by Kira Ward
We grabbed each other’s hand and desperately tried clawing our way to the back of the boat, but our effort was futile. The deck was too slippery, and the waves pounded against us furiously. A particularly large wave hit the side of the boat, and I spit out salty water while trying to regain my vision as I held firmly onto my brothers hand and railing of the boat.
“We can’t get there! Just hold on!” Alex yelled.
I curled up into a ball and Alex wrapped one arm around me while we each held on for dear life with our other hands.
“I’m sorry, Sis’… I’m so sorry.”
I briefly looked up to Alex’s face and could see the fear and sadness in his eyes. That’s the last thing I remember before I went weightless, water surrounded my body, and everything went black.
Chapter 5
It was clear that the sun would be going down soon. We had been on the island about 30 minutes now, and had spent the last 20 or so walking around, trying to find any signs of civilization. So far the only life that we had encountered was a few crabs and a couple of monkeys bouncing about in the trees.
“Ouch!” I whined, as I stepped on yet another sharp twig while we pushed through the bushes. I lifted my foot and inspected the damage— so far no blood.
“We’re going to have to head back,” Alex said. “We can’t get stuck out here in the dark. Who knows what’s in this jungle.” His tone had changed completely since we had got on the island. My always sure, always confident, billionaire stepbrother seemed to have no solution for our situation.
“So we’re going to sleep here tonight?”
“What other choice we have? Unless someone comes to rescue us tonight we’re stuck, and if someone does come to rescue us, we should be near the beach waiting for them.”
Immediately, tears started to swell in my eyes. We had no idea where we were, no food, and no clothes. My bikini offered little protection from the mosquitoes which had already bitten me a couple of times, and I noticed similar bite marks on Alex’s back. The thought crossed my mind that we actually might die out there, but I held my composure as best that I could while we started walking back towards the beach.
We eventually made it back to where we washed ashore, and there was little light left in the sky. There was no sign of any ships in the sea or any planes in the sky. Even the painted piece of scrap metal seemed to have disappeared somewhere. By all appearances, I was truly stranded, alone with my stepbrother.
A drop of water landed on my nose, and then another and another. Within seconds, it was raining bullets, and my brother grabbed my hand and started walking the perimeter of the forested area, while keeping the ocean in viewing distance. “We’ve got to find shelter, fast!” he shouted over the sound of the pouring rain.
Our walk turned into a run as light in the sky continued to dim, and the cold water falling on us brought me in to shivers. I had no idea what we were looking for, and surely my stepbrother didn’t either. All we knew was that we needed to find something as quickly as possible.
Eventually, Alex noticed a large tree that rested on the edge of a small hill. Half of the hill’s dirt had eroded away, revealing a portion of the tree’s roots and creating a very slight canopy underneath the tree. It wasn’t much, but it looked just large enough that we could scoot our bodies under it if we tried. “There!” Alex yelled. It looked dangerous, but I was becoming so cold that staying in the freezing rain seemed even more hazardous to our health than the tiny cave.
Alex knelt down and briefly inspected the area under the tree roots, waving his hand through the crevice to make sure there were no vile creatures that were hiding away. Then he laid down on his side and weaseled his way inside. Once he was fully underneath, he beckoned for me with his hands, and I imitated his motions, sliding in towards him, face first. He pulled me in with his hands and wrapped his arms tightly around me. The small cave was tight and uncomfortable, but the closeness of our bodies increased my warmth, and we were finally out of the horrible rain.
I lay face to face with my brother with my soft breasts pressed tightly against his strong chest. The feeling of his breath stroked my forehead, ever so slightly, and the muscles in his arms squeezed my shoulders comfortably.
It was turning pitch black, and I couldn’t see a thing. Strange, spooky sounds of animals in the jungle nearby poured out into the darkness, but I didn’t feel afraid. I knew that my life was on the line, but while I was wrapped in my brother’s arms, I had the unusual feeling that everything was going to be okay.
***
I waded in the ocean water and washed the grime off of my skin the best I could. We had woke up with bits of mud covering our body and an earthworm squiggling around on my thigh. Needless to say, my first thought in the morning was to get myself clean. I moved further in, until the water covered my breasts and unfastened my bikini top and bottoms to clean them off as well.
“Don’t go too deep. There could be sharks in the water.” Alex yelled from a few hundred feet away.
He was also cleaning off, and I felt a bit self-conscious as the water was the pretty clear type that you can see through easily. The beach was actually quite beautiful, and for a brief moment I thought that this might be a great vacation spot if someone were to go there intentionally. Assorted colored fish could be seen scurrying about, and the sand of the beach was soft under my feet. I wondered if Alex’s island was the same.
My eyes took another long glance over the horizon before I refastened my bikini and headed back onto land. I sat down on a large rock that protruded out of the ground and sighed deeply at our situation— no sign of rescue yet.
As Alex approached, I asked the obvious question. “What are we going to do?”
He took a deep breath as he sat down beside me. “We’re going to have to plan for the worst. Surely, someone will come, but who knows if it’ll be today or a week from now.”
“And what’s that mean exactly?”
