“Understood. Have you had any additional cramping?”
“No.”
“And I’m assuming you haven’t had your period.”
“I haven’t.”
She held my arm a little tighter. “Well, thank God for that,” she said. “There’s hope yet.”
I didn’t want to talk about how desperate I felt about not knowing whether I’d lost my child, so I just skimmed over that one and deflected. As much as the thought of it consumed my every moment, having a reprieve to talk about anything other than that was a blessing. So I shifted the conversation away from it.
“How are you holding up?” I asked.
“Oh, you know—I’m just divoon.”
“How about if you come clean with me?”
She sighed. “It’s the same as you,” she said. “I was terrified about Alexa. Seeing what that girl went through with those spiders crawling all over her—and then seeing how she fought to get well in the aftermath—was horrible. The worst. I tried to keep it together, but I’m here to tell you that I was on the verge of losing it during that first night, when she was at her sickest. When we get back home, Tank is getting one hell of a bonus—straight from me. He saved that girl. We all know what he did for her.”
“He’s saved all of us since we’ve been here. First, there was what he did for Alex. Then, he had to fight off those boars. Then, there was what happened to Alexa. And to top it all off, there’s the whole water issue. Who knew that bamboo could be used in such a way?”
“Precisely. Thus the bonus.”
“I’m fairly sure that Alex will be giving him one, as well.”
“He deserves it. Now, listen to me. There’s another reason I wanted to be alone with you. When we go to sleep—do you hear what I hear?”
“The footsteps?”
“Yes.”
“I hear them. And so do Alex and Tank. As for the girls, I’m not sure—I think they can sleep through anything. But what I’m hearing unnerves me, especially because I’ve seen no signs of them yet. It’s obvious that we’re not alone here, but I keep coming back to what Tank said earlier. People have been to this island to fish and to hunt, likely for decades. Generally, they leave in a week. But this? Because of the crash alone, whoever is out there knows we’re not here for some random fishing or hunting trip. This is worse, and they know it.”
“Have you talked to Tank about it?”
“Alex has.”
“What’s the consensus?”
“That whomever is on this island with us is curious.”
“And when does their curiosity turn to danger?”
“That’s what none of us knows—if it even does.”
“Last night, I swear to you, I heard them just outside the hut. And there were more footfalls than normal. There must have been six or more of them, all hovering around us. I was out of my mind with worry.”
“Tank has a gun. He has a knife.”
“And who knows what they have. You saw that boar’s head speared to that tree. Did they place it there as a warning to those who visit this island? Or was it some random hunter marking his prize for the day? I say the former. They don’t want us here, and none of us have talked about it because all of us have thought we’d be found by now. But we haven’t been found. So, what should we do if they decide to attack us? Who knows what we’re dealing with? I’m a mother, and I need to protect my two daughters. At some point, probably after dinner tonight, I’m going to ask Alexa and Daniella to go and replenish our water supply. When they’re gone, the rest of us can address the situation. We need a plan should anything happen. Because right now? Right now, we’ve got nothing.”
“Tank might have something in mind.”
“If he does, then he needs to share it with us, doesn’t he?”
I nodded.
“We don’t belong here,” she said. “We’re interlopers. We’re eating their food, drinking their water—even if it does come from a damned tree. They’re tolerating us for now, but they want us off this island as much as we want off it, so how much longer before they make that statement clear to us? And God knows how they’ll make it?”
“We’ll talk tonight after dinner,” I said. “While it’s still daylight. Daniella and Alexa can fill our water bottles, and the rest of us can talk so we don’t cause them any additional alarm.”
“As clueless as Daniella is, Alexa is smarter when it comes to these sorts of things. She reads. She’s bright. I sleep right next to her, and I know that she also hears them outside the hut because she’ll reach out for my hand—she’ll grip it in fear—and then she’ll become very still until they leave.”
“I wasn’t aware of that.”
“She’s done it three times now. I think it’s foolish that we have no protection beyond Tank’s gun and knife. Who knows how many are out there? If, for instance, they have spears, we should have spears. We need to talk about this before it’s too late. And given the way they’re behaving, too late could come as soon as tonight. I think they’re becoming more aggressive. Or ‘curious’. However you want to put it, none of it looks good for us.”
“Why do they come so late?”
“So they can’t be seen.”
“Let’s settle this after dinner.”
“That’s what I wanted to hear. If someone is going to attack me or my girls, I want a sporting chance of fighting them off. And everyone else in that hut should have the same opportunity. But only Tank has that ability now—not me. Not you. Not Alex, Lisa, or my girls. It’s not right. And I plan to address that today.”
“Why haven’t you said anything until now?”
“Because last night was the worst night. Last night, they didn’t just move around the hut—they lingered. They stood still. And then there was one point when they came so close to the entrance that I was certain that one of them—or all of them—would charge into it. Tonight, I can’t let that happen without being armed. Tonight, I’ll have something sharp lying next to me so I can defend myself.”
