Flotsam and Jetsam

"You still don't want me?" he continued to shout loud enough to scare some birds in the jungle behind me.

"Liam..." she began.

"What, Liam? What do you want? Still too high and mighty for good old Liam?"

"Calm down, Liam." He actually did, to some degree.

"She'd still be alive if you and she hadn't refused me time and again. Are you happy now?"

"No, Liam. Listen..."

"Take her!" he instructed Holloway and Pattinson, pointing at Liz. "Bind her to the tree. If we aren't good enough for her, our food isn't good enough either. I am tired of feeding the ungrateful bitch."

To my horror and the indifference of the rest of the group, they bound Liz to a tree. Helene's corpse lay in the sand, unheeded.

"Anyone I catch giving her food or water is dead, comprende?"

Everyone nodded lamely while Liz was bound to a palm tree. I swore to myself that I wouldn't fail her. My guess was that she wouldn't last more than a day in the direct sun without water, so I'd have to move quickly.

As the night fell, I was still in my hiding place, reassured by the solid feel of the machete in my hand. I waited until nobody moved anymore, and all that could be heard was Otto's fat body resonating with his snoring. I tried to keep an eye on everyone, but it was difficult in the near-complete darkness.

I stepped out of my hiding place, suddenly feeling very naked and vulnerable. I shouldn't be here, in the open space of the beach. I had to pass Anne Campbell, who I never really got to know. She was unusually big, very silent, completely unattractive and difficult to read.

Next to her, the Claymoores and Otto were sound asleep. These people had seemed so intelligent and educated, how could they have reverted to these passive, broken beings under Liam's thumb? Liam, Emily, Pattinson, and Holloway were sleeping on the other side of the tree, a bit out of my sight. I realized how much the group had shrunk due to Liam's murder sprees.

I had the feeling I'd forgotten something very important. I was trying to figure out what it was when I was shocked by a scream behind me.

"Meyers! It's Meyers. Wake up, everybody!"

Damn. I had forgotten Andreas Lawson. Shit. What had he been doing? Why was he awake? Most importantly, why had I forgotten him? Too late now. I jumped forward, hacked through Liz's bonds, and was pleasantly surprised that she jumped up immediately just as I saw Liam's huge shadow appear behind the tree.

I grabbed Liz's hand and ran towards the jungle in the near darkness. After a few steps, I roughly barged into Lawson just a second after seeing him. He emitted a satisfying "Ooompf" and suddenly he was out of our way. I never turned around until we were deep in the jungle.

I imagined Liam being right behind me, but there was no one. Just total darkness and the strange sounds and smells of the jungle at night.

"What do we do now?" Liz whispered.

"Can you do without water until the morning?"

"You assholes! I'm going to get you. You hear me? I'm going to kill you," Liam screamed into the blackness in frustration.

"Sure you are," she answered, trying to sound brave, but all that came out was a parched croak.

"I'm sorry, but I have no bottle. We'll have to drink at the spring when we're home. We're going to have to move with the first morning light, before he can get us."

She might have nodded, but it was impossible to tell. I sat against a tree, guiding her towards me. She was soon sound asleep with her head on my shoulder.

"This isn't too bad. Quite nice, actually."

Those were the first words she spoke after our somber and contemplative walk to my bachelor cave. Liz had obviously been thinking of her friend Helene. She was now inspecting the small rivulet feeding the clear pond and the cave itself, which I had quite luxuriously equipped with loads of palm leaves. I felt rather proud while I watched her quench her thirst.

"Yeah, not just sitting on my ass, like Liam, but exploring the island has definitely paid off. It's actually quite comfortable."

"Thank you very much, I'll take it. Where are you going to sleep?" she asked.

"Wait, what?" She was kicking me out of my own cave?

"Just teasing," she laughed. Oh my God, I thought. How am I going to handle this one?

"We should have left earlier," she added, suddenly in a somber mood again. "She might still be alive."

"Maybe, maybe not. Hindsight is always 20/20. You didn't because you thought that he'd hunt down and kill both of you. No one could know that he'd suddenly turn into Ivan the Terrible."

"He's done it before, you know."

"Yes, I saw him killing Richard."

"Not just Richard. He also killed Harold."

