Fortnite: Island

Chapter 1: Foundation

Drift's pounding headache wasn't enough to block out the awful memories of the previous evening. Maybe it would have been better to drown in that flood. But that was the least of his problems... where was he? An isolated, tropical island?
"Morning, sleepyhead." Lynx stood above him and held out her hand to help him up.
He took her hand and stood up, "Thanks. Do you know where we are?"
"No idea, I literally just woke up."
Whilst rubbing sand off of his back, he simply said, "Oh."
"Oh indeed."
They started to slowly make their way along the island. Drift could somehow already feel sand in ever crevice of his body; he'd have to bathe later. He hadn't even sat down yet. It was like they were ants as they are depicted in cartoons, grabbing jam sandwiches etcetera etcetera. Drift wondered if the sand were trying to carry him away.
Drift looked around. The sky was that sort of brilliant blue you only saw in movies. There weren't many clouds in sight. The tall palm trees waved to the pair as they meandered along. Drift was tempted to wave back, but he didn't want to seem like an absolute weirdo in front of Lynx. There were a few bushes dotted around, which were a lucious green despite being in the intense sun. And, of course, the sand was everywhere.
"Is that someone there?" Lynx asked, pointing to a campfire.
Sure enough, there was a man and two women sat beside a campfire. Drift and Lynx dove into a bush as cover. One of the women, a younger lady wearing a red crop top and a backwards cap (which reminded Drift of his friend TnTina) was carving small segments of a tree with a knife to make stools.
A knife!
Lynx knew it too, "We don't have weapons! How will we fight them if they want to have a go at us?"
Drift looked worriedly at her and then back at the group.
"You aren't much of a talker, are you? What happened to that version of you in the bunker that wasn't stopping talking?" Lynx pondered.
"Pfft, I don't even know what was going on then." Drift laughed.
Lynx didn't respond.
"Lynx?"
"Did you heal my ankle?"
"Pardon?"
"My ankle - it's fixed. Did you heal it?" Lynx insisted.
"No. I-"
"That would be me." the man from beside the fire spoke in a clear, certain voice.
He was tall, really tall, and covered in armour coloured in blues and natural colours. If the man had stood perfectly still, then Drift would've mistaken him for a statue. His holographic helmet was unforgiving and dark, but his voice gave a different impression.
"Med Mist is amazing, isn't it? Come, sit by the fire." the armoured man said.
"Why didn't you wake us?" Lynx asked.
"'They're so peaceful, look at them.' Those were your words, right?" the lady who wasn't carving out chairs called. Her glossy black hair cascaded down her back and along her golden armour.
"Yes, Shanta, that's what I said." the armoured man sighed.
It took only a few seconds for the threesome to arrive beside the fire.
"D'you min' sittin' on the floor for a minute?" the woman with the knife shouted.
"No. Do you, Drift?" Lynx asked.
"No."
"Sick. I won't be long." the girl went back to carving.
So Drift and Lynx sat in the sand and Drift sighed internally because he'd have to pat sand off his backside again and they sat, waiting for the armoured man to speak. And he did.
"I'm The Foundation. You might have seen me somewhere." The Foundation announced, "You've seen Shanta, and she's-"
"Haven. How'd ya do?" Haven held out her arm to shake hands, but only Drift was in reaching distance, so he shook for himself and Lynx.
"So, have either of you heard of the Imagined Order, or IO?" The Foundation asked.
"Yes." Haven scoffed.
"He wasn't asking you." Shanta scowled.
"Oh, eff off."
Shanta looked utterly offended.
"Enough, girls." The Foundation shouted. Drift saw Lynx physically jump at this, and she looked at him worriedly.
Haven mumbled curse words under her breath and stuck some gum into her mouth, chewing constantly. It was like a clock's ticking; consistently reliable and also very annoying.
The Foundation cleared his throat, "So, IO is an organisation. They created the Loop and are controlling all the people in it. They have guards and assassins. I don't have their leader's info but I do know their assistant. Slone. You know her?"
"No." Lynx shook her head. Drift said nothing.
"You're being a bit brief, ain'tcha?" Haven scoffed.
"I can't go into specifics - if they say no then I'll be putting our objective at risk." The Foundation explained.
"What objective?" Drift asked.
"Destorying IO."
"Sounds like a good time." Lynx smirked at Drift.
"Is it settled, then?" Shanta asked.
"I guess so."
Drift looked at the ground. He wasn't entirely prepared to start an adventure so soon after the death of Brite. And they didn't know enough information. It appeared that Lynx was a head-first person. Drift also could've sworn the sand was crawling up his legs. Drift decided in his head that sand officially sucked.
The Foundation continued, "I can't give you more information right now, other than the fact that this mission will make you a target."
Oh, joy.
"Wha' a pleasant chat. Anyway, do you want to keep these stools I made you?" Haven asked, still chewing her gum.
Lynx looked at Drift and he instinctively looked back. It probably wasn't worth keeping them.
"Sorry, but we can't." Lynx shook her head.
"Meh, your loss." Haven shrugged.
Lynx and Drift stood up and made to leave the campfire. Not much time had passed since they had originally sat down, Drift realised.
"HEY!" Haven shouted.
"Huh?" Drift called.
Haven threw Drift a single gun - an SMG. She nodded and he nodded back. It was his simple way of saying thanks.

