The Island (closed)

[JadeKnight]

It was a cool evening, the sound of waves lapping a sandy shore being the only sounds heard in the evening air. That was until a painful groan was heard from a young man laying on his back in the wet sand, the ocean foam swirling around him and retreating every few moments. His clothes were a little tattered in places, but mostly intact. He lifted his right hand from the sand, putting it on his forehead at the little sign of a throbbing headache.

Jeremy's mind was a jumble of images at the moment, not quite sure of where he was or what had caused him to be on this secluded beach. His entire body felt as if he had been in the ring with a champion prize fighter for several rounds and lost the fight. Large broken wooden planks littered the beach, a couple of large chunks intact enough to identify that it had been a small boat of some sort. Thirty foot high rocky cliffs were a little further back from him, forming a l-shaped barrier on that part of the island before extending a little further east along the strip of beach.

 

[Poprockz]

About thirty feet away from the young man, a young woman also was laying in the sand. Her jeans had held up just fine, but her shirt was ripped a bit, her blouse not made of extremely sturdy material. She stirred, her hands grasping at the sand as she lifted her head slightly. Her eyes went to her fist, watching the sand sift through her fingers with confusion.

Wasn't she on a ship earlier? Why was she on a beach now? The woman felt wet and tired, her body feeling as though she probably had several bruises in different places. Amelia rolled onto her side and then her back, the hot rays of the sun beating down on her. It felt nice though, the sun warming up her damp clothes as she rested there. Maybe this was some kind of very lucid dream, and she was really on a cruise ship somewhere.

She sighed, the woman starting to fall asleep from exhaustion. https://i.redd.it/c7p6rauk18621.jpg

 

[JadeKnight]

Jeremy wanted to try to figure things out, but the pain kept him on edge for the time being. He slowly went through the motions of wiggling his fingers and toes to make sure he could still move them. Satisfied for the moment, he slowly dragged himself backwards from the wet surf to the drier sand. Though it was annoying at getting himself covered in sand more, the warmth felt good against his back and arms. He closed his eyes for a few moments, gathering his wits a bit.

After what seemed like an eternity, the young man opened his eyes and pulled himself up to a sitting position. He groaned as it continued to hurt to even move, but he had to get up. Looking around, he gave a little smile seeing the figure of his younger step-sister Amelia nearby. She was safe at least.

He shifted over to his hands and knees, crawling slowly over to her. Once he reached her, he reached up and tapped on her forehead teasingly as he had always to get her attention.

"Wake up sleepyhead. This isn't the best place to sleep right now."

 

[Poprockz]

She swatted his hand away, squinting at him due to the bright sunlight. That little tap to her forehead had always been vaguely annoying, but she supposed that step-brothers were supposed to get on ones nerves every now and then. Still, that didn't mean she had to let him have his way.

Sighing, she rolled onto her side and propped herself up a bit. "What the hell is going on? Where the fuck are we?" It was entirely possible that he didn't know anything more than she did, but she still felt like the questions needed to be asked out loud. She looked around at the beautiful ocean water, the debris, the beach, and the island forest. It looked like they had washed up on an island, but the last thing she remembered was being in the lifeboat after things had gone awry with the cruise ship.

If their lifeboat had gone down and shipwrecked them here, then that was almost a good thing wasn't it? The island had to be close to the ship's scheduled path, so the search parties shouldn't have too much difficulty finding them. It might take them a little bit, but she figured they could at least stay alive for a week or two until that happened.

 

[JadeKnight]

He gave a little chuckle as she batted his hand away as she sat up. He couldn't help but take in her breasts as the wet blouse clung to her so well. It was a couple of moments before he looked away towards the horizon where it seemed that a low hanging could bank could be seen. There was something about it that seemed unnatural, the way it almost touched the blue sea and further up into the sky. He dismissed it from his thoughts as he looked back at her.

"I really have no clue sis. I don't think this was a scheduled stop."

He grinned for a moment before he stood up beside her. Sand had gotten inside his shirt and it was being to irritate him. Without much warning to her, he pulled the shirt up over his head. It was evident he worked out on a regular basis, showing off his toned chest and arms. He wasn't very big muscular build, but then he had never been one to really get into body-building.

"We probably should gather up what wood we can for a fire, but we'll probably be sleeping under the stars tonight."

