Damian set off. “We need more food. Not just sea creatures and moss. You more than anybody.”
Gabe smiled. “No body-shaming, ok?”
Damian stopped and turned to him. “This is not about your body, or how you look, but about staying alive. I won’t bury you.”
Gabe mocked, trying to hide how moved he was at the concern in his eyes. “No, you won’t. You’ll eat me.”
But Damian didn’t smile. He cupped Gabe’s neck, almost pissed. “Shut your fucking mouth.”
“Hey… it was your idea.”
Damian just walked, not turning back, boiling.Little fuck. Trudging through undergrowth and dead leaves, the air thick. Panting in that soft heat. The jungle seemed eerily calm, almost void of life, despite sneaking a bit, listening. For anything. Long hours probably, when they had to turn and take another route, down towards where they thought the beach was. Searching the sun. Scratched raw by thorny vines, Damian’s sweat trickled down his body, burning his wounds.What the fuck… madness.He would have freaked out back home, to even have a scar on his skin, watching with grim resignation as a thorn wedged into his skin, tearing it up, that trickle of blood running down his growing body hair. Hacking at the vines and smaller branches, utterly exhausted when the trees cleared a bit, some weird ones sticking out of the soft sand, the beach near, the waves’ soft roars reaching them. He tried to avoid those branches sticking out, but stumbled on one, uprooting it as he fell to the ground.
“Fuck!” He grabbed that branch and almost threw it away when he saw the roots. Blinking the sweat out of his eyes, meeting Gabe’s who had caught up with him.
“You’re hurt?” Kneeling to his bleeding knees, but Damian was focused on something else, as if in a trance, holding those bulbous roots.
“What the fuck is this?”
“I don’t know… roots?”
“They look like... potatoes…?” He sniffed them, rubbing the sand off. “Fuck it, let’s eat it, try… Pull another one out.”
“You’re sure?”
He got up, wincing. Looking at his trembling right hand, huge blisters lining his skin. Most of them had burst, bleeding. A vague chill in him, seeing that torn skin.
Gabe grabbed his hand. “You need to clean this up… looks awful.”
“It will harden, don’t worry… I think? So, let’s pick some more of these… whatever these are.”
“And if they’re poisonous?”
Damian shrugged, pulling another one of those stick-roots out. “I’m too hungry to care. We’ll eat together and die in each other’s arms. Then the assholes who will discover our bodies will have something to chew on.” He grinned and set off to the beach, tossing a plant to Gabe. “Hold this. We need to check the net.”
They pulled at the fishing net, and it was surprisingly heavy. Gabe’s eyes widened at the shadow at his feet. He almost dropped the net. “Look at this! Hell!”
“A ray! Stingray! Quick, get the spear!” Holding that net tight, wrestling a bit with that large animal until Gabe came back, running as best as he could in the water.
“Here!”
“Kill him!”
Gabe hesitated, his eyes wide. “What?”
“Just stab him, damn it!”
“I…”
“Gabe, for fuck’s sake!” Almost dropping the net with that wriggling animal, his eyes like murder.
Gabe aimed and wedged the spear under the water. Damian jumped to him and grabbed the end of the spear too, pushing it harder. Waiting until the struggle stopped. Feeling Gabe tremble.
“Hey… you did great, look!” Pulling the spear out, Damian reached for the net and pulled it up, a large ray, the size of his torso. “Fucking hell! Look at that!” He threw the dead animal at his feet and laced his arms around Gabe, who had started crying. “You did great… we need to eat. It will become easier.”
“So beautiful… this is so fucking unfair.”
“Died straight away, ok? No suffering there.”
