Survival
Lance found it difficult to open his eyes, owing to the pounding of a massive headache in his brain. His own breathing caused enough motion to intensify the pain, and even the otherwise relaxing sound of the surf seemed to enhance it as well. When he finally dragged himself back to consciousness, he found himself lying on a beach, staring up at a starless night sky. He didn't know how long he had been asleep, but the storm had passed, though the sun had not yet risen and clouds still lingered overhead, blocking out any light from the moon or stars.
He was alive.
That was the first thought that went through his head, the most important realization after the events of the night. After the despair of the sinking yacht, the knowledge that somehow he had survived gave him enough hope and willpower to pull himself back from the darkness of oblivion.
The rough waters had torn all of his clothes from him, leaving him with just his lifejacket, the straps cutting badly into his skin. Even in his weakened state, his mind continued to think through the logistics of his situation. In the tropics, being without clothes meant weeks of painful sunburns before his skin acclimated to the exposure. He didn't relish that thought.
He turned his head and spotted a dark shape next to him on the beach. It was Autumn.
She lay on her side with her eyes closed. Clothing-wise, she was in just as bad a state as he was; worse, because she had also lost her lifejacket. On any other day he might have admired her nude body, but right now that was the furthest thing from his mind. He forced himself to rise to his hands and knees before unsnapping and struggling off the lifejacket. Tossing it aside, he then weakly crawled over to her. He put a hand on her shoulder and gently nudged her.
Her eyes opened, and she stared at him for a second. Tears began to fill in at the corners of her eyes. "Lance..." she croaked. "I..."
"It's okay. It's over now. We're safe," he soothed. Then he glanced around. "Where...?" he began.
Autumn began to sob. "I looked everywhere for her!" she blurted out. "You were unconscious, so I... I couldn't find her! I'm so sorry!"
Lance stared at the girl for a second, hearing the words but not comprehending them. It wasn't that he didn't know what they meant, just that they were so shocking that he couldn't possibly be expected to accept them. Cammy had been so brave through the cancer treatment. She had made it through alive and as healthy as ever. Lance had really thought a higher power must be at work, to spare her from death like that. But now...
He felt the tears in his own eyes. No! It couldn't be! Right now he wished he could trade her places. Let him die, and her live. The thought that she was gone forever was too much for him, and he broke down into tears. He grabbed Autumn and held her tightly to him, and the two of them sobbed in each other's arms until the blessed veil of unconsciousness enveloped them once more.
Nightmares plagued his sleep that night, nightmares born of fear and despair. Most of them centered on the loss of his little sister. Countless times, she died in those dreams, either dragged down into the inky blackness of the sea, or eaten by sharks, or battered against the rocks. Sometimes those dreams were horrifying enough to wake him momentarily, which made it all the worse because he knew they were true. Only the presence of the girl in his arms kept him from going mad. The warmth and softness of her body had a soothing effect on him, pulling him back from the brink of insanity. He couldn't escape the reality of what happened, but having someone to share the burden with made it possible to bear.
He awoke in the morning with the sun shining down in his face. Clouds still lingered on the horizon, but the sky was now mostly blue. He watched for a few minutes as those clouds slowly twisted into new shapes, white actors on a blue stage. Despite the nightmares, he had slept long enough to chase away the fatigue, and he managed to sit up.
Autumn still lay next to him, slumbering soundly. He watched her for a few seconds, watched for the telltale sign of her breast rising and falling that indicated that she was still alive. He wondered if the same nightmares that haunted his dreams haunted hers, or if she had forgotten all of her fears in the peaceful world of sleep.
She really was a beautiful girl, and now that he had the chance to really look at her body, he found it very appealing. She was a tiny girl, with a slender frame and developing breasts. She lay on her back, with one knee thrown over the other and one of her hands lying next to her pretty little face. Lance reached out and brushed away a strand of her long, dark hair from out of her eyes, forgetting himself for a moment and just admiring her beauty. Not that he would ever do anything with her, of course. She was only fourteen after all.
He decided to let her rest a while longer. No need to wake her, to bring her back to the horror of the real world. It would happen soon enough on its own. Let her linger in the tranquillity of slumber and dreams. Lance had more important things to worry about, like searching for Cammy.
Cammy. Was it possible that she was alive? She had taken the liferaft, which meant that she had initially been better off than Lance and Autumn. Or had she? Had a wave swept her away like them? Had she never even had time to reach the raft?
