Island Jumper: An Archipelago Series

by M H Ryan

  “Who knows? But we only have a few hours of light left, so I suggest we at least plan for the worst.” I rubbed her shoulder. “You with me?”

  She nodded, then wrapped her arms around me. “This is embarrassing because we’ve kissed—like a really good kiss—and you know… I don’t normally do…” She stopped and put her hand on her reddening. “Aubrey was trying to get me to open up and she was all like, we’ll never see this guy again… I feel stupid… but I don’t remember your name.”

  I looked down and saw my nametag was gone from my white shirt. The captain, Rebecca, had thought it was funny to make my title Deck Boy on my name tag which the girls teased me about. One of Rebecca’s few attempts at humor. The tag must have been ripped off at some point.

  I laughed. “Hey, you, and Aubrey were having fun calling me Dick Boy.” Before she could reply, I said, “My name is Jack Sawyer.”

  “I like that name. Reminds me of that show, Lost.”

  “But unlike them, we’re not lost. We’re just momentarily unfound.” This got a small smile out of her.

  “Momentarily unfound does sound much more optimistic.”

  “Good, now let’s go through this bag because its contents could be what keeps us alive out here.”

  Chapter 2

  “You got this off the ship?” Benji stared at the contents of the bag spread all over the rock. “This is incredible.”

  “I knew where the ditch bags were located, but I don’t remember grabbing it.” I hated not being able to recall what’d happened.

  “You think we can drink some of the water now?” She eyed the silver bags lined up in a row.

  There was no water on the island and seeing the fresh water was definitely a lifeline; something that alleviated one of my biggest initial concerns. Now, we had fourteen small bags of water. I could shelve the idea of digging holes for water at the moment.

  “Sure, just one bag each for now though,” I said.

  Benji perked up and tore the top of the bag off. I could see the pleasure on her face as she downed the contents, then turned my attention back to our supplies:

  Water purification tablets (20)

  4 oz water bag (14)

  Small mirror (1)

  Single person emergency blankets (4)

  Two-person emergency blankets (2)

  First aid kit (1)

  Flashlight (1)

  Folding Knife (1)

  MRE (8)

  Duct tape roll (1)

  100 ft. ¼ inch nylon rope (1)

  Lip balm (1)

  Sunscreen SPF100 (1)

  Plastic bags (20)

  Box of waterproof matches (1)

  Dry bags (2)

  100-yard 20lb fishing string with hooks (2)

  Telescope (1)

  EPIRB (1)

  I checked the flashlight and it didn’t work much like a beacon. I sighed and set it back down. If we were still here at night, it would be nice to have. I picked up the telescope and looked at our neighboring island.

  “See anything?” Benji asked.

  “No signs of humans, but there’s a lot more trees over there. I bet there’s water there, and maybe we could find some food.” A few miles across the sea might as well have been a hundred, though I wasn’t telling her that. A current could be running right between the islands, and if we got sucked into one, it might pull us away from everything. Plus, I recalled Benji’s less than spectacular swimming ability. I scanned the rest of the ocean around us, looking for a ship or something, but there was nothing but ocean. I set the telescope back down.

  Benji finished off her bag of water and then I tore one open and drank one of my own. It was gone in seconds, and it didn’t feel like enough, but I was glad for it all the same. I eyed an MRE and my stomach growled. Food can wait.

  “You think anyone’s looking for us?” Benji asked.

  “We had, what? Twenty people on that ship? There’s going to be people searching for us.”

  I held a hand out to block the sun. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky, nor were there any planes or helicopters. If there were, we could use the small mirror to reflect light for any passersby to see.

  “But what if they don’t find us? What if we’re stuck here?” She surveyed the sky as well. “I don’t know how to live like this, Jack.”

  “Hey, the fact that you’re on this island, alive, should let you know how much of a survivor you are.”

  “Maybe if I knew how I got here,” she said, not appearing convinced. “You think the others are alive?”

  “If we made it, others could have as well,” I said. “Okay, we know what we brought here, now let’s take inventory of this island.”

