Book Two: Hollow City (My Remake)

Chapter 3~Edge of the World

Quote of the Chapter:
F.E.A.R has two meanings; Forget Everything And Run, or Face Everything And Rise.
The choice is yours.

* * *

I was startled awake by Emma who's tiredness reflected my own. Knowing her, she probably didn't get any sleep, and had stayed awake assuring Bronwyn wouldn't pass out herself from exhaustion. "Wake up," she cooed. "We're here."

The sun had dipped just below the horizon, and within a short hour, our only source of light (save for Emma) would be gone and we'd be shrouded in darkness. But with the little light available to us now, I could see the beach we had crash landed upon. Unlike my time's beach with a boardwalk and smooth glossy sand, this one was filled with jagged shells and stones by the shoreline. Further down, were sand dunes lined with swaying grass until just beyond that, a fortress of wilderness that continued along both ways for as far as I could see. Undoubtably, without the guidance of a map, we had side tracked down a different section of the mainland, one eaten by a forest and uninhabited for what must be miles.

Once Emma had woken the few children who had fallen asleep, we lugged ourselves up and out of the boats, taking wobbly first steps on land after what appeared to have been a day. We were sick, tired, sore in every muscle, and above all, scared. There was no longer a day where we knew exactly what would happen next, or a plan that worked out every time. It was only the mercy of the world dragging us through now, and by god, I hope it'd be easy on us.

As we made our way further up the beach, I spotted Fiona scooping a handful of rocks and slipping them into her mouth like chocolates, rolling them around her tongue. Dumbfounded, I walked over to Hugh and whispered, "What is she doing?"

Hugh followed my gaze. "Ah, you see, it's been years since any of us has gotten off the island. So long, in fact, that some of us might think it a dream. For Fiona," he looked back to her with longing in his eye, "to convince herself, she's gotta trust all her senses, and by all, I mean all."

"She's tasting the rocks?!"

"Well," he followed, "you must admit, it isn't the most peculiar thing you've seen. Not yet, anyway." Then he walked off to join her, slipping his hand into hers, and muttering something along the lines of, "We made it."

As I took a few more steps, a loud groan erupted behind me, and I turned around to see Bronwyn on the ground, exhausted to the point where she couldn't even stand. Everyone gathered around her, showering her with thanks and helping her up, but she could do nothing but muster some energy to wave it off and offer a smile. Meanwhile, Emma and the boys reeled Olive down from the sky.

"You're positively blue!" Emma exclaimed when Olive appeared pass the fog, and she leapt up to grab the little girl from the sky and into her arms. Olive was soaked and frozen, her teeth chattering. It quickly became evident that we had no blankets to offer her, not even a strip of dry clothing. And so Emma quickly heated her hands, and ran them up and down the girl's body until the worst of the shudders subsided, then ordered Fiona and Horace to go and find some drift wood for a fire.

As we waited for them to return, we gathered around the boats to tally up what we had lost. The results were grim. Nearly everything we had brought that wasn't on our person was gone, lost at the bottom of the ocean. All that we had left was the clothes on our backs, a few rusty cans of food, and Bronwyn's indestructible, and apparently unsinkable, trunk. It was so absurdly heavy that only Bronwyn could carry it, so after everything we'd gone through, we were eager to see what Bronwyn was so willing to go such lengths to lug with her, and if it was at all edible.