She arrived fifteen minutes later, puffing and just about to lose her grip on the sweatshirt carrier. No sign of Luke, so she found dry wood and started a campfire. The crackling fire and cool ocean breeze made it easy to pretend she was just camping on the beach, something they'd done for training a few times.
To pass the time, she took out a few coconuts and used trial and error to figure out the best way to open them without ruining the food—or her clothes. After a few more epic messes she finally got it. First, she drilled a small hole into the shell, to drain the milk into a large leaf or to drink straight from the coconut. Then she carved a line around the top, and cut it open so they could eat the meat inside.
Happy with her accomplishment, she called for Luke, hoping he was nearby and would come eat with her.
He didn't answer.
What if something had happened to him? What if he'd gotten sick and passed out? Worst-case scenarios filled her mind. She used the fire to make a torch, grabbed a coconut—he had to be starving by now—and stepped out into the darkness.
She stuck to the path they'd walked that morning, not sure where else he might be, and not wanting to explore the whole jungle in the dark. The hill loomed before her, with the crash site on the other side. She didn't want to go there again, but something pulled at her. The sphere pulsed softly. She'd almost forgotten she had it, but the reassuring warmth gave her strength, and she walked over the hill and toward the plane.
Luke sat on a rock near the crash site, drinking a bottle of rum.
Lucy rushed to him, tears in her eyes, angry and sad and relieved all at once. She took a breath, about to yell at him for leaving her, when she saw the heartbreaking sadness on his handsome face.
"Hey, Bro, I found food." She held out the coconut.
He looked up, but didn't smile. "Nice."
He didn't take it, so she sat next to him and cut it open. "Here, you need something in you besides rum. Try it."
Luke stared at it as if it was poison, but then his hunger and thirst kicked in and he snatched the coconut and sucked it dry.
She showed him how to open it up so he could get to the meat. "I have more back at camp. Plus I saved your stew. But for now, drink my water. You need it."
He took the bottle and drank greedily.
"So, I know where we can get more food and water. Now we can focus on our mission. We still have all of our supplies. The base camp can't be far from here. It could even be on this island. It's huge and we've barely scaled the surface of it. We should at least try."
Luke shrugged. "Maybe."
Lucy's temper flared despite her resolve. "Maybe? What's that supposed to mean?" She stood up and faced him. "If we don't do anything, Rent-A-Kid's going to do the same thing to those kids that they did to us. Is that what you want?"
Luke threw the empty coconut against the plane, where it thudded loudly. "Well, our life wasn't so bad, was it? We had our own rooms, a bunch of cool shit. I had a sixty-inch television screen. Sixty inch! How am I supposed to get something like that now? Hmm? Maybe what we had wasn't the best, but it was pretty good. Better than getting killed." His voice broke and he stopped talking.
Lucy heard the tears in his voice. She knew he didn't really prefer their life at Rent-A-Kid over this, not after they'd killed their friends and teachers, impregnated Sam, and experimented on them. No, something else bothered her brother. "It's not your fault. What happened on that plane, what happened to those people—Rent-A-Kid did that, Beleth and his team. Not you! You can't blame yourself." She sat and put her arm around him, but he shrugged her off.
"It is my fault. Morrison died because of us. Because of me. If I'd held that shield, I could have saved him. I could've stopped those freaks from shooting everyone."
Lucy grabbed his hand, refusing to let him push her away again. "They knew the risks when they accepted this mission. Even if you hadn't been on that airplane, Rent-A-Kid would've still attacked it, and everyone would still have died. Except then, there'd be no one left to complete the mission."
Didn't he see? They had to finish what they started. They owed it to those kids and to the agents who died for this mission.
Luke's breathing calmed, and he shook his head. "But I was on the plane." He stood and walked away. "I'll see you back at camp, Sis."
She stood to follow him, but sat back down. He needed space, for now. She regretted dragging him into the plane. He hadn't been ready for that.
She dropped her head. I should've been more understanding, but still, he has to get his shit together. I can't do all of this alone.
Those kids needed them, and she needed her confident brother back.
So she'd give him his space for a bit. Then she'd sit him down and tell him that it was time to move forward. He had no choice. Neither of them did.
Chapter 73 – Drake
Drake opened his eyes, and Toby was once again staring at him, this time in awe. "You did it, man. You healed yourself. I have to get this to my mom!"
Drake shook his head to clear his mind as the kid ran off. Sam. My baby. I have to get to them.