Disclaimer: I do not own Young Justice
"If you were stuck on a stranded island, who would you bring?" Most say their favorite actor or actress; others say their best friend or a family member. I'm not going to lie, my first thought was a survivalist, but I would not mind my best friend, Dick. As much as I care for my best friend, I would still go with a survivalist today. Too bad luck is not on my side... or maybe it is…
Stranded Chapter 2: Day 1
A/N: So, I am not the best with survival nor have I been on an island stranded. So bear with me if some of what I show is incorrect. If you see something major you can always tell me with a review or a message. I do not mind, but then again I am the author… Anyway…. Here is the next chapter and I hope you like it!
After the storm had blown over, Barbara awoke and found herself face flat on a bed of sand, coughing hard. After getting most of the water out of her system, she plopped herself onto her back and tried to catch her breath. With each inhale and exhale, thoughts about what happened to the others, especially Dick, flooded into her mind. She figured that the others would be safe because they were safely in the boat and had Lagoon Boy by their side. It was just her and Dick that she was really worried about.
Dick… Her eyes started to sting, whether from the sand and salt water or emotions of total lost, she did not know. All she knew was that she had no idea what to do. An over abundant amount of thoughts flooded into her head: possible ways to escape, ways of survival, etc. With all this in mind, she knew she was about to get a headache.
"Well Gordon, remember what dad always said, 'when life knocks you down, you get up twice as strong'." After falling down or failing a competition, her father would always mention those words. She tried to give a smile at those bitter memories as she stared at the bright sky. "Nothing will get done if I lay around waiting for help..." I can't think of negative things now. First I need to check my surroundings and see how well I can survive until help arrives. I need to clear my mind.
After taking a deep breath, Barbara slowly started getting up, but winced in pain. She looked down at herself and noticed that she had cuts along her clothing and body. After shifting and wincing again, she realized that each cut stung from the sand and the salt water. "Great," she muttered while trying to reach into her utility belt that was somehow still wrapped around her waist. She felt around looking for something to help the cuts and gasped looking down. Some of the pockets to the belt were open and filled with water or sand. She muttered a curse before getting up painfully and taking in her surroundings.
Barbara faced the vast open ocean. All she could see was water that ran out for miles. She looked towards both sides of her and saw that the bank of sand moved along the water. Slowly turning around. All she saw were trees and leaves behind her.
"Are you kidding me? What is this, the end of Life of Pi?" She looked around to see if she could see anything else. She saw a few dead logs, shells, plants she did not know, and some she did, like an aloe plant. Wait. Her head turned back to the familiar plant. An aloe plant? Barbara walked closer to the plant, and was positive that that's what it was. This is looking good so far. Aloe can help with the cuts.
Right before she reached down to pull on a leaf; she heard rustling from somewhere near. She reached into her belt again; pulling out a batarang that somehow stayed with her.
The rustling grew louder as Barbara took a defensive stance. Barbara stumbled back as birds flew out of a bush. Her hand went to her heart as she blew out a sigh of relief. She turned as she watched the birds flying away.
I'm thinking way too much… Barbara thought with a shake of her head.
ROAAAAAAAAR
Barbara's eyes widened. She almost realized too late that the birds were flying away from something. Barbara turned around and saw a mountain lion growling at her. With every slow step it took towards her, Barbara took two more in the opposite direction, twice as fast.
Barbara's mind froze. She had no idea what to do. The lion crouched causing Barbara to stumble onto the ground and let out a scream. Barbara watched in horror as the cat moved its tail back in forth ready to pounce on its prey. She tried crawling back, but kept stumbling. The next thing that happened went by as a blur.
Barbara watched as another figured jumped out from the bushes. With his hair in a mess, Dick took in the situation and did the first thing that crossed his mind. He jumped after the mountain lion and tackled it to the ground. This knocked Barbara out of her daze. She stumbled onto her feet as she watched Dick struggle with the cat. The cat got out from under Dick, and circled the couple.
