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benjaminobrien493 · 4 days ago

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No Ordinary Boy- Chapter Three

By the third morning, nobody was laughing anymore. Natalie and Tommy had helped the others dig the graves the previous day, and they had spent this morning carrying the bodies from the airplane to what hopefully wouldn’t be their final resting place. To everyone’s surprise, Travis had again refused to let Tommy help carry his father’s body.

Natalie had asked Tommy if he’d had any grudge with Coach Martinez’s son, but Tommy had been just as stumped as she was.

As they finished filling the holes in, the two of them stepped back into the circle with the others.

Van cleared her throat. “Before we took off, I heard Rachel say that she was going to see Oasis at the Meadowlands next month.”

Natalie looked down at Rachel Goldman’s grave, and inched a little closer to Tommy. Now was hardly the time to be breaking down, but Rachel had only been seventeen years old. Frankly, Natalie didn’t understand why more of them didn’t seem upset.

“She was really excited”, Van sent on. “And she’s never gonna hear ‘Wonderwall’ again.”

Oh, Jesus. Natalie choked back her tears.

“Come on”, Laura Lee spoke up. “Let’s join hands. We’ll pray for them.”

As Laura Lee began to lead them in prayer, Tommy took Natalie’s hand, and she felt him give it a comforting squeeze.

She looked up at him, and squeezed back. It was terrible to think, so she had no intention of saying it out loud, but she was glad he was with them.

She might have lost it by now if he wasn’t.

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After the funeral, they decided the gather all the food they had together to see how much was left.

The answer was… not much. Not much at all.

“This is all we have?” Shauna asked, incredulously, looking down at the pitifully small pile of food they were sitting around.

“Yeah, we gotta ration”, Van replied, handing Shauna her Swiss Army knife. “Okay, so… cut them”, she instructed, pointing towards a box of chocolate biscuits.

“Split this water.” Van handed a bottle to Akilah.

Goddammit, Tommy thought, looking around the forest. This place was so similar to the woods he had grown up trekking through, he could almost pretend he was on one of his family’s many hunting trips.

I need a rifle. If I had a rifle, and just a few bullets, I could bring us all some REAL food.

Instead, they were in a forest probably filled with animals, and Tommy had no weapon to hunt them with.

Up shit creek, without a paddle.

“Dude!” Van called out.

Tommy looked back just in time to see Travis entering the circle, grabbing a handful of biscuits and walking straight out the other side.

“Travis, what are you doing?!” Tommy yelled at him.

“Maybe you didn’t notice, but we’re kind of in a situation here, Flex”, Lottie said.

“Don’t”, Natalie said to Lottie, as Travis turned around, glaring at the group, before heading away.

“Who died and made him king of snacks?” Lottie asked.

“His dad, Lottie. Literally his fucking dad”, Natalie snapped back.

Tommy winced. He was sorry about Coach Martinez, but after three days of sulking, not helping them clean up the crash site, and not even attempting to help them gather firewood, Travis was starting to get on Tommy's nerves. Even Javi had helped them dig the graves yesterday, but Travis had gone off God knows where, and hadn't reappeared until they were done.

Travis is gonna get a smack if he’s not careful, Tommy thought.

Jackie backed Natalie up. “Nat’s right. We should cut him some slack.”

“I guess it’s fine if we all starve to death, as long as Travis’s feelings are okay”, Mari sarcastically quipped.

“We’re not gonna starve to death. Okay?” Jackie tried to smile convincingly, but Tommy saw right through it.

“When the rescue team gets here-”

“If it gets here”, Van interrupted.

“Don’t say that”, Jackie glared at the redhead.

“I mean”, Shauna said, after a pause, “it has been three days.”

“They’re coming”, Jackie reassured them. “They’re coming.”

When? Tommy wanted to ask, but he held his tongue.

He knew they had to remain hopeful, but inside he was starting to get worried. Where the hell was the rescue team?

