Epiphany *The wilds*

Day Three

—————
"So, uh, this rainstorm.. This was day three, then?" Agent young questions, ready for me to get to it.
"Yeah, and you know, it kind of sunk in at that point that our food situation was shit... just random stuff from the plane, tiny little sandwich's, lots of bags of nuts.." I laugh, shoving more fries into my mouth.
"That must of been discouraging."
"Yeah, morale was low. Well, more like 'hangry'.... But, what happened later that day made me forget all about it."
——————-
When we all went to sleep last night, we would of never expected what this day would bring us.
"Holy shit, you guys, how long do you think this will last?" Rachel yells, mostly asking herself.
The rainstorm had just begun, and it was nowhere near over.
"please make it stop!" Fatin sobs, attempting to duck under her suitcase.
"I used to think storms were like majestic." Leah says, while making no moves to leave the rain.
"Yeah? That still your take?" Rachel spits at her, and suddenly the thunder booms even louder.
"No" she yells, while pulling her t shirt above her head.
Dot looks at the group and decides to get up and walk over to the raft
"All right! Come on! Everybody, grab an end! Get under!"
All of us rush to her and grab the deflated raft to use as cover.
"How's your ankle Martha?" I ask her.
She smiles and looks down at her injury,
"Better, I think..... it's so itchy."
Before I could reply, Leah yells out
"Guys, my leg is kinda itchy too."
"Yeah, mine is too." Shelby agrees.
Dot suddenly curses to herself, running her hands through her hair.
"Sand flees." She says flatly.
"Sand WHAT?" Fatin shrieks, widening her eyes.
"Sand flees. They're not really flees, more like tiny little shrimp..." dot says, making everyone gasp and groan.
"They're not lethal. They're just annoying. Once the rain stops, we can go scrub them off.... You know, before they get a chance to burrow." She continues, but hearing that makes all of us scream and itch.
Fatin gets up from under the raft and screams "fuck my life!" Making all of us jump up and scream with her.
———————
I'm not sure when or how any of us fell asleep, if any of us did, but, Finally, we were starting to take comfort in each other... and try to get to know the people who we may end up dying with.
"Blue crap sushi from hinata drizzled in ponzu sauce, with just the lightest touch, just a kiss of wasabi." Fatin murmured, telling us her current food craving.
"I just want some Indian tacos, the way mom makes them.. with black beans and velveeta." Martha continues, causing Toni to groan at her words and say
"Oh my god, I would destroy some velvetta right now. Like, I would just house it straight from the packet."
"I'd do some illegal shit for some Taco Bell right now." I laugh, causing dot Toni to nod her head fast and groan once again.
"I'm thinking Cheesecake Factory." Shelby chimes in,
"four cheese pasta, fresh brown bread."
"Okay, the Cheesecake Factory is grotesque." Fatin replies, almost offended.
"Grotesque?" Shelby asks, confused.
"I'm just saying, the Cheesecake Factory is a mall restaurant for mall people. No judgement."
Shelby sits up "what is a mall person? And why do you say it all derogatory like?"
Before Fatin could fire back, Martha cuts her off.
"Hey dot, what is that?"
Dot looks down at the firewood she's trying to burn,
"Wet wood gets us black smoke, gets us a signal fire. Probably a good idea to keep it going during the day." She pauses for a second,
"And, guys, you know, I was pretty slack on this yesterday, and it cost us. We got to get real about shelter. If we all pitch in, grab the material-"
before she could finish her rant, she looked up to see Fatin raising her hand
"yes, lady in the leopard?" She rolls her eyes.
"That sounds really unappealing, and I'm exhausted, and there's rescue coming. So, for those reasons, I'm out." Fatin explained, before zipping up her jacket and allaying back down on the ground
"Just because you shot me down shark tank style, doesn't make me any less annoyed." Dot replies, rolling her eyes once again.
"We got to get a bounce before we get roped in this bullshit" I hear Rachel whisper to Leah.
