Deserted

Rachel awoke lying on a beach with debris littered around her. She looked around, confused about how she ended up there. Then she remembered the terrible storm the night before. The boat that she and her friends were on was tossed about violently during the storm before finally breaking in two.

She stood up and dusted the sand off her wet clothes. She looked around to see if any of her friends had washed ashore like she did. The beach was small, maybe only ten feet in length. To the right and left of the beach were sharp rocks leading to steep cliffs. She saw no one and decided to call out to her friends. One by one she called out to them and got no response.

Just as she was about to give up, a voice echoed above the sounds of the crashing waves. She looked out and saw her friend, Robert, swimming towards the shore. She was relieved that someone else had survived.

The relief was short lived, however, as she saw the undeniable fin of a shark quickly approaching Robert from behind. She called out for him to hurry but he could not hear her. He stopped swimming to call back to her. In a matter of seconds, he was attacked by the shark. He managed to let out a few short screams of agony before being pulled into the depths. Soon the only thing that remained of Robert was a pool of blood that permeated the blue water.

She fell to her knees, tears streaming down her face. She didn’t want to look at the crimson pool anymore but found that she couldn’t look away either. Suddenly, she saw several more fins appear in the water. At first, it was half a dozen, then a dozen. Finally, she lost count as the fins circled the area that Robert had been. She knew that she would not escape her predicament by swimming.

She turned around and saw a forest of spruce trees expanded as far as she could see. She pulled herself together and grabbed a few things from the debris that she thought might help her. She managed to find a few bottles of water, a kitchen knife, and some rope. She had hoped that these supplies would last long enough for her to find civilization.

Once she was ready, she began her trek into the forest. She wasn’t sure what animals might be living in the forest, but she hoped that there wasn’t anything dangerous. She walked for several minutes before she started to get an uneasy feeling. She realized that the only sound she could hear in the forest was the crunching of leaves underneath her feet. She started to get a feeling of paranoia, like she felt like she was being watched.

She looked around and saw nothing. No animals, not even a bird or squirrel that she imagined would be frequent in the forest. She did her best to quell these feeling and continued deeper into the forest, hoping to find civilization soon. At this point, she’d be happy with any signs of life.

It wasn’t too long before she got the signs of life that she had desperately wanted, though she quickly decided that she would have been happier to be alone. From somewhere deep in the forest, she heard the all too familiar sound of a wolf howling. Fear came over her and she quickened her pace through the forest. Doing her best not to make any unnecessary noises as moved through the trees.

Suddenly, another howl came from within the forest. This time it was closer, and it wasn’t alone. Another howl called back in response. She began to run, hoping she could find the way out of forest before they could find her. She ran until she couldn’t any longer, for if she had continued to run, she would have fallen off a steep cliff into rocky waters, likely falling to her death.

It was at this moment that she assumed she was likely on an island. An island that as far as she could tell only had one beach. This meant that her best chance of rescue was back on the beach where she had woken after the storm. Now she had to go back through the forest and hope that the wolves had not already caught her scent.

She thought for a moment that maybe she should jump off the cliff. It would end the nightmare that was quickly unfolding before her. She took a step closer and looked down. She couldn’t do it. There was still a linger of hope within her heart. She was young and there was much in her life that she had not yet accomplished. Ending it here without fighting for her survival would have been a waste. She brandished the kitchen knife and began making her way back to the beach. She doubted that the knife would do much good against a pack of wolves, but she’d be damned if she couldn’t take one of them out before they could finish her off.

She walked slowly, hoping not to draw attention to herself. As she retraced her steps, she started to think that she might get lucky and get back to the beach before the wolves found her. However, her luck soon ran out. As she walked, she was startled by a low growling sound from behind her. She didn’t want to look behind, because she knew what it was that was growling. She looked anyway.

Standing behind her was a large black wolf. She was no expert in wolves, but this wolf seemed much larger than she had expected. She was now afraid that the kitchen knife she wielded was going to be useless. She turned back towards the beach and ran as fast as her feet would allow. The massive wolf behind her let out a howl that sent chills down her back.

She could see the beach through the trees, but would the beach save her from the hungry wolves that now chased her through the forest. She didn’t know, but she knew that she’d never be rescued if she continued to run through the forest, so she kept her course.

As she approached the beach, she saw a wolf approaching from her left. It leapt into the air at her; she stopped and ducked underneath it. This one wasn’t as large as the first but still seemed too large to be just any normal wolf. She rushed forward and onto the beach. She was now cornered. She turned to face her attackers with her knife ready to attack.

She was surprised to see that the wolves had stopped at the edge of the forest. Why? She didn’t really care. For the moment it appeared that she was safe. For how long she didn’t know.

She looked out to the sea; several fins were still visible in the wanning light of the day. She looked back into the forest, the eyes of the wolves shinned giving away their positions. She looked up at the sky, her only hope was that a rescue helicopter would be looking for her and her friends. She knelt down into the sand and chuckled. If a rescue helicopter wasn’t looking for her, she would surely die. She thought about her options. Die at sea as Robert did, get torn apart by the largest wolves she’d ever seen, or starve to death waiting for rescue. Maybe the cliffs had been the best option after all.