Island Bonding

As soon as the sun rose, signalling dawn, the boys woke up. They had planned the night before that they needed to set off as soon as possible in the morning to try and lessen the worry of the girls. This time, it was Kurt who led the way. He suggested keeping the sea on their right side as they walked. It worked because not long after, the boys arrived where they’d been dropped off by the boat. Taking it easy, they retraced their steps and found where they’d settled with the girls. It was Quinn who saw them first.

“You absolute idiot!” She ran up to Puck and punched him on the arm. “What do you think you’re doing?! We were so worried about you all!”

“Hey. Babe.” He held his hands up in mock surrender. “We’re fine, we just fell asleep.”

“You just-” Quinn’s jaw dropped. “I cannot believe you.” Then she turned back to their temporary camp and shouted. “THE BOYS ARE HERE!”

Tina ran from behind the tarpaulin to hug Mike, telling him how terrified she was that he could have got hurt.

Rachel and Mercedes rushed out to see if Kurt was okay. He quickly reassured them that he was as fine as he’d ever be in their current situation.

Brittany dragged Santana to them, initiating a group hug.

Once they separated, Santana demanded they explain what had happened.

The boys all took turns explaining what had happened.

 “Oh shit!” Mike sat up bolt upright, awake after his afternoon nap. “YOU NEED TO GET UP IF WE WANT TO GET BACK TO CAMP IN TIME.” As calm as he wanted to be, he couldn’t keep the panic out of his voice.

“Huh?” Sam woke in confusion at the noise. Then he saw how low the sun was. It had almost disappeared behind the trees. “Oh no.” He shared a scared look with Mike. They needed to leave immediately.

The pair woke up their friends as quickly as they could so that they could get a move on. Thankfully everyone woke up quickly, panicked, and started getting everything together ready to leave.

It was only when Kurt spoke up that they stopped to think. “We need to stay here.”

Everyone turned and stared at him, bewildered.

“It’s almost dark. We won’t be doing ourselves any favours trying to get back now.” He explained. “Think about how long it took us to get here. It’ll be worse if we’re panicking and it’s pitch black.”

“The girls’ll be worried, though.” Puck pointed out. And he didn’t really want to leave them alone at night. They’d taken all of their machetes. The girls wouldn’t be able to protect themselves if they needed it.

“And they’ll be even more worried if we never return.” Kurt replied quickly.

“I have to say I agree with Kurt.” Mike admitted. “Besides, they’re smart enough to not come out looking for us.

Begrudgingly, the rest of the boys agreed. It was better to stay there for that night. So they planned the rest of the evening before dark. They needed to get some water on board and find food if they could. Sam and Puck split to find some water from a spring leading to the sea, and Finn, Kurt and Mike went to find as many coconuts as they could for their dinner.

After re-grouping, eating and drinking, they fell asleep once again. The heat from the day had really wiped them out.

 Tina turned to everyone and spoke. “We can’t do that again. We need to stick together. It’s too much worry and stress. From now on we stick together.”

 “Hear hear.” Mike agreed, pulling Tina safely into his side.

 The rest of the glee club echoed Mike, and then they all settled down by the fire.

 “Okay, so was the beach suitable for camp?” Rachel opened the question to the guys.

 They all exchanged looks of uncertainty. Sam took it upon himself to explain. “It’s better that here. But I’m sure there’ll be somewhere better to stay. It wasn’t the sheltered side of the island so I would imagine it won’t be the most pleasant place to stay.” All the boys nodded.

 “Okay.” Rachel flipped the question to the rest of the group. “And girls, what are things like here?”

 “Not good.” Mercedes said with disgust, shaking her head.

 Rachel looked and saw everyone else shaking their heads. “Right then, let’s get a move on. Gather everything up and let’s get moving.”

 Everyone began standing up when Brittany called out for them to stop. “Shouldn’t we get some food first? I’m super hungry and what if there’s not much there?”

 “My babe’s got this surviving shizzle down.” Santana stood on her tiptoes to peck Brittany on the cheek. “I say we all circle around camp and spread outwards for twenty big steps.”

 Everyone murmured in agreement and set around in a circle. “Is twenty steps going to be enough?” Kurt called.

 “Anymore would waste too much time and energy.” Quinn replied.

 “Let’s go!” Shouted Santana.

 And off they went. Ten minutes and two yucca roots later, the glee club regrouped and set off to the beach the boys had found.

