the wilds • toni shalifoe

Day Twenty two

Hunger hit hard day 22. Of course they'd been starving the past couple of days as well, but the heat of the day didn't help.

Lana lied next to Toni, resting with her eyes closed and about to fall asleep while the Toni's head was bopping back and forth trying to not fall asleep.

Shelby was doing better, even taking out her dentures to try and make Dot laugh. Leah, on the other hand, was going dark again.

"Maybe he's in on it," Leah shared her conspiracy. "Who?" Shelby questioned. "That fucking pilot," her voice cracked. "What kind of person sees an island full of lost girls and doesn't send help?"

"Leah, what would he be in on?" Shelby asked. "I don't know." Shelby stood up and made her way over to her to comfort her, Martha joining.

Lana thought about what Leah said, and she didn't want to believe there was anything to be in on.

Who would purposely do this to a bunch of teenage girls? It didn't make any sense but all of the coincidences didn't make sense either. Lana was too tired to keep thinking of these conspiracies, so she sighed and closed her eyes.

A little while later Shelby and Lana sat together filling up water bottles. "Thank you," Lana told Shelby making the girl look at her in confusion.

"For saving me... again." "That was all Nora," Shelby humbly said. "Well you were the one who gave her the suture kit. If it weren't for you I probably would be dead right now."

"It was a joint effort, then. You don't need to thank me, I'd do anything for you," Shelby rested her hand on Lana's.

"I am so sorry for everything that's happened between us, and our falling out."

"Stop apologizing. I should be the one apologizing for not helping you sooner. I watched you become a shell of yourself for so long and didn't do anything about it. Sometimes I can't decide whether that's worse than what I did to Becca," Shelby looked down.

"Shelby you can't blame yourself for either of us. You had your own shit to worry about. The best that we can do now is move on and forgive ourselves for the past. We're not going to get anywhere if we keep blaming ourselves."

"I love you, Lana," Shelby embraced the girl in a hug. "I love you too, Shelb."

****

Lana, Shelby, Martha, and Toni walked through the woods together to look for food. Shelby's hair got stuck in a branch and Lana and Toni, who were hand in hand turned around.

"How bad is it?" Shelby asked them after pulling her hair out and clipping it back. "Not bad at all. It looks like you get your hair cut at a salon staffed by toddlers, but not bad," Toni joked making Lana chuckle and Shelby smile.

"Guys, I don't see any berries left," Martha spoke disappointed. "Damn. Yeah, looks like we cashed them," Toni looked at the empty bush.

"Hey y'all this is a find," Shelby picked something off the ground. "What the hell is that? It looks like Milk Duds," Toni responded.

"Don't eat 'em. It's scat," Shelby said followed by a small "ew" from Lana. The two other girls had no idea what she was talking about.

"You know manure?" Shelby tried to get them to understand. "Scat's what we call it in the hunting community."

"What hunting community," the vegetarian asked, but not actually wanting the real answer. "Just, like, the general one."

"And you're a part of that community," Martha asked Shelby surprised and slightly disappointed.