by M H Ryan
The girls went right into motion, darting into the surrounding forest. I went right near us and pulled some dead branches and sticks off a nearby tree. I set them in a pile on top of the hill and glanced back to our rescue. I jumped up, no longer seeing the ship at first. Once I peered through the scope, I realized that the ship had turned away from us, its stern facing us now.
“No!” I screamed.
If they didn’t look back…Well, I couldn’t think about that. A fire—they’d have to see a massive, fiery smoke trail. They’d come back, they had to.
“I found the matches,” Benji said, handing me the tube of matches.
Giving my small pile of kindling another look, I unscrewed the top, took out a match, and struck it against the ignition strip. It lit, and I set it on the edge of the dried moss just as Sherri and Aubrey came back with an armful of wood each.
Aubrey set the wood down and looked from my small flame to the ship repeatedly. Her hands shook.
The flame went out, not igniting the moss. I grabbed another match, lit it, and I moved it carefully to the moss. The moss ignited this time, and the flames reached up to the twigs I had gathered with the moss, creating a bigger flame. I grabbed the wood the girls collected and made a small pyramid over the growing flames. I knelt down and softly blew into the fire. The flames were getting brighter and larger, but it wasn’t producing much smoke; we’d need to get it much hotter to do that.
“Gather some more, and see if you can find some green moss, as well—it’ll smoke better.”
I went back to tending the fire, wishing I had some diesel fuel or a car tire I could light on fire and send a dark trail of smoke into the damn stratosphere.
The flames grew, but too slowly for my patience. I blew again on the fire, watching it hit up as I force-fed it oxygen. It didn’t help much, and I suspected it was because everything seemed to be wet on this island and resisted the flames from truly taking hold. I blew onto the flames, sending a few sparks and a light amount of smoke. Aubrey came running back with a bundle of wood, twigs and grass that appeared much drier than the previous ones they brought.
“I went to the other side of the island and found some dryer stuff,” Aubrey said, breathing hard.
She must have run at top speed the whole time. What she brought was worth it, though, a mixture of dry brown grass-looking stuff and a handful of twigs and dry branches. I set the brown grass on the fire and it ignited, sending flames much higher. I placed a few more twigs on it, and the base of the fire started to glow red.
A few more carefully placed breaths of air, and even the large branches were catching fire. I added a bit more wood, and the fire spread, getting hotter still.
Sherri came back, holding an armful of green grass and mossy material. Apparently, she found the time to get her top back on as well. Too bad. She dropped it all next to me, and I grabbed from the pile, feeding some of it right on the edge of the fire, testing it.
Darker smoke tendrils rose from the greenery. I set more on it, and the smoke trailed up and above the trees for the first time.
“Keep signaling the boat with the mirror as well,” I said.
Sherri went back to the mirror, moving it and hopefully reflecting light to the ship.
The smoke grew and I stood back, the fire getting too hot to be right next to. The smoke trailed above the trees, and I knew we had a good chance of getting that smoke high and thick enough that even a nearly blind captain would spot it. They just had to look back to see it.
“You did it!” Benji said.
“Yeah,” Sherri said, blowing out a long, unenthusiastic breath. “It worked.”
“You think they’ll see us?” Aubrey asked.
“Soon they will,” I said, watching the smoke rise.
“Oh my God, yes!” Aubrey said, waving to the ship. “Come get us, bitches.”
Then she stopped and looked down at the spring next to us.
“Guys?” Aubrey said in a quavering voice, taking a few steps back from the spring.
“What?” Benji said.
“Oh crap!” Sherri said and pointed at the spring.
Bubbles were popping at the surface and growing in intensity every second, as if the water was reaching the boiling point. Steam began to rise from the water, and I felt the heat of it.
“It’s a hot spring,” Sherri said.
“I don’t like it,” I said.
The bubbles became more frequent, and soon the whole pond was like a pot of water on the stove, a real rolling boil. A few drops flew out and hit me on the arm, leaving a searing red dot behind.
