As she approached the river area again she could hear singing. It wasn't very loud, but as she drew closer she knew it was him. She supposed that she shouldn't have been shocked because the only other person out there was him but it was so good for a second she thought that he'd found a radio or was using his phone. The fact that he was creating that sound himself, despite the state he was in, amazed her. When she came into his line of sight he stopped abruptly and looked in her direction.

"Don't stop for my sake." She said, walking over to where he was and setting down the bag of stuff she had brought back. Most of it was first aid supplies but she'd grabbed some of the packaged food and booze that they had found at the beach.

"I was just trying to pass the time," He said, looking her over. She had taken the time to get changed into a sundress that she had found among the luggage that they had pulled onto the shore. It was a bit too tight on her but not uncomfortable, so she could understand why he was staring.

"It was good, the only musical thing I'm good at is the violin and really only because my parents wanted me to be." She told him, reaching into the bag to get some latex gloves which were included in the first aid kit that she had found.

"Violin? That's not an easy instrument."

"No, it's not. My parents were always on my ass about it in school. They wanted me to be good at everything I guess. I still play now but only because I figure that I took time to learn the skill I shouldn't lose it." She laughed. No one ever heard her play except for close friends, and she didn't think she was that good at it. She certainly was not as musically inclined as he obviously was. "I'm going to check your leg now."

"You'll be gentle right? I'm not a corpse, I'm a living guy." He said with a bit of a nervous laugh behind his voice.

"I think I can tell the difference." She said, "Besides, I'm gentle with corpses too. Don't want to disrespect the dead." Her gloved hands reached out and pulled down the rest of the bandage on his thigh even though most of it was already falling away as it was. It should have been changed far before that moment but she hadn't thought of it.

"Huh, good to know." He muttered.

"Why? Planning on dying in such a weird way you'll need an autopsy?" She asked, "I wouldn't be the one doing it unless you died in New York City and I also happened to be assigned to it you know."

"Like you wouldn't volunteer." He snickered.

"I don't know." She smiled, "I guess it would depend on what mood I'm in. Lay on your side it'll be easier to do this. Did you take those pills?"

"Yeah, yeah," He muttered and shifted so he was laying on his side looking out towards the river. She grabbed the bottle of peroxide and a pair of tweezers. Peroxide was not the best thing to use in this situation, really. It could damage the skin and the wound area which would probably leave a permanent scar but she didn't really have a choice. Her only other option would have been to make a saline solution but they didn't have enough salt for that even if they could get enough clean water so it was better than nothing.

"Try to stay still, I know it won't be easy but...try." She said then disinfected the tweezers and moved in to work. He nodded and she heard him take in a deep breath and hold it. She cleaned out the wound a bit by irrigating it with some peroxide and then looked into it, gently prying it open with her fingers. Other than the fact there was puss in there, and it didn't smell particularly great, she could see something shiny. Probably metal. It was possible a piece of shrapnel got stuck inside of him which would explain why the infection was progressing so rapidly. Getting that out would make a world of difference but it was going to be agonizing.

"What?" He breathed, "What's wrong? You stopped doing anything..."

"Nothing is wrong, don't...panic." She said, "I'm just going to have to do something that is going to be very unpleasant."

"How unpleasant?"

"Just try not to hit me or move around too much, you'll just make it worse."

"Make what worse?"

"There's some metal in the wound, I'm sure I can get it with the tweezers but it's going to be hell." She said, only to hear him groan in what sounded like a combination of annoyance and pain.

"Fuck."

"Yeah, I know." She sighed, "I'm just going to go for it on the count of three."

"You absolutely have to?"

"I don't have to, I won't do anything against your will, but in the long run you'd much prefer I take it out." She said. There was a silence, other than his heavy breathing while she let him think about it. She didn't blame him either. If that had been her in his position she knew that she'd not want to face the pain that would be associated with taking the metal out either. She'd have also probably been sobbing and screaming already, he was doing a very good job sucking it up but everyone had a breaking point.

