𝙎𝙚𝙘𝙧𝙚𝙩𝙨 𝙊𝙛 𝙎𝙠𝙪𝙡𝙡 𝙄𝙨𝙡𝙖𝙣𝙙 [𝙍.𝙎.]

Don't Forget To Tell Me This Is A Bad Idea

The group docked soon enough, trudging a little ways into the forest. Sandra walked beside Slivko, keeping her eyes on her surroundings.

     "Do you think that's the island's sick way of handing out karma?" Slivko asked quietly.

      "I sure hope not" Sandra replied honestly "Or I'm screwed"

      "Their flare was only two klicks north" James interrupted their conversation "They should be here soon"

The group sat around the creak, filling up their bottles. Sandra tinkered with the shattered watch on her wrist, accidentally cutting the tips of her fingers slightly on the shards of glass.

     "Unless they were eaten by something bigger than us" Mason muttered from her spot across from Sandra.

The sound of people trampling through the underbrush suddenly became very apparent and the group all turned to the direction the sound was coming from.

     "Holy shit!" Slivko exclaimed, scrambling up from his spot on the ground and hurrying towards the group that approached them.

     "Slivko!" Mills cheered as Sandra followed her friend awkwardly, hanging back as the friends embraced.

      "Thought you were taking a dirty nap by now, Slivko" Reles joked, grinning at his friend.

     "Never thought I'd see you guys again," Slivko told them. The friends pulled away, grinning stupidly before Mills caught sight of Sandra standing a little ways behind Slivko, an almost smug smirk plastered on her lips.

     "Come 'ere" He told her, gesturing her over and she complied. To her surprise, the soldier pulled her into a short hug. "You better had been takin' good care of our boy" He told her, pulling a serious face before he cracked.

     "Well he's alive, ain't he" She replied, crossing her arms and grinning "bumped and bruised and in serious need of training with a spear, but alive"

     "I thought you were crazy" Brooks greeted Randa behind them.

     "I wish I had been," Randa replied.

     "What's your count?" James asked Packard, speaking clearly over the voices.

     "What you see is what I got" Packard replied.

     "We lost one, too," James told him sympathetically.

      "Quite recently, actually" Sandra piped up, her stomach churning at the fresh memory.

     "Good to see you, fellas," Marlow greeted, stepping from where he had previously stood awkwardly, watching the group reunite.

     "Who the hell is this?" Packard asked, gesturing to Marlow. Sandra and the boys watched from where they stood, not too far from them.

     "We picked up a hitchhiker," James explained.

     "Lieutenant Hank Marlow of the 45th Pursuit Squadron of the 15th" Marlow introduced himself.

     "Crazy Santa Claus time-traveller" Sandra translated quietly.

     "You've been here since World War II?" Packard asked, impressed.

      "Yessir" Marlow responded "I miss the parade?"

     "I'll be damned" Packard muttered, faintly smiling "Snap to, Lieutenant"

Both the men saluted and Sandra smiled, maybe there was a chance of getting home after all. Though what really was home. Surely not here, but her only home off this island was with her brother. Though everything around here wanted to eat them, the last few hours had been the best of her life. Sandra loved tinkering around with things, hanging out with her brother, meeting new people, exploring new things, joking around with Slivko. That was the kind of life she wanted, where she didn't have to constantly deal with men proving they were better than her, but with them being her peers, learning with her instead of pretending to know everything.

     "We're gonna get him home, sir" James' voice snapped her out of her thoughts. "If we follow this river, we'll make it to the boat and we'll make it to the north shore in time"

     "That sounds good," Packard replied, but something about it screamed danger to Sandra. She glanced at Slivko, who was chewing his bottom lip, also sensing something was off "But we're not leaving yet. Still got a man out there, Conrad"

     "Wait a second, you got someone out there?" James clarified.

     "Chapman" Packard replied and Sadnra's gut twisted unpleasantly. Chapman had seemed like a tough guy who could handle himself and she didn't doubt that was true, but if he had been out there alone, she seriously doubted he was alive. "He's with the downed Sea Stallion just west of here"

When Sandra glanced at Slivko, it was the first time he wasn't looking back. Now he was looking at his friends, confusion was written over his face, though she wasn't sure what was confusing him. That Chapman was alive? That his friends believed that? That they were sacrificing everything for the pure chance of someone's life?

Sandar had nothing against Chapman, she had taken to him when she met him, he gave off an agreeable vibe, but she wasn't down with the idea of sacrificing everyone else's chance to get out of here because this man could possibly be alive.

     "West?" Marlow exclaimed "We can't go west! That's where the skull things live. We have an old saying here, 'East is best, west is worst!' That's why we say it! You know, southwest, we could talk about that, but you're gonna need a lot more guns if you're gonna go west"

     "Guys" Mason spoke up "I think that we should listen to Marlow, this is crazy"

Sandra completely agreed. That man, crazy as he might seem at times, had been there for over two decades, he would know.

     "Hey" Packard snapped at James who was avoiding eye contact with anyone "Your job is finding lost men, right?"

     "Okay, sir" James replied after a moment, looking the Colonel in the eyes "But if we reach that position and he's not there, we don't send out a search party, we're back here by nightfall, understood? In 24 hours, we have to be on the other side of this island"

     "Roger that. Hear ya loud and clear" Packard replied, pleased with the outcome. "All right, you heard the man. Moving out in 10"

Sandra was fuming.

'You're job is to make good decisions and keep your men alive, right' She wanted to scream at him 'not risk the lives of everyone because of one guy'

But she bit her tongue. She didn't have it in her to say that and even if she did, she wouldn't, because that man's life mattered just as much as the rest of theirs, even if it seemed insane to risk so much for one guy, she couldn't imagine what it would be like to be in that man's position right at that moment.

    "This is a good group of boys" Marlow muttered, coming up to where Sandra and Slivko stood and shaking hands with everyone "We're all gonna die together out here. You're a good group of boys to die with, I'll tell you that much"

The guys laughed as if he was joking, but Sandra's gut twisted again. She looked up to Slivko who was staring off into the distance before he looked down at her. Fear was reflecting in his green eyes, an emotion she had become all too familiar with in the past few days.

Slivko looked ready to be sick as Marlow started laughing hysterically.

     "You shouldn't have come here," Marlow told the boys, laughing. Sandra turned her focus away from the man, not sure if she could stomach any more, focussing on her brother instead.

     "Don't forget to tell me this is a bad idea" She could faintly hear him tell Mason as he walked past her.

     "This is a bad idea" Mason responded blandly, and Sandra couldn't agree more.