Chapter 14: Adapting Ain’t Easy

Maxwell Lester POV:

So, I just found Franklin’s diary.

I guess I’ll continue it, in the event we ever get off this damned island or someone finds us. If not, well, then this may just be a waste of time.

Except, it seems we have nothing but time now, after everything that’s happened in the last couple days.

Franklin is dead. His OCD (Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder) about immediately finding Chen, completely blinded him to what I foresaw happening and it got him killed.

I never trusted ANY of Guido Normistronzo’s assassins and I am now forced to try and bond with three of them. Lonnie is a snake and even ‘one-handed’, I don’t know that I’ll ever really trust him.

Lucinda is even worse and now I wonder if we’d have been better off just killing both her and Lonnie. Even Jasmine doesn’t like her.

Tiny, or Tony Molina, on the other hand, has already totally gained my trust. We’ve been talking and I discovered that he had always worked alone, because HE didn’t trust most of Guido’s guys, either. With him watching my back, I think we will eventually become a cohesive, albeit small, group. He confessed that he has the hots for Annie. I told him that was fine by me, since Jasmine was slowly becoming my ‘Babe’, mostly because we seem to see things eye to eye most of the time.

That and she’s one hot piece of ass!

But, the one who I trust the most? Well, that would be Annie’s little dog, Athena! Damn, if she isn’t the smartest, not to mention FIERCEST little girl I’ve ever seen. I can’t believe I laughed when Annie told me she was ‘Special’.

I’ll never laugh at her again. She single handedly saved our asses! With her at our side, we’re damn near invincible!

It almost seems that Annie can actually talk to her! (And, she says she really can!) After seeing her grow into a 7-foot, firebreathing ‘Hell-hound’, I don’t have any grounds NOT to believe her.

I just wish I could do it, too!

Nevertheless, I’m glad she’s with us and enjoys the vigorous belly and head rubs I give her.

Now, to fill you in on some of my thoughts.

I don’t miss AL or Howard even a little bit. I’ll never tell Annie that, but, it is what it is. Even Franklin was nearly as useless, when it came to pitching in and working around camp.

Think of it as addition by subtraction.

Sam, as squirrelly as he was, did at least try to help and now, I really do miss him. Especially since now we have all these tools and hardware and I have nobody except Tiny to help me build anything. Sam was at least mechanically inclined. (Whereas Tiny, not so much.)

I feel we need to get the boats closer to our camp and rig the biggest one with a sail. We need to do some exploring and possibly add some manpower to our little group.

Not forcefully, but voluntarily, and the best way is to go by boat with wind power. That way we could easily carry more supplies and campout along the way, if we have to.

Lonnie suggested we also try and make a map of the entire island, since we were going to sail around it anyway. He told me he’d taken Astronomy and Drafting in college and felt he could do a credible job, if only he still had his right hand!

Aaargh!

Maybe I could just duct tape a pencil on his stump? He said he’d gladly offer guidance to anyone who could at least draw for him. Like maybe Lucinda.

This morning I suggested we empty out all of the toolkits and reorganize them, putting like items together and just seeing what all we had. Right now they are all filled willy-nilly and we had 7 of them!

When I saw everything laid out, it looked like a damn hardware store.

Many of the things we were missing, they had and vice versa. Like those 20 pieces of 4’ long perforated angle iron. They didn’t have any hardware to fasten them together with and we did! We just didn’t have any angle iron. We did have a vice that I fastened to the top of one of the toolkits so we could use the many hacksaws to cut them with. They had a nice grinding wheel which is now mounted kitty-corner to the vice. With that sitting on top of another toolkit, it made for a nice workbench.

Annie helped as we reloaded the toolkits, using one of our 8 Magic Markers to list what was now in each one.

I don’t know what we’re going to do with 7 identical bow saws!? Or 8 fishing kits. The spears we’d gladly keep, but, we only needed 6 masks and fins, so the other three could be traded if we found someone with something we wanted.

We also had rope and paracord out the ying yang. Clothes wouldn’t ever be a problem, except for Tiny. AL, Howard and Franklin were all the same size as me and Lonnie. Josh and Slick were only slightly larger than me, so their stuff wouldn’t take much modifying to fit.

We also have plenty of easy-fixin’ food supplies. They had chosen mostly canned goods and Coke, but they had 4 duffels full of like chili, beef stew, spaghetti and soup and 2 duffels of coke! We had 4 duffels stuffed with MREs.

I took charge of my prized Mariners telescope, tripod and case, as well as Franklin’s precious ‘Alien communications’ gizmo. I didn’t completely discount trying to find Chen, but, it just wasn’t foremost on my list of things to do right now.

Lonnie had a nice pair of high-powered binoculars, so, we were good there, too. (Too bad Tiny would probably have to use them!)

We went to work making 6 really nice oars out of those 6’ lengths of 1” hickory we’d previously used as tent poles. We modified one of our old paddles to be used as a rudder on the back of the boat.

