Dream Again

Day 3

We spend the rest of the night at the waterfront, sleeping almost not at all. The phrase 'that thing could absolutely have killed us if it wanted to it so it clearly didn't want to chill' does not make anyone at all chill and River pours sand down my shirt. We take turns dozing off, around the fire, and when the tide goes out we check our terrible fish trap. It's terrible, so we only catch a few fish and a crab.  Catching the fish is hardest with on net but my sweatshirt mostly works. Miranda and i have both been fishing so we skin and gut the fish in short order. It's hardly any food comparatively to normal positions, but we are starving and care very little. I'd say it tastes brilliant, but it really doesn't I'm hungry enough to eat sand.
River and I each split one fish, giving the rest to Luke and Miranda who try to argue with us.  Miranda eventually agrees on the grounds of her pregnancy, and since we'll catch more next tide.
That middle of the night feast is enough to give us all the strength to sleep a little, and we wake with the warm rays of dawn. Tide is going out which means more food to wade out for. Our trap could be improved but it's half working which is more food than we previously had.
"Why did that monster take my dad?" Luke asks.
"We don't know," River stares at me willing me not to say 'to eat him'.
"We can go look around now that it's light," Miranda points out.
"Yeah, why not? We need water anyway, let's see if we can follow the monster's tracks," I offer.
"Sure," River shrugs.
"We can?" Luke asks, hopefully.
"Yeah, if it was out at night it probably sleeps during the day," I reason.
"You don't think it eats people?" Luke asks.
"No. Like I said last night, monsters—what we call monsters—it's just an animal that hasn't been named and documented right? So it's probably afraid of us as we are if it, it's never seen us before either," I point out, "There could be a couple. Like very very large, prehistoric sized, gorilla or something?"
"That is what it looked like," River says, relaxing a little.
"And like you said this island is undisturbed maybe a colony survived—but gorillas aren't that dangerous," Miranda agrees.
"No, we'll be cautious and just go look around. If we find where it put your dad, we'll bury him yeah?" I ask Luke.
"Okay," he says, and his face is a stony mask of shock.
We get back to the beach and make short order of the fish we caught, four so enough for one each. We shouldn't eat too much starving as we are we should eat gradually, even if I wished our trap were a little bit better. We perfected it as best we could though, we'll see what the next tide brings. Eating a fish every six hours isnt' healthy I don't think, but we're not starving either.
Finished eating we pack up our few things, our sweatshirts that we'd discarded and Luke has his backpack., and start hiking up towards the woods. I do expect to be intercepted but Max could surprise me sometime.
"Where do you think you're going?" Ivan is the one who stops us his better half just folds his arms.
"Water? And we were giong to look for Adrian's remains," Miranda says, boldly, in the face of Ivan.
"I'm afraid I can't let you do that," Max says.
"What?" I ask, flatly.
"After what we saw last night I can't possibly let you leave. It's far too dangerous with that monster on the loose. If you need water we hauled extra down I'd be glad to share it with you," Max says, generously.
"What about my dad?" Luke asks, quietly.
"He wants to go look we will. It's our decision we saw that last night too we're aware of the risk," I say, which more diplomatic than I felt.
"You're not going," Max says, less diplomatic than he could be.
"We're going—you are not in charge here if we want to go we will," Miranda says.
"I'm trying to help you," Max says, holding his hands up in surrender, "That's all."
"Help received, thanks," I say, manuevering to walk past them.
"Thank you for the concern," Miranda amends, following me.
Ivan moves as though to stop us then lets us by, clearly irritated.
Max has been masking his annoyance better. He's not used to being ignored but he's not unfamilar with asserting his dominance. A twitch in the side of his temple reveals aggregation he's been surprising with honeyed words.
"If you leave, you must understand I cannot allow you to return," Max says, with enough apology that the sentence was begging to end in the phrase 'it's company policy'.
"To—the beach?" I ask, not bothering to supress a grin, "Because we're all here on this island."
