Story

Somewhere in a secluded archipelago, a small cruise liner races to its impending doom. On board a group of friends and a lone researcher are preparing for the time of their life without any worries. On the horizon, taking up most of it, a thin green line emerges like a jade from the bluish lagoon. It’s moving closer and closer as it rises above. What seemed like only a few millimeter tall now has become at least thirty meters tall with trees of all sorts. Some palm and some others.
Boom!
Without any warming, a hole formed on the front end of the boat as it collided with the dead and hardened coral reef. The boat started sinking slowly. The water below was not very deep, about nine feet. Everyone jumped from their respective seat, hammock, or the chair. The only two girls shirked in fear and howled. Someone from the back of the boat let out a big string of curse. There was no rush, however. After having surveyed the damage, they decided to pack their food, communication equipment and head over to the island which wasn’t very far away. One of the friends decided to even swim it and not weigh the small rafts. On shore, they’d decide what to do. That was their plan anyway.
Once on sandy shores of this unknown island, they watched as the boat slowly went down almost half way and tipped over the side. The tinted wind shield was a quarter of the way submerged. They would be going no where until rescue came. The scurried to their cell phones which were not getting any signals. This is a standard cliché in any stranded on a deserted island story, they thought. Their hope was now the radios on board the ship. Someone has to go over and make the calls. They regretted leaving the ship so hurriedly. They decided to go back after eating lunch before going to the boat.
It was an hour past noon. The sky was brilliantly blue and small puffs of cloud drifted by. They seemed to stop over the island for second to contemplate if they should rain or not. As if like a scholarly person with index finger tapping on chin, they thought for a second and left apparently analyzing the cost-benefit of the situation. The friends and researches ate lunch of turkey breast sandwich, some saltine crackers, grape juice. They had plenty of food for now. If rescue didn’t come in couple of days, however, they would be in trouble. They set out this morning only with enough for a seaside picnic. They didn’t anticipate any of this. Sure they joked about being stranded but never actually thought they might be stranded.
Once lunch was over, the girls decide to stroll along the crescent-shaped shore while couple of the guys rowed over the almost sunken ship. Once on board, they were relieved to find the radios weren’t submerged. They called for help. More relief as someone informed them that the coast guards will be arriving shortly. They’d arrive early in the night at the latest today or at worst the next day. They had yelled this news to the friends on shore. Everyone sighed of relief. Meanwhile, the two friends loaded up some more things and headed back to the shore. This they thought would be a picnic far better than they had ever anticipated or could have planned for. This has the element of being lost, of being somewhere far away. And isn’t that the point of going on a picnic, they thought.
The island was spectacular, just like one would imagine from those tropical island calendar. Sandy beach, crescent shaped inlet, and innumerable coconut trees that grew in a slowly curbing upward over the blue water. One can walk on the tree for a while before having to climb vertically to retrieve nuts, as the seven stranded people will do in few hours. As they lay on the beach overlooking the blue ocean beyond, the red sun slowly bid goodbye to the world casting an amber shadow over everything. The rescue would not be coming today and they doubted that a rescue boat would come over night. They decided to built a fire to keep warm and to keep rodents at bay should there be some. So begins their stranded in middle of no where journey which will last for many days and test their humanity.
Afternoon; second day; everyone’s edgy. Where is the bloody rescue ship? Shouldn’t it have been here by this morning? They decided to check their sunken ship again. This time luck was not on their side. The winds have tipped the ship on the other side of the ship. The ocean floor was a bit deeper here as the coral didn’t grow as tall. With naïve hope, two of the friends swam to the ship. The communication equipments were completely submerged and not usable. This time they didn’t yell the situation to those on shore. The eerie non-response and a ship more sunken was signal enough for everyone to have realized what has happened. Now only luck and God’s mercy were their only hope.
Anger and rage radiated over everyone. Two girls were more in shock and fear than in anger. Among the group the only calm person appears to be the researcher. Yes, definitely. Now it makes sense. He always kept by himself whenever he could. He spoke only when he had something to say that might affect everyone. It had been his idea to build the fire last night and he was the one who has gathered the coconut husks for it. Though they had lighters and matches, he insisted on conserving those and used sparking rocks to start the fire. Everyone in the group were from well-to-do families and weren’t much of outdoor type. They certainly didn’t know how to climb trees. It was the researcher that climbed the coconut trees. He was quiet but naturally commanding. It was not just that, his commands were the only available and sensible option. No one could disagree with him because there was no other options beyond what he presented. Today, however, he kept to himself and snoozed or pretended to snooze on the curbing coconut trees. Now and then he opened his eyes and looked at everyone in shame and went back to snoozing. There was something more to him than just what was plainly obvious. It was becoming night again and there was no sign of any rescue ship. They weren’t going anywhere today, either.
Low on food and hungry, they ate whatever was left leaving their survival on hand of luck. There would be nothing to eat later if they didn’t gather some food. This was the first time they decided to venture any further than the sandy beach.
Then a bunch of lions came out from the inner island and ate them all. What an anti-climatic story! Actually, I had a really awesome storyline and lot of philosophical twist and conflicts in this. Hence the "test their humanity" bit. I lost my drive to finish it.