The Time of the Titans

Chapter 12: The Moor

I walked the grassland to the very edge of the precipice. Giant-petrels and fulmars were hovering quietly in the air, sometimes staying immobile, floating against the wind, and in those moments, they seemed as if they watched me and wondered what this alien creature was doing on their cliff. I came here to pay a last respect to a buddy, who had fallen on our dangerous journey to human renaissance.

A failed journey, it seemed, at least for me, as I was alone now. Alone on my island, in a strange world. My woman was gone. The girls we had been responsible for were gone too. My last buddy here had died on me. I had failed them all. That's what I felt, though I had not pulled the trigger on Benson, and I had no idea where Mary Darling and the girls had gone with the lifeboat, or why. Still, somehow, all that had happened seemed to hold me responsible, accuse me and punish me. Me and my obsession to explore. Me and my island. Oh well, this was the island now. But what worth would the island be for me when there was no-one to share it with?

I had buried Benson in the sea because there was no way to dig the hard and rocky ground around our campsite. I didn't want to leave his body to be eaten by the gulls or by unknown beasts that may lurk in this land. I bound rocks in his clothes and let him slide into the deep from the rocks adjacent to the sea. Fish would eat him just like the creatures on land, but somehow this solution seemed more decent. I did not know if Benson had held any religious beliefs, but I uttered a short prayer for him anyway. If he had been an atheist, it wouldn't do him any harm.

Then I surveyed my backpack, which held everything I would carry with me from the campsite. I had decided to abandon the camp. It didn't feel like a safe place anymore, and life had to go on. Only remnants remained of what we had brought from the lifeboat: one medical kit, three cans of conserved food, the knife, a sheltering canvas, a pillow and two blankets. There were more pillows and blankets, but I didn't have place for them, so I piled them up into the small cavity that had frightened Ripsi. Oh little girl, where might you be now? I almost hoped the lifeboat theory would be correct, and they were now on their way back to Atlantis with an unforgettable adventure. The girls would keep asking where Mr Corvin was. In another life that thought might have pleased me but not anymore.

Wouldn't Mary miss me? She would want to save the kids and bring them back to Atlantis if she believed it was safe now. But why on earth had she left me behind? It didn't make sense. Mary, oh Mary, I wish you could somehow communicate with me. I wish you left a message at least.

Speaking of a message, I had made a discovery when I moved Benson's body. It was on my side, right next to where I had been sleeping. I had no idea what it was, but it looked like an insect – only that it was artificial, made of feathers, with a nasty little sting. I assumed it was a lure for fishing or something. But made by whom? And what was that brown thing on the sting – dried blood? I added the object in my bag and decided to investigate it at some later point.

I also had a notebook, which I had used during the Nautilus expeditions to write down my observations and notes. I had made a couple of notes during the week in the lifeboat, but none since then. I decided I should continue keeping a record, just in case one day there would be another human being to read them. Who would know? I even thought of taking up the task of writing small poems: 'Loneliness', I wrote.

A planet in space,
An island in the ocean,
A man on the moor,
Bids farewell to
The last of his companions.

It did not start very well for me. I would improve by time, I thought. I would have nothing but time.

A last glance at the gorge where we had made our unfortunate entry to this island. Oh, if only Mary and the girls were still here. If Benson hadn't died. It wouldn't have been such a lonely place to be. It might even have been beautiful.