Shipwrecked - Chapter 68: The Breaking Point (Mf creampie voy exhib)

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Chapter 68: The Breaking Point

For four days, eleven humans and one dog had huddled in the dark, moldy, damp cave. It stank of our bodies, our feces and urine, our fear. We ate little, trying to preserve the few calories we had with us. We drank as needed, but we knew we had but three or four more days at the rate it disappeared.

Karana showed no signs of being ill. Manu said that she remembered no dogs or cats dying on the two islands where they had escaped the bugs, but she admitted that she'd not paid too close an attention to them. Mie was at Karana's side all the time.

None of the rest of us seemed sick either, and the Hahonokoan survivors insisted that the first signs appeared within twelve hours on most people, and most were dead in forty-eight hours. The fatality rate had been very high, Tok said. The survivors estimated it at ninety percent, perhaps higher.

Hard to say, they said, there was a lot of running involved.

We had explored the cave on the first day. 'Explored.' There wasn't much to see. It was probably thirty feet by twenty feet. Enough room that we could just spread out and breathe. Not enough to escape the smell of our waste or the ever-present sense of claustrophobia. The odor was overwhelming after the first day, and it only got worse as twelve bodies required bowel movements and emptied bladders. It made everyone nauseous, which did, though, help us go lighter on the food.

The cave had one other opening near the rear, but it was a shallow passage, no more than the size of a watermelon, high on the wall, which turned right and disappeared beyond the beam of the flashlight. We had no idea where it led, so we put mesh across that as well.

The second day was the one where we confirmed we'd been invaded. Manu and Hakee stood near the mesh as the buzzing cacophony became a steady drone that added to our nausea. Hakee cried as they watched swarms of the large winged agents of death just inches away.

It was hard to just sit, hard to do nothing. There was nothing to do. The bugs were out there, we were trapped inside.

We noticed a short lull would happen around sunset and sunrise. For some reason, the bugs disappeared for an hour or so each time. We didn't dare open the mesh, but it was a curious thing that we would soon have to exploit if we held onto any chance for survival. We'd need water soon, and food at some point.

I held Bailey often, just held her. Rocked her, hummed to her, tried to keep her calm and warm. We'd brought no blankets, our bodies muddy from the cave, sticky sweat and fear combined with the mud to make us itch and feel like animals.

I'd hold Bailey, my hand on her stomach, just rubbing it. Rubbing slow circles around our baby, softly whispering words of love to her, to our child. She usually had one arm on mine, the other on my leg, just resting it there, her love for me the only thing that really kept me going. Her love and our love for the child growing in her.

We talked little. There wasn't much to say. Even Tok was in shock, sedated, unable to smile, and that said everything about our situation. There was nothing to do, too dark to see except for our small mesh-covered opening, and the only thing you could see from it, unless you standing right by it, was the Northern sky, the horizon, and the first waves of blue water far out to sea.

- - -

“He's gone! Oh! Oh!”

Gale's scream woke me just before dawn. We all stirred slowly, the monotony had pressed us into mush, our minds and our bodies slow to rise to the shouts.

“Poln. He's not here!”

I looked around as Gale moved the flashlight in circles.

Poln was gone.

No one saw him leave, no one heard it. No one had any idea when he left. He could have been gone for hours in the dark.

Manu wailed as we all understood what it meant. He'd gone out into the bugs. His chances of coming back seemed slim. I peered through the mesh into the darkness. I couldn't see anything beyond the screen, but the thrashing, buzzing mob was just inches from my face.

There was nothing we could do. Any of us that went looking would be dead. I sat back on my heels and chewed my lip. I hated that moment. That gut-sucking, horrifying moment that you lose someone to something avoidable, and when there may be a sliver of chance they still might be saved, something prevented you from trying. I chewed my lip, and spit out the blood from where it had split and cracked and bled.

- - -

An hour later the buzzing died down just before the first rays of light appeared. I'd already decided to go look for Poln during the lull, but I hadn't told the others. I waited till I heard just a few of them outside, turned back, said quietly. “Bugs are almost down for sunrise. I'm going to look for Poln. If I don't come back, do not come looking for me.”

