by M H Ryan
The first thing I wanted to do was to prepare for the larger logs that would make for the base of the platform. I needed to cut into the current array of trees we had used for the support of the main beams. With four beams, we’d have a large base for a massive shelter, and it would be strong enough to build walls and hold a roof.
I set to marking out the trees and started notching them by hitting the back of my knife with a decent-sized stick. It was slow and tedious, but it felt good to be working toward a better home for the women. They tried to hide it, but I could see living outdoors and in fear was wearing on them. Hell, it was wearing on me as well. You didn’t realize how fantastic things like electricity, plumbing and toilets were until you didn’t have them. Here, such luxuries would be something akin to magic. While indoor plumbing and Netflix might be a ways down the road, I wanted to set up some of the most basic comforts.
After a couple of hours, I had the four trees notched and ready for the larger beams. They seemed level to my eye, and I figured we could always cut some shims and prop up the low sides. We’d be sleeping on the platform, and there was something about lying down on a surface that made you acutely aware of its levelness.
A rustle of plants and bushes drew my attention to the forest. Benji and Kara were jogging through the forest, heading toward camp, right when the geyser blew.
They laughed, and I realized that I hadn’t heard Kara laugh before. As the warm water rained down over the forest, they walked up to me, arms full of their stone weapons.
“We ran fast,” Kara said, smiling.
“I thought it was going to blow all over my back,” Benji said.
Kara laughed hard at this.
The forest rustled with more sounds, and right then, Sherri and Aubrey jogged up to camp.
“Fire’s pretty much a bust,” Aubrey said. “We’ve gotten maybe an inch or two into it. It just heats up, charcoals, and stops. What I need is a goddamn chainsaw.” Aubrey looked frustrated and tired. She had black marks from the charcoal on her arms and hands.
“Yeah, or an ax,” Sherri said, eyeing Benji.
“Kara was making an ax,” I said.
“You hear that?” Aubrey asked, holding up a hand and looking back into the forest.
“It’s just the bigger drops of water hitting the ground,” Sherri said.
I took a few steps toward the forest, hearing it as well. The forest floor sounded like it stirred with movement, with leaves and twigs getting pushed around.
“Get your weapons,” I said, grabbing a spear and checking the knife at my hip.
The girls hopped into motion, grabbing the spears we made that night. We all heard the noise in the forest now. There was no mistaking it—there was something there, and from the sound of it, a herd of somethings, all coming straight for us.
I raised my spear as a rustle of leaves caught my eye at the forest floor. Then a tiny croc emerged from the leaves and stepped onto the sand, heading straight for us.
“Aw,” Benji said, kneeling down toward the croc.
It ran under her and headed for the waves. Soon a few more came from the forest and ran through the camp toward the water.
“There could be hundreds of them coming,” Sherri said. “They’ll usually all birth around the same time. Safety in numbers.”
Another group of baby crocs came out of the forest, maybe a dozen of them. One ran straight for me, and I bent down to pet it. The thing stopped and bit my finger with its little mouth. I felt the tiny sharp teeth and pulled my hand back, pulling it free of the thing's mouth. I checked my hand to make sure it hadn’t broken the skin. It hadn’t.
Moshe let out a meow and pounced on one of the crocs, biting the back of the things neck, killing it. It tore into the thing, eating it.
“Gross, Moshe,” Benji said.
“Cool,” Kara said, watching the cat. “Should we let these things live?”
“Yeah, we might have to face them again at some point but it isn’t really fair to kill them like this.”
“Most will die in the first week anyway,” Sherri said.
“We’re not going to be here long enough for these things to get big,” Aubrey said, wiping some of the charcoal marks off her arm.
Kara picked one up and petted it. The croc didn’t move to bite her, and they appeared to stare at each other, like the owner of a pet. Then she set it back on the sand, ushering it toward the shore.
“We’ll kill you when you’re big enough, little guy,” Kara said.
I didn’t feel any hate from the croc babies, but there was this urgency, as if getting to the water meant everything to them. The feeling of them fascinated me, as if I had a tiny connection to this new life form.
“This is amazing!” Sherri said, as a whole group of them went between her feet, some running over her toes.
Aubrey kicked one off her foot in disgust.
Then a ship's horn blew in the distance, and we went still.
Chapter 2
Benji opened her mouth, but Sherri raised one finger, silencing her.
The rustle of the leaves and the rumble of the waves became deafening noises that I tried to silence. Then the horn blasted again. This time, we all turned to the forest, the direction the sound came from. It sounded distant but real.
We didn’t say anything as we all ran into the forest. The baby crocs had thinned out, but I still had to jump over many and even dodge a few holes they came from. The heat from the geyser made me instantly sweat, and everything in the forest seemed to drip with the warm water. The after-geyser fog started building around the island as well, keeping low near the forest floor, which made it even harder to go as fast as we wanted to.
When we reached the pool below the geyser, it steamed with hot water, hiding much of its surface. The steaming waterfall cascaded over the rocks and splashed over the pond, sending small waves against its sandy shores.
