Island Jumper 2

by M H Ryan

  “Snakes don’t suck blood,” Sherri said.

  “And pigs don’t swim across oceans, and the bird from Up doesn’t exist, but they’re all here,” Aubrey said. “Do you really find vampire snakes such a leap after seeing what we’ve seen?”

  “Okay, you got a point,” Sherri conceded.

  “So you think the snakes were… storing her?” Kara asked, looking horrified.

  “They must have some kind of anesthesia,” I said. “She reacted to the smelling salts but never awakened.”

  “Like Sleeping Beauty,” Benji said, placing her hand over her chest. “What’s going to wake her up?”

  “My guess is time,” I said. “From the number of bites on her, I think they’ve been at this for a while on her. Could be any minute now, or hours, until it wears off.”

  “So, what are we supposed to do with her?” Sherri asked.

  “We wait,” I said. “And hope she gets better.”

  “And if not?” Benji asked.

  “Let’s not think about that now,” I said, and right then, another thunder blast from outside rattled the small building.

  “Holy smokes that was close,” Benji said, looking at the ceiling.

  “I’ve been in here for many storms. It should hold up fine,” Eliza said and then opened the bag she had against her chest.

  She reached in and pulled out a chunk of wood that had been smoothed out and almost looked like a statue of Buddha.

  “This is Mr. Wood,” Eliza said, holding him out. “He’s been with me for almost every storm I can remember. He has the power to protect me.”

  Sherri gasped and held her hand over her mouth. “That is so adorable.”

  Eliza scowled and stuffed it back in her bag. “It’s not adorable. I’m not some kid, you know. I’m a woman, like you, and just because I don’t know what you guys are talking about half the time doesn’t mean I’m not an adult with adult feelings…and desires.” She eyed me.

  “Okay,” Sherri said, holding up her hands. “I didn’t mean it like that. I can’t imagine what you’ve been through, growing up here and then losing your mom. Raising yourself in a hostile place like this and still turning out to be a whole human? Sweetie, I am in awe of you and your innocence.”

  “Sorry, Sherri,” Eliza said, pulling Mr. Wood back out and then gazing up at me. “And I’m not that innocent.”

  I glanced to Benji and stowed her urge to talk about Brittney Spears.

  “Dude, you’re a grown ass woman just like the rest of us. You’re nineteen. All kinds of shit you can do back in the States,” Aubrey said. “You could buy cigarettes, guns, lotto tickets…hell, you could even buy a hooker outside of Vegas.”

  “For a hand job?” Eliza asked, looking at her nails. “You guys must get handjobs all the time, because your nails look great. Why would you need to be an adult, though?”

  The snickering was surprisingly subdued.

  “Just for safety reasons,” Aubrey got out.

  “Oh,” Eliza said, as if that was a perfectly reasonable answer.

  Rain started pouring down on the island, and we all looked at the ceiling. It peppered against the ceiling, creating a steady drone of noise. It quickly rushed off the roof and smacked the ground outside. We all stared at the ceiling thinking the same thing. There was no way that ceiling wasn’t going to leak but it didn’t. After a minute of steady rain and a dry ceiling, I found a new respect for Eliza’s craftsmanship. She’d be invaluable for shelter building when we got back home.

  Thunder crashed nearby, and the girls jumped in surprise.

  Benji had her hand over her chest, looking at the front door as it shook from a gust of wind.

  “This is getting worse,” Aubrey said.

  “It will hold,” Eliza said, not looking as confident in that statement as the first time. “And I think I have something for Cass.”

  Eliza knelt next to Cass and pulled out a round, blue stone from her bag.

  “Cass, I know you don’t know me, but I hope you can hear me. My name is Eliza Brown. You’re in my house right now, and I want to give you something that has helped me get through every sickness I’ve ever had. Her name is Mrs. Granite. She will help you get better and get back to us. I want to get to know you, Cass, so please, let her guide you back to us.”

  Eliza slid the stone into Cass’s hand and closed her fingers around it. I wasn’t sure how, but Cass kept her grip on the rock, maybe even tightening on it.