“We got to get out of here,” I said.
“But the fire…” Aubrey said.
“Screw the fire. We’re going to die if we stay up here,” I said.
I rushed the women off the hill and down next to the water below. The hot water flowed over the edge, hitting the pond below and sending steam off the surface, bringing beads of sweat to my temples. At least now I understood why nothing was living in the water. It must go through cycles of boiling and cooling.
The waterfall grew in size and cascaded over the rock in a wide berth, crashing into the pond below. I was gripped with a feeling of certain doom.
“We’ve gotta to get further away,” I said, snatching up our bags and my shirt. “Move!” I ordered, starting to run toward the forest.
“What’s wrong?” Benji panted, running with me.
“Just keep running!”
The girls followed orders, and we ran across the forest, thrashing through the bushes and ferns. We ran all the way to the beach that still held our raft. Out of breath, we stopped and turned back in the direction of the waterfall. It was too far to see, but even at this distance, I could hear the water popping and hissing like a pot of water overflowing its edge.
Then a sound burst from the forest, like a small explosion. It shook the trees and a few leaves floated toward the ground.
“Look!” Benji said, pointing above the trees.
In the sky rose a column of water a couple hundred feet high.
“A geyser,” Sherri said, with a look of wonder.
The column stayed up for maybe thirty seconds and then came crashing back down onto the forest. The scorching hot water started to rain down on us, and we all ran into the ocean water, ducking down to our necks, trying to escape the rain of boiling water.
I kept the girls close to me and an eye on the murky depths. We’d left our spears and bows back at the pond. We’d be defenseless if one of the neighborhood predators showed up.
The hot water deluge ended quickly and a warm fog settled on the forest floor, rising up higher each second. We walked back onto the beach, my heart still pounding, and I took deep breaths of the muggy, humid air. We could have been dead many times over. That waterfall could have boiled us like lobsters. If Benji hadn’t heard the boat, I know we wouldn’t have noticed a damn thing outside the three of us in that moment. The near-death experience firmed my decision to be more careful in moving forward. Like Benji said, these islands seemed to want to kill us in ever more complicated ways.
“Holy hell,” Aubrey said, bent over and breathing hard. “That was close.”
“And the freaking fire’s out as well,” I checked the sky and only saw a hint of smoke in the sky above.
“I still have the mirror,” Sherri said, holding it out.
A spark of hope. “Come on,” I said.
We ran down the beach to the side of the island closest to the boat. Sherri had the mirror in hand, and Benji had the telescope, but after a minute of searching, we came to the realization that the Veronica was gone.
“No…” Aubrey moaned. “No, it can’t be gone. We’re here! Come back!” She jumped and waved her arms to the empty ocean.
“They’re not coming back,” Benji said on a sob.
“Whatever,” Sherri said. “We don’t need to be rescued. This is the most exciting thing that’s ever happened in my life. It’s not much of a story if we
get rescued on day one.”
“It’s day two for us,” Benji said.
I stared at the open water, hoping the boat would reappear on the horizon.
“Sherri, if you start talking one more time about telling this shit to your grandkids, I’m going to kick your ass,” Aubrey said. “This isn’t some exotic vacation; we are stranded on islands that seem to hate us. It’s only a matter of time until one of us gets hurt or worse.”
“Jack wouldn’t let that happen to us,” Benji said.
“Exactly. Jack’s not going to let us die and he’s a whole other adventure I’d like to explore further.”
“Yeah, well, maybe if we weren’t so involved in that, we would have heard the horn earlier and we’d be on that ship heading home right now,” Aubrey said.
“I didn’t see you complaining during that waterfall action. Shit was hot as hell,” Sherri said.
