A/N: Character's death in this chapter.

Shipwrecked

Chapter 22

Freddie's POV

Rain was pouring hard. And I mean hard! I lost the tiger while running, and caught up with Gibby and Wendy. We were now in a cave, freezing. We didn't have fire because everything was too wet to get lit up, so we just snuggled close to one another, Wendy being in the middle. She rested her head on my shoulder and Gibby had his arms around her. We were all shivering, but the only thing on my mind right now, was Sam. Was she alright? Did she make it? Did she run away from the tiger?

I didn't have an answer to neither of those questions and that annoyed me to no end. I wanted to make sure she was safe. But what I noticed when we were at that river was what seemed that she wasn't fully okay. I knew she would never tell me if she was hurt or needed help, but I saw her limping. At first I thought it was nothing, but then I started to get worried. What if those wounds that she had and were wrapped up started getting worse? I wouldn't be able to forgive myself if that was true.

''H-hey, guys?'' I asked, and their heads automatically moved towards me.

''Do you think Sam's fine?'' I expressed my worry to them, but neither of them answered. I could see in their eyes that neither of them wanted to answer. That didn't seem like a good sign to me at all. They went back to the positions they were in, Wendy slowly putting her head back on my shoulder.

I decided it would be good if I'd get some rest, so that when the rain stops, we can go and search for Sam. I closed my eyes, meaning to go to sleep, but as soon as I did that, a picture of Sam popped into my mind. And it wasn't a nice picture. She was covered in blood, laying on the ground. The only thing that told me she was alive was her blinking. If it wasn't for blinking, I would think she's dead. Her blue eyes were so cold, and she looked like a mess. She was pale and dirty. Her hair was wet because of the rain falling.

I opened my eyes and the picture disappeared. Looking around, I noticed Wendy's heavy breathing, indicating she was asleep. As I closed my eyes, the sight of a hurt Sam appeared in front of them once again and it wouldn't go away. No sleep today, I guess...

Sam's POV

Reuben continued working on those scratches that I had gained from the tiger. Every now and then I would look up and check if Shane was trying to get a better view of my chest. There were times I saw him trying, but then later, he was just watching the fire in a defeated way. When I got bored of him, I would look up to Reuben's literally red face and smile. He always smiled back and that made me feel better.

I noticed something else, too. There was a slight bulge in his pants. Did that mean that he was...? Turned on? Well, I suppose that's normal, since he's a teenage guy touching bare boobs of a teenage girl. Wow, that is so weird! Soon enough, though, he had finished and reached over to the pile of clothes that lay in the corner, revealing the sight of me to Shane. I quickly covered my breasts with my hands so he couldn't see anything. Reuben handed me a shirt that he'd pulled out of the pile.

''Here, put this on.'' I grabbed the shirt and tried to sit up. I couldn't do it so Reuben helped me, and I put the shirt on. He then, lay me gently back on the blanket, and pulled the other one over me.

''So, what are we go-'' Shane started, but got interrupted when the lights went out. I was puzzled, until I figured out that it was the fire which betrayed us.

''Shit!'' I could hear Reuben's voice whisper-yell. It was pretty dark outside, even though it was only morning.

''Now we won't have light nor warmth until the rain stops.'' he sighed and then looked over at me, as I was already starting to get cold and shake.

''Come here.'' he reached his arms out to me and hugged me. I didn't mind his closeness, because he was warm. He was always warm. I pulled him closer to me and snuggled into him. Shane rolled his eyes and got up, walking over to the cave's entrance where he stayed for a bit, watching the rain. He had a blanket over his shoulders so he tightened his grip on it. Suddenly his eyes widened and his mouth gaped open.

''Guys, there's a huge cat outside!'' he whispered. Reuben sighed.

''Dude, stop making fun of us.''

''I'm serious!'' Shane yelled quietly. ''There's a tiger out there!''

''Yeah, right.'' Reuben still didn't believe him so he got up to check it out. As soon as he did, I started missing his warmth. When Reuben got next to the shocked Shane, his eyes enlarged, too. That's when I got scared.

''Shane, you have to get back inside!'' he whispered and pulled Shane's hand to drag him inside.

''No way, man! I'm getting out of here!'' Shane pulled his hand out of Reuben's and stepped outside on the rain.

''No, Shane, wait!'' Reuben tried to get him back inside, but Shane made more steps until I lost sight of him.

''Fuck!'' Reuben threw his arms in the air, showing how mad he was, and then hit the wall of the cave. He focused his eyes on the outside of the cave, not moving any part of his body or showing any signs that he was actually breathing.

''Reuben?'' I called out to him, getting really scared. He didn't move his eyes away, but they widened even more. He quickly went over to me and sat down, dragging me into the darkest corner of the cave. He held me close to him and told me to be quiet.

After that, I heard roaring. It got louder by every second, when I could recognize short steps, that were getting faster and another pair that stayed equal all the time. Reuben pulled me even closer to his body and I felt warm again, even though fear of meeting that creature once more shot through my veins.

Suddenly, I heard the tiger roar loudly and fasten his steps from walking to running. I twitched and gripped on Reuben's shirt at the sound of a loud yell. My breath stopped in my throat and sounds of clothes, skin and eventually flesh being ripped could be heard. We both sighed as we heard Shane screaming for help at what Reuben closed his eyes shut tight. It looked like he was fighting himself not to go out there. Even though I didn't want Shane to die, I didn't want Reuben to go either. And even if Reuben did go out there, we both know that there was no way he'd save Shane and survive. I could feel in his muscles that he just wanted to get up and go outside to help him. But he stayed with me.

He burried his face in my hair and put a hand over my ear, so that I couldn't hear the creepiness of the yelling and desperate calls for help. Unfortunately, they were too loud. A few moments later the screaming stopped and we knew that Shane was gone, so I let a tear escape my eyes and pressed my face into Reuben's neck. I didn't know how to feel; terrified, sad, scared... But the main worry right now was if the tiger was gone too? Did he go away? We'll find out eventually. All we can do now, is hope. Pray. And wait.

And review! :DD

I know I promised to update yesterday, but I wasn't really satisfied with the number of reviews that I got. I only got 8 for the previous chapter and that made me really sad :'-( I hope that I'll get more reviews on this one. And I'm sorry for Shane's death.. :-P

~Alex out

Review! I'm begging you! I feed on those!