Chapter 6
“WHERE ARE WE?” AGGIE asks, staring around at the large island.
“Could be fuckin’ anywhere,” Zeke mutters, his eyes narrowing as he takes in our surroundings.
“Let’s hope this is somewhere people come often,” Rachel murmurs to herself. “It is kind of pretty.”
“It’s the cleanest island I have seen,” Adrian squints.
“How many islands have you seen?” Kellen questions.
“One,” Adrian answers, then just walks off.
God.
Iris, who is sitting in the sand, looks over at Ace and her eyes are filled with an odd kind of fear. “Ace,” she whispers, and it is enough to get everyone’s attention, because even in a whisper, her tone is off.
He looks over to her. “What’s up?”
She pulls her jacket to the side and we can see her jeans are soaked in blood and torn. I rush over, without thought and drop to my knees beside her, Ace following close behind.
“I got injured when I was pulled back into the boat during the storm,” she says, “I think...I think it’s bad.”
“Why didn’t you say anything?” Ace mutters, taking a knife from his belt and using it to cut her jeans open even further.
Once he exposes her leg, Rachel sucks in a breath that is very telling.
It’s bad.
I can see the muscle moving beneath the split skin, a gash so wide and white it almost doesn’t look real.
The edges are already puckering and the blood is not pulsing but seeping, steady.
For a second I think I might pass out, but then the sound of Iris’s breath, chopped and shuddering, yanks me back. She needs us all to be strong.
Ace’s eyes scan the wound. “It missed the artery, lucky as hell,” he says, though he doesn’t sound relieved. “This is going to need more than tape. Grace, go back to the boat, grab anything we can use.”
Thankfully, we packed a first aid kit.
I turn and rush off. Behind me, I hear Ace ordering Zeke and Kellen to get the boat further up the beach, out of reach from the tide, in case we lose any more precious supplies to the water.
The two guys turn and follow me. I jump in the boat, pulling everything I can carry out.
I rush back to Ace, throwing the bags on the ground.
I dig through until I find the first aid kit, then I hand it to him.
He’s stripped off his jacket, using the clean side of his t-shirt to wipe blood away, exposing the wound even further.
My own stomach churns at the sight. Aggie is crouched behind Iris, hands on her shoulders, trying to offer support.
Tatiana is just staring, eyes huge, face slightly pale.
Rachel has buried her face in her hands.
“We need to clean this. Is there anything in that kit we can use?” Ace asks, his eyes locking on mine, as if I have all the answers.
I pull the first aid kit and dig around, finding a bottle of antiseptic and some saline. I hand them both to him.
“This will hurt,” he murmurs, but doesn’t give Iris a chance to protest.
He pours it straight into the wound, and the sound Iris makes is so ear-shredding I see Aggie flinch.
I use a wound dressing to dab away all the blood and grit that comes out, until it looks as clean as we will probably get it.
It’s a perfect cut, but so deep it seems impossible.
I don’t know how she didn’t bleed out in the boat.
Ace turns to me, his voice low as he murmurs, “I have to close it. If I don’t, it will go bad.”
Our eyes lock, and I’m sure he can see the uncertainty in mine. “How?” I whisper, low.
“You got fishing line in that boat?”
I nod. “There was some in there, I don’t know if it still is after we flipped it.”
“Check the first aid kit, see if there is anything we can use. I’ll go see if there is anything in the boat.”
I do as he asks, my heart beating so hard it hurts.
I feel horrible for Iris, because it will hurt like hell.
Ace stands and disappears towards the boat while I dig through the first aid kit.
Turns out, there is a suture kit in there—thank gosh my father at least ensured his boats have the best medical supplies, and this is a decent kit.
When Ace returns, I hold it up. “I found a suture kit.”
Aggie swallows, her voice thin. “You’re going to stitch it?”
“What?” Iris gasps, her tear-streaked face darting towards mine.
I kneel in front of her. “I know it’s scary, I know, but if we don’t close it, you could get a really bad infection or worse, bleed out. We have to close this.”
She shakes her head, over and over, tears rolling down her cheeks.
“I’m goin’ to need you two to hang onto her,” Ace orders Zeke and Kellen once they finish dragging the boat up onto the sand.
Both of them look like they would rather do anything else in the world, but they come over and kneel down beside Iris. They take her arms and she starts crying more, the sound hysterical. Rachel is sobbing now, back to us. So much for supporting your friend. I don’t have time to think about it.
