Damian blinked at him. “What… your heart beats, you’re breathing? Bleeding? Hurting? Take your pick.”
“It could all be an illusion. We think we are alive, but we are dead.”
“Gabe…” His face falling at the raw fear in Gabe’s eyes.What the fuck…“Hey… calm down. You had too much sun, not enough water. Pinch your arm, or something… I mean, if you’re dead, why are we here, together?”
“We died together?”
“And the others? Mhm? I seem to remember we buried some of them, rotting.”
Gabe breathed harder, his eyes on that dark jungle, the whispering trees. Shuddering. “Maybe… you might be right. Stupid of me…” He laughed, shaky, barely a whisper in his throat, and Damian almost wavered, that insane flickering thought in him that he might be right.What is life? An illusion, maybe…. Forms shimmering on that sandy shore.
He got up and walked to Gabe, pulling him up. “Come… let’s lie down… we have another hard day tomorrow.” Watching those rabbit eyes filled with tears. “Hey…”Fuck.He pulled him into a hug, barely there, clumsy, but Gabe melted into his embrace, not leaving him any choice but to hold him tighter, their hearts beating in that night filled with bug songs. Almost too much for Damian, long-lost feelings bubbling to the surface, so he pushed him away, a bit reluctant to lose that warmth. “Let’s go… come… you’ll feel better in the morning.”
Gabe followed him into the hut, lying down on their sides. Soon, Damian’s well-known breathing filling that small space. He watched him, longing for that embrace, maybe more…Insane…Hugging himself to find some sleep.
Chapter 5
Nextday,theysatin under the tarp, drawing some plans in the sand. A house in the trees, to be away from the bugs. Lots of bamboo needed, and palm leaves.
“But we can’t deplete everything around us.” Gabe looked up. “The trees above us are fine, they will hold a structure.”
“We’d need to climb.”
“I’ll climb… your arm doesn’t work.”
“True…” He had almost forgotten that ever-aching arm slightly puffed into that tight splint. A small irritating itch under the plastic now that his attention was back to it.
“I’ll climb and haul things up with a cord. You can tie the bamboos.”
“Big work… not sure we can manage…” His strength dwindling by the day, but he still had enough fat on his muscles not to starve too much. His eyes on Gabe’s lean form, his hipbones a bit more prominent above his pants.
“We have to… this small shelter won’t be enough. We need a stable house, something higher up too.”
“Alright… let’s go to the beach, stoke that pyre up, then gather some bamboo…” Eyeing that blunt piece of metal, that medium knife. “It will be something… with those tools.”
Gabe just sighed, but pulled him up, ambling to the beach in the rising heat. Quickly making that pyre rage again, redraw the sign with shuffling steps.
“Ok, bamboo sticks next…”
Trudging back to the jungle, hacking at those thick poles for hours. Back to camp, hauling those heavy sticks and poles. They collapsed, exhausted, and drank a bit from that stale, boiled rain water. Stoked the fire up. Gabe eyed the trees and took a rope, tying it around his waist, testing the tree as he looped the rope around the trunk. “Ok… I’ve only seen this on YouTube…” Climbing with a small smile, his weight into that thin rope, his hands raw on that hard bark, but he managed to reach a first branch and hauled himself up. Tying the rope to the trunk. “Ok… I’ll let this fall and tie the poles to it.”
Working into late afternoon when the sky turned yellow, a crude platform taking shape. Gabe had to change trees, tying, securing those thick poles. Around three meters off the ground, it didn’t seem high, but it was everything, not to sleep soon so close to the ground, swipe bugs out of their ears in the morning. They had to build some of the trees into that platform, but it was fine, still, quite big.
Gabe jumped down, panting. “Nice… we’ll have plenty of space…” he flashed a smile at Damian. “Even have our own rooms, if we put some curtains up.”
“Yeah…” Reeling with fatigue, an unknown sadness at his words. “Come… we need food…”
“I’m exhausted. Let’s just skip it…”
“No. You have nothing on you, soon, and won’t have any strength.”
“And you?”
Damian patted his thinning belly. “I have enough middle-aged guy fat here to last a few more days than you.”
“Perks of aging.”
“Survival of the fattest.”
