CHAPTER EIGHT:
why the hell are you sitting so casually beside our dead teammate?

JUNIPER.

I had seriously begun to regret my decision on asking Imani to join me on my hunt for supplies. Abby was a fucking angel, she didn't complain once, just got her head down and searched the woods for anything useful to us. Imani, on the other hand, literally never stopped complaining.

However, we had managed to find some suitcases that had been flung from the plane. I found the first and Abby found the second. And after we searched some more, dragging the suitcases behind us, we decided it would be best to head back instead of getting ourselves lost in the wilderness.

Abby and I carried the suitcases whilst Imani walked ahead of us, never once offering a hand or to take a turn of the heavy suitcases. That was exactly why I had never been fond of Imani, despite being raised with her and her being Lennon's best friend. She was ridiculously self-absorbed and truly believed the world spun just for her. Which was my least favourite type of person.

When we arrived back at the crash site, I squinted my eyes, noticing how everyone was crowded together eagerly, "We found some suitcases!" I called out upon getting closer, making everyone turn to face me. Lennon looked relieved at the sight of me. "Well, at least, Abby and I did." I added, sending Imani a sharp glare as she passed me.

                "Bite me, June." She said in passing.

I ignored her and dumped the suitcase by my feet and looked around. "What's going on?" I questioned, curious as to why everyone was in a big huddle.

"Your sister found a phone," Kitty said, standing beside Evie—like she always was. She threw her hands up. "But, she can't figure out the password." She said, gesturing to Lennon like it was her fault who let out a heavy sigh, rubbing at her temple.

I furrowed my brows, "Who's phone is it?" I asked, stepping closer to them.

Lennon held up the phone, showing me the wallpaper, "Becca's. I, uh—I found it in her pocket." She said, squirming nervously and I tilted my head, looking at her. My sister had rummaged through the body of our dead friend and teammate—that's how desperate we were to find some kind of safety. For someone to know we were out here. And I could tell it has taken its toll on her. Lennon was running on autopilot, doing whatever she had to do for everyone else to be okay; and it wouldn't end well. She'd only burn herself out.

"Is it a pin or letters?" I asked as I reached them.

"Letters." Lennon said, sitting down on the log, staring at the phone in her hands like she could mind control it to unlock.

"Have you tried her dog's name? She loved that fucking dog." I suggested, gesturing at the phone between Lennon's hands. Everyone stared blankly back at me, obviously not remembering the name of her dog. "Teddy—his name is Teddy." I clarified for them and Lennon immediately punched in the name, her fingers shaking as they went.

"Oh my god! Oh my god, it unlocked!" Lennon exclaimed, making everyone try to grab at it, each wanting to try and get in contact with someone whilst yelling over each other. Lennon pulled the phone out of their reach. "The phones on twenty percent. We have to be smart about who we call in case they don't pick up—"

"Well, calling the police is the obvious choice." Kitty said, throwing her hands up impatiently.

"What police? We don't even know where we are! We don't know the area code!" Lennon exclaimed before pausing, allowing the harsh truth to dawn on everyone. She sighed. "Look, we're obviously outside of the States, so 911 won't work out here. And as long as we don't know where we are, we don't know what number we should be calling." She tried explaining further so that her words didn't sound too harsh.

"So, what, we sit on our asses and do nothing?" Ivy piped in, her hands settled on her hips.

"That's not what I'm saying," Lennon insisted, breathing out heavily in exasperation. "I'm just saying, we need to know who to call." She tried reasoning, not wavering under the amount of glares she was receiving.

"I say we call my parents," Brooke began saying, making the Red Devils began yelling in protest at her. "Hey, it was their plane and they'll have the money to warrant a search for us!" For once, I actually found myself agreeing with what she was saying. It made sense. If we had to prioritise, it made sense to call them.

Lennon slowly began nodding, "Alright. But make it quick." She said, passing the phone to Brooke who took it in her good hand, beginning to type in her desired number.

"Put it on loudspeaker." Hailey said from where she sat on the log, her ankle wrapped in a ripped up shirt.

