When 17 young adults find themselves on a deserted island, they must build a life from the ground up. Being stranded means hard days, cold nights, dangerous waters and mysterious events where the castaways must learn to survive. Despite the inevita...
I rushed back to the beach, I felt the wind whipping against my damp clothes and there was only one thing playing on my mind.
There has to be a mistake. There has to be a mistake. There has to be a mistake.
Fuck if I had to brace another two hour boat trip.
When I reached the edge of the forest edge and stepped into the rocky sand of the shore, I really did consider yelling profanities at the sky.
The two boys that had ran when they figured out that there was no civilization or guides waiting for us inside the forest, were no standing on the beach. One had his hands in his hair and the other was looking down at the sand where all our cases and bags were left waiting, as promised.
Except,
"The boat's gone," one of the guys said.
I pushed myself to walk towards them and looked out at the sea and sure enough, there was no sign of either our captain or the boat we came in. I heard the people pile behind me and turned when someone spoke up.
"This is it, you guys," he was athletically built and looked the spitting image of a frat boy. "This is the experiment, we're supposed to survive on the shit we brought and whatever's on the island."
I rolled my eyes and spoke to him directly, "Hey brains, in case you forgot, there are supposed to be fucking people here teaching us how to survive."
He looked me up and down with a small smirk. I wanted to smack him with my jacket.
"Well," he said like it was obvious. "Maybe we misread that, or it was misplaced on the pamphlet."
I looked up at the sky, asking for mercy. This was it. This was how I was going to go. On an island with a bunch of fucking idiots that couldn't even read a damn pamphlet.
Before I could reply, Harvey spoke to him like he was something we picked up from the bottom of the boat. "You're saying all seventeen of us misread the same pamphlet?"
The guy turned to the face behind the voice and his upper lip turned up in a small sneer. Harvey introduced himself to me on the boat and then he walked up inside the island beside me until he had to go and yell out for anyone. I liked him as soon as I saw him. He wore holographic star stickers on his lower temples but everything else on his outfit was all black except for his rubber bracelet that had "here and queer" printed on it. He was pale as fuck, but it made his eyes jut out even more. He was harmless.
Frat boy gave Harvey a once-over and turned back to me as if he didn't hear anything.
"Look," he stated matter-of-factly, "Maybe there was a change of plans? Maybe this is actually it and we have to learn how to live here for a month."
Remington piped up from behind him. Rem was a first year business management student who introduced himself to Harvey and I once we got onto the beach. He had skin a few shades lighter than mine and his hair was a rich caramel. He was young and ferociously excited to meet new people, he mentioned that was the only reason he did it. Unlike Harvey and I, who drastically needed the money. Remington was also harmless.
"I didn't see any cameras..." he whispered softly before coughing and repeating himself louder.
"What?" frat boy asked shaking his head.
"He's right," a girl said. The same girl who knew the translated name of the island. I didn't get a chance to absorb what she looked like in the forest but now, I could see that she was olive toned and had chest-length straight charcoal hair that had gone wavy from the sea. Her eyes were even darker though, and she seemed like the most unsteady one here. She spoke again, "We were told that we would be filmed during the process, but there were no cameras in the forest."
"Camouflaged?" someone asked.
"Could be," she replied nodding. Then her eyes went to the assortment of suitcases laying on the sand and scanned through them. She looked directly to me after, "there was also mention of a comms system."
I started nodding before she even finished her sentence and started walking towards the bags. All of them looked like personal suitcases but I found a dark black bag that had the number 3 spray painted on the front of it. I trudged through the sand and reached for it, yanking it open.
I yelled back after taking a breath of relief, "I found the comms!"
People crowded around me as I lifted the walkie-talkie like device from the bag. I turned the dial on its head and a frequency ringed through the small speaker. "Oh thank god," someone said behind me.
I scowled at the device, trying to get a frequency with voices, but everything was static. There was a red button on the front with the letter, E on it. I pushed it and waited. Nothing. I pushed it again. Surely, "E" was for "Emergency." Still nothing.
I stood up and turned to everyone, "does anyone know how to fucking work a radio?"
A couple people rose their hands and I passed it towards them. Both of them took turns trying to get a reading on the frequency dial. Both failed.
It started dawning on me then. No comms, no emergency frequency, no locals, no guides and definitely no fucking boat.
We were stranded.
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