They had to be somewhere in the Canadian wilderness, but surely the pilots would have transmitted their location before the crash.

Surely…

Then as Tommy swallowed the last of his pitifully small amount of water, Taissa came running up to them.

“Guys”, she called out breathlessly. “Guys, there’s a lake! There’s a lake, I saw it from that hill.”

She pointed away from them. “It looks about four or five miles away.”

“Do you think we could hike it?” Shauna asked.

“It’s pretty rocky, but yeah.”

“All right, then”, Tommy smiled at Taissa. “Lead the way-”

“Uh”, Jackie interjected. “We can’t… we can’t just leave.”

There was a shocked silence at her words.

“We’ve got two days of water, tops”, Taissa spoke calmly, but Tommy could see the fire in her eyes as she gazed at Jackie.

“And then what?” Taissa continued. “Just… sit around and die?”

“What if the rescue team comes?”

“Do you think they’re taking their time on purpose?” Taissa asked, her voice getting higher. “If they knew where we were, they would be here already.”

“You don’t know that”, Jackie said scornfully.

“Taissa is right”, Tommy said. Ignoring the shocked looks around him, he elaborated.

“Human beings can survive without food for a few weeks, maybe even a month, but water? Forget it. If we don’t go to the lake... we’ll all be dead within the next few days.”

An uncomfortable silence descended at his words.

“How do you know that?” Natalie asked him.

Tommy shrugged. “My dad taught me.”

“Tommy’s right”, Misty said. “Without water, we don’t stand a chance.”

“What do you think, Coach?” Laura Lee asked Ben.

Tommy looked at his brother, who still seemed to be slipping in and out of consciousness.

“I don’t… I don’t know.”

Yes, you do, Tommy wanted to scream at him. Other than Tommy, of course, out of all the people in the camp, Ben was the most knowledgeable when it came to surviving in the wild.

“Uh, I mean…” Ben croaked out. “You’d have to leave me behind, I guess, but whatever.”

Misty was already shaking her head, and Tommy agreed with her.

“We’re not leaving you behind”, he scolded Ben. “We can build you a stretcher-”

“Oh, okay”, Jackie laughed at him.

Tommy fancied himself a pretty reasonable guy, but Jackie was starting to make his blood boil.

“It’s not hard to build a stretcher, Jackie", he said, through gritted teeth.

“Yeah”, Taissa said. “And if we all take turns carrying it-”

“No!” Jackie suddenly shouted. “This- this is bullshit. I say no, okay? No way.”

“Well, I say yes. Yes way", Tommy snapped, as he heard Natalie stand up beside him.

“I say yes, too.”

“You would,” Jackie said scornfully.

“Excuse me?!” Tommy rounded on Jackie just as Natalie put a comforting hand on his arm.

Tommy turned to her, and saw the warning in his girlfriend’s eyes.

He started to breathe a bit more easily. Natalie calming ME down. That’s a first.

“Let’s put it to a vote”, Taissa suggested. “All in favour of waiting here?”

Tommy looked around. Jackie raised her hand, of course, but precious few others did, and Tommy grinned as he realised what was coming next.

“All in favour of the lake?”

Tommy’s hand shot straight up, and an overwhelming majority of hands followed it.

“Then it’s settled”, Taissa smiled. “Grab your shit.”

With a generous amount of help from Misty, Tommy quickly instructed the others how to put a stretcher together, and they rolled Ben on to it.

“Travis!” Tommy called out. “We need somebody strong. Can you give us a hand?”

Travis glowered at him, but quietly picked up the front of the stretcher, while Tommy picked up the back.

To Tommy’s surprise, Misty insisted on helping them.

“Misty, it’s alright, you don’t have to-”

“It’s okay, Tommy. I want to help”, Misty beamed at him.

“Uh… okay, then.”

As Van led the way, using a compass she’d hacked off from the plane's cockpit, Tommy couldn’t help but feel that maybe, just maybe, things were starting to turn around.

