Guardian

by Jack Porter

  Nevertheless, I turned the word into action, scrambling out of the way, trying not to acknowledge the sudden pain in my ankle, dimly aware that someone was screaming nearby.

  Then the plane hit with a meaty thud, an unspectacular finale to the entire episode. For two heartbeats, the entire ruined front part of the plane balanced on its nose, then toppled over completely, coming to rest on its roof.

  Thankfully, the girls had seen what was happening and had scrambled to give the plane a wide breadth.

  Seconds passed while I gasped for air. Spots danced in my vision and my head buzzed with only half lucidity.

  I closed my eyes. Just for a moment. Just to rest them for a while.

  When I next opened them, the rain and the wind were gone, and I was looking at a bright mid-morning sun.

  Someone spoke, “Oh god, look! He’s awake.”

  “Is he alright?” asked another.

  Did I pass out? I must have.

  A vision of goddesses surrounded me, haloed in white light. There was concern in each one of their eyes.

  A fall. I’d fallen, hadn’t I? Crashed to the ground and hit my head?

  Before I could answer my own question, the darkness consumed me again.

  The next time I woke, I was definitely more coherent than before. I gave myself a mental shake. Most of the fuzz I’d felt in my head was gone. Something soft and warm supported my skull and I thought to sink into it, before realizing I knew this sensation.

  Someone’s thighs.

  I blinked my eyes open rapidly and a pair of perky breasts greeted me.

  Hannah. I’m lying on Hannah’s lap.

  I let the thought come and slide away. It was okay for a few moments. I wasn’t going to complain while this much pain radiated through my body.

  Glancing around, I found that we were surrounded by trees, a little distance away from where the front end of the plane had hit the ground, with the back end still burning high in the trees.

  The girls had all gathered around me. Layla was running her fingers along my legs, apparently looking for any lingering injuries. Piper was looking at my head, and I felt her fingers hit a tender spot. I winced.

  “Concussion?” I rasped.

  “It's possible,” Piper said. “You have a pretty good bump back here.”

  Megan offered me a bottle of water. I sipped it gratefully before hoisting myself up off Hannah’s surely numb legs. She let out a small sigh of relief and I knew I was right.

  I chuckled. “Sorry.”

  “It’s okay,” Megan said. “It was the least I could do. I mean, maybe, if I hadn’t kept you from the cockpit—” Her voice trembled to nothing.

  I sensed Layla’s scrutiny drift toward her, and I could practically hear the thoughts in my co-pilot’s head.

  “Hey, it’s alright. This isn’t your fault. It’s mine if it’s anyone’s,” I said firmly. “There’s not a single person alive that can control the weather.” My eyes caught Layla’s, challenging her to think otherwise.

  She didn’t. In fact, she seemed to relax a little as she took in the truth.

  “Alright ladies, I think that’s enough attention for the moment. I’m feeling much better now.”

  Hannah, Piper, and Megan’s faces all lit up, with excitement sparkling in their eyes. Only Layla gave a concerned glance at my head.

  “I’m fine,” I assured her, standing to prove my words. There was a definite ache in the back of my skull that was beginning to throb, but it was nothing I couldn’t handle. “A touch of good old vitamin-I and I’ll be good to go.”

  “We’ll still want to watch you for signs of a concussion,” Piper said. “Headache, vision disturbances, confusion…” She rattled off the symptoms like she had memorized a book.

  I held up my hand to stop her, and smiled. “It’s not the first time I’ve been knocked in the head. I’ll be on the lookout for the signs. Now, where’s that ibuprofen?”

  Layla nodded, gesturing toward the supply bags that were stacked neatly to one side. The smaller bag I’d packed from the medicine cabinet was on top.

  I foraged through it, grabbed out three ibuprofen, and repacked the bottle. Piper was eyeing me as if she was worried I would keel over, but when I caught her looking, she grinned and grabbed her own bag. I dry swallowed the pills and turned back to Layla. “Camping equipment?” I asked.

  She responded with a self-satisfied smile. “Have a look.”