  Benji raised an eyebrow. She began to turn in a circle with one hand on her hip as she pointed to each object. “We have three palm trees, a few palm bush things, a bundle of bamboo, rocks, sand, and one hot guy. Well, that was easy.” She eyed my body and smiled. “Could be worse, I guess.”

  “It could definitely be worse,” I said.

  The island didn’t have much, but it had a lot more than nothing, and I was glad for what it did have, including her.

  “Thank God for this bag,” Benji said, touching the lip balm. “Is it cool if I use the Chapstick?” Her eyes went wide as if some great realization hit her.

  “You can use the Chapstick,” I said.

  “Wait,” she said, reaching into her bikini top.

  I’m not ashamed to admit I gave my full attention to her hand running along the cup of her bikini top. As she pulled her hand free from her top, she gave a little hoot of glee. In her palm lay a tube of lip balm. She took the cap off, sliding the balm along her lips, closing her eyes in the pure pleasure of it.

  “You really like your Chapstick, don’t you?” I said with a smirk.

  “Yes, I can just feel my lips cracking, and that’s not good for business. Plus, this is mango flavored. Just smell it.”

  She got close to me, stood on her tiptoes, and puckered up her lips near my nose. I inhaled and took in the many scents of Benji. She smelled of peaches, with hints of coconut, but her lips were nothing but the sweet smell of mangos. Probably an exaggerated form of mango, kind of like watermelon-flavored candies, but it was intoxicating coming from her.

  “Nice,” I managed to mutter out.

  “I just love mango. It’s pretty much my favorite thing on Earth. It sounds stupid, but just having this on my lips makes me feel better,” she said and extended the tube toward me. “You want some?”

  Her lips were full and soft looking. I remembered them pressed against mine and their faint mango flavor. I bit my bottom lip, scraping it with my teeth and tasting it. I didn’t have her on my lips anymore, and I wanted a refresh.

  “What?” Tucking hair behind her ear, she glanced at the ground coyly.

  Either this girl knew what she was doing to me, or she had no clue, and that was even hotter. “You look good.”

  “Yeah, right. I am a wreck out here.” She blushed and picked up the mirror off the rock. Messing with her hair, she tossed it all to one side.

  Her exposed tanned shoulder reminded me of something. “Oh, let’s not forget about the sunscreen as well. Exposure and all.”

  Benji shrugged, probably because she had a much darker tan than I did. I wondered if it was a spray tan, because she didn’t seem like an outside kind of girl. My tan had been gained through years of working outside for my dad’s construction company. Then when I graduated high school, I skipped the whole college thing, becoming my parents’ living nightmare. I just didn’t want to be behind some desk. That felt as if I was planning on dying before I ever lived. I wanted to see the world. I wanted to see the people. So, when I heard about a boat captain looking for a small crew to travel around the Atlantic Ocean, transporting people, I jumped at the chance.

  Thinking about the captain reminded me of my shipmates. I didn’t have high hopes for Mario, the engineer, and Frank, the chef and assistant captain. Both had been below
deck when the storm hit. I rubbed my head, feeling for lumps or sore spots, some kind of indicator why we I couldn’t remember anything after the lightning strike. How did we manage to get to an island without drowning?

  Benji smeared sunscreen over her arms and chest, and then her face, snapping my attention back to her body.

  “Did I get it all?” she asked, pushing her face toward me.

  There were a few streaks of white on her face and neck. “Right here.” I pointed to my face and she copied it, but missed the spot. “Here, let me.” I moved closer, wiping my hand to make sure I didn’t have any sand on it before touching her cheek and massaging the sunscreen into her face. My gaze dipped to her neck, and my fingers followed, erasing the white marks along the column of her throat. Our eyes locked, and I was suddenly aware of how close we were standing to each other.

  “There you go.” I cleared my throat. “All good.”

  “Thanks, can you get my back?” She wasted no time and wrapped her hair up in her hand, pulling it to her front. Turning around, her backside was nearly pressed to my front, causing my groin to twinge.

