Just a reminder, this is rated T for a reason, so please don't freak out at anything that may happen now or in the future. Enjoy.
I don't leave the plane until its dark and everyone's seated around the fire again. It's our nightly routine, everyone sits around the fire, eats some jerky, shares a water bottle, and talks. I decide that I'll join, but I'm not going to join in on the conversations. I take my seat next to Frank like the night before, and nibble on the dried fruit I had packed earlier.
Austin and Caroline aren't seated next to each other. Austin is showing Sammy how to play a chord on the guitar. He found one scattered near the trees, in perfect condition, weird huh? And apparently he can play, since he's teaching her. But I haven't seen it myself.
"I could go for some smores right now." Dannie says.
Everyone nods in agreement, getting sick of jerky and dried fruit. We can eventually break down and eat the peanuts they give away on the plane, since we found all of that stuff.
"I could go for some entertainment. Hey rock star, play us a song. I know you sing. I've heard rumors." Thomas says. Everyone's eyes go to Austin, and his mouth drops.
"Rumors, they are called rumors for a reason." He says.
"Yeah, sing." Sammy says.
"I don't sing." He says in a harsh tone.
"Well, then I will have to tell a scary story." Thomas says.
"Do you really think that's a good idea?" Wanda says.
"Well, I'm bored!" Thomas whines.
"We all are." Daniel says.
"I want to go home." Tiffany says.
And with that silence starts and we all finish up our small dinner. After that we all go to bed, except Frank. He says he's going to keep watch outside and see if any animals come. We don't like it, but he's an adult, he's the oldest, he won't listen to us.
I get comfortable, well as comfortable as I'm allowed and cuddle up to my bag. Thomas' words are replaying in my mind. Austin chose to sit next to me, chose to sleep next to me. But how does Thomas know such information? Maybe he was just lying to make me think Austin is interested, yeah that could possibly be it.
I face Austin, and he's facing me again, but he's asleep already. His bandage is still on his forehead, and there's dried blood on it. His face is blank and so soft looking, and he seems so innocent. He seems like a normal boy, not that jock, popular, golden boy that I know. He's just, Austin. He's extremely cute, and just, perfect really. It's hard not to look at him; it's hard not to forget all the terrible things that's going on around me while I watch him sleep peacefully.
My thoughts are getting too intense and I close my eyes, and ignore the angel that's laying only inches apart from me.
The next morning, everyone gets up at the same time. I decide that I'm going to change into my different clothes that I packed. I know, gross I've been in the same clothes, be we all have. We have no water supply to clean them yet, so we aren't wasting what we have.
I go over to where I woke up after the plane crash, where Austin found me. The grass is tall and I think it may be good enough of a hiding place to change. I take off my shirt quickly and change into a T-shirt and shorts. I take my old clothes and bring them back to the plane, and put them in a pile next to where I sleep. After everyone noticed my change, they all went away and changed their clothes too. Which I found odd, I'm being noticed, being copied, like I'm the popular one or something.
Austin changed into a white v-neck shirt and ripped jeans. The v-neck is just long enough to show off some of his chest. He looks even more attractive then I've seen him. There's something about his dirty messy hair that just adds to it. Call me strange.
"I think two people should go looking for water supply today. I'm going to continue to study things to find out where we are." Frank says, "Any takers?"
"I'll go." I say.
"So will I." Austin says.
Caroline lets out a small moan, but we ignore her. I grab my bag and throw in some dried fruit, and hand Austin some too. This is it, Austin and I are going alone into the woods, and he volunteered after I did, which almost gives me some assurance that Thomas was in fact telling some truth.
When we enter the start of the trees, I start to get nervous, "Is this a good idea? What about the wolves?" I ask Austin.
"As long as there isn't a pack, we're fine." He says and continues walking.
"But what if there is?" I ask.
"We need to find water." He says.
We walk in silence for a while after that, and I fight the urges of asking him the kiss, about the reason he chooses to be near me, when he never even bothered to be around me at school.
"So how's Caroline." I blurt out, and my eyes go wide, surprised at myself.
He stops and looks at me oddly, "Huh?" he says.
"I don't know, don't you"- but I'm interrupted by a loud sound. Austin puts his arm up to quiet me and we both stay still.
Austin looks around, and I just stare at him, too afraid to look around too. What if it's the wolves? Austin faces goes into shock and focuses on something. I keep my eyes on him, "What is it." I whisper so low, I'm actually surprised he heard me.
"Jaguar." He says breathlessly.
Did he, just say, jaguar? I follow his eyes and sure enough, there it is, standing there, 10 feet from us, staring at us. I knew this was a bad idea from the beginning. How are we going to get through this now?
Austin pulls me slowly to his side and wraps his arm around my waist, "We're going to stay completely still until it leaves." He whispers down to me. We have quite a height difference. I'm only about 5'3 and he's about 6'1.
We stand there like that for some time, until the Jaguar decides to turn around and walk away, uninterested. Apparently we were lucky enough to come across it when it wasn't hungry. After waiting a little while for it to be out of sight, Austin pulls me slowly back in the direction of camp, and after a few minutes of walking, we run, and I'm struck with déjà vu from yesterday.
When we get back to camp, I run into the plane and decide that's where I'm staying for the day. I'm sick of everything, the animals, Austin, being stuck here. I just want to go home, where I'm safe.
I can hear Austin telling Frank about what we saw, "A Jaguar?" Frank asks, shocked. "Are you sure?" He asks.
"Sure." Austin says.
"I need to think this through." Frank says.
