I didn’t like the guy. Not one bit. I thought he was an uptight piece of shit with a chip on his shoulder, and I didn’t trust him one bit. But he was important to Ellie. I couldn’t just stand by and watch Charlie lay into him like that. And as for swallowing as much alcohol as he did? I wouldn’t say I had respect for the fact that he was somehow still alive. But the poor guy at least deserved the chance to sleep it off.

I tried speaking to Charlie but she wouldn’t listen. She dragged a log off close to the water’s edge and sat it on it for the longest time, sulking. I shook my head at the blackened boat that had caused all the trouble. It was amazing, how close I had come to doing something so stupid because of what… a bashed up old wooden canoe? That canoe? I guess everyone was losing their minds out here, me included.

I thanked my lucky stars I hadn’t given in to Charlie’s harebrained scheme and in a strange way, glad that Anthony had finally bought this whole mess to a head. Him and Ellie were finished, that much was clear. But that didn’t really change the challenges we all faced now.

Nobody had the guts to say it, but Ellie’s foot was looking worse and worse every hour. We were one man down and Charlie was utterly despondent. That left me and the couple, and they were already completely distracted trying to tend to Anthony’s gash while he was still knocked out cold. So, I was left to fix the boat on my own.

I grasped the ends of the hull and with one strong movement I flipped it over, sending a hollow thwock sound echoing over the beach. It was quite remarkable; unlike anything I’d seen before. It wasn’t a commercially made vessel. In fact, as I looked closely, the bands that seemed at first to be strips of wood were only carvings into one single, solid chunk of wood. It was a dugout tree trunk.

I gazed around the horizon to the edge of the forest. There weren’t trees big enough there to make something like this, and there probably had never been. Whoever made this boat was long gone, that was for sure.

I examined the surface carefully. The fire had scorched the outer surface quite badly, but to my relief, the inside was still solid and untouched. I knocked my knuckles all up and down its gently curved hull, sending charred flakes flying off the surface.

No termite damage. No cracks. Damn it, it just might work.

I squatted down low and dragged it over to the water’s edge, and Carl soon noticed and came trotting along after me, running inside the wet line the dragging hull left on the shore behind me. Charlie paid us no mind. She just sat crouched in her spot, hugging her knees and head hidden.

“You think it’ll go?” Carl said, eyeing the dugout.

“We’ll soon find out.”

I splashed into the surf and the second the wood cut into water’s surface it felt lighter and more buoyant under my grasp. I dug my feet into the sand beneath and leant back to pull the canoe further out, and it slipped happily onto the water. Carl stood on the other side and looked down into the hull with interest – no leaks. The inside was rough and covered with soft moss, but at least it was dry. We shared a smile. Maybe I had been too hard on Carl. After all, him and his hippy wife were so far the only ones who had avoided nearly killing themselves in under a week out here …maybe they had had the right attitude all along.

“It won’t hold up in any storm,” he said, “but if the weather stays just like this, it could carry two people a ways.”

I noticed how he avoided saying which two people it might carry. I squinted and looked out to the horizon. At this point, the existence of anything other than this hellish island was beginning to feel like a matter of personal belief. But he was right. This may the last and only solution we would get.

“I’ll hold it steady, and you hop in,” he said, and anchored his hands wide on the worn brim. I nodded, jumped up and lifted myself inside, the edges wobbling and listing for a moment before I lowered my weight again and steadied myself. We exchanged more grins. The wood beneath me felt heavy and safe and solid.

For a moment, I pictured that it had escaped its life somewhere long ago and floated out here just like we had. Maybe it used to belong to ancient American Indians centuries ago or maybe it was even older, and the last people to inhabit this place were from a time far back in prehistory. A primitive, savage race with no language, and no civilization. I ran my hands over the fluffy, splintered fibers inside. A bit like the six of us, I thought darkly.

“Well?”

“It’ll hold,” I said, then hopped out. His face was filled with questions.

“How is Anthony?” I asked, trying to segue gently to the real issue before us.

“Not good. I’m no doctor, but I’d say he has alcohol poisoning. I don’t know what happens if you drink a half gallon of vodka instead of water, and then sleep outside for a night, but I’m amazed he’s still with us at all. And that cut? That’s not good.”

I nodded. I was embarrassed on Charlie’s behalf. My fears that she was only a few steps away from homicide were looking more and more founded.

“You and Livvy weren’t able to do anything with it?”

His face went serious.

“Livvy unwound the cotton from a button on her sundress. She pierced him a couple times with her earring and tried to stich him closed, but it’s a big wound, Todd.”

I was touched with how much responsibility he was taking for a man who had done nothing but make a nuisance of himself since we landed here. I tried to shake the image of Anthony’s grisly injury from my mind. Though I felt for the guy, going on a massive bender at a time like this showed some serious lack of foresight.

“The boat holds two. We should make a decision who goes,” I finally said. Carl nodded as though he’d been expecting the question.

“Well, you should go,” he said, and we both started to push the floating canoe back to land. The water lapped curiously around the hem of my trousers, cool and fresh. We reached the beach and pushed hard to wedge the boat into the sand and lock it there. I gave it a few firm kicks to loosen some of the ash still clinging to the outside.

