Castaway Island

Chapter 2: The Island

It took them over an hour to get to the island, they would use Jaune's shield as a makeshift oar, and they would take turns using it while the other one rested. By the time they were close enough to see the beach they didn't care how much their limbs burned or how tired they were. They wanted to be on solid land. Eventually the tide helped them reach the white sandy beach. Both jumped out and hauled the raft up onto it, making sure it was close to the tree line, so the tide didn't wash it away.

When they got to the shade, they both sat down panting, it was a long day so far, but it was still not over yet. The sun had baked the two of them, Yang had taken off her brown leather top to just have her orange top left on. Jaune was thinking of taking off his armor as it was doing nothing but absorbing the heat.

"You know…this would make for a nice beach," Yang stated looking around. "If we weren't stranded here."

"There might be others around," Jaune hoped. "But I could use something to drink and eat."

"Same," Yang sighed and looked up and tiled her head. "Well, hello there."

"What?"

"Coconuts," she pointed them out from a nearby tree.

"That will do, but how do we get to them?" Jaune really didn't want to have to climb a tree.

"I got this one," She got up and walked over to the tree, she gauged it and with a mighty punch hit the tree. It swayed as a few of the large green spheres fell. Yang jumped back not wanting to get yet another hit to the head already. She was starting to feel better but still didn't need to add to the head trauma. Picking them up she walked over and placed them next to Jaune.

"You're up, time to cut them open."

Jaune pulled out his sword and with a few whacks got one of them open, Yang started to peel them open as he went to work on another. Between them they opened six of them, three for each. They drank from the coconut milk savoring how it helped with their drying throats as they next ate up the coconut meat after.

"That feels better," Jaune said finishing his last one off. "Although I hope we can get more than just this."

"Eating coconut every day would get dull," Yang nodded.

"Well, that and it's unhealthy, we're going to need more than just this." He explained further.

"Then I guess we should look around," Yang sighed as she got up, she turned her jacket into a makeshift bag to carry the box with the emergency supplies just in case they needed them. "Might as well walk the beach to see if there are any signs of civilization."

"Better than walking blindly around in the forest," Jaune didn't want them to get lost at this way they could get a feel for how big the island was.

The two of them started going East, not for any particular reason they just choose it at random. They were sticking to the tree line to keep in the shade as much as possible. They didn't see much as they started their walk. Yang was trying her best to keep track of their pace to see just how long a distance they were going.

Since her family lived just outside of the town their dad taught her and Ruby plenty of camping and skills needed to go into the woods. Jaune was on her other side scanning the tree line for any threats. They flew into a group of Grimm so there could be more on this island.

After about nearly an thirty minutes of walking they finally found signs of civilization, although it wasn't promising. They came across what looked to be an old dock, weather worn and in a state of disrepair. It was a larger dock that could have fit a few ships, faded white paint was seen with what looked like a small office building next to it.

"Well…better than nothing," Yang shrugged as the two went to the office building. They found the door and opened it. The inside was messy from the weather getting in from broken windows and neglect. Both of them started looking around for clues.

"If there's a dock that must mean there's something else here, right?" Jaune asked seeing a bunch of paper, but they were ruined from the elements.

"I really hope so although the odds of us finding someone else is starting to look dim." She found a small fridge, but it was long since dead and the contents empty. There was what looked like a radio station equipment, but it too was long dead.

She found the power supply for it, the usual lightning dust battery power but it had run dry who knows who long ago. All it was now was just a large metal piece of scrap. Although she did make a mental note of it, if only they could find a replacement maybe they could get it working again.

"Hey, look at this Yang," Jaune called out.

Yang came over and looked to see a painted wall with him holding what looked like a brochure. She looked at the painted image, it looked like it might be some kind of hotel or something. She could barely make out the letters.

"The brochure says, 'Emerald Isles Tropical Getaway', was this a resort island or something?" He asked giving her the damaged paper which you could just make out the hotel better with the title. There were some sections too damaged to read but what she could showed what looked like a nice vacation spot.

"Huh, wonder if any of it is still here?" Yang figured maybe they could at least find something to help them get off or at the very least find shelter. Day light wouldn't last forever, and they were running down the clock.

"From this map it looks like there should be a path to it," Jaune found it behind a glass case, so it was in much better condition.

