Chapter 12: Learning Tough Lessons

Brad POV:

Our two intrepid ‘Space’ travelers have just returned, none the worse for wear.

At least on the outside.

I have a sneaking feeling that they both left much more of their hearts on that island that they thought they would.

JB, especially, is quite smitten with little Annie. Darren, on the other hand isn’t much better, having developed a very soft spot in his heart for Lolita.

They were somewhat chagrined when Brenda and I suggested we have a bet as to which one of their new little girlfriends would be the first one to lose their memories. It didn’t surprise me that they each bet on the other one’s girl. Brenda bet on little Annie and I surprised all of them as I voted that neither of them would.

I will personally be betting that both of those girls would be getting rewards for quite some time. I also made it known that further trips like the one they just went on would be very few and extremely far between. Especially with the emergence of those two little Chihuahuas’ abilities that were enough to make even Jonah envious.

With all of our attention on the crisis with the Condor for the last couple days, we all decided to get back to work. I really needed to check in on my big group to see what, if anything, they had managed to accomplish.

If any group needed more supplies, this one would be it. The question then would be, just what would they ask for?

Something tells me, it wouldn’t be anything useful.

Especially if Elmer was doing the requesting!

Once again, if you looked up the word ‘dysfunctional’ in the dictionary, these guys’ picture would be right there next to it.

Elmer’s booze stash is now more than half gone. As is, it appears, the goons’ beer supply.

These people make ordinary slobs look like neat freaks.

Everywhere I looked there were empty and/or broken bottles lying around. The same with banana peels, fruit cores and some fish bones. I went back in time to discover that Fredo and Brutus had managed to put a couple fishing poles together and waded out about 20 feet into the surf and caught a few nice sized fish.

That explained the fish bones and I thought it was appropriate that when the two older bitches, Lola and Marcella, complained about not having any tartar sauce for their fish, they simply weren’t given any. I was surprised when Elmer went off on them saying he wasn’t going to take any more of their shit, ever again.

When I looked around, I didn’t see Precious, Otis or Brutus anywhere.

Cecilia and Vincent were busy tying more bamboo shafts to their makeshift shelter, trying to make it look more like a hut than a tent. It didn’t look like it would be any more weatherproof, however.

It appeared they’d used up more than half of all their para cord. Since they had over 1000 feet to start with, they’d been very busy tying knots!

And it was still pretty flimsy and only looked big enough to shelter half of them.

I decided to Spirit Walk into the portal to get a better look and see what all was going on, since only Elmer, Lola, Marcella, Cecelia and Vincent were actually at the campsite.

Lola and Marcella, being nothing but lazy bitches, were just sitting on a log lamenting about having nothing ‘interesting’ to do. Elmer was getting shit-faced, sitting on another log nearer to where Vincent and Cecelia were working.

I flew up to the north along the beach and found Hugo, Fredo and Lugo walking with a beer in one hand and a machete in the other. They each had beer bottles stuffed in their back pockets, no doubt so they wouldn’t get thirsty. They had obviously gotten Darren’s flyer about the Condors and were anxiously looking around the sky every 30 seconds or so.

They had gone quite a ways and were nearly at the northern tip of the island.

When they reached the northern end of the mountain that split the island in half, East/ West, Hugo said, “This looks like the end of the road for us, guys. The way that cliff juts out into the water, the only way around it is to swim or in a boat. Since our boat seems to have disappeared, permanently, we might as well turn back.”

Lugo climbed up on a rock on the shore and started looking around. “Hey buddy, the water doesn’t look very deep and there are lots of rocks we can climb on. I sure would like to know what’s on the other side of this island, wouldn’t you? Maybe we could find some other prisoners and commandeer some better stuff. Like blankets and sleeping bags?”

“Not a bad idea, but I think we need to get a couple more guys, if we wanna do that. Do you think there’s any chance our boat might be over there somewhere? It sure would make fishing a lot easier if we could get out a little deeper.”

Lugo shrugged, “You never know. We would sure be the heroes if we could somehow come back with it. The problem is, we still wouldn’t have anything to paddle with.”

“Let’s sit here a spell and drink a beer. I believe we need to think about it some more.” Fredo suggested.

I watched the three of them sit down, chunk their empty beer bottles out into the surf and open one of the beers in their pockets.

I flew around searching and damned if I didn’t find their boat floating in the surf about a quarter of a mile offshore and about three miles southeast of where they were at. It appeared that most of somebody’s clothes were still draped over the gunwales of the boat, too.

The only way they would see it, however, would be to wade around to the other side of the island and walk south probably a mile or so.

That’s when I noticed a couple of guys and a girl from George’s crew, who were in their boat.

They were heading for the abandoned boat, with what looked like a little dog standing on the bow pointing the way.

I chuckled to myself, knowing that they were going to get to the abandoned/lost boat way before these three fools would even get close enough to see it.