After moving our boats, I got some measurements then Tiny and I went to work building a mast and beam for our original boat. The angle iron really came in handy to hold the long bamboo horizontal piece to the main mast. Thanks to being able to drill through the bamboo, we didn’t split it even once. It also made our 15’ tall sail easy to carry, by being able to swing the horizontal piece alongside the main mast.

The hardest thing was finding a 22’ long piece of bamboo that wasn’t more than 4” in diameter! You see, even though the sail is only 15’, the mast needs to sit down over 3’ below the top of the seat into its anchor point. Then, you can’t just have it at the same height as the gunwales, or you could never tac! We figured having it 4’ above the gunwales gave us plenty of room to duck, yet still manhandle it when we needed to.

Rigging the sail so we could raise and lower it DID take a bit of figuring out, but, I managed to do it with what I had available. I was glad we’d asked for 8 pulleys. I used 2 of them on my new sail.

All that remains is to see if it actually works! (And see if I really remember how to sail!?)

Either way, tomorrow the ‘MS Minnow’ (Max’s Sailboat) makes its maiden voyage.

Brenda POV:

Brad and I are still working together, but today, he’s keeping an eye on Elmer’s bunch. They were considering starting to plunder the nearest groups they could find, so, they beared watching while I checked on Marek’s Group.

I backed up a day, since I hadn’t been there for a while.

On Day 6, I discovered they’d had a visitor.

Lin Su Chen came walking slowly into their area, announcing his presence so as not to startle anyone.

Marek recognized him immediately and vice-versa. Marek grinned, “Ah, Mr Chen I presume?”

Chen shook his head, chuckling, “And what brings my favorite weasel to this wonderful, island paradise?”

He chuffed, “Most likely the same fucking bastard that brought YOU here, old Boss of mine.”

“Fucking Jonah!” They both said in unison.

Chen shook his head, “I thought Franklin and Rodgers would be the first ones here?”

Marek smirked, “Oh, Franklin is here. Rodgers is in Supermax. Director Logan wanted to use him to rat out all our favorite politicians. Franklin is with AL Hunt, Howard Humbacker and a few assassins.”

Chen looked surprised, “Wow! So Jonah busted the Co-op, too!? What about DT Rump and George Sachs?”

“George is here, he’s with his four young girlfriends and three of Guido Normistronzo’s assassins. DT Rump, that egotistical, arrogant asshole got a pass. That guy leads a charmed life, I think.”

“What about Mr Big, E Normistronzo?”

Marek chuckled, “Oh, they got his entire organization! They’re all here and are all together with the exception of Guido. Guido and a dozen of his guys attacked that Ibera, lady, and she turned them into pillars of salt!”

Chen gasped, “Sufferin’ Stale Sushi! That sweet lady did that? She was always nice to me. She even sent me some stuff that bastard Jonah wouldn’t even consider.”

Marek chuckled, “Oh yeah, she was very nice with us, too. Just where are you camped out at?”

Chen pointed north, “Just on the other side of this mountain. My first shelter was right on the beach and got blown away. I thought I was fucked, when I lost everything. A few days later, I saw my toolkit floating out in the water and swam out and saved it. Thank God I had it closed and sealed. I lost my tarp, but, built another small shelter out of bamboo and palm fronds. I see you guys found a nice cave!”

Peters chuckled, “Yeah, Ibera and this Professor guy showed us what happened to you. We learned our lesson from watching you.”

Chen’s brow furled tightly, “You guys SAW what happened to my first shelter? HOW?”

Marek answered, “Ibera had this huge screen and it was like a super clear video. They even showed us how you built your first shelter, caught some fish and everything.”

Chen shook his head furiously, “That’s not possible! Unless ... they have some satellites or something watching us. That means ... we COULD still be on Earth!?”

Fred Callas, who’d been quiet, slowly shook his head, “No, I don’t think we’re still on Earth anymore. Weren’t you conscious when you were sent here?”

Chen squinted, “Now that you mention it, no, I don’t think so. I just remember waking up from a weird dream and I was on the beach...”

Fred chuckled, “And did that dream feel like you were going a million miles an hour with no wind in your face, while lights kept flashing by?”

Chen’s mouth slowly dropped open, “How did you know that!? That’s exactly what it was like!”

Peters chuckled harder, “That’s because, when we were in our boat, that’s what it looked like. It was like we were in a glass tube and nobody could hear what anybody was saying. It was like we were there, but we weren’t until we found ourselves on the beach! It only felt like it took 6 or 7 minutes to get here.”

“Whoa, what? You guys came here ... in a BOAT?”

“Yeah, but, we didn’t get any paddles. Ibera did let us have 8, 4’-long hickory rods that we’ve just finished making into oars.” Peters told him, “We plan on trying them out later today.”

Chen was beside himself, “She gave you guys a BOAT? Holy Christmas stockings! I didn’t get diddly! What other goodies did you all get?”

Marek chuckled, “Well, we got some coffee, a grinder and a percolator. Would you like a cup? We were just about to get a pot started when you showed up.”

Chen hugged Marek, “I’d kill for a cup of coffee, old buddy. Water and coconut milk is starting to get really old!”

Chen pointed at the campfire, “That’s why I came over here. Yesterday I thought I saw some smoke, so, today I decided to checkout who might be here. Do you know where everybody else is?”

