Jason's POV:

The hours drove me crazy as I waited for Naomi's arrival back home. Home, what a funny thing to call being stuck on an island with a bunch of high school strangers. I looked around and saw Kole with Mina down at the shore and I could tell she was still crying, I will talk to her later.. I thought before checking out everyone else. Matt kept serious in my case I guess and the side piece he was currently playing with kept trying to get him to kiss her, I think Naomi said the girls' name was Liz.

Tiffany and Pete both seemed very upset, and they both sat together in a daze. I realised that everyone was with someone they could share pain with, and I sat alone on a log with my thoughts. The rest of the kids made a little memorial for Derek and huddled around it. I stiffened when I felt someone sit next to me on my log and looked over. "I'm sorry for your loss, is there any way I can help take your mind off things?" Once she said that, I felt all of the anger rise in me and I tried not to show it.

"What's your name?" I asked, and she smiled before leaning closer to me so that her hand was on my chest and she whispered in my ear.

"Missy, but you can call me anything you feel like."

I nodded my head and looked back at the girl with a fake smile. "You can help me by keeping your legs closed and to stop being a slut." I pushed her away from me and angrily went down to the shore. I heard the girl huff and storm off before looking back out to the sea and remembering the first night that Noami and I sat on the shore. She cared for everyone, and it seemed that I was just a big jerk compared to her. I can't be these people's leader. She is supposed to be their leader, and I was supposed to protect her. Seems like I have been doing a very bad job.

A hand landed on my shoulder, and I looked over to see Ricky staring out to sea with me. "Thought you said that there was nothing between the two of you?" I clenched my fists and kept my cool.

"There isn't."

"I've seen how you look at her, you ignore all other girls but her. You worry about her, care for her, and you try to save her all of the time. So correct me if I'm wrong, but someone who has nothing for someone wouldn't care so much." I knew he was right and that I was a terrible hider of my emotions, but I had to play it off.

"I care for everyone on this island, and she does as well. Call it similar instinct if you will. I am worried because she should have been back by now, and I have a feeling something is up. Last time I had a feeling like that about her, I was right, and I'm not letting it pass as long as I did last time." With that, I attempted to walk away and create my master plan to save Naomi by myself, but I wasn't the only one. By the time I was in the hut, Ricky, Peter, Matt, Kole, and other guards and school guys were with me. "I can't ask you guys to come with me, we don't even know what we're up against and it may even be a suicide mission." they all shook there heads and spoke up.

"Ride or die, we're brothers at heart." Said Matt, and the other guys cheered at that in agreement.

"If Naomi is in trouble, I'm helping get her back!" said Kole, and I shook my head.

"Not this time little man, you stay and watch Mina." I said, and he fought past my hand.

"Tiffany can watch her. I fight for my friends, for my family!" He yelled, and everyone cheered him on. This kid's like thirteen, I can't send him to die, it's inhumane!

"Tiffany's going to have her hands full with Peter, you need to stay and look after Mina."

"I'm not staying. Naomi has helped me many times, and I'm not just going to let her die. Tiffany can watch Mina, and if Kole thinks he's man enough to come then let him. We are on an island, we can't really be picky about our troops." Began Peter, people nodded there heads in agreement with him and I frowned.

"And your ankle?" I questioned, and he shrugged.

"As a wise women once told me, walk it off and you'll be fine." I smirked at his reference to Naomi and nodded.

"She saved my life and has kept me out of trouble many times, it's my turn to repay her." Ricky said, and I nodded before looking around at my group.

"We go to save Naomi, and we fight to honor Derek!" I yelled and everyone cheered, but stopped when three girls came in. They all had a spear and stood up straight when we looked at them.

"We want to fight too." Said the girls, and I shook my head no. I recognised the one girl and couldn't figure out the other too.

"We don't send girls to die." Spoke Ricky, and they nodded.

"Women don't watch behind the scenes. They fight among men for the same reasons, because we are all equal." I noticed the girl from earlier, and glared at her.

