The Island of Survivors |
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I still remember when we arrived, it was only a few days ago yet it seems like we have been on this island for years... I climbed from the smoldering wreck of the plane, carefully lifting the other boy out before myself. As we got clear of the smoking frame of the aircraft, I noticed that he was limping so I helped support him. I looked around, although my vision was a bit blurred, and saw children everywhere on the beach. There must have been about twenty of them, various ages, and most of them were crying or, in the case of the older ones, tending to their wounds or the wounds of younger children nearby. It seemed like no-one was in charge so I shouted for everyone to stay clear of the plane. I saw a small fire on the left wing and knew that if the flame reached the fuel, it could injure the children who were trying to retrieve their belongings. It took an hour for everyone to calm down enough to get together in what I guess we could call our first ‘meeting’. I wasn’t sure why, as there was a boy older and bigger than me, but I had unofficially been appointed leader. The boy I had helped carry clear of the wreckage had found a coconut and I had split it slightly and helped give a drink to those in dire need of one, but it didn’t seem like enough. I stood on a rock and looked down at all the young faces who were staring up at me expectantly. I knew that they were listening, but I had a strange feeling that one or two of them resented me being ‘in charge’. “Everyone, listen carefully! We are stuck on this island; we have no food, no water and no adults to help us.” With this, a few of the younger children burst into tears, so a few of the compassionate older ones soothed them. I carried on, “We have one option. We must adapt to living here! We need to build a shelter and a fire, as well as arranging food and water for everyone. To start with, we need to know everyone’s names and anything important about them! My name is Philip.” By that time, it was getting dark and the youngest were beginning to fall asleep, so we quickly ran through everyone’s name. The oldest boy, James, made a list using a piece of paper and a pencil he had in his pocket before the crash. James was not only the oldest. He was also the tallest, strongest and probably the smartest, although unlike me, he was shy. I guess he was just short of sixteen, whereas I was only fourteen. Many of the younger children, who were around six years old, were fascinated by James’ skin colour, having been raised in a neighbourhood where ‘black people’ never visited. Throughout the day, they had frequently walked up to James and touched his skin, amazed at how it felt the same but looked different. I woke up the next morning after perhaps the worst night of sleep I had ever had. I was using a rock as a pillow and sand as a blanket and when I got up, I was completely coated in grains of rough sand, as well as feeling like my skin had been rubbed off with sandpaper which, in a way, it had been. I looked around and saw that some of the early risers were swimming in the sea, so I decided that joining them to wash off the sand would be a good idea. It wasn’t. The salt got into a gash in my arm which I had accidentally caused overnight by slamming my arm into a rock. It stung so much that I had to get out of the water before I burst into tears from the pain. Back on the beach, I saw that everyone had woken up and I needed to get food and water sorted, so I shouted for another meeting. I sent one group, a mixture of the oldest and youngest boys, to search for food, but not to eat any – I told the Andrew, the oldest of the group (15) that he was to make sure no-one ate anything, but he could taste a small amount of the food to test it – and I sent the other group, lead by James, to find a clean source of water, but not to drink it. Both were to send for me if they found any. Meanwhile, along with Sam and Ben, both my age, I started collecting wood for a fire (the smaller bits) and a shelter (the larger bits). After a good hour of foraging, during which time the three of us had a large pile of both firewood and shelter wood, a young boy nicknamed ‘Big Ears’ ran back to tell me that they had found a river deep in the forest. I set off at a run to follow him as he disappeared moments after telling me. We arrived at a deep lake at the foot of a waterfall which had been hidden by the trees. The group were swimming around cheerfully and James shouted to me over the roar of the waterfall. “The water is clean! We should build the shelter near here!” He had a big grin on his face as he splashed around and enjoyed himself. I took a deep drink and told the others to do the same before returning to the beach. On the way back, we met with the food scavengers, who had discovered a large amount of banana trees, which Andrew said were safe to eat and tasted wonderful – sweeter than normal bananas. At the time, I knew that we were going to be okay. If we built the shelter within the next few days and start a fire somewhere high, we would be sorted. |
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Written By: dr henry Edited By: The Fire Demon Coded By: Donut Juice |