Chapter 3

Ben and Sarah were the first up the next morning. They had taken on the job of hunting for food for everyone and they were eager to please the others.

"I thought of something while I was sleeping," said Sarah, "we should have been combing the beach for shellfish and crabs."

Ben smiled at his twin. She was painfully thin (they all were) but her long blond hair and brilliantly blue eyes made her beautiful as far as he was concerned. All of the youngsters looked similar - they all had blonde hair and blue eyes, but to Ben his twin looked by far the best.

"Good thinking! Why don't you start there? I'm going to take my spear and try to get some more fish."

Sarah looked at him. He was taller than she was, perhaps five foot ten already and his broad shoulders hinted at how big he would get once his muscles developed. He also had blonde hair and blue eyes (he was her twin after all) and his flashing white teeth made her feel mushy when he smiled.

"Well, I hope Thomas can figure out how to light a fire soon. Raw fish is awful but my memories tell me that it should be far better cooked," she said with a grin.

Thomas prepared to try to light a fire. He gathered some dried grass and a range of different sized twigs and sticks. His memory told him that he should be able to rub pieces of wood together to cause enough friction to create a fire.

Elizabeth sat in front of him, her back to the prevailing breeze. She had a small, twisted, handful of grass ready to try to help him start the fire and she watched as he laid a piece of wood flat on the ground.

Thomas found a sharp stone and he pressed it into the wood to create a small depression. He lined the twig up with the indentation and began to rub the twig vigorously back and forth between his palms. It was clearly taking a lot of effort, but eventually a thin thread of smoke began to rise from the wood.

Elizabeth held the grass close to where the twig and the wood met and from where the heat and smoke was originating, but nothing happened.

"Go faster, Thomas!" she urged.

He redoubled his efforts and Elizabeth bent over to blow air over the point where the smoke was coming from. Now the grass also began to smoulder and she blew again. The flames flared up suddenly and she dropped the burning grass.

"Stupid!" cried Thomas, as he dropped the twig and made a grab for more dried grass. He fed the flames with additional grass and then began to lay the smallest twigs on top.

His memory advised him not to put so many twigs on that they would suffocate the burning grass, but enough so that there was a good chance the wood would start to burn.

It was both nervy and exhilarating for them both trying to build the fire. The twigs Thomas was putting on the flames were getting gradually thicker and thicker, but there was still a worry that the flames would die out.

He looked up and saw that Elizabeth's face was twisted into a frown and she gave him a dirty look.

"What?" he demanded, taking his eyes off of the little fire for a second.

"You called me stupid. I am not stupid!" she spat out childishly.

"Were too!" he replied.

"Ooohhh, you!" Elizabeth exclaimed and she jumped to her feet before kicking and scattering the burning twigs.

Thomas felt like chasing after her for her outburst, but his first priority at that moment was trying to rescue the burning twigs before they all died out. Fortunately there were enough still alight to re-start his efforts and after a few minutes he was pretty sure the fire was burning effectively.

Thomas' next job was to begin to gather some rocks to make a circle round the fire to protect it and to stop it from spreading to the surrounding grassland. After he had achieved that, he began to gather more wood to keep feeding the flames. He sat back, immensely pleased at his achievement. Elizabeth's tantrum was forgotten for the moment.

Adam and Hannah didn't want to wander too far in case they got lost. They also remembered the roar they had heard in the night and were worried about being attacked by the animal that had made that noise.

The heat of the day was in the eighties and the sun on their skin gave them a pleasant feeling. The twins looked around themselves at the land that surrounded them.

Their camp was mainly surrounded by grassland, but with some clumps of trees also visible. In the distance they could see some cliffs and higher ground beyond. In the much further distance, they could see mountaintops.

Not too far from where they had been sleeping, they found some bushes covered with blue/black berries.

"Lushberries!" Hannah cried and she began to pick them hurriedly, stuffing them into her mouth. "Mmmmmmm, oh these taste wonderful."

Adam looked at the number of bushes and berries and knew it was safe for him to eat too - there would be plenty to take back for the others, so eating now wasn't unfair.

Soon both of them were grinning and their lips were stained blue with the sweet juice from the berries.

"How are we going to carry them back to the others?" Hannah asked.

"Let's walk a little further and see if we can find something. We're also supposed to be looking for somewhere better to stay remember," Adam replied. "What about over towards those cliffs?"