"What are your reasons?" She seemed a bit scared of me, but regained her posture and stood tall back.

"I tested you earlier to see if you were as loyal as you seemed, I needed to know if you were worthy of her, and it is my duty to make sure she is safe due to a promise I made." Whispers broke out, and we were all confused. "Naomi is my sisters best friend, and I wouldn't let anything hurt her as long as I live. I am a year older than them and they never realised how much time I had been around them. My sister was never perfect and wasn't always there for Naomi, but Naomi stood loyal and was always there to pick up my little sister. She is strong, and I see that the island has made her true self show. I just hope for the same about my little sister."

Some guys gasped, and her face stood straight until I nodded and she joined our group. She was old enough to know what she was doing, and anyone who looks out for Naomi is a friend to me. I looked over to the other two and one spoke up before the other. "Derek was my cousin, and I will kill those who killed him until I die. He was a good man and doesn't deserve to die." I felt bad at her tiny hope shown that she thinks he's still alive, but I believe he was killed the moment he reached wherever they are.

The last girl was the smallest, and she never stopped looking at Kole. "My little brother does not go without me." Was all she said before walking over, not waiting for my okay and I nodded. I just hope that love doesn't blind her as I am blinded now. 

"We will need a plan first, then we will need all of the maps, and add whatever others are missing. We need to make as many weapons as possible, and work on our aim. We leave tomorrow morning at daylight and if anyone is scared of dying, leave now." With that, I headed out and started to make weapons when I saw Mina alone at the shore.

"Mina?" I said softly, and sat next to her. I could see tears sliding down her face and looked out to sea.

"Is she going to die?" I was shocked by this question, and looked over at her. She was looking up to me with worried little hazel eyes that had tears ready to slide down her cheeks at a moments notice.

"Not if I can help it." I said, and she nodded before we both looked out to sea. In all honesty, I felt like it was my fault that she was taken. They came for Derek, and I infected her wound so I had to let them take her. But why didn't I go with and make sure that she would come back okay? I hadn't realised that Mina had stood up, and was holding something out to me. "Its Naomi's, give it to her when you see her." she said, and I nodded as she walked off to help Tiffany cook and I rejoined the men and three women to create weapons.

Naomi's POV:

When morning came, I woke up to find Derek's cage empty and Mandy's minions working hard at whatever they do. Mandy ordered them around, and when she looked at me, I couldn't hide my distaste and looked away. I knew she was going to keep me up here without food until she got me to join her side; but just like her, I could be stubborn. I realised awhile back that I had left my knife at camp and tried to think of another way of escaping. I knew I couldn't chew threw bamboo, but then I noticed that Derek stuck his knife to the inside ceiling of his cage, and I needed a way to get to it. I saw that the cage was tied tightly with string, but it wouldn't be hard to untie and so I began to untie parts of the cage. Not enough to make it fall apart right away, but enough to make it fall apart when I needed it too. 

I sat extremely still and waited for Mandy to have her back turned to me before starting to rock the cage. I heard it starting to untie and had a moment of regret but I knew it was too late to tie everything back to how it was. Once I pushed off the tree one last time, the entire cage broke apart and time was crucial for the next part I had to do. Mandy had spun around by the loud crashing sounds and gasped as I tried to grab onto Derek's old cage. Sadly, I was too late and I missed my chance of easy success. I fell for some bit, and then hit his tree at some point in my fall and hit the floor.

I groaned in pain as Mandy ran over, and her peasants kept slaving around. She seemed worried at first, but tried to put on a poker face that would only fool me if I didn't know her better than I did. Things were a little dizzy, and I felt pain in many places. The wind was knocked out of me, and I tried to catch my breath as Mandy sat down next to me and waited. Sage ran over and glared at me, but Mandy cut in. "I will stay with the prisoner and recage her once I've had my fun, finish your chores." Said Mandy and Sage nodded, looking pissed as she walked away. "Why must you misbehave Nomi?" She groaned, and I shook my head.

