Unfit For Survival (Ark Fanfic.)

*Sneak Peek* Chapter 13: Leaping Instead Of Baby Steps

So it turned out that I wasn't sneaky. At all. I tried though but it only took four days of me being literally tied to my bed to make sure I got the rest I needed to heal and Benedetto moving into my room for my plan to be exposed. None of it, especially him taking over my room, was planned.

Okay, stating he took over my room was an understatement but it still happened. Dominique and Etienne of course got accepted into the tribe with no issues and were given the option to have a house built for them like me and Benedetto. Dom hated that idea. Hated it. She was ready to leave the tribe altogether until she took it upon herself to claim one of the rooms in our house. Benedetto firstly suggested that she room with Fish but I still didn't trust her not to try eating him. Never would I trust her with him again. Ever. Naturally she didn't like that idea either so then the fun idea of Benedetto moving into MY room came up and that's what they went with while I napped. 

It wasn't bad having him in my room- our room- and he made us a bigger bed so that I wouldn't feel too overwhelmed which was nice. But I couldn't move the entire time. Sacniete had Chidubem tie me to the bed so that I wouldn't be tempted to try sitting up when I was meant to be resting. That meant that I was helpless to do really anything for myself. Benedetto didn't seem to mind at all and in fact was almost glad to do things for me.

It was weird.

So with him living with me, it was near impossible to plan anything without him knowing. He caught me writing in the journal one day and looked in it before I could shove it under the pillow. After that, he grilled me on it. I caved embarrassingly quickly and told him that I planned to leave. I naturally kept out the part about the artifacts, caves, giant spider and space station. Of course I felt bad about it, but it was still weird to me. Instead I only told him about wanting to leave because the First Brothers knew where I was and so did Etienne's old group. The First Brothers already came by the Twin Suns' area to look for me. We have enough guards on birds that someone spotted them coming and my body was moved to a wooden stretcher so that I could keep resting while they whisked me away to safety. I was taken down to the basement of Sacniete's hut and shut into a room I hadn't noticed in the back of it. The door to the room itself was covered in dirt to make it blend into the rest of the walls so it wasn't difficult to understand why I hadn't seen it before. I made sure Dom was hidden with me due to the fact that she was young, fit, and attractive. The last thing I wanted was the First Brothers taking her away to make them babies.

My worry for her made me extend an invitation to leave with me and Benedetto. I was surprised that he hadn't objected to me wanting to leave in the first place, but wasn't very surprised when he stating that he would be coming too. Dom said she didn't want to stay without us so she readily agreed. And then Seb found out. I still didn't know how but while he said he couldn't come with us, he could at least help prepare us. How Etienne found out about it though was beyond me. He ended up inviting himself along too which meant the trip that I meant to go on solo became a group thing. 

"Are you ready, Isabella? We can wait a few more days if you need it." Benedetto finished checking through both of our bags and looked at where I was sitting on the edge of the bed.

"I'm fine. It's not as if we're going to be walking." We planned to fly to the tree house that I stayed in with Nick for a day or two. From there we would try to track down one of the tribes we trade with and see if they actually know where a cave is because that was still one thing that I didn't know. Then we'd see if there was a safe house located near it and we'd head there. And if they didn't know where one was, we would go with my initial plan and head north to the furthest safe house. Mikey, Fish, and Bunny would be staying behind until we figured out a more permanent place to set up. I didn't want to subject any of them to the freezing cold. I also hated the thought of leaving them behind but I trusted my tribe mates to watch over them.

"You say that, but you nearly broke your wrist again just by sleeping on the bed." Raising his brow in amusement, he crossed over to me and gently held my cheek in his hands.

"Hey! You can't blame me for getting tangled up in the blanket. I was asleep and it's a stupidly long blanket. Seriously, why do we even have it on our bed? It's basically a scarf for a giant!" I angrily reached behind me for the blanket that was the source of my rage.

"So helpless." What used to be a common insult turned into something endearing at some point. He always said it with a kind voice and paired it with a tender kiss to my forehead. 

"Yeah, but you're so helpful. See. We're a pretty good pair." 

We shared a sweet kiss before we heard the door to Dom's room slam open.

"Let's get going. I'd like to reach the place before noon tomorrow." She pounded on the door and we heard her leave the house. 

She was meant to get Etienne and then head to the bird house. Seb and her went off a month ago to tame her a flyer for herself. It was an argentavis like McFly and she named her Lorraine after George McFly's wife in Back To The Future. I had never been more proud of her. Seb practically asked her to marry him but she literally this-is-Sparta kicked him when he went to kneel down. That nearly made me propose to her. 

"This'll be fun." I sent Benedetto a smile that didn't reach my heart. I was scared. My bag felt more heavy than I was sure it was and weighed me down. At least I wasn't leaving alone. I'd be just fine.