Image courtesy of Unsplash.
At last the tiny ship saw land ahead. Lost for two days on the shores of the Black Sea, Tony was beginning to panic. His food was running short, he was heading into hostile territory and his communications gear was not picking up the “Mayday” signals he was blasting over his communications system.
As Tony got closer to the land, his heart sank. There was not a sign of human life in sight. The banks were steep and rocky, small bays fooling him every few miles, he decided to stay in sight of land until he came upon some sign of life.
Where was he? Would the place he finally found be friendly, or some random terrorist camp, far away from those hunting them? As nightfall came, he began to worry again. Still, no civilization, still no good harbor site close to shore. He decided to keep on until the sun set and the light had faded from thee sky and then put down his anchor for the night.
Up ahead, Tony thought he saw a flash of light. Though his first emotion was excitement, it quickly turned to fear. He turned on a small light on his starboard to gauge the reaction of the light on shore. Relieved, the light flashed back at him-three times, he took this as a friendly sign and started toward the light.
As he neared the beach, he could see a campfire glowing on the shore. He packed up what gear he could carry on the life boat-gun ammo, water, a little food, dry clothes and a blanket ,anchored the little ship and hopped in. As he approached the sandy inlet, he yelled out, “Hello, there! Anyone home?”
Feeling rather silly at his lack of a better greeting, he heard a voice come back towards him. “Please, come on up!” said a voice that sounded rather feminine. He wondered what a woman would be doing out here? Who was she with-was it a trap? He could see in the moonlights shadows the figures of three people.
As he drug the life boat up the bank, past the tide line, the three figures raced down towards him.
“Oh, my God!” shouted one of the figures, definitely a woman. “We thought they had given up on us!”
“Who?” Tony asked, puzzled.
“We were on our way to an island for research, said the third woman.” The ship was called the Morning Dawn. It went down in a storm after taking on water We fought the storm for maybe a day, and realized we were the only survivors.”
Well, now there are four lost explorers, sighed Tony as he sat down on the edge of a rock.
Lyssa Medana said,
May 6, 2014 @ 9:30 am
Poor Tony, but at least he has company. You really conveyed the growing panic, we take communications so much for granted. Lyssa M x
beebeesworld said,
May 11, 2014 @ 2:38 am
Thanks for reading. I like to leave the reader hangng….
Sara Healy said,
May 8, 2014 @ 5:26 pm
I liked this story. You kept my attention through the story and I wanted to know what would happen to Tony. Hopefully, ” ‘four heads’ are better than one” in this case and they find their way home.
It was a good read. Thank you