Stranded in Thoughts

Chapter 14—The Familiar Ruins

While the men were burying the body of Alyssa near a coconut-looking tree, the three of us bawled like children a few meters away from the cliff. We couldn’t fully process everything that had happened with the captain yet—and now this. 

What else could possibly happen? 

Both Vhina and Ritchelle were staring at nothingness with gaping mouths after they emptied their tear glands. Out of us, they were the most affected because it looked like it was their first time seeing a corpse such as that.

Vhina got up to her feet first.

“This is stupid. So stupid. How could something like that happen in such a way?” she cried. Her eyes were all swollen. 

Ritchelle followed suit, and with clenched fists added, “That’s right! It looked like someone has pushed her and arranged her shoes in such a way that gives off a message.”

“But who?” I wailed. 

Before anyone could answer, teacher Norkie returned alone. He looked lost and drained. His cheeks were damp and sunken. He didn’t look at any of us and just went straight to his backpack that he left near the grassy mound.

He pulled something out and pointed it at us. 

The corners of his mouth went up creepily and crazily with protesting eyes. “Hey, now, who’s next?”

We were petrified. We couldn’t move a muscle at the sudden twist of the event. 

Teacher Norkie was the killer? But why?

He walked closer to us and kept swinging the thing, a machete, as if taunting. Vhina screamed something incomprehensible at teacher Norkie and ran off toward the thick bushes in the corner. Ritchelle called her to come back, but she was dashing off like a snatcher. She was gone in just a moment.

Just like that. 

Did she just leave us? Wasn’t she a friend? A best friend?

Ritchelle turned her head toward me and smiled. “Hey, don’t be afraid. We’re fine.”

Her head kept on turning and it twisted in a manner that was too dangerous and deadly. It didn’t stop until her neck broke, then she dropped to the ground. Her lifeless body lay on the damp grass in a prone position with her head rotated one-eighty degrees up the sky.

She was dead.

I shrieked.

I didn’t know what to do anymore. I screeched and screamed and cried out for help. Teacher Norkie would surely reach me in just a matter of seconds. 

The sad thing was, help seemed unlikely to happen.

I tried to run away, but my feet won’t work like how they should. Just when I needed them the most, they sure as hell won’t cooperate. Teacher Norkie was just a meter away from me and his built and aura brought me down to my butt. I scrambled for anything on the grassy soil but couldn’t find something helpful. I scooped up a handful of mud and threw it at him.

He didn’t budge.

He soon lifted the machete up and in just a matter of seconds would surely hack me to death. I already gave up thinking and covered myself with my arms, cowering from the imminent danger—praying for my life.

It didn’t reach. A figure lunged between us.

Standing with his back to me, Rico grabbed the blade of the machete with his bare hands. The blade must have been sharp because his hands were bleeding, but he seemed not bothered by it. He then pushed the machete away, making teacher Norkie lose his footing, and then kicked him in the stomach real hard that made him tumble on his back.

Rico scooped me in a bridal carry and ran off toward the thick foliage. There was no time to waste.

As he was running as fast as his weight could manage, his sweat trickled from his chin onto my bosom, which didn’t bother me in any way. I was astonished and my heart kept on beating abnormally fast that might have been because of fear and something else that I was afraid to admit.

For a moment, all my worries and fears vanished. I was starting to see him in a new light.

We soon reached an opening, and he gently set me down on my feet. He was having a hard time catching his breath, but he was trying his best to hide it from me. Despite the ominously large amount of sweat and his condition, he managed to give me an awful smile. I couldn’t help myself but laugh, regretting it immediately. I couldn’t afford to laugh in this situation right now.

I gave him the hydro flask that I was supposed to give to Vhina, whom I found hard to believe with how she just left us. He gladly received it. However, he first asked if it was okay to drink from it, knowing that it was only good for a mouthful. I punched him lightly in the chest and just said to go on.

He finished it and asked, “Are you okay?”

“I’d be lying if I’d say I’m fine. I’m still processing everything,” I admitted, forcing back a sob.

“I’m sorry. And thank you for the water.”

“Don’t be. I should be the one saying sorry. Also, thank you for saving me.” I smiled at him. He smiled back.