I decided to fly back to see what the three buffoons would decide to do.

I should’ve guessed that one beer would taste like two, and there were now six empty beer bottles floating in the surf and a fresh one in their hands.

I listened to them banter back and forth just long enough to determine that they weren’t going to try to walk around the tip of the island, today. Hugo seemed very concerned about not getting his Gucci loafers ruined in the salt water.

I decided to then fly back toward their camp to see if I couldn’t locate Precious, Otis, and Brutus. On my last check, it appeared they were bonding rather well.

The nice thing about ‘Spirit Walking’ is you can fly right through things like trees and rocks. I was curious about just how much farther they would have to go to find any caves on this side of the mountain.

Just as I felt I was nearing their camp, I heard some talking coming from near the mountain.

Again, I laughed to myself that the three of them had indeed found a nice big cave and had apparently been living in it for at least a day or so. Precious had her sleeping bag unrolled with her little duffel bag and knapsack along with the guys’ backpacks and duffel bags with their beer stash. It was all neatly laid out. They also had one of the toolkits that appeared to still be completely full.

There was also one of the damaged canvas tarps laid out on the ground, apparently the beds for Otis and Brutus.

Now I had to wonder if the three of them had permanently broken away from the group or was this just their secret hiding spot.

Elmer and Vincent certainly wouldn’t be happy whenever they discovered their cave was almost 10 times the size of their bamboo and paracord ‘hut’. And infinitely more weatherproof!

The three of them certainly appeared to be in good spirits. I listened in long enough to determine they’d already found a good source of water and plenty of fruit trees.

I decided to fly back to their camp to listen in to what else was going on.

Blaine Murdock POV:

The last couple days have been very productive.

We discovered three more caves, one of which had a very strange smell. Another of the caves was more like a very high-roofed tunnel that was about 100 to 120 feet long that curved around before becoming a second entrance. We decided this would be a good workshop/stills site. It was about 700 feet away from our main campsite and therefore, would make a good place to hide all of our tools and what not. If somebody were to discover our camp, there’s a good chance they wouldn’t explore far enough to find the workshop.

The girls have all really pitched in and Naomi, especially, has been with me nearly every step of the way. They found all kinds of different fruits and nuts and are becoming excited to start planting our garden, once we get the soil ready.

Even those two little Chihuahuas are really starting to grow on me.

I’ve never seen two better behaved little dogs in my life. It’s uncanny the way they just seem to know what it is we want them to do. Even when they seem to run off and play, all you have to do is whistle or holler and they immediately come running back.

Not to mention the fact that all four of the girls are absolutely in love with them!

Naomi and Meredith swear they can talk to them and sometimes I have a hard time believing that’s just not possible. The little devils even managed to herd four small goats right into our campsite!

Meredith, it turns out, knows a little bit about farming and gleefully told us that two of the three females were giving milk. She had me cut a six-inch diameter piece of bamboo into several smaller sections so she could use them to possibly make butter and, hopefully, cheese churns.

While some of their requests for different things may have slowed us down on what we were currently working on, they were all certainly worthwhile.

The idea of frying fish in butter had my mouth watering.

This morning, Steve, Naomi and I decided to go fishing out in the boat. I was dismayed at first when Naomi wanted the little blonde dog, Hera, to come with us. Normally, having a dog on a fishing trip meant you weren’t going to catch any fish. Especially little yippers like Chihuahuas tended to be.

At her insistence, however, I relented and the four of us jumped in our boat and started paddling out slightly to the north. I wanted to see what kind of fish we could catch in different areas.

We still had a bucket-full of live, very small fish, like minnows, for bait.

After half an hour, I was having no luck even getting a bite.

Hera had her front paws on the gunwales and was looking intently into the water. Naomi dropped her baited hook into the water just in front of Hera and immediately hooked a 25-Lb fish!

The next thing I knew, Hera’s on the other side of the boat, again looking into the water. Steve chuckled and dropped his hook in, right in front of her and DAMN if he didn’t hook an even bigger fish!

Hera looked like she was smirking at me before looking over the edge once again and quietly whining.

Naomi giggled, “Go on, ‘Doubting Thomas’, give it a shot!”

I shook my head and dropped my hook into the water only to damn near have it pulled right out of my hands! I hooked a 50Lb Grouper! In less than 10 minutes, between the three of us we had nearly 100Lbs of fish!

Then our little ‘Magellan’ started whining and ran to the front of the boat and started barking. Just as I was about to tell her to quiet down, I saw a huge boat floating off in the distance. I took out my telescope and discovered there wasn’t anyone in it!

When I saw what looked like clothing hanging off the edge, I had to guess that this must be E Norm’s boat! It was huge, at least 40’ long and only E Norm had a group big enough to warrant something that big. We rowed out to it, which took nearly 30 minutes, and I pulled their anchor out and put it in the back of our boat so we could tow it back to shore.