“Kal! No!” Bailey ran and threw her arms around me, her body pulling me back toward the far wall. “No, don't leave. I can't lose you!”

I kissed her dirty lips, felt the same cracking that was on mine. I shushed her, held her a moment, tried to tell her why I had to go. Tried to tell her goodbye. “Bailey, love of my life... If this were our child, would you turn away the chance to find her? To bring her back? Wouldn't you want that?”

“Not you, anyone but you. God, Kal, no... I can't lose you, I can't do this alone...”

“Shhh... I plan to come back, Bailey, believe me... You have strength and courage and a sharp mind. You can do anything you want, whether I'm here or not. Always believe in that... I believe it. I know it is true, as true as anything I believe in. Please, Bailey, I love you. I love you, and I must do this. Must try to save the boy. Please.”

“Kal...” she cried freely, her arms holding on as if she was the last thing holding me on Earth, “come back... Kal, come back... please... PLEASE!” Her sobs echoed around the cave and I slowly disentangled myself.

I kissed and hugged everyone, extra moments with Amy and Keekah, both cried, both whispered their love and their desire to see me return.

It was hard, but I was set. After four days of doing nothing, there was finally something I could do. It wouldn't change our situation, wouldn't save all of us from dying a slow death in the cave. But for a few minutes on that day, I had something other than death to focus on, and I leaped though the parted mesh as soon as the last bug flitted away and rays of light rose over the horizon to the East.

- - -

I spent almost half an hour running along the North ridge, calling Poln's name over and over. I was exhausted but I kept on. I managed to pick some berries on the way, popped a couple in my mouth.

I headed down to the lower ridge, swarms of island bugs everywhere. There were strange, consistent crunches under my feet, but I didn't look down, just ran and called, ran and shouted for Poln. Forty five minutes in I heard a reply. “Here! Kal!”

I raced to the sound, down the pass to the main ground below. I found Poln kneeling in a dense, bush and tree-covered area.

He was picking up green acorns.

“Poln! Are you alright! Have you been bitten?”

“I'm fine. See? He showed me his arms and legs, just a few fading red spots from the bites on the day we fled the camp.

He'd been out of the cave during the heaviest bug swarms and had not a bite on him.

“We have to get back, run!”

I snatched his arm and we raced back up to the high ridge. Poln had exceptional speed and dexterity, pacing me the whole way. He ran ahead and I followed. The dull sound of the hawk-bugs was starting to drown out the island bugs, and I knew they were rising up from the lowland areas once more.

Time was running out.

We sprinted past the high-ridge stream and I stumbled, scraped my knee. Poln stopped, reached back, grabbed my hand. We raced on, knew we were just minutes from being swarmed.

We made the point and slid quickly along the path and around the narrow corner, Poln slamming through the mesh seconds before I did. My hands reached for the mesh, pressed it quickly into place, and sat back out of breath, my heart pounding, the deep cacophony of buzzing insects rising in my ears.

“Poln!” Manu ran to him, pulled him close, rapidly fired off words in her language that reminded me of the stereotypical Italian mother. I don't know what was said, but the relief in her voice was unmistakable.

Bailey and Amy raced to me, Keekah just a hop or two behind. They squeezed in, crying, happy tears. I held them all, tried to tell them I needed to catch my breath, but I couldn't say I wanted anything other than those arms around me right then.

“How?! How is he not bitten?” Gale's words brought me back to focus.

“I don't know. He was down on the lowlands, in the area West of the swamp.”

Gale said, “he had to have gone through the bugs. But he's got no bites on him. Nothing. Poln, how?”

The boy shrugged.

“Why did you leave in the night? You could have been killed!”

He shrugged again, said quietly, “I wanted more. I was out.”

“More what?”

“These.”

He held out a bag of the acorns, and Gale said, disgusted, “how dare you threaten our safety for acorns! Kal risked his life for you!”