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“What’s that smell?” Natalie heard Lottie ask her.

“I don’t know.”

“It’s rotting flesh”, Tommy called out from behind them both. “There must be an animal carcass nearby.”

Sure enough, they soon spied a dead black bear, being feasted on by…

“Is that a vulture?” Natalie asked Tommy.

“Yeah. Probably a turkey vulture, they’re the only vultures native to Canada.”

“And you know that how?” Jackie asked Tommy.

“Ben and I go hunting with our dad all the time.”

“And he’s always telling us to ‘study the prey’”, Coach Scott grinned, before hissing in pain and laying back down.

“Woah. Sick”, Travis said, as he saw the eviscerated bear.

“What could’ve done that?” Shauna asked the Scotts.

“Pack of wolves, probably”, Tommy replied, so casually it took a second for Natalie’s brain to register what he'd said.

“Wolves? They can kill a fucking bear?”

“Yeah”, Coach Scott grunted. “Wolves can kill anything if the pack’s big enough.”

Jesus.

“Let’s keep moving”, Natalie said, and the group trudged on. An hour passed, then another one.

“This shit is way longer than four miles”, Natalie grumbled. “What if we missed it?”

“From the angle of the sun, it looked just left of due north”, Taissa said.

“Oh, great. ‘Left’. That’s a precise way of doing it”, Jackie whinged, as Natalie rolled her eyes.

“I’m not a fucking cartographer”, Taissa retorted.

“Or maybe you saw a mirage.”

A mirage? Does this look like the desert to you-

“Oh, shit!” Van called out, interrupting Natalie’s thoughts. “Oh, hell yeah, bitches!”

Natalie saw what Van was looking at, and grinned like a Cheshire cat.

The lake. Oh, thank God, she thought, as she ran at full pace towards the water.

Van quickly stripped to her underwear and dove in, and Natalie followed suit by taking her shirt off, leaving her in her brand-new, dark-red bra. Red was Tommy’s favourite colour, so she’d intended to surprise him with it at Nationals-

Natalie jerked her head back. Where was Tommy?

Then she saw him bringing up the rear, carrying his brother’s stretcher, and even from a distance, she could see him smile at her.

“Guys, come in! It feels fucking great”, Van called out.

Natalie quickly took her trousers off, and began to wade in. It was cold, but after three straight days without a shower, it felt fantastic.

She saw Mari and Jackie staring at Travis, who had taken his shirt off and was swimming through the water.

“Is Travis actually… hot?” Mari giggled.

“It’s been three days. You can’t be that desperate”, Jackie scoffed.

Natalie looked at Travis. Not bad, but he wasn’t much compared to-

Splash! Natalie’s head jerked around to see Tommy, wearing nothing but his underwear, charging through the water straight towards her, still smiling. Natalie grinned back, then shrieked with delight as Tommy swept her up in his arms and under the water as he dunked them both. She gasped as the cold rushed over her.

“You asshole!” Natalie said as they resurfaced, but she was laughing as her arms wrapped around her boyfriend's neck.

“You know you love it”, Tommy smiled, then kissed her gently as they lay in the water together.

“I see you’re wearing my favourite colour”, he noted, as their lips pulled apart, though he kept his arms around her.

“I wanted to surprise you”, Natalie said shyly, winding her legs around him.

“Well then, Miss Scatorccio… mission accomplished”, Tommy whispered, as he cupped her chin with one hand and kissed her again.

“Could you guys get a room?” Natalie heard Jackie say behind them. But all Tommy did was lean further into Natalie, deepening their kiss, and she responded with everything she had, wishing they could stay like this forever, and dreading the moment when she would have to pull away.

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“Got you, Shipman!” Tommy heard Natalie say above him, as Shauna went crashing down into the water off Van’s shoulders.

“You lose, Palmer”, Tommy grinned at Van as he bent down to let Natalie off.

“Fuck you, Tom!” Van flipped him off with both hands, but she was laughing, despite losing their game of Chicken.