Aubrey took a deep breath and crossed her arms. “I’m sorry, Jack. I didn’t mean it like that, it’s just…” She took a deep breath. “It’s just, I don’t want to live like this. We don’t even have a bathroom, or a toothbrush, shampoo…and a hundred other things we’re used to. You guys act like we’re at camp, but this is going to get hard, and the longer it takes for us to get rescued, the harder it’s going to get.”
“I don’t know,” Sherri said with a sly grin. “I don’t think it was capable of getting any harder behind the waterfall.”
Aubrey shook her head and laughed. “You’re unbelievable, Sherri.”
“You’re right. I’m unbelievable, and that’s why you love me,” Sherri said.
Benji didn’t seem to be bothered by the conversation about the waterfall, but I wondered if she felt as I did about her. She was amazing, and I wanted to get to know her on every level. I didn’t see any jealousy or frowns from Benji as her friends talked and joked about what we did; in fact, she seemed happy about it. Maybe there was something in the air and in the water here.
We all watched the horizon for a while, hoping the ship would appear, but it never did. The sun was already getting low. At least we now knew there was something out there, and it was probably looking for us. I just hoped it wasn’t making some sort of grid pattern as it searched for us and that this grid had now been marked clear.
“We should build a fire again and just keep feeding it, having a constant smoke trail going,” Aubrey said.
“I’d love to, but these small islands have limited resources, and keeping a fire going like that is going to exhaust the resources quickly. Especially the dry wood. We have just enough time left in the day to throw together some sort of shelter. I say we build that shelter, use the few food packets we have left, and regroup at first light.”
“A shelter sounds good,” Benji said. “I would have died that first night if not for Jack building us a safe place.”
“Agreed, and with Old Faithful blowing his steaming load all over us, we’ll need a roof,” Sherri said.
“Aubrey, you said you found a dry part of the island, right?” I asked.
“Yes,” she said. “Near the far end, not far from our raft, actually.”
“Good, I bet that area isn’t hit with the water like the rest of the island. We should be safe over there,” I said.
“Can we wait a few more minutes…just in case the ship comes back?” Aubrey said.
“Sure,” I said.
We spent a few more minutes looking out into the ocean, and finally, even Aubrey was resigned to the fact that the boat wasn’t coming back. We were all quiet as we walked down the beach, absorbed with our own thoughts. I reached out into the ocean, trying to feel what was out there, but it was just static again, with no discernable emotion.
“What are you doing?” Benji asked.
“What?” I asked.
“You have your hand out toward the ocean,” Benji said.
“Like you’re using the force,” Aubrey said, to Benji’s delight.
I sighed and looked out into the ocean. Thoughts of how to explain this to them without sounding completely insane swirled in my head.
“Ever since we landed here, I—this is going to sound crazy, I know, but I can feel them, out there.” I pointed out to the ocean.
“Feel what?” Sherri asked.
“Their emotions. Their desires. It’s like I can hear them, in a way—all the creatures around here.” I saw the confusion and skepticism on their faces, and I rushed to explain. “Like the sharks, they hate us, but the crocs were just hungry. The boars were simpler in their desires, they want to kill us. The rest of the animals in the ocean are like a fuzzy blend of everything. A background noise. I don’t get a strong feeling until I’m closer to them, and the stronger the emotion, the more I feel it.”
They didn’t say anything at first, and then Benji spoke.
“Well, I think it’s awesome, like having a superpower. You’re Aquaman!”
“You didn’t have this ability before coming here?” Aubrey asked.
“No.”
“What do think it means?” Aubrey asked.
“I don’t know. I can sort of turn it off and on, though.”
“You were trying to read the ocean a minute ago, weren’t you?” Benji asked.
“Yeah, but I didn’t feel anything that stood out.”
“Wow,” Sherri said, patting me on the shoulder. “Can you feel what we feel as well?”
“No, it doesn’t work on you guys,” I said.
“I’m with Benji,” Sherri said. “I think it’s awesome.”
“You guys have anything weird like this happening to you?” I asked.
“Not that I can tell,” Benji said.
