Epiphany *The wilds*

Day Two

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"You're going to hear a lot of shit about how I acted, how I was trying to be, and..... how I was with her, but... shit changes you out there... alone. Surrounded by people, but still alone. That's how I felt waking up in that place. Realizing it wasn't just a bad dream."
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I was the first one to wake up on the second day...
Looking around, I notice how the energy has shifted around the camp.
It's almost like we all knew how truly and actually fucked we were.
Some were lucky.... they had someone to hold onto, I should of too, but Leah couldn't Let go of the blame.
"Hey dude, rise and shine. We're in hell." Dot scoffs while sort of shaking fatin, which does nothing.
"Fatin..." she says, shaking her harder.
"What the fuck? I was sleeping." Fatin snaps, making us widen our eyes at her.
"Yeah, well, I thought you were dead, dick." Dot fires back, causing fatin to groan and tighten her hoodie strings around her face.
"Six, seven, eight..." Shelby mumbles to herself, "You guys, we're missing a person".
Frantically looking around, I realize that my sister is gone.
"Leah." Rachel says looking off in to the distance, making all of us turn our heads.
As if on cue, Leah sulks her way over and drops a phone on the ground,
"It's jennettes.. it was in her pocket.. I heard it ringing, but it didn't seem real. Not that anything does anymore." Saying the last part mostly to herself.
"So I followed the sound and I um... I-"
"You frisked a dead body." Dot says while looking at her, to which Leah nods sadly.
"But then, when I finally got it out of her pocket, it died in my hands." She trails off nervously,
"But the weirdest part, is that this is her second phone. The other one, we lost out in the water. But this... this is an entirely different one. One that worked. One that she chose not to tell us about. Isn't there something vaguely messed up about this? Like, not even vaguely, deeply." She continues her ramble.
"Hey, let me see it... it is kind of a sketchy phone." Fatin says while reaching towards Leah.
"Well, what exactly are we trying to say here?" Shelby asks confused, making all of us shrug and mumble 'I don't know.'
"The simplest explanation could be the right one. So she had two phones, it's not that crazy. And she'd been knocked around so bad, she just.... She probably just forgot. She wasn't just in shock you know? She was dying." Shelby goes on, almost looking sick that we could think anything suspicious.
Rachel suddenly stands up angrily and spits all over jennettes faux grave, making all of us gasp and look at her in shock.
"Fuck. Sorry.... But like fuck her! She forgot! That could of been our only way out.!" She screeches, "but... why didn't you wake us up?" She questions Leah, getting more angry.
Leah looks at her with guilt,
"I don't know."
Rachel scoffs and laughs, "you... you don't know? You hear a phone and instead of waking us up, you sit there contemplating what's fucking real or not?"
"Rachel, it was confusing-" Leah says, trying to cut Rachel off before she could make more accusations
"I'm not confused at all! You could of found it before it died, but you didn't, did you?" Practically yelling at her now, Leah looks down and replies a quick "no."
Rachel shakes her head and scoffs once again, mumbling a few words before running off.
"She's just afraid. You did everything you could." The soft voice of Nora said, trying to comfort my panicked sister.
Leah shakes her head, running her fingers through her hair.
"No... no, she's right. I fucked up."
—-———-
After the argument, everyone sort of did their own thing, and the only 3 people left at our 'camp' was me, Nora and Fatin.
"Can you believe this shit?" Fatin asks, while braiding a piece of her hair that fell out of her bun.
"No, honestly. This is fucked up." I say back to her, my voice breaking.
She smiles sadly at me, "let's take a walk. I'm sick of feeling like Leah." She jokes, but soon remembers that Leah is my sister.
"Oh shit, I didn't mean-"
I cut her off by laughing,
"Yeah, no, that bitch is crazy."
Making her and Nora laugh loudly.
"Do you wanna come with us, Nora?" I ask her sweetly.
She quickly shakes her head no, "I think I'm going to wait on Rachel.." trailing off, she looks in the distance to see Rachel and Leah talking.
We nod our heads and begin to walk around.
"So, last night when we were playing never have I ever, I saw you and Leah drink.." she trails off, making me smirk at her
"What? You thought that both of us were virgins?" I exclaim, laughing over at her.
She shakes her head, "No! Well... kinda. I've just never seen either of you with anyone, I mean I know you dated Noah Elliot, but-"
The sound of his name making me gasp,
"Fuck, I'm sorry. I shouldn't of brought him up." She smiles sympathetically at me, beginning to play with her hands.
