Page 37 of Totally Shipped
Eventually he stops, and I realize we are at a freshwater spring I’ve never seen before. This is a part of the island I don’t know.
“Drink,” he commands, pushing me to my knees.
With pleasure. As I fill my belly with water, I think about self-defense classes my father would give me and Brooke.
Why hadn’t I paid more attention?
Because Dad didn’t pay any attention to me. He’d work drills with Brooke over and over again; she was athletic and graceful. I’d fall over my feet and Dad would sigh.
“Just do some stretching in the corner, Daisy.”
Thanks, Dad. Stretching isn’t going to help me now.
I wonder where Harvey is taking me, and how long he has been on our island. I guess we never considered him coming back. What a mistake.
What if he wants me to swim to the next island? I just don’t know if I could do it.
My hand goes automatically to my bump again. But the next second I am yanked to my feet by my hair.
“That’s enough, we need to get going again.”
But where? That’s the question.
REX
Itry not to let Key know how worried I am.
“Just double checking,” I say as we take a small detour via the pool, just to make sure Daisy didn’t head there, but was missed by the others.
One of the life rings from the boat floats in the middle. The words “Mary-Mo” half submerged, but no signs of Daisy.
“We’ll come back later,” I tell Key, “let’s get all this stuff back to camp first.”
I’d always thought of myself as a proactive person, but in this situation I’m flailing. It’s too much. Daisy is lost, and I think it’s breaking me.
What could have happened? She got turned around in the woods? Or maybe there was some kind of pit that she fell in. We haven’t seen any large mammals, and I’m pretty sure they don’t exist on these islands, so it’s not like something ‘got’ her.
The only large mammal we don’t have a bead on is Harvey.
I consider the idea that he may have snatched her. It would be a crazy move; he’d know we’d track him down and kill him. Is he that crazy? Maybe several months alone are enough to send someone over the edge. I have to keep close to Key, just in case.
I picture Leander, Killian, and Gray spreading through the jungle, looking for their love. They won’t rest until they find her. It’s surprisingly not weird that the three of them love her and share her. Yeah, she’s the only chick on the island, but this isn’t like that. I see Daisy and I see she is a little bit broken like the rest of us. When the three guys and Daisy come together, they seem whole.
I often wish I was part of the equation, but then remind myself that Key is my priority.
And I don’t deserve a happy ever after.
The Forestry Service had paid for us all to have therapy, for mental recovery they said, on top of the physical recovery. I quit after one session. If you fuck up and it costs people their lives, then you have no right to ‘forgive yourself’ and ‘move on’. Fuck that bullshit.
I was in my emergency shelter, flames racing towards us and smoke everywhere, I listened to Alicia on the radio, crying for her baby. I heard Carlo reciting the rosary. Hutch never said a word.
And Stephan.
“Rex, are you there?”
“I’m here.”
“We are going to die up here.”
