The fuselage remained silent.
I edged toward Jack, Glock raised. He mirrored my movements along the shattered hull.
"Come out!" Jack bellowed, hurling his torch inside.
A chorus of snarls erupted as dark shapes burst forth—a wild boar and her piglets. My reflex shot dropped one squealing youngster.
Under moonlight, we gathered around the twitching carcass. Jack knelt first, drinking straight from the bullet hole in its skull. Blood painted his chin crimson when he grinned up at us.
"Back off," I ordered. "You'll get your share later."
Daisy surprised me by drinking next, then Emma. Only Kate refused. The iron-rich blood left me buzzing with energy as dawn broke.
"We should leave," Emma pleaded. "This place is crawling with predators."
Kate nodded vigorously.
I studied the massive banyan tree. "We're building a treehouse. By tomorrow night."
Their skepticism evaporated when I led them into the jungle to harvest liana vines. Kate examined the fibrous plants. "You're making rope... for a house?"
"Better than sleeping with jackals." I tested a vine's tensile strength. Military survival training finally paying off.
Emma giggled as we hauled bundles back. "David Carter, treehouse architect. Who knew?"
"Wait till you see the plumbing," I deadpanned.
Kate's nose wrinkled when I roasted the piglet's brain. "That's disgusting."
I made a show of smacking my lips. "Five-star Michelin right here."
"Ugh! You're worse than Jack!" She stormed off as Emma fake-sneezed brain matter everywhere.
Later, I offered Kate roasted haunch. "Truce, your highness?"
Her dimples appeared despite herself. Emma pouted until I served her too. "I like a man who knows when to grovel."
"Survival tip #23," I said. "Keep your women fed."
Kate threw a bone at me. "In your dreams, Tarzan."
As we worked, I caught Daisy studying the tree's canopy with unsettling precision. Her fingers traced possible anchor points like she'd built a hundred tree forts.
Emma flopped onto the sand with a dramatic groan. "My back's killing me—no way I can carry more."
Kate rolled her eyes. "Funny how your injuries disappear when we're running for our lives."
The vine bundles were bulky but light. I helped adjust their loads before shouldering an extra portion myself.
An hour later, we collapsed beneath the banyan tree. Emma threw down her bundle. "I'm dead. Officially deceased."
Kate's tank top clung to her sweat-slicked skin, curves accentuated by heaving breaths. I tried not to stare as she turned away.
"Ocean dip?" I suggested.
Kate scanned the beach. "Where's Daisy?"
The realization hit us simultaneously. Jack was missing too.
"You don't think..." Kate's voice trembled.
Emma rolled against the vine pile. "We should take Daisy everywhere."
"And leave our supplies unguarded?" I countered. "Jack would steal everything."
Emma checked the storage pit. "Food's still here. But where would she—"
I bellowed across the dunes: "DAISY!"
Only crashing waves answered. A cold thought slithered through my mind—had Jack finally snapped?