My Pops is a mechanic. If I can't fix this, he'll disown me - if he ever sees me again."

"Of course will." Tilda tried to keep optimistic.

"I sure hope so."

"That thing looks like it's made out of pure tetanus," called Nieves who sat as far from the boat as possible on the docks.

"Nieves, less complaining and more assistance would be greatly appreciated," Tilda told him.

"I'm not coming near that thing."

"We'll you're going to have to come near it if it's to carry us across the island," she reminded him.

"Wait, wait, hold on, Churchill," Marlow stopped James in the middle of his recounting what had happened in the last years and decades since he landed on the island to pass the time while they worked. "Russia was our ally, and now you're saying we're at war with them?"

"It's more of a cold war."

"Cold war like, they take the summers off?"

Tilda chuckled. "Something like that, sure."

Then Marlow and Slivko got into a discussion about sports while they continued to work, and she lost interest. She turned to James. "How's your section going?"

"Well, I think. And yours?"

"Good, yeah. I think we're making progress."

"We also put a man on the moon," offered Nieves to Marlow.

"No kidding? What did they do, just leave him up there? What's he eating?"

"Come on, we're losing the daylight," urged James. At this rate, they could finish the project before dark.

"English! English!" Mason came running over to them then. "English! Not you!" she said to James when he turned to face her as well as Tilda. "You won't believe what just happened!"

"Well are you going to tell me?" Tilda stepped out of the boat and met her partner on the docks.

"I just had a run-in with Kong!"

"What?!" Tilda gawked back. "Are you okay?"

"Yeah I'm fine-" Mason went on to tell her how she noticed one of those buffalo creatures trapped under some fallen debris from their helicopter arrival. She had attempted to free it, but then Kong had come along.

"I think he saw I was trying to help, so he didn't attack me."

"Wild. Brilliant. Here, let me get my notebook - I want you to tell me the whole thing start to finish."

That night, Slivko was blasting his tunes from his portable record player, telling Marlow all about modern music. Above them, incredibly clear aurora lights swirled and danced in the night sky.

"It's so clear out here," breathed Tilda. "No light pollution, no noise, just sky and stars stretching as far as the eye can see."

"So you're a poet as well," said James with a smile.

"Well, a writer."

"Isn't it odd how the most dangerous places are always the most beautiful?"

"Now who's the poet?" she joked back. "You can say that again. God, I could watch this for hours - for forever, even." She turned to her partner. "Hey Mace, I really hope you can get a photo of this cause I'm not sure I can put it into words."

"I'm sure if anyone could, you can. I'm trying to take a long-exposure photograph by my flashlight broke."

"Here, try this." James produced a lighter from his pocket.

"Thank you. Royal Air Force?"

"It was my father's. He threw it to me from the train as he rolled off to fight the Nazis. He was John Wayne to me, some kind of mythic hero."

"Did he come home?" Tilda asked gently.

"His plane went down near Hamburg. They searched for him for months but..." He trailed off. "I suppose no man comes home from war. Not really."

"I don't think anyone does," she agreed.

"Did you lose anyone?"

"Oh, yes. I was born after the war, thankfully, but yes, I did lose lots of relatives. My family is Jewish by background, so-"

"Ah." He nodded, she not needing to elaborate. The affects of the Nazi genocide against the Jews were still continuing today. "I'm very sorry."

"Thank you."

"You were lucky to be over in England then, luckier. A bit safer, perhaps."

"Y-yes. Perhaps..." She decided it would be best to change the subject - she was suddenly being flooded by all kinds of emotions. "Gosh, it's moments like these where I fully believe I could leave the city behind forever and move to the countryside." She chuckled. "But I doubt I'll find a view like this ever again."

"You never know," said James.

"True." There was a comfortable silence held between them before she spoke again. "You know, I've noticed that you don't like being the centre of attention, but you sure know how to lead."

He gave a brief chuckle. "Well, at least someone thinks so."

As always, thank you so much for reading and I hope you enjoyed! :)