 Kurt led the way, handling confusion about why they were going back the way they had come when they first arrived. “It’s easier to find our way if we go by familiar routes. If we just wander then we get lost. Unfortunately we found that out the hard way.” He just about held back an eyeroll in remembering the incompetence of his friends. “We go this way and keep the sea on our left so we can make our journey a bit easier.”

 Quinn found herself nodding slowly. That was a great idea. Especially on new terrain on a small island like they were on. She also noted that everyone was slowing down massively. They’d drank from their rain collection before they left camp but it really wasn’t enough. “Hey guys?” She waited for everyone to turn to her attention. “This is going to be a really hard walk but we need to go faster. We need to get to the beach so that we can find ourselves a water source. I don’t know about you, but I have a banging headache and my mouth is the driest it’s ever been.”

 “Maybe we could keep our eyes peeled for streams now as well.” Rachel suggested.

 Everyone mumbled in agreement and started off again, slightly faster than before.

 Rachel found her mind wandering as they walked. When she was younger, her dads would tease her about daydreaming and going into “Rachel Land”. Every time, she’d deny it. But now, as she got older, she realised that she did daydream quite a lot. Now, she was thinking about this week. They were three days in. That was a seventh of their time there. She had already been so stressed when the boys disappeared. She could only imagine things getting worse. Giving herself a small prep-talk, she convinced herself to work on a tougher skin. If she wanted to get through this, that’s what she had to do. Santana and Quinn seemed to be coping pretty well and they have the toughest skin. She needed to be more like Quinn. Especially the Quinn that was on the island. It was a completely new side of her and, being honest, Rachel was loving the qualities. Partially because Quinn wasn’t tearing her apart every time they were in close proximity. In fact, it had mostly been the opposite. Quinn had been there for her and had been strong when the boys hadn’t returned. The other reason was that Quinn was proving to be a natural leader. Which, in Rachel’s mind, was great. She loved leading the glee club. Music was her strong suit. However her leadership had carried over to the trip and, though she’d taken it upon herself to keep leading, she was a bit lost and wasn’t sure what to do in every situation. Quinn did, though. And that was a huge relief for Rachel. She took a mental note to thank Quinn for that later.

 Quinn was in the middle of the group - a few people behind Rachel. She, too found her mind wandering elsewhere. Hers, however, went to her father. Quinn thought he’d always wanted a son. Since she was his second and last child, it seemed he geared her activities more to what he’d do with a son. Several times a year he’d take her on a father-daughter weekend and they’d go camping somewhere they’d never been before. Quinn had loved it. She had no idea how helpful those days would be. When you do certain things from the age of about six until thirteen, it can be difficult to forget them. They stay ingrained in the back of your mind. That was a relief for Quinn. Though this terrain was completely foreign to her, some of the same things were still useful. She knew which plants to stay away from at a single glance. Making water safe to drink was second nature. These, along with many other things, would help her and her classmates survive better.

 The sun was getting higher and, despite the cover from the trees, the heat alone was causing some troubles for the group. Everyone was sweating; losing energy along with vital water. It was exhausting them and they needed food or water as soon as possible.

 When’re we gonna get there?” Brittany complained.

 Mercedes, just behind her needed an answer too. “It better be close because I think I’m going to faint in this heat.”

 “It isn’t far now.” Puck replied. “I recognise these trees.”

 Santana snorted. “Bullshit. These trees all look the same.”

 “While that’s true,” Kurt shouted from the back towards Santana, who was closer to the front of the group. “We should be there within ten minutes if we’re going by how long it took us to get back yesterday.”

 “Thank god.” Santana looked to the sky, silently praying for them to get there much sooner than in ten minutes time. She pulled a face of disgust. There was nothing more that she hated than the sea at that moment in time. Maybe the heat was pretty bad. But the sea was a huge pool of water. So much water. But it couldn’t be drank. If you asked her, it was taking the piss.

 Just as she was about to make a comment about it, Finn pumped his fist up in the air at the front. “WE MADE IT!”

 The glee club smiled through their fatigue and let themselves rest for fifteen minutes in the shade before Rachel got them up and ready to make decisions and to get themselves some food and water. “Everyone up!” She called. “We need to get sorted before dusk. Then we can rest properly.”

 Slowly, and grumbling, everyone made their way over to Rachel and they sat in a circle on the beach. “What’re people’s ideas?”

