Uncharted

     “I don’t think I can run anymore.” Tina panted heavily as she sank to her knees in the sand.

     Her fiancé, Steve, hoisted her to her feet and grabbed her beneath her arms, propelling her forward. “We can’t give up now. We just need to get to the boat.”

     Tina hoped he was right. But what if it followed?

     The island, a small remote dot on the map, had been suggested to them by another boating couple who had journeyed here in the past. You’ll love it. No inhabitants. It’s pristine and green, the perfect place for relaxing.

     Steve had followed the coordinates given them. Could he have miscalculated?

     When they’d swum ashore, they thought they’d found paradise. Beautiful birds sang in the trees, and the aroma of brilliant flowers permeated the air. Small critters chittered and screeched their calls, reminding them of their trip to Africa. But even now, Tina would rather face a charging rhino than whatever was after them.

     The creature had no discernible shape, no recognizable sound. Not a growl, not a roar. Maybe something reminiscent of those old Godzilla movies?

     They first encountered it or, rather, sensed it, when they’d explored a small path leading through the jungle of twisting palms and bamboo. Tina had been photographing the flora and fauna and may have caught a glimpse of it with her camera if, in fact, it had a shape.

     They’d immediately begun to run and, while they heard the ground crunching and the brush being torn up behind them, when they dared look back, there was no creature accompanying the noise.

     Could they have discovered something new or disturbed something ancient that had existed here for years undiscovered by modern man?

     Tina’s lungs burned and her legs ached. If not for Steve, she wouldn’t have made it this far.

     “Wait! My camera,” she said. “I dropped it.”

     “Where?” he asked.

     She pointed a few feet behind. “We can’t lose the photos.”

     Tina leaned against a tree, while Steve searched the brush with his arms. “Got it.”

     Quickly returning to Tina’s side, he froze. “Listen.”

     Tina took in the silence. The thing must have stopped its movement. “Maybe it’s given up?”

     “No. It’s something else. Even the birds and the animals have gone quiet.”

     “C’mon, the boat’s up ahead.” Steve urged her onward.

     From their viewpoint at the top of a hill, they spotted the boat, bobbing peacefully where they’d safely anchored it. Another hundred yards or so, that’s all they needed to get to safety. That, and a short swim.

     A dark gray mist seemed to rise from nowhere. Or was it smoke? Was the island on fire?

     The dark, whirling air obscured their view, forcing Tina to hold onto Steve’s shoulder as she stumbled behind him down the incline.

     “I can’t see,” Tina said, coughing through the mist. She pulled her shirt up to cover her nose.

     Suddenly, Steve stumbled and Tina heard the sound of tumbling rocks along with his body as he disappeared from sight.

     “Steve!” Her own footing almost gave way, but she grabbed the leaves of a sturdy bush, righting herself.

     Tina bent lower, waving her arm to see through the mist. The trip down the hill seemed to take forever. “Steve!” She spotted him lying in an awkward position, one leg bent at an odd angle. Surely it was broken.

     “I-I’m okay,” he managed, then groaned with pain. “It’s my knee.”

     Oddly, the mist began to lift. The wildlife chattered again, as the sun permeated the darkened sky.

     “I won’t be able to swim. You’ll have to make it to the boat and come back with a lifejacket.”

     The creature bellowed again, sounding close.

     “Hurry!” he whispered.

     Tina kissed him. Tears formed in her eyes, but adrenaline kept her moving.

     She kicked off her shoes at the water’s edge as she walked into the ocean, then began to swim, dragging her waterproof camera case beside her. The salt water stung the scratches she suffered to her arms and legs running through the brush. The swim to the island had seemed much shorter.

     She breathed a sigh of relief as she grabbed the handrail and hoisted herself aboard. She dropped the bag and picked up an inflatable jacket for Steve. She wanted to catch her breath, to take a few minutes to rest, but that was not an option.

     In a moment she was swimming back to shore. Would she have enough strength left to help Steve navigate the water? And would he be able to drive the boat?

     When her feet touched sand, she ran to the spot where Steve lay, only to find him gone, moved. Something dragged him through the sand. She followed the trail, afraid to call out to him, afraid the thing would come for her, too. One of them had to remain strong, unhurt.

     The marks in the sand led her back around the island, almost to where they’d first encountered the being. A cave. They hadn’t seen that before. The marks trailed inside.

     Tina decided to wait and hope. She couldn’t blindly walk inside, not knowing what she was up against. Perhaps the thing would simply drop Steve and come looking for her. She looked around for a hiding place, but the only option was to climb a tree and find camouflage in its thick leaves. Once she was hidden, she waited and watched for any sign of her pursuer.

     An hour transpired. Two. Then something stirred beneath her hiding spot. She felt its presence pass below her, but stayed out of sight until its call was a distance away.

     Tina shimmied down the tree and ran to the cave. Amazingly, light shone in through cracks in the walls and she could faintly see the floor before her. Water dripped and pooled in small puddles, as the area grew colder and colder the deeper she traveled.

     A whisper. “Tina!”

     “Steve! Where are you?”

     “Here.”

     She found him lying against a wall, clutching his injured leg.

     “Can you walk?” she asked as she helped him stand.

     Steve grumbled, but forced himself upright. A piercing bellow echoed through the cave walls. It was back.

     “We’ll have to go this way and hope there’s another way out,” he said, motioning behind them.

     With Steve leaning on her, Tina strained to walk as quickly as she could. The deeper into the cave they went, the darker it became. Blackness soon surrounded them, but they kept moving, feeling along the walls.

     At last, it grew light again and an opening emerged into the brush.

     “Steve, the boat!” Tina nodded toward their lifeline.

     Tina half carried, half dragged Steve toward the water. She slipped his arms into the lifejacket and inflated it.

     “Hurry! Hurry!” she said.

     They made it into the water before they heard the beast approaching. Would it follow?

     Tina did a sidestroke, pulling Steve along as he kicked the water with his one good leg. Almost there.

     Tina grabbed the rail and quickly boarded, then leaned down to assist her fiancé.

     He got as far as starting the boat before passing out cold. Tina, who had been his co-pilot, but never a captain, let her instincts kick in. There was no time to raise anchor, so she grabbed a knife and cut the line.

     Next, she moved the throttle and turned the boat toward the open sea.

     All the while, she could hear the creature tearing up the landscape and roaring in anger.

*****

     “These are most unusual pictures, Tina.”

     Tina and Steve were safely back home, visiting with Yolanda and Ken who had given them the island coordinates.

     “I’ve never seen plants like these, have you Yolanda?” Ken handed her the photo and she shook her head.

     “But this is the island you told us about,” Steve insisted. He pulled a paper from his pants pocket and read the coordinates that Ken had given him.

     “That’s way off course, Steve. You must have misheard me or written it down wrong. I think that area is pretty uncharted.”

     Ken folded the paper and pocketed it. “Yolanda and I might like to see this island for ourselves.”

     Tina handed them the last photo.

     “Or maybe not.”