Survivors

25

"How ya feeling?" Yaz asked.

"Like I got punched in the stomach by a porcupine.  So, you know, better," Sammy answered. We all smiled at her.

Darius looked up at the sky. "We should probably head to the boat while there is a break in the storm," he said.

"What about the Scorpius Rex?" Brooklynn asked.

"We'll have to risk it," Darius said. We all packed up our stuff and I grabbed whatever arrows I had. In total, there were around twenty arrows in my quiver.

Brooklynn was packing up food when she looked in disgust at a can of carob. She looked around before tossing it behind her. She looked up to see Darius. "It was the right call," he said, "Can't take everything."

We then started walking off into the jungle. I had an arrow notched and was looking around.

"Uh guys... where's Ben?" Brooklynn asked.

We all looked around and saw that Ben was nowhere in sight.

"Ben!" Kenji yelled.

"Ben!?" Brooklynn shouted.

"The idiot must have gone after Bumby," I realized.

"Then I'm going after him," Darius said.

"Wait, no, bad idea. Very bad idea," I said, putting the arrow back in my quiver and strapping my bow to my back.

"Anyone else seeing the irony?" Yaz asked as she supported Sammy.

"Fine, let's go. The sooner we find Ben, the sooner we go home," Brooklynn said.

"No, we can't risk all of us. The Scorpius is still out there. I'm going alone," Darius explained.

"You can't go alone. Like you said, the Scorpius is still out there. And it could get you," I said, "Why do you want to do everything alone?"

Darius pause for a while before answering. "We can't risk losing someone else. I'm going after Ben. If I'm not back by sunrise, well, you know what that means," he explained.

"You can't go alone! At least let one of us come with you!" I exclaimed. What I really meant was, let me come with you.

"Chris is right. You can't do this alone," Yaz agreed.

Darius's eyes suddenly went wide. He then shushed all of us. "Shh! Over there," he whispered, pointing at the forest behind us. We all turned around to see... nothing.

I then turned around to see Darius gone. "Son of a bitch," I muttered. He fucking tricked us. That got me angry. I clenched my fists.

"Okay, yeah, I'm starting to pick up on that irony thing you were talking about," Brooklynn said.

"What do we do now?" Sammy asked.

"We go to the boat," I said through gritted teeth. We then all walked towards the boat, me in front.

"Darius, Darius?" Brooklynn asked through the walkie-talkie.

"He must have turned off his walkie-talkie. That idiot," I said, clenching my fists hard.

We continued walking and Kenji started kicking a rock. "Stupid Darius thinking we're gonna stupid leave without him on that stupid boat," he muttered.

"Don't worry Kenji. Kid's got major FOMO. He'll make it before sunrise," Brooklynn reassured. FOMO? What the fuck is that?

"But will we?" Kenji asked as we all stare at the broken trees.

"Well, that's just great! Things are going wonderfully for us!" I yelled throwing my hands up in the air. Rubbing my temples, I turned my back to the others. Why did Darius even have to leave? Why couldn't he just let me go with him? I was still really pissed off at him.