 “I say we stay here.” Mercedes said.

 Quinn raised an eyebrow.

 “What’re you pulling that face for, blondie?” Mercedes asked.

 “We can’t stay here.” Quinn sighed. “It’s too open. When there’s a storm, we’ll get battered. Sure, this is better than the clearing but there’ll be better out there. We need to look for somewhere else tomorrow.”

 “But it’s so sunny.” Tina put in.

 Quinn just shook her head. “It is now. But weather changes fast. Plus, look around.” She gestured at the shrubs on the edge of the sand. “There’s no sustainable food source here.”

 Santana smirked. “Nice one, Quinnie.” She teased. “That’s my girl.”

 The blonde blushed.

 “I agree with Quinn.” Rachel grinned. “We can rest later today but tomorrow we’ll find somewhere more suitable.”

 “We won’t split up though, will we?” Brittany asked, worried.

 “Of course not.” Rachel reassured her. Then she turned to Quinn. “You’ve taken to this experience rather well, Quinn. There’s a great leader in you.” Rachel saw that Quinn was about to shake it off and say it was nothing. “I’m sure everyone agrees. Especially Finn. You got him onto dry land when none of us thought to help him. We need to work more as a team and you showed that wonderfully. Then you were the steady head when the boys disappeared for the night. Thank you.”

 Quinn smiled and looked at her hands in her lap. Looking over the frame of her glasses, she shyly took her praise. Then promptly changed the subject. “So what about food, water and a fire?”

 Finn took over the conversation here. “Me and Rach can stay here to start the fire.” He suggested. “Then we could split the group down the middle to decide who gets food and who gets water.”

 They all split down the middle of the circle, and Rachel began to mentally prepare herself for talking to Finn. Trying to avoid any awkward conversations, Rachel got right into it when the rest of the group had gone. “If we split up to get as many twigs and sticks and dry timber as possible, we can build the fire up as we go, so it doesn’t have a chance to blow out.”

 Finn’s heart dropped. There was a danger he wouln’t be able to talk to Rachel alone. He didn’t want to upset her by going against what she suggested, though. So he nodded along and agreed. He’d just have to find wood for the fire really quickly. “Shall I get one load and then come back to make the bow and drill?”

 “Excellent thinking!” Rachel praised and headed off into the woods.

 When they re-joined, Rachel had gathered a pile of wood that would last them past tomorrow morning and Finn had used some of their rope to make the bow. As Rachel arrived, he had just finished making the drill.

 “Hey, Rach.” He greeted.

 “Hi.” She answered shortly, getting started on the bow.

 There was dead air between them.

 Rachel tried to focus her attention on the waves but even that couldn’t distract her from the awkwardness of the situation.

 “So…” Finn tried to fill the silence.

 “So.” Rachel echoed, dreading whatever was coming next. There had to be a reason for him wanting to spend time with her and only her.

 He cleared his throat. “This island thing is pretty cool, huh?”

 “It certainly is a once in a lifetime chance.” She offered.

 Finn nodded. “Yeah and you’re, like, super good at remembering all the stuff we need to know. Like knots and making fires and stuff. You’re really smart, Rach. It’s one of my favourite things about you.”

 Rachel closed her eyes slowly and grimaced. “Look, Finn..” She faltered, trying to find the right words. “I appreciate your compliments. I really do. But I can’t help but feel like you’re wanting to get something out of them. But there’s a reason I broke up with you.”

 “But-”

 “Finn, honour my wish.” Rachel pleaded. “You’ll be a much better person if you leave it be.”

 The tall boy almost fought again for his cause but dropped it and ducked his head. “Okay.”

 “You’re a good guy, Finn.” Rachel comforted as she held the base for Finn to use the bow and drill. She could feel it warming by her hands. “When you find the right girl, she’ll be a lucky one.”

 “Thanks, Rach.” He cleared his throat and changed the subject. “I hope this fire starts soon. My arms are hurting.”

 Bending to look at the base of the drill at its level, Rachel hummed. “It’ll start soon, I’m sure.”

 The two of them stared at it as Finn worked, willing it to light. When it smoked and sparked, they cheered and hurriedly moved the lit wood shavings to blow on. As soon as the fire broke out, Rachel gently put it on the floor and started building the sticks around it.

