Against all odds (Reg Slivko - Thomas Mann Fic)

East is best, west is worst

45 minutes had passed since the boat had docked on the riverbank. Every minute that passed felt like a stone that, falling on Slivko's stomach plunged him into despair. Slivko sat down, stood up, and walked around the place, several times. Finally, he tumbled down next to Weaver. The photographer tried to smile at him, but her smile was so forced that she only managed to make Slivko more nervous. The soldier held his head with both hands, and his right leg began to tremble.

"Their flare was only two klicks north. They should be here soon" said Conrad, looking around the area.

"Unless they were eaten by something that's bigger than us," said Weaver, and Slivko jumped up. "I'm sorry, I just..." Tried to apologize she, but he wasn't paying attention to her.

He was sure he heard footsteps. Maybe it was the wind, or his head playing a trick on him, or more likely his heart. He strained his ears. Everything was quiet. His heart was beating so hard that it seemed that everyone could hear it.

And then, from among the trees, Mills appeared with his peculiar and big smile. It seemed that he had come down from a game at the amusement park.

"Holly shit!" said Reg and couldn't help but smiling with relief.

Slivko tried to approach his mate but he was stopped by a huge force. In a second, like out of nowhere, Meg had run towards him, jumped over him, and hugged him with her arms and legs. She held him so tight that shiver. Reg had to do a lot of strength with the legs so that both did not fall to the floor. It took him a few seconds to understand what was happening. His mind was a little bit slow, but his body was fully awake. It was a cheesy scene to see. But at the moment he knew she was her, he surrounded her with his arms and smiled as he felt his soul coming back.

Neither of them dared to say anything. Megan felt Reg begin to wobble, so she uncrossed her legs and put her feet on the ground. But she still did not dare to look into his eyes. An irrational fear crossed her mind. For a second she thought she hugged the wrong person. What if she looked up and it was not Reg? Her breathe sped up.

But he did not doubt. That mess of matted hair was unmistakable; he had met it thousands of times as he rolled over in bed. So he took her face with both hands and she had no choice but to look at him.

Yes! It was him! His warm hands were holding her face. He had a couple of cuts on his face and his nose stained with dirt. But his eyes shone and he had on his lips that stupid smile that he put when he asked for forgiveness. She couldn't help it anymore and smiled him back.

And that was all he needed. That smile on her face could only mean one thing. His heart pounded with anticipation of what was about to happen.

"I told you!" Cole's voice got in the way. The soldier approached the couple and hugged Slivko.

Meg took some steps back whit her face all turned red.

"I thought I would never see you again, man," Slivko said trying to don't sound upset by the intromission.

Mills and Reles also approached him.

Around them, the other survivors greeted each other. The atmosphere relaxed, everyone seemed relieved. Meg looked around to see who had made it through. There was no sign of Nieves. She wanted to ask what happened to him but chances were that it wasn't a nice story. So she closed her eyes and made silence for him.

"You have a little Valkyrie here," Mills said putting a hand on Megan's shoulder.

"That will not happen again," said Megan coming back to the world of the living. "So take better care of your ass"

Reles and Cole celebrated that comment. Meg smiled and contagious Slivko. Though he did not understand very well what was that about, seeing her smile was priceless.

"WEST? We can't go west. That's where the skull things live!" Marlow's voice put an end to the fun. The man raised his voice while speaking to Packard. "We have an old saying here. East is best, west is worst! That's why we say it! You know southwest... we can talk about that. But you're gonna need a lot more guns if you're gonna go west"

Slivko looked at his mates, trying to find an explanation of why Packard wanted to go west. Reles and Mills looked upset, but Cole looked at him and silently articulated the word "Chapman." Slivko understood right away.

"Guys. I think we should listen to Marlow" said Weaver. "This is crazy"

Megan smiled at her. She was happy to see her alive and of course, thought like her. But Packard wasn't an easy person to convince.

"Hey. Your job is finding lost men, right?" said the Colonel to Conrad.

The tracker seemed to doubt but he finally gave the Colonel the reason.

"Okay, sir," he said and it was as if he had thrown a bomb, the relief immediately transformed into anxiety mixed with fear. "But if we reach that position and he's not there, we don't send out a search party. We're back here by nightfall, understood? In 24 hours we have to be on the other side of this island"

"Roger that. Hear you loud and clear" answered the Colonel with a happy birthday smile on his face. "All right you heard the man." Said then to the soldiers. "Moving out in 10"

"What are the skull things?" asked Mills

"You don't wanna know..." answered Slivko.

Meg spent the 10 minutes talking to Brooks and San about the skullcrawllers and how things worked on the island. She had had the feeling that the colonel's idea of ​​knocking Kong down was bad, now she understood why.

Slivko was chatting whit his mates. Mills told him the story of the spider. Slivko knew that Mils was trying to make things sound better than it was. And if it supposed that the story should make him felt better, it wasn't working. The only thing that passed through Reg's mind was that she could be dead. While listening to Mills, Slivko kept glancing into Megan's direction. He wanted to make sure that she was there.

Meg looked up and met Slivko's eyes. He was frowning. She had never seen that look on his face. Meg imitated his expression and Reg shook his head and smiled. But that doesn't calm her down.

"You will need a gun," Brooks told her.

"I got a machete" answered Meg without paying much attention. "Whit permission," said and then walked to where Reg was.

He saw her coming and went to her encounter.

"I know this is a strange question giving the circumstances but... are you ok?" Meg asked him.

Now that was a hard question to answer. He didn't even know where to start. He opened his mouth to say something, but she interrupted him.

"I get it. Well... kinda get it. I mean that... I understand why you did what you did"

"Really? Can you explain me?" said Slivko putting his confusion into words.

Meg smiled, she didn't have to be very smart to understand that Slivko felt as guilty as she.

"I'm sorry," both said at the same time.

Slivko smiled and look right into her eyes. It was pretty intense. Meg looked down and started to play whit her hands. She knew what would happen if she looked up and was having trouble to remained calm. He stepped closer and her heart raced. She could feel the heat that his body irradiated. She looked up to say something to escape the situation, but her mind went black; he was so close.

"Hey! Sweethearts!" called them Cole. "We are moving!"

Meg felt her face burning. Slivko smiled but doesn't move away, he was determined to reach her. She looked into his eyes and give up. When she finally felt the warm and gentle touch of his lips, was like if somebody has turned on thousands of lights at the same time. She would have fallen if he did not take her by the waist. Around them, some had started to cheer. She smiled and put her arms around his neck, embracing the fact that, against all odds, they were together.