by Alex Just
~ Island – pacific ~
The tide was out; Tom and Julia were wading through the water towards their cruise ship, or what was left of it. Half way, the water got too deep for them to stand.
‘Guess its swimming from here then?’ Tom flicked a glance at Julia to make sure that she was going to manage. He was met with a hostile glare.
‘I’m a very good swimmer Tom, don’t patronise me. Make sure you don’t get too tired, because I certainly won’t stop for you.’
Her hardened expression left him no doubt that she would leave him behind. He hoped he’d make it. It’d been a long time since he’d swum even a hundred metres.
As it turned out it, he aced it, swimming strongly and powerfully, not tiring at all. He felt stronger, more physically capable than ever before. Even more surprisingly, Julia kept up with the pace and didn’t seem in the least bit tired either. He kept this thought to himself, not wanting to risk irritating her again, or forcing her to resort back to the spoilt brat she’d been. He preferred the new, nicer Julia than the girl they’d learnt to avoid during the cruise. He preferred her a lot actually.
The ship was a lot more unstable than it appeared from afar. In fact by the looks of things it was going to be dragged out to sea very soon.
‘What do you know? A rope ladder is hanging down the side.’ Julia giggled at the look on Tom’s face.
‘Lucky,’ he muttered in return.
Looking closely at him, she noticed how he wasn’t as exhausted as he should have been. They’d been swimming at a killer pace, not to her full potential of course, but fast none the less, he seemed unfazed. That was extremely unusual; no one she’d ever met could match her physical fitness. It only made sense if... but that was impossible wasn’t it? She brushed the thought aside carelessly.
Tom noticed Julia looking at him and was disturbed by the intensity of her stare. She looked like she was trying to figure him out. He felt his face begin to blush and quickly scaled the ladder to prevent her from seeing his burning face. What is it that needs to figure out so desperately about me? Does she know something about me? Never mind, he really needed to get a grip on himself.
The ship was chaos. Glass lay sprinkled across the deck, light reflected off the shards, glittering brightly. Ropes hung in tangled masses, stretched across broken masts and splintered wood. An inflated life raft was suspended within a web of rope, trapped like a fly. The loud slap of a lone sail could be heard as it flapped slowly in the light breeze.
Julia joined Tom on the deck and their footsteps were accompanied by dull echoes and the crisp crunch of glass like cold snow under foot.
‘I’m going to get the raft out of all the spaghetti up there,’ Tom pointed at the mess of ropes that hung between the main mast and the mizzen mast.
‘You do that, in the mean time I’ll go down into what’s left of below decks and see if I can scavenge any food or equipment.’
Her unfriendliness stung. Never mind thought Tom. I have other things to worry about. His attention was caught by an unusual sight at the bow of the ship. A chunk of decking had been ripped up revealing a small cabin which was most definitely not supposed to be there. Curiosity getting the better of him, as always, he clambered over to the gap and peered down onto a bunk and small desk, both securely fixed to the floor. The staff of the ship didn’t know about this place that was for sure.
He climbed down into the small area and felt his foot crunch on paper. Glancing down he found a diary. He picked it up and flicked the page open randomly. The pages were filled with lines and lines of text and small diagrams. Most of it meant nothing to him, but he got the idea that these were observations written down to be worked through later. One page held the diagram of an island, and further off a route was traced. The route was labelled S.P. and at one point a small note was scrawled which said “depart here. Arrival: thirty six hours after departure.” It made no sense. He flicked to the front of the book and saw the initials R.S. One page caught his attention. It was a sketch. Of him. Writing was scrawled underneath, but of all pages, it had to be this one where water had splashed across the page and smudged all the text. Except for part of a sentence, which read “is he one of…” The ship trembled slightly and he dropped the book with a start. He’d be able to investigate later, make sense of all this. He scaled back up to deck and as he approached the raft, he was contemplating the best way to tackle the process of getting it down when he heard a soft whoosh. Instinctively without knowing what he was doing, he leapt up onto a bit of metal railing, balancing easily; he powered up towards a rope and swung himself on to the top of the life raft in time to watch the remainder of the foremast come crashing down onto the exact spot he had been standing in seconds before. The noise was deafening. The force shook the whole ship. It lurched sideways like a drunkard trying to stand up, and every bit of timber groaned in protest to the movement of the water as the tide continued to drag outwards towards the open sea.
Not thinking about what he had just done, Tom unzipped the rafts hatch and dropped in. He made straight for the standard survival box that was in every one of these rafts, and pulled out a machete. Perfect. A gleam entered his eyes as he hefted the knife. He gave it a few casual swings and revelled in the power he felt holding it. The whole ship shivered suddenly. There wasn’t much time left to get the raft down. He clambered up above the raft and hanging from one arm, swung the machete at the ropes holding it up.
