Adrift
Copyright© 2025 by Gina Marie Wylie
Chapter 12
Alexis Ogden rolled over underneath the layer of reed mats and was appalled at how much noise they made. She had a light blanket as well, and she pulled it around her shoulders. She was warm enough. Probably as safe as she could get, given the current circumstances.
She remembered the morning. Dinosaurs. Intelligent birds. This was like something out of a bad movie; except she couldn’t get bored with it and shut it off or get up and walk out.
Today she had done what she’d set out to do, and that wasn’t a bad start on the rest of her life. Tamara was alternately sullen, angry, frustrated, and Alexis thought, deep down, scared. Why wasn’t she scared? Tamara should be. It had been just a little dangerous out there. They’d killed five of those birds so far, and the birds hadn’t gotten even one of them. How much longer will that be true? If the birds are really smart, one of these times they were going to be surprised, and it would be bad.
And the thirty-five-hour days ... that was going to take more than a little getting used to. She had been talking to the guy with the staff this afternoon, and he had helped her make one for herself. His name was Owen Kingsbridge, semi-retired at age forty. He was an academic who had done anthropology in the jungles of New Guinea and other places in the South Pacific. A man who’d used his savings to leverage the market during the 90s and was now wealthy; he’d quit while he was ahead.
Owen mentioned that the proportion of light and dark was a function of the axial tilt of the planet and where you are, latitude-wise. They knew the day was thirty-five hours; the light portion was currently 24 hours. They were, he’d said, about forty-five degrees north latitude, but he could be off maybe five degrees. They had no idea how long the year was, nor how far away they were from the sun ... a whole long list of answers they had “not a clue.”
She had gone down to the plane this afternoon. Practically everyone who didn’t have something really important to do had gone. She was sure that yesterday when they had gotten off the plane, the waterline ran not quite at the back of the wings. Today, it was about three feet behind the wings. How could the level of a lake this size change like that? The beach didn’t slope much, maybe a foot drop, maybe less. But even six inches ... the lake was much larger than Kansas -- even Texas! Maybe as large as Alaska! And that was pretty cotton-pickin’ big! That was a lot of water to move around!
She had talked to Owen about it, and he’d looked around. “I’d say tides, except I haven’t spotted any moons. Also, tides come and go twice a day. Of course, that’s Earth and we are, obviously, not there anymore.”
Alexis laughed to herself. She’d met a lot of guys, a lot. She couldn’t remember ever meeting anyone like Owen. He was calm, self-sufficient, and practical. Cute, a little too, even though he was nearly as old as her dad. Earlier in the afternoon, she’d seen Harry with the Marine sergeant. Yesterday, Alexis had realized Harry liked him more than just a little. Today? Today, she was in no position to talk. Jack Pierson was maybe a dozen or so years older than Harry. Owen was more like twenty years older than she was.
He was, though, definitely someone she was interested in. Definitely.
She was asleep a few minutes later, a small smile on her face.
Bess snuggled against Griff, a big smile on her face. Oh, the blessings of married quarters! Even if married quarters consisted of a simple nook in a cave room with three other couples tucked around the edges. But oh how she’d needed Griff! It had been building since they’d been at the airport. She giggled to herself. A year ago, just before Griff, she’d been afraid that she was on track to be an old maid and thinking that it would be no bad thing.
She hadn’t even masturbated very much, just a couple of times a year, but not like some of her girlfriends reported they did.
Griff though, he’d been kind and gentle; he was never in a rush. But they got there, they did! And just now, they got there twice in not so very few minutes! Oh, it was nice!
She contemplated her overnight bag, sitting on a rock about four feet away. Her pills were in there. She needed to talk to Griff about that. She had exactly one and a half months of protection. And if it kept up like it had been going since they had arrived, it was going to be almost impossible to protect herself. She had probably already messed up this cycle.
Back home, you could fit it in your morning routine. She kept the little box right next to her hairbrush. She only brushed her hair in the mornings after she got out of the shower, a quick and easy reminder. Here, day and night back home were hopelessly confused ... and there were no showers. What would Griff say if she told him that they had played baby roulette tonight? He told her he wanted kids, lots of kids, three, at least, maybe four. The proof of the pudding is when the bunny dies...