Poln looked very sad, broke away from his mother, wrapped his arms around me, said quietly, “thank you. I didn't mean to.”

- - -

We were stumped. Tok had mentioned that some people seemed to survive the bites. Just a few. He'd never seen anyone walk through them and not get bitten.

Another two days passed and the excitement of Poln's rescue had faded back into the morose, nauseating miasma of hopelessness. The bugs went nowhere, except for an hour at sunrise and sunset. We planned to try to fill water at the next dawn break, but we knew that we were really just prolonging our deaths.

Still, it was something. We needed something, anything, that didn't involve laying down and giving up in that stinky cave.

So, I chose Amy, Poln, Tok, and Hakee to run with me to the Northern stream during the next break. We shouldered our bags and raced out as the last bugs disappeared and the sun rose. We filled our water and got back with some time to spare. No one had been bitten, no one had even seen the hawkish bugs.

- - -

Two more days passed, and we found ourselves keeping our water steady by making runs during the lulls. Food was another issue. Other than a few berry bushes in the area, nothing else edible was readily within our reach. We had no fire, couldn't cook anything, couldn't risk a return to the camp. We were down to just a few days of quarter-rations, except for Bailey, who we kept on half. We had to figure something out very soon.

I headed out on the water run that day with the same crew, quickly had us settled into the task of filling our jugs. I took just a moment to look around, stepped a few paces away, noticed again the unfamiliar crunching under my feet. In the low-light conditions, I couldn't tell what I stepped on. Holding my feet up, I almost stumbled trying to wipe away the dead hawk-bugs sticking to my feet.

They were everywhere. Parts of them. Mostly, I just saw bits of wings, feet. Odd. The bugs looked like they'd been carved out from the inside, leaving bits of a carcass and little else. Each proboscis, the antennae, the heads were all gone. But there was no doubt what they were.

I shivered and shouldered my bag, lead us back to the cave.

I sat next to Bailey, my mind racing for answers as the buzzing started again and it was no longer safe to be outside.

Dead hawk-bugs. Everywhere. Were they just dying on their own? Seemed plausible, I knew insects rarely had lives that weren't counted in days. But they were breeding, clearly, breeding and keeping their population up enough that the dead ones were quickly replaced. Not a heartening thought.

How had Poln survived and not been bitten? Was there something in his DNA that just made him blind to the hawk-bugs? Repellant to them? Worst case, he might be sent to find food, but I didn't like the thought of again risking his luck.

“I just don't get it, Gale. Maybe it is just his genes.”

“Maybe, Kal. Maybe. What else is there to go on?”

“Nothing. I mean, he's always eating those acorns, but that...” I froze, turned that sentence over in my mind. “The acorns. That's what he's always chewing on. That's what he was gathering when he ran off. Gale, what if the acorns drive them away?” I felt my pulse racing, the sliver of hope was enough, even if it was a long shot.

“Poln, did you eat acorns before you left that morning?” I had to know.

He nodded, said, “yeah. I eat them all the time. I'm almost out.”

“Stop eating them. How many do you have left?”

He showed me his bag, a dozen or so of the the small nuts remained.

I looked at Gale, said, “I want to try it. Tonight.”

She looked at me seriously, tilted her head, said, “Kal... that's crazy. We can't risk you like that!”

“It's the only thing we've got, Gale!” I was suddenly angry, the bottled up terror and helplessness crashing through, making me shout, defying anyone to challenge me. “We're dying here! We have just a bit of food left, we aren't going to survive much longer on water alone. We have to try something. This is all we've got, and I'm taking the chance!”

Gale sat back, defeated, but didn't agree to my demand.

Bailey pulled up to me softly, the echo of my booming voice still ringing in my own ears. She said quietly, “Kal, I know you're trying to save us. I know... but... there are eleven of us here. Eleven of us who need to survive. You can't just make this decision on your own. Please... see reason.”

I slumped into her, let her hold me, said, “I know, Kitten... I just... I gotta do something... it's driving me insane to sit here while we starve, while you starve. While our baby starves... I gotta do something.”

