Yellowjackets: The Broken Victors

Chapter 27: Changing Ripples

[1996, seven months after the plane crash]

The cold wind brushed on the boy's reddened cheeks as he walked silently on the snow-covered ground. His right hand was holding a folded piece of white paper, while the other was gripping tightly on a pencil.

A smile then appeared on his face when he saw a small drawing on the paper. There was a tiny detail added to his own sketch that he immediately recognized-a cylindrical container wrapped with something like a thread.

The boy put the paper in his pockets quickly after seeing some people standing in the doorway of their cabin.

Contrary to what he hoped that they would do-simply ignore him when he made his way inside by lowering his head down-he was blocked.

"Where have you been?" one of them asked.

Instead of giving him a response, the boy made another attempt to go inside the cabin but was forced to stop one more time when his left arm was grabbed.

"I'm talking to you, Javi," Travis warned the younger boy.

Javi wiggled his arm to escape his brother's hold. "Nowhere," he finally responded.

"You think we didn't notice you always leave the cabin randomly?" Travis asked his brother.

"Let it go, Trav. I'm sure he knows what he's doing," Natalie intervened.

"It's too cold out there, Nat. He could get sick."

"And we go out every single day to hunt in that cold. I know that."

Natalie stared at Javi for a second, wondering herself where the boy went whenever he left their cabin.

Javi had been distant from them since he came back-since Ben died. The boy might have witnessed the entire thing, and that was probably the reason why he ran away. Fortunately-and for Javi's own safety-he chose to come back.

"Go inside and get warm. Your brother and I need to go," Natalie told Javi in a gentle voice.

The boy promptly nodded at her and did what he was told to do. Once Javi was inside and far enough from them, Travis spoke again.

"Just where is he going with this freezing weather all this time?" he mumbled.

Natalie shouldered the rifle and pulled the mask hanging on her neck up until it covered her mouth. "Don't push him too much. We don't want him running away again."

"If he continues to do this, he could get lost," argued Travis.

"Well, he keeps coming back, doesn't he?" Natalie countered. "So don't give him any reason not to."

Travis didn't respond after that, so the girl continued speaking.

"Besides, he's the only one other than us who's not spending his whole day rotting in the cabin," she said, her voice a little complaining.

"What do you expect them to do, Nat? We always bring the gun with us, and there's no other way to hunt," Travis replied.

"We have a fucking spear. They could try to look for food if they want to," Natalie stated. "But instead, they chose to do nothing and wait for us all day to get back, then complain that we didn't find anything."

Travis was about to respond when the door behind them opened once more, revealing two people dressed poorly and ragged in style but giving them enough warmth to not die from the cold.

"Here, before you go," said Lottie, her eyes going from Travis to Natalie. "Give me your hand."

The boy didn't hesitate to show his palm to Lottie, and Natalie rolled her eyes in irritation.