Who Croaks Next?

The Exploration

    As the sun rose over the crystal waterfall, the small group of five awoke, and ate several raw kiwis for breakfast.
"I feel like we can roast kiwis." Complained Laina. "This island food is soooo bland." Ernesto shot a look at her.
"Well you can go hillbilly hand fish until you catch us something edible." It had turned out that the fish Ferriday caught were actually poisonous, and after a very scary (and smelly) night of food poisoning for Leeland, they agreed to just eat fruit until they knew what they were doing.
"So what's on the agenda for today?" Asked Sven. "More fruit collection?" Ferriday rolled her eyes.
"We have enough fruit to make a vegan blanche, Keith. No, today I feel as though we should go exploring." No one could think of anything better to do, so they made crude sacks out of spare material, loaded up on fruit, and set off to walk around the beach.
     "Wouldn't it be funny if we just landed on a sparsely populated peninsula? And we find civilization?" Joked Sven.
     "Yeah, Keith, and I'm sure Smith would be the first to laugh." That shut him up. The island, as it turned out, was not a peninsula. In fact, it was barely a square mile in area. Still large, yes, but not terribly so. Still, it took them about three hours to make it halfway. But it was beautiful.
     Colorful crabs were snapping in the shallows, which had water so clear you could see straight down to the bottom. Multicolored tropical birds fluttered in the sky and palm tree swayed in the breeze. When they stopped for lunch they sat under three palms that provided a shade of sorts, and they moved out into the sun after they finished eating. The shining sun felt pleasantly warm and they almost nodded off to sleep.
    
     I used the word almost because they were immediately disturbed.

     With a loud crash, something landed in the water around three feet away. They all jumped up, with Leeland, Ernesto and Ferriday all brandishing sharp rocks. The thing slowly rose out of the water. It was lime green and about five and a half feet tall. It didn't seem real, but was slightly transparent and floated above the water. It was... Smith John!
     "Hello guys. Nice of you to finally come by." He said snarkily. Leeland and Ferriday shared a glance.
     "Smith?" Leeland Asked.
     "The very same. How did you guys find out about the ghost grove? You weren't supposed to for another 5 chap-" he cut off suddenly. Laina crossed her arms and stared suspiciously at him.
     "So you're the famous Smith John. I thought you always had the attitude of a TV host?" He turned to her and grinned sarcastically.
     "Well dying has put a lot of things into perspective for me, and I decided I don't care about fame anymore. I'm dead! It can't bring me anything I don't already have! So yeah. Snarky is the new chirpy."
     "That doesn't rhyme." Pointed out Sven.
     "Don't contradict me, livling." He rumbled. "Now this has been a lovely chat, but he offended me so I'm off. You want to open it again then eat lunch under the tree and rest on the beach until you get sleepy. I'll appear." And with that he dove for the sand, but instead of hitting the ground he disappeared midair.
     "Livling?" Said Sven. Ferriday shook her head.
     "Damn. I promise he was a lot nicer when we knew him." Leeland nodded in affirmation. Ernesto leapt to his feet.
     "Well if we want to go home by dinner time we'll have to cut through the forest." They all stood and stared into the forest's murky depths. The outer ring had widely spaced lazy palms and other tropical trees and plants. Further in, the trees grew closer together and the ground developed a carpet of thick, green moss. Vines grew between the trees, and small woodland creatures scampered about. As there was truth in what Ernesto said, they agreed to walk through the forest. It was slow going, and they all had five billion heart attacks whenever a small plant brushed their ankles or they ran into a spider web. Moving on, Ferriday felt like there was something wrong. She finally figured it out, but Ernesto had screamed because he saw a butterfly and thought it was a ghost.
     "Listen up, Ernie," she said, rolling her eyes, "We just met a ghost, another won't do any harm." They began to move again.
     "Wait, I'm not done. Hasn't anyone noticed that the wildlife are afraid of people even though nobody lives on this island?" The others looked at each other in alarm. Not because of the wildlife, but because of her attention to detail. But this helped Sven formulate an idea that he hadn't quite been able to put into words.
     "And it wouldn't take all the way until night to walk the rest of the island. We got moving at approximately 8:00, walked until 11:00 and we would've got back at 2:00." This freaked everyone out even more.
     "So why did we go this way?" Cried Laina. One of their two questions was answered for them. Just at that very moment, a tan young man and woman ran into their clearing, the girl leading the boy by him arm, giggling. They stopped dead.
     "What the f-"

A note with Levi Pedoct (or Plot Eviedic ;))

Hello! Another chapter, after some weeks. And it's 900 words! Are you proud of me, mother? Hoped it was a good read, I promise that we will have a croaker next chapter, really.