author's note: Um. I'M SO SORRY. This has been on indefinite hiatus since, what, March? Yes, March. AND I'M SO SORRY. This isn't the best chapter... imo. It's not really my favorite fic (and it was my first one, too. *sigh* ) I was gonna take this off of ffnet and retouch the entire thing before reposting it, but then this very amazing person sent me a very amazing review and PM. For being the only one to vote on my poll for what to do with this story and for begging me to update, I dedicate this chapter to you, LionRoaR. I'm sorry it's months late :( Updates on this thing will be sporadic, by the way. I wasn't originally gonna finish this chapter today. Let's just say there are two oneshots that were supposed to be posted, but are still unfinished :P Enjoy :)

disclaimer: This is unnecessary. You guys know the truth.

Daley took charge. Kind of. "Lex! What is that?" she shrieked at her younger brother, flailing wildly.

"Well, I'm really not sure. It could be a hurricane, but it could be a large waterspout," he answered, squinting to study the large mass of purple clouds writhing madly above the water. "A really large waterspout," he muttered.

The water close to the beach was eerily calm. There was a thick, very dark line marking a clear division between the peaceful waters and the black, roiling waves tossing and turning underneath the lightning-ridden clouds rumbling above.

To put it mildly, it was frightening.

"Hold on a second, guys," Nathan said shakily. "Calm down."

I think, somehow, we were about to calm down. I mean, I was. I really was. Except… well, there was this streak of lightning that zapped from the clouds to the water, and a loud burst of thunder that made everyone jump.

Including me.

Did I mention I jumped into Jackson's arms?

That was kind of nice, actually, but mostly embarrassing. Before I could even apologize, his chest started rumbling, and I realized he was talking. I was losing it already, and it was all because of that stupid streak of lightning.

"OK, guys, Nathan's right. We need to hurry up and find shelter. That thing looks…" Jackson's voice faded as an even louder roar of thunder reverberated all around us.

"Gnarly?" Eric supplied.

"Sure. Gnarly. Let's get more inland."

Still holding me, he led the others into the jungle.

.

"OK. Lex, didn't you say something about a shelter you were making?" Daley asked. We all looked toward the little guy in surprise. Lex designed a shelter?

"Yeah, well… it's more of a design. I haven't started it at all, something I now regret," he answered with an apprehensive look towards the edge of the jungle.

"OK, well, let's start building it!" Nathan exclaimed, rubbing his hands together.

"Do you think we could build it soon enough, Lex?" Jackson asked, staring at Lex intently.

"Well… by my calculations, I think that huge storm will only get here in two days. Meaning, we'd have only today and tomorrow to build this thing. But that's just a rough estimate-"

"Then let's do this," Taylor said, determined.

"Yeah, let's. Do you have your design written down someplace?" I asked. Lex nodded and reached into his pocket. He pulled out a crumpled, folded banana leaf with markings all over it.

"There was a pen on the floor of the plane behind one of the seats," he offered as an explanation.

Nathan peered at Lex's design. "Lex… this is genius. I can't believe you were able to think of all this," he said in awe.

"Well, no, I was just trying to find a structure we could build into the ground while using the trees as support," he said modestly. Daley smiled.

"No, you're just a genius," she laughed.

"OK, guys, we don't have much time," Jackson said. "What do we need for this?"

"Um," Lex fumbled with the leaf, "we need food, especially coconuts, both for their husks and nutritional value."

"On it," Nathan said, striding away.

"Uh… we'll need to dig a huge hole right… here," Lex continued, marking a spot next to a huge, bent tree.

"But that tree is bent," Taylor said slowly.

"Yes, but not necessarily weak. And if it falls, it gives us even more cover from the storm. Anyway, the hole needs to be huge, but not too huge. Like… from here to… here." He marked the places with his foot.

"OK. Mel, you and I will start digging, and if Nathan finds enough coconuts, he'll help, too," Daley said, already heading towards the spot he'd marked.

