The Starling Vigilante [Watty's 2015 Award Winner]

Chapter 50

As the leaves and branches slowed my fall as I tumbled back to earth, I didn't feel myself stop at what should have been the ground. Confused, I tried to look where I was, but all I did was keep falling.

Before I could see anything, something knocked me out, and the whole world went black.

---

As I woke up, I saw a face looking down at me, waiting. He held a spear and wore worn clothes, much like my own.

'She's awake,' I heard him call as I sat up. Another man joined us, my bow and arrows in his hand. At once, I tried to defend myself, my aching limbs unable to move much from the aftermath of the fall.

'We're not here to hurt you,' the man holding my weapons reassured me rather mockingly, pulling the string of the bow back to test it. 'I fixed your bow for you. You should be grateful.'

'Sorry,' I said back abruptly. 'What happened to me? I don't even know who you both are!'

'Peter Radcliffe,' the other man said much gentler, crouching down to shake my hand. 'And he's Hendrick Von Arnim. You hit your head on the ground and got yourself knocked out.'

'Why are you here?' I asked, curiously.

'My plane crashed here about a year ago,' Peter explained. 'Then I found this place.'

'Where are we?' I suddenly asked. I felt disoriented and confused; I didn't even know where I was. None of the questions I was asking linked together either, but just came out in a jumble.

'You fell through the entrance to this cove we thought we had hidden,' Hendrick chipped in. 'But it seems we didn't hide it well enough. Why are you here? Are you working for someone?'

'I fell!' I exclaimed. 'I didn't want to find this place!'

'But why were you around here?' Peter asked, concerned. 'No one has ever found us, up 'til now.'

'I was shipwrecked here a few months back,' I explained, trying not to sound suspicious in any way. I know the two guys weren't that welcoming, but I needed some sort of interaction with someone, after the loneliness I had been through. 'I've just been getting by with supplies I found in the cave I was staying in, but then when I was climbing the trees I saw someone. I thought it was someone who got shipwrecked here with me, so I tried to climb across the forest to get to him. But then I fell down into here.'

I figured being completely truthful was the right move with people like Hendrick and Peter if I wanted to stay with them.

'I was shipwrecked here, too,' Hendrick nodded. 'I was an engineer on a ship a few months back.'

'Which ship?' I asked, intrigued.

'The Queen's Gambit,' he said.

'I was on the Queen's Gambit too!' I exclaimed immediately. 'How did you get here?'

'I found an inflatable raft in the supplies cupboard,' Hendrick said. 'There were only two, so I ran off with one before anyone could see me.'

'You left everyone?' I asked, surprised.

'Yes, I wanted to stay alive,' Hendrick said coldly. He really put himself above everyone else.

'Anyway,' I started a new topic, turning to Peter. 'How did you survive for a whole year?'

'I found these herbs on the island that cure any injuries,' Peter explained. 'I was pretty... Desperate when we crashed. I had managed to escape through the escape hatch, but no one else did, not even my girlfriend. I was on my own for a while, near death, but then a man found me and healed me with these... herbs. His name was Yao Fei. He hardly spoke to me, but he helped me survive. He taught me how to hunt and how to fight. And then, one day, he went out to hunt, and never came back.'

Peter was quite inspirational, his quest for survival lasting for a whole year. And I was here, not expecting to make it through the day.

'Why were you shipwrecked here?' Peter asked, crushing herbs in an old bowl to treat my wounds.

'I was with two of my friends,' I described, remembering the terrible crash once more. 'They'd told me to go and get some drinks while they snuck away to their room. I was so annoyed at them for leaving me; it was stupid really. And then when I found them, it was too late.'

I stopped my story there, deciding not to tell them the part where the Flash saved me. I didn't want them to think I was some good-for-nothing crazy lunatic.

'You've been through a lot,' Peter commented empathetically. 'But now, you have us to help you.'

Hendrick gestured him aside at once, Peter giving me a reassuring smile before he left. I heard them whisper, but only hearing fragments of a conversation.

'Are you sure this is...' Hendrick whispered. '...she could be...'

'I know...' Peter whispered back.

'We don't even know...'

'I don't think she's...'

'But what if...'

Their conversation carried on, me awkwardly sat to the side not knowing what to do. I understood that they would be cautious of me; I was a complete stranger. I could have been sent by someone for all they knew. But I got the impression that Peter trusted me.

'Can I... stay?' I asked them cautiously. I didn't want yo upset them, but I didn't want to be in danger either.

'Yes,' Hendrick laughed deeply. 'You can stay.'

'Thank you so much!' I cried in joy. 'I will be forever in your debt. For saving me instead of, er, leaving me to die.'

'And thanks for not being here to kill us,' Peter smiled with a laugh.

At last, I had found not one, but two people to talk to and spend time with. I was finally not alone.