“How do you want to handle this with the girls?”
“Once we’ve all come to an agreement about how we should handle the situation, we’ll be straight with them. We’ll talk with them when they return with the water. They might behave like spoiled brats, but they’re not stupid. And they’re adults. There is no shortage of branches on this island that we can sharpen into spears. Tonight, I suggest we start to use Tank’s knife to make a few, and tomorrow, we should continue the process until we all have enough to protect ourselves.”
“I don’t mean to sound naïve, but we’ve been here for nine days. Whoever they are, why haven’t they acted yet?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you really think they’ll do something?”
“At this point, I’m no longer thinking about if they’ll do something. I’m thinking about when they’ll do something. And I’m afraid that ‘when’ is coming sooner than any of us want to admit.”
CHAPTER TWELVE
AS WE CONTINUED TO walk, we came upon the large dip in the sand where the plane had crashed. We moved through the water, which cooled our feet until we were back onto the flat area of the beach, where the sand was warmer.
“I keep thinking about Wenn,” Blackwell said. “And that sonofabitch, Stephen Rowe.”
“I can’t get him or the situation out of my head. What do you think has taken place?”
“At this point? Somebody is working as interim CEO. My guess? Rowe lobbied for that position and got it.”
“Even with my threat against him?”
“We’ve been missing for nine days now. He might think that we’re dead. The board might have come to the same conclusion.”
“If that man even dared to go for interim CEO, I will crush him when we return.”
“As I know you will.”
“I wonder where our stock is now...”
“Your guess is as good as mine. Without Alex there, it’s not unreasonable to think that it�
�s at its lowest point yet. We’ve officially gone missing. I’m sure Alex’s disappearance is daily newspaper fodder. Worse, I’m even more certain that the tabloids have pronounced all of us dead, which many people will believe. Investors were worried before we even got on that damned plane. But now? Now, they’re likely in a panic because Alex is not behind the ship. He’s the face and the voice of Wenn. Investors need to see him and hear from him, but right now he’s gone from their lives. And he has been for nine days. For investors, nine days might as well be a year, especially after the hit we took in creating the SlimPhone, which might not even be in production now because of the memory chips we need. You know I never pull punches with you. I think the outlook is bleak—at best.”
“Will we recover?”
“How about if we focus on getting off this island first? If we do, yes, Wenn will recover. Alex can fix this, even if it takes years to rebuild confidence in Wenn. But if no one comes for us, does it even matter? If they don’t, we’re stuck on this island until we die. And doomed to live out the rest of our lives here, however long that might take.”
“Well, that is bleak,” I said.
“I’m feeling bleak.”
I was about to respond to that when something stopped me dead in my tracks. I turned away from Blackwell, went silent—and just listened.
“What’s the matter?” she asked.
“Shh,” I said.
“Don’t shush me.”
“Do you hear that?”
“Do I hear what?”
“That noise. It’s faint, almost like a rumbling. Do you hear it?”
“All I can hear is the ocean, those damned squawking birds, and the wind in the trees.”
“It’s above the trees. To our left.”
“I don’t hear anything.”
“Well I do. And it sounds like a plane.”
That got Blackwell’s attention. With expectation on her face, we each faced west. Together, we stood still, our heads lifted toward the bright blue sky, my heart beating in my throat, hoping beyond hope that this would finally end our nightmare. Apparently, I wasn’t the only one who heard the sound, because far down the beach, I saw Tank, Alex, and the others start to move out of the shade and onto the beach. Their heads also were raised to the west.
“It’s like thunder,” I said. “Only coming from a distance. Do you hear it?”
“I hear something now.”
“It’s a plane,” I said with excitement in my voice. “I know it is. It’s unmistakable. Come on. We need to get back to the others.”
“I don’t think it’s coming this way. It sounds so far off.”
“They could circle back. We need to get out in the open and stand next to Lisa’s SOS sign. Hurry.”
“We’ll walk,” she said sternly. “We will not hurry. The others already are at the sign. You need to slow down and think about your child.”
“Then we’ll walk quickly,” I said, taking her hand in mine. “So, come on—move it!”
BY THE TIME WE REACHED the rest of the group, you could feel the anticipation in the air. It was so electric that the idea of possibly being rescued settled deep into my bones and offered me a wealth of promise.
“It’s a plane,” Daniella said. “It’s got to be.”
“Tank?” I said. “Is it?”
“It sounds like one to me.”
“Oh my God.”
“It’s miles away from us, but it might come closer,” Lisa said. “Did Cutter get any flares off the plane?”
“He did,” I said. “There are three or four of them in one of the boxes.”
“Which one?” Tank asked.
“I’m not sure...”
“Everybody stay put. I’ll look. Stay out in the open so you can be seen. If a plane flies into sight, wave like hell at it. Do whatever you can to attract its attention.”
When Tank dashed away from us, I went over to Alex, grasped his hand, and said, “Tell me this is going to happen.”