“Who else?” I asked.

He wrung the water from his own trousers.

“Take the girl. Take Ellie.”

I was surprised. I had expected him to motivate why he should go, at the very least, or maybe his wife. We walked leisurely back to the pit together.

“Ellie needs medical attention. She’s in bad shape but if she gets help in the next couple of days, she’ll be OK. Charlie can bite my ass, that girl is crazy. Anthony isn’t well enough to travel. And to be honest I’m not sure anybody here would care to go with him.”

“But what about you and Livvy?”

He made a simple, straightforward smile at nothing in particular.

“Well, we’re strong. We’ll be all right. And you’ll come back for us, won’t you, Todd?”

I had a lump in my throat. I extended my hand to his and we shook.

“Carl, so help me, the very second we make it to safety I’m sending someone back to get you and Livvy.”

He nodded and we walked a little further up. This time Charlie raised her head and watched us approach. I didn’t feel like talking to her. Didn’t feel like hearing the next installment of her arch evil plan. But things were moving now and whatever happened, we still were all in this mess together.

“Charlie, we’ve come to a decision. Ellie and I are going to head off in the boat and bring back help for us all.”

Better to just rip the Band-Aid off. If her performance over the last hour was anything to go by, it was possible that she’d jump up right now and try to tear my head clean off my shoulders. But she didn’t. She kept sitting, staring off, looking sullen.

“You should go,” she said quietly, her voice croaking. Carl and I exchanged surprised glances. She shrugged and put her forehead back on her knees.

In all the time I had known Charlie, I had never seen her give up before. Never seen her admit defeat, not even when she was face down in a foot of mud, sleep deprived and leopard crawling through barbed wire with an eighty-pound backpack strapped to her. Not on any drills, not when we were all exhausted and many other good men had given up and quit. But Charlie looked like she had finally quit. I considered walking over to her and saying a kind word, but then I thought better of it. We all had our own burdens out here, and I couldn’t make her mine. Besides, we would come back. This nightmare now had a timeline. It would have an endpoint, too, and Ellie and I would be the ones to go and bring it closer to us all.

“Let’s go and find something to make some oars out of,” Carl said. I admired his calm demeanor, and quietly promised myself I’d emulate it.

“Just a second,” I said as we walked past our pit.

Ellie was sitting silently with Livvy, and they watched me approach without a word. By now it was hard to ignore the painful looking redness creeping all the way up her white thigh. She was starting to look thin and gaunt, too, and the sun was starting to bleach out the silk of her dress. It broke my heart.

“How’s he doing?” I said and gestured towards Anthony. They had placed him down on his side under a tree with his shoes under his head, and his knees pulled up high. I felt for the guy. Neither of them said anything, though, which I took to mean the worst.

“The plan is settled,” I said. “Ellie and I will go off to find help, we can leave first thing tomorrow morning.”

Carl joined me to walk off.

“Me?” Ellie said. “But I’m completely useless, why should I go? Take Livvy or Carl.”

“The sooner we can get you out of here the better. Your foot, Ellie,” I said, unable to tear my eyes away from it. I could visibly see her swallow. Maybe pride made her want to argue, to be selfish and suggest someone else go instead. But I could tell the pain and discomfort of limping around this island was wearing her down, and won out over any misgivings she had about coming onto the boat alone with me.

“You go, sweetie. We’ll be fine here. I’ll watch Anthony, and we have enough food for a while. It’ll be OK,” Livvy said, and locked soothing eyes with Ellie. Ellie nodded.

“Carl and I are going to find something to use as an oar for the boat. In the meantime, do you think you could make another one of those?” I said, and pointed to the frond roof covering our sleeping pit. She seemed to pep up.

“Yes, yes of course. I think I can make a better one, as a matter of fact.”

“Good. We’re going to need shelter from the sun out there, so try to think of a way to make a sunshade, some sort of protection, OK?”

“OK” she said quickly. She was still finding it difficult to let my eyes meet hers.

I smiled at Livvy and went over to join Carl.

“We’ll leave in the morning, before sunrise,” I yelled out behind me.

As Carl and I walked into the forest in silence, my mind raced. How much of an asshole was I being here? I had never wanted to step between a woman and her fiancé. Not in a million years. But that was before I met Ellie. I won’t lie, it seemed like they were well on their way to problems long before I entered the picture anyway …but isn’t that the kind of thing a real asshole would say, just to justify being a real asshole?

There was no question. My role now was to keep her safe, to make sure she got off this island and got the treatment she deserved. The rest of it …I didn’t know yet. I could get angry that Anthony had tried to sabotage us all, but the truth was I was just as guilty as anyone. I kissed her when I knew I shouldn’t have. I took advantage of her when she was scared and simply needed someone to step up and take charge.

As we walked deeper into the forest, my mind settled: we were close to getting out of this mess. The only thing for me to do now was focus on the task at hand and forget about her.

“You thinking what I’m thinking?” Carl said and held up a promising slab of tree trunk.

“Actually, no I wasn’t, but that’s a good piece. Let’s save it,” I said, and took it from him, putting it over my shoulder and gesturing for us to keep walking.