The World of Myth Magazine

If Anika Jarvis had her way, she would be long gone from this island nightmare. She'd been stuck here for thirty-five days, judging by the sticks she placed on the shelf in the cave. As seven days turned into a week, she put one stick sideways to represent a week. A storm took out their boat. She and her husband Roger scrambled onto a life raft. Anika supposed they were lucky to have found land after two days of drifting in the Caribbean. The life raft hit the rocky shore, waking them up. The sizeable hole allowed it to sink faster than they thought possible, but she and Roger were able to make it to shore dragging the raft behind them. It could make a good shelter; he said when she questioned bringing the heavy thing along. Plus, it had ropes on it, emergency flares and a first aid kit. It was indeed a life raft. She'd laughed at her husband of fifteen years when he found the raft in the marine store. They decided to take their sailboat around the Bahamas, and it was good to have a first aid kit and a floatable device. Now she was grateful they had bought the raft. Pull the cord, and the raft inflated.

The first two days, they bobbed up and down in the swell of the storm. Anika threw up anything she had left in her stomach and blissfully fell asleep. Roger finally succumbed to the rocking of the waves and was just as ill as she had been. When they hit the rocky shore, the raft made a loud pop sound like a gun shooting. Half the raft sank almost immediately. Roger told her to go over the side and head for shore; he would save the raft. In the end, it took both of them to wrestle the heavy boat out of the water.

The island had a high rock cliff near the beach. They did not know if the island was inhabited or not, deciding the first order of business would be to try and find freshwater. Anika said they should explore the stone wall in front of them. Perhaps there was a cave they could slip into during a storm, and rainwater would be filtered through the stone, providing them with fresh water.

She and Roger walked along the tall hill when they spied a crack in the wall. Anika was able to slip her body through the opening. She used the flashlight to shine on the walls, hearing dripping water. That could mean they would have a source of fresh water that was life-giving. She called back to Roger, who couldn't quite fit through the hole.

"Come back out, he called to her. Let's find another opening." Anika reluctantly came back out into the heat.

"It's cool in there, and I can hear dripping water," she told her husband. The two spent the rest of the day looking for another entrance. They picked up dried leaves and branches to make a fire on the way back to the beach. They had been able to get out a call for help before the boat sank and hoped someone would be searching for them.

The fire on the beach was only to provide safety from any animals that might live on the island if it was an island. Tomorrow, they decided to scout around further for an entrance into the discovered cave.

Roger cut a piece of the life raft up to fashion a water bag they could carry. The water tasted strange, but they had no choice. Without it, they were dead; while drinking it, could also kill them, they didn't have a choice.

Anika curled near the fire; Roger spooned her. She prayed they would be rescued the first night on the island, wondering how far off course they were when they left the Nimrod for the life raft. They only had a few minutes to gather things together when they knew she was taking on water. The knife, and a few things that were in the life raft was all they had. She wished she had taken more clothing now that the night closed in around them. It was the bugs that drove her crazy. Little nits she couldn't see but could feel them biting for blood.

Roger pulled her closer when he felt her shoulders shake. She wasn't cold, she was crying, and scared. How angry she was at him for taking this stupid trip. They were not sailors, and they were not trained in survival skills. They had no business going in over their heads. How ignorant they were.

A strange bird perching in a tree above them, squawked. Anika woke, startled. She felt every muscle in her body. The hard ground was unforgiving. Walking down the beach, she relieved herself in a hole she'd dug. This was their life. Somehow, they had to figure it all out.

Anika squeezed through the crack in the stone mountain, taking the bladder bag Roger made, dipping into the small pool on the floor. She tied the bag and handed it through the crack to her waiting husband. He told her he didn't want to force himself into the cave and find out he couldn't get back out, so it was her job to get water. The light coming through the crack showed her the rain oozing out of the walls, dripping into an open pool. She wondered what intestinal parasites they were drinking, but saltwater couldn't be used either. They walked down the beach carrying the water bag and two sticks sharpened into spears, just in case.

Anika felt better having a weapon, even if she wasn't experienced at handling it. They searched along the base of the stone outcropping, breaking branches to mark their trail.

