Page 24 of Stranded

“Eep!” Mo-Mo hollers as he comes swinging in to land on my shoulder. I give his neck a little scratch and smile at him before introducing him.

“And this is Mo-Mo,” I say with a smile, turning back to the guys. They’re all staring at me with wide eyes. “What?” I ask, not sure what the looks are about.

“Uh, nothing. Just, we’ve never seen such a friendly lemur in the wild before,” Kingsley says, scratching the back of his neck as he avoids my gaze.

“Eep!” Mo-Mo yells, pointing at Bower.

He chuckles and pulls a plum out of his pocket and holds it out towards him. Mo-Mo snatches it up quickly and takes a giant bite.

“Mo-Mo’s pretty friendly, huh?” Bower asks, slowly stepping closer to us, lifting his free arm towards him. “Can I pet him?”

“That’s up to him,” I say, watching as he holds his hand in front of Mo-Mo for him to inspect. He gives him a little sniff, then takes another bite of the plum and dips his chin, pressing the top of his head against Bower’s fingers, forcing him to pet him.

Bower chuckles, stepping even closer as he scratches his neck. “Eep!” Mo-Mo trills, jumping to Bower’s shoulder and rubbing his head into his neck.

“Awe, you’re a sweet little guy, aren’t you?”

The other two come to stand on either side of Bower, taking turns to pet Mo-Mo. They are all treating him so gently. I watch in surprise and a little awe as Weston passes him another plum, which he takes with a happy trill before jumping up into a nearby tree.

If Mo-Mo isn’t scared of them, then maybe they’re not so bad?

Three sets of eyes turn to me and I suddenly realize how close they all are. They could reach out and touch me right now. I jump back a few steps and my hand moves to rest on my knife.

Why did I come down here again? I glance around, looking for an escape, my eyes catching on Brutus’s body. Right, I almost got them killed.

Noticing my gaze, Weston moves towards Brutus. “We were trying to cut it up, but none of us have ever hunted before. Do you know how to do it?” he asks gently.He’s asking for my advice?

I stand up a little straighter. This was something I could do. And it was my self-appointed job to help them.

I nod my head and turn to him. “First, we have to drain his blood by hanging him from a tree branch.”

“He’s heavy, we’ll need a really strong branch and some string or something,” Weston says, looking around.

“I can get us some vines,” I say, moving to a nearby tree, leaping to grab the first branch and pulling myself up.

“Hey, be careful!” Weston calls. I glance down and am surprised when I see him looking up at me with concern on his face and his hands outstretched, like he was prepared to help me.

He’s tellingmeto be careful? I’ve been climbing these trees for the better part of my life. Instead of arguing, I give him a small nod, which he returns. I turn back and start finding vines to cut, but my chest tightens in that strange, unfamiliar way.

Nobody has been worried about my safety in a very long time. That thought makes my chest ache, and my breathing quickens.

“Zee, calm down. You can not have a panic attack right now. You need to keep your wits about you!” I whisper to myself, hoping a pep talk will help ease my breathing. The last thing I need is to pass out in front of these guys. Not only can I not let myself be that vulnerable in front of them, but I don’t want them to think I’m incapable of doing this.

Shaking my head, I force myself to take deep breaths as I tell myself to focus on Brutus. Once I cut the final vine, I drop down to the ground in a crouch, a few feet from the tree they’ve managed to drag Brutus to.

“Shit! You scared me!” Bower says, jumping back a step from where I land.

“You need to be more aware of your surroundings if you want to survive out here,” I tell him gently as I move past them to start tossing the vines I collected over the branch.

“Why? Is there something more dangerous than you out here?” Kingsley asks. My eyes flick to his and he’s looking at me with a serious expression on his face.

“Well, I would have said Brutus was who you had to look out for the most. He’s the biggest and smartest boar on the island. The others could hurt you, too, but they aren’t vengeful like he was,” I say, pointing at Brutus’s body.

“Brutus?” Bower asks with a smirk.

I nod. “And then there’s Fang. He’s a huge snake, but he lives on the North side of the island. I don’t know if he’s venomous or not, but he’s big enough that if he got hold of you, you’d be done.”

I bend down and start tying one end of the vines around Brutus’s back legs.

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