chapter 8

Suzanne opened her eyes. It was already morning.

Ashley and everyone else were already up and they were all in the room, except Andrew.

"Hey guys," Suzanne said as she got up.

"Suzanne!" Ethan cheerfully turned her way.

Ryan just scoffed and crossed his arms. "I thought you were never going to wake up."

"Good morning," Ashley smiled at her.

"Alright! Let's go get some breakfast! I'm starving!" Ethan said.

"Thankfully we should have some meat from your hunt yesterday," Ashley told Ethan.

Ryan frowned slightly, "But we'll have to be lighting up the fire and fanning up the flames again. All that work."

"It's a good thing we start early then," Suzanne said and they all walked towards the kitchen.

"Yeah, and then we'll do something about having a small bathroom and maybe some clothes," Ashley said.

Ethan's eyes lit up as an idea occured to him. "Yes! We could be like the cave men, having leaves around our waist and nothing more!"

"Nothing more!" Ryan echoed in annoyance. "What rubbish!"

He wagged his finger at the three of them. "I'm not

going to be half naked, prancing about this jungle with just some leaves acting as an indecent covering to myself."

"No one's listening to Ethan's idea. It's stupid," Suzanne scowled at him.

"Where's Andrew anyway?" Ashley asked as they all entered the kitchen.

They all saw four steaming bowls of broth, with some meat in it.

Ethan's eyes lit up at the sight of a well prepared meal and he rushed to grab a bowl for himself but Ryan held his collar, preventing him from running forward.

"Do you think Andrew prepared this?" Ashley asked as she tilted her head a little.

"Of course, who else would do this?" Ryan replied, ignoring Ethan's cries of wanting his breakfast.

"Let's find him," Ashley said and walked out of the kitchen.

"Yeah," Suzanne agreed and went after her. Ryan dragged Ethan along as he left the kitchen.

When they stepped out of the shelter they saw a new, smaller structure not too far from where they stood.

It was just some long logs that were smoothened out and they formed an upright rectangle. There was huge leaves covering the entrance.

"What's that?" Suzanne jabbed a finger towards it.

Ethan went to find out. He pulled the leaves open.

They looked over his shoulder and saw a huge clay barrel filled with water inside the small space. A latrine was also present. There was a small shelf made of wood as well.

It held a toothpaste and five toothbrushes. Each the color of the category they belonged to.

There was also a small soap dish that contained a soap. Towels were neatly stacked on each other on another side of the shelf as well.

Ethan closed the huge leaf acting as a curtain back.

"Did God send an angel to do this?!" Ethan gaped.

"Let's find Andrew, he'll have the answers to all these," Ryan finally said and they all walked around the compound.

"There he is," Ashley said and everyone looked in the direction she was looking at.

Andrew was backing them and he was fixing up a scarecrow in a part of the compound.

"Whoa!" Ethan looked around.

Not too far from the shelter was a small neatly cultivated vegetable garden. They could see the green shoots of most of the plants.

Andrew adjusted the hat on the scarecrow then he turned to face them.

"You're all awake," was all he said before walking past them and headed into the shelter.

"Hey!" Ethan yelled as he walked away. "You have to explain how all these came to be!"

Andrew disappeared into the shelter.

"What's up with Andrew?" Suzanne asked no one in particular as she crossed her arms. Ryan shrugged in response.

Ashley looked around, "Did he do all these?"

Just then Andrew returned holding some neatly folded clothes they hadn't seen before.

"Andrew what's going on?" Suzanne asked him once he stood in front of them with the clothes.

He ignored her and faced the others.

"I built a small bathroom, it's right over there if you need to have a bath or any other thing," Andrew nodded in the direction.

When Ashley opened her mouth as she wanted to ask him a question he waved her off.

"I had the soap and everything with me. It's among my emergency supply in case CIN or Coach springs anything we aren't prepared for on us. It was all in my laptop bag. As for the plants, I simply went some few feets away from our shelter when it was dawn and I saw some eatable vegetables growing around so I transplanted them. And I prepared a meal, I figured you'll be hungry when you wake up," Andrew said.

