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  Harper, who had been down by the water, wandered back, eyes red from crying. Quinn remained with Nat, holding her hands, but looked over at them, and Herm dropped down to the sand with a weary grunt.

  “Okay, so here’s the deal,” Gino said, hesitating a moment before continuing. “The fact of the matter is we don’t have any idea when we’ll get out of here. Until then, we need to take certain steps to make sure we have the best chance for survival. This isn’t a resort, and we’re not on vacation anymore.”

  Herm shook his head and looked to Dallas. “Is this guy serious?”

  “Herm, please,” Dallas said. “Be quiet and listen to the man.”

  “We’re not on vacation anymore? Really, I mean, who knew?”

  “You gonna listen or run your mouth?” Gino asked.

  “We just spent three days in a goddamn raft in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. We lost Andre, Nat and Murdoch are both badly hurt and the rest of us have been through hell, I’m relatively certain we’re all well aware we’re not on fucking vacation anymore. But by all means, continue, and please, be even more condescending if at all possible.”

  “You think this is a game? You think this is a joke? If we don’t do things right from here on out, we’ll die, you understand? We’ll die.”

  “At least we’re on solid ground again, Donna Drama. I’d say things are looking up. We had a hell of lot less chance out there in the open ocean.”

  Gino put hands on his hips and looked away, collecting himself. “I don’t have to do any of this. I know how to survive here, got it? I’m trying to help you. If we work together we might—might—be all right. But we have to stick together, work smart, and know what to do and what not to do. You want to fend for yourself, Herm? You got this all figured out? Feel free, I don’t give a shit. But everybody else wants and needs to hear what I have to say, and we don’t have lots of time to be standing around talking, we need to get to work. You’re making that harder, and I’m not gonna allow you to jeopardize our lives with your wiseass bullshit.”

  “Can you even hear yourself over that ridiculous ego? You won’t allow it?”

  “No, motherfucker, I won’t.” Gino squared his stance, arms down at his sides but hands clenched into fists. “So listen to me very carefully. Sit there and shut-up, or fuck off. You’re on my last fucking nerve. And that’s nowhere you want to be, chief.”

  Herm gave a mock shiver. “Please, you’re frightening me.”

  “Can’t you just be quiet?” Quinn asked. “Even for just a little while?”

  Dallas caught Herm’s gaze and slowly shook his head in warning. Gino was not someone he wanted to get physical with, and they all knew it. Subtly, he moved a bit closer, just in case he had to try to stop him from beating Herm senseless.

  When it became apparent no one was going to side with or even defend him, Herm went from smirking to holding his hands up like the victim of a robbery. “All right,” he finally said. “Fine, go ahead.”

  “Water, food, shelter,” Gino said. “We need all three. Water we have for now, though it’s limited. We can put together better rain catchers and a system so that when it rains we’ll be able to collect as much as possible. Problem is we have no idea how often or for how long it’ll rain. The second option is to boil saltwater and even build a solar still to convert our urine to drinkable water, if it comes to that. On saltwater, it’s more complicated, but I’m confident I can rig a workable system, depending on what I can piece together. Like I told you guys on the raft, water is essential. Most people can last a few weeks without food. It sucks and you’ll be sick as hell, but you can survive. Without water, we’ll all be dead in three or four days. As for food, that isn’t as much of an issue. The island isn’t large enough to support any kind of animal population for us to eat, I don’t think, maybe rodents or select insects, possibly even some reptilian life, but it’s hard to know yet. Same with the vegetation, in that there’s likely some of it that’s edible but I have to take a closer look around the island. Honestly, I’m not as educated in that area as I should be, but I can likely identify some flora here we can eat. The good news is there’s an ocean all around us, and it’s full of food. The bad news is we have to catch or find it. But again, I can rig fishing apparatus and probably even some traps once I find the right materials. Also, there’s an abundance of coconuts from the palm trees, many already all over the ground. They’re essential for our survival, because they can provide us with a decent food source, but liquid nourishment too. Thing is, it’s not like in the movies, though, the fuckers are hard as hell and really difficult to open without a lot of force or a decent tool, something super sharp. I can fashion tools from rocks, hopefully something that’ll help us split the coconuts without too much trouble, but these things don’t just appear, I’ll need to make them, and I’ll need your help. Everyone’s got to do their part, understand?