I ran past the watery edges and up the rocky hill, to the highest point on the island. Once I reached the top, I felt the hot rocks under my feet. Not hot enough to blister, but bad enough to make a person prance over it like hot sand on the beach. I stood still, both feet planted, and stared toward Yin Island.
The first thing I noticed was the smoke from the island leading into the sky. The island wasn’t more than a speck on the horizon, but when part of it moved. It wasn’t the island but something parked just offshore. I made out some of the shapes and knew that was the Veronica.
“Here,” Benji said, handing me the telescope.
Through it, I confirmed my first thought and lowered the scope.
“It’s the Veronica. We need to make a fire on the shore facing Yin Island. That ship should be able to spot it.”
“You heard him, let’s get the fire going!” Sherri said, clapping her hands.
Aubrey squealed in delight as she ran down the rocky hill.
“The ship is near Yin?” Kara asked, staying at the bottom of the hill the whole time.
“Yeah,” I said, hopping off a rock and landing next to her. “Don’t worry, we don’t have to go there. It will come to us.”
“No,” she said, running with me. “That island…something is wrong with it.”
“I know. It must have seen the smoke and fire from that island. It’s probably checking it out, looking for us.”
“Maybe,” Kara said as we ran together toward the camp. “But it feels off to me. I don’t like this, Jack.”
“I won’t let anything bad happen to you,” I said, but she didn’t look convinced.
The other girls were cheering in excitement. After the feeling we may never get off the islands, the idea that a ship could be here shortly and bring us back to civilization was enough to get my heart racing. It wasn’t that I wanted to leave the islands as much as I wanted to get these fantastic women home and back to safety.
We converged on the fire pit and they grabbed as much dried wood as they could carry while I grabbed a couple logs that were partially on fire. The ca
t hissed at our activity, feasting on what looked like its third croc.
With wood and fire, we jogged along the sandy shore for a minute until we were facing Yin Island.
“Okay, right here should work,” I said, pointing to a spot near the edge of the forest but close enough for them to see the smoke unless they were blind.
“You think the other girls are on the ship?” Benji asked, excited.
“That would be incredible,” Sherri said. “Who knows, maybe there could be another whole adventure waiting for us after this.”
“This is like TV interview kind of stuff,” Aubrey said with excitement. “I hope they have hamburgers on the ship.” The girls set down their wood and went right into building a pyramid of kindling.
“They do,” I said, and then thought of where the chef currently resided—it wasn’t on the ship. We found Frank dead on Tar Island, an apparent suicide.
With the dried wood placed, I set the fire inside the wood pyramid. The girls were damned good fire builders by then. Soon the flames were reaching up and setting the wood on fire. The fire grew, as well as the smoke.
The girls went to the water’s edge, jumping and yelling at the ship.
Kara stayed back with me.
“I don’t like this, Jack,” Kara said.
“You’ve said that twice now, why?” I asked, smiling as I watched the girls dancing near the water’s edge.
“You’re going to think I’m crazy.” Her voice cracked.
I stopped smiling and faced her. She had tears in her eyes, and I gave her my complete attention.
“What is it?”
“The island, it spoke to me. Mostly I thought it was just in my head, but it showed me things, as well, and that ship is one of the things it used to mock me.”
“Probably just a memory from before the storm,” I said.
“No, it wasn’t that. It was partially burned, and there wasn’t anyone on it, and it was just different…but it was more than that, it was the emotion that the island fed me with that image. It taunted me with it. Like showing me something that was coming. Something horrible.”
I looked back to the ocean and then used my telescope. How did Kara know about the partially burned section of the ship? After hearing her words, I had second thoughts about the ship, but I dismissed them. Islands didn’t talk to people and perhaps Kara had lasted longer on the ship before getting tossed off. Maybe she had some memory of it on fire, and she had to abandon ship.
“I hope you're wrong,” I said.
“I do, too, but we should have our weapons, just in case that ship isn’t what we think it is.”
The ship hadn’t moved yet, and after a few minutes, our beach fire beacon dwindled to a small wisp of smoke. The girls ran back to the fire, but none of them had any more fuel for it, and the forest around us would be soaked from the recent geyser burst.
After a quick conference, they agreed to run back to camp where we stored more wood. I jogged with them, Kara at my side. We made it back to the camp in a minute.
While the girls gathered wood, I snatched up a few spears and Benji’s bow and arrows.
“What’s with the weapons?” Aubrey asked. “We need more wood.”
I took in a deep breath and looked at what was in my hands. She was right. Nothing was more important than getting these girls back to safety, and if the next bundle of wood I carried made the fire big enough to demand the attention of the Veronica, then that’s what I’d have to do.
I set the weapons down and grabbed as much wood as I could carry. Kara, on the other hand, picked up the weapons and headed out with me.
We jogged back down to the beach, and as we neared the place where the fire had been going, I noticed the smoke was gone. I slowed and flung my wood on the sand when I spotted a canoe, pulled up on the sands.
A woman stood near the fire, pouring water over the embers from a leather bag. She then stomped on the ashes with her bare feet, extinguishing the last signs of fire.
“Who are you?” Benji asked, reaching for her bow that wasn’t there.
“She’s not a sister?” I asked.
