Island Jumper: An Archipelago Series

by M H Ryan

  Behind us, the abused raft was the only reminder of the battle we fought. The blood was gone from the water, and the gentle waves rolled in and out, passing through and between the bamboo raft that was lodged in the sand. It gave a soothing sound that was calming my speeding heart and slowing my quick breaths.

  We were truly in a paradise—it just had sharp teeth.

  One thing I found interesting was the lack of any bamboo on this island. I looked back at the island we came from, and it took a few seconds to locate it. The palms were the only thing making it stick out from the rest of the blue water.

  “Are there any boars on the island?” I asked Aubrey.

  “Boars?” Aubrey said with a raised eyebrow.

  “I call them water pigs,” Benji said. “They are like the worst thing you can imagine. Like, land…pig…shark things, and mean as hell. Jack here killed one in the first moments we woke up on the island.”

  “Haven’t seen any.” Aubrey stared at me, as if appraising me. “You some kind of badass, Jack Sawyer?”

  “Yeah, he totally is,” Benji said, and I felt some heat in my cheeks. “I’d be dead several times over if not for Jack. He built us a shelter last night, kept me warm and dry in the storm. Built the raft and stuff…and got us to you!” Benji hugged her friend again.

  “Again, it was a shared effort,” I said.

  “You are cute, Jack,” Aubrey said with her arm over Benji. “I’m glad we made out with him on the boat.”

  “Me too,” Benji said.

  “Okay,” I said, feeling my whole face flush. “Maybe we should do a quick island assessment?” I suggested, reluctantly steering the conversation away from myself.

  Looking at them two, near perfect examples of physical beauty and came to the conclusion that I was an idiot. Then I heard my father’s voice, telling me that it was more important to do the right thing for another instead of the right thing for yourself. I always considered it this old-fashioned philosophy but I needed to do right for these women’s survival even though everything in me wanted to do the wrong things. We still hadn’t seen a plane or boat, and if we wanted to live, we had to get our shit together first.

  “What should we do, Jack?” Benji asked as I scanned the island.

  “First thing—Aubrey, is there water on the island? You know, fresh water, stuff we can drink?”

  “Not that I’ve seen, and I’ve been across this whole damn shithole,” Aubrey said, swinging her bottle of vodka. “We do have this to drink, though, so better than nothing.”

  “That will just make things worse, and I wouldn’t drink any, more if I was you,” I said. “Let’s get the raft out of the water and check the rest of our supplies.”

  Aubrey gazed at her bottle and shook her head as she carefully set it down in the sand. She helped us pulled the raft up onto the sand. The shark had done a number to it, but it held together for the most part. I was happy to see our tool bag was still intact. We could mend the raft with the string and duct tape if needed. Unfortunately, during the last attack, the shark had snagged our water bags. We only had three full water bags left.

  I gathered the three bags of water. “We’ll each get one of these for today, but we’ll have to make it a priority to get more water.”

  “Maybe it will rain again tonight,” Benji said.

  “It might, but we can’t count on it,” I said. “And Aubrey, no more booze, okay? I need you sharp right now.”

  “Ugh, why? I don’t want to be on this island sober.” She eyed me up and down. “Why don’t we just have some fun for a while? This island is full of food and stuff, and if we get thirsty, we can crack open some of these coconuts, squeeze some oranges...” Her face lit up with excitement. “Oh my god, we can make screwdrivers.”

  “Jack said lay off the booze, Aubrey,” Benji said.

  “Fine, we can just drink from the coconuts.” She gestured to a nearby one on the edge of the sand and grass.

  “Are those safe to drink?” Benji said.

  “The green ones aren’t; they’ll give you the runs, big time, but these brown, older ones shouldn’t, at least that’s what I remember from school,” Aubrey said.

  “Oh yeah, weren’t you, like, studying plants?” Benji asked.

  “Botany,” Aubrey said. “I studied plants when I had time between all the practices and meets.”

  “Aubrey is a track star. She was training for an all-around,” Benji said.

  “You studied botany?” I asked. The track star part didn’t come as a surprise, based on the looks of her athletic body.