A snake slithered in front of them. Without thinking, Anika stabbed at it. The snake squirmed at the end of the spear. Anika was repelled yet triumphant at the same time.

"You have our supper," Roger said, smiling at her.

"Are we going to eat this snake?" she asked her husband.

"It tastes like chicken." He chuckled and cut off the snake's head. For the rest of the day with the spear slung over her back, Anika carried their meal with them.

They found another opening into the mountain. This one, Roger could fit in. There was more water oozing from the walls.

"Well, in the event of a storm, we have a shelter that both of us can squeeze into," Roger observed. They did a cursory search and continued to look around until the sun was high in the sky.

"I think it's time to turn back," Roger suggested. Anika agreed. Though it didn't make a difference where they spent the night, at least on the beach, if a boat were searching for them, they could see it.

When they arrived back on the beach, they cut brush and wrote SOS as big as possible. Perhaps a plane would see it from the sky.

Roger started a fire with the striker in the emergency kit. They cooked the snake on another stick. Anika could feel her stomach revolt when she put the snake near her mouth. But she knew she needed to eat. It wasn't as bad as she thought. They were lying on the beach watching the stars in the sky. It would have been romantic if it hadn't been for those bastard-biting bugs.

"What's that?" Anika stood up. The blinking light cruised above them. "It's a rescue plane!" Anika jumped up, excited, calling out and waving her arms.

"Honey, they can't see us from that high," Roger told her. Defeated, Anika sat back down. They had palm branches to sleep on tonight, so it wasn't as bad as sleeping on the sand. But this rescue couldn't happen fast enough.

She was first to wake, took her morning walk down the beach into the brush, and dug in the sand to do her business, startled when she heard talking.

Two men were on the beach. Anika was in an embarrassing position and waited to see what the men would do when she heard a shot.

Oh my God! Roger. They shot Roger. And then she heard Roger talk!

"That was close! Thanks. I could have been bitten."

"So, what are you doing here?" asked the man with a ponytail.

"My boat sank. Luckily, I had a life raft and escaped before she capsized. Waiting for someone to come and get me. It's been four days now." Roger was telling them but didn't hear him mention her. Did he fear these men? She decided to hang back to see what they would do before she made her presence known. She clutched the knife closer, the one she used to dig a hole.

"Wow, that's quite a story. You been living out here for four days?" The man with a gold cap on his front tooth asked.

"Two days on the boat and two days here, yes." Gold Tooth circled around behind Roger. Anika sensed they were up to no good. She wanted to call out to her husband but couldn't alert them to her presence. Gold Tooth grabbed Roger from behind, pinning his arms back.

"What the hell?" Roger said in frustration.

"Got any money?"

"I just told you I was in a life raft for two days after I jumped in the ocean. No, I don't have any money. I was more concerned for my life." Ponytail aimed the gun at him and felt Roger's pockets.

"I don't think he's got anything," he told his friend. Roger jerked himself free and ran down the beach in Anika's direction when another shot rang out. He fell face-first on the beach. Anika's heart pounded as she stifled her instinct to scream.

"What did you do that for?" Gold Tooth shouted.

"He was getting away."

"To where you twit, we're on an island! All he has is junk anyway. I believe his story."

"He would have told people we tried to rob him." Ponytail defended himself.

"Look, you idiot, we would be long gone before anyone comes for him. Now we got to bury him."

"Can't we just let the sharks take him?"

"Hmmm, for once, you have a good idea. Help me roll him into the water. Gold Tooth and Ponytail rolled Roger into the water.

"There are plenty of sharks around here." Gold Tooth tied a rope around Roger's feet, then they went back to the beach and kicked the branches, so SOS was no longer spelled out. "Let's get the hell out of here. If they are looking for him, someone could come to this island. The sharks will have him gone in no time."

Gold Tooth and Ponytail got on the boat towing Roger out beyond the incoming tide and untied his feet, letting the corpse sink into the water.

Anika watched them through tears that silently ran down her cheeks. When she could no longer see the boat, she ran to the water.

"Roger! Roger!" she screamed from the water's edge, but Roger was nowhere to be seen. Anika sat down on the beach, stunned. They killed her husband. Those bastards killed her husband for nothing. Their faces and voices burned into her memory. Somehow, someway she would get revenge.

