Epiphany *The wilds*

Day Twelve

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"When do I get to see the others?" I ask agent faber.
"Soon, I hope. The quarantine order aside, we can't have you conferring during the investigation. Keeping you separate, it helps the account be less muddled, more honest." He explains, never once breaking eye contact.
"You must really miss her, huh?" He continues, making me sigh.
"Yeah. Maybe more than I thought I would... maybe.. like a lot."
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It's been a few days since fatin found the waterfall and since we dug up jennettes grave. I don't know what changed, but, we all sorta just clicked.
It's not like we're all best friends or anything, but for the first time, we were us.
We have rules, we each have tasks.
It sounds kinda lame, but it doesn't feel that way. The rules are fair and the tasks are shared.
It's brutal out here and we all needed a chance to mellow and be alone with our thoughts, and I think we all understood that now.
"So, what's up with you dot?" Fatin squeals, gasping loudly when I smack her playfully.
"Shut up! We're just friends." I whine, covering my face to hide my blush.
She smirks while looking over at the girl I may or may not have a crush on.
"Okay, yeah, friends cuddle at night, right? And sneak off to make out in the woods?" Fatin teases, laughing at my reaction.
"Hey! That was one time." I whine again, rolling my eyes.
"I like her, okay? obviously... but, I don't know..." I continue, picking at the skin around my fingernails.
"Hey, party people! Who's ready to fucking feast?" Rachel screams from on top of the hill, thankfully saving me from that awkward ass conversation.
We all scream and jump with joy noticing the bag of mussels Rachel has acquired, while dot gets the fire ready.
Toni is the first to grab one from the fire,
"Fucking protein." She moans while taking a bite.
"Hell yeah!" Dot agrees, grabbing one and putting some of it into her mouth,
"You know, I can already feel my health meter coming back up to 100." She exaggerates, popping more into her mouth.
"You true fucking geek. Please tell me that wasn't a gaming reference." Fatin groans, carefully picking her mussels apart.
"Can't do that." Dot laughs, shoving more into her mouth.
"I know these are little animals and all but they're so good, and I can't stop eating them. What is wrong with me?" Martha swears to herself, looking down in shame.
"You should give yourself a pass, like, for invertebrates." Nora giggles
"And starvation." I add on, rubbing Marty's arm.
"You're not eating any mussels, Shelby?" Martha questions, concerned for the girl who hasn't eaten in awhile.
"Mm, no, no, I'm good." She looks away in disgust.
"Why not?" I question her.
"Oh, I'm beyond allergic to shellfish. I had a single popcorn shrimp at my cousins birthday party, and my windpipe shit like a trap." She laughs out.
"Well, you're missing out. I mean, ideally these would be eaten with garlic butter and crispy fries on a terrace in Barcelona, but salut!" Fatin gushed, raising her mussels up to cheers Rachel.
"Damn, Toni, you're plowing right through them." Nora comments, while laughing lightly.
"Tryna to stay on brand, you know?" Toni begins to slowly lick the mussel up and down, making most of us laugh at her.
"Well, I mean, okay, you gotta admit, all right, the shape of these things.." Toni trails off, laughing even harder.
"Shape and texture." Leah giggles, biting into her mussel.
"Yeah, right? I mean, you know, kinda like a..."
"Like a pussy!" Nora screams, cutting Toni off.
Laughing even harder, Toni grabs another mussel.
"If you wanna know how to eat this soft, beautiful treasure, I can show you, and it does not take garlic butter. All it takes is finesse." She winks, before licking the mussel again slowly, making all of us cheer her on.
"Damn, go off, girl!" Rachel cheers, not interested in her own mussel anymore.
"This is the most action any of have gotten, dot and Lydia excluded." Fatin laughs even harder, making me blush.
"Would you stop?" Shelby yells, causing everyone to go silent and look at her.
Toni wipes her mouth and shoots her a weird look, but says 'okay.'
"That was hilarious, and Shelby had no chill." Dot laughs loudly from beside me.
"Excuse me. I have chill. I guess I just... I don't see the humor in that sort of thing." She trails off,  looking directly at the ground.
"Hey, what do you mean, 'that sort of thing?'" I question her, raising my eyebrows.
"You know. Pornographic gestures. I'm a Christian, all right? I'm from a very Christian home so I'm allowed to be a little skeeved out." She replies, still not looking at me.
"Get the cross out of your ass. It's fun to be filthy." Fatin says, while picking at her nails.
"I mean, that's not all that's going on here. Don't bullshit, Shelby. Cause the vibe that's coming off you right now, I've felt it a few too many times not to know what it is." Toni laughs sarcastically.
