Anomaly; Stranded The Series (bxb)

Chapter 5: Drift

The days started to blur together—one long stretch of sunburnt skin, growling stomachs, and the eerie quiet of the island. Time didn't exist here. Not like it did in the real world, where you could measure it with clocks and appointments and deadlines. Here, the only thing that mattered was survival.

And they were barely doing that.

Eli sat on the edge of the beach, staring out at the endless expanse of blue water. The sun was relentless, beating down on his back, his shirt damp with sweat and clinging to him like a second skin. His stomach clenched, the familiar ache of hunger gnawing at him. It had been days since they'd had a real meal.

Jonah hadn't spoken to him in hours.

They'd gone from relying on each other—needing each other—to this strange, suffocating silence that felt like it was choking the life out of them both. Eli tried to ignore it, tried to tell himself that they were just tired, just stressed. That it would pass.

But deep down, he knew something had shifted. Jonah wasn't the same anymore.

Eli glanced over his shoulder, watching as Jonah paced along the tree line, his hands shoved deep in his pockets, his face twisted in frustration. His movements were restless, like he was on the edge of breaking apart but didn't know how to hold himself together.

Hunger. Fear. Isolation.

It was all getting to them. Eli could feel it too, that dark cloud that hovered over them, ready to drag them down. But he fought against it. He had to.

"Jonah," Eli called, his voice hoarse from the dry air. He stood up, brushing the sand off his pants as he made his way toward him. "We should check the stream again. Maybe we'll find something."

Jonah stopped pacing, turning to look at Eli. There was a flicker of something in his eyes—resentment, maybe?—but it was gone before Eli could really make sense of it. Jonah just shook his head, rubbing a hand over his face.

"There's nothing there, Eli. There's never fucking anything there," Jonah said, his voice flat, lifeless. He turned away, staring out at the jungle like it held all the answers, even though they both knew it didn't.

"We can't give up," Eli insisted, trying to keep his tone steady, positive. "We'll find something. We just have to keep looking."

Jonah scoffed, the sound bitter and sharp. "You're still saying that? You're still acting like everything's gonna be fine?"

Eli felt the sting of Jonah's words, but he swallowed the hurt. This wasn't about them. This was about surviving. "What's the alternative? We sit here and starve? Just wait for someone to rescue us?"

Jonah's eyes flashed with anger. "Yeah, Eli. Maybe that's exactly what we do. Because I'm fucking tired of this. We've been searching for days, and what do we have to show for it? A couple of coconuts and some shitty stream water? We're dead. We just don't know it yet."

Eli clenched his jaw, frustration boiling up inside him. He didn't want to fight. Not now. Not when they needed each other more than ever. But Jonah was making it impossible.

"We're not dead," Eli said firmly, his voice rising. "We're alive. And as long as we're alive, we keep trying. We don't just give up because it's hard."

Jonah let out a harsh laugh, shaking his head like Eli was too naive to understand the gravity of the situation. "You don't get it, do you? You always do this. You always act like everything's gonna be fine, like you can just will things to go your way if you're positive enough. But that's not how the world works, Eli. Sometimes shit is just... fucked."