“It means we’re going to have to find food and build a shelter. We can’t sleep under those tree roots again, and if we sit on the beach waiting all day we’ll starve.”
My stomach grumbled at the mention of food. Or was it fear? I’m wasn’t sure, but it was an unpleasant feeling nonetheless. I turned my head left and right and re-evaluated my surroundings. “I’ll leave the food thing up to you.”
“I saw some fish in the sea, and we’ll need to go explore the jungle to see what else we can find.”
“You can fish?”
Alex chucked and rubbed the back of his head with his palm. “Well, I fished with Dad when we were little, but that was years ago, and we had full tackle.”
When Alex moved his hand from his head, I noticed his palm was bright red, and a small trickle of blood was dripping down the back of his neck. “Alex, you’re bleeding…”
“Yeah… a bit.” He seemed unconcerned. “I think it’s from when I hit my head in the electrical room.”
I scooted beside him, pushed his head down, and parted his hair so I could inspect the wound. “It’s pretty deep. You really need some stitches.”
“I don’t think stitches are an option at the moment.” He snapped his head away and stood up, offering me his clean hand with a smile. “Quit worrying about me. C’mon, let’s go get some food to put in that belly. You’ve lost some weight since last time I saw you. Have you been working out?”
“A little bit,” I replied. I had lost about 10 pounds since the last time I saw him, and I was surprised that he would notice. But then again, I did look pretty hot in that little bikini.
Chapter 6
The next few hours were spent exploring the island, pushing through the thick foliage of the jungle and trying to find any sort of resources that might aid our stay. I made a mental note when we walked past a huge waterfall that fell into a stream below. If I needed to clean myself off again, it would make a good shower.
Near the waterfall, I spotted a small bush that was covered in what appeared to be raspberries.
We picked as many as we could and stuffed them in our mouth, giving us some much needed nutrients. We also found a banana plant which Alex managed to pull down using the weight of his body. There were several coconut palms scattered throughout the island, but we had no idea how to get them down or how we would open them if we did, so we gave those a pass.
After having a decent share of fruit, we began collecting fallen branches and palm fronds to bring back to the beach. There was no way we could continue sleeping under tree roots in the event of rain, and there was little protection from the critters that inhabited the island. There were lots of them as well. Snakes, monkies, spiders, ants, and birds to name a few that I had seen thus far.
We spoke very little while we went about our day, aside from Alex issuing me orders; get this, get that, that’s too big, that’s too small, that one over there. There seemed to be a lot on his mind, but on more than one occasion, I had the feeling that he was looking at me with unusual eyes.
I was guilty of checking him out a few times as well. His body was eventually drizzled in sweat, and the sight of his strong muscles flexing as he carried bundles of wood or broke tree branches was pretty hot. The only fortunate thing about our unfortunate situation was that Alex didn’t have a shirt, so I could at least have some eye candy to keep me occupied.
Our makeshift shelter turned out to be quite decent, despite having no tools to cut anything with. Since we had little control over the length of the branches, Alex decided to build the shelter in a “teepee” style with each branch leaning against the others and forming a small point at the top. Palm fronds where then laid, one on top of the other, over the branches and wrapped in fibers that we pulled from the bark of trees. Overall there was room for 3 or 4 people to fit snugly inside, so there was ample space for just the two of us. We also placed fronds on the floor of the shelter to keep us off of the sand, and a piece of thin slate rock was leaned across the entrance to create somewhat of a door.
“Not Bad,” I said as I admired our creation.
“Better than nothing,” Alex added.
By the time we had finished, the sun had almost completely gone down, and we sat on the beach chatting about our lives growing up together. We talked about Mom and Dad, and what we remembered when they got married. I was already 5 years old, and Alex was 7 when they tied the knot, but as time went on we grew up like we were real brother and sister. Despite him getting impossibly handsome and forgetting about me in his middle school and high school years, we were best friends when we were kids. For years, we would share the same bed, share the same toys, and I’d follow him around, eager to share every adventure possible with him.
Even though I didn’t want to be on the island, it was nice to be close to him again, however temporary it may be.
When the sun fully subsided and we ran out of things to talk about, we retreated to our shelter and laid in the relative darkness. My head spun as I recalled the events of the past couple days. It was hard for me to believe that I hadn’t broke down and started sobbing yet, but for some strange reason I didn’t feel entirely miserable. Was it Alex’s company that was keeping my mind off of how dire our situation was? I was scared and felt vulnerable, but somehow I felt calm and relaxed. It didn’t really feel like we were struggling to stay alive.
“Alex…” I said to my brother as we began to drift off to sleep.
“Yeah, Sis’?” he replied.
“Can you hold me?”
Alex rolled on to his side without question and scooped me into his arms. I buried my head in his shoulder and he gently kissed the top of my brow.
I felt secure. Terrified. But more secure than I had felt in several years.
Chapter 7
A week passed before we finally made a fire. Alex and I had practically made our hands bleed rubbing sticks together for hours on end to garner that wonderful ember. We cheered and danced and laughed once we finally had a flame, as eating only berries and bananas had really taken it’s toll.
