Page 17 of Stranded

“I’m okay, I’m okay,” I groan as I roll on to my back and stare up at the trees above me.

I take a few deep breaths as I let myself remember what happened and how I ended up here.Crab sucker,that was a bad panic attack. Remembering part of what set it off, I lift my arms to take a look.

I’m still covered in mud, but where I managed to scrape some of it off, my skin looks raw. It hurts, too. I push myself to a seated position and look around, making sure it’s only me and Mo-Mo here.

When I glance up, three more sets of eyes stare back at me, making me smile. “Sam, Dean, Coco, hey guys. Coco, I haven’t seen you in a while, are your boyfriends keeping you busy?” I ask, making Mo-Mo jump up and down as he trills at me angrily.

“You’re such a prude, Mo-Mo. I know what the three of you get up to with her.”

“Eep!”

“Don’t even try to deny it. Besides, what do you care if I know? I don’t judge, buddy.” I say the next part a little quieter. “Just like you don’t judge me for taking a random nap in the middle of the jungle, right?” Ireach my fist out to him and he fists bumps it with his little hand, making me smile.

I push myself to my feet and turn in the direction of the beach. “Well, I guess it’s time for a little swim. Care to join me?” Mo-Mo makes a screeching noise before jumping up to join his family in the tree, making me smile at his hatred for water.

I quietly make my way to the edge of the jungle and carefully step onto the sand, looking down the beach for any signs of the other humans. When the coast is clear, I quickly jog to the water, not wanting to chance being caught by being out in the open any longer than necessary.

As soon as I’m in waist deep water, I dive under. It feels amazing to wash away the mud, but my arms sting, so I stand up to assess the damage.

I hiss when I get a good look. “Sweet baby scratches, you idiot, Zee,” I mumble, looking at my left arm, the worst of the two. I’ve actually broken the skin in my haste to get the mud off. An open wound out here can lead to infection, I need to clean it as best as I can. Now I regret not taking Bower or King’s soap when I had the chance.

But I’ve survived fifteen years without soap, and I’ve had plenty of injuries, many worse than this one. I survived those, and I’ll survive this too. I just need something to wrap around it to keep it clean.

Deciding that will have to wait, as I have nothing handy. I take the time to untie my hair and scrub the mud from every part of me. I keep having to move when the water around me turns brown, but eventually, I feel clean again. I try to finger comb my hair under the water, where it’s easier to work through the knots, then I roughly braid it. Knowing I’ll have to do that all again once it’s dry.

When I’m finally done, I quickly make my way back home. The sun is setting now and there isn’t much daylight left, making me extra quiet as I approach the camp. I make sure to stay high up in the trees. The sounds of their murmuring reaches my ears and I move a little closer so I can see what they’re doing. I glimpse the three of them eating guava near the fire pit and settle in to watch them.

They speak quietly to one another and I shake my head at myself. The whole point in covering myself in mud was so I could get closer to them, to hear what they were whispering about. I wasn’t able to do that once. In fact, doing it was the whole reason I got caught in the first place, stupidly leaving a trail of mud on the ground right to where I was hiding.

Realizing I’m not going to hear anything tonight, I quietly make my way up to my hammock, high in the tree. My clothing is wet and rubbing against me uncomfortably, so I decide to remove it, hoping without it I’ll sleep better tonight. I barely slept at all last night and I’m exhausted.

Once my skirt and top are hanging over a branch to dry, I remember my new possession and smile to myself as I pull out the ACDC shirt. I slip it on and sigh at the feeling of the soft fabric against my skin. It’s been so long since I’ve felt anything like this. I lift the material to my nose and smell.

“Mmm, what is that?” The smell settles something in me as I climb into my hammock. I grab the leaves and twigs I use to clean my teeth and start cleaning them as I stare at the partial sky above me. I’m so high up that half my view is of leaves and the other half is the darkening sky.

I watch as the sky turns black and the stars come out. Something about that makes me feel small and invisible. There is such a large universe out there and I’m a mere speck. A speck nobody even knows exists.

Sometimes I wonder what the point is of me being here. Mo-Mo’s the only one left in existence who cares for me. But even he isn’t here right now. My mind wanders, wondering what he’s up to. Does he ever miss me?

Noises below distract me and I listen carefully to what the men are up to. I hear the creak of my main hut and assume they’re going to bed, like me. It gets quiet pretty quickly and I sit up, tossing my teeth cleaning stuff away and make sure McStabby and Steve are close at hand. Thankfully, I found I hadn’t misplaced him, he was in my bag the whole time.

When I close my eyes, memories flood in, like they always do, so I open them again, seeing Steve staring back at me. “Are you scared, Steve?” I whisper to him.

“It’s okay if you are, I promise I won’t tell Kevin. I know how judgy he can be.” When he doesn’t respond, I reach out and grab him, hugging him to my chest tightly. “It’s okay, you can sleep with me tonight, if that makes you feel safer… What do you mean I’m doing this for me, not you? You better shut your toe trap right now or I’m tossing you from this tree!”

Was it crazy to have a one sided conversation with a rock? Not at all. Crazy was talking toyourselfbecause you were slowly going mad, and that. Wasn’t. Me.

Chapter ten

Bower

Standing in the middle of the beach, I take a slice of guava from West, my eyes scanning the trees in front of us.

“Why are we out here?” I ask around a mouthful of fruit.

“For one, we should keep an eye out for a plane or ship. And two, out here we know for certain we can’t be overheard,” West tells us, nodding to the jungle that’s thirty feet away. “I saw someone.”

King and I whip our gazes to him in surprise.

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