I watch them continue their conversation and pick up a big and start walking to the ocean.
"Hey! Where are y'all going?" Shelby runs after them.
"We're swimming out to the wreckage, see if we can find anything useful." Leah declared, hoping that this will make her look better.
"Nora, you coming?" I hear Rachel whisper, to which Nora gets up without a word and glides along with them.
Sighing, dot grabs her light pink golf hat and swag bag.
"Dottie, where you going?" Shelby questions her.
"I'm at least going to look for a cave, if we're not going to build shelter. Or some kind of big rock that we can duck under..." she trails off.
"The elements don't fuck around, and neither should we... "
Grabbing the nearest bag, Shelby gets up and follows behind her.
I try to ignore The pang of jealously I feel as I see them walking together.
I'm on a fucking stranded island, why am I worried about what she's doing?
My thoughts are suddenly cut off by Fatin,
"How's your bff?" She asks toni, while reading Leah's book.
"You mean martha? She's over there sleeping off her pill bender....." she pauses,
"BFF. That's rich."
"Oh, no, did you guys have a domestic?" Fatin gasps, clearly not caring.
"I don't wanna talk about it.... " she spits out, before biting her lip and speaking again,
"I could be bleeding. Like my guys spilling out into the streets, but if Shelby came along with a smile and some fucking muffins, then martha would just walk right by me." Toni sneers dramatically, causing Fatin and I to stare at her.
"Oh my god. See, this is why I don't get tight with girls. The drama, jealously, the petty revenge schemes. It's so cringey and small." Fatin groans, shaking her head at the girl.
Toni rolls her eyes
"Martha's getting taken for a ride. All Shelby wants to do is hang out with her long enough to put 'saved a little res girl' on her college apps. So yeah, I'm not out here being petty. I'm just trying to protect my best friend."
"Are you an Aries?" I chime in, asking Toni.
She glares over at me, "what? Who the fuck cares? God!" She grabs her stuff and walks away.
"Oh, she's definitely an Aries." Fatin agrees, trying to hide her giggles.
———————
A few hours later, I decide to go on my own walk. I haven't had a chance to actually see this place.
You know, if we weren't stranded here, it would be kind of beautiful.
After walking for what felt like an hour, I stumble upon a person in the sand, with 'HELP' written out in the sand.
"Dot?" I ask myself before running over to her.
"Are you okay?" I ask her, grabbing her hand to help her up.
"Yeah, I'm alright.." she trails off, looking into the ocean.
Knowing that she's lying, I keep quiet, taking small glances at her every now and then.
After a moment of silence, she musters up the courage to finally speak,
"My dad died... I was his caretaker. We didn't have money, so I'd steal his pills and sell them at school." She pauses to look over at my reaction before continuing,
"He was the best dad in the world, Lydia. I mean it. Before he got sick, he would of done anything for me. Which is why I wanted to do everything for him. I hustled at school, trying to make as much money as I could just to afford some of his meds.." taking a deep breath,
"He actually is the one who wanted me to go on this stupid retreat. He wanted me to leave him and live life for myself, not for him. I couldn't do it." She shakes her head,
"Dot, it's okay, you don't have t-"
she cuts me off, "no, I do.... He was getting sicker, money was getting tighter. Then one day, he asks me to end his pain.. He asked me to kill him." She sobs, pulling her knees to her chest,
"I did it. I helped him kill himself. He could of gotten better, but how could I say no to him?" She rambled, full on crying at this point.
"Dot... it's not your fault. He loves you so much, he wanted you to be happy. I know right now isn't the best example of that, but I promise, one way or another we will get off this island and you're going to be okay. I promise." I consoled her.
She abruptly stopped and turned her body to face mine.
She looks deeply into my eyes, her eyes pooling with an emotion I've never seen before and raises her hand to brush away some hair that fell in front of my face.
"Dot, I-" but before I could finish my sentence, she cuts me off with a quick, passionate kiss.
