Page 54 of Dance Practice, Marooned: Part 2

I hope he’s right.

The food is gone in a matter of minutes, and we are relaxed for maybe the first time since we set foot on this island. Nobody brings up anything heavy. Zeke, who I think might be allergic to sitting still, starts talking about our plan moving forward.

“Here’s the plan,” he tells us. “Once everything has dried, we will set sail. I would guess first light tomorrow. We have enough food and water on board, and Kellen has done a full sweep of the ship to fix anything that could become a problem.”

“Do you know where we are?” Tatiana asks. “What if we end up going further away from help?”

“No, for right now, I have no idea where we are, but we have gathered any maps from the other wreck, and whatever we could find here. If we can get to a landmark, of any type, we will be able to figure it out and then map our way home. This ship has no radio or communication devices. My guess, they like to be able to go full blackout, considering they are fucking criminals.”

Valid.

“What about other pirates?” Kaylee says, her voice soft and careful. “We have had bad encounters out there...”

Zeke stares at her, and the air kind of goes still for a moment, like they’re sharing some weird connection.

Wait, are they?

I bite my lip.

“It’s a risk we gotta take, but I do want to ask you a few questions about the last time you stopped on land, it might give us an idea of where we are.”

“They never let me out when we stopped,” she says, softly, “so I can’t tell you exact locations, but it was about two weeks ago, just before we came here.”

“Right,” Zeke mumbles.

Two weeks out here is a heck of a long time, we could be anywhere.

“They restocked water just before we returned a second time, but it was from another island.”

Aggie pauses, mid-bite. “Well, at least if there are other islands around, we can try and keep our stock levels high.”

“Assuming we go in the right direction,” Kellen grunts.

“Well, right now, we have no other choice,” she snaps back.

Oh boy.

Not this again.

Between Aggie, Rachel and Kellen, it is almost a constant snickering battle.

“Enough,” Ace growls, sick of their crap. “Let’s just assume we’re far away from anything and do the best we can to keep our stocks up. If those filthy fuckers can stay alive out here, so can we.”

He’s right.

We have come this far.

I stretch and then lay down, my head resting on Ace’s lap. He smells like sweat, and ocean, and him, but it’s a comfortable place for me. His fingers glide through my hair, and it takes everything in me not to fall asleep. Aggie meets my gaze and winks, wiggling her brows. I can’t help but smile.

“How long until everything dries?” Kellen asks me.

“If the sun stays out, they should be fine by morning. We couldn’t get much of the water out, so they were pretty heavy and wet when we hung them up, but I will keep going and twisting the excess water out until they get lighter.”

He nods. “And the cleaning?”

Rachel ignores him, so Aggie answers. “We have another few hours, at least.”

“I’ll help,” I say.