Brooke did as she was told and put the phone on loudspeaker. We all waited in silence for the ringing. But it never came. Instead, the phone just beeped, allowing us to know that there wasn't enough signal to make the phone call. My heart dropped to my stomach.

Brooke threw her hands up, "There's not enough signal!" She exclaimed, shoving the phone back into Lennon's hands before throwing herself onto the log, like a child taking a tantrum whilst everyone began talking over one another, asking to call their own families.

"Alright—alright," Lennon spoke loudly over everyone, casting them into a silence. "We're in the middle of nowhere, it makes sense that the call isn't going through. We need to try and find out where we are, maybe there's somewhere we can get a better signal, or maybe we're close to a town—a city even. But we have to find out, we can't just sit here and wait." Everyone reacted differently to Lennon's words. Some argued against it, insisting we had to stay close to the wreck for rescue to find us. Others agreed, saying it was for the best.

"I agree with Lennon." Hattie said, holding her hand up.

"Really? You agree with her of all people?" Kitty snapped, turning to glare at her own teammate.

Hattie turned to face her, narrowing her own eyes, "It's not about agreeing with her, it's about agreeing with what we need to do to get rescued," She argued, not wanting to get sucked into the whole opposite team argument. "We need to find higher ground, somewhere we can get a signal and scope out where we are. Otherwise we have no chance." She insisted, her brows etched together.

Imani threw her hands up, "Or we wait here where it's safe until we get rescued."

"That's not an option," I finally spoke up, earning a look of relief from Lennon. I gestured with my hands. "We need to at least try to contact someone or find out where we are. We don't know how long the rescue is going to take—we need to be able to fend for ourselves out here." I said whilst Lennon nodded along with me, slipping the phone into the back pocket of her denim shorts.

"Alright, it's settled then," Lennon began saying. "We should keep some people here, the ones that are injured too badly to walk. And then we should have two teams heading in seperate directions. One with the phone, heading uphill and the others to scope out the area, see what's around us." She planned out and I watched as the gears turned in her mind.

"I'll take the first team uphill, try to find somewhere we can find a signal and June, could you lead the other—"

"Wait, hold up a minute here," Ivy spoke over her, holding her hands up. "Since when did we agree to Pirates world domination, huh? When did you two become the leaders of all this shit?" She demanded, settling her hands on her hips, turning to glare more at Lennon than me.

"Maybe because the Pirates have better leadership qualities," Imani said, tilting her head and giving a sweet smile. "It's not our fault your team sucks—"

"Keep talking shit, Imani. I've been looking for an excuse to punch someone." Ivy shot back, rolling her shoulders and making herself appear taller by holding her head higher.

             "Can't women just support women?" I heard Nora grumble to Evie in the background.

Imani laughed, tipping her head back, "Try it, bitch—"

"Enough!" Lennon yelled, shoving her way between Imani and Ivy who had started getting closer to each other, tensions rising. "What the fuck are we doing right now? Half of us are already injured and the rest are dead! We can't afford anymore just because we don't like each other! We are out here—and we don't know how long. We need to be working together, not fighting every two fucking seconds!" She exclaimed, gesturing wildly with her hands, her cheeks turning red. I could tell the pressure of everything was slowly starting to get to her.

"There is no person in charge, alright? At least, not right now. We just have to work together to figure this shit out. All of us." She finished, taking a look around, her eyes momentarily locking on Ivy's who hadn't easened up on her firm glare.

"There's only one slight problem with the plan, Len," Abby said, her hair tied back into a curly ponytail. She gestured with the watch on her wrist, a Rolex that had been a gift from her father. "It's almost six o'clock. I don't think the best idea is us running around like headless chickens in the middle of nowhere. We should revisit it in the morning." She suggested, giving Lennon a sympathetic smile.

Lennon slowly nodded, "Alright. But in the meantime, we should gather all of the suitcases—any belongings we can find. The temperature is going to drop soon and I don't want us freezing our asses off." She said, then walked away before anyone else could argue with her.