She laughed again. Except, there were no bunnies here. No EPT kits, just the old-fashioned method: late for a period and you start wondering. Two skipped periods and you could stop wondering. And even that was going to be hard to keep track of, because of the length of the days.
She should just throw the pills away and get pregnant as fast as she could. Griff had been lucky today, there was no doubt about it. She loved him and knew he loved her back.
And he was going to get killed.
Probably she’d be a few feet away when it happened and it might even be both of them at once. She had looked at the dinosaurs this morning and thrown up. She remembered a Godzilla movie, where Godzilla stepped on a running man. That’s what she pictured in her mind, happening to Griff.
She felt his arms tighten around her. He was awake again. She felt him stiffen against her back, and Bess smiled into the dark. “Goodness, soldier! Someone has been neglecting you!”
He laughed, “Now that you mention it...” Their words were soft, fading to sighs, until the long final sibilant “Yesssss!” from Griff and another big smile on Bess’s face.
It was hours and hours later when someone came and shook Griff. “Corporal, Gunny wants you.”
Griff rolled over. “Be there in five.” The Marine vanished back into the night.
He got up, and Bess joined him. This business of no shower after lots of sex had its serious downsides. She was sticky, stinky, and there was no respite, at least for a while. She donned her jeans and blouse from yesterday -- there was no use getting something clean messed up when there was no telling when she’d next have something washed.
They went through the short tunnel, and she could see the gunny standing with two Marines near the main entrance. Griff walked up to them. “Gunny?”
“Kennedy had the four- to ten-guard mount on the exit, Lieutenant Pugh had ten to four before him, and was supposed to wake Kennedy a few minutes before his tour. Kennedy woke a little after four thirty; Pugh hadn’t woken him. Kennedy checked, and he couldn’t find the LT.”
“He woke me, per SOP. I got Sergeant Pierson and two others up, and then I made a quick trip outside. It’s dark and quiet, like it’s been.”
“I’ve been a little nervous about that,” Becky Thatcher said, appearing from the dark of the cave. Commander Shumway was a few feet behind her. “I’m afraid that the reason there’s no sound at night is because there are hunters out there in the dark.”
“Pugh is gone,” the gunny told her, without bothering to sugarcoat it.
Jack Pierson joined them. Bess was amused because a very serious Harry Fredericks was at his side, her blouse buttoned up crooked.
“I think, Gunny, we’re going to have to get them all up,” Sergeant Pierson said. “Someone unlocked the cargo containers. At least three weapons are missing, perhaps a thousand rounds, three combat packs ... probably three cases of rations. I didn’t have time for a full inventory, but that’s probably the minimum of stuff missing.”
“A head count?” Commander Shumway asked.
The gunny met her eyes. “I don’t think we have a choice, Commander. We need to find out who’s gone and see if anyone noticed anything.”
Bess saw Becky motion to Harry. “Wake Mei Lei and your sister.”
The gunny nodded to Kennedy. “Get our people up first. And get them armed.”
Bess was surprised by what happened next. The gunny went and stood in front of the commander and saluted her formally. “Commander, it would appear that my decision not to have two guards on duty at all times was in error.”
“I signed off on it,” Commander Shumway said bitterly. “Pugh had a key?”
“Yes, Commander.”
“Let that be a lesson for all of us,” Becky said firmly. “None of you trusted him; next time, when we don’t trust someone, we don’t give them the keys to the castle.”
Bess touched Griff’s arm. “But why? I mean, where are they going to go? They can’t stay on the island, can they?”
“Oh, we’ll look,” the gunny said, obviously angry. “Risking lives and wasting time.”
“They must have thought they had a way off,” Becky said thoughtfully.
Tim Riley appeared with Mei Lei and Sandy. “The lake is dangerous,” Tim told them. “I explained to everyone about that earlier today. As soon as Griff’s patrol reported dinosaurs, I said it. Back on Earth, the dinosaurs in the ocean were the size of whales! God knows what’s in the water here! That was something we wanted to research carefully!”