As the mountain lion got ready to attack again, it bared its fangs hissing in the process. It crouched down on its hind legs, getting ready to pounce again. Barbara watched as the cat jumped into the air towards Dick. In a swift movement, Barbara threw her batarang. It hit the mountain lion in one of its legs, causing the creature to fall to the ground, hard. She was shocked that she had done that, but she had done similar things before, right? Like on patrol. No this was not like patrol, this was an animal. Is that the same? Barbara had gone hunting with her father and brother before a couple times on camping trips, but was this different?
Dick turned to Barbara, and a look of relief and a bunch of other emotions crossed his face. He grabbed Barbara and pulled her into a hug.
"Babs…" he whispered softly, as he was stroking her hair. It was as if he was trying to get rid of the last few minutes of their near death experience. Not that they do not see those on a daily bases.
Barbara was stiff while in Dick's arms. She slowly moved her arms up to hug him back, but she kept her eyes on the bleeding creature in front of her. It was suffering. Dick noticed where she was starring.
"Babs, you did the right thing. It was for our protection." Dick held Barbara an arm's length away from him and tried to get her to look him in the eye.
Barbara took in a breath. "I know," she said looking into Dick's blue eyes.
"God Babs, I am so glad you're okay." Dick pulled Barbara back into a hug and turned her away from the scene in front of them.
"Me? You're the one who jumped on a mountain lion!" She tried shouting at Dick. Dick opened his mouth as if to say something, but nothing came out. Barbara let out a sigh. "I'm glad you're okay too…" Barbara strengthened her hold on him, "But…," the two looked around towards the water, "what do we do now?" Dick looked back towards the creature; Barbara understood what he was thinking. At least they would have something to eat.
"First, I think we need to wash the blood away from the animal," Barbara said while sitting on a log with Dick. The creature sat a couple feet away from them.
"So with salt water? Wouldn't that make it not edible or something?"
"I'm... I'm not positive, but I think you're right. Maybe we should dig a hole and put it in there. We could cover it with giant leaves, and after we mark our territory nothing should come by to try to eat it, especially if we have a fire."
"Wait. When you said 'mark our territory' you were implying something." Dick narrowed his eyes toward Barbara.
"Well, I think this is a good area to set up camp. High tide shouldn't reach up this far, as you can see from this giant tree behind us. And the giant tree would be good coverage. If we decided to make some sort of a hut, the branches come out well enough that we can put giant leaves and other things on it to make a roof and possibly walls. As long as it isn't too windy we should be able to manage for tonight until we can secure it better."
"Stop!" Barbara looked at Dick with a raised eyebrow. "I didn't say why we chose this area, I already know why. I just want you to explain what you were implying." Barbara opened her mouth to say something, but Dick interrupted her again. "You know what forget it; I think I have watched enough animal channels and been around animals with the circus to understand what you mean. Just point where so I can relieve myself."
"Good, I say go around this tree by, I don't know, maybe 10 feet? But when you get to this side that faces the water, go along the bushes on both sides. Then you should come back around here and get some of this area in the sand to box us in."
"Are you serious? I don't think I can go that much! Plus won't the waves wash away what's on the sand!"
"I don't know, isn't it that the scent lingers? So it shouldn't, now get to it."
"Why don't you go do it or at least help me?!"
"Fine," Barbara stood up from the log and wiped her hands on her clothes. "I'll go first. Watch our stuff. I have to tinkle."
"Wait Babs… I'm sorry, I'll do it."
"That doesn't change the fact that I still have to go. Plus you might be right about the sand. I'll be back okay? Besides, it's a fact that women have smaller bladders than men." Barbara looked down at what she was wearing. Her t-shirt was all ripped up and was not doing much. She let out a sigh and pulled it off. Under she was wearing a tank-top that was not as cut up.
"Why were you wearing a tank…?"
"I had gotten cold on the boat and I didn't want to wear a jacket or anything, but I guess now I should have gone with the jacket."
And with that, Dick watched Barbara walk behind the trees. Dick looked down at what he was wearing. Somehow, his clothing was not in as bad a condition as Barbara's. His shorts were still on him and his shirt only had minor cuts.
