Sarah sat on a flat rock, winding the shoelace around the bamboo and through the holes punched in the thick green leave. Don and Kevin had lashed the bamboo into a rough frame, Charlie had poked holes in the leaves, Mike was gathering shoes to remove the shoelaces from them, and Lori was holding the baby. The baby seemed to think helping was running over, grabbing something, and running away giggling. If she made it that far, she'd throw it in the creek.
Tommy, Bree, and Renee were still down at the lagoon. Supposedly they were gathering up the supplies left behind, but Sarah had noticed that Raincloud, Emily, and Richard were the ones bringing up the suitcases and the other wreckage the group of survivors had recovered.
Sarah stopped, leaning back to ease the pain in her lower back and to flex her hands. She already had blisters from cutting the leaves, then lacing them onto the frame.
Only two shelters had been "finished", if you could call it that, or even really call them shelters. They were lopsided, not tall enough to stand up in, barely long enough to lay down in, and too wide to be really comfortable.
Emily came up, hauling two more suitcases, setting them down and puffing heavily. The heavyset late-twenties housewife was red, her brown hair matted with sweat and grease, and her face covered in sweat that ran down her face in thick rivulets.
"Those three lazy assholes are just sitting around watching us work," She snarled.
"I know. We should all be pulling together, but sometimes it doesn't work that way," Don said, holding the bamboo rod so that Kevin could tie it to the to next one.
"Doesn't it bother any of you?" Emily asked, swinging her arms back and forth to work out the soreness.
"Well, yeah, but we can't force them to help us," Mike shrugged. "What are we going to do, tell them they can't pick fruit or something?"
"I don't know, something. I'm getting sick of Tommy the Smart Ass and Miss Richer Than Thou and Little Miss Valley Girl all sitting around on their asses," Emily said, turning and walking away. "It's going to be hard enough to survive without having to support three spoiled little brats," she threw over her shoulder.
Sarah just nodded, picking up another leaf and starting to tie it onto the bamboo frame.
"We're almost out of shoe laces," Kevin said. He shook his head. "Never thought I'd be irritated that more people didn't pack shoes instead of wearing them when they died."
Everyone stared anywhere but at each other at the reminder of all the dead from the plane.
The steady knocking sound had resumed and was loud in the uncomfortable silence.
"That's really starting to get on my nerves," Lori said, waving her hand at the surrounding jungle. "Doesn't he ever rest?"
"NO!" The baby yelled out, then laughed and started running for the stream. Lori caught her a few paces away.
Sarah finished up the section she was working on, handing off to Don and Kevin for them to lash it to the almost finished shelter, making three total.
"I need a break," Sarah said, holding her hands out for everyone to see.
"Ouch," Lori said, wincing at the sight of the blistered and reddened skin on her hands. "That looks painful."
Sarah nodded. "It really is."
"Three's not bad for a day," Don said, holding the frame in place and watching as Kevin tied it to the other frames.
Raincloud, Emily, and Richard pushed through the ferns at the edge of the clearing, each carrying two suitcases. All three of them were red and sweating.
"These are the last of them, except for the clothes that Tom's laying on," Raincloud said.
"Asshole wouldn't even get off his ass to let us take the clothes," Emily snarled. "He's really getting on my nerves."
Don just shrugged. "He's young, he probably lost someone in the crash. He'll come around."
"I lost someone in the crash and you don't see me treating everyone like shit," Emily said. "I lost my husband of ten years," she said, her voice still tight and angry, "And I'm working, making sure we survive till we get rescued."
The silence, broken only by the knocking sound from further in the jungle, was heavy with regret and loss.
"We're going to explore a little. Does anyone want to come with me?" Sarah asked, standing up.
"I'll go," Raincloud smiled. "My shoulders ache from carrying the luggage, but I think I've got enough left in me to take the scenic tour."
Charlie stood up, dusting off her hands. "I'll go too."
Kevin nodded, stretching. "I could use a break."
Mike nodded, moving over to the others. "Lori, you want to come along?"
"No, I'll stay here with the baby," Lori said, watching the baby sit on one of the ferns and yell "NO!" at the top of her lungs.
