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Days here felt long, but as Scott stared down at the inside of his wrist, the time ever ticking down, he knew his days were numbered. They all were.
Scott sighed and grabbed another half dry piece of wood. Out of all the weather they could experience in the short month they were in this experiment, why was it always raining? If only it would stop raining, maybe he’d be able to find some decent firewood. It was bad enough that he was constantly wet from going in and out of the water to the raft he had made, but it certainly wasn’t helping that the dreary trickle of fog and rain was as constant as the ground beneath their feet.
Scott picked up another larger stick, it was dry enough from the leaves that had hidden it, but he hoped Martyn liked smoked fish. This fine was barely going to have a flame. With his armful of a sad excuse for firewood, Scott made his way back to the lake, he could barely make out the boat he knew was there as he arranged the wood in the makeshift fire pit Martyn had made ages ago. Or well… not that long ago but it certainly felt longer.
Even the flint and steel was damp in his hands, and he couldn’t tell if the culprit for that was the rain or the lake but either way water had wormed its way into every aspect of the camp. It took him several strikes to even get a spark, and the tinder stubbornly refused to combust.
He heard a splash from behind him and Scott turned around just in time to catch a glimpse of something coming out of- or falling into the water. He hoped it was a fish but it would be their luck for Martyn to be having just as lousy a time with getting dinner as he was with cooking it.
The continued splashing was encouraging, at least there was a fight going down, and Scott turned back to the kindling.
“Now.” Scott said pointing at the damp leaves and pine needles. “I need you to cooperate.”
It took several more strikes for anything to catch, but then there was a fire, small and weak, but there.
Scott cupped his hand around the dim flame, was it not for the temporary cease fire he might have been worried about revealing his position, the best part about their home meant they could move from shore to shore without notice, leaving their enemies not sure exactly their location at any one given time. But once a week, the temporary cease fire left them in an uncomfortable comfort. Not safe enough to drop their guard, but safe enough not to act on their paranoia.
He blew on the fire gently, trying to encourage it to spread. Maybe his hands cupped around the flame was only hindering his attempts, the air was stagnant, without the wind likely to put out his fire, but still thick with fog and moisture without the wind to clear it. He’d spent so much precious time trying to light it that he would be damned if he let it go out. He fed it a few more needles until the flame was large enough to start eating at a pine cone.
Scott leant back, his feet digging into the sand, and finally the ground around him was bathed in a flickering but stable light.
“That fish gave me a run for my money.”
Scott turned as Martyn emerged from the water, dripping wet holding two small fish.
Martyn passed the fish off and shook his hair, sending water spraying.
“Watch it!” Scott said as the fire sizzled. “That took ages.”
Martyn ran his hand through his hair, before taking off his shirt. “I thought you would want to watch me.”
Scott rolled his eyes as he skewered the fish, “Don’t flatter yourself.”
Martyn wrung his shirt out and shrugged, “You’re right, you do a good enough job of that yourself. You know-” Maryn pointed at the two fish that fit comfortably on one skewer. “I thought it was the size of a mammoth with the fight it was putting up.”
“Were you the splash I heard earlier or was that-” Scott waved the skewer, “the mammoth.”
Martyn rolled his eyes with a smile, “I think you know the answer to that.”
“Maybe....” Scott said as he stuck the fish over the fire. “But maybe I just wanted you to say it.”
Martyn flicked a pebble towards Scott, “You’re such a little troublemaker, you know that right?”
“Oh but I’m your troublemaker. Scott purred as he poked Martyn’s nose. “You like being bothered.”
Martyn stuck his tongue out, licking Scott’s finger, and laughed when Scott recoiled, “You may be my troublemaker.” Martyn conceded, “But you will never be able to get me.”
Scott took the fish from over the fire, it wasn’t a lot of food, but it was theirs. “Like you got that mammoth huh?”
Martyn took one of the fish and Scott's smile dipped slightly as he caught a glimpse of his timer, counting down. Right, he almost forgot where he was. They were all going to die, he was going to die whether slow for fast, and so would Martyn, time wouldn’t stop for them.
“Hey,” Martyn said, and Scott snapped back to the present, "We’ll be okay. Everything will work out.”
Scott smiled, and he was right of course, whether in this life or the next, there was always another chance to try again. He’d done it before after all.
“You know I don’t think I’ll win this time.” Scott said as he looked up at the stars.
“You… don’t?”
Scott shrugged, his star was up there somewhere. “Not as long as you're alive.”
Martyn was quiet for a moment, the silence filled with the sounds of the night, the crackling fire, and the gentle lapping of the waves against the shore.
“I… care about you.” Martyn said finally, and Scott looked back down at him, he was staring at Scott earnestly despite the omission of the guilt behind his words.
“I know.”