“No.” Marek answered, “We plan on rowing out a ways and seeing who might be where. Would you like to go with us?”

“I might, what do you guys have for weapons, in case we run into someone we don’t want to deal with?” Chen asked.

“Just our survival knives and machetes. Since nobody was given any weapons, I figure we’re all even?” Marek answered, somewhat unsurely.

Chen smirked, “Well, don’t think for a second that we’re all ‘even’. How long have you all been here, anyways?”

“This is our 7th day. Georges group was the first to go, I think, we were second. I believe a group of Guido’s assassins came right after us. Why do you ask?”

“Because, I’m betting the first thing those assassins will do is make themselves some weapons. And even four or five days is enough to come up with something. Would you mind showing me what you guys received? Just to give me an idea what THEY might have gotten?”

While the coffee was brewing, Marek showed Chen their toolkits and some of their personal things.

When Chen saw everything they received he huffed, shaking his head, “Aaargh! Ibera must have really liked you guys! Did you have to ask for this stuff, or did she just give it to you, like a surprise?”

“We asked for it. The Professor guy told us we each had two duffel bags and a backpack we could fill with anything we wanted, as long as it WASN’T a weapon. Then, he let us add to our toolkits, too. That was our ‘reward’ for being nice to Ibera. She even gave us a wagon, thanks to Peters!”

Chen grinned, “And were those assassins also nice to Ibera?”

Marek nodded, “Oh yeah, at least most of them. They told the ones who weren’t being nice that they were going to kill them if they didn’t ‘get with the program’ and caused them all to suffer. The only group that probably got fucked was E Norm’s group. They ALL treated Ibera like shit, the whole damned time!”

Chen laughed, “Why doesn’t that surprise me!? That means we need to find E Norm’s group and stay the hell away from them. They will, no doubt, be the first ones who will want to try and kill you, then steal your stuff!”

Marek, Peters and Callas all looked at each other in a panic. Marek exclaimed, “Shit! You’re probably right. Especially because, I’m sure that everybody got at least the basic toolkit, no matter what! It had everything that yours had in it.”

Chen sighed, “That means knives and machetes and fishing spears like that one?” He finished, pointing at their spear.

“SHIT.” They all said, again.

Chen added, “And, I’ll bet, if you’d have asked for piano wire, or razors with extra double-edge blades or things like that, you would most likely have gotten them?”

Marek’s head sank, “Probably. Damn, why didn’t we think to ask for things like that!? We never even considered protecting ourselves.”

Chen just shook his head, sighing again, “I think you need to keep your campfires to a minimum and make sure your boat is totally hidden. That’s how they’ll find you when they come looking. And trust me, THEY WILL come looking!”

Marek looked Chen in the eyes, “Would you like to join us? Not just for our boat ride, but, like, permanently? I think we need your take on things, not to mention your help. We might even be willing to part with some of our extra clothes, if that would interest you?”

Chen cracked a half smile, “Sure. Now, let’s get some of that coffee! Then we can put out this fire for now, eh?”

They shook hands and each took a cup and headed to the coffee percolator. They broke out one of their mess kits, so Chen would have a cup, too.

Chen chuckled, “We need to make some more cups, possibly out of bamboo. I found that certain types of bamboo sections make good water carriers. With those saws you have, it’ll be easy. Oh, and, I just happened to have found what I believe might be coffee plants!”

They sat and enjoyed their coffee while they tried to figure out what types of weapons they could make with what they did have.

I decided to move to the present and see what had transpired.

Brad told me that, at present, Elmer’s bunch were busy moving into a series of caves that Precious, Otis and Brutus had found, not far from their own. They’d also discovered a variety of fruit trees and found that the stream near them flowed into a good size pond and it had some fish in it. He said that Lola and Marcy had seemingly changed their ways and were working on ‘charming’ their way back into the good graces of the goons and Lola’s daughters.

Lola even thanked her daughters for finding them a dry place to sleep at night, without having to hold up a tarp!

Brad said it wasn’t exactly “Little House on the Prairie’, but it wasn’t “Little House of Horrors’ anymore, either. They WERE, however, still making plans to enrich their current supplies by ‘whatever means necessary’!

And now, everybody seemed to be onboard with the idea!

I felt like trying to warn Marek’s group, then chuckled at myself for getting ‘sucked in’ to thinking like Darren and JB. It’s hard not to get protective when you feel like your group is trying to do good, only to know bad shit was being planned against them.

I guess we’ll just have to see what happens?

MY group was getting into their boat. All four of them!

When I backed up and listened in I discovered that Chen had already moved all of his few meager belongings and tools over from his area.

I think the coffee availability was what won him over. That man LOVES his coffee!

They’d been busy and now had 8 crude 6-foot long spears with sharply carved points. They had even practiced throwing them prior to loading them into their boat. They also loaded one of their fishing spears, a tarp, rope, a backpack with MREs, some cooking items and even a pair of binoculars.

After shoving off, they rowed out a little ways then looked back, to make sure they didn’t leave any evidence of where their camp really was.