All six survivors raced out of the dense jungle of the island and across the white sandy shores of its beach. Elle Dietrich, the one running the fastest, wailed as she saw her dead father in a pool of blood on the sand. Mason Dietrich had just jumped off the cliff to his death. It had only been a week since they arrived on the island, the boat that was supposed to be sailing them to a new living colony set up in Kuwait had been destroyed in a terrible storm, making all eight survivors castaways. She knelt over her father, tears soaked her face, as she wrenched his shirt, viciously shaking him to wake. The island was a tranquil place, for the most part, the skies were always blue, and the sun’s rays danced vibrantly on the waves. Yet, there was a subtle eeriness to the pristine atmosphere. One of the survivors, the historian, Jonah Minkow, likened it to a vivarium of sorts. He didn’t believe this place to be real. Eva Barkley, the marine biologist, rushed toward Elle and grabbed her as she flailed and screamed.
“Elle! Elle!”
Eva dragged her away towards the ground and pinned her in a hug. The others watched helplessly in shock, for the past week Mason Dietrich was the most optimistic about fixing the wrecked boat and getting off the island, so when he jumped, horror and confusion beset the group.
“What the hell!” said Barry Ritten, the venture capitalist from New York.
“Don’t! Now is not the time!” Eva said.
Elle gave an intense roar making her unable to draw breath back into her lungs, she fainted in Eva’s arms.
It was night and the group had built a large fire just before the jungle. The ocean was calm, twilight twinkled sporadically across the face of the water mesmerizing the boy.
“Why does the ocean glow?” asked Asher Ritten, the seven-year-old son of the venture capitalist Barry Ritten.
“They are called Aequorea Jellies,” Eva said.
The boy shot a look at the marine biologist., “Jellies? As in Jellyfish?”
Eva smiled, “Yes! Do you know what bioluminescent proteins are?”
The boy shook his head, “No. But do they eat blue fire, and that’s how they glow?”
Eva gave a brief chuckle, “No. No blue fire, but there is a whole magical world in the deep sea we cannot see when we have our lights on!”
The boy’s face brightened, and he scooched closer to Eva on the sand, “Do you think Elle will be okay?”
Eva peered across the campfire, briefly studying Elle as she slept under a snagged blue tarp. “Yeah, she will be alright. Right now, we are the only people she’s got, so we need to take care of her and each other.”
They looked out among the iridescent beauty of the ocean where the wrecked boat. floated near the shore with the bold words “S.S. Orion-Colony 7” printed on the side of its body.
After the breakout of Gilligene IV6, there were only 10 colonies of survivors left in America. The pandemic had managed to wipe out more than two-thirds of the population of Earth, none were exempt from the virus’s vicious touch. Airborne and fast, the world likened the characteristics of the viral spores to that of a skilled hunter, adaptive, stealthy, and persistent. Every new infection added to its intelligence, it learned its host from stalking their external behavioral patterns to the very functions of their internal processes. Then like an assassin, it strikes. It invades the body, first by compromising the brain and then working its way out to other systems. It seeks to shut down the host, plunging them into a vegetative state, as it creates the perfect habitat for its offspring. By this stage, the host is beyond salvation. The virus would’ve completely taken over the brain, and the host begins to develop huge protruding sores all over their body. Large varicose veins pulsing all around the bulge of these sores, green and iridescent orange pus soon after would ooze out. Then the rest was like a countdown of a timer to a bomb on the brink of detonation. The sores would suddenly erupt, and blood and flesh along with the newly created viral spores violently burst out into the air. Due to the host’s internal functions being compromised, any signals from the brain to preserve the body were obsolete. Leaving the host to bleed out and die. The virus had claimed the lives of so many co-workers and loved ones Eva knew, even her fiancé, Brandon, who she was set to marry in the winter of that year succumbed to the attack of Gilligene IV6. A dark and gruesome year it was for many like her and everyone else on the island.
Aboard the S.S. Orion, Jonah Minkow, the historian whose specialty was in mythologies of the ancient world, Sergio Falyn, the ex-marine tasked with the operation to safely secure the ship on its course to Kuwait, and Barry Ritten, were discussing amongst themselves a plethora of issues. Sergio searched through the cabinets pulling out all the canned goods and grouping them on the table.
