Decisions, Decisions

A Story by Tyler Cox

A man and a boy get stranded on an island while on a cruise. Will they both survive or will their hunger get the best of them?

He woke up dazed, light-headed, and confused. As he looked around he saw a figure lying in the sand, face-down. Staring intently at the figure, recognition settled in as he remembered what had happened.

“The boat.” His voice was raspy. “The storm.” Startled, his head whipped back to the figure that started to move. The figure was actually a man. This man had been on the crew to make sure the cruise would go on unhindered by bad weather. The boy only saw him a couple times Friday morning. The man, now sitting, looked around slowly. At the sight of the boy he croaked

“The boat crashed.” Nodding, the boy attempted to stand. Successful in that, he tried walking. This proved to be more difficult as his legs were asleep. The man however, was still sitting. “Do you have anything to eat or drink?” In response the boy’s stomach growled loudly. The boy took one step the forest-barrier. Eyes growing on wonder as he looked at the edge of the beach. There was no transition from sand to dirt. He looked back at the man struggling to get to his feet. After about five minutes the man was standing. After stretching and a bellowing yawn, the man stated.

"Well, we need to find food and water. But first we need to make sure this island is safe.” And with that he trekked into the forest. The boy chased after him, stumbling through the forest, to find the man kneeling next to a creek.

That wasn’t so hard. The boy thought. He knelt beside the man, plunged his hands in and was surprised at the stench and the warmth. Subconscious alert signals didn’t affect the boys because of his thirst. Bringing his head down and his hands up, the water faintly touching his lips before the man slapped his hands, causing the water to fall from them.

“Hey! What was that for?!” The boy said angrily.

“Don’t you smell that?” He paused for a minute to let the boy smell the water.

“Ugh, what is that smell?”

“Rotten eggs, so the smell is coming from sulfur. There must be heat of some kind under the island. Volcano maybe? That would also explain the warmth of the water.”

“So why can’t we drink it?” The boy demanded.

“The water has sulfur in it. Sulfur is toxic. Plus, we don’t know what else might be in it.”

“So what does that mean?”

“It means that the other water, if there is any, is also contaminated.” Shocked, the boy just looked back down at the water. For the first time he could feel the heat. It was probably somewhere around noon. While glancing back at the man, he noticed that the man was older, in his fifties. His salt and pepper beard covering the lower part of his face. Without waiting, the boy got up and went back to the beach. On the way, he noticed no signs of animal or insect life on the island. Just plant. And the sulfur made it impossible to eat the plants of drink the water. Then his thoughts turned back towards the man, whom he really knew nothing about. Can he be trusted?

He did save my life, though. Thought the boy. When he could have let me drink the water and die. The boy concluded that the man can be trusted, for now. Looking at the docile ocean maybe, just maybe, he could swim away. After all, he had he won at the national swim meet in April. Now it’s June and the boy practiced at least four times a week. So he was still in great shape, but he remembered what happened to the boat and the boy realized that the ocean was calm and cruel. It has been at least three hours since they woke up. The man had said that the island is about two miles wide and long. It worried the man that he and the boy were the only survivors. He also was worried about the boy himself. What is he thinking? Where are his parents? Where was he when the storm made the boat crash? Where was the wreckage from the boat? Sighing angrily he tried to remember what happened. He was standing by the Captains’ side, telling him the sky was clear, and then he went back to his cabin. Alone, never found the right girl. No pitter-patter of tiny feet. Now maybe never at all. He might die with just the company of a teenage boy. Taking that thought and pushing it away he turned to see the boy coming back from the beach.

“I’ve looked around and have seen signs of no animal life. Just plant. Could we possibly get off this island?”

“Hmm, Let me see, do we have strong vines and dry wood?” the man asked the boy.

“Yeah, there are vines everywhere and dry wood is about a couple yards from the edge of the forest.”

“Okay then, let’s get started.”

They spend the next four hours getting vine and dry wood, and making a sturdy raft. When they were finally finished, it was dark outside. The man suggested that they sleep for the night and leave in the morning. As they were making a fire the boy asked, “What’s the weather gonna be like tomorrow?” The man looks up and studies the sky for a short while.

“As far as I can tell good, clear skies.”

“I hope so.”

