by Alex Just
~ Island – pacific ~
When Tom finally awoke again it was midday. His head felt heavy as led, throbbing mercilessly. He noticed his injuries had been tended to, there weren’t any more thorns stuck in his body. With a great effort he forced himself to get up, realising he didn’t know where he was. A loud rushing filtered its way past the dregs of his sleep and into his mind. How long had it been since the attack? He realised the rushing sound was a waterfall that masked the caves entrance. This must have been the waterfall which they’d seen whilst chasing the girl. Getting up was a bad idea, he felt like he was going to be sick as his stomach somersaulted. He stumbled his way over to the waterfall and burst through to find himself free falling all the way down to a huge splash in a cool freshwater pool. He was blinded by the harsh light as his head breached the surface. He paused until his nausea retreated, looking about himself wondering where the others were, but there was no sign of them. His body itched and stung, and the heat was unbearable. The cool texture of the water caressed his sores as he lay in the shallows, letting the gentle swaying wash against his skin, soothingly. His eyes took in the cobalt sky, the view framed by a cocktail of jungle foliage. Tom blinked. Was it his imagination? He could make out every miniscule detail of the plants, his vision zeroing in on the veins that carved green rivulets across the leaves surface.
‘He’s up at last!’ an excited voice yelled, ‘over here Julia.’
‘Where? I can’t see him anywhere.’
‘He’s lying in the water, over there.’
Tom shoved the moment aside and sat up grinning, but immediately regretted it. He felt dizzy, it was hard to stay upright but eventually he managed it, his head swimming in circles. His grin faded as he saw Martin, limping towards him, a branch used as a crutch. Just behind him was Julia, the girl who had also been on the cruise, seemingly always by herself and never talking much to anyone. She’d regarded the other people on the cruise with aloof arrogance. Now she was making sure Martin didn’t fall and laughing joyously at Tom’s recovery. Tom couldn’t believe his eyes; the change in her was enormous. He made his way over to them and the three of them sat down under the shade of a lone palm tree. Again that sensation of familiarity and eerie thrill seemed to have Tom’s nerves on edge, as glanced at Julia’s stunning beauty.
Julia, seeing the questioning look on Tom’s face began to explain what had happened. He was glad to notice she’d lost some of the arrogance which had washed off her during the cruise. She was very attractive, tall, with natural curves and a figure that had ‘gym’ written all over it. Her hair reached down past her shoulders and was a luscious dark-brown; it framed crystal blue sapphire eyes which burned with a startling intensity. Her skin was smooth, tanned to a soft honey brown. What is going on? He never even gave people who acted like Julia a second glance. Yet she was changing, and he couldn’t help but to notice her beauty. Her high cheekbones held the promise of good genetics and her full lips curved easily into a dazzling smile. With difficulty he tried to drag his thoughts away from Julia’s figure and listen to what she was saying.
Her memory from the beach was blurred, and all she recalled was Tom hauling her up. Panic had swamped her and she’d sprinted off thinking Tom was going to hurt her. She’d managed to lose them in the forest but later on heard a commotion. She stayed away, scared. Eventually she returned and found Tom supporting Martin, who was drenched in blood. Her insides squirmed at the amount of it; she thought she was going to be sick as she inspected Martins leg. She vividly remembered her only thought, what on earth did this to him? It was as if she couldn’t think of anything else. She saw Tom’s face, his pupils big as saucers, mumbling incoherently and suddenly he collapsed onto the beach, Martin falling on top of him like a rag doll.
Her heart was surfing on a tsunami of panic, hysteria gripping her tightly, its embrace, deathly. It required more effort than usual to calm down the way she’d been taught. Composed, she went back to where the two lay. Martin was worse off. She dragged him off Tom, using all her strength, and continued to pull him towards the sea. The moon reflected off the water turning it a silver grey, fish leapt out of the sea, leaving behind only small splashes, the only sign they existed. She left him lying in the shallows so that his leg was totally submerged in the water.
His scream had rent the air, the pain in his leg doubled; the water around it blossomed purple. Julia ripped off a bit of her shirt and began to clean out the wound. It wasn’t too bad; a nasty graze. A large part of skin had been grazed off. After the wound was as clean as it would get, she dragged him back up to the tree line, leaving him, his leg raised off the ground on a log.
She made her way back to where Tom lay, mumbling fitfully in a deep sleep. She couldn’t tell what was wrong with him yet, as she drew closer she noticed his ankles were as big as golf balls, puffy and red. Some thorns nestled in his ankles, angry and poisonous. She deftly pulled them out. Attempting to move him she realised she couldn’t by herself and so instead she ripped up his shirt, soaked it in sea water and gently wrapped it round his ankles, hoping it would soothe the swelling. It wasn’t till the next day that she managed to drag Tom through the forest to a cave hidden by a screen of water. She’d found it accidentally, whilst fleeing both the boys.
Julia had to leave Martin where he was as she didn’t want to risk getting sand into his injury. The rest seemed to be doing it good and after two days Martin made it to the shelter of their cave, with the help of Julia. During that whole time Tom had been sleeping fitfully, waking only when Julia gave him water and fed him small bits of bananas. On the third day, Julia and Martin had gone to find branches to be used as crutches for Martin so he could start walking again.
‘That’s when we saw you and the rest is history.’ She smiled and her teeth flashed pearly white. He needed to stop this, thought Tom, what was happening to him?
Tom flashed a quick glance at Martin to see if he was also seeing Julia in this new light, yet saw that despite what Julia had done for him, he wasn’t overly interested in her. The relief he felt irritated him.
