Stranded Again!
"There! Look!" I shouted.
"What! Where?" Bethany said.
"I found land! It looks like an… Ohh... CRAP!" I had just realized where I was. Ten years had passed since I had last visited this island. How could this happen to me again! At least I wasn't alone this time.
"What?" Bethany repeated, annoyed.
"Remember ten years ago, when I went missing for weeks? I was stranded on an island. This island." I began my epic tale from ten years ago. Reliving the experience made seeing the island again so much worse. I told them how my plane went down and I was the only survivor. I described the cave that protected me from the weather and living on blackberries, coconut milk and the occasional fish for ten days. As we reached the shore I finished with my jubilant rescue by a passing cruise ship.
"Creepy..." Kiera said.
"Are you sure?" Sarah asked, perplexed at the idea.
"You do know that there is a one in a million chance that you landed on the very same island twice?" Nichole exclaimed. “it’s just not possible…”
"Yeah that's stupid y'all!" Daina chimed in. Everyone started talking at once, all wishing to be heard.
"What, don't you believe me?" I yelled.
"No, not really." Matt said. For a while nobody spoke.
"I'm hungry." Luke was the first to break the silence. All fifteen survivors, Kiera, Bethany, Sarah, Rachael, Daina, Matt, Luke, Beth, Meri, Emily, Nichole, Kristen, Zack, Tyler and myself had finally agreed on something. We spread out and began searching for berries and other foods.
The fifteen friends gathered back at the edge of the island a few hours later and dumped their findings in a circle. Between the fifteen of us, we managed to collect 6 coconuts, a fair amount of all different colored berries, a dead rabbit, and a small mountain of leaves and twigs.
"Who brought the leaves? What good are those?” Zack inquired. He had one thought on his mind, FOOD!
"I thought we could dip them in coconut milk and sprinkle the berries on top to make a salad." Emily said dejectedly.
"That's a brilliant idea Emily!" Daina said.
"Yeah, shut up Zack! That is better then no food!" Tyler added.
"Huh?" Zack said, not listening to the conversation.
"WHAT DID YOU DO?” Beth yelled shocked at what she just witnessed. While the others had been defending Emily's idea, Zack, overcome with hunger, demolished the collection of berries. He had eaten every last one in a matter of seconds. "THAT'S ALL THE FOOD WE'VE GOT!" She lunged at Zack and began slapping him.
"STOP! STOP IT!" Daina yelled. Meri and Kristen ran forward and separated the two squirming people. Rachael tackled Beth to prevent her from pummeling Zach, or anyone else for that matter. With the help of Matt, Kristen dragged Zack kicking and screaming to the edge of the island and tossed him in the sand. “What has gotten into you?” she scolded. “Zack, we are in this together and if you ever want to see your Play Station again I suggest you work with us not against us. Now go find some more food!” she pointed towards the woods, turned on her heels and stomped back to the group.
Meanwhile, Nichole, who wanted nothing to do with the squabble, headed for trees to collect firewood. Sarah, Luke, Kiera and Bethany followed. After all the excitement died down, I realized they were missing.
"Hey where did Kiera and those guys go?" I asked.
"Into the woods...?" Tyler suggested. We all stood and headed towards the woods when the five missing friends suddenly emerged, burdened with logs and twigs of all sizes. We worked together to build a fire. Luckily one of the guys produced a lighter so we were able to light it easily.
"We need to find shelter, it looks like rain." Rachael said.
"Oh no! We just got the fire going!" I said angrily.
"It's OK, I have an idea!" Kiera said. We all turned and looked as Kiera explained her plan. After she finished, we broke into groups of five and began collecting anything and everything we could find to build a makeshift house around our newly raging fire. We forgot about eating.
The fort was completed by firelight, because the sun had deserted us. "Yeah! We did it!" Sarah exclaimed. We all started cheering and hugging when suddenly there was a flash of lightning. Several people screamed and ran blindly into the woods. I ran after them and motioned for everyone to follow.
"There is a cave in the middle of the island that we can hid in!" I yelled back to them. It took me nearly ten minutes to find my cave, by that time everyone was soaked to the bone and shivering. "I'm sorry it took me so long! It's been ten years!" I apologized over and over.
"Better late then never!" Kristen laughed as she climbed into the cave after me. We quickly found that the cave was a lot smaller then I remembered. All fifteen of us crammed uncomfortably inside and slept.
We woke early the next morning and set to work finding more food, since Zack had eaten most of it the night before. The four boys went hunting for rabbits and returned with three. Emily, Nichole, and Sarah collected more leaves. The rest of us combed the island for berries and coconuts.
Luke volunteered to watch Zack while Daina, Bethany, Kiera and I sorted the berries and leaves into piles. Tyler, Meri and Beth used rocks to scrap the meat off the rabbits and roasted them over the open fire. Rachael, Matt, Sarah and Nichole were carefully chipping away the coconuts to extract the milk. They poured the sweet liquid into pieces of bark that Emily and Kristen had been working hard to bend into little bowl shaped trays.
Finally, when everyone finished, a feast laid before us. We ate and drank. Then we began tearing down the fort and feeding it to the fire. Before long we had a huge signal that could be seen for miles around.
Constantly we worked to feed the fire.
“We’re saved!!!” Meri cheered as her eagle eye spotted a boat a few miles away. Hastily we all dumped the dried leaves and twigs we had been collecting for three days onto the raging fire. It grew so hot we backed away and prayed the sailor would notice the billowing smoke bursting through the clear skies. When it seemed like he had passed us by, I rushed into the water and swam after it, screaming with all my might, followed closely by the others.
“Help!” all fifteen survivors were screaming. “Help us! Please help us!” finally when I saw the boat turn around I succumbed to my exhaustion. I floated back to shore and awaited my rescuer, promising myself this was the last time I would see this island, or a plane ever again.