"I'll stay with her," Emily said. "We should always be in groups of two, just for safety."
The others nodded at that.
"We'll break up into groups of two," Richard said. He looked at Mike. "Wanna partner up?"
Mike nodded. "Sure. Sounds good."
"I'll go with Don," Raincloud said. "We get along."
"I'll go with you two," Kevin said, pointing at Don. "Don't wanna be the odd man out."
Charlie moved next to Sarah, smiling at the younger woman. "Looks like it's me and you. Pick a direction."
Sarah pointed at where the mountain would be. Well, what had tried to be a mountain. The peak was only a few hundred feet up, covered in vegetation on the island side, and mostly bare on the ocean side.
"Let's go that way. It's a couple miles, but we should be able to hike there and back by dark," Sarah said.
Charlie nodded. "Good plan."
Sarah walked over and picked up one of the knives. "Me and Charlie will take this with us, just in case."
The others just nodded.
"Leave the other one here with us, please?" Emily asked.
"Just make sure the baby doesn't play with it. He really put an edge on them," Don said.
"I know not to let babies play with knives, Don," Lori said, her voice dry.
"Sorry," Don said. He turned to other two men. "Well, let's get moving. We'll head right, if you ladies don't mind heading straight."
"Sounds good," Charlie said, smiling.
The three groups left the clearing, Don, Kevin, and Raincloud heading toward the mountain, veering right; Charlie and Sarah heading straight toward where the mountain would be; with Mike and Richard heading in the opposite direction.
"What do you think we're going to find?" Mike asked the other man, wiping sweat off his brow.
Richard shrugged. "Probably nothing."
status
all systems nominal
ant.exe is not responding
PERSONALITY OVERLAY OFFLINE
survival.dll running
scanning. no threats. primate competition westbysouthwest. out of range. possibilityofattack: low. scanning. resource: bricks, 22%. scanning. water supply: nominal. scanning. food supply: nominal. scanning. shelter: needsimprovement. scanning. metalresources: secure. scanning. charcoalstatus: 30%. scanning. no threats. scanning. no threats.
systems check
WARNING! NEURAL VOLTAGE SPIKE DETECTED!
WARNING! DAMAGE CONTROL OFFLINE!
WARNING! NEURAL OVERLAYS OFFLINE!
WARNING! PERSONALITY CORE FAILURE!
WARNING! NEURAL DAMAGE DETECTED!
WARNING! STRUCTURAL DAMAGE!
>report
Structural damage to following:
--left thigh. primary strut.
engage dcc
DCC FAILURE
load dcc.dll from cold storage
DCC FAILURE
retry until interrupted
set priority: red
--left knee. structural damage
engage dcc
DCC FAILURE
retry until interrupted
set priority: red
--right shoulder: structural damage
engage dcc
DCC FAILURE
retry until interrupted
--facial damage: left side
set priority: blue
END STRUCTURAL DAMAGE
ant.exe is not responding
scanning. visibility at 40%. concealment at 10%. can adjust? will result in loss of: resources, tools, shelter, protective resources, water, food. Runtime Conclusion: booby trap. scanning. movement.
SERE PROTOCOL ENGAGED
SURVIVE: 95%
ESCAPE: Y/N?
RESIST: Y/N?
EVASION: Y/N?
RUNTIME CONCLUSION: EVADE
engage
Richard stopped, looking at the jungle off to the left. "Hey, did you see that?" He pointed to the right. Both of the men had been moving through higher undergrowth, trying to find a trail or something. They'd found a creek and were following it, giving them a little respite from the thick vegetation. The knocking sound had been getting steadily louder as they had kept moving.
"See what?" Mike asked, looking up from the piece of fruit he was munching on.
"I thought I saw something moving over there, heading away from us."
"Probably a monkey," Mike said.
"Sure. A monkey," Richard replied, sounding doubtful. "Smell that?"
Mike sniffed the air. "Yeah. Smoke."
"Think it's that guy? Stonewall?" Richard said.
"Stillman, I think," Mike said. He sniffed again. "Yeah, we're getting closer to the smoke."
