Page 42 of Totally Wrecked
I know it’s only a bar, but I see red. Absolute red.
“What the fuck man?”
“Survival of the fittest,” he replies, looking at me stonily. “Nice guys finish last.”
“You selfish fuck!” I don’t even yell, but Harvey backs away looking like the little pussy he is. As he does he trips and goes over backwards into some thick bushes.
“FUCK!” He screams. “HELP! Help me up, there are thorns.”
The pleasure I have listening to his screams is immense, but after a minute, I relent and put out a hand to pull him up. As I do so, Rex comes crashing through the bushes.
“What’s going on? Are you OK?”
Harvey staggers to his feet, moaning, and I look blandly at Rex. “Yeah, Harvey here just lost his balance. From now on you are going to be more careful, aren’t you, Harvey?”
Harvey glares at me and stalks off back to the beach. We watch him go.
“What was all that really about?” Rex asks me.
“That asshole. I found a protein bar in my pocket. He took it and ate the whole fucking thing.”
“I can’t believe that fucker. Not much of a team player. Did you push him into the bushes?”
“Nah, little pussy tripped when he was backing away from me.”
Rex looks in the direction he walked off in. “He’s probably scared shitless.”
That gives me pause. Rex has good instincts. I nod—I’ll keep an eye on him. Turning back to me, Rex brings his face closer. “You don’t look concussed. How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine, Rex. What are you doing here? I thought you didn’t want anyone on their own?”
“I found some containers to fill, but I dropped them when I heard the yelling. And fucking destroyed my bare feet in the process, thanks.”
I give him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, “Want me to carry you?”
He gives me the finger.
As we head down the track to collect the plastic bottles, Rex cusses up a storm as his feet are punctured over and over again. Eventually we get to his pile of plastic and I tell him I’ll go back and refill them.
“You go keep an eye on Killian and Harvey,” he says.
Then I ask the question that Rex obviously can’t answer. “Rex, the others…do you really think they’re OK?”
We stop and look at each other.
I hope to God Leander has Key with him. He’ll look after Keyara—lay his life down for her. Rex, Leander, and I have been through so much, it’s unthinkable that Leander is not somewhere on the other side of the island, laughing and being his usual bouncy self, making jokes with Key, keeping her spirits up.
Fuck.
Brooke.
She has to be alright, too. I’ve been numb to most things since last year, but something in me woke up when I saw Brooke on the boat. And when talking to her, it was as though a tiny piece of actual feeling came back to my heart.
“Tomorrow, we’ll scout the island,” Rex mutters. “Hopefully they'll be together. There are probably other coves they could easily have washed up on. We’ll have to check them all out.”
“OK. You and I scout, and we can leave Harvey and Killian to forage for food?”
“Yeah, sounds like a plan.”
