Dad always said, “Just cheer up,” as if it were as simple as that. “Smile,” he’d say. “You’ll feel better.” And Mom would say, “Just try, sweetie. You’ll have fun, you’ll make friends, you’ll be happy if...”Ifyou didn’t mope in your room,ifyou didn’t worry about every little thing,ifyou didn’t obsess over catastrophes that might or might not happen...ifyou became an entirely different person. One time, Claire had tried to explain how it made her feel when they told her she needed to change. Her parents had been the ones to end up in tears, and she’d spent an hour consoling them instead of vice versa. Not her most successful conversation.
At least here, not a single person had told her she needed to cheer up.Hey, I’ve discovered a silver lining to being in a probably-going-to-die, life-or-death situation, she thought.Yay?
She glanced over at her friends. Jack wasn’t nearby—he had volunteered to find a sapling to use with the net—but Reyva and Mariana were both here, hauling rocks onto the dock. Their plan was to attach the net to half of the sapling, position it so that the net dangled in the deeper water off the end of the dock, and then anchor the other half of the sapling on the dock with a lot of rocks.
“So explain to me why,” Reyva asked with a huff as she deposited another rock onto the dock, “the fish will swim into the net instead of around?”
“Because fish are dumb.” Mid-knot, Mariana paused and examined her nails. “Chipped another one. That’s three so far.”
“A tragedy,” Reyva said.
“I didn’t say it was a tragedy,” Mariana snapped. “Just a fact. You know, it’s irritating how you keep on thinking the worst of me.” Hearing the edge in her voice, Claire froze mid-knot. She had been consumed in her own thoughts. Had she missed noticing tension rising between the two of them? Last thing they needed was to snipe at each other.
Halfway back to the rocky shore, Reyva halted. “I don’t think the worst of you.”
I should say something, Claire thought. But she didn’t know what. It was the strain of the lack of food and the constant supply of fear. It made you feel like your skin was raw. That was why they were acting this way.
“Then why the mocking?” Mariana demanded.
“Because it’s easy.”
Claire rose to her feet. If they fell apart...
But Reyva wasn’t done. “You’re smart, beautiful, and confident, and that makes you easy to mock.”
Mariana gawked at her for a second, then laughed. “Aw, love you too!”
Together, they went for more rocks.
With a smile on her face, Claire sank back down and resumed tying knots. She felt as if a knot inside her rib cage had loosened. They all needed to stick together, and then they’d have a chance.
Waving toward the woods, where Jack had gone to find their pole for the net, Mariana asked, “Hey, what do you think Jack thinks of me? Intimidated by the smart or by the beautiful?”
Content that they weren’t arguing, Claire didn’t listen to Reyva’s answer. Finishing the final knot, she looked out at the water. It was beautiful here, as her parents had promised. Peaceful, even, now that the gunman was gone. She thought again of the wild man by the cave. It was unlikely he’d bother them, now that there were four of them.
She remembered suddenly that they hadn’t told Jack about the wild man. Probably should clue him in, just in case he ran into him in the woods.
Speaking of which, how far into the woods had Jack gone?
She’d assumed he’d be sensible enough to stick near the shore. Yes, he was outdoorsy and all that, but it was still safer to stick together. She couldn’t see even a hint of his orange T-shirt in between the trees. “Jack?” she called.
Leaving the net, she crossed to the tree line.
“Jack? You okay?”
For another second, there was no answer.
He’s dead, she thought.
Then his voice: “I’m fine!”
He was too far away for comfort. “We didn’t tell him about the wild man,” Claire said to Reyva and Mariana. She immediately began imagining various scenarios in which the wild man stumbled across Jack. It wasn’t an unrealistic worry—they hadn’t warned him well enough about the man with the shotgun, and he’d nearly been killed. She didn’t want to make the same mistake twice. And she knew she wasn’t going to be able to stop worrying about it unless she did something. “I’m going to warn him so he doesn’t get surprised.”
“Good idea,” Mariana approved.
“Be right back.” With a wave, Claire headed into the woods in the direction of his voice.
The birds were chirping, which she took to be an excellent sign. She didn’t remember ever being as hyperaware of birdcalls as she was now. She wondered if she’d always notice whether there were birds or not after this.
