Chapter 5: No end in sight
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Melissa couldn't decide, if this was the most terrible day of her life. The plane crash had held that title before, and the last big storm had been in second place with honourable mentions, with the day her secret crush had been blasted to the air trailing not far behind. This day - it put those other days into an acute perspective. The fear, the shock, the lunge into unknown connected all those days, but somehow, uncontrollable strangers with guns were much worse than uncontrollable friends, weather, or planes.
And the day wasn't even close to coming to an end yet. She didn't know the exact time, but could hazard a guess; she had left the camp about three o'clock, had walked well over half an hour before Jackson had found her, then they had talked for awhile, had discovered the men, had searched for shelter, had settled down. Perhaps another hour had passed since then. That would mean it had only been about three hours ago, when everything had been fine. When they had been safe. It felt much longer than that.
And there was plenty of time for this day to become a lot worse, and to really earn its place as the most horrible day, ever.
Melissa tried to withdrew deeper into herself, to block both the thoughts swirling inside, and the raging storm outside. But her thoughts were insistent, and the weather impossible to ignore. Their shelter did little to shield them from the fury of the tempest; she doubted if anything could.
They had started to find a suitable shelter after it became clear that waiting and hiding would be their best plan of action for the time being. Besides from the camp, there really was only one place that they knew had a solid roof - the bunker. However, the place was out of the question; even if all the thugs were back at the camp, which they had no way of knowing, the men could came back at any time to get the drugs. Melissa really didn't want to go anywhere near the place, a sheltering roof or not.
Their options had been quite limited; the beach was totally exposed to the fury of the elements, and any kind of clearing was more likely to attract lightning than the dense jungle. Therefore, they had walked a little deeper into the tropical forest, and had settled in a place where thick bushes tangled with tree trunks, creating an almost impenetrable wall of green and brown.
It had started to rain, when they had been covering their chosen ground with palm leaves. A view drops had been all the warning they got; half a minute later the sky was pouring water down in buckets. Even half way under a bush, with several palm trees forming their own kind of roof over their heads, the raindrops still managed to find their way into Melissa's bare skin.
She shivered despite Jackson's jacket on her. He had insisted that she wore it, since she had left her own in the camp, and she had quickly realised it would have been futile to argue; Jackson's mind was made. She regretted now her stupid thoughtlessness; if she was cold even with the jacket on, what must he be feeling only in t-shirt?
The heat of the day had faded after the dark clouds had smothered the sun; the wind was cool, turning their skins to gooseflesh, trying to bore its way into their bone marrow. It seemed ridiculous to be freezing in a tropical island, but there was no way of denying what was happening: Melissa was cold and wet and miserable.
And don't forget, afraid.
All around them, the leaves were swinging wildly, the trees groaning under the pressure of the gale. The whole jungle was alive; moaning and shifting restlessly, trying to shelter itself from the assault. Melissa felt the palm trunk behind her sway, and prayed that it, or any of the other trees, wouldn't fall on top of them.
The dark of the forest was lit regularly by the sudden bright streaks of blue across the sky, following almost immediately by a crash of thunder. The storm was almost on top of them now, and her heart raced with adrenaline.
When Melissa had been a little child, she used to crawl into her parents bed, when the thunder had scared her. Older, she had felt exited, and had usually watched as the brilliant strikes of lightning had coloured the sky, but even then, she had still always felt nervous, unsettled by the raw force of the nature. Now, she felt like that small child again, wanting nothing more than to hide her face into the folds of her mother's sheets.
But there were no lavender scented sheets, no warm hand stroking her hair.
No, instead, there was the next best thing Melissa could possibly imagine: a solid form huddling against her, a strong arm around her shoulders, drawing her closer.
He said we are together in this. And Melissa had never doubted Jackson's word. She felt so immensely grateful that she wasn't alone.
They had not talked since they had pressed close together in their shelter; it was too much of a struggle to get ones voice across the howl of the wind. In a way, there was nothing to talk about. There was no point in voicing their fears, and it was futile to talk about what would happen. They would get through this storm, she was certain that they would, and after it…
We'll think of something. Anything.
She knew what she wanted to do though; she wanted to just hide until the men left, hide until everything would be alright again, hide with Jackson's arm around her, his comforting presence calming her down. It made her feel the biggest crook in the whole island.
Coward.
"Hey." His voice in her ear startled her; it was almost a mere whisper, but his head was so close to hers that the word was carried across the wind seemingly effortlessly.
She twisted herself partly towards his face; trying to angle her head closer still.
"The drawings you made - they were great. You draw a lot?"
She thought of the charcoal sketches she had made for everyone on their made-up celebration day; how the simple act of drawing had made her feel calmer, closer to home.
"Yeah." Suddenly the single word wasn't enough, and she felt the need to elaborate. "It's something I can do by myself - just me. I can…It doesn't need any words. Like playing music."
To her mind came the image of him sitting in the fireplace, holding that guitar; she remembered the song he had played, the way he had surprised them all. Only not them all, she could see it now; Taylor had not held that same amazement, for she had already known.
"I know what you mean." There was a pause, and she thought that the conversation had come to an end, but then his voice was once again reaching for her ear.
