A runway. At first I thought Kit was crazy. But then I began to see it—the moss and grass covered pavement strip, the orange wind sock flapping in the breeze. It screamed airfield. "So, maybe we didn't accidentally crash on this island. What if someone wanted us here?" she said.
"Like who?" Ben asked, unbelieving. I stepped over to them, keeping my arms crossed to fight the wind. "Yeah, because, last I checked, no one wanted a plane to crash on a dinosaur infested island," I said, glancing around the area. She sighed, looking around. Murmurs from the group several yards behind us caught my attention. I glanced back and locked eyes with Casey for a second. He shook his head, and I turned back to Kit and Ben. The group didn't seem too happy. I can't imagine why.
"It looks like the sun is getting low. We should find what supplies we can here and then find camp," Ben said. My legs felt like collapsing. The muscles felt like noodles, especially those of my calves. And my knee wasn't doing well on the pain scale either. Running from a Spinosaurus was literally the last thing on my list of to-dos today. "Why don't we look in there?" I asked, jutting my chin toward the small building on the left side of the runway.
"Good idea. Casey, come on," Ben said. He started walking toward the building and Casey jogged up to follow him. I couldn't tell what was keeping Kit so quiet. But I followed after Ben and Casey, headed for the building. Kit's words stick to the back of my mind like a post-it note. Could someone have actually wanted us to crash land here? What kind of a twisted sicko would want that?
Ben tries the door while Casey and I stand behind. "It's locked," Ben said. He turned back around to face me. "We'll have to find another way in." He paused with a confused expression and I raised an eyebrow. "What?" I asked.
"Where's Casey?" he asked. Only then did I notice Casey had snuck off. "I don't know. He was just here," I said, looking around. I couldn't see him anywhere. A small fleeting panic struck my chest. What if he had gone off into the jungle? He could be eaten by who knows what else is out there. But, just when I really started to worry, a creaking sound came from the door to the building. Ben and I both startled. The door knob fell off of the door and the door swung open to reveal a smug looking Casey. "There was a window out back," he said. "It was open."
Ben sighed and shook his head, sauntering in past Casey. I walked half way in, next to Casey, and smacked his arm. He grabbed it and acted like it hurt, when I know for a fact that it didn't. "Don't just go off without saying anything," I said.
"Or you'll be forced to come rescue me? Maybe I should get lost in the jungle," he said. I shook my head at him while he chuckled a little. "Hey, love birds, when you're done making out can you come give me a hand?" Ben asked. I walked over to Ben, where he was moving a desk of some kind. "What are you doing?" I asked.
"Making room. We'll all sleep here tonight. It's much safer than sleeping outside," he answered. I nodded. Right. I should have guessed. Casey came over and helped move the desk against the far wall. We stacked all the furniture against the walls with windows, just to make it safer. Then we went out to inform Kit of our decision. She still looked like she was deep in thought about something. Ben and Casey went to the group, while I went to Kit. "Ben says we should sleep inside that building tonight," I said.
"And you agree?" she asked.
"Um...I don't know. I mean, it would be a lot safer. We could put someone on watch outside in case anything dinosaur related happens," I said. She nodded while I spoke, taking it in. She inhaled and sighed. "Alright," she said. Then she turned to address the restless group. There weren't a whole lot of us beach goers left. I haven't done a head count, but it just looks like we've been cut in half.
"Listen up, everyone! We're going to sleep here for tonight, then move in the morning," she said. There was almost a sigh of relief that rolled over the crowd. Kit then turned to me. "Get Chuck started on wood gathering so we can get a fire going," she said. I nodded, and then I hurried off to find Chuck. He was comforting a man and woman by the back of the group. "Chuck," I said, as I walked up. He turned and smiled lightly. "Hey, Maddie," he said. "What's up?"
"Kit needs us to get a fire started," I said.
"I'll get some guys and go chop down some trees," he said, nodding.
"Great, thanks." After getting a few fires going it was already just after dark. Everyone ate the Star Fruit we'd found on our trek yesterday. And Kit worked out the sleeping arrangements so that everyone had just enough room to squeeze in. I sat, leaning back against an overturned filing cabinet in the far corner of the building. I looked over my red and bloody knee. "Think you'll live?" I glanced up just as Casey sat down beside me. "Possibly," I nodded.
"It actually does look kind of bad. You might want to bandage that," he said, squinting to see my knee in the dark. A thought struck me just then. "What if someone really did want us here?" I asked, quietly. I tried to keep my voice down, as to not wake or bother anyone. Casey was quiet for a minute. Then I felt him shrug next to me. "I don't know," he said, finally.
"Do you think it's possible?" I asked, turning more toward him.
"I guess. But what proof do we have?" he said. I saw his point. Maybe I was getting myself all worked up about nothing. We really didn't have proof; it was just something Kit had said. I reached up and fingered my necklace from the park. I couldn't believe Kit had it all this time. "We're gonna be fine, Maddie. We'll get off this island," he said.
"How?" I asked. I sounded a little more hopeless than intended. But, frankly, I was scared. What if we never did make it off the island? What if we continued walking tomorrow and got eaten by a dinosaur? Or we died from starvation? Or dehydration? It's all possible. "I don't know. But we will. Just try and get some sleep, okay?" he said. I nodded, taking a deep breath, and he slid an arm around my shoulders. I leaned into his chest and he pressed his lips against the side of my forehead.
