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Despite an overwhelming urge to run, screaming back up the beach to hide somewhere between the palms, Charlie had to pull herself together. Her whole body trembled from the shock of not only finding Agatha’s body, but also from the realization this whole thing was real. No cameras had been hidden in the trees. A production team didn’t lurk on a nearby island, ready to move her to a hotel when she’d decided she’d had enough.
She was trapped in a real life survival situation.
The trembling in her hands spread up her arms, down through her torso, and into her legs. Her whole body suddenly felt like it was on vibrate, a shaking she couldn’t control. The motion turned her insides to liquid, a sloshing not unlike the waves still crashing on shore, the same waves that had carried Agatha’s body. The same waves they could have drowned in.
Her lungs contracted, stealing her breath. Though she gasped the thick, hot air, she found herself unable to get any relief. The world spun in a slow circle around her, and she stumbled, unable to figure out where to put her feet to find solid ground.
“Charlie?” Tyler’s voice appeared somewhere in the background and she tried to focus on it, needing something tangible to hang onto.
His firm hand pressed against her back. “Sit down, Charlie. Put your head between your knees. You’re having a panic attack.”
Her body moved of its own accord, allowing Tyler to help her sit before she fell down. Her rear end connected with something hard—a fallen tree trunk—and the sand swam before her vision.
Tyler’s voice came, deep, slow, and soothing. “Focus on your breathing. Deep breath in, long breath out.”
But her lungs refused to comply.
“Like me, Charlie. Breathe with me.”
Though she sat on a tree trunk, with her feet planted apart, elbows on her knees, head hanging between them, she managed to lift her head. Tyler crouched in front of her. His dark eyes locked on hers and he breathed in an exaggerated motion, sucking in air and then blowing it back out between pursed lips.
Her breathing continued to come in gasps, but the longer she watched him, the more it slowed, until she eventually matched his own.
And they were breathing the same air.
Her heart rate slowed, and gradually she calmed down.
His hand touched her knee. “How are you doing?”
She nodded. “Better, thank you. Sorry to flake out on you like that.”
“No problem. You had a shock. I understand.”
He gave her leg a brief squeeze and got to his feet to head back over to her agent’s body.
Charlie took another shaky breath. Thank God she had Tyler with her. She’d never be able to cope without him by her side. She glanced toward the ex-Marine, to where he stood with his arms folded across his broad chest, looking down at Agatha’s body with a frown.
“We can’t leave her here,” he said, without turning his face toward Charlie.
She nodded in agreement, but her stomach turned at the idea of touching the body. She imagined how the dead skin would feel after having been in the water for twenty-four hours—cold and slick. Though she didn’t want to look like some fragile little girl, she didn’t think she’d be able to bring herself to touch her.
“I’m sorry, Tyler. I just can’t ...”
He shook his head. “It’s okay. I don’t expect you to help. You worked with her, and I realize this must be hard.”
One of the numerous knots that had tightened in her stomach since seeing the body loosened. Her voice came out as a whisper. “Thank you.”
He gave a grim nod.
Not even wanting to be nearby while he moved Agatha, Charlie got to her feet and retreated back up the beach to watch from a safe distance, the knuckles of one hand pressed to her mouth.
Tyler caught hold of both of Agatha’s wrists and pulled her up the beach, leaving a large, wet track in the sand. He dragged her into the line of trees at the farthest edge of their bay.
Torn between wanting to hide and wanting to help, she forced herself to walk back over to him.
“What now?” she asked.
He nodded toward the fallen palm fronds that littered the sand. “Let’s get her covered up.”
Even though the coverage was ineffectual against most things, at least it removed the body from sight. Together, they began to pile the dried, brown fronds over her body.
“We’ll bury her if it looks like we’re going to be here for any length of time,” he said as he worked. “Animals may be attracted by the body, and besides, it’ll start to smell in this heat after a day or two.”
A shiver wracked through her. “Shouldn’t we bury her anyway?”
“It’s not a good use of what energy resources we have. We’ll burn a huge number of calories digging a hole big enough and filling it back in, and right now we don’t have anything big enough to eat to replenish those calories.”
