While others seek survival, I engage in flirtation Chapter 23: The Midnight Campfire

"Hey, aren't you heading back to camp?" I finally broke the silence, looking at their downcast faces.

Their old camp was in a pretty sweet spot. It was close to the coast but surrounded by trees on three sides, giving them both space and cover.

The forest was loaded with resources, so food wasn't really an issue.

"We can't go back," the middle-aged woman next to me said, shaking her head sadly. "Those monsters found our camp. If we stay, they'll just raid us again."

She sighed halfway through like she wanted to say more but held back.

But I got it. When those monsters hit their camp, they couldn't fight back. If they stayed, the monsters would just come back and take their stuff again. And if they weren't happy with what they found, they might even kill some of them.

Assad must've thought about all this and decided to keep moving.

"Why don't you come to our camp? It's pretty hidden..." I started to say, but Assad cut me off.

"Your camp? ... We're good, thanks." He seemed really against the idea. Even though I kept telling him Matt and I weren't together, he still didn't want to get too close to us.

I didn't push it and let it go.

Besides respecting their choice, I had my own reasons.

Since living with a few girls, I started hating the idea of others seeing them in skimpy clothes.

Like now, the girls were barely dressed. Before meeting Assad, I didn't care, but after, I felt like I shouldn't have brought them out today.

None of us could sleep around the campfire.

"Have you seen those monsters?" I asked after a long silence.

Everyone around the campfire nodded, looking a bit weirded out.

"We saw them when they attacked our camp... It was terrifying," an older kid spoke up. "After that, we left our camp and went into the forest."

"One day, Assad was hunting and ran into those monsters."

"I saw him hurt, running like crazy, with a bunch of tall, hairy monsters chasing him!"

The kid described it pretty clearly. It sounded like the same monsters Lilian and I ran into.

"You okay?" I asked Assad, hearing he was hurt.

He just shook his head and turned away.

We chatted on and off until dawn, then went our separate ways.

After splitting from Assad, the girls and I rushed back to our camp.

We hadn't eaten or slept all night, and we were exhausted and starving.

"If I knew it would be like this, I wouldn't have come!" Aimee grumbled, stumbling over the leaves.

The other girls looked just as beat.

Honestly, I didn't see things going this way either. Seeing the girls so worn out was tough.

"Hey, we've got plenty of food back at camp, and there's a big dog waiting for us. We'll have a good meal and then crash hard," I reassured them, picking up the pace.

When we got back, Aimee just flopped onto the grass mat, grumbling, and passed out without even eating.

I grabbed a bite with the other girls before hitting the sack.

It hit me while I was munching that even though we pulled an all-nighter, I wasn't all that tired.

The girls, on the other hand, were yawning like crazy and soon knocked out.

Even the dog was out cold.

I was the only one still awake, sitting at the cave entrance, watching the sunrise, feeling all sorts of emotions.

It's been over ten days since we landed on this deserted island, and we've gone from having nothing to setting up a basic but functional camp.

The girls did a lot to make this camp happen. Watching them sleep, I couldn't help but smile.

Feeling super strong and full of energy, I decided to tackle some of the heavy lifting.

With the sun up, I figured I'd chop some wood and get the fence posts ready.

The axe was pretty small. Even though it was sharp, it wasn't great for chopping trees. But it was all we had.

I gripped the axe with both hands and hacked at the tree. Because of the small axe, it took a lot of swings to bring a tree down.

Luckily, I seemed stronger than before, with more power.

By noon, I had chopped down over a dozen trees, turned them into posts, and stacked them neatly in the camp's corner. Only then did I feel a bit tired and headed back to the cave to sleep.

Since it was risky at night, we usually stayed in the cave. Sleeping elsewhere meant we had to stay alert, making it hard to rest.

So now we could sleep during the day.

The girls were out cold, sleeping deeply. The dog, left at the camp, had a great night's rest and was now full of energy.

"Charlie?" I tried calling it by a name.

To my surprise, it liked the name. It perked up and came over.

I was amazed to see it could stand! It wobbled a bit, but its leg seemed to be healing.

I patted its head, and it nuzzled my hand.

Its soft, thick fur was so comfy that I couldn't help but bury my face in its back.

Charlie didn't mind and slowly lay down. The soft fur made me yawn, and I drifted off without realizing it.

When I woke up, it was dusk. The warm sunset cast a golden glow around the cave.

The girls were already up and busy making dinner.

"Oh my gosh! What did you do while we were sleeping?" Aimee must've seen the posts I stacked. "Did you chop all these by yourself?"

Still half-asleep, I nodded groggily and crawled away from Charlie.

Turning around, I almost bumped into a pretty face, nearly kissing her lips.