"I think I saw something that was a path on the way over," Yang stated as she led the way. Both of them found what looked like what had once been a nice path but nature was starting to take it back with small pieces of grass and plants starting to grow out of it.

"Is it yellow?" Jaune tilted his head it was a bit faded, but the path looked like it might have been painted yellow bricks at one point.

"Well, it's our best shot, let's follow the yellow brick road." Yang told him as the two started to walk it.

It wasn't a long walk from the dock to the main compound they found, there was some winding to the path and then suddenly they were in an open area. Looking around they saw what had once been a resort complex. There was two story building with faded paint and like the dock was in obvious disrepair. There weas broken windows and what looked like a small part of a dead tree through one of them. There were palm leaves all over the ground, mostly dried up from being left out in the sun for who knows how long.

There was a main pool, but the water wasn't something you wanted to swim in, without someone to keep it clean it had accumulated a lot of filth and leaves. Yang noticed it was one of those large pools that connected to one of those little bars. She could see some bottles still there although if they were exposed to the sun for too long, they might not be good to drink.

Jaune saw what looked like a few tennis courts off to the side and a basketball one which was gated off. Connected to the hotel was what had to be the main reception building.

"Not sure I would want to stay here now," Yang commented and then noticed something. "Looked like some of the roofs have caved in."

Jaune noticed what she was now pointing at and grimaced. The emerald painted roofs had seen better days. Some even had holes in them so he could only guess at the state inside of the building now. "I'm not sure we should sleep in a building with a collapsed and damaged roof."

"Seconded," Yang sighed. "Maybe there are better buildings we can hold up in. We should check with the main building and then start from there?"

Jaune nodded. "Why not, plus maybe we can find something more to eat and drink if they got any preserved or packaged food still around."

"That would be nice," Yang nodded.

Both of them realized that they had no idea just how long they would be stuck on this island. It could be days, weeks or longer. They didn't want to think about longer, but food and water were important. It was hot and they needed a decent place to set up and a food supply. They could try and hunt for some food, fish and crab from the ocean and more coconuts, they might even find some other sources but at the moment they could use anything they could find.

Entering what looked like a lobby the front doors which had been glass were shattered, their feet crunched the glass on the floor as they looked around, thankfully with all the windows they had plenty of natural light but without their own sources of light exploring deeper would get harder.

The reception desk was painted a faint emerald green with the logo still there to see. It was a high ceiling wide open space with marble floor.

"This place might have been pretty nice before all…well this." Yang gestured to the mess.

"Yeah, although makes me wonder why it's like this. I mean aren't those some suitcases over there?" Jaune pointed to a pile that looked to have been spilled on the floor looking like they were just left there in a hurry.

"This is starting to creep me out," Yang was starting to notice other odd things. Coffee cups just lying about, nothing was draped or properly put away. Yes, some areas looked to have been closed off but most like it was the end of the workday. Not a 'we're bankrupt, time to close shop people, take what you can people' kind of vibe wasn't present. It was more like everyone left in a hurry, and that's what was worrying her.

"Hey, look a gift shop," Yang walked over to the shuttered store and looked around she saw the small lock and grinned. "You know this arm is looking to have some upsides, got me a built-in lock pick."

"Wait really?" Jaune said impressed then noticed she just crushed the lock in her robotic hand. "Oh, that's what you meant."

"Hey, don't sound so disappointed," Yang told him as she opened up the store. Both walked in looking around. It was a small shop with lots of postcards, knickknacks, and useless stuff you buy for souvenirs for the most part. Light was coming through a cracked window, so they just had enough light to see everything.

Jaune noticed the small clothing section, but it was all resort wear. Shorts, t-shirts, tropical shirts, some bathing suits. All which had the company logo on it. "Well with some cleaning these should be good to go at least."

"Tacky but we're not exactly in a place to say no." Yang signed she really could get out of her leather bike clothing. She was sweating up a storm in it, she felt all kinds of grimy. The sea salt left on her wasn't doing her any favors either. Then her eyes lit up as she saw something in the corner.

"Score!" She rushed over to the refrigerated area, well what had once been one at least. There were water bottles still in it, more than half of them remained. "Jaune, are there any bags behind the counter?"

Jaune rushed over and found some of the bags the store would have for customers, they were the reusable canvas kind. "Got'em."