  A flash of light streaked through the cracks in the walls, followed almost immediately by an explosion of thunder. Outside, it sounded like gunfire, and then something crashed into the ceiling.

  Dead branches and a good section of a tree smashed through the ceiling and halfway into the house. Kara dropped to the ground just in time to miss getting crushed by it. She scrambled away from it as the wind and rain poured into the house. Sherri and Benji screamed, and Eliza stood there, dumbfounded at what had just crushed part of her house. Moshe hissed and bolted across the room with unbelievable speed, ending up gripping the wall near the ceiling on the opposite side of the room. She hung on the wall like Spiderman and hissed at the wooded intruder.

  With the ceiling broken open, the fury of the storm dropped onto us. Wind gusts pushed the rain into the house. It roared with noise, shaking the tree branch near Cass’s feet. The storm outside had come in, and Cass was right underneath it all.

  Chapter 16

  “Help me with the bed,” I said, and pulled Cass away from the opening so the rain would stop hitting her feet.

  “Screw you!” Aubrey yelled at the tree that rudely decided we needed a sunroof. “I swear…this freaking-fracking island is trying to make us miserable as it can. If we ever get back to Yang Island, we’re never leaving again. I’ll live off slugs and sweet water and croc embryos before leaving again!” she screamed, and the storm seemed to respond with another howling gust and thunder that all but drowned out her threats.

  We stood on the far side of the cabin and stared at the destruction.

  I leaned down, close to Eliza and asked, “Are you okay?”

  She looked up at me with tears building in her eyes. This house was more than just four walls and some wicker furniture—it was her home for her entire life. She knew nothing else but this. It had given her comfort and might have been a good reason for keeping her sanity. Now, half of it was destroyed, and it wasn’t like we could go to Home Depot for supplies or put on Facebook that she needed a team of volunteers to help rebuild. Fixing this would be a long process, and one she likely would never complete. This was the death of her house, and I saw it all over her face.

  Her face crumbled into a cry, and it broke my heart. I pulled her close to me in a hug, and she buried her face in my chest. I felt her body shaking as she sobbed. The other girls were scared and looked from Eliza and me to the opening in the ceiling. I just held onto Eliza and I felt her hand go behind me, and up my back, gripping me tightly.

  Moshe finally climbed down from the wall and paced near the rain, as if thinking she might be able to fight the thing that had given it such a fright.

  “I should have kept that damn blanket,” Aubrey complained. “Stupid Lieutenant Dan.”

  “Ha,” Benji said, pointing at Aubrey. “Forrest Gump.”

  Aubrey rolled her eyes. “This is going to be like us on the shrimp boat, you know.”

  “You think?” Benji said, looking excited.

  “Who wanted the comfort of some house anyway,” Sherri said, looking just as excited as Benji. She skipped below the hole in the ceiling and let the warm rainwater pour over her body. It rained down her face and over her chest. “Now this is a real adventure. Us versus nature.” He raised her fists to the open sky.

  “You’re insane,” Aubrey said.

  “I’ll take this over Yin,” Kara said quietly.

  “It’s only water,” Sherri said, jumping in a circle, hands up and welcoming the rain over her body. Her feet stomped in the growing puddle u
nder her.

  Eliza looked out from my chest at Sherri and wiped her nose, laughing while she still held tightly to me.

  “You okay?” I asked again.

  She looked up at me with red-rimmed eyes. “You guys are my new home. I don’t need this place. I need people like Sherri in my life,” she said, releasing me, setting her bag on the ground and joining Sherri, splashing in the water puddle and smiling.

  Sherri took her hands, and they danced in the rain.

  The floor to the cabin had been graded at a slight tilt, and most of the water pouring in from the ceiling ran out of the house. We were getting wet, but at least we weren’t going to be swimming anytime soon.