This boat had real possibilities since it had two places for masts, one of which was over 8 inches in diameter. If we ever had to get off this island, this boat would be big enough for all of us AND our gear! It had 10 oarlocks, 5 on each side, so everyone could row if we had to. It even had one in the rear for like a rudder.

Even though I knew it wouldn’t weigh as much as it seemed it would, I felt it was still gonna take all four of us guys just to drag this thing far enough on shore to hide it effectively.

I felt that E Norm would probably, eventually, send his guys out to try and find it and, I had no intentions of giving it back!

Seeing the suits still draped over the gunwales, I checked and it HAD to be Elmer’s. The 50” waist and 26” length of the pants was a dead giveaway. He was the ONLY prisoner with those dimensions!

We stopped about a quarter mile north of our beach and the three of us managed to pull it 100’ or so up the steep beach. This sucker, on Earth, had to weigh over 1800 Lbs. We set the anchor, just in case we didn’t make it back right away. Then we paddled to our beach, where we unloaded our catch and moved our boat all the way up to our hiding spot.

Little Hera even helped drag some palm fronds over to cover it with! This little lady certainly earned her keep today and got a thorough, playful ‘belly rub’ for her efforts.

I also never planned on going fishing again without her, either!

It would have taken us two trips to carry all of our catch back to camp, except, that Steve and Wayne were nearby. They’d been digging a pit and putting one of our polypropylene tarps in it. Steve told me he wanted to start filling it with salt water to create a ‘salt farm’. He said within a couple weeks, by keeping the tarp full of salt water, after it all finally evaporated off, we’d have a nice supply of salt!

I thought that was ingenious and would certainly be worth the effort. It was far enough from the shore to not be seen, yet close enough so they wouldn’t have to haul the water very far. I told them about our ‘find’ and they agreed to help us get our new ‘yacht’ hidden.

I was planning on getting some measurements so I could get busy designing and constructing sails for all three boats. (Or at least two of the three.)

JB POV:

I feel conflicted.

I’m madly in love with Linda, so now, I feel guilty that I’m falling in love with Annie, too. Linda is such a sweetheart. She told me not to fret, that my heart was more than big enough for both of them!

Well, three, counting Ibera!

It’s so strange to be able to tell your woman how much you like another woman ... and have HER encourage you!

It seems jealousy is something completely foreign to her. She’s back home right now, working on the plans for their new home, but told me to ‘hurry home’ where she’d be waiting for me.

Darren is looking forward to being with Sarah, too, even though I know he now has deep feelings for little Lolita.

Even though it’s only been an hour or so since I last saw her, I decided to check in on Annie and her group. Especially since they appeared to have joined up with Lucinda’s gang.

I refer to them as a ‘gang’ since, to me, they’re nothing but thugs and cut throats. I don’t trust any of them, especially Josh and Sly.

When I looked in on them, I saw that Annie’s group had dismantled their tent.

There were also different groups of two carrying toolkits with duffle bags and backpacks stacked on top of them, deep into the woods.

I followed one of the pairs to see where they were going.

I knew they’d planned on looking for a cave, so I wanted to see for myself where they might be.

The whole thing with the dragon, freaking them all out, made me chuckle. That joy, however, got cut short as I overheard Lonnie and Sly Willum talking about something. They were planning to spring their ‘surprise’, whatever that was, on Franklin’s crew.

I was right behind them, but, they must have felt nervous about saying anymore with Franklin and Max carrying their load not far behind them.

I fell back to Tiny and Josh to see if they were in on, whatever it was, too.

Josh whispered, “What do you think about Sly’s plan, Bud?”

Tiny huffed, “I say it’s fucked up! We don’t know jack shit about that device! These guys didn’t even have to tell us about it. I think Lonnie and Sly are making a big mistake wanting to double cross these guys.”

“Yeah, but just think about having two more pieces of pussy all to ourselves!?”

“Dammit Josh! Is that all you can think about? Lucinda takes care of us just fine! Who’s to say Annie and Jasmine will want anything to do with us if we fuck them over?”

Josh laughed quietly, but evilly, “Then it will suck to be them!”

I was panic-stricken, hearing this, and decided I needed to try and warn Annie before it was too late.

The problem was, she and her dad, AL, were right behind Josh and Tiny, with Jasmine and Lucinda bringing up the rear of this little caravan. I was afraid that if I tried to talk to her, telepathically, she might screw up and say something out loud. While that wouldn’t necessarily cause her to forget everything, it could put her in a very tricky spot.

I knew they still had at least one more trip to make, so, I hoped maybe at some point I could catch Annie alone.

That’s what I was thinking when Darren ‘popped’ into my area, on his own “Spirit Walk’. I forgot that the five assassins’ gang was HIS group to follow. Thank God nobody could hear me scream when he startled the living daylights out of me!

We both laughed together before he told me he was also concerned about whatever it was these guys were planning.