  I put a small amount of the creamy, white liquid on my fingertips and ran it across her back.

  She shivered. “That’s cold.”

  “Sorry,” I said and rubbed the rest of the sunscreen on her back, working my hand under her string bikini and down to her lower back.

  “Thanks,” she said, gazing up at me over her shoulder.

  I cursed the sun for getting lower in the sky. If it weren’t going to be dark soon, I would have seen where this could go. But, unfortunately, we had a lot of crap to do, and little time to do it. “Benji?”

  “Yes?” She turned into me, showing me the most perfect teeth in the cutest smile.

  “We need to prepare for tonight. Could you gather up some firewood? Dry stuff. Just stack it next to this rock. Oh, and please don’t go anywhere near the water.”

  We both scanned the ocean and found that the shark from earlier had brought a friend to the party. Both sharks now swam in the shallows, cutting through the water with bursts of speed, staying close to the shore.

  “Gather wood. I can do that,” Benji said absently as she stared at the sharks. “Did I tell you I hate sharks? And I’m not fond of those hairy pig things either. If one comes after me, I’m running straight for you.”

  “I got ya,” I said, and I meant it. She would never be more than a few seconds away from me, and I would keep an eye on her as well. Benefits of a tiny island.

  I quickly reassembled the ditch bag and separated the items into three separate bags. One was for first aid, another for food and tools, and the third had the water in it. I estimated we had about an hour left before the sunset, leaving us not enough time to make a proper shelter. Hopefully, we wouldn’t need one. The temperature was in the high seventies, and usually on these tropical islands, the temperature didn’t change a whole lot overnight. Might drop into the high sixties, at the most.

  I gave the island another close inspection to see if I’d missed anything. The island had sand about ten feet in from the water’s edge, all the way around it. It was kidney-shaped, with all the foliage near the center. There were three palm trees, and I spotted a few coconuts near the top, along with more scattered across the ground. What really interested me was the thick bamboo cluster.

  There was a variety of shoot sizes and lengths. I took the knife and went over to the cluster. Some of the bigger ones were over twenty feet high. On the outside of the bamboo bundle was the smallest shoots; those are the ones I wanted to start with.

  I opened the knife and cut into the bamboo, slicing off enough shoots to hopefully give us the structure for a small shelter. Carrying my bundle over to the palm trees, I dropped them into the sand just as Benji was dumping another handful of driftwood and kindling.

  “That enough?” she asked.

  “See if you can find some more.” I didn’t really think we’d need more, but I had a little surprise in mind for Benji and needed some time to make it.

  After another thirty minutes passed, Benji came back to our little camp, dumping a small pile of twigs. “There isn’t a dry stick left on this island, I assure you.”

  “Yeah, it’s not likely that we’ll need it all, but it’s good to be prepared.”

  “Are you a Boy Scout or something?”

  I laughed. “No, but my dad used to take me camping sometimes. We packed light and used the natural resources around us most of the time.”

  “Did he ever take you to a tiny island surrounded by scary creatures?”

  “No, what about you?”

  “I wasn’t a Boy Scout, but I am familiar with camping…not like this, of course, but I went to plenty of archery camps and stuff. Occasionally in tents, but mostly cabins.”

  “Archery?”

  “Yeah. Not to brag, but you’re looking at the state champion. Got myself a full ride to college on shooting arrows.”

  “That’s incredible,” I said. “And badass. I’ve shot off a few arrows in my time, but I generally sucked at it.”

  “If we’re stuck here for long, I can make a bow and show you some basics,” Benji offered.

  “It’s a plan then,” I said. “Right now, let’s get this shelter up before it gets dark.”

  Benji was happy to help, and it only took us twenty minutes to get the bamboo shoots duct-taped to the palm trees. We used two bright-orange emergency blankets as tarps for the roof and the sides. We then cleared the ground from rocks, twigs, and anything else that might poke us or cause lumps underneath. Smoothing out the sand, we laid an emergency blanket down as our floor, securing the corners with a few rocks. Thankfully, all the blankets were a high-quality, bright-orange material on one side, and shiny, reflective surface on the other, giving anyone in the air an easy target to find us. They served as two things, comfort and rescue.