  I glanced down at Eliza’s bag next to me and spotted more items in it. Different chunks of wood, rocks, and some tied-together stick figures of humans. That was her bag of friends, or protectors, as she had called Mr. Wood and Mrs. Granite. Also, Mr. Rope, who had actually saved our lives. I had wondered why she held that bag so close. For her, those items were clearly more valuable than this house. They were her family, and I knew each one had a name and function for her.

  While Eliza wasn’t on the ship with us, in a way, she was. Rebecca had been the captain, and it didn’t take an artist’s imagination to see that Eliza was the thing Rebecca had been searching for in the seas. I wondered if Rebecca was out there as well, on some island. Would she be coming here to find Eliza? Or did she suffer a similar fate to Cass and end up being trapped on an island? Or had the islands turned her into something terrible, like the shadowy figure I watched in the forest? I felt that creature though. I didn’t feel people, or at least, none of the ones I had encountered so far. There was a puzzle to figure out there, but I had too few pieces, and trying to figure out the picture at this point just hurt my head. Better to watch and enjoy the two nearly naked women dancing in the rain.

  Benji moved next to me. “Do you think another tree is going to fall?” Benji asked, looking at the ceiling above us.

  “What are the chances of two trees falling on us?” I said, brushing the comment off as I nervously stared at the ceiling.

  In truth, in here seemed safer than most anywhere else on an island of trees. At least the roof over our heads would stop most falling objects.

  Kara moved up to the other side of me and leaned against me, putting her arms around my waist as we watched Sherri and Eliza dance in the rain. I reached over her and put my arm around her, kissing her head.

  “She’s a special person, isn’t she?” Kara asked.

  “They both are,” I said.

  “Hey, what about me?” Benji said and put her arms around my chest.

  I reached over her shoulder and kissed the side of her head.

  She looked up at me.

  “Sorry,” I said, not sure if I had crossed some line with the physical contact of lips on her head.

  “It’s okay, you can kiss me,” Benji said, reaching up and giving me a soft kiss on my lips before returning to holding me with a big smile.

  “Oh my God, I’m going to fuck you two if you don’t fuck each other soon,” Aubrey said and then went to Benji and cuddled up against her.

  Moshe paced near my feet, meowing. Then she jumped in one mighty leap to my shoulder and sat there like some kind of pirate’s parrot.

  “Come on, Moshe,” I said. “Get down, girl.”

  She meowed, licked the side of my head, and jumped back down.

  After a little while, Eliza and Sherri came back out of the rain, laughing and soaked from head to toe. They both looked incredible, dripping wet. I admired each of their bodies with Benji and Kara on my arms, but I had been thinking of a difficult question for Eliza.

  Eliza caught my stare and tilted her head, watching me.

  “What, Jack?” Eliza asked, hands on hips and water dripping from her long hair that reached to her waist.

  She was a sexy little thing, and I hoped she didn’t hate me after asking this.

  I took my arms off Kara and Benji against their protests and stepped toward Eliza. I wasn’t sure how to put it without sounding like an asshole, and I just hoped she took it for what it was: something that was going to help the group.

  “Eliza, can we strip this cabin for parts?” I asked.

  Chapter 17

  The storm took full advantage of the opening in the roof and sent a steady flow of water and wind upon us. This offered us little chance of sleeping or even resting, so we worked through the evening and well into the night.

  At the center of Eliza’s house sat most of our efforts. Eliza had obliged my request, but I could see on her face the pain as we pulled off a wood panel or dismantled her table.

  Eliza had gone back to holding the bag against her chest, as if we might want to take apart Mr. Wood for a new ax head. I didn’t like destroying a childhood memory, but I had to think of our shelter back on Yang Island. We could desperately use this kind of stuff, and I didn’t think Eliza was going to leave us, so in the end, this was bringing part of her home back to our home. She would always have it with her.

  I reminded her of this at some point in the night and she smiled, thinking on it, and then for the rest of the night, enthusiastically helped tear her place apart.

  Aubrey called the rain ending about ten minutes before it happened, and we settled into various spots around the cabin to sleep. Kara, Aubrey, and Benji slept next to me, while Moshe curled up at my feet. Sherri slept on the bed with Cass, spooning against her, while Eliza slept on the floor, next to the bed.