  “Finally,” he continued, “shelter. I think we can all agree that after last night, being out on this beach isn’t gonna work for long. We’re too out in the open and too exposed to the elements. Now this could be trickier. I noticed some rock formations a ways down the shoreline. There could be caves there, and they might work, we’ll have to investigate that. Otherwise, we can build basic lean-tos that’ll be enough to protect us from the elements. It’s going to take a lot of hard work on all of our parts, and that’s where the water becomes so vital. These things are going to take time and they’re going to be a challenge, don’t misunderstand me. But without enough water, especially in this heat, we won’t have the strength or means to get any of this done. So that’s priority number one. We start by making some hard decisions. It’s the way things have to be. It’s about survival now, and we all have to understand that, because even if we do everything right, even if we get all the breaks, we can still die out here very easily.”

  “Tell us what to do and we’ll do it,” Dallas said.

  “We have to be careful with what little water we have.” Gino frowned, looked to Quinn. “I know you’ve been giving Nat some now and then.”

  Quinn nodded. “Just a little,” she said softly.

  “No more.”

  Quinn looked incredulous. “I just wet her lips and give her tiny sips when she’s conscious, Gino, that’s all.”

  “That’s too much.”

  “Then I’ll give her some out of my ration, okay?”

  “No, it’s not okay, because we need you strong and you need that water to be strong. We’ll all be functioning on less water than we’ll need to begin with. We need to do certain things to survive. They may not all be pretty or seem fair, some will seem anything but. They’ll be brutal and hardcore, but they’re necessary. Bottom line, Nat’s not gonna get any better, Quinn. We all know this. That water’s precious. We can’t waste any of it on her.”

  “He’s right,” Murdoch said suddenly.

  Until then, no one had thought he was conscious.

  “And if I don’t get any better, I’m useless to you,” he added. “So don’t give me any either.”

  Quinn left Natalie and went to him, taking his hands. “Easy,” she said. “It’s going to be all right.”

  “Yeah,” he muttered, “okay, kid.”

  “No question we have to make some tough choices,” Dallas said. “But we need to do that without losing our humanity. We’re still—I mean, for God’s sake—we still—”

  “He’s unconscious again.” Quinn gently placed Murdoch’s arms over his chest then crawled back over to Natalie.

  “Another thing,” Gino said. “I don’t want any of you going anywhere on your own, understand? An island like this can be a very dangerous place. Wandering off on your own could be lethal.”

  “What about fire?” Herm asked. “Even I know we need fire.”

  “Yeah,” Harper said, finally speaking with her little-girl-like voice they’d all once found comical. “Last night was the darkest night I’ve ever seen, it was really scary.”

  Herm
rolled his eyes. “Well, there you have it.”

  “That’s why those eyeglasses you’re wearing are gonna come in handy,” Gino said. “But before we do anything else, we need to agree on the water. We ration it, but only between us and—”

  “Doesn’t matter,” Quinn said.

  “Quinn, look, I don’t like it any more than you do, but—”

  “I said it doesn’t matter. Nat won’t be drinking anymore of our water.” As the others looked to her, she stood, shaking, tears streaming her face. “She just died.”