He walked away from her to the largest piece of the lifeboat, shaking his shirt off before draping it over his right shoulder.

 

[Poprockz]

She rolled her eyes at him, his humor seemingly not dampened by the fact that they had no idea where they were. Opening her mouth, she was about to say something snippy back to him when she watched him pull off his shirt, her eyes going to his chest for a few moments before going back to his face. He sure had a good physique. Of course she had seen him without his shirt in the past, but they hadn't really seen each other for several years before this cruise.

He had always been handsome, but it seemed like he had only grown more so over the years. Still, he was her step-brother, so she figured it would be weird if she thought of him as anything but that. Sighing, she stood up also, dusting the sand off her jeans as best she could. She was still damp from the ocean, but at least the sun was slowly drying them out.

Following behind him, she started to gather some wood as well, wondering what they would do when they ran out. Of course they could use a tree or something, but it wasn't as though they had a saw or an ax to use. Perhaps they'd have to scour for some wood further into the forest. That idea didn't appeal to her, as it would be easier for rescuers to see them if they remained on the beach.

"We should put one of those "help us" messages in the sand, shouldn't we?" She looked up and down the beach and wondered if the ocean would just wipe away the message overnight.

 

[JadeKnight]

He grabbed a hold of the front of the lifeboat, only a quarter of it that was still intact. He pulled it closer to the bottom of the cliff out of the wet sand. The wood still looked pretty wet, so he wasn't sure how well it was going to burn.

"Well, that would be a good idea to do. Though I think we can probably wait till tomorrow to do that. It might take a little while for us to be noticed missing."

He took a moment to pat his jean pockets before smiling as he pulled out his spare lighter and a small pocket knife.

"Most of the the life boat chunks are probably still wet, so those will probably take a while to dry out. I can whittle off little pieces of wood for kindling."

 

[Poprockz]

"Hm. I suppose you're right. Besides, I feel like shit right now. It would be nice to relax a little bit and get some sleep before getting to work on being rescued." She mused, crossing her arms and squinting out toward the ocean again. Amelia wondered if there were other survivors out there who washed up on other islands. It didn't seem like anyone else but the two of them were here on this island, but that didn't mean that the other survivors didn't make it.

The thought of some of the people on the cruise ship drowning or getting eaten by sharks or something was really disturbing. She hoped everyone else was alright, hoping that they at least would be able to be collected by passing ship or something.

"Well... Is there something I should be doing once we're done gathering up wood? I know you're whittling, but do you think I should like gather some rocks or something to put around the fire?" Honestly, it had been so long since she had been camping that she didn't remember whether they would want to dig a pit for the fire or not. For that matter, what were they going to do food? Maybe she should look for fruit or something.

 

[JadeKnight]

He took the wood she had gathered and put it down by the little makeshift firebase that was the broken lifeboat. He stood up for a moment, looking around at the beach. If they were in a wooded area, or some place that a fire could spread on them, he would have considered having her gather up some rocks. However, his stomach made a little gurgle sound a moment later. He chuckled for a moment as he placed a hand on his stomach.

"I really don't think the fire will spread anywhere in this sand. I think it would probably be better if you found us something to eat. I'm starving."

He smiled for a moment before he sat down on the sand and picked up a chunk of wood. He opened his knife carefully before looking at the blade. The blade was in relatively decent condition and he hoped it would be sharp enough for the cutting of the wood. Satisfied, he began to carefully slice small slivers of wood from the board and let it fall into a pile int the middle of the broken lifeboat part.

 

[Poprockz]

She furrowed her brows at him for a moment with an amused smile, "you say that, but you underestimate how worthless I am at foraging for food. We'll see if I can get something." With that, she walked away, looking around to see what exactly she could do. Animals and fish were out since she had no hope of catching any. Really, the only thing she could get would be fruit. For that reason, she approached the trees and looked up, looking for bananas or coconuts or something.

It took her a little while, but eventually she found a coconut tree. She stood at the bottom, looking up and trying to figure out how best to climb the thing. Well, it was probably better to just go for it. Shaking her hands out a bit as a bit of mental prep, she started carefully climbing the tree. It leaned slightly when she reached the top, but she was able to cling onto the trunk and use her other hand to knock coconuts down from the tree itself.

With that, She slowly climbed down and gathered up her coconuts in her arms, trudging back to where he sat whittling. All of them were dumped onto the ground as she sighed with satisfaction. "I hope you like coconut, because that is the only item on the menu right now."

