Love, Blood and Wilderness | YELLOWJACKETS

Chapter 20

Tai entered with Shauna after a short period of, both of them looking distressed. I didn't care what happened really, all I cared about was the meat held in their hands for our dinner that hadn't yet occurred due to Shauna's absence. Although, the proportions were smaller than usual.

"Rations had to be cut back again. There's not much left."

Jesus fucking Christ.

ˏˋ°•*⁀➷

    Dinner was a shit show, once again. The hunger in our stomachs would be eased for another few days, but then we'd repeat the cycle and our rations would get smaller and smaller until we were completely out of meat, and with the all of the greenery buried by snow, we couldn't resort to plants or berries either.

    Our chances of survival were starting to thin out and I envied Jackie Taylor for escaping it.

    Shauna had made an exit back to the meat shed with Jackie's body, to no one's surprise. I watched Nat and Ben observe the map yet again, marking X's and circling areas.

    Nat's brows furrowed and I could see that she was visibly stressed, but I wasn't sure how to help her. If I could make a deer or a rabbit appear for her, I would. But until I can some sort of ability to do that, there wasn't really anything that I could do.

    Travis started gasping and trying to catch his breath. We all whipped our heads, looking at his chest rising and falling quickly, hyperventilating.

    "What's going on?"

    "Is he having a panic attack?"

    Travis continued to breathe heavily, his face going pale. Lottie stood up from her place and intervened.

    "Travis, look at me," she put her hand on his chest, "breathe with me, okay? You can do that, okay? Breath is the only thing in the world right now. Breathe in..."

    She inhaled and Travis obeyed her and copied her actions.

    "You're doing great. One more," Lottie instructed, breathing deeply once more, "okay. Your brother's alive. I know he is."

    Travis regained his ability to breathe, but also regained the ability to be aroused, because under his pants was a clear boner. I glared at him as he quickly covered himself off. Lottie coughed.

    "You should get some rest."

    Travis quickly exited the room, Mari snickered at him. Lottie gazed at me.

    "What the fuck was that?" Nat demanded, "Javi is... Look, giving him false hope is just going to make things worse."

    Nat was right, of course, but it bothered me how quickly she jumped in to defend Travis. I knew that they were friends and had some sort of "hunting bond" but it still didn't put me at any ease.

    "There's no such thing as false hope. There's just hope," Lottie paused and looked over at me again, "I told you that I could help you."

    Nat clenched her fists.

    "Did you read that in a fսcking fortune cookie? She doesn't need your help," Nat gestured to me, "and neither does Travis."

   "What do you want from me, Nat? I just said what I felt," Lottie grumbled, "and I can help him and I can especially help her. She needs me."

    I could feel everyone's eyes on me and I could feel my cheeks redden.

    "I want you to say less, Lottie, a lot fսcking less," Nat scowled, "you had your chance with her, but you fucking blew it. So it's me that gets to help her, not you."