anneoftheisland | (no subject)

Joe stopped short as well, listening hard for whatever it has Anne had heard. It was something, that much was certain, but he wasn't sure what it could be. For all he knew about the island, it could be a fucking panther.

"I heard it," he said cautiously, reaching out to hold Anne's elbow carefully. Just in case she decided it was a good idea to bolt into the bushes and see what had been making the noise.

Ariel stepped out from behind a clump of tall, thick ferns, her walking stick clutched in one hand. She was still in her nightgown, it was filthy with mud and a little blood that looked like mud. He hair was disheveled and she was tired and dirty and so glad to see the two people in front of her. "Anne!" she cried, and threw her arms around her friend, holding on tight. "I thought I was lost!"

"Ariel!" Anne cried out, clutching her tightly. "Oh, Ariel, we've been looking for you for ages. Oh my goodness, I can't believe we've found you at last! Are you alone? Is there anyone else with you?"

Joe recognized the girl and felt a rush of relief at the sight of her clinging to Anne. If she had been lost, then they could find Billy, too. They really could.

"Are you okay?" he asked, hoping she wasn't hurt too badly. If she was hurt, they'd have to turn back.

Ariel pulled back enough so she could nod to the both of them, but kept her arms around Anne. "A lot of people, it was the strangest thing that happened. I woke up and went to the bathroom, and then I was suddenly in the jungle! River was there, too, I found her, and eventually we found more people...we were in the dinosaur part of the jungle."

Anne just continued to hold her close, unwilling to let go lest she vanish again. Dinosaurs! Anne could only be grateful that she was all right.

"Do know Billy?" Anne asked her. "Oh, Ariel, was Billy with you, too? There are so very many people who vanished...."

"He looks like Ray or Leoben or... one of them," Joe said in a rush, taking Anne's mention of Billy as permission to ask about him. "He's blond, he was probably wearing a huge black t-shirt and pink flip-flops."

Ariel looked from Anne to Joe, mouth parted. She bit her lower lip and shook her head. "I know Billy, but he wasn't there..." Ariel thought of the dinosaurs, imagining Billy out there by himself, and her hands tightened in Anne's shirt.

"It's okay," said Anne quickly, "it's okay, I'm sure he just appeared someplace else." Now that she knew for certain that the people who'd vanished were still on the island, it didn't seem like a faint hope at all, and much closer to a certainty. "Oh, Ariel, you look a fright, we need to get you home. Are you hurt?"

They had to go back. Joe knew they had to go back, they couldn't keep going through the jungle with Ariel. She probably hadn't had anything to eat the entire time she'd been lost and he knew it wouldn't be safe to keep going. But he wanted to find Billy.

Ariel shook her head and loosened her grip on Anne a little. "I'm fine. A bunch of us had a fire last night. We should look for the others, who else is missing? I can tell you who I saw..."

Joe wasn't the only one who was torn; Anne wanted to find Billy more desperately than almost anything, but not at the expense of someone else's health. And besides, they already knew now that Billy wasn't back the way Ariel had come from; they would be better off searching in a new direction.

"We should go back to the compound first," she admitted finally. "We'll rest here a moment and have something to eat, and then we'll go back, and you can let them know who you've seen."

She could only speak for herself, though, and looked up to Joe to see what he would do.

Joe looked at Anne when she looked up at him and raised one hand to scratch along his mohawk as he thought about it. He knew what he had to do. He had to make sure the two of them got back to the Compound safe and alive. Billy would fucking kill him if he left the two of them to fend for themselves in the jungle.

"We'll go back," he said, giving a short nod.

"Alright," Ariel softly agreed, although she couldn't help feeling guilty. If they hadn't found her they could continue looking, and maybe find Billy. She would be do her best to keep up with them on their trip back to the Compound so she didn't slow them down.

"How far away are we?" she asked.

"We slept just a little way up the mountain last night," said Anne, looking back the way they'd come and trying to judge the distance, "but if we move more quickly on the way back we should be able to make it to the compound before dark. That way we can set out again in the morning."

"You think we'll make it back before dark?" Joe asked, looking in the direction of the Compound as well. It felt like they'd been searching forever, he didn't know how they'd make it back before night fell.

"If we keep a good pace and follow our own trail back," said Anne confidently. "We won't be making a path this time, or spending quite so much time looking around. It'll be faster on the way back out than it was on the way in."

"Let's hurry, then," Ariel urged, and detached herself from Anne. Instead she took Anne's hand in hers and held it firmly. She didn't like the idea of being out here in the dark again.

Joe nodded quietly and stepped in front of Ariel and Anne, determined to lead the way. Maybe they could take care of themselves, but he was going to lead the way anyway, make sure nothing happened to them while he was with them.

"I'm Joe," he offered Ariel, giving her a small, tight smile.

"I remember, from the boat lesson," Ariel said gently. "Everyone ended up in different areas, I'm sure Billy's out there, maybe even with someone else."

"We'll find him," said Anne, very happy to take Ariel's hand and be certain of her presence. "Billy's smart, and he's seen the dinosaurs before. He's not going to take dumb chances. He's...." She looked up at Joe. "He's going to want to see Joe again just as much as Joe wants to see him."

