Island Rush (46 page)

I rolled to my knees quickly, backing away with my victory smile.  There were small stones laying all around me, buried in the grass from all the other times Casey used them.  Before I got to my feet, I grabbed a couple of stones before he could do anything.  I put the first stone against the vine, pulled it back, and let it fly in his direction. 

I chuckled as he tried blocking it.  It hit his chest. “Ouch!” he said but with a smile.

He looked at me with pursed lips before getting up to come after me.  But by the time he was on his feet, I was ready to shoot another stone at him.  When I did, it hit him in the leg before I moved out of his reach.  I dodged him again as I pelted the small stones at his body.

I moved swiftly, running in circles in the same area as he chased me between the trees.  I would get another stone ready, turn while still moving, and shoot it at him. Through his shielding hands, the laughs were evident in the air and mixed with mine. 

I couldn’t have picked a better place to be at the time with him. I mean, where else could we do this?  Sure, living on an island is extremely hard.  It’s not exactly paradise when our stomachs are growling.  Or when we get hurt all the time for stupid reasons.  But at home, this wouldn’t happen with Casey.  This was freedom.  I loved every second of my time here with him. 

“You might as well keep running because if I catch you, you’ll be sorry.  You’ll be more than sorry!  You will say it!” he shouted, chasing after me.

“We’ll see!” I shouted back.  My only other reaction was to circle back around another tree before putting my last stone against the vine.  I pulled it back, turning to find where he was.  I squealed in surprised though at the sight of him so close.  I was able to quickly shoot one more at him before I turned back around to continue running from him.

Of course, he finally got me.  I felt one strong arm swipe around my torso and stop me from running, lifting me when he pressed his chest against my back.  I laughed and struggled, but he held me tightly.  When I felt the ground hit my feet, I tried escaping from him, but I knew I was doomed.  I purposefully dropped the slingshot to the ground, knowing it wouldn’t help anymore.

“‘We’ll see’ you say?” he teased as his other hand swept under my legs, pulling me up into his arms so he was now holding me bridal style.  Though that was wonderful in general, I was disappointed he held me now.  I knew he would want revenge. 

“Yes, that’s what I say.  I don’t take it back because it is true!  You hit yourself sixty out of the seventy times you were pelted with stones.”  I smirked.  The ten after sixty were recently given to him by me. “And I’m not sorry.  That was fun!”

He shook his head.  “Bad choice of words, Miss Reeves.” 

He began to walk with me through the woods and towards the sound of the waterfall, meaning we were nearing the shelter.  When it came into sight, he didn’t stop.  He kept walking towards the bank of the lake, and it was then that I realized what his plan was.  And according to the sky, he picked a good time for his revenge since it was nearing night soon. 

He walked towards the bank, and it was then that I gave up.  “Okay!  Stop, stop, stop.  I’m sorry!” I chuckled.

He slowed to a stop and looked down to me in his arms,  “What was that?”

“You win.  I take it back!”

“Hmm… I don’t think that’s what you said.  You said you would never take it back.”

“I do!  You are…” I chuckled as I continued speaking my next words.  “King.  You are amazing and have nice hair and pretty eyes!  You didn’t hit yourself sixty times with stones!”

He considered it and finally said, “That sounds like something a suck up would say.”

“Well, it’s very true.  I said it!  Now you can’t throw me in the water.”

“If I put you down, do you promise not to pelt me to death?”

“Yeah, yeah.  I promise.”

He put me down on the bank, and I stared up at him, a smile still solid on both of our faces.  “Were you really going to throw me in?” I asked.

He shrugged.  “Sure.  Why wouldn’t I?  Don’t you think you deserved it?”

“Yes, but it’s nearing dark.  My sweet man wouldn’t do such a thing to me.”

