Tracker? - James Conrad

Morning After

The next morning I woke up in the same position I fell asleep in. Except this time I was alone. I had dreamt the whole thing. It seemed so real.

Maybe that's because you wanted it so bad.

Shut up conscience

We were setting off today. I looked around and saw everyone asleep except Marlow and Conrad. I walked out to the boat and saw them talking.

"Morning." I yawn out to them.

"Told you she'd be up first." Marlow nudges James with his elbow. He seemed to be off in his own world

"What?" I ask, walking over to them. Not stepping into the boat, but rather, sitting on a tree stump next to it.

"That was a lotta work yesterday. I may have underestimated royal blood." Hank quips, I send him a playful glare.

"Not royal for much longer." I smile as I sigh.

"I can't wait to see everyone." Hank daydreams for a while before smirking slightly.

"You guys sleep well?" This catches James' attention as he looks to me for an answer first.

"I actually did. Had the best dream too." I close my eyes and sigh at the good memories.

"Captain?" Hank moves to Conrad for an answer.

"Better than I have in a long time." Hanks smirk broadens at his words and I'm left a little confused.

"How long have you been up?"

"Not long at all really." James shakes his head.

"You might be more use in the boat than beside it." Hank says. I realise what he's trying to do.

"W-well. I'll get on when the others are awake." At my sentence Conrad steps up and holds his hand out. I look at it before hesitantly putting my hand in his, much like yesterday. I get in the boat easily this time.

"Thank you." I mumble to James, feeling like an idiot for having him help me.

"Anytime."

I walk towards the engine and see parts disassembled. "What the hell happened to this? Who messed with my part of the ship?" My anger was obvious as the two quickly walked over to help.

"Hey! Those parts were definitely there when we started. You break 'em?" Hank looks at me in shock and annoyance.

"Why would I purposely sabotage our way of getting off this place?" I snap at him.

"Because you have nothing to go back to." My expression falls completely.

"That's enough. I saw the engine yesterday. It was in perfect working order. She was out of the boat before we tested it. It wasn't her." Conrad steps up. Standing between Marlow and I. I jump off the boat and head back to the village.

"Vic!" I hear from behind me.

"Don't call me that anymore." I understand that I was being irrational. But aren't we all allowed to be that way sometimes? I go to the sacred ship and sit in front of the big chalk drawing of Kong. I throw little pebbles into the water beside me.

"Don't move." I hear a click. Then footsteps walking towards me.

"How much did you hear?" I ask as she sits beside me.

"Since Hank started yelling. Woke us all up. We all heard it. Everyone was about to give him hell before I came to find you. It was Nieves, he took out the stuff as soon as you left. Wanted to prove a point."

"You didn't have come back for me. How'd you even find me?"

"It was me or Conrad. And as much as he begged me to stay with them. I knew you needed a girl to talk to. As for finding you, lucky guess really." She smiles as she looks up at the drawing.

"He's not wrong. I don't have anything to go back to." I keep throwing pebbles into the water.

"Well he's wrong. You have us now." She gives me a sincere grin before standing up and dusting herself off, holding her hand out to help me.

"We won't make it off if we don't get to the boat soon." I roll my eyes and let her help me up. We walked in silence before she spoke up.

"I saw you last night. It was sweet." She gave me a wink.

"It's just an old trinket.." She frowned and looked at me confused "What? Dirt on my face?" I ask her.

"I was talking about you two sleeping. What were you talking about?"

"What do you mean sleeping? What was so sweet about it?" We were honestly just confusing each other more.

"You fell asleep and he had his arms around you and.. oh I don't know it was just cute." She smiles. So it wasn't a dream?

We reach the boat not much later. Conrad jumping out and walking to us when he sees us, "You can't run off like that." He starts to both of us sternly.

"I've been here for 3 years. I'll be fine." I roll my eyes. Mason leaves us alone and goes back to the boat. "So Nieves did it huh?" I look and see the black haired man sitting at the back of the boat by himself. Figures.

"Unscrewed all of the important parts. We made him put them back. We were waiting for you two before we set off." He explains to me, we walk back to the boat. James helps me in yet again.

"I can do it myself." I laugh as he picks me up and placed me in the boat. It finally starts up and I cheer. I turn around and see all the Iwi standing there. Hank and I smile at them and motion to the boat, expecting any type of reaction.

"I guess this is goodbye."

We sit at the middle of the boat. Away from everyone as James steers the boat. Slivko is trying to contact the rest of their group on the radio.

"James?" He looks at me.

"When you first came here.. were you afraid?" It had occurred to me that I had never seen him show signs of fear.

"I don't scare easily." He shrugs, wanting to know where I'm going with this.

"Just because you don't show fear doesn't mean you're not afraid." I look at him. He seems deep in thought. He opens his mouth to speak but screeches from above cut him off. Dactyls.

"Everyone duck!" I yell and run to the front of the boat. Slivko and Conrad grab guns and aim at them. I pick up one, much to everyone's protest and take 3 shots.

I shot down 3 dactyls.

One picks up Nieves and he screeches trying to shove it off him. I look to Marlow and see him looking to me. We both know he's a goner. We sigh simultaneously as the shooting keeps going. I go up to them and stop them. As I do I see one of the dactyls ripping Nieves' arm off and cringe as he screams.

"It's no use. He's gone." After my words only a sad silence follows. Each of us dealing with the loss in our own way. I sit beside Conrad in a comfortable silence and watch as Slivko looks conflicted.

"Wait! Is nobody gonna talk about that?!" Brooks is clearly distressed by what just happened.

"He's not coming back! There's nothing to talk about." Hank brushes him off easily and goes back to his original position.

"It's not your fault you know. It's the island. This is their territory." I assure Slivko. He sighs and shakes his head.

"I had a clear shot and I missed."

"Even if you had've hit it. Another one would've caught him." I earn myself another sigh. I lay back and watch the sky as we gently float along. Looking for something to concentrate on other than the water. Then it happens.

There's a voice on the radio.