She struggled to think of things in such a simplistic way. “But it feels wrong to leave her here.”
“Our camp is far enough away for us not to smell her.”
Charlie stomach did an uncomfortable flip-flop and she stepped away, her hand pressed over her mouth. “Oh, God.”
He looked at her in concern. “Sorry.” He closed his eyes briefly and shook his head. “I don’t think sometimes. It’s easy to get hardened to seeing bodies.”
“You’ve been exposed to a lot of death?” she asked, glad to direct her attention from poor Agatha’s body.
“Too much.” His expression closed off, like shutters had fallen over his face.
He turned away from Charlie, and she got the distinct impression this part of the conversation was over.
Where has he seen too much death, she wondered. In the service, or had he been talking about something else?
She didn’t feel she had the right to probe any further, especially considering the circumstance. Instead, she continued to help him drag fallen palm fronds over and they covered Agatha’s corpse like a mat.
With her agent’s body now hidden, Charlie finally felt able to breathe again, though she had to force herself not to think about Agatha underneath all those branches, with God-only knew what kind of insects crawling over her, making a meal of her flesh. She shivered and turned away, starting to walk back down the beach. Tyler followed.
“How long do you think it’s going to be before they find us?” she called over her shoulder, wanting to think about something other than her agent’s rotting body.
He caught up and stopped at the water’s edge to wash his hands in the surf.
“I have no idea. Obviously we’re going to be missed, so there’s bound to be a whole heap of people searching. With you being a celebrity, and the show being popular, this sort of news won’t stay under wraps for long.”
His choice of words made her frown. “Why would it be kept under wraps?”
Tyler shrugged and straightened from the ocean. “This won’t exactly be great publicity for the television channel.”
“So you think they might be keeping it a secret?”
“It’s just a hunch. But that doesn’t mean they won’t have people out looking for us.”
“But not as many as if everyone was looking for us.”
He shook his head. “No, that’s true.”
“They’ll be able to find us pretty quickly, though, right? I mean, they knew where we were going, so won’t they just be able to track our route?”
“Yes, but I’ve no idea how far off course we drifted when we were in the sea. There are hundreds of tiny islands in this part of the ocean. They’re going to have to search each and every one of them.”
She thought of something. “What about the plane? Wouldn’t it have some kind of tracker? The tracker could give them an idea of where the plane went down, perhaps narrow the search a little?”
“Yes, but I expect the plane is at the bottom of the ocean. I doubt whatever tracker was on board was strong enough to penetrate a mile of seawater. And besides, we jumped before the plane went down. I’m not even sure how far the plane traveled before it crashed. We could be fifty miles or more from the crash site, and when you consider the size of a fifty mile radius search area, that’s pretty damn huge, and that’s assuming they even know where the plane went down.”
“But Agatha’s body washed up here!” she said, gripping onto any possibility of hope. “Surely that means the plane went down nearby.”
He shook his head. “No, it just means her body was caught up in the same current we were. Ocean currents can travel for hundreds of miles.”
Charlie’s shoulders slumped and her eyes pricked with tears. She blinked them away, not wanting to cry again. She needed to be strong to get through this and didn’t want Tyler to think he had to take care of her, as well as worry about his own survival.
She wondered if he had someone at home. Anyone who would be missing him? She glanced down at his hand. She saw no wedding ring, and no tan line marked his finger where there might have been a ring before this trip. Perhaps he had a girlfriend waiting at home, or even a couple of girlfriends. She didn’t think a guy who looked like him stayed single for too long. She filed it away as something to try to find out later. Right now didn’t seem like the right time to start inquiring about his love life.
The stress and adrenaline from finding Agatha had left her mouth and throat painfully dry. With this sort of heat, they needed to drink even more than normal, and right now all she’d had was a couple of stale mouthfuls of water and the juice of a coconut.
Tyler noticed. “We need to hydrate. I suggest we get a drink from the water I boiled earlier, put some more wood on the fire to keep it going awhile, and then head back up to the pool.”
