Men in Paradise - 2. Chapter 2 - The Island

I was still a teenager then, alright! what would you do, if you are left alone on an island like that with two strangers and especially if one among them speaks a language which you can't understand even a little bit? And another guy looks like an incredible hulk with muscles that are staring in front of your face? What will you do, huh? Won't you be scared?

The reality hit me harder, I was homesick already. I was not at home. I couldn't even shit in a restroom protected by walls. Man, that was nasty shit.

And where do I get toilet paper? Shouldn't they be leaving toilet papers with the airbag so that people can use them when they are dropped by the plane? What kind of shit flight service was that?

'Yes, we Indians generally wash using water instead of wiping our asses with paper, that doesn't give them the right to drop us on the ocean just like that?' I thought to myself.

I woke up and sat on the sand. I saw blue waves washing the shore in rhythm one after another. I glanced at the two strangers who were sleeping peacefully on either side of me. I decided not to wake them up. I stood from the ground and walked on the shore. I found a safe spot to relieve my morning duties. Yep, I was doing it in an open space surrounded by cold winds, now go away, you perverts.

When I returned to the place where we slept last night (let's call it 'our spot), both Sakthi and Afridi were already awake. I wonder what they were thinking about our stranded situation. Their eyes looked like one of those ghosts from the Conjuring movie. Scared and shocked.

To me, the situation was even scarier, as if I woke up from a bad dream, I never even thought I would be left alone on a deserted island. But, we didn't know if there were any other humans living in that hell hole until then.

'Barbarians or cannibals could be living in it, hiding inside the bush forest waiting to eat us alive or add some spice if they have that practice,' I thought at that time.

I watched it on YouTube about an island at Andaman in India where tribal people are still living and isolated from the modern world for more than 10, 000 years. They will kill and eat anyone who tries to reach their shore.

'What if this is one of those islands? How will I survive there? Or get help to return home?. 'Man, I will be eaten alive anytime soon' I thought then

But Afridi was in a good mood. I doubted he must be at least one or two years older than me, Like a typical city boy with his outfit and stuff. I have seen boys like him on TikTok with their colored hair and costly outfits doing all sorts of dances and funny faces. Afridi had his hair braided in golden shades. I guessed he slept well, but I still wondered why he was so energetic that morning. 'Did he forget where he is now or what?'.

"I am thirsty and hungry," he informed us.

Then the rest of us were thirsty and hungry too, we are human of course, right? But I thought we needed to find a way to get help and reach back home, not worry about how to fill our stomachs.

Sakthi woke up soon after, he must be at least 10 years older than us. With his mature looks and gym-toned muscles, he gave me some sort of comfort and strength, who could help us out of that misery.

"There is some water left in the bottle, drink it, we need to go around and see if we can get some help to get back home," Sakthi told us exactly what I was thinking earlier.

"You guys can go and finish your morning duties, I will get some coconuts for us to eat and drink," I told them.

I started looking for coconuts, there were a few which I found on the ground, fallen from the trees. I collected just four of them and returned to our earlier spot. Some time later, Sakthi and Afridi returned to the spot and joined me. We cracked open the coconuts and drank as much as we could. I was so hungry, I even ate some coconut flesh. It was hard to crack open it with the small nail cutter Sakthi gave me. I assumed the nail cutter would not last long anyway.

I never thought that I would struggle for food in my life. Back home, I skipped breakfast on many occasions like a typical teenager and hastened to catch my college bus as if my life depended on it. Mom used to scold me for skipping my breakfast. Now that, I thought about Mom, I missed her cooking and I felt homesick once again. I was so desperate to get back home.

Sakthi somehow understood what I was thinking about. He put his arm over my shoulder and patted me. He didn't utter a word but the warmth of his arm gave me some sort of comfort. In return, I gave him a wry smile.

"Let's go boys," Sakthi told us and got up from the ground.

We aimlessly wandered around the beach for hours, Sun was burning our skins, we couldn't take it any longer. We found a few more dead bodies of our co-passengers washed aside on the shore by the waves. We found many parts of the plane were floating, we dragged it out of the waves. Sakthi and Afridi examined it, most of those parts were the second half of the plane with its tail and stuff. We guessed that the first half could have completely blasted by fire. Few leather bags and suitcases were floating on the waves, we dragged them. Some were refused to open since they were locked.

Sakthi examined dead bodies' dress pockets to see if he could find mobile phones, he found two phones in working condition but there was no network. I discovered a biscuit packet, lipstick, makeup items, a toothbrush, paste, nail cutter, sanitary pads, a diary and pen, a sunscreen lotion, a lip moisturizer, condom packets, a small wallet with few US dollars in cash, credit cards, and a family photo in a handbag that belonged to one of the girls among the dead bodies.

Sakthi found a small medical kit and another leather box that he couldn't open. Afridi found a big container and two more leather suitcases which didn't open either.

We cried out for help once again but got no response. We carried all those items found back to our earlier sleeping spot. I shared the biscuits with others. Few more hours later, we realized there were no other humans alive on the beach of course except us. So far we found 9 dead bodies including an Arabian guy and a middle-aged lady on the rocks.

We decided to go to the big rocks and search further from there. We did examine the pockets of the dead bodies where we found wallets and dead phones. I took the handbag of the dead lady and found baby pads, sanitary pads, a feeding bottle, a few packed food items, bills, mittens etc.. Man, I had no idea what I was going to do with so many pads. I could very well use it to wipe my ass, right? At least, it would solve the 'shit' problem, right?

