Chapter five.

I woke before the rest of the girls, having gotten my first real good night of sleep. I had stirred a few times in the night as some of the girls got up to go and check on Lily. The sound of thunder and pattering of the rain lulled me back to sleep quickly.

The girls were sprawled out and fast asleep; so, I extracted myself from the warm pile of soft female flesh. I went outside in boxers and took care of my morning necessities at the shit pit I had dug. An unfortunate survival requirement.

I then walked down to the beach along the sheltered bay and began my morning sand exfoliation. My skin had never been cleaner or softer from scrubbing it with the soft white sand. It was nice, if not a little cold first thing in the morning.

I turned around and Serena was standing on the beach. Her black hair fluttering in the light morning breeze. I walked up to her and she held a pair of boxers, shorts and a shirt. “I figured you might need these.” She said as slight goose bumps formed on her body in between the sports bra and boy shorts she wore. I could clearly see her tattoos for the first time.

On each of her shoulders she had different full Viking staves. Rune scripting ran along her upper arms, across the back of her neck, along her side and then ending, swirling around her navel. The chain runes and bind runes were delicately done and highlighted the curves of her body. I knew what a few of the staves and bind runes meant from my own occult studies and was curious about the rest.

“Thank you, your staves and runes are beautiful.” I said as I walked closer to her. She pressed the clothes into my chest and leaned into me. She tilted her head up and I lowered mine and kissed her. Our lips met lightly and our tongues started a slow exploration.

I wrapped my arms around her as we kissed. The moment stretching out. After our lips parted I held her for a time, just basking in the warmth of her. Feeling her head resting on my chest and neck. When we moved apart the sun had fully come up along the eastern side of the island’s mountain.

“Thank you, I had a feeling you knew what they were. It’s a joy that more people are remembering the old magics, but still too few do.” Serena said.

I put the proffered clothes on, realizing they were not the same ones as the day before. I looked at Serena questioningly.

“Don’t worry, we’ll wash the other ones. Can’t have our man running around this island all filthy.” Serena said smiling.

“You don’t have to do that you know. And what do you mean our man?” I asked, not wanting the division of tasks to fall back into some male female stereo typical role.

“You’re the only man on the island now, so we decided to share, no point in fighting over you. And we know we don’t have to do it for you, we were going to wash some things out anyway and the rest of us don’t mind. I know I would rather have you catching a fish and hunting rather than scrubbing panties.” Serena said playfully.

“I could just teach you, it’s not hard. You just stab them when they get close enough.”

“Mmm…humm… Oh you most certainly are going to show me all your… Stabbing abilities.” She said playfully then added, “It’s just something nice we can easily do for you. Don’t let it go to your head.”

“Fair enough, lets head back.”

We walked back to our camp and the rest of the girls were up. They were sitting on the logs around the dead fire. They were brushing out their hair and braiding it for each other. I could tell they were trying to get back a little normalcy.

In the clear light of the morning sun, it was apparent what an ass Graham had been. Melissa had a slight bruise around her neck. Madeline had a small fat lip she was trying to hide. Anna had bruises along her ribs and heather’s forearms had finger bruises along the lengths of them.

Everything had happened so quickly, from party mode to survival. I was still curious about Graham and the weird energy that had been around him. I might never know, but it had definitely contributed to his behavior.

I would never know because I had killed him. I didn’t really care that much though. He was a rabid dog that needed to be put down. Now I’m not heartless, if I had accidently killed a kid or something less cut and dry, I would be fucked up over it. Graham had been as cut and dry as it comes though. So, I didn’t feel bad at all.

“Well don’t you ladies look wonderful this morning.” I said in a way to happy voice.

“Arrg… No… Coffee… God no coffee.” Anna moaned loudly.

“Yeah, we know we look like shit.” Heather added.

“Oh, shut it Heather, you know your hot as fuck.” Melissa snapped.

“Well, I think you all look beautiful.” I said as the rest of the girls smiled at me weekly, more from waking up than any real down trodden mood.

I rubbed my hands together and went over to Lily. She had woken up also and was only groaning every once in a while. I placed my hands on her fore head. She was slightly warm but not too bad. The fact she didn’t have a full-blown infection was amazing.

“How are you feeling?” I asked.

“Like shit. Any chance you can find something for the pain?” she asked weakly.

“I Really don’t know, if I find something, I’ll grab it. but don’t get your hopes up. We’re not in Kansas anymore, and I don’t think there’s a drug store around here.”

“Thanks… your… your… I’m sorry.” Lily said tears forming in her eyes.

“Stop that and your welcome. Now save those tears, don’t want you getting dehydrated.”

She smiled at me as I turned to the rest of the girls and sat on a log around the fire. It was time to sort out this survival business, but the past four days far too little had been done to ensure our continued survival. Our only saving grace was the fact that the island that we were currently on had such a ridiculous overabundance of food. We were lucky in that respect but in four days two of the passengers from the plane, the one flight attendant and the two pilots had died. That was only a 65% survival rate.

“Alright ladies, I know that we didn’t get off on the best foot but that’s behind us now. We are going to have to work together and try and figure out some plan of action to get us in a better position to survive. Any thoughts or ideas on this?”

“Oh God, I would be able to think so much more clearly with a cup of coffee.” Madeline said.

“Here you go, why don’t each of you take one. There 200 mg caffeine tablets, roughly equal to 1 cup of coffee. They should help take the edge off for a while.” I said as I pulled the bottle of caffeine tablets from my duffel bag.

“Holy fuck, is there anything you don’t have in that bag?” Naomi asked.

“I have a lot of standard gear and basic medicines. But as far as food supplies and more complicated items that I do not have. Which leads me to my first point I’m good have to go on extended walkabout the section of the island and see if there’s anything that can be remotely used for pain management. The current varieties of trees on the island I think that whatever portal brought us here has opened up periodically and also brought seeds from earth. So, the chance that will be able to find something for Lily might actually be realistic.”

“I would be happy to go along with you, I was studying botany at school.” Heather said.

“That’s excellent, I’m familiar with a lot of common herbs and plants but it’ll be good to have an extra set of eyes to lend their expertise.”

“Yeah, Heather’s the ship you should totally see her room it’s like some botanical garden replica plants everywhere.” Melissa added sticking her tongue out at Heather.

“It’s not that bad, well, maybe it is. That is a matter of fact, hopefully will be able to find something for Lily.” Heather said.

“Well, the rest of us have some laundry, sorting and organizing to do. If that is okay with you Ash, will go over the wreckage a little bit more carefully and see if there’s anything useful, we can find. I know I could at least use the cushions from the seats these logs aren’t exactly comfortable.” Serena said as she made eye contact with the rest of the girls.

“I definitely think it is best that until Lily is better the majority of us stay around camp. Just in case something comes around. Do any of you think you could use that Boers spear?” Anna asked.

“I can use the bow, but I think it would be better if Ash left the spear and the bow behind. I know it’s more likely wandering around the island that you’ll encounter something, but one of us here is injured and basically incapacitated, also Lily lost a lot of blood and that’s bound to attract something.” Serena added while she looked at me.

“I agree with you Serena, I’ll leave the spear and bow. I’ll have my hatchet and knives on me, that should be plenty. Heather I also saw some weird looking bamboo, it was, well the only way I can describe it was that it was steel. I’ll have to show you, but the leaves were almost razor-sharp if we could get some down, we could make some more spears at least for you and the other girls.”

“Well, it sounds like we have a plan of attack for the day, so let’s get to it.” Heather said standing from around the fire.