"That's not all we need," Lex said slowly. "We still need plenty of strong wood to support the hole inside as well as cover the top of it. Without support, the hole could cave in on us. To put it mildly, that would be terrible. Plus, we'll need a light source, something that won't blow out too easily or that we can restart. If only we had one of those flashlights that you can recharge by shaking…" he mused longingly.

"OK, so Eric and I will go look for strong wood on the floor and we'll break branches if we have to. Taylor, you go get all the flashlights and batteries we can find, and charge all of them," Jackson ordered. He and Eric ran further into the jungle.

"What about me?" Lex asked quietly. Daley looked up, guilt rushing over her features at forgetting to make Lex a part of this.

"Lex," she said commandingly, "you're in charge of the whole thing. Make sure the hole is big enough, make sure there are enough coconuts, make sure of everything." Her little brother nodded dutifully, his eyes bright with the chance to lead for once.

"You got it," he said as he scampered towards where Nathan was.

"Hey," I murmured while digging into the ground with my bare hands, "don't we have shovels somewhere?" In five minutes, we'd barely scratched the ground.

Daley froze, the dirt caked on her hands plopping soundlessly to the ground. "I'm such an idiot," she muttered before looking up at me. "Well, we don't have shovels, but there's tons of driftwood around here that we could use to help get more dirt out."

"But won't we need that as support? Plus, we need wood for the roof, right?"

"No, no," she said impatiently, "driftwood is too weak for that. I think it might be strong enough to help get the dirt out, though. And we can make a moredefined shape with its help," she said, already running out to the beach. I followed her, brushing dirt off my hands as I ran. I frowned at the dirt caked into my fingernails. I was no Taylor, but the sight made me want to mourn the loss of hygiene. Then, all thoughts of hygiene (and, everything else, really) were swept out of my brain by the sight of the huge storm in front of me. I noticed Daley had frozen, too. It wasn't much closer than it was before, but I could tell that it had moved.

"Oh, my…" Daley trailed off. I nudged her shoulder, and she turned huge, frightened eyes to me.

"Come on. We gotta make this hole. Without it, we won't have a shelter to save us from this," I gestured to the huge calamity about to descend on us. She nodded. In no time, we found two large pieces of driftwood that seemed easy enough to handle as well as sturdy enough for the job ahead of us.

.

Nathan had collected most of the food that they would need for a week in the hole. He frowned at the huge pile. Was this really going to fit into the hole with all of them? Just then, Lex popped in through the foliage.

"Nathan? Got everything?"

"Hey, just the man I wanted to see. Whose digging the hole?"

"Mel and Daley. Why?"

Nathan drew in a sharp breath. Only two people were digging the hole? And Mel wasn't exactly the strongest of them either… He ran a hand through his hair.

"I got everything, but I'm afraid that the girls won't be able to dig a hole big enough for all of this plus all of us."

Lex scrutinized what Nathan had collected.

"Hm… maybe I could get Jackson to help dig. It shouldn't be too hard to get wood. Right now you need to get all of this to the hole and dump it inside just in case the storm comes early and we don't have time to get everything," Lex decided.

"But if it comes early, will we have room with all of this?" Nathan objected.

"We'll sit on everything and each other if we have to," Lex said decisively. "I'll help you, and then let's help Taylor take care of the light and heat we'll need. I'll be right back after I get Jackson to help the girls," he said over his shoulder as he ran back through the foliage.

.

Lex was out of breath by the time he got to Jackson and Eric. He had pumped his legs harder than he ever had in his life in an effort to efficiently use the limited time they had.

"Jackson!" he gasped, panting for breath. "Go… help… girls dig…" Jackson raised an eyebrow.

"Where do you need to go next, Lex?" he asked.

"Nath-" he gasped- "an."

"Got it." Jackson fluidly swung Lex onto his back and ran to Nathan, dropping Lex off there. Lex shot Jackson a grateful look.

"Hey- on your way to the hole, can you carry some of this food? It's an emergency precaution," Lex explained. Jackson accepted it without a word.