“Guys!” Lottie’s voice rang out over the lake. “Look!”

She pointed, and Tommy saw it. At the hill next to them, there was… something… reflecting off it.

“Guys, there’s something on the hill!” Van called out. “Come on, let’s go!”

Everybody scrambled out of the water, and began to dress. Tommy quickly pulled his clothes on, grimacing at wearing wet underwear beneath them, then headed over to Ben.

“You good?” Ben asked him. “I know you’re tired-”

“I’m fine”, Tommy replied, as Travis joined them.

“We good to go?” He asked Tommy.

“Yeah”, Tommy nodded, and Travis nodded back. Tommy didn’t think there was any love lost between them, but Travis at least seemed to understand the value of working together to carry the stretcher.

Tommy’s arms were burning as they carried Ben up the track. Just a little bit further… just a bit more…

Then he saw it, and he couldn’t believe what he was looking at.

A cabin? Are we... did we find PEOPLE?

Then Tommy’s hopes sank as he saw the cobwebs hanging all over the place, and he knew.

Nobody’s been here in years.

Setting Ben down on the cabin porch, Tommy and Travis walked inside, just as Van produced what looked like a stack of magazines, and set them down on a table with a loud crash.

“Well, hello!” The redhead grinned. “Don’t worry, guys. We might be stuck in the middle of nowhere, but hey.” Her grin widened. “At least there’s porn.”

“You’re kidding”, Tommy laughed, as the group gathered around the table.

“Hey, this guy kind of looks like you, Flex”, Mari said, lightly teasing Travis.

“If only any of you actually looked like her”, Travis said, looking at a girl in another magazine.

“Okay, yeah. Very funny”, Van snarked.

“Do guys like, actually jerk off to this stuff?” Akilah asked Travis.

Travis’s eyes flicked towards Tommy. “Nah, we- we hate that shit. You know, you can’t even tell what her favourite book is.”

“What?” Tommy snorted with laughter, then stopped as he saw Natalie looking at him, realising she was waiting for an answer.

He cleared his throat. “I haven’t looked at magazines like that since I started dating Natalie.”

“Good boy”, Natalie smirked, kissing him on the cheek.

“Before, though-”

Natalie smacked his arm. “Not funny”, she growled, as the other girls laughed, while Travis walked back outside.

“Seriously, though, what do you think of her?” Van produced a photo of a naked woman lying on a four-poster bed to Tommy.

“Okay, we’re done here,” Tommy said. “I’m gonna go check on Ben.”

“Chickenshit!” Van called out as Tommy headed out the door, Natalie following behind him.

But once they got outside, Tommy saw something that made the blood rush to his ears; Travis had Javi in a headlock, as the younger boy squirmed in his grip, his face turning red.

“HEY!” Tommy bellowed, sprinting full pace towards the boys. “GET OFF HIM!”

Travis saw him coming, and let Javi go, turning to face Tommy, but the bigger boy was already on him. Tommy hit Travis in a full-force tackle, driving him into the ground.

Travis gasped on the forest floor, clearly winded as he clutched his stomach.

“You alright?” Tommy asked Javi.

“Yeah, I’m fine”, the young boy gasped, clutching at his throat, as Travis slowly rose to his feet. He looked like he wanted to retaliate, but as Tommy glared at him, he seemed to think better of it, and walked away.

Tommy walked Javi into the cabin, passing by Natalie.

“You alright?”

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“Y-yeah”, Natalie stammered out. She wasn’t, though, and she knew she wasn’t doing a good job of hiding it.

“Just a bit shaken.”

“Hey”, Tommy took her hands in his. “What is it? Did I-”

Then she saw his face drop. “Did I scare you?”

“No!” Natalie blurted out. “No, you didn’t scare me.”

He’d surprised her, though. In four years of attending school together, she’d never known Tommy could move that fast, and there was no denying that, despite his lean build, he’d slammed Travis into the dirt like he was nothing.

