Cody+O

Cody O’Sullivan __ Alone __ __ Chapter 1: Crash Landing __ “Where am I?” I think to myself as I regain consciousness and open my eyes. I grasp and handful of hot sand and begin to stand up. I slowly made my way off of the blistering hot sand into the nearby shade of a palm tree. As I begin to gather my thoughts and analyze the situation, I hear something faint from behind the wreck. I cautiously started walk over to the noise, and find Riley trying to get out of the wreck. I hold out a hand and help him up and bring him over to the shade. After making sure Riley was okay I tried to comprehend what just happened, and what we are going to do. First things first, are there any other survivors? I scouted around the island for a while, being sure not to leave Riley alone as if something happened, I wasn’t sure if he would be able to do much. As I came back to check on Riley again, I heard a rustling sound in the bushes, I quickly took cover behind the palm tree next to Riley as I had no idea what it could be, the rustling got louder, branches snapped, I began to get nervous just imagining what creatures may inhabit this island. “Finally awake eh?” exclaimed the figure. As I poked out a bit more from behind the tree I began to decipher the familiar faces, it was Reilly and Alex, coming out of the seemingly endless forest that took a good chunk of the island. As I looked up to them I noticed that Reilly had gathered some fruit and firewood, and Alex had a backpack on with a first aid kit latched on to the bottom of it. “You two have obviously been hard at work, how long was I out?” I questioned the two. “Not long, maybe fifteen minutes, we were just coming back to drop off these supplies and make a shelter for you as we weren’t sure how long you were going to be out and we didn’t want you dying from the heat.” replied Reilly, “Oh, Riley is here too, we didn’t see him at first, is he alright?” “I’m pretty beat up, but I should be fine, I don’t think I broke anything.” answered Riley. “I noticed you have a backpack on there Alex, what do we have to work with?” I said. He opened up the backpack and began listing off: “There’s a tarp, a compass, a knife, some rope and a first aid kit.” “That sounds good,” I replied, “We can work with that, I also have my glasses here too that we could use to light a fire. Before we get on with anything, what exactly happened, I don’t remember much besides getting on a plane to Australia, after that, it’s all black.” Reilly began to retell the events as he had somehow managed to retain consciousness throughout the whole experience. The events that took place on that plane all came flooding back to me like a vivid dream: “Welcome to Air Australia flight 567! We hope you enjoy your flight, we will be flying at 35,000ft for fourteen hours, the forecast looks clear and this should be a smooth flight! Now if you will devote your attention to the stewardess at the front of the plane as she demonstrates the emergency procedures for this plane, thank you!” exclaimed the plane’s pilot. We watch the stewardess do her thing and then proceed to talk, followed later by watching the TVs in the seats, then sleeping. I remember being awaken by the pilot talking into his microphone in a way that made him sound like he was panicking, he was. “Attention! All passengers! We’ve hit major turbulence and we are having difficulty maintaining control, strap yourselves in tight and remember the steps you were shown in case of emergency!” We all felt it, the plane was being thrashed around like crazy, the oxygen masks fell from the ceiling, and everybody was screaming and holding their loved ones, and then in an instant, I became deaf, the thunderous wind roaring through one of the planes doors muted everything around it as the door flew off, along with half a plane of people, I could barely hear the screams of those falling, and cringed at the thought of it, the plane driver announced that we were going to crash and to brace for impact. I stated, “Alright, now that we got that out of the way, let’s think of what we’re going to do.” __ Chapter 2: Lost Hope __ We spent most of the day fashioning a small shelter out of the tarp and rope using the knife and various other objects we found on the island. “So, what should we do now?” questioned Riley. “We should go hunting for some meat, and use some of these coconut shells and gather some water.” replied Alex. “Okay, how about Alex and I go hunting and you stay here, maintain the camp, and try to get a fire going.” stated Reilly. “Sounds good, oh by the way, take this compass, if you guys ever get lost in there, just follow the compass to the north, and you should find us, good luck guys.” I said as they prepared to depart. When they left, I tried to get a fire going, I put the big logs of fire down on the ground and a bunch of small branches and dried up leaves on top and then focused a ray of sunlight on them through my glasses, after about ten minutes I noticed a small plume of smoke and immediately bent over to blow on it so that it may grow into a good sized campfire. After Riley and I got settled in and had a big supply of firewood, we sat there and waited. Four days had passed since they left, and now we heard loud noises coming from the forest along with talking, when Reilly and Alex emerged, they carried a huge boar over their shoulders that they had managed to slay with only a knife and sharpened sticks. “Wow, nice kill you guys, that should feed us for a while.” I said. “Yeah it took a few days though, we had to track and stalk it until it got in an open area so it wouldn’t just run away the moment we charged it.” said Reilly. “I see you got a campfire going while we were gone too; that’s good, we’re cold and hungry.” added Alex We