He laughed,  “I think I would have.  Not because I wanted you to suffer exactly,  but it would mean you would have to warm up.  Even if it meant doing whatever, it would take to achieve that state of warmth.”  I smiled up at him and couldn’t help a blush.  Before I could say anything to that, he continued, “But... I don’t need an excuse to keep you close.  You will be back in my arms tonight.”

“Well, tonight is coming any second.  So I think it would be best to get our ‘dinner’ for the night first before we can’t see.”

Walking up the bank further on the other side towards the waterfall, we were quickly approaching the berry bushes.  Every day, we would go twice a day - for breakfast and dinner.  Of course, that’s what I was relating it to.  It wasn’t anything close to what a normal breakfast and dinner were.  We would go up and pick a couple berries for each of us and return for a few more. 

As every trip up and back to the bushes occurred, we both secretly grew more worried, knowing there were fewer berries every time.  Tonight was different.  By the time we reached the bushes, we both went our own way, checking each for berries.  After a few minutes of looking, we felt the panic around us rise.  We rushed around to every bush, checking every inch of each small branch.  When we found nothing, Casey was the one who finally said it, “There are no berries left.”

Chapter 48

I woke with my head resting on Casey’s chest, his arms wrapped around me.  But how did I wake exactly? Maybe from his light snoring, or possibly the breeze that I could hear sifting through the trees.  Unfortunately, today was different.  I woke from my stomach growling.

I groaned, seeing it was dawn. I rested my head back against the fabric of his shirt, his chest moving slightly from his even breathing. I closed my eyes, knowing there was nothing I could do about my hunger. I tried falling back asleep, but I couldn’t. My stomach felt hollow, and the ache made me feel as if it was going to swallow me whole. And it’s only been over a day since I’ve last eaten.

Yesterday, the morning after we realized how fast this problem was developing, we spent the whole day practicing.  By the time the sun sunk behind the ocean, we were slow and tired and just wanted to quit. When we did and made a fire, we were asleep soon after, not bothering to even use the energy to talk.  We weren’t used to not eating.

To fix that meant to go fishing. And to go fishing meant we needed to learn how. Last night we both decided today, we should try going out to catch something. I was improving my aim and power behind it, so I think I had a good chance. However, Casey… well, he wasn’t as good as me, but he could easily hit a target.  Either way, we had a good chance.

Trying to tell myself I couldn’t just lay here all day as I wanted, I felt him start to stir under me.  His smooth and even snoring jumped out of rhythm since he was beginning to wake up. I didn’t move so he most likely assumed I was still sleeping with my head tilted out of his eyesight.

I felt him groan under me, and I knew he didn’t want to get up either. I felt a gentle hand carefully run over my hair with his fingers stroking softly over my knotted and greasy head.  I closed my eyes at the feeling of his fingers, gradual shivers running over me from it. 

I forced myself, this time, to get up, to move.  I turned my head over so I was still against him now I was looking at him.  His hand never stopped as he gave me a soft smile.  “Good morning, beautiful,” he said before a yawn escaped his mouth. 

“Good morning,” I said, smiling. “Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah, but my night went by too fast.  Can’t we just say we did and don’t?  I’m sure you don’t want to spend the day trying to get a fish when we can just sleep.”

“I don’t.  I think we both know how important it is though that we do.  Every day we don’t eat, more energy of ours disappears.”

I rolled off him and over, leaning up on my elbows and resting them on the clothing under us.  I leaned in closer to his face and gave him a nice kiss which he softly returned.  I felt a smile turn up at his lips before I pulled away, looking at his face.  He lifted his hand and brushed it over my cheek, moving the loose hair behind my ear. 

“We always have the bark, remember?  I’d eat anything just to stay lying here with you.”

I smiled, “Or to keep sleeping, which I think is something we both agree with, but we need to get up.”  I got to my feet and stepped out of the shelter, glancing over at the remaining smoke from last night rising up to the morning sky. 

