Tempest

Seto woke under the tarp they had all used as a blanket, arms around Mokuba, pleased to find them both mostly dry. The rain that had come through hit harder than Seto had expected it would, but the crude shelter had held together.

"Our things are going to be drenched," Bakura said from the far end.

"Everything that can't get wet is in the bin."

And stored directly under them to make it more difficult to steal.

But when Seto sat up, knocking Seth's hand off his arm in the process, he glared at the rain still coming down. They had too much to do today for it to be raining, with a solid gray sky that didn't indicate a break any time soon.

"Someone might have kept a fire going," Ryou said hopefully.

"They didn't." Seto didn't have to look around to know that. He was certain that everyone had sheltered for the night, and none of the places for it could keep a fire safely going. "If we let the rice soak, it will be fine even without being cooked."

"Cold mush," Mokuba said. "That's a breakfast of champions."

"We need to get something built that will keep a fire going through the night," Seto said. "Or at least to be sure we have kindling to start one every morning. There won't be anything dry enough for it now."

Why hadn't he thought to set aside some of the sticks and branches they ended up not using on the shelter? It had been a foolish mistake, and one he didn't plan to make again.

"What will we do with the day?" Ryou asked. "Just hide from the rain?"

"No. Not that."

Seto looked to Mokuba rather than anyone else. He had to think in terms of what would keep Mokuba the safest and healthiest the longest. That meant a safe, better shelter than this, protecting their supplies, and finding a steady supply of food.

"You two stay here," Seto said to Mokuba and Seth. "Knowing the people here, someone is going to end up trying to steal unguarded supplies."

"I can't help just sitting here," Mokuba said.

"We're going to have to reinforce the roof without tarps," Seto said. "I'll go out and cut down more trees, and you can work on weaving them in to the existing structure once I'm back."

He felt Seth tugging at this thoughts for a translation, and couldn't force him out. And on top of that, his eyes were hurting from wearing the contacts for so long. The doctor back at the holding facility had assured him they would send his glasses and medication, but he hadn't been about to find them in the medical supplies.

Someone out here would have contact solution. Seto just needed to find them and trade something.

"I'll handle breakfast," Ryou said. "I can have something together in an hour."

Bakura would go with Seto to help carry everything they cut down back. It was as good of a plan as they could have in the beginning and with the rain to consider. Down the road, they would be able to do much more productive things with their day.

"We'll be back in less than an hour," Seto said, and pulled up his hood.

"Open the tarp while you're gone," Mokuba said. "It's really dark."

Seto did, tying it back so it would stay, and then heading out with Bakura and their ax.

"We need a structure that will keep a fire going overnight," Seto said. "If we can get a break in the rain for a few days, we can make bricks. Build a fireplace."

"We need separate places."

"One thing at a time."

Working with Bakura and Ryou shouldn't have meant living so close to them, but for now, it was a necessity. Judging by what all they had to do, Seto could get a second shelter built in a week. But that one would be close too so that the supplies didn't need to be separated. If he built them face to face, that would help block out the weather.

"Have you noticed anything we should be watching out for?" Seto asked.

"Mariku has his eyes on you. Your father—"

"Gozaburo."

"Gozaburo is clearly hiding something. My guess would be that they sent more food and he has it. The one with the bandana has been eying people's supplies."

Bakura kept listing all of the issues he had seen, and it ended up being something with almost everyone. It was a lot to remember, but Seto repeated them all mentally. Knowing who had issue with who would end up playing a role in their lives.

They picked a spot to start cutting the trees.

"How is Ryou handling all of this?" Seto asked.

"By pretending nothing is happening."

Seto couldn't comment, because he wasn't doing much better than that himself. Seth was an issue he wasn't ready to think about with everything else going on. Survival first, then petty squabbles.

"I don't suppose you know of a way to break this physical connection."

"I wouldn't be tethered to the landlord if I could break it."

Seto started swinging. "Someone has to know how."