.

I wiped sweat off of my forehead, looking up just in time to see Jackson with a huge pile of fruits in his arms. He looked tired already, and we'd only been working for half an hour.

"Daley," he called, "Lex sent me to help you, but he wants to dump all the food in just in case the storm comes much earlier." Daley looked around at the small progress we'd made. The hole was nothing more than a 3 foot by 3 foot square, and it was only knee deep. Plus, it was nothing but dirt. She winced at the thought of dumping all of that food on bare dirt.

"Hang on, let me get leaves to cover the ground with," she said, running off.

Jackson sat down, his feet swinging into the small hole. "Hey," he said to me, managing a small grin. The grin faded easily though. I could tell he wanted to be digging, but he didn't want to ruin the food in his arms either.

"Hey," I answered. I didn't stop digging with my piece of driftwood. It had already broken once and seemed to be on the verge of breaking again. I swallowed hard.

"You okay?"

"…Not really," I sighed. "We haven't made much progress at all, and that storm's getting closer every minute. Daley thinks it might end up coming tomorrow after all."

"So does Lex," Jackson said after a pause. I almost dropped the driftwood, but I stopped myself. I couldn't stop working, not when we might need this flimsy shelter in a matter of a few hours. It'd been about an hour after lunch that we'd finally noticed the huge hurricane. The heavy clouds that Taylor had complained were taking away her tan had transformed into our worst nightmare. We only had a few hours, if Daley and Lex were to be believed.

"Why didn't he tell us?" I whispered. Jackson's eyes were worried.

"Well, he didn't want to worry us. Plus, he hadn't realized how fast the storm was moving…" he trailed off, before looking at me. "You think this thing could… could kill us?" he asked quietly. I held in a shiver.

"I-I don't know." We stayed in silence until Daley returned with a pile of huge banana leaves in her arms. She laid them down on the floor of the hole and nodded to Jackson. He put the fruits inside, careful to keep them from bruising before jumping in to help dig.

"Wait, you might need to get some driftwood to help you dig," I suggested.

"Nah, not really. I dig better like this." We watched in awe as he quickly extended our hole half a foot with his bare hands in five minutes.

"Well, okay then. Why don't we expand our hole while you make it deeper?" Daley suggested, turning to me to check for my approval. I nodded.

He shrugged.

"Alright, then. Let's do this fast."

Lex and Nathan popped in five minutes later, hidden behind a towering stack of fruit. Jackson jumped up to help them unload their bundle into the hole carefully. Daley and I raised our eyebrows.

Just how long would this hurricane last?

.

Four hours later, and our hole was deep enough, wide enough, and long enough. Nathan, Lex, Taylor, and Eric had all helped. We'd dug the perfect hole without bruising a single fruit, a feat no one thought we could do. The fruit now sat in one corner out of the way of was just one problem.

We couldn't get out.

Daley smacked her forehead. "We really shoulda thought this one through," she said, her palm over her eyes.

"No problem guys," Nathan said. "We'll just dig stairs." He and Jackson started feverishly digging out steps into the wall of the hole. Nathan stepped on one, and we all watched. I held my breath. Just as Nathan lifted his other foot from the ground, the steps crumbled. He toppled to the ground, and the entire wall of the hole gave way, crashing down. He coughed.

"We need a better idea," Jackson said, helping Nathan out of the mess.

"At least the hole's bigger," Taylor said hopefully.

Lex shook his head. "We're stuck." I stared at the gray sky and felt a drop of rain fall onto my nose.

"Oh, crap," someone whispered.

We were stuck in a hole that had no supports to keep it from falling in on us with no roof to protect us from the storm. And, to top it off, it was starting to rain. Was the storm already here? More importantly, I thought as I scooted closer to Jackson, was this the end for all of us?

author's note: ...Yup. After months of hiatus, that's all I could come up with. I can't believe I started this story more than a year ago with only 11 chapters to show for it T.T ANYWAY, thanks for your patience! Review, maybe?