the wilds • toni shalifoe

Day Three - Part One

Lana was helping Dot gather some of the resources as the storm rained down on them violently.

She loved thunderstorms. On rainy days, sitting at her bay window listening to music and tuning out the rest of the world was one of her favorite things to do to escape the world.

"I used to think thunderstorms were like majestic," Leah spoke like she was reading Lana's mind.

"That still your take?" Rachel questioned harshly. "No."

Dot dragged a huge plastic covering that everyone hid under for shelter.

"How's your ankle?" "Better I think. It's just really itchy," Martha painfully spoke. "My leg is kinda itchy too," Leah said and Shelby agreed.

"Shit. Sand fleas," Dot realized. "Sand what?" Fatin's eyes jumped out of her head.

"They're not really fleas, more like tiny little shrimp," Lana chimed in. "They're not lethal. They're just really annoying. Once the rains stops we can just go scrub them off. You know, before they have a chance to burrow."

Fatin jumped out of the cover on her knees and screamed out to the storm, "Fuck my life!"

The girls pulled her back in as she screamed in agony.

*****

"So this storm. This was day three then?" Agent Young questioned the teenager who sat eating in front of him.

"Yup. And you know it kinda sucked that our food situation was already pretty shit. Just tiny little sandwiches from the plane and lots of bags of nuts."

"That must of been discouraging," Dr. Faber pointed out the obvious.

"Yeah. Morale was low. Well maybe not low, more like hangry. Especially Lana," Dot informed the two men.

"Uh, can you speak more into detail about that?" Dr. Faber leaned in. "What? Lana?" Dot earned a head nod from the agent and the doctor.

"She was starting to talk more now. I mean she was kinda closed off the past few days. She was at her wits end kinda. Like if you said anything that would bother her she'd roll her eyes or even say something snarky back kinda."

"And growing up, that's not what her personality was like?" Agent Young asked.

Dot shook her head no. "She's always been too scared almost, you know to like show any emotion other than happiness and positivity. Always had a facade up. The island broke that down, but I guess that's what being stranded with barely any food and dignity left will do to you."

Dot quickly drank her milkshake before asking for a

"blue crab sushi drizzled in ponzu sauce with a kiss of wasabi," Fatin told Shelby, Martha, and Lana who were head to head laying on the ground in a circle, and also Toni would was sitting up.

"I just want some Indian tacos. The way my mom makes them with black beans and Velveeta," Martha almost drooled.

"I would destroy some Velveeta right now. I would just house it straight from the pack," Toni added.

"I'm thinking Cheesecake Factory. Four-cheese pasta, fresh brown bread," Shelby spoke eloquently with her hands.

"Okay, the Cheesecake Factory is grotesque," Fatin argued. "Grotesque?" "I'm just saying the Cheesecake Factory is a mall restaurant for mall people. No judgment."

"What is a mall person? And why do you say it all derogatory like?" Shelby questioned. "What about you, Lana?" Fatin asked wondering what the girl was craving.