The night was way too quiet for any comfort level. The only noises heard was the quiet waves as they washed up along the shore and the insect life all abuzz with whatever they buzz about. There was a nice cool breeze blowing in from the southwest keeping everyone reasonably comfortable as they visited dreamland.
The sun arose much to the same quiet fanfare. Small red lines of fire sparked the morning sky as they looked as though they protruded out of the sun much like the vapor from behind a Navy jet in the morning sky. It was striking to those awake to witness it. Otherwise, it was the morning’s best kept secret for those weary ones who rejected their return ticket from dreamland to reality and slept right through it.
Ramon and Silly Willy made their way into the enclosed building and awakened everyone about an hour after sunrise. For those awake and just lying there, it was no big thing. For those lying there sleeping still off to fantasyland, it was truly a rude awakening. And for those who weren’t there to participate, nothing was missed.
What?
For those who weren’t there??
Say again?
Who?
What?
Yeah.
Oh the cool darkness of the night. The mysteries that are born and nurtured.
Ramon and Silly Willy had no idea. They didn’t count the numbers. They only yelled and screamed for everyone to get up.
“Need two men to fish” Ramon commanded. “Everyone else get in groups for water.”
The captives looked around at each other. Who’s gonna fish?
The previous day, Caleb and Dylan were the fishermen. Uh oh. Where are they?
Without making any fuss, the sixteen others looked around to each other for fishing volunteers. They didn’t want their shock noticed by Ramon or Silly Willy.
Alan looked over at Sean the Cop from Annapolis, Maryland. He was big and strong and could easily handle what Caleb had done the previous day. No problem there.
Alan gave him the nod and he volunteered immediately. He had pretty much laid low throughout these first two days.
Alan then looked over toward Hunter James. Still feeling the effects of a bad concussion and shoulder, he shook his head no. Alan understood.
Alan turned toward Joe Mont, who was nursing some sword slices of his own. He smiled and agreed.
Before leaving, Joe and Sean met with Alan to ask about Caleb and Dylan, who were the two who were missing. By the way, the pirates still had no idea.
Alan just shrugged his shoulders and with his usual blank look on his simple featured face commented “I have absolutely no idea what’s going on.”
Sean gave him a ‘yeah right’ look in return.
“I swear. I have no idea.”
Sean’s look didn’t change.
“Guys, be careful, please. We’ll see you later…”
“Gotcha” said Sean as he walked away with Joe.
The group broke into groups of five as usual. Ramon led them to the water. He sensed something odd, but couldn’t figure it out.
On the other hand, Alan realized what those two renegades had done, but he couldn’t figure it out either. Why risk something like that…with no warning? It could set off a deadly manhunt or piss them off enough to kill the remaining folks.
Luckily, at the moment, no one knew.
But where did they go? What were they looking to achieve? How did they escape an enclosed area? And when did they do it?
So many questions all borne of the mysterious night.
In looking back, Caleb and Dylan thought it best not to let anyone know of their plans. Following their chat earlier with Alan and the group, they felt the immediacy of doing something was much more important than sitting around and waiting.
So they waited everybody out.
As the night calmed down to a slow nothing, their fellow captives fell asleep quickly. There was no tossing and turning, only a deep silent sleep after two very wearing days of vacation. So the two of them stayed up and together quietly as they watched the guards, one by one fall asleep in the quiet boredom of the compound.
So it was so easy it was scary.
Of course, they had no idea where they were going, although they did have a plan. Caleb was a strong believer that the pirates were hiding a stash of modern day pirate goodies somewhere around the island. He and Dylan were determined to find the treasure and help everyone escape. It was a great idea in its raw state, but could they improvise enough to actually pull it off? They knew and understood the risks. If caught, they could and probably would, die. But after talking about it for the past twenty four hours, their adrenaline and testosterone levels were so elevated that there was no way that either would back down.
So after the last of the four guards had fallen asleep, they made their move.
Upon leaving the building and their friends, they went directly to the entrance gate and once through there, they took flashlights from two of the guards. They quickly debated about taking guns, but chose not to since the risk was far greater of waking them up getting the guns than it was for two little flashlights.
They did not head for the village. Instead, they headed for the jungle with the idea of circling back around on the other side of the village. They figured if they were hiding any modern day toys that they would be close to the village and not on the other side of the island.
So they set off.
Through the thick brush they went, disturbing any kind of creepy crawly one could imagine. The terrain was mostly sandy, but the brush was thick in places, so thick that they felt like they couldn’t get through. Was it all of the late night big and juicy tropical spiders out spinning their webs and awaiting dinner? At times, yes. But the growth of jungle was just as much to blame.
The trek was a slow one, which didn’t faze them. They had to be quiet as not to stir anyone. Caleb led the walk ensuring that the brush and the branches that were moved for him didn’t make any unnatural sounds in the dark.
The pirate camp was dark and sleepy, which surprised them just as much as some of their other observations that they brought up to Alan earlier that night.
“Just plain makes no sense” Dylan whispered when the observation of the pirate camp being dark was brought up.
“Exactly” Caleb nodded.
