~~~~~~~
‘Subhan Allah,’ Tony uttered as the teenage boy collapsed at his feet. With so many dead bodies already, the last thing they needed was people dying from encounters with native wildlife. Tony dropped to his knees and rolled the boy’s jeans leg up, exposing the bite. There was so much blood and the fang holes were huge. ‘What kind of snake does that?’
‘I don’t know,’ Harley stared at the wound for a few seconds before snapping into doctor-mode. Using the longest strip of material, she tied a knot tight enough cut off the blood flow at the top of the leg in an attempt to keep whatever venom was there localised. She then pulled a strange looking suction device out of her pocket, pressed it to the hole in the boy’s leg and pumped for a several minutes. When she was finished she removed the material from the top of his leg and bound the bite. ‘I live with snakes,’ Harley explained as Tony was looking at her with an odd expression. She held up the suction pump, ‘This is a new toy I was planning on trying out.’
‘I guess you can cross that off your to-do list then,’ Tony joked, helping Harley to her feet. ‘I think someone should sit with him. In case something else decides to take a chunk.’
‘Yeah, you’re right,’ Harley scanned the beach and noticed Celine was still sitting alone in the middle of the beach. Tony watched as Harley went over and explained the situation to the girl who nodded and followed the would-be doctor back. ‘Just give him some water if he wakes up,’ Harley was instructing as the pair came back. As Celine settled down beside the boy, Tony looked out at the ocean. They were already halfway through the afternoon and they still didn’t have a permanent source of water or adequate food to feed all the survivors.

Grabbing all the empty bottles he could find, Tony headed for the trees, having decided that he was going to find a creek or something and maybe some fruit.
‘Hey,’ he walked up to a young woman wandering aimlessly up the beach. ‘I’m going to go and find some food and water; can you give me a hand?’ Amy looked up at the man with a neatly trimmed beard. She shrugged and nodded.
‘Sure, I don’t think I’ve got much else to do,’ she said and followed him into trees.

~~~
Sara raced through the jungle, her long black coat whipping out behind her as she dodged trees, bushes and rocks. She could hear Paul close behind her, she needed to find somewhere to hide and quickly but there was nowhere that offered the right concealment. Suddenly, she burst into a small clearing, complete with a creek and rock pool. Sara paused, thinking where to go next, but the second it took her to decide cost her dearly. Before she’d even made it halfway across the small area to the trees, a bullet whizzed past her head and thudded into a tree just to her right.

Panting, Sara dropped to her knees, her hands raised in surrender, the cuffs still dangling from her left wrist. Paul holstered his gun as he approached Sara, he was practically growling. He grabbed her hands, recuffed them behind her back, making them tighter than was necessary, and pulled her to her feet by the back of her neck, causing Sara to let out a low hiss of pain.

Paul pushed Sara up against the thick truck of the tree he had shot and pinned her there with his body. She could tell she had really pissed him off this time. Sara wasn’t a short person and Paul was easily half a foot taller than her but the way he had her pushed against the tree had them standing almost eye-to-eye.
‘I should shoot you right now, bury your body out here in the jungle, tell the authorities you died in the crash. Nobody would ever know,’ he growled out between gritted teeth.
‘Yeah, you probably should,’ Sara struggled to get out; she was finding it hard to speak with Paul’s arm putting pressure on her airway. ‘But you won’t.’
‘Really? Why not?’ Paul asked, putting more weight on her throat.
‘Why won’t you kill in cold blood? Because that would make you like me, Paulie. You would be a murderer,’ Sara whispered, struggling to free her windpipe but, with her hands pinned behind her back, she could do very little. ‘What would Bill think?’ She had hit nerve there. Paul took a step back and hit Sara across the face, sending her to her knees.
‘Don’t you dare…’ Paul fumed. Sara spat out a mouthful of blood and stood up again.
‘I see you’re still grieving then,’ Sara said, smiling. All Paul wanted to do at that moment was shoot that stupid grin off her face, instead he took a handful of her hair and pulled it down, forcing her to bend backwards.
‘You shot him, you bitch,’ he snarled down at her. Sara’s smile vanished and was replaced by a dangerous look.
‘Prove it,’ she whispered. William Ross had been Paul’s partner until he was shot at one of Sara’s crime scenes. In truth, Sara had been aiming at Paul; Bill had simply got in the way.

