30 hours after arrival.
Dorothy waited for the other two to return. Bored and more importantly hungry she looked over to Natalie's pack. "Let's see what you call rations Nat." she said she started to unzip the pack. Inside she saw packaged bags of summer sausage, bread, dried meats and other high caloric emergency foods. "Ugh, Natalie we talked about this, noone likes this stuff." Dorothy whispered to herself. Pulling open the second zipper she spotted the bag of berries Natalie had previously collected. "Jackpot, you were hiding this for yourself weren't you." She smirked to herself as she sat on her knees as she opened the baggie. She picked up a berry, it seemed ready to burst with juice, the vibrant blue and violet made it appear like the best blueberry in the world. Popping one into her mouth she absentmindedly began to relax on the seaside. Each bite felt like a explosion of flavor and juice, just like the island water it tasted amazing.
After a few minutes Natalie and Susan returned from the jungle, one small log in tow. "Hey Dorothy, the trees are hard to cut, each swing makes the tree quickly heal itself. The raft might take awhile." Susan said with a huff. As Natalie approached she noticed her pack opened and the empty bag next to Dorothy as her face went pale. "Oh my god Dorothy did you?" She trailed off as she opened her pack, the bag of berries were missing. "Did you eat those berries?"
Dorothy turned around confused. "Yea why?" Natalie screamed "Those are from the island! Oh my god!" She quickly pulled out the diary as she turned the pages seeking an answer.
Dorothy continued to look confused. "Wait what? Those were from here?" The realization hitting her. "Why did you put those with the food! I ate like ten of them!" Dorothy began to panic. Natalie shook her head. "There's nothing in the book about the effects of the food in specifics, Amelia never figured it out before it was too late."
Dorothy stood up in a panic. "I should have never signed up for this stupid internship! Oh my god this can't be happening!" A sudden silence broke over the sand. Both Natalie and Susan looked up in unison at Dorothy as she spun around. "What? Why are you looking at me like that?"
"Dorothy." Natalie said calmly yet firm, as if a doctor was assessing a patient. "What you mean internship?"
Dorothy's face contorted in confusion. "The internship for my degree in anthropology. I joined you and Dr. Susan for the expedition remember?"
Natalie and Susan turned to each other in concern before Susan turned back to ask. "Susan, how old are you?"
Dorothy seemed even more confused. "I'm 22. Why are you looking at me like that? I feel fine, the berries clearly didn't have any effect." Natalie gasped. "Oh my god, the food must have cut your minds age in half." Natalie flipped back through the diary, it seemed all too clear now the stark decrease in Amelia's writing, she had lost the most amount of her mind the first time. "So each time we eat something from the island our mind gets cut in half, we're fourty three, so it would be twenty-one and half the first time." Natalie gestering to Dorothy. "Then the next time it should only be ten, then five years old." Susan looked towards the pack worried. "How much food do we have left?"
Natalie thumbed through the rations. "Well, we have three meals, maybe six if we stretch it as long as we can for each of us. If the boat reaches us soon we won't have an issue." Susan sighed, looking back at Dorothy, still shaken. "What about her?" she whispered. "Do you think this wears off?" Natalie shook her head. "I don't know, and frankly I don't want to think about if our friend just lost twenty years of her life right now." Susan nodded.
Standing back up she clapped her hands. "Alright, it's nearly sunset, let's start a fire and keep that radio close. Let's hope that ship gets here soon." Natalie checked her watch, the water would wear off in a hour, this time it wouldn't even last through the whole night.