[Burning Inside]: 233.Short Stories.A fool's prey

The fool’s prey

I was sitting there by the fire watching the freshly killed boar rotate around, the hunger inside of me growling. I couldn’t wait to eat; I had been starving for the past two days, as I couldn’t find anything to eat. But I guess that is what happens when you get stranded on an island with no supplies.  My stomach’s growls were making my eyes water, which would clean some of the dirt away, from my green eye.

The days had gone by slowly as the hungry would starve me slowly. It had felt as though as million claws were tearing at my inners eating them out, filling there own stomachs and leaving mine empty.

I had come to this island an odd way; I had never expected it to happen. I am a pilot, and I had decided to take myself for a little drive, a few days trip that was all. I stood five foot four, which was well over the required height for a pilot; my hair was always kept short as to not get in the way, and I was wearing my regulatory pilot outfit, which for some reason was still a standard of dark brown with light brown pockets. Halfway over the Atlantic Ocean my plane started to malfunction, I bailed out taking a parachute with me, unsure as to where I would land, but it was better then death; at least immediate death. 

I plummeted through the sky, as the air rushed past my head, eventually I pulled the cable on my parachute as it didn’t open. Panicking I went to grab the other back up cable, but it only slipped through my hands. I was getting closer and closer to the world, yet I still couldn’t see ground. Grabbing the cable again I used both of my hands to make sure that it didn’t slip out this time. I tugged on the cable as the parachute opened up. I was safe, for now at least. If I landed in the water then sea creatures would surely get me before any boat came by.

Slowly I drifted closer and closer to the world, looking down waiting to see something. My whole heart and wished for land, but I knew that there was no land for miles in any direction. I continued to look down looking for something, maybe I would get lucky and a shark would eat me before I touched the water, one that was a giant and could swallow me in a single gulp, but that was even less likely to happen then there being land.

Then I saw it, out of all amazement there was land, directly beneath me, it was a fairly large island, with what appeared to be a volcano near the water on the right, but I wasn’t all to sure. Land was coming closer and closer, as I realised that I was going to be landing in the tree’s, if I didn’t it was sheer luck by this point.

I saw the trees coming closer and closer, I was going to get stuck in the top of them I knew that I was, slowly I would die there from starvation, hanging until I died, no one would ever find my body. I was right, I hit the top of the tree square in my chest, as I started to fall backwards, a branch hit me right underneath the parachute pack, now I was falling forward again, I was headed straight for a branch that was probably as sharp as some knives found in the average persons house. My parachute snagged and wouldn’t let me go anything further right before the branch had stuck into my eye.

The parachute pulled me back as I completely missed the branch, not even my hair was clipped. I moved backwards but not by my choice, everything was up to the parachute now. I swung back and forth just missing a few trees, and started to move around in a circle.
“Great I am going to be doing this for a while, this parachute material will never rip from these branches” I thought to myself.

Yet again it had seemed that I was wrong, as I heard a ripping noise coming from the top of the parachute. Within a second the whole top of the parachute was ripped as I started to plummet once again, but this time I could barely hear the wind rushing past my head.

I saw the ground coming closer and closer, there were no tree’s to stop my impact on the ground; I was going to die from the impact, or at least be knocked out for a while. 

It had seemed that all time had slowed down to view the impact. The ground was inches from my face, and it had seemed like hours had passed before I had hit ground. As I got closer I could feel the electricity in between. The dirt upon the ground was already rising from the wind that I had pushed down with my fall. As the ground had come closer, I could start to feel my skin being pushed up from the impact, even though I hadn’t yet touched the ground.

Then suddenly I hit, all time went back to normal speed, as I hit the ground. I went unconscious in under a second, not expecting to ever awaken, as my parachute slowly fluttered down on top of me.

Yet again I was proven wrong, I had awoken, completely unsure to anything.

I was lying on the beach, and it was past sundown, I had no idea what time it was nor how I got gotten to the beach. The last thing I remembered was hitting the ground in an area with trees, now he was lying on the beach as the water was washing up to just below his feet.

“This can’t get any worse, now I am going to starve to death as opposed to quickly dieing.” I sat up on the beach, no idea which side of the island I was on at first, and the trees were to tall for me to see if the mountain or volcano was nearby.

I knew my basic survivor skills, but those were all with things that I could use to help my self. I needed to build a fire first of all. Getting up I still had pain surging throughout my body from the tree branches and the fall, so it couldn’t have been that long, maybe a day.

Limping over towards the trees for some reason there were two small rocks, previously broken twigs, and some moss. I could make a fire easily with these supplies, and I could keep it going with some help of the forest.

Slowly I started to piece everything together to build a fire, placing twigs in a fashion, with some moss below the twigs some above it. Using the rocks I started to clash them together, it took nearly an hour before the sparks had caught and a fire had started but I was not leaving my post until that fire was ready.

Now for food, it could be a while before I would find any food, even small fruits and vegetables. I have no idea what would be safe to eat here, and I had no idea what animals lived there.

I turned around to see if I had ended up being supplied with a hunting knife or something else as well, but it didn’t seem that I was, if I was going to hunt anything it would be on my own.

I looked around for a minute trying to find a rock that I could use as a spear tip, luckily I found one within a few minutes of search. Shortly after I grabbed the longest pieces of grass I could find, and soaked them all in the water, then hung them over the fire, using some branches I had found to let them dry. Slowly during the drying I would wrap them together, until they were all twisted together to make a rope. It wasn’t a long rope but long enough to tie the rock to the end of a stick, and that is exactly what I did.