 

[JadeKnight]

By the time she got back with their "food", he had managed to get a sizable pile of wood shavings whittled off to use. He was happy that his had gotten plenty of wilderness, camping, and survival training as he grew up. The days of being a Boy Scout had taught him plenty about the outdoors, as had his father who had passed away just before getting into high school. It still brought a pang of pain to his heart to think of his biological father, but he had accepted it long ago.

"I guess that will be suitable for tonight. Give me a couple more minutes and We should have a little fire."

He chuckled for a moment when he saw the coconuts, but that was fine for him. He closed his pocket knife and tossed it over to her.

"You can fix up dinner while I finish up the fire."

Using the gathered pieces of wood, he began to make a small cabin and filled it with the wood pieces.

 

[Poprockz]

"Shit!" She hissed in surprise as he tossed the knife over, quickly moving backwards so that the knife fell into the sand. Catching the knife was inadvisable, Amelia being one of those people that was more prone to cut herself if she tried (the girl having not noticed that he had sheathed it). Bending over, she picked the knife out of the sand and discovered that he had actually put the blade away. Her cheeks turned a bit pink from the embarrassment of having assumed he would toss her a knife like that.

Sitting down next to the coconuts, she started to cut them open, trying to be careful so that the coconut juices wouldn't spill. They were essential water since they didn't know where there was any fresh water yet.

Every now and then, she would glance at him as he made the fire. He didn't seem very worried, and that made her feel a bit more comforted about their situation. If he wasn't too concerned, then it was likely that it wasn't that dire of a situation. Still, she was going to be happy to sleep next to a fire rather than just out on the cold beach without a blanket.

"So... how long do you think it'll take them to find us?"

 

[JadeKnight]

"I am not sure. It could be a day or up to a week before they figure how where the boat went down. I really don't think we were in the life boat for more than a few hours....I think."

He flicked the lighter a few times, trying to get a couple pieces of kindling to light. He frowned as the kindling didn't catch immediately, shifting his body around to try and block the wind from blowing the fire out. After what seemed to be the tenth time of trying, a piece of the kindling caught fire.

He carefully dropped the lit piece into the log cabin before bending down in the sand. He blew gently on the lit piece until it spread to the rest of the kindling. He grinned as he sat up.

"We have fire. Now we just have to make sure it keeps burning."

He grabbed a few more smaller pieces and carefully placed them on the small fire. There was a lot of steam escaping into the air as the fire was trying to dry out the wet wood. He looked over at her for a moment.

"Got enough for us to eat and drink yet?"

 

[Poprockz]

"Hm." She acknowledged his reply, watching as he tried to light the fire. Honestly, she hoped they found them really soon. There had been stories about people surviving on islands for years before they were found, and she didn't think she could handle that. To be stranded on her island with her somewhat estranged step-brother would be an odd thing for her, though she supposed they would definitely get to know each other better like their mom had wanted.

That was, after all, the reason she had sent them on the trip together anyway. It had been somewhat weird for her at first. Her step-brother could be pretty charming and confident, but sometimes it got on her nerves. It was as though he was simply putting up a fake front, never letting her see his more emotional side. She knew it was just how he was, but it didn't keep her from being annoyed at times.

"Mm. Fire good. Cold bad." She joked, a little smile on her face. The woman nodded when he inquired about their "meal." Taking the four coconuts she had opened, she set them in the sand as though they were hamburgers, wanting to keep the two halves of the coconuts pressed together to prevent any leakage. With that done, she made a grand gesture at them.

"May I present to you... your dinner." She waggled her eyebrows at him a little, pleased with her little show.

 

[JadeKnight]

Jeremy gave a little smirk and then a laugh at his step-sister's flair for the dramtic. It was an endearing quality about her, if not a teensy bit annoying at times. Now, it was endearing as it helped to relieve a bit of the weariness of their whole situation.

"Thank you very much. I am sure you will make some man a wonderful wife."

He winked playfully to her for a moment before nodding to the coconuts.

"Well, since you did the work, you can have first dibs for tonight."

Although he was a little hungry, he wasn't planning on gorging himself. He wasn't sure how long they were going to be here and it would probably be wiser for them to ration some.

"I would say we start exploring a little to see if we can do anything to better our situation for the time being."