quiet existence | toni shalifoe

five

Leah, Martha, Anya and Jeanette, who's name Anya had learnt since waking up, all sat in the sand surrounded by the items Dot and the others had found.

Nora stumbles over to the group of four, a bag clutched in her hands.

"Look, we found more Diet Coke, of course, because you know, sugar sinks," Nora informs the group of girls before turning directly to Jeanette. "and then some pants for you, so that you legs aren't cold."

Nora begins to hand everything out with a small smile.

"Thank you." Jeanette replies.

Dot joins the group, standing to the left of Anya.

"Not a bad haul, but not great either, but wait there's more!" Dot exclaims.

Anya glances up at the girl beside her, curious as to Dot's excitement. She watches as Dot pulls some mini bottles of alcohol from behind her back, a large smile spread on her face.

The Texan starts handing everyone a bottle, "you get a mini, and you get a mini, and you get a mini."

"God I could kiss you right now." Anya giggled.

Her laughter ceased when she spotted Toni walking over.

"Hey, are you guys partying without me?" Toni laughed.

"You're back, did you find any water?" Martha quizzed.

"No." Toni answered.

"Where's Shelby?" Martha pressed.

Anya watched as Toni started to anxiously twiddle with her thumbs.

"Uh, I..." Ton stuttered.

"Shelby." Martha stands with a smile, after spotting the blonde Texan coming from the direction that Toni had just come from.

"Yeah, she's right there." Toni mumbled with a tone of relief, rubbing her hands together awkwardly.

Anya glances over at Shelby, instantly spotting a cut in the blondes hairline. "Shelby, are you okay? You're bleeding."

"Oh, it's fine. Ran smack into a tree if you can believe." Shelby brushed the teen off, before sharing a glance with Toni. "Yeah, very silly of me."

The awkward tension was broken by the shouts of Rachel. "Hey! Hey, the phone's working." She breathed out. "It's working, Oh my god."

Anya jumps to her feet, ignoring the pain that shot through her leg as she did so. Everyone began to rush over, while Martha and the blonde hobbled over slowly.

The Rivera teen was now stood between Leah and Toni as the group listened to Rachel made a plan for what they should do.

"Listen, we have to be strategic, we only have one bar and almost zero battery left, every second counts." Rachel announces.

Shelby decides to speak up. "May I just say, I am ready to make the call okay? My aunt is a 911 operator and I..." the Texan reached forward to grab the phone, but it was pulled back by Rachel.