Dick didn't like the fact that he couldn't see Barbara. He felt that he would lose her if he let her go on her own. He let out a sigh, "I'll give her five minutes. If she isn't back in five, I'll go find her." With that settled he decided to dig a hole for the creature or a fire. He started digging at a distance from the tree that can fit two people sleeping. He got down on his knees and used his hands to start digging. "This is horrible…" with each cup of sand Dick took out, half of that filled its place. "This is going to take forever…"
"Dick!" Dick's ears perched up. "Dick!" It didn't sound like she was in trouble, but it still put his nerves on edge. "Dick, I need your help!"
"I hope you're done going, cause I can't help in that department." Dick got up and started following Barbara's voice, "Babs! Where are you?"
"Over here!" Dick followed her voice and looked down to see if he could see Barbara's footprints. Barbara was smart. It seems she used her foot or a stick to create one long line to follow her. Dick followed the line until it went behind a couple of giant leaves.
"Babs?" Dick voiced as he managed to get through the trees. In front of him was a giant bamboo forest.
"This is perfect! Dick, come here! We need to take some of this bamboo back."
"Bamboo?"
"Yeah, bamboo can have many resources because it's hollow." Barbara took out a batarang and started to saw through some bamboo. After cutting down seven long pieces of bamboo, Barbara carried the heads of the bamboo while Dick carried the backs. Together, they went back to their campsite.
"We need to hurry, we have to find water and set a camp before night falls."
"Wait, you bring that up now?" Dick asked in disbelief.
"It was what we were doing from the start. Come on, let's go set this down. We should finish marking our territory before deciding what else to do."
"I'm pretty sure finding a water supply is more important than marking our territory," Dick muttered under his breath. Barbara pushed the bamboo sticks back towards Dick, causing them to hit him in the chest. "Oww! What was that for?!"
"Don't shout. There are other animals here, too." Dick mumbled something else under his breath, but Barbara let it slide.
After walking back to the campsite, they placed the bamboo on the ground. When Dick was done putting them on the ground, he silently left Barbara to go do his half of the territory. How ever Barbara managed her side, he would not like to know. When he got back, he saw that Barbara had already cut into the bamboo. From his view it looked like she had a bunch of little pipes around her.
"Hey, Dick, come here. I want to show you something." Dick did as he was told and sat across from Barbara. "See, look." Barbara held up one of the bamboo pipes to show Dick. Dick took it from her hands and looked inside.
It was not a pipe for he could not see through the other side; however it was "a cup?"
Barbara nodded her head, "Bamboo stems are hollow, and they have these vascular bundles in some of its cross sections that are scattered throughout the bamboo and…" Dick's confused expression stopped Barbara.
"I know that we were underwater for a while, but would you mind speaking English?" Barbara glared at Dick.
"So bamboo has these little ledges throughout the bamboo. Like this," Barbara pointed to the bottom of the 'cup'. "Meaning we can use it to make cups or other things as well."
"Other things?"
"Yup, like a miniature shovel." Barbara held out the miniature shovel she had already cut. Dick's eyes widened with excitement!
"Great! Now we don't need to use our hands to dig that hole!" Barbara nodded in agreement and then looked up towards the sky.
"So, I'm thinking we have about five hours, maybe more, until the sun goes down." Dick looked at the sky too.
"I think you might be right." He got up then looked down on Barbara, "we should do an inventory check."
"I agree," Barbara said while nodding her head. Barbara took off her belt and placed it in front of her. "I have two batarangs, my grappling hook, a couple smoke pellets, unless they're rocks…" Barbara kept going through her pockets to see what else she had, "I still have my miniature camera, but that seems to have gotten all wet." Barbara pulled out something that looked like a plastic stick, "not going to do much for us, unless we want to capture these wonderful moments. That's all I've got, what about you? Hey!" Dick came around and snatched Barbara's camera from her hand.
"Come on, Babs, lighten up." Dick sat behind Barbara and took a selfie of the two. The flash went off. "I didn't know this was waterproof," Dick said with a smile.