"There wasn't much I could do back at home…besides staring at television or hanging around in the neighbourhood. Learning how to play…was a lifesaver."
There were no pauses after that. They talked, finally. Really talked. Not about the crash or their current situation, but of their lives back home; what they liked and disliked; they spoke of the simple things. She didn't know, if he was just trying to get their minds of the fear, of the fierce storm enclosing them, or if he wanted to just talk to her, but for once, she didn't really care.
He was here, with her, and in that moment, it was all that mattered.
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This was not the way things were supposed to go. Cole most certainly had not planned getting stuck on the island as the storm raged, and couldn't have even imagined that he would be waiting for it to end in a wreckage of a plane, with five stranded kids.
But then again, he hadn't planned that jail trip either.
He had to admit that the plane was an excellent shelter; solid enough that not even the biggest gusts of wind could rock it, with the steady beat of the rain against the metal creating a noise almost soothing.
No, he couldn't ask for a better shelter in a deserted island; it was the company that was seriously getting on his nerves. Cole was not surprised, for in his experience it was always the other people, the whole humankind, who got in his way, tried their damnedest to prevent him from getting his share of the good life. Not this time though.
Even ever silent Jin had began to annoy him. The man was sitting cross-legged next to him, face and body motionless. Jin never gave him any trouble, wasn't an irritating bastard like Larry, but the fact that he couldn't read the man's face made him sometimes edgy. Jin could be planning all kinds of things and Cole would never even know…
At least, he didn't have that problem with Larry; the bastards intentions could be seen pretty clearly on the leering face. The man was sitting on one of the remaining seats, legs propped up, casting suggestive glances towards the girls at the back of the plane.
Shit, another problem for me to take care of.
The girls were either oblivious to the looks, or steadily ignoring them. The black boy glared a view times at Cole and Larry in particular, but the other kids avoided looking at them. All except the smallest one, the black haired one, who surely wasn't a teenager, but really only a child. The boy had a strange kind of mix of shock and wonder on his face; like he was trying to solve a terrifying puzzle. The face made Cole uncomfortable.
The kids were all huddled together, silent and clearly afraid. Before, Cole had almost felt sorry for them. Not anymore.
They are cunning little bastards.
He felt the familiar burn of rage inside him, and clenched his fists. If it weren't for the happy stranded campers, his debts would steadily be on their way to be paid. The threat of painful death would have been lifted from his head. He could have continued to dream about all that deep sea fishing he was going to do once he got out of this mess. Instead, he was trying to scrape together some kind of plan to survive. And all this because the maggots had the nerve to crash of all the possible places on to his island and touch his property.
They had touched his drugs. Granted, they had left the packages as they were, but hadn't extended that same courtesy towards his money. For the plastic bag, with several neat rolls of American dollars was not in the hideaway he had put it. The drugs were just half of the payment; Cole really needed that money.
The kids hadn't even mentioned the bills, but then again, who would want to give up that kind of sum willingly? He hadn't seen even a flicker of uncertainty, when he had questioned them, but that just proved that they were good liars. And Cole was certain that the little bastards were lying. What were the odds that someone else just happened to stumble upon the bunker in a deserted island, and also managed to find the money stash?
Exactly.
They had his money, and he was going to get it all back, with interests. No doubt about the outcome. However, the way he was going to do it - that needed some careful thinking. As much as Cole wanted to squeeze the truth out of the kids, at this very moment (for he wanted his money damn it!), he couldn't be so straightforward about it.
Jin and Larry had no idea about the money stash, they were on this just for a share of the drugs, and Cole intended to keep it that way. First, he had to get those two out of the way, maybe send them back to the boat, as he questioned the kids and retrieved the money. But that wasn't without its problems either. There was the weather, which wasn't showing any signs of calming down, and although it would have been satisfying to send Larry out into the storm, the other man would have risen a mutiny. He had to wait until at least the pouring rain had stopped. As for sending both Jin and Larry away from the camp…that would look too suspicious, since it didn't really need two persons to check the boat.
Maybe I have to let Jin on this.
Cole didn't like where the situation was heading to. If he took Jin into his plans, he would have to give the man some kind of share of the money. But it seemed there would be no other option, and if he had to trust either Jin or Larry, well, the choice was kind of obvious. No way in hell was Cole letting Larry anywhere near his money.
He looked at the seemingly innocent kids, leaning into each other, some of them holding hands. They had managed to survive here by themselves for three weeks, and had built a camp that had impressed even Cole. They had told straight to his face, that no, we didn't touch anything else, acting like he was the biggest bad guy in the world.
And yes, they weren't so wrong about that; Cole knew himself well enough to admit that sometimes he could be quite a bad man. His creditors however - they were worse.
He needed his money back. But just because his need was pulsing through his veins painfully, whispering all kinds of dark things to his ear, didn't mean he would act blindly and underestimate the little worms.
He wasn't worried though; the kids had proved to be quite good at survival skills, but no one, no one, was better than Cole, when it came to plain raw survival.
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So, things are getting a little complicated back in the camp…
Please review your thoughts; they are very much appreciated.
Next week: The silence in the plane is finally broken, and in the jungle, Melissa doesn't know if she should be happy or terrified - for Jackson has a plan!