 After ten minutes, the fire was steadily burning and crackling. It definitely wasn’t going to go out anytime soon. Finn high fived Rachel and they celebrated their feat. All that was left was to sit back at wait for their friends to come back with food and water.

 Luckily it didn’t take long. The rest of the glee club returned; Sam and Puck with arms full of coconuts, Santana and Brittany carrying one heaving looking jerry can between them, Kurt and Mike carrying the other, and Mercedes and Tina carrying what looked like water bottles. Quinn was trailing behind, her arms out to the sides carrying crabs.

 They greeted Finn and Rachel, cheek splitting grins on their faces. Bee-lining for the fire, they put the jerry cans on top of the big logs Finn had put on. While they boiled, the crabs were put to cook on the fire and the coconuts were split between them.

 As her friends sat around the fire, sharing stories about what they’d come across while searching for food and water, Quinn sat in her own little word. It was easier to think now that she’d eaten some coconut and drank its milk. She was still waiting for the water to boil but that would take three hours. For now, she was the healthiest she’d felt in days and so she felt comfortable with thinking more clearly. Quinn decided to plan a little in her head for what to do next and what to do in different circumstances. After all, she thought, it was better to plan now with a clear head rather than later in a panicked, possibly starved or dehydrated state.

 They had no idea what their next location was going to be like. Quinn could only hope that, like this beach, there would be a steady stream to supply water. If not there were possible ways to evaporate sea water to remove the salt. But that didn’t seem worth it. If a water source was too far away, they’d probably have to relocate. Water was their main priority. Next came food. They should be okay there. With any luck, they’d have a steady supply of fish and shellfish. Setting up traps for the animals on land was also an option. It wasn’t fool proof, but it was worth it. For Rachel, though, food would be difficult to find. Her and Puck wouldn’t be able to eat any shellfish due to being Jewish and Rachel’s veganism was really going to throw a spanner in the works. Quin made it a point to focus on giving Rachel the first dibs on what she could eat.

 From there, her mind drifted to Rachel. Surprisingly, the tiny diva hadn’t annoyed her one bit while they’d been on the island. It was strange as she wasn’t really acting any differently to how she did at school. Rachel was as loud and overbearing as usual. There was one difference, however. Quinn wasn’t surrounded by a whole school in front of which she had to put on a bitchy act. The glee club were her friends and didn’t care how she acted. Okay, so they’d hate it if she bullied them again. But they didn’t care about the lack of image. If anything, they seemed to prefer it. While she was pregnant, they seemed to be the only ones who didn’t shun her for it. With them, she felt like she could be herself more. Not one hundred percent herself. No-one was shown that side. Her walls were never completely knocked down. They were just a bit smaller there.

 “Hey, Q?” Santana pulled her away from her thoughts.

 “Huh, sorry. What was that?” Quinn blinked a few times, reigning her thoughts into the present.

 “We were just checking if everyone was ready to get back to their jobs for the afternoon before the sun goes down and we turn in for the night.” Brittany supplied with a smile.

 “Oh, sure!” Quinn got up, trying to swot all the sand off her backside.  This was bound to be the rest of their time there. The blonde found herself thinking. Every day would end up being task after task in a long routine.

 The next day came and the glee club woke with the sun. Blearily eyed, they nibbled up coconuts and filled up a water bottle they’d found on washed up with boiled, but now cooled, water. The remaining water in the jerry cans was poured over the fire to put it out, so they were lighter and easier to carry.

 Their plan was very much the same as the previous. Keep the sea on one side and walk until they find a better beach. It may not be the easiest of ways but it’s the best way to ensure they didn’t get lost. This time it would be easier though because they had more food in their bellies and they had water to keep them going.

 It took a good four to five hours to find the next possible spot. Everyone was lagging but Puck encouraged them to carry on. “The quicker we get there, the sooner we can rest and get things sorted for real.” Granted, they could all get rest there and then but there was a sense of certainty in his voice that kept them all going.

 Then, when they found it, nothing had to be said. That beach would be where they’d spend the rest of their time. It was gorgeous to start off with. A two hundred metre stretch of white sand, the sea tropical blues and greens, small rocky cliffs to the left as you look out to the sea and a clearing twenty feet back from the beach lined with tall trees. It was perfect.

 “I don’t know about you, but I’m staying here.” Kurt grinned, taking his rucksack off.

 Everyone cheered in agreement, following suit by dropping their bags to the floor.