I always heard that feeling fireworks was only in movies or books, but not with her.
She pulls back from me and widens her eyes, feeling overwhelmed with regret.
"Shit, uh. I- I ..." and just like that, she's gone.
"Dot!" I yell after her, but it's too late. She's already disappeared.
Fuck.
———————
"Yeah, I don't know.. he's not really giving straight to me, ya know?" Toni laughs, looking at the mannequin she found.
"I mean, look at those abs. Straight boys don't rock and eight pack that hard." She continues, looking it up and down.
"Well, he could also be a straight gym rat fuck boy, ya know? All about his gram channeled sprays Acqua di gio on his balls, and he will always leave you on read." Fatin exclaimed loudly before continuing,
"Mmm Marcus here will break your fucking heart."
"Marcus?"
"Yeah, where did Marcus come from?" I decide to chime in.
They all look over at me, and fatin smiles widely "it's a vibe."
"I mean... it's kinda close to my name." Martha blushes
"Honestly, I feel the chemistry" Fatin gushed pointing between her and the mannequin.
"Yeah, Marty, get it!" Toni shouts out
Interrupting our conversation, dot and Shelby make their way towards us.
"We are back. Unscathed." Shelby starts,
"And we found a cave. After I heard her screaming about a snake." Dot snickers.
"So if rescue doesn't show in the next couple of hours, I suggest we get a move on." She continues confidently.
I try to to catch her gaze, but she's refusing to even look in my direction.
"Oh, thank god. I cannot take another night with wet sand down my crack." Fatin shrieked with excitement, while picking up 'Marcus' and dancing around with him.
"Who is this?" Shelby asks, laughing.
"This is Marcus. Toni found him!" Martha replies.
"I don't have a ton of experience, but doesn't that seem especially large?" Shelby stares down at the mannequin.
"Martha likes them hung" fatin winks, making us all burst out laughing.
"HEY!" Rachel screams from the ocean, causing us to turn our heads.
She runs over and drops a large box and smiles proudly.
We all sit down around the box waiting for someone to come up with a plan.
"So, what do we do with it?" Martha asks, breaking the silence.
"What are you looking at me for?" Dot asks confused,
"I don't know dick about planes. Two days ago was the first time I ever even been in one." She throws her hands in the air.
"We should open it." Leah says from beside me.
"But it says right on the thing.." Martha tries to object, only to get cut off
"Martha, I know, but if we were to get inside, you might find the actual recording, like.. like, the actual tape of what happened to us up there." Leah states, making Martha look confused.
"But don't we already know what happened?"
"Do we? Can somebody tell me, like, the full account? From the turbulence to the moment you woke up here?" She snapped, knowing full well that nobody knows what happened to us.
"Besides, look at how big and loud the 'do not open' is. Part of me feels like it's telling us to do the opposite, like it's being ironic." She rambles on.
"Fuck no. We're not opening it." Rachel suddenly shouts out.
"Jesus, she's intense." I whisper over to Leah who nods with agreement.
"Yeah.. you have no idea. She almost fucking killed me out there. Like a total psychopath." She whispers, making me widen my eyes and look over at Rachel.
"You said there was maybe, like, a transmitter in here, beaming out our location?" Dot joins in to ask Nora.
Nora freezes, "uh.. yeah, it's called a beacon, I think."
"Okay, but if they haven't found us yet, can't we assume that this beacon thing is busted?" Shelby groans.
"I mean maybe if we just try-"
"'Do not open' what part of that is unclear? What if we open and break a completely functional beacon? That would wipe us off the grid entirely. Is that what you want? Cause if it's what you all want, you're fucking damaged." Rachel screams at us, before standing up.
"There's a bulb inside, but if it's out!" Dot exclaims, I look over to her and we make eye contact for a split second, before she quickly looks away.
"Okay,so that means it's definitely broken, right?" Martha questions, her voice breaking with sadness.
