Liam stared at him, then looked at his father. ‘I don’t know what I’m saying anymore. My mind seems like it belongs to someone else.’
Tyler shuffled closer, trying to ignore the fear, the heat and the thirst. Most of all, he was trying to ignore the images of steak, rare and bloody, that were flashing up in his mind. ‘I can help you. We can help each other. This isn’t the end. We still might have a chance to get off this island. If you do this, if you… if you do what you were talking about, then it’s over. You’ll have crossed a line you can never come back from.’
‘I don’t want this. That’s the part you don’t seem to understand. You keep looking at me like I’m a monster. I just… I’m so hungry. You must be, too.’
‘Of course I am. But this isn’t the answer. Please just think about it. Take some time.’
‘What else do we have but time,’ Liam muttered. Tyler had heard that before. He thought it might have been a quote from a TV show, perhaps an old episode of The Twilight Zone, but he couldn’t be sure.
‘Exactly. No rush to take action yet. We have all the time in the world. You’ve just lost your father. With the shock and the weakness… It’s no surprise things seem a little off. Please, just don’t rush into anything you’ll regret.’
‘I think you’re right. I need to take some time to think.’
‘Good. You do that. Take some time.’
Tyler watched as Liam stood and walked out of sight around the back of their rock prison. It was only then he could relax. He leaned against the hot stone and stared at the body of Nash. For him at least, it was over. Tyler thought maybe he was the lucky one.
Chapter Ten
Time enough at last.
That had been the episode of The Twilight Zone he couldn’t recall. He remembered it featured Burgess Meredith as the last man on earth after some kind of apocalyptic event. All poor Burgess had wanted was to be left alone to read in peace, something granted to him by said apocalypse and something he was happy about until the ultimate twist in the story resulting in the character played by Burgess breaking his reading glasses. With no optician available, the bittersweet irony dawned on him and left the viewer with a sour note as they wondered how poor Burgess would survive in the devastation without his ability to read (or see). Tyler was so set on remembering every aspect of the episode if only because it took his mind off the problem at hand.
His initial thought had been to float Nash’s body out to sea, in doing so removing temptation from Liam and stopping him from making a savage and life changing decision. The first reason he decided against it was the Megalodon. He didn’t want to bait the water and remind it that they were there. Although it had been a couple of days since they last saw it’s fin slicing through the waters on the edge of the shallows, he suspected it was still out there, just waiting to see if they would venture back into its territory. The other reason, and one that was much more disturbing as to why he was unable to go through with it, was the sick idea that Liam was right and their only chance of survival was to eat some of Nash’s remains. The idea terrified him but still didn’t rid his mind of those images of steak and mushrooms cut with thick cut fries on the side. An explosion of saliva filled his mouth and he swallowed it, with some effort, back down.
He couldn’t. He wouldn’t. He…
Did Burgess own a bookstore?
Was that part of the irony of the long ago watched Twilight Zone episode?
He couldn’t have been too old when he saw it. Maybe early teens. Why did it stick in his mind? Perhaps because he, too, was stuck and alone in a world that for all intents and purposes was empty. Nash was the equivalent of the reading glasses, and Tyler couldn’t decide if he should break them or make sure he took extra care of them.
Besides. He was hungry. Good sense went out of the window when it came down to survival. Could he bring himself to eat human flesh? To eat it raw? He didn’t think so. He wasn’t in that place yet mentally. But the idea was becoming less and less of a taboo with each passing moment. Maybe Liam was right. Maybe the rules that had always governed the world went out of the window when it came down to the basics of survival. He stared at Nash’s body and was already struggling to identify it as a human. It was a shell, meat and bones. Flesh.
Stop it.
The voice in his head was one of reason and served its purpose in derailing his morbid train of thought. Either way, he knew he couldn’t stand to look at Nash anymore. He retreated to the semi-inflated raft and cupped a double handful of water. It was running low and would soon be gone. Tyler leaned on the rock and closed his eyes, wishing he knew what to do for the best.
Later
Darkness had started to shroud their little slice of hell. Since leaving Tyler, Liam had been at the rear of the island in the alcove. The medical kit was in front of him, the scalpel clutched in a grubby hand. He stared at it, fascinated as it bent the light from the falling sun. He liked the way it warped and twisted, thinking it was similar to how he felt inside. He turned his senses inward, listening to his body and trying to decipher what it was trying to say to him. There was confusion in there. And fear. That, he had learned was the worst. It had eaten away at him, hour by hour, day by day until now it ruled him. He had come to understand that fear made people do things they wouldn’t normally do, and mad them behave in irrational ways. He thought of his father, a man with whom he hadn’t always seen eye to eye, and a relationship that was at times distant and filled with frustration. Even so, Liam had always loved him. He wondered why he didn’t feel anything now he was dead. There was sadness, true. But it was a different kind of sadness, similar to the kind when you see a celebrity death flash up on the news. There was surprise, a little shock, but no outpouring of grief. No agonising sorrow.
There was just the hunger.
That was ever present, and something which now ruled his entire existence. Feeding the hunger, satisfying that gnawing in his gut as his withered body screamed for sustenance.
It’s what he would have wanted. He’d want you to survive.
The voice in his head didn’t really even sound like him anymore. It had taken on its own personality, its own life. His medication usually stopped him from hearing it. It was designed that way to block out those dark things that spoke to him. Now, though, with that particular block lifted, it was free to converse as much as it wanted. The scalpel, it told him, was the answer. The answer to all his problems.
‘What if I can’t do it? Cut him… eat him… he will be raw,’ he whispered to himself.
You can do it. You’ll force yourself to keep it down because that’s what you need to do to survive.
‘He’s my father.’
No. he was your father. Now he’s just meat. A juicy steak or a nice piece of bacon.
Liam started to cry, silent sobs that were masked by the waves crashing against the rocks.
He knew the voice was right. He knew he had to act and ensure he didn’t die. Even if it meant doing something that was truly appalling. He started to inch his way back around the island to where his father was.
And what about Tyler? the devious inner voice asked.
‘What about him?’
What if he tries to stop you?
It was a good question. He didn’t think it would happen. He would be repulsed, that much was obvious, but he didn’t think he would interfere.
And if he does?