Page 1 of Uncharted

Chapter1

Overhaul

Haley

“What do you want me to do with this vine rope?” I cup my hands and yell up at Zane. I know what he wants me to do with it, but I want to see if he’ll come up with another answer. One that we could have a little more fun with.

“She puts it in the basket.”

I glare at him. For the last week, we’ve been snuggling at night while Zane retells us old movies. Last night wasSilence of the Lambs.I wasn’t a fan. I coil the rope and put it in my newest basket. This one has a handle and can actually hold more than a pound or two. All thanks to the reed-like plants Calvin found on the other side of the island. I watch as Zane pulls it up.

“How’s it going?” I call back up again.

“Get on up here and take a look.” I put another log on the stove. Dante will want it hot for dinner tonight. I give Pepper a scratch behind her ears. She’s getting so big, like a gangly teenager. Her ears are too large for her head, and she’s all paws—and only a little bit of claws.

I hold on to the rope and use the few footholds we’ve made to get to the platform. This one is mostly finished, and when the other ones are done, it will be our living room. There’s a corrugated tin roof from the ship over most of it. The other side, with the least amount of wind, has a palm frond covering the top of the tarp. Calvin and Zane are working on the bedroom platform, a few steps above this one. It’s going to be something when it’s done. It’s a lot bigger. It will have solid walls that the guys are convinced will hold through the rainy season. A few more boards, and the base will be finished.

I climb up the steps to the bedroom and poke my head in. “It’s looking amazing.” A soft brush of fur rubs up against my legs. “Look at you, Pepper. You’re such a big girl getting up here on your own.” I pick her up and nuzzle her to my face. I know it’s going to take a while for her to get back down on her own. But it’s a step in the right direction. “Can I come up?”

“Yes. Don’t step over there. We’re still getting it secured.” Calvin points to the far corner.

Maybe it’s all the time I spent working in yacht ship interiors, but I’ll swing a hammer if they need me to. We only have one hammer. We found it in the locked chest on the fishing boat, along with two wool blankets that were remarkably not moth eaten. There were a few other tools, a saw and a hand drill, along with a picture of a woman wearing a flower in her hair. We’ve brought the chest into the kitchen area. It’s where we keep all the supplies we want to keep dry. The hardest thing we’ve done is cut the raft apart. It was starting to leak. And I don’t care what happens. I’m not leaving this island in an inflatable raft. Even if we could get it past the breakers, the thought of being thrown about with no way of knowing where we were going or being able to steer? Yeah, I’m not interested in that. I did spend a few hours yesterday straightening nails. But most of my time has been spent trying to make things better for us. I made more mats for the roof above the living space. Swept the dirt and sand out of the kitchen area. But I’m ecstatic about the sleeping loft. “When can we move into it?” The floor is almost done, and the roof was in place at almost the same time the support timbers were put up.

“It needs the rest of the sidewalls up. It’s going to take a bunch more trips to the derelict to get the supplies we need.” Zane has a sharp stick behind his ear. It’s one he uses to draw in the sand when he’s trying to convince Calvin to build something his way. He looks just like the architect I think he should have been. “We can’t sleep in it until we know we won’t fall out.”

I nod. Bringing the supplies from the ship has taken a long time. We even talked about building it closer to the derelict, but there aren’t any trees there as good as these.

“Hey, Sassy. We’re home,” Dante calls out, and something large thuds to the ground.

Zane crouches and looks through the last hole in the floorboards. “Excellent. They’ve got the support beam.” He hops up and zips down the tree ladder.

I stand at the railing of the living room. “Hi, guys.”

“Haley.” Easton brushes his hand on his pants. “Is that a new basket?” He takes the swinging basket in his hands.

I’m down the ladder a lot slower than Zane. “Yeah. What do you think?”

Dante gives me a hug as he makes his way over to the stove. “Perfect temperature, Sassy.”

“It’s good. You’re really improving.” Easton kisses the spot below my ear. The one he knows makes me squirm.

“Hey, you two. We’ve got work to do. There’s a few more hours until it gets dark.” Zane examines the new beam. To me, it looks like one of the ribs of the ship. But I’ve been wrong about my guesses before.

“Tide’s going out. I’m going to go to the beach and check the fish weir,” I say.

“I’ll come with you.” Calvin’s down in three long steps.

“We’re losing light.” Zane kneels next to the beam, taking measurements with his pencil stick.

“And we’ll have sunrise tomorrow,” Calvin responds.

Dante puts his hand on Calvin’s forehead. “Who are you and what have you done with taskmaster Green?”

Calvin pushes Dante’s hand away. “Let’s go see what’s for dinner, Haley.”

“Bring something good back. I don’t want to make jerky stew again,” Dante threatens. It’s the only thing of his that we all had a hard time getting down. And it was only once.

“You coming, Easton?” I hold my hand out to him.

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