They all looked at him in disbelief.

"So," Ryan started after he had gotten over his initial shock of Andrew doing everything. "You're saying you did all these in the space of yesterday night and this morning?"

"I couldn't sleep much," Andrew replied simply. His gaze flickered to Suzanne for just a brief moment before facing Ryan again.

Ryan narrowed his eyes at Suzanne as well.

"Man!" Ethan hugged Andrew gratefully. "I'm so glad we have someone as thoughtful as you on our team! Here we were thinking of all the work we would have had to do this morning but you have already done them all!"

Andrew pushed Ethan away.

"Okay." He frowned slightly as Ethan stepped back grinning. Andrew didn't like anyone springing a show of sudden emotions on him.

"What do you have there?" Ashley asked Andrew with a smile.

He looked down at the clothes he held.

"Almost forgot. I also found a way to make clothes out of the animal skins with my device. It's a bit dull in color but it's clean, and you can be interchanging it with the clothes you have on now," Andrew explained.

"You made us clothes?" Ryan asked skeptically.

Andrew threw a bored gaze his way.

"If you find it so hard to believe, you can continue wearing the clothes you have on until the day we leave this place," Andrew told him nonchalantly.

Ryan scoffed and looked away.

"Here." Andrew handed Ashley a simple dark brown looking trumpet gown.

"Thanks," Ashley grinned at him.

He gave Ethan a khaki shorts and a brown sleeveless shirt.

"Thanks a lot, Andrew!" Ethan pulled them to himself to check out if they were really his size.

Andrew kept a similar looking shorts in Ryan's hand, along with a dull brown T-shirt.

"Gee, thanks," Ryan said in a sour manner. He didn't appreciate Andrew's dull sense of fashion.

Suzanne looked at the last batch of clothes that Andrew was holding and looked at him expectantly.

"Yeah, and those are yours," Andrew said in an extremely bored tone as he threw a dark brown pinafore and the same color of T-shirt at her face.

"Hey!" Suzanne protested as the clothes covered her face.

Andrew rolled his eyes and crossed his arms.

"What's your problem?!" Suzanne demanded once she had pulled them off her face, she glared hard at him.

"You guys can go ahead and freshen up and eat your breakfast, I have to finish planning the boat structure which we would use to get out of this jungle," Andrew ignored Suzanne again and turned away.

"You're so annoying!"

Suzanne hissed after him but he walked away not answering her.

"He was just kidding, okay?" Ashley told Suzanne in other to cool her down.

"Well he should kid with someone else!" Suzanne growled and walked away, the opposite way he did.

Ethan scratched his hair.

"Am I the only one that gets the bad vibe that Suzanne and Andrew are in a fight?" he said with both hands on his hips and he looked in both directions they both parted in.

Ashley laughed it off. "Don't be silly, worrying your head off nothing. They're not in a fight, okay? Now let's freshen up and chow down some broth!" She suggested, turning Ethan's mind away from them.

"Yeah! I'm starving! I'll have a first turn in the bathroom!" Ethan announced and dashed off.

Ryan raised and eyebrow at Ashley.

She sheepishly smiled at him. He knew what she did.

"Ethan tends to overreact to things. The last thing we'd want is Ethan and Andrew fighting physically because Ethan would surely take Suzanne's side. And what we need to do is focus on getting out of this jungle. No squabble should extend our time here more than necessary," Ashley explained to Ryan.

He thought about what she said and nodded inwardly.

She has a point but..., He looked at her.

"You do know if they don't resolve their issue on time, Ethan's bound to find out. He's not that stupid." He told her.

Ashley nodded and looked away.

"I know. I'm sure it's nothing serious anyway," she said and turned to him and smiled.

"Okay, I'm heading inside now." She then went inside the shelter.

Ryan looked in the direction Andrew had left before he shook his head and also headed into the shelter.

One thought nagged his mind.

If it concerns Andrew then it's going to be serious.