Aeryn’s first sensation upon waking was the cold, salty sting of the sea. A briny chill settled over his skin, the sharp scent of salt filling his nostrils as the muffled crash of the ocean echoed in his ears. His head throbbed like a drum, disjointed memories flickering in and out of focus. Heavy metal cuffs bit into his wrists, their weight anchoring him to the fog of his murky awareness.

  Blinking hard, he tried to clear the haze clouding his thoughts, but it stuck stubbornly, the soft roar of the waves filling the void. A cold gust of wind whipped back and forth through the air, carrying with it the pungent scent of wet sand and decay. He had no idea how he’d ended up here.

  Groaning, Aeryn pushed himself upright. The sand beneath him was coarse and gritty, scraping against his palms as his soaked clothes stuck to his skin. Fragments of memory swirled in his mind: a gigantic vessel, a fast fall into the water that felt more like a plunge, then the sickening thick weight of the ocean dragging him down until it went black. He must have blacked out there, because beyond those fleeting short-lived moments, there was nothing. That was all, nothing else was there for him to recall, recollect or oddly even look back on, besides those very few fading moments.

  More pressingly, heavy metal handcuffs gripped his wrists, their edges digging into his skin with every shift or adjustment. It wasn’t just the cuffs though, the uniform he wore confirmed his unease. It was a prisoner’s attire, damp and torn in places, but still intact enough to be of use when you have no other option either.

  His pulse quickened as he took in the scene around him. Nearby, two figures lay crumpled on the shore. Farther down the beach, a man stirred. Slim but lean, he rose unsteadily to his feet. His posture was tense, his eyes looked intense, scanning the beach. Those piercing eyes of his, more alive than Aeryn’s own, locked onto his.

  “Hey,” Aeryn called, his voice rough and strained. He raised his cuffed hands, the gesture meant to show he wasn’t a threat.

  The man froze, his glare glued to Aeryn, but as awkward as it was, the judgement made sense.

  “You awake?” Aeryn tried again, keeping his tone neutral.

  The man didn’t answer immediately. Instead, he studied Aeryn with a deliberate, measured glance before slowly raising his own handcuffed hands to brush sand off his tattered clothing.

  “Who are you?” he asked finally, his voice completely flat and toneless.

  “Aeryn,” he replied, standing carefully. He rattled the chains on his cuffs lightly and motioned to their matching inmate attire and handcuffs. “Same situation as you, I think.”

  The man’s expression didn’t soften. Instead, his eyes narrowed, appraising. “Same as me, huh? That doesn’t tell me much, Aeryn.”

  Before Aeryn could respond, movement behind them drew their attention. A third figure, a woman, crouched among the debris farther up the beach. Her dark hair framed part of her face, damp strands sticking to her skin. Once more, rising slowly with an athletic build, she brushed sand from her arms, her cuffed wrists glinting faintly in the sunlight. Her movements were also unnervingly precise, her gaze already on them.

  “You two done introducing yourselves, or should I wait?” she asked coolly, her voice low but steady.

  The man beside Aeryn huffed, the sound more like a humorless grunt. Crossing his arms, he muttered, “Levi.”

  “Kaela,” the woman said simply, nodding at both of them.

  Their names sparked faint recognition in Aeryn’s mind. He thought he might have known a Levi once, but this one didn’t seem familiar. Then again, his memory was too fragmented to be certain of anything.

  “Any of you remember how we got here?” Aeryn asked cautiously.

  Kaela shook her head. “No,” she said flatly, her expression as unreadable as Levi’s.

  Levi’s jaw tightened. His eyes flicked between the jungle’s shadowy silhouette and back to the endless expanse of ocean. “Doesn’t matter,” he said, his tone hard. “What matters is getting off this deserted looking prison of an island.”

  Kaela chuckled, a short, bitter sound. “And how do you plan on doing that?”

  Levi’s eyes narrowed, his posture stiffening. “Well, I guess survival comes first. Don’t think any of us exactly needs a detailed plan on how to do that, or do you, Kaela.”

  Aeryn kept a mental note on how the man Levi had a tendency to repeat their names with deliberate emphasis, as if mockingly or to make a point.

  “He’s right,” Aeryn interjected, trying to keep the conversation safe. “For now, staying alive is the only priority.”

  Levi turned to him, his glare was really intimidating and unrelenting, the way he looked at him with a sort of manifested evil like he was already somehow a thief that had got caught red handed or something. “I don't like or trust you guys.. And honestly, it’ll probably stay that way.”

  Kaela smirked faintly, her voice laced with sarcasm. “Same here.”

  Aeryn shifted randomly, the weight of his cuffs and the strained silence irritated him. The circumstances didn't leave room for much of anything besides a great extent of tension and confusion.

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  The silence between them grew heavier. Aeryn glanced at the jungle again before finally deciding they needed food. The predators inside were probably dangerous, but they had no other actual option for water and sustenance.

  Levi stepped closer to the treeline, his expression grim, no doubt coming to the same conclusion. Meanwhile, Kaela remained crouched among the wreckage, sifting through the debris. Most of it was broken wood and shredded fabric scattered across the shore, flotsam from the same vessel Aeryn barely remembered. She picked up a jagged piece of plastic, struggling slightly to maneuver with the shackles still on her wrists.

  “We can’t stay out here,” she said, her voice breaking the uneasy quiet. “We’re too exposed. If the tide rises, we’ll either be underwater or freezing to death.”

  Levi scoffed, his tone sharp. “Right, but heading into the jungle with no weapons, no food, and no clue what’s waiting is not really a brilliant plan either. Oh and did I mention we 3 are all in shackles?? It's not that great of a idea.”