“I say we have about a good few days before our food runs out. A lot of the cargo was swept away by the storm and so far, there is no sign of…”
Jonah interrupted, “It’s crazy that he would jump off a cliff! I mean he didn’t strike me as the type, not even a bit, not even the type that is good at pretending, it’s mind-boggling don’t you think?” Sergio paused and looked over at Jonah, who was hunched over, deep in his journal, writing. “I mean it’s like he didn’t want to jump but did anyway.”
“Yes! So what? The man couldn’t handle the fact that we were stranded, and so he went over. We don’t have time to reminisce on the past. We need to prepare for the apparent food shortage we are about to face.”
Barry was sitting in one of the metal chairs, his feet up on the table, tossing a tennis ball in his hand. “I mean who cares? One less mouth to feed.”
Jonah gave a sharp look at Barry, “I know you young wall street guys are vipers in suits, but for someone with a child, your complete lack of compassion is lost on me.”
He threw the ball at a wall, and caught it again, “I’m just saying, this whole situation is already quite volatile, and you are right I do have a child, so I mean it with all my compassion when I say one less mouth to feed. My son comes first before any of you, understood!”
Sergio completed grouping the canned vegetables, soups, and meats, he tallied them on a notepad. “Ten each! That’s if we split it fairly.”
A sigh simultaneously escaped all three men’s lips, “we need to go back into that jungle, the bastard jumped off and had us all spooked before we could even find anything worth eating,” Barry said.
“Agreed!” said Sergio. Jonah focused on the pages of his journal.
“What on earth are you writing?” asked Barry.
He lifted his head a bit then went back to writing, “I am documenting. As a historian, it’s second nature to record events and my feelings about them.” Before Barry could say anything else, Eva could be heard yelling, “She’s awake! She’s awake!”
All three men rushed out of the boat. Eva was sitting right next to Elle brushing her brunette hair with her fingers, intently waiting for her eyes to open. The three men were huddled over her. When Elle opened her eyes, blood had saturated the white portion of her right eye. Barry was the first to speak, “I’ve never seen someone out that long, you had us scared there for a minute kid!” She had fainted in the late afternoon and was just now waking up in the night.
“Elle, how do you feel?” Eva asked. Elle made soft movements; softer groans slipped her lips.
“Maybe we should let her sleep,” said Sergio.
Eva nodded in agreement and adjusted the tarp, then all four of them walked away together.
“Where’s Asher?” Barry asked. Jonah Minkow then said, “Something feels off, don’t you guys think?”
Barry ignored the irrelevant statement and scanned the beach, “Asher! Asher!” he yelled.
“He was sitting right here when I heard Elle call for me,” Eva said.
Barry whipped around staring intensely at Eva, he inched closer into her personal space, “You left him alone?”
“Not alone, he was right…,” Before Eva could finish her sentence, Sergio pointed to the ocean and said, “There!” Barry began running towards the ocean yelling.
“No! No! No!” he cried frantically swimming towards his son, yelling, “he can’t swim you bitch! He can’t…,”
Sergio followed him.
Barry made forceful strides through the water, locking his eyes on his son’s still body, the child submerged face first. With one hand, he raised his son’s body out of the water and then into his arms, tapping his face as he yelled, “Asher! Shit… shit…, Asher!”
He opened his sons’ mouth and began blowing into it as he struggled back towards the shore, “Oh God! Please God,” Barry cried.
When both were close enough Eva grabbed Asher out of Barry’s arms and quickly placed him on the ground and began chest compressions. Sergio fell on his knees as well urging Eva away as he took over.
“Don’t break his fucking rib,” Barry said.
“Would you like your son dead or alive?” Sergio continued the chest compressions, for a moment the atmosphere seemed serene, the trees of the jungle were still, and the sound of the waves was dimmed down as if they were muffled in another room. As everyone’s attention was focused on the boy, Jonah noticed the subtle shift in the atmosphere and took note of it. Suddenly water spurted out of the boy’s mouth, he hacked and coughed, gasping for air as he reached out towards his father.