“We need to be alert and to accept the facts as soon as we can, or else we wouldn’t be able to save ourselves next time.”

He was right. Despite everything, I needed to accept everything. About teacher Norkie. About the captain. About Alyssa. About Ritchelle.

And about Vhina. For almost five years of being best friends, I couldn’t just accept the fact that she left me almost on my deathbed.

I found a boulder to sit on while Rico cleared our tracks, making sure that teacher Norkie wouldn’t be able to follow us. He undid his coverall, revealing a white undershirt drenched in sweat, and relaxed in the windy weather. We didn’t exchange talks for a few more minutes, allowing ourselves to digest everything.

Then, he stood and said, “Let’s move on. We can’t afford to waste another minute here.”

Surrounded by coconut-looking trees, the opening surely was vast—as big as four soccer fields. We found some ruins in the middle part of the vicinity, which we approached out of curiosity. It sure was massive.

We scavenged the area for anything that could be of help but seemed like almost everything was as useless as hell. Rico went to the east wing while I continued my search on the other side. I found a lot of useless objects and some dry branches and twigs that were piled against a decrepit column. It was already dark, and the night sky was giving us ample lighting to see through the dark. We soon called it a day and Rico used some of the dry branches and twigs to start a fire. We huddled closer to warm our bodies. We started to chitchat about anything just to divert ourselves from what happened to our companions.

“You know what, I’d never really think I’d be able to see you again,” he changed the topic.

“Same. To be frank, I’m on the verge of forgetting your existence if we didn’t meet,” I lied.

He gave me a suggestive stare and just chuckled at the joke. “How’s your life so far? You know, up until before we came here.”

“Not really good, but I was just doing fine. How ‘bout you? I got some news just after I graduated that you became the council president when you had reached your fourth year.”

“You sure got some connections. Yeah, I got to be one, but it was boring without you there. So I’ve chosen a course completely far different.”

“And you’ve got to get some girls, right?”

He blushed, then defended, “You know that’s just Matt’s joke, right? I’ve never even got laid yet.”

We both fell in awkward silence. I knew that we were old enough to talk about something like this, but somehow it was still awkward. I shifted myself uncomfortably and continued the conversation.

“Hey, how long have you been seafaring?”

“Eleven months. I’m supposed to go home after this last trip.”

“Say, what happened to Matt?”

He looked at me deliberately because of how irrelevant my question was from the previous one, thinking about how to answer. He soon averted his gaze and replied, “We got separated. We were just talking about how we were going to pass through the night after we have buried your friend when that teacher pushed me to the ground. He picked up a stone and threw it in Matt’s direction, hitting his leg. They’ve fought a little until he got Matt on a chokehold and dashed off somewhere. I searched for him and found you on the ground, almost getting killed by him. I never found Matt.”

The sincerity and honesty in his voice made me submit to the conversation. I opened up a bit and shared, “Same with mine. My best friend ran off somewhere.”

It took some seconds before he replied, “She might have been scared of how things turned out.”

“It’s not just her. We were all scared there, but Ritchelle and I have never chickened out,” I cried. The thought of Ritchelle brought me to tears again.

He attempted to pat my back. He shied away. “That’s enough crying now. I hate to say this, but there’s a need for you to move on.”

This was the second time someone said that I had to move on. If only teacher Mary was around, she would surely be a big help.

He went out to the woods and returned with lots of leaves and some strange-looking strands of something.

“What’s that?” I pointed at what he was holding.

“Oh, these? I scrubbed them off the coconut-looking trees. They are soft and may help you sleep comfortably.”

He laid them down and flattened them on the soil with the leaves subtly mixed in. Once done, he stood and checked his craft—dissatisfied. He went back to the dark woods a couple more times with a DIY torch to gather some more leaves because he thought I couldn’t fit on it.

He surely knew his way to my heart.

It looked like a mound of hay, only much more comfortable to sleep on. I might still have not experienced it, but the feeling might be comparable to sleeping on the clouds if my mind didn’t betray me with how comfortable they looked. While I was enjoying the fluffiness of my makeshift bed, he collected the dried branches and twigs I had found earlier and laid them opposite me, across the fire, and hopped on them with his back to me. This made me a bit sad and guilty about letting him do everything.

