Chapter 14

Robin watched intently as Evie sketched in the sand. She'd been working with the limited resources she had to come up with her best guess about which island they were on, and where their most likely source of rescue would come from. Now, she was drawing it out for the rest of them.

"Even if I'm wrong and we're not on the island I think we're on, there are only so many of them," she was trying to reassure people.

127 of them, Robin thought to herself.

"They are looking for us, and someone will find us eventually," Evie said.

It'd been a week and a half, and despite the island's best attempts to destroy their spirit, the survivors were finding a new sort of normal here. They foraged for food, collected fresh water, and maintained the camp. The rice was long gone and the canned goods were dwindling too, but they had enough for now. Robin and Scarlet went back to the pond and tried to fish twice more, without luck, and Darcy was determinedly fiddling with the radio whenever she didn't have something else to do.

Zoe, on the other hand, hadn't exactly been living up to her promise to win people over.

Her very first morning with the group set the tone. She crawled out of the shelter half an hour after everyone else had already gotten to work on their daily tasks, and asked to be fed. The resentment growing toward her was palpable.

Now, when everyone broke up from Evie's presentation and started working on other things, Zoe was lying on the beach like she had not a care in the world and nothing better to do than work on her tan.

Lex could be relied on to never hold her tongue about Zoe. "Look at her, acting like she's on vacation while the rest of us work our asses off."

"Just try to ignore her," Robin advised. She thought Lex might actually do that, but then she spun on her heels and walked out to the beach.

She kicked sand onto Zoe's thighs.

"Hey!"

"You think you"re too good to help out?" Lex asked.

"No–"

"Did somebody tell you that you didn't have to pull your weight?"

"I just–"

"Would it literally kill you to haul some firewood?" Lex continued. "Because I think that's a sacrifice worth making, personally."

Zoe burst into tears. "Why do you hate me? I'm just trying to survive out here like everybody else. I was up all night tending the signal fire and I take two seconds to myself–"

Lex stormed off. "I can't listen to this crap."

Zoe lay back down, brushing the sand off her legs and drying her eyes.

Robin was shaking her head at the whole thing when Scarlet came up to her. "What was all that?"

"Lex might actually kill Zoe."

"Come on," Scarlet said, handing Robin one of their spears. "I'm feeling lucky."

They went back out to the pond. Despite the exercise in frustration that spear fishing turned out to be, it was Robin's favorite part of the island. Just the two of them, a beautiful view, some peace and quiet… and who said they had to fish the whole time they were here?

Today, though, Scarlet was single-mindedly determined to catch some fish.

They waded into the water and stood at attention, spears raised for the perfect opportunity. Robin studied the tension across Scarlet's shoulders and the frown creasing her brow. She launched her spear into the water a couple times and came up empty, and on the third throw, she kicked at the water. "Damn it!"

"Hey." Robin laid down her spear and waded over to her. "You okay?"

Scarlet let out a long sigh. "I'm just frustrated."

"About the Zoe situation?"

"About… all of it." She looked sheepishly at Robin. "You know what's the most frustrating?"

"What?"

"It's really dumb."

"I won't judge."

Scarlet sighed again. "I can't stop thinking about the Begonias. We were finally starting to pick up momentum, and now…" She gave a humorless laugh. "It's so not even worth thinking about when we're trying not to die. I feel stupid for even bringing it up."

Robin pulled Scarlet into a comforting hug. "It"s not stupid to worry over your dreams."

"It's just… what if we"re stuck here for months, or even years? Me and the other girls, we worked so hard to get where we are, and we've all made sacrifices. It feels like it's slipping away. The world's gonna forget about us."

"Are you kidding me? Everybody on the planet is gonna want to hear the album of the band that got shipwrecked on a deserted island."

Scarlet laughed, this one sounding more natural.

"Seriously, though," Robin continued. "The Begonias are unforgettable. Your music, your passion, it"s not something that can be erased by a setback like this. When we get off this island, and we will, you"ll pick up right where you left off. The world will be waiting for you."

Scarlet buried her face in Robin"s neck, her tears dampening Robin"s skin. "You really think so?"

"I know so," Robin assured her, running her fingers through Scarlet"s hair. "You"re too talented, too driven to let this stop you. The Scarlet Begonias will survive this."

They caught no fish that afternoon, but when they got back to camp, things had settled down. Zoe had been put to work reinforcing the roof for the new shelter, and Lex was staying clear of her on the other side of the camp. They had a peaceful dinner and Scarlet suggested the Begonias do a set to entertain everyone.

But when people started to turn in, it seemed Zoe was not quite done making enemies.

Robin was talking to Lena, working out a plan to take the second fire watch of the night, when she heard Jess snap, "What do you think you're doing?"

Dread pooled in Robin's belly. It was always something.

She jogged over to the source of the commotion, and knew it was bad when she realized it was the communal food stores. Everything they'd been able to scavenge from the wreckage, as well as everything they'd foraged from the island and all their drinking water was there, and Zoe was standing in the middle of it with a half-eaten chocolate bar in her mouth.

"Can you believe this?" Jess appealed to the group. "I caught her red-handed stealing from our supplies!"

"Excuse me, but this is my chocolate bar," Zoe said. "It came from my ship."

"Which is at the bottom of the ocean," Raven pointed out. "This stuff has to last us for however long it takes to get rescued, and we were saving the chocolate for emergencies."

"Yeah, well, I had a chocolate emergency."

She wasn't doing a damn thing to try to endear herself to the group.

Jess tried to snatch the chocolate out of her hand, and Zoe slapped it away. "Get away from me! I'm weak with hunger, I need this!"

"We're all hungry!" Scarlet shouted, exasperated. "Come on, Zoe, you said you'd be better."

"That's it," Lex stormed into the center of the group. "I can't take this bitch one more second. It was one thing when she was just sitting around on her ass. If she's going to start stealing from us too, she has to go."

"Wait." Zoe's eyes went wide as she looked around the group and saw a bunch of hardened expressions staring back at her. Suddenly realizing that her actions had consequences, she started to plead. "I'm sorry. I won't do it again. I'm just not cut out for this Survivor bullshit."

"This isn't a game," Lex seethed. "It's life or death, and I want to live!"

Murmurs of agreement rippled through the survivors, their faces hardening with resolve. Robin glanced at Scarlet, who stood beside her, her expression torn between anger and pity. This time, she didn't say a word for or against Zoe.

"I will do better," Zoe said, gaze darting from face to face, trying to find a sympathetic one. "I just haven't been feeling myself lately, and I messed up. I'm sorry."

But it wasn't enough. She'd only won the vote to join the group by a narrow margin, and the anger from the way she handled her ship was all too fresh. Maybe if she'd spent the last few days trying to win people over instead of antagonizing them, she'd have a friend or two right now.

Evie stepped forward. "I"m sorry, Zoe, but we can"t risk our own survival for your sake. We"ve given you several chances over the last few days, but the only thing you've proven is that you"re a threat to this group."

She looked around, and a few more people added their voices in agreement.

"She's been nothing but a drain on our resources and morale since she got here," Raven said.

"Everyone needs to pull their weight if we're going to survive," Robin said.

Scarlet was the only dissenting voice. "I understand where you're all coming from, but we have to stick together."

"Sticking together doesn"t mean letting this selfish asshole take advantage of us," Lex said.

"Where's your humanity?" Scarlet asked.

"Where's hers?" Lex countered.