Survival Challenge Gone Wrong

Chapter 7 - Day 3

Gen felt as if he was rocking. He sat in a small boat, in the middle of a vast blue ocean with the sun warming his head and wind blowing at his face. The gentle waves carrying the boat forward lulled him into a meditative trance.

"Mentalist." He heard a voice call out in the distance. It was familiar and soothing, despite the slight roughness in tone. Gen closed his eyes, listening to the splashing sounds against the wood.

"Mentalist." he heard again. Okay, the voice had to stop. It was disturbing his peace.

"Gen!"

Gen startled, blinking away the dream of his little boat. He took a moment to orient himself. Senku was looking at him right in the eyes, a single eyebrow quirked in question.

"You awake? The rain stopped. We should return to camp and make a fire."

Gen was suddenly aware of their position, feeling the heat on all places their skin touched, making him swallow audibly.

"Yep, let's do that," he replied, keeping his voice level despite the embarrassment of falling asleep on Senku's lap. Gen breathed out silently to calm himself and grabbed Senku's shoulders to climb off. This must have been one strong nap for Gen to feel so disoriented and weak. Dehydration and unintentional fasting played a part in that, he supposed. He looked up to check the actual, non-dream weather and it had indeed cleared up, the grey dissolving into deepening blue tones. So it was early evening, he guessed. Still enough time to resume some work. Not that he wanted to but they had no time to waste.

Senku grabbed one side of their raft, inviting Gen to grab the other with a nod of his head. Gen lifted it and felt his arms strain more than usual. They both had thrown their wet clothes over their shoulders earlier to carry everything back in one trip. 'I should really eat something,' Gen thought with a sigh. Otherwise, he wouldn't be able to last long before potentially collapsing.

"I'll start a fire. Can you check on those bags to see how much water we managed to collect?" Senku asked, but it wasn't really a question.

"Sure thing, Senku-chan."

Gen trudged over to the trees where the three bags hung, a noticeable weight to them. He glanced them over to make sure there were no leaks, and carefully slipped them off the branches, slowly walking back.

"Hey, not too bad. This makes just over one full bottle and we still have the cans and the other bottle collecting water," Senku grinned, eyeing their earnings in appreciation and Gen forced a tired smile back.

"I promise not to spill a drop."

"You do that."

Simple movements felt so heavy. Okay, this was weird, Gen really felt his muscles weigh him down. He wanted to go back to sleep, but there were only a few more hours of sunlight left. Moving slower than usual, he was careful in transferring all their liquid gold into the bottle. Gen drew out a shaky breath of relief upon completion and began walking back, shivering slightly at the chill in the air. They were still naked save for their underwear, and the weather had sadly not warmed since the rain. Senku was still struggling to light the pieces of wood, the wet sand and branches slowing him considerably. Still, he managed to create a spark and the rest was history. Gen remembered Senku telling him some trick to that, with a lot of the science jargon he forgot already. At least there was one less thing to worry about.

He tiptoed closer to the tiny fire gradually growing stronger, and grabbed his clothes to wring them out as much as he could. He shook them forcefully, idling on the motions with all the unhurriedness of someone with a lot of time on their hands. Senku was already forcing some sticks to stand upright in the sand so they could hang the clothes on them. Gen really wished they would be dry by the time they went to sleep. Sand has dried on his feet, making him feel itchy and gross. Decidedly, he was not having a great time.