  Kaela didn’t flinch. “Staying here isn’t an option. Unless you’d rather die out here like bait on a hook doing nothing and struggling to live during which you're complaining and being helpless.”

  "Bait for what, exactly, Kaela?" Levi countered, his tone calm but edged with a darker deep undertone. "Let me say it one more time, just so we’re all on the same page and so it sticks, that jungle is not safe, and it shouldn't scream paradise to you guys like it is to you right now Kaela, We should scout the land first."

  “I’ll let you guys know, I tend to be attentive to things, and that forest looks like it has one to many of those.. things.

  “Does it matter if we scout or just go in? Going inside saves us time, scouting seems like a waste of one.” Aeryn interrupted, his voice low but steady. He didn’t trust either of them any more than they trusted him, but scouting wasn’t really going to do anything either. “We don’t know what’s out there, and we don’t know what’s coming. Standing here debating isn't doing much.”

  Levi gave him a hard look but didn’t argue further. He muttered something that sounded like that of a curse, turned and started toward the jungle with no further complaint.

  Kaela stood, brushing sand off her hands. She was as tall as, if not taller than, Aeryn, and for a moment, her eyes met his with something like approval. But she didn’t say anything, just gripped the shard of plastic tighter and followed Levi.

  Levi spoke over his shoulder as they reached him, his voice low and rough. “When this goes south, and it will go south, I’ll be long gone. I’m not hanging around, playing nice with you guys just because you too, just like me are also in handcuffs. Do you understand me?I will have no pity for you both.”

  Neither Aeryn nor Kaela responded, but Levi’s warning lingered in the air as they stepped into the jungle. The dense leaves and branches loomed above them, both thick and narrow, and it was more humid in the jungle than what was expected, and though none of them said it, the choice of going into the jungle was contemplated inside their heads numerous times.

  Subsequently, the sun began dipping lower as the three moved further in the jungle, a tense silence between them. The foliage thickened even more around them, the air growing heavier with humidity. Their steps were cautious, Their only footwear being thin socks made it hard to roam as much as they desired, but the sound of rustling leaves and distant animal calls added to the unease anyways, so it was probably better they couldn’t go too far from each other.

  Luck, it seemed, was finally on their side though, as they stumbled upon a small cave nestled into a hillside nearly encaved by the trees and plants. The space was tight but dry, and the natural overhang provided some protection from the jungle.

  “Looks like we’re not sleeping with our faces in the mud,” Levi muttered, stepping inside and letting out a breath. “Small mercies.”

  Kaela shot him a look as she crouched to inspect the space. “I’m sure the jungle is devastated we’re not camping out under the stars while freezing to death”

  “Hey, I’m not complaining,” Aeryn said, brushing damp leaves from his sleeves as he looked around the cramped shelter. “But it’s not exactly a crazy nice cozy hotel.”

  Kaela smirked faintly, but her focus quickly shifted. “We need a fire,” she said, brushing aside some loose dirt. “Now.”

  The task of starting one proved really frustrating. They gathered what dry wood and leaves they could find near the cave’s entrance, but the humidity was everywhere and on everything, making the task all the harder. And to his credit, Levi took over here, his movements were better than theirs as he struck stone against a tiny shard of steel that he had also picked up earlier walking through the jungle. His muttered annoyance filled the cave until, at last, the spark caught.

  “Finally,” Levi grumbled, sitting back and glaring at the small flame and he put his hands near it and over it, so it wouldn’t flicker and go out.

  The fire sputtered to life reluctantly from the dry wood, the wind still threatened to snuff it out before it finally held. The warmth was faint, a pale imitation of comfort, but enough to drive off the worst of the biting chill. For now, it was something. A fragile barrier against the creeping dark and cold.

  Aeryn stretched out his legs, the firelight flickering across his face. “So,” he started, glancing at Levi, “what was it you said in the morning? Something about dying on the beach?”

  Kaela snorted softly, leaning back against the rough cave wall. “Yeah, that was quite the plan.”

  Levi’s eyes narrowed, his voice dropping to an almost conversational tone, “It was smarter than blindly wandering into a black jungle with no plan. But I guess rational and logical thinking isn’t a skill they teach idiots who end up in chains with me.”

  Kaela didn’t even glance up, her hands stretched toward the fragile flame. “Scared of the dark? You were right, we should've stayed, and rotted on the beach because that was the better option. We are trying at our chances, to actually end up surviving.”

  Levi's expression didn't change, but his look at her felt more intense. "Ok, let me explain this to you in the easiest way I can, trying without any plan or knowledge isn't trying, it's gambling. And on an island, the wrong choice will get you killed, it doesn't mean you get another try or turn." His voice turned rough at the end. "I lit that fire because neither of you could manage it. If that's what you call survival, we're definitely not lasting long."

  Aeryn grinned, unable to resist. “You keep telling yourself that. Everyone needs a coping mechanism.”

  Surprisingly, Levi didn’t say anything. Instead, he leaned back against the rough cave wall, his expression hardening into something unreadable. He didn’t sigh or scoff, just let the weight of his silence settle over them. Aeryn found himself almost respecting the restraint or maybe the indifference.

  “Alright, alright, my bad,” Aeryn said, holding up his hands. “Didn’t realize survival came with so many lectures though. Guess I’ll just shut up and die quietly next time.”

  The fire crackled between them. Outside, the faint sound of the stream promised tomorrow’s challenge in finding food and water, but for now though, they had a fire, a fragile shield against the dark and a place to sleep, but before it rolled in, they sat in a tense silence.

  Sleep didn’t come easily, and the struggle to find a position the manacles didn’t sting didn’t help. And when it did arrive, the sleep given offered not an ounce of real comfort.