Chapter 15

This was hard to stomach.

The survivors had been bickering with each other the whole time they were on the island, and it was understandable that tensions were running high. Scarlet could even share in the anger at seeing Zoe stuff her face with the food they'd worked hard to ration.

But what they wanted to do…

She couldn't let it happen, no matter how awful Zoe was.

"This isn't right," she said. "We can't send a woman out into the jungle to die."

"We can"t trust her, though, Scar," Robin said.

"So we make up… island jail, I don't know," Scarlet huffed. She turned in a slow circle, meeting the eyes of every woman on the beach. "We are getting off this island, sooner or later. And when we do, we're going to have to live with the choices we made here. Are you going to be able to look at yourself in the mirror knowing that when a problem arose, you chose to simply turn your back on a human being rather than find a way to be compassionate and fair?"

She looked around at the faces of the survivors, some familiar and some still strangers. Robin was looking swayed, and a few others too, but she still saw a lot of hard looks in the crowd.

"How are we going to jail her?" Lex asked. "We barely have the means and the energy to feed and shelter ourselves, and now we're supposed to take turns playing prison warden too?"

"Should we vote again?" Lena asked.

Evie shook her head. "We'd just be right back here in a few days, and our food supply can't take the hit if she does this again."

Scarlet looked at Zoe, who had tears in her eyes, but they looked an awful lot like crocodile tears, like she didn't believe they would really kick her out on her ass. She was making it hard to advocate for her.

Robin slipped her hand into Scarlet's, then spoke up. "Maybe there"s a middle ground. What if we give Zoe the choice? She can either stay with us, but work hard like everybody else and follow the rules we set out for her, or she can go back out on her own. When we get rescued, we"ll come find her."

Scarlet nodded. "I think that sounds fair. We'll all keep a close eye on her, make sure she doesn't take more than her share and that she carries her weight. Zoe, what do you think?"

Zoe"s eyes darted around the group, and Scarlet could see the fear and desperation in them. After a long moment, Zoe agreed. "I"ll do it. I"ll contribute. I don"t want to be out there alone again."

Everyone looked to Lex. She threw up her hands. "Fine, whatever. I'm not watching her, though."

The group broke up and Zoe intercepted Scarlet on the way to the shelter. "Hey. Thanks for going to bat for me."

Zoe flashed her a grin and Scarlet felt something harden in her chest.

"We're not friends," she said. "I wasn't fighting for you, I was fighting for our humanity. Don't fuck this up, okay? I don't think I can save you again."

Zoe's face fell and it was the first genuine moment of self-reflection Scarlet had ever seen out of her. Zoe crawled into the shelter and the women already inside gave her a wide berth. Scarlet went over to the fire, plopping down in the sand beside Robin.

She looped her arm around Robin's biceps and rested her head on her shoulder.

"Rough night."

"Yeah."

People slowly trickled into the shelter, getting ready to sleep. After a while, Scarlet asked, "You wouldn't have voted to send her out on her own, would you?"

Robin frowned, her brow furrowing. "She"s been causing problems since the cruise."

Scarlet sat up, surprised. "So she deserves to die?"

"She survived for a week out there on her own," Robin pointed out. "It's not like she has no survival skills at all. But if she's going to sit around being a leech on our resources, she'll condemn us all."

"The needs of the many," Scarlet muttered. "Philosophical thought experiments are so much more fun on paper than when you're living them." She sighed. "I'm going to bed."

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah, I guess," Scarlet said. "Night."

She kissed Robin's cheek, and left her to tend the fire.