It suddenly dawned on me that I hadn't seen Harold in quite a while, but I never noticed that the fly circling Liz was gone.

"Liam killed him because of his ungentlemanly behavior towards me and Helene, can you believe it? And afterward, he kills her while trying to rape her and tries to force me into have sex with him by starving me to death. Women having such a gentleman look out for them should consider themselves lucky."

We were both silent for a while. I guess none of us would be close friends with Liam any time soon. Not in this lifetime, actually.

"I think he's going to come looking for us soon," she remarked dryly.

"I don't know. Who knows what he's thinking? He's clearly a psychopath. But you're right, at least we have to prepare for it."

She just nodded silently.

"Did he ever try to rape you?"

"He never dared to use blunt force, as he did on Helene. I have no idea why." Because he's afraid of beautiful, self-confident, women, I thought, but kept my mouth closed.

"Okay, Jacob, how are we going to prepare ourselves? Do you have any weapons?"

"We have one machete, as they have. I've used it to manufacture a few spears."

"Oh, they haven't done that."

"Good to know. We will both be armed, then. I will show you the terrain, so we will have that advantage, should they find us. We will be outnumbered, though."

"Not that much. Emily has no skills but breathing, eating and adoring Liam, no matter how much he degrades her. Holloway and Pattinson will probably still obey him, but even they seem to have doubts from time to time. The others just stay with him because they're afraid."

"Lawson seemed quite loyal, yesterday."

"True. That surprised me. I guess we won't know for sure who's going to do what."

I was busy admiring her while she was rearranging the leaves I had been sleeping on. I had no idea why she did it, they looked exactly the same afterward. Maybe she was just marking her territory and that was more than fine with me. Most important, it gave me the opportunity to watch her without being caught. Damn, I could do this forever, I thought.

Unfortunately, she suddenly turned around and caught me. I quickly looked away and pretended to be busy, but I'm afraid I didn't fool anyone.

"Okay, Jacob, you still need to show me around," she finally said, still smiling.

I'm sure I was beet red when I answered "Yeah, good idea" as nonchalantly as possible, given the embarrassing situation.

She got up, walked towards me and I still half expected a slap for my inappropriate behavior. Instead, she took my hand as if it was the most natural thing to do and gestured towards the impenetrable vegetation that shielded our place from the rest of the island.

"I can't even see the entrance from here."

"I know. It's almost impossible to find from the outside. I literally stumbled into it. The only way out is at this side. Here, you lift this..."

My ability to speak speech was suddenly lost as I felt her pressing her body to mine. Was that a conscious move? Did she just want a better view? I briefly pondered the idea that she might be flirting with me but pushed it out of my mind as ridiculous. She was way out of my league. Still, it felt wonderful and I stalled, wanting the moment to last.

"Not so shy, sailor," she purred into my ear. What does that mean, I asked myself. "Go ahead, show me the way," she clarified and I was grateful to not have made a fool out of myself. She was just talking about the exit.

My graceful stumbling through the opening wasn't improved by the fact that she refused to let go of my hand. It hampered my balance as much as my brain. I looked around and all I saw was an innocently smiling Liz. I felt like a total idiot. She couldn't have been flirting with me. Could she? Even if she was, what was I supposed to do about it without risking making an enemy of the one person on this God-forsaken island I actually liked? I was thoroughly confused.

I led her around and explained possible escape routes and hiding places. She refused to let go of my hand and we both pretended that nothing unusual was happening. It felt like she was my best friend, not just because she was my only friend after all others had died on the ship, but because she really seemed the best one I ever had. I hadn't known her very long, but I felt our situation had taught me more about her than I could learn in months of regular life, assuming there was such a thing for us, anymore. I was terribly afraid of ruining everything with some foolish move, so I still did nothing when she looked up at me as if she wanted to be kissed. Still, I felt like I was missing the chance of a lifetime by doing nothing. This was clearly a lose-lose situation.

By the time we had finally returned to our cave, her mood had noticeably soured.

"So?" she just exclaimed as if that explained anything.

"What?" was the extent of my eloquence.

"I don't like you anymore," she stated, surprising me. I was pretty sure that I had done nothing at all, so I couldn't have done anything wrong. Could I?

"What? Why? What have I done?"

