“These rocks all look incredibly unstable,” Aggie murmurs, tipping her head back. “I’m not sure I want to sit below them.”
“You’d be surprised just how strong they are,” I tell her. “Safer than being exposed.”
She purses her lips. “None of them are quite deep enough to get us out of the weather.”
No, they’re not.
We keep looking anyway, until Ace bellows out that he found something. Slowly, we all follow the sound of his voice, climbing over rocks and logs, until we eventually locate him. He is standing beneath a massive overhanging rock. It’s not quite a cave, but it has enough shelter to protect us and the rocks below it are creating enough structure that it looks safe.
“This could work,” Ace announces, holding his arms out.
I look around. “This is... we should have looked for this earlier.”
“I thought the same,” Ace agrees, “but it isn’t that easy to get to, so would be difficult for us to get water.”
He makes a point. Still, it looks far more secure than our little boat set up. Maybe once the storm passes, we should be searching further onto the island for a better shelter. For now, though, we just need to get all our things here.
“Let’s go get everything we need,” Kellen claps his hands together.
We make our way back to camp, nobody saying a word.
The wind shifts again while we’re packing up. It’s not howling, not yet, but there’s a whining to it, a careful warning that it is coming closer. The fire is burning sideways, and eventually, it will go out, hopefully without burning anything else while it does. I load my arms with the things Tatiana has packed up. For me, it’s blankets and all our jackets. The guys carry anything heavy.
“We gonna get Rachel?” Kellen asks.
I nod. “I’ll go past on my way.”
We get moving, the dark clouds rolling in. I make my way to Rachel’s camp, and see her sitting outside of it, knees to her chest, face expressionless. She knows I’m here, I can see it in the way her body shifts, but she doesn’t say anything.
“The storm is coming,” I inform her.
She doesn’t look up. “Let it come.”
I am not in the mood for her bullshit right now. “Listen, Rachel, I don’t feel like arguing with you. A storm like that will crush that shelter. It isn’t safe.”
She finally looks up. “I will be there soon.”
I can’t hold these things much longer, so I take her word for it and turn, making my way to the shelter. By the time I get there, everyone is already setting up. They have put everything as far back as they can, but if the wind does come directly in, we may end up with a very cold, very wet night. I can only hope it’s going in a different direction.
“How’d it go?” Ace asks.
“She said she’d come.”
He nods and we finish setting up. An hour passes and the low rumble of thunder can be heard in the distance as the storm inches closer.
“Rachel isn’t here,” Adrian suddenly pipes up. “Do you think she has run right into the storm? What a way to go out. That’s how I would want to go.”
We all just stare at him.
But he’s right, she isn’t here.
Fuck.
I look to Ace, and his jaw tics. “She is goin’ to be the fuckin’ death of me.”
“Should we go and get her?” Aggie asks.
“I will,” Kellen mutters, pushing to his feet. “She won’t be gettin’ a fucking choice.”
