"What's in it?" Taylor asked as they gathered around the box.
"Be careful," Lex said, "There might be old ammo in it."
"That's what you said about the other one." Eric said bending down to look at the box. He gently kicked at it with his foot, something rattled inside.
"Hey what are you doing?" Nathan asked pushing Eric away from the box. "If its ammo and you kick it well… let's just not go there."
"Yeah, let's just leave it alone." Melissa said backing away from the box.
"But what if it's something we can use?" Eric asked. "Like another knife, or a lighter or something? I say we vote on it."
"Eric's right." Daley said, "We vote. Who wants to open the box?"
Eric, Taylor, Daley, and Nathan raised their hands.
"Who doesn't want to open it?"
Lex, Jackson and Melissa raised their hands.
"Hah, four to three," Eric said "Let's open it."
Everyone stared at the box that was still lying on the sand.
"Um how do we open it?" Taylor asked, looking at everyone.
Nathan bent down and picked up Jackson's big knife and stuck it under the latch. He pulled down on the knife and up on the latch, and the lid popped open. Everyone breathed a sigh of relief, nothing blew up.
"What's in it?" Daley asked leaning over Nathan's shoulder.
Nathan put his hand in the box and pulled out a book. He handed it to Daley.
"It's a diary." She said.
"There's more," Nathan said he handed a stack of unopened letters to Melissa, a flask to Lex and an old knife to Eric.
"Who'd diary is it?" Melissa asked.
"A soldier named Andrew Davis," Daley said turning the pages of the old book carefully. "April 3, we've been here four day's now, there hasn't been any kind of rescue. Not ships or planes or anything. Most of they guys are scared, even though they try not to show it. Most of the guys are young, 19, 20, and 21. None of us want to die here but we're running out of food, and water. No one's saying it but we're all thinking we're gonna die here. Most of the guys have started writing letters and stuff and putting them in these boxes we found. I anyone ever comes here they'll know we were here. Well the suns almost set; I'm pulling watch with one of the young guns, Trevor, in a few hours, so I'd better rest up. Write more later."
Daley stopped reading and closed the book. Everyone was quiet, even Taylor.
"So what do we do with this stuff?" Melissa asked quietly, looking at the stack of letters in her hands.
"We should put them in the box," Lex said. "When we get home we can give them to the soldier's family."
"If we get home," Eric said.
"Hey look on the bright side," Nathan said. "There might be something in this book that can help us so we can get home."
"He's got a point," Melissa said. "And now we've got another knife."
Lex yawned, by now the sun was gone and the fire was dying down.
"Well," Eric said getting up and stretching. "I'm hitting the old sleeping bag."
Everyone nodded and headed to the tent.
"Hey, you coming?" Melissa asked Jackson who was still sitting on a log.
"I'll be there in a minute, I'm just gonna put some more wood on the fire."
Melissa nodded; she put the letters in the box next to the journal and went into the tent.
Jackson threw more wood on the fire then with one last look at the box headed into the tent.
F29DWN
"Eric, wake up." Taylor whispered. "Come on Eric."
Eric opened his eyes and blinked until Taylor came into focus. "Morning, did you sleep well?"
"Yeah," Taylor said snuggling closer to him.
"Eric, Taylor come on get up." Daley said sticking her head into the tent. "We've go things to do."
Eric rolled his eyes, making Taylor laugh. They both go up and stumbled out of the tent.
Everyone else was up. Nathan and Lex were tying braided string to the shelter. Melissa was braiding. Daley was washing cloths. And judging by the stead thumping noise Jackson was cutting down trees.
"Come on Eric," Nathan said seeing the two sleepy-heads finally emerge from the tent. "We need water."
"All right," Eric said grabbing two jugs. "Don't get you're undies in a bunch."
"Taylor, the batteries are getting low, you need to charge them." Daley said.
Groaning Taylor took the charger and batteries to the beach.
F29DWN
Eric had filled all the water jugs and was waiting for Melissa to boil the water so he could get more. To kill the time he went and sat by Taylor on the beach.
"Hey," He said.
"Hey, are you done hauling water all ready?" Taylor asked.
"Naw, there' no more jugs." Eric said. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing." Taylor lied.
"You're lying, come on you can tell me." He said putting his arm around her.
"I'm afraid, Eric." She said, looking tearfully at him. "What if we die here?"
"Hey, come on," He said wrapping his other arm around her. "We wont die, I all ready told you."
"I know, but hearing you say it… it just makes me feel better." She said.
Eric leaned over and kissed her on the forehead. "It'll be ok."
F29SWN
"Has anyone seen the journal?" Daley asked.
"Didn't you put it in the box last night?" Lex asked.
"I thought I did," Daley said looking threw the letters. "But it's not here."
"It probably fell out." Nathan said, walking over to help Daley look for it.
"I'll check the tent." Lex said.
"I'll go ask Jackson." Melissa said heading towards the jungle.
Melissa walked to where Jackson had been cutting trees, he wasn't there. There was another less used trail heading to the right so she followed it. It led to a smaller clearing; Jackson was sitting on a log shoulder hunched. Quietly Melissa walked up behind him.
"Hey," She said quietly.
"Oh, hey," He said jumping a little at her voice.
"Daley's looking for the journal. Do you have it?"
"What? Oh, yeah, I do." He handed her the book.
"What's wrong?" She asked sitting down next to him.
"I just wanted to know how he died." He whispered.
"And did you?"
Jackson nodded and took the book, opened it and gave it back.
"May 15. I can't believe we've lasted this long, but we have. I guess all that training we went threw was good for something. But now things are going bad. Gates got caught in a storm yesterday and hasn't stopped coughing since.
May 17. Gates took a turn for the worse last night. He won't last much longer.
May 21. He died last night. Me and Jenkins were in the tent with him. One minute he was telling us about his brother the next he was thrashing about then he was gone."
Melissa stopped reading and looked at Jackson. "I'm sorry."
"Don't be, we would have found out sooner or later." He muttered staring at the ground. "It just makes it all scarier, I mean he got caught in a storm, and he died. That could happen to any of us."
Melissa was quiet, the book still open in her hands. Jackson rubbed his face and stood up.
"I'm going for a walk." He said and walked out of the clearing.
For a second Melissa considered following him but then decided against it. He'd talk when he was ready. Sighing she headed back to camp.