Chapter 19: Hidden Cache
Day twenty-five. Mac crouched in the pre-dawn darkness, watching Sawyer's latest supply run with growing unease. The con man had been stockpiling resources since the second day after the crash—medicine, tools, food, anything that might become valuable when their fragile civilization finally cracked under pressure.
But Sawyer's hoarding created a dangerous vulnerability. If something happened to his main stash, if the Others attacked and seized their centralized supplies, the entire camp would be left defenseless against starvation and exposure.
Time to build redundancies nobody knew about.
Mac spent the next three nights constructing a hidden supply network across the island, his Phase Two Master Builder abilities allowing him to create concealed infrastructure that would have challenged professional engineers. His hands worked with supernatural precision, carving false-bottom compartments in rock formations, building camouflaged storage spaces in hollow trees, creating underground caches that looked like natural features to casual observation.
Water purification tablets tucked inside a fake rock. Dried fruit sealed in waterproof containers buried beneath innocuous piles of debris. Medical supplies hidden in tree hollows lined with woven palm fronds. Tools and rope concealed in cavities so perfectly crafted they seemed like natural formations.
Mac mapped each location using a code only he understood, paranoid about anyone else discovering his network. His construction sense had evolved beyond simple building into something approaching architectural genius—he was creating an invisible infrastructure that could sustain dozens of survivors for weeks without anyone knowing it existed.
On the third night, exhaustion finally caught up with him. Kate found him stumbling back toward camp covered in mud and plant matter, moving like someone who'd pushed himself beyond human endurance.
"What are you doing?" Kate asked, her voice carrying concern mixed with growing suspicion.
Mac looked at her for a long moment, weighing secrecy against the need for allies who understood the scope of what they were facing. Finally, he pulled out his hand-drawn map and showed her the network he'd been building.
"Insurance," Mac said quietly. "If something happens to main camp, we have fallback positions. Distributed supplies that can't all be lost at once."
Kate studied the map with growing amazement and worry. "You've been building this for three days? How many cache points?"
"Fifteen so far. Planning for twenty-five total."
"Mac." Kate's voice carried new understanding of the psychological toll his paranoia was taking. "You're preparing for war."
Mac met her eyes without flinching. "War's coming whether we prepare for it or not. The question is whether we'll be ready when it arrives."
While building his fourth cache the following night, Mac discovered evidence that someone else was thinking along the same lines. Hidden in a natural depression between two boulders, camouflaged with branches and debris, someone had created their own supply stash.
Mac's builder's eye picked out details that would have been invisible to casual observation. Medical supplies salvaged from the fuselage. Rope and knives. A compass. Water containers. Emergency rations. Everything needed for rapid movement or long-term survival away from the main camp.
His blood chilled as implications crystallized. The spy wasn't just observing their activities—they were actively preparing infrastructure for some future operation. Building their own network in parallel to Mac's, getting ready to move fast when whatever plan they served finally activated.
Mac marked the location carefully, left the stash untouched, and reported back to Kate immediately. Together they staked out the cache over two consecutive nights, watching from concealment for whoever might come to check on their supplies.
Nobody appeared. Whoever had cached these resources was patient, careful, and professional enough to avoid establishing patterns that could be detected by surveillance.
Mac added the location to his mental map of suspicious activities, seeing the broader pattern slowly emerge. Someone in their group was preparing for contingencies that had nothing to do with rescue or survival. Someone was getting ready for conflict.
"Whatcha doing there, Houdini?"
Sawyer's voice cut through Mac's concentration as he transferred supplies to a new cache point. The con man emerged from the jungle with his usual swagger, but his eyes held calculation rather than casual interest.
"Saw you moving things around," Sawyer continued. "Figured you might be sampling the merchandise."
Mac turned to face him directly, too tired for elaborate deception. "Building backup supply points. Insurance against catastrophic loss of main stores."
Sawyer's eyebrows rose with genuine surprise. "You don't trust me to keep the good stuff safe?"
Mac's honesty cut through the confrontation before it could build momentum. "I don't trust anyone with everything. Not you, not Jack, not even myself. Redundancy keeps people alive when single points of failure get exploited."
Sawyer studied him for a long moment, his con man instincts recognizing pragmatic paranoia rather than simple theft.
"You're paranoid as hell, Bob the Builder," Sawyer said, but his tone carried respect rather than criticism.
Mac grinned tiredly. "On this island, paranoid just means properly prepared."
They reached an understanding that surprised them both. Sawyer would maintain his obvious stashes as decoys, drawing attention away from Mac's hidden network. Mac would share cache locations with Sawyer, creating redundant access to distributed supplies. Two paranoid men recognizing each other as allies in the game of survival they were both playing.
"Welcome to Team Paranoid, Houdini," Sawyer said, sealing their alliance with a new nickname that carried affection rather than mockery.
For the first time since arriving on the island, Mac felt like he and Sawyer were truly on the same side—not because they trusted each other completely, but because they understood each other's suspicious nature and found it useful rather than threatening.
"We're building parallel systems because we both know this can't last," Mac realized. "Sawyer's preparing for the collapse of social cooperation. I'm preparing for external attack. But we're both getting ready for the same fundamental truth: the current situation is temporary, and when it changes, people are going to need resources that aren't controlled by whoever seizes power."
That night, Mac updated his mental map with three colors of cache locations. Red for Sawyer's obvious stashes. Blue for his own hidden network. And black for the mystery cache that someone else had built—evidence that other forces were preparing for changes none of them could fully anticipate.
Somewhere on this island, someone was building their own infrastructure. Mac's network was bigger, better hidden, more comprehensively planned. But the fact that someone else was thinking the same way terrified him more than any direct threat.
The Others weren't just watching—they were preparing. And Mac was running out of time to figure out what they were preparing for.
Author's Note / Promotion:
Your Reviews and Power Stones are the best way to show support. They help me know what you're enjoying and bring in new readers!
Can't wait for the next chapter of [ Lost: The Ultimate Survivor ]?
You don't have to. Get instant access to more content by supporting me on Patreon. I have three options so you can pick how far ahead you want to be:
🪙 Silver Tier ($6): Read 10 chapters ahead of the public site.
👑 Gold Tier ($9): Get 15-20 chapters ahead of the public site.
💎 Platinum Tier ($15): The ultimate experience. Get new chapters the second I finish them (20+ chapters ahead!). No waiting for weekly drops, just pure, instant access.
Your support helps me write more .
👉 Find it all at patreon.com/fanficwriter1