Thanks, Mom!

[dinah_shore†]

Jake Henkie stumbled out of the jungle and was greeted by the sea. The breeze filled his lungs and cooled his hot skin as he gulped the air thirstily, letting the rain stream down his face. Running had made him exhausted, and he was pleased to see that there was no one around.

Oh, no one alive, it seems. It was a girl he knew, Khrysta Lawrence. She was in his math class back in Ninth grade. He sucked in his breath sharply and stepped back. He wanted to run back into the jungle and run forever; away from the bodies, from the gunshots and panic...away from it all. His legs were buckling. He'd never seen a dead body before.

No...

Jake fought to hold his weight up. This was no time to be weak, not if he was going to find Trish. What if she was alone? Granted, Jake wasn't exactly capable of defending her, let alone himself...but at least they'd have eachother. He couldn't go back now.

Steeling himself, he approached the body of the girl. Her once-blonde hair was caked in mud created by the rain. The skin on her face was pale and looked tight. Her eyes were beginning to sink. Jake turned away, fighting his gag reflex. The blood from the gash in her neck had been more or less washed out during the rain that day, and he didn't like seeing the tendons and bone under her torn flesh.

Walking around the girl, Jake saw yet another corpse a few meters away.

This place must be bad luck, he mused. I'm not going to stick around long then. Just long enough to catch my breath...

He made his way to the edge of the cliff and took a seat. It all seemed like a sick joke. Up until three days before the class was scheduled to leave for the trip, he thought he wasn't going. He hadn't earned enough money, which was his parent's stipulation on letting him go. Trish had been pissed. She offered to pay the difference, but Jake declined. He didn't want to take her money, he knew she was hard up for cash most of the time. When his mother had quietly slipped into his room and sat on his bed with a small wad of bills and a signed permission slip, Jake thought it was too good to be true. He kept this development a secret from Trish. He would surprise her. He even took care to get on a different bus than she. Now this. His mother had effectively paid for his extermination.

Jake was used to being alone, but the lonliness he felt at the moment was unbearable. He put his face in his hands, but couldn't even cry. Trish wouldn't even think to look for him. He might die before he could find her, his only true friend on the whole island.

"Oh my God," he choked in his palms. The reality of it all was almost too much. He looked at the sky and allowed the rain to pelt his face. Was it his imagination, or was it getting lighter? A fat raindrop dropped into his left eye. Jake let out a strangled "Fuck!" and furiously rubbed his face.

"Come on man, get it together!"

Jake looked out at the sea. He had an increasingly bad feeling about the area.

Time to go.

((Jake Henkie continued in Finsternis))