"What are you saying, Toni?" Martha asks, ready to defend her new friend.
"I'm saying she can't stand that I'm gay, Marty. She can't stand that Lydia and dot are fucking gay. That's what fucking skeeves her out." Toni spits at her, glaring over at Shelby.
"That's not true.." Martha laughs, looking over to Shelby.
"Look, I'll be as honest as possible, because y'all deserve that. I do believe that way of life is a sin" but before Shelby could finish, Toni stands up and cuts her off.
"I can't fucking believe this."
"I'm sorry, but everything that I've ever known has taught me that. Hey, look, there is no hate in my heart. I just feel sorry-"
"Fuck you!" I yell at her, disgusted that someone could think that way.
I throw my shit down and walk away, Toni following behind.
"What? Am I not allowed to have my own beliefs?" Shelby asks, shaking her head.
Dot glares at her, grabbing her bag.
"Not those ones."
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"Can you fucking believe this Bible thumping bitch?" Toni shouts, throwing her arms in the air.
"We're from Texas, it's not exactly gay friendly." Dot trails off, knowing it's still not an excuse.
"She could of just kept her fucking mouth shut, but no! She's probably just jealous that her fake mussel pussy wasn't being the one getting ate." Toni jokes, making us all laugh out loud.
"Guys, I think I'm going to be sick." Toni says suddenly, running away only to throw up a few steps in.
Before I could help her, I'm on the ground throwing up like crazy, not able to move from the sand.
Fatin comes running towards us with cans of water, pulling us into her lap and giving us water, one by one.
"You gotta help me out girl." She says to me, while i lean over her lap to throw up.
When I'm finished, she pulls me back up and lays me back, pouring the water down into my mouth.
"Swallow. Swallow bitch."
While Some of the liquid ends up going down my throat, I cough the rest up, straight onto fatins hand.
She sighs and pats my head,
"See what you made me do? You made me sound like a rapey frat bro." She says, making me slightly laugh, before turning over to check on dot.
"My pants... I had to leave them." Martha whispers, walking up to the 4 of us looking extremely sick.
"Yeah, fuck pants. Here, drink." Fatin replies, handing her a can of water.
"Is she... is she okay?" Marty asks, referring to Toni who is basically passed out.
Fatin shakes her head, and looks down at the sick girl.
"How do you feel, dot?" I ask the pale looking girl in the sand next to me.
She gives a small smile and sighs,
"Pretty shitty, but you know, not too bad if we're grading on a curve... Toni, man, she's on the fucking brink. And do we have any idea where Shelby is?"
"No fucking idea. It's like she keeps evaporating." I shake my head, making her sigh once again.
"Okay, look. Since neither of us is in a real bad way, let's divide and conquer. Like, I'll go look after Toni. Can you go get the black bag? You know, the pilots bag?" She questions, holding her hand above her head to shield the sun away.
"Yeah, all right." I agree, standing up, extending out my hand to help her up.
"I hung it on the spiky tree. There's, like, antibiotics inside, some meds to keep the nausea in check. A couple of tablets, I think. Can you do it?" She grabs my arm and pulls me closer.
"Of course"
"Thanks..." she trails off before kissing my cheek softly.
"Be safe out there. Do you want me to send someone else? You don't have to do this-"
Smiling, I cut her off, "I got this, dot. You go take care of Toni. I'll be fine."
She smiles back at me and turns to walk to Toni, afraid she'll change her mind and make me stay.
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Using the path dot made with Fatins nail polish, I easily found the bag with all the meds.
I was about to begin walking back to camp, when I look over and see shelby walking on the path.
Wondering what she's doing, I decide to follow her.
She's walking pretty fast, too fast that I can't keep up. I see a shortcut through the trees and I run through there, not expecting there to be a drop off at the end.
"Fuck!"I scream, dropping the bag and letting it roll down the hill with me.
"No, no, no." I yell once I hit the bottom of the hill.
I frantically start grabbing any of the medication I see, limping up and down the hill in hopes I don't miss any.
"God damnit." I hiss while trying to walk back to camp.
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"Holy shit, Lydia, what happened?" Leah yells and runs up to me, once she sees my damaged state.
"I don't wanna talk about it. Give these to dot." I say, handing her the bag of meds.
Sitting down next to Toni, I hear dot yell out
"Where the fuck is The goddamn halophen?"
I limp over to her and sit down.
"What the hell happened to this bag? It's... it's full of dirt."
"I'm so sorry dot, I dropped it when-"
"You fucking dropped it?" She snaps at me, running her hands through her hair.
