Island Girls

by Rodzil LaBraun

  "What's happening," Nancy asked, fear seeping into her voice.

  I invited them to each have a seat beside me on the boatless dock. I no longer had any concern over what might be in the water, so I let my feet drop into the warm, clear liquid. I could feel depression in my voice as I spoke.

  "We were all kidnapped, right?" They both nodded. "But we weren't all taken the same year."

  "Well, how does that work?" Nancy asked.

  "We've been in some sort of cryogenic freeze tank for years. That's why we were so groggy and sluggish when we woke up."

  "Well, maybe you two have been asleep, but I was just recently taken," Shira insisted. "It's year twenty-fifty-two."

  "You don't know that," I told her. "If it happened to us it probably happened to you. Hell, it could be a hundred years later! Did they design buildings all in one piece like our barracks in your time?"

  "The newer homes, yeah," Shira replied. "And some stores. Boats, too."

  This news changed things quite a bit for Nancy and me. All our friends and family have forgotten about us, given us up for dead. Many of them have already passed. Any romantic interests have surely moved on and would have aged considerably. The bond between the two of us instantly grew stronger. And though Shira was struggling with it the most, seeing how she was taken more recently, I could see her coming to terms with it as well. If we did manage to escape, we would not be returning to our old lives.

  As awful as it sounded, there was an upside. And only a horny bastard like me would realize it this quick. Both Nancy and Lin could now consider a long-term relationship with me. In fact, I just shot to the top of their list. Who else would be better? They didn't know anyone outside of this stupid game prison. It was silly to think about it at this time, but I had to try to look on the bright side, right?

  There was no way to tell time in this place with clocks, watches or smart phones. The sun's position was often unclear. The sky was just so bright all the time. But it felt late in the day. Too late for the arena to open again. Besides, we already had our social event for today, the cookout.

  I had searched the barracks a few times before, but I gave it another once over before deciding to spend the rest of the evening relaxing. When I found Nancy resting on the hammock, I joined her without asking. She scooted over to make room without complaint. It was clear that she was depressed over our recent revelation, but not beyond social courtesies.

  "What are we going to do?" Nancy asked. She was not nearly as relaxed as she appeared. I could hear the fear in her voice.

  "We're going to take one day at a time and keep our eyes open," I told her. "I'll watch out for you whenever I can. Maybe one day they'll slip up and we'll find a way out of here. All these moving parts built into this place have to provide us with an opportunity eventually. We'll just need to be ready when it happens."

  "You saved my life once already," she said as she turned to face me. Her head was resting on my bicep. It placed her face within kissing distance, should the chance present itself. "I don't believe that I properly thanked you for that."

  "No? How do you plan to rectify that error?"

  "I'm open to suggestions," she answered as she snuggled a little closer. Our proximity was taking her mind off our problems. It was good to see my presence having a comforting effect.

  "Hmmm, I have a few ideas."

  "I bet you do," she whispered as she initiated the first kiss hesitantly. Even when mourning the death of a loved one many people sought comfort in sex. This reaction of ours was almost natural. There were many more kisses to follow. We took it slow. We had plenty of time. Even if we were commanded back inside the barracks, we could resume this in one of our beds, or the shower again.

  I pulled her close and caressed her body as we continued to unite our mouths. Her arms, her back, her ass. I even slid one hand up under her shorts to grip the bottom of her ass cheek firmly. I was rewarded with a giggle.

  "Are you ready for this?" Nancy asked me.

  "Oh, I'm ready alright."

  Nancy then slid out of her shorts, removing her panties as well. When she climbed on top of me her ass landed right on my groin.

  "You are ready, aren't you?" With that statement she gripped the waist band of my shorts and boxers together. Yanking them down as far as she could my erection popped out like a jack-n-the-box. She giggled once again as she wrapped both hands around it. It was fully upright but not as firm as it could be. She fixed that problem quickly with some slow massaging strokes.

  "Aren't you worried about Shira walking up on us?" I asked.

  Nancy paused briefly to give it some thought before answering, "No, let her watch if she wants to. It’s not like anyone I know will ever find out about this." With that she mounted me. It took a while to get most of the way down on it, but not as long as the last time. "Oh my God," she exclaimed. "That takes some getting used to."

  Slowly Nancy bobbed her slender body up and down on me, occasionally rocking forward and backward. I held her hips and added some minor thrusts to assist. We were just getting into a rhythm when the announcement came to retire into the barracks.

  "Oh shit!" she exclaimed. But I didn't panic. Our captors no doubt knew of our circumstances and could see us making an effort. We retrieved our clothes and slipped them on as we headed for the barracks door. There was no evidence of impatience by the jailers. Our door did not close until we were inside.

  In the common room we found Shira sitting at the table. She looked like she had been crying. Perhaps she was dealing with the new knowledge of our existence. Not only were we imprisoned unjustly, our former lives had passed on without us. We had been plucked out of our world and dropped into this place without cause.