After tying it to the stick, I started to go on a hunt. I needed food if I expected to live out here, and I had no idea how long that would be. By the time that I was ready it was day again, the sun had risen nearly an hour prior

Wandering around in the forest, I searched for hours, to find nothing. I had hunted several times before, normally I would see an animal before, but I hadn’t this time. The only reason that I didn’t give up on my little quest was because of the droppings I had found, they definitely weren’t of man, but I had no idea as to what animal they were from.

I retired from my hunt by night fall, I was dead tired, if I had found something it would probably get me instead me getting it. As I walked back to my little camp, it had seemed as though it was now I who was being hunted

“No it’s just paranoia, there’s nothing out there that could hunt me” I thought to myself, but no matter how many times I had thought this it still seemed the same way.

As I had returned to the camp by paranoia had left me completely, I was now positive that there was nothing out there.

I lay down underneath the tree hoping that I would be kept in the shade so I could sleep longer in the morning.

I had awoken several hours later, again in a completely different spot. I was now inside a cave, with a fire sitting right outside the cave.

“What is wrong with this place, I wander around hunting and it feels like I am being hunter, things for me to be well are provided for me, and I get moved somewhere at night!” I yelled to myself within my mind.

It was day two on the island; at least what I was pretty sure was day two. I decided to go hunting again right after I woke up, leaving the fire unattended.

I left once again in search of some animal still unsure what types of animals live on this island. After looking for maybe a quarter of an hour, I find some more droppings this time they were fresh, the animal had just been through her within the past half and hour maybe. I wasn’t that good at hunting I just knew a few things.

I saw the tracks headed forwards, it was a fairly heavy animal, as each step would groove into the ground a few centimetres.  I ran forward unsure at the moment if it was north, east, south, or west, but I was going to find the beast and kill it anyways.

I ran for nearly half an hour till I stopped to take a breath.  As I caught my breathe I could hear something rustling in the near by bushes. I looked over towards the bush seeing nothing. Then I heard a snort; finally I knew what the beast was it was a boar.

I readied my spear as I crunched down ready to pounce, figuring it was a stupid thing since boars have tusk’ but it was my only spear I couldn’t throw it.

I lunged into the bushes jabbing my spear into what I was hoping was the boar. I heard a wild shriek like sounds coming from the boar, but my eyes were closed I had no idea what had happened but I was still uninjured.

Opening my eyes I saw my spear sticking into the boar’s throat, as it was completely motionless. I felt like a true hunter now, I managed to kill a boar in one hit. I felt as though I should take something as a hunter’s prize, to show what I had killed, but I didn’t, the boar deserved to remain full, I only needed it for food, not as a trophy.

Taking out the spear I picked up the boar and put in on my shoulders, carrying it back to my campsite, not realizing that I had forgotten my spear there.

As I returned to my campsite the fire had been looked after, it had actually grown, and there were pikes set up by it so that I could roast the boar. This place was getting far to creepy who lives on an island taking care of some guy who got stranded while not showing there face.

I looked around while trying to not to show that I was looking around, there was nobody within my site, so I continued to live on as though nothing had happened. I took the rotary and shoved it through the boar, with all of my might, just barely missing my fingers on the other end. A sweat dropped down the side of my face noticing this, as I now calmly place it over the fire, and started to cook it.

I sat there watching the freshly killed boar rotate me, my fingers wanted to grab it and eat it right then as I couldn’t wait, I hadn’t eaten anything in two days, maybe more. Nothing could interrupt me from this meal that I had been waiting so long for.

My mouth was watering looking every 2 seconds to see if the boar might be done yet, but it never was. I never noticed him coming up from behind me. He crept up so stealthy that I would have been surprised if even the ground had noticed.

“Hello” A voice said while right beside my ear.
I jumped unsure as to what to do, but as I jumped I landed beside the fire. My ass started to feel the heat along with my entire right side. I stood up quickly from the pain, now standing almost a foot shorter then the man who just crept up on me.

“I have been watching you for a very long time, seeing you trying to find me, hunting that boar, you did a very good job with that by the way, very few men can do that, and without a wound either.” The voice was low, but it seemed to suit him, he stood over six feet tall, dark black hair, near to no clothes, seemed to hunt a lot as he had scars all over his body, and one that stuck out was on his right cheek, as he leaned over to say something to me I noticed that his eyes were a darkened blue, maybe from being on the island for so long his eyes slightly adapted maybe he was born that was I wasn’t sure either way. “Yes I was the one who helped you live long enough to get this far, but I was also the reason your plane malfunctioned. I like that device only; I believe you people call it an EMP whatever that stands for.”

I stood there in complete shock how would I miss someone this size, how this man would have been able to do all of this.

Then he continued talking, “I only kept you alive this long for one reason, so that I could kill you” He pulled out a rather sharp hunter’s knife and held it to my throat, “Why don’t you use your spear and fight back? Fight like when you killed the boar, or can you not because it was complete luck, or because you left your spear back in the forest.”

I then realised everything, he was the one who made it feel like I was being hunted, he was the one doing everything. I clenched my fist and swung at his head hoping that it would at least knock him back. Although it didn’t, he caught my hand and then cut it off. I screamed in terrible agony. He then proceeded to do the same to the other hand, then slashed at my ribs.

I would have been rolling around on the ground if not for him holding me up, but then he ended it all. The knife came up stabbing my heart.

“There now you know who your hunter, your stalker and your killer are”
Pulling the knife out of my, he took my heart with him. That was his trophy, his prize, my heart; he would put it on his mantle beside countless others, only to add another several months from then.

No one ever figured out who he was, or why he did it, but he killed over a hundred people and by the time they found him, he was dead, died from old age, some say that his heart stopped pumping, some say he stabbed himself. I don’t know, and I don’t care, as I am still a trophy on his mantle.