Harven (English)

Eight

They reached the top of the hill in silence, all inwardly mulling over what they had just been through, so distraught they could still hear the screams of their companions in their minds. Ino gave in to grief, letting the tears flow into a hard cry that made her sob, even more so after Tenten hugged her in an attempt to comfort her.

"Those were different from the ones I saw..." Neji broke the silence by putting out the thoughts that frightened him.

"Which?" – Ino asked with a wavering and weak voice.

"I didn't recognize any of their faces... and there were more than five. If I saw six of them sleeping, and we killed one, then there were only supposed to be five of them, but there were more."

"Maybe you got mixed up... it all happened so fast!" - Tenten released Ino and wiped the crying from her face.

"I'm sure of what I saw. How are we going to get back? They must be waiting for us downstairs."

"We can go that way." - Ino pointed the direction showing a path that would take them faster to the edge of the sea. "We ran until we reached the beach and then we followed the sand until we found the camp... the sand must be safer than the forest."

"That's what we'll do then." – Neji took a deep breath trying to dispel the images of his colleagues from his thoughts as he tied his hair in a high, relaxed bun. "We need to test the signal and get out of here as soon as possible. Where's the transmitter?"

"Here." Ino pulled it out of the waistband of her pants and watched the signal fluctuate dramatically. "I don't know if it will work... Sai taught me how to pick up the right frequency, but with the signal oscillating like this..."

"We have to try until we succeed, or they died in vain..." Tenten whispered, letting a few more drops run from his eyes. "Put it on the right frequency..."

Ino started setting up the device and walking around looking for a stronger signal. It was a few agonizing minutes for them until they could hear some voices with some interference, which did not stop them from being immensely excited to have found a correct frequency.

"Oh my God, hi! This is flight attendant Ino on Konoha Flight 878! Are you listening to me?"

"How do I get... signal... commissioner?" The interference cut off the voice on the other end. Ino wasted no time trying to answer the man's curious question.

"Our plane has crashed on an island! We don't know where we are, but few of us survived! We need a rescue as soon as possible! There are cannibals here!"

'Is that just for... hazing?'

"It's not a prank!" There are people dying here!" - Neji got angry. "Flight 878, which was heading to Konoha! You must have news about the disappearance by now!"

"I saw... newspaper... don't worry, I'll..." The interference got worse and the signal was lost once again.

"Hello? Please, are you still there?" - Tenten gasped. "Please answer! Damn it! Do you think he understood? Who will send help?"

"We don't even know where we are..." Ino nibbled her lower lip in an attempt to keep from crying. "He might even contact someone, but no one knows where we are."

"He said something about a newspaper... I think they're already talking about the plane's disappearance in the news! There must already be some rescue operation going on..." - Neji tried to be positive. "Maybe now that we've spoken to him, they might be able to trace the transmission and send some help."

"It is possible?" - Tenten took a step towards him with eyes full of hope, and Neji didn't want to break that hope with a simple "I don't know".

"Anything is possible, isn't it? At least now they know we survived and we're asking for rescue. That should intensify the search... well, we discussed it on the beach. We better get out of here soon."