Chapter 10 #2
Even though I’d love nothing more than to see Kyle get the shit beaten out of him again, I knew we couldn’t afford any fighting among ourselves. I quickly stepped forward to hold the enraged man back, and Tyler moved to help me as well.
That stupid smirk never left Kyle’s face as he watched Martin’s struggle to get to him.
Clarisse, on the other hand, looked guilty and panicked, and she took a small step forward to block Martin’s path.
“Martin, s-stop,” she insisted. “Don’t blame Kyle, it isn’t his f-fault.”
Martin ignored her pleas and continued to struggle against us. I had to admit, he was a pretty strong dude, and his anger only seemed to make him stronger because Tyler and I were barely able to hold him back.
“Don’t hurt him,” Clarisse tried again. “There isn’t anything you can do, Martin. I didn’t mean for this to happen, but it’s too late now.”
Martin began to curse incoherently as he continued to struggle, and nothing Clarisse said seemed to calm him down.
It certainly didn’t help that Kyle just stood there with a shit-eating grin plastered to his stupid face.
God, what an asshole.
“Martin, stop!” Clarisse demanded in a firm voice. “It’s over. We matched.”
That seemed to get Martin’s attention, and he slowly stopped struggling as realization and even more pain seemed to settle in his eyes.
Tyler and I still held firm on the off chance he was just trying to fake us out. But the longer I watched Kyle’s face, the more I wanted to not only let Martin go but join him.
But he didn’t try to get away, and instead he completely froze as he stared at Clarisse.
“What?” he murmured in disbelief.
“I’m sorry, Martin,” Clarisse continued, and to her credit, she did sound apologetic. “But it’s true. We matched after you guys left.”
I wondered if their supposed match took place before or after the wild forest sex.
Martin looked completely defeated, and his shoulders sagged with dejection. He looked like a truly broken man, and Tyler and I slowly released him.
He made no move to rush Kyle again, and after a long moment of silence, he turned and stomped out of the clearing and into the trees.
“I’ll go get him,” I sighed. “We can’t afford to be separated right now.”
I quickly retreated from the group and followed after the angry man.
I found Martin by the river, and he stood with his back to me watching the water flow by.
I might have been imagining things, but I could’ve sworn the water hadn’t been moving that quickly when we found the river earlier, and the water level also seemed slightly higher.
I walked over to where Martin was and stood a few feet away from him. Even from this distance, I could feel his sadness and fuming anger. I didn’t try to comfort him, or even speak to him, because I knew he was still trying to process his feelings.
He would speak when he was ready, and even then, there wasn’t a guarantee he’d even want to talk to me.
So, instead, we just stood in silence while I waited for him to calm down.
“She’s my fiancée,” Martin finally spoke, and his voice sounded tight and raw, as if he were fighting off tears. “Or, was my fiancée, I guess.”
I was completely taken aback by this revelation. They’d been engaged? That made the situation even worse than I’d already suspected. It made Kyle’s actions even more abhorrent, and it made Clarisse’s betrayal even more shocking.
“I thought for sure we’d match in these games,” he said in a voice that was far too small. “I feel so fucking stupid right now. This whole time, I thought that asshole was a decent person. Abrasive and crude for sure, but deep down a genuinely good guy. How could I have been so wrong?”
“Look, man,” I said. “I’ve known Kyle for a very long time, and I can promise you, you aren’t stupid for trusting him. That’s part of his game. He lures people in with his charm, and then he shows his true colors later when he screws them over.”
“I want to kill that asshole,” he growled and clenched his fists.
“You and me both,” I sighed. “But unfortunately, we can’t afford to go around killing each other right now. We need to work together as a team, asshole or not.”
“I don’t know if I can go back there,” he mumbled. “How can I face Clarisse again, knowing she matched with someone else? Knowing they slept together?”
“I’m not even sure what the matches even mean,” I said.
“I matched with Sadie, but that doesn’t mean we’re suddenly married and bound to each other forever.
Even if the matches did mean something deeper, no one else saw Kyle and Clarisse match, so it could’ve been a lie they made up to justify their earlier actions. ”
“And if it wasn’t a lie?” Martin asked glumly.
“Then that means she wasn’t your match, either,” I pointed out. “It means one of the other women in our group is your match.”
Assuming his match wasn’t one of the ladies who had already died, but I wasn’t about to tell him that.