"Fine just be as quick as possible." He said.

"I'll do my best." She replied. He closed his eyes tightly and took in another breath, holding it in his chest. She bit her bottom lip and moved in before sliding the tweezers into the wound to grab onto the metal. It took a bit of wiggling and that got him to scream, loud enough that it made her ears start to ring. She kept working until it came loose and she was able to get the entire thing out. "Okay...done...done..."

"Fucking...hell!" He yelled, sounding like he was trying to catch his breath, "Jesus fucking...fuck that's the worst pain ever."

"Yeah I bet," She said and rubbed his side gently, "But you did an amazing job and I only need to do a bit more before I'm done here."

"Please just...finish." He begged. She nodded and disinfected the wound one more time with peroxide before starting to bandage it back up with a clean bandage from the kit that she'd brought with her. By the time she was done he was laying there, shaking and covered in sweat. She grabbed one of the towels she'd packed and cut a strip off of it then she moved to the river to get it damp before coming back over to him and wiping his forehead and cheeks with it, looking down into his eyes.

"I know it doesn't seem like it right now but that's going to really be helpful in a few days." She whispered.

"I really fucking hope so." He whispered. She offered him a reassuring smile and then handed him the towel she was using. She stood up and grabbed the bag, going through it to find the pack of matches that she'd taken.

"I'm going to start a fire you just lay there and...take it easy."

"I didn't plan on doing anything else." He chuckled breathlessly. She watched him for another moment and then started to gather up things to use as kindling so she could start a fire. He stayed in her line of sight the whole time, as she was worried he might go into shock. Even if he did, there wouldn't have been much she could do other than to stay there with him but he seemed to be relatively okay. She prayed for some miracle to keep him safe from any further or worse infection but it would be very hard to do something like that out in the middle of nowhere.

*****

It was about an hour later and Seth was fast asleep by the fire that she'd made nearby. She was sipping water from her canteen when she was sure she heard some sort of metal chiming sound. It only happened when the wind blew then it would stop. At first, she thought she was just going crazy because there was no way there could be windchimes on a deserted island, but the sound didn't stop. She was going to ask Seth if he heard it too but she didn't want to wake him after what had happened. He needed rest. If she was going crazy he was going to be annoyed with her anyway so she figured it would be best to go investigate on her own. She got up and headed towards the sound. The process was slow because she could only track it while there was a breeze and it wasn't a very windy day.

After about twenty minutes of walking around the clearing near the river, she spotted a hint of a stone path in the brush surrounding the area. It looked similar to the path they had taken to find the river in the first place. She glanced back at Seth, who was still sleeping and decided to follow it. She told herself she wouldn't go too far, for now, because she didn't want to leave him alone and she also didn't know how he might react to waking up by himself. As she walked the path she noticed yet more plants with fruits and berries had been planted around the place. There was no way it was an accident with how they were all very deliberately lined up. People had been on this island at some point for some reason but she didn't know why.

She walked up a fairly steep hill through the jungle and when she got to the top she saw it. There was a house down in the valley. It was lost to time and a lot of the jungle. It had vines growing up over the side and around it but it was still there. She could hardly believe what she had found. Forgetting about everything else, she rushed down the hill towards it. Though she didn't expect it to be occupied, it would make a much better shelter than what they currently had. That and the fact that she could see solar panels on the top meant the possibility of power.

When she got to the stairs that led to the front door, she saw that it had been padlocked with an eviction notice up. This must have been ages ago because even though the lock was intact, the mechanism holding it in place had rotted through the wood and was easy to just pull off with her hand. The notice was faded, almost to the point where she couldn't read it at all. The best she could get was a date that said 1995 on it. That would have more than likely been the last time anyone was around this place. Was it a private island? Did someone own it at some point? It wasn't out of the realm of possibilities. Possibly a wealthy guy who had lost the ability to maintain the place. Happened all the time.