  “Yeah, and I could tell you a few strange things about this place. Like, these palms are unique. See the fronds up there?”

  The palm didn’t look much different than the ones I’d seen around Florida, with big fronds fanning out of the top of the tree. Most weren’t bearing coconuts, though. This one did have a pink flower budding from under a few of the fronds. I’d never seen that before.

  “The flower?” I asked.

  “Precisely. Coconuts palms aren’t the flowering type. I don’t know of any palm trees that are. Especially not some flowering bud like that.”

  “So what does that mean?” Benji asked.

  “We’re in some cut-off island chain here. I think the plants and stuff have evolved on their own,” Aubrey said.

  “We were thinking the same thing,” I said.

  “Sure as heck would explain those water pigs,” Benji said.

  Aubrey laughed. “Water pigs…I’m just glad you guys came to my island. I’d die if I had to die by myself.”

  “We’re not going to die,” I said. “But we need to get a plan of survival if we want to live.”

  “Oh, he’s a bossy one, isn’t he?” Aubrey said.

  “He can be,” Benji said with a delicate smile.

  Aubrey whined and looked to the sky. “This was supposed to be a vacation…the one chance I had to get away from all the endless training.” She lowered her head and sighed. “You sure I can’t get you guys to drink with me? I think if you were where I am right now, you’d find this place a lot more tolerable.”

  “Aubrey, no,” Benji said.

  Aubrey let out a long sigh and looked back to the bottle and then to me. “Fine, what’s the plan then?”

  I wasn’t really sure if I was the leader, but they were both looking at me to guide them. Fortunately, as much as Aubrey might whine, she had the body of a person used to pushing herself to the limit. Each toned muscle showed through her skin. That body was used to hard work, same as Benji. I knew if we worked together, surviving on this island until rescue shouldn’t be a problem.

  “As I said, we need to find water, then we need to make a shelter in case another storm hits like last night. We could use some of the empty water bags to store water or even one of the dry bags if we find a lot of water. We need more weapons as well, in case something tries to get us. Did you see any bamboo on the island?” I said, regretting not collecting any extra.

  “No.” She looked at me strangely. “Bamboo doesn’t grow in these islands out here, unless someone planted them, and I haven’t seen any signs of people. You know what’s strange? Even the beaches are clean. You’d think there’d be trash washing up on the shores.”

  “Yeah, that is strange,” I said, and was thinking the same thing. I had heard once that there wasn’t a spot on Earth that didn’t have the signs of man on it. “But I think we should check the whole island out first…you know, another couple sets of eyes on what’s here.”

  “Sure, let’s do the tour,” Aubrey said, and pointed down the beach that stretched around the island.

  Benji grabbed the telescope and mirror from the bag. “Might see a ship out there, who knows.”

  For the next thirty minutes, Benji and I followed a tipsy Aubrey around the island as she pointed out the different trees and plants, along with the various rock outcroppings. To Aubrey’s surprise, we also found a banana tree. We ate one each as we walked along the beach
. When we saw a grapefruit tree, Aubrey grew silent. She hadn’t noticed this much on the island the first time around. I cut one grapefruit down.

  “It seems just like any other grapefruit,” I said, after I cut it open.

  “This island has almost too much stuff on it, if that makes sense,” Aubrey said. “I mean, someone had to plant this stuff. It’s just no way it grew here naturally.”

  “What does that mean?” Benji said.

  “I don’t know. Maybe it’s a good thing. Maybe there is civilization not far from here. Maybe they’ll come back to check on this crop,” Aubrey said.

  I cut a slice of the grapefruit and tasted it. Delicious, much like the rest of the fruit on the island. I knew what Aubrey meant—it felt like there was too much here. We were surrounded by food. It would be easy to become complacent around the excess. It would be easy to take the bottle and papaya and just sit and wait. One thing I knew was that in life, nothing came without a cost, and complacency in a place like this would be the same as committing suicide.

  “Oh my God!” Benji yelled.

  I jumped back at the shock of it, nearly dropping my knife. Benji dashed up a dirt bank to a tree holding mangos of varied colors. She touched a few then plucked one off the tree and walked down to us.