Even if she had, she might never have reached the island. The visibility last night was almost nonexistent, so she wouldn't have known which way to row. Left at the mercy of the storm, she might have been blown in the wrong direction, which could put her fifty miles away by now. Maybe she was doomed to slowly die of thirst out there on the unforgiving sea.
Despair threatened to overtake him as he thought of the thousands of things that could have gone wrong, that could have taken his little sister away from him. He couldn't afford to let himself dwell on it, or he would go mad. He pushed those thoughts aside and concentrated on what Autumn and he would need to do to survive. They needed water first, then food, then shelter.
He glanced around to get his bearings. The beach ran as far as he could see in both directions, a white strip of sand separating the blue ocean from what appeared to be a tropical jungle. Most of the trees were palms, including a good portion with immature or ripe coconuts. A damp haze lingered in the shade of the jungle, an early morning fog lurking in the cool shadows but not daring to wander out into the sunlight. He noted the position of the sun, and assuming that this was morning, it appeared that they were on the east side of the island. In the west he saw a hill peeking over the line of trees, possibly a mile or two away. That gave him a minimum estimate of the size of the land mass. About half a mile to the north, the beach ran out, and the jungle extended right to the sea. There was no sign of the yacht, but white breakers about half a mile out to sea indicated the presence of a submerged reef that might have been what the yacht struck. No doubt it had vanished completely into the depths of the ocean.
Immediately his eyes fell upon something just offshore about a hundred yards down the beach, something bright orange. Resting against a large rock poking out of the water was the liferaft! Barely daring to hope, Lance rose to his feet and lumbered down the beach toward the raft. Could it be possible? His pulse quickened in fear and anticipation as he approached it.
As he reached it, his strength gave out and he fell to his knees and wept. Cammy lay in the bottom of the raft, asleep but alive.
There was about an inch of water in the bottom, and she lay in the puddle, her clothes and hair soaked. She at least had managed to retain her night shirt that she had been wearing when the accident occurred although it was torn and frayed around the lifejacket straps. As he watched, she shivered from the cold. Lance managed to rise to his feet, then splashed into the water up to his knees, where he could grab the mooring line and drag the raft to the shore. He then knelt down, removed the constricting lifejacket and lifted Cammy into his arms. She stirred, then opened her eyes. As soon as she saw him, she managed a weak smile.
"Lance!" she exclaimed. "I thought..."
"We're all right," he said. "All three of us. I'm taking you to Autumn."
"So she's alive too?" asked Cammy in relief.
"Yes."
"Hold on a minute, Lance," she said. "You don't have to carry me; I can walk. You look exhausted."
"Thanks," he breathed, setting her on her feet. In truth, he was still tired after the ordeal last night. Cammy took his hand, and together they headed back up the beach to where they had left Autumn.
"So what happened to you two last night?" asked Cammy as they walked. "I tried to wait for you, but as soon as I had the liferaft inflated a wave caught me off guard and swept the raft and me off the yacht. I tried to row back to you, but the current was too strong. Fortunately it pulled me in to shore."
"Pretty much the same thing happened to us, minus the raft," Lance explained.
As soon as Autumn saw Cammy alive and well, she burst into tears and ran to meet them. Lance couldn't fault her for crying; he had done exactly the same thing. They all hugged each other, despite the fact that Autumn and Lance still wore not a stitch.
Now that the shock had been replaced by relief at finding each other alive, their state of undress suddenly seemed much more important. Autumn's eyes suddenly fastened onto his crotch, and she stared at him, growing red but unable to tear her gaze away. Considering how shy she was, it was likely that she had never seen a man nude before.
Cammy was the one to break the spell. She suddenly broke down laughing, not maliciously but just out of pure amusement at their predicament. Lance couldn't suppress a grin, and soon he began to laugh as well. Autumn stared at the two of them for a minute still red from embarrassment, but their laughter was contagious, and eventually she joined in. After the ordeal of the storm and not knowing who was still alive, it was the perfect way to begin their new adventure. At least they were in good spirits.
"Okay, this is a very interesting situation we have here," Cammy commented after about five minutes. "Between the three of us, we have one night shirt, one bra, and one pair of panties."
"So what are we going to do about it?" asked Autumn, glancing over at Lance again.