"Hello?" She called as she entered, only as a reflex, then she felt stupid. Of course, no one was in there. Rolling her eyes at her own stupidity she came more into the house and looked around. All of the furniture she could see was covered tightly in plastic. The house was definitely abandoned otherwise, there was a layer of dust on most of the items in there. The kitchen was nice other than a few cobwebs. She reached over to turn the tap on, only to find that by some stroke of luck the water was running. However the plumbing had been hooked up, and for whatever the reason, it was still moving the water. It was brown, but it was still something. She kept it running as she started to go through the cabinets. There were a lot of cans of things that she wasn't even going to try to touch but she also found rice. Quite a bit of it. Since it was sealed completely in the bags that it was packaged it would still be good enough to eat. She found a few containers of salt as well. There were unopened bottles of spices, and drink mix. There were also a few boxes of dehydrated soups and powdered eggs that looked like they would still be okay since they were still sealed.

It was about then she realized how long she'd been gone from the river. She gathered up what she could in her arms and shut the water off, though it was running clear by that point. Then she hurried back out of there, following the path back to where she had come from. She didn't know if he would believe her but she was hoping that since she also had stuff to bring back with her, he'd see that she couldn't have just pulled it out of thin air. The likelihood of this happening was low but it wasn't impossible. Even if most of the stuff in that house was not edible there were other things they could use. Namely a bed and roof above their heads, as well as running water.

When she got back to the river, Seth was sitting up, poking the fire with a stick. He didn't seem distressed which was good but it was possible he was still high from the pills he'd taken plus the bottle of wine he'd somehow opened. She sat down on the other side of the fire and dropped the food she had brought back with her. He looked at it, then her, then back to the food like he couldn't believe what he was seeing.

"Where in the hell did you get anything like that?" He asked, removing the stick from the fire to poke at the bag of rice. She slapped the stick away, not wanting it to get ruined or accidentally opened by a hot stick.

"There's a house."

"A house? Bullshit." He laughed.

"Where else would I get this stuff and why would I even lie about that?" She asked. He shrugged and picked up the bottle of wine that was next to him and took a gulp. She debated saying something about how much he was drinking while also being on those pills but then, once again, decided against it.

"I don't know." He said, "But if there's no way you found a house. Are you sure you weren't hallucinating or something?" His words were slurring and there was a possibility he didn't know what he was talking about or what she even was. It had been a long time since she'd seen anyone that level of intoxicated. She laughed softly and grabbed the pot she'd brought with her, filling it partly with some already cleaned water from the canteen. She then set it on the fire to boil so she could at least make some rice. It may have been bland but it would be filling, much more so than the fruit they had been scavenging on for the past day or so.

"If there isn't a house, and I am making this all up, I promise I'll suck your dick." She told him. That got his attention very quickly.

"Mmm I like the sound of that, let's go." He said, struggling to get to his feet. She laughed and hurried over to the other side of the fire to stop him from moving around too much. This led to a bit of a drunken struggle on his part and they both fell, she landed on top of him while he started to laugh his ass off. "If you want to suck it that bad I won't stop you." She laughed, looking at him for a long moment before deciding it would be a bad idea to make any sort of sexual contact with him while he was shit faced.

"Right now, you're just going to rest. I'll take you there when you sober up. Probably in the morning, okay?" She asked. He nodded and their eyes locked for a moment. Without warning, he pulled her into a hungry but sloppy, drunken kiss. She squeaked, even though it was supposed to be more of a yelp and then kissed back for a moment before pulling away completely. Damn he was a good kisser. She cleared her throat and patted him on the chest gently as she moved back.

"Fine, but the offer still stands. If there's no house there I'm getting that blow job." He insisted.

"Yeah, I know." She replied, even though she also knew she was right she had a feeling that before they got off of this island things were going to happen. Even when he was drunk as hell he managed to be sexy and even though she had skated around answering him before about what her type was...he definitely fit the qualifications. For that moment, though, she knew that she wasn't going to do anything he couldn't rightfully consent to so instead she went back to making them rice. It would be easier for him to sober up if he had something in his stomach.