"D-don't call m-e-e tha-a-at." I said as I tried to get my breathing to go back to normal. She seemed hurt by me telling her not to call me her childhood nickname for me, but she wasn't my Mandy and I didn't want to accept that's she's changed.

"What happened to your cage?" She asked as she looked at the shattered cage, and I shrugged.

"Faulty tying?" I smirked, and she almost did too until she saw that some of her " people " were watching. She looked down at my leg and twisted something that shot pain up my entire body, causing me to yell out in pain.

"Do as your told you filthy lander!" She glared, and I tried to catch my breath before picking up string and a leaf and stuffing it up the back of my shirt. "To her new cage!" She yelled, and they cheered as she dragged me along and let me fall into the cage before having me lifted up in the cage once more. I was still in pain, and looked around to see what was wrong with me. Besides scrapes, I felt fine, and then I noticed the bamboo sticking out of my leg. How many tines am I going to get stabbed with something on this freaking island!!! I groaned to myself before taking the leaf and string from my shirt. I was going to use them another time for a distraction on one of her people but I guess I'll need to use them for what I have to do. 

Mandy kept more attention on me and I knew it would be harder for me to escape. I acted like I was stretching and did a couple different stretches to get her bored enough to look away for a bit. When it worked, I faked a stretch upwards and pulled his knife down and had it next to me. I tried to touch the bamboo and it took everything in me not to scream. I brought my knees to my chest and leaned into them so that my hair flowed over them and it looked like I was crying. I had it this way so that I could bite down on the knife and rip out the bamboo.

When I finally had the bamboo ripped out,  I rolled up the leaf and held it against my leg before tying the string over it tightly. I sat on the knife and watched as her people created a new cage, and my whole escape plan was dismissed. It was as if I wasn't even there, and they all ignored me as the hours ticked by. By dinner time, everyone went in and I was startled by a rock hitting the back of my cage and quickly turned, hoping that Jason had finally come and saved me as he said he would. Its only been a day or two, he probably is still expecting me back by now..  Why would I think he would come and save me, the boy is so bipolar with his feelings!!! For all I know he is out with some other girl and having a grand time. I will eventually die by starvation on this island with Mandy smiling down at my corpse, or perhaps her people will kill me before hunger does.

I turned around, and all hope faded into curiosity when I noticed the little girl from earlier. She lifted a small bag up and smiled to me from behind a tree, but I raised my eyebrow in confusion. She looked around to make sure no one else was around and put something else into her bag before looking up at me again. She pointed to me, and then rubbed her stomach before pointing at her bag. Ooooh she brought me food, I'm loving this kid. I nodded and she threw her bag up, and I halfway tipped over the cage before seeing her scared face and hiding the bag as she hid behind her tree. I turned to see Sage and acted like I was just rocking the cage, but she didn't believe my cover up and headed for the little girls tree, so I improvised.

"Oooooooh-weeeeee-ee-ee-ee oh-we-um-bumb-baa-way oooooooooh-weeeeee-ee-ee-ee oh-we-um-bumb-ba-way...." Sage looked at me annoyed and confused as the little girl shrunk down more in fear of Sage catching her. I smiled and started to rock some more, but Sage lost interest and headed on again. "In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight... In the jungle, the mighty jungle, the lion sleeps tonight." She looked around and then glared at me, heading away from the tree and towards my cage. "A-meem-boway A-meem-boway A-meem- boway A-meem-boway A-meem-boway A-meem-boway..." She seemed angered by my singing, and threw a rock at my cage, which caused me to stop for a bit.

I saw the girls shoe sticking out, and didn't want Sage to see so I continued once more. "In the village, the peaceful village, the lion sleeps tonight. Oh in the village, the peaceful village.. Not your more of a savage village, the lion sleeps tonight." The little girl tried hard not to laugh, and Sage threw another rock and missed me once more. I smirked and pointed at Sage as I continued on and put my finger to my lips. "Hush my darling, don't cry my darling, the lion sleeps tonight. Hush my darling, don't cry my darling, the lion sleeps tonight." It was honestly pretty fun provoking Sage considering I had just hung around all day... literally. "Oooooh-weeeeee!" I sung even louder and she seemed pissed off.