  By the time we were done, the sun had hit the horizon. I gathered a few rocks in a circle to create a fire pit near our shelter.

  “They really aren’t coming today, are they?” Benji said, eyeballing the darkening sky. “I mean, I haven’t seen one plane or anything all day.”

  I gazed into the twilight. “We must be too far from flight paths.”

  She sighed, and I could tell she was trying to keep it together. Each time rescue was brought up, she tensed. There was an underlying question neither of us wanted to bring up.

  What if there was no rescue coming?

  The shiny material crinkled as she scooted closer to me. We sat in silence as the sun set and darkness took hold. The temperature dropped by a good ten degrees. I unbuttoned my shirt and handed it to her. “It’ll keep you warmer.”

  “Thanks,” she said and put it over her shoulders like a shawl. Sniffing the collar, she peeked at me. “How do you smell so good? We’re shipwrecked. That should be against the rules somehow.”

  I laughed as I got to my knees and crawled over to the nearby fire ring. “I think you might have bumped that head of yours.”

  I assembled a stack of twigs on top of some dried grass. We didn’t have many matches, so I wanted to make sure I got it on the first try; plus, I wanted to give Benji some confidence that we could make it out here together.

  Taking some dry kindling in my hand, I lit the match, holding it close to my body so the breeze wouldn’t blow it out. The flame on the match brightened the space around us, and I thought I heard a screeching sound from a bird far above, but it didn’t repeat its call.

  I set the match flame next to the kindling and it lit. The fire was weak at first, but slowly grew through the kindling. Blowing on it a few times, the flame increased enough that I placed it in the teepee of wood I’d stacked up. After a few minutes of tending to the fire, it caught the larger twigs on fire. I continued to add larger pieces as needed, and soon, we had a decent fire going. I set a few long branches partially into the fire in case we needed torches.

  Benji clapped her hands as I returned to her side
. “That was actually pretty cool.”

  “Thanks. I doubt they’ll do any night searches, but if they do, they’ll spot the fire,” I said. “Plus, it feels like we might need the extra warmth.”

  “Well, we can handle one night out here. It’s not too bad, actually—like a little adventure. Sherri would probably love this shit.”

  “Oh,” I said, standing up. “I have something…stay right here.” I motioned for her to stay seated, and left her looking confused as I grabbed a stick out of the fire. It had a nice flame on it, giving me plenty of light as I headed back to the rock. I grabbed what I’d made earlier. It wasn’t much, but I couldn’t let the day go by without commemorating it.

  Then I picked up the sticks I’d fashioned out of shaved bamboo shoots, with a bit of kindling smeared with a bit of Chapstick on the ends. The rest of it consisted of mostly twigs tied around four prongs of the shoot, with a rock and a bed of moss on top. I lit the bamboo candles with the torch I brought, and carefully walked back to Benji, making sure the wind didn’t put out the flames.

  “Happy Birthday to you,” I sang. “Happy birthday, dear Benji. Happy birthday to you.”

  “Oh my God, you remembered?” She clapped her hands in excitement as I set the “cake” in front of her.

  “You said I was your birthday gift on the boat,” I teased.

  She reddened as she leaned forward and blew out the candles. We both clapped.

  “And it doesn’t end there,” I said in my best game show host voice as I pulled a small package wrapped in palm fronds from my pocket.

  “You got me a gift?” Benji said, wonder on her face.

  “It’s not much, trust me, but I know what it’s like to have your birthday forgotten, so I wanted to make sure yours didn’t go by uncelebrated.”

  “That is the saddest and sweetest thing I have ever heard,” Benji said and took the gift. She carefully peeled back the wrapping, and her eyes lit up as she pulled out the shell necklace I made for her.

  I’d used some of the fishing string and a hook to thread through some of the shells I found around the island. It wasn’t that good, or pretty, but hey, it was the thought that counted, right?