Jordyn

Sam grabs my elbow and jerks me towards the treeline.

"Stay!" he barks at Kaia, and she nods in agreement.

I stumble along behind him, coddling my cut arm.

He leads me back through the trees to the little stream of water. Then, wiith a forceful shove, he tosses my elbow towards the ground. I have no choice but to fall onto my knees.

"What's wrong with you?" I ask in whispered tones as I glare up at him.

"Wash that off," he says. His voice returns to its normal soft tone. "You don't want it to get infected."

He kneels down in the leaves beside me and watches as I scoop handfuls of water up to my arm. It might be easier to dunk my entire arm in, but I can't bring myself to do that. Even though the logical side of my brain tells me this stream is harmless, the current could sweep me away. It's enough water to drown in, and so, it's enough to scare me away.

"Why did you drag me out here?" I ask, rubbing some of the dried blood off my face and jumpsuit.

"We need to talk about that deal," he says.

"What's there to talk about? You're going to go back out there and slice them both up, and then, we are going back to the alcove to hide."

Sam looks down at the ground and begins to draw circles with his finger in the loose dirt.

"I don't really want to kill them," he says in an even softer voice. It's almost a child's. "I was just putting on a tough face. Didn't want 'em to know how little of a threat we really are."

I groan.

"They can't be trusted, Sam. They're complete strangers."

"That shoe fits you, too, Jordyn. I didn't know you before we became partners."

I bite my lip and let my arm fall down into my lap.

He's so right that it hurts. We're all strangers.

Yet, I don't want another set of partners. They're two more sets of hands to stab me in the back, two more mouths to whisper threats in my mind, and two more sets of fists to punch me with. I've just grown used to Sam, and now, he's opening the festering wounds that line the scar tissue around my inner being.

"They could kill us in our sleep," I mutter feebly, my hands shaking.

"But they can feed us," Sam replies as he reaches to grab my hands. I jerk away from him, and he continues, "I know you're hungry. I hear your stomach growling."

I clamp my hands over my stomach and grimace.

"Yeah, but that's two more mouths to share that food with," I say.

Sam searches my face, opens and closes his mouth a few times, and sighs.

"They can defend us," he says softly.

"So can you."

"Not from everything, Jordy. There are things I can't spear to death. Those monkeys? I couldn't nail one down unless it sat still. The blood birds? If they ever attack us, we're out of luck."

"Have a little confidence," I whisper.

"I have plenty of confidence," he whispers back, "but I know my limits. So do you. You're not strong; you're fast. You can't keep outrunning everything."

I scrunch up my face at his words. He's observant. First, he figured out I'm afraid of water, and now, he's found my strength. Did he know before I did?

"How do we know they didn't survive because they're plants from the creators?" I ask, narrowing my eyes.

"Jesus. How paranoid can you be? I'm sure the creators have better imaginations than fake convicts."

I exhale between my teeth, and Sam looks back at the stream.

"Okay, let's list the pros and cons of letting them in," he says.

"You talk like we're part of a secret club," I reply, bitter.

"Aren't we? We could be like Club South."

I twist my face up at him.

"What? You don't get it? 'Cause we're both from the south?"

"I'm not from the-"

"Yes, you are. You should hear yourself talk."

We stare at each other for a long minute. I fight the urge to reach over and strangle him.

"So, the cons," he prods.

"Two more mouths to feed," I say, raising a finger to count off the cons. "They're untrustworthy, savage, and overall mysterious."

"Pros are they know how to hunt. They can help defend us against The Island. They won't be trying to kill us. They're warm, and they-"

"Wait." I hold up a hand to stop him. "Warm?"

"Well, yeah. We had the lion to keep us warm last night, but he's gone, isn't he? How are you planning on keeping warm?"

"A fire?" I say, astonished.

"Last time I checked, your fire went out in the middle of the night."

"Do you have a better idea?"

"Well, we could use each other for body heat, like we did the lion."

My eyes go wide, and I feel heat rise to my cheeks. He's suggesting we snuggle. Even worse, he's suggesting I cuddle with one of the two people who just tried to kill us.

"Are you insane?" I hiss. He laughs and shakes his head.

"If you can come up with another idea, I'm all ears."

A moment of silence passing between us.

"That's what I thought," he says, raising his hand again to start counting. "Lastly, they know more about The Island than we do."

That's five pros to my four cons.

Sam's won.

He waves his fingers around in the air in triumph. All I can do is groan and run a hand down my face.

"Alright," he says as he raises himself back on his feet. "Let's go tell our new teammates what he decided." He offers me his hand, but I ignore it and push myself up, hissing in pain all along the way. Sam scowls at me, but I push past him and stomp towards the clearing.

Both of them sit in the center of the grassy spot. Kaia is still trying to dig the spear out of the ground. Neil is using his own knife to stab at a leaf and staring off into the woods. Something about the look on his face sends shivers down my spine. I don't trust either one of them, but Sam doesn't seem to see them in the same light as I.