“Asher! Oh God! Heaven’s sake,” Barry said as he held him tight, caressing his short blonde locks.
“What on earth would possess you to go into the ocean? Alone. And it’s night! You know you can’t swim!” Barry found it very odd that his son would go into the ocean, considering Asher’s fear of large bodies of water. He found them beautiful but never had any desire to swim in them.
Asher took a deep breath, “Sorry Daddy! She said it would be okay.” Barry lifted his son to eye level,
“Who said it would be, okay?” he asked.
“I wanted to see the blue fiery jellyfish and Eva said I could, and that they could help me swim, so I went.”
Eva’s face bloomed red, and a sudden tension dropped within her, “What are you talking about Asher, I never said any of that, I never said you should swim! We only talked about the jellyfish.” Barry struggled to breathe, his lips went tight, as his eyes searched for a way out of the building rage within him.
“Yes Ms. Eva, you did. I heard you say it to me when you were back there with Elle, you said I should go into the water, and not be scared, the jellyfish would help me swim!”
Barry slowly let his son back down onto the ground, concentrating his breathing, his fists balled in a tight lock as he inched away. Eva came closer to Asher, placing her hand gently on his face, searching his eyes with hers in hopes to figure out why he would accuse her of such a thing.
“Asher, sweety, I never told you to do that! What are you talking about?”
Before Eva could question the child further, Barry lunged at her delivering a series of vicious blows. Eva struggled to turn and run away. Barry charged at her, like a fast-paced dance, they streaked across the shore. The third blow produced a loud popping sound that had drawn blood from Eva’s nose. She fell to the ground as she firmly held her face in her hands. Before he could land the fourth one, Sergio tackled him, pinning him to the ground and then putting him in a headlock.
“I’m gonna kill the whore! Mark my words, I’m gonna do it! Fucking let me go,” he yelled.
Sergio subdued Barry, “You need to relax!”
Barry turned and twisted, struggling to get out of Sergio’s hold, he figured he was no match for the ex-marine and decided it was best to calm down. The bottom half of Eva’s face looked as if it was dipped in red paint. Jonah had ripped off a portion of his shirt and held it over her nose, she tried to throw her head back, but Jonah stopped her, “No! You’ll choke.” He guided her back toward the campfire. Sergio had let go of Barry and they both sat on the sand, Asher was on his knees, his hands covering his ears, visible tears streaming down his face. Elle was now awake and sitting up, she moved over to make space, but never let her eyes off Eva, Asher dashed toward Eva crying, “I’m sorry! I’m sorry I thought it was you that I heard.” She shook her head and tried to force a smile toward the child, but instead, she smiled with her eyes, “It’s not your fault! It’s mine! I’m just glad you’re okay, okay?” Asher gave a slow nod and dropped to his knees in front of her, placing his hand on her ankle, she spat out some blood then leaned back.
By the morning time, the fire had burned out, Sergio was the first one awake and was already getting ready for a second attempt at finding food. He took a moment to take in the beauty of the skies, the pregnant white clouds were littered throughout the blue expanse, and the last of the dawn’s orange had faded away. The ocean sparkled like jewels, calm tides rolled in and crashed just before the shoreline as foam remnants cascaded over the sand. A cool breeze caressed him every way it blew, cooling his body and allowing him to settle into a place of comfort for a moment. Unlike the others, being stranded on an island didn’t faze him much. He had been in worse predicaments and endured harsher territories when he was an active marine before the outbreak. He took a deep breath in and tightened a rope around his waist, swinging the rest of it over his shoulder. He then turned around to face the jungle, looking upward to his right at the towering cliff and then to the colossal mountain in the distance. Below the cliff is where they had buried Mason Dietrich and made a makeshift cross out of branches. The path that led to the cliff took about two hours to journey, and so he figured some of the time could be cut in half by climbing the cliff and avoiding the jungle’s hilly terrains. He grabbed the metal grappling hook from the ground he had taken from the boat and hooked it onto his marine backpack, then started toward the cliff. Jonah awoke just before Sergio crossed him, he raised his upper body from the ground, “Hey, where are you going?”
