A Second To Understand

Chapter Five

  In the aftermath of what happened to Mallory, the chaperones were putting forth the extra efforts to contact the mainland, but having no luck with it, the comms were nothing but static. They were doing their best to calm the hysterical students when I finally emerged from the bathhouse. Grayson was leaned up against the wall with his hands pushed into his hair and his eyes closed to the heavens when I shuffled my feet and he looked over at me, dropping his hands from the mess he'd created on his head. "Are you okay?" His concern was instant, but I couldn't bring myself to talk yet without throwing up again so I just nodded, although it didn't seem to reassure him in the least.

"Jade!" I looked up to see Naomi running over to where we stood. She motioned over her shoulder towards the bickering crowd and the group of hysterical cheerleaders. "What happened?"

She must have seen my face as I spun around and rushed back into the bathroom barely making it back to the toilet in time because she came in after me and held my hair while I finished emptying what little water I was able to get down. "It was awful, oh my god. I can't even.. It was.." I couldn't even get a coherent sentence past my lips through the dry heaves.

"I heard the commotion, they said something about Mallory. Is she... is she dead?" I sat up against the wall next to the toilet and grabbed some toilet paper to wipe my face with and just nodded, still not entirely trusting myself to speak just yet.

"Jade are you okay?" Grayson's voice drifted into the bathroom and I looked alarmingly at Naomi. I didn't want him to see me as this mess sitting on a dirty bathroom floor.

Apparently she caught the hint because she yelled back, "Everything is fine in here. I'll have her out in a few minutes." She grabbed my hand and sat down in front of me like we were best friends about to do each other's nails. "Can you tell me what happened?"

Slowly I pushed my hair behind my ears with my free hand, "When me and Grayson were on the way to those falls, I stopped to climb a tree to see the view from high up. Grayson came with me up the tree and when we came back down there was a viper coiled around the tree. It almost looked like it was waiting for us. This thing was massive. Way bigger than any pit viper should be and that's not even the strangest part. The snake was a Golden Lancehead Pit Viper."

I stopped to gauge her confused reaction, "Wait, what?" She shook her head in denial. "That's not possible, those aren't indigenous to this area."

"I'm certain that's what this thing was but it had to be at least four feet long wrapped around that branch. If Grayson hadn't seen it when he did, I would have been bitten. That's what killed Mallory." The nausea rolled in my stomach, threatening dry heaves again. "She was bitten sometime in the night and the snake used her as a nest." I paused to let her take that in, "The baby snakes are still in her body using it as some kind of incubator."

Her face was pale as a ghost by the time I was done talking. "We have to find a way off this island. This is just way to much for me to handle." She inhaled deeply through her nose and exhaled through her mouth like she was struggling to intake a normal breath without hyperventilating.

"Jade?" Grayson's voice again.

    "Come on before Grayson has a conniption fit. We need to get rid of those snakes before they get out of the tent and bite anyone else." Naomi followed my lead as I slowly stood, bracing myself on the wall for much needed support.

    When we walked out of the bathhouse Grayson didn't wait a second before gathering me in his steely arms and squeezing me tight, it was a slight comfort for the horrible situation we found ourselves in. "I need Blake." I said as I reluctantly pulled out of his arms.