I kept screaming. For help. In pain. In anger. I glanced down at Mikey who barely seemed to be moving. Ben had a twisted smile on his face. His eyes were red as the blood that had begun to stain Mikey's clothes. In the moonlight, it was clear to see that Ben was crying in creepy juxtaposition with the smile on his face.

He lunged at me with almost inhuman speed and I only managed to fall backwards and begin crawling away from him. When he chased again, the only place to go was to the lake. I screamed as loudly as I could. I hoped the water would provide some protection if he couldn't swim or atleast I'd be a quicker swimmer.

He didn't let me get far into the lake however because he closed the gap quickly and grabbed my arm and then my neck. It still hurt from the last time.

I screamed again. "Help!"

He quickly maneuvered to having both hands to my neck and forced me underwater. I tried to hold my breath which got increasingly hard to do because of the firm grip on my throat. I clawed at him, kicking and fighting to get free to no avail.

I was powerless against the much stronger and bigger teammate.

I got weaker and weaker until I could no longer fight. My muscles grew weaker and eventually I let go of my breath sending bubbles on their way to the surface.

This was it.

In that moment, my mind drifted off to Mikey. I hoped he was alright. I couldn't tell if I was crying or not. I just prayed he'd be alright.

Ben's grip loosened and a second later, a pair of hands helped me above the surface. What was happening? I struggled to make sense of what was going on in my impaired state. I felt myself get lifted and carried out of the water. I slowly began to make better sense of everything but I wasn't breathing. I couldn't. I tried to but nothing worked.

The relief was short-lived because soon after I was panicking as I slowly felt myself begin to loose consciousness.

"Hold him down!"

"You're not fucking real! I won't let myself get lost!"

"He's strong!"

All the sounds and voices gradually started getting muffled and distant.

Was this it?

Forceful compressions on my chest suddenly forced me to heave and cough and send water flying out of my mouth. I coughed violently multiple times.

"No! Why won't you die?" A twisted form of Ben's voice echoed through the air "just die!"

I opened my eyes slowly, thankful to see the moon again high in the night sky. I coughed a few more times before taking large breaths of the cool air once again.

"Ben! Stop it" Tate screamed trying and failing to hold him down even with Gabe, Ollie and Tommy helping him.

Coach was huddled over Mikey. Oh God, Mikey. Please be okay, I begged.

Coach turned sharply, picked up the axe that lay beside him, took the base of it and hit Ben at the side of his head. Ben stopped screaming and struggling altogether.

As soon as I had the strength to, I scurried to Mikey's side who lay breathing hard.

I turned to coach pleading. He looked at me but didn't respond.

"Ripley, Eldon, help me carry Harris. Don't touch the knife" Coach ordered as he made his way back towards Mikey and I. "You three, tie him up and keep him gagged for now. We're getting off this island tonight as soon as I tend to this wound."

=^_^=

Coach began giving orders as soon as they carried Mikey through the house doors.
"Fahey, get me a clean cloth. We need to stop the bleeding immediately. You three, tie him up and get two or three of the beds to the center of the room. Stack them up"

I quickly ran across the room to where I kept my clothes in a pile. I hurriedly picked a cotton tank and ran back.

Coach and the others placed Mikey beside the now stacked foam beds and placed his lower body on the stack.

"That should help provide some elevation. Fahey, the cloth. Try to keep him calm"

I hurried over as coach had instructed and did the best I could while coach applied pressure to the wound.

I couldn't keep the tears from flowing and every time Mikey winced, I broke a little bit more inside. I couldn't lose him. All I could do was wipe his sweat and whisper that it would be alright.

=^_^=

I don't know how long it was before coach seemed to relax "I don't think the blade hit anything serious. The bleeding has stopped for now. I think he'll be fine.“"

I let out an audible sigh of relief. I brought both hands to his face and whispered "Thank you. Thank you for keeping your promise. Thank you for not leaving me"

"Denholm, get me the first aid kit. We need to cover this up. An infection is more than we can handle right now"

After coach had opened the box and surveyed it's contents, he handed me a bottle of antibiotics and instructed me to get some water and give Mikey two of the pills. Tate helped coach get Mikey into position and the two of them started applying the bandage.

=^_^=

Eventually they finished with the bandage, we'd helped Mikey take the antibiotics and when he was sleeping peacefully, we could finally breathe again.

I stepped out of the house to get some fresh air but didn't go far. I stopped to rest on the wooden fence and let my thoughts wonder.

