"Don't come around here and be a slave to all ideas. Sing Halleluia, if it's a thing that helps you breathe. Your iron rulers often had me on my knees."- BASTILLE // Axe to Grind
A crack of thunder. One thousand elephants crashing down on the ground. A firecracker going off in my ear.
A cannon shooting in the jungle.
Diana's eyes flash open. "What was that?"
I pull my arm away from the stick I was using to tend the fire. Glancing around our new campsite, I see that the others noticed it too.
Standing up, I feel the letters shift in my pocket. I can only hope they're still in tact enough to read.
Perry walks over to me, Janis and Alice flanking him, although Alice is still limping from her ankle.
"Did you hear that?" He asks me.
"No I'm deaf," Alice says sarcastically. I laugh, making the others look at me strangely.
"Sorry," I mutter.
"Was that a cannon?" I ask. I've never heard one before of course, but I know what the basic sound is.
Shrugging, but not casually, Perry says, "I remember seeing something like that on the flight down here."
Raising an eyebrow, Diana asks, "What do you mean?"
"I mean I saw a tent with a big insignia on it. It was the same one on the website where we bought our plane tickets."
A horrible thought strikes me. "Was the insignia black and white?"
Perry looks confused, as if he thinks I'm psychic. "How did you know that?"
I glance to Bob, who's asleep by our new fire pit. "Uh, nothing. I've just seen that... before."
Somehow Perry manages to make shoving one's hands in their pockets look threatening. "Seen where?"
Janis and Alice both begin to look uncomfortable. There's always those stories about people who go crazy and kill each other when they're stranded.
"Around Punta Arenas," I mutter. It's not technically a lie. Those TVs have flashed Delgato's symbol every morning for the past three years.
Looking testy and unsatisfied, Perry says, "Well by that tent with the insignia, there was some kind of armory. I saw hundreds of weapons. And judging that we're in the northernmost part of Chile, the noise could come from there."
Everyone seems to accept this answer, whether they think it's correct or not. It's always easier to have an explanation.
We disperse to continue working, asides from Angelina and Diana, the former sending me looks when she's not crying over her friend Lisa. It's not like I've done anything to her.
Janis begins to tell Perry about how she and Alice traveled here. Apparently they won some competition at their school and got a free trip down to Chile. I don't know much about international travel, but I do know that my hometown isn't the favorite of tourists. So the idea that some people had a competition to win a trip to Punta Arenas is hard for me to believe.
Once again the desire to read the letter I found with my name on them overcomes me. I know I should be working, but someone or something in the hull anticipated my arrival. I was supposed to be there.
Glancing around to see if anyone is watching, I walk to the campfire and sit down. Bob's head lays dormant next to me, and for as second I consider waking him up to invite him to read these with me, but I decide against it. I need to find out what these letters mean for myself.
My hand quietly tears through the seal of the soaked paper and opens what's inside. Inside is a simple piece of paper. I don't receive many letters, but I suppose that's what can be expected.
Nervous, my head scans my surroundings. No one is watching, I think. Okay. Heart rate beginning to run faster, I unfold the paper and find that it's written in Spanish.
I read the first words and know that these letters are for me. Who else could own them if they didn't say Hola, Guadeloupe.
My breath hitches and the feeling that someone is watching me makes itself familiar again. But I continue anyways.
As I begin reading, my brain has trouble digesting what's it's reading.
You'll be reading this at some point I suppose. And if you are... that's not good. Your life is going to be very complicated soon, if not already. I just want you to know that I love you very much and no matter what you find out about our past, that remains the same.
I pause and let my mind swim and try not to drown. Who's writing this? Who loves me? I continue reading down the wet parchment.
Yes, we did work for Delgato, we still do, but that doesn't change anything. And if we're dead... well then I want you to understand that we still love you. No matter what happens.
My heart pulses. Eyes flashing to Bob, I can only wonder who I know that worked for Delgato. Or perhaps they know me.
It isn't long before the curiosity takes over.
My attention flicks to the bottom of the page. It only takes a second before I'm lost. Completely and utterly lost. My brain is wandering through an endless forest of thoughts because of what I see. Ten thousand questions rush into me.
It says: Your loving mother.
...
I don't listen to a word Perry or everyone else says tonight. We all place logs around the campfire and sit there to talk about what to do or something like that.
But I don't join them.
They all want to get out of this wilderness, but I want to get out of my mind.
The letter has become a plague to me, and Bob can tell. For the few hours he's awake, he asks me what I'd been doing. I consistently tell him I'll explain later, which doesn't seem to satisfy him.
But the truth is that I'm scared. I never thought that Bob's and my past life could have a connection, but now they do. Delgato and his mission seem to haunt me. It's like the insignia got up off those TVs, that tent, and my jaw to spend some time in my head.
The first letter I read makes me not want to read the rest. They lie in wait in my pocket, and I wonder if they're all addressed to me too. Are there even more horrifying messages for me to find?
