Chapter 13: Hand In Fire Desease
That night, Dan was able to walk again. He was so happy about it, that he picked me up and span me round, although he had to sit down afterwards, as it had winded him. After he had got his break back, I caught Lucy looking at us as if she was almost... guilty. I couldn't understand it, so I just forgot about it.
'Hey, Carrie,' Dan called from the fire he was building for the night. 'Why don't you go get some fruit for the fire tonight, while me and Lucy finish the fire?'
The fire. He was referring to the celebratory 'bonfire' that we were having tonight. Apparently, we were celebrating the fact that Lucy was here. I went along with it, if it meant actually having some well earned social time.
'Okay,' I agreed. 'Have fun,' I ordered, kissing him lightly on the cheek.
'Will do,' He replied, distracted by the flames that were now licking at the twig in his hand.
As I walked into the forest, my head as overcome with thoughts that had been wanting to come out since I found Lucy. Were we the only survivors? If so, was anyone looking for us? These were all pretty sensible questions, but it seemed that none of them could be answered. At least not easily. Would we survive? We couldn't let our minds wander in any other direction. We couldn't lose hope. We couldn't lose ourselves. Were all of us going to survive? I certainly hoped so, although I hoped for Dan more than Lucy. Sick, but true. There was just something about her that I really didn't like, but I didn't know what it was.
I wandered a while, scanning the tress for fruit, my head not really into it. At last I found a fruiting tree. I climbed it, picked 6 large pieces of fruit, and then jumped down. As I jumped down I heard an ear piercing scream coming from where Dan and Lucy were. It was low and gruff, but scared and hurt in the same way. It could only be one person.
Dan.
* * *
I ran back to the beach, leaving the fruit behind. That scream was too scared, angry, lost to be any good.
'What happened?' I shouted as soon as I reached them.
'Its Dan,' Lucy spluttered. 'He just- Just put his hand into the fire!'
'No!' Dan interrupted, holding his hand to his chest. 'It was you Lucy! You shoved my hand into the fire!' He looked at me.
'She's crazy!' He shouted.
'Don't listen to him!' Lucy yelled back. 'He just wants you to give him all the attention, he doesn't like that there's another person here. He's trying to get rid of me!'
'What a load of-'
'Wait.' I interrupted them both. 'Both of you, just shut up. I don't care who did what. The only thing I care about right now is surviving. And I know that neither of you want to have to retort to cannibalism, but that's what's going to happen if you guys start arguing. Now, both of you, get some rest.
'But, where's our fruit?' Lucy asked quietly.
Jesus.
YOU ARE READING
Shipwrecked (A short story.)
Genç Kurgu"Life is hard," says just about every teenager living an easy life, including Caroline. But when a boat journey goes terribly wrong, life is not just hard. Life is precious.