Joe couldn't really answer that, just swallowed hard and gave a sharp nod, leading them back down the path he and Anne had made. He made sure to go carefully, hoping the two of them were following directly behind him and watching where he stepped so they didn't end up stepping on a loose rock.

Ariel followed Joe, feeling horrid for him. She was quiet for a bit, just walking and occasionally glancing over at Anne. A sudden thought came to her, then, she hadn't seen Billy but he had disappeared. What if others she knew but hadn't seen were missing as well? "Do you know Jim Lennox, Anne? Is he...missing? Or Chris Cutter, or...Neil Bucyk and Captain Jack Sparrow?" There were others who came to mind, but these were at the forefront of her mind. She didn't know the 'new' Captain Jack, but she cared for him all the same.

"I... don't know," admitted Anne, stepping carefully around a fallen branch. "I think I remember Jim Lennox being on the list of people accounted for, but there were just so many names.... We can find out for certain when we get to the compound, though, I promise."

"Chris is gone, too," Joe said, even though the question hadn't been directed at him. "Jim is fine, I saw his name on the list. So is that Neil guy. But no one's been able to find Chris."

Ariel's face fell and her hand tightened around Anne's. Jim must have been a mess. And that was two people she cared for who couldn't be found...possibly more. Suddenly she wanted to get back to the Compound as soon as possible.

"It's okay," Anne murmured to her, taking her eyes off Joe for a few moments. "You're fine, after all, so I'm sure that they're fine as well. We haven't got any reason to think they aren't."

Joe turned back to say something to Ariel as well, but he foot slipped on a rock as he did and he pitched forward, nearly losing his balance.

His arms pinwheeled briefly and he regained his balance after a moment.

"Holy shit," he said, pausing to catch his breath. "That was close."

That was also when another rock went slipping out from under his boot.

Ariel let out a shriek as she watched Joe start to fall off the edge of some sort of cliff. It was as if everything moved in slow motion, but she couldn't get herself to move fast enough to stop him from going over. Her hand left Anne's and she reached for Joe, for his sleeve, his hand, anything.

Anne was moving right away, leaving no time for more than a gasp before she was diving for him. She was not going to lose anyone else. No one, no one, no one.

Joe didn't even have time to swear, although the words were ripping through his mind, fuck this, fuck this, fuckthisfuckthisfuckthis, over and over. His hands shot out, looking for purchase on something. A rock, a root, one of the girls, even though he knew that if he grabbed onto them now he'd probably just pull them down with him.

"Oh god..." Ariel had managed to grab some of Joe's sleeve in her hands and she held on as tight as she could, letting go with one hand briefly to try and get a better hold on his arm. She could feel the rocks digging into her knees and ignored them, holding on to him as long as she could until her hands ached, pulling with all her weight.

Anne caught only his fingertips at first, feeling them slide away all too quickly, then scrabbled closer on her stomach, faster than she'd imagined she could move, and suddenly had a firm hold on Joe's wrist. She'd never held onto anything so tightly in her life and nothing, nothing, was going to make her let go.

Joe tried to use both feet to find footholds, some rocks that he could use to push himself up on the steep incline. As soon as he put pressure on his right leg he felt a burst of pain rocket up from his ankle, all the way up to his hip and he let out a cry, slipping again when he jerked his leg back.

Ariel clung to Joe's arm, trying to grab under his shoulder to help pull him up. She winced at his pained cry and closed her eyes, gritting her teeth and pulling.

Between the two of them, they managed to keep Joe from slipping all the way over the side, inch by painful inch. Anne's shoulders ached and her heartrate and breathing were too quick, but she ignored all that until Joe was safe again.

Joe couldn't believe that the two of them had pulled him back up, but he was glad for it, so fucking glad, even as he collapsed back on the path they'd made, breathing heavily. His chest burned with each deep breath and he was reminded of how out of shape he'd been before coming to the island.

"Fuck," he hissed quietly, his ankle flaring with another burst of pain and he squeezed Anne's hand tightly.

Ariel practically collapsed on top of Joe, relieved and gasping for breath. She never knew a person could be so heavy. People weren't heavy like that in the sea. "Oh, Joe, oh you're okay," she said, sounding choked up.

Anne pulled her knees up to her chest and pressed her forehead to them as she caught her breath. Now it was essential that they get back to the compound, and safely, but first she thought that perhaps they'd earned a break.

"Yeah, I'm okay," Joe said to Ariel, although he didn't sound very sure of that. "I'm okay. Holy fuck, you two fucking pulled me up."

That thought alone was enough to make him forget the pain in his ankle. They'd saved him.

Ariel smoothed back some of his hair and then scooted backward, giving him some room. She looked to Anne in concern. "We did," she said in amazement, the relief showing on her face. "That was terrifying," she admitted, and laughed a little although she wasn't sure why.

Anne finally lifted her head, and she shouldn't have been surprised that there were tears in her eyes but she was, because she didn't feel like crying, they'd just sprung forth completely unannounced. She wiped them away quickly and smiled at both of her friends.

"We'll rest a moment," she said. "We'll rest here a few moments and I'll find us all something to eat."

Joe nodded, wincing slightly as he pulled himself further back from the edge. His ankle was throbbing painfully and it felt like something was on fire -- everything in his leg was burning.

"Thanks," he said quietly, looking over at Anne first, then Ariel. "Thank you," he repeated, then set to work taking his boot off so he could check out the damage.