Hannah agreed and they started walking side-by-side. Their hands reached for each other quite naturally and they shared another smile.

David watched through the trees as Adam and Hannah passed him, holding hands. Another wave of jealousy washed over him, as he saw how wrapped up in each other the twins were.

"It's just not fair! Why did my twin have to be the one that was killed? Why don't the other boys share their girls with me so I'm not left out? Surely that's not too much to ask?" he thought bitterly.

He turned his attention back on the task he had set himself - that of fashioning another spear. He had been given the role of thinking about their defences and the fist priority in his mind was to make sure he had something with which to defend himself.

When David saw that Thomas had managed to get a fire going, he crossed to the other boy and thrust the point of his crude spear into the heart of the fire. One of the memories in his head told him that this 'tempering' of the wood would help harden the point and make it more effective.

"Are you going to provide spears for all of us?" Thomas asked.

"I think that's probably a good idea, want to help?" David replied.

"Nah, I've done my job. I managed to get a fire started so I'll leave you to do your share on your own while I make sure the fire doesn't go out."

David thought Thomas' response was both mean and showed the boy was lazy. The fire was blazing away nicely and there would be no risk of it going out any time soon. Why wouldn't Thomas help him make spears for everybody?

David once again felt anger welling up inside him. He was beginning to recognise it for what it was, as it seemed to be a constant companion. He knew that he couldn't afford to upset the others however, he needed them at this point to survive. For that reason, he forced a smile to his face to suggest he wasn't affected by Thomas' response. He walked away from the fire, letting his mind think about how he could repay Thomas at some point.

Despite his mood, it didn't take David long to fashion another five spears. He even made allowances for the difference in the girls' height and reach by making three of the spears shorter than the others.

When he returned to the fire, Ben was also there - depositing four fish that he had managed to spear.

"Excellent, David. Now everyone can have a spear to defend themselves. Well done!"

"I just need to harden the points in the fire," David said, blushing at the praise from the other boy. "Anyway, you've done even better, I'll bet everybody is starving. Maybe we could kill two birds with one stone and cook the fish on the ends of the spears?"

"Good idea, not yet though. We should keep these for later and see what else we can come up with. Maybe Adam and Hannah will find something to eat along with the fish," suggested Ben.

David only registered that his idea was being rejected. What was it with these people? Why wasn't anything he did or said good enough? Despite the fact that Ben had praised him only moments before, David was focused on everything he could interpret as negative. Once again he schooled his features to hide his true feelings from the other two boys, but inside his resentment was growing.

"Okay," he said, "now that I've provided spears for everybody. I'm going to scout round about us to see if there are any immediate dangers. Given the noises we heard last night, we need to think that there might be something dangerous close by."

He didn't need to add that something had clearly killed and probably eaten Rebecca. The fact that Ben and Thomas both avoided meeting his eyes told him what they were thinking.

"Good! I hope they're both suffering. Maybe I'll be lucky and whatever it is that's out there will kill one of them and then I can have their girl! That would be good!" he thought to himself.

David stood up and turned his back on the fire. He picked up two extra spears before walking off in a similar direction to the one that Adam and Hannah had taken earlier.

"I wonder what those two are up to wandering off? Whatever they're doing, they should have something with them for protection."

"What's up with him?" Ben asked Thomas, once David was safely out of earshot.

"What do you mean?" Thomas replied. "I didn't notice anything different about him."

"I don't know. Just for a second there I could have sworn he was upset at something I said. Maybe I'm just imagining things," said Ben and he left the fish to Thomas so he could check out how Sarah was getting on. He took an extra spear with him.

"Keep an eye on him, maybe it's part of losing Rebecca. It must be awful to be alone like that," he called over his shoulder and headed for the beach.

As Ben walked away he didn't hear Thomas mumbling under his breath.

"Why is it suddenly my job to look out for the little tosser? First I've got the twin from hell to try to deal with and now our 'glorious leader' wants me to play nursemaid. He can fuck off and do it himself as far as I'm concerned."

Ben found Sarah clambering over some rocks on the shoreline. When she saw him, she waved and nearly overbalanced. He laughed at her antics and waited for her to climb down and paddle through the incoming waves.

"I've brought you something to defend yourself with, we can't be too careful," he said as he handed over the spare spear. "How have you got on?"