She nodded in agreement. “Sounds like a plan.”
“And I don’t know about you, but I don’t plan on sitting around and waiting for someone to show up. I’d rather be proactive about our rescue. If we head to the highest part of the island—the ridge of cliffs that seems to separate one side of the island from the other, we’ll be able to see much further. Plus, I’ve not seen the other side of the island yet. You never know, we might find some sign of life there, even if it’s just a fishing boat or something.”
“I’d give my right arm for a fishing boat right now.”
He shot her a smile. “Yeah, me too.”
Together, they headed back along the beach. Charlie couldn’t pretend she wasn’t relieved to leave Agatha’s body behind.
Charlie caught sight of something floating on the breakers, and she drew to a halt. Something else had washed up on shore, this time at the bottom of the cliff, near the rock pools where she’d caught the crab. Her stomach turned, her heart immediately pounding hard, her breath short. She reached out and caught hold of Tyler’s forearm.
“What ...?” he started and then caught sight of her face and followed the line of her gaze. “It’s okay.” He reassured her. “It’s not what you think. In fact, it may even be useful.”
Leaving her side, he took off at a jog across the sand. With more care, he balanced across the rocks and headed toward where the waves hit the coast and the shape of something swelled and deflated with the motion of the sea.
Now she was closer she could see that whatever the thing was, at least it wasn’t another body.
Tyler bent and scooped the item from the water. He caught hold of the corner and pulled and pulled, dragging the thing in as if he was pulling in a fishing line.
The parachute!
At the end of the masses of material, water sodden and heavy, Tyler heaved out the backpack that had held the parachute and been strapped to his shoulders. He lifted it above his head and grinned. “Now we’re in business!”
What on earth did he think they could do with a parachute? It wasn’t as if they could sky-dive off the island.
But then she realized she was being shortsighted. The material could be used for plenty of things—a bed to sleep on, shelter from the sun, even a fishing net.
Charlie clambered over the tops of the rocks, ignoring the sharp ones threatening to split open the bottoms of her feet, to help him.
Caught up within the material was something long, black and sodden.
“What is that?” she asked, frowning.
Tyler clambered over and untangled the object. He lifted the item up and water poured out from it. “It’s the boom from the sound guy’s equipment.”
The moment he said the words, she recognized it. Twisting her head left and right, her eyes scouring the coastline, and she realized a number of other objects had also washed up.
A large, curved piece of metal batted back and forth with the force of the waves. She turned from the parachute and splashed her way through the breakers. “Is this what I think it is?” she called out.
Tyler hurried over and bent to inspect the metal. “If you’re thinking it looks like a piece of the plane, then I think you’re probably right.”
She brought her hand to her mouth. “Oh, God. So the whole thing might have broken apart when it hit the water.”
“We don’t know that for sure.”
“No, but I’d say this is a pretty damn big clue!”
She continued to walk along the water’s edge, her gaze skirting the sand and numerous pieces of plastic refuse that were tangled with driftwood. Something else stood out to her and she bent to untangle the object.
A set of black over-the-head headphones. Exactly the kind the pilot had been wearing.
Her heart sank deeper into her stomach, her lips pressed together in a tight line. If Agatha’s body hadn’t been enough to prove to her that the plane had gone down, she thought all of this debris would be.
Tyler gave a shout and she turned to see him holding a large piece of leather and foam. “I think this might be a piece of one of the seats.”
Charlie chewed her lower lip and nodded. He was right.
Something else, right on the edge, where the cliff turned into another bay, caught her attention. A spark of recognition jolted through her. “Oh, look!”
She climbed back across the rocks, too excited to pay any attention to her feet.
“Be careful, Charlie,” Tyler called out after her. “You don’t want a broken ankle out here.”
She reached the object and, balancing precariously, lifted it from the water. “My backpack!” She almost squealed with glee when she discovered her flip-flops still attached to the front of the bag. All her stuff would be sodden with seawater, but at least she would have some of her belongings with her. She’d never been so happy to see something that belonged to her in her whole life.