“Hey, why don’t you sleep with me? There’s enough space for one person,” I offered. It took a moment before I understood the double entendre. “Hey, don’t get weird thoughts. That’s not what I meant.”

“I know. Besides, I can’t fit in there. I’m for two persons,” he replied.

“Really, I’m serious. We can sleep toget—I mean, you can sleep with me, you know, without doing anything. Just sleeping.”

“There’s no need to clarify, I do understand what you’re trying to say. Anyway, it’s not that I don’t want to, but we are a man and a woman. It’s kind of inappropriate, you know.”

“You can’t afford to be modest in these times. It took me some courage to give you an offer, so better accept it.”

Here, he turned around and faced me. The fire set between us crackled with the wind. With my nerfed vision, I could barely see his figure in the dark, but I could surely make out his smile and the gentleness that it elicited. He breathed deeply and croaked, “You look so beautiful from here. I’d never sacrifice this position.”

The flirtatious innuendo got my heart beating fast. I was supposed to return the tease but somehow couldn’t speak it out. We were just staring at each other for the next five minutes before finally deciding to sleep. The freezing night never bothered me because of how warm I felt tonight.

And that was a double entendre again.

† † †

I woke up late with Rico no longer around. Maybe he was searching for something to eat, I guessed. I hoped he didn’t leave me. I knew he would never do such a thing.

I continued the search alone in the ruins and extended my field up to the north side of the vicinity. I found some more rubble and old-looking furniture that I couldn’t make out as to what they were. I picked some broken bones and was disgusted and freaked out by them. I trudged through some lush, green grasses and found a weird metal contraption. Gauging from the form and familiarity of the gigantic object, I surely believed that it was a lift. I went inside and found some familiar designs on the riggings. Just underneath the contraption was something that looked like some ashes of some sort and chunks of twigs. I crouched and examined them.

Rico returned with lots of food on hand: apples, oranges, grapes, and some berries. He also filled the hydro flask. As usual, this island always surprised me with mysteries. We joyfully munched the fruits, and I shared with him what I had discovered. Soon after, we joined hands in lifting the contraption, but it was too heavy for us to do so. He left once again without telling me why and returned with a big log, almost twice his height, and probably his weight as well. I couldn’t fathom how he managed to bring such a heavy log.

He set one end of the log at the bottom of the contraption and moved a slab of stone in the middle, making it look like a swing. Just then, I realized what he was trying to do. He gestured for me to hold the other end while he adjusted the insertion of the log underneath the lift. I moved over to the side once everything was set. He then pushed the log down real hard, but it got stuck somewhere underneath the contraption. He spat on his hands and rubbed them together as if expecting to gain some strength from it. The action disgusted me, but it vanished as soon as he successfully tumbled the contraption aside, giving us a full view of what was underneath it.

As I guessed, it was a pile of ashes and unburned branches and twigs mixed with soil. Someone must have stayed here not too long ago.

I noticed Rico staring at me. I raised my eyebrows at him and asked, “What?”

“No. Nothing. I just like the look on your face. You look so serious and… interested.”

“Really? I just think that I need to divert myself from what happened. Anyway, what do you think are these?”

“Ashes. Is it really not that clear to you?”

“No, what I mean is, what do you think is the meaning of this?”

He pondered the question for a while and his expression changed. “Someone might have been here before us.”

“Bingo. Now, who do you think they are?”

“I don’t know. How would I guess that? I even barely know everyone on the barge.”

“No, not that. What do you think of this island having some locals?”

“Locals? If this island would have some, they would surely be residing in some fancier places than this.”

The idea completely went over my head. “Well, you have a point.”

“However, we can’t deny the fact that someone was here before us.”

“Yes, but who?”

“It could be one of the missing people from the barge.”

Another idea that went over my head, but it surely gave me hope and, to say, happiness. “Yes! That’s it! It might be one of the passengers!” I exclaimed.

“There, there. There’s no need to get excited over this until we find them.”

The sudden excitement that I had shown embarrassed me suddenly. “Sorry. Come on, let’s find them. Maybe they didn’t go that far yet.”