I let out a heavy sigh, turning my head to watch where Lennon was heading towards the plane. I caught sight of Eden sitting against a tree, legs brought to her chest, mascara stains down her face. She was still clutching her necklace and I realised she hadn't spoken a word since the crash, except her prayers.

I approached her and crouched down, putting my hand on her knees, "Hey, Ede. You alright?" I asked her softly but she didn't respond, just stared straight through me. It was obvious she was in some kind of shock that was stopping her from being able to speak to me.

I noticed she was shivering slightly and shimmied out of my leather jacket, placing it over her shoulders. It wasn't cold out, in fact, it was anything but. But I wanted to try and bring her some kind of comfort—she was obviously taking it harder than everyone else, with the exception of those that were physically injured.

Instead of lingering by Eden and invading her space, I went after Lennon. I climbed inside of the plane, looking around for her. My heart dropped when I noticed she was sitting in the seat beside Rebecca, her eyes closed, breathing out through her nose.

"Hey, Len," I softly said, stepping towards her and she opened her eyes to look at me. I glanced at Rebecca's body, my heart sinking at the sight of her but I put my focus on my sister. "Are you alright?" I asked, leaning against the back of the seat in front of her. My question held an underline of another question, along the lines of 'why the hell are you sitting so casually beside our dead teammate?'.

Lennon inhaled, "I just—it seems so surreal that we're out here, talking about what we have to do until rescue gets here whilst Becca is never going home. She's never going to see her family again, June—or her dog. We might very well get out of here by tomorrow morning but she's not... it just feels all so wrong." She said, shaking her head and I could see that her eyes had began to water.

I took a glance at Rebecca's body, questioning if I was actually about to sit beside it. After working up the courage, I crouched down, leaning by Rebecca's legs, "Look, I know that it sucks—it really does. Becca was great. But the rest of us can't just sit here feeling sorry for ourselves because we're the ones that survived while the rest didn't," I began saying to her, making her look up to catch my eyes. "We survived that shit, Len. And we need to keep on surviving—for those that didn't. For Rebecca. For all of them. Alright?" I urged, focusing on keeping my gaze locked on hers but my skin was crawling from being so close to Rebecca's body. I didn't know how Lennon had the courage to sit right beside it.

After a moment, Lennon nodded. I drummed my hands against my thighs, "Okay, can we move now? Cause this shit is freaking me the fuck out." Lennon let out what was supposed to be a laugh and nodded again, getting to her feet and moving by Rebecca's body before she paused.

"If we're out here longer than we think we'll be... we'll have to bury them. We can't just keep them here like this," She said, glancing back at Rebecca's body, sorrow written in her features. "They deserve it." I found myself nodding in agreement. If we were going to be stranded in the middle of nowhere, it wasn't fair to keep their bodies in the places that had taken their lives. They deserved to be buried like the human-beings they were. And when we were rescued, they could have the proper burials they deserved with their families.

"We will, Len. We'll bury them if it comes to it." I assured her before offering my hand to help pull her through the aisle. She took it after a moment, allowing me to lead her outside. She gave me one of her award-winning 'everything's fine and everyone's watching' smile before dropping my hand and hopping off the plane.

Honestly, I could never understand how Lennon did it. Even when things got hard, in the face of some real shit, she managed to pull herself together well enough to be a functioning human being. Meanwhile, all I could think about was when I could finally sneak off and light up the joint stuffed deep into my pocket. I had a few on me, along with a few tabs of Molly and it was all I could find myself thinking about.

            I wanted to escape. I didn't know how to handle things like Lennon. Even after she had been sitting beside a dead body, she had done it out of the kindness of her heart—thinking about how Rebecca would never return home to her family. I wasn't as much of a good person as my sister—I was selfish, thinking only of myself. But it was the only way I knew how to cope. And my body craved it so much I could feel my skin burning.

               AUTHORS NOTE.
    
               Everyone thank Miss Swift, because Speak Now TV has somehow revived me from the slump I've been in this past week!

               I hope y'all enjoyed this chapter! Don't forget to drop a comment and let me know what you think, it really motivates me to post!

               — taylor xx