Mikey could have died. I could have died. How long had it been since we crashed here? I'd survived more than my fair share of near death situations.

How long until my luck finally ran out.

"When are you coming home, Jo? We miss you" I heard Gaby's voice to my side, I turned and there she was.

"Gaby?" I exclaimed "how are you here?"

She only smiled.

"Wait, you're not here" the realisation set in but there she was, clear as day.

"Mom is worried sick" she continued

I began to feel dizzy.

"We're worried about you, honey" I heard my mum's voice from my other side. I turned.

"Mum?" I said shakily fighting the tears.

"I'm here honey"

I shook my head "you're not real"

"This whole thing has been hard on your father"

"Come home, kiddo" my dad's voice came from straight ahead.

The tears flowed freely now. "you're not real" I said trying to convince myself.

"Who are you talking to?" Gabe's voice pulled me out of the trance.

I wiped my face "My family".

=^_^=

I explained to coach and the rest of the team what had just happened and no one did anything to hide the worried and concerned looks on their face.

"Ben started that way too. We thought it was just the stress or the trauma but soon it started for me too. Ben has always experienced the symptoms before I did. I'm next. Then one by one, all of us. What do we do?" his voice and expression told us he was about to break down

We remained quiet. No one knew what to say or do. Only coach.

"We leave. Tonight." He told us and we all turned to him but didn't say anything "Gather the essentials, wrap up the pots, plates and cups. Fill up the water bottles, pack up the dried meat, eat whatever is left and say your goodbyes to this place".

=^_^=

Within the next hour, we had taken the necessary items and set off. Like coach had told us to, we'd worn clothes that would mostly protect us. I'd picked my favourite top and jeans paired with a jacket and the thick soled boots I've worn many times before. It made me sad to leave the rest of the clothes which I'll never see again but I was glad to be getting off this rock.

We followed the path Tommy had talked about and made our way over to the beach and the boat. Mikey was still asleep so we'd used the bed he was sleeping on as a stretcher. Ollie, Tommy, Doug and Tate carried him together. Coach carried Ben on his back who was still out. Gabe and I carried the stuff we were taking with us.

The path was dark and was only illuminated by the moonlight and torches we'd crafted from wood and cloth before we left. Gabe and I carried them and led the way.

The forest was quiet except for the sounds of crickets chirping and owls hooting.

After walking for nearly half an hour, we turned a bend and could finally see the ocean. It glistened in the moonlight as waves softly rolled into shore and back. We made our way to the boat which looked large enough to take all 9 of us but unlikely much more.

I glanced at the four paddles the boys had worked together to create. They mostly looked fine, maybe a bit heavy but our destination wasn't too far away so I hoped it'd work out fine.

"The island is that way. That's where the flare came from" Coach pointed across the open water to an island that wasn't visible at this time and distance but we knew was there. "That's where we need to get. Let's get moving"

=^_^=

Our stuff went into the boat first the Mikey and Ben. I went in next to look after Mikey and then Gabe did too to hold Ben in place. The rest of the boys pushed the boat off the shore and into the water then climbed in after.

I had Mikey's head resting on my lap and comfortable before Coach, Doug, Tate and Ollie started paddling. It was slow at first but eventually we started moving.

"Haha it's working" Tommy laughed.

We sailed over wave after wave and smiles crept across more and more of our faces.

"Whoo!" Doug yelled.

More and more of us started yelling but I had to cut it short.

"Stop you'll wake Mikey up" I hushed.

They did stop but kept smiling. I couldn't suppress my smile either. I turned back to the island and grinned as it got farther and farther away.

Things were going great.

=^_^=

Ben was tied up but I was still worried about him, "what if Ben wakes up?" I asked.

"Then we'll knock him out again" Doug responded. "He'll thank us later"

"Do you think he'll remember all the shit that he said and did?" Gabe asked

"Who knows" Tate answered.

They all rotated paddle duty every few minutes and as time passed, our destination island finally came into view.

"Who do you think is on that island?" Ollie asked. It was the first time I'd heard him speak in a while.

"Hopefully the rest of the team" Tate replied.

"I hope it's better there than it was on our island" Doug stated. We all agreed.

=^_^=

We'd all noticed the storm clouds and the winds ramp up but no one mentioned it until coach did.

"I think it's going to rain" he said clearly worried.

