We really are starting to feel more like a family.

Rosalyn continues to worry me. Last night, she convinced herself there was a zombie underneath her bed trying to grab her and pull her under.

The effects were… dramatic. I was up with her half the night, trying to calm her down.

Timi’s still spending most of his daylight hours on the water.

Through some combination of lucky salvage and his usual superheroic ingenuity, he’s put together a mask and breathing system, and he’s been exploring the local reefs.

And me, well, I started wondering if I was really doing us any favors to keep Jesse at a distance. Who am I protecting? Me? Him? We don’t know how long we’ll be on this island. Maybe forever. We’re all we have.

We don’t talk about where we came from. I’m not sure why, but none of us do.

Jesse’s never hidden his interest in me. It feels good to be appreciated, but it’s also frightening.

And I knew that if I started to let him in, I wouldn’t be able to slow down.

After the first time, I just held on to him and cried. I was afraid he’d think it was something he’d done, but he seemed to understand. I guess it’s not such a big mystery in a refugee camp.

I miss Terrence so much, but I guess I’m ready to let go.

———-

For some reason, EA only lets you dive in historic gear after you have level 10 in scuba. Let’s pretend that Timi doesn’t look like he just blew his savings in a dive shop.

Outtake: Damn photobombs.

In my more romantic moments, I think of us as a big family, but we’re kind of a dysfunctional one.

You can hardly be surprised. Most of us have lost our loved ones, and we’re all cut off from our people. One evening, Adelle and Jesse had an enormous fight. I don’t know what it was about.

The next morning, Adelle took out her pent up rage on the sandcastles she and I had built the day before. Adelle is such a quiet, gentle girl that it frightened me to see this side of her.

But by that night, the two of them talked things out. From that day forward, they seemed to share a bond.

They would sometimes spend entire afternoons working on their personal projects in companionable silence.

I worry about her, and I do my best to draw her out in a nonthreatening way.

I am still a terrible cook. I admit it.

I haven’t talked to Jesse much. I guess, to be honest, I’m kind of avoiding him. It seems like if we start talking, I’ll have to face things I’m just not ready for. We’re the adults here, and we have three children to care for. That’s all I can think about now.

Adelle and Timi, on the other hand, seem to be seeing each other for the first time.

Timi has built himself a boat.

I’m as impressed as you are. We now share enough language to talk about simple things, but I’m still not clear if he has a nautical background or if he just figured it out on his own. It’s possible he built up the design from first principles. Even with the language barrier, I can tell he’s a lot smarter than I am. And I don’t want to toot my own horn, but let’s just say I’m no slouch myself. You have to have something in your head to finish as many years of school as I have.

Or wait, if you know what it’s like to be a graduate student, maybe my own intelligence isn’t that convincing.

Now he spends a lot of days exploring the sea around the island. It’s not a trustworthy enough craft for him to take on the open sea. So far, he’s found a lot more island, but no people.

I can’t let Adelle and Timi have all the fun.

I’ve been doing a lot of experiments with the local flora, and I’m starting to be able to weave and dye some passable fabric.

I think the foraging is the best part.

When I returned home one afternoon, I was met with a huge surprise.

Our little refugee camp has two more members:

Jesse

and Rosalyn.

They washed up on the island sometime this week. They were so overjoyed to find other living souls that we ended up laughing and playing long into the night.

And Jesse…

I don’t think I’m ready for the way he looks at me, but I just can’t stay away.

We have a regular barracks now.

Rosalyn is a withdrawn girl who seems scared of her own shadow. And yet when she starts talking, it seems like she can’t stop. I can’t follow most of it, but it seems like all she really wants is someone to listen.

She clearly has a reverent appreciation for nature. When she’s not talking your ear off, she seems to find a friend in the island’s beauty.

Jesse is the kind of site manager we needed from the start. In only a day or two, he had the entire camp spotless and organized.

When he is not scouring and organizing, he spends his time drawing the sunset.

As the days passed, one thing became clear, though.

Adelle was becoming a young woman.

———-

For the record, I had no intention of pairing Echo off with the first adult to join the household, but she and Jesse can’t stay away from each other.