Tok spoke up, his grasp on English light but enough to convey his thoughts. “I do. I test... umm... acorn... I test. Baby for you. Bailey need. I do this. Yes?”

“I don't want anyone else to risk their life on my weak theory. I'll do it.”

“No,” Tok said, and for the first time in the days in the cave, he smiled. “This I do. This for all, I do.”

No one else spoke but it was obvious it was decided. I felt anger again, anger that I'd suggested anyone try it. Despite the glimmer of hope, it seemed like suicide. I finally nodded and let myself sink against Bailey, Keekah on my other side, Amy laying her head on my legs.

- - -

As daylight washed away, our trip to the stream complete, Tok was chewing on the acorn. “Bad. Flavor bad.” I'd sampled them a time or two before, and the bitter nuts had left an awful taste in my mouth. After our days in the cave and the last of our food only a day or so away, I supposed 'flavor bad' wasn't the worst problem to have.

The bugs were rising fast, soon to be buzzing outside. Poln had somehow escaped the cave without letting in the bugs, but I expected that was just luck and a boy who understood stealth and knew enough to return the mesh after he passed through. We couldn't chance that again.

We all hugged Tok, shook his hand, knew we were probably telling him goodbye. I choked up, didn't cry, wanted to, though. He smiled at us, nodded his head, shouldered a sack, and left the cave to the growing darkness.

The plan was for him to move just to the top of the point, up on the rocks, wait long enough to know if the acorns had worked, and return quickly. If the acorns failed, perhaps he could get back to the cave before the fatal bite could lance his flesh.

Perhaps.

The reality was that if the acorns failed, he was already dead.

We waited, pacing slowly. I was tense, sweating, heart pounding in my chest. Seconds creeped into minutes and Tok didn't return. An hour passed, and we paced, silent, nothing to say, nothing to feel except anguish that we'd sent Tok to his death. Two hours passed, it could have been ten, I don't know. Time meant nothing in the blackness of the cave, the bugs too thick to see stars in the sky through our mesh-covered portal.

More time passed, Gale cried quietly, hugged by Manu. It had been too long, Tok was to return quickly, perhaps within minutes. The longer he was gone, the more certain it was that he wasn't coming back.

No one slept that night, some cried, others just whimpered. I was anguished, beyond tears, angry at myself for letting Tok go in my place. I grabbed a sack and put empty jugs inside, packed others for Amy and Poln and Hakee. One less person would go out that morning to fill water. Without Tok, we felt empty, incomplete. I didn't even suggest we try to find him.

The last bug disappeared and I kissed Bailey, my normal ritual last thing to do before making a water run. I never let myself leave without that, without putting my hand on her stomach, giving her a weak smile. Every time I left I knew it might be the last time I saw her before returning with the fatal bite.

The mesh ripped free and a dark shape leapt through.

It was Tok. Grin on his face, his hands carrying two big bags stuffed with items from camp.

He was instantly surrounded, laughing, more crying. Gale couldn't hold him tight enough as ten voices spoke at once. He managed to silence everyone, said, “Sorry. Gone long... uh... yes... Bugs not bite. I wait. More no bite. I walk. Camp, bring food. Bring acorns. Bugs not bite.” His words, his smile, they were the most happy things I'd seen in my life, and my heart pounded in relief and love for the man. He may have gone off plan and scared the shit out of us, but he brought back news, and supplies, that erased all our complaints.

He opened the sacks, handed out dried bananas, dried beef, smoked fish, bits of everything we'd preserved. I was so glad we'd always maintained a lot of long-term foodstuffs. We ate ravenously and started plotting our survival strategy.

It made sense to try to move back to camp, but we still weren't sure. Tok had said that the bugs were thickest there, fewer on the high point, almost none on the island interior. I found that odd and followed up.

“Almost none... how can you be sure?”

“Big wings, not of here. Easy see. Only of here inside. Sure, yes.”

I wondered why there were few bugs inside the island, let it pass as the euphoria of our newfound hope arrived.