  I did so, and found within the bags a small butane stove, two butane canisters, one cooking pot, several small plastic bowls and cups, a compass, a knife, a tackle box loaded with fishing gear, a pair of binoculars, and ponchos for rain.

  Layla had also gathered together every last scrap of food we had on board—mostly high calorie MREs for my and Layla’s dinners aboard, and a few other things as well, and as much water as could be shoved in each sack.

  Finally, there were two extremely lightweight tents, soap, and two small towels.

  Jesus, I thought. Getting caught in the storm and crash-landing on an uncharted island weren’t exactly high on my list of recommended activities. But this was a stroke of good luck if ever there was one.

  I turned back to the women. “Okay. So, now we wait for rescue,” I said. “How about we find a suitable spot to set up a camp? Going back toward the beach will be best while we’re waiting for rescue. The crash site should be a good beacon for any search party flying over the island, so we’ll camp nearby.”

  Layla caught my eye, and I knew what she was thinking. This island wasn’t on any maps we had, so either we’d been blown way off course, or we’d discovered a previously unknown land mass. If that were the case, the island couldn’t be very big, to have escaped detection all these years.

  And that meant a search party might overlook it just as countless expeditions had before.

  “Better go see if the radio is still working,” I muttered. It bothered me that I hadn’t thought of it before, but it probably had something to do with the bump on my head.

  I climbed through the wreckage, trying to pick my way back to the cockpit.

  In the end, it turned out I needn’t have gone to the trouble. The instrument panel was cracked and smashed. For good measure, I pressed the button on the radio, flicked a few switches, and tried to call, but nothing worked. I didn’t even get static.

  Our communications were dead. Layla had called out an SOS, though, before we’d crashed, so I hoped it would help lead rescuers our way. In the meantime, the flare gun and a camp on the beach would be our only way of attracting attention to ourselves.

  From the outside, one of the girls yelped. I gave up on the radio and squeezed my way back through the wreckage of the front of the plane. When I emerged, I heard Layla saying, “It’s just an ant.”

  “It hurts like hell, though,” Megan said, gripping her hand.

  “Look, there are more!” Hannah drawled in her cute accent.

  Megan stood abruptly. “Ew, they’re climbing over everything!”

  When I reached the girls, they were picking up the gear and trying to step away from the ants that were now pouring out of the undergrowth. I peered down at them. They almost seemed to be swarming toward us. I lifted a few leaves, looking for the place they were coming from.

  Hannah squeaked and made a weird hopping movement, like she was playing hopscotch sideways. “Fire ants!” she said. “I hate these bastards.”

  “We must have disturbed their nest,” I said, grabbing a couple of bags to keep them from being overrun, “but I can’t find…”

  Then I saw it. A giant mound of earth that seemed to be moving on its own. Except the ground wasn’t alive, it was just the largest fucking ant hill I’d ever seen, almost as tall as my head. How we’d avoided being overrun already was beyond me.

  The girls were screeching, even as I felt a few pricks of pain on my leg that seemed to burn. I shook off the ants trying to crawl up my boots and began moving away. “Let’s get to the beach.”

&n
bsp; But the girls hadn’t been listening. Already, they were jogging deeper into the jungle-like trees. “Wait!” I called. I ran after them, to remind them of our plan.

  Ants were swarming over everything now. Trees, roots, plants, my legs. I swore as my right leg seemed to be on fire from the ants’ stings.

  Chaos broke out as the girls ran in different directions. I followed them, calling for them to head back the way we’d come, to make their way to the beach. It didn’t do any good. The girls seemed to have lost their minds. And indeed, after a few minutes, the discomfort on my leg grew so much that all I wanted to do was dunk it in cold water.

  Climbing atop a boulder and turning around, I intended to memorize my path so that after the girls calmed down we could find our way to the beach. But what I saw stopped me in my tracks, the ants completely forgotten.

  There was a wall of trees and vegetation directly behind me, one I could have sworn I hadn’t passed through already. The trees were connected with vines as thick as my arms, roots sticking up that were as thick as my thighs, and branches tangled together until it was hard to see where one tree stopped and another began.