"No one I'm willing to ask."

That was telling enough Seto knew who he needed to go to, and wasn't much interested in that either. But breaking the connection with Seth would be worth tolerating Yugi for a few minutes.

"They haven't split up either."

"Then it isn't possible and you should stop whining about it."

Seto stopped for a moment to glare, but his eyes hurt and he didn't think it worth the effort. But over Bakura's shoulder, he spotted Gozaburo.

"There's twenty square miles of island you can loiter on," Seto said, then got back to work.

"And you control where people walk on it?"

Gozaburo came closer, and Seto adjusted his grip on the ax. He wouldn't try anything, not with a witness.

"Did you want something?"

He took another swing.

"I take it a reasonable conversation is out of the question?"

Seto wasn't sure what it was, the headache, burning in his eyes, exhaustion from how little sleep he had gotten the night before, or absolute disinterest in dealing with Gozaburo again, but he handed off the ax.

"Tell me what you want."

"Walk with me."

After letting Bakura know he would return shortly, Seto followed Gozaburo a ways, walking in the opposite direction of the beach and potential passersby.

"This is an effective prison," Gozaburo said.

"It is."

"You sound like you've accepted it."

"I sound uninterested in this conversation."

As expected, Gozaburo only smiled knowingly, and continued moving forward.

"I won't spend the rest of my life here."

"Miss living in a simulation?"

"I've been restored to life. It will not be a life here."

"Is this all you wanted to talk about? Should I wish you good luck taking on satellites and the men surely patrolling the seas in the event of an escape attempt?"

"Seto."

"What."

"Whether you accept it now or down the line, you will end up helping me."

There was no reason to keep walking, so he didn't. "Why do you think I would do that?"

"Several reasons. Either you will decide you don't want your brother to spend his life here, and I'll already be well on my way to freedom, or you'll get tired of being blind."

Of course.

"You have my glasses."

"Come by when you're ready to talk."

Gozaburo kept walking, and Seto lifted his face to the leaf-covered sky, and didn't let himself say everything pressing that was coming to mind. It mostly would have been cursing, and he would not let Gozaburo see him react.

He had work to do.

Bakura had two trees down when Seto got back and was going at a third. There was nowhere dry to sit but Seto did anyway, and took out his knife to start trimming the branches.

"What did he want?"

"The same thing he always has. He won't get it."

But Seto did have to get his glasses back somehow. It was six months until the next supply drop, and he didn't think they would bring extra glasses. The flares were for emergencies only, and if he fired one for this, they wouldn't take an actual emergency seriously.

He would have to agree to whatever Gozaburo wanted, even if he didn't follow through with it.

Gozaburo would have the pills too. Seto really hadn't wanted anyone to see those, knowing they would get the wrong idea from them.

"Trade with me."

Seto gladly switched places for an excuse to hit something. When they had told him his sentence, Seto's thoughts had immediately gone to survival, and now everything was clouded. Dealing with Gozaburo should have been the last thing Seto was concerned about, and now it was at the forefront of his thoughts.

He felled three more trees before they headed back.

"Niisama? You should eat before you head out again."

"Ryou come through?"

"He did. Found some fruit and we made some rice to go with it."

It was more than Seto expected, so he nodded toward Ryou in thanks. They gathered back under the tarp to eat, and Seth's hand moved to Seto's wrist.

If not for the sudden rush of energy, he would have taken his hand away. But he had plans to get a lot accomplished before sundown and would need the strength.

"We need more than rice and fruit," Mokuba said. "I want to go help Tristan with the garden."

"Take Seth."

"He doesn't even speak English."

"He'll learn, and I need to keep an eye on things."

Mokuba stuck out his tongue, but continued eating right after. There wasn't any point in dragging out the meal since the rice was cold and wouldn't be getting any better. They ate the rest in silence, and then Ryou looked over the peels left from the fruit.

"We should start a compost pile."