I stretched and stripped off the pair of men’s sweatpants I slept in while I saw Casey sit up and pull his shirt off.  The day was already warming, even though it was dawn.  As I found the pair of shorts I wore yesterday and put them on, I saw Casey fall back on the stiff cot with a groan, wanting more sleep.

“We need a bed,” he mumbled, his forehead pressed against his arm and his voice aimed at the ground. 

I smiled.  “Right, because a bed is more important than eating.”

“It is right now.  It’s only dawn for Christ’s sake,” he chuckled.  “I’ll love you forever if you let us sleep.”

“Sorry,” I said, grabbing the spear. 

“I hate you,” he loudly moaned overdramatically in his arm as he rolled over and got up.

I chuckled, “I know, but you’ll take that back when we catch something today.”

“We could have had a bed built by now,” he said while we walked through the water, heading back to shore after a long day – a long day of nothing.

I chuckled, tightening my hand in his while in my other hand, I held the spear.  “Why so anxious about getting a bed built, hmm?” I smirked up at him.

He blushed and continued to look forward, even though I saw a small smile.  “Maybe it’s because I’m sick of sleeping on a few pieces of fabric.  It’s too firm for my liking.  We could get that done and over with fast, unlike this awful task.”

I laughed and finally, the rocks turned into soft sand as we came closer to shore.  As we did, something caught my eye that I somehow missed coming down here.  I squinted, trying hard to see what it was that was lying on shore. “What’s that?”

We both stopped.  Casey looked to where I indicated. “I don’t know.  I don’t remember seeing it when we came down here.”

“Well, we wouldn’t have.  We were focused on one thing.  There is no way our eyes would have caught that.”

Regardless, we started forward again, and when we were close enough, I knew what it was.  I wished that we just kept walking and ignored it.  Despite how much this would repulse us, we were at the point of having no choice if we wanted something to eat. 

“How old do you suppose it is?” I asked.

“At least a day or probably older than that, unfortunately.”

We continued to stare down at it and the few bugs hovering around the dead fish.  Bones were already visible, and it looked to be rotting.  Wet sand coated the slimy scales where the water was still rushing up on shore and back to the ocean.  The stench was noticeable, even from standing a few feet away.  Just looking at it did me in. 

To know we couldn’t just walk away made me feel worse.  I would rather go without food was all I could think. I saw one of its eyes were missing. “It’s already too rotten to eat, right?” I asked him, desperate to get out of this. 

He didn’t answer, which confirmed it.  I groaned in disgust as I looked at it.  Casey stepped forward, kneeling down and took it by its slimy tail, holding it up as he got to his feet.

“Damn it, Casey,” I moaned as I turned and walked back towards where the creek released its fresh water into the ocean.

He sighed and spoke from behind me, following me, “Trust me, I know.”

A little while later was when I felt repulsed to the max. I watched carefully, absolutely sure I would be doing this at some point.  It was disgusting.  We were sitting on the grassy bank under one of the low trees, our feet in the water.  Casey was bent over with the knife and dead fish in his hands.  The skin of scales and slime came pealing back and fell to the creek, floating down and back out to the ocean.  The fact that we would actually get to eat was my only positive motivation, and I kept repeating it to myself as I watched. 

I could no longer tell it was once a fish, which might be a good thing.  Small bones were clearly visible, though.  Casey set the dead fish in the grass after he carved out all its skin and let it fall to the creek.  With the knife, he dug out something small with a light brownish or white color.  He set the knife down, picking up whatever part it was of the fish.  Disgust crossed his face before he quickly opened his mouth and dropped whatever it was between his open lips.  He shivered with disgust as he ate whatever it was but he stopped after he swallowed it.  He took a breath and looked up to me, sympathy crossing his face because of how much he knew I would hate this.  I already was uneasy about it.

He bent back down, grabbing the knife and flipping the fish over on its other side.  Holding it with one hand, he dug the knife into it, the sound making me cringe.  He once again dug out something mushy and white - the edible part of the fish, its meat.  When he grabbed it, he paused, looking at me and waiting.