"Then let's fil it up, they might not be cold but it's better than nothing." Yang grinned as they ended up filling two bags worth of water bottles. Yang stuffed her coat and the emergency supplies in a third making them easier to carry. They found some food as well, mainly the packaged stuff you generally find. They ended up not taking any of the candy bars, just touching them they could feel the chocolate had melted. So, they ended up with a bag of a few jars of nuts, some trail mix, granola bars and a few of those small chip bags.

Not the healthiest of options but it would keep them from starving for a few days until they could at least get some decent food.

Yang paused at the swimsuit section as she made a few mental notes to come back later for something to help with the heat, not to mention a few other items they might need. She took a bottle of sunscreen lotion, mainly because they were baking in the sun already, getting sunburn from exploring this island didn't appeal to her.

"You think there might be a first aid kit around here?" Yang asked.

"Maybe in the employee office," Jaune thought about it. "Oh, wait this is on and island, they got to have some kind of small clinic for the guests, right?"

"Yeah, you should be right about that," Yang figured if they got hurt, they could need any medical supplies. She could use something for the headache she still had. "Let's see if the office behind the check in has anything."

So, they walked across the lobby as they entered the door clearing marked 'Employees Only' and took a look. It was in a bit better shape than the lobby, mainly because the windows were intact, so nothing got in. There were a few desks with unpowered computers, paperwork everywhere and the usual items you find in an office. Jaune noticed that there was a map of the place and thankfully it was in decent shape to read.

"This should be helpful in getting around," He pulled it off the notice board he found it on being careful not to rip it. He started to read through the listings.

"Looks like there is a 'medical station' behind the main building." He said as she came over to read over his shoulder.

"Cool, we'll mark that for later." She saw it on the map as she looked around more. "Hmm…activity center won't have much, so we'll save that for much later."

"Looks like there's a main dinning area," he pointed with his finger at a place. "Maybe they got some preserved food there?"

"Couldn't hurt to try that tomorrow," Yang looked out the window the sun was starting to get a bit too low. "We could use a place to hold up for the night at least."

Jaune took notice of the sun and he mentally agreed, plus everything they had been doing he was getting tired, and he was sure Yang was starting to feel this way too. "Do we try a hotel room?"

Yang remembered the falling in roof of the hotel and grimaced. "I don't know I trust that building."

Jaune went back to the map and noticed a bunch of smaller building off to the side. "What's a bungalow?"

Yang quickly looked at the map as he pointed it out. "Oh, that might work, they're like small houses. I guess the hotel is for normal guests and these are for people who wanted to pay extra for their own little building. Doesn't look too far either."

She looked around the office and noticed a grey box on the wall that wasn't locked. Opening it up she found a lot of keys. "Bingo."

"Yeah, but how do we know which one to take?" Jaune looked at the keys there were dozens of them and part of it swung out so there had to be more keys behind it.

"We just need these," Yang grinned as she pulled out two sets of keys. They were several keys on a metal ring as she tossed him one set. "There were labeled as Master Keys A and B. Meaning this is what the employees used to get into everything."

Jaune's eye lit up, this would really help in getting around locked doors as he put the keys into a side pouch. He folded up the map as the two of them decided to start on their journey. Leaving the lobby, they passed by what was the recreational facility. It was a large building, there was a sign that was posted listing everything.

"Oh, they got an indoor pool and sauna…man this place really might have been pretty cool back in the day," Yang sighed as a nice cold tip followed by a sauna sounded nice. Maybe the pool was actually swimmable, well they could explore that later. They found the path that would take them to the bungalow area, they saw a building labeled as 'Accommodations', another building to put on their list to check later.

The small living area had a few dozen of the same type of one-story buildings. All of them had the wood paneling and thatch roofs. A few they disregarded right away, one didn't have a roof anymore, a few had damaged roofs, some the glass front was broken into and when they took a peek inside, they saw the place was trashed. One looked like animals had moved in at one point given it was the messiest one and the animal dropping everywhere.

After half a dozen they finally found one that looked to be in decent condition. Sure, some of the windows looked cracked but they weren't broken. Using his new key, Jaune found one of the keys on the ring opened the door. Looking in the place was a bit muggy and stale from all the windows being shut but it had prevented this place from being ruined. There was a healthy layer of dust, but they could deal with that later.

"Well looks like we found our temporary home," Yang walked in and looked around finding a window to open it and air the place out a bit.