And I trust Sam.

But you shouldn't, the voice warns. I push it back and stop walking. Kaia looks up at me, but Sam quickly walks around me to stand in front.

"We decided to let you join us," he says.

"Oh, joy," Kaia says with a groan.

Sam jerks his spear up out of the ground, and Kaia stretches her leg out in front of her. He points the spear back at her.

"One wrong move, though," he warns in a low voice when she looks up at him, "and neither one of us will hesitate to kill you."

There's a grit in his tone that I've never heard before, that chills my blood, and makes me wrap my arms around myself. He's absolutely harmless. He said earlier that he couldn't kill them. I know that's an empty threat.

Don't I?

How can I know this isn't the true Sam and that he hasn't been fooling me?

I guess I can't. There's just feeling deep inside my stomach that tells me to trust him. It's as strong as the hunger I feel gnawing through me. Something about him feels as familiar as building a fire or running.

"Trust me, Samson," Kaia says as she stands up. "We aren't going to hurt you."

"And you'll tell us everything you know about The Island."

"Deal."

"Good," Sam says. "Now, let's collect firewood and head back to the beach."

Kaia nods and nudges Neil in the direction of the woods. With a glare at the two of us, he moves on. Sam and I follow behind, stopping low to pick up branches along the way.

By now, the sun has begun to set. Today feels longer than yesterday, but I can't be sure what time I arrived in the first place. It may have been early morning or late afternoon, and I wouldn't have known the difference. The burnt red of the sun sneaks through the thick branches overhead and casts strange orange shadows on the dead leaves under us.

The monkeys trail after us as they jump from branch to branch overhead. Their eyes seem to blink with unnatural slowness, and more than once, I catch one of them staring at me for much longer than humanly possible. One drops down past me with a soft hiss and runs away with the gentle sound of clinking machinery. Are the monkeys robotic?

When we reach the edge of the woods, the primates are gone, replaced by a long row of the red birds perched at the end of the rock. They're the size of toddlers. One has its wings spread out, and Sam cocks his head to one side as he watches it. He extends his arms, and both of us take in a breath of shock.

The bird's wingspan is wider than his arm span.

"Watch out for those," Kaia whispers to me as she passes.

"Why?" I manage to squeak out as I reach for Sam's arm for support. Speaking makes my knees weak.

"When they start screaming, you'll understand. I saw them hoist an entire shark out of the water a few days back. Just don't sneak up on them, and always keep one eye on the skies."

Her words send goosebumps down my arm. Sam's skin under my hand goes stiff as he listens to her as well. I thought the lion was bad, but birds capable of picking us off like bugs? A terrified shiver passes over me, and I drop Sam's arm.

Kaia tiptoes around the birds and disappears under the alcove with her armload. Neil follows behind with a stomp towards them. The bird drying his wings opens its beak but no sound comes out. Neil flinches and takes off running under the rock.

"Well, I'm going to have nightmares tonight," Sam whispers as we both creep around the blood birds.

"Everything has a weakness," I whisper back. "Everything has a fear."

"That lion? What was his weakness?"

"He was too heavy and couldn't maneuver the jungle. Also, he didn't like the sunlight."

"What do you think their weakness is, Jordy?"

He drops the stack of brown and green branches in the mouth of the alcove. Kaia and Neil have already taken a seat around my make-shift fire pit.

"I don't know," I say, kneeling down to pick through for quality kindle. "I don't remember much about birds. Maybe they can't fly in the rain."

A dry laugh escapes out of Kaia's mouth.

"Aren't we lucky, then?"

Everyone looks at her, and she rolls her eyes.

"Didn't you look at the sky on the way in?"

I bite back the nasty remark I feel building in my throat. If Sam had asked me that, I would have told him that I was too busy worrying about killer monkeys to stare at the clouds. Yet, the words slip back into the recesses of my mind where Kaia will never hear them.

"I'm going to take that as a no," Kaia says with a smirk. "It's overcast. It's going to rain for the first time since we got here."

As if she gave The Island the command, a sudden streak of lightning splits the air around us into a million different shards of glass. I skitter towards Sam who stares out at the ocean. The minute, calm waves from before are picking up and growing in height. Thunder follows the ear-splitting light, shaking each and every one of us to the core.

"I guess we aren't going out for a while," Sam mutters. "Wanna start buildin' that fire, Jordy?"

I nod and move to the pit, trying to ignore the lightning striking again behind me. If the temperatures are severe enough to freeze a person to death in the night, just how intense will this storm be?

"Well," Sam continues as he takes a seat by Kaia. "We might as well get to know each other a little, since we're stuck here."

I look up at him and glare as dread fills me. Eventually, I'll have to talk. He smirks in my direction. The stupid boy knows good and well what he's doing to me, and he doesn't even care.