Stranded — Day 2
A Survivor’s Diary of Ethan Brooks
This is a fictional story recorded as the daily diary of a lone survivor. Any similarities to real-world places, names, or events are purely coincidental. For previous day, see Stranded — Day 1.
Day 2
Crazy lemming? What does that mean? Yesterday I was too tired to think about such stuff.
The discovery of the suitcase with everything inside was a little suspicious, but I must admit that I couldn’t care less about who left it there and for whom it was meant.
Before I fell asleep, I drank from one of the bottles I found and scribbled a little about the events of the day.
As weird as it sounds, I was happier about finding that empty diary and pens because I’ve been writing in a diary for many years. Most likely, all my previous ones are still somewhere in Cape Town, where I left a bit hastily last month. But never mind, if I ever get out of here, I’ll get back to them, and to all of those ‘other papers.’
The bed I was lying on was torn and not comfortable at all.
I would bet that during the night I ate at least four spiders or some other unpleasant stuff, as I still tasted something horrible in my mouth.
Well, maybe it was better than sleeping on the ground; at least I was able to regain more strength. I really needed rest.
But I knew I couldn’t simply sit there and wait for someone to come and help me out of there.
As I noted previously, the place looks really abandoned, and my stock of drinkable water and food is really limited.
With something less than two liters and maybe a day or two of food, I needed to think about what to do next, fast.
But where to start? I searched the suitcase again with a small hope that I would find any other useful information, but without any further luck.
I remembered that there was also a map together with that other stuff, but where is it now?
Yup, when you can’t find something, take a look behind the fridge or under the bed. And as there is no fridge in this place, I checked the second option — voilà, there it is.
So, if I am correct, this must be the map of the place where I am, and based on it, I am on the island after all.
The map is clearly hand-drawn, and I suppose that this little picture of the building is the place where I am now.
Unfortunately, there is nothing else marked on it. But if nothing else, it tells me several things: I am on an island, obviously.
Someone who drew the map knows how it looks from a bird’s perspective — it is most probably a copy of some map based on aerial photos.
Unfortunately, there is no scale attached, so I could not say how big it is.
Of course, it could be a map of some place totally unrelated, and I could be inland, but I will confirm this later on.
For now, I’ll take it as a fact, and I will try to note down some landmarks as I come across them.
After a short hesitation, I decided to put everything back into the suitcase and take it with me.
I don’t have any backpack, and even though it is a bit inconvenient to walk around holding it in my hand, it is still better than nothing.
So, equipped only with the suitcase, I went off the remnants of the hut and continued along the coast in the opposite direction I came from yesterday.
If someone were to look at me, I think they would assume that I must be on a business trip, and it really sounds ridiculous.
After maybe an hour or an hour and a half (hard to say as I do not have any way to measure time here), the line of trees started to thin out, and the land started to slope up, leading me onto a small hill where the trees were completely gone.
I found myself on a small plain with a better view of my surroundings.
I saw the shoreline making a turn, kind of confirming what I had seen on the map.
The trees lined the coast as far as I could see, but as I was not at the highest point, my vision was obstructed by additional hills, just a bit larger than the one I was on.
When I looked further inland, I realized that the line of trees was not that thick.
It could be only several hundred meters of forested area behind, with a significant cliff in the distance.
I sat down for a short rest and ate a portion of dried meat. I almost forgot how hungry I actually was.
And even though I never liked dried meat too much, it tasted like the most delicious meal.
As I slowly chewed those stiff bites and watched all those trees, something blinked between them, catching my attention.
I wasn’t sure if it was just my imagination, but after a while, it repeated, as if the light was reflecting from something. Maybe something metallic stands there, or could it be a pond or even a small river?
I marