Mike put a plastic bottle up against the stream which came pouring down the side of the mountain, he already knew that this was drinkable water. He had seen a wild boar take a drink from the pool which formed from the falling water before forming a small stream which went toward the nearby ocean. Still he wasn’t going to drink standing water, but water which looked like it came from a mountain spring was likely safe. He took a drink of the cool water and nodded it tasted very good.
“Well we have water.” Stated Stacy as she soaked her feet in the water. “Problem is that is separated from our little camp and the boat by multiple inlets which don’t have an easy way to get past them.”
“True.” Said Mike as he moved to stand beside her, they where maybe a mile away from the boat but to get here they had to walk almost 10 miles around the mountain. The way between them had multiple small off shots of land which came almost unnaturally off almost vertical cliffs. “And worse it is getting dark.”
Stacy studied the sun which was getting lower in the sky, her boyfriend was right they had maybe an hour possible two before full dark.
“We have two choices, either we hike through a jungle in the dark following a path that we have only gone down once or we swim the distance.” Said Stacy as she judged the distance, she walked to the mouth of the small river and spotted the rock formation which marked the entrance to the small cove where their boat was. The sight of some smoke rising from near that point confirmed that was where their camp was. “Looks to be a mile to a mile and a half and they have a fire going which is good.”
“With a half dozen small inlets with low sandy palm tree covered pieces of land between each spot.” Added Mike as he judged the first stretch of water between them. It was maybe 50 yards at most likely less and he could see across the stretch of land toward the next gap of water, that looked about the same. “It is risky but our best move is likely to swim the gaps and walk the distance.”
“Agreed.” Stated Stacy as she stood up but instead of putting on her shoes she put it into her backpack. “Take off your shoes…my bag is waterproof…unless you want wet shoes.”
“My bag is also waterproof and trying to fit two pair of shoes in one bag would be pushing it.” Stated Mike as Stacy smiled at him.
“Great minds think alike.” Stated Stacy with a smile as she took off her top and cargo shorts it in her bag as well. Her golden bikini standing out among all the green and white sand as put her short ponytail into a tight bun instead. Beside her Mike was doing almost the same thing, taking off his shirt and putting it into his bag, only he also removed his shorts to show his dark forest green swim trunks. His black hair was already short so there was no reason to pull it back, however he did put his belt back on and made sure the knife he had was affixed right. It wasn’t a big knife or even the best knife, he hadn’t thought he would need the best knife but he was glade he had one. Beside him, Stacy was making sure her own knife…which was actually larger then his was also affixed to her belt.
On some levels he didn’t understand what Stacy saw in him, yes he was smart and she loved that but he wasn’t the fittest man and Stacy had been a high jump state champion in high school. She was tall taller then him and supper thin, with a strong core and modest breasts but legs and an ass to kill for. He couldn’t understand what she saw in him. He had been on the swimming team and only made varsity his senior year, he wasn’t fat but compared to his male friends he was the physically the weakest. He was a chess champion but most women didn’t tend to like chess. He did not think Stacy would like Chess either until she came up with strip chess, in which depending on which piece was lost a type of clothing had to be removed. She tended to beat him at that but he wasn’t going to complain. He forced his mind back to the issues at hand.
“So swim the distance, cross the island and swim the next gap.” Said Mike “We should get back before nightfall.”
“Should.” Confirmed Stacy as she playfully slapped Mike on the ass. She knew that he didn’t know why she loved him as much as she did, but she knew why. Yes, Mike wasn’t the strongest men in the world but strong men tended to be idiots and she couldn’t stand being with an idiot. Mike was kind and caring and with a dry humor like she had. It was all so pleasurable to have a conversation with someone who was your equal in mind and Mike tended to underestimate his looks. He was far from ugly and was handsome in her and many other eyes. “You first?”
Mike rolled his eyes as he waded into the water, only a few steps behind him came Stacy. The water wasn’t that deep, with the deepest point coming up to their shoulder blades. Lucky Stacy was tall for a women, taller than Mike in fact by half an inch something she made fun of him for whenever he got on her nerves. They reached the other side and crossed the sandy beach to get to the next gap. This one was only waist high and was easy to cross.
They where making great times, having crossed four gaps before they paused for a moment before a much larger gap. This one had to be at least a 150 yards maybe even larger with no island in between.