"Handle it," Seto said. "And see if someone stole fishing gear. They must have sent some."

"Can I work in the garden or on the roof?" Mokuba asked.

"You'll have time for both today."

"We'll be busy," Mokuba said.

"That's the idea."

They all had their plans and went their separate ways, only pausing to time everything so someone would stay close with their supplies. Seto took the first shift, Bakura going to fell more trees, and took the branches they had trimmed to put them inside the shelter.

They would dry, and when they did, they would keep a fire going. It wasn't much, but it would have to be enough.

"Safe to say this didn't shelter anything," Joey said, walking a small circle inside the mess of sticks and tarps they had hung up the night before. "Everything's soaked through."

"It won't get better," Tristan said, and leaned back a bit to look up at the sky. "No end in sight."

Tea pulled her hood up a little more. "We can all fit into that room for another night. We don't have to use this...tent, tonight."

"There isn't room," Yugi said. "Grandpa needs to sleep, not sit upright and rigid all night."

"Means getting this thing put together. What'd everyone else get built?" Joey asked, and turned in a wide circle to see around the beach. But he didn't see anyone else's setup, not aside from the pre-built shelters. "Where are they all?"

"They can't build on sand," Mai said. "Try walking down a bit and looking at the trees."

The rain made it harder to see, so walking would be his only choice. But it was obvious what they had built wouldn't serve its purpose, and that meant stealing design ideas from someone else.

"They should've just built actual houses," Joey said right before pulling his own hood up. "Someone needs to get breakfast going."

Tristan and Serenity volunteered, and Joey shot Tristan a look. No funny business with my sister.

Yami and Yugi offered to join him for the walk, although no one started on it. The rain had gotten heavier, and Joey could tell they were all stalling to stay under the tarp.

"Still just as tough to be in two different bodies?"

"We're getting used to it," Yugi said.

"There may be a way to increase the separation," Yami went on. "For the others as well. Having to keep so close to another person isn't practical in this situation."

"And how're you going to manage that?"

"Almost all of the items are on this island," Yami said. "With them—"

"Not a chance. We don't need half of these clowns getting the idea to start using magic."

"Joey," Yugi said, saying his name slowly like he was about to correct him. "Having to keep physical contact so much is a problem."

"So's that maniac getting ideas," Joey said, pointing a thumb toward the Ishtar's shelter.

Serenity put the cap back on her water bottle. "But Joey, he doesn't have one of those items anymore. Kaiba has it now."

"And is that really any better?"

Tea pulled a face. "Of course it's better. He at least has Mokuba around to balance him out when he gets to be too much."

"I like the kid," Joey said, "But he's done crazy before. Maybe find a way without tripping off all the magic out here?"

"I will do what I can," Yami agreed.

"Swell. Let's figure out food and this thing."

They all looked up at the tarp, hanging limply toward one side where it was pooling water. Joey raised a fist to empty it, although it wouldn't be long before it refilled. It wasn't going to stay how it was, but even if they tightened it, it was too high and flat to block out much of the rain.

"Somebody's made a better one," Joey said. "Let's go spy them out."

"I don't think they'll care if we look," Mai said.

"I actually think they will," Tristan said. "But I'm going to try getting these seeds planted."

They hadn't been sent with many, and while it had been decided that one garden would be better than a lot of smaller ones, it would end up being much harder to keep an eye on what they planted. The Doma group had taken some of them, and Tristan had the rest.

"Maybe we should build a fence," Yugi said, clearly thinking something the same.

"Or put it real close to us and keep watch," Joey added.

"The others may disapprove of it being immediately beside us," Tea said.

"Can we really help that?" Duke asked. "I'm sure half the people here will understand why."

"It's the other half we're worried about," Yugi said.

Trying to figure out how all of this would work was frustrating, and the rain still coming down made it all the worse. They were somewhat dry underneath the tarp, but the wind brought the rain in anyway, so only their heads were staying dry, and even Yugi and Yami couldn't say that much.

