“Come on,” I muttered. “Just one spark. I just need a spark.”
I grabbed a third rock and hit it against the blade as hard as I could. There was a tiny flicker of light and I gasped in surprised happiness. I braced myself.
“Alright,” I said. “That’s it. Let’s do it again.”
I struck the blade again, but nothing happened.
“Don’t be like that,” I said. “We did it once.”
I struck the blade again and there was another spark, larger this time. It jumped and landed on the fabric. Before I could second-guess myself, I did it again and sent another spark onto the fabric. Both started to smolder, finally catching and creating a small flame. I tied the end of the fabric into a large knot to prevent it from burning out too quickly and rapidly removed the belt from my pants. Wincing as the flame licked at my fingers, I wrapped the belt around the knot, creating another barrier to prevent further burnout. I cut another few pieces of fabric from my pants to keep in reserves, picked up my torch, and stood, holding the flame up to spread its light as far through the cavern as I could.
It was larger than I would have expected, but I didn’t see any immediate hazards and I quickly made my way across the open floor toward the tunnel at the other side. If my memory of the layout of the island was correct, this one should lead me back through and to the cave deeper in the jungle. I wanted to check it first just to make sure, but if I was right, that would mean we had our own built-in fortress to protect us from the invaders.
I wish my brother was here. This is the best game of War I’ve ever played.
****
Eleanor
“Hello.”
The voice coming at me from the entrance wasn’t Virgil’s and it didn’t sound deep or scary enough to be one of the two men. The silhouette moved back enough that I could see the person’s face in the sunlight and I saw young, familiar eyes and a smile that was a touch too sparkly for the circumstances.
“Did you find her?”
I sagged at the sound of Snow’s voice and scrambled toward the entrance, pushing past Robin and out onto the rocks. As soon as I was on my feet Snow stumbled around the boulder in front of me and grabbed me into a tight embrace. Noah came right behind her and I gathered him in with us. Behind me I felt Robin throw his arms around all of us, completing the group hug.
“Auntie,” Noah gasped. “I’m so glad you’re alright. Where’s Hunter?”
I pointed into the cavern. He went further into there,” I told him. “He’s trying to figure out if we can go through there to get to the middle of the island.”
“I did figure it out.”
A glow of light formed in the darkness inside the cavern and an instant later Hunter was climbing out of the low entrance holding a very treacherous looking torch and wearing half a pair of pants.
“What happened to you?”
“I think that I qualify as a Cub Scout now,” he told me with a grin, indicating his torch. “Let’s go.”
He ducked back into the entrance and I followed with the other three coming after me. Once we were inside we scrambled our way to the back of the chamber and through a tunnel into a larger chamber.
“Put that thing out, please,” Noah said.
He reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone, turning on the flashlight. It was the first sign of technology that I had seen since smashing into the island and though I would have expected that I would want to grasp it to my chest like a baby and hold it until someone pried it out of my fingers, I actually recoiled slightly. I preferred the glow of Hunter’s torch and felt a hint of disappointment when he dropped the torch to the ground and scooped rocks over it to extinguish the flame.
“How did you find us?” I asked.
Robin straightened up, a wider grin spreading across his face.
“I figured it out,” he said proudly.
“GPS,” Snow said.
“GPS?” I asked.
“Robin pointed out that Hunter doesn’t go anywhere without his watch.”
I saw Hunter grasp at his wrist, rubbing the empty section of skin.
“I don’t have my watch,” he said as if it was the first time since we had gotten onto the island that he noticed. “It must have fallen off during the storm.”
“What watch?” I asked.
“Hunter has the most complicated watch in all of existence,” Robin said. “He never takes it off. It does everything except tell time.”
“It does tell time,” Hunter said.
“Yeah, but it also has a calculator, a calendar, a phone, the internet. Lord only knows what else.”
“GPS apparently,” I said.
“Yes,” Robin said, pointing at me. “It has GPS.”
“And a solar charger,” Hunter said. “I can’t believe I didn’t even think about it.”
“Wherever that watch ended up, it stayed charged enough that we were able to track it.”
“How did you do that?” Hunter asked.
Snow looked at Noah, who looked at Robin, who shrugged.
“I have some connections. It’s not always money that gets you your way.”
“I’m sure it’s not,” I said. “But how did you find me?”
“I got a helicopter charter,” Noah said. “When we got over the island, we noticed the HELP sign and then we saw men running from the beach into the jungle. Then Robin noticed the sun glinting off of something on these rocks so we landed and came up here. It was that supply box.”
He pointed to the side and I saw the box full of condoms sitting on the rock. The top was mercifully closed. Now was not the time to explain that development to my nephew. I felt a small sense of relief.
“They’re the ones who got the helicopter charter,” I said to Hunter.
“What are you talking about?” Noah asked.
“Virgil,” I said, turning to him. “Those men that you saw running off of the beach. It was Virgil and his goonies. They were chasing me on the cruise ship. That’s why we jumped off and ended up here.”
“How did you end up here?” Snow asked.
I explained how we got onto Gavin’s boat and the storm that caused us to crash on the island.
“Where is he now?” Noah asked.
“We don’t know,” I told him. “He took a life raft from his boat before it sank and left.” I gasped and looked at Hunter. “The satellite call.”
“The what?” Snow asked.
“Virgil said that a satellite call was made from this area and that’s how he found us. Gavin must have made that call.”
“Why?”
“It doesn’t really matter,” Noah said. “We need to get the two of you off this island.”
“The helicopter is on the beach,” Snow said. “We can be gone in a minute.”
We streamed out of the cavern and scrambled down the rocks toward the helicopter. My eyes darted across the beach looking for Virgil and the other men to come running back toward us. We were nearly to the helicopter when I noticed that the cockpit was empty.
“Where’s the pilot?” I asked.
“What?” Snow said, rushing toward it. She whipped around to face us as we followed her. “Where the hell did he go?”
“Virgil must have taken him,” I said.
“Shit,” Noah said. “We can’t get off the island without him.”
“So, what are we supposed to do?”
We all exchanged glances. This wasn’t over.
Twenty minutes later we finally walked out of a tight tunnel and into the cavern where Hunter and I had weathered the storm. My stomach trembled at the thought of how we had gotten through that night and I felt a sinking feeling that that was all falling apart around me. We paused in the middle of the cavern and I felt Hunter’s hand take mine. It was at once reassuring and heartbreaking. I wanted so much to give myself over to it, but the fact that I hadn’t been able to finish my thought earlier was harsh in my mind.
“What do we do now?” Robin asked.
Noah held a finger up to his lips and we all strained for sound. In the distance, I heard a shouting voice and knew that Virgil wasn’t far.
“Dammit,” I said. “We ran to him.”