Once everyone was up and ready, we set out for the jungle. Everyone walked in a semi-solid line through the fauna and foliage, around trees and vines. I was positioned almost at the back of the line when suddenly everyone halted, with gasps and murmurs floating to the back. With the absurd posture, I knew something was up, so I edged my way to the front.
At the front of the line was something completely unexpected: the hull or a plane. A very, very broken and beaten up plane. The wings were gone, from what I could see. Kit and Ben were already investigating from the inside when I made it to the hull. "What plane is this?" I asked, stepping up inside.
"Looks like it might be commercial," Ben said.
"It's private," Kit said.
"How do you know?" he asked her.
"It's too small to be heavily commercial," she said, as if he should have known. But something told me she wasn't saying everything. Casey hopped up into the plane hull from behind me and looked around. "Daaaaang," he said, drawing out the word. "Something freaky happened here."
"No duh, Sherlock," Ben said, stepping out the other end.
"We should keep moving," Kit said, walking my direction. I nodded in agreeance and turned to exit the plane. Casey hopped down first, then offered me a hand. He helped me down the short drop and then we headed back to the group.
We walked for a long time, until we came across a vast clearing filled with tall grass. The group ached for a rest, so we stopped to drink some of what little water we had left. While the group was camped out, I took a walk across the clearing.
There were no dinosaurs in sight. I found it a bit odd, but I mentally waved it away. I was halfway across the clearing when my foot snagged on something. I nearly tripped and fell, but I caught myself. I bent down and pushed through the grass. Underneath a thick layer of grass was an old-looking backpack. I picked it up and brushed it off. I unclipped the top flap and opened it, peering inside.
There were some survival essentials I could see just from the quick peek. I carried the backpack toward Ben, who was closest to me. "Hey, I found something," I said. He stood upright from stretching and I gave him the bag. He opened the flap and rummaged through it. "Good find. We could use this stuff," he said, giving me a single nod. Kit then gave us the signal that it was time to keep moving as she marched past us up the clearing. I sighed. "Does she ever take a break?" I asked, watching her walk away.
Ben slung the backpack over his shoulder and we began walking after her. "I doubt it," he said, to which I chuckled. The rest of the group trailed behind. Casey caught up to us and grabbed my hand. "Hey," he said. "What's with the pack?"
"Found it in the field," I said.
"Oh, yeah, that's natural," he commented, with light sarcasm. We did our best to keep the group moving. All we had to do was remind them of the beach, and they picked up the pace. We took another break a couple of hours later. Casey and I split off to try and find more Star Fruit—or at least something edible—while the group rested. There was a semi-carved out path, and we followed it as we searched the trees with our eyes.
I at least didn't know about any kind of food that grew on the ground anywhere near Costa Rica. We found a tree not too far from the group filled with Star Fruit. So Casey climbed up the tree as best he could to try and get them down. "I'm serious, Casey, get down," I said, as he kept moving up. "You're going to break your neck."
"Are you kidding? I grew up climbing trees," he scoffed.
"When was the last time you climbed a tree?" I asked. He paused in the tree for a minute. "That's beside the point," he said, as he continued climbing. I sighed and crossed my arms as a wind blew through. I twisted to look back at the group, a small blur from this distance. Not a second later, and a snap made me jump. There was a "Whoa!" as I twisted back around, and then Casey toppled to the fauna covered jungle floor—along with about a million Star Fruit.
He rolled to the side a little, and I gasped. "Casey! You idiot!" I knelt down next to him as he rolled onto his back. "Are you okay? Did you break anything?" He started laughing, and I guessed that was a good sign. But my heart was still in my throat. "That...was awesome," he said.
"You could have died!" I said, with a worried-yet-angry tone.
"Calm down, I'm fine," he said, pulling himself up to sit. I stood and helped him up, and he looked around at all the Star Fruit. "Ha. I got lunch, dinner, and then breakfast for tomorrow," he observed, proud.
"And you almost lost your life," I said, annoyedly. I started picking up Star Fruit and putting them in a pile. After a second of silence, Casey joined in the effort to round up all the fruit. "It honestly wasn't a problem," Casey said, standing upright. I stood up with an arm load of fruit. "Maybe not for you," I said, dropping the Star Fruit onto the pile.
"Maddie," he grabbed my wrist and tugged, turning me to face him. He stepped a little closer and his expression sobered. "I'm sorry, okay? I won't fall out of anymore trees, I promise." I inhaled and nodded. It was hard to believe Casey of all people would keep that promise. He cupped my face with his hands and his thumbs twitched across my cheek bones. "We're gonna be fine," he said, reassuringly.
I couldn't tell who he was trying to reassure more: me or himself. But I nodded, unable to really think with him so close. "Hey- okay..." I startled at the sudden voice, taking a few steps backward. Kit sighed and finished walking over to us. "We found something you guys should see," she said. She glanced down at the pile of Star Fruit. "Nice fruit. We'll get that later. Come on." Casey and I followed Kit back to the group.
Just ahead from the group's resting place was a highly overgrown building. The building was huge. It had some kind of obvious road in front of it. There were even a few overgrown cars. Casey checked out the cars while Ben led the way up to the door. It was already open. Ben checked the inside room, then signaled that it was safe to enter: no dinosaurs.
Kit followed in easily. But I stayed at the doorway. The place looked trashed, and not in a good way. Casey joined me at my side and took my hand, giving a small squeeze. "Come on, it'll be fine," he said. I took in a deep breath and nodded. Then we stepped inside.