A man... but he's hurt

"I know you're there," Jade says, trying to make her naturally high-pitched voice sound lower and more dangerous. "Come out slowly or I'll assume you’re a threat, and start swinging this club at whatever I can hit!"

"D-don't," the voice calls back. Jade tenses; it's a male voice, and there's only one kind of man on this island.

"If you found me in there, I know what you'd do to me," Jade says. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't give you a good bash on the head, stomp your balls, and run like hell."

An arm emerges from the bush, and the man slowly pulls himself out, crawling on he ground. There's a mess of dried blood on his face, and more blood is oozing slowly from a scalp wound. From the looks of him, he's lucky to still be conscious. "Because someone beat you to it," he says. "What the fuck happened to you, you tryin' to make yourself uglier?"

"Sunscreen," Jade says simply. She can't help but feel some measure of compassion for this man, even knowing what he is. That's the difference between him and me.

__"Look, I'm in pretty bad shape here," he says. "I could use some help. I'll make it worth your while."

"You've got to be kidding. I'm still considering giving you another good whack on the head just to make sure you don't follow me."

"Follow you? That's rich. I'd probably pass out if I even tried to stand up! Look, if you're gonna hit me, just do it and get it over with. I can't stop you."

Jade can see that this guy isn't a threat, not anymore. "Fine, I won't beat you up any more," she decides, "but I honestly can't see why I should help you. You're hurt badly enough to call in for extraction, why don't you just do that and be done with it?"

"Because -" the man begins coughing hard, spitting up more blood, and the wound on his head oozes a little more. "Because, then it's all for nothin'," he says.

"At least you'll live," Jade points out.

"Not much longer," the man says, smiling and revealing a recently broken tooth. "Where do you think they find us, on the street? I'm on **** row, baby. I make it through this and I get to move in with the lifers. I call it quits, they send me back to a poison needle. If I'm gonna die, better to do it here... at least my last breath is fresh air."

"I suppose you're going to tell me you're an innocent man who got fucked by a bad lawyer," Jade sneers.

"Nah, I'm as guilty as they come. Cop pulled me over for a broken taillight, I had a bunch of weed in the car and I was on my third strike. So I put a fuckin' bullet in his head. They caught up with me five miles later on. Crazy thing is, they legalized weed a year later... never would've happened."

"Cry me a river," Jade says.

"I'm not tryin' to make you feel sorry for me, bitch. All I want is five minutes with that first-aid kit in your pack. Fuckin' cunt who hit me took mine. You don't even have to get any closer, just toss it over here."

"What's in it for me?"

"I can help you. I know stuff about this island, stuff they didn't tell you. Five words, and you'll know somethin' none of the other bitches know, somethin' important. Take it or leave it, I'm done talkin'."