Chapter Twenty-One
Hunter
The cavern grew narrower as it moved toward the back and I briefly thought that I wasn’t going to be able to get through even if there was a tunnel. I had moved beyond the area that was touched by the sunlight from outside and had to put my hands out to either side to feel along the walls to guide me. My arms were getting shorter and shorter, my elbows bending to accommodate the smaller section and I was about to give up when I felt the wall dip slightly and the space began to get larger. The tunnel turned and suddenly I was in another chamber. The ground beneath my feet was heading downward and I could feel the air getting cooler. Somewhere in the distance there was the sound of trickling water. I must have found the spring that fed into the small creeks that meandered through the jungle above. I walked cautiously, knowing that at any minute I could wander into a subterranean pool or fall off a ledge into a deeper section of the cavern.
As I traveled through I tried to orient myself. I tuned my mind into the image of the island that I had been gradually forming during our time there, using it like a map to try to figure out where I was in relation to the rocks and the beach so that I could then determine which direction I should go in order to find the cave that we had made our temporary home during the storm. Not for the first time since we had crashed on the island I wished that I had my phone. The flashlight feature would have been a lifesaver. Of course, that would have required charging and if I had the capability of charging an electronic device it was likely that we wouldn’t be in anywhere near the predicament that we currently found ourselves.
Fire.
The thought popped into my mind as quickly as I had dismissed the idea of my phone. If I could start a fire, I could use that as light to get me through the rest of the cavern.
Didn’t I emphasize to Eleanor that I couldn’t ever be a Cub Scout because I wasn’t able to make a fire?
I didn’t really have a choice. Well, I did. The choice was either bumble my way through the cavern blind and hope that I didn’t kill myself, or channel my inner survivalist and figure out how to start a fire. In the dark. Without sticks.
Awesome.
I knew that Eleanor needed me, which meant that I had to figure this out. I thought as quickly as I could, trying to come up with anything that would help me accomplish this. An idea came to me and I touched my pocket. Feeling the object inside gave me the first glimmer of hope that I had had since Virgil had shown up. I reached in and withdrew the small knife. Sitting down as carefully as I could, I grabbed onto the leg of my pants and pulled the fabric away from my skin. I pierced through it with the tip of the blade and took a breath before slicing through with one fast motion. The cave gods seemed to be with me at that moment because I was able to cut through the fabric without performing a self-amputation, and I repeated the process twice more until I held a square of my pants in my hand. I rolled the fabric up and tucked it in between my teeth for safekeeping.
First step done.
Feeling around me, I searched for rocks that I thought might be suitable. Since I couldn’t see them, I really couldn’t accurately determine if any of the rocks that were around me had the silica content that I knew was necessary to spark. I just had to guess and hope. I set the fabric from my pants on the ground in front of me. I wrapped my hand around a rock, felt its shape and texture, and then struck it against the blade of my knife. Nothing. I tried again. Still nothing.
Discarding the rock, I tried another. No success.
“Come on,” I muttered. “Just one spark. I just need a spark.”
I grabbed a third rock and hit it against the blade as hard as I could. There was a tiny flicker of light and I gasped in surprised happiness. I braced myself.
“Alright,” I said. “That’s it. Let’s do it again.”
I struck the blade again, but nothing happened.
“Don’t be like that,” I said. “We did it once.”
I struck the blade again and there was another spark, larger this time. It jumped and landed on the fabric. Before I could second-guess myself, I did it again and sent another spark onto the fabric. Both started to smolder, finally catching and creating a small flame. I tied the end of the fabric into a large knot to prevent it from burning out too quickly and rapidly removed the belt from my pants. Wincing as the flame licked at my fingers, I wrapped the belt around the knot, creating another barrier to prevent further burnout. I cut another few pieces of fabric from my pants to keep in reserves, picked up my torch, and stood, holding the flame up to spread its light as far through the cavern as I could.
It was larger than I would have expected, but I didn’t see any immediate hazards and I quickly made my way across the open floor toward the tunnel at the other side. If my memory of the layout of the island was correct, this one should lead me back through and to the cave deeper in the jungle. I wanted to check it first just to make sure, but if I was right, that would mean we had our own built-in fortress to protect us from the invaders.
I wish my brother was here. This is the best game of War I’ve ever played.
****
Eleanor
“Hello.”
The voice coming at me from the entrance wasn’t Virgil’s and it didn’t sound deep or scary enough to be one of the two men. The silhouette moved back enough that I could see the person’s face in the sunlight and I saw young, familiar eyes and a smile that was a touch too sparkly for the circumstances.