"Neither did I, but seriously what about you?"
"Well about that…" Barbara pulled away from Dick and stood up.
"Don't tell me you weren't wearing your belt!"
"What? Why would you assume that? I could have lost it in the water."
"Yea, but that belt usually sticks to you as tight as that shirt sticks to you," Barbara glared at Dick. "How could you forget Batman's number one rule?"
"Okay, okay… so what I have noted from this situation is that you have been staring at me in my Nightwing costume."
"Dick!"
"Fine, yes I have my belt, chill will you?" Barbara let out a puff, and then sat back down with her arms crossed. "I have my escrima sticks, a pair of handcuffs, and a couple pellets, but those might be soaked all the way through." Barbara sat there with her mouth wide open. "What?"
"Are you serious? You had your escrima sticks but didn't decide to use them against the mountain lion!"
"Will you stop yelling?"
Barbara took in a breath, "Sorry…"
"Apparently, they aren't as waterproof as I thought."
Barbara's eyes widened, "did they shock you?!"
Dick winced, "maybe just a little. I usually keep them in my thigh pocket, but because I wasn't wearing my costume I put them in my back pocket of my belt. I accidently went to reach in my pocket, and zap. A little shock went through me." While he was explaining, Dick lifted his shirt up a little to show Barbara his utility belt that was somehow hidden well behind that shirt. Not only did Barbara see the belt, but she managed to get a look at Nightwing's abs. Not that she was looking of course.
"Well, at least you're okay. Though, I'm not too sure what we can do with a messed up pair of escrima sticks and handcuffs."
"I know what we can do with the handcuffs…" Dick gave Barbara a weird look.
"Don't start now. I mean seriously, we are stranded on an island!"
"All the more reason to start now," Nightwing said with a smirk. He seemed to always flirt more when he was in a Nightwing mood.
"Shut up, we still need to find water."
"Okay, okay. Would a stream count?"
"A stream? Where on earth did you find a stream?"
"You know, now that you bring that up…" Dick looked around the island as if thinking really hard. "Are we really on earth?"
"Dick! Will you get serious?"
"Alright fine, right before you screamed for your dear prince to come to the rescue, I literally stumbled into it."
"First of all, you are definitely not a prince, even if all of Gotham thinks so. Secondly, why didn't you say anything sooner?"
"Well, I'm sorry that I got confused after having to go and save your ass!"
"Oh… so now we are going to use some language?" Batgirl stood up and faced Nightwing head on.
"Will you stop questioning me? Have you realized that most of the time we have been on this island, you have been ordering me around?"
"Well, I don't see you giving out any bright ideas!" Dick glared at Barbara. It seems that the two were getting ticked off by everything, and they realized this. Though neither voiced this, they noticed that they were acting unforgivingly mean towards each other. "Fine," Barbara continued, "whatever let's just see if this water is edible and wait until we get found. I don't know if I handle any more time on this island with you like this."
"Hey, what is that supposed to mean?!"
"It means…!" Barbara took in another breath, "it means that I want to get off of this island. I'm sorry if I seemed bossy. Will you please show me this stream of yours?"
Dick looked at Barbara's hurt expression, "geez Babs, I'm the one who should be saying sorry."
"Don't worry about it, we both are getting cranky from being stranded and the lack of food and water. If the water is drinkable, I don't know how we will be able to bring some back though…" Barbara said while getting lost in her mind. Dick thought that they have been without food and water before. He shrugged it off. Maybe its just the whole situation of being with Barbara alone on this island, but that should not matter to him. They have been alone together a bunch of times.
"Let's just take the cups you made and drink it there, if we can drink it that is."
"Sounds good. I don't think I can hear myself think anyway."
Together, Dick led the way to where he found the stream. Barbara grabbed a giant stick and started tracing the path that they were taking.
"Hey Babs…"
"Hmm…"
"Don't be mad, but…"
"I'm listening."
"I'm not sure if I can find the stream again."
