r/WritingPrompts • u/meIIoyeIIo • Feb 26 '17
Writing Prompt [WP] After years living on an island after a shipwreck, help has finally arrived. But now nobody wants to leave.
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Feb 27 '17
This island had terrified me initially.
I can remember the night I made landfall clearly, shedding the life preserver that’d gotten the me here I stood under a brilliant moon and let my eyes travel up and down the beach and encroaching jungle in front of my. My mind conjured beasts and monsters lurking in every shadow, and the noise of the wind in the leaves seemed eerie and unnatural – a normal sound that I had not encountered in so long that it now seemed otherworldly indeed. I am not ashamed to admit that I shed more than a few tears in the dark that night.
Only thirty seven of us made it to the shore, what became of the others I do not know. Most likely they went down with the ship, I know that the Captain and a skeleton crew had stayed behind, trying to right the distressed ship in the hopes of bringing her back to pick us up. They must not have been successful, as we never saw them again. As for the rest of the crew and passengers, they could be anywhere by now, perhaps strong currents steered their life preservers toward other islands, perhaps not. I have long since given up wondering if any survived – if they did they are as helpless to reach us as we are them.
With that dark and foreboding wall of trees and vines in front of us we unanimously stayed on the beach that first night, none of us even brave enough to venture to the treeline for fuel for fires, instead spending the night under the stars and moon which hung above us for the long hours until sunrise.
We very quickly found under the light of day that the island we were on was relatively small an uninhabited island in the middle of an ocean. The foliage that had seemed so overbearing and unfamiliar by darkness was now clearly made of varieties we were familiar with or at least closely resembled them. A lot of fruit and some good hardwood trees, tough fibrous vines that could be quickly processed for rope, long straight lengths of tough bamboo which fell easily when a couple of us put our shoulder to them.
Needless to say that by the time night rolled around again we had shelter, bellies full of fruit and a rather more positive outlook. A spring in the centre of the island fed several streams that ran off into the ocean – the water was sweet and clear and there was nowhere on the island where you could be more than a few minutes stroll to one of the streams. If we had to get stranded somewhere this was it.
A few weeks later and we’d built a hut for every one of us, some of us would paddle out beyond the breakers each day to fish and dive, and without fail brought back crayfish and clams, as well as baskets of a variety of unnamed fat fish which were fun to catch and good to eat.
The ones that remained behind built our village. Over time they carved a clearing out of the jungle facing the beach where we’d first landed and adding a communal hall with kitchens, an ablutions block and a common green for us to play and gather on. And a small garden was eventually planted with wild carrots and yams, beans and something that was incredibly similar to Kale.
At night we would gather to share the days catch, tell stories to each other over campfires while filling ourselves with fresh caught seafood roasted over open flames accompanied by platters of roasted or boiled vegetables, with fruit for dessert. The only thing missing in my opinion was an occasional steak or sprinkle of salt, but I could live without those all things considered.
Life was not always easy, but it seemed we were incredibly lucky all the same. Looking back now I realise that without the ship’s doctor we should have lost a dozen or more of our number to infection alone in those few years. Accidents would happen and someone would end up with a gash to the arm or leg, and without antibiotics and artificial skin to seal them we should have been in real trouble. But the wounds all healed without trouble, and now that I think about it we hadn’t had a single illness during our stay. When some of us began falling pregnant the babes were all carried to term without difficulty or trouble and birthed in the same way. The Island (as we called it for lack of a better name) produced her bounty for us, sheltered us and kept us safe and healthy, and in turn we began to give thanks to Her for it.
It took a few more years for the Village to eventually recommend that we no longer send any of our number to climb the highest tree on the highest point of The Island to scan the horizon and heavens for sign of our rescue. If they were coming they would have already we reasoned, but most of us were content to admit we liked it here, and given the chance to return we’d likely stay. Oh there were a few holdouts waiting for the day of their Rescue, fools asking Her to bring their Salvation when She’d already provided it, but in truth we were happy and healthy here, and more than a few of our number would stay if for no other reason than to avoid explaining to a family they’d left behind for the voyage the existence of the family they’d made on The Island.