Just when we were about to go back, Rico noticed something in the ashes. He crouched and pulled something out from it. It was a piece of crappy wood.

“Hey, there’s a name engraved on it. It says ‘Finlay’.”

I snatched it from him and checked if it was true. It really was. I got much more excited and told him about it.

Rico and I buried the remains of our fire and resumed our search with one clear objective in mind: finding the missing persons. Or as what teacher Mary originally called it, finding the lost group.

Just when I scooped up the half-full hydro flask from my makeshift bed, Rico was thrown off against a column and bounced to the ground like he was just lightweight. I was overtaken by what was happening that I forgot to look at whoever or whatever did that to him. The moment I turned around, a furry headbutt sent me flying after Rico on all fours.

I passed out.

I opened my eyes to a view I had never imagined being real. It was like a bird’s-eye view of the whole island, just like on the barge. I could barely make out the beach we had camped on, and I saw our location and some moving dots over here and there. However, I couldn’t see the details of them because everything was hazy. It was like a television without a signal—kept on blurting out the bzbzbzbzbzs with a gray-dotted screen.

It only lasted for like, um, three or four seconds.

I bolted upward, gasping for air. I surveyed the area and found Rico in a stance like defending me from someone—or something. I looked farther around and noticed a pack of black wolves just outside the perimeter of the ruins. I could approximately count to twenty. The dirty white one must have been the alpha male, which poised itself just in front of everyone, snarling at Rico. It looked so majestic and strong. Rico wouldn’t have a chance to win against them all.

We were surrounded.

“Don’t worry, Jelly, I got this,” he lied. I could almost hear his heart beating like a diesel engine.

I grabbed some rocks and stood, “No, we got this.”

He looked at me and smiled.

When the alpha male turned its deadly gaze at me, it retracted its snarl and retreated to the pack. It howled, which the rest followed, and left. We didn’t move for a couple more seconds, afraid that they might come back. After a while, guessing that we were safe, we slumped on the grass and let out a painful sigh—we were heaving.

“Oh, my god, what was that?” Rico started.

“Why are there wolves here?” I questioned back.

“I know, right. But what did you do? Their leader retreated just at the sight of you.”

“I don’t know. I was just looking at him, ready to do something if they’d attack.”

“Imagine what would have happened if they all at once jumped on us.”

“I can’t even imagine it.”

“Really? I can at least imagine my ribs getting poked by their fangs, and my insides being feasted on.”

“Hey, don’t make a joke about it. It’s not even funny.”

He let out a cackle. “Sorry, sorry. It’s just one of those moments when you miraculously got out of a dangerous situation that has almost no chances of you surviving at all. The adrenaline just keeps on pumping me.”

“What now?”

The question made him stop cackling. He didn’t answer. He just looked at the sky, maybe lost in his thoughts. I noticed a streak of blood flowing from his right shoulder. “Hey, you’re bleeding!”

He attempted to look at it, crumpling his chin, then reported, “Don’t worry, it has just grazed me.”

“Graze? Really, you call that a graze? Let me at least check the wound.”

“No, please. Don’t worry about it.”

“Rico, I will not be able to sleep properly next time if I will not have a look at it. Let me at least contribute to our situation. You always do everything here.”

He looked at me with an expression I couldn’t really read, but he relented in the end. “Okay, just don’t poke it.”

“And why would I?” I moved closer to him and examined the wound. Luckily, it was not as deep as I imagined it. I ripped a strip of fabric from his shirt and wrapped it around his shoulder. “There, it should stop the bleeding.”

“Teacher s***h nurse, huh?”

“Don’t start teasing now. Let’s have another night here for you to have a good rest.”

Here, he scowled and brought his face dangerously close to mine. He opened his mouth, and I smelled a breeze of his putrid breath. “Nope. I’m totally fine. Imagine what will happen to us if we are going to stay another night here, especially after the wolves have known our location.”

He got a point.

We were weak and tired, but we needed to move and continue finding the others. There was a need for us to move on, for me to move on. I picked up my hydro flask, now full of dents, and let out a controlled sigh—like how I managed to control my sanity.

I looked at the sky and imagined what just happened to me earlier when I passed out.