Four of us planned to make the trek to the camp the next day, test out the acorns, collect more, and see what conditions at the camp were like, returning after waiting out a night at the camp. I'd go with Amy, Tok, and Hakee. If we found that we could easily seal the shelters, and if the acorns worked for all of us, we'd move the rest of the party back to the camp.

We waited out the hours in excitement, our mood high, though guarded. We still didn't know for sure if the acorns would work for all of us, but I wasn't holding back. I had to know if it worked for me, and I couldn't let another person take my place. I had to go, it was the only thing I could do.

Bailey was understandably against me going, but the others agreed I should be one of the scout crew. I tended to have a cool head and read situations quickly. And, I wasn't going to be left behind. I couldn't sit another day in that dark, smelly cave if I could get out.

And get out I did. The bitter acorn was still half-chewed on one side of my mouth as I stepped out into the buzzing hawk-bugs, the other jaw packed with chewed yellow leaves. I stood there a minute or more, just waiting for the sharp, lancing sting that would mark my imminent death.

It never came. A few buzzed my face, my arm, one even landed on my ragged shirt, but it immediately set alight and was lost in the swarm. I couldn't believe it was working. They almost formed a cylinder around me as I slowly moved up the path. Whatever was in that acorn repelled them, forced them to move away. When Amy, Tok, and Hakee joined me on the rocks above, we had an area several feet around where only the bravest, or stupidest, of the hawk-bugs would fly through.

It felt amazing to be free of the cave, to know I would be spending the night at the camp instead of in the cave. I almost went back and got the others, told them to come immediately.

But the state of the camp was another issue, and I knew it made no sense to bring everyone back just to find the situation intolerable there.

The four of us hiked into the woods, passed the stream, onto the low ridge and headed toward the camp along the new channel.

Tok had been right. I saw very few of the hawk-bugs in the trees. It took until that channel section to know why.

I spotted three of the hawk-bugs ahead of me, and unlike most of the others, they hovered just a foot or two away. One darted in, backed off, darted in again, backed off. I started to get a little worried, the others turned back, wondering why I'd stopped.

The hawk-bug buzzed my head and I turned. It buzzed again, and my heart raced. I shouted for the others to run, the acorn seemed to be wearing off. I raced ahead, tripped on a branch, tried to rise.

A hawk-bug sat inches from my face, and I knew it was heading right for my exposed flesh. Two more raced up, hovered beside the first. I knew I was facing my death.

One disappeared, I didn't see where. The second one, too. The third one went down, and this time, I knew why.

Three or four of the dark, tight-winged island bugs slammed into it, forced it aside. It righted, they slammed again, and again. The hawk-wing struggled, part of a wing torn away, and plummeted to the ground, followed by the quickly darting island bugs.

The enemy of my enemy is my friend, I suppose. The annoying bugs that we'd tried so hard to avoid during our time in the interior were predators, not just of meaty humans, but of the hawk-bugs. I stopped rising from my fall long enough to see the bugs crawling over the larger dead one.

I rose and jogged after the others, finally understanding why the ground was crunching under my feet.

- - -

The camp was a mess, dead hawk-bugs everywhere. We'd ripped the mesh covers off the shelters but left a couple of the doors open. Hawk-bugs still flew around those, dead ones lining the floor. We quickly raced into the big, new building that Tok and I had built, slamming the door closed behind us.

Amy let out a long, wonderful laugh, said, “that was crazy! Not a bite on me!”

“Seems the acorns repel them strongly. I've never seen anything like that.” I shook my head at our dumb luck. At Poln's lucky, unintentional life-saving snack.

“Do you think that the seawater cancels out the effect? I'd really like a bath!”

“Let's not chance it, wait for evening lull.”

“Ok... you're right. Can't believe this worked.”

“I can't either. Remind me to give Poln a big hug tomorrow. He saved our lives.”

We were all caked with mud, bits of dead bugs on our feet, leaves and foliage on our filthy clothes and ankles.

We stank, the smell of our bodies ripe and raw in the closed space. But it was heaven compared to the cave.