“Well so much for the easy part.” Said Stacy, it was not that big of a distance but swimming in unknown water on an unknown island caused both of them to worry. You didn’t need to a genius which both of them where to know that it was a bad idea, but it was the best of bad ideas.
“So do you have any idea where we are?” inquired Mike as the two of them rested before crossing the water.
“Not any one of them I like.” Confirmed Stacy “All the power going out at once, I can only think of one thing that can do that.”
“EMP.” Confirmed Mike “But those come from nuclear weapons going off in the high atmosphere…”
“I know.” Said Stacy “But the storm disappearing as well, makes no sense…unless a nuclear explosion can move storms around. Possible but I have never heard of anything like that.”
“Agreed and we where far out to sea and this island doesn’t appear on any map…” countered Mike “it makes no sense.”
“Well let’s figure that out tonight once we get back to the ship.” stated Stacy as she stood back up and helped Mike up. Together they waded out into the water and began to swim across. It was tense as they swam the distance, but they made the gap and climbed out of the water and crossed the low sand covered beach to the next inlet. This one was small, maybe 20 yards but judging by how fast a log was carried down it was moving fast.
“It looks like it is coming from the mountain?” stated Stacy as she pointed to a mouth of a cave which had water flowing out of it. “Maybe this is fresh as well?”
“No.” stated Mike as he put the water in his mouth and spat it out. “Salt.”
“Wonderful.” Said Stacy with a roll of her eyes as she began to walk toward the mouth of the cave. “Better to cross upriver in case the current carries us.”
“Agree.” Confirmed Mike “But not too close to the cave who knows what could be in there.”
“Of course.” Said Stacy as they walked about halfway to the cave. The water was indeed moving fast and it had cut a deep channel, there would be no wading here. They would have waited but the fast approaching night forced their hands as they entered the water. The current was strong but with a lot of heavy kicking they where making progress across the water.
That kicking awoke creatures which rested in the soft sand, they where drawn to the kicking and even without eyes they locked in on the two humans. Stacy was the first to be bit as one of them latched onto her hand and pulled her down. Seconds later Mike was grabbed by the foot and pulled down, neither had time to scream or call for help.
Under the water, they saw the white fishes which had attacked them, each one was as large as they where and each had huge mouths. The one which had bite Stacy let go of her arm and pulled away, this allowed her to go for her knife as Mike did the same and pulled it. He brought it down hard on the one biting his leg and it let go. Both kicked toward the surface as the current took them out toward the ocean.
As they neared the surface, one of them came up and bite into Mike’s ankles trapping them together and pulling him back down. Stacy spun around in the water and grabbing her boyfriend’s legs drove her knife deep into the creature’s legs. Mike winced in pain, he had felt that knife…he did not understand why or even cared.
While Stacy went in for a second strike another one of the creatures swam up over the battle and sensing her kicking feet opened it’s mouth wide. Mike saw it, it opened its mouth wide like a snake but unlike a snake which had only a pair of fangs or a few teeth at most these creatures had rows upon rows of needle like teeth. He tried to push Stacy away or to warn her in some way but she was too focused on driving the knife into the creature attacking Mike. Mike went in for a strike with his own knife but missed as the creature took Stacy’s entire body from the waste down into it’s mouth. Only when Stacy’s feet touched the very back of the creature’s mouth did she notice the threat.
She only had enough time for her eyes to widen before with a cromp the creature bite down, Stacy and Mike both thought she was bitten in half but she wasn’t as creature seamed to adjust itself on her but made no attempt to bite anymore. Mike went in with a knife cutting at the side of the creature but Stacy let out a scream in pain as the air left her lungs, she had felt the knife, even as her world began to turn black. Mike was focused on what was happening to Stacy he didn’t notice his own movement was slowly and his world began to turn black. The creature which had been attacking his legs had marched up his legs until it too reached his hips and stopped. With that he passed out as well and both of them fell to the bottom hitting the soft sand.
“I found them!” yelled a merman as he swam up to the passed out soon to be new members of their race. “Get a doctor, they have wounds.”
A pair of mermaids swam up, one of them studied the knife wounds and gave a nod.
“Not too bad, but we need to look after them.” Stated the doctor “They may have some scars from this but depends sometimes the process heals wounds like this. Other than that looks like they are ok.”
“Well let’s get them to the healing chamber with their friends.” stated the second mermaid