  CHAPTER TWO

  Later, the nightmares faded, and Quinn would dream of Natalie and Andre, of her life back home with Dallas and the others she knew and loved. She would see them in her dreams, watching her, sometimes even comforting her, telling her they were all right, that they missed her and would one day see her again. The horrors of the stormy night the boat sank haunted her for days, her memories of plunging into darkness, being swallowed by the ocean and struggling to the surface only to find a violent and surging sea that tossed her about like a ragdoll, those moments remained with her, and always would. The chaos and horror, aimlessly floating in the raft, slowly dying beneath a merciless sun while sharks circled, waiting on them, those outside the raft struggling to get as much of themselves up and out of the water as they could without tipping the whole thing over, and a primal terror unlike anything she or the others had ever known, all those things had become part of her now. Sometimes they’d creep about at the outskirts of her dreams, as if to remind her they hadn’t gone so very far after all, but then light would come, and Quinn would be so sure it was rescue, only to understand seconds later it was instead the sun of a new day, another day. There, on the island, in a place as hopeless, unforgiving and brutal as it was beautiful. And in those quiet, lonely and agonizing moments, Quinn was certain none of them would ever leave this place. Even in death, she and the others would be trapped here. Forever...

  In those first days on the island, they did their best to build some semblance of a camp on the beach, and followed Gino’s instructions on how to get things done. While he made his living in a corporate setting, wearing a suit and tie and sitting at a desk, Gino was an adrenaline junkie and survival enthusiast that had spent years of his free time studying survival techniques and challenging himself by applying them all over the world on numerous vacations that involved everything from deep woods adventures in the Pacific Northwest to survivalist expeditions in Australia’s Outback, the wilds of Alaska, Africa’s Serengeti, the jungles of South America and beyond. He was a skilled tracker and hunter, an avid rock climber, a whitewater rafting, skydiving and scuba enthusiast, and possessed a wide array of adventure expertise. Gino also knew quite a bit about plant and animal life, as well as how to survive in various terrains and under a wide assortment of conditions. For the rest, a vacation to a resort on the Cook Islands involving swimming and sunning and a fishing trip aboard a sporting yacht was quite an adventure, but for Gino it had been one of his tamer excursions.

  Until it all went wrong, and suddenly, he was back in his element.

  Water was not an immediate concern, so Gino had them set about obtaining what they needed for food and shelter. After he’d shown them which kinds to take from the edges of the jungle, Herm and Dallas gathered leaves and branches for use in building a quick shelter, while Harper collected some of the coconuts that had fallen to the ground, separating out those that had already begun to rot. Meanwhile, Gino scoured the rocky section of coastline along the island until he’d located stones he could utilize, and by chipping them against other rocks, had fashioned a couple into makeshift but effective tools that were capable of cutting flora, and with a great deal of effort and patience, cracking the outer shell of coconuts enough to begin and make easier the process of splitting them.

  The heat was a problem, and the harder they worked the more water they needed, so Gino insisted they work slowly but efficiently, taking frequent breaks and sipping water only when they absolutely could not continue without it.

  After digging a small pit and surrounding it with stones, he and Dallas found the items necessary to get a fire going. Using the lens on Herm’s eyeglasses, after numerous tries and angles, Gino managed to produce smoke, and eventually a flame he was able to sustain and expertly nurse into a full-fledged fire. Once it was strong enough, he left Herm in charge of keeping it going, then he and Dallas gathered the sturdiest sticks they could find, so that later, using the sharp-edged stones, they could whittle the ends into points and turn them into makeshift fishing spears.

  When it could be put off no longer, Gino and Dallas buried Natalie.

  Quinn had known Gino almost as long as Dallas had, and though he and her husband were much closer friends, she liked Gino, albeit in small doses. He grated on her as well, as he could be maddeningly boorish, pompous, condescending and a highly opinionated know-it-all. Never married, he ran around with women considerably younger than he was, usually the type that was no threat or challenge to him intellectually, and that possessed a particular vacuous look and body type. He was the shallow male chauvinist type Quinn usually abhorred, but Gino could also be quite charming when he wanted to be, thoughtful and kind, the type of person who would stop everything he was doing to help his friends. Though usually intense and brooding, he could also be funny and a lot of fun when the mood struck him. But he was, as Dallas often described him, an acquired taste. In this situation however, Quinn was grateful he was with them. Without him, she and the others would likely no longer still be alive.