"Toni and Martha need more than this. Halophen Will help them keep water down, and... and I know we've got two." She continues, searching the bag again.
"Okay, half way there. Take that over to them. I'm gonna hunt the other one."
I take the pill from her hand and go over to the sick girls.
"I have meds for you... I have a med." I gasp out, looking between the both of them.
"She's really bad.." Martha trails off, looking at Toni sadly.
"Sit up." I tell Toni, while grabbing her and pulling her into my lap.
"You gotta drink." I tell her, while pushing her head back and pouring some water in.
She chokes and spits it all out, causing me to widen my eyes.
"Dot! Dot!" I scream for her, making her run over to us.
"The other halophen, it's fucking gone!" She yells out, before sitting down and helping me hold Toni.
"Oh, lord. She's in bad shape. This will help, but there's only one."
"Come on, Dottie. It's obvious who needs it most." Shelby says, running over to help.
"Martha, you good?" She asks her, looking at the sick girl, who just nods her head.
"Yeah, I'll take a pepto, I'll be good."
"Okay, Toni. I'm gonna need you to take this." Shelby says, while I hold Toni's chin up.
"Get the fuck away from me." Toni spits at Shelby, trying to rip her head from my hand.
"Should Shelby really be on the front lines of this considering the shit that literally just went down?" Fatin questions, looking down at them.
"I got this! Alright? If I put this in your hand, can you take it?" She asks Toni, who laughs sarcastically, even in her sick state.
"I'm not gonna take shit from you." Toni spits, literally.
"It'll save your life, Toni. You're taking the damn pill."
"Fuck it, Shelby. Just give it to me. I'll fucking do it" Dot says to her, reaching for the pill.
"Give her the pill, Shelby. Give her the fucking pill! What are you waiting for?" I ask her, worried for the girl in my hands.
"Jesus fucking Christ! Am I not allowed to help her?" Shelby screams before pushing Toni down to the ground and getting on top of her and pinching her nose closed so that she could stuff the pill in her mouth.
"Swallow the fucking pill!" She spits at Toni, clamping her hand over her mouth.
Toni finally starts coughing, meaning she swallowed it, so Shelby gets up off of her and walks away.
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Hours later, it was finally dark and we all were surrounding the camp fire, me being the only one asleep.
"Hey. " Dot says while shining her flashlight onto my face.
"What?"
"Routine consciousness check." She jokes before sitting down next to me.
"I'm sorry for losing the pill, dot. I fucking tripped and dropped everything and it almost cost us a life. I'm so fucking sorry." I whisper to her, looking down.
She lightly grabs my arm, making me looking at her
"But it didn't, and we're okay right now. Don't even think about it."
Smiling at her, I move closer and she wraps her arm around me, letting me sink Into her body.
But it ends way too soon when Toni suddenly screams loudly.
"Martha?" She gets up and starts running toward the fainting girl
"Marty!" we all yell out, following behind Toni
"Everyone grab a side!" Dot demands, picking up Martha's leg.
We carry her over towards the fire, setting her down gently.
"Turn her over on her side!" Nora says frantically, looking at everyone with wide eyes.
"What's happening to her?" Toni cries
"I don't know, pepto might have not been the right thing." Dot replies, turning Martha on her side.
"Okay, so what do we do now, Dottie?" Shelby questions, making dot snap.
"I said I don't know!"
"Okay, figure something out." Toni whimpers out, not able to look at her sickly best friend.
"If we had the other Halophen, she could keep some water down." Dot whispers, searching her bag for something that could help.
"Why did you do it? Why did you give me the last one? You wasted it on me." Toni cries to Shelby.
"Look at her! Okay, she is a good person, and she cares about people and people care about her and you threw me a lifeline." She continues, crying harder.
"Toni, you were dying."
"Who cares? I don't matter!  Fuck. I don't matter. I don't fucking matter." Toni grabs Martha's lifeless hand, and holds it to her face.
Too stunned to speak, I get up and walk over to Leah.
"I dropped the fucking bag, can you help me?" I whisper to her, causing her to widen her eyes, but nod anyway.
She grabs a stick and lights it on fire and we begin our journey to find the goddamn Halophen.
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"Were you shocked by Shelby's behavior? Did she reveal any of that side of her before that moment?"
"Honestly, looking back now, I definitely can see it... I didn't realize people still thought like that... In the moment, I was honestly really taken back. I liked Shelby a lot those first few days... so to hear that, yeah. I was shocked."
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Notes // hi!! Shelby, bae, I forgive u, ONLY bc ur gonna get w my babe Toni.