Lost & Found- James Conrad

Chapter 6

James and I spent the night together talking about everything. The following day we headed towards our group holding hands. Hank smiled when he saw our hands intertwined. Hank led the group to the grave of Gunpei. "This man's name was Gunpei Ikari. If you take away the uniforms and the war, then he became my brother. And we swore never to leave each other behind." I walked over and hugged Hank. He smiled at me. He grabbed the Kanata from Gunpei's grave. "Let's get off this island." We all quickly made our way to the boat. We began working as quickly as possible. After a little while, we began to test to see if the engine would work. James was pulling the engine start. I was cheering everybody on.

"Third time's a charm!" James pulled the chain once again and the engine sputtered, then it turned on. The entire boat screamed. "Yes!" We were all hugging each other. The boat began to drift away from the dock. Hank and I made our way to the front of the boat. We looked out and saw the Iwis looking at all of us leave. "I guess this is goodbye." Hank wrapped his arm around my shoulder in a fatherly way.

"If you're ever in Chicago, look me up, I guess." The gate opened to allow our boat to pass to the other side. Everybody took turns driving the boat. Whenever James was driving I would stand next to him as he put his arm around my waist. Hank talked about what he was going to do when he finally returned home. "I got a wife. Had a wife. Have a wife? I guess I don't know anymore. I got hitched right before I was deployed. I got a telegram from her the day before I got shot down. She said we had a baby boy. I have a son out there, a grown man I've never met." James and I smiled at Hank.

"Yeah, she definitely thinks you're dead man," Slivko said plainly. I smacked Slivko hard on the leg.

James smacked the top of the roof. "Hey!" Slivko raised his hands in the air defensively.

"I'm just saying." I finally decided to step in.

"You don't know that. You'd be surprised how long people wait. I should know." I leaned into James.

"The truth is that I don't expect him to be waiting. That will be fine either way. I just want one last chance to see them. That would be good enough for me." Hank looked at the both of us. "You know it's great to see you happy, Liz. I know that you struggled quite a bit being here on the island." I smiled as I looked at James.

"I finally found the thing I've been longing for." I felt Jame's grip on my waist tighten a little bit.

"We're going to get the both of you home," James said to the both of us. It was quiet for the longest time until we heard somebody on the radio.

"Fox five, is anyone out there?" Slivko quickly grabbed the radio.

"This is Fox Five, we hear you. We're on a boat. We're on a boat, headed up north, on the river."

"A boat? Where did y'all get a boat?" I heard somebody ask on the other end.

"Well, we met this crazy time traveler guy, looks like Santa Claus. And this girl who is this crazy tracker/animal tamer. You'll meet the both of them."

"What kind of boat y'all got?"

"It's more of a plane than a boat. It's called a ploat. Yeah, we're on a ploat." I could hear the excitement in Slivko's voice as he talked to his fellow soldiers.

"We need their location. Slivko," James called out.

"Hey, send up a flare so we can find you." As soon as he asked a bright red flare shot up into the sky just north of our location. Everybody cheered tiredly. "We have a visual. Two klicks to our north." He collapsed in relief. We all needed that little bit of good news today. I heard the sound of flapping after a few moments. I walked outside to see several dactyls heading our way.

"WATCH OUT!" I screamed. Nieves was too late to get out of the way. He was grabbed by four different dactyls. I knew that I couldn't stop the dactyls from eating Nieves. James and Slivko had their guns pointed at the birds. Knowing what was about to happen I grabbed the gun from James and shot Nieves right in the skull. Slivko was going to yell at me but everybody saw a dactyl rip off one of Nieves's arms. I gave the gun back to a shocked Conrad. "I ended his life so he wouldn't have to suffer."

"What the hell, man?" Slivko asked. Brooks started freaking out.

"No, no. Wait a minute. Is nobody going to say anything about the birds?" He shouted at us.

"He's gone. And he ain't coming back. There's nothing to say." Hank said to everybody. When we finally reached the shore. We all got off the boat quietly. We made it to a small clearing to wait around for the other group to meet up with us.

"Their flare was only two klicks north of us. They should be here soon," Conrad said to everybody, though it sounded like he was reassuring himself.

"Unless they were eaten by something that's bigger than us," Mason said under her breath. The group made their way through the trees and headed for us. All the soldiers were hugging each other. Hank and I stood back watching the interaction. When the leader saw the both of us he started. James saw him staring at the both of us.

"Colonel, we picked up some hitchhikers." I walked forward towards the Colonel. I stuck out my hand for him to shake.

"Pleasure to meet you, sir. Queen Liz Jackson." He shook my hand.

"Queen?"

"Yes, sir. The people and creatures on this island listen to most of my commands." He laughed.

"Where have you been all this time?"

"Been on the island for fifteen years, after a scientific exploration went wrong. I was the one who found this group at their crash site." He nodded.

"At least we have someone powerful like you on our side." Colonel turned to look at Hank.

"Lieutenant Hank Marlow of the 45th suit squadron of the 15th." Hank saluted the colonel.

"You've been here since World War 2?"

"Yes, sir. I missed the parade?"

"I'll be damned." I stepped forward again.

"Sir, we need to get home. We'll follow this river, make it to the boat, and we'll make it to the north shore in time." The colonel nodded again.

"That sounds good, but we're not leaving yet." I stared at him in shock. "We still got a man out there, Conrad."

"Wait you still got someone out there?" I asked.

"Chapman," Colonel stated completely ignoring me. "He's with a downed Sea Stallion just west of here." Hank and I were in shock.

"West!" We both stated at the same time. Marlow continued, "We can't go west. That's where the skull crawlers live. We have an old saying here, east is best, west is worst. That's why we say it. The only person who has made it back alive from the west side of the island is Liz and that's because she can control the skull crawlers."

"Even then I've barely made it out of that place with my life at times." I lifted my tank top to show my back. I had three deep slashes across my back that I got from a rogue skull crawler. "Sometimes the animal inside these creatures still tend to break free."

"Guys," Mason said. "I think we should listen to Liz and Marlow. This is crazy." Colonel looked towards James.

"Your job here was to find lost men. Right?" I turned to look at James. He looked at me then turned back to the Colonel.

"Okay, sir. But if we reach that position and Chapman's not there, we don't send out a search party. We're back here by nightfall. Understand?" The Colonel smirked.

"Roger that. Hear you loud and clear. We're moving out in ten." I was walking with James when I heard Hank.

"This is a good group of boys to die with. You shouldn't have come here."