Free PULAU MATI by John L. Evans Page B

ship would have to moor outside the bay and lower a smaller boat to come to shore, giving Gray and the others time to leave, hopefully without anyone shipboard seeing them do so.  He was not worried about the obvious signs they would leave from being here.  Someone returning would have to assume whoever had come here had come by boat.  If there was no boat here they could only assume the trespassers had already left.  They would never guess an airliner had crashed on the other side of the island.
    The jungle was so thick across the island Gray thought they could hide indefinitely as long as they had water, food and shelter. He would check out the hole in the rock when they went back to the other side.  It might offer shelter.  Otherwise they would have to build it.  Gray found a small, working LED flashlight which he pocketed, a machete, a hack saw, although he would have preferred a wood saw, a couple of heavy knives, some wire, clippers, heavy twine, light rope, a jar of wooden matches, a Bic lighter and some cloth sacks for hauling those items and whatever else they might collect.
    Anna and Dayah returned with the pots and pans and Anna was wearing a pair of wet camo shorts that fit her lean frame quite well.  She and Dayah both smelled and looked clean.
    “Well, what a change!” Gray said.
    “Yes, and we feel better,” Anna said
    “I guess I should do the same.”
    “You might as well.  We’re going to put some water on for rice.  It won’t be ready for a while.”
    “This pot?” Dayah asked, holding up one of the pots they had cleaned.
    “That should make enough,” Anna said.  Dayah headed back to the pool.
    “I think she believes this hut could belong to pirates,” Gray said when Dayah was gone.
    “She should know.  She is from a town up the coast from Kuala Lumpur.”
    “ Anna, I want to take some of this stuff to the other side of the island in case these guys come back.  Will you help me?  I’m not sure Melanie and Lex think it necessary.”
    “Of course, I will.  They think you are being overly cautious, but they would have scoffed at the possibility of the airplane being hijacked.”
    “I’m going to take some of the mines ,” he said.
    “You are familiar with weapons?”
    “Yes.”
    “ Sehr gut, as my father would say,” she said in a mixture of German and English.
    “Very well , wie mein Vater sagen wuerde,” Gray said, finishing the English part of her sentence in German.
    “ Hast Du mir nicht alles gesagt?”
    “N ein, nein, I mean no, no, I’ve not been holding out on you.  I don’t’ know why I did that.  Urge to show off I guess. I speak German very poorly.”
    “No, you speak it well!  I wondered after Alyson introduced us.  You always pronounced my name correctly.  It makes me happy that you know any of my language.”
    “You have made me happy at times too, Anna.”  He stopped short of admitting she was doing a hell of a job making him care for her. Her face flushed and he felt like his had also.  The sound of steps on the porch broke the spell and Gray was not sure whether he was sorry or relieved.
    Lex came in hollering with excitement.  “Whoo hoo, we got the traps out!”
    Gray turned and he and Lex executed a perfect chest bump.  It was a toss up as to who was the most surprised by the spontaneity of the act.  Both of the men erupted into belly shaking laughter and the two women shook their heads but were soon caught up in the laughter.  Dayah came back with a pot of water and looked a bit puzzled by it all.
    “That was cool, dude,” Lex said when he had wiped his eyes.
    “But costly, dude,” Gray said, grimacing from the renewed pain the bump and the laughter had brought.  “Oh, Lex my man, look what I have found!” he said, raising a fist in triumph.  He rummaged in one of the cloth bags and brought out a big bottle of ibuprofen.
    “Oh, my god!  I love you man!” Lex said, falling into one of his slacker rolls.
    After Lex had