  “Fuck me,” I said.

  There was no way I had made it through that without knowing it. I peered up and down the wall, looking for the entrance I must have accidentally found, but there were no gaps large enough for a person.

  They were large enough for the ants, however. The tiny menaces were seeping through the wall of vegetation and heading for my boulder. I hopped off and went after the girls. We’d just have to find another way to the beach.

  But every time I called out to the girls to head back to me, to slow down and be careful, they seemed farther and farther away from me. Soon, I was pushing my way through what seemed like a deep jungle, merely catching glimpses of Hannah’s blond curls or Piper’s long braids. Megan’s red hair stood out to me, and since she was the closest, I hurried to catch up to her.

  “Megan!” I said, finally grabbing her arm.

  She spun around, and I expected to see panic on her face. Instead, she was grinning broadly. “What’s up, Captain?”

  “What do you mean, ‘what’s up?’” I asked, irritated. “Where are you going? The beach is that way.” I jerked my thumb over my shoulder. “Haven’t you heard me calling?”

  Megan laughed, and I thought the behavior was strange for the moment, and considering the irritation that was clear in my voice. At the same time, I found her more beautiful than ever. A streak of sunlight fell through the canopy above and landed on her hair, turning it brilliant red and gold, and I forgot about the fiery pain in my leg and the dull ache in my head. I could have pushed this hot athlete up against a tree and had my way with her right there. For a moment, I thought I saw my own thoughts mirrored in her eyes. Her lashes lowered, and she sucked her full, bottom lip between her teeth.

  We were drawn to each other, and I raked my eyes over her body, openly longing to touch her. Megan lifted her chin up to me as if to kiss me, and I reached for her…

  It was an odd urge to have at the moment, considering our situation, and I shook my head. This sort of runaway lust wasn’t like me. Megan was attractive, but I had to find the other girls and get us back to safety before we got hopelessly lost.

  When I drew back from Megan, she seemed to come out of whatever trance she had been in, and smiled, but this time more timidly. A hint of pink touched her cheeks, and she stepped back.

  I cleared my throat. “I’m just gonna…” I jerked my head in the general direction of the other girls.

  Megan nodded in agreement. “Yeah.”

  Then we went after the others, calling to them to slow down and wait. After a few moments, they answered us back, and we were able to round up Hannah and Piper without too much trouble. The ants had disappeared. My leg was still on fire, though, and I thought we’d all need to apply some first aid ointment to our skin before too long.

  Layla called to us from farther away, and instead of coming to us, she led us to her.

  When I saw her, she was standing stock still and looking ahead.

  “You found a trail,” I said.

  But it was more than that. It looked like an overgrown road. The path was wide enough for three to walk abreast, and the ground was evened out, with smooth stones here and there as if it had been an ancient, paved road that had been exposed to the elements for a long time. I gazed down it, and at the trees arching overhead. An intense urge to follow the road overtook me, and before I’d realized what I was doing, I’d stepped onto the stones.

  Layla followed me. “It’s almost like the forest led me here.”

  “What do you mean?” Hannah asked, catching up with us. Piper and Megan were already there.

  “Like,” Layla paused, “this was the easiest path. But it’s more than that. It’s like the jungle opened up to me and helped me here.”

  I tried not to snort at Layla’s dreamy tone and ridiculous comments. Then I remembered the wall of trees I’d somehow stumbled through without a problem. Somewhere, behind us, there was an important thing we needed to do, but I couldn’t exactly remember.

  “I want to follow it and see where it leads,” Layla said.

  The other girls nodded, grinning. I had to admit, I was curious myself. And we could always follow it for a while and turn back. Although why we needed to turn back had become less pressing. Suddenly, I remembered the plane and the beach, but they seemed much less important now. This road was much more intriguing. Had we not only discovered an uncharted island, but one that had previously been inhabited?

  “Just for a bit,” I said in response to Layla. “Then we’ll head back.”