“I’ll be damned,” it was Sergeant Ridgeway who spoke out. “Gunny, I know what they’re doing and where they’re going!”
“And that would be where, Sergeant?” Commander Shumway asked.
“At the meadow today, we were down by the river. There was a large tree in the water. Maybe seventy, eighty feet long, maybe six or eight feet in diameter, it was grounded on a sandbar. The LT said it looked like a lot of good firewood.” Sergeant Ridgeway grimaced.
“I mentioned that I didn’t want to carry a couple, ten tons of wood a mile and a half, with a million trees a lot closer.” Sergeant Ridgeway shook his head at the sheer stupidity of the man’s suggestion.
“That photographer guy was there, taking pictures of it, the tree I mean. I had things to do, Gunny, so I left them there. The LT and that photographer, they talked all afternoon, then they talked on the walk back. I saw them at dinner, and they had a woman with them. Youngish, I don’t know who. They were talking and nodding.”
Like half the people last night, Bess thought.
She looked at Becky, who was lost in thought. “That log -- was there anything else about it?” Becky asked suddenly.
“It was all wrapped with vines and stuff. A couple of smaller logs were caught up in those. It was a real rat’s nest.”
“Debra Atief,” Mei Lei said suddenly, “She was with the group this afternoon, she was the mapmaker -- and a practical nurse.” She turned to Sandy Fredericks. “Come!”
The two of them vanished, all around them Marines were waking people up; it was not a happy wakeup call.
A bit later Mei Lei was back, talking to Becky and the commander.
Alexis didn’t need the wake-up; she’d been lying awake listening to the growing bustle, the whispered voices around her. Something was up, she thought. She sat up, gathered her walking stick, walked a few feet and dropped to one knee, shaking Owen. He looked up at her and smiled.
That’s that, Alexis thought. She was stone cold in love. She could stand to wake up every morning for the rest of her life to that smile. “Something’s up,” she told him. Owen stood, gathering up his walking stick as well.
Shortly, everyone was up. They were told off into groups of ten with no pretense of order, just hurry up and move. It was not lost on Alexis that the Marines were armed and surly, much more surly than you’d expect just having been rousted in the middle of the night.
“Back in a sec,” Owen whispered to her, and walked a few feet and said something to the woman Marine corporal they’d been with on the trip up the ridge. She pointed for Owen to get back in his group and he said something else. The woman shrugged, leaned a little close and whispered in Owen’s ear. A long minute of conversation, then she pushed him back towards Alexis and the rest of their group.
“What?” Alexis asked, keeping her voice low.
“Not good. The boss Marine went over the hill, him and at least two civilians, one of them a woman.”
“Over the hill?” Alexis said, not understanding, then mentally kicked herself. “Oh!” She couldn’t believe it.
“Yeah.”
Alexis nodded towards the woman Marine, now talking to two others, obviously comparing head counts.
Owen shrugged while looking at the woman Marine. “In our lives there are things we are proud of and things we’re not proud of. Alison is my daughter. Her mom told me when Alison was six that she didn’t like me anymore. Goodbye, thank you, don’t call her, she’d call me.” He shook his head. “They vanished. I looked high and low, but I never could find them. Then, Alison found me,” his voice was bitter. “She wanted to know what kind of man would walk out on his wife and daughter.”
“That was about two weeks ago. She had to come on this mission. We were trying to sort things out between us. So I got a ticket for Samoa. I swear I had no idea she’d be on the same plane.”
Alexis nodded. “But the Marine lieutenant and two others split?”
“Yeah, they took a bunch of stuff: rifles, ammunition, food. There are three they are fairly sure of, and they want to see if there’s anyone else.”
Alexis’s stomach rumbled. “Food?”
“For five hundred people, a drop in the bucket. For three people, a month, maybe two.”
“But that fucks the rest of us,” Alexis said bitterly.
“Yeah.”