- - -

All day, we rested, slept, tried to wait out the hours quietly. I held Amy, or she held me, the entire time, not wanting to let each other go. I was very pleased to see Hakee and Tok showing similar affection. We passed many hopeful smiles to each other, felt for the first time like we might have caught a break.

As sunset approached, the drone of the hawk-bugs died down. We all chewed on acorns, ready to rush to the surf to clean up. Tok poked his head out, said, “good now,” and pulled the mesh away to allow us through.

We ran to the water and jumped in, hoots from my lips and from Amy, the wet splashes washing away all signs of the days of mud and sweat and our own waste which had coated our bodies. The four of us wiped each other freely, joyfully, caught up in sharing the cleanup together. We laughed a lot, sombered a bit as we remembered the others spending another night in the cave.

It would be the last night, we knew. The camp was a mess, covered with the swarms most of the day, but it was a four-star hotel compared to horrid conditions in the cave.

We dared to start a fire, cleared the fire pit and set a pot on top, made a very quick stew of some of the mushrooms and snails. Tok snagged his island wine and I grabbed some pot, rolling a quick joint as we ate.

We heard the bugs returning, didn't want to risk testing the acorns further, and took the rest of our food with us into the shelter.

Amy laughed as we sat down, said, “so much better. I can't taste my own poo on my lips, that's improvement!”

I laughed with her, lit up the joint, and the four of us sat close together, drinking Tok's tart, sweet wine and getting high, for the moment, our cares and anxiety washing away in the alcohol, the marijuana, and the knowledge that the others would be with us soon.

I'd just roached the joint when Amy pulled me on top of her. Her eyes were serious, wanting. She said, “fuck me, Kal. Please... I need it so bad...”

So did I. I slid between her legs, my penis already hard, and slipped easily into Amy's tight little pussy. I saw Hakee push Tok back and mount him, quickly humping him with a passion I'd rarely seen from her.

I sank into Amy, she pulled me to her, wrapped her legs around my waist. I fucked her hard, harder than normal. I had a desperate need to be inside her, to feel her body under me as I tensed. Amy felt it too, her hips meeting mine with each thrust, a fire in her pussy that was only quenched with each stroke of my cock.

It was a rush, hard, pounding, Amy's welcoming, wet pussy, my rigid cock, sloshing, burning, burning, grunting pleasure shivering into our bodies. The sounds of Hakee and Tok joined us, the spontaneous copulations the only outlet we'd had in days for such raw needs to be met.

Amy cried out, pulled me tight against her. My hands slid under her ass, held her body under me tightly. She came, her pussy clenching, vagina flooding with juices. It washed over her, started washing over me, Hakee cried out and came beside us. My penis swelled, swelled, driven deep into Amy, deep into her body, deep into her singular need to be fucked.

Pound, pound, I stared into her eyes, shuddered when she breathed, “cum in me, Kal... cum inside me... this one time...” Pound, pound, I cried out, heard Tok filling Hakee, pound, pound, Amy's pussy sloshing and clasping me, her labia stroking my hammering penis, burning, burning, I cried out again, and my semen rushed out and splashed into Amy's vagina. Splashed, rushed, flowed, pure excitement, pure release, her channel milking me, milking me, her hands digging into my shoulders as my fingers dug into her ass cheeks.

My flood slowed and I burned all over from the rush of fucking Amy like that, the throbbing, pulsing ejaculating stopping, my load of hot, sticky semen filling Amy's tight, young hole.

We kissed passionately. I flopped to the side, my penis withdrawing with a fast pop, my cum running out her open hole and down over her anus.

I lay panting. Amy drew her knees up tight and rolled into me, holding me close to her, close, so close. I felt her need, her fear, her full release in that moment. It was amazing to empty myself in Amy like that, to know she'd emptied herself in me, in a way.

The weed and the wine and the sex swirled in our bodies as our exhaustion came on strong. I heard light snores on my chest before I began to drift away, thoughts of bringing the others back to camp the last thing passing through my mind.