Lost At Sea

II

His name was Chris. He had been a young, successful engineer in his old life. His new, slightly less successful life had begun when his plane had crashed into the ocean in 2010.

"It was supposed to be a holiday with friends, you know?" He talked like a man who had not done it in a long time, a little insecure and somewhat confused to hear his own voice. "We wanted to have fun. Instead the plane got... lost I guess. There was a storm and there were turbulences and the next thing I remember is we hit something and the plane just broke apart. Me and some other passengers swam and swam until we had solid ground under our feet again. That's how I got here."

He had rekindled the fire and was frying a comically small fish he had put on a stick. When it seemed to be done he offered it to Scarlett. She thought she would say 'no thank you' and was surprised about how fast she instead plucked the fish from the stick and began eating it. She had not realized how starved she actually was.

"I read about the flight. I remember how shocked everyone was when the plane just disappeared. Why has no one ever found you?", Scarlett asked Chris while still licking her greasy fingertips. "I mean I get it, we are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. But this isn't Lost, right? There should be a satellite that could spot us. There should have been search crews and all that, people trying to find you and the other guys."

He shrugged. He seemed sad and a bit frustrated, but all in all it was a mild-mannered gesture. "I don't know. I was angry for a long time, hateful really. I nearly lost my mind. But since then I've just... learned to accept it I guess. I simply have no explanation why no one ever found me and there was no one to scream at, no one to be angry towards.

So since it felt like a waste of time I decided eventually to stop being angry. Instead I concentrated on surviving. I taught myself how to fish and how to collect water, I build the small camp. I collect flotsam at the beach - which is where I found you. At first I thought you were something like a doll and then when I saw you were a real human I feared you might be... well a corpse." He bit his lower lip and shuddered. "But when I realized you were still breathing I brought you here."

Scarlett smiled. "You saved my life - I think I would have died without ever regaining consciousness if you had not helped me. Thank you, Chris. I mean it. In the shittiest week of my life meeting you is by far the best thing that could possibly have happened to me." That made him smile too. He was, Scarlett decided, a pretty sweet and sexy guy - for a traumatized eremite at least.

"Wait", she said hesitantly as the thought crossed her mind. "You are an eremite."

Chris looked confused, but nodded slowly. "I guess you can call it that."

"But why are you an eremite? You said others had been stranded here with you. What happened to those people?"

"That's a long story", Chris sighed. "But I have not turned to cannibalism, if that's what you are thinking."

"I would never have thought of that", Scarlett lied.

"Well, fair enough. The others could still be alive for all I know, I am just not sure if they are. We got separated, you know? They headed off because they had decided to try their luck further inland. I decided to stay here."

"I don't get it." Scarlett shook her head. "Those people left you and you stayed here, alone. Why did you do that?"

Chris hesitated, and then nodded. He rose and offered Scarlett a hand. He did not seem happy, but obviously he had made up his mind about something that was important to him. When she took his hand he pulled her to her feet and began leading her towards one of the larger dunes.

"I did not want to show it to you yet. I would have waited a day or two, you know? But maybe it's better that I clear things up for you as soon as possible. So let's climb up there and I will show you what's up with the beach and the dunes and the inland."

Climbing the dune was hard work for Scarlett in her weakened state, but now that Chris had gotten her curious there was no way she wanted to wait any longer. Under a quickly darkening evening sky she made her way up to the very top, legs and knees shaking from the strain. Once she was finally at the upmost point of the dune she needed a minute to catch her breath, cool wind blowing through her hair and against her sweaty skin. Only then could she straighten herself and finally take a look around.

What Scarlett saw was a shock: The dunes around her and beneath her position were pretty large and pretty numerous, a bleak yellow-brown labyrinth or sand and salt. Behind them spread a kilometer-long, broad beach, rocky and rough, with lots of debris strewn across: Driftwood and garbage were scattered for mile after mile. Here and there Scarlett could also see what seemed to be the remains of old liferafts, bleached by the sun.

"Ships get lost, planes crash, stuff gets washed ashore and I try to salvage what I can use", Chris said sadly. "It's like a pretty dark, surrealistic lottery. Sometimes I find good stuff, sometimes not. This time... it was good stuff." His face turned deep read and his voice became a bit squeaky. "Well you know what I mean... it was good to find you."

Scarlett hid her smile as good as she could. Then she turned around and looked away from the beach, in the other direction. The difference was breathtaking: The dunes did go on there for maybe half a mile before the land got darker and greener. There was more vegetation on that side, soon the first trees appeared. Half obscured behind their trunks Scarlett could make out a small, blue lake.

And it did not end there: Wherever she had been washed ashore, this was by far not a small island. In the distance behind the first lines of trees and the lake this place seemed to go on and on. There was more woodland, there were some higher hills with a river running between them.

"Wow", she said amazed. "Chris, I don't get it. Living here at the beach must be so fucking tough... why didn't you move down there? You said it's hard to collect sweet water and you said it's hard to find food here, but down there in the woods must be more than enough to eat!"

"Going there is not an option", he stated. His usually friendly face was grim now, his eyes shone with a certain bitterness. "I would love to leave the beach and the dunes, but I can't. We are not the only people who live here, you see? There are natives down there in the inland, and they are alien and dangerous and perverted."

"Listen, I'm no anthropologist, but people in different cultures are... different." Scarlett shrugged and tried to sound as rational as possible. "You make it sound as if the natives here were demons or something. Can't we just talk to those guys and figure things out? What makes you think they are so bad anyways?"

Chris did not answer directly. Instead he gave her the old pair of binoculars that had been dangling from his belt all the time. He pointed to the lake and gestured for Scarlett to look through the binoculars, then took a step back and just watched her.

She needed a moment to adjust the binoculars in front of her eyes. They were a bit scratched but still worked pretty well: Suddenly the trees and the fruits hanging from their branches seemed close enough to reach them with an outstretched hand. The small lake was very well visible too. And there, to the left...

... to the left Scarlett could see several men, olive-skinned and well-shaped, clothed in nothing more than leather and hide. They looked neither truly asian nor african but definitely not european either. They had killed what looked like a small kind of boar and were skinning and butchering the creature there, right by the water. It was a weird scene, kind of romantic in a way, if you were an avid discovery-channel-viewer.

What shocked Scarlett was not the look of those 'natives', nor was it the fact they had killed an animal. But close to the men stood two other humans, both completely naked and strictly restrained: Their hands and arms had been forced into and tied in a nearly impossible back praying-position, their feet hobbled, their torsos harnessed with rope and leather strips. They were leashed and secured against one of the larger trees, standing there with glassy eyes, watching the hunters emotionless. But even if these two tied humans - which were obviously young females - had wanted to show emotions it would have been hard for them to do so: They were thoroughly gagged with wooden mouthpieces that resembled bitgags and had their heads half hooded with thick caps that obscured most of their faces.

"Okay", Scarlett mumbled. She ran her fingers through the matted mess of her hair and closed her eyes for a moment, admitting defeat. "You convinced me. These assholes are alien and dangerous, and they are very fucking clearly perverts."