Just days earlier he had fashioned a wooden spear and caught a few fish, but we decided that we wouldn’t eat any until we had fire, since neither of us had any knowledge of the health risks. Not only that, but having a fire would bring us one step closer to getting noticed and possibly rescued from the island.
There had been no signs of any rescue boats or planes as we had expected, and the idea that we might never be rescued crossed my mind several times. Had they sent anyone to look for us? Surely Mom and Dad were freaking out by now and would have sent a massive search party. Jake was probably worried too. Hell, with Alex’s wealth, his company would have had the whole country of Italy on boats looking for him. The more I thought about it, the more I didn’t understand. How were we still stuck there? Still, I kept myself together. I had gotten used to living on the island, and if I were to have cried myself to death I would’ve done it already.
We cooked several fish over a makeshift BBQ, and I had the idea to roast bananas wrapped in palm fronds which turned out to be a splendid dessert. It was the first real meal we had had since we arrived on the island, and we stuffed ourselves until we were about to burst. Alex had also figured out how to crack open fallen coconuts over a sharp rock, so the added coconut water was an additional delight.
A part of me missed my Netflix and Facebook, but another part of me was somehow enjoying my time with Alex. He seemed to be growing more handsome by the day as his skin tanned and his already existing six pack grew even more ripped. It was amazing to watch how he accustomed himself to the island life so easily. He never complained; if something needed to be done, he just figured it out.
“I’m going to clean off,” I said as I stood up and started walking towards the trees. Watching Alex become more rugged and attractive every day was making me somewhat self-conscious, and I found myself constantly wanting to shower to make sure that I didn’t smell. Alex nodded without saying a word, and I was on my way.
The waterfall was only about a 3 minute walk from our shelter, and we had started carving a natural trail with our constant walks back and forth. I hung my bikini on a small bush nearby and slowly entered the water.
I closed my eyes and let the wash of cool water pour over my naked body and into my mouth. I stood there for several minutes basking in freshness, and when I opened my eyes I was shocked to see Alex sitting on a fallen log nearby.
“Alex!” I yelled as I quickly grabbed my breasts and sunk down to shoulder depth in the water. “What are you doing?”
“I wanted to get in the water too. I figured it would be more polite to ask if I could join you rather than just jumping right in.”
“Yeah, but I’m naked!” My eyes were wide and scolding.
Alex chuckled. “I’ve seen you naked countless times. Don’t you remember when we showered together as little kids?”
My mouth dropped wide. “That was years ago! We’re grown now!”
“And your getting so thin that your bikini top has slipped off how many times already?”
He did have a point. I had had my fair share of nipple and full on boob slips since we had been on the island, but he never made any inclination of noticing. I immediately felt shy and didn’t know what to say.
“Look,” Alex said pointedly, “We both know what naked bodies look like, and I’d feel more comfortable if we bathed together. We’re still not sure what kind of predators are out here on this island, and I would kill myself if something happened to you.”
I paused a few moments to process the situation. There was no way I could deny what he was saying was true, but it was so wrong for us to be naked around each other. On the other hand, I had been sleeping in his arms every night, wearing nothing but my bikini. He had basically seen everything already.
I turned myself to the side and mumbled, “Okay, hurry up.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Alex masterfully untie to strings of his shorts and drop them to the ground. I tried my best not to look, but I it was impossible for me to not notice ho
w large he was out of my peripheral vision. Damn, I thought. He even had a perfect “V”.
Alex entered the water and immediately submerged himself completely. He seemed totally oblivious to the fact that there was a naked girl standing beside him, which was a stark contrast to me holding my breasts and stealing glances as I shyly continued my cleaning ritual.
I allowed the water from the falls to course over my head again and turned my back to him, trying to remain calm while Alex cleaned himself. Only seconds later my fear was intensified when I felt a pair of strong hands fall onto my shoulders. I jumped, and all of my muscles tensed instinctively as I swung around and saw Alex standing close to me.
“What the hell Alex?” I yelled.
“Look… It’s like soap,” he said casually, and I noticed he was holding a long piece of a strange plant in his hands. He squeezed the plant limb, and a thick, milky liquid oozed out and onto his hands, which he then rubbed on his forearms. As he rubbed, the liquid foamed up just like soap. “Let me clean your back for you.”
“Alex, are you insane?”
“Will you just stop?” he demanded. “You’re being so uptight. Besides, I’ll need you to wash my back too.” He held out the plant in his hands and I nervously grabbed it. Maybe he was right… We were lucky to be alive, lucky to have found food, fire, and even this strange plant. It was just me and him for now. Why was I really being uptight? After all, he’s my brother and has seen everything before.
Alex turned around, and I sighed as I moved closer. I squeezed the plant juice into my hand and proceeded to rub the milky substance on his back. Damn… Damn… I thought to myself. The milk had an amazing scent, something between aloe and rosewater. His back was hard as a rock, and his strong muscles shifted under my hands as I rubbed. He exhaled a sign of pleasure, and I could feel a fire rising below my stomach. I had tried to keep my mind off my brother’s sexiness since we arrived at the jungle, but rubbing his back was really screwing with my brain.
