Misplaced 3, part 3.

   Waiting a couple of moments, Ruth followed him.  "Are you alright?" she asked as she caught him up. 

   "Fine," he said, but she didn't believe him.  Feeling awkward, but unwilling to leave him she walked beside him in silence down to the beach.  They wandered along beside the shore for a while in silence as the evening  faded away into night.

   The unearthly howling began from the depths of the forest.

   "Did you know we found out what that was today?" Ruth said to break the silence.  "It's monkeys.  We found them when we were out setting traps."

   "Traps?"

   "To catch animals for food."  She remembered his vegetarianism.  "Sorry."

   He shook his head.  "Your choice," he said. 

   "Are you alright for food?" she asked.  "I didn't see you eating much today."  Thinking about it, she hadn't seen him eat at all.  He was always skinny, and perhaps it was just the twilight, but she didn't think he looked too well.

   "I'm ok," he said. 

   "You don't really look it," she said, refusing to be put off.  Then, quieter, "Don't listen too much to Emma.  She's just stressed and a bit scared.  Although if you were around a bit more it would be appreciated."

   "I did try to contribute, bringing back fruit and stuff," he replied.

   "I know, I know.  And if you can make tea I'll be very grateful, and so will lots of the others."  Another howl came from close beside them, and made Ruth jump.  "Emma's not the only one who's rather scared," she said.

   "No, she's not," Patrick replied in a low voice.  They had stopped and sat down on a large rock, and she quickly put her arm around his shoulders for a moment. 

   It was a cloudy night, and the forest behind them seemed dark and gloomy.  "We should probably be heading back," Ruth said.  Patrick shook his head. 

   "I've not been sleeping," he said.  "I won't sleep if I go back now.  I'll be back later." 

   Ruth looked at him, tired but reluctant to leave him when he seemed so down.  Then she looked up at the sky as the moon broke through the clouds. 

   "It's still beautiful," she said, "Wherever you look at it from, it's beautiful."

   "Yes," he replied.  "This island's a beautiful place."

   "I'd enjoy it more if we weren't stuck here," Ruth said.  "But I know what you mean.  Someone- I think it was Kath- was saying she hated the island, but I don't hate the place- just our circumstances." 

   The beach was almost totally dark now.  It was an effort to make out others' faces.  Ruth stared out at the sea, where white crests of foam were visible on the top of the waves heading for shore. 

   "Suppose they never find us?  What if we never get home?"

   She had said it, the unspoken thought that had been at the back of the mind of each of them ever since the crash, but which no one had dared to say out loud. 

   "They'll find us eventually," Patrick said.  "We'll get home." 

   He was a specialist in sounding optimistic.  But Ruth knew that even the seemingly (often annoyingly!) laid-back Patrick was afraid.  And if he hadn't been sleeping, that helped explain why he'd been going off alone.  It was easier then coping with other people when you were tired and afraid.  She didn't blame him. 

   But she was afraid now, and she wanted some real comfort- not the sort of everything's-going-to-be-all-right-in-the-end statements she had made to the others to try to keep their hopes up.  But there seemed to be none.

   She looked up at the moon once more, shining bright in the dark sky.  It seemed a metaphor for hope.  But then the clouds closed in again, shutting off the light.  Ruth pulled her knees up and put her arms around them, bowing her head and hiding her face from view as the tears came.  She cried almost silently, but Patrick noticed and put an arm around her. 

   "Sorry," she said.  He shook his head.  "You don't need to be."

   They sat there for a while, watching the moon drift in and out of the clouds.  Eventually Ruth stood up.  "I'm going back to the camp," she said.  "Are you coming?"

   They walked back along the edge of the forest until the could see the glow from the camp fire.  Something flitted across the sky in front of them.

   "Bats!" said Patrick.  He wandered off after them.

   "Good night," Ruth said.  "Good night," came his reply as he became just another shadow in the dark.  Ruth sighed inwardly and went to find somewhere to curl up and sleep.

   The following day things seemed to have taken a turn for the better.  The weather was sunny and dry.  The repairs to the shelters were almost completed.  The day proceeded like the others before it, as everyone went out to collect food and firewood.  Ruth was relieved to see Ernest and Patrick, still looking tired, going off together into the forest.  Hopefully Emma wouldn't object to whatever they were doing if Ernest was there too.

   Ruth had gone to see if the crabs had returned when she saw Sophie running towards her.  Immediately she was afraid there had been another accident.

   "What is it?" she called.

   "Someone's rubbed our message off the beach!" Sophie said indignantly.  

   Ruth looked puzzled.  "Are you sure it wasn't the storm?" she asked.

   "No, we rewrote it yesterday.  It was there last night, but now it's gone!"

   "Why would anyone do that?" Ruth wondered.  She looked around at the beach again.  The water now was much higher than it had been last night, but the tide was on the way out...the tide!

   "No one's rubbed your message out," she said to Sophie.  "It's just the tide washed it away.  You'll have to keep rewriting it every tide, or write it higher up."

   "Oh," Sophie said.  "We didn't think of that."

   Alex emerged from the forest nearby carrying a bag.  "The traps worked," he said, opening the bag to show them that it contained some sort of dead mammal.  "That's tonight's meal sorted."

   "We can have a feast!" Sophie exclaimed.

The story continues...