"I know what I'm going to do," Cammy replied, then began to unbutton her shirt.
"What--?" Lance began.
"I'm not going to let you two have all the fun," she grinned. "Since you two are kind of forced to be nudists, I might as well be one myself."
"You're not serious!" Autumn exclaimed.
Cammy shrugged and slipped out of her shirt. A moment later she had her bra and panties off as well, and she stood there as naked as the other two. Lance wasn't really surprised by her actions; she was the least timid person he had ever met, ever since her illness. In that way, she was good for Autumn, always dragging her friend along whenever trying out new experiences.
"I can't believe you just did that!" Autumn told her. "Right in front of your brother even!"
Cammy laughed. "Maybe I'm just a nudist at heart. Besides, you don't mind, do you, Lance?"
He shrugged, trying to appear casual. He had to admit, she really had a gorgeous body. Any traces of her past illness had vanished completely, leaving her as beautiful as she had been before. She was a little on the skinny side, and her breasts were perhaps just slightly small, but then, she was still growing after all. At fifteen, she couldn't expect to have a mature figure yet.
Autumn was even smaller. Tiny even for her age, she was overdue for a growth spurt. She looked almost like a child, though with an obviously maturing body. Both girls were starting to fill out nicely, with shapely hips, flat stomachs, and beautiful thighs.
Lance had to turn away before that line of thought wrought an obvious physical effect upon him. With no clothes on, there would be no way to hide his arousal from the eyes of the girls. His sister, always full of good humor, would probably just laugh and maybe even tease him a little about it, but it might shock Autumn into never speaking to him again.
"Always the gentleman," Cammy commented, no doubt misinterpreting his actions. "But there's really not much you can do about it; you're going to have to look at us some time. We don't mind, do you, Autumn?"
"Well... I mean..." she stammered. "I guess it's all right."
Lance sighed. His sister was right; he couldn't go around with his eyes closed the whole time they were on the island. He turned back around, hoping that he could keep his body under control.
It didn't work. The sight of the girls' nude bodies in front of him took its toll, and his cock immediately began to swell.
"Oh!" Cammy exclaimed, but the smile remained on her lips. "I hadn't thought of that."
Autumn stared between his legs, a look of shock on her face. It was apparently as bad as he had expected. She opened her mouth as if to say something, but no sound emerged.
"Sorry," he mumbled, his face as red as hers.
Cammy came to his rescue. "Autumn," she told her friend. "Try to ignore it. You know that that's what happens to men sometimes. They just can't help it, especially around naked girls. Isn't that right, Lance?"
"Basically yes," he admitted. "I really don't have any control over it. Look, if it bothers you, I'll go take a quick dip in the nice, cold ocean. That should settle it down."
"Um... that's okay," Autumn said, managing to pull her eyes away. She stared at the ground instead, which was at least a slight improvement. "It just caught me off guard, that's all."
"Good," Cammy smiled. "So now that that's taken care of, what do we do now?"
Lance was grateful for the change of subject. Survival was familiar territory; though he had never been lost on a deserted island before, the same principals applied whether marooned at sea, on a safari in Africa, or at the top of Mount Everest.
"First priority," he said, "is fresh water. I can't really tell from here, but that hill there suggests that this island is at least several miles in diameter. That's not big enough for a major river, but it's bound to have one or two streams, even if it's just from morning dew. After the storm we just had, there's bound to be a lot more fresh water around, so we shouldn't have any problems finding it."
"There's always coconut milk," Cammy suggested.
"That's why I'm not too worried. There's no chance of us dehydrating; I would just prefer not to have to go scrounging around on the ground for coconuts every time we want a drink. Once we find a good, solid source of water, we'll look into building a shelter nearby."
"So we can have a place to sleep," she nodded.
"Partly," he said. "We're in the tropics; it doesn't get as cold at night here as it does back home. We could sleep out on the beach every night and be okay, other than being just a little chilly. But I was mainly talking about during the day. We're all going to get pretty sunburned, but if we have a place to get out of the sun, we can ease into it and spread it out over weeks. That will prevent any major burns."
"Weeks?" asked Autumn. "But... well..."
"We have to be realistic. First, we don't even know if this island is inhabited. If so, fine. The days are long gone when you have isolated tribes living on islands in the South Pacific; anyone we find will have some way to contact the outside world.
