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Pink Island Berries

You wouldn’t believe how far I’d go to pull you out from the dirt.

By Dream SilasPublished 3 years ago 6 min read
6
Pink Island Berries
Photo by Jasper Garratt on Unsplash

The sun is highest in the sky and that means that it is time. We are waiting under the shady palm tree for the wind to come and blow open the little black book to reveal our instructions for today.

The four of us are dehydrated and starving. The few clothes that we have left on our bodies are soaked in sweat and regrettably filthy. We look as if all the life has been drained out of us.

Between the four of us, we only have the strength to hunt for a short while. Any vigorous hunting in this heat would be sure death for us all. We hope the book reveals something easy for us and gives us a break today.

Yesterday we weren’t so lucky. We had to climb trees and lift large rocks for water and food.

The island is normally barren of food. The only food and drink we can consume come from when we follow instructions correctly from the book.

Even though we were able to collect drinkable water from a stream yesterday, it’s only because the book allowed us to do so. If I go to that exact location now, the stream will be all dried up; like it never existed.

The others and I have wasted a lot of time and energy trying to go against this system. It never works.

So we've just decided to abide by the rules. We hope that by doing this, the book will tell us what we need to know to escape.

A swift breeze comes in suddenly from the right side of the island. We all bask in the comforting coolness it delivers. The black book perched upon a smooth white rock flies open violently and the pages begin swaying back and forth in unison.

After a few moments, the island is calm again and the only thing that can be heard is the unsteady panting of me and the others.

The book is settled open.

We all get up at once and walk toward the book to see what information it has for us today.

After we all reach a position where we can see what is written, we all read it aloud in unison:

A useless rusty whistle and a terribly torn shirt. You wouldn’t believe how far I’d go to pull you out from the dirt.

It seems to be a riddle of some sort.

We all look down at the earth beneath our feet and the sun is shining on four semi-shiny pieces of rusted metal.

One for each of us.

We each bend down and use our hands to dig out the chunk of metal from the dirt. The sun is beating down relentlessly on our backs.

We dig up whistles with strings that we could wear around our necks.

I run over to the book again and read the riddle aloud for everyone a second time:

A useless rusty whistle and a terribly torn shirt. You wouldn’t believe how far I’d go to pull you out from the dirt.

It doesn’t make sense to me or the others.

We decide to sit back under the palm tree and think it through in the shade.

I know that dehydration and hunger are getting to everyone’s head. We are less sharp than we'd normally be. And the sweltering heat doesn’t help much either.

After a few moments of pure bafflement Jim, the only guy of our group of four jumps up and explodes into a loud scream.

It startles the rest of us and we bunch up together, moving our backs directly onto the trunk of the palm tree.

“I’m tired of this. The stupid, cryptic riddles. The mediocre survival skills that you all have. I’m sick of being hungry, thirsty, and hot. And I’m especially sick and tired of taking commands from that goddamned book! It rules over us like some sort of god.” He screamed at us with a hot, fiery, and distant look in his eyes.

I stood up. “Jim, calm d-“

“No!” He was enraged. I watched him grab our makeshift shovel and start digging.

“What are you doing?”

“I’m digging a grave for myself. I quit. We’re going to die out here.”

I sat back down with the other two and watched Jim recklessly and hastily dig a hole into the earth.

I began feeling extra weak.

I continue to watch him while falling in and out of consciousness.

***

I was woken up by Jim yelling something I couldn’t make out yet. I am still groggy from my sleep and his words sound like muffled gibberish to me.

Jim calls out to us again. “Guys, look. I found berries!”

We rush over to the ditch he had dug and we see three large berries in the ground. Jim hops into the ditch to retrieve them. It is a significant drop.

“There must be more to the left of this hole based on the way these are positioned in the ground,” Jim stated. “Guys, grab the rope and pull me back up.”

We throw Jim the end of the rope and plant our feet firmly in the ground to pull him back up. He uses his feet to scale the sides of the ditch to help himself up as well.

We successfully pull him up and crowd around him to indulge in some of the berries. He's gripping them in his hands tightly and keeps staring at them.

I clear my throat a bit and with a hoarse voice, I murmur. “Jim, can we have some?”

He looks down at me with a sharp look and then pushes me and the others, one by one, into the ditch.

“No. You didn’t help me. You didn’t do any of the work.” He spits while looking down at us and eating the berries.

I look up at him in pure terror. His face is stained red from eating the berries so savagely. The rusted whistle rests gently on his chest. And his shirt, which is in literal shreds, on his body is also stained red from the fruit.

I am hit with a realization.

A useless rusty whistle and a terribly torn shirt. You wouldn’t believe how far I’d go to pull you out from the dirt.

The riddle represents Jim and how he’d push us in a ditch just to have the berries to himself. It was a foreshadow.

Jim looked down at us for a few moments more before getting the shovel again and digging another hole to the left of us.

“We have to try and get out of here,” I say desperately to the others. But they tell me that they are entirely too weak to move.

I close my eyes for a moment and sit on the ground.

To think, none of this would have happened if I never accepted that sweepstakes that I won for a free trip to the Pink Islands along with $20,000. I was so excited that I was able to bring three guests and I immediately thought to bring my closest friends.

I thought it'd make us closer. I thought we'd make pleasant, unforgettable memories together.

I feel so foolish now for sending that text to my group chat of friends saying:

“Guess where we’re going?” ;D

I feel responsible for all of this.

And I feel powerless.

The only thing I can do now is wait for the book to bring us another message when the sun is highest in the sky and hopefully, by then, I’m still alive.

fiction
6

About the Creator

Dream Silas

I love to write about love, the beautiful, and the natural world.

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