They continued their journey going in a semi circle around the pirate camp. It took more than two hours, but they finally reached the other side of the village.
They found nothing of interest.
In fact, they found nothing.
They walked almost right up to the side of one of the pirate houses on the far side of the village. They wandered the beach there as well and walked up alongside the coastline for what appeared to be at least a mile. They found nothing.
Both were disappointed and didn’t want to return to camp empty handed. So they pressed on.
“I know something’s got to be here” said an impassioned Caleb “I just know it.”
“I’m not so sure” Dylan began to waffle. “We’ve been over a good part of this island.”
“We will find something” pressed Caleb. “Believe it.”
“I do.”
•••
Even after the groups were all led down to the natural spring that was a part of the inlet, no one recognized that the camp was two short. Everyone just went on about their business as if nothing was out of sorts. They returned to camp and had some fruit waiting for them to start their day.
Other than that, it appeared to have the makings of a very boring day in captive paradise.
Rusty did not make a showing to the campers during the morning hours. That led to some speculation by Alan and Summer.
“Really surprised that everything’s been all quiet today…” Summer said.
“Yeah, it doesn’t add up. I would have thought after yesterday’s confrontations that she would have been down here early just to bust our ass” Alan replied.
“You think that maybe Bones is worse off than what she has led us to believe?” surmised Summer.
“Quite possibly.”
“You know, from the get go I thought when Jim leveled him into the doorframe, I didn’t think he was gonna get up.”
“Yeah…I thought so too.”
“And then when I saw that piece of wood stuck in his shoulder, I’m like ‘he’s really screwed now’. You know, I thought his issues were far greater than Jim’s. His were wide gaping holes…those are unstitchable and a lot more prone to infections because they stay open longer.”
“Yeah, I agree Summer.”
“So I’m thinking, maybe he’s much worse off and she needs to be there with her magic bag of tricks instead of here. Jim is seriously bad, but Bones may be worse.”
“You may be right. Let’s say I go find out.”
Alan got up and walked over to R-Tard, who was the closest guard to them.
“Hey, where’s Rusty today? It’s not like her to ignore us” he said with a touch of emotional punch.
“W-wusty? S-s-she’s wit B-b-b-bones…” answered R-Tard.
Alan tried not to laugh at the stutter. Usually a very classy guy, it just caught him strangely that R-Tard was even a pirate. Between his accent and his stutter, he figured some stronger more impatient pirate would have made him walk a plank by now. Alan was successful in keeping his composure.
“How is Captain Bones? I know he was hurt” Alan asked.
“He is huwrtin weally bad” R-Tard admitted. “I huwd dat he may die s-soon.”
“Wow, no shit.”
“Yeah. Jewel is dare too.”
“Okay, thanks for the information. I hope he’ll be alright.”
“Yeah, me too” said R-Tard.
The afternoon slowly crept by. Hot and humid and nowhere to hide. Thick salt air clinging to the skin. Oh, what a feeling. The captives were simply miserable.
There was still no sign of Rusty or Jewel. Fact was, there really wasn’t much sign of life at all.
•••
Dylan and Caleb were still walking the island, appearing very lost, in the stingingly hot and humid sun. They still had not found any pirate toys of interest, like speed boats and machine guns. They were thirsty and miserable as well, but they still kept the faith.
Caleb was still leading the way when out of nowhere Dylan tripped on something. He fell flat on his face, partially in sand and partially in green thick brush.
“Whoops” he said from the ground. “What the hell was that?”
“What the hell was what?” Caleb asked in part humor. “Looks like you enjoyed your trip.”
“Dude, what did I trip over?”
“I don’t know…your feet maybe?”
Caleb quietly chuckled. Dylan was still prone on the ground.
“No, seriously dude, what did I trip over? It was seriously hard, like metal or something.”
Caleb gave a half hearted look around Dylan’s feet.
“I don’t see anything but sand.”
“I’m telling you Caleb, I stubbed my toes on something that isn’t of this island” Dylan guaranteed.
“I’m telling you that I don’t see anything there” Caleb sounded off more forceful.
Dylan eventually got up and hobbled and hopped for a bit around the area.
“There’s something here. I will find it.”
He continued to put his pressure on one foot as he searched for the obstacle that took him down. No luck. He sat on a nearby rock and took off his boat shoe and sock showing off an already swollen and discolored big toe.
“See this? Am I imagining this too?”
“Maybe if you had some real shoes the bushes wouldn’t hurt your prissy feet so bad little boy…” Caleb whined playfully.
Dylan put his sock and shoe back on and hopped back about ten feet. He saw something and went for it.
“Holy Jesus!” he quietly exclaimed, looking over to Caleb. “What is this?”
“What is what?”
“What is this?”
Dylan dropped to his knees and moved away some sand and plant life. He uncovered something metallic in nature, which was black and possessing an unusual shape. It was only partially uncovered, it looked to be a large object and with all of the plantlife growing on it and around it, it looked as though it had been there for decades.
Caleb wandered in to take a closer look, leaning over the side of the object.
“What the…”
“Exactly” Dylan said.