"Guad?"
My eyes quickly try to blink their way back to the present. "Yes?" I ask.
Perry's staring at me. "Is the plan okay with you?"
Oh no, what did I miss out on? I wonder. "What plan?" I ask, feeling blood rush to my face. I messed up in front of all these people and now they're watching me look like an idiot.
"We're going to find some food from inside the plane and eat a bit of it before talking about ourselves. We need to get to know each other if we want to survive out here," Perry explains, not looking too judgemental about my lack of attention.
"There's food on the plane?" I ask blatantly.
I hear the stifle of a laugh somewhere to my right. With just a quick glance I can tell it's Angelina. With the one look I get a strange picture. She's laughing but doesn't have anything remotely close to a smile on her face. Is she just so unpleasant that she doesn't smile even when she's amused or is it something else?
"Well, they serve it on the flight," Perry tells me. I see a look that's something like embarrassment across his face. Knots curl in my stomach.
"Oh." I grit my teeth. "Okay."
"So is that plan good with you?"
"Yeah, I've got no problem with it."
Perry nods, looking relieved, as if he expected me to object to their idea.
Little does he know that with the life I've lived I'd never turn down an opportunity to find something to eat.
Before we go to sleep, Perry suggests we all stay around the campfire and get to know each other. "If we're going to be doing anything together, we might as well know who we are."
No one says otherwise, and I wish I could, which makes me shake my head. Since when did I want to disagree with a perfectly good suggestion just for the sake of agruing?
"I'll go first," Alice says when no one does anything. "I'm Alice Bradshaw and I'm 16. I'm from Wyoming and I like geology, playing the guitar, and reading." She pauses for a second. "That's it."
Janis smiles, looking satisfied with what her sister said. Alice spies the look on her face and lights up. "I almost forgot to mention the prominant fact that I am the more mature and older twin of the Bradshaw clan."
"You didn't have to mention that," mumbles Janis, looking annoyed.
"No, I was going to lie!" Alice says sarcastically.
Shaking her head, Janis takes the next turn. She looks a lot more deflated than before, as if Alice's words poked a hole in her. I don't know a lot about siblings, but these two don't look like the type to act like that.
"I'm Janis and I'm 16. Even though Alice is older, I'm better." She glances around at us. "I like to play the piano and draw. I almost had my letter in art at my high school."
Although I don't know what a letter is, I definitely don't like the way she uses past tense. I bite my lip.
Perry tries to scoop the conversation back up. "I'm Perry White and I'm 16. I like to read too, especially when I'm drinking coffee." He sends a look to Alice. Next to her, Janis stiffens. "I'm from California and I flew down here to take care of Diana and Angelina as they were on her trip."
I look to his sister and see an expression of sadness begin to build up on her face. Perry didn't mention the friend that came down with them.
Angelina looks like she's trying to stare down the horizon by the glare she's giving it. At least it's not directed to me for once.
"I'll go," I offer, feeling a light sensation flutter in my stomach. I've never had to talk in front of people before, but now I do.
"I'm Guadeloupe, but that's a girl's name so please just call me Guad." Angelina smirks and I think, Have I failed already? "I've always lived in Chile. I started living with Bob three years ago." Then I stop. What more is there to my life? I can't tell them about the letter from my dead mother, or how Bob's been abducted and under some kind of curse. I try to think of hobbies I have, anything, but I can't. If I'm not sleeping I'm working to get food and shelter. That is my life. So I say no more.
Bob goes. "I'm Bob Fincher and I'm 72."
My heart momentarily stops from confusion. Why did Bob use the last name Fincher? It isn't his. Why would he lie?
I've never really had a reason to watch Janis before, but it can't help but notice her now. She widened her eyes at the mention of his name, as if she can see through his lie.
I glance to my friend, who doesn't look back at me.
"I also play the guitar, and I've spent most of my life traveling the world. I'm also illiterate."
Diana can sense the silence, so takes the chance to go. "I'm Diana White and I'm 18. I came down here to go on vacation with my friends." Unless she's calling Perry a friend, she must be referring to the girl that died.
Saving her friend from crying, Angelina goes. "I'm Angelina Fisher and I'm 19. I lived in California too and I just graduated high school. I like coffee and that's about it."
Everyone nods, as if realizing that we're done with everyone.
And I begin to think, which isn't always a great idea. I've just met the group of people I'm going to be stranded with.
...
Tonight, we set up a battered tent found in the plane wreckage and give it to the girls. Inside are two sleeping bags they seem reluctant to use. I guess they want us to use them or something, which is a concept I don't understand. If you're offered something, why would you give it up?
Bob and I lie down with Perry around the campfire. As my head rests on the ground, I look at the vanishing light in the coals as they're smothered by the leftover ashes. No one speaks as we begin to go to sleep.
My dark locks play with the yellow grass that protrudes around my face until I call them in and tell them to go to bed.