Street Fighter

In the beginning...

I am in the process of rewriting this book, it will still be in first person. From here on this is the rewritten story, it starts off differently but involves the same characters. Feel free to tell me what you think! Thanks
The island test

Waves.

Wave after wave crashing upon the sandy shore was all that I could hear when I woke up. My hair was plastered to the wet sand and my clothes were soaked in salt water. Behind me, the sun was on its descent through the sky, heading towards the ocean horizon. As I struggled to my knees my world spun and I almost collapsed back down again. The throbbing in my head indicated my dehydration but I knew that the water lapping at my heels would do me no good.

After sitting still momentarily I slowly stood up, being acutely aware of the fact that any sudden movements would trigger pounding in my head all over again. Once standing I could thoroughly examine my surroundings. The only problem was that it turned out to be a whole load of nothing.

Beaches ran the length of the shoreline as far as the eye could see an the ocean stretched out to the horizon and beyond. At the edge of the sand there was a forest, it was thick with trees and undergrowth which meant that little sunlight filtered through to hit the floor. In the distance I could make out a single jagged cliff which reached up to the sky. It looked as though once upon a time it had been the volcano which created this spit of land, but had long been dormant.

Rather than alert my presence to potential hostiles I decided to remove any trace of my being here and scout out a place to spend the fast approaching night.

It was almost pitch black by the time I found a small cave on the side of the cliff to curl up in. I had swum around the island to avoid leaving footprints and ended up on the mountainside. Although it was impossible to climb up from down at the ocean a quick scout lead me to an indent in the seemingly solid rock face. This indent was large enough for me to fit into comfortably and still be protected from the elements. Hopefully I would be safe until the sun rose in the morning.

As I lay down I stared out to sea and tried to figure out what I was doing here and why I couldn't remember anything of where I had come from. While my body was exhausted, my mind just wouldn't slow down enough for me to sleep. So I tried to focus on something else, and as I gazed out to where the sea and the sky met I could see three stars which shone brighter in the sky than the others. I could swear that they were moving, but slowly, as I stared so intensely at them, my eyelids drooped closed.

~~

Faint voices, drifting past me on the wind awoke me the next morning and I was instantly on high alert. I was too far away to clearly make out what they were saying but I could tell that they were getting closer. My mind whirred as I considered various events and outcomes. In front of me was a short drop into the ocean, from there I reasoned that I should be able to out swim whoever was behind me. Be they friend or foe I would be safe until I could figure it out.

I shrugged off my shirt and emptied my pockets of whatever odds and ends I had in there and shoved it back into the cave to stay dry. I would come back and retrieve them later. Then, in just my tank top and shorts I launched myself off of the small ledge and into the cold water with a loud splash.

As my head came up out of the water loud shouts filled my ears, coming from the shoreline. I floated in the water for a second watching the small figures running up and down the beach and across the rocks to where I had left from. Three simultaneous splashes echoed off of the cliff face as I saw the head bobbing towards me.

I took off swimming in the opposite direction, away from the island and towards the rising sun. My arms and legs moved together as one, propelling me through the water and away from the group that was chasing me. I quickly settled back into the routine and relished the calm feeling washing over me as I felt about as at home in the water as a dolphin. It become such that I didn't even have to think about what I was doing. My let my mind wander as it took it off of the pain that was growing in my arms as they went through the repetitious motions.