Michael Bray - Feed

Nash looked from his leg to his son, and Tyler could see it. The older man was afraid. He wondered if that had always been the case, that he feared his son and he had never noticed it before. Liam went on.

‘Think about it, we need food. We could take off the leg, save dad’s life and then… then we’ll have something to eat as long as we avoid the infected areas.’

Silence.

Nobody wanted to speak or knew what to say. The waves lapped at their rock prison and still, nobody broke the silence brought on by Liam’s words. Tyler cleared his throat, choosing his words carefully.

‘We’re all hungry, I get that. But this line of thought leads nowhere. This isn’t an option. Granted, the leg wound is infected, but we don’t know if the infection will spread or not. It could be isolated and saveable once we get out of here. Even if we needed to take the leg, if it was a life-threatening injury that meant it had to happen, we have no way of doing it. No tools, nothing to stop the bleeding, nothing to numb his pain. No means of stitching or sealing the wound. He wouldn’t survive. Even if by some miracle he did, the risk of infection would be even bigger with a fully open wound. And for what? A hunk of infected meat that you couldn’t cook or make safe to eat. It’s a non-starter.’ Even as he said it, Tyler tried to rid his mind of images of rare steak served with peppercorn sauce. Disgusted by the way his mind made the link, he swallowed the burst of saliva before he could start to drool.

He looked to Nash for support, but he was still staring at his son, a frail and frightened old man.

‘Take it easy,’ Liam said, breaking eye contact. ‘It was just… I wasn’t thinking. I’m so hungry, so so hungry it’s just…’ He stared at his father’s leg, then forced himself to look away. ‘I wasn’t thinking straight, that’s all. I get like this when I’m off my medication.’

‘I get it, but I’m telling you right here and now. Get that idea out of your head. We have water now and can ration it out which means we’ve bought a little time. We’ll figure out a way to get food. We’re surrounded by ocean that is full of life. We’ll figure out a way to get it.’

‘Yeah, you’re right, forget I mentioned it. I’m just… I don’t know. I’m not quite together anymore. This place is breaking me.’

They had all felt it but Nash was first to vocalise it.

‘You know, maybe it might be better to just end this. Just walk out into the sea and let that bastard finish us.’ Nash wouldn’t look at them as he said it. Instead, he stared out over the ocean with his one good eye. The shark had stopped patrolling the island, but they all knew it was out there.

‘We can’t give up. Not now. Look at how bad things were before we got water,’ Tyler said, not liking the dark thread they were following.

‘With no food, it will get worse. I don’t know about you, but I’m feeling weaker every day. To just sit here and die… It won’t be a good way to go.’

‘Look, I think we’re all feeling negative tonight. Let’s get some rest and save our strength. We’ll talk tomorrow.’

Nobody had the energy to argue. Nash settled down and made himself as comfortable as he could. Tyler did the same, his exhausted mind and body meaning sleep came easier than it should have.

Liam, however, didn’t sleep. He sat there in the dark and stared at his father’s leg. He started to drool.

PRE-DAWN

Nash and Tyler were still sleeping. Liam was too agitated and hungry to do the same and wanting to remove himself from them both, especially his father’s leg and the chance to survive it would have presented, he had gone to the other side of their tiny island, just so he could be alone with his thoughts. The hunger burned in his gut, which he was sure had shrivelled to something non-existent. Hungry eyes scanned the surface of the rock island, looking for something, anything to eat. He found the debris in the alcove. He presumed the storm had pushed it to the island. Liam crouched in the alcove, sifting through the floating fragments of fibreglass. There was half a soggy paperback, it’s cover missing. Alongside it was a few little pieces of polystyrene and half a plastic mug that was his fathers and was cracked down one side. He ignored all of it. The thing that caught his eye was the box. Designed to be positively buoyant in the event of falling overboard, he knew it was the sign from above he had been waiting for. He pulled it towards him, shaking hands fumbling with the catch. Eventually, he freed it and lifted the lid. Inside the watertight container was a medical kit. Liam pushed past the bandages and found what he was looking for at the bottom. He took out the scalpel, heart thundering. There were also spare blades in the box and flare gun. In that instant, everything changed. The opportunity that had, until that point, not allowed him to follow his initial train of thought was now there. Something wet touched his leg, and for a moment, he thought it was starting to rain. It was only when he looked at it that he realised he was drooling at the idea of finally getting some food. Now all he needed was the mental strength to do what he had to so they could survive. He rolled his sunken eyes to the sky. ‘Please, show me a way to do this. Show me a way to make it happen.’

He waited and listened to the water crash against the rocks, hoping for some kind of message from above. He was aware that the sun was starting to rise, and that he should get back before the others woke and found him missing. First, though, he would need to hide his new find.

When he had finished hiding the box under some loose rocks in the alcove and returned to the front of the island, the day was already starting to heat up. He arrived back at their makeshift campsite and found Tyler crouched beside Nash. At first, he thought they were just in conversation until he saw his father’s unblinking gaze staring at the sky.

‘It must have happened overnight,’ Tyler said. ‘It looks like he just slipped away.’

Liam approached, staring at his father, unsure why he didn’t feel anything. Tyler didn’t know what to say. Death made him uncomfortable at the best of times, but here on the hot, tiny island prison that had become their home, it was even worse. He had always held out hope that they would be saved and escape, but now as he looked at the empty vessel sprawled on the sand, the reality of the situation had shattered the fragile illusion he had built and with it reduced the symphony of questions in his mind down to just one.

How will we survive?

It was a good question. Hope was no longer enough. He looked across to Liam, wishing there were words he could say that would make a difference. He knew there were none. Liam, for his part, seemed to be taking the death of his father well. He was kneeling by the body, brow dotted with sweat, sunken eyes taking in the sight and trying to make sense of it.

‘Are you okay?’ Tyler asked, the simple function of speech becoming harder as his energy faded.

Liam had no answer. He simply stared, brow furrowed, sweat collecting on the tip of his nose.

‘Liam?’

‘How long has he been dead?’

There was no emotion in his voice. It was flat and almost disinterested.

‘I don’t know. I woke up and thought he was still sleeping. It wasn’t until the sun shone on his face and he didn’t move that I realised…’

Liam nodded, satisfied with the explanation. ‘You know this changes things for us, don’t you?’ He looked at Tyler, dark and bottomless.

Despite the heat, Tyler felt a flush of cold. ‘Changes things how?’

‘My dad is dead, but it doesn’t mean we have to go the same way. We have a chance now without him.’

‘Maybe now isn’t the time. We can talk about it later. You need time to mourn, to get to grips with what has happened.’ Tyler was shaken by the dismissiveness Liam was showing. There was no sorrow or mourning for his father. He wondered if it was nothing more than survival instinct kicking in or if the heat, thirst, and hunger had simply combined to throw a few switches into the off position in his brain. Tyler couldn’t really argue the point, though. His first thought after discovering Nash was dead had been that they might now be able to risk heading out into open water without worrying about Nash bleeding into it and drawing in the Megalodon. Despite what he had just said, he understood now was the time to act if they intended to try and escape the island. Every wasted second brought them closer to death.