Daley frowned in thought and answered in a low voice, "Tomorrow. Unless we cut the portions in half and—"

"Half?" Eric shrieked. "That was nothing. You can’t cut nothing in half. That’s like . . . negative nothing."

Nathan smiled. "Not a math guy, are you?"

Daley paced across the sand, running her hands nervously through her red hair. "What can I say? The more we eat, the faster it goes."

"But we might get rescued by, like, tomorrow, right?" Taylor asked hopefully.

"Or eventually," Eric muttered, "which is ‘never.’ "

"Stop saying that!" Taylor snapped.

An argument began, with everyone yelling at the same time. Jackson rose to his full height and shouted, "Time!"

Everybody shut up at once, looking surprised by Jackson’s tone. This was new for him. Get used to it, he thought, since we gotta solve the food problem. Today.

They watched him, waiting for the next lung to bellow. Jackson paced slowly, choosing his words carefully. "Two choices," he began. "We hunt for more food, or we starve."

The group exchanged worried glances, and Jackson picked up the weapon he’d been carving all day. It was only a sharpened stick, but he was sure that he could spear a fish with it. He had never tried to spear a fish—or anything else—but he had seen lots of TV shows on the nature channels.

He slapped the lance into his palm. "Today, we hunt."