Barbara blew out some air, which she seems to be doing a lot of. "It's okay. You may not remember the path because you were coming to rescue me. I understand. Besides I trust you, I think you can do it, Dick. If we gain anything from this island, it's that our bond of trust will strengthen."
"Is that the only bond we have?" Barbara could practically hear the smirk in his voice, and rolled her eyes in response.
"Maybe, but we might also lose something on this island too."
Dick chuckled softly, "and what's that?"
"Our friendship," Barbara stated bluntly.
Dick stopped dead in his tracks and turned around facing Barbara. His face was so crestfallen that Barbara couldn't take it. She walked up to him and gave him a hug.
"God, Dick, I was joking. Don't ever think for a second we can lose this bond. I'm not going to leave you." Dick's shoulders relaxed as he hugged Barbara back.
"Good, then lets continue before it gets dark. We still have to do something with that animal and figure out a way to camp.
Barbara smiled, "lead the way."
After stumbling through and back tracking, the couple eventually found stream. Barbara was so tired, but once she saw the view, she almost forgot about her thirst and sleepiness, almost.
"Wow…" Barbara walked closer to the stream. It was beautiful. Everywhere around the stream was green with leaves, bushes, and tall trees. Little flowers poked up in brightly different colors. There were red, blue, violet, yellow and a mix of all of them. The stream went through the middle of all of this. It curled around the many trees while creating miniature waterfalls as it flowed. "This is just amazing."
Dick's smile grew. "Come on," he took Barbara's hand and pulled her towards the stream. He tugged her along further up the stream to a spring of water.
"Dick… it's a spring…" Barbara could not believe her eyes. She heard a click and turned her head to the direction of it. She saw Dick holding the camera, smiling back at her.
"Still think this camera is useless?" Barbara smiled and laughed at Dick.
"God, Dick." Barbara looked all around her. Barbara had always loved nature. It took her away from the crazy life of Gotham.
Dick knelt down next to the spring. He stared into the water looking at his reflection. To put it in words, he looked like a mess. His hair was all messed up, going in opposite directions and he had sand and dirt all around his face. He put his cup next to the bank, and stuck his hands in the water. He splashed some water onto his face while trying to clean it up.
Barbara watched Dick as he combed his hair with his wet hands. She knelt down next to him and washed her face, too. Both knew that they were not sure if the water was safe, but it was better than the salt water from the ocean. Barbara moved her hands away from her face and stared into the deep pools of the spring. She saw a reflection of a lonely girl who was at a lost. She kept staring at her reflection until she felt water droplets hit her face.
Barbara swiftly turned her head to face Dick, with an eyebrow raised in question.
"What? I didn't do anything," Dick said innocently. Barbara smirked. She put her hand back into the water and splashed Dick back. Dick's innocent look turned into a look of surprise that turned into a look of determination. He would win this fight. He cupped both of his hands together and put it in the water. He quickly brought water up and got Barbara back. She laughed, and the two continued their splash fight, forgetting about all of their worries. Dick joined in with Barbara's laughter.
Barbara tried to stop laughing as she clutched her midsection. She took a deep breath, then fell onto her back. Barbara let out a sigh. Dick was sitting next to her staring at her.
"I think we can do it."
Barbara raised an eyebrow, "do what?"
"Survive on this island," Dick's eyes lit up. "Are you up for the challenge?"
Barbara laughed, "This is like that question classmates used to ask, but it's actually happening."
"Question?"
"Yeah, you know, when they ask who you would want to be stuck on a stranded island with if the opportunity ever came about."
"People really asked that?"
"Yeah. No one has ever asked you?"
Dick shrugged, "I guess growing up in a circus, you miss things like those."
"Well… You get to live it out with me. I hope you're okay with that." Dick laughed softly. Barbara looked at Dick and gave him a soft smile, "The sun is going to be setting soon. So… should we drink the water?"
"We probably got some in our mouth from all of that splashing, so I think it should be okay. Besides, we will be found soon enough and if we get sick, they can always take us to a hospital after."
"I hope you realize we are jumping to a false conclusion because of thirst," Dick said with a small smile.