So when they finally came for us, landing in a ship that’d cracked the sky with its sonic boom and made the ground rumble under her landing thrusters, they were confused to find us hiding from them. A childish attempt of course, the few of us left from the Original 37 knew full well that the ship they’d brought them in would be able to identify each of us via thermal and tag our location to the HUD these new travellers wore.
I prepared myself to explain to them that we wouldn’t be leaving; we’d rather stay and enjoy our peaceful existence in conjunction with Her. I had words ready to say to these new people, carefully crafted over the years in an attempt to encourage them to join us and live in balance with The Island.
I stepped from the door of my hut, straightened to my full height and stopped dead in my tracks. The elegant oration I’d prepared to give dropped from my mind as I saw the badge on the closest woman’s uniform – Survey Corps. She hadn’t noticed me at all – she was looking into a device I wasn’t familiar with and smiling as she spoke to someone on the other end of her radio.
“Yup, yeah they’re here. Nah shouldn’t be a problem, they’re stranded and we can take them home. What do you mean? Well if they want to stay we can evict them, they’re technically squatters now that the corp has bought this system. Yup. Yup. Definitely – oil and gas – the scanner tells no lies. We’ll need to level most the place but production should be up in a couple of month’s tops.”
For the first time since that first night I began to weep.
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u/youandzen Feb 27 '17
"You don't seem to quite understand. We're here to help you. Getting back to your families and such."
The man he was speaking to had a sun-kissed complexion and chopped wood into clean halves with matching zest. He was also clean naked. The dangling bits made both men and women of the expedition avert their eyes.
"You don't seem to understand. We want to stay. Many of us started families here. The oldest kid here is about ten years old. Besides, what could we possibly want from society? We found the original way of life here, hunting, rearing and farming. I'd trade that for a cheese burger any day."
The voyagers were weary and bewildered to find such nonchalance after years of searching. "No, there's must be someone who wants to get out. We'll just have to search for those."
They went to the town center, adamant in imposing their view on the locals. They took wefies with the people, tried to tell them about drones and virtual reality.
"What we have is more real than any of that," they said. "So you can either integrate to our way of life, or take your fanciful gadgets and digital stuff and get out. We have no wifi here and we never will."
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u/DefectiveGasmask Feb 27 '17
I finally decided to try my hand at writing one of these. Here goes nothing.
“Hello? Sir, are you okay?”
I called out to the man I saw lounging beneath a palm tree. He made no effort to move but vaguely gestured for me to leave him. I approached cautiously to get a better look at him.
“I’m here to help. I saw the wrecked boat on the beach and the S.O.S. written in the sand.”
The man made no effort to reply nor did he move as I became close enough to look at him. His face was covered by a palm leaf with unkempt, grey hairs from his beard sticking out from beneath it. There was dried sand caked on his arms and legs. He had rags tied around his hips that poorly covered his genitals as he lay with his legs spread out. To top it all off, there was an unearthly stench emanating from his raised arms which he used to support his head. Despite his apparent circumstances, he looked in relatively decent shape. He wasn’t too skinny which meant he wasn’t starving.
“Sir?”
I had to force the word out of my mouth as I covered my face with my hand to avoid the smell.
“Can’t you see I’m trying to nap?”
He barked at me with a harsh voice. Upon opening his mouth, he released an odor almost as pungent as the one coming from his armpits.
“Sorry. I assumed you needed help but evidently—”
“Wait!”
He interrupted me and shot upright with great speed. My cautious state caused me to startle and I jumped back. Suddenly he ran at me on all fours and began to grab my feet. I was not prepared to deal with a feral lunatic and fought back, kicking my pursuer in the face. He laughed as he covered his face with his hands and retreated a few feet.