"It's okay... I just.....haven't thought about him in a while." I nod, lying through my teeth.
She gives me a weird look, like she knows I'm full of shit and pulls me into a hug.
"You don't have to talk about it, but... I'm here for you."
Hugging her back, I whisper a 'thank you' and we go on our way.
"Oh shit, is that Dorothy? Let's scare her!" She runs over to a small hill and throws a rock, making dot look in our direction.
Dot drops her stuff, grabs a big rock and throws it up the hill, honestly not going very far.
We run up the hill and smile at her,
"Jesus fucking Christ. You need to stop scaring me!" She yells out, grabbing her heart dramatically.
"Yeah, well, you need to not throw shit at unarmed brown people." She fires back, walking down the hill with her arms crossed.
"Sorry!" Dot says, throwing her hands into the air.
"You know, for someone who gives off major softball player vibes, that was a super lame throw." Fatin says, when we finally reach dot.
She rolls her eyes and looks at the ground, ignoring her statement.
"What's that?" Fatin asks.
"Uh... what's left of the emergency slide. I think." She says, looking confused about the items in front of her.
"What are you doing with it?" I chime in, making her look at me directly.
"I don't know yet. Maybe use it for shelter or warmth. Whatever..." she trails off and grabs the front of the raft, so we can all head back to 'camp'.
"Someone's definitely going to come pick us up, you guys get that right?" Fatin says, while looking at the raft, filled with random supplies.
Dot ignores her completely, "did you guys take a shit up there?"
Fatin gaps, "I took a piss. That's it. And just so we're clear, I will NOT be doing that in the wild. hand to fucking god, I need indoor plumbing for that."
"You got any more tissues in your bag?" Dot asks sheepishly, making me giggle.
"What, you don't wanna drip-dry either?"
She rolls her eyes at me and smiles,
"It's just good to have em on hand, you know? They make good tinder. They can staunch a cut. I gotta take a look at what we've salvaged so far. Fatin, your suitcase included.. we need to know what the we're working with." She rambles on, making fatin the one to roll her eyes this time.
"Are you from one of those creepy doomsday prep families and have a basement full of canned soup?"
"I just watch a bunch of survival tv... survivor, obviously. Uh, man versus wild.-"
I cut her off, "wild Alaska is solid. Naked and afraid, alone.."
"God, how many of these are there?" Fatin asks us
"too many." We say in sync, while smiling over at each other.
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"Alright so, you brought like 37 condoms?" Dot asks fatin, looking at her crazy.
"And your birth control pills. Planned parenthood poster child over here" I joke, causing dot to laugh.
"I do my best" Fatin smiles, while grabbing the birth control from my hand.
"Day 15. We better be outta here by day 21. I do not wanna be on my period In this hellhole."
"Think Anybody got theirs now?" Dot asks, still going through the bag.
Fatin looks over at Nora, "your sister was acting like it"
Nora looks up and gives her a hard stare, "fuck you."
Fatin puts her hands up in defense,
"Jesus, I was joking."
Shelby walks up and grabs a drink, making dot suddenly puts her hands in the air.
"Hey! Look. Were conducting an inventory." She points to me before continuing,
"can you guys just not touch the stuff until everything's accounted for? I wanna know where we're at."
Shelby holds the drink in her hand tighter, "Relax! It's for Martha."
Dots gaze softens as bit, knowing that the girl is injured.
"We're taking a walk." Leah interrupts while walking past the group with Rachel.
"Yeah, and you're coming with us, Texas." Rachel continues, nodding her head towards Shelby.
"You've already been out there, so you can lead the way." She smiles widely at the blonde girl.
"Lead the way to what now?" Shelby asks them, confused.
"That." They say in sync, while pointing towards the top of a mountain.
"We gotta know what this place is. Like the full view of it. There's no way we're alone out here." Leah glares at the woods.
Shelby walks over to Martha and hands her the drink, while I got up to walk to Leah.
"Hey... be safe out there." I tell her, while trying to grab her hand.
She nods quickly and pulls her hand away.
"You guys ready?" She asks Rachel and Shelby, not giving me another glance.
They say a quick yes and they begin their journey to the mountain.
I sigh loudly and walk over to fatin who is going through her bag.
"What was that?" Dot asks, before sitting down next to us.
"That's just the way she is." I shrug, picking at my fingernails.
"She could use a Vicodin or three right now." She says, nodding her head towards marty, trying to change the subject.
