18- A Different Caliber of Young Person

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Parker Magdalen

*****

I rubbed my eyes as the world came back into focus, the sun barely visible above the treeline. It had to be about 7:30- a surprisingly late time for me to wake up. Interestingly, very few people around the camp were already awake. I climbed to my feet and smoothed out my crumpled shirt as I looked around, mentally noting everything that needed to be done. 

I carefully cracked the signal flare and fed its flames to the logs of the campfire. The noise caused a few people to wake up, likely not too happy to be woken up so suddenly. Among them was Carrie who practically jumped to her feet at the noise. Her eyes quickly found me and the source of the noise, and she seemed to relax a bit.

"Morning, Magdalen."

"Carrie," I acknowledged, turning my attention back to the growing flame. I picked another twig off of the ground and tossed it into the fire, watching it be eaten up by the flames. "Sounds like today we're going to strip a couple sat phones and try to get a start on communication."

"Mhm," she murmured dismissively, glancing at something or another. "It's a bit late for this many people to be asleep, don't you think?"

"I think the island is taking its toll on everyone. A lot of these people work office jobs and aren't used to so many hours of manual labor."

"To be fair, we get our share of desk work as well."  Carrie added. She looked over her shoulder to where several other people were sleeping, somewhat warily. 

"Something bothering you?" I asked, narrowing my eyes. She turned back to face me, blonde hair whipping behind her.

"Prior to today I noticed that a lot of people here are light sleepers and prefer to wake up sometime around 6:30. We're all in a business that requires alertness and the ability to be constantly on-call, thus long sleep hours are less common. Yet, today almost everyone is still sound asleep. It just doesn't seem right, naturally." God, we couldn't go one day without some conspiracy.

"So you're saying someone drugged us?"

"God, you make it sound like a conspiracy theory. I'm just noting that it doesn't seem right. You know what," Carrie said, setting down the piece of orange plastic she had been fiddling with, "Nevermind, I'm gonna go wake up Jana." 

I nodded and looked back to the fire, which was now crackling intensely. I watched from the corner of my eye as Carrie carefully crouched down and started to say her name, not receiving a response. Carrie frowned and lightly shook Jana's shoulders. After a few moments Jana flinched awake, blinking the sleep out of her eyes. They exchanged a few unintelligible words before they both stood up, Jana glancing warily around the camp and pulling her over-sized jacket around her. She ran a hand through her hair and rubbed her eyes- looking a little bit groggy.

"Where did Rosalind Lopez go?" She muttered under her breath as she sat down in front of the fire.

"Who?" I asked.

"A passenger. Twenty one, a theater student. Parents were flying her out for her birthday? Dark hair, brown eyes but wears grey contacts, 5'6"." She seemed to know an awful lot of information about a stranger.

"Where was she sleeping last night?" I asked.

"I can't remember," Jana muttered. God, she could remember a girl's entire backstory but not where she had slept?

"She seemed to gravitate towards those three college kids. If I were her age I would have probably stuck with younger people."

"You do realize I'm college age, right Carrie?" Jana asked, lightening the mood.

"Yeah, but you graduated way earlier so you're a higher caliber of young person."

"Let's just get back on track. Have either of you seen her since?" Jana interjected as she started to pace back and forth. 

"No, the last time I saw her was probably four hours after sunset, so around 9:30." Carrie offered.

"Before we declare her missing or anything, we should ask the three she was socializing the most with."

"Right."

"Let me do most of the talking, alright?" Jana cautioned, starting towards where the three were sleeping.

"What? You doubt my ability to talk to people a few years younger than me?" I argued. Jana ran a hand through her hair again, offering a sly smile.

"Just a bit. I know how to play my cards, so just let me call, okay?" 

"Whatever you say." I muttered, trailing off as she got closer to the group. 

"Marla, Brian, Jeremiah." She noted, pointing to each one of them, respectively. Jana sunk down onto one knee and nudged them awake, each bleary eyed and groggy.

"You're one of the. . . agents, right?" Jeremiah asked before she could get a word out.

"Yeah, I'm Jana. Hey, so I was wondering if you guys have seen Rosalind?"

"Why? What happened to Rosalind?" Marla asked, alarmed.

"We're not sure. We just can't find her, and I saw you guys hanging out with her so I figured you guys might know."

"I haven't seen her since last night. Jer?" Brian commented. 

"She slept over there," he said, pointing to a tree a few feet away. "You guys think she's missing right? You don't need to filter things for us, you know."

"Believe me, you guys seem more in touch with reality than some of the older people here. I wish I could tell you more, but we honestly don't know."

"She went to sleep around the same time as all of us, so there isn't much we can tell you." Marla sighed, untangling a knot in her curly black hair.

"Thanks for your help, guys." Jana nodded, standing up. 

"You're working on something we could use to contact your agencies, right? No offense, but I wouldn't trust myself to get thirty people off an island somewhere in the middle of the Pacific."

"That's because your an arts history major, Jeremiah."

"Oh shut up," Jeremiah laughed, leaning back against the tree.

"Yeah, we've got something in the works. I'm not going to lie and give you a set a date for getting away from this place, but I promise we're working on something." Jana smiled, which Marla reciprocated. Without another word, Jana turned around and started to walk off, which I took as my cue to follow her.

"But you did lie to them. We haven't started anything." Carrie muttered, casting Jana a dark look.

"Better for them to rest easy. Now, I'm just going to say it. Rosalind Lopez is missing, and she's probably not going to be the only one."

Hey guys. Sorry for a pretty underwhelming chapter, especially for being so late. I start school tomorrow (tomorrow is in 20 minutes since I'm writing this at 11:39 PM) so updates may become more scattered. I am also considering a one or two week hiatus to get everything back in order.

Also, WE REACHED 500! That marks week 3 of 100 reads a week. Thank you guys! Don't forget to share and vote, as it helps me grow!

This week's music rec is Monster by Dodie. For the last year she has only played it at concerts and it hadn't actually been released. When I saw her in September, it was instantly my favorite. Check it out above!



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