And then I found lipstick, a small packet of milk powder, a small knife, two chocolate bars, and a few useless items and papers (but not toilet papers). Sakthi went a little bit further towards the sea and dragged one more dead body which was floating in the waters. She looked like a young Indian girl, she was pretty and I felt sorry for her.

Afridi shouted for help, louder and louder directed towards the rocks like a mad guy, but got no response. He stopped after a few minutes, his throat might have been sour from all the screaming he did that day.

We walked further, interrupted by many mini rocks on the shore. We climbed on top of it. We found a big cabin completely broke away from the plane and lying on the rocks. We examined it.

There was a lot of luggage and packages on it. It must be a special cabin for loads. It was at least 5 feet high and 3 feet wide square cabin. We wondered how it didn't sink below the sea despite its weight. The cabin was too big and heavy for us to carry it with us. So we left it there lying on the rocks and started walking further away from it.

Few more big rocks, we might have reached the far end of the shore where we saw a big mountain which must be at least 1000 feet tall, it was covered in green and we noticed many trees and plants were growing on it. We decided not to climb the mountain as we were already exhausted and starving. Also, we knew we would find nothing on the other side of the mountain except the sea waters because the mountain is located at the furthest end of the island. On the land side of the mountain, the beginning of the forest which extended further and covered three fourth of the island at its center. We decided to return to our spot which we thought was safe at that time.

I looked at my wristwatch, it's 5.30 am Indian time. Fortunately, my watch was still working then. I didn't know which time zone I should follow on that island, but we felt the sun was burning us at its full swing. We were on an island that might have had a twelve hours time difference at least.

Afridi asked Sakthi "Do you think there will be any living inside the forest? I don't think anybody living around the shore on this island".

"I don't know, but we should go inside and check the forest later. Let's go back to our spot and eat something, I am starving" he replied to him. Well, I was starving too.

We were completely exhausted by then, on the way back we came across big rocks once again and decided to take the plane cabin back to our spot. I thought that was a stupid idea anyway.

It wasn't easy, Sakthi took a small belt from one of the leather bags he found near the rocks and tied it with the cabin. It took all three of us to drag the cabin away from the rocks.

It took nearly an hour for us to reach our spot with the broken cabin and bags that weighed like a hundred elephants. Fuck, I could have just drowned under the sea and made my life simple instead. Nope, I didn't not.

We started examining the cabin and the bags we brought. Sakthi tried to open the container which looked like a food storage, but he couldn't open it since it was locked and heavily protected with security keys.

I took the chocolate bars out of the handbag, unwrapped them, and shared them equally among us. We ate biscuits too. It somehow provided us some energy back.
I went and picked three more coconuts, coconut trees on that island were shorter and it was easier to reach for the coconuts without climbing the tree too far.

Back home, I used to climb coconut trees with my friends and at my grandparent's village just for fun and that climbing skill was very useful then.

We took some rest, we decided to walk inside to look for help and get some water from the stream that the other guys mentioned earlier.

We foolishly believed tribes could be living inside the forest. The beginning of the inland was filled with Coconuts, Palmyra trees, and Banana plantations. It gave me relief as I thought there were enough food sources.

I found the water stream that the guys spoke about so much. By then, we had two big water bottles and a small bottle owned by Sakthi, we even found a thermal flask among the luggage. We fetched as much water as we could and drank it. Then filled our empty bottles too.

Afridi and I carried a handbag each and Sakthi had a laptop bag which he emptied earlier. It was weird when we realized that the Laptop was useless to us without any internet connectivity or power on that island. We plucked a dozen bananas and kept them in our bags. And then we started walking towards the bushes. Sakthi picked a big stick and carried it with him for safety purposes.

"Do you think there will be wild animals in here?" I asked Sakthi.

"You never know, but I am afraid of snakes, so I am just being careful" he replied with concern on his face.

'What the fuck man?' I asked myself. And I too followed him, took a thick wooden branch lying on the ground and held it closer. After a while, there were bushes, but we also saw tall trees and plants. We even saw a Papaya tree with plenty of fruits hanging on its top. Also, we found a small pond and ducks swimming on it.

Afridi pointed it to us and said "We can eat them if we catch it".

"We can't cook without fire, Are you planning to eat it raw or what?" I asked him.

Sam looked at me and smiled, I wondered why.

The Forest was so large. That's what we first noticed, it stretched at least a couple of miles in distance. And ended at the slope of the mountain which we saw earlier. The Forest was filled with bushes initially but then covered by plants and tall trees all along. Some of the trees were too large, they were very old for at least 50 to 60 years.

We could see the beginning of the mountain from half a mile in distance from where we stood. It was getting darker quite fast. So we realized it would be a danger to wander in the forest in the dark without the help of any light sources.

"Guys, let's reach the place at the bottom of the mountain, and then we can start walking back to our spot by the shore again, I don't think anyone lives in this forest," Sakthi told us.

It was worrying that we couldn't find anybody in the forest neither at the shore. We concluded that we were stranded on a deserted uninhabited island. So we started walking back, towards the mountain edge. We had given up our hope to find another human on that island.

But that's when Afridi jumped and screamed at us "Look, someone is walking towards us".

That human thing was moving closer and closer towards us, suddenly I felt my heart beating faster.

'He could be one of those cannibals,' the thought scared the hell out of me.

I gripped the stick tightly in my hand and got myself prepared for any attack.