“I hope it will. But the cockpit fell off in the direction where the sound is coming from now. There was a black box in the cockpit. They might have located a signal there, and now they are exploring that area.”
“But if that’s the case, they aren’t close to us at all. Tank said that we were going so fast that the cockpit could be fifty miles away from us.”
“He did.”
“They’ve got to come this way.”
When he turned to me, it was with concern in his eyes, and when he spoke, he did so only I could hear him. “If the box on what’s left of our plane did get destroyed, which is a possibility, then there’s only one signal being emitted, and that may lead them to conclude that the entire plane is in the ocean. That said, if for some reason the box at the rear of the plane has just sparked to life, then they might fly over us. But here’s the thing, Jennifer—the currents have moved the cockpit far away from its original resting ground. God knows where it is now. Is it closer to us? Farther away from us? None of us knows. But there’s no question that the cockpit has moved since we crashed. If luck is on our side, it has moved closer to us, which means that the plane is closer to us. If we’re even luckier, they’ve pinpointed two signals—the one from the cockpit and the one from the plane itself. But we won’t know anything until they come—if they come. I don’t want to get your hopes up. We need to pray, and also we need to wait and see.” He looked over my shoulder. “Tank found the flares—he’s coming with them now. Maybe that will attract their attention.”
“But it’s so bright out. Will they even see it in the sunlight?”
“If they’re close enough, they might. The flare isn’t just about the light it emits—it’s also about the ribbons of smoke it leaves in its wake. In this sun, that smoke would be very visible.”
Tank rushed past us, moved to the center of the beach, aimed the flare to the westward sky, and let it rip. The bright pink globe that soared into the air did indeed leave a trail of smoke as it arced high into the air. As I watched it, the light seemed to hang in the sky for several minutes before it landed somewhere in the jungle.
“Do you think anyone saw it?” I asked.
“I don’t know.”
“Should we use another?”
“No,” Tank said. “We only have three left, and we need to choose when to use them wisely. If there’s a search party looking for us, which there might be, I want to save those flares so we’ll have them in case we hear another plane. But it will be different next time. If they don’t come for us now, I’m going to patrol the island tomorrow morning, and go west to see where the island meets the ocean. If the only signal being emitted is on the far side of the island and those planes return, I need to be ready with a flare to catch their attention.”
“Can I go with you?” Alexa asked.
“If you’d like,” Tank said. “You can watch my back—and I’ll watch yours. But you need to be ready for anything. You’ll need to be careful walking through the jungle because of what happened to you when you walked into that web. You already know there’s a tribe on this island. What we don’t know is what they will do to us should we venture too far into their territory.”
“I also want to come,” I said.
“Same goes for me,” Alex said.
“That’s fine,” Tank said. “The more eyes, the better. But I’ll need Lisa, Daniella, and Barbara to stay behind in case a plane does come this way.”
“What do we do if one does?” Lisa asked.
“If you hear one come very close, then you use one of the flares. But hear me on this—only use it if you’re certain that the plane is upon you. Otherwise, don’t waste it. Is that understood? You need to be absolutely certain that the moment is right before you fire it.”
“Done,” she said.
“The plane,” I said. “The sound of its engine is fading.”
“It could be circling,” Blackwell said.
Tank was about to respond when something behind me caught his eye. Al
though Tank rarely showed emotion, this time his jaw dropped, which caused all of us to turn around.
There, at the far end of the beach and limping toward us, was Cutter himself.
What stopped us all from running toward him was what we saw behind him—a group of four men of various ages, none of whom seemed particularly happy to see us. These men weren’t indigenous to this island. They were Caucasian. Some wore shorts and T-shirts. Others wore only shorts.
Worse, they were carrying guns. One was trained on Cutter, who looked haggard and weak as he struggled not to fall.
And the other three were pointed at us.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
“RAISE YOUR HANDS IN the air,” Tank said. “All of you. Now.”
We did as we were told, and Tank followed suit.
“This is the tribe?” Blackwell asked. “These are the people who have been stalking our hut at night?”
“Apparently, not that I saw this coming. Let me handle this. No one says anything unless someone directs a question at you. If one of them asks you something, be polite. No mouthing off—that means you, Daniella. Anyone who chose to live on this island did so for a reason, likely a political or a radical one. The guns say it all—they don’t want anyone here. They’ve claimed this island for themselves.”
“It’s not as if we have a choice to be here,” Blackwell said beneath her breath. “They must know that. Look at the damned plane, for God’s sake.”
“That doesn’t mean that they give a damn.”
“What if they don’t speak English?”
“I speak seven languages. Hopefully, they speak one of them. If they don’t, there are other ways to communicate. Now be quiet—all of you. I’ll do the talking.”
As Cutter lurched forward and fell heavily into my embrace, I sank onto the sand with him, took him into my arms, and whispered into his ear how grateful I was that he was alive and that everything was going to be all right. And then I just held him close to me as the four men closed the distance between us.
Annihilate Him (Volume 2) Page 8