Marooned
I realized there’s something wrong with this island as soon as I crawled up the beach. Well, maybe that’s a lie. I was too out of breath and thankful that I made it to solid ground. I spent several minutes spewing up sea water and then laid in the sand, waiting for the spasms coursing through my legs to stop.
How long ago did the boat sink?
How far did I swim?
Was I the only survivor?
The whole thing was muddy in my mind. Images of a party on a yacht, people drinking, Jimmy making a fool of himself, and me skulking to the engine room, embarrassed and hurt. Flames coming from the engine, running up on deck, scanning the water for any kind of land, but not seeing any. Diving in and swimming, swimming, swimming.
Pieces were missing, but what? What was I trying to remember?
That was when I realized this was no normal island. I turned over and Angela sat next to me. Her bikini was torn, revealing one breast. Burns covered her body and her eyes had a milky white film covering the irises.
She turned her head and when she opened her mouth, water poured out of it and a gurgling resonated from her throat.
I shuffled away from her, but didn’t get far. I turned and shrieked.
Gina lay there, propped up on her elbows. Her mouth was opened and closed, trying to speak, but all that came out was the same gurgling, water spilling down her chest with each movement. A bloody gash split down her face and destroyed one of her eyes. The other eye was the same milky white as Angela’s.
Was she really there? Was I going mad?
I was definitely going mad.
I stood to run away, but tripped over another body. Bill was in the same condition as the other two, except where his knees should be, skin hung in shreds and blood dotted the sand. I gagged at the bones sticking out of the gore. He swung his arm onto my shoulder, pulling me towards him.
Bile rose into my throat and shot up. I spun, looking for a safe direction to run, and with each rotation, a new body appeared on the beach. Each one a friend from the boat. Finally, dizziness overtook me and my head hit the sand. I lay there for a moment, wincing in pain. I touched the back of my head and my fingers came back warm and sticky with blood.
As I laid there inspecting my fingers, a shape started to form behind them, blurry at first, but coalescing into a head. I switched my focus, and froze in place. Jimmy’s dead eyes filled my vision, his figure looming over me, bearing down on me. My breathing sped up and my heart pounded. He bent over me, touching the side of my face. Everything went black.
I sat across from Jimmy, crossing and uncrossing my legs, laughing at the right times, but thoroughly not enjoying myself. I did not want to come on this boat trip. Jimmy’s best friend, Bob, had just hit it big in cryptocurrency. Bitcoin had shot to over twenty thousand dollars. He rented this yacht as a joint celebration of his new wealth and his thirtieth birthday, which was next week.
Jimmy was always unbearable around his friends, so different from the man I fell in love with eight months ago on a blind date.
“And then I just pulled my pants up and walked out. She came running after me, tits all hanging out, begging me to stay, to give her my number, but I just got in my car and drove away. As I pulled out of the driveway, I rolled down my window and shouted ‘THANKS FOR THE BLOWJOB! as loud as I could.”
Everyone in the circle laughed. God, Jimmy could be such a douchebag. I couldn’t listen to another of his sexcapades, so I got up and walked to the bow of the yacht. At least the weather was pleasant. Eighty-two degrees, not a cloud in the sky. I wished I had protested harder, but honestly, I loved the water and it had been so long since I had been out in a boat.
Plus, it meant flying to Panama. I had hoped we would stay for awhile and take in some culture, but Jimmy would have none of it. We were here to celebrate Bob’s good fortunes, so we flew in and went straight to the boat.
I was stuck on this hell-cruise for the duration of my stay.
I shook my head. It wasn’t like me to wallow. I decided to go find the powder room. As I walked back by the area I had just left, Jimmy was missing from the group. Maybe he went to the bathroom, too. Being around so many half naked people definitely stirred my juices. All day, I waffled between disgust at the shallow people around me, and a lustful yearning to touch their perfect bodies. I smiled to myself and picked up my pace.
I tried the handle of the first bathroom I found. Locked.
When I knocked on the door, I heard a thud and a quick “Just a minute!” Definitely Jimmy’s voice. Before I could respond that it was me, another thud and then someone giggled and Jimmy swore. A woman. He was in there with another woman.
I didn’t wait to see which whore he had pulled into the bathroom with him. I stormed down the passageway and found an open hatch. A ladder led down into the belly of the ship.
The yacht wasn’t that big, and I remembered Angela, Bob’s lady of the hour, tell us that there were only three crewmen, a chef and a hostess on the ship.
I turned towards the stern, where the noise of the engine was coming from. The cacophony was deafening, but it led me to precisely where I wanted to be. The engine room. I looked around, overwhelmed by the machinery. I had no idea where to start.
I started pulling wires and turning knobs, not sure if anything I was doing would make any impact. I didn’t even know what I wanted to accomplish. I backed up and hit a bulkhead, sinking to the ground in tears.
What the fuck was I doing? Not just here in the engine room, but here on this boat! Jimmy was not who I wanted to spend the rest of my life with, that much had become clear the first time I met his friends six months ago. Why was I still with him?
As I sat there, crying all of this out into my knees, I heard a small pop. I looked up, but didn’t see the source of the noise. I got up and walked around the engine. There it was, small blue flames dancing from one of the thicker bundle of wires I pulled. The flames spread up the wires towards the engine.
Oh shit! What have I done? I fled the engine room and stumbled back up the ladder. Should I go warn people? I turned and ran toward the stern of the ship. There was just a small platform here with a rail. The cockpit protected my view from the rest of the people. I crawled over the rail and dove into the water.
I heard the explosion as I swam away from the ship. For a moment, I turned around and watched the ship slowly sink under the water.
A loud thrumming woke me. My head pounded. I didn’t open my eyes. Didn’t want to see the dead surrounding me. Accusing me.
The thrumming turned into the steady beat that could only be a helicopter. I opened my eyes, grateful to see that the beach was vacant. I stood up and started jumping up and down, waving my hands in the air, but I fell back into the sand, dizzy. My hand was covered in dried blood and when I touched the back of my head, a scab had formed.
The helicopter was almost over the island by now. I sat there, waving my hands until they were hovering over me. A man dropped on a line, put me in a harness, and carried me up. He was screaming at me the whole time, but I couldn’t understand his words. I just nodded my head at him.
After he belted me in, he took off his helmet and protective gear. Milky eyes looked back at me and sea water ran from Jimmy’s mouth.
“You look awfully cough unscathed for someone who gurgle survived a boat explosion.”
The pilot looked back for a second and lifted her sunglasses. Angela’s dead eyes looked at me and her face was starting to bloat.
“You are one gurgle lucky lady!” Angela said, the ocean spilling from her mouth onto the helicopter floor.
A scream burst from my lungs.
(All pictures are from pixabay.)
A special thanks to 
