Chapter 37

Jeremy woke in the morning. Tiffany was lying on the other side of Anabell. He gently woke Tiffany and then Anabell. “Master?” Tiffany asked.

“Go get some more water please Tiffany,” she smiled and hurried from the interior of the hut. “How are you feeling, Anabell?”

“I hurt, but you shouldn’t trouble yourself with me. You should have left me to die.”

“Anabell, you should know by now that is something I could never do,” Jeremy said softly.

“Master I am so unworthy of you. I am so unworthy of these wonderful women who care so much for you. I wished to hurt you. I planned on it. I hated you for what you did...”

“Hush,” he said touching his fingers to her lips. “That does not matter now Anabell. I am worried about you. You need to rest. I’m going to make sure that the girls keep an eye on you while I take care of some things around camp. I’ll be nearby, so if you need or want to talk to me, just ask them to come and get me.”

“Master you are too kind to me.”

“Anabell, rest please and get better. I won’t let them hurt you anymore.”

“But master...” she said, her lip trembling, “I deserved to be hurt. I should be beaten and fucked and abused. I’m a...”

“You are a woman who has been mistreated for too long Anabell,” he kissed her softly on the forehead, and she sobbed. “Show everyone else that you have changed, that you are loyal to me, and that you have given up your past, and that your devoted to everyone here.”

“Yes, master,” she gasped.

“Now rest. When Tiffany returns, I want you to drink plenty of water, and I want you to eat.”

“I don’t want to be too fat for you master.”

“You shouldn’t worry about getting fat Anabell, you will be fat soon enough with our baby in your belly.”

“You ... you would really give me your baby? Our baby?”

“Rest,” he said, kissing her softly on the lips.

“My chest hurts, my nipples are on fire,” she said softly, fading back into unconsciousness. Jeremy identified the rawhide strips that were wrapped around each nipple. He removed them as gently as he could and crawled out of the hut just as Tiffany returned.

“Keep an eye on her, Tiffany. I’ll have Shannon come and help you. One of you two are to be with her at all times.”

“Yes Master.”

“If there is a problem or something changes, you are to come and get me immediately.”

“Of course, Master,” Tiffany said. Jeremy met with Shannon at the cook fire and asked her to go and help Tiffany. Shannon hurried off while he ate.

They finished off three of the planned six huts in addition to his main hut. They were drier than the cave, and they were a lot more comfortable. Jeremy checked in on Anabell around lunch time. She was sleeping as peacefully as he could hope, and her bruises had gone from what was mottled red to an ugly black. She was a little feverish and, with the help of the other girls, he got her to eat and drink. When he stepped out of the hut to continue work, Sara met him. “Can we talk for a minute, Jeremy”.

“Sure,” Jeremy replied, walking with Sara down one of the game trails.

“Why are you so good? I mean, all that girl has done since we got stranded has been to cause trouble. I know the way that Rose and Pricilla and the other girls were treating her, but I mean why stick up for her now?”

“Because someone had to, because I couldn’t let you girls beat her to death or torture her anymore. I’m mad at myself for letting it happen in the first place, but I thought maybe the girls would get their aggression and anger out, but its only gotten worse.”

“You are just too good for any of us Jeremy.”

“Maybe Sara, maybe, but this has to stop.”

“I don’t know how it will.”

“One way or another, it will.”

“What if we never get off the island, Jeremy?”

“Let me worry about getting us off the island, Sara. I have a plan and it should work.”

Jeremy at that moment noticed something he hadn’t noticed before. Sara was wearing a watch.

“Sara, how long have you had that?” He asked, pointing to the watch.

“It was a Christmas present from my grandparents.”

“Can I see it?”

“Sure Jeremy, I guess?”

He looked at the watch. It read midnight and it was still moving, the second hand still sliced forward.

“Have you changed the time on this?”

“No, I mean I don’t know how much time change there has been. I’d all but forgotten about it.”

“Sara baby, you’re beautiful,” and he lifted her in a strong embrace and kissed her hard, and then ran down back to the camp.

Jeremy sat down with Naomi... “Can we figure it out with this?” he asked.

“Oh hell no, one of these girls didn’t have a time piece. I guess I lost mine in the crash...”

“Yeah, mine drowned in the salt water. Digital Timex piece of shit. Good for 30 meters water resistant unless it’s salt water.” He grinned.

“So let’s see, California time is +6.”

“Right,” Jeremy said, “so we mark time at noon tomorrow and we should be able to plot our position on one of those old flight maps and then...”

“And then we can find the nearest port and get home.”

“What are you guys talking about?” Sara said, walking up.

“Sara baby, this your watch?” Naomi asked.

“Yeah, Jeremy was real excited about it for some reason.”

“You’re beautiful baby, now we have everything we need.”

“What are you guys talking about,” Rachel asked.

“These two are crazy, I think.” Rose said, “getting all excited over a watch.”

“You girls really don’t understand, do you?” Naomi said.

“What?” they all echoed.

“It gives us a point of origin. It will tell us within a few miles where we are.”

“Well if I knew you could figure out where we are with a watch, I’d have given it to you on the first day,” Sara said.

“I still don’t get it,” Rose said. “How does that tell you where we are exactly?”

“You know what time zones are, right?” Jeremy explained.

“Yeah, so what?”

“Well, if we know what time it is at, say, California, which is where this watch is set to, and we know that it is Greenwich plus eight, then when know what time it is at zero latitude. We take that and we do a bit of math and presto, we know where we are in the Pacific.”

“Plus, shooting the sun or stars with the sextant, and we have two sets of coordinates.”