“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. Although 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 THIRTY-EIGHT
“Raise your hands in the ai
r,” 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.
“Do you speak English,” Tank asked as they approached.
The oldest member of the group—a man somewhere in his sixties with a long white beard, piercing green eyes, and a face that looked as if it had been baked by the sun—came forward while the others held back, their guns still aimed at us.
“We speak English,” the man said. “And just so you know, you’re trespassing. This is our land. We’ve claimed it for ourselves—and you’re destroying it.”
“With all due respect, we didn’t mean to trespass,” Tank said. “Lightning struck our plane. It took out one of the engines, and we lost five people before we crashed. We’ve been waiting to be rescued—and I think we have a good chance of being rescued. Just a moment ago, we heard a plane nearby, which means that they might be searching for us. Did you hear it?”
“We heard it.”
“We’re hoping to be off the island as soon as possible. If you have any way to communicate with the outside world, we could be gone today. Or tomorrow at the latest.”
“The outside world?” the man said. “Are you fucking kidding me? We chose to leave that world behind. We escaped from that world to live out the rest of our lives here. We’ve been here for years. And you’re stealing our food.”
“The majority of what we’ve taken are fallen coconuts,” Tank said. “The second day we were here, we also took a few pineapples because we were hungry. Otherwise, we’ve only taken what was plentiful, such as the breadfruit and the papaya. We’ve also fished. For a water source, we’ve tapped into the many bamboo trees around us. To keep ourselves clean, we’ve used a nearby waterfall.”
“You see, that’s one of the problems we have with you,” the man said. “That waterfall is where we get our fresh water. You people have polluted it.”
“We had no idea. We just wanted to bathe.”
“And because you did, that water is no longer safe to drink. Now, we have to go to another water source that is miles away.” He pointed his gun straight at Tank’s forehead. “You’ve inconvenienced us.”
“We didn’t mean to.”
“But you did.” He nodded at Cutter. “And so has he, even though we fixed him up for you. When we found him in the jungle, he had a broken arm and a deep gash on his leg. There were smaller cuts on his body, but they’ve healed. He also was burned on his torso from when the plane exploded—which we saw, by the way. But treating him with aloe took care of that. Your boy is lucky to be alive. He owes his life to us. We’ve tried to do what we could for him, but the infection on his leg isn’t pretty. At this point, he either has blood poisoning or is on the verge of developing it. Unless you’re some kind of miracle worker, he’ll likely die of that. I’d give him a couple of days—tops.”
“I can’t tell you how grateful we are for what you’ve done for our friend,” Tank said. “We were beginning to think that we’d lost him. You have no idea how thankful we are that you brought him back to us. And that you cared for him.”
“The jungle gives,” the man said. “Find the right plant, and you can heal most any infection. But the one on his leg? I don’t know what the hell that is, or if there’s anything here to fix it. But it’s bad. And you’ll be burying him soon. On our land, by the way—which none of us likes.”
“Can I ask what you’ve treated his infection with?”
“Agar. Not that you know what that is.”
“I do,” Alexa said. “And you were exactly right to use it—it’s a strong, natural antibiotic. Kelp is something else we could use to fight his infection.”
“We didn’t use kelp,” the man said. “And who the hell are you?”
“I’m Alexa,” she said. “Alexa Blackwell. I’m an environmentalist. I work to sustain the environment.”
“And yet you shower where we drink our water. Explain that.”
“We didn’t know that anyone was using it as a source for drinking water, and it’s all we could find. We were desperate.”
“Desperate? Here’s when you were desperate, girl—when you were bitten by those spiders. That’s right—we also saw that happen. And frankly, I’m surprised that you survived. Those motherfuckers have killed too many of us during our years here. I thought for sure that you were going to shit the bed. And yet here you are—healthy. How is that?”
She motioned at Tank. “He sliced open my neck and drew out the venom. We had Tylenol to bring down my fever and Benadryl to stave off the inflammation. We used penicillin to prevent infection.” She pointed at Cutter. “He got those supplies off the plane before it exploded. I’m very lucky.”
“You know who isn’t lucky? All of you.” He cocked his head to the side. “We’re giving you five days to get off this island. If you’re not gone by then, we will kill you in your sleep. It’s not as if we haven’t been around your hut at night, wondering when we should act. The women keep telling us to hold off—that help will come. But you’ve been here for almost two weeks now, and nobody’s come. We thought a rescue plane would be here at this point. If you’re lucky, maybe one will come. But make no doubt about it. This is our island, and it’s here to sustain us—not you.”
“How many are you?” Tank asked.
“Hundreds at this point.”
“When did you come here?”
“Thirty years ago.”
“Why?”
“What the hell business is it of yours?”
“I’m just curious.”
“We came here to be free—truly free. Free of governments. Free of bureaucracy. Free of a corrupt system that no longer works. At this point, my wife and our friends have lived here for a full generation. Children have been born and raised here. Friends and family members have died here. These men behind me? They are my sons. This is our home, and you’re not welcome here.”
“What if they don’t find us in five days?”
“Then I guess we’ll be tossing your bodies into the ocean.”
“Do you have any forms of communication that might help us get off the island?”
“Communication? There are no phones here. Don’t you get it? We came here to be alone. We came here to start a new life and to get away from everything that was oppressing us. Taxes, politics, rhetoric, bullshit. So listen to me on this. I’ll say it again. This is our island, and you’ve got five days to get the hell off of it.”
CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE
“He was lying,” Tank said when they were out of earshot. “He does have contact with the outside world. His clothes were relatively new. Same goes for his sons. And he wore sneakers that definitely were a recent purchase—you could tell by looking at them and by how deep the treads in the sand were when he wal
ked away from us. Here’s what I know from that exchange—somewhere on this island is a boat, and they use it to go to a neighboring island, which must be populated with people and with stores to purchase things like clothes and sneakers. Who knows where we are? Doesn’t matter. What matters is that we’re close to an island filled with people who can help us. I can promise you that.”
“One of his sons was wearing a T-shirt that said ‘Duck Dynasty,’” Daniella said. “Did you see that?”
“I did.”
“Who the hell wears a ‘Duck Dynasty’ T-shirt?”
“These people. And since that’s a relatively newish show, my point is made. They have access to a populated island.”
“The plane,” Lisa said. “I can’t hear it anymore. I think it’s gone.”
“It’ll be back,” Tank said, and then he knelt at my side and placed the back of his hand against Cutter’s forehead, likely to see if he was running a temperature, which he was.
“Are you with me?” Tank asked.
Cutter’s voice was barely a whisper when he spoke. “I’m here.”
“Are you strong enough to talk?”
“Yes.”
“What do I need to know?”
“He wasn’t lying. There are hundreds of them here. I saw the compound, which is tucked within the jungle—but it’s huge. The women demanded that the men help me, and so they did. They have a shitload of supplies here. Everything you could imagine. They even had a sling for my arm, for Christ’s sake.”
Annihilate Me 2: Omnibus (Complete Vols. 1-3, Annihilate Me 2) Page 29