All I could do was shake my head in disgust, “I’m fine.  I don’t need to eat.”

He raised his eyebrow, knowing that wasn’t the case, “It’s not that bad.  We need to get used to this.”

“Don’t you need to cook it?”

“You can but don’t need to.”  He held it out to me, wanting me to take it, “Just eat it.”

I took it from his hand and wanted to drop it to the grass.  Not only could I still smell the rotting stench of fish, but it was also slimy and damp too.  I stopped breathing through my nose, not needing the smell to stop me.  Looking away from it, I opened my mouth and quickly dropped it on my tongue. 

It was disgusting!  I was quick to swallow it, not bothering to chew it.  I just wanted this over with.  I was happy that it easily slid down my throat thanks to it being slimy. 

“That was gross,” I sighed.

He nodded, “Is it something you can handle doing daily when we start catching real fish?”

“Yeah, it wasn’t so bad I guess.”

I inched closer to the bank where I reached down, letting the water run over my hands in the creek.  Then I cupped both hands together, bringing water up to my mouth to get the taste out of my mouth. 

I moved back, sitting next to Casey again in the grass.  I followed his eyes to where they rested on the destroyed fish and its remains. “Is that it or is there more?”

He bent back over.  This time with his finger, he dug out a few more small pieces.  Giving another to him and me, I watched as he quickly put it in his mouth and ate it.  Looking down at a piece of our dinner in my hand, I looked back up to him.

“Chew it this time,” he said after he ate his.

I groaned and again, quickly tossed back my piece of fish.  This time, I forced myself to chew.  I tried to focus on Casey as I ate it.  Of course, though, that taste lasted even after I swallowed.  So, I bent back over towards the creek and washed my mouth out.

I looked back over to Casey. “It’s not that bad. Watching you, though, you don’t even seem to mind it.”

“Oh, it tastes the same as it does for you.  It’s gross.  I just need to treat this as something that will soon be an average occurrence.  I need to get used to it.”

Looking back down to what was left, I asked, “What do we do with this?  Toss it in the creek?”

He sat there for a moment, thinking something over as his eyes remained fixed on what was left of the fish. “No. We can keep the bones.”

“For what?”

“The bones can be useful.  On an island, nothing can go to waste depending on how desperate someone is.  Plus, I have an idea.  For now, though, we should get the bones.”

Eyeing the mess before us, I couldn’t help but give him a sarcastic comment, “That sounds fun.  Keep ripping the fish apart to save the bones.”

He chuckled and grabbed the knife again, only to pause and glance at me.  “Do you want to do it this time?  It should be easier than digging out its meat.  All you need to do is tear it apart.”

“If anybody actually wanted to do this, they would be considered crazy.  But I guess I’ll do it.  Better to try it now than later, right?”

He nodded, but he didn’t hand me the knife.  Instead, he got to his feet and walked a few feet away to where the bush covered the forest.  He snapped a large leaf from a short tree in reach and walked back over to me with it.  He must have seen my confused look because he started to explain what he was doing.

“We’ll take it back to camp, and then you can pick the bones out while I make a fire.  Otherwise, you will be sitting here in the cold and dark.  Here,” he said, kneeling back down and spreading the leaf in front of us.  “Put it all on here.”

I nodded, and we put the fish on the leaf since it held and secured more than our hands would with fragile remains.  I grabbed the two opposite ends of the leaf, and the fish slid securely in the middle when I lifted it.  We both got to our feet and walked back to camp.

The fire Casey assembled blazed bright, the blades of the flames reaching towards the orange sky.  It would be dark soon, but until that happened, I took advantage of the daylight.  Sitting by the fire in the grass next to Casey, both of us wrapped in warmer clothes, I got to work.  Sitting with my legs crossed and facing the fire, my hands worked over the remains that sat on the leaf.  It was harder than I expected it would be to remove the bones after picking it apart.