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“RAISE YOUR HANDS IN the air,” Tank said. “All of you. Now.”
We did as we were told, and Tank followed suit.
“This is the tribe?” Blackwell asked. “These are the people who have been stalking our hut at night?”
“Apparently, not that I saw this coming. Let me handle this. No one says anything unless someone directs a question at you. If one of them asks you something, be polite. No mouthing off—that means you, Daniella. Anyone who chose to live on this island did so for a reason, likely a political or a radical one. The guns say it all—they don’t want anyone here. They’ve claimed this island for themselves.”
“It’s not as if we have a choice to be here,” Blackwell said beneath her breath. “They must know that. Look at the damned plane, for God’s sake.”
“That doesn’t mean that they give a damn.”
“What if they don’t speak English?”
“I speak seven languages. Hopefully, they speak one of them. If they don’t, there are other ways to communicate. Now be quiet—all of you. I’ll do the talking.”
As Cutter lurched forward and fell heavily into my embrace, I sank onto the sand with him, took him into my arms, and whispered into his ear how grateful I was that he was alive and that everything was going to be all right. And then I just held him close to me as the four men closed the distance between us.
“Do you speak English,” Tank asked as they approached.
The oldest member of the group—a man somewhere in his sixties with a long white beard, piercing green eyes, and a face that looked as if it had been baked by the sun—came forward while the others held back, their guns still aimed at us.
“We speak English,” the man said. “And just so you know, you’re trespassing. This is our land. We’ve claimed it for ourselves—and you’re destroying it.”
“With all due respect, we didn’t mean to trespass,” Tank said. “Lightning struck our plane. It took out one of the engines, and we lost five people before we crashed. We’ve been waiting to be rescued—and I think we have a good chance of being rescued. Just a moment ago, we heard a plane nearby, which means that they might be searching for us. Did you hear it?”
“We heard it.”
“We’re hoping to be off the island as soon as possible. If you have any way to communicate with the outside world, we could be gone today. Or tomorrow at the latest.”
“The outside world?” the man said. “Are you fucking kidding me? We chose to leave that world behind. We escaped from that world to live out the rest of our lives here. We’ve been here for years. And you’re stealing our food.”
“The majority of what we’ve taken are fallen coconuts,” Tank said. “The second day we were here, we also took a few pineapples because we were hungry. Otherwise, we’ve only taken what was plentiful, such as the breadfruit and the papaya. We’ve also fished. For a water source, we’ve tapped into the many bamboo trees around us. To keep ourselves clean, we’ve used a nearby waterfall.”
“You see, that’s one of the problems we have with you,” the man said. “That waterfall is where we get our fresh water. You people have polluted it.”
“We had no idea. We just wanted to bathe.”
“And because you did, that water is no longer safe to drink. Now, we have to go to another water source that is miles away.” He pointed his gun straight at Tank’s forehead. “You’ve inconvenienced us.”
“We didn’t mean to.”
“But you did.” He nodded at Cutter. “And so has he, even though we fixed him up for you. When we found him in the jungle, he had a broken arm and a deep gash on his leg. There were smaller cuts on his body, but they’ve healed. He also was burned on his torso from when the plane exploded—which we saw, by the way. But treating him with aloe took care of that. Your boy is lucky to be alive. He owes his life to us. We’ve tried to do what we could for him, but the infection on his leg isn’t pretty. At this point, he either has blood poisoning or is on the verge of developing it. Unless you’re some kind of miracle worker, he’ll likely die of that. I’d give him a couple of days—tops.”
“I can’t tell you how grateful we are for what you’ve done for our friend,” Tank said. “We were beginning to think that we’d lost him. You have no idea how thankful we are that you brought him back to us. And that you cared for him.”
“The jungle gives,” the man said. “Find the right plant, and you can heal most any infection. But the one on his leg? I don’t know what the hell that is, or if there’s anything here to fix it. But it’s bad. And you’ll be burying him soon. On our land, by the way—which none of us likes.”
“Can I ask what you’ve treated his infection with?”
“Agar. Not that you know what that is.”
“I do,” Alexa said. “And you were exactly right to use it—it’s a strong, natural antibiotic. Kelp is something else we could use to fight his infection.”
“We didn’t use kelp,” the man said. “And who the hell are you?”
“I’m Alexa,” she said. “Alexa Blackwell. I’m an environmentalist. I work to sustain the environment.”
“And yet you shower where we drink our water. Explain that.”
“We didn’t know that anyone was using it as a source for drinking water, and it’s all we could find. We were desperate.”
“Desperate? Here’s when you were desperate, girl—when you were bitten by those spiders. That’s right—we also saw that happen. And frankly, I’m surprised that you survived. Those motherfuckers have killed too many of us during our years here. I thought for sure that you were going to shit the bed. And yet here you are—healthy. How is that?”
She motioned at Tank. “He sliced open my neck and drew out the venom. We had Tylenol to bring down my fever and Benadryl to stave off the inflammation. We used penicillin to prevent infection.” She pointed at Cutter. “He got those supplies off the plane before it exploded. I’m very lucky.”
“You know who isn’t lucky? All of you.” He cocked his head to the side. “We’re giving you five days to get off this island. If you’re not gone by then, we will kill you in your sleep. It’s not as if we haven’t been around your hut at night, wondering when we should act. The women keep telling us to hold off—that help will come. But you’ve been here for almost two weeks now, and nobody’s come. We thought a rescue plane would be here at this point. If you’re lucky, maybe one will come. But make no doubt about it. This is our island, and it’s here to sustain us—not you.”
“How many are you?” Tank asked.
“Hundreds at this point.”
“When did you come here?”
“Thirty years ago.”
“Why?”
“What the hell business is it of yours?”
“I’m just curious.”
“We came here to be free—truly free. Free of governments. Free of bureaucracy. Free of a corrupt system that no longer works. At this point, my wife and our friends have lived here for a full generation. Children have been born and raised here. Friends and family members have died here. These men behind me? They are my sons. This is our home, and you’re not welcome here.”
“What if they don’t find us in five days?”
“Then I guess we’ll be tossing your bodies into the ocean.”
“Do you have any forms of communication that might help us get off the island?”
“Communication? There are no phones here. Don’t you get it? We came here to be alone. We came here to start a new life and to get away from everything that was oppressing us. Taxes, politics, rhetoric, bullshit. So listen to me on this. I’ll say it again. This is our island, and you’ve got five days to get the hell off of it.”