  I thought I heard some cries in the night, but I was so tired from the day that I quickly fell back asleep if they were real. I dreamed of half men, half snakes chasing me while a fish-man watched the whole thing like a god, laughing at all my efforts. I couldn’t remember if I got away or not.

  In the morning, the sun rose and the light of what we had done, spread across the cabin. Being the first to get up, I noticed Kara’s hand resting on my crotch while Benji lay her face on my shoulder. I eased Kara’s hand off me and then tried to not wake Benji, but as I moved, she opened her eyes.

  “Sorry,” I whispered. “Didn’t want to wake you.”

  She rolled her eyes and sat up. “What, don’t want to spend time with me,” she whispered, and then looked over to Aubrey behind her, who stirred awake and looked disappointed at what she saw.

  “Still here,” she said with a sigh. “This place smells like a wet dog.”

  The tree that had crashed into the house yesterday still dripped onto the floor. The morning sun had heated it up and it steamed, which I suspected added to the smell. That and the mud and wood on the ground.

  “We did a number on this place last night,” Benji said.

  We did, and looking around, I felt bad for what Eliza was going to wake to. It was one thing seeing it in the dark, and a whole other thing seeing it in brilliant daylight: Every panel missing and stacked on the floor, the table and chair both dismantled for transport. Even the firewood was stacked next to the “go” pile, along with various knives she had made over the years. One thing left untouched was her stick-figure parents with coconuts tits and red painted lipstick. It seemed to be an unspoken agreement that those were going to guard what was left of Eliza’s old house.

  Living so tightly, it was hard to move without disturbing another person, and a conversation, even in whispers, would be heard. Soon, all the girls were awake, except our sleeping beauty, Cass.

  At least she didn’t look worse in the morning light. Her tanned skin looked perfect, and once she got going again, I knew she’d be a great addition to our tribe. It also made me think about our shelter and maybe the need for a few different rooms. I tried to map it out in my head, given the placement of the trees, and thought I had a good idea of what we could do. Of course, we had to get back to Yang Island first.

  “Good morning,” Sherri said with a yawn, then gave Cass a few halfhearted shakes before getting off the bed.

  “We should get going,” Eliza said.
“I bet we could get back home before nightfall.” She got up and went to the front door and slid it open. She then went to the pile and picked up a handful of wood.

  “What?” Eliza asked.

  “Nothing,” I said. “You heard her, let’s get going.”

  I grabbed some wood and walked out of the house with it. On the outside, the storm had done a number on the forest, with branches littering the ground and even a few trees toppled over, the most notable of which was resting halfway through the cabin.

  The beach had debris washed up on it, driftwood and bits of seaweed. The waves had died down, and I didn’t think they’d give us trouble on leaving. Thankfully, the raft looked unharmed. It sat on the sand right where we left it.

  Eliza set the wood down next to the raft, and I did the same. Right behind us was everyone but Sherri and Cass, carrying more of the wood.

  “We are going to make an awesome shelter with this,” Benji said, setting her wood down on top of mine.

  “We should get the raft closer to the water before we weigh it down too much,” I said.

  We all took a corner and carried it to the water’s edge, where the waves would wash around it but not take it into the sea.

  We dedicated the four corners of the raft for the storage. It would make the raft cramped, but we could keep our assigned stations and hopefully balance the weight. Over the next hour, we gathered the rest of the supplies we’d stripped from the cabin, and then gathered our final and most precious cargo—Cass. I had actually expected her to be awake by now, and her continued unconsciousness was concerning.

  We carefully placed her near the center of the raft with her body hugging the mast.

  “What are we going to do with her?” Kara asked, shaking her head as she stared at Cass.

  “We’re going to do what we can for as long as we can,” I said. “Eliza, is there anything else on this island that we can A: fit on this raft and B: could use?”

  “There used to be food all over these trees. There might be some deeper into the forest. I also had a few chickens that free-roamed the island. Not sure if they’re still alive though.”