***

Since arriving on the mainland of the new island, they had found one lonely chest, containing a new sort of AR which had a scope on it (Drift noticed that the gun's colours matched that of the Foundation's armour), some of the Med Mist stuff the group was going on about, a tent, an apple and (weirdly) a copy of Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets.
"Why the Chamber of Secrets?" Drift scoffed, puzzled.
"I dunno. Maybe IO made these chests and filled them all with sequels of books to annoy us." Lynx gasped, "They're more evil than we thought!"
"Imagine, though."
"Ruining my life, they are."
"Anyways, we won't survive on just this apple, so we'll have to catch some fish." Drift sighed.
"No, I think we should ration the apple instead." Lynx laughed. Drift replied with an even harder laugh.
"Welcome back to reality, talkative Drift." she continued.
"Thanks."

***

Inevitably, Drift knew that the talkative version of himself wouldn't persist long, and it didn't. Maybe it took half an hour for it to fade away. It didn't matter.
Lynx had found a nice spot for their tent to go for the night. It was beside the ocean, in a gorgeous plateau. The greens were so bright, they hurt Drift's eyes a little. The way the sun reflected off of the ocean gave the winter evening a summery feel. But it wouldn't last long. Night was coming, like a blanket falling slowly across the island.
"Hey, Drift?" Lynx called over to Drift.
"What's up?" Drift asked politely.
"Can you go catch some fish?"
Drift raised an eyebrow. They didn't have a fishing rod, so how would they catch any fish? Drift knew he didn't want to and also probably couldn't nab fish with his bare hands.
Lynx shouted theatrically, "A-ha! I know what you're thinking, and you're wrong! Because I found another chest and it had a fishing rod, and also-"
"Throwing knives." Drift gasped, seeing the blade.
"Actually, throwing knife. There was only one."
"Oh."
"It's fine." Lynx sighed, "We just have to... improvise, or something. Maybe we could learn some tricks from that Haven character and carve some wooden knives with this metal one."
"I guess."
There was a moment of silence where Drift waited outside the boring, dull, blue tent for Lynx to throw him the fishing rod. The colour reminded Drift of some of the coral that grew in Coral Castle. Eventually, Lynx emerged with the fishing rod and also the AR, "Just in case."
"Ok, thank you, Lynx. Maybe you could try and make something nice with the apple?" Drift wondered aloud.
"I guess I could make an attempt at trying something."
"That's all I ask for."
Drift grabbed his supplies and headed down to the ocean to catch some tasty Shield Fish.

To be continued...