  It only took an instance for her to notice my boner stretching the limits of my shorts. Her eyes got big as she asked, "What is going on?"

  "Um," Nancy replied, biting her lip. "We were fucking when the announcement came to retire to our quarters. If you don't mind, I'd like to continue in Joah's room. I'm sorry that there is no door."

  "Oh?" Shira answered, looking appalled at the suggestion. "I guess it is a good time for me to take a long shower then." She hustled into the shower room taking one more glance at my clothed erection.

  I grabbed Nancy from behind by her hips once we reached my bed. I quickly pulled down her pants then pushed her face down on my sheets. She moaned loudly as I entered her once again. I got a little out of control after a while causing her to complain that I was being too forceful. That's when we switched to the missionary style that took us both to an enjoyable outcome.

  We were side by side on our backs when I heard Shira ask, "Is it safe for me to come out yet?"

  "Sure," I replied, whipping the blanket over our naked bodies.

  Nancy spent the night in my bed, and we slept through most of it. I figured it was near morning when I felt her body on top of me. She was horny for another ride on the big boy, and I was eager to oblige.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN:

  Nancy was already in the shower when I woke up. Shira was sitting at the table in the common room at an angle where she could clearly see me in my bed. It was a little creepy seeing her staring at me with accusing eyes. I put my shorts on under the blanket, but I was tempted to give her the full show if she was determined to watch me get dressed.

  "Good morning," I said to her as I retrieved my pre-made breakfast from the refrigerator. "Everything okay this morning?"

  "Sure," Shira replied. "Why wouldn't it be?"

  "Oh, I don't know," I answered as I took a seat and opened my food container. Today's scrumptious first meal was bright yellow scrambled eggs and what appeared to be a coffee cake, of sorts. The cinnamon crumble was mixed with cubes of cake instead of resting on top. "We are in a prison jumping through hoops to entertain unseen viewers in an unknown year with a death penalty for losing. Other than that... Oh, yeah. Nancy and I had sex without any way of closing a door."

  "Well that part was annoying, I mus
t admit. A set of earbuds would've been nice. Or a way to place music. This simplistic paradise is starting to get boring."

  "I understand," I said as I began to eat.

  "Sex is a nice way to break up the monotony, I bet," Shira said. I noticed that she was making more eye contact than usual. I originally took it as accusation, but it just might be something else. Was she envious of us? Or of Nancy? Did she want a slice of the Joah pie for herself? I wasn't sure. And I had no desire to approach the subject without better clues.

  Without a doubt, the most attractive thing about a woman was that she was attracted to me. After that, for me personally, came personality. As I got to know Shira a little better, I could see some likable things about her. I also preferred a slender, toned and shapely body. She already had that going on.

  Nancy opened the door then and exited the shower room with just a towel around her. Her discarded clothing was balled up in one hand. She looked nice to me, and I was happy to see her comfortable in my presence. Shira, however, gave her a fake smile that was not the least bit warm.

  "Sorry," Nancy said, mostly to Shira. "I forgot to take clean clothes into the bathroom."

  "That's okay," Shira began to respond. She was then abruptly cut off by the outside door opening. She had her back to the entrance, but Nancy's scream and alarmed stare caught our attention. In the doorway stood a man.

  In that first instant of seeing someone standing there I had hopes that a representative from this prison was finally willing to show their face. Once I registered the fact that the man's clothing matched ours, I realized that he must be the new fourth member of our team.

  He was a young man, handsome with slicked back dirty blond hair. A little shorter than me, and thinner, he was athletic in appearance. There were scars around his right knee that spoke of surgery from a sports injury. Though obviously not surprised to see us, his expression was at least as wary as we felt.

  "Hi," he said quietly. "They told me to come in here and introduce myself."

  "Who told you?" Shira demanded.

  "Um, a voice."

  "Where did you come from?" I asked, trying not to drill him too harshly during our first meeting. But the rest of us woke up here in these quarters and were not able to stand up well for a whole day. Why was this inmate different? Or, was he not really an inmate at all?"

  "Originally?"

  "No! Not originally," Shira asked as she stood up. "We woke up here! Where did you come from?"

  "Oh," the guy cringed from her verbal attack. Shira was the smallest and least intimidating physically, but her fierce attitude made up for it. "A room? Yesterday, I woke up in a room with a screen. Once I was able to walk well enough they told me that I'd be coming here. I fell asleep in the room after that then woke up on the tiny dock outside a few minutes ago."

  "Have you met anyone before us?" Shira continued her interrogation. As much as I felt bad for how she was treating the guy, I had the same questions. I wanted answers more than I wanted him to feel comfortable. If we lose the next team challenge, he would be the one that must die. As harsh as that sounded, it was true. Keeping this guy at a distance was maybe a good idea.