"Those are always the best conclusions to jump to." Together, Dick and Barbara dipped their cups into the water and brought the cups to their lips.
"Wait." Barbara stopped the both of them. Dick gave her a questioning look. "I think we need to drink the water slowly."
"What, why?"
"I think it's because our bodies probably are slowly changing to accommodate our environmental changes. If we drink too much water, it would make us throw up, and we can't lose anything inside our bodies right now." Dick nodded, and together the two brought the cups to their mouths and drank, little by little.
"Honestly, I thought that that would taste a whole lot worse," Dick said while taking one final sip.
"I hope that that's a good sign for us. So, shall we go back? Look," Barbara gestured towards the sky, the sun was lowering, getting ready to set.
"Yea, let's go." They refilled their cups again and followed Barbara's stick path.
Once they got back to their camp, they started getting ready for the night.
"It doesn't look like we will have time to create a shelter for tonight, Dick."
He nodded, "I think we should at least make a fire to keep us warm." Barbara could hear Dick's stomach growl.
"I guess that's not the only reason you want a fire. It's okay; it will also keep animals away from us." Barbara and Dick finished digging out the hole. "You know? I'm not even sure if mountain lion is safe to eat."
"Trust me it is, and it is delicious," Dick said looking at the hole.
"You've had mountain lion before?"
"Hey, being ward to a billionaire has its perks." Barbara raised an eyebrow but did not question him.
"Why don't you go find some wood we could use to keep a fire going? Oh, and dry grass to help get it started. I'll try to see if I can skin this thing," Barbara gestured to the cat.
"You know how to skin animals?"
"My dad used to take my brother and me camping. One time, we went hunting and caught a deer. He taught us how to skin it and cook it. This shouldn't be much different." After getting over the fear of seeing the dying creature, she believed she could do this. After all, it was for the safety of her and Dick.
"Your dad is always full of surprises." Dick started walking towards the edge of the trees when he stopped and turned around. "You know? I don't think I can picture your father cooking."
Barbara gave a small smile, "It's been a long time. He used to cook food like that before my mother left us." Dick noticed her sad expression and rushed towards her. He knelt down on his knees until he could look Barbara in her eyes.
"I'm sorry; I didn't mean to make you think of those times. Sorry, I really need to think before I speak."
"Don't worry about it, just go get some firewood." Dick stared at Barbara again, and reluctantly walked off. Barbara looked after Dick. "Richard…"Barbara whispered.
By the time Dick got back with sticks and logs, Barbara only managed to skin a little of the lion with her batarang.
"After this, we are getting fish," Barbara stated determinedly.
"Don't you still have to skin those, too?" Barbara made a disgusted face. Dick chuckled as he placed the sticks and logs into the pit. "Now that we have materials to keep a fire going, how are we going to start a fire?"
"Well, I was thinking maybe with the two batarangs somehow, but I don't think that that's going to work."
"It could if we could rub them against each other at a fast enough pace to get sparks."
"True, but I'm running out of energy and you don't look so hot yourself."
"Hey!"
"You know what I mean." Barbara moved the disgusting creature away from her and turned her attention to Dick. "The other idea I had was use the batarang to reflect light off from the sun and aim it at the dry grass."
"That could work, but," Dick turned and looked at the sun. "It's already starting to set."
"Would any of your pellets work? Mine don't have a spark." Dick reached into his utility belt to pull out his pellets. "You know we could always try your…"
"Don't! Don't say it!" Dick stopped Barbara from continuing.
"I didn't even get to finish my sentence. You didn't know what I was going to say!"
"You were going to say my escrima sticks." The look Barbara gave Dick confirmed his suspicion. "If you want to get electrocuted then be my guest."
"Fine, what do you have?" Dick went through his pellets and found a black one that was marked with a red dot. He held it out to Barbara. "That's an explosive pellet."
"Yup, used when trying to explode gas, oil, or any flammable objects. We may not have needed to dig that hole."
"I… I don't know, Dick."
