Joining our well known duo were two others, newcomers to our tale.  Lily Isford was another fellow student who was in the eleventh grade and had only transferred to their school partway through the school year.  A bit on the heavier side, Lily was not the prettiest thing to look at, but she had a heart of pure gold.  Originally sobbing madly when found along the coast, Lily had been comforted by Josh, and proved herself to be an able woman on their trek through the forests of the island.  Along with Lily came Doug Smith, a twenty-two year old student teacher who had been invited on the cruise because of his term at the student’s school.  Doug professed to not being very useful in their current situation, repeatedly saying that he was planning on becoming an art teacher.  It had taken very little for Martha and Josh to become the de-facto leaders of this small troupe.

Currently the four were making good time on their push through the verdant forests of the island they had landed on.  After Josh and Martha had walked up together on shore, they soon found Lily broken down in tears not too far off.  Josh had comforted the relatively unknown student using his religious teachings to make her feel safer, and not long after that Doug wandered by and found their group.  Now they had made their way into the forests after finding no one else along the coast.  The foliage was dense, and difficult to traverse with no usable paths, but they still trekked onwards under the assumed leadership of Martha.

“Martha my dear, I think it may be prudent to take a break.”  Josh spoke up noticing the tired looks from his two additional companions.  Martha didn’t let up for one moment, pushing branches out of the way as she advanced deeper into the foliage.  Guilty glances were shot back and forth between Lily and Doug who were barely keeping pace with the speedy Martha and the moderately fit Josh.  “Martha, I really think it would be…”

“I heard you Josh.”  The reply came as another set of branches were pushed out of the way, some flying back and lightly hitting Josh in the face.  Josh grabbed the excess tree bits and held them in place while Lily and Doug travelled underneath, safe from any stinging whips they might have endured otherwise.  Lily gave Josh a quick smile, making sure to pause for a moment so he noticed it.  It might have been a tender moment had Martha not disrupted it with reality.  “We have to keep moving, there are bound to be others on this island.  They may be hurt and need our help.”

Since their search of the beach, Martha had been insistent on combing the island for any other potential survivors.  When they had come to an impassable rock barrier, Martha pushed her group into the forest.  It hadn’t taken Josh long to understand the position of her friend, Martha’s constant insistence that others had survived the shipwreck was clue enough.  Martha had simply refused to admit her sister Gina was gone.  Josh had watched it happen, and he knew full well how slim the chances of Gina’s survival were.  Where they had been able to cling onto debris for safety, Gina had been thrust out into the ocean during a turbulent storm, likely sucked away before she could clasp onto anything.  The logical part of his brain told Josh to break this terrible truth to his friend, but his compassion and caring for Martha had overridden it.

Conversation ended at that point, and the group continued their sojourn through the trees.  Martha’s mind was indeed filled with thoughts of finding her own lost sister, who she was certain was lost somewhere on this island.  Even though there really was no reason for her sister to leave the coast, Martha couldn’t comprehend any other fate for her sibling; other possibilities were simply omitted from her mind.  Like a quiz where the answers consisted of ABCD but the BCD had been removed, Martha proceeded with her only option and forged further into the unknown of the island.  The loud breathing of Lily had been a constant rhythm for her as she walked, and Martha was sure the heavier girl wouldn’t last too much longer at the pace they were keeping.  Her analytical mind knew this fact, but her devotion to family simply ignored it and made her walk even faster, fueled by adrenaline.  Martha kept moving even when she heard the slight thud of Lily sitting down on a nearby rock.  When her other two companions stopped moving, Martha only noticed by the lack of their footsteps behind her, a tune she had been listening to for the past few hours.

“Look Martha we need to stop.”  Josh’s voice came as the light of reason in an otherwise surreal situation.  Perhaps it was his eccentric British accent that fueled Martha slightly, or perhaps it was the sheer audacity of the statement that angered her.  The only response Josh got for the next five seconds was Martha stopping in place, not even bothering to turn around and face the group.

“We can’t keep stopping Josh.  There could be others out there, and we have to help them.  Who knows what’s happened to the others.  Doesn’t your religious sense of morality make you want to help?”