“I'm just… surprised, that's all”, she whispered, as Mari came out.

“What happened?”

“Uh… Travis was being a dick, but I took care of it”, Tommy said.

“Oh”, Mari replied, just as they heard a loud crash on the other side of the cabin.

“FUUUUCCKK! GOD!”

“Ben?” Tommy called out, as they hurried towards the sound.

“FUCK, FUCK, FUUUUUCK!”

Then as they drew closer, they saw what had happened. Coach Scott had fallen onto the ground, and looked for all the world like he wanted to sink into it.

“Why?! Goddamn it. Fuck you”, he cursed, as Natalie realised he was crying.

Oh, Coach.

“FUCK YOU! FUCK YOU, FUCK YOU!” he screamed, as Natalie saw he was talking to the stump of his leg.

“Goddammit! What the fuck do you want?!” Coach Scott bellowed, as he realised the group was gathering around him.

Misty bent down to him. “Hey, it’s okay, it’s-”

“What the- get the fuck away from me, Misty!” The older man lashed out, and a gasp went around the group as he struck Misty across the face.

Misty fell down onto the cabin porch, but to everyone’s surprise, Misty slowly got back up, and drew the Coach into her arms, making low shushing noises.

“It’s alright. It’s alright”, Natalie heard Misty whisper as she cradled him.

“I can’t just…”, Coach Scott sniffled. “I can’t just be like this now.”

He paused. “Why couldn’t I have died?”

“Don’t SAY that!” Tommy suddenly yelled, making Natalie jump, but as she turned to her boyfriend, she was shocked to see the tears in his eyes as he looked at his brother.

Natalie instantly felt awful. His brother. Coach Scott might just be 'Coach Scott' to her and the rest of the team, but to Tommy, he was his big brother, who he’d known all his life. It must have been killing him to see Coach Scott like this.

Jesus. There I go again, calling my boyfriend’s brother 'Coach Scott'. How bad of a girlfriend am I?

Natalie took Tommy’s hand and led him into the cabin. They managed to find a small space, away from the others’ view.

Natalie looked into Tommy’s eyes, which were still full of unshed tears.

“Natalie, what-”

“Ssshhh”, she whispered, as she placed a finger to his lips. “It’s okay. Let it out.”

Tommy hesitated, then pressed his head into her shoulder, and she held him there as he began to cry.

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As the day progressed, the group made themselves busy cleaning the place up. There were a lot of cobwebs to dust off… and quite a few spiders in said cobwebs, though Tommy made short work of them.

“Oh, my God!” Shauna jumped as Tommy squashed yet another arachnid with a book he had found on a nearby shelf.

“Would you prefer they crawled across your face in the middle of the night?” Tommy asked.

Shauna didn’t push the subject, and before long the room was… well, not spotless, exactly, but definitely in a lot better condition than when they'd found it.

“Has anybody looked in the attic yet?” Tommy asked the group.

Everybody shook their heads.

“Alright, I’ll go check it out.”

“I’ll come with you”, Natalie offered.

“Me too”, Taissa added.

The three of them came to a room with a stepladder, with shelves all around them.

There was a lantern on one of the shelves, which Tommy picked up.

“Nat, do you have your-”

“Yeah”, Natalie answered, producing her lighter and flicking it on. Once the lantern was lit, Tommy carried it up the ladder, the girls following behind him.

Tommy stepped into the attic, and was disappointed to see… Well, nothing really, just a bunch of old sacks. He swung the lantern around the room. Nope, just more sacks.

“You guys see anything-”

Then Tommy stopped talking as he saw what was in the corner. Or rather, who was in the corner.

“Oh, God!” Natalie gasped, as Taissa clapped a hand to her mouth.

Illuminated by the lantern was a human skeleton, sitting in a chair- and judging by the cobwebs, it had been sitting there for a long, long time.

Jesus, Tommy thought. Guess now we know what happened to the owner.

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