Kai was moving the last of his water into the cave when he heard someone scrambling over the rocks outside.
“Kai! Wait!”
He turned.
Sora Mae appeared around a boulder, breathing hard. Her blouse was torn at the elbow, and both knees were scraped raw. She must have climbed the slope in a hurry.
Kai set down the crate.
“What happened?”
“Nothing.” She caught her breath, then glanced back toward the beach. “I just wanted to talk to you.”
Sora was the only other intern in the company who had consistently treated him like a person. During late-night server maintenance, she'd once slipped him an extra energy bar. When Kael had blamed him for a mistake he hadn't made, she'd spoken up even though it had earned her an unpleasant lecture of her own.
Small things, perhaps. But when everyone else treated you like furniture, small things were hard to forget.
Sora stepped closer and lowered her voice.
“You shouldn't have provoked Kael like that.”
Kai raised an eyebrow. “He'll live.”
“That's not what I mean. You know how vindictive he is. When we get back, he'll make sure you're fired. He'll tell every company he knows not to hire you.”
Kai leaned against the cave wall.
She still believed they were going home.
He didn't know whether to envy her or worry about her.
“Is that why you came all the way up here?” he asked.
Sora hesitated, then reached into her pocket.
She placed a watch in his hand.
It was a delicate women's dress watch, its bezel set with tiny diamonds. Even scratched and damp from the wreck, it was unmistakably expensive.
A golden label appeared above it.
Patek Philippe Twenty~4
Luxury wristwatch.
Current survival value: Negligible.
Potential secondary use: Improvised striking tool. Damage likely.
Kai looked from the watch to Sora.
“What's this for?”
“Take it,” she said. “It's worth at least three million back home. Maybe more. When we get rescued, sell it. Move somewhere else and start over.”
He turned the watch over in his fingers.
Three million.
Back on the mainland, that kind of money could change someone's life. It could buy a home, pay off years of debt, or give someone enough breathing room to stop accepting every insult from a supervisor who held their future over their head.
Sora seemed to read his silence as hesitation.
“I'm serious, Kai. You don't have to stay at Aetheris. Kael will never leave you alone, and Elara won't get involved over an intern. You know that.”
She looked down at the watch.
“I don't want to see you get hurt.”
Kai studied her face. She wasn't trying to buy his gratitude or make a bargain. She genuinely wanted to help him.
That made what he was about to do harder.
“Sora.”
She looked up.
“Do you honestly think we're going back?”
Her expression changed.
“What?”
“Do you think a rescue team is definitely coming?”
“President Voss said—”
“President Voss is a person, not a god.”
Sora stared at him.
Kai held up the watch.
“This is worth a fortune in the world we came from. Out here, it can't give us water, food, or shelter. If we're stranded for weeks, what good is it going to do?”
“You don't know that we'll be stranded for weeks.”
“No. I don't.” He kept his voice level. “That's the point. We don't know anything yet. We don't even know where we are.”
Sora looked toward the beach, where the others were still moving through the wreckage.
“They're all expecting rescue.”
“I know.”
“And you're just going to give up?”
“I'm not giving up. I'm preparing for the possibility that nobody comes.”
For a few seconds, neither of them spoke.
Sora looked down at the watch again, then back at him. She was trying to understand why he seemed so certain about something he couldn't possibly know for sure.
Kai understood her confusion. He wasn't certain, either. But the system had shown him enough to make blind optimism feel reckless.
He handed the watch back.
“Keep it. Maybe we'll get lucky.”
Sora shook her head and pushed it toward him again.
“No. I want you to have it.”
Kai looked at her hand.
Then he took the watch.
For a moment, Sora seemed relieved. She probably thought he'd finally understood what she was trying to do.
Kai stepped past her and walked toward the edge of the rocks.
“Kai?”
He threw the watch.
It spun through the air, caught the afternoon light, and disappeared into the surf with a small splash.
Sora froze.
For several seconds, she simply stared at the water.
Then she turned to him.
“What did you do?”
“Got rid of it.”
“That was a Patek Philippe!”
“I know.”
“It's worth three million!”
“Not here.”
Her face flushed with disbelief.
“I was trying to help you!”
“I know that, too.”
“Then why would you throw it away?”
Kai glanced toward the beach. The others were still searching for valuables, congratulating one another over things that might never be useful again.
“Because holding on to it makes it easier to pretend everything is going to return to normal. Maybe it will. But I can't build a shelter out of a watch, and I can't drink it when I'm thirsty.”
Sora's anger wavered, though she still looked upset.
“So what am I supposed to do?”
“Look for things we can use. Food. Water. Materials for shelter. If you find something valuable, fine, but don't put it ahead of the things keeping you alive.”
He nodded toward the cave.
“I have supplies here. I'm going to keep gathering more. If you want to help, you're welcome to. But I won't pretend we're safe just because we want to be.”
Sora stood silently, staring at the water where the watch had vanished.
Kai picked up the crate and carried it deeper into the cave.
When he looked back, she was still there.
He didn't blame her for being upset. Three million dollars was a staggering amount of money, and he'd just thrown it away without a second thought.
But he hadn't done it because he thought money was meaningless.
He'd done it because he understood exactly what money was worth—and how quickly that value could disappear.
Outside, the tide crept higher over the sand.
Down on the beach, people were still collecting watches and designer bags, still talking about what they'd sell when they got home.
Kai checked his supplies, then drew the tactical knife from its sheath.
The blade caught a narrow strip of sunlight.
He needed more food, a reliable source of water, and a better understanding of the island. He needed to know what lived in the jungle and how far he could travel without getting lost.
And sooner or later, he would have to decide what to do about the other survivors.
For now, he had one advantage they didn't.
He was preparing for the world they were actually in, not the one they hoped to return to.