‘Uh, we heard gunfire. Is everything okay?’ Paul looked up and saw Tony and Amy standing at the edge of the clearing. He pushed Sara back up and took hold of her arm, leading her back to the beach.
‘Everything’s fine,’ Paul muttered as he passed them. ‘It’s just peachy.’
‘You can’t watch me 24/7,’ Sara told him as they made their way through the trees. Paul thought about that until they reached the beach. She was right; as soon as he was asleep she would probably slit his throat and run.
‘Look, how about we make a deal?’ Paul offered, turning Sara to face him.
‘What kind of deal?’ Sara was suspicious.
‘You will work without cuffs and without constant watch,’ he proposed.
‘And in return for my manual labour, I get?’
‘In return, I will let you escape after we get rescued,’ Paul sighed.
‘Define escape.’
‘After we have been taken back to civilisation, I will let you go.’
‘You have yourself a deal, Agent Harding,’ Sara grinned and turned so he could undo her cuffs. Hesitating slightly, Paul took off the restrains but grabbed Sara’s wrist as she was about to leave and pulled her close.
‘But just remember, if you try anything, /anything/, and you are done. Got it?’
‘Got it,’ Sara snarled. She didn’t like being threatened.
‘Good, now let’s get you a shovel so you can get to work on that grave,’ Paul turned and headed off down the beach toward Harley. After a moment, Sara followed him, stretching her arms, enjoying her newfound freedom.

~~~
‘So, what do you do back home, Amy?’ Tony made conversation as they filled the water bottles at the small creek.
‘Oh, um, nothing really,’ she looked up at Tony, pushing a stray strand of hair away from her face. ‘I just graduated uni and I was planning to travel a little bit. Although, after this I think I’ll be bussing it most of the time. How about you?’
‘I’m a psychologist, I was actually heading home so I could open my own practise,’ he smiled sadly. ‘I guess that’ll have to wait a little bit longer.’
‘A psychologist, huh?’ Amy unconsciously rubbed at the chaos tattoo that sat over her heart. ‘Well, I’m done,’ she announced, standing and walking back into the trees.
‘Yeah, me too,’ Tony stood and gave Amy a curious look. Now that she knew he was a psychologist, she didn’t want to be with him. That was an interesting reaction, was she afraid that she might let something slip that would make him think less of her? Whatever it was, she kept a twenty metre gap between them all the way back to the beach.

~~~
‘Harley!’
‘Yeah?’ Harley looked up from the young girl she was busy patching up.
‘Did you find those picks and shovels?’ It was Paul and a young woman who looked like she could easily pass herself off as the daughter of Death.
‘Yeah, they’re over there,’ she pointed to a green duffel bag that was sitting at the far end of the beach.
‘Alright you,’ Paul turned to Death’s daughter, ‘go and get to work, I’ll be down to check on you soon.’
‘Yes, boss,’ she saluted him sarcastically and headed off down the beach, removing her coat as she went.
‘Who is she?’ Harley asked, watching the woman with apprehension.
‘Sara Black, an assassin for hire. Wanted for the murders of many, suspected of the murders of many more and there’s still some that only she and her clients know about,’ Paul turned and began searching through the plane wreckage for anything useful. Harley followed him.
‘Mi dios, and you’re just letting her walk about?’ she asked incredulously.
‘We have an understanding,’ Paul replied evasively.
‘Oh you have an understanding, do you? And how do you know she won’t just kill us all in our sleep?’ she couldn’t believe that a member of the law was treating a dangerous murderer so flippantly.
‘Look,’ Paul turned to address Harley directly, ‘she doesn’t kill unless she’s going to gain something from it. But she will mess with your head for shits and giggles.’ /Oh, just like dear mother/, Harley thought, /great./

~~~
Celine looked out across the water at the setting sun, a simple silver charm bracelet clutched in her hand. Absently, she rubbed blood off the tiny figure of a horse, Claire had liked horses. The charms glistened in the fading light, like miniature stars in the centre of her palm. ‘Oh, Claire.’

Celine wiped the tears from her eyes, clasped the bracelet around her wrist and busied herself with changing Jacob’s bandage. She hadn’t even been able to find her little sister’s body. What good was she going to do as a crime scene investigator if she couldn’t even find the body at the scene? A little voice piped up at the back of her head suggesting that Claire may still be alive. Celine payed it no heed. If Claire were alive, she would know, she would feel it, but instead she felt empty, hollow.
‘Damn I need a cigarette,’ she exclaimed as she stood up, careful to keep her weight off her injured leg. ‘Stay,’ she told the unconscious Jacob and went in search of a nicotine fix.

