New Homeport Island (18 page)

be a computer or console of some kind she could check, once
 there she starred at the wood pile trying to figure out how to lite
 a fire. Ebony was laying on her stomach twisted at the hip and
 now looking at Ensign Clarkson’s hairy legs and letting out an
 occasional, “uh huh” with a slight laugh to it.
As it grow later a cool humidity moved over the island and
 we were relieved of our nagging thirst though still in need of
 water. It was a sudden change and many of the plants visibly
 perked up, some flower blooms a yellow orchid looking ‘thing’
 opened all a crossed the island, and a floral scent wafted over us
 all. There were only a few streakes of white clouds in the sky of
 the stratus type, no real danger of rain. Between the sudden
 moisture alerting the former crew to the need to be able to catch
 rain water and the fresh floral scent causing them to inhaled
 deeply through the nose leading them to the discovery of body
 odor, they started milling about all on the same task but in total
 silence. They needed to catch any rain water.
I stood up on the hilltop and uttered, “Cistern” We needed a
 cistern to hold the purified water and catch rain water that would
 prevent contamination, we didn’t need any parasites. I wandered
 back down to the boiler, and there it was about two cups of fresh
 water in the vase, it dripped down as condensate. I used a small
 reed that had aged and hollowed as a straw and drank some, no
 salt taste at all! I had started this project away from the others to
 avoid embarrassment should it fail, now I had to make sure it
 was going to stay reliable and make sure the water in the boiling
 bowl was completely evaporated or at least mostly. It seemed to
 be near five O’clock and I was tired of all this guessing, I
 needed a sun dial, a compass, a shelter, and three more boilers to
 cover water rations for the ‘ship wrecks’, I also needed a fishing

net and spear and at least a fallen tree to fish from, and there was
 one last thing I needed…a damn rescue plane or ship.  
Chapter Five
‘Jupiter’ the rise of Chaos
Without a foreseeable rescue and with no reasonable
 expectation of rescue we knew we were trapped, fated to be
 consumed into the life cycle of this island. Hope was neither lost
 nor discovered it just wasn’t considered.
Artimus stood starring into the turbulence of the sea and
 saw utter chaos; he had lost control of everything, all the
 platitudes and gratuities were now hollow and meaningless this
 was his summation; this abject failure was his mantle. They had
 flattered him so often he came to expect it, the respect he
 demanded from men working in the trenches, no longer
 deserved…he had betrayed everything and everyone with his
 failure. He stood being deafened by the crashing waves trying to
 find a way out of the disgrace that found him. His crew took
 their chances just like everyone else but visions of his wife led
 to visions of their families, wives, children, and worse their
 parents. From his dehydration and fatigue images that were
 absurd sprung forth, the Forestall fire and its captain, the

Thresher and its captain, the Challenger and the seven astronauts
 lost because an O-ring failed.  
Mr. Mormus was his only peer; the master chief was
 actually significantly older and had more scars. Mormus had
 passed out over an hour ago, and by Captain Artimus’s
 reasoning would not live to see the morning. As the sunset he
 was haunted by an image in the corner of his eye, bodies
 wrapped in sea weed washed ashore. But all the crew had
 survived, who were they? Was it a vision of the future? He was
 afraid to look, he was educated and knew it was possible to
 hallucinate such things under these conditions, but he also knew
 it were possible to be so delirious that the shock of the sight of
 such a thing could block out the ability to recognize what he was
 looking at. He could assess himself, he could barely breath. He
 could only stand there lost in despair and continue to will his
 heart to beat.
Hauldbalm had allowed his age to meter his efforts and
 despite being older and of a slender build he was still well, the
 older officers were at a critical point of age, they did not slow
 themselves down having experienced a degree of frailty, they
 pushed on well past the safe limits of their bodies. For the
 master chief just having gone to sleep helped slowdown his
 system and helped him endure, nothing had been accomplished
 and yet a potentially fatal over exertion had occurred for
Mormus and Artimus, not exactly the poetic meaning of wisdom
 but a very real meaning none the less.    
    As the sun started to set Forester and Hudlow were safely
 tucked into their sand castles which had dry motes. The captain
 strolled back to the pentagon and measure off lines to build
 some walls, so he would not be thought to have witnessed
 behaviors forcing him to interject himself or to be seen as