"Women don't appreciate being turned down. It's not good for our self-esteem, just in case you didn't know."

I might not have been the brightest candle on the Christmas tree, but even I was smart enough to immediately grab her and pull her into a deep kiss. There was still a chance of getting the shit slapped out of me, but it didn't happen. Her body just molded to mine, her arms were suddenly around my neck and she sighed contently.

I didn't dare end the kiss and she didn't seem to object. Well, one thing we had plenty of was time, and I was enjoying the hell out of it. Even without perfume, she smelled heavenly, and I tried to keep myself from daring to think about having any kind of long-term chances with her. I failed. The unattainable dream had become an unlikely possibility and that thought made me vow to try to not fuck this opportunity up.

After an eternity of snogging, she pulled me towards the sleeping cave in a surprisingly determined way.

"Liz, we don't need to... I don't expect..."

"I don't care what you expect, but I've wanted this for quite a while. This is your last chance to run for the hills because otherwise, I'm going to get exactly what I want. All of it."

"Whoa, what a woman..." was my last conscious thought before I was in for the best time of my life so far.

We never returned to the camp on the beach. There was just no need. None of the people left there mattered in the least to either of us. I had long since stopped thinking of the rest of the group as passengers in my care. They had made their choices and would have to fend for themselves. Loneliness was certainly no longer an issue.

"I just hope they'll leave us alone," Liz said one evening. She sounded like she didn't really believe it. "I don't want to lose this, ever."

I was afraid that her infatuation would wear off quickly once we'd re-join humanity and the differences in our social strata became apparent again, but I still enjoyed hearing this and wisely kept my mouth shut.

We were snuggled together, sitting on the pleasantly warm stone block at one of our favorite lookout points, watching the sunset. It was as romantic as it can get, except for our bum like appearance, which we tacitly ignored.

Life had settled into a pleasant routine within just a few days. I learned that water was a constant problem in the camp, as the small pond wasn't always as clean or full as it might be desired. The food supply was okay, but a little one-sided once the supplies from the ship had mostly run out and Liam kept what remained as his personal reserve. The worst thing was that everyone but Liz and Helen had been so afraid of Liam's mood swings that they had adopted a preemptive subservience strategy. Liam reveled in this, misunderstanding it as respect and adoration.

"You think he's going to come looking for us, Liz?"

"You missed most of it, but Liam has grown into the role of the psychopath king quite convincingly. He probably sees my escape as some kind of personal insult. On the other hand, he's lazy as hell and he hates to leave the camp, except for a short romp in the nearby forest. I really have no idea what he's going to do."

"I wonder who he's romping with now."

Liz chuckled. "Yeah, I can't see him finding Colleen Claymoore acceptable, even if he's tired of poor little Emily. And what's a psychopathic king without adoring concubines?"

"Ah, but you've forgotten Anne Campbell."

We laughed together as we imagined King Liam the First trying it on with the large, muscular woman.

"Yes, she's probably the second strongest person on the island, next to Liam," I said.

"You'd better not forget about me while you're considering Anne Campbell."

I looked Liz in the eyes. "Never." We were quiet for a few moments.

"Do you think we should watch them again?"

"Too dangerous. I've seen that creepy ghost guy..."

"Pattinson..."

"Right, he's recently started to sneak through the jungle near the camp. I think they finally realized that you've been around a lot."

"I stood there rather openly when he killed Helene. It was bizarre, but nobody seemed to notice me. They might have remembered later."

"I remember that. You tried to help her?"

Without waiting for a reply, she gave me a huge kiss again. Damn, that felt good.

"Let's go back, Liz. It's getting dark."

They were noisier than a pack of wild hogs in the jungle.

"They're coming," Liz whispered, stating the obvious. There was no need to be quiet, they wouldn't have heard us if we had practiced brass music right next to them. I guess there was no branch they didn't snap or step on and nothing was too trivial to discuss over long distances.

I took the spears and the machete and offered Liz her choice. She took the machete, which was fine by me. We were inside the cave and the entrance to the clearing was very difficult to find. In fact, I had stumbled into the place from above by accident the first time. Still, it was possible that they could find it by sheer luck, as I did.

