Surviving Skull

Chapter 9

Sleepless Nights

After some of the fun had died down, Lena started tending to the few injuries the group had yet to treat. Marlow gave her some of the herbs the Iwis used to heal stuff, explaining what each did. She took note of all of it, wondering if she might be able to find similar herbs back home. She doubted it.

No one had any major injuries which was good. Just a couple of bruises and scratches here and there. She then redid the wrap on her wrist with some additional supplies from Marlow once again. She was able to set it better, meaning it hurt a lot less.

"How'd ya do that?" Marlow asked, wincing at the injury.

"Dunno. I got thrown from the helicopter when we crashed," she answered honestly.

"Were you not wearing a seatbelt?" Nieves questioned.

Both of them looked at the man with irritated expressions.

"Obviously," they said in sync.

He held his hands up as Marlow looked at Lena like 'can you believe this idiot?' She finished up and did a quick assessment of her remaining supplies. A couple things were missing, likely having fallen like her jacket when she jumped in the hole. With the Iwi herbs, she had a full sack. The only thing she was low on was bandages, but there was plenty of scrap fabric lying around.

Later on in the night, Conrad offered his lighter to Mason so she could take her shot. He then sat down beside Lena as she looked out at the lights in the skies. She glanced over when he did.

"What's on your mind?" She asked.

He raised an eyebrow at her, surprised.

"Why do you ask?" 

"Talkin' helps," she answered, knowing he'd know what she meant.

He nodded slowly. With the fact that this was the first time she'd stopped moving since she'd gotten there, it was pretty obvious that she wanted a distraction.

"It's amazing how such a beautiful place can be so dangerous," he remarked and gestured to the lights in front of them.

They were mostly green, but occasionally blue or purple lit the night sky. Even more rarely, a stripe of red or orange was mixed in.

"Yeah," she nodded, "It really is like a paradise of sorts. I wonder if it were possible to do both. Stay alive like the Iwi and explore the island. I mean, some of these creatures aren't even really monsters. They're harmless."

That made him raise an eyebrow. He thought about the gigantic water buffalo looking creature they'd come across. Slivko almost shot it, but they realized that it wasn't dangerous. It just looked at them for a minute and walked off. 

"Maybe it is," he shrugged. "I don't exactly plan to stay long enough to find out."

She let out a small laugh, nodding in agreement.

"I might write a book about this place," she then said.

He looked at her in surprise. "You're a writer?"

"Nope! But I figured, hey, might as well give it a shot. Just gotta put the words on the page right?" 

"Well, they do have to tell a cohesive thought or story," he pointed out.

"That's what editors are for," she replied grinning.

Despite himself, Conrad laughed. She just said everything with such a confidence and certainty, no matter how absurd the statement. It really put a new meaning to "say it with your chest". Her smile grew when she heard him laugh. She had to admit, she liked it when he laughed. He seemed so serious all the time.