condoning the behaviors. Athena Williams and Amber Alley lay
 buried in the sand wiggling their toes and playing I-spy. Ens.
Swishzel was treading water just beyond the crashing waves and
Ens. Lees was struggling to make a cross tying two sticks
 together with twine he had had from grass. Hauldbalm had
 played the old man role and rolled over lying next to Charlie
Mcree resting his hand on her breast ‘accidentally’ pretending to
 be asleep, Charlie reassured herself by saying, “At least I’m not
 a chubby chaser.” Haydel was sticking close to the survivors of
 her shop, the only girl surrounded by guys. Monica Villa had
 staked her territory with Francesco and they were waiting for
‘what goes bump in the night’. Atrisia was trying to figure out
 how to conceal the cartoon character on her panties, while
Jeremy Washam, Mitch Hackel, and Scott Tinnel, all lay
 peeking through squinted eye lids to watch. Scott Strut and
Chris Gillis were driving themselves hoarse in the voice with an
 unending argument about who was supposed to pump out the
 bilge. Elpers, Gruble, River, Ricky, and Rich were trying to use
 the lighter flints to start a fire by smashing them in between
 rocks lined with tinder. And I was waiting on water to boil once
 again.
I needed one of the vases to be at least half full before I
 took it over to the landing. I noticed the floral scent and thought
I must have been near death; I could smell that before I drank
 some fresh water. I would need to hurry so the other survivors
 wouldn’t die before I got them the water rations. I walked over
 to the ridge at a hasty pace; the clearing was all wet again the
 tide must be up. I reached the ridge and noticed it was just after
 sunset with a beautiful glow just above the western horizon, and
 noticing that I realized my sense of east and west were reversed,
I had been working on the eastern side of the island and the

landing was on the western side. The sudden cool humidity that
 had washed over the island revitalized me more so than the few
 sips of fresh water I had gotten out of the vase. It had also
 revitalized the rest of our former crew.
They were arguing over exactly who’s stupidity was why
 they couldn’t start a fire, it was contagious they had observed
Hudlow calling out ‘behold fire’ only to watch him repeatedly
 fail which robbed them of their confidence and hope, they had
 seen all the members of auxiliary division cover a rock with dry
 plant material then take a flint out of a lighter and smash it with
 another rock proving the definition of futility to everyone, they
 had seen people with glasses try to focus sun light to create a
 fire and noticed those people with their glasses off can’t see how
 focused the light was, like a blind person trying to invent a light
 bulb; the fact that they didn’t trust anyone else with their glasses
 was understandable after all they were apparently blind without
 them.
The night game of playing hide and seek seemed to have
 sexual promise tonight until frustration set in. The cool air
 relieved everyone of great distress and gave a reprieve to lose
 collapsing due to the lack of food and water, but the second
 wind they achieved was their one last chance to get back on the
 ball and claim their own survival from nature. Atrisia yelled into
 the crowd of people working on starting a fire, “You Tennessee
 boy scouts should know how to start a fire!” Dipree responded,
“Then don’t look at me I’m from New York.” Everyone looked
 over at Dipree and Atrisia said, “That’s exactly what I am
 talking about…New York. I’m dead serious when I say,
Tennessee, Arkansas, Georgia …you damn guys should
 absolutely know how to do this!”  Linscoe asked, “What about
 you?” Atrisia replied, “I’m a girl.” Ens. Swishzel back from his

swim coughed out the phrase, “Thank you for pointing that out.”  
Athena said, “Well you can’t do those things either!” Atrisia
 said, “I’m being honest…and honestly I don’t even know what
 those things are.” Haydel laughed and said, “Then you’ll
 probably find out tonight.” Chief Casius said, “I can’t believe
 that you would even suggest that under these circumstances.”
 The sun had gone down and the moonlight was not yet
 casting its bright blue light over the beach. I sat on the ridge
 with the vase of water sitting next to me; I heard their yelling
 and saw their demeanor. I hadn’t seen them this overtly hostile
 since the end of the long beach ship yard period and escorts
 were required, no one was to be alone in a space or passageway;
 there had to be a witness. Once they started throwing sand at
 each other I realized they were just gone, no longer mentally
 present. I carried the water vase out in the sand and piled sand
 up around it preventing it from being knocked over and still had
 the reed straw in it. Then I hunched down and moved across the
 sand cat burglar style, I needed to pull a work crew out of there.
I fetched Hackel, Elper, Williams, and Gruble. I sneaked up to
Mitch and whispered in his ear, “Water ration.” Mitch swatted in
 my direction like he was trying to hit a fly and said, “Rob…wait
 what?”  I pulled him over to the vase. I said, “Don’t take too
 much we have to make another boiler.”  I rushed low against the
 sand and tripped over Tommi Gruble. She asked, “Are you
 alright?” I said, “Just who I was looking for.” She replied,
“You’re not my type Lyon.” I laughed and said, “We’ve got
 work.” and I pulled her over to the vase. As she drank Mitch
 asked, “Where’s the boiler Rob?” I replied, “Hold on we need a
 couple more.” Mitch asked, “Luds and Marcy?” I said, “No they
 were flying an imaginary kite with chief Dotz” I slipped over to
Williams and whispered in her ear, “We’ve got work, come get