"This is all we have. We need the fire, especially to keep animals away. I'm surprised that that lion is the only one we have actually run into," Dick said trying to be reasonable.
Barbara let out a sigh and nodded her head. The two moved all of their stuff that could catch on fire, the bamboo, Barbara's shirt, and other items, away from the pit. Dick and Barbara backed up towards the shore, where they could feel the lukewarm ocean water hit their feet.
"Alright Babs, ready?"
"Let's just get this over with."
Dick smiled. "Fire in the hole," he threw the pellet and it landed perfectly in the pit, "literally!" The couple stared at the pit as nothing happened.
"There goes that idea," Barbara started walking back towards the pit when Dick grabbed her arm. Barbara looked at where he was grabbing her then back to him with a questioning look. She noticed that Dick's gaze was still on the pit. When she turned to look at the pit, she noticed a small steam like line flowing out of the pit. "You have got to be kidding me. I can't believe that worked."
"Never underestimate me, Babs," Dick said proudly taking a heroic stance.
"Dick?" Barbara said in a rushed tone. "What did you do with the other pellets in your pocket?"
"What? They're right here…" As Dick reached into his utility belt pocket, he found it empty. His eyes widened as he saw the pellets next to the pit. He launched himself forward towards the pellet before they could catch on fire and explode. But it was too late.
"Dick!" Barbara screamed as she tried to pull Dick away from the pit. The pit and areas around the pit started exploding and causing more smoke to go up into the air. Dick and Barbara started coughing from the polluted air. The pellets kept going off as if they were fireworks. Slowly everything started to quiet down while the wind slowly blew away the smoky mess.
Dick stared at the sight in front of him. The explosions had created little craters around the beach.
"Well, Dick, I guess it is safe to say that no animals will be coming near this area of the beach for tonight, or a while." Barbara carefully started walking back to the pit they dug up. She looked into the hole and started laughing. "God, Dick. Even with all of that, you somehow still managed to create a miniature fire."
"It worked?"
"Looks like it."
"So, does this mean we can finally eat?" Dick's eyes lit with hunger. Barbara nodded in reply, trying to hold back her laughter.
"That was quite an interesting experience." The two were lying down by the trees staring up at the night sky.
"Which part, us getting stranded and almost getting eaten or you almost blowing up the island?" Barbara replied. The two were by the fire, on top of a bunch of leaves next to each. Barbara used her t-shirt from earlier as a makeshift pillow while Dick used his shirt.
"Technically we are still experiencing one of those options. Obviously eating the mountain lion or at least trying to; remind me to give compliments to the chef later, will you?"
"Funny, you were probably just hungry so you enjoyed it even more." It got quiet after that. The two stared up at the starry sky and listened to the noises around them. The main noise they could here was the crashing waves against the shore, but if they listened closely, they could hear frogs, crickets and other creatures. "You remember what you said earlier?"
"Babs, I say a lot of things. Which part?"
Barbara chuckled, "what you said about wondering if we were still on earth."
"I said something like that?"
"Yes, you did," Barbara replied irritated.
"Well… what about it?"
"It doesn't really feel like we are. I mean, usually by now, we would be on patrol right? Or maybe the time is different and we would be in classes or having dinner with our family. I don't know, but I feel so separated from the world."
"Babs," Dick pulled Barbara close to him. Barbara could feel the heat radiate off of Dick's bare chest onto her back. "Right now, we are the ones who need saving. I'm sure Bruce has everybody looking for us," Barbara let out a sigh.
"I guess you're right, they will come for us… How much do you want to bet that Bruce hasn't told my father yet?"
"I think he would have…"
"Really? Our cruise was supposed to be a week vacation. I don't think he will talk to him until the week was up."
"I guess I could see that… You thought it was weird, too, how we were given this vacation right?"
Barbara nodded, "they are probably trying to hide something from us."
"Yeah…"
After that, all that could be heard was the crashing of the waves. Slowly, the two started to drift into a deep sleep while in each other's arms.
Is it bad… to think… to think that this is all relaxing? I mean it must be because, people could be getting hurt right now and we aren't there to save them but…