  "No."

  "What was on the screen?"

  "Videos of here. Of you people. And the arena games."

  "Did you see what happened to Bobby when he lost?" Shira asked.

  The guy nodded slowly with fear in his eyes.

  "Did you..." Nancy spoke for the first time. "Did you per chance see any of us while we were in bed?" When he shook his head, Nancy said, "Good."

  "I did see you on the hammock, though?"

  "Oh fuck," Nancy said. Then she ran into her room. She had been clutching her towel to her body since the door had opened. She was not properly dressed for visitors. Only her curiosity kept her from retreating sooner.

  "I'm Joah," I said as I stood and extended my hand.

  "I'm Drexel," he replied. "And I know who you three are. Shira and Nancy and you are sort of like celebrities. You are the only people on the video screen. Except the other team. But I only saw them during the games."

  "Do you know why you are here?"

  "No. I mean, I was in Detroit during the terrorist attack. Everything after that is a blank until I woke up here."

  "A terrorist attack, huh?" I asked. I still wasn't a hundred percent sure that this guy was one of us. "Was it a bomb? Or a plane?"

  "I'm not real sure. It came from the sky above us, like lightning. I thought that it was a freak storm until big black balls hit the ground and exploded. There were dozens of them in the courtyard. The explosions knocked out the glass of the building and blew anyone close to it to pieces. That's the last thing that I remember. I woke up here in a panic."

  "You weren't drugged during your sleep?"

  "Yeah, I was. My mind was freaking out, but my body couldn't move for a while. I had two arm casts, but they had been removed when I woke up on the dock. See, I have these same dots on my arms."

  "Did you see a boat?" Shira asked. Drexel shook his head. These jailers of ours placed him on the pier while we were locked inside, just like we appeared in our beds while others were locked outside. His story, though different in some ways, was starting to sound a lot like ours.

  "Have you eaten?" I asked. I didn't notice any food containers in the fridge with 'Drexel' printed on them.

  "I think so. I mean, I'm not hungry. I had breakfast, but I'm not sure if that was even today."

  I knew how he felt. I was about to tell him so when a familiar horn sounded outside our quarters. We were being summoned to the arena once again. We just gained our new fourth player, and they were already prepared to kill one of us off.

  "Do we have to go in there?" Drexel asked.

  "I'm afraid so," I replied. "Not following their orders has dire results."

  "Yes, the pain. I saw that in the videos."

  Set up in the arena this time was a balancing course. There were beams over water, ropes across expanses of sand, and tiny platforms high off the ground. Our eyes were then drawn to the center screen as the course was explained. It was a team challenge again, and this time we would be split into two groups of two each. Which people paired with each other was up to us to decide. Both duos would have to reach the end together for us to win. There was no mention of an individual challenge for the losing team, but I assumed that there would be.

  Each pair would begin by running up a narrow beam at roughly a thirty-degree angle until reaching ten feet high. Then a horizontal plank went about twenty feet over a pool of water. I couldn't tell how deep the water was. Falling off the beam meant that you would have to start over with wet feet.

  After the twenty feet of high beam was a platform barely big enough to hold two people standing. Resting there was a four-sided hook attached to a rope. One person would need to toss the hook to catch on a bar on the next platform to continue. The strand of artificial fibers would not be taut, so we would need to hang from it as we crossed the next pool of water. There was a ladder on the pedestal so you wouldn't have to start the entire course over if you fell.

  The rope from the next plateau was very taut. The demonstration showed it only giving a couple inches when the man walked across it. We were not required to traverse that way, but it would be the fastest method. The gap to the next platform was only a dozen feet, so I was seriously considering it. Below it was sand. If you fell, you could use a climbing wall to reach your goal but landing on solid ground would not be a preferred tactic.

  The last raised level would be reached by both pairs. There was a disc with an orange flag rising from the center. It currently rested on the surface. However, the use of four ropes on opposite sides could be pulled to raise it twenty feet into the air. It would then catch fire to signal victory. The videos showed how difficult it would be to raise that flag while missing a single member of your team. It looked damn near impossible. All four of us would be required.

  "I'd like to pair up with Nancy," I anno
unced to my team.

  "What a surprise," Shira said sarcastically.

  "It's a good idea to put one guy with one girl, I think," Drexel offered.

  "I guess that I am your girl, then," Shira responded. I thought that she might be happy to see another male on our team that was handsome and not totally insane. Instead, she was keeping the new guy at more of a distance than the rest of us. "By the way, Drexel, what year is it?"

  "Two thousand and fifty-five. Why do you ask?"

  "Well, I'll be," Shira answered. She had obviously been kept in cryogenics as well.

  When Drexel looked puzzled, I said, "We'll explain about the year later. Right now, we need to focus on this challenge."