The Island - Chapter One

Chapter One: Christine

White light...spinning colors....whispered voices....silence. The girl didn’t feel a thing until a gentle wetness touch her left cheek and lips. She murmured something inaudible and then her hand gripped into the sand lying under her body. Another wave of water lapped at her face. Dark lashes flickered open, revealing deep blue eyes. They widened in confusion and unfamiliarity.

The girl pushed herself unsteadily up, pivoting her head. Long, bedraggled, curly blond hair clung to her head and slim body.

Where am I? She thought in bewilderment as her confused gaze beheld a vast blue ocean, white sandy beach, and a luscious green island. Her hand crept to her face, shoving her dripping hair from her eyes, as she stared around almost in a panic.

The girl jumped, unsteadily to her feet, swinging around, looking back out into the ocean and then towards the island again, her breath quickening.

What is happening?

She took a tentative step further into the beach. The white grains sunk in under her feet, her bare toes dug furrows. Glancing down, she paused in mid-step. Her clothing was not her own. Faded denim shorts and a white tank top; clothing she had never owned. And of course her feet were bare.

I’m dreaming.

Feeling the sand on her palms she brushed them against the shorts, still staring at this strange attire. She began walking again. Then an unfamiliar voice stopped her cold.

“Who are you?”

She spun around.

A young man stood ten feet away towards her right, his own bare feet, covered in the tides lapping onto the beach. He wore jeans and grey t-shirt. Water dripped from sun-bleached hair and his brown eyes were as confused and disorientated as she felt.

“I’m Christine Linville,” she managed to sputter out,” Who are you?”

“Ryan Littleton,” he replied and took a step forward.

“How did you get here?”

Christine shrugged,” I have no clue. This doesn’t seem real. I must be dreaming.”

Ryan didn’t reply to this, he looked past Christine’s head towards the island behind her.

“If I’m dreaming than you must be part of the dream,” Christine murmured half to herself half to him.

His eyes dropped to hers,” And what if I think you’re just part of my dream.”

Christine felt herself shudder.

“No I’m real.”

“And so am I,” he replied quietly,” Which means...” his words trailed and his eyes returned sweeping across the beach. He seemed worried about something.

“What’s the last thing you remember?” Christine asked him, beginning to believe perhaps he was real. She stepped closer.

“I was at Boot Camp.”

She must have looked confused.

“National Guard,” he explained,” I was walking towards Sergeant Sims...but I...I don’t know what happened after that.”

Something flickered through his face. Christine shivered again.

“I was driving home from class,” she stated, hugging herself.

“And now we’re here...a place we could not be unless someone put us here,” Ryan’s hand swept through the air.

Simple deductions, but Christine was so rattled at the moment, it didn’t make sense.
Ryan stepped closer to her. They were now three feet apart.

“This can’t be happening,” Ryan arms dropped in despair against his body.

Christine fought back a sudden wave of panic. If this wasn’t dream...if this was real...than she and this boy were in major trouble. But who would do such a thing to them? She frantically tried to remember anything she might have done illegally or just plain wrong that would have warranted being exiled to an island.

Nothing.

Why the heck could she not remember anything between this moment and when she was driving in her car?

Christine found herself gazing up at Ryan, whose own gaze was still sweeping in bewilderment across the beach. He was her only human contact, her only source of hope. She wasn’t alone at least. But why was he here?

She reached out and touched his arm. He jerked towards her obviously surprised.

“I just want to make sure you were real,” she said in explanation, dropping her hand.

His forearm was an iron mass of muscle.

Ryan rubbed his forehead, staring at her again. Christine could see the questions flying through his brain.

“ Maybe we should walk around a bit, check this island out....try-try to wrap our minds around the reality of it.”

He was shaking his head, as he stumbled over his own words. He sounded neither confident nor encouraging.

Christine swallowed hard, nodding in agreement. Ryan turned slowly, as if trying to decide which direction to take.

A sudden eerie howl erupted from the trees. Christine screamed and instinctively reached out, clutching Ryan’s arm. One of his hands slid over hers.

“What was that?” she whispered, as both their eyes shot towards the towering tree line.

“I don’t know,” Christine felt his body go rigid.

“A monkey...maybe?” She suggested wishfully.

They both jumped as something darted through the trees, nearly twenty yards inland under a canopy of leafy branches. It was black and huge. And it was there and then it was gone.

Ryan and Christine just stared for several long moments before either spoke.

“The birds stopped singing,” Ryan said quietly.

Christine glanced up at him and then back at the forest. He was right. Since the moment she’d woken up on this island, some kind of tropical bird had been twittering loudly, an entire flock of them in fact.

Now the birds were silent.

Except for the lap of the tides behind them against the sand, the entire island was silent.
Ryan and Christine waited, breathlessly, afraid to move.

Then slowly the birds began singing again.

Ryan’s hand slipped off of Christine’s and she slowly released his arm.

