Ruins: New Arrivals

Chapter 3: Acquaintances

I ran. I did not know where I was going or where I could go. I just ran. I was terrified. An island! How did I get here? Last thing I remember, I was in bed having a peaceful dream. Now I’m on some deserted island! I would have thought that I was still dreaming, but my rib hurt too bad for this to be a dream.



I came to a sort of crossroad; a break in either side of the tree line. Having lost Rhett and Emiko, I stopped to catch my breath. Suddenly, I was on the ground with an unbearable pain in my rib and maybe even a broken arm.

“Are you an idiot?” a voice asked.

I opened my eyes to see a guy with dirty blonde hair and brown eyes. “Meet Jim,” the guy said, pointing, but it wasn’t the same voice that had called me an idiot. I slowly began to sit up to see where he was pointing.

“Don’t you know to stay down, dummy, when you got a broken rib?” the voice asked rudely, “Collon, hold her down till Rhett gets here. I’m gonna go look for them.”

The blond-headed boy grabbed my shoulders and gently forced me back down. “Sorry,” he said. “That was Jim. Not very pleasant, is he?”

“You can…ergh…say that again.”

He was smiling like a mischievous kid.

“Are you enjoying this?” I asked, struggling to get loose.

“A little,” he admitted. “You remind me so much of my little sister. She’d squirm exactly like you do when I pinned her. So, mind tellin’ me your name?”

“Jia. Jia Mei. And I would…I’d be very grateful if you took your hands off me.”

“No can do, ma’am. Sorry. Jim's orders are very close to law here.”



Rhett came running, his face red from anger and exhaustion. “You’re pretty fast,” he said between breaths.

“And dumb!” The insulting voice added. I looked at Rhett. “You can’t do that,” he scolded. “It’s hard enough for me to fix a broken rib as it is without you breaking it even more. I realize you don’t know what else to do, but one: the forest is dangerous and two: you have a broken rib. Trust me, I have lived here since I was nine! Collon, let her go.”

Collon released me and helped me sit up.

“Now come on and let me get a cast on you. But you, Jim,” he turned to a brown-headed guy, “what’d you go and tackle her for! You could have just grabbed her instead of risking further injures to her! Now, help her up and let’s get back to camp.”

The guy, Jim, lifted me up and started leading me back through the forest, keeping a tight grip on my wrist and a stern look on his face.



On the way back, we passed Emiko, who was gathering water. As I went by, I could have sworn that the little anime child stuck her tongue out at me, a silent “I tried to stop you!”