Dreamer's Odyssey Vol. 1

Island on the Horizon

I saw vivid visions of my wife and daughter. They were walking away from me. I begged them to come back, but they kept walking. Suddenly a humongous tentacle crashed down and crushed the both of them. I screamed at the top of my lungs and squeezed my eyes shut. When I opened them I was laying on a dirty bed, staring at the ceiling of a rickety cabin. My daughter, Lily was lying in the bed next to me, she was still asleep. Since I couldn't rest, I decided to leave the cabin and go outside. My feet crunched in the sand, I felt a cool breeze fly by and the taste of salt in my mouth. I looked up at the green, starry night sky. The mere sight of it was a reminder of the horrors that lay beyond. I tiptoed to the edge of the island, and sat on a small wooden dock. As I sat, I wondered why, why me and Lily of all people, had to be the last survivors of the human race. Then I heard a voice behind me, "Dad," it said, "What are you doing?" I quickly turned around and saw Lily standing behind me. I said back to her, "Nothing, sweetie, just couldn't sleep."

"Another nightmare?" She asked.

"Yeah."

Lily sat next to me, then said, "Sometimes I wonder if this is the nightmare."

"It is," I said back. "Just not one you can wake up from."

She leaned on my shoulder and said, "I miss mom."

I hugged her and said, "I do to, sweetie, I do to."

"Dad," She asked, "Is this......it?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean, is this the end?"

"I don't know."

"Do you think maybe there are more, more survivors, like us?"

"I don't know......I don't know."

The next day, I opened a small wooden cabinet. The only thing left in it was one bottle of canned food. It won't be enough to feed both of us. I decided it should go to Lily instead of me. I handed it to her and said, "Here, it's....it's the last one." Her eyes widened, then she said, "What, I thought there was still more in there? What are you going to eat?" I replied, "I....I don't know. You need it more than I do."

"Dad, I'm not letting you starve to death!"

"What other choice do we have? It's either me or you!"

"You know what, it doesn't matter. We're just gonna lay here and rot anyway."

"Lily! Don't say that!"

She got up, and downheartedly left the cabin. I followed her outside, and was greeted by a white foggy abyss surrounding the island. This was a common occurrence, but the thick layer of fog made it hard for me to see where Lily had gone. Even with the fog, it still wouldn't take long to find her, afterall the island wasn't very big. "Lily! Lily!" I yelled out, "Please come out!" Eventually, I started to hear faint crying in the distance. I followed it till I found her hiding place. She was curled into a crying ball, hiding under part of a broken wooden boat. I lifted it off of her. She looked up at me and said, "I don't want to lose you." I looked down at her, "I don't want to lose you either."

A few days passed, and neither of us had anything to eat. It was a struggle just to stay awake. Every movement I made felt like a thousand pins stabbing at my pressure points. The mere thought of my daughter going through this same torture haunted me. At one point I even thought to myself, I can't let her live like this. Maybe it would be better if both of us.....No! That's crazy! Why would I ever even consider that! I stood up and dragged myself into the cabin. I peeked inside and saw Lily sleeping on her bed. Her skin was pale and her eyes were sunken inward. She looked like a corpse. I couldn't just leave her like this, I had to do something. But then, like a worm in the dirt, an idea slipped into my mind. One that probably wouldn't work, but was still better than the alternatives. I stayed up all night, using every ounce of energy to build my creation. At one point I accidentally nailed my finger to a wooden plank. It hurt like hell, but I kept going. I began wondering if all this work was really worth it, even if we did escape, where would we go? I considered giving up, but when I looked back at the cabin, I knew Lily was still in pain. If this had the slightest chance of working, I had to take it. After a long night of back breaking labor, I finished my creation. I creeped into the cabin and tugged on Lilly's shoulder till she was awake. "What? Dad, what are you...?"

"We're getting out of here."

"Dad, what are you talking about?"

"Come on, I have to show you something." I took her outside, and showed her a small wooden boat. "It might not be much, but it's enough to get us out of here."

"Dad, I-I don't know what to say."

The two of us pushed the boat off the edge of the island. Then we jumped inside it and began rowing the paddles. "Keep going!" I yelled. Our makeshift boat rowed through thick layers of fog. We began hearing strange noises in the distance. And seeing strange silhouettes popping out of the water. I saw Lily was starting to get worried about all this, "Uh, Dad?" She anxiously said. "Just ignore it, sweetie, we're going to get through this." We kept rowing, but the noises only got worse the more we strayed from the island. "Dad! I don't like this! We should go back to the island!" I understood her concern, but we already made it this far. "Dad, please!" Suddenly the fog began to fade. The sky was all one big black and green void, with yellow stars sprinkled here and there. Then I began to notice an enormous shadow underneath the boat. But the shadow wasn't a creature. It was a creature's limb. I then realized most of the creature's body was already above water. I didn't see it at first, maybe because it's body looked like the sky, or maybe I just didn't want to see it at all. It looked like a squid, with the characteristics of an eel. And it seemed to have destroyed buildings sticking out of its body. I knew there was no escape. I grabbed Lily and whispered to her, "I love you." Then she quietly whispered back, "I love you too, Dad."