Stranded (ON HOLD AND INCOMPLETE)

Chapter 13

We run as fast as we can, our arms full of supplies. My foot is throbbing, but I can't stop. My lungs burn, filled with smoke. I can make it, I think to myself. Corey is running just ahead of me, leading the way out of the jungle and onto the beach.
"Corey!" I yell. "Wait!"
He turns around and waits, the fear wild in his eyes.
"Give me your hand," he says.
" Why?" I ask, trying to catch my breath.
"Please."
I give him my hand and drop my supplies. He sweeps me into his arms as if I'm weightless. With me in his arms and me hanging to as many blueprints as I can, he starts sprinting through the jungle as fast as he can.

I see the beach and start to relax. We're almost there, I think to myself. I loosen my grip around his neck and slowly move back down towards the ground. The blueprints and other supplies we tried to save fall to the sand. He lets me go as he slows down and we walk towards the water. The moon is still high above us, casting a pale glow all around the beach. I turn around and catch a glimpse of the burning forest behind us.

"What are we going to do?" I ask Corey. He just sighs and looks at me with sad eyes.

"There isn't much we can do." He says. I pick up a bowl that lay in the white sand.

"Yes there is." I say, and fill it with water. It's quite a large bowl, made of smooth, sanded wood. Corey smiles and shakes his head.

"That isn't going to make much difference. The fire is way to big; if we wanted to extinguish it, we'd need a lot more water, and at once too." I sigh and put it down. The small peice of hope I had inside me cracks to a thousand shards and disappears. I can feel tears rolling down my cheeks, but I don't bother to wipe them away.

"So this is it," I say flatly. "This is how it ends. We die on this cruddy little island, just because we can't put out a fire? Not from starvation or sickness; we are going to die because we are too afraid to try to stop the inevitable. I don't want to die like that," I sigh and sit down on a nearby log. "It's cowardly." Corey sits down beside me and puts his head in his hands.

"I'm sorry Leila." He says.
"I know you are." I say quietly.

"No. You don't understand... When I first saw you, I told myself that I would help you and protect you. Now I can't do that; and it's my fault. Just because of my forgetful stupidity."

"You're not stupid, Corey! You had all those raft designs, the maps of the island... I can't do that. Remeber? You're a genius!" I say, rememebering the first time I went into his hut. That was almost two months ago now. Corey laughs and reaches for my hand. I let him have it, and suddenly I see something in his eyes. A flicker of hope, intelligence even.

"I know how to get you out of here."