“To get us some more food! I’ll be back alright!” Sergio continued toward the cliff. Just below it, he briefly looked at the grave then back at the cliff’s highest point and said, “Won’t be me!” He swung the grappling hook in a circular rotation gradually increasing the speed, then with all his might hurled the hook to a ledge way up amongst the crevices of the rock. He then pulled the rope toward him, and the hook got caught, unable to budge anymore to his tugging. He first made sure to test the strength of the rope and when he felt confident of its hold, began climbing up the cliff. One by one he firmly pressed his boots on the jagged rocks, slowly making his way up, his confidence grew and started effortlessly climbing upward. He got to the ledge and would continue the same procedure as before. Thirty-minutes had passed, and he was more than halfway to the top. He took a deep inhale and steadied his breathing; he made sure to not look down. His hands were red and calloused, tiny cuts slashed all around his palms, and the rope was rough, hanging on to it with bare hands felt like gripping a heated knife. Though the pain was getting worse, it only fueled him more to get to the top. Once he was able to get up there, he could hunt for food as he was trying to do the day before. Yesterday, they had spotted a family of wild rabbits, and he along with Barry attempted to capture some, but that was quickly thwarted by Mason’s sudden suicide. He tensed his body against the cliff, and with his hand clasped onto a rock. He removed the grappling hook from its catch, and then swung it over again to the highest ledge, this time it caught the very top. He tugged the rope, before climbing upward a bit. Just as he did so, the rock under his left foot cracked beneath him, causing a rain of rocky debris to fall. He moved his body even closer to the cliff and let out a brief sigh. When he figured he could move again, he brought the hand that was holding onto the rock over to the rope and began climbing again. It seemed like forever, but he made it to the top.
The view was unmatched in its glory, more immaculate than anything he had ever seen before. When he turned toward the ocean it smiled back at him with glistening dances, filling him with accomplishment and peace, when he turned toward the jungle the vibrant green of the impenetrable vegetation filled him with a sense of wonder. He reasoned that if he could, he would stay here forever, make a tree home way up high, and live off the fruits of the island. Nonetheless, he had already assumed the role of provider and protector for the group, and though none said it to him, he knew that all five of the survivors depended on him with their very lives. This filled him with pride. A quick survey around and it wasn’t long till the corner of his right eye caught quick movements amongst the bushes. He set the rope and backpack on the ground and removed a set of throwing blades, unsheathed them, and began stealthily hunting. Another rabbit dashed across the ground, and a blade whipped through the air, piercing the animal right in its side. He quickly put it out of its misery and continued hunting. By late morning he was satisfied with his catches and decided to head back to the group. He cut a piece of rope and tied a dozen rabbits together by their ears, he put on his backpack along with the rope and started back. He decided it was best he walked through the jungle instead of climbing down the cliff. And so, he made his way through the path the group had taken the day before. Along the way he picked up some fruits and herbs, eagerly striding back to the campsite. It wasn’t until an inexplicable urge beset him and halted him in his steps. It was as if he was no longer in control of his body’s mechanics, he threw down everything he had on him and walked off the path edging deeper into the jungle. He stumbled across a tall tree with thick roots and there is where the impulse intensified. His breathing became heavy, and for a moment he could hear a faint voice in the distance. The jungle that was once active with various movements, from the breeze to the birds, and all the creeping things buzzing, was now suddenly still. He felt as if he was suspended in time. The faint voice increased in audibility, then in lightning speed, a series of visions played out before his eyes. His heartbeat grew faster as he shrieked at what he saw, he brought himself to his knees, shut his eyes, and was finally calm again. When they opened, nothing but a blank expression was on his face. Like a soulless automaton, he stood up and climbed the tall tree, making his way to the very top, he felt no sign of exhaustion or fear. He climbed till he could see the cliff he had just walked down from; the tree was 30 meters in height. Without any reluctance to stop, he dived down head first off the top, his body accelerated in speed as it descended, violently crashing into the thick hard roots below. His neck had completely snapped, the bone was visible, and his spine had severed causing his back to collapse in of itself. Blood drained from his eyes, nose, and mouth, and ran along the complex twist and turns of the tree’s roots. Finally, as if someone had pressed play, the jungle resumed activity again.