I handed Grant a granola bar from the backpack and took one for myself. I stared out to the horizon quietly. Grant scooted closer to me.

"How are you holding up?" he asked quietly.

I shrugged. "I can’t let myself think of anything going on here. I’ll lose my mind if I stop and actually process what’s happening."

My eyes teared up and I looked away.

"That’s what I’ve been doing, too," Grant admitted. "The only way I’m going to survive this is to stay strong, and if I start to think about what I’ve been through - and am still going through - I don’t know...I think I’ll break."

"Me too," I whispered. "I know we’re going to get off this island. I know we will. But I know it won’t end there. When I’m home? That’s when I’ll have to deal with all of this. How am I supposed to do that?"

He put his arm around my shoulders. "I don’t know if this helps, but you won’t be alone. We’ll all be dealing with this. At least we have each other."

I looked up at him and smiled. He pulled me in and I rested my head against him. As much as I wouldn’t wish this on anyone, there was a part of me that took some comfort in knowing that I wasn’t alone in this. We sat there like that for a while, enjoying the silence and taking a much needed break.

"Those two people that attacked us?" I started. "How did that girl get ahead of us? I mean, I get how the guy was behind us. He somehow found us and ran after us. But that girl...I just don’t understand how she was up there by the time we got there."

Grant furrowed his brow. "Actually, that’s a good question. I didn’t even think of that. But, you’re right. If we were being chased, she’d have been behind us, not in front of us."

"Yeah, exactly," I said.

I could tell Grant was thinking about it, trying to come up with an explanation. When he couldn’t offer any reason, he shrugged to himself, shoving it away into his head so he could deal with it later, along with everything else.

"We should find a spot to stay overnight," he suggested.

It had begun to get dark and we watched the sunset. The sky was incredibly beautiful. It was strange to appreciate such beauty in something that blanketed over such horrendous acts below it. Grant was busy gathering long branches and sticks when I finally got up and asked him what he was doing.

"We can camp out over there." He pointed. "And hide ourselves with some branches and stuff so we stay out of view."

There were large rocks piled together a few feet away from where I stood. By placing branches over them, we could be hidden from view for the night. It wasn’t the most ideal place to sleep, but it was really all we had. I was still wearing my tank top, which was anything other than it’s original white hue. I grabbed the black t-shirt and gave Grant a shy look.

"Huh?" He glanced up at me and then realized I wanted to change shirts. "Oh! Sorry. I’ll turn around."

I tore off my tank top, tossed it onto the ground and threw the shirt over my head. Realistically, I could walk around in nothing but my bikini top. It was definitely hot enough to do so. But I wasn’t comfortable doing that, especially since we didn’t know when we’d have to start running or even fighting someone. I could just see myself fighting some guy and having him pull my bikini strings loose. No, thank you.

We went through our rations and dumped what was left of them into the backpack. Grant used it as a pillow, although it looked about as comfortable as a bag of rocks. My tank top wasn’t much better as I rolled it up and shoved it under my head. I unrolled it and re-rolled it about a hundred times trying to find one section that was clean enough to rest my face against, but eventually gave up. Grant laughed and tugged the backpack out from under his head.

"Who needs a pillow?" he scoffed.

"Not us!" I joked back, shoving my tank top into the backpack. It was going to be a long and uncomfortable night.

It turned out neither of us were able to get much sleep laying on the hard, cold ground. Every noise made me jump and there were rocks under my back no matter which way I turned. I sighed loudly and stared up at the sky. The stars were sparkling above us and for a brief moment I was able to pretend I was really camping outdoors. However, the lack of a sleeping bag, pillow, and a cozy campfire quickly reminded me that this was anything but.

Grant tossed and turned as well, rolling from his side to his back. Neither of us wanted to complain since we were stuck there no matter what. My body was utterly drained but my mind couldn’t seem to shut itself off. Every time I closed my eyes I saw that guy falling over the cliff. My eyes finally grew heavy enough to stay closed and I drifted off to sleep.

I had horrible nightmares. Images of the guy I stabbed in the neck merged with the guy who plummeted off the cliff. I bolted awake and sat up. Grant must have heard me because he sat up looking startled.

"What is it?" he whispered in a panic.

"Nothing," I whispered back. "Everything’s okay. I just had a nightmare, that’s all."

He frowned and put his arm out. "Bring it in, Ry."

I laughed and raised an eyebrow.

"Come on." He smiled. "No funny business, I swear. I just thought it might help you sleep."

I tilted my head and smiled. It was hard to resist, I had to admit. I narrowed my eyes and said, "Okay" trying to sound skeptical.

He just laughed and waited, his arm extended out. I gave him another look before curling up next to him, my head resting on his chest. He wrapped his arm around me and I felt my heart pound. Grant’s body was warm and I could feel his arm flex around me. I hoped he couldn’t feel my heart beating fast and I scooted back a little. He squeezed me tighter and I settled in against him. I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until dawn.