The comment did not go unanswered for long.  “Yes, yes I want to help others, if there are any.”  Josh let the end of his sentence hang in the air for a moment before continuing, giving Martha a metaphorical slap to the face in light of their situation.  “But, we have people here and we need to make sure they’re ok.  We’ll be no use to anyone if we show up at the point of complete exhaustion.  Right now we have to take care of our own and help how we can, and pray the others make it through alright.”  Josh didn’t mean to use the word ‘pray’ but it came out as naturally as one might have cited a ‘hello’ upon seeing a friend.

“Fine.  We’ll take a ten minute break.  I’m going to search around this area in the meantime.  Don’t go anywhere!”

Doug nodded quickly while Lily still looked up at Josh obviously impressed by the veracity of his last statement.  “Alright, go on then.”  Josh nodded as well, giving Martha the ok to continue a more limited search of the area.  In a second the girl disappeared back into the trees, searching and calling out the occasional shout.  Lily gave her savior a smile as he approached her and Doug, seating himself on the dirt in front of them.

“I have to apologize for Martha.  The loss of her sister must have been such a shock to her, and this is her way of coping.  We’ll have to do the best we can to accommodate her, until the depth of our situation sinks in.  Hopefully we’ll find Gina along with the others.”

Lily looked quizzically at Josh for a moment before speaking in her low mousey voice.  “Do you really think that her sister is alive?”  The question hung in the air for a few seconds while Josh pondered it.  In a sudden motion, the religious boy nodded his head twice and gave a sly smile, nodding once to both Lily and Doug.  “What about us?  Do you think we’ll ever make it off this island Josh?”

“I believe that everything happens for a reason.  God wanted us to come to this place, and God will find us a way out if he wills it.” The meaning of the words sunk deeply into Lily whose mouth went slack jawed as she now nodded in agreement.  Doug also took something from the words and reactions around him, staring not at Josh, but at Lily as she nodded.  “Now, can I have a moment to go speak with Martha?”  The two looked at each other and then at Josh before both giving slow and agreeing nods.

›

Josh found Martha trying to push through a large mass of vine filled foliage, something either of them could have easily moved had they been well rested, though Martha now struggled with it.  As he came up behind her, Martha jumped and turned only to see Josh standing with both his arms raised in a mock surrender.

“Don’t come up on me like that.  We have no idea what’s on this island!”

“You’re right, and I’m sure you yelling out for people is really helping.”  Josh made a joke out of the comment, but Martha was not in the mood to see it as being funny.  Instead of a reply, Josh’s peer turned and continued her futile attempts to get through the brush of greenery she had come across.  “Do you need some help with that Martha?”

“No.  I’ll be fine.”  The reply came quicker than Josh had expected, and he heard subtle hints of cracking in Martha’s voice.  Unsure, he took a step forward and placed one of his hands on Martha’s right shoulder, trying to comfort his friend.  Martha reacted by shoving the arm off almost immediately.  “Josh.  I said I’ll be fine!”

Josh stood dumbfounded for almost a minute as Martha continued her efforts.  He barely paid any attention to the shouts of anguish she let loose as she futilely began to thrash at the obstacle in front of her.  Logic would have told any person to simply ignore the blocking brush and take the long way around, but Martha Porter was not listening to logic today and now turned to violence as she punched and kicked the plant before her.  Watching it like a camera held behind her, Josh felt powerless to help his friend; unable to understand the emotional turmoil she must have been enduring.  His mouth opened to speak, only to close again the next time Martha let out a roar of anger.  By the time he had mustered his will Martha had fallen to her knees and was landing fists on the plant repeatedly.

“Martha… none of us can be fine after what happened; especially you.”  To Martha there was a grim truth in the words of the ‘god boy’.  At that moment, everything that had happened flooded its way into her mind, and Martha absorbed the full depth of their situation.  Up until now she had expectedly taken on the role of leader, going so far as to push her group into this unexplored forest in search of people she didn’t even know were alive.  For all she knew this place could have been infested with dangerous animals or poisonous plants.  Martha had led them this far entirely on the fact she thought… no she knew, that her sister was somewhere out in this wild and needed her help.  Up until now Josh’s verbal thrashings hadn’t deterred her, nor had his off religious comments sparked any kind of sanity in her mind, but now Martha let it all rush though.  Her analytical mind ran its course and Martha knew that her sister and most of her schoolmates were likely dead.

Tears followed Martha’s terrible realization, and Josh swooped down to comfort her, placing his arms around her shoulders and embracing her.  No words were spoken, and the two simply sat together long in a moment of mutual understanding.  This tender moment went far beyond the ten minute break Martha had previously scheduled.