50 hours after arrival.
Natalie and Dorothy pushed the makeshift raft as hard as they could. Their bodies were rapidly losing strength as they started to age out of their tween years. Natalie's oversized boots fell off without resistance, there wasn't any more time left. Each push she could feel the age leaving her, her body much more apparently shrinking as a kid. Soon they had dragged the makeshift raft to the shoreline, a streak of it's path carved its way through the sand. Checked her watch, it was growing larger in her hand. It had taken a whole hour, they were just eleven years old at this point. "Where is Susan?" Dorothy said frantically as she turned her head looking down each side of the beach. "I don't know." Natalie shot back. "You said she would be here!"
"I don't know!" Natalie screamed, her high pitched voice all too apparent. "She's not here, and I don't see her. Look we don't have a chance of beating the tide if we get any younger. Do you want to look for her or do you want to actually survive this?" Natalie said as she winced. Dorothy's mouth fell open as she gasped. "I can't believe you'd say that! I'm not leaving without her!" Dorothy let go of the raft as she started to run down the beach, shouting for Susan every few seconds.
Natalie attempted to push the raft closer to the water but it had grown too heavy for her to manage, she would have to wait for Dorothy to hopefully come back.
As Dorothy continued down the beach she turned a sharp bend around a treeline to their old camp. Sitting in the sand laid Susan's tiny form. "Oh my god Susan there you are. Come on we gotta go!" Dorothy shouted as she ran up to Susan. As she got close she screamed in disbelief. The now ten year-old was sitting blankly, in her lap a empty bag, the stain of berry juice covered her face.
Dorothy peered closer to Susan's face. "Susan?" she whispered nervously. The kid turned to Dorothy, a grin etched across her face before she spoke. Or rather, attempted too. Susan could only babble as over the course of repeating eating of the islands food she had cut her mind from a forty-three year old scientist, to a twenty-one year old college student, a ten year old grade schooler, a five year old kindergartener, a two year old toddler, all the way until she had regressed all the way to just a baby.
Dorothy put a hand across her mouth as she cried. "Oh my god." Dorothy grabbed Susan's hand as she tried to get her to move, but the mind of the baby in Susan had forgotten all about walking. Dorothy instead was forced to piggyback Susan, huffing as both her strength and her burden shrunk at the same time.
Natalie saw the two as they came into focus along the beach. "What happened?" She said worried as she saw Susan's state.
"She...she ate the berries, all of them." Dorothy said raggedly. "I don't know why she would've." The two fell to the sand, as she buried her head against the warmness.
Natalie shook Dorothy. "Hey we still have a chance, we gotta go. Come on!"
They both helped Susan on top of the raft as the two kids began to push the raft into the water. With hope they could get past the break, and with hope it would actually float, and with hope they could get out of here alive. Natalie shook her head, there were so many things stacked against them. She turned back as kicked against the water pushing the raft over wave over wave, the island feeling oppressive as it still loomed.