The rope split easily and the raft dropped a few feet. Slowly, Tom managed to hack their escape free from the ropes greedy grasp till it landed on the deck. For a second he was paralysed with fear; what if the glass shards popped it. He dismissed the thought as he realised if the stuff the raft was made of could endure heavy seas, it would survive small glass shards. He nimbly dropped onto the deck next to it and began to haul it to the edge of the ship. When it was in place he glanced around for Julia.
Julia was lost in her own thoughts as she searched the ships galley for any sign of food. If only she’d paid more attention to her uncle as he explained the signs to her. Then she’d know for sure. One thing was certain, his eyes were changing colour. They’d been a tawny hazel and now they were slowly turning green. It could be the constant sunlight, but it was still unusual. She was shocked out of her speculation as she felt the whole ship tremble in response to a huge crash. Tom. Was he alright? She began to sprint in the direction of the broken stairs that led up to the deck. Stopping as she caught sight of the pantry. It was full of canned food. Everything was there, fruit, meat, milk, vegetables. They’d be able to have a proper meal if they made it off this damned ship alive. With unnatural speed she forced all she could fit into a plastic bag she’d picked up earlier and made her way up onto deck. She’d have to untangle the raft as well, Tom would definitely not have been able to do it by himself, she thought, as she casually ducked a heavy metal pot which rolled off a shelf as the ship heaved in the outgoing tide.
Impatience mixed with concern was starting to gnaw at Tom’s insides as he saw Julia burst onto the deck. Surprise flickered across her face for the briefest of moments as she registered that the raft was ready to go. Without wasting any time she flung the supplies into it and beckoned to Tom to help her push it into the water. He didn’t need telling twice. Together they managed to get it over the edge, then they both followed suit, landing in the sea next to it and dragging it away from the Singing Pearl before climbing on and paddling back to the beach.
It took longer than the trip out, the tide presented a formidable opponent and made it hard work to get back. It wasn’t until they could both stand that it became a little bit easier. The two of them pushed the raft through the shallow water until it ground to a halt. They breathed in relief as they could finally rest. Martin hobbled over urgently, pausing occasionally, wildly flailing arms and stick crutches in the direction of their wreck. Both turned as one to watch as a proud wave triumphantly shoved the ship off the rocks, into the waiting clutche
s of the tide. Which promptly dragged what was once a beautiful ship, out to the sea. It slowly began its descent to its final resting place.
It wasn’t that which had Martin so wound up.
‘Not the ship you idiots, look at the clouds!’
Glancing up at the skies, Tom was horrified to see dark angry storm clouds massing on the horizon. It was only now he noticed how the wind had picked up and white caps were already forming on the ocean, hurrying across the surface like ants escaping rain.
‘There’s going to be a storm just as powerful as the one that caused the mess we’re in. Look out!’ Martin yelled as the stiff breeze tried to force the raft out of Tom’s reach. Julia had her hand tightly on the edge preventing it from being dragged off, before Tom even had the time to react.
Martin didn’t notice.
‘Are you sure?’ the doubts in Julia’s face and voice unmistakeable as sarcasm. Apparently she didn’t like it when it wasn’t her noticing everything first.
‘Yes I’m damn sure. Now hurry. The clouds will be here soon, and then all hell will break loose.’
With that Martin hobbled off towards the waterfall, impatience fuelling his pace.
‘You take the cans and the machete, I’ll take the survival box and the sail, we’ll leave the raft, it’ll be too much hassle to carry and it won’t have much use either,’ Tom ordered without thinking.
‘Don’t talk to me like I’m stupid, I don’t need you telling me what to do as well as that jerk’ she flashed in Martin’s direction, flint in her voice.
‘Take the raft; we can get off the island when the weather gets better.’ She threw over her shoulder without looking.
With that she stalked off following Martin, leaving Tom behind. He turned to grab the raft and was dismayed to see it half way out to the reef. He’d only tried to be helpful; she didn’t have to be so prissy about it. Anger smouldered inside him, a low growling issued from his mouth. He was so surprised he nearly choked. What the hell. He was going crazy. Shaking his head, he grabbed the survival box and the remainder of the sail and followed the others leaving the raft to be swept out into the sea.
Flames leapt up into an opaque sky, sparks skipping over each other in their race to the clouds as the bonfire roared. The storm hadn’t arrived, but the clouds had. Huge monstrous tufts billowed in the breeze, promising a dark night. It was a strange peaceful quiet that enveloped the evening.
