"Finally" I sighed after hauling the last luggage in the car. I rushed off to the passenger seat since I was assigned to be the navigator. "Ready to have the best time of your life, Sean?" Greg shouted in excitement. I heard I few shouts and woo's in the back the car. I nodded still feeling sketchy about the whole situation and me being a control freak, I didn't feel as relieved due to the fact that I wasn't in charge of the planning like I had always been.
After passing by the same views of trees, animals, and farms we finally arrived at the dock, where we will be transferring our haul from the car to a boat, in order to reach our destination.
Destination, Stranded Island. Seeing my body tremble while carrying one of the heavy loads filled with our camping equipment, Dan decided to give me a hand. I gave him a quick smile and he responded with a bigger one. As the boat finally started to propel, I felt a sudden gush of wind slapping my whole body, leaving goosebumps all over my arms. As time ticks, the dock started to shrink until it was just a blurry dot in the distance.
The island was surrounded by tall oak trees that have been wrapped in vines, in the middle was a perfect ground to set up camp, the grass was shaved cleanly in a perfect circle but the grass surrounding it looked like it wasn't maintained since the stone age.
"Hey don't you think it's weird that the grass in the middle looked like it has only been mowed an hour ago while the rest is our knee-length?" I asked Walt with my confused face, he mirrored the same expression when he finally realised, he was about to open his mouth when Greg butted in our conversation "Come on man, stop being the party pooper and loosen up"
The night came quicker than we expected, we had just finished setting up the tent. I took the initiative and looked for kindle to light the campfire. As I picked up the piece of timber, my skin spiked up acting as a detector for a presence near me, I looked up and saw two shadows, it was quick to disappear. The bright bulb in my brain told me to satisfy my curiosity and follow the unidentified shadows. As if on cue with my foot taking a leap forward, Greg called me. I re-routed my step still feeling intrigued about the mysterious shadows.
We were all gathered around the fiery ball in the middle to keep our ice-cold skin warm, busy catching up, asking each other how our life has been when Greg butted in, having an idea of sharing scary stories to each other.
Cliche. We all refused, giving him an 'are you kidding
' look. He chuckled and continued to do what he intended. "I heard that this Island was famous for its history" we all faced him, slowly creeping up to him, giving him a sign to continue the story. "Apparently, 4 guys camped in this same exact islan-"
"That sounds exactly like us," Walt said, unintentionally making my eyes roll.
Thinking it was going to be a discussion about actual history, I immediately blocked my ears refusing to listen to their nonsense conversation and diverted my attention to grilling my already burnt ashy marshmallow and continue to fill my stomach.
After devouring a whole feast of roasted rodents I finally felt satisfied and headed towards my designated tent. Seeing all my travel buddies already inside, I slowly pulled down the shiny new zip, revealing Dan sound asleep. I stealthily moved towards him, afraid of one wrong move that will interrupt his deep slumber. Finally releasing a long sigh, I got to lay my eyes down and catch some z's.
Bang, my eyes quickly shot up along with my body. I peaked outside the tent to see where the noise came from. Greg and Walt's tent was lit up showing a clear silhouette of a man with a knife in his hand with another sitting up. I panicked frantically shaking Dan's leg to wake him up. I looked back at the scene, the man with a knife was no longer standing inside the tent and the other man wasn't sitting but now lying down. I glanced to see the sleeping Dan finally starting to gain consciousness.
"Dan, wake up!!!" I whisper shouted at him.
"Why?" He mumbled along with a groan.
"I think something happened to Greg and Walt"
I tugged his arm, forcing him to get up. I scanned the perimeter to see if the armed man was still around. I sneaked towards the tent across to find a bloody Walt with a big cut across his chest, exposing his organs. I gasped from the sight and looked away, refusing the fact that, that's his current state right now. I saw Dan's eyes started to fill with his tears. As a friend, I felt the need to rub my hands across his back to the comfort him about the current situation.
Despite just discover one of my friend's dead body, I understand I needed to run away from the scene unless I want my body to be next to his. I swayed my hands back and forth to signal Dan to move. We ran across the island passing by many tall trees. I halted when I saw a shadow of a man with a knife and a gun in his hands in front of our ride out of this hell. Reacting to the situation I stood behind one of the tall trees to reduce the risk of being seen by the anonymous man and told Dan to do the same.
At this moment a certain someone popped up in my head, Greg. Where is Greg? He might still be alive, I need to save him. I opened my mouth ready to tell Dan about the idea of saving Walt when I heard a familiar tune being whistled. The sound was starting to become more audible indicating, whoever that voice belongs to was coming closer. I peaked to see who was whistling, only to have the biggest revelation in my life.
It was Greg. He was the armed man? Did he kill Walt? Was he the culprit? My eyes popped when we made eye contact. I went back in my hiding spot hoping that he didn't see me. "Come on Sean, I already saw you" I froze to the sound of my name being called out I looked to my side to see a frightened Dan. I slowly surrendered and showed my myself to the betrayer. "Did you kill him? Did you kill Walt?" I asked refusing to make eye contact. When Greg was about to speak, another shadow went out of hiding, covered in blood. "Who said I was dead?" the shadow spoke revealing him holding a gun.
Seeing it was 1 versus 2, I grab a hold of the frightened Dan heading for the direction of the boat. I ran like Hussain Bolt when he was about to beat the record, hearing screaming and shouting behind me. Seeing that I gained 5 metres ahead of them I quickly jumped in on the vehicle and started rowing like my life depends on it. After getting a distance away from the dock I looked back seeing two silhouettes waving.
After letting the boat afloat overnight. I slowly lifted my eyes getting a blurry vision of Dan carrying a sharp object. I blinked to see it if what I was seeing was real or just an illusion. After getting the confirmation I sat up in a hurry and tried to grab the knife. Just my luck, I missed my chance of surviving by 1cm. Next thing I knew a stinging pain can be felt around my chest area. I was sure I was awake but can only see darkness until eventually, I can no longer hear a thing...
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