“I guess that’s true,” he muttered, and his expression softened. He still looked sad, but he didn’t seem as angry and wounded.
We fell back into silence while Martin mulled our conversation over, and I waited patiently for him to work things out.
“Are you ready to go back?” I finally asked after several long minutes.
“Yeah,” he sighed as he ran a hand through his dark hair. “I guess so.”
“Do you think you can face Kyle without trying to strangle him?” I joked as I lifted one questioning eyebrow.
Martin chuckled in response, and he seemed much more in control of his emotions.
I awkwardly patted him on the back before I turned to head back to camp, and I could feel Martin follow quietly behind me.
When we returned to camp, Tyler, Parker, Claire, and Sadie were busy rummaging through the remnants of our supplies. They had two separate piles, one for all the scraps that couldn’t be saved, and one for the remaining usable supplies.
Clarisse was near the treeline, seated on the ground with her back toward the camp.
For someone who had been caught cheating on her fiancé, she was certainly doing a good job of acting like the victim.
Kyle was nowhere to be seen, which honestly, was probably for the best. Martin was calm at the moment, but it didn’t mean that would last, especially if Kyle showed that stupid grin.
“Where’s Kyle?” I asked as we moved closer to the group.
“He wandered off shortly after you two left,” Tyler said. “Apparently, having everyone upset with him hurt his feelings.”
“Please,” Parker scoffed as she rolled her eyes. “That guy doesn’t have any feelings.”
Everyone snorted a laugh, and even Martin cracked a small smile.
“What about her?” I asked as I nodded my head toward Clarisse.
“She said she feels bad about hurting Martin,” Sadie answered.
“Correction,” Claire interjected. “She feels bad about getting caught.”
I didn’t glance at Martin after Claire said that, but I could feel his pain.
“Well, we’ll let those two be for now,” I said.
“You mean you aren’t going to try to find Kyle?” Tyler asked with mock surprise.
“Hell, no,” I chuckled.
“But what if he’s in danger?” Tyler continued his charade.
“That sounds like a Kyle problem.” I shrugged. My generosity and need for teamwork only went so far. Then I clapped my hands together. “Anyway, what can we do to help?”
“We almost have our stuff fully sorted,” Parker replied. “Of the things that survived, we found a small amount of food, including canned goods, and some water. We’ll have to pack those away and store them up high. We’ll probably need your help for that.”
“Can do,” I agreed with a nod.
“We were also able to save some of the spare batteries,” Parker went on. “Along with three of the flashlights, one and a half books of matches, an entire length of rope, one medkit, and four emergency blankets. All the spare clothing was torn to shreds, along with all but two of the backpacks.”
“That’s not ideal, but we can certainly make that work,” I replied. “I also have my flashlight and knife. I took them out of my backpack before I left my stuff with the others.”
“I think the biggest concern will be the food and water,” Tyler added. “We’ll only be here for twenty-four hours, which doesn’t seem like a long time, but who knows what the aliens have planned for us. We’ll definitely need our strength.”
“I agree,” I said. “The food you were able to save should be enough for at least one small meal for each of us, but we’ll probably need more to keep our strength up.”
“There’s also the issue of defense,” Parker sighed. “We have no real way to protect ourselves out here from any potential predators.”
I thought for a long moment before I finally responded.
“I think I might have a solution to both problems,” I said.
“While we were out gathering wood, I also brought back several branches that were fresh, strong, and straighter than the others. I can use my knife to whittle them into spears, and we can use those both for defense and potentially to catch some of those massive fish from the river.”
“That actually sounds perfect,” Parker mused.
I grinned at her and felt rather pleased with myself.
“Now that we have a plan, let’s get to it,” I said. “We have a lot to do before evening comes.”
We had an entire day still, but we suddenly had a lot more to do than we originally planned.
We all helped fill one of the backpacks with the food and water, and then Tyler, Martin, and I worked together to attach the rope to it and string it up from the tallest tree we could find.
Once our food was secure, and safely out of reach of any bear, we split into two groups.
Parker, Tyler, and Sadie stayed at camp to get a spot cleared for the fire.
Meanwhile, Martin and I whittled a couple of makeshift spears from some of the branches I’d collected, grabbed one of the mostly intact backpacks, and went back to the river to catch some fish for dinner.