The moment was lost as a short, loud scream shattered the air, raw with pain and fear. It was so loud and chilling that all insect life was silenced and birds took to the sky in a blind flutter. It was gone as quick as it had come but it left the three with their hearts skipping and their minds quailing at the thought of what caused such fear.
‘That wasn’t a monkey,’ Julia’s voice shook as she spoke, ‘I haven’t seen any of them on the island.’
‘Lemur’s do though. Martin and I saw one when we were chasing you. But that was no monkey, it was human,’ came the quiet whisper of Tom’s voice.
‘What the hell could have made a person scream like that?’
Martin’s question was left hanging, no one dared to try and imagine what it could have been.
‘I think we should, like, have someone keep watch tonight,’ suggested Julia, her voice trembling like a leaf in the wind.
‘I’ll take first watch then, and I’ll wake you up in a few hours Julia,’ Tom stated.
‘OK. We’ll take turns then,’ replied Julia.
‘I’m going to get some sleep,’ Martin grunted as he brushed himself off and clambered up behind the waterfall.
‘I don’t think I’m going to be able to sleep,’ her eyes gleamed in the flicker of their small fire. Tom met Julia’s gaze, quickly glimpsing away, her eyes held an intensity that was unsettling. Again, he wondered what it was that had her scrutinizing him so much, is it something to do with the diary, he wondered.
‘You should at least try,’ was all that Tom managed to mumble.
‘If you don’t mind I’ll keep you company for a bit?’
It was well past midnight, and it was the silence that disturbed Tom most. He’d been used to loud noises from the city, the constant blaring of cars horns and the loud rumble of the occasional aeroplane. But here, there was only silence.
‘Sure.’ He felt strangely tongue tied. ‘Do you think rescue will ever come?’
‘I don’t want to give up hope,’ she whispered, ‘but somehow, I really don’t think we’ll get out of this in any hurry.’
‘I was so keen to experience sailing on a ship from like 350 years ago,’ Tom mumbled regretfully.
‘I know. On the plus side my parents will be so worried about me, but I’m sure they will have sent like police and rescue helicopters, and all that.’ Julia wished her words rang true but knew that her parents would barely have registered her disappearance, her father being in hospital for one.
Tom’s heart ached; his parents would be the same. If only his parents hadn’t gone on that cursed holiday. Both his father and mother had perished in a terrorist bombing when he was two years old, leaving him orphaned and with a family fortune. Martin’s family had taken him in and loved him like one of their own, but Tom had never felt at home. He tried to glance into the cloud shrouded stars only to find heavy cotton buds dark with temper. The first fat drops of the predicted tempest began to splutter onto the two huddled outside the waterfall by their fire. The flames guttered in protest, but the battle was quickly over as the sparks lost their electricity against the downpour. Relentlessly rain began to fly down from the sky, the drops huge and heavy. The wind was just as bad, howling ferociously, lightning forking the sky, illuminating the nightscape. The two scampered up to their cave to shelter before it got worse. Julia decided she’d try and sleep and left Tom to himself. Huddled right at the edge of the entrance, Tom hugged his knees deep in thought.
Something in him had changed; his instincts told him it was to do with the island. His reflexes had gotten so much quicker and his strength was incredible, not to mention his agility. He reflected on what had happened on the boat. He never for a second thought, he just acted on pure instinct. His body had sensed danger before his mind and saved him. The other thing that bothered him was his eyes. As he’d walked past a rock pool he’d caught a glimpse of his reflection; he could’ve sworn his hazel-brown eye colour had been replaced with a faint green. Of course, as he’d gone to look closer the reflection had been lost. A part of him was excited with his newfound strength but another part worried about what it meant for him. That, and the diary he’d found, as well as Julia’s odd behaviour was constantly nagging at the back of his mind. He couldn’t share his thoughts with the other two, Martin, his best friend since forever ago, would laugh at him and tell him to get a grip. Julia? He didn’t dare talk to her about it. The scorn in her voice would humiliate him to no end.
Though she seemed to know something, there was a lot she was hiding. He’d seen it in her eyes on the ship, and then there was her impossible disappearance in the forest. At the thought of her, he felt his heart rate increase. Ever since she’d lost the attitude she’d harboured on the cruise he’d begun to feel attracted to Julia. Spoilt, rich and arrogant Julia. Something both he and Martin despised. But she was changing wasn’t she? Maybe it was all a front.
His thoughts were interrupted as thunder boomed powerfully across the heavens. A fierce low growl rumbled through the night air nearby. With a start Tom sat up, alert for a sign of danger and the animal that produced the sound. He heard it again suddenly. It was then he noticed the growl had come from him, there was no animal outside their cave, it was all him. With a start he stopped himself. It’d happened so spontaneously he’d had no idea he was doing it. Fear clutched at his heart, he was growling. What next?