Laying down near the fire the thoughts of the boy turns toward his family. His mother had left after his younger sister has been born, so it was just him, his sister, and his dad. His dad was about forty in age, average height, balding head; nothing really unique or outstanding about him. His sister came up to his chin, was a little chubby and was three years younger than him. In all his fifteen years of life on earth he had never met a person so annoying, and at the moment, he wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but near her. They had no way of telling where they were except where they were headed on the cruise. That destination was Hawaii. The man and the boy don't talk as they are scanning the ocean, searching for land. They end up sleeping in shifts that night. When they awoke they found themselves still in the water. The next day, every twenty minutes or so one hears the hungry growling of the others stomach. At one point the boy looked at the man and saw not man but a grilled whole chicken. Wide-eyed, the boy turned his attention and thoughts away from his stomach. Oh, how he wished he was home, with his family! The yearning was almost unbearable. Then sadness for his grandparents seeped in. It was they who invited him on this cruise in the first place. Now they are dead along with everyone else on that boat. He was ripped from his thoughts when he heard the man cry “Land Ho!” The boys' head whipped around to where the man was looking so fast it took his eyes a few seconds longer to process what he was looking at. This island appeared to be larger than the other one. It took about forty agonizing minutes to reach the new, larger island. The man told the boy to wait on the beach until he returned. It was some time later when the man returned. The boy saw a familiar shaped man on the beach. He held in his hand something unrecognizable at the time. As the familiar man got closer he noticed features like a balding head. The boy swiftly got to his feet and raced in the direction of the balding-headed man. As the distance closed, the boy smelled his favorite food, but couldn't tell where it was coming from. At last he reached the balding-headed man. What he was holding was a platter of food. Tears watered his eyes; partially blinding the boy. He took his favorite food off the platter and popped it in his mouth, and began chewing. Then reality came rushing back. The food in his mouth was now grainy, hard, and gritty. The balding-headed man became the meteorologist from the cruise; the food became a rock.

“Spit that out!” The man yelled. The boy obeyed and began to remove the rock from his mouth. In between spits the boy got out

“What”, spit, “was”, spit, “that?” spit.

“That happens to be a volcanic rock.” The boy felt as though he was going to vomit.

“Any water or food?” the boy asked optimistically. A grim face was all he got in response. With his spirits crushed, the boy went to the water’s edge to rinse out his mouth.

“The longest the average person can go without food is about ten days.” He remembered the special guest said that in health class. “And the average person can survive with food but without water is about seven days.” That's all the boy remembers for he was just staring at her; not really paying attention. Later that day he bragged to his friends saying

“Oh yeah, she wants me.” The boy snapped back. Time for daydreaming later. Right now it's time to find food. The man was looking like he's on the menu and there were not better offers, so far. He had no idea what the man was doing, or thinking and didn't really care in the first place. All he cared about was satisfying his starving, aching stomach. Suddenly a light bulb went off about his head. The boy would wait for the man to drift off to sleep then take a rock and bash his head in. Then he would build a fire and roast the arms and legs. A feast fit for a king! Yes, that is what he will do. Finally the time of the reckoning. As the man lay down to sleep, the boy made sure that there was a large rock nearby. He spotted a good enough sized one a few feet away. Mentally checking that off the list, he remembered where to find the dry wood. Again not too far away. Check. Now we play the waiting game. Well the game didn't last long because the boy dozed off. Not before the man did, they went to sleep at about the same time. Hours later, or was it minutes? He could not tell. All he knew was that it was time. Grabbing the rock, he walks, ninja-like, over to the sleeping figure. Making sure that it was soundly asleep, he lifts the rock high in the air and with a deranged yell brings it down, hard and fast, onto the head of the sleeping figure. After the sickening crunch of skull being broken, he went to work on dismembering the body. Tedious was the work. When the sun unwillingly rose again the next day, he was happily chewing away at a leg. The roar of a boat and sirens made him look up, blood and flesh covering the portion of his face. The rescue squad was here!

“You there.” a woman says through a bull horn. “Put the leg down. We are here to take you home.” The survivor of the man and boy complies with her by slowly lowering the human leg to the ground. He gets up and starts walking toward the water’s edge. By the time he gets there a life boat, with no one in it, was present. The survivor guessed that no one would want to sit with him. He crawled into the life boat and away they went, the survivor in the life boat being pulled by a rope attached to the rescue squad. Headed towards home.