“I wish,” Sherri said.
“So you don’t think I’m crazy?” I asked.
“Listen,” Sherri said. “I don’t know you as well as these two, but as a leader of a sorority, I can spot crazy from like a mile away, and you aren’t it. Crazy hot, maybe, but not loco in the brain.”
“It could be a coping mechanism,” Aubrey said. “People that experience something traumatic can conjure things up in their heads in order to deal with it. Some might create imaginary friends or even a whole new personality. Something that allows the person to deal with it.”
“Who knows, I could be imagining it,” I said with a shrug.
We walked and talked more about the island and the ship, and by the time we got to the raft, the girls were laughing and joking around. I was glad they took my little secret so well.
We grabbed the supplies and pulled the raft way up onto the sand and tied it off to a tree. Then Aubrey led us down the beach to the arid part of the island she had discovered earlier.
The dryer part of the island still had a forest of sorts, but the trees were thinner and the ground cover was much more sparse. The white sand beach was about twice as deep on this part of the island as well, and much of the sand was visible into the forest. The gentle waves rolled in and out in steady rhythm. We were now on the east side of the island, and the sun had dipped below the tree line in the west. It wasn’t exactly hot, but I was grateful for the shade, because it was going to be a lot of work getting the shelter up.
The first thing we needed was a suitable place. After a quick inspection of the area, I found a perfect tree that had several branches sticking out about six feet up, like fingers.
“Wait, we’re building it off the ground?” Aubrey said as she watched me lay out the base of the platform with knife cuts.
“Those boars could come at us at any time, or the crocs, for that matter. Just a few feet off the ground will give us the buffer we need to stay safe.”
“I’ll be damned surprised if those pigs want more of this after the whooping you guys laid down on them today,” Sherri said.
“I agree, but we better play it safe,” I said.
Aubrey sighed. “Do you know how much more work that is going to take?”
“We have to work hard out here,” I said. “And I wish I could say it was going
to get easier, but it’s going to be harder before it’s easier, at least for a while. But if we keep at it, we have a much better chance of living through this.”
“Fine, but I’m still complaining while I work,” Aubrey said.
I laughed. At least she was honest. “That’s okay, I’ve seen already how amazing you are. I know we can’t do this without you, so I’ll take all the complaining you want to dish out.”
“Be careful what you wish for there, Jack,” Sherri said, and I couldn’t help looking at her chest in that bikini top and remembering the treasures under those patriotic scraps of fabric.
In time, Jack. We had more important things to accomplish first.
I searched through our supply bags and pulled out one of the dry bags, a few empty water bags, and some plastic zipper bags.
“Here,” I said, handing them some of the bags. “With as much work as we’re doing, we’re going to need to drink a lot, and we can’t keep running back to the spring. We’ll need to store it here, with us.”
“You think it’s cool enough now?” Aubrey asked.
“Should be cool enough for the bags,” I said and then handed out tablets to them. “Put one in the small bags, and I’ll put several in this big bag.”
“What are they?” Sherri asked.
“Purification tablets. It’ll make the water safer to drink.”
We rushed back to the waterfall. It was hot and steamy, but not scalding. We scooped all the water we could into the bags and walked back to the camp. We set the bags on the raft, and I handed a few smaller ones for the girls and myself to drink now.
“Just make sure you keep hydrated while working out here,” I said.
“Jack, if you only knew the number of hydration discussions we’ve had with our coaches,” Sherri said with a laugh.
“Did, Coach O'Brien make you go to the hydration seminar last year?” Aubrey asked.
“Yep,” Sherri said. “And what a fun one that was.” She rolled her eyes.
“What should we do first, Jack?” Benji asked.
“Okay. Sherri, Benji, can you two go find fallen logs a few feet longer than yourself and bring them back here? Those will be for the supporting posts and the platform. Anything the width of your wrist or larger should do. Aubrey and I will start collecting the smaller pieces and fronds.”
