Stranded

Chapter 7 ~ Hannah

I'm gathering fruit when I hear the first call. Soon the entire forest is full of howling. Those of us gathering food grab our baskets and head towards the village. The boys have the conch, we have an emergency meeting signal, but this is the first time it has ever been used. We set the baskets down with in the village and watch as the younger kids are shepherded into several of the shelters to stay put while those of us that are older meet. I see Rachel asleep in one.

"Hey! Get up, meeting," I say coming over to her and shaking her awake.

"What? Oh...." she mumbles. "Go away."

"It's an emergency meeting. Skip it if you want, we don't care."

I walk into the main hut, many of the older girls are there sitting in their places whispering amongst themselves, others are outside rushing around and closing all but the gate facing the forest. We wait as the hunters, the farthest out, come in, still in their paint. Cassie comes in and takes her place on the cloth across from the door, her basic seat of honor. The last person to enter is Selene. The pig skin that covers the doorway flaps closed, acting as a wall between us and all other things in the outside world. Everyone settles in silence now that everyone is here and not knowing why we are here besides it is very important for the signal to have been called.

"Who called the signal?" Cassie finally asks.

"I did," Selene says standing. "I was tracking when I saw a few boys and their leader running through the forest in a crazy manner. I followed. Jack and his group left the signal fire unattended for an hour or two in order to kill a pig for meat, and while it was out, a ship passed by." WHAT?!?! The hut erupts into yells.

"I told you we can't trust them—"

"A SHIP—"

"We offered pigs—"

"Silence!" Cassie yells. Everyone obeys. "Is there anything else of importance?"

"Jack blames us for not building the boy's huts. He claims that he had to take those who were supposed to be watching the signal fire to hut or his strategy to get the pig wouldn't work," Selene says. "That is all." She sits.

"Blames us?!"

"We do more than our fair share—"

"They could have asked for pig—"

"Silence!" Cassie says again. "It seems that the boys have over stepped their boundaries. We will not help them with hunting or building, they don't deserve our help if they ever did before, and they can do that themselves whenever they feel like it. Plus it will only affect them, but we can not be too drastic in our actions, as much as we'd like to imagine we're the only group on this island, we have to work together." Murmurs of agreement and disagreement ripple through the room. "As for the signal fire, it affects all of us. Obviously, the boys can't be trusted by day, I doubt they can be trusted by night. We will add our own watches to the boy's watches." More murmurs. "We will have four girls go up and take two person shifts in addition to the boys. In the morning another group of two girls will replace them, another group of two at noon, and another group of four at night. The night group will update the evening group of what has happened at the meetings." Murmurs of agreement sound throughout the room. "Any questions?"

"What happens if they think we should do more in their camp?" Alice asks.

"They already want us to do more. If they get more than a little insistent, then we'll just have to show them what we're made of. Anything else?" Nothing is give. "The meeting is over, thank you for bringing this information to us Selene."