Stranded (Short Story)

Stranded

     Everything was blurry when Kai finally woke up in the raft. And after hitting his head, Kai surely thought he had a concussion. The sky was an angry mix of black storm clouds and pouring rain that crashed heavily into the ocean below. Lei, who was on the other side of the raft, looked to be awake, but just barely, and he was loosely holding his side together with the rags of his suit from where the metal of the yacht had ripped into his skin. Lei had been stuck inside the boat as it was sinking and only just survived, for how much longer is unclear, but he made it out. The same can't be said for most of the occupants of the boat; Tao, Xiu, and Ping were on the lower levels of the yacht when it started going down and nobody had seen them since.

     Squinting towards Lei, Kai started shouting, "HOW LONG HAVE WE BEEN DRIFTING?" it was hard to be heard over the pounding of the rain.

     "I DON'T KNOW! I'VE ONLY BEEN AWAKE FOR A FEW HOURS, I THINK MAYBE A DAY?" Lei yelled back as he looked up into the dark storm clouds. 

     It was two days before the rain let up, and another four before they ran out of food. Lei's naturally tan skin had turned a ghastly shade of white, and his wound had started to fester. He was gasping with every breath, and his brown eyes had started to lose their brightness, becoming a dull, muddy color. Kai worried for his friend, he could see him getting worse with every day that passed, and now that they're out of provisions, there was no chance for him. Pushing his oily black hair from his eyes, Kai crawled over to Lei and gently shook him.

     "Lei...." as he shook him, his hand fell limply to the bottom of the raft. Eyes widening, Kai looked back to Lei and proceeded to take him by the shoulders and shake him harder. "LEI! Come on man, wake up!" After a couple of minutes, Kai gently laid Lei back down, covered him with the tarp, and scrambled back to his spot. As he sat, he could feel his breathing pick up and his vision start to swirl. He put his head between his legs and tried to calm his breathing, but nothing was working, and within minutes he'd passed out under the gentle blue of the sky.

     The next time he woke up, the first thing he noticed was that it was dark out. The second thing he noticed was that he wasn't moving anymore. Kai slowly started to get up, still tired from his episode, and saw that the raft had beached itself on an island. With a renewed sense of energy, Kai sprang from the raft away from the body of his friend, and vomited into the sand, crawling away as he did so. When he'd finally finished, he fell back onto the sand and looked towards the raft. After a moment of consideration, Kai realized he'd need to bury Lei's body, so he struggled to his feet, and walked over to the raft. Lifting the tarp, Lei's blank face stared up at him from the raft, and he quickly dropped the tarp back onto him before heaving his body up into his struggling arms. Looking up and down the beach, Kai realized he'd either have to bury him on the beach, or he'd have to venture into the forest. He wasn't quite ready to brave the woods yet, so he found a spot far from the water and carefully placed Lei down before going off to look for rocks to cover him.

     Soon enough Lei's entire body was gently covered in rocks with a bunch of flowers placed right where his head is. Once he was finished, Kai dropped to his knees and said a silent prayer for his friend. Minutes later Kai's stomach interrupted him, and he decided he needed to start looking for food. Begrudgingly, Kai got to his feet and wandered into the forest in search of food. At first he saw berries in the underbrush, but he wasn't sure if they were poisonous or not, so he decided to wait and see what else he could find. Kai looked for the better part of a half hour before giving up, but just before he turned around a chicken hopped out of the bushes. 

     "Where the hell did you come from?" Kai looked all around him and didn't see any other chickens nearby. When he looked back at the chicken, he heard a rustling in the trees and looked up, but before he could figure out what it was, he was shot with an arrow and passed out.