  “Okay, we’re staying here. It’s got a mango tree,” Benji said, looking as delighted as I’d ever seen her. “Mangos!”

  “Jesus Christ,” Aubrey said. “You want me to make you a mango dildo out here? I have the free time.”

  “Shut up,” Benji said, reaching out for my knife. “You guys want any?”

  “Not now,” I said, and Aubrey just sighed.

  Benji cut into the mango, producing a slice and flicking it into her mouth. Her eyes rolled back in an orgasmic look.

  “Dear God,” Aubrey said.

  “Do you know what you can make with mangos?” she asked me.

  “Salsa?” I said.

  “Yes, but you can also make mango salads, mango chutney, mango ice cream, mango cream sauce, mango spiced drink, mango cocktails, mango puree, mango rice, mango mousse, mango cheesecake, mango rasam, mango cream tarts, mango soufflé, mango candy, mango—”

  “I’m going to mango slap you,” Aubrey said.

  I smiled. “Forrest Gump.”

  “See, he gets my humor,” Benji said.

  We walked the beach for a little while longer. Aubrey pointed out a large, rocky-looking hill near the backside of the island. It held a large, domed rock on top and she named it Mount Baldy. The rock chain ran down the hill and right into the ocean, ending our perfect white sandy beach with a pile of gray and dark-colored rock. The rocks were scattered in different sizes, and we quickly climbed to the top of them. I was not prepared to see the beauty hiding on the other side.

  The back side of the island curved in like a horseshoe, and the rock chain curved around into the ocean, almost forming a complete circle. It created a lagoon of clear, blue water. Fish swam in the shallow pool, jutting in and around the colorful, coral reef. I just stared at it for a minute. It seemed like something manmade, but of course, it wasn’t. All the colors of the rainbow danced under the shimmering water. If people knew this place existed, it would be on a top-ten destination list somewhere. The reef gave a natural barrier that would temper the bigger waves, and more importantly, I didn’t think sharks of any decent size would make it through the coral. We could fish here and maybe even swim. I could finally teach Benji. It felt like this little slice of island heaven was just for us.

  “It’s…incredible,” Benji said.

  “It’s amazing. Why didn’t you mention this?”

  Aubrey shrugged. “I guess, if you’re into that kind of thing. Looks kind of like a giant kid tossed crayons all willy-nilly into the water.”

  “Did they toss it all willy-nilly?” I teased.

  “Are you making fun of me, Mr. Jack?” Aubrey said with a smirk.

  “No, but I think we should keep willy-nillying around and see if…” I stopped my tease and pointed to the horizon. “There’s another island out there.”

  “What?” Benji said.

  Aubrey put a hand over her eyes and leaned forward. “Holy crap, there is.”

  “Another island, crazy. Well, at least we don’t need to move again,” Benji said. “I mean, why would we leave this island?”

  “Exactly. You two need to relax, and we can just wait for rescue. This island has it all. We’re damn lucky.”

  “Except drinkable water,” I said, staring at the island, a small land mass about the same distance away as the island we came from.

  I continued to scan the horizon and realized it wasn’t just one island out there; there were several, dotting the ocean’s horizon with a bunch of trees or a small hill. One seemed to have a rock pile as high as the palms, but it appeared to have nothing else on it. I squinted, trying to see them better.

  “Oh please, there has to be a consistent source of fresh water somewhere on this island. These aren’t saltwater plants,” Aubrey said.

  I kept staring at the horizon line, looking to see if there were any more islands out there.

  “There’s more than one island out there. Where’s the highest vantage point on the island?” I asked.

  “Probably the Mount Baldy thing near the middle.”

  I turned around and jogged into the forest.

  “What are you looking for?” Benji called after me.

  I didn’t answer as I jogged back to the hill that Aubrey had called Mount Baldy.

  It took me a minute, but I climbed the rock and got to the top. Benji and Aubrey were right behind me, looking at me like I was crazy but not saying anything. We gathered around the top of the rock, and from there, I could see much of the three hundred and sixty degrees of surrounding ocean horizon through the trees.