"I'm going for the walk," Joey said. "Someone see if Mako caught anything."

Not that they could cook it.

It had only been a day, so Joey didn't expect anyone to have anything built. And over half of them had holed up inside one of those shitty huts. Maybe if he found Doma, they would have something they could copy? Or Kaiba. Kaiba was bound to have something good. He wasn't the type to let Mokuba sleep between two tarps and nothing else.

But a short ways down, it was looking like all anyone had gotten together was the same as Joey had. There were a couple tarps hung up between trees, a few from the huts, and nothing solid in sight.

Until he came across Kaiba's.

"You built this in a day?" Joey asked, walking a lap around the structure. It was raised off the ground by about a foot so the water didn't collect, and the roof was built at a hard angle, closed off on two of the three open sides. And the one that was open still had a tarp to cover it, but it was tied back to let in the light.

Only Mokuba and Seth were inside.

"It was all we did yesterday," Mokuba said. "I don't suppose you've got anything more than rice to eat yet."

"Not yet. We're looking into it. So is this all nailed together?"

"No, some of it's tied off with ropes," Mokuba said, pointing.

Joey tested a few of the knots and tried to build a good mental image of how it was put together. If Kaiba had gotten it done in a day with four people and a kid, then they should be able to get one done too.

"He doesn't talk much?" Joey asked, glancing up at Seth.

"Doesn't know the language really well yet. Niisama's just using him as a babysitter since he can see through Seth's mind or something."

"Creepy. How deep you bury these support poles?"

"Two feet, and it's got an x-shaped base to make it even steadier under there."

Joey shook his head. "Your brother's a dick, but he thinks of the details, that's for sure."

Mokuba grinned proudly. "Yes he does. And if you see him, tell him that I am a detail who could be working rather than hiding from the rain."

"Can do."

After a couple more laps, Joey thought he had what he needed to head back. It was early, which gave them plenty of time to finish it, even if they didn't know what they were doing super well. But who really knew what they were doing out here? Maybe Bakura. But the rest of them? They were all just winging it.

It was still raining when Joey rejoined the group, who all had pitched in to try to dry off their supplies and make breakfast at the same time.

"Kaiba's got a good one together. I think we can get the same sorta thing made in not too long."

He described it and drew a rough sketch in the sand, running his finger deep so the rain wouldn't immediately erase it. His didn't look as good as the actual thing, but it ended up close enough they all knew what he meant.

"If we get the frame together," Yugi started, "Then we can cover the roof with a tarp tonight, and finish it tomorrow. That gives us time to go get food and water too."

"Kaiba got this thing together with just his people in a day. We're twice that."

"And he's an engineer," Tea said.

Joey scoffed with a dismissive flick of his wrist. "Big whoop. We've got the two best strategists in the world standing right here."

"Oh yeah," Duke said, picking at something stuck under a fingernail, "Because that's the same thing."

"Can we stop talking about Kaiba and get started?" Tea asked. "The rain will slow us down."

That was true, and every minute would count in these first couple of days. Maybe it wouldn't be too long before they had everything built, a garden growing, and plenty to eat. Then they could take it easy for a while.

"Where's Ren?" Joey asked.

"She went with Mai to talk with Mako. And then to find out if there's anything dry here we can use for a fire."

"Doubt it, but no harm in checking I guess."

There was harm in wandering off alone out here, but Mai was tough. She'd keep a good eye on Serenity, and if she couldn't fend off any troublemakers, Joey trusted she'd scream.

Duke and Joey took their ax and headed out into the woods to start cutting down what they would need for the frame while Tea stayed with Yugi and Yami and their supplies. Somebody would end up helping out Tristan, and if not, Joey would pitch in the next day.

Cutting the trees and dragging them back to the beach was hard work, and without having eaten anything, Joey and Duke wore out quickly. The rice Tea offered them wasn't much, but it had to at least get them through the day. They would sleep better in the new shelter, able to lie down rather than sitting up in the tight space with Gramps.

