J.M.J.

Author's note: Thanks for reading and reviewing! The next chapter will be up tomorrow. God bless!

August 6 – Sunday

"Could we do some hymns this morning?" Chet asked as he waited for Tony to finish making some notes. "We don't have enough music around here."

"Probably because we all sound terrible a cappella," Tony muttered. He was sitting cross-legged on the ground outside the cabin and didn't look up at Chet. "But whatever. Just pick something."

Chet glanced at Biff, who was standing nearby. "Okay. We can figure something out, I guess."

Tony sighed. "Sorry. I'm just still tired this morning."

Neither Biff nor Chet said anything. It was the same excuse that Tony had been using when he snapped at them over the last couple of days. Frank, Joe, and Phil had been just as irritable. At least Tony's excuses meant that he realized he wasn't acting normally.

"Where are the other guys?" he asked after a few more seconds.

"Probably trying to find opposite sides of the island to be on," Biff joked.

Tony frowned. "No one was supposed to go off on his own."

"I think I saw the Hardys out in the garden. Phil's probably around here somewhere," Chet said.

"We might as well round them up." Tony stood up. "You guys, go get the Hardys. I'll look for Phil."

As Chet had said, the Hardys were out in the garden, already working on gathering vegetables for breakfast. They weren't saying much, but at least that meant they weren't arguing.

"Hey, guys, it's about time for church," Biff said.

"We'll be right there," Joe replied, without making any move to stand up.

"Is something wrong?" Biff asked hesitantly.

"No, not really," Frank replied.

"We're going to have to start cutting back on the vegetables," Joe added, casting an annoyed look at Frank. "We'll probably need to harvest seeds and try to replant."

"I think we could all stand a break from them anyway," Chet said. "I mean, I'm glad to have the veggies, but…"

He was cut off by a crash in the cabin and then Tony shouting. "Hey, guys! I could use some help over here!"

The other boys went running to see what had happened. They found Tony bending over Phil, who was unconscious on the floor. The table was broken into two pieces next to them. Tony was trying to revive Phil but was clearly not having any luck.

"What happened?" Joe asked.

"I don't know!" Tony replied. "He just passed out."

"He said he hasn't been feeling very well," Joe said.

"When was that?" Frank asked.

Joe shrugged as he tried to think. "Yesterday, I guess."

"Why didn't you say anything then?" Frank demanded.

"He said he was all right!"

"You just said that he said he wasn't feeling well!"

"Would you guys just knock it off?" Tony said over his shoulder. "Help me get him somewhere comfortable. And he's got a high fever. Get me some water and we'll try to cool him down."

Chet and Biff stepped in and helped carry Phil closer to the wall. Being moved seemed to finally waken him. He blinked a few times, and when he found he was being carried, he protested.

"You guys shouldn't be touching me. You might get sick, too."

"It's too late for that," Tony said. "We've all be staying in this cramped space together, so we've all been exposed now."

Joe had gone to get water from the stream and he now returned with it. "What do you think it is, Tony?"

"How should I know?" Tony snapped. "I'm not a doctor."

"Could everyone calm down for a few minutes while we figure this out?" Biff requested.

Tony sighed. "I'm sorry, guys. To be honest, I haven't really been feeling so great the last couple of days, either."

"Great," Frank said. "How about everybody else?"

"What about you?" Chet countered. "You've been acting weird lately. Are you feeling okay?"

"I'm about as well as I have been for the last month, since I broke my arm," Frank replied.

"So, in other words, not that great," Joe said.

"Joe," Frank protested.

"Like you'd be as touchy as you have been if you were fine," Joe retorted.

"Guys, focus," Biff said. He lowered his voice. "This could be serious."

Everyone was silent for a few seconds, and then Chet asked, "What do you think it is?"

"Hopefully just a cold," Frank said.

There was another silence. Everyone knew that it was unlikely to be a cold. They had been isolated for six weeks, so it wasn't likely that they could have brought it with them and only be feeling the symptoms now. On the other hand, there were any number of mosquito-borne diseases or bacteria that they could have picked up on the island. Any of those could be very dangerous.

"The first thing we need to do is keep calm about this," Frank added.

"Are there any plants on the island that we could use for medicine?" Biff asked.

"Probably, if we knew what they were," Joe said.

Again, no one spoke. There wasn't anything to say that was positive. With no medical help or knowledge, all they could do was hope it was a minor illness. If it was more serious…

"Guys, I really think you should get out of here, just in case," Phil spoke up.

"He's right," Tony added. "Why take more of a risk for nothing? I mean, I've probably already got it, so I can look after him, and the rest of you can stay outside."

The others glanced at each other. It was the most logical thing to do, even if it didn't feel like the right thing.

HBNDHBNDHB

Nancy was glad that the weekend was over. Three funeral services in three days was as much as she could take, but these were for her friends. She never wanted to go through something like this again. She and her dad and her friends would get on a plane bound for home later that afternoon and they would try to move on. That is, they could have tried, if they had been given the chance. Iola's plea for help the day before was haunting her. The poor girl had lost her brother, her boyfriend, and four more friends. It wasn't that unusual that she would be in denial about that. Maybe she did need proof to get closure. And maybe there was a little part of Nancy that would like that extra closure, too. She didn't have any hopes, but she knew herself well enough to realize that eventually she would start to wonder if they really did have the whole story after all.

That was why she was trying to catch up with Iola following Phil's service. The younger girl had hurried out to the parking lot, apparently ready to leave as soon as it was over. She stopped when Nancy called to her and waited for her to catch up.

"I've been thinking about yesterday," Nancy said.

"You have?" Iola couldn't quite keep from showing that she was hopeful.

Nancy nodded. "I don't think there's much hope, but you're right that we should know for sure. We don't have any leads, so I don't know what we can do, but I'll keep trying."

Iola clasped her hand. "Thank you. I don't know what to do, either, but maybe we can figure something out. I don't suppose we could go to Hawaii and look?"

Nancy shook her head. "The only way we could prove anything one way or the other is to catch the rest of the people responsible. If any of them are smart, they're not going to be in Hawaii anymore."

"But isn't the only one left that woman who was running the whole thing? Dallas Ermington?"

"The only one we know about for sure," Nancy replied.

"I guess there's nothing left about her that we could look into," Iola said wistfully.

"No, not much. We know that she kept in the shadows as much as possible with her criminal organization. They did the usual things: drug dealing, illegal gambling, loan sharking. Dallas had a few young men that she kept around herself, and bribed them into it by jumpstarting them in some glamorous career. That's how Brock Garret got involved in all this. We also know that she owns property and has connections in foreign countries, so she could have gone anywhere in the world. I don't know anything about her early life, but I'm not sure how that could be helpful. The best thing we could do is try to find out where she went."

"How can we do that?" Iola grinned slightly. "Unless we travel the world ourselves?"

"You can learn a lot from your own home through the Internet," Nancy said. "We're just going to have to watch. Obviously, law enforcement will be, too, but they don't see everything that goes on, contrary to what some people think."

"You mean, we don't all have an FBI agent assigned to watching our every move on the Internet?" Iola joked.

Nancy chuckled. "Fortunately for FBI agents everywhere, no. That would be cruel and unusual punishment to watch some people on the Internet."

Iola also chuckled, but her humor quickly faded away. "Nancy, if I'm right, if the boys are alive, they must be getting held somewhere against their will. They could be getting…mistreated. We can't waste any time."

"We won't," Nancy promised. "It might take a long time to find anything, but if it does, it's only because it can't be helped."

Iola nodded. "Thanks again."