“Did you find her?”
I sagged at the sound of Snow’s voice and scrambled toward the entrance, pushing past Robin and out onto the rocks. As soon as I was on my feet Snow stumbled around the boulder in front of me and grabbed me into a tight embrace. Noah came right behind her and I gathered him in with us. Behind me I felt Robin throw his arms around all of us, completing the group hug.
“Auntie,” Noah gasped. “I’m so glad you’re alright. Where’s Hunter?”
I pointed into the cavern. He went further into there,” I told him. “He’s trying to figure out if we can go through there to get to the middle of the island.”
“I did figure it out.”
A glow of light formed in the darkness inside the cavern and an instant later Hunter was climbing out of the low entrance holding a very treacherous looking torch and wearing half a pair of pants.
“What happened to you?”
“I think that I qualify as a Cub Scout now,” he told me with a grin, indicating his torch. “Let’s go.”
He ducked back into the entrance and I followed with the other three coming after me. Once we were inside we scrambled our way to the back of the chamber and through a tunnel into a larger chamber.
“Put that thing out, please,” Noah said.
He reached into his pocket and withdrew his phone, turning on the flashlight. It was the first sign of technology that I had seen since smashing into the island and though I would have expected that I would want to grasp it to my chest like a baby and hold it until someone pried it out of my fingers, I actually recoiled slightly. I preferred the glow of Hunter’s torch and felt a hint of disappointment when he dropped the torch to the ground and scooped rocks over it to extinguish the flame.
“How did you find us?” I asked.
Robin straightened up, a wider grin spreading across his face.
“I figured it out,” he said proudly.
“GPS,” Snow said.
“GPS?” I asked.
“Robin pointed out that Hunter doesn’t go anywhere without his watch.”
I saw Hunter grasp at his wrist, rubbing the empty section of skin.
“I don’t have my watch,” he said as if it was the first time since we had gotten onto the island that he noticed. “It must have fallen off during the storm.”
“What watch?” I asked.
“Hunter has the most complicated watch in all of existence,” Robin said. “He never takes it off. It does everything except tell time.”
“It does tell time,” Hunter said.
“Yeah, but it also has a calculator, a calendar, a phone, the internet. Lord only knows what else.”
“GPS apparently,” I said.
“Yes,” Robin said, pointing at me. “It has GPS.”
“And a solar charger,” Hunter said. “I can’t believe I didn’t even think about it.”
“Wherever that watch ended up, it stayed charged enough that we were able to track it.”
“How did you do that?” Hunter asked.
Snow looked at Noah, who looked at Robin, who shrugged.
“I have some connections. It’s not always money that gets you your way.”
“I’m sure it’s not,” I said. “But how did you find me?”
“I got a helicopter charter,” Noah said. “When we got over the island, we noticed the HELP sign and then we saw men running from the beach into the jungle. Then Robin noticed the sun glinting off of something on these rocks so we landed and came up here. It was that supply box.”
He pointed to the side and I saw the box full of condoms sitting on the rock. The top was mercifully closed. Now was not the time to explain that development to my nephew. I felt a small sense of relief.
“They’re the ones who got the helicopter charter,” I said to Hunter.
“What are you talking about?” Noah asked.
“Virgil,” I said, turning to him. “Those men that you saw running off of the beach. It was Virgil and his goonies. They were chasing me on the cruise ship. That’s why we jumped off and ended up here.”
“How did you end up here?” Snow asked.
I explained how we got onto Gavin’s boat and the storm that caused us to crash on the island.
“Where is he now?” Noah asked.
“We don’t know,” I told him. “He took a life raft from his boat before it sank and left.” I gasped and looked at Hunter. “The satellite call.”
“The what?” Snow asked.
“Virgil said that a satellite call was made from this area and that’s how he found us. Gavin must have made that call.”
“Why?”
“It doesn’t really matter,” Noah said. “We need to get the two of you off this island.”
“The helicopter is on the beach,” Snow said. “We can be gone in a minute.”
We streamed out of the cavern and scrambled down the rocks toward the helicopter. My eyes darted across the beach looking for Virgil and the other men to come running back toward us. We were nearly to the helicopter when I noticed that the cockpit was empty.
“Where’s the pilot?” I asked.
“What?” Snow said, rushing toward it. She whipped around to face us as we followed her. “Where the hell did he go?”
