Survival Island (reality show)

5. The beach

“It looks like a slice of paradise.” Magnus comments when they step out of the jungle and a pristine white beach opens up for them. It’s a few meters wide and there is a rocky part that has a lot of driftwood caught between the rocks. The gentle waves are music to their ears and the sun is not too strong to be out and about.

“I like it. A nice vacation spot.” Sebastian nods. “We have driftwood for the fire and I’m sure I can catch a fish or two.”

“Are you a fisherman?” Magnus muses and starts collecting driftwood that is higher up on the beach. It’s probably dry enough to burn well.

“Dad has been taking me fishing since I remember. The perks of living by the lake, we were never out of fish. I swear mom has a meltdown every time he comes home with more.” Sebastian chuckles. He was happy in service, no fish served anywhere he was stationed.

“My dad and Uncle are avid fishermen, too. My mom can’t stand the fish, I think she is secretly handing them out to the neighbours.” Magnus laughs. “I think they would get along fine.”

“How do you feel about them? ‘Coz that’s what we’re having for lunch.” He chuckles again and sharpens a stick with his knife. It has been a while since he was spearfishing, but it’s not so different with a sharp stick.

“it’s food. We probably won’t find anything better in the swamp.” Magnus shrugs. “Are you sure you can get them with that stick?”

Sebastian smirks at the guy. He won’t even answer that. Doubting his skills? He’ll show him how it’s done. He slips out of his boots and pants, because he absolutely hates wet clothes on his skin and he wades into the water. Knee deep is just enough, he can see some fish swimming in the shallow. The white sand is a nice contrast in the clear waters and there is not an algae in sight for the fish to hide in. Standing still, he is waiting for them to swim close enough. Hopefully the others won’t scatter when he spears the first one. 

“Do you think there are sharks around these waters?” Magnus asks him.

“Why? Do you want to eat one?” Sebastian calls back and strikes with his spear at the same time. Bingo! A nice large fish. He hopes he didn’t damage too much meat, because he nailed it right in the middle. “Come get the fish. I don’t want to wade around too much and scare off the others.”

“Wow. You got one so fast?” Magnus exclaims and comes to the edge of the water. He takes the fish off of the stick and steps back a bit to clean it. “One more and we have a feast.”

“Yeah. I’m gunning for the larger ones. That's all we got.” He answers and narrows his eyes to aim better. There are a few swimming close by, but just out of reach. He has to be patient. “Have you ever eaten a stingray?”

“There are stingrays? Be careful with those, they can be deadly.” Magnus tears his eyes away from the fish he was cleaning. He peers into the water and frowns. There is a shadow swimming not too far away from Sebastian. 

“This will be a treat. Get some palm leaves, because we have to skin it and take out the stinger. You have to make files, so I’m thinking of wrapping the meat in palm leaves and cook it lightly over the fire. It’s too tender to bake without a skillet.” He instructs Magnus and tracks the stingray with his eyes. Just a little more, just a few more seconds and it’s his. He needs to strike it just right to kill it with the first blow. He can’t afford for the ray to fight back, it would be a bit awkward to explain to Magnus why he needs to sleep off the poison.

He tracks the ray with his eyes, careful not to move his legs and disturb the sand. He wants the ray, it has enough meat to have a feast. Granted, he’ll miss the potatoes, but one can not be too picky on a tropical island with no human inhabitants. ‘Now!’ His wolf shouts in his head. The ray is facing him and the long deadly tail is out of reach of Sebastian's legs. He leans all his weight into the spear and it goes cleanly through the ray and into the sand beneath.

“Got ya! Hello lunch, dinner and possibly breakfast.” He chuckles and drags the dead stingray onto the beach. He still needs to be careful of the tail and there is a dangerous spike right at the top of the back.

“Holy s**t! You actually caught it!” Magnus runs towards him with the palm leaves.

“Yeah. We have enough meat for a few meals.” He nods. “Be careful of the tail. Even dead it still has the poison.”

They get to work and take the stingray apart. Smaller files will cook faster over the fire and Sebastian even digs up a few clams from the sand while they wait for the fish to be done. Throwing the clams directly into the fire is a thing he learned by mistake. But they are delicious that way.

“Pick the clams out when they open. You’ll hear the sizzling when they let the water out.” Sebastian smiles and pulls his pants and boots back on. It will be annoying because he couldn’t get all the sand out from between his toes.

“How did you come to that idea?” Magnus asks and blows air over a clam to cool it before he eats it.

“By mistake. I dropped one in the fire once. The taste is great though.” He answers and picks a few from the palm leaf they use as a plate.

“I bet nobody else has a gourmet meal right now.” Magnus laughs as they take the fish from the fire and split it in half. The cooked stingray will be a side to the baked fish. 

