A/N

Here's the new "Lost" poster. Hope you enjoy the chapter!

Olivia J. Clarke

{Editing Status: Unedited}

"Woah," Saige says. "How the hell did you do that?"

Ryan picks up the dead fish up and looks at it. "I...I don't know." He hands me back the spear and I take it from him.

"It looks like you've done that before," I say, wiping the blood off the end of the spear on an emerald green plant that is nearest to me.

"Maybe I have," he shrugs. "But I don't remember."

"I don't care about anything else apart from cooking that damn fish," Saige says.

"We need wood for the fire," I sigh.

"No, we don't," Lauren says.

A frown on my face, I look at her. "We can't eat it raw -"

"No. Look," she says, pointing to her left. Further down the river, there is a large pond surrounded by smooth, grey rocks, steam rising from it.

"Lauren," I whisper. "You're a genius."

Her lips lift up into a small smile and her cheeks flush pink, despite her feverish, pale tinge from the pain in her leg.

"Let's go, then," Ryan says. He throws Saige the fish and she squeals as it lands in her hands.

"Urgh!" she groans.

Ryan walks over to Lauren and picks her up in his arms. His muscles tighten as he lifts her. Her pink cheeks darken as he smiles down at her. We set off down the river towards the hot spring, Ryan carrying Lauren, me carrying my spear, and Saige carrying the fish, who is groaning at the slimy texture of it.

"Will the hot spring actually cook the fish?" I ask as we walk.

"Maybe," Ryan says. "We'll have to see." If it does work, I'll have to get him to kill more fish so there's enough for all four of us.

Ryan's strength amazes me. He's not exactly muscular; more lanky than anything. But as he walks, Lauren in his arms, I notice his defined biceps bulging under her weight.

When we arrive at the hot spring, the heat is unbearable. Drops of sweat slide from my hairline, down my forehead, and into my eyes, forcing me to blink. Damn, I hate the heat.

The hot spring itself is beautiful; the water is clear and blue. Saige drops the fish onto one of the rocks and it starts sizzling immediately. Ryan slowly lowers Lauren down to the ground. His t-shirt is drenched with sweat. He pushes his sweaty hair back with his hand and falls to the ground with exhaustion.

"Is it working?" I ask Saige.

"Looks like it," she replies. My heart starts thumping and my mouth starts salivating at the thought of eating the fish's juicy meat. I can almost taste it on my tongue, and my stomach growls noisily. An overwhelming desire to reach out and grab the fish raw overcomes me, and I have to restrain myself.

"Spear, please," Saige tells me, holding out her hand, and I give it to her. She sticks it in the middle of the fish and turns it on its other side so it is cooked evenly. She pulls the spear out and hands it back to me.

"Can you get more?" I ask Ryan.

"What, now?" he asks me, and I nod in reply. He wipes his sweaty face, smearing more dirt on his cheeks, stands up, and takes the spear from me. Gripping it tightly in his hand, he sets off in the direction we came; down the river.

"Ohhh," I let out a soft moan as my teeth sink into the tender, juicy meat. A burst of energy suddenly flows through my veins.

Ryan glances at me and grins. "Is it good?" He is standing by the rocks, cooking more fish.

I give an enthusiastic nod before taking another bite. Lauren is slicing through the fish, scooping out its intestines, liver, and other internal organs before handing the fish to Ryan to cook. We made that mistake with the first fish: take out its organs out before cooking it. Lauren seems content with her job, seeing as she hasn't been able to do much because of her leg.

The horrid smell of the fish insides is overpowered by the rich, savory smell of the fish cooking on the rocks. With a full stomach, I feel happier and energized. The thoughts of that horrific monster are pushed to the back of my mind, and all I can think about is that we have enough fish to last us for weeks - perhaps months - and because this happiness is temporary, I cling on to it with every inch of me; I refuse to let it go.

If I let it go, my mind will be haunted by those chilling images of the monster, and although I need to keep reminding myself that we're not alone on this island, I want to forget about that.

At least for now.

"You guys ready to go?" Saige asks, wiping her greasy hands on her shorts.

I nod and stand up, still gripping my spear tightly. I somehow feel a lot safer with it in my hand. Ryan helps Lauren up, and I notice she can put a small amount of weight on it now, and her face doesn't screw up in agony with every step she takes.

"Do you want me to carry you?" he asks her, but she shakes her head.

"I'll be fine," she says, smiling at him reassuringly.

We walk in the opposite direction to where we came from. I hope that there are more hot springs around so we have somewhere to cook our fish, instead of spending hours collecting wood - and if that's if there is any.

Walking is much easier, now that I have energy from the fish we had just eaten. Even though the humidity presses down on me with every step, I now have the motivation and energy to keep going.

As we walk deeper into the jungle, I notice the canopy above us gets thicker and thicker, until little sunlight streams through at all. The darkness draws closer to me and presses down, suffocating me slowly as I step over red and orange bromeliads and crawl through curling lianas. Because of the minimal light, I have to squint, and despite my recent spur of happiness, there is a path of gloom and uncertainty ahead; so vivid, it's almost tangible.

Suddenly, a sharp clicking fills the air. I stop in my tracks and look behind me at the rest of them.

"What the hell was that?" Saige hisses. I can hear a raucous sound of branches cracking in the distance. My heart starts hammering against my ribs.

Another monster? Please. Please, no. No no no no.

"Is that another one of them things?" Lauren whispers, bringing my thoughts to life.