"Hey, um, any chance this is some icy hot knock off?" She asks, pulling a tube out of Fatins bag.
Fatin giggles and grabs it,
"yeah, no. That's lube."
Dot drops it back into the suitcase and whispers "Jesus."
"What? I'm not one for essentials. I'm more into recreationals.... Hey, what are those pink things at the bottom of the junk pile?" Fatin says suddenly, making both of us turn over and search the pile.
I grab a bag and throw it in fatins direction, laughing loudly.
"Oh my god. Are those swag bags?" She asks excitedly.
"What is swag? And why would it be in a bag?" Dot questions, making us laugh.
"It's like rah rah promotional junk." I say to her, opening the bag.
"This one has my name on it!" Dot replies, opening her bag excitedly.
"Sunscreen, cheap pink goggles-" Fatin cuts me off by grabbing the hat in the bag.
"And just what you thought it couldn't get any cringier, it's grandmas fucking golf hat."
We laugh, while dot snatches the light pink hat and put it's on her head.
"You know, I actually kind of love it."
I smile over at her, "it's cute."
Fatin turns her head over at me and gives me look, but doesn't say anything.
"Oh shit, it's my intinerary for the weekend.... Depending on what time of day it is, I'm either supposed to be in a pottery class or swimming with dolphins." Dot breaths out.
"Honestly, I wouldn't be too upset about the swimming with dolphins thing. I've been swimming with dolphins like four times, and their tiny teeth are horrifying." Fatin exclaims loudly, making us laugh at her.
"You seem a lot better than yesterday." I point out to her.
"Yeah, you were like kinda sliding into the abyss." Dot continues, nodding.
"Yeah... well, I guess it fucked me up, ya know?" Fatin says, becoming serious.
"The almost dying thing."
"What? Did your life go flashing before your eyes?" Dot jokes, before realizing she didn't laugh.
"Oh shit. It did. And it bummed you out."
Fatin runs her hands through her hair,
"Let's just say I've had a shitty few years."
Making me look over at her, but she avoids eye contact.
"Hard fucking same."
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"Gotta figure that this was our pilot... now, sir. I don't have a great feeling about where you're at right now. But the shit you left behind will not be wasted." Dot says while holding what we assume to be the pilots, ID.
"Dottie, don't be morbid." Shelby scolds her.
"Uh well sorry, but this is a haul. Pain pills, disinfectants, basically a whole medicine cabinet!" She exclaims, clearly excited about all the new things we have.
"Hey, Shelby, give her one of these. Maybe one and a half, but make sure she takes it with food." Dot says, handing her an unknown pill.
She furrows her brow, hesitant to grab it, "what is it?"
"Oxycodone." She replies confidently.
I smirk at her, watching her continue to look through the stuff.
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Once the night hit, the energy once again felt different.
Everyone was off in their own pairs, even Leah. She's off talking to Fatin, probably about the game of never have I ever.
"Do you think that someone will pick us up?" I ask dot, making her look down at me sadly.
"I don't know. But uh, you heard what Toni said. There's rich white girls stuck here, our faces are probably plastered to the back of milk cartons by now." She replies, trying to lighten the mood.
Smiling at her attempt to joke, I begin to pick at my fingernails again, feeling the anxiety hit me like a wave.
"Why do you do that?" She asks suddenly, looking at the torn up skin around my fingernails.
"I have anxiety.... And I guess It just kind of became a habit." I explain, stopping my movements and hiding my hands.
Without saying a word, she looks forward and grabs my hand.
Feeling my heart flutter, I hesitantly let her grab it and intertwine our fingers.
"We're gonna be alright." She states, causing me to look up at her.
She finally looks back at me and I begin to notice how beautiful she really is. Her short brown hair with a red tint, the small freckles along her nose, her gorgeous hazel eyes that change colors in different lighting.
Not wanting to ruin the moment, I just smile at her and put my head on her shoulder.
And for the first time in 2 days, I felt okay.
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"Why didn't you defend Leah when Rachel was yelling at her?"
I shrug, leaning my hand down to pick at my nails.
"Maybe Rachel had a right to yell at her. Maybe Leah did fuck up... I don't know. I think I was so angry with her for leaving me alone on the plane, that I honestly didn't care..."
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Notes // hi !! ok so clearly I have a big crush on dot <3 she's fucking beautiful and I love her so if u don't fw her like that, you're not gonna like this story! Lol.. but please leave any suggestions /tips if you have any :)