In an attempt to distract himself he glanced down at his body to see how bad the scratches from all the thorns of that unusual bush were. To his surprise, there were only a few visible and they were fading. That was strange. They healed quickly, he thought. The thorns!
‘You know the thorns in my ankles when you found me?’ Tom’s voice broke their silence.
‘Yeah. They were everywhere, not just your ankles. It took forever to take them all out. And as I did, a thick liquid oozed out.’
‘Nice. I got smashed against some bush. The thorns covered it like a pincushion. When they stabbed me I felt like I was going to sleep. My whole body started going numb.’
‘Are you saying these thorns have an anaesthetic?’ Martin asked.
‘Well it’d explain why I was out for so long and why I couldn’t feel anything.’
‘We can find that place again can’t we?’ Martin asked, excitement raising his voice.
‘Kind of had a raving pig trying to skewer me, my memory is slightly fuzzy,’ laughed Tom, ‘but I guess it shouldn’t be too hard to find our way back there. What about that boar? I’m not really in the mood for another date just yet.’
Julia backed Tom up, ‘Tom’s right, Martin, it would be suicide going back there so soon after you two got attacked.’
Julia. Sure she helped me and all, that was nice, but she always had to give her Barbie doll opinion on everything in that irritatingly officious tone of hers. Mind you, reflected Martin grudgingly, looking over at Tom, it probably was too soon to go back. Tom was still shaken up. He looked a lot better already though, and it might just have been his imagination but it almost looked like Tom had grown in those three days of sleep. Not to mention that he himself couldn’t walk properly yet.
‘I mean when we are all settled again and I can walk. I was thinking. We could use those thorns to make spears.’ The blank glances on To
m and Julia’s faces prompted Martin to continue. ‘If they act as an anaesthetic, we could find a way to somehow attach them to solid sticks and use them as weapons against the boar. If we’re lucky we could try hunting it.’ His fierce frown was highlighted by the dangerous gleam in his dark eyes.
Finally they understood what he was getting at. Survival training was part of the pilot course his father had made him attend. He regretted the boredom with which he’d sat through the survival lectures.
‘That’s such a good idea Martin.’
Julia’s compliment caught him so off guard that Martin could only nod a surprised response. Maybe she isn’t that bad after all, he reasoned, remembering to close his mouth.
From where they were sitting they had a perfect view of the coral reefs and the large hulking wreck of their old ship. The outer layer of wood had been split off like twigs from a branch and the metal hull beneath the wood was torn and gashed in places from the stern to bow. The foremast had collapsed and sails which had, by some miracle, survived the battering were casually flapping in the afternoon breeze. Gulls circled it, lazily catching thermals and dipping occasionally to snap some scrap of food.
‘Quite a nice sight if you forget that was our ship.’ quipped Tom.
Martin’s laughter was infectious and even Julia found it amusing.
‘We should be able to swim out there. Maybe bring back anything that’s lying around which we could use?’ asked Julia.
‘That’s not a bad idea, but it’ll have to be you and Tom that go, not me’ replied Martin.
‘Yeah I’ll help. Tomorrow though, and um Julia, you do know that’s a very long swim right? I mean…’
The look in Julia’s blue eyes radiated cool anger, and forced Tom to change tack.
‘… If we do go, we’ll need to make a raft to bring all the stuff we get back,’ he finished lamely, avoiding her eyes.
‘Tom, don’t be stupid, there were rafts going off on the ship that got caught in ropes and rigging, they’ll still be there cos we haven’t had strong winds since then and we could easily use them.’ Arrogance can be so unattractive, thought Tom, even though she had a point.
‘Ok then, we’ll go tomorrow. It is a long swim, so let’s hope your little theory about the life rafts is right, cos it’ll be a mare getting back without. And how we gonna get onto the boat?’ asked Tom , ‘cos I doubt there’ll be a ladder hanging there waiting for us to casually paddle by and climb up.’
‘We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, stop being so pessimistic, we’ll be fine,’ snapped Julia.
‘Yeah I’ll try my luck with a bow while you two head out to the ship.’ Martin’s voice echoed hollow longing, his parents were vividly in his thoughts and the hope they were alive somehow was raw.
They spent their afternoons doing their own thing, Julia attempted to catch the last of the evening sun and Martin patiently hobbled around on his crutches looking for suitable sticks to use as spears. The familiar glint of fierce determination carved into his features. Tom couldn’t help but smile at the comical figure his friend cut waddling around on his crutches. Turning his back on them, he walked along the beach until he arrived at a dead end; thick vegetation and large boulders blocked his way. With an ease he was not accustomed to he managed to climb up onto the highest boulder and got a look at what lay on the other side.
It was just another beach, really small and very empty. No surprise resort. With a sigh he leant against a rock and looked out at the wreck. A strange cloud caught his attention and he looked up to see a plane hurtling through the sky, miles high at incredible speed. He didn’t even bother to wave his arms or shout; instead he just let a silent tear of frustration flow freely down his cheek as their isolation sunk in. Wiping his eyes angrily, he gritted his teeth and hopped back down to the beach, landing gracefully he started heading towards the cave before it got too dark to see properly.
What is the deal with Julia? And why does she look at me so strangely. It’s as if she is keeping a secret from us, from me, Tom’s thoughts chased each other round in his head as walked along the beach. As he crossed into the forest his eyes picked out Julia, she was half hidden, staring at him. As she noticed that he saw her, she quickly turned around and walked off. This is really starting to creep me out, thought Tom as he rubbed his arms, trying to flatten the goose bumps he’d got, and shrug off the icy thrill that coursed through his veins.
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