It was kind of nice, wood panel flooring and walls, there was a large bed up against the far wall, a large closet made up a good portion of the wall. A glass door leading into a patio or something. Off to the right of the door there was a lowered area, the edges were all couches made to look inward to TV placed on the wall, on the other wall was a fireplace.

Jaune placed his bags on the ground and went further in, to the left of the bed he found a small kitchen area and a door to another room. He opened it and found the bathroom. It had a toilet, sink but a large standing shower. He wasn't sure if the water even still worked as he went to the sink and tested it. There was a groaning sound, then some sputtering before water came out. It took a few seconds then for the dirty looking water to start looking clean again. He turned it off just in case they had limited water.

"What was that?" Yang called from the kitchen area as she was checking it out.

"Testing the water," Jaune called from the shower. "We might have some but honestly I don't know how much, don't think we'll get anything heated."

Yang signed at that a nice hot shower sounded so nice. She found the pantry bare except for some dishes and glasses. The fridge was empty which she was thankful it was thinking on it, she didn't want to deal with expired food. The stove wasn't electric, but it was an odd design. There was no oven just the top part with the burners. She opened the cabinet under it and found a tank hooked up. Her eyes lit up as she tested it, and she heard the gas followed by the lighter starting. Soon a blue flame was seen.

"Hey, this thing is propane based," Yang smiled. "Looks like we can cook with this."

Jaune looked out the many windows to the other houses. "Well, if each of the houses has a tank if we run out, we can most likely just get another one."

"Well given the day we've been having, it's nice to finally get some good luck with all the bad," Yang turned it off to save up on the fuel. She had no idea how much was in the tank, but it was best not to waste it.

"So…what now?" Jaune asked.

"Now, we get comfortable," She reached in and pulled out two water bottles. "I'm going to take a damn shower even if I have to use these."

"With water bottles?"

"Best we got," Yang explained. "One for getting wet and another to wash it all off, I hate to use these but there were more water bottles back at the store, we can grab more tomorrow."

Yang went into the bathroom and closed the door as she stripped. It felt so much nicer to get out of all that. She stepped into the shower and thought about using the actual water, but Jaune was right. They had no idea how much they had. So, she poured one of the bottles gently over her body as best we could, making sure to save a decent amount for her hair. While she loved her long hair, she had to admit if she had shorter hair this wouldn't take so much.

She saw the complimentary hand soap still in its package and shrugged and ripped it open and started a light lather.

"Hey Yang." Jaune called out from outside the room.

"Yeah?"

"There's a hot tub back here. Looks like it overfilled at one point, probably from rain fall. We might be able to use this as a washtub."

Yang paused wondering if she could have used that instead but then realized she would have to go naked outside. While she was sure Jaune wasn't the type to peek, it was a bit too much for her to try. Maybe if she had grabbed one of the swimsuits she would have. Well, she could do that later, she did think of something else.

"Maybe we can use it to wash our clothing." She called out. "All that sea salt is going to dry and stick to it if we don't get rid of it."

"Yeah, makes sense, it could use a bit of a cleaning anyway."

When she was done, she washed it all off and got one of the towels to dry off. It wasn't the best shower but damn she felt a lot better after that. She found a few robes and put one on slipping her underwear on first. She hoped this place had somewhere she could get some new ones as she gathered up her clothing.

Opening the door and going out she saw Jaune's armor by the door to the outside with him testing the water in the hot tub. She went to the now open sliding door and looked around. It was a small, nice deck, some blown over chairs were in the corner, and she could see what he was talking about. It was a squared one that could fit maybe four people.

She could just picture couples siting there watching the sun set with a drink in hand. Honestly, she didn't care if it was heated, she could just sit in it now and cool off at this rate. All this time in the sun was already starting to tan them a little.

"Well, we can at least get most of our clothing washed out in this," Yang dropped her clothing next to him. "Might even let it dry out here too."

"Good, because my hoodie is really starting to feel nasty against my skin," he turned to face Yang as for the first time saw the front of his hoodie and the little bunny head image on it.

She couldn't help it, she burst out laughing. "Jaune, what the actual hell?" She managed to get out.

"Not you too!" Jaune threw his hands up. "Come on, I already went through this with Ruby. I've always had this on, Yang."

"That's always been on there!?" Yang had to steady herself all her laughing was making her lightheaded. "You always had armor on, did your team know about it?"