began to gut and strip the massive pig and cooking it over a small wooden spit I had made earlier. Everything seemed like it was going fine and it was going to be okay, the next day, we would plan on how we may be rescued. When the next morning hit, we were all going to have a nice breakfast so we would have lots of energy to be able to do lots today, when I went over to get some of the pig and fruit, I noticed the meat, and the carcass has vanished. “Hey guys, you should uh, check this out...” I said awkwardly. They came over and were shocked at the sight, “That pig. That pig wasn’t just food, that pig was a sign of hope. Now that it’s gone, what do we have?” cried out Riley, “What do we do now?” I quietly replied, “I don’t know.” For the rest of the day, it was awkwardly quiet, nobody talked much. We were all down about losing the pig; we were all hungry. After a while Riley just seemed to snap. “I can’t take this anymore, I’m hungry, and I’m going to go get some food.” Riley exclaimed angrily. “Wait Riley, don’t go in alone!” We all shouted at him, but to no avail. We waited for Riley for a day; we didn’t hear nor see anything in the forest at all. The pig was lost, Riley was lost. We were now left on this island, alone, abandoned, with nothing to work with but our lost hope. __ Chapter 3: No Escape __ We were all sitting there depressed and hungry, hopeless. “What are we going to do? We’re stranded on this god forsaken island alone, we aren’t going to be rescued, I’m starving, I’m sure you guys are too, I can’t just live off of this fruit, I need meat. I don’t have the strength or the energy to go hunting for more, if there even is any. Man, what can we even do? We’re hopeless, doomed to this island.” yelled Alex. We all felt this way, we all just wanted out, there was nothing left, but then I had a random thought. “Hey guys, the pig went missing right? The 200 pound pig, that thing could not have just got up and walked away, one of us couldn’t carry it far, maybe not at all as we are weak with hunger, so if that’s the case? What took it? Where is it?” That thought had never crossed our minds and they were too clouded with depression and despair, but it was the truth, something took it, but what? We spent the next few days suffering paranoia on top of everything else for the fear of what the thing may be. Through all this we still managed to hunt a few small rabbits and get some meat in our systems which felt good, we were given a small spark of hope, a few more and we’d have the strength for another hunt. We did just that. The next morning we set up to go on a hunt, this time we all went, for the fear of dying alone to whatever that thing was that took the pig over encumbered us. We set out hunting; we found a few pig runs and started tracking. We had been stalking this relatively big pig for about thirty minutes when we felt it was now the time to strike. When we wound up and readied our spears to throw and the pigs, something dashed out of the bush and snatched up the pig, a blur, we had no clue what it was but we just got up and ran. We ran until we could run no more and ended up getting separated from Alex. We feared the worst had happened to him and continued on. It was now just Reilly and I. We had no idea what to do now, this creature, this thing was following us, stalking us, hunting us. We had no hope of surviving if this thing takes our kills. We had run out of fruit this morning and stripped the trees. “Well, I don’t even know what to say, that last spark, that small bit of confidence, it’s gone. For a bit I felt immune to this island’s plague of depression and despair, I felt alive. We are dead though, we are walking around this place, just waiting for death, we know its coming. Why wait, why try to evade the inevitable. This island is our grave, this is where we die.” Cried out Reilly, “I wish you the best of luck my friend, but I will not suffer on this island anymore. Goodbye.” Just like that he was gone, he had snapped, he spoke the truth, but I still couldn’t help but cringe over his death after he jumped off of the cliff. I was now alone. “Should I do the same? What else am I to do? Why did this have to happen?” I yelled that out numerous times, even though I knew it was just me there, alone. There was no hope of survival if I’m stuck here alone, nobody to work with, nobody to catch me if I fall, maybe I should just follow suit and take my life. What was the point in letting death toy with me? I wandered that island pointlessly for the next few days, stupidly hoping for a sign, for rescue, for a safe haven. I began hallucinating from my starvation, I swore to myself I wouldn’t take my own life but it seemed ever so tempting. As I neared what seemed to be the middle of the island, it became cold, dark, the wind howled through the trees giving this area and eerie feeling: death. I searched around as I was sure something was here, if there was, I didn’t see them. I can’t hear anything but the wind either, it was deafening. I felt a huge chill crawl up my spine and quickly whipped around, only to have this massive creature pounce on my knocking me over on my back and breaking a few ribs. Struggling, I try to push the beast off of me, still not being able to identify what it was in this darkness; it was too heavy, I am too weak. I knew this was the end, but I did not want to die by being mauled by this unknown beast. I summoned every ounce of strength I had left and kicked it off of me and ran. I ran until I met a cliff and allowed the creature to jump me once again in hopes of taking it down with me. In attempt to avenge my fallen friends and possibly save any others who become stranded on this island. I took the creature with me, falling onto the rocks in the ocean below.