  “They’re everywhere,” Benji said.

  “Hand me the scope, please,” I said, and Benji placed it in my hand.

  With one eye closed, I began to scan the ocean. One after the next, I spotted the small islands in greater detail. Each one seemed to be different than the other. Then I spotted something I couldn’t believe.

  I yanked back the scope, stared at it a moment, then whipped it back up and looked again. I had to be seeing things.

  “There’s a person on that island,” I said, pointing straight at it.

  I looked through the scope and saw her, in a tree, sitting on a branch and looking down at a group of boars under her. Even from this distance, I spotted the contrast in her red, white, and blue bikini.

  Benji took the scope and looked for herself. “Oh my God, it’s Sherri! She’s in trouble. Those freaking water pigs are after her.”

  Aubrey took the scope and looked at it for herself. She took her eye off the scope and let out a long breath.

  “Goddamn it, we have to save her,” Aubrey said, rubbing her temples.

  “We have to go back out into the water?” Benji said with a blank stare. “We left a couple pissed-off sharks out there.”

  “She needs us,” I said.

  “Yup,” Aubrey said. “And let me guess—we got a lot of work to do now, don’t we? So much for a vacation, Aubrey.”

  Chapter 8

  Sherri needed us, or she was most likely going to die. We changed our plans from getting rescued to being the rescuers. I remembered Sherri from the boat, the ridiculously hot blonde in the red, white, and blue bikini. Benji had mentioned her a few times as some kind of adventure seeker. She, Aubrey, Benji, and I were all together as we hit the storm wall on the boat. I wanted to connect some of the dots, but we just didn’t have the time for pondering the unknown.

  We rushed back to the raft on the sandy beach as I formulated a plan.

  “Okay, you two, start tying back up the loose bamboo on the raft and getting everything tight as you can.”

  “Okay,” Benji said.

  “What are you doing?” Aubrey asked.

  “I’ve got plans for improving the
raft. We aren’t going back out with that raft the way it is again. If you finish binding the raft, start making weapons and collecting some food.”

  I left them and ran back into the jungle. In a short time, I found a tree with long and thin branches. I tested them for strength. They easily held my weight as they bent down. I then used my arm length as a rough gauge by which to cut them. The knife was already getting duller, but I made deep enough cuts, hitting the back of the blade with a rock. Then I pulled the branch down until it snapped off the tree. I repeated this until I had a bundle on the ground.

  As I bent down to pick up the bundle, I spotted movement near the base of Mount Baldy. I didn’t move a muscle as I came in eye contact with what looked like an alligator, but its skin was smoother and slick-looking, and the thing was just massive. Double the size of any alligator I’d seen. Its closed mouth did little to hide the rows of teeth jutting out. It didn’t appear to be aggressive, unlike the boars, but it had an unsettling stare, as if asking me if I wanted to start something or not. I definitely didn’t want to start anything.

  “It’s okay, buddy. I’m just grabbing some sticks, and we’re off your island, I promise,” I said. “Okay?”

  The gator-like creature took a few steps back as we stared at each other. That’s when I noticed the cave behind it. The thing scooted backward, into the cave, leaving only its face out in the light.

  Great, another creature on these islands that might kill us. Without an immediate threat, I gathered the wood up and jogged to the beach where the girls were.

  They were working on sharping the ends of spears with rocks. Next to Benji was her bow, with a few new arrows.

  I glanced down at the raft, and it looked almost as good as new, if you didn’t mind the shark tooth marks.

  “Nice work, ladies,” I said.

  “Thanks.” Benji beamed up at me.

  “Tying knots isn’t hard,” Aubrey said, but I saw a small smile on her face.

  “Can you two help me with this?”

  “Sure,” Benji said, and set down her spear.

  I spent a few minutes describing what I wanted to do and how to accomplish that with the tools and supplies we had readily available. Basically, I wanted to build two outriggers onto the raft. Nothing fancy, just a few long sticks that went twice the width of the current raft size. They would stabilize the boat and hopefully make it much more difficult for the sharks to attack us or tip us over.