"Don't let anyone go anywhere alone." Austin says seriously.
"Will do." Frank says.
Sammy and Dannie are in the plane, preoccupying themselves with a pen and a blank notebook. They notice me sitting here and decide to come over and sit next to me, "Did you find water?" Sammy asks.
"No, unfortunately." I say.
"Do you think we'll get rescued?" Dannie asks.
"I hope that happens." I say.
"Do you think Austin's cute?" Sammy asks.
I just look at her, "What?" I ask.
"Do you think Austin's cute? I think he's adorable!" She says in a giggly voice.
"How old are you two?" I ask.
"Almost 11!" they both say.
"You're too young to think boys are cute." I say.
"You're avoiding the question." Dannie says. Dang, they're good.
"Yes, I think he's cute." I say.
"Does he think you're cute?" Sammy asks.
"I doubt it." I say.
"I think you're all cute." Austin's voice says out of nowhere. We all look up and he's leaning on the side of the plane in the opening.
"Eavesdropper!" Dannie yells.
"You think we are cute?" Sammy asks with a smile.
"Why don't you guys go help Thomas make the fire?" He says, and with that they are running outside as fast as they're skinny little bodies will let them.
Austin sits down on his blankets and looks at me. I hug my knees and ignore him, "So you think I'm cute." He says with a smile.
"Apparently you think I'm cute, too." I say.
"Touché." He says.
"Why are you suddenly interested in talking to me?" I ask him.
"What?" He asks.
I turn to him, "In school, I was invisible to you. And now you have this sudden interest in protecting me and being my friend." I say.
"You never really gave me a chance to talk to you in school. You were always focusing on something else, or walking by with your head down." He says.
"Because I'm Ally, I'm a loser. Popular jocks like you don't associate with people like me." I say.
"I'm not that popular, and just because I'm the quarterback of the football team doesn't mean I'm some jock that's a jerk." He says.
"Right. And you go for girls like Caroline, who are just like you." I say.
"Who says I'm going for her?" He asks.
"Guys, get out here." Frank yells.
Me and Austin jump up and go outside, and Caroline is laying on the ground, turning pale, screaming in pain. "What the hell happened?" Austin asks.
Frank sits her up, and points to her ankle. They're on her ankle is two small holes, a snake bite.
"Don't tell me that's a…" I start, "Rattlesnake bite." Thomas says.
"Shit!" Austin yells.
"We don't have supplies to treat this!" I scream.
"What are we going to do?" Thomas says.
Sammy and Dannie start crying, and Wanda brings them into the plane. Caroline's bite is starting to swell, a lot.
"I think she's allergic to it." Frank says.
I start to feel like I'm going to puke. If you're allergic to the bite, and you don't get treatment, death just comes sooner.
Austin starts to freak out and sits next to Caroline, who's crying and holding on to his hand, "Don't let me die Austin." She says. I can tell those words hit Austin like a brick, and he fights back tears.
"Frank, do something!" I say, holding back my own tears. Sure, I don't particularly like her, but I don't want her to die.
"I don't know what to do!" he says, putting her leg up on a bin to elevate it.
"You're smart; don't you know what to do about this?" Austin begs.
"We need medical treatment right away, and like Ally said, we don't have it." Frank says.
Wanda moves the twins over to the fire pit and Austin and Frank bring Caroline inside the plane and try to make her comfortable. On the way to the plane they have to stop and she starts to throw up. They get her in the plane and put a blanket around her, she says she's starting to feel numb.
I can't deal with this, so I go over to Wanda and the twins, who are accompanied by Daniel, Tiffany and Rick. None of us talk, but we can hear Caroline's screams of pain and we all cringe. This is bad, so bad.
The night seems to go on forever. Frank and Austin stay in the plane with Caroline, and the rest of us refuse to go in there to sleep. Wanda and I preoccupy the twins with beef jerky and Rick and Daniel talk sports. Tiffany stares into the fire without saying a word.
It's very dark out, so it's probably extremely late, and the screams from Caroline are gone now, and I don't think that's a good sign. Everyone's silent now really. Sammy and Dannie are asleep on each other and we teenagers are focused on the fire.
After a little while longer, Frank comes out of the plane, pale and sick looking, his face full of horrible sadness as he walks over to us at the fire. He gives me one look, that's all it took, one look for me to know that she's gone. I put my head down and fight back tears when I realize Austin hasn't left the plane yet.
I get up and walk over to the plane, hearing Frank tell the others about what happened. I open the curtain slightly and look in. Austin is kneeling next to her, her hand still in his, and he's crying. She's laying there cold and still, her eyes closed peacefully. The plane makes a noise from where I am and Austin looks over to me, tears streaming down his eyes, he just looks at me.
Tears escape my eyes too and I walk over to him, kneeling down beside him. We don't say anything for a while, and I wait patiently for him to get himself together.
"She kept telling me to save her." He says, "Why me? Why would she put this on me?" He asks.
"I guess because she liked you." I say lowly.
He shakes his head and moves her hand from his softly, "I need to get out of here." He says and gets up. He helps me up and pulls me out of the plane by the hand and we walk over to the fire. He sits down on the log and I sit next to him.
Everyone's staring at him, and Tiffany has tears in her eyes. Rick and Daniel keep their focus on the fire, and the twins are still asleep.
"We have to move her." Frank says. He's pacing back and forth near us.
"Where?" I ask, "With the others." Austin says.
Then it hits me; with the others, with the other bodies. I didn't even stop to think where they put all of them, and frankly, I don't want to know.