"Shut up!" She yelled before heading for my rope, giving that little girl a chance to run off.

"Sage, you're not supposed to do that!" I said loudly in a teasing tone as she further tried to untie my rope, but she had trouble reaching the knots. "What, you can't reach? You shouldn't be touching the ropes Sagie Wadgie!" I said loudly, and that caused Mandy and her goones to come out of their little dinner hut. They took Sage away and put her in the prisoners underground hole and told her that she would be staying there for the night without dinner before heading back in, but something seemed off about the guards and they went back in with Mandy.

"I will have my turn with you Naomi!" Yelled Sage from her little underground hut for the night.

"I'm sorry what? I couldn't hear you. The cage to cage connection was breaking up, can you repeat that? I think my cage shook, I'm sorry what were you saying?" I waited for an answer and smirked to myself when she didn't respond.

"You'll see." She grumbled moments later, and she sounded really creepy.

I sat back and watched the sunset as I grabbed the little bag out and opened it up. I pulled out a card, and set it down before taking a big bite of the loaf of bread, and then froze. A card?? I slowly put down the loaf and chewed on the remaining in my mouth before looking at the blank card in front of me. Why would she give me a blank card, and risk herself being seen? I thought and examined it closely for about five minutes before flipping it over. Why didn't I do that in the first place!!! I felt very stupid and was shocked to read the card.

It was a school ID from my school, she went to my school, and was an eighth grader. Her name was Aña Perez and she seemed so much older here. I tucked it in my pocket and continued to eat on for the night, making plans for my next attempt to escape. I knew Sage and I would bump heads eventually, but I knew that I wasn't scared to take her on. The one thing that was on my mind was that if Mandy was the last of her group... Then how was Aña here??? I thought over it for a bit, and then quickly retook out her card.

I examined it very closely, and looked over the whole thing. It looked different than mine, but I hadn't seen mine in so many days so I really couldn't tell what was so different. It was right under my nose, I just had to look harder. Her shoes I remember were pretty messed up, but mine were as well and she was in island clothes and not school clothes. Unless she usually dressed like all of those people, I was pretty sure that no one would wear that to school, especially someone that was almost in the highschool. I looked over her picture and name, date of birth and grade.

Date of birth!!! I looked over it again, and saw that the years didn't match up with her grade and then I finally looked at the school year and gasped quietly to myself. This girl has been here for two years!! What if they take people from our school, but only every two years to keep it not as noticiable. I've never seem most of the people in my group besides Derek, maybe they only take the losers who people usually don't notice. I still don't understand where all of the goonie savage people came from though.... I spent the night thinking everything over and came up with answers that I would get checked out eventually. The school carefully picks a certain amount of people every two years and has many kids sign up as a field trip, the ones who's parents were told about the trip by the kids were sent home, and those who were the loners and no one knew they were there were sent.

They mentioned a juvenile prison nearby, but I think they managed to escape and no one cared to mention it to us. The leave us until we die and keep sending more kids every two years until a group finally learns how to get off of the island. I plan to be the group to get off of the island, I just don't know when and how I'm going to get us off. I want to take as many as possible with me as I can, and I hope to keep many alive. Wow, this island has made me a lot smarter and I feel like I see things so much clearer... I just don't understand how my mother could willingly do this to a group of kids, was she even trying to find me? Did my father even notice I was gone yet? Are my parents both searching for me, or are they just letting it be and covering up my disappearance? Is anyone out there looking for us, for me?

So many different thoughts ran through my head that night as I sat in the cage and watched the sun go down for the day. I didn't want to sleep with Sages anger for me in case she could somehow kill me in my sleep. I was also worried about them finding out that Aña had helped me as well. I felt sick to my stomach when I realised that the floor of the cages bamboo was stained dark with Derek's blood and I tried so hard not to vomit. I was too late and I ended up vomiting, causing Sage to laugh at me. She knew I was weak, tired, and hungry, and I knew that she