"Yeah that doesn'T make sense I'm with him," River says.
"Yes we'd love to not be on the island," Miranda says.
Successfully derailed that threat with logic.
"To our society of survivors. You could contract a disease from something you caught to eat—anything. And we're all cooperating to survive here. If you wish to leave I'm not going to stop you. But I also will no longer be able to protect you," Max says.
"Ah—I think we'll be okay," I say, resisting the urge to point out he didn't actually shoot a boar last night.
"We can stay,"" Luke whispers, nervously.
"No. We'll stay on another beach then—I get it you want to keep everyone safe but, we're doing this," Miranda says, firmly, taking Luke's hand.
"Thanks anyway," River says, hand on my wrist as if to stop the next smart comment I have surely thought of.
"As you will then," Max says, coolly, but I can see anger in his eyes. He thought that would work. He so clearly thought that would work.
"Come on," Miranda says, guiding us all back up the path towards the spring.
"That was weird,"  River says, once we're well out of earshot and into the dense forest. It's slow going climbing through the ferns and underbrush in our mostly inadequate hiking clothes, but we're managing. It's a warm, pleasant day and perfect weather for the jaunt, even if it is for survival. By now I'm used to being constantly hungry, and a little sunburnt.
"Weak men love power. Even if that's just telling a helicopter rescue crew he organized everyone. Like that kid who not only picked up all the dodge balls but also chose to tell the teacher they'd done it and ask for a sticker?" I point out, helping Luke over a some huge tree roots.
"Yeah, exactly," Miranda scoffs.
""I've always got my hand up to answer every question, but I hated PE," River says.
"Me too," Luke says, cheering up a little.
"I bet you were the teacher's pet too," Miranda says, pointing at me.
"Who? Me? Why?" I laugh.
"Because you have weird random in-depth knowledge of stuff," River says,.
"I was—terrible In school honestly. Did not pay attention, played during class, horrible student, always mouthed off. Cut a lot. Like a lot there was a district record once," I laugh.
"You were?" Luke asks horrified.
"I'm year ten, and like—they probably dont' wonder where I am. Like they dont' expect me to show up regularly anymore if it were just me no one would be looking. They probably just marked me down that they don't know where I am and had done no idea i was on a plane that fell out of the sky," I say, amused.
"You should go to school. I have to go everyday," Luke says.
"Well you, have good parents, me, not so much," I say, taking his arm as he climbs through some thick undergrowth.
"When we get home we'll make you go to school, as a group, like all of us, you're gonna graduate, your island poeple are responsible for you now," Miranda says.
I laugh, "I'm not easy to manage."
"We're up to it. We fell out of the sky, didn't we?" River asks, smiling. A nice glint in her eyes. And for a moment I want to believe that future can exist. I'm getting of class wearing some dodgy uniform, she's meeting me outside in some borrowed car. And we drive to the coast even though it's not a school night, and we eat greasy fish and chips and this whole world is a million miles away.
That's never going to happen.
We're trudging through the forest. We have exactly one knife and one canteen for water. I'm well aware the odds of infection from any small injury are high, as well as malnution from improper diets. The psychological toll will be abated by at least remaining in our group but that's only going to do so much good when there's natural predators. I'm assuming the monster we saw last night was a primate of some sort, size maybe exaggerated in the dark? Or just large primates I don't know how big gorillas are. But either way between natural predators and disease or likelihood of survival drops probably by the week, if not by the day.
"You know this really cured me of my lifelong desire to make fifty million pounds and buy a private island in the tropics," I say, outloud. My entire party stifles laughter.
"you're right—cross that one off. I don't want a honeymoon in the Caymans or whatever," River smiles.
"Okay I'm still going to scuba dive—eventually—but like yes off of a coast. Of a large land mass," Miranda says.
"And we agree to stay on whatever landmass they take us to? Like let's not ever get on an airplane again?" River asks.
"Agreed," we all groan.
"Don't you live in England?" Luke asks.