“Take her other leg, you two,” I whisper to Tati and Aggie. “Hold on and don’t let go.”
They look terrified, but they do as I ask.
Ace and I take the injured leg.
Ace’s hands shake as he threads the suture line through the needle. He’s done this before, or something close, that’s obvious in the way he moves, not pausing to ask questions. But a part of him is somewhere else—a memory, maybe, or a fear he doesn’t want to name.
“Hold her steady,” he says, then looks to me. “Hold her, like, and don’t let go.”
I swallow down the nausea but do what he asks. Iris is screaming, but she isn’t thrashing, because deep down, she knows this has to happen too. I have to lean all my weight onto her thigh to keep it still. The skin beneath is clammy and sticky, and the blood wells up and starts to leak fresh blood.
“Ready?” he asks, but it’s not a question.
I watch as he drives the needle through the skin, and the scream that rips out of Iris is inhuman.
I flinch, but he keeps going. In-out, in-out, inch by inch, tying every suture with the expertise of someone who’s sewn up skin before.
The third time he drags it through her flesh, Iris faints.
I know because her body goes slack and her head rolls back.
Ace doesn’t even look up, just keeps working.
The guys release her, letting her body lay back in the sand.
I count the stitches—one, two, three, five, nine, twelve.
He works down the gash, dragging the purple line through the puckered skin, hands stained with blood but never flinching.
When he knots the last thread, he sits back, panting, and looks at me.
“Pour more antiseptic on it while she’s out, then we will bandage it.”
I hand him the bottle, and he pours it on while I grab the bandage from the kit, and wrap it around her leg, firmly but not too tight.
Then, we’re done. Ace and I are covered in blood, and sweat coats my brow, but I did it, and I did it without passing out.
Tatiana places a jacket under Iris’s head, and then we cover her with a blanket and leave her to rest.
She will come to any moment, but hopefully she does so a little calmer.
Ace wipes his hands on his shirt. “She needs antibiotics, so I’m hoping it doesn’t get infected. If it gets red, or she gets fever, she needs medicine or...” He doesn’t finish.
We all know what he’s thinking.
Rachel sneaks a look, tears streaming down her face. “Is—is she going to die?”
Nobody answers her, because we don’t honestly know the answer to that question.
Kellen moves to the edge of the group. “We need shelter,” he says, his voice clipped but firm. “We can’t stay out here in the elements. We don’t know how long we’ll be here, so we have to treat it like we might be here a while. We need to go and see what resources we have on this island.”
Zeke stands, brushing sand off his hands. “I’ll gather branches, we’ll build a shelter using the lifeboat as a base, at least it’s going to keep us covered.”
Then suddenly, as if we’ve all been here before, everyone just kicks into gear. Adrian is still gone. Where, I don’t know. The good news is, he can’t have gone far. Hopefully he hasn’t gotten himself into trouble, because we just can’t deal with that right now.
“We should split up in twos,” Tatiana says, her voice more determined than I have heard it since we got off that yacht. “Scour around and see if we can find food, water, anything we can use.”
“Good plan,” Ace murmurs. “Grace, you’re with me. We’ll go find water. Tatiana and Aggie, you two can go hunt for food, anything, fresh berries, fruit, animals, it doesn’t matter. Zeke and Kellen will start a shelter, and Rachel can stay with Iris.”
“I’ll move her into the shade,” Kellen says, then he leans down and scoops Iris up as if she weighs nothing.
She is sobbing, but a lot calmer than she was a few minutes ago.
I take a deep, steady breath. “Let’s do this.”
Ace and I both turn, still covered in blood, and walk into the island, having no idea what we’re about to walk into.
“You injured?” Ace asks, as we enter the thicker part of the forest, where the trees are surrounded by shrubs and fallen branches, making it hard to get through.
“I don’t think so,” I say, though my body aches in a way it hasn’t before, even after weeks of dance practice.
“Took guts, what you did back there.”
I shrug. “I held her down, you were the one who stitched her up.”
“You took charge, and in a situation like this, that matters. Trust me.”
I exhale, long and deep. “Do you think we’re far away, like really far?”
“I have no fuckin’ idea.”
A beat of silence follows. “What about the others, the captain and the crew? Do you think they made it through the storm?”
He doesn’t answer for a minute, then he murmurs, “Depends if they were smart enough to get the fuck away from that storm.”