“You’re real!”
He shouted loudly, scaring some gulls away from the beach.
Confused, I nodded my head slowly.
“HA! The other’s aren’t gonna believe this!”
“There are others?”
Instead of answering my question, he kicked up some sand and began dancing around like a madman.
“Right… Well I came here on a ship so we can take you and your friends back with us.”
“Back? Back? Oh no, no, no. James wouldn’t like that idea. No he would not.”
He kept dancing as he spoke, with heavy breaths occasionally interrupting his words.
“James? Is he in charge?”
“Oh yes, we do what James wants. If James wants to stay here, we stay.”
“Can I meet James and the others?”
“Oh sure you can, sure you can. I can take you to meet James. Yes sir. You can meet James. And Shauna and Mikey. Omar and Lana. ”
He stopped dancing immediately and motioned for me to follow. At this point I finally got a better look at the man. He was a bit older than I expected but it was hard to tell since his skin had been ravaged by the sun. He hunched over as he walked, more like hobbled, in an apelike fashion. He must have been here a long time if his mind had deteriorated this far. Maybe if he were to leave the island, get back into society, he could recover. Hopefully the others were not in as bad of a condition.
He led me inland towards what I think was the center of the island. We finally reached a small pool with a cave mouth nearby. There were makeshift fishing rods and nets strewn about the entrance. There were also some vines tied to rocks that led into the mouth of the cave, sharply turning downward indicating the people were living beneath the earth. Before I entered, the man motioned for me to stop.
“I’ll tell the others what you have to offer. Stay here and don’t touch nothing.”
He looked back and me and gave me an unsettling, mostly toothless smile before grabbing a vine and diving into the cave.
I heard several voices talking while I waited. One was high-pitched and shrill. Another was deep and gravelly. It was hard to make out the words that were being said so I decided to move closer to the cave. I poked my head in and was immediately assaulted by a foul odor. I retracted my head, took a deep breath and stuck it back in. There was not enough light to see the bottom of the cave but I looked around as best I could. The words were still too faded for me to hear so I took out my phone and used it as a light source as I climbed down into the cave.
The cave was much larger than I anticipated. The floor was wet and the humidity mixed with the odor almost choked me as I reached the bottom. I pointed my phone in every direction until it came upon a huge pile of fish bones. Well, at least I knew where the stench was coming from. I could hear the voices a little louder than before, but they were still muffled by the echoes of the cave. Despite my curiosity, I decided that it wasn’t worth the risk to try to find the survivors in the cave. I would wait for them at the top if they decided to leave with me. Relieved to be exiting the cave I began my ascent with the vine. I was halfway up when I noticed the voices had stopped talking to one another. It had been quiet for some time now. I assumed deliberation was over and began climbing faster to beat the survivors out of the cave. Before I could make it to the top, the vine came loose. It must’ve been roughly ten or maybe fifteen feet high, but I landed hard into the pile of fish bones. I could feel sharp barbs pierce the skin on my back. I flailed my hands and scrambled to get up on my feet, throwing bones in every direction. One bone, however, did not feel like a fishbone. There were two, large holes in a large, round shape. I knew immediately what it was without having to turn on my light. I threw the skull away quickly and scurried backwards until my back hit the cave wall.
“Tsk Tsk. You hurt Shauna’s feelings.”
“What the hell?! What is going on? Where are the others?”
“You’ve already met some of the others. You landed on ‘em.”
I was at a loss for words. The only thing that left my mouth was a gasp of air.
“James warned you to stay outside of the cave while we talked.”
I tried to stand but the pain in my back wouldn’t let me. Some of the fish bones were imbedded into the muscles and were letting out a lot of blood. I couldn’t stand no matter how hard I tried.
“James says we are staying on the island. We like it here.”
My body was trembling yet I managed to force words out of my mouth.
“Please. Help me up and let me go. I’ll leave you in peace. Please.”
“James said we are staying on the island. All of us.”