"Mokuba said they made some holes and support beams," Joey said. "Wider on the bottom so they would hold."

"We can get them dug out," Yugi said. "But the ground is drenched."

"Build deeper and pack it down? We don't got much of another choice here."

Between that and cramming into that little space again, Joey would take his chances. "Besides, what else do we have to do today?"

It didn't seem like anyone else was doing much of anything. Joey spotted Pegasus a ways down, and Vivian standing in her doorway, but no one else. He guessed they might have all been out working somewhere he couldn't see, but that would be a lot of people conveniently gone. It was easier to assume they were all trying to stay dry.

There wasn't a chance for him to do that now. The jacket kept out most of the rain, but he still felt damp underneath it.

Serenity and Mai made it back right after Joey finished eating, hands unfortunately empty.

"He not trading?"

"He might not have been able to catch anything," Tea said.

"He has," Mai said, "But he won't just give them away. He'll give us three if we chip in to build him a shelter once ours is done."

A few glances around their group settled the matter.

"Sold," Joey said. "Let's hope we don't have to eat these things raw. What's the word for that?"

"Sashimi," Mai said. "And our matches should be dry. We just need kindling."

Joey nodded a couple times, looking out over the forest and the rain dripping down from the leaves. "After twenty four hours of rain. That's going to be a challenge."

"We'll find something," Yugi said. "Half of us can look for that while the other half stays here to build."

Joey, Yugi, Yami, and Duke stayed for the building, while the girls went in search of firewood. They took one of the tarps with them so that when they found something, it wouldn't get wet on the return trip.

"If these people ever come back to bring us more supplies," Joey started, "I'm going to let them have it for only building those paper huts."

"They'll have guns," Duke said.

"And we'll have righteous fury. That'll even it out."

"I don't think righteous fury will make you bulletproof," Yugi said, elbows deep in the dirt.

"What about all your shadow games?" Joey asked Yami. "You could send them all to the shadow realm and we'll take one of the choppers out of this place."

Yami was helping trim the branches off the trees they cut down. "And what happened to not using magic while we're here?"

"Not doing it during normal times, but I think even the big bads won't try anything if we can get an escape going. Not against us, anyway."

"It took five helicopters to bring us here," Yugi said. "It will likely only take one to bring supplies, and that's if they come back with any."

Joey hadn't considered that part, but figured that Yugi was right. Of course they'd suspect an attempt on the helicopters, so if they just brought the one, it solved the problem. Joey could mount a daring attack and take the helicopter, but then he'd have to fight off Kaiba, Doma, and Mariku to keep it. They'd kill each other and government would still win.

"You would magic everyone unconscious first."

"Ishizu would know what was happening," Yami said. "And she would expect places for the four of them to leave."

And with the eight people in their own group, plus Gramps, Arthur, and Rebecca, they'd never fit.

"We've got plenty of time to come up with something better. And it isn't like you've lost to everyone here like they've lost to you."

"If we going around saying things like that, it might give them ideas about banning together," Yami said.

Joey couldn't imagine that happening, but he also never would have imagined being imprisoned like this for trying to save the world. So, he supposed he shouldn't shut down any ideas just because they were ridiculous.

The rain let up a couple hours later, right as Joey and Duke were holding the frame together for Yugi and Yami to nail into place. Cheers went around, even though there were still enough clouds to make Joey think it might not hold off for long, but the break was great.

He took down his hood and ran his fingers back through his hair, damped despite having been covered all day.

"It's taking the girls a while."

"I should go looking for them," Duke said, and Joey shot that down.

"You and Trist got to lay off my sister."

"They could be lost," Duke said. "I have to lay off even if it means helping them?"

"I'll help them just fine."

But it had been too long. The shelter needed to be completed, although not at the expense of losing track of the girls. He trusted Mai, but didn't like not knowing where Serenity was.

