The Best Of Both: Camp Cretaceous OC

The Marooned Six

Max's eyes snapped open, shooting upward into a sitting position as his brain comprehended where he was. Still on the lifeboat, gradually inching towards the distant shoreline. Max slouched against the wall, closing his eyes as he tried to calm his breathing.

More dreams. More of those images. He was lucky his startled wake up had been a quiet one, or else Ben would have noticed, who was the only other one awake. He would have noticed, and had questions, and Max didn't feel like answering.

Ben had the portable charger in his hand, holding it out to the rays of sunlight that parted between the clouds. Max watched from a distance as the phone the charger was connected to finally blinked back to life. He made it as far as the home screen before he realised he had now service.

"No. Stupid phone," Ben grumbled.

The sleeping form of Yasmina stirred, sitting upright next to Max and rubbing her eyes. Max was taken aback, he didn't remember falling asleep near her. "Morning," she said. "Or, is it the afternoon?" She stood up and walked over to Ben, not seeming to realise that Max was also awake.

"Sorry, I didn't know you were awake," Ben said as he turned back to the phone screen.

Yasmina slumped over the window sill, using her arms as a pillow. "Not exactly the easiest place to sleep. Find anything out on the phone?"

"Nothing I can confirm. The cell service, much like the sun, is spotty," Ben held up the phone to more light. "So, I haven't made any headway. Two percent," he showed her the phone screen, and the minimal battery life it had. "The last thing I want to do is steer us down the wrong path because I thought I saw something that I actually didn't".

Yasmina raised an eyebrow, not understanding what Ben was talking about. "Uh, okay? Well, luckily, the currents doing half the work for us. Hopefully we can figure out where to go next, once we're on shore".

Max stayed silent, watching the two of them, well, most of the time he was just staring at Yasmina, simply lost in his own thoughts, feeling that all too familiar tug in his chest every other time he looked at her, but now it was laced with an ache, more than an uplifting feeling. He looked away and pushed the feeling down. He had made his choice, there was no point doubting himself now.

0O0

The lifeboat washed up onto the beach and everyone immediately jumped out, then jumped straight back in upon feeling the heat of the sun on their skin. "Sheesh, forgot what it was like to be in a jungle climate," Ben said as he removed his jacket.

Everyone else did the same, leaving just their shirts and abandoning their jackets in the life boat. They all climbed out and were about to set off, when they noticed someone hadn't removed their jacket. 

Max looked at all of their confused look with his own blank expression. "What?"

"You're going to boil with that on before long," Sammy said.

"It's fine," Max adjusting his black jacket so it fit further over his body. "I can handle it".

Kenji rolled his eyes. "Come on, dude. Even you have to cool off every once in a while. Just take it off".

"But I don't want to," Max replied rather forcefully, grabbing his sleeves and pulling them down on his arms.

Ben stepped forward. "Why not?" 

"I just don't!" Max exclaimed, zipping the jacket up all the way and walking past them. Yasmina watched him walk away. His head was bowed and his arms were crossed over just beneath his chest. The position he so often adopted when he was in deep thought, or had something to hide.