“I bet none of them even thought about catching some food. They will run till they drop and then they will be too tired to hunt.” Sebastian smirks. “I’m sure they took the middle way. There is no climbing and it’s a straight path to the swamp. They will gain a few clicks on us today, but it doesn’t matter. We will be fed and rested.”

“The middle path is riddled with traps. I decided to avoid it from the start.” Magnus nods to him. “We have enough for dinner, if we can find a dry spot to light a fire. I’ll take some of the dry wood from the beach, too.”

“Me too. We can easily carry some with us. I think it will be difficult to light a fire in the swamp. It doesn’t hurt to have some dry wood.” He concurs and he even has his sights on the right length of wood to fit in his bag. The map and fire kit are in his cargo pockets.

“Have you thought about what path to take?” Magnus asks when they put the fire out and gather some wood.

“Yeah.” He answers and pulls his map out. “There are several, but I think we should follow the beach down to the river. It’s easy progress and tomorrow we try to find a crossing to the swamp lands.”

“Might work. Too bad there is that weird rocky land further down the beach. We can’t follow it all the way to the extraction point. The way it looks on the map, I wouldn’t risk it. A broken leg is death out here.” Magnus points to the map further down from the river.

The guy is probably right. Breaking a leg on these rocks would be disastrous. And avoiding the traps on the middle route is a must, but it looks to him as if they will be forced to the middle route. There is a widening in the river and something that looks to him like rapids. Those can be dangerous all on their own. He’s seen men drown on rapids, because they were pulled under with the current.

“I’ve seen that. I can’t really tell how dangerous that would be from the map alone, but we would lose too much time if we go to see it in real life. The river seems to widen at the mouth and it might be difficult to swim over. It all depends on the current and the state of the sea at the time we get there.” Sebastian explains his view on the matter.

“Nah. Let’s go with your initial plan. We follow the river up to find a safe crossing. If we have to deal with the traps, we will worry about them when we get there.” Magnus nods. 

“Agreed. Let’s head out, then.” Sebastian smiles and kicks some more sand over their fire site. If he counted correctly, it’s a few clicks to the river. Maybe six or so. They should make good time, but walking on sand is tiring as hell.

‘Fish is light food. We need meat and better protein.’ His wolf says some time later.

‘And I was looking forward to walking in silence... I know we need meat, but have you seen any?’ Sebastian asks the wolf.

‘No. There should be birds. Where are they?’ The wolf wonders.

‘Good question. Did the idiots scare them into hiding?’ He thinks of an explanation.

‘That was fun to see.’ The wolf muses.

‘Keep your ears sharp for the birds. And there will be snakes in the swamp.’ He tells his wolf and sighs inwardly. This will be a tiring day and Survival Island only just began.

Walking down the beach, he wishes for the rocks. This damn sand is slippery and annoying. He has to be careful of every step, because wiping out on the sand would be humiliating to no end. Even walking under the canopy of the trees is difficult in some places. The sand reaches into the jungle and makes their trek longer. Time drags on and on and Sebastian is starting to think they will not reach the river before nightfall.  At least Magnus is a considerate companion, who doesn’t talk just to hear his own voice. The chatter is kept low, even when Sebastian is sure there is no other contestant anywhere close by.

“I can’t wait to get off of this sand.” Magnus grunts.

“I feel you. I think we have one click or so to walk. Maybe around the next bend? I’m not sure.” He answers and checks his map. Maybe? Damn! Can you get lost on a beach? Or did someone mess up the map and the ratio? He steps out from the trees and looks for the sun. 

“Something wrong? I don’t like that look on your face.” Magnus backtracks the few steps to join him.

“Show me your map. Is it identical to mine?” Sebastian asks.

“Sure.” Magnus pulls out his map and hands it over. It is identical, except for the marks he made with his knife.

“I think the map has the wrong ratio. If the island is 80 kilometers long and we take this ratio, we should be by the river in ten minutes. I have the feeling it’s not just around that bend.” Sebastian points ahead to the trees.

“How did you figure that out?” Magnus wonders and gazes at the bend on the beach.

“Look at the sea water. When a river meets the sea, it changes colour. I only see a pristine green.” He answers pointedly.

“s**t! Never thought of that.” Magnus exclaims and kicks the sand. “You are probably the only one to figure that out. How can we determine what kind of scale the map really is?”

“We have to get to the river and do our own math based on the things we see.” Sebastian answers and shakes his head. “It will be tough and we can get an estimate only, but everything is better than this. We can’t just trust the map and go blind. I get it that they left out where the traps are, but a wrong scale? This is hard core.”

“They don’t mess around. Another thing a drill sergeant would do to throw you off your game.” Magnus smirks.

“Are you counting how many times they have slipped up? I have a feeling this thing is somehow linked to the military.” He nods. His suspicions are about 90 percent confirmed by now. The map thing just adds another percent or two.