“Let’s just stay on the beach right now,” he said.

“All right,” she swallowed hard and followed as he turned towards their right and began trudging down the beach.

She didn’t ask him what they had seen, because of course, who knew? But shivers continued to course up and down her spine as she remembered the unnatural howl. Was it an animal or a human?

She wasn’t prepared to find out...everything was just overpowering her too much too quickly. She quickened her pace after Ryan. He would protect her...though she’d barely known him five minutes...she felt deep down inside Ryan was fearless. And she instantly trusted him. What choice did she have? At the moment all they had was each other.

They walked in silence for nearly fifty yards, when suddenly Ryan stopped in mid-stride. Christine nearly plowed right into him. She stumbled catching herself against his back.

“What the...”

Her words faded into a gasp as he took off into a dead run, sand flying up under his bare feet.

For a brief second, fear clutched Christine’s heart. But then she saw where he was running to.
A body lay sprawled on the ground just near the edge of the trees. Christine nearly sprawled as she broke into a sprint after him.

Ryan was already kneeling, gently pushing the person who was lying face down in the sand over onto their back. Christine skidded to halt behind him.

It was a young woman, her own age with jet black hair and a tan face streaked with blood. She wore denim shorts just like Christine, but her sleeveless shirt was brown and hanging in shreds off her thin body. More blood covered her abdomen and legs.

“Oh, my God,” Christine prayed out loud, hand covering her mouth,” Is she alive?”

“Yes,” Ryan was feeling the girl’s pulse,” Help me get her away from these trees!”

Christine grabbed the girl’s feet as he hooked his arms under her shoulders and they dragged her nearly half way to the shoreline.

They weren’t alone? How many people really were on this island?

These questions spiraled through Christine’s mind in a vague confusion, as most of her attention focused on alarm at the girl’s condition.

“How are we going to stop the bleeding?” Christine breathed, as they both knelt on either side of her.

Gashes and cuts covered her body. But blood flowed thickest around her neck. Ryan brushed back the girl’s long hair, revealing an ugly gash, nearly six inches in length.

Christine nearly threw up. She’d never seen anything so grisly before. Ryan instantly tore off his shirt, ripping it into strips and wrapped them around the worst cuts, including the girl’s neck.

“I don’t know what to do,” he admitted, hands shaking, as they tightened the makeshift bandages in place.

Blood covered his hands. His bare chest, which rippled with muscles as hard as those in his arms, began to heave convulsively with panic.

Christine started crying, as she realized the girl would die if they didn’t stop the bleeding. They needed medical help.

She gripped the girl’s hand, feeling the slight pulse.

“Oh, God save her,” she pleaded, tears running down her cheeks.

Ryan sat back covering his face with bloody hands, visibly shaken. Christine glanced towards him, realizing he was already giving up.

“Ryan...” she panicked, hand tightening around the girl’s wrist.

“There’s nothing we can do, Christine,” he said, voice choked, he stumbled to his feet. Christine’s eyes followed him, silent tears running down her cheeks.

They couldn’t just let her die?

“Ryan...” she repeated.

He spun around angrily,” Don’t you understand? We could be next! Whatever tore this girl up could come after us.”

Christine gulped, eyes returning to the girl’s limp form. Blood was seeping through Ryan’s shirt around her neck, pooling into the sand under her head.

Christine crawled away from the terrible sight, to the water’s edge just a few feet away and washed the blood off her hands. She could hear Ryan muttering curses to himself behind her. A dark red trail of blood floated away into the ocean from her hands.

Christine suddenly had a strange thought.

“Ryan,” she said glancing up,” bring the girl over here near the water.”

“Christine it won’t help,” he replied angrily.

“I know...” her words trailed,”...but maybe we can wash the blood away.”

She heard him sigh, but then he bent and dragged the dying girl beside Christine, his shirt falling into the sand. Ryan just left it there.

Christine cupped her hands and poured water over the girl’s face.

She heard Ryan gasp before she could even react, as both stared in wonder at what happened before them. Christine’s hands trembled as she slowly held them suspended in the air above the girl.

The cuts and blood on the girl’s face just disappeared. Christine and Ryan’s eyes shot towards the ocean and then back towards each other.

“What’s happening here?” Ryan asked in a low voice.

Christine didn’t reply but started splashing more water on the girl, cupping it quickly over her bleeding neck. The wound completely closed up and disappeared, without even a scar remaining.
Though her mind couldn’t comprehend this miracle, Christine didn’t question it as she frantically covered the girl in water.

Seeming to recover from his own shock, Ryan started helping her.

“I can’t believe this is happening?” he breathed, as one after another the wounds and cuts disappeared into smooth unblemished skin.

Christine didn’t reply again a she caught a movement from the girl’s face.

Her eyes were opening.

Christine grabbed Ryan’s arm, gesturing at him. He stopped, as they both stared at the girl’s face. She blinked, flashing brown at them; then her eyes opened completely.