"Of course," He crossed his arms starting to feel a little sensitive about it. At least they never laughed at it. That got him thinking of Ren and Nora, he was sure they and everyone else was starting to get worried about them. It also made him think of their missing member, Pyrrha's death gutted them, it left a hole in both their team and in their lives.

He pushed those thoughts away as he went inside. "I'm going to shower."

Yang noticed the change and frowned but didn't push, she knew that he was dealing with his own issues, and she wasn't one to bud into it. She sighed, she would apologize for laughing when he got done. Now she got to work stripping off anything in her clothing she wouldn't want to be put back into water. Mainly all her ammo, her scroll and anything else like that. Then she simply dunked them into the water.

Seemed like the water was mostly rainwater by this point, she hoped this would be enough as she cleaned up everything she could and placed them on the railing to dry. When she was done Jaune came out looking cleaner also in a robe as he got to work with this own clothing.

Yang paused for a moment before figuring she really should apologize now. "Hey Jaune, sorry for laughing."

Jaune signed. "Don't worry about it, I just had some…memories come up. Plus, I got to thinking how worried everyone is by now."

"Yeah, Ruby alone is going to panic," Yang sighed wishing she could call her little sister to ease her mind at least. "She's going to be going non-stop trying to find us."

That did give Jaune a little smile and some hope. "That's for sure, she's not one to give up easily."

"That's my sis," Yang nodded. "So how long do you think it will take them to figure out what happened?"

Jaune paused what he was doing to think on it. "I'm guessing they'll keep trying our scrolls until night, then in the morning will go out looking. They'll tell the headmaster, so they'll spend time asking people if they saw us."

"I did give her a message we were going sightseeing," Yang figured that would help. "Might take them another day to find out about the missing airplane tour and go from there…but didn't he say he was taking us somewhere special? You think it was this island?"

"Most likely," Jaune nodded. "Although if he didn't put it in his flight plan or if he gave a flight plan, who knows how long the search could take."

"Great," Yang hated this, and she felt completely at fault about all of it. If only she had just done something else that day none of this would have happened. She felt even worse that she had dragged Jaune into this as well. When Jaune was finished they went inside the sun was starting to set by now and so they looked around for some lights. There were some candles they used the stove to light and sat down in the fire pit area since it had a small table to eat from.

Today's dinner of choice was bottled water with whatever they had gotten from the store. They were careful not to eat too much, they had no idea how long they would have to make it last but at least they weren't starving by the end of it.

"Hey…you think the toilet works?" Yang asked a question she had been dreading but she had to go and it was either this or squat outside in the dark.

"I guess we should check," Jaune was hoping that it still worked. While they did want to save water, this might be the exception. Because they would have to come up with an alternative if the toilet didn't work.

Thankfully it did but once again they weren't sure about the water supply. They talked it out and figured that the place had to have a huge tank somewhere to have water for everyone but there was no guarantee about it. It was added to the mentally growing list of things they would have to look into while being stuck here.

The only thing left now was the sleeping arrangements, both of them were exhausted after today. All the paddling and walking left them drained. The only problem was, there was only one bed.

"I can sleep on the couches," Jaune pointed out while there wasn't much room, he could still sleep on them.

Yang didn't want him to sleep on the couches, she still felt guilty about dragging him into this. She was going to offer him the bed and she can take that, but she knew him well enough that he wouldn't let her sleep on the couch. She honestly was just too tired to argue the matter and figured on the only thing that made sense to her at the time.

"Okay look, we are both adults here, we can share the bed." Yang simply said. "It's more than big enough for the two of us and much more comfortable to sleep in."

Jaune was a little flustered at the thought of sharing a bed with Yang. Mainly because while he never showed it, Yang was a very beautiful young woman. Sure, he had once chased after Weiss, but he hadn't been blind either.

"A-are you sure?" He asked nervously.

"Yes," she said although she would be lying if she didn't feel a little embarrassed. She was literally asking a boy to share a bed with her. And the only thing they had on were robes with their underwear under it. "But I warn you, if you touch anywhere inappropriate, I will hit you."

"Noted," He nodded as to him that was only fair.

"Well…okay then, that settles that." She told him as she placed the candle next to the bed and slipped in.

Jaune nervously slipped into his side as both faced away from the other.

"Goodnight, Yang." He said.

"Night, Jaune." Yang blew out the candle as the darkness engulfed them.

TBC…