"I will rent an apartment in Queens with three cockroach roommates rather than get on an airplane again thank you, fuck England, too far, much water, forget it," I say.
"Agreed too much water. We stay on landmasses. Cross the Panama Canal doesn't count," Miranda says, "I might need to dive in South America."
"But no more airplanes," River says.
"No more airplanes,," we all agree.
It's good to pretend we'll have the choice. Even if that feels untrue now. It's been days, no rescue. No planes overhead. Eventually I point out what I think that means. But for now it does our heads some good to talk as though we're going home someday. Even if home doesn't really exist.
We reach the pool and drink, and find no footprints or any sign of the monster. Arguably we may not. We're not even sure which way it went.
For the sake of food we agree to head to the opposite beach.
"Maybe we'll see somthing like another island," I reason.
"At the very least we'll set up a camp and set traps for food," river agrees.
Following the path of the water is easiest going, so we do. It leads up a rocky embankment to the source of the spring, a nice pool probably the size of a regular swimming pool, all in rock. The water is fairly clear as well. The plateau levels out and gives us a decent view of the island's east side. Everyone else is on the south beach. The east side seems to be more of a lagoon in shape, the other sides likely abut rock. There's no sign of other islands or any life, however there's a pretty clear path down to the lagoon. We might be able to fish easier there and catch birds.
The others drink, and Miranda encourages them to wade in and wash off. It's cleaner and better for our skin than the salt water. I don't have to fully strip, but I move away to give the girls some semblance of privacy. 
And that's when I see it. Deeper into the brush there's a clearing. And some of the undergrowth has been clearly disturbed. A human grave is pretty obvious, no matter how crude. And the dirt is mounded roughly in the proper shape. A single leaf frond is laid over it, very carefully, in a sort of memorial.
"Come here a moment," I beckon the others, still staring. Nothing else disturbed. No other graves that I can tell but the ground is rather free of growth.
"What—the—," River comes first, hand on my shoulder.
"It looks like, whatever came last night buried your dad," I say to Luke, moving to stop him from going closer, but he deosn't.
"That's very neatly done—that's not an animal," Miranda says.
"Primates are very fastidious, there's every possiblity whatever strain or the like lives here bury their dead in some fashion. It probably associated us with itself, after all it didn't try to harm any of us," I point out.
"Should we leave him?" Luke asks.
"Yeah, I think that's good," I say, squeezing his shoulders.
"Yeah," Miranda says, glancing at me. We're both thinking the same thing. Firstly that is more human in burial than animal. Secondly, do we know it didn't eat him before it buried the bones? I'd doubt it, but I'm not risking digging him up to find out. And it's a waste of energy.
"He'd like that. He loved nature he'd—be glad," Luke says, quietly.
"Best place we have to lay him to rest. When we go home, they can usually bring him too, if that's what you and your mum wanted," I explain.
"Okay," that seems to satisfy Luke though there are tears in his eyes again.
We make our way down the rock to the beach. It's an easy enough walk and the spring runs close,so it's actually a better place to set up camp. River and I go about making more fish traps, while Miranda and Luke gather fire wood.
"We should think about a proper shelter," I say, looking up at the sky. Storm clouds are gathering.
"Yeah, we probably should," River says, quietly, then adds, "Why do you look at the sky like that? I mean other than rescue planes but you're going to hear something they'll be low if they're looking for us."
I sigh, "Do you see jet streams?"
"No," she says.
"We're not in the flight paths then are we? We were a typical flight from Sydney to LAX. Why haven'T we seen duplicate flights then run at least twice a day?" i ask.
"Because we—got blown off—oh fuch—,"
"We weren't on the proper flight path a storm wouldn't do that. For some reason we were going out of the flight path so tha'ts going to make us harder to find," I say, quietly.
"They don't know where we are," she says, softly.
"No. Which means we could be here for quite some time, before they do track us," I say. If they track us at all.
River nods, fear in her eyes.
Only time will tell. But hope of rescue is waning.