We didn't like the sound of that. We were in a small boat on the open ocean. Now far enough away from our island but still too far away from our destination. We were all very worried. This wasn't a very pretty situation.

They tried paddling faster but there was only so fast our little boat could move.

About 45 minutes later. The rain started coming down.

=^_^=

It had gradually gotten heavier and now the calm waters were long gone replaced by violently shaking currents.

They tried to keep paddling but with the way it was coming down, no one could see where we were going. And with the rain water coming into the boat, part of our focus switched to bailing out the water using the pots.

My heart beat fast as I clutched tightly to Mikey. Eventually tired of fighting against the current, they gave up paddling and focused on keeping the boat steady.

Eventually the rain would stop but by then, everyone would be too tired to paddle and we'd all retire.

=^_^=

I'm woken by Mikey's quivering and shaking. The sun was up and the water was calm once again. Coach was busy with the compass trying to figure out where we were and how far off course we were pushed. I briefly scanned the horizon and notice the lack of anything whatsoever. No sign of any of the islands that had previously dotted the horizon.

The looks on my teammates' faces said it all. We were lost. Even more lost than we were before.

I shook myself out of it and grabbed one of the water bottles and brought it to Mikey's lips and poured. Most of it rolled down his chin. I brought my hand to his forehead and he was burning. I took the piece of cloth I'd used to tend to him up till that point, wet it and cleaned his face.

He seemed to be freezing so held him upright and hugged him tightly while rubbing his back. I was doing anything I could think of to warm him up and I was only praying that something worked.

"Where are we coach?" I asked him

He sighed before he put away the compass and answered "I have no idea. Who knows how far those currents carried us"

"What are we gonna do?" I asked again.

He opened the plastic case he'd found on the boat, pulled out the flare gun, loaded it and fired into the sky.

"We pray, and we wait"

And even though the flare was barely visible in the bright sky, that's what we did.

=^_^=

I spent the next few hours looking after Mikey but his condition only seemed to get worse. Not long after, he developed a fever so we gave him 2 aspirins that were included in the first aid kit. I could do nothing else but hold him tight.

I felt horrible too. The wet clothes had now dried and stuck frustratingly to my skin. I was tired. The boat had been rocking back and forth that way since and it made me sick. But I couldn't think about any of that then. Not while Mikey was in that state.

A few more agonizing hours of that and Mikey's breathing would get laboured and each one sent shockwaves through my heart. Eventually his breathing would slow even further and I would break.

I begged him to be okay. I begged him not to leave me. I looked to the others for help but they couldn't do anything either. Not even coach.

"You said you'd never leave me!" I begged "you said it was you and me forever".

I was crying deeply again.

His face was pale and his features discoloured. His hands were ice cold but his body kept heating up.

"Please, please, don't leave me" I begged some more. "I love you" I whispered. "I love you Mikey" I said louder. I was in love with him.

I cried until I had no more tears left.

=^_^=

A few hours later, I noticed that Mikey's temperature was getting better which was a high point of the day so far. We changed his bandages and tried to get him to eat. He was still out of it so we gave up. The rest of the group ate and made plans to choose a direction to paddle in.

Ben had woken up earlier and Doug was ready to knock him out again as promised but we'd noticed that Ben wasn't aggressive anymore so we let him be. He asked the situation which we explained and after eating, he even offered to help with paddling.

We weren't so sure about that so we decided against it and left him tied up.

Things were bleak. We were stranded on a tiny boat with limited food and water. We had almost no protection from the elements except the clothes on our backs. We were tired and Mikey was stabbed and wounded. But we wouldn't give up. We never did.

Coach made the most informed decision he could make with what he had and decided that we'd paddle southeast as soon as the sun went down. We all agreed and tried to some rest while we still could.

=^_^=

"Look!" Gabe was frantically tapping everyone. "Look over there!" He was jumping and pointing into the distance.

One by one, every single one of us realised what he was trying to show us. In the distance, unmistakably cruising the water's surface was a ship.

I couldn't believe it.

When everyone started screaming and waving their hands, I joined in too shouting at the top of my lungs. When we thought they couldn't see us, we screamed even louder. The boys removed their shirts and waved them as high as they could.

That's when we heard it, the horn of the massive ship cut across the water's surface and we all jumped for joy. The horn blew again and again we screamed happily each time.

We were saved.

=^_^=

Thank you for reading so far into this story. It just been a journey for me too writing this and unfortunately it took years to get this far but this story will finally be complete. Let me know your thoughts below!