“It’s a wild boar,” Steve exclaimed out loud, and Jakob nodded.

“Do you guys want to eat boar tonight?” His eyes glittered as he looked at me.

“What are you going to do?”

“Follow me.” He grabbed my hand and started running toward the grunting.

“What about Steve?” I exclaimed as we ran.

“He’ll be fine.” Jakob let go of my hand and picked up a rock. “He’ll just slow us down. Stay close to me, and it’ll be fine.” I watched him running ahead of me, and I struggled to keep up with him. It was then that the boar must have heard us, because I suddenly heard the grunting get louder and the sounds of branches cracking as the boar started to run again. I watched Jakob sprinting after the boar and ran as fast as I could to catch up with them both. I heard a crashing sound and then a loud cry in the distance and ran as fast as I could through the bush to see what had happened.

I stopped as I got to the gathering. Jakob was on the ground sitting on top of the boar and bashing the rock into its head. I cried out, and he froze.

“Look away, Bianca!” he commanded me from his stance on top of the animal.

“I don’t want to hear it either.” I felt like I wanted to cry as I stood there staring at the trees, trying to ignore the sound of the dead hog grunting and dying as his head got bashed in. I finally heard Jakob dropping the rock onto the dirt and I looked over at him

“You killed it?” I was shocked, and my voice was low as I stared at the dead animal.

“You wanted to eat something other than bananas tonight, right?”

“But you killed it.” I got choked up as I stared at Jakob. His chest was rising quickly, and he was panting. His eyes looked manic, and his hands were full of dirt and blood.

“What did you think was going to happen, Bianca? Did you think I was chasing it for fun?”

“No.” I shook my head and looked to the ground. I could feel tears welling up in my eyes. “I just didn’t expect you to catch it.”

“Bianca”—he walked toward me—“we’re stranded on an island. We have to do what we can to survive.”

“I just didn’t expect to see you kill it.” I stared at the boar and the rock on the ground next to Jakob. “It just feels so primal.”

“It is primal.” Jakob grabbed my shoulders and forced me to look up at him. “This is the situation we’re in, Bianca. We’re not on some resort, or competing in a TV show. We’re not playing a game of Survivor. We’re living it. We have to do what we have to do.”

“But you killed it.”

“And I would kill it again, if it meant we’d be able to eat.” His eyes were hard as he looked into mine. “Am I a bad person for saying that?”

“No.” I bit my lower lip and then leaned up and pressed my lips against his. “I’m not naive, Jakob. I understand the situation we’re in.” I closed my arms as his arms pressed me toward him. “I just never expected to see my dinner killed before my very eyes.”

“Didn’t you know that the fresher the meat, the better?” he whispered against my lips, before kissing me hard. I held on to him and kissed him back passionately. I felt like I was having an out-of-body experience; everything around me seemed surreal. I was here with a tall, dark, dangerous hunter, and I was letting him touch me and kiss me as if I didn’t have a care in the world.

“We should get this boar back to the fire.” He pulled away from me and stared into my eyes with a lighter expression. “Do you think you’ll be able to help carry it back?”

I nodded and tried to hide my shudder. I really didn’t want to touch the boar, but I knew that if I expected to eat some of the carcass, I should help in some way.

“Actually, it’s okay.” He shook his head. “I can carry it by myself.”

“What?” I frowned. “No, I can help.”

“I can see from your expression that you’d rather not touch it.” He smiled and stroked my cheek. “And that’s okay. I don’t have these muscles for nothing.” He flexed his biceps, and I groaned.

“Show-off.” I rolled my eyes at him. “We could always go and get Steve to help you carry it.”

“I’m sure we could.” It was Jakob’s turn to roll his eyes. “Hold on, let me just grab the boar before rigor mortis sets in.”

“Doesn’t it set in as soon as someone dies?”

“I have no idea.” He crouched down and grabbed the dead animal.

“Do you think its brothers and sisters are watching us and planning their revenge?” I whispered to Jakob as he picked up the boar. It had suddenly gotten really dark, and I was starting to feel uncomfortable being in the jungle. I could sense that there were animals staring at us from the trees. Animals that had most probably witnessed Jakob killing one of their friends. Animals that were most probably scared that they would be next. It was Watership Down all over again, only, this world consisted of more than just rabbits.

“I think we’re okay.” Jakob walked ahead of me, carrying the dead animal as if it were as light as a feather.

“Did you ever read that book Animal Farm when you were growing up?” I followed behind him closely.

“I think everyone had to read it in school, right?”

“Yeah, I guess so. I mean I know it was an allegorical novel about society, but have you ever wondered what the world would be like if animals did decide to fight back?”