He craned up to look out over the tree line for them, and didn't see them anywhere close. Joey was about to give up on building to go out in search, but just as he was about to start, he looked down the beach and found them talking to Mako.

"Over there. They've got something under the tarp."

That meant they could get something to eat, with a fire built. Could they keep the fire going? If so, then they just needed the shelter.

They could make this work, couldn't they?

If the fucking rain would stop, they might have been able to find some food. Rex sat under a tree that didn't stop the rain, but just made it come down in much larger drops, with his tarp pulled over his head. It didn't do anything. The ground was soaked so his pants were soaked, and even his socks.

They hadn't been given more clothes, and apparently none of these losers knew how to keep a fire going. That made him cold and wet, and Rex was tired of it.

He watched Pegasus adjust his own tarp to close off the entrance to his shelter. He was just at the edge of Rex's sight, close enough to everyone to be involved, but far enough for his own space. It wasn't such a bad setup, and it looked like he'd built something that at least kept out the rain, but it wasn't Rex's style. When the rain let up and he hijacked what he needed, he'd hightail it somewhere private to set up shop. Weevil would tag along because that was what he did, but it'd be private enough.

But first, this rain needed to stop.

It didn't though, and when his hunger got to be too much, Rex had to get up, hood drawn. Although, he guessed there wasn't much point to it. What'd it matter if his hair got wet too?

He marched over to that weird hut thing the outcasts had been assigned, but Keith and Vivian had claimed. She'd let them take shelter in hers the night before, but after that, they were on their own. Except for their food. They all agreed to keep the rice inside and out of the rain. Rex planned to get a cup of it and go, maybe scout out more of this hellhole. Someone had mentioned seeing fruit, and if he grabbed it while everyone else was hiding, then he would have it and they wouldn't. It wasn't as if these people would be doing any rationing.

"You stealing food?" Weevil asked when Rex came out with his rice.

"Can't steal what's mine, dipshit."

"Where're you running off too?"

Rex let rainwater fill the cup to soak the rice. It wouldn't be good, but it would be something.

"Scavenger hunt."

"They didn't leave us clues."

"Stay put then."

"You're more interesting than these grub worms."

"I'm not searching you out if you go get yourself lost," Rex said.

"Well I'm not either," Weevil said. "And I'm way more likely to survive in the wild than you."

"Are not. What are you going to do, eat larvae?"

"At least that's a practical idea. What are your plans? Hope this place goes Jurassic?"

"Shove it. Just stay here."

"And do what? Start a farm? Build a sandcastle? Hide from the rain?"

Rex headed out without answering, and used his finger to stir the rice around. Maybe he should have filtered it first, but that would have taken too long, and they had to get used to the water eventually. The government wouldn't be going back for them. What they had was all they'd get.

"You're not really moving to the other end, are you?" Weevil asked.

"Might be. All we know, they dumped us on the worst bit."

But after a short walk, Rex started to think it was all the same. The whole place was just trees and sticks, with occasional rocks mixed between them. The ground was rough, like someone had mixed sand in all over, and no matter how deep they walked, the rain didn't stop.

"No way this place is so big without someone having settled here before," Rex said to himself. "Twenty miles...someone else is here."

"They wouldn't send criminals to an inhabited island."

"I'm not a criminal. Are you a criminal?"

Rex stopped walking when he saw Mariku, who stood alone, but looked through the trees at someone. This guy seriously freaked him out, and keeping a wide berth, Rex worked his way around.

But he did take a peek through to see who Mariku was watching so intently, and found Mokuba and Kaiba—or was it that other one—right in his sights. That was another thing Rex would keep his distance from. All these people had so many personal issues with everyone else here.

"What are you looking for?" Weevil asked once they were clear.

"Anything to make this place suck less."

"What might that be? Abandoned five star hotel?"

"If there is one, would you complain?"

"Not if it had a bed. Can you believe they didn't send beds? Even death row convicts get a bed."