“Virgil must have taken him,” I said.
“Shit,” Noah said. “We can’t get off the island without him.”
“So, what are we supposed to do?”
We all exchanged glances. This wasn’t over.
Twenty minutes later we finally walked out of a tight tunnel and into the cavern where Hunter and I had weathered the storm. My stomach trembled at the thought of how we had gotten through that night and I felt a sinking feeling that that was all falling apart around me. We paused in the middle of the cavern and I felt Hunter’s hand take mine. It was at once reassuring and heartbreaking. I wanted so much to give myself over to it, but the fact that I hadn’t been able to finish my thought earlier was harsh in my mind.
“What do we do now?” Robin asked.
Noah held a finger up to his lips and we all strained for sound. In the distance, I heard a shouting voice and knew that Virgil wasn’t far.
“Dammit,” I said. “We ran to him.”
“He doesn’t know that,” Hunter said. “He has no idea this cavern is here. We’re safe as long as we stay here.”
“We can’t stay here,” Snow said. “We have to find the pilot. If nothing else but to stop Virgil from hurting him, but if we don’t find him, we’re not leaving. That helicopter isn’t moving without a pilot.”
As if the words were a queue, the sound of a helicopter swirled through the air. We looked at each other and ran out of the cavern. I looked up and saw another copter coming toward the island. It didn’t take long to realize that it wasn’t the same one that we had left sitting on the beach.
What the hell is happening right now?
****
Hunter
The second helicopter was coming ominously low and I grabbed onto Eleanor to pull her back into the cavern. The others followed us and we were just inside, Eleanor curled against my chest so I could hold her protectively, when the sound of the blades became deafening and I saw pieces of trees and plants flying through the air in front of the entrance.
The damn thing had landed in the jungle.
We ran out of the cavern again and saw the aircraft a few hundred yards away, the once beautiful jungle tattered and broken around it. Eleanor stayed close to my side, her body trembling. The door to the helicopter opened and a familiar, lithe formed stepped out. I felt my stomach turn and I looked at Snow. Her eyes were locked on the door and she, too, had noticed who was stalking toward us.
“What the hell is she doing here?” she growled.
“Who is that?” Eleanor asked.
“Lucille Verne,” Snow said.
“Lucille Royal. We might have gotten divorced, but he’s not taking the power that name holds away from me. Hello, Snow,” Lucille said as she approached. “You know, they say that things always balance out. I didn’t really believe that, but now I’m starting to see it. I set out just to find precious Eleanor over there. Imagine my surprise to find out that you were already here waiting for me. And your darling husband, too.” She turned and sneered at Noah. “How are you Noah?”
“What are you doing here, Lucille?” he asked. “You know that you aren’t allowed anywhere near either of us.”
Lucille scoffed.
“What? The protective order? Do you really think that a piece of paper and a glaring old judge is going to affect me at all? I’m disappointed in you, Snow. You really underestimate me. I thought that you knew well enough by now that I will do what I want, when I want, and I won’t stop until I get what I want, no matter what it takes.”
“Like burning down my house?” Snow asked.
“It was barely singed,” Lucille spat. “Sweet, beloved little Snow got rescued by the fire department before any real damage was done.”
“So, what now? What are you doing here?”
Lucille reached into her pocket and withdrew a gun.
I didn’t even have a second to think. I tightened my hold on Eleanor and dragged her back toward the cavern. The sound of a bullet cut through the air and I pulled her so hard she nearly lost her footing. I could hear footsteps behind me and I hoped that the rest of the group had gotten out of the way.
“Shitballs! Bitch is packing! NRA! NRA! Gun control! Gun control!”
Robin was fine.
Eleanor and I pressed against the wall waiting for Noah’s flashlight and then we ran the rest of the way through the cavern and back up to the rocks.
“Get down,” I shouted. “Get down off the rocks. She’s going to be chasing us and we don’t want to be up here when she stumbles her way through there.”
We ran down toward the shelter that Eleanor and I had built. She glared at me when we got there and ducked under the branches.
“Do you want to explain to me what’s happening?” she demanded. “Who is that woman?”
“Remember when I told you about Mr. Royal’s wife?” Noah said. Eleanor nodded. “That’s her.”
“So, what does she want with me?”
“Me,” Snow said. “She wants me.”
Before I could ask what that had to do with Eleanor, I saw Lucille coming down the beach toward us and from behind me I heard what could only be Virgil and the men crashing through the trees and undergrowth onto the sand.