After eating a small bite and drinking some of our water, we started to plan out the rest of our morning. I got up, stretched, and grimaced at the black t-shirt I was wearing. It was hard not to think of the guy it had originally belonged to.

We hiked early morning to avoid the hot afternoon sun as much as possible. I followed behind Grant, every time my eyes glanced at his shoulders, I blushed at the thought of having fallen asleep on him. I was glad I was behind him so he couldn’t see my face.

Once we got to a high enough elevation, we stopped at the soonest clearing. It was filled with trees and a small creek. Resting for a short time, I took off my shoes and dipped my feet in the water. I rubbed the back of my neck, thankful Grant had offered to wear the backpack for a while. Closing my eyes, I stretched my arms over my head. As I looked around, I realized I hadn’t noticed where Grant had walked away to.

I slipped my shoes back on, my aching feet screaming, and stood up. Before calling out for him, I peered around the closest trees, but couldn’t find him. Just when I was getting a little nervous and wanted to tell out for him, he popped up from some tall bushes.

I sighed and made my way over to him.

"Where’d you go?" I smiled.

"Come here," he said softly, his eyes twinkling in the sunlight.

My face looked skeptical as I slowly approached him. He parted some bushes and I stepped through.

"Lunch?" he offered sheepishly.

On the ground behind him, he had laid out giant leaves in a circle. He had found wild berries and placed them on a green wet leaf in the middle. Our water bottles were refilled and also on the leaves.

"What is all this?" I laughed.

"My awful attempt at a picnic," he said and blushed. "It’s lame, isn’t it?"

"No!" I exclaimed. "It’s nice."

I carefully stepped over the leaves and sat down. Grant took a seat across from me.

"There’s lots to choose from," he joked. "Here we have strawberries from over there." He pointed off to the distance. "And here we have boysenberries from all the way over there!" Then he pointed in the other direction.

"Whoa..." I giggled. "So gourmet! I think I might be underdressed."

"No, you look perfect," he said, his face flushing a little.

I blinked and looked away, and then studied the berries.

"Hmmm..." I said. "How could a girl decide? I think I’ll have to try them both."

I took some of the strawberries and boysenberries in my hand. Grant did the same and I popped some into my mouth.

"Do you think we can see anything from up here yet? Or do you want to hike more?" I asked him.

"I’d like to try to see something from here. I mean, anything would be good. If we could just get a decent view and possibly figure out which direction to head in..." his voice trailed off.

"Let’s give it a shot. If we’re not high enough, we’ll just keep going." I tried to sound energetic, but I doubted I came off that way.

Grant smiled and was about to say something when his expression changed. He froze and I watched him. I gave him an inquisitive look and listened.

"I think someone is over there," he whispered and pointed behind me.

I dropped the berries from my hand and turned around slowly. Grant crawled past me and together we stood on our knees, peering out between the bushes. I could see a shadow near a tree and I nudged Grant. His eyes widened at the size of it, and he turned and sat back down.

"That’s the biggest shadow I’ve ever seen," he whispered. "That person must be about eight feet tall!"

"Okay, well that’s impossible, right? Plus, it’s a shadow, so it’s just stretched across the ground. You can’t tell the actual height of someone by their shadow, can you?" I asked.

He looked at me. "Maybe, but did you see the shape of it? It’s wide and...lumpy? I don’t know if that’s the right word, but-"

We heard footsteps crunching over leaves and we quickly stopped whispering. Grant pointed to my left and I nodded. He slipped the backpack onto his shoulders and I saw him grab his knife from his pocket. I did the same, my nerves already making my hands shake. He crawled across the dirt and I followed behind him.

The two of us crouched down behind some rocks and then hid behind trees, slowly inching our way into the woods. If we could sneak far enough into the forest, we could run away without this giant of a person knowing we were there.

Grant peeked out from behind his tree and then bolted back, his eyes wide. He put his hand out, telling me to stay put. I grasped my knife in both hands. When I looked into the dirt, I saw the shadow again. Grant was right; it was oddly lumpy. It wasn’t a normal human shape at all. I blinked my eyes hard and looked again. The shadow had four arms, all of which were randomly flailing about. One arm seemed to be pointing in one direction, another arm pointing in our direction. It’s body was so wide. I could make out the head on the very top of its enormous body. The head was strangely tiny compared to its torso. As I was trying to picture what this thing looked like in my head, Grant got my attention. He pointed and made hand gestures, telling me that when he counted to three, we would both jump out and attack. I nodded, my heart pounding with anticipation and fear. He would count to three using his fingers.

       One
            Two
            Three

Next Chapter: Twenty Nine