They pushed through the undergrowth for a little further until it suddenly opened up into a small clearing, maybe twenty feet across.
"Holy shit," Mike said, staring.
"Wow," Richard said. "He did all this in four days?"
They walked into the clearing, looking at everything.
"That's the noise we keep hearing. Damn, a water powered axe," Richard said, shaking his head. The axe head was thumping on a log, knocking free splinters as it slowly cut through the foot thick log. Richard stared at the water-wheel and the system, shaking his head again. "Where the hell did this guy come from, the Stone Age?"
"Beats me," Mike said. He pointed at the vine strung up where clothing and even two blankets were drying. "Man, he's all set up."
"Jesus, the fucking house has clay tiles on the roof," Richard said. He looked closer at the square building. "He made it out of bricks. Jesus."
"He must have fired them in that thing," Mike said, pointing at the kiln that was almost his own height. "He's been busy as hell."
"This is bullshit. He should be helping us, not doing all of this for himself," Richard said, feeling a rush of anger at everything around him. "He's a fucking soldier, and he swore an oath to protect civilians like us. We spent four days just to build a couple shitty leaf huts, and this asshole has a brick house with a fucking tile roof."
The two men moved across the small clearing, staring at everything.
"Jesus, look at this," Richard said, stopping next to a chunk of aircraft skin.
"He's hacking pieces off? Do you think it's to make more knives?" Mike asked.
"No. He's melting it over there," Richard said, pointing at a pot. "Christ, he should be helping us, not making himself comfortable."
"Spears," Mike said, pointing. "And I think that's a bow," he said. He moved closer to the side of the house. "It's a half finished bow. He's pouring aluminum arrowheads."
"You get the urge to just take all this shit too?" Richard asked with a grin, reaching for one of the spears.
"Dude, no," Mike said, shaking his head and looking around. "I don't think that was a monkey you saw in the brush."
Richard stopped, his hand only inches from the spear. "You think it was him?"
Mike nodded, feeling a cold chill up his spine. "How's he going to react if we start stealing from him? Right now, he's happy to leave us alone. We start stealing from him, he might decide that we're in the way of him surviving."
Richard nodded, pulling his hand back.
"Dude's making weapons. He's an expert in jungle warfare. I don't know about you, but I don't think our chances would be too great if he decided to wipe us all out," Mike said, backing out of the clearing. "Tommy can talk all the shit he wants, but I think this guy would fucking slaughter us if we pissed him off."
Richard moved quickly across the clearing, joining Mike at the edge.
"Still say he should have to help us," Richard said.
Mike snorted. "Why the fuck should he? You think Tommy or Bree or Renee would follow his instructions?"
Richard laughed. "Fuck no. Tommy would probably piss him off and he'd leave again before he could even get done introducing himself."
The two laughed as they headed into the brush.
tracking. tracking. lair status: compromised. engage SERE.
scorched earth: Y/N?
Y
initiating scorched earth protocols.
Charlie pushed through the brush, cursing as one of the plants, either a tree or a small bush, caught on her sleeve and tore it. Sarah moved behind her, hands out to catch any branches that snapped back to strike her.
"Damn, the underbrush got really thick really fast," Charlie said. "I think it' clearing... up?" Charlie came to stop, staring silently.
Sarah frowned at the tone in the other woman's voice, pushing through the brush next to her.
"What is it?" She asked. She pushed aside the branches of another bush. "What do you... see?"
Both women stood stock still, staring at the scene in front of them.
Buildings. Some wood, some cinderblock, stood in front of them. There were wrecked old 1950's cars scattered around. Some were just sitting beside the road, silently rusted. Others were crushed against the side of cinderblock buildings. The paint was peeled, most were missing sections of roof. Telephone poles had fallen over, the wires still in the middle of the street. Not a single window was intact. In some places mannequins were tipped over in the street, still clad in rotting clothing. Most were blackened from what both women assumed was weather and exposure.
Still, some signs were visible. A tavern. Two stores. One proclaiming "Malt Shop" and another saying "Post Office".
"A town?" Charlie said slowly. "What's a town doing here?"
"I have no idea..." Sarah said.