“Three of them, five hundred of us. Even with weapons ... they can’t stay on the island. Did you hear the warning about not going swimming?” Alexis asked him.
“I missed that.”
“Dinosaurs in the water were of a size with the dinos on land. That is to say, whale size. Predators to match.”
Owen gulped. “Maybe they didn’t hear that either. We were all at the party to the river yesterday afternoon.”
Alexis nodded.
Mei Lei stood in front of the group. “All of those who went to the river yesterday afternoon -- see me right now.”
Owen started forward. Alexis contemplated what would happen if she just showed up. What, they could tell her to get lost? Bet none of them had the balls!
She trailed along, standing quietly beside Owen.
“Yesterday, down at the river, there was a tree grounded on the sand,” Mei Lei said loudly. “If anyone got a good look at it, come forward.”
Owen raised his hand. A couple of others said they’d seen it. “The rest of you, back to your groups.”
“What’s going on?” someone asked.
“Three people decided to leave.”
“It’s a free country,” the same voice said.
Mei Lei was deliberately not looking at the speaker. “Those people took food, weapons, and equipment. When your stomach starts to growl, contemplate that those people took rations, which for themselves, will last some weeks. They took about three percent of the ammunition, and a tenth of the firearms. The next time the birds come, think about freedom and the price you’ll pay for them having it.” Mei Lei pointed back to the bulk of the passengers. “Now please, unless you saw something, return to the headcount groups.”
Alexis stayed put. She saw Mei Lei glance her way and knew the other woman was aware that in the afternoon Alexis had been busy making reed mats. Alexis met the older woman’s eyes. So, are you going to make an issue of it?
The answer, evidently, was no. Mei Lei gestured to one of the men. “Describe what you saw, please.”
“A very large tree grounded on a sand bar. I grew up in Astoria, Oregon. We got driftwood snags all the time along the Oregon coast. You learn young never to get close to the ones in the water; they can be lethally dangerous.”
“Does that mean you didn’t get close?”
“No, I didn’t get close.”
“Any other observations?”
“The Marine lieutenant climbed out on it,” another man said. “I don’t like him. He kept bossing us around like we were kids. I was with the 7th Cav in Iraq. I ain’t a kid.”
Mei Lei pointed to Owen. “How well did you see it?”
“I was on lookout duty, up on a bank, a good hundred yards away.” Owen nodded at the man who’d spoken first. “I know about snags; I thought the two people who climbed out on it were crazy. I thought about yelling a warning but was afraid I’d panic people, since I was the lookout.”
“Anything else?”
“There were a couple of smaller trees tangled in the larger one’s branches and some vines. There were knots of vine all over them. I was above it, so I had a good, if distant, view.”
Mei Lei pointed at the ground. “Can you sketch the arrangement?”
“Sure.” Owen drew a line about two feet long with the toe of his boot, then two smaller lines a few inches away, lines that angled towards the main trunk. “It looked like this.”
Mei Lei nodded. “Anyone else have anything else to offer?”
No one else said anything. “You two stay,” she nodded to Owen and the other man who’d spoken. “Miss Ogden, if you would, please fetch Becky and the commander.”
Alexis went and did that, returning with a party of Becky, the Commander, Lieutenant Riley, Harry, and Sergeant Pierson.
“Do you think we can let the people go back to sleep?” Commander Shumway asked.
“Tell them what has happened first,” Becky suggested.
Mei Lei spoke up. “It appears as if we may not be alone on the island. I would recommend the Marines remain armed at all times henceforth with a full combat ammunition load. We need to canvas the passengers again.” She waved at the man standing to one side. “This is Steve Walker. He neglected to mention he has combat experience.”
“I was a gunner on an M-1 Abrams tank,” the man said dryly. “I can probably teach people the basics of operating a tank ... if we had one.”
“Quiet,” Mei Lei said firmly.
The commander turned to Harry. “If you would, Harry, tell the gunny to go to Condition Red. Six people on the entrance at all times.”
Harry nodded and ran off.
“What?” Becky asked Mei Lei.
She explained what Owen had said, with everyone watching.
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