Stranded

3

The bird tasted weird. Taehyung didn't want to eat thinking remnants of a dead man were ingested by this bird, but Seokjin says they needed protein. He watched Seokjin use his knife to feather and open the bird, pulled its guts out, and stuck its meat and everything on some sticks. It was almost as big as a medium-sized chicken but tasted like nothing, with no salt or spices though it smelled good while it was cooking, Taehyung salivated while waiting.

It was their third night on the island and still, they haven't found anyone—alive. Taehyung never thought finding trash would make him so glad. What with all the plastic in the world, slowly they see more and more plastic bottles, plastic bags, and styrofoam on the sand. They expected to see some locals, hopefully. He was grateful for the coconuts and how low-bent towards the ocean they were, they didn't have to climb. People can last 3 days without water, but with the coconuts, they were doing okay, even though their heads started to hurt from dehydration from time to time. Taehyung was so sick of coconuts already. The island seemed like it was flourishing though, there were lots of birds, even some exotic types that Taehyung has never seen before. They can't really tell how big or small this island was and walking for three days has worn them out. Their lips were dry and pale, their skin was sunburnt, and they stink.

Seokjin was so quiet after finding his deceased friend. He told Taehyung he thought about taking the man's jacket but decided not to. Taehyung watched him start the fire diligently so he could do it the next time, copying everything that Seokjin did. The 3rd night wasn't as cold and windy as the first two, but the sand flies were horrendous. They were both slapping and itching their skin. Eventually, Taehyung noticed they seemed to stay away from him when he was closer to the fire. He made another fire pit, burning dried coconut husks he's collected and discovered it was great for keeping insects away.

Taehyung let Seokjin be. The man was hauling driftwood and bamboo he found while he collected long palm branches with leaves. They were both so tired of moving around so much that when they laid down to rest, they drifted to sleep immediately.

They both wake to a scurrying around their camp. Seokjin checked his watch after screaming and saw it was 2 in the morning. Dozens and dozens of crabs appeared all over the place, climbing coconut trees, getting in between their bodies and one even pinched Seokjin's toe waking him up. A lot of them were digging burrows in the sand around them and some ran with the bird's feathers in their claws. Both of them got up, Taehyung added more sticks to the dwindling fire and blew on it to make it bigger, allowing them more light in the dead of night. They both ran around capturing the crabs and collecting them in plastic bags they found on the beach. It would have been a funny sight if they weren't both doing this for survival. Tying at least 4 plastic bags filled with live crabs, the two laid back down in their tent, just when both of them were about to sleep, they hear the breaking of branches, and soon enough a coconut falls right through their palm-built bamboo roof and landed right between their bodies.

"What the fuck!" Seokjin exclaimed. The crabs that climbed all the way to the top of the trees have been clipping away at some bark and one dried branch was dry enough that it couldn't carry the coconut below it that it snapped. The crabs continued on scurrying around them and they both could not sleep. The sun soon came up and the crabs returned back to their hell holes and they both finally, finally got shut eye.

Taehyung woke up to Seokjin eating, shirtless. He smashed the crabs with a rock to make sure they don't run away and placed them on the hot embers. Taehyung was so lethargic, he felt sticky from sweating last night and he just stank.

"Morning, hyung.."

"Mmh, dig in," Seokjin says, sucking on a crab. His hair was damp and his clothes were set by rocks on the sand under the sun. He was in his boxers.