"If we're alone on this island though, we'll still probably be rescued within a couple of days. The EPIRB-- that's the distress beacon-- on the Siren's Song is activated by contact with water, so it should have turned on as soon as the boat went down. I don't know how long it was broadcasting, or even if it was working, but even if it was only on for a few minutes, that would be enough time for satellites to pick up our position. I hope. Obviously we haven't gone far from the yacht, so that means they should have rescue boats and planes here in no time, most likely this afternoon some time. On the other hand, there's a possibility that the distress call wasn't picked up. I have no idea what kind of interference a storm might cause to it. In that case, they won't know we're missing until we don't call in on the satellite phone, and even then they'll have a much wider search area."
"The whole Pacific Ocean," Cammy said gloomily.
"Not necessarily. They have our position from our last call on the satellite phone, and our intended route. We haven't strayed too far from it, so that narrows it down considerably. Still, it's going to take a while."
Autumn and Cammy nodded.
"Hey, don't worry," Lance smiled. "We're in a heavily traveled area of the Pacific. If worse comes to worst, we'll just have to wait for the next ship to come along. I just want us to be prepared for a long stay if it comes to that."
They made their plans for finding water. The extension of the jungle to the north could mean the presence of a stream, so they decided to head in that direction first. If that didn't work, Lance would climb a tree to scout for gullies, ravines, or other indications of water channels.
That turned out not to be necessary. The extension of the trees turned out to be just what they had hoped, a covering for a small stream that ran from the jungle across the beach into the ocean. Just past the first line of trees, a small waterfall down a rocky cliff face about twenty feet high produced a beautiful, blue-green lagoon dotted with colorful tropical fish. The sunlight on the bright colors produced an effect like jewels sparkling under the surface. A white sandy beach surrounded the lagoon, almost glowing in the sun. The jungle formed a natural wall around the area, running right up to the cliff face at one end but forming only a thin line of trees along the beach.
Lance was struck by how lovely the area was. Were it not for their predicament, he would find it a relaxing and tranquil spot, just perfect for a swim and a cool drink of water. Right now his mind was focused on other things though, survival mostly. The cliff would provide shade during the afternoon and evening, the warmest part of the day. The running water and fish would keep the mosquito population down; though not a big risk, in the tropics there was still the possibility of malaria.
There were plenty of coconuts growing nearby, and if he wasn't mistaken, a few breadfruit trees. That would satisfy their hunger for a while, though if they were here for a prolonged stay, they would eventually need a source of meat. Lance was experienced in setting traps and snares, but he needed to know more about the local fauna in order to determine the size and type. Starting a fire would not be a problem; he knew of at least three ways to do so without matches or a lighter. The recent storm would mean most of the wood would be damp, but a few hours under the hot sun would dry it out soon enough.
"This is beautiful," Autumn commented, staring at the waterfall.
"I like it too," Cammy agreed. "I think this is where we should build the shelter."
Lance nodded. He first set the girls to work looking for animal tracks in the sand, as well as game trails leading to the clearing. It wouldn't do to build their shelter right where they would be easy prey for large animals. The only spoor they found was a trail in the grass that couldn't have been made by anything larger than a rabbit or at most a small fox. Not finding anything to indicate a larger animal, he deemed it safe.
He motioned toward the cliff face. "With the cliff on the west, it will provide plenty of shade during the afternoon, so we just need to build something to keep us out of the heat in the morning. Let's start gathering palm fronds and any sturdy branches you can find, the longer the better."
Lance knew that to build a large, strong, sturdy shelter as a more-or-less permanent home would take days. That didn't bother him; if they were on the island for that long, it would give them something to occupy their time. One of the most important considerations in any survival situation was morale, and having something to do kept a person from sitting and worrying about his fate. Today though, they would work on a smaller shelter, really just a small roof that they could prop up on sticks to give them a bit of shade.
As soon as they had the materials gathered, Lance laid out four long sticks in a square about ten feet on a side. He used some long grass to lash them together. He was about to start weaving other sticks and grass together onto the frame when he was interrupted by Autumn.
"Look!" she suddenly exclaimed, pointing southeast out to sea. The others stared out there, and Lance gasped. A dark shape indicated the presence of a large rock, just peering out from the surface of the water. Next to it he spied the white hull of the Siren's Song.
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-No Derivative Works 3.0 United States License.