OUTCASTS • Eddie Munson

Back in Contact

The next morning, Eddie was awoken to the sound of birds chirping all around him. The sunlight peeked through the rocks and shone directly into his eyes, causing him to squint.

His arms and legs ached, and his back felt like it had been snapped in half, however the warm feeling of Ellie's breath on his neck caused him to smile, and momentarily forget his discomfort.

Being blissfully unaware of the situation they were in didn't last too long, as the sudden realisation dawned on him as he gazed upon the light bruise that had formed on Ellie's forehead, from where she'd head butted Jason the night before.

He moved as quietly and as slowly as possible in an attempt to not wake Ellie up. She made a noise of discomfort as he started to pull his arm away from where she'd laid her head, but she didn't wake up, instead she just rolled over to face the other way, leaving no part of her touching Eddie. He felt cold at the sudden loss of contact.

He debated for a second just staying with her, hiding away from the world and waiting for all the mess to blow over. But he knew that wouldn't happen.

So in a decisive mood to be proactive, he decided to venture towards the building site he'd seen as they'd first entered the forest, figuring that someone there would have a walkie capable of contacting Dustin. There were no way of getting back to the ones in the boathouse.

He took one last look at Ellie before he left the clearing, and listened to their surroundings, ensuring as best he could that no one was about to find her whilst on a morning hike.

Feeling more satisfied than before that she was safe, he left.

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The walk to the building site was about 25 minutes long, and every second that passed by, the worry of her being left alone grew stronger. He couldn't shake the feeling that someone was going to find her, or even worse, that he'd come back and all her bones would be snapped and her body lifeless.

He picked up the pace a bit, covering the 4 kilometre walk in under 17 minutes, still more than enough time for anything to have happened to her.

He eyed the building site from the tree line, standing near a truck that was parked to the edge. The place was bustling with labourers, and quite a few of them had walkies. Now it was just a waiting game he was playing with them, who would leave their communications unattended - and reachable - first?

He waited for about five minutes, kicking himself for leaving Ellie alone. It shocked him that he cared so much, he barely even knew this girl? And then all of a sudden he couldn't stop thinking about her?

This had never happened to him before. There had been girls he'd cared for, and girls he wanted to get involved with, but never like this, this was new. And not only was it new, it was reciprocated, or at least he hoped so. The last thing he wanted was for her to wake up and pretend like last night didn't happen.

He wasn't drunk enough to forget a single thing that happened, let alone regret it, but she very well could have been, and just good at hiding how drunk she was.

But surely she would have sobered up after the whole situation with Patrick? He'd almost forgotten about Patrick.

"You literally forgot about a whole murder because you almost got laid." He thought to himself, rolling his eyes and smiling in disbelief to himself.

He was so caught up in his own thoughts, he almost missed the builder coming towards him. He ducked down to avoid being seen.

"Tell Milo to take it easy on the onions next time." The labourer shouted to his colleague, making his way towards the on site toilet. He dumped his tool belt on the planks of wood that lay upon the truck bed.