Suddenly he didn’t want to be strong or fast, he just wanted to be normal again. A normal kid. That was something he’d never be. No parents and lonely baggage, a reflection of his childhoo
d. Overwhelming emotions crashed through his mind with such intensity and force that Tom’s consciousness began to wane. His parents, parents that he had never met, parents who’d never taught him how to walk, talk, read; parents who’d never been there, all because of the explosion that killed them. Now this trip, something he’d wanted all his life, destroyed. They were on an island. Alone. With no hope of rescue, chances were high they’d die. He couldn’t help it as a wrenching sob escaped his chest.
'Tom?’ the probing question held sincerity. ‘Are you alright?’
Get a grip Thomas, don’t let her see you like this. Taking a deep breath,
‘I’m fine thanks.’ An awkward pause. ‘Just thinking about the ship, I found a secret bunk room right at the bow with a strange diary that had all sorts of details written down. It kept mentioning the Faction and had the initials R.S. printed in it,’ he paused, ‘there was also a sketch of me in it. I’ve no idea what it is; it’s been on my mind for some reason. I just can’t seem to forget about it.’
‘That definitely sounds odd. I wouldn’t worry about it. It’ll be nothing. Do you still have it? The diary I mean.’ Tom mistrusted the innocence behind her question.
‘No, I left it there,’ he grunted in response. He didn’t want her to see it until he’d figured it out himself. Maybe it would help him to uncover what it was Julia was hiding.
‘This storm is pretty terrible.’ He turned round to face where he thought Julia was lying.
Instead he stifled a gasp; she was right behind him, her blue eyes staring keenly into his, portraying open concern, and that peculiar look she’d had on the ship.
She hadn’t understood what it was that had woken her at first. Realisation dawned as she saw him, Tom, sitting with his back to her hugging his knees. Was he crying? She didn’t know much about him, only that he’d been orphaned at a very young age; terrorist bombing. She remembered her first meeting with him on the ship; she’d walked up the gangplank, struggling with her suitcase. As she’d finally made it onto the deck Tom had turned around and she’d been shocked at his classic good looks which were less and less common. Tall, with really dark blonde hair and the softest hazel eyes. He had a slim face with a nose that looked like it had been broken once, it was not ugly though, simply added something unique to his features. He’d immediately smiled and offered to help her with her suitcase. His smile was easy, seemed to light up his whole complexion giving him a roguish, almost mischievous look. Unintentionally her reply had been short, misunderstood for arrogance because for once, Julia was speechless.
Now he had his hair short, hadn’t shaved and a dark shadow had developed beneath his chin. She spoke his name in the dark, hoping to reassure him. She could hear the lie as soon as he spoke it, he was definitely not alright. She quietly crawled over to him. She was about to touch him on the shoulder when he turned around to look at her. As soon as he got frightened by her sudden appearance, his eyes flashed a brilliant emerald green. Two deep pools peered at her fixedly before quickly glancing away.
She wanted so badly to reach out and reassure him. Something held her back though. He disliked her, so did Martin. She could feel it washing off them whenever she said or did anything. It wasn’t as strong now but it was still there. He’d never accept anything from her, she thought sadly. Be it comfort or friendship.
She settled down next to him and together they listened to the chaos that was nature at its worst.
‘What are you hiding Julia?’ Tom burst out suddenly. Aggression grinding each syllable together.
Julia was taken back aback, unsure of what he meant. Something was happening to Tom which bordered on abnormal. If only she’d been more curious, when her uncle had been trying in vain, to teach her about strange phenomena’s which occurred amongst humans. Then she’d know what to do right now.
‘I’m sorry but I don’t know what you mean?’ she forced confusion into her words.
‘I’m not stupid.’ He almost sounded defensive. ‘The way you disappeared when we were chasing you, was abnormal, almost impossible.’
‘I’m sorry, Tom but I think you’re mistaken, I simply hid.’
He didn’t know where this sudden courage came from but the curiosity was too much and he felt Julia had the answers. Another instinct.
‘Something’s happened to me Julia, I’m changing and I know you know why.’ Even to his own ears it sounded childish. He blushed.
‘I can’t help you there Tom, sorry.’ Her eyes were guarded gems. An awkward silence settled over them as the storm wore on.
‘I will find out Julia. So for your sake, I hope you’re not lying.’ Tom left her to her watch.
Strangely, Tom’s nightmare that visited him regularly back home since childhood hadn’t bothered him here; it had been replaced by another strange dream. Before he knew it he was asleep and the rhythm of his breathing had a calming effect on Julia. She eventually forgot to wake Martin and drifted off into a troubled sleep.
***
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