"Maybe this is the new death row," Rex said. "It might go well for them. They might like this idea too much."

"They'd run out of islands."

They wouldn't. They had their island, and it was only a matter of time before people started dying off or being killed. If they sent more, they'd overpopulate, and then people would really start dying. Or maybe they would just die anyway without being over populated. Rex didn't know and didn't want to stick around the chaos long enough to find out.

Rex stepped over a fallen tree, pausing mid-step when he heard voices. There were a lot of them, more than he expected to find this far out, which probably wasn't that far when he thought about it. They weren't a mile deep, and for as many people as he heard, this must have been where the water was.

It was. About a dozen people were hanging around a pond that wasn't really a pond, Rex thought. Not if it had a waterfall, which it did. A small lake, maybe? Either way, it was water and now he knew where it was.

Rex finished off his rice and went to fill his cup.

"You should filter that," Serenity said. "Here."

Tea, Mai, and Serenity had one of their big plastic tubs filled with water, and from Serenity's offer, Rex assumed they had already filtered it.

"Yeah, okay, thanks."

He sipped it while looking around, first at the waterfall, then up the mountain it came from, and then around at everyone here. They were all clustered into their groups, a couple of Gozaburo's men, a few of the outcasts, two of the Ishtars, and then the girls from Yugi's group. He wondered how long it would take for all these clean cut groups to dissolve or break apart. Hopefully not long.

They let Weevil fill his too.

"Any food around here?" Rex asked the girls. They had helped once, so they might again.

"There's mangoes growing just down that way," Tea said. "And I think someone said there were coconuts around there too, but I didn't see them."

"Anyone know how to open a coconut?"

His question was met with silence.

"Great. Just great."

There wasn't any point in staying here with everyone else around, and the whole point of this expedition was to find a place away from these people. He would have to go to the whole other side at this point if they were here.

Given how long he had waited for the rain to stop, today wouldn't be the day to make the trek across. It would be dark when he got there and he wasn't camping out alone in the middle of nowhere with just a tarp and maybe a mango.

This was all the pits. Nothing out here had been meant for survival or practicality, and Rex just knew that was all intentional. And they needed to punish the magic users, but all the rest of them? That was a stretch of logic he doubted anyone could span.

Although he wasn't planning to stay out overnight, he kept heading away from the main beach. He believed his words from earlier, that there was no way this much land had been uninhabited for thousands of years. It wouldn't surprise him if the governments that banned together to make this call had uprooted people, and that meant there would be something here to find.

If he found it first, he'd be able to trade for all the stuff he wanted. Maybe they divided it fairly, but there still hadn't been enough, so he didn't have enough.

"The rain stopped," Weevil said.

"Water's still coming down."

"That's just residual water dripping down, dumb wad."

Rex didn't like admitting that Weevil was right, but he was. It was clear when they came to a hill and the trees opened up to it and a cloudy, but rainless sky. Rex left his hood up, not wanting to chance it starting again, to begin his ascent.

Maybe he'd see something useful from up high. This place was the size of a city, which meant there was no way he could see everything at once. Even the equivalent of a few blocks would be enough.

Something had to be enough.

The air at the top of the hill was thicker and damp, and it made every breath feel like it weighed a lot more than it did. Rex was sluggish at the top, but did what he came to do, looking out over the island.

And he saw nothing but trees and sea.

"Dammit. Fuck it all. There's nothing. Nothing!"

He turned in a circle, still looking. Trees to the left, to the north, in every direction, and beyond them, blue. How couldn't there be anything? A whole city's worth of people could have fit here and there was just nothing?

"What were you expecting to find?" Weevil asked. "Not the fantasy."

"Houses. Roads. Signs that people lived here and they had to clear out quickly."

"No one would agree to move like that."

"Have you read history? Since when do governments care what natives think?" He shook his head. "There's something here. There's something, and I'm going to find it."

Thanks for reading! Sorry for the update delay.

You can expect an update around July 15th.