Charlie lifted one of the sandals to her lips and kissed the sole. She glanced over to see Tyler standing on the rock, one hand shading his eyes, watching her with a smile on his face. He looked like a model out of a photo shoot, and for a moment she had to remind herself about their position.
Clambering back over the rocks, she slung her backpack over one shoulder, its weight quadrupled due to the waterlogged stuff. Seawater poured down her back and soaked into her clothes but she didn’t care. She had more clothing in the bag, and now she’d be able to take the clothes up to the freshwater pool, rinse the items out and dry them off, and be able to change into fresh clothes. Plus, she wouldn’t be forced to wear Tyler’s over-sized shoes to stop her feet from being mangled on the way up. He might have said her choice of footwear wasn’t appropriate, but it was a hell of a lot better than nothing!
“Here, let me help with the parachute,” she said reaching out to grab a corner. Even though she was already struggling, Tyler wouldn’t be able to manage the whole thing on his own. He might be strong, but the parachute was also waterlogged and not the easiest shape to carry.
In the end, they resorted to dragging the huge swath of material across the ground, with Charlie running back to unhook it every time it snagged on a rock. They pulled the parachute across the sand, leaving a damp trail as they went. They dumped it down, together with Charlie’s backpack and the pack Tyler had been wearing, which was attached to the other end of the parachute, onto the beach beside the fire.
Charlie could barely remember what she’d packed, and eagerly emptied the contents out across the palm fronds they’d slept on the previous night, ensuring the items wouldn’t get any sandier than necessary. Tyler did the same, though the only part of the parachute bag he’d kept anything in was the pockets in the straps, so he didn’t have much—a pocket knife, a small tin containing an iron flint, a lighter which had been sealed in a Ziploc baggie.
Tyler turned his attention to her stuff, showing no embarrassment at picking through her bikinis and changes of underwear. She wanted to protest, but this wasn’t a time to be precious over her things. She knew he was looking for items that would help them, not perving over her panties. From the jumble of wet material, he pulled out her little bag of cosmetics and some sanitary products. A couple of bars of dark chocolate which were still intact but probably tasted awful. What the hell, she thought, I’ll eat them anyway. Perfume.
He held up the little bottle. His eyes lifted to hers, his eyebrows arched. “Perfume? Seriously? Who the hell were you trying to smell nice for? The rats?”
She snatched the bottle off him, heat rising in her cheeks. “It was just habit,” she mumbled, unable to look at him. The truth was, she’d packed the fragrance for him. It all seemed stupid now.
“Now this may come in useful ...” He held up a small first aid kit which she’d thought to pack. She hadn’t wanted to appear as though she’d not thought to bring anything practical.
Tyler opened the lid. “The plastic box seems to have kept most of the contents dry,” he said, poking through the small selection of bandages, antiseptic wipes, and safety pins. He fished something out. “Now these might be handy.”
Her mouth dropped open. Between his fingers he held a couple of small foil squares. Condoms!
What was he implying? Not that she minded too much, but even so, wasn’t he being a bit forward?
He caught the shocked expression on her face and threw back his head, laughter bursting from his mouth. “Oh, no.” He wiped tears of mirth from his eyes. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean for that. They’re great to keep things dry—like the lighter or flint.”
Her cheeks flamed hot. “I didn’t think you meant anything else,” she muttered, unable to look at him. Was the idea of having sex with her really so laughable?
Tyler pocketed the condoms, together with the penknife and a couple of other items into his khaki shorts. She quickly grabbed a turquoise bikini and a clean tank top, meaning to rinse them out in the pool. She also slipped on her flip-flops, relieved to have something that fitted covering her feet.
The day grew hotter by the minute. At least deeper into the island there would be more shade. She longed for the dappled shade of the pool and the cool, clear water. The memory of the water from the small waterfall made her mouth even drier. She took a drink from the water Tyler had already boiled, though it was lukewarm, and tasted faintly of dirt, and then picked up the empty bottles in which they would collect more water.
Charlie got to her feet and dusted herself down. “Right, then. Let’s go.”