The Ark (the wilds season 3)

Episode 1 part 2

     Although Toni was back in hell, she felt more like herself than she has in a long time. After 4 days into the interrogations, she was almost sure Martha was dead, so when she was wheeled into her room looking fully not-dead, Toni wouldn't let herself believe it. She didn't know how many times she had been over the fucking moon about getting a new foster family only for them to be just as awful as the one before, so she went numb, it was better to be fuming all the time than people knowing you can get hurt. Expect disappointment right?
    
     Now Martha was back, so Toni was too. Marty and Toni were huddled together under a tree outside, trying to absorb the ambiance of their new island. The air was different here, thicker and more humid, but not unpleasant.
"Marty, how much do you remember about the stuff that went down, like before you-"
"I remember everything, I remember what I did, those poor babies. You know, when I was gone I still heard and saw things, I just couldn't bring myself to do anything about it." She paused, " Thank you Toni, for taking care of me."
"Hey, you and me right?"
"Yeah"
     They sat there for a few minutes more until footsteps brought them out of their thoughts.
"Alright gang, Family meeting at the top of the Empire State over there, let's go." Dot assumed her usual level headedness immediately after shit hit the fan.
    
     Toni helped Martha up and slung her arm under her to give her a bit of a crutch to walk on. When they got up there they were met by the whole brady bunch in a half circle, Rachel's arm wasn't in a sling anymore and the short stub on the end of her right wrist was fully healed and out for the world to see, she was sitting criss-crossed with her knees tucked up against her chest, she looked good, only slightly crazy-eyed. Shelby was next to her, Toni locked eyes with her for a moment and they shared a small smile. Toni liked the buzz, it suited Shelby a lot, and it showed the others that Shelby was not the youth-group sunshine that she was before. Toni sat down between Fatin and Rachel after making sure Marty was all set sitting down. No one said anything for what seemed like an hour.
Dot cleared her throat. "Alright fuck ups, heres the plan: We can be all sullen and moody for the rest of today, it's already late so I figure it wont hurt to let our survival instincts down for a second."

     Fatin broke the silence, "Who's excited that we have beds this time? A full four seasons just for us, I don't know guys I'm not sure I even want to go back anymore now that we've got it made!"
    
     "Thank you Fatin for that wonderful take on our situation here." Dot had a little Texan twang in her voice that hardly comes through in her natural dialect, unlike Shelby whose accent was always at the front lines of her voice.
     Toni had thought a lot about Shelby when she was in there. After she made her peace with Marty being gone, she let go of her anger towards Shelby which made her realize that it wasn't Shelbys fault. The boat, the rabbit, Marty, none of it was her fault, the fire wouldn't have helped, the boat wouldn't have seen. Now that Marty was back to the land of the living, Toni had hope for them, she wasn't ready to start anything up again, but she had hope. Toni would never not love her.
     "Right so it's settled, I'm gonna go get some shooters I nicked from the bribe stash if anyone would like to join me in getting fireball drunk."
"Count me in" Said Toni, because when has she ever said no to booze? Fatin and Leah also came down stairs and downed two shooters each before they even went back upstairs while Toni chose a handle of Titos and a few beers that she brought onto the roof and put in the middle for anyone to take, it's funny, even when they have a perfectly good building with beds and everything, they still chose to sleep outside that night, the inside just didn't feel as their own as much as the open sky.
    
     Toni sat down on a mattress that she had brought up with a can of beer against the wall. She had already had a ton of vodka and was teetering on the brink of being wasted. Toni liked to observe people, and tonight she was trying to figure out why Rachel was trying to drunkenly play patty-cake with Martha. On one hand, Rachel loved to poke fun at her own impediment, but on the other hand, Toni knew how affected Rachel had been by it. She gazed over the sorry crew again and her eyes landed on Shelby, she was already looking dead at Toni but quickly looked away. She sprang up and walked over to her with only a few stumbles, she sat down right next to Shelby, bumping into her as she fell to the floor.
"Hi" She said
Shelby just smiled.
"I like your hair" Toni reached a hand up and touched the dirty blond buzz. She liked the way it felt, spikey, like it was guarding the head beneath it.
"Do you?"
"Yeah"
"Toni I-"
"Hey it's ok, I thought a lot about it and I don't blame you anymore, I don't think I ever really did, like about the boat you know."
"No it's not that-"
"Gretchen would have never let us off, even if the boat had come, it probably would have just sunk and we'd find ourselves on a different deserted island just like this one."
"Toni stop I-"
"And Marty's better now, did you talk to her yet she said-"
"Toni, Gretchen talked to me."
"What?" Toni was confused, What did that have to do with anything?

"She gave me this", Shelby pulled out a phone, a burner, Toni thought.
"Shelby what the fuck." Toni was pissed off now, she couldn't believe she was ready to forgive her just two seconds before. "You're the reason why we're here right now, you're a spy"

Shelby looked at her funny, like she was missing something.
"What did she promise you? Huh?" Toni was ready to cry; she was kicking herself for ever trusting Shelby to not be a spy, let alone with Toni's heart. Shelby looked at her and smiled.

"Toni, why would I be telling you this if I was with Gretchen?" Toni hadn't thought about that.
"Oh-" She felt like an idiot.
"I figured we could turn the tables on her, you know, have a double cross thing going on here, I'd like, report back to her acting like a spy when really I'll be getting information from her."
"Yeah that makes more sense." Toni said.
"I'm her only source of info, so I can tell her whatever we'd like, I'm going to talk to Fatin about it tomorrow."
"Smart." Toni was glad to have a one up on Gretchen, she'd felt like a puppet for so long now, just doing whatever Gretchen dictated.
"Look, I already know that there's only one camera on the island and it's a tiny Go-Pro that can't even hear past a few feet away. It's up there, look, but don't make it obvious"
Toni looked past Shelby's ear and saw it, it didn't look like much, so Toni knew Gretchen couldn't be relying on it. Toni was shocked at Shelby's new tough manipulative demeanor that was far too much like Leahs.

"Damn, prison changed you." Toni smiled at her, feeling very far gone from the alcohol at this point. They laughed together for the first time in a while, and Toni noticed the things she forgot about Shelby while she didn't see her. She noticed her eyes, how they were the only part about her that gave off anything but young and protected, they were dark blue, and gave off the vibe of wisdom and wear. They stopped laughing then, but Toni looked away from her.
"She offered me you."
"What?" Toni said
"Gretchen said that if I worked with her she would find a way for me to get you back"
Toni looked at her again, but suddenly felt a wave of heat swelling through her and felt her mouth filling with moisture, she curled over and puked right on Shelby's sweatpants. Shit.

1440 words

Thanks for reading guys sorry for slow updates
Mwah