  Through the glaring sun, she watched as Gino and Dallas pushed the final handfuls of dirt and sand over the hole they’d dug and in which they’d placed Natalie’s nude body. Despite Quinn’s objections, Gino had insisted they strip her, because her clothing could be used. Between the two rows of palm trees farther down the beach, they’d buried her as best they could. Quinn still couldn’t believe Nat was gone, that she died right there in front of her. Just hours before, in the raft, it had been Natalie who had assured them all that everything would be all right and that one day they’d look back on this as the adventure it had been. She’d always been optimistic, even back in the world. It didn’t seem fair.

  Quinn had once been an EMT. She’d seen her share of carnage and even death, and that was what had ultimately led her to leave the profession and return to school to get her business degree. She’d worked as an area manager for a retail clothing store ever since. Quinn had never quit anything in her life until then. At first the adrenaline rush and the ability to help, and in some cases even save the lives of others, had kept her going. But when a call led her to a car accident where two children were among the bloody victims killed, it changed something in her. It was too much. The faces of those children haunted her, and she’d gone to a psychologist to help her deal with it. Nothing had ever affected her like that before or since, until now, until these last few days of madness. Watching one of her best friends die in the sand as she held her hands was more personal and worse than the broken bodies of those dead children. Natalie should’ve been spared, Quinn thought, just like those innocent children. Natalie was the one who’d always looked out for them, for everyone, always put herself last.

  “You okay?”

  She turned and saw Herm a few feet behind her, his arms full of small sticks, leaves and other light burnable vegetation he’d found at the edge of the jungle and gathered as Gino had instructed.

  “Quinn,” he said when she didn’t answer, “you all right?”

  “I don’t know,” she said with a shrug. “This is a nightmare.”

  “Yeah,” he said softly. “If only we could wake up, huh?”

  She wiped another wave of tears from her eyes and nodded.

  “I’m sorry,” he said. “I know you two were close. I didn’t know Nat as well as you guys, but she was a good person. Over the last few days, I…I felt like I got to know her better and—I—anyway—I’m sorry.”

  Quinn man
aged a slight smile. “Thanks, Herm.” She motioned to the sticks and things in his arms. “Need some help?”

  “No, you better not. I have to wait for further instructions from the supreme commander.” He chuckled. “But Shipwreck Barbie could probably use a hand.”

  Quinn followed his gaze in the direction opposite Natalie’s grave, where Harper was gathering and piling coconuts that had fallen from the trees forty yards or so in the distance. She’d already formed one small pile and continued listlessly moving back and forth, bending and picking up coconuts then bringing them to the pile and dropping them amongst the others.

  “I know we’re all scared,” Quinn said, “but that poor thing is terrified.”

  “Of course she is. What is she, fourteen?”

  “Twenty-three, actually.”

  “Imagine a guy like Gino dating a twenty-something beach bunny bimbo twelve years younger than he is. What a shocker.”

  “Hey, you’ve been checking her out and you’re old enough to be her father.”

  “I’m not dating her though, but thanks for reminding me.”

  The fact was Herm wasn’t dating anyone. In all the years she’d known him he’d only had one girlfriend and that hadn’t lasted more than a few months. “I don’t think she’s a bad person,” Quinn said, “just a little limited, that’s all.”

  “Also doesn’t help that she sounds like Smurfette.”

  “You’re terrible.” Quinn forced a weary smile.

  “True, but at least I got a smile out of you.” Herm basked in that a moment. “What do you suppose they talk about? It’s got to be hysterical, right? I mean no matter what it is.”

  Unable to prevent another smile, Quinn shook her head and headed off in Harper’s direction. “I’m going to go see if I can help.”

  “You’re right, probably best not to encourage me.”

  Quinn trudged away across the hot sand in her bare feet. She’d always felt sorry for Herm, as she knew Dallas did. He was a bit of a sad case, and could often be an insufferable jerk, but he could also be extremely sweet, and had an uncanny ability to find humor in even the worst circumstances. As fear-based, cutting and inappropriate as that humor could sometimes be, there was still value in it, Quinn thought. She’d just lost her friend, and although they hadn’t found Andre and likely never would, they’d lost him too. Yet he’d made her smile. No small task, she thought, glancing back over her shoulder.