They have things that don't make sense. An axe, a table to prepare food on that had been secured with nails, a jug to keep water in that definitely hadn’t come from the wreckage of the plane and plastic bottles to store things in. I twist the lid off of one of the bottles and inhale. A sweet scent fills my nostrils. It’s either lotion or soap, either way I can’t get enough. It’s river mint that gave it its fresh smell but the creamy white texture. You can’t tell me that it was made entirely from things found on this island.
“I’d put that back if I were you,” says Ky, causing me to jump. “Toni won’t like you digging around without permission, and she isn’t as kind with her punishments as the group.” I carefully screw the lid back on the bottle and put it back where I found it.
I want to ask what kind of punishments he has received from Toni, but I don’t. I still haven’t decided if Ky is with her because he wants to be or because he is afraid to leave. What kind of power does she hold over him. The Ky I knew threw his punches first, apologies came later.
Later that morning when Toni hands Cade a hot cup of coffee, I know that my suspicions are grounded. Something isn’t right about her, but if anyone has the ability to get Christa what she needs it is her. I watch as Cade sips the coffee, a reverent expression on his face. Just a few days ago this moment seemed impossible. Now we’re drinking coffee with a person we’d never met before. Our whole world is different, and I don’t know if the changes are for the better or the sort of change that eases into your comfort zone and destroys you from the inside.
I want to ask for my own cup of coffee, but I don’t. It seems smarter to save my boundary pushing for later when I know what I want. Toni takes down the last dregs from her cup and sets it on the stump beside her.
“We’re low on food and with two more mouths to feed we’ll be out in half the time.” She lays a hand on Cade’s shoulder, and I fight off a visceral desire to slap it away. “You’re a good hunter, aren’t you, darling?”
Cade for once has the decency to blush. “I’m a better fisher,” he admits and points to the tree where he’s left his spear and the rest of our belongings.
“That will work,” she says, then she leans close to Cade’s ear and whispers, “But I’d be happy to teach you if you want.” She’s speaking to Cade but her eyes slide over toward me and even though I know it is all a show to get a rise out of me I glare at her in return.
“Ky can show you which plants are edible and which ones will kill you, or worse give you the runs,” she laughs lowering back down from her tip-toes and tossing a bag in my direction. “Don’t come back without enough for the four of us.”
“I don’t know if that’s a good idea,” says Cade, eyeing Ky with caution. “I’d feel better if I could keep an eye on Lena.”
“Do you need a babysitter, Lena?” asks Toni. There is a challenge in her voice and even though the last thing I want is to send Cade out alone with her I know that I have to find a way to gain her trust, and I can start by not arguing when she issues a command.
“We’ll be fine. Ky knows this area.”
Cade rolls his eyes. It is obvious that he is torn between going with Toni whom he can’t seem to say no to and leaving me with Ky who he doesn’t trust. It occurs to me that the two of us have barely spoken since we crossed paths with that chicken. I don’t know what he is thinking or why he isn’t sharing it with me, but there is no time to coax him into talking because he and Toni are already moving into the trees and out of sight.
“Edible plants?” I smile brightly to keep things light, but the memory of Ky standing over us flashes through my head. I don’t know him anymore, but I want to trust him. I want him to be the answer we’re looking for.
Ky leads me away from camp.
“There are a lot of rough edges on Toni, but she knows things. Things that keep you alive.”
“Not just alive, comfortable,” I reply, thinking of the bottles of lotion and coffee in Cade’s cup.
“That too,” says Ky, and he leans down in front of a patch of brightly colored mushrooms. “You seen these before?”
I pull a pink cap from the damp soil and look at it closely. “Maybe. Hard to say. You know our group doesn’t eat mushrooms. I can eat this?” I ask, imagining the taste of something different on my tongue for the first time in too long.
“Nope,” says Ky, slapping the mushroom out of my hand. “But aren’t you glad I’m here to tell you that?”
I’d love to smack him, but I laugh instead, and it feels so good to laugh that for a minute or two I feel lucky. Like I’m not a plane wreck victim, but a normal woman out for a Sunday hike with friends.
The next time Ky crouches to the ground there are no mushrooms in front of him. In fact there is nothing even remotely resembling food.
“Are you going to try and tell me we can eat dirt now too?”
Ky smirks before grabbing a thick wooden tool from the bag he wears on his back. The tool is made of a branch roughly two inches thick, and half of one side has been shaved down flat so it can be used as a shovel.
“I’m going to show you what’s under the dirt.” He digs into the ground at the base of the tree. It doesn’t take him long to clear enough soil to uncover a patch of dark brown fungi clustered around the roots of the tree. “These we can eat and they aren’t terrible.”
“Not terrible could be our food motto here.”
Ky offers a half smile before plucking the mushrooms from the roots and tossing them in the bag I hold open in front of me. As we work our way through the landscape surrounding camp Ky explains that to find the edible mushrooms you have to think like an animal.
“They give off a scent intended to attract wildlife to dig them up. Some are more pungent than others though. The ones that reek are pretty hard to put down so I recommend avoiding those if you aren’t absolutely starving.”
I try and soak up everything he says. If he and Toni should decide to evict us from camp I’ll at least have something new to offer the group if we don’t find civilization. The longer we talk the more Ky loosens up, and soon he is telling me that the last few years haven’t been so bad.
“Before the crash my worst nightmare would have been this kind of isolation.” He makes a sweeping gesture with his hands. “But, I don’t know. I’m getting good at being a hermit.”
“You don’t miss the group?” I ask, trying to imagine what it would be like to have only Toni for company.
“At first, but I couldn’t handle all that hivemind bullshit. Making thirty-seven people agree on everything. Everything from what’s for dinner to what you can do with your own body?”
“Thirty-two,” I mumble.
He shakes his head.
“There is no compromise with Toni. Sometimes I hate that. Sometimes I admire it.”
It’s none of my business, but it bothers me not knowing so I ask him the question that has been on my mind.
“Are you two...partners?”
Ky throws his head back and laughs. “Partners? That’s not how it is here. She doesn’t belong to me. I don’t belong to her. It’s not love, it’s physical.”