More clicking travels through the air. "Maybe it's something else," Ryan says, hopefully. "An animal."

"What kind of animal clicks like that?" I mutter, more to myself, but I end up speaking it louder than I intended to.

"Quick, behind here," Ryan hisses. I look at him, and he's already on his way to a large thorny bush, Lauren hobbling by his side. Saige and I follow them and we huddle next to each other behind the bush.

I try and keep my deafening and pounding heart under control, but it's impossible. It thuds in my ears, and my pulse jumps around in my neck.

Lauren lets out a shriek and Ryan covers her mouth with his hand. She grips his hand with her fingers, her shriek muffled. I cover my own mouth with my hands, not trusting myself to not scream like Lauren. A monster, with exactly the same physique as the previous one, crawls past the bush, clicking madly; its form of communication? Its tail slides through the soil, flicking menacingly. Up close, I can see its skin better; its scaly, green, and a strange sticky, slimy substance covers it. Some of this substance slides down it's body and onto the ground, burning the soil where each drop lands. Its black eyes - like an abyss - swivel around in its eye sockets, frantically trying to locate the source of the scream. Cloudy blue cataracts cover part of its eyes.

A tiny wave of hope flows through me; maybe it is blind. Please, please be blind, I pray silently.

Saliva slides over its yellow and rotting teeth, pieces of bloody meat stuck in between its pointed canines. My stomach lurches and I gag under my hand. The claws protruding from its gigantic feet dig into the soil, digging up plants and roots as it crawls, slowly; its movements are sluggish, probably because of its swollen belly; either newly fed or pregnant. The mere thought of this sends a lurch through my gut.

Tears build up in my eyes, but I don't dare close them for even a second, even if the burning and stinging are unbearable. I feel Saige's fingers curl through mine; her hand is sweaty and hot, but I cling on to it with desperation. Her fingers are trembling uncontrollably.

The monster stops and looks around, it's nostrils quivering.

Oh my God, please don't let it smell us, I pray silently.

It's violent clicking intensifies and a growl ripples through its grotesque body.

"Run," I whisper. "Now."

We lurch out of the bush. Ryan grabs Lauren and swings her up in his arms. A burst of adrenaline pushes my legs out in front of me as we run; Saige follows closely behind me. I look behind me as I sprint. The monster's crawl is now a gallop; its sluggish movements fooled me.

"Run!" I scream desperately. Ryan, exhausted from the extra weight of Lauren, is gasping for air beside me, stumbling over rocks and twigs. I see a cliff ahead, but I pray that it is a hallucination.

But it's not. "Oh, shit!" I yell as we come to a sliding stop on the side of the cliff. It isn't incredibly high, but still high enough to cause a horrible death if you fell or jumped off it. There are more trees at the bottom with a river curling through them like a white snake.

"What do we do?!" Saige screams from behind me.

Before I can answer, I hear a female cry and a harsh growl from the monster in reply. I spin around. A dark-skinned teenager with short caramel hair, dressed in all black, jumps on the monster's back, a spear like mine in her hand. The monster flicks it's tail and wraps it around the girl's waist. It pulls her into the air and she flails her arms, trying to pierce the monster's slimy hide. The monster's tail flings her back and forth until the spear drops from her hand and clatters to the ground. She screams with anger. I watch, paralysed, my feet glued to the ground.

She kicks out, trying to escape from the monster's tail, but it doesn't let go.

"We need to help her!" I shout.

"How?" Saige asks in reply, her eyes frozen on the scene in front of us.

Not knowing where my courage is coming from, I sprint over to the monster and the girl, spear in my hand. What the hell am I doing? I'm absolutely insane.

"Jade!" Ryan shouts from behind me.

Seeing as the monster is blind, I use this to my advantage and creep around the side of its body. I notice her spear on the ground; it's a lot sharper than mine, so I pick it up and drop mine on the ground.

"Stab it!" the girl shouts from above me. The monster's tail is flinging her around, back and forth. When I hesitate, the girl shouts again, "Stab it! Now!"

Gripping the spear tightly in my two hands, I raise it above my head and shove it, deep, into the monster's body. The violent squeal that it makes sends shivers up my spine. I jump backward, desperately trying to get away from it as it squirms and shudders. A strange, mustard-colored substance pours from the wound where I shoved the spear. It sizzles as it forms a pool around the monster. Its clicking becomes slower and less harsh, and its shuddering comes to a stop.

The girl, during the monster's collapse, is lying on the ground, her body still. As I run over to her, I see her chest rising, and I breathe out a sigh of relief. Saige, Ryan, and Lauren walk over to the monster, slowly and hesitantly, all eyeing the dead beast nervously.

"Well done, Jade," Ryan says, quietly.

I fall to my knees beside the girl, my heart hammering in my chest, my breathing rapid, and my hands shaking uncontrollably.

I killed one of them.

I seriously just killed one of them.

The trees above me start to float as my head whirls, and I succumb to my fatigue. It pulls me under, and I fall into a gaping, black abyss.

A/N

So, action scenes aren't really my strong point usually, but I feel like I did an alright job of this. I'm really sorry it's not been that exciting so far, but I wanted there to be a steady build for this book, instead of just throwing the readers into the action straight away. I'm sorry if you like that sort of book, but I believe in easing the reader in slowly.

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Olivia J Clarke

{GIF: Jade Dawson - Shailene Woodley}

{Song: The Leap - Tinashe}

© Olivia Clarke 2016

Lost {Book 1 - The Quarantine Series}