The Forgotten Island

CHAPTER THIRTEEN:

CHAPPED LIPS AND DRY SKIN

-Arya-

Reality brought me back with the sounds of water lightly slapping against a hard surface, the taste of salt in my mouth, and a slight breeze tickling my arms. I licked my lips, tasting blood in between cracks. Bright sun penetrated my eyelids, and the pain in my body made me very aware that I did, in fact, survive the storm. I squeezed my eyelids shut, willing the past twenty-four hours to be a dream and I would wake up in my room. I lay there for a time, my eyelids squeezed, listening to the lapping of the water and the sounds of the wind rustling around me. My hip throbbed, and my throat felt like a cat had clawed its way through it. A soft whispering made me curious enough to open my eyes; slowly, centimeter by centimeter I opened them to investigate the source of the sound. Next to me sat Fish and Darnell, speaking about something I could not make out. Around me were a handful of surviving passengers, all sitting in what remained of our lifeboat. Where the roof had once been was now wide open to the sun and skies, with three out of the four walls still mostly in place. Most of the seating area was gone, leaving jagged edges where parts had been torn out from the storm. Fish noticed my movements and came to lay beside me, I could see she was worn out by the way she moved. “Arya” she said softly “Hey.”. I stared up at her, taking in her soft features and greasy hair. “Fish” I croaked out, the despair in my soul clear in my voice. She leaned forward slowly, a matching ache reflected on her face; softly…ever so softly she placed her forehead on mine.

Together we lay there, our foreheads touching and our souls finding comfort in each other as we each dealt with the tragedy in our hearts. “Arya” the deep baritone tore us out of our thoughts, and I looked up to see Darnell’s dark chocolate eyes staring at me “ ’Ow do you feel?”. His accent seemed a little deeper than it had before and looking at him I realized he wasn’t as old as I thought he was, he was perhaps in his late twenties with the very beginnings of crows feet starting around his eyes. “OK” I replied in a raspy voice, the simple word seeming to tear holes in my throat. He looked at Fish, then turned back to me and nodded, moving back to give Fish and I some space. Clearly, he was a man of few words, but at the moment I didn’t give a damn as I felt like I had been ran over by a freight train. “I was worried about you Arrie, you have been asleep for what seems like an entire day, nothing I could do would wake you.” I sat up on my elbows, trying to get a better idea of our surroundings, but my body revolted against me and I was forced to lay back down. Reaching back, I touched the spot on my head where I had hit the wall and my hand came away with old and fresh blood. The injury was worse than what I had thought if there was still fresh blood seeping out. I sighed, wondering how things had gone so wrong and whether or not having my own mental pity party was allowed in a situation like this. Allowed, hell, it isn't like a rule book for how to deal with disasters was written, but then again maybe one has. “Any idea where we are?” I asked Fish, who gave wide eyes and a shrug as my answer. “No idea, and we are alone; no other boats are out here with us.” She said after looking blankly at the ocean surrounding us. I closed my eyes, knowing I didn’t have anything else to do anyway and took stock of all my pain. It was difficult to pinpoint anything that didn’t hurt, even my toenails hurt it seemed. My skin itched from how dry I was, and I would have given almost anything for some lip balm. “OK, now dat everyone is awake, let us see what we ’ave for supplies.” Darnell stated, as he opened a large hatch that was at the front of the lifeboat. While I stayed put, watching from my space of floor, the others loosely circled around Darnell to see what we had. The supplies were as such:

1.Two fishing poles, with tackle

2.Water decontaminant tablets

3. A First Aid Kit with Tylenol

4. Emergency rations for sixty people for seven days, including 3 liters of water for each person

5. Blankets that looked like tinfoil

6.A survival manual

7.Two hatchets

8.A compass

9. Ten flares

10.A signaling mirror

11.Anti-sea sickness medication

12.A whistle

13.Rope

14.Anchor

15.Two buckets

16. Four flashlights

17.One emergency locator beacon

18.Two tin cups

19.One can opener

20.A searchlight

We all just kind of sat there, looking at our supplies with various looks on our faces. Some had hope, others looked like they were lost, and a couple seemed angry. I felt numb to it, feeling like the pile of items was better than I expected but less than what I had hoped for. Why couldn’t they have added any soap, and why were there only two cups on a boat meant to hold 60 passengers? Hopefully, no one had a germ problem on board otherwise they were going to have some serious dehydration problems. I thought fleetingly about how those who didn’t survive the storm gave us prolonged life with their share of rations but didn’t dwell on it as it made me feel guilty to think such things. Darnell rummaged around in the first aid kit for a moment before setting aside one box of food rations and some water, then placing the remaining items back in the hold. Inside the small box were 9 bars, each having 3 squares that were meant to be broken off. Darnell quietly went to each person, giving them a bar of food and some water. It seemed that everyone on board had accepted him as the unofficial leader of our little group, which was fine by me. When he got to Fish and I, he handed me two Tylenol tablets with my water and food. Once I had swallowed the tablets he motioned for me to sit up, and Fish gave me some support so that I could do so. My head swam from the movement, and I felt the world spin around me, but it settled after a moment while Darnell inspected my injury. “Dis does not look good, Earth child” he murmured “Let me see what we ’ave that can clean it from de first aid kit.”

As he walked away Fish helped me lay back down and whispered in my ear “He is from an island somewhere, he has been really nice and suggested I practice using my water abilities more often to get stronger.” By the look in her eyes, it seemed she thought he was a lot more than nice, but I didn’t have the energy to question her about it. I would have to file the questions away for another time when I was feeling better, and I would get better; I did not survive all of that just die from a head wound. Fish saying she wanted to get stronger interested me a lot more, and I decided once I could, I would do the same thing. Whatever happens next, I had a feeling we would need that strength.