~~~
In an attempt to avoid Tony, Amy spent the rest of the daylight hours searching the fragmented plane for food. She knew there had to be some in there because they had all been about to get their in-flight meals when the plane went down.
‘Yes!’ Amy squealed when she found the middle section of the plane where the food was prepared. She laughed at how excited she was to find pressure packed, smashed up, ant infested airline meals. Rubbing her hands she got to work evicting as many of the ants as she could and then dividing what remained evenly into whatever dishes she could find. As darkness consumed the island, Amy announced that dinner was served. Hungry people swarmed her, pushing to get their meals, and Amy happily handed them out, glad to prove that she could be useful.

~~~
Tony volunteered to head down the beach to give Sara her share. He had overheard Paul and Harley’s conversation earlier while passing out water and he had restrained himself all afternoon from going over to talk to her, but he could resist no longer. Whilst doing his doctorate, he had talked to murderers at prisons, but most of them had killed because they enjoyed it or because they felt it had been necessary, he had never before had a conversation with a contract killer and he was fascinated.

He stood at the edge of the hole and waited for Sara to acknowledge him. To her credit, she had managed to dig quite deep into the soft sand, but the soon-to-be grave didn’t have any defined sides like a professionally dug grave would. Sara rammed her shovel into the ground and glared up at Tony.
‘Do you want something?’
‘I brought you something to eat,’ Tony said, holding out his offering.
‘Aww, aren’t you sweet?’ Sara said scathingly, climbing out of the hole. Tony handed her the dish, which contained the last of the plane food that hadn’t been infested by ants, and a bottle of water. Sara sat down and began picking at her food. Tony also sat down and started to eat. ‘So what do you want?’ In the moonlight Tony could see she was looking at him warily.
‘What makes you think I want something?’
‘Everybody wants something,’ Sara replied with a shrug.
‘Okay, how about we just have a chat and we’ll call it even,’ Tony suggested.
‘Are you a shrink or something?’ Sara asked with a laugh, catching Tony’s eye. ‘Holy shit, you are, aren’t you?’
‘I’m a psychologist, yes,’ Tony confirmed.
‘And what makes you think I’m going to talk to you?’
‘Well, nobody else wants to talk to you,’ Tony indicated to the rest of the survivors sitting around fires further down the beach. ‘There’s talk about tying you to a tree somewhere in the jungle and just leaving you here when the rescue boats come. But if you have a little chat to me, I’ll put in a good word for you.’ Tony could see she was thinking about it, in the pale light he saw her jaw clench as she realised she would have to talk with him.
‘Fine.’
‘Good,’ Tony smiled. ‘How about we start with you telling me about your family?’ Sara threw her empty dinner dish aside and lent back, crossing her arms and looking annoyed.
‘There’s nothing to tell,’ she muttered.
‘What do you mean ‘there’s nothing to tell’?’ Tony asked. ‘Are you telling me you weren’t born, you simply came into existence?’
‘No. I just…what do my family have to do with anything anyway?’ Sara asked, seemingly agitated.
‘Why don’t you tell me about your mother?’ Tony changed tack. Sara took a deep breath and ran a hand through her hair before looking back at him with a calm and steady gaze.
‘My mother was an alcoholic and a druggie.’
‘How did that affect your childhood?’
‘How do you think it affected my childhood?’ Sara shot back, her voice slightly raised. ‘I was a wreck! I was failing school because I had to take care of my mum all the time and I didn’t have any friends because I was afraid to bring them home.’ Sara looked away, idly playing with the sand at her feet.
‘What about your father?’ Tony asked quietly. Sara let out a small humourless laugh.
‘My dad was as crooked as they came. He thought my mum and me were his personal little punching bags. He was shot dead robbing a local liquor store.’
‘How old were you?’ Tony asked.
‘Nine. Mum didn’t last much longer after that. Overdosed,’ Sara stopped playing with the sand and looked out to sea.
‘What did you do then?’
‘Wandered the streets for a while until the mob took me in,’ Sara looked back at him, her eyes positively sparkling.
‘The mob?’ Tony asked slowly.
‘Yeah, they taught me the tricks of the trade, you know?’ She raised her hand at his head, as if holding a gun. ‘How to take a gun, aim it at someone’s head, squeeze the trigger ever so slightly and watch as their brains are plastered all over the street behind them,’ Sara said, definate amusement in her voice. Tony realised that he hadn’t been making progress at all. Sara hadn’t been slowly opening up to him, she had been toying with him. She had been the entire time, it was all just a game to her.
‘You just can’t help pushing people away, can you?’ Tony asked angrily, standing up.
‘You can’t have honestly thought I was going to break down and sob out the story of my life because you brought me dinner?’ Sara laughed as she jumped back down into the grave. ‘If you really want to know, my childhood was as normal as they come and my folks are probably still alive and kicking somewhere out there. Now why don’t you go and analyse someone else, Doc?’ Tony turned on his heel and headed back toward the crash-site, Sara’s laughter following him all the way down the beach.

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