I glanced out the window smiling to myself. This trip to Indonesia hadn't been so bad. The food was delicious, the people were nice, and surprisingly a good amount of people speak English.  I looked out the window seeing a small island.
                  "What's this island called?" I asked curiously not moving my gaze from the beautiful scenery.
                  "In English, it would be called...hmm, let me think.." The pilot responded teaching his brain. "Ah yes! It would be," suddenly there were dials spinning and a loud siren. I began to freak out liking around the cabin my heart pounding. The pilot grabbed the walkie and began yelling into it. "Rotor has failed! Falling fast! We need rescue on," then the cabin shook violently pulling the radio out of the dash. "Oh no!" The pilot yelled beginning to cry, "no radio means no rescue!" He began moving into the back of the helicopter.
                 I throw down my headset following. "What are we going to do?" I look at him to see him strapping a back pack on and he looks at me his face dead. He looks out the side of the helicopter and back at me.
               "If you want any chance of survival," he held out his hand. "Jump with me." I looked at his hand, tears streaking down my face. I grabbed onto him as he threw himself out of the helicopter.
                We crawled up the beach exhausted seeing smoke rise from the middle of the forest where the helicopter went down. I looked over at the pilot and gasped, "What do we do now?"
                 He looked down at the sand sitting on his knees. "We die."
                "What do you mean we die?" I scrambled over to him frantic.
                "It means we die. This island," he said leveling his eyes with mine, his empty and defeated, "is called Graveyard.”
                 I awoke suddenly in the same tree I fell asleep in waiting for my trap to be as sprung. I wiped my eyes. Damn. Same nightmare. A month ago and it still haunts me. I hopped down from my branch. My trap was spring but no game lie in its jaws. I sigh and look at the sky. S***, I have no idea what time it is. I look for a familiar landmark and see a large hill and begin to trudge up to the top. I needed to get back to camp. I pulled out my map and looked at it but it did no help, I was all turned around. I looked around for the mountain and found it to the north.
                       I looked back down at the make-shift map I had created. I was still 10 miles from the crash site and only had about an hour of light left based on my now better view of the Sun. I cursed under my breath putting the map away and began my jog through the forest. The sweat from my brow began to run into my eyes and they burned but I had to press on. I had been stuck on this island for what seemed to be years even though it had only been about a month or two. I actually had no idea how many days had passed, you lose count after the first week. I had managed to establish a pathetic shelter out of the remains of the crashed helicopter. I ran faster afraid of being stuck in the forest at night. The only other time I had been stuck in the forest at night I lost my own other survivor of the crash. A tiger pulled him down out of a tree and tore him to pieces. I jumped down and ran like hell…his screams still haunt me.
I slowed my pace to a walk as I looked up through the trees for a glimpse of the sun. Half an hour left maybe. I looked around me terrified. The trees held all sorts of dark secrets. They grew together and apart making a trek through them nearly impossible and almost certain to lead to death with all the predators they hid. I ran my hand through my now long blonde hair, feeling the grease.
              "Why me?" I asked no one in particular for the thousandth time, "what have I done to deserve this?"
               I looked up to the sky hidden behind the trees as if there was going to be an answer this time. Sadly, no divine force gave me its reason for stranding me here. I looked back down and began to tear up. I was alone, lost, and had run out of flares. There was no way I was going to be rescued. I cried loudly now burying my head in my hands, my entire body trembling from the uncontrollable sobs. After about 5 minutes I slowly regained my composure. I had to be strong, I had to survive.
                 "Izzy has to have a father. She needs you to be strong. You can't die out here, you can't just give up like her mother did. You have to make it home." I told myself, hoping that if I said it enough times I would be blessed and protected from all harm.
                 I snapped out of my self induced trance and, realizing how much time I lost, broke into a sprint. I ran, breathing loudly, and paying under my breath to make it back to the crash site. I looked ahead at the darkening trees and began to panic as I looked wildly for the path leading to the clearing containing my camp. I ran for another mile with complete darkness almost upon me. I panicked looking wildly into the woods.
                 "Come on!" I screamed, desperately searching through the trees. I ran for a few minutes more then stopped placing my hands on my knees in defeat. I looked up through teary eyes and saw my last prayer finally come true. I saw the small break in the trees where the path opens to my clearing. I ran forward to the break in the trees and ran out into the clearing.
                   I looked up seeing the broken helicopter with a large radio thrown over the top almost like an awning. The boxes set up around to keep small animals out. And that was about it. It was a sad little shelter but it was far better than nothing. I ran to it smiling and overjoyed as full darkness hit. I ran up to the helicopter and stopped deaf in my tracks a few yards away. The boxes were all toppled over scattered along the ground. Something had forced its own entry into my shelter. I started back away from the helicopter and saw a dark mass move around inside. Suddenly two glowing eyes pieced thorough the darkness staring right at me. I grabbed my combat knife from my belt and began to tremble.
                   A large cat appeared and moved out of my shelter and began to advance upon me. I panicked and yelled random noises at the tiger. He still sensed no sort of threat from me and continued to move toward me. I gave more and more ground, until I was almost to the tree line. I was crying now, begging some higher being to spare my life. The tiger growled and I wiped away the tears, and stood my ground. If I was going to die in this clearing, I was not going to die with my back turned away from death. The tiger stopped its advance watching me closing and then began to circle. I watched it turning with it gasping in cold night air. The darkness made it almost impossible to see, but those eyes burned bright and those eyes were what I followed.
                   The tiger lunged and it was faster than anything I had ever seen. I feel backwards crying out as I hit the ground rolling to the side barely avoiding the pounce. I lashed out with the knife catching the tiger’s leg getting the flesh cut. It snarled raising its paw and slamming it into my shoulder cutting all along my shoulder and arm. Then it was upon me and I tried desperate to defend myself with the knife cutting and jabbing as the three hundred pound cat slashed at me with its claws and teeth.
                      There was pain everywhere, then a picture of Izzy, and then, oblivion.