  The girls nodded, and we set off without any more thought.

  The girls carried their own travel bags, I lifted two supply sacks over one shoulder (with the medicine bag stowed inside one), and Layla took the third.

  The heat of day began to rise in earnest. It was muggy too, despite the verdant trees providing much needed shade. After only a couple of miles, it felt like I was wading through the hot breath of some giant animal huffing and puffing in my face.

  Looking around, I noticed the girls weren’t faring much better. And as of yet, we hadn’t seen a single spot that was camp-able. Too many roots and rocks, and no real source of water. Not that we need to camp here, I thought without too much conviction. We need to head back to the beach.

  We couldn’t stop yet, though. We hadn’t found out where the road led. And if we hiked all day, we had to find a viable place to sleep come dark. Already I was forming plans in my head. The best way to camp, finding food. We’d spotted a sizable number of animal tracks and droppings, mostly deer, but who knew what else lurked in this wilderness.

  The pain in my leg was still there, and as the day grew to its hottest, we stopped for a break and doctored the stings. My leg was covered in red bumps. The girls hadn’t fared much better, with stings on their arms, neck, legs, and with Hannah, even on her neck.

  “I can’t wait to find some water to soak in,” the blond said as she rubbed steroid cream on her skin.

  “Me neither,” Layla replied.

  “Speaking of water,” Piper said. “We’ll need more than we have, and soon. We don’t have enough for all of us, especially in this heat.”

  I agreed, and after a short rest, we pressed on. Larger trees began to appear, and I figured this was akin to a rainforest as our feet sunk slightly in the damp earth. It was surprising. In this part of the world, I would have expected palm trees more than anything else. But this was a true jungle. The paving stones had mostly disappeared, except for a few here and there to let us know we were still on the road. But for the most part, we walked on damp earth.

  Most of the time, the girls kept a good pace with me. Only one seemed to be continuously lagging—Megan.

  “I’m made for water. Not hiking. Not climbing,” she wheezed. “Swimming was what I competed for. Made my best lap time in three years.” She tipped her chin u
p a little, proud of herself.

  “I just went to spectate this year, but I fully plan to compete next time,” Hannah chimed in.

  "What’s your sport?” I asked.

  “I’m a wiz at rock climbing, but my main skill lies in hunting.”

  That could come in handy.

  “What about you, Piper?” I asked. “Did you compete in the Olympics or fly in to watch?”

  “Both. My sister Eliza was one of the highest in her division for the women’s gymnastics,” she said in a matter-of-fact tone. “I competed in two events this year. Took home silver in women’s power weightlifting.” She paused, fished in her jeans pocket, and pulled out a gleaming silver metal.

  My eyebrows rose. “And the other event?”

  She smirked, like she held all the cards in a high stakes poker game. She reached back in her pocket again and pulled out another medal. A gold one. “Won this baby in women’s taekwondo.”

  I whistled low. “Color me impressed. We’ll need that kind of strength while we’re out here.”

  “I think I could even take you on, big boy.” Piper winked.

  I chuckled. “I doubt it, but you're welcome to try once my leg heals up.” I took a brief moment to look at Piper. She was every bit as beautiful as Megan, and once again I found myself almost overcome by intense and sudden lust. What the hell was wrong with me?

  “You're on,” Piper replied, and her glance over my body suggested she was having similar thoughts.

  I could see the jealous awe in several girls' faces, but the minor flirtation seemed harmless enough, even though it felt a little misplaced at the moment. Still, the jealousy didn’t last long. As we trekked forward, the girls gasped in pleasure and begged to hold Piper’s medals.

  “It’s my first, and probably last, one,” Piper sighed wistfully. And we all laughed, assuring her that next year she’d be back at it. “But at least you love what you do,” she continued. “I don’t know. I like competing, but I miss doing something meaningful in my life.”

  “Like what?” I asked.

  “Well, it’s silly, but I actually studied pre-med with my full ride to college while playing sports. Then my athletic career took off, and I don’t know. Somewhere along the way I just stopped studying to be a physician.”