Island Rush (Sample)

Chapter 22

We were both kneeling in the stream and facing upriver, the water pouring by us in long glass licks. After only drinking from my hands, it made me realize how thirsty I really was. That's why instead, I dipped my head down, drinking the water like an animal. My lips grazing the water... oh man, there was already a stronger sense of relief.

I took in heavy gulps, tasting the fresh water and more. I was tasting more than water, but a bliss I have been craving for way too long. My throat sighed in relief, and it made me want more. The more I drank, the better I felt.

Suddenly, I felt a firm hand grab my arm and pull me back, ripping my mouth from heaven. Turning to see him next to me, Mr. Rush was kneeling like me, but he wasn't drinking the water. Instead, he gave me a disapproving gaze. "Don't go overboard. You will get sick if you consume too much at once."

I groaned in annoyance but knew he was right. I couldn't allow my body to take over my mind, even if all I wanted was water. I did as he said and went back to using my hands. Once I took in enough water, I didn't hesitate to completely stretch out in the creek and drench myself. I wanted to feel as clean as possible, so I took full advantage of this, washing away the dirt on me and hopefully my stench. I even fully dipped my head into the water, which made me feel more refreshed.

After at least receiving the sensation of being clean, I pushed myself up and took a deep breath. I saw that Mr. Rush did the same and washed off, We stayed like that, relaxing in the water and avoiding each other's gaze. There was a strong lack of conversation between us too. Though I wanted to be stubborn and keep it that way, it bothered me to the point where I found a reason to speak. "What now?"

He glanced at me before looking away, back up the stream. "We need shelter. We can gather up some vines here and find a good use for it. We also will need to figure out how to build our shelter." He thought for a second when he paused. "Food will be hard, definitely."

I understood that too well. "All we had was fruit, and that is not enough to live on."

He nodded from where he was still kneeling across from me in the water. "Well... this gives us the chance to really commit to learning how to fish."

"That's another thing," I realized. "We need to make another spear."

He nodded again. As I tried thinking of other things, my eyes wandered aimlessly down. That's when I noticed that my small cuts were clear, which made me smile. One more plus to freshwater: it doesn't burn to clean out any cuts. Plus it's safer to clean them too with this water.

"First, I think we should start with shelter. We aren't going to be able to learn how to fish by the end of today so we might as well get something accomplished by then."

"That's true." Both tasks didn't sound bad, but I wasn't looking forward to working on these things with him. Sighing, I stood up and stretched, walking up the bank. I sat down in the grass under a tree.

"We can't do it here, though," he said, standing up himself. I looked down at him from where I was sitting in the cool grass and lowered my eyebrows.

"We can't do what here? Build the shelter?"

"Yeah. It's too close to the ocean, and it would be cold at night. We can now take advantage of the woods for cover. We have a creek to follow back to the ocean so we won't get lost."

I liked how that sounded. Anything to make the nights just a little less harsh. So with that came our first objective: finding a good spot. We needed to find a location that was upstream, but still close to the stream.

In no time, we were moving. We walked up the stream, moving deeper into the woods until it surrounded us and the creek. We didn't speak a word to each other the entire time either. We just kept following it as it curved through the land and led us further in.