water rations” She crawled over to the vase with me as well and
 asked, “How many?” I said we only have about two gallons for
 all of us but we have to make more and build three more
 boilers.” She asked startled, “Boilers!?” I replied, “Well, more
 of a still really” finally I fetched Elper; he was still trying to start
 a fire now banging a rock against a stick that had the last piece
 of flint embedded in it. I said, “Elper, give that to someone else
 and come with me.” He passed it over to Rich and he and I
 slipped over to the vase. After they all drank we slipped over to
 the ridge just as everyone’s eyes were adjusting to the moon
 light and headed over to the boilers.
Once we got there Elper said, “Ya, that’s more of a still
 than a boiler Lyon.” Athena asked “what do I do?” Gruble said,
“I don’t know either.” I said, “We need to build another lattice
 and form the bricks and bowls and cook another ‘still’” Gruble
 said, “I’ll get some wood” Williams said, “I’ll help her…are we
 doing this in the dark?” I replied, “It’s cooler that way and we’ll
 build a shelter in the morning, there are reeds over there.”  Elper
 stood with his hands on his hips looking at it and asked, “And,
 it’s running right now?” I said, “Ya, the steam condenses in the
 spout dripping down into that vase.” Elper said,
“Okay…where’s the clay?” I said, “Up on that hillside.”
 pointing toward the hill. Elper walked off in that direct Mitch
 shrugged at me and followed him saying, “I’m coming with you
 mike” I watched them walk off on their tasks and felt strangely
 alone. I decided I should start making a fishing net and started
 collecting fallen palms from the palm trees. Athena dropped off
 a pile of wood and asked, “I thought the lean-to was tomorrow?”
I said, “I’m pulling out these fibers and winding them, we need a
 fishing net…we’ll use the reeds to make a cabana tomorrow.”

she looked stunned and said, “Cabana…Okay.” and went back
 to gathering wood.
MR2 Micheal Milano saw what he thought was me
 carrying a large stone in to the beach from the brush line then
 burring it up to its neck and having people come over and kiss it
 then took them into the brush. After we left he investigated,
 once he realized they were drink water through a straw he tried
 it discovering it was fresh water. He glanced around and realized
 there wasn’t enough, but we had left it behind so we must have
 been fetching more water. He looked around and saw Jenifer
Hennely scratching Dave Riles back as Riles whimpered to
 sleep so he walked up and spoke to her after sitting next to her.
Micheal said, “Lyon just came out of those bushes with a rock
 he buried over there and had Williams, Hackle, Elper, and
Tommi kiss it.” and then he laughed. Jennifer said, “Everyone’s
 gone crazy.” Michael added, “Ya, so I went and looked at it and
 decide I’d kiss it to.” Jennifer said, “They’ll find us soon, just
 hold on.” Micheal said, “There’s more to it, we need to do what
 they did. Come on.” Jennifer glanced at Riles sleeping and back
 to Michael and said, “Okay” As they headed over there Michael
 said in a hushed voice, “There just isn’t enough yet” He and
Jennifer kneeled at the vase and Jennifer gasped and slapped
Michaels arm, so he nudged her down and put the reed in her
 mouth and she sucked up some water. After she took some long
 swallows she looked up at him and asked in a hushed voice,
“Okay, what the hell are we doing?” Michael replied quietly, “I
 don’t know where they’re getting it but they went through
 there…and your right everyone is crazy right now so they’re
 doing it like this. Let’s find them.” Jennifer said, “Okay, you
 saw them lead the way.” and they headed through the brush.
They stopped at the clearing and tasted the water there and spit it