"If someone suggests opening it one more fucking time, I swear to god." Rachel spits out at us.
"What do you think Dorothy?" Fatin asks, knowing that dot knows how to help more than any of us.
Dot shakes her head and looks away, making Shelby sigh and stand up
"Okay, y'all, what we choose to do right now should not be in the hands of just one person... not that Dottie can't handle it, but we shouldn't put that much responsibility on her."
"All those in favor of opening it, raise your hand." Shelby says loudly, causing dot, fatin, Toni, Martha, leah and I to raise our hands.
"All right, then.."  She trails off, slightly afraid to look in Rachel's direction.
"Majority rules." Dot mumbles before rolling open the box to try and fix it.
"Holy shit." We all say as the box suddenly beeps.
"Do you think that means it's working?" Dot asks Nora, who looks quickly at the ground.
"I mean, I don't know, but we have to assume yes."
"So it's on? Now they're gonna find us?" Martha yells grabbing Toni and pulling her into a hug.
"Yeah, boy! Fuck to the yes!" She yells back to her.
"Wait a second..." dot whispers, grabbing a box.
"I think this is the recording from the flight."
Leah quickly grabs it and presses play, skipping to the part where we fell out of the sky.
Hearing the screams and yells from the recording made me feel sick.
"Leah, turn it off." I whimper out to her, causing her to look at me, but didn't stop.
"She said turn that shit off, Leah." Dot snaps at her, ripping the box out of her hands.
"We should of died." Leah states.
"But we didn't." Dot stands up,
"We're alive."
—————
"My mom once told me that the three most stressful things in life are divorce, the death of someone close to you, and moving. We're stranded in a wasteland. There's been a death. And we're moving." I say to fatin, while grabbing anything we could from our camp.
She sighs loudly, "if someone gets a divorce up in this piece, we should 100% throw ourselves in the ocean."
"Speaking of divorces, what's up with you and Dorothy?" She smirks over at me while wiggling her eyebrows.
"What do you mean? We're friends." I say flatly back, causing her to roll her eyes.
"Oh please, I can cut that sexual tension with a knife." She laughs loudly,
"but then, when Dorothy and Shelby came back, there was some real big tension... so what happened?" She asks casually, while still trying to gather things.
"She told me some dark shit and then kissed me." She gasped and put her hand over her mouth, but before she could reply,
"But, then she ran away. So, I don't know, fatin.. I honestly shouldn't be worried about any relationship on this island. Who knows how long we will be here..." I sighed, brushing the hair off my shoulder.
"Oh, honey. You two clearly have chemistry, you never know if you don't try." She consoled me
"And she probably ran away because she's scared. Maybe you should try to open up to her like she did to you..." She suggests, before hugging me tightly.
—————
When we finally reached the cave, the sun was going down. I decided to try and find a place to watch the sunset, But dot had beat me to it.
"Watch for it." I say from behind her, causing her to jump.
"It won't disappoint." She replies back, not taking her eyes off the gorgeous scene in front of us.
I walk up next to her and glance over slightly, she has a few tears rolling down her cheek.
"Its going to be okay, I promise, dot. I wasn't lying." I whisper to her, before grabbing her hand and intertwining it with mine.
She smiles, wiping her tears away, still keeping her eyes on the sunset.
"I'm sorry." She whispers, too scared to look over at me.
"You have nothing to be sorry for, Dottie."
—————————
"So, dot opened up to you... from what I've seen and heard from some of the other girls, she's more of a caretaker, wanting to help out, rather than help herself." Agent young says, more like a question rather than a statement.
I nod my head and smile softly,
"Yeah, Dottie has always been a caretaker, so her telling me all that was really fucking brave, I was so proud of her."
"But, then she kissed you and ran."
I nod my head,
"Yeah... but, honestly... I feel like it made us closer.."
———————-
Notes //// idk if it's the covid, but I'm addicted to writing right now!! Lol.. How did y'all like this chapter?