Anika made more spears and hid them behind trees marking them with twisted vines. She was going to look for those killers, and if they came back before her rescuers did, she would make sure they didn't get off this island.

The following day she could hear a boat out on the water. Anika ran for the crack in the wall. She left everything on the beach and moved her campsite down a bit so they wouldn't know she was on the island.

"I tell you; I dropped it here somewhere." Ponytail said.

"You are a numbskull; you drop your wallet where you killed someone," said Gold Tooth.

"Look, we killed the dude." Ponytail said, grabbing Gold Tooth, "You were the one that tried to rob him. We're in this together, like it or not." Up and down the beach, they walked until Gold Tooth shouted.

"I found it!" he held Ponytail's wallet up.

"Great, now let's get back." Ponytail grabbed the wallet from him.

"Wait, look," Gold Tooth spun around looking in the sand.

"What?" Ponytail couldn't see what his friend saw.

"Footprints. There are footprints in the sand." Gold Tooth started to walk toward the cave. Anika moved further inside confident they couldn’t get through.

"That could be ours from yesterday," Ponytail added.

"I guess you're right. Let's get out of here. This island gives me the creeps."

The boat drove off, leaving Anika watching them head in the same direction as yesterday. Was there an inhabited island nearby? Anika knew she was on an island, but if it were part of a chain of islands, could she see another from the shore at the other end? Anika wished she had the charts from the Nimrod. At least she would know if the islands were on a chart or not.

She filled her raft bladder with fresh water from the cave, taking what she could carry. She hoped that she could see where those men had gone when she got to the other end of the island. She couldn’t see any island close by and went back to her beach.

Anika adapted to her spear learning to stab fish in the water once she caught onto the angle. She was getting sick of fish. If only she had butter or salt. She wondered if she wet leaves down with sea water and let them dry in the sun could she dry and collect salt from the ocean? She had nothing better to do. Keeping busy kept her mind off Roger. Today was day thirty-five judging by the sticks in the cave.

The sound of a motor in the distance had her running back to the cave. She slid into the crack just as Ponytail landed the boat. He had a canvas sack on him. He ran up the beach. Looking around, he began to dig a hole and buried the bag in the sand. Then he rushed to the water and picked up a large rock. Ponytail struggled down the beach, hunched over trying to carry the stone. Anika realized he was marking the spot he buried his treasure. When his back was to her, she came charging out of the cave. At the last moment, she shrieked. Ponytail spun around just in time to take a spear to the gut.

He sat down hard in the sand, trying to pull the spear out. When he succeeded, blood gushed from the wound.

"Why?"

"You killed my husband." Ponytail flopped back onto the sand. Anika sounded like a wild animal. She rolled him to the water, and just like they did to Roger, tied his feet.

She ran to get her things and piled them in the boat. Then she hunted for what Ponytail had buried and dug it up. A bank bag full of money. She threw that into the boat. Hauling Ponytail out into the water was sweet. Thirty-five days she'd been on this island. All she could do was go in the direction the boat had come. She prayed she’d find someone. The gas tank was nearly full, so the place it came from couldn't be far. Anika kept a close watch.

Land. As she came closer she spied a building. Anika started to cry; she'd made it out of that God Forsaken place. She pulled into a marina tying up the boat. She would find the authorities and tell them about Roger's murder and show them the cash. She carried her bag wrapped up in a ball up the dock. As she got to the Marina Office, she heard two men talking.

"Well, I don't know Constable. Jerry took off in the boat bright and early this morning. He headed in that direction." He pointed toward Anika's island.

"Excuse me," Anika thought she would get help from the Constable. He turned around, his gold tooth flashing in the sunlight. She shrunk back from him. Is there a taxi service here?" The Marina owner flapped his hand.

"In front of the Marina. You'll find a taxi waiting."

"Thank you." Anika brushed by men hurrying to the parked taxi.

"Airport, please." She rummaged through the bag handing the driver a twenty-dollar bill.

"I can't break this. It's a small island."

"Keep the change," she said slinking into the seat. She breathed easier once the marina was out of sight.

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