"We're coming to get you, assholes. I will kill you and I'm going to do it oh so slowly." That was clearly Liam, and his laughing made him sound more like a maniac than ever. Either he roughly knew where we were hiding or he had been shouting this nonsense all day long, throughout the whole island. I wouldn't put that past him.

"Okay, I think we can rule out that he's trying the surprise tactic," Liz drily remarked.

"Right. Has he ever noticed that there's a machete missing?"

"Never heard him talk about it. Either he hasn't noticed, or he didn't want to talk about it. He might regard it as a sign of weakness."

"Right. We'd better be quiet now. They're getting nearer."

We heard them rummaging around in the jungle nearby. Liam kept hollering nonsense from time to time. At one time we held our breath and gripped our weapon as some unseen person was rifling through the bushes that secluded the entrance. After a while, he or she lost interest and moved on.

"That was close," I remarked unnecessarily.

"Right," she confirmed just as pointlessly.

I was still fighting to increase the blood level in the adrenaline pumped through my veins when Liz surprised me by pouncing on me like a jungle cat on an unsuspecting rabbit.

"Jeez, that was awful," she panted between frantic kisses. She continued to fondle and kiss me as if it was our last day on Earth and she wanted to squeeze as much loving as possible into what little time together we might have.

I can't say that I didn't enjoy what followed, but it could have been a bit less frantic and tense for my taste.

"How long do you think this is going to work," she asked out of the blue a few days later. We had survived another search party without being found, the day before.

"Not too long, I guess. The island isn't that big. They know that we're here. Sooner or later they will find this place, probably by coincidence, as I did."

"What's going to happen then?"

"I guess some will be killed, some will be wounded. We can't properly tend to the wounds, so those might die as well."

"We will be among the dead or wounded, won't we?"

"I don't know. I'd rather not find out."

She looked at me sternly, obviously unwilling to let me off the hook that easily.

"Yes, Liz, we probably will. None of us are fighters. The spears are not much of an advantage, here in the dense forest. Liam, Pattinson, Holloway, and Emily are loyal. The others might not put up much of a fight. We might take some of them down, but..."

I stopped, not wanting to detail that scenario.

"No one will win," she added after a while.

"Right."

"What can we do, Jacob? I don't just want to wait until we get killed. I'd rather go down fighting."

"The wreck."

"What?"

"The ship is mostly destroyed, but it is sitting on the reef and the whole bow section is almost intact."

"Yes, that's why I'm alive. The first-class cabins are there."

"Right. And some of the storerooms."

"You think..."

"Yes, there might be food and water aboard the ship. The bow has been sitting there for weeks now, so I guess it's unlikely that it's going to keel over or slide down the reef any time soon."

"As long as there's no storm coming."

"Right. That might be rather... well, unfortunate."

"How would we get there?"

"Exactly as we got here. We would have to swim, early in the morning before there's too much light."

"Let's do it." Her determination surprised me once again. This was not the typical spoiled high-society lady, waiting for some male to take care of her. I liked that.

"Seriously?"

"Yes, tomorrow morning. We need to know if we can live there, at least for a while. He won't look for us there. Now let's spend the evening enjoying ourselves."

I agreed, unable to suppress my idiotic smile.

The water was surprisingly cold. The sun was just about to rise, and we were breaking an unwritten island rule by getting up early. Lacking anything else to do, we had turned into a society of strict late risers. The sea was calm as a mirror and the whole scenery was absolutely peaceful. Well, if you ignored the fact that we were in mortal danger.

We couldn't reach the wreck without being in direct view from Liam's camp. The calm sea helped us swimming, but made us as visible as lighthouses in a clear night. We tried to navigate through the sharp corals and looked back towards the camp anxiously.

The air was so crisp that we could see each detail. They were sleeping in two separate groups. The stokers and Emily on one side and the other remaining passengers on the other. Nothing moved. I looked at Liz and she smiled reassuringly in my direction, winking her eye, but not saying a word. I managed a small, relieved smile as well, as we had already put about fifty yards between us and the beach.

Once again, I looked back at the beach and to my horror, I saw Emily jumping to her feet in one surprisingly fluid motion. This was not how the mousy housewife who had arrived on the island had moved; she had definitely changed. She seemed more alive and more brain dead at the same time. She seemed savage, fiercely loyal to Liam and sometimes appearing a bit crazy.