 To everyone’s surprise, Santana stripped down to her bikini. “No need to stare.” She smirked. “I’m going for a dip. Anyone who wants to can join.”

 But before they could get any further, Quinn spoke as she pushed her glasses back to a comfortable position on her nose. “I think we need to get set up first.”

“Don’t be such a debbie downer, Q.” Santana complained. “Let us have some fun.”

“I, for one, agree with Quinn.” Rachel spoke up. “We’re exhausted. Our main priority is to start the fire, find a water source and get some food before anything else. By all means after then go frolicking in the sea if you have the energy. For now, though, we must put all of our effort into getting the essentials.”

 Tina slowly nodded her head. “That’s a fair point. We are really tired.” She scrunched her mouth up in thought. “Maybe we could rest a bit now, though.”

 Rachel nodded, almost aggressively. “Of course!” And with that, she sat herself on the floor cross-legged on the sand before gulping down the rest of her water. “Fifteen minutes rest?”

 “Fifteen minutes.” Santana echoed, nodding.

 Five more hours later and everyone was ready for the day to be over. Everyone had repeated the previous day’s activities. The only difference was how they started the fire.

 “It won’t start.” Finn whined, elongating the words. He was fed up of the drill breaking.

 Rachel took over with a sigh. She’d spent ages searching for kindling for the fire and was exhausted. There was nothing she wanted more than a nap. Instead of complaining, though, she got on with it. The wood they had seemed a bit brittle. Finn hadn’t been as incompetent as she thought. It was the drill material that was causing the problem. Rachel was a big believer in the saying “a bad workman always blames his tools” but this time it was a genuine problem and didn’t feel too bad blaming the lack of fire on the wood.

 As she looked up, trying to think of another way to start a fire, she saw Quinn walking towards them with some tangled rope. They could try to use that rope on a new bow to see if that would help. “QUINN!” She shouted from where she was kneeling in the sand.

 The blonde came jogging over. “Yeah, Rach?”

 Rachel blinked quickly. Rach? That was a new development. It was better than RuPaul or Man Hands so she kept quiet and kept to the task at hand. “Could we use that rope for the drill and bow, please?” She requested. “It isn’t working.”

 Quinn handed it over with a shrug. “Pass me the tinder for a second.” When she had it in her hands, she motioned for Rachel to follow her into the sun. “I’m farsighted so this should work.” She mumbled and asked the brunette to take her glasses. “Get a drop of seawater in the centre of one of the lenses and carry it back without spilling any.”

 Rachel rushed to the sea and back. “Okay, what next?”

 Quinn bit her lip. “Theoretically the sun should shine through the water and my glasses and bend to be focussed on one spot. Hopefully that should start a fire.”

 Rachel furrowed her eyebrows. “You don’t sound too sure… How long will it take?”

 A sharp breath was pushed out of Quinn’s nose. “I don’t know, Rachel.” She tried to snap but it came out more tired than anything. “Surprisingly I’ve never spent my time trying to set things on fire using my glasses.” After some awkward silence and no smoke or fire, Quinn spoke up again. “Try to move the glasses to make the light spot smaller and more concentrated.”

 “On it.” Rachel pushed through the increasing pain in her tired arm.

 Less than a minute later, the tinder started smoking. “Okay, Rach, please stay still now.” The blonde blew gently onto the tinder. Fire encased the tinder immediately and Quinn ran, with it still in her hands, up to the shaded part of the beach before dropping in and ordering Rachel and Finn to build the fire. Then she ran to the sea to cool her slightly burning hands.

 When she got back to Finn and Rachel, Finn clapped her on the back in congratulations and Rachel jumped on her in a hug, claiming that using glasses to start a fire was the smartest thing she’d ever heard of. Quinn was fully aware that that certainly wasn’t the case. But that didn’t mean she didn’t enjoy the praise and physical contact. It had been way too long since she’d had a hug and, despite Rachel being the one to do it, she relished the feel of the small body against hers.

 The rest of the evening was to be spent getting to know the area. Everyone split into pairs and threes, in couples or close friends, and wandered around the beach and the jungle behind to see what their surroundings were like.

 At dusk, the group met back at camp and made the unanimous decision to stay where they were and make it their main camp. There was sure to be a plentiful food supply and there was a bigger stream than last time which made for a more than ideal water source. With that settled, everyone was relieved and, with a little food in their bellies, fell asleep and ready for whatever the rest of their time on the island would throw at them.