I went towards the tree line, and noticed immediately that the remaining berries I had left, were all either gone or smashed, leaving me with nothing to eat. DAMN IT! I should have been smarter, and put them in with me in the plane. Some animals or that parrot must have had a nice feast at my expense. Now, I was hungry again, with no more berries. I set back out for the grassy clearing and that pond again. There were a few berries left, but that supply wouldn’t last.
I looked at the fish swimming about, and decided to try my hand at fishing by hand. It took a long time actually. I stood there like an idiot forever, waiting for one to swim near me. What the fuck was I thinking? A fish was just going to swim right into my hands and let me pick it up out of the water? My judgement skills were apparently still lacking, and made my mind wander back to events of the last few years.
Perhaps if I had retired earlier, none of this mess would have happened. We had often talked about both retiring early, and just going traveling. I sighed deeply, thinking of a future that no longer existed.
Eventually, a fish must have been dumb enough to come close to me, and I grabbed it. It put up a fight, but in the end, I whacked its head on my knee really hard a couple times, and it stopped moving. I had seen that done in a movie once too, and figured it would work. Now all I had to do was figure out a way to start a fire. I didn’t smoke, or I would have a lighter on me. I wonder if there was something on the plane that I could use. If there was even a small bit of battery power left, maybe I could cross some wires or something to create a spark. It was a long shot, but what other choices did I have?
I could always go old-school, and try rubbing a stick on a stone. Hell, they taught us that in scouts but I think that was one that was rigged with pre-made sticks that are perfect for creating a fire. You can’t buy those out here. I had a good laugh at my own joke, but it was short-lived.
First, I built a small ring of stones, and put some more small kindling and branches inside. Deciding the battery route was more likely to work, I found a stick, and ripped a piece of my shirt off to wrap around the end of it. I pulled the positive wire off its terminal, and struck it against the negative one. I was elated that it gave off a spark. I got the makeshift shirt/torch near the battery, and after several sparks, it caught. I blew on it to get it going better, and was again pleased with my success. I tossed it onto my smaller fire pit, and watched as it ignited and grew.
I poked a stick through the top of my little fish, and pulled it open with my hands. It was messy, but I didn’t really care. I just wanted to get it clean enough to cook. Once I had it cleaned as good as I could, without the benefit of a filet knife, I poked the fish again, and held it over the fire to cook. While waiting, I looked to the sky and water again. I had seen a few commercial planes go over, at extreme altitudes, but nothing closer. Oddly, I had seen a few large cargo ships, very far in the distance, but nothing close enough. I didn’t want to waste my signal fire.
Good god, this was boring. There was nothing to do but survive. I finished off the second bottle of water, as I ate the now cooked little fish. It didn’t fill me up like a steak would, but was good enough. I had to eat slowly to avoid bones and scales though. After I finished eating, I sat by the fire until it burned down to coals. The coals kept me warm for a while, but eventually cooled, to the point where I gave up for the night and went to sleep in the plane again.
I was startled awake from a loud crash. The plane was rocking fairly hard, and rain was banging away at the wings and windows, some coming in through the one that was broken. It was still mostly dark out, the light from the rising sun well hidden behind a lot of storm clouds. Shit, a storm was the last thing I needed right now.
I stayed inside the plane, and waited the storm out. Thankfully it slowed and eventually stopped within an hour or two. I was now tired as hell, and the sun came out, so sleep was not likely to come again for a while. I climbed down from the plane, and checked on my signal fire pile. The wood was soaked on the surface, and I could only hope that the sun would dry it off quickly. Being wet might actually work in my favor, as it would burn with more smoke. I learned that the hard way, years ago when the three of us went camping.
The day was wasted, so I ate some peanuts and drank a half bottle of water, and stuck to my little camp. The parrot kept me company, if only to look at me in a mocking stare, as if to say, ‘You are never going to make it’. I didn’t exactly hate the bird, but I did want to chuck a rock at it from time to time, just for being there.
No boats got anywhere near my island, and I only heard one plane flying low enough to be worth my attention. I had the flare ready, but never actually saw the plane. It must have been on the other side of the island, which pissed me off.
“Why the FUCK haven’t you found me yet!??!” I railed, shaking my fist at the sky.
When no one responded to me, I sank back down onto the sand. I didn’t cry, but I sure felt like crying. This wasn’t how I pictured my last days. I know I wanted to be away from my old life, but not to THIS extreme.
I finished off the day with the rest of the peanuts, and the rest of that bottle of water. The next day, I tried to put the wires from the battery directly to the radio, but the radio wires were fairly short. I had to pull the battery, and I finally got it hooked directly to the radio. It turned on, and I immediately starting radioing an S. O. S. for help. I didn’t know how long I would have, so didn’t spend a lot of time waiting for a response. I tried to message what happened, and where I was flying when I went down.
I started to hear a garbled response, and then the battery faded quickly. The radio now dead, I just had to hope that I had gotten my message out to someone that could find me in time. I was now also mad at myself for not thinking of doing THAT, two days ago.
“FUCK!” I again yelled at no one. Maybe I did need to hunt down a soccer ball. The parrot wasn’t doing me much good in that department.