Separated

Chapter VIII

SKYLAR

Music: Extinct Volcano Lagoon from Star Revenge 2: Night of Doom

Heath, Sam, Avery, Mackenzie, and I have been wandering the island for the past few hours now. Or at least, long enough to seem like hours. As you probably expect, none of us really have any efficient ways of being able to tell time. Heath had brought a watch with him, but the water must've somehow broken it, rendering it completely useless.

Sam and Heath lead us through a thick clearing of trees. Maneuvering the various tree branches is easier said than done. We have to constantly sidestep and climb both over and under branches, and I STILL keep getting scratches all over my arms and legs. Our clothes are also taking a beating. Rips and tears are scattered all over our attire. The sun has basically disappeared by this point, leaving the moon as our only source of light.

After finally making it to some sort of a clearing, the five of us sit down to rest. Sam glances to the side and spots some large mountainous structure looming over us. The surface appears very rocky and old, and is a grey-ish color until you reach the top of the mountain, at which point it becomes a light brown.

"Is that a volcano?" Sam asks.

"Possibly. Most of the Galapagos Islands are basically volcanoes," Heath answers.

"Can I be the first one to point out that so far, there hasn't been a single animal in sight?" Avery sighs.

"Finding food is gonna be tough..." I murmur.

"We could just eat each other," Heath laughs jokingly.

"Oh, please. The only ass you'd be willing to eat is Skylar's," Sam snorts. I ponder saying something but instead decide to just stay out of it.

"Hey, I'm leaving you the other two," Heath replies, referring to Mackenzie and Avery.

Avery glares at Heath. "You're about to be on the same level as Luke with me."

"Enough!" I yell, finally deciding that I've had enough. "Guys, we can't be wasting our time arguing or joking around. Our survival pretty much depends on it."

Mackenzie's eyes widen as she spots something through some trees adjacent to us. "Guys! In there!" she exclaims.

We follow Mackenzie through a pair of trees. In the middle of a small opening in the forest is a small hut. It looks barely large enough to house a four-person family. The hut itself is mostly made out of well-placed rocks and a few straws, with some tree branches resting on top of it as the roof. The structure seems sturdy enough.

The hut doesn't have a door, so the five of us just walk inside. Nobody is present inside the small 1-room building. All there is are a couple of poorly designed beds made mostly out of leaves and an orange fur rug. That's just about it.

"Hello? Anybody here?" Avery yells. No voices from afar respond.

"This might work for the time being," Heath says, nodding.

"I don't know... it doesn't feel right to be invading someone's home like this..." Mackenzie mumbles, sounding hesitant.

Sam lets out an exasperated sigh. "Mackenzie, I doubt anybody lives here anymore. We're fine."

I then look outside and spot a tiny speck of light in the dark night sky. My spirits soar as my mind processes what the light could be coming from.

An airplane.

"Guys! There's an airplane outside!" I yell, getting everyone's attention. The other four join me outside as we start shouting, jumping, and waving our arms to try and get whoever's in the airplane to notice us. Sadly, the airplane just continues to fly over. We start quieting down and losing enthusiasm as the plane slowly moves out of our line of sight, and eventually just disappears.