Chapter 40

George, Bill, and I were sitting in the same spot of shade that we were sitting in before we found George. The gentle yet stern ocean winds cooled our bodies and rustled the palm trees. Vegetation that looked too full of green leaves was now harboring glistening red and orange fruit. The lazy tides wetted the sand at the shore, and the small seashells waded to land. It was a beautiful sight if not for the idea that we were fighting almost to the death with twenty thousand other people. As if Bill was tuning in on my thoughts, he said, "There are less than twenty thousand people left."

I checked the little number in the head. Nineteen thousand six-hundred and seventy-two people left. Wow. That was quick. "Either it was a godsend that nobody found us or maybe we just looked too feeble for them to even try," I added to the conversation.

George grabbed some of the fruits of the bushes and started to munch on them by the handful. With an open mouth full of red and orange mush, he said, "Either way, it's fine." We nodded our heads in agreement.

Bill said, "But, we need to start making plans. If we don't, then we might as well be sitting ducks." We all nodded our heads to that too.

George suggested, "First, let's see which pills we got." He parked his hand in his pocket and brought out a blue capsule. In the palm of his hand, the pill fit snuggly in his palm lines. Bill brought out his next; it was red. So far we have a strength pill and vision pill, respectively. I brought out mine. I held the yellow pill vertically between my thumb and index finger.

Bill pointed out, "This is good. We have all the basic ones. Strength, vision, and respiratory. With these, we can make or do something together without any problems."

George cut it right after, "The question is when do we use them?"

I looked at him in confusion and asked, "We use them when we need them the most, right? That's why we only got one."

George idyllically drew in the pure, white sand with his middle finger. "Not necessarily. We were all given one pill to start with, consider it seed money," he drew one pill in the sand, "We need to use that pill to get more. We have to."

Bill nodded and drew large stick figures. He said, "The people in the lead right now are able to harness fifty percent or more of their pill's effects. Using one, for them, means that they will always be getting a profit of one or more back. Either by finding new ones via crates or supply stations or by stealing or forcefully taking them from other players." He finished drawing three stick figures.

George then circled the three and continued, "That's why it will be important for us as a group to start accumulating some. We can worry about pill affinity later."

I nodded my head as I followed along. I put on my dried shirt which was now rough and stale due to the saltwater. "Where do you think we can find these pills?"

Bill responded, "The most are probably in the middle or anywhere where the largest concentration of people is. Otherwise, they could be hidden anywhere. It just depends. Like a game."

Like a game, huh? I moved on, "Besides the pills, what did you guys bring for the personal items?"

Bill took out a small black canister and elucidated, "This is a water-proof lighter. We can use it in case we get too tired to make a fire out of sticks or something. It can also be used as a weapon." George and I nodded.

We looked at George next. He remained quiet. Bill frustratedly said, "Did you actually forget to bring anything?"

George held up his hands in defense and said, "No! I just brought something that looks more useless compared to Vincent's necklace. No offense."

I brushed him off, "None taken. So, what did you bring?"

George brought out a small book. "It was our father's book. He always used to carry it around in his pocket. It's mostly filled with his notes and thoughts." The book was old and yellow. It seemed like a diary to me, but it could have been different. The once bright red cover was a dulled maroon.

Bill was annoyed. "How are we supposed to get through the event when all we have is one useful item? The only practical use that book has it to be food for my fire!" He flicked the little metal gear so that the fire would ignite.

George hid the book behind his back and warned Bill, "Don't you dare!"

Wanting to break up the escalating tensions, I asked Bill a question, "Where'd you get the lighter, Bill?"

Bill turned red at his ears and rubbed his neck. "I may have borrowed it from a fool." I smiled. There was nothing wrong in stealing when you sort of had to.

George thought differently. "Bill, dad raised us better!"

Bill was taken back at first but then retaliated, "But he's DEAD now! It doesn't matter anymore!"

George was about to hit his brother when I intervened. "Do you guys want to build a sandcastle?"

Both of them looked at me confused. "What?" they both said in unison.

I pointed at the shore and said, "The sand over there is perfect! So, why don't we build something over there to...mark our presence?"

Bill slapped his head and said, "Are you trying to get us killed?"

I was going to answer that when George blurted, "That's a great idea! Let's do it!" He raced over to the water and started to pile up the wet sand for construction. Bill looked at him, and I shrugged my shoulders. What the heck. I raced over to George and helped him. Then, Bill gave up and joined in on the fun too.

***

That night, we caught some small, silver-scaled fish and cooked them over a small, covered fire. The salt was missed deeply, but the meat on the fish was filling enough. We made ourselves a mat-like structure out of fallen palm leaves to keep the sand out of our backs. We felled a small sapling of a tree with a sharp rock Bill found on the shore. The small tree was positioned in a slant over where we were sleeping. This way, we put mover fallen palm leaves and other vegetation on the sides of it to create a triangular shelter. We slept snuggly that night, sharing body heat without a care in the world.