“No, she’s not with us,” Sherri said.
The woman was about our age but not as athletic of a body as Sherris, Aubrey and Benji. She had a thin body, similar to Kara, but with a deeper tan. Her odd clothes covered more of her tan body and were made out of what looked like patchy animal hides. Her light brown hair was long but messy, as if she hadn’t washed it properly in ages. She was small, like Kara, and pretty in a more tomboy kind of way, with larger facial features and broad shoulders that were at odds with her diminutive size. All of it created an appealing look, like a hot, small, female Indiana Jones.
At her side swayed a large knife that looked as if it was made from stone. It slapped her firm thighs as she took a step back. She turned to each of us with an expression of pure bewilderment.
“You don’t have shore fires,” the young woman said, pointing at the extinguished fire. “Especially not here.”
“Do you realize what you’ve done?” Aubrey said, moving closer to the shoreline. “Help, we’re over here!”
“Who are you?” Benji asked again.
“My name is Eliza,” she said as if it sounded foreign to her.
“Eliza,” Benji said. “We’re going to start this fire again and get our rescue ship here.”
“Rescue?” Eliza said.
“Yes, that is the Veronica, we are from that ship,” Aubrey said. “And you’re ruining our best chance of getting out of here.”
Eliza took a step back, dropping her water bag, her mouth hanging open in shock. “You all cannot be from that ship.”
“Why?” I asked.
“Only death comes from that ship,” Eliza said.
“Death,” Kara echoed. “That is what the island showed me.”
Eliza took a few steps toward her canoe. All of us running up on her hadn’t scared her, but the idea that we came from that ship seemed to terrify her.
“We won’t hurt you,” I said.
“I think the ship is turning!” Aubrey said, jumping up and down, waving her arms.
Through the telescope, the ship had indeed turned either toward us or away from us. I couldn’t see the details enough to know for sure. In a few minutes, it would be obvious.
Sherri hugged Aubrey.
“It’s still coming,” Aubrey said.
“I can’t stay here,” Eliza said. “And if I were you, I would hide from that ship. Just don’t let it find you.”
She took a few steps toward the canoe when a massive shark with an arrow stuck in its back clamped down on the back of the canoe. The wood cracked and broke apart under the pressure of the shark’s jaws. The shark pulled the canoe into the water. The girls screamed and backed away from the water as the shark took another bite and yanked the canoe further into the sea.
Eliza screamed, jumping into the shallow waters and grabbing the front of the canoe. The shark yanked the canoe from her, sending her forward and falling into the water. Eliza, quick on her feet, jumped up and grabbed a bag from the canoe just as the shark pulled it under the water. Bits of wood and what looked like rope floated away from the island and got lost in the small waves.
Eliza, on her knees at the water’s edge, stared at the space where her canoe had been. She slapped the water and screamed in rage and then hugged the bag against her chest.
Benji had her bow and arrows from Kara and pointed one at Eliza.
“Benji,” I said, gesturing for her to lower her bow.
Eliza stopped screaming and looked back at us. “Do you have any idea how long it took to make that?”
“I’m sorry, that sucks. We’ve lost things as well,” I said.
“If that ship is coming here, I’m finding a way off this island,” Eliza said, getting out of the water as a shark fin rose from the surface.
“Why? We can all get on the ship,” Aubrey said.
“I’m not getting on that ship a
nd you can’t make me,” Eliza said, touching the stone knife on her hip.
“Eliza, do you aim to do us harm?” I asked, holding out my hand.
“No, I wouldn’t hurt you people unless forced to. You’re the first people I’ve seen in…a long time. You’re a man, right?” She let go of her knife.
I chuckled, “Yeah, I’m a man.”
“I thought so. You look different than them and me.” She motioned to the girls.
“Okay,” I said, bemused by the bizarre exchange.
“I spent many months, maybe longer, making that boat,” she said in agony, looking at her hands.
Through the telescope, I could see the ship was indeed heading in our direction.
“It’s still heading for us,” I said.
Aubrey cheered and hugged Sherri again.
“Please, we have to hide,” Eliza said. “We can’t be here. You have to believe me.”
“I believe her,” Kara said.
“Yes,” Eliza pointed at Kara. “See, she knows. If that ship finds us here, we all die.”
“Why?” Benji asked.
“My mom called it the devil's ship. One day, we woke with it on our shore. My mom hid me well, but I was small then, easy to hide. She was big like I am now.” Her voice cracked. “She was too big. It found her. It took her.”
“What found her?” Sherri asked.
“I don’t know. I only caught a glimpse of it. It was all black like the night sky. My mother screamed, and I wanted to leave my hiding spot. I wanted to help her, but she made me promise…she made me promise on my life that I would not leave that hiding spot. So I stayed hidden like a good girl, and when I heard its horn, I came out, but my mother was gone.”
“Wow,” Benji said. “I’m so sorry.”
I stepped closer to her, squinting and looking at the familiar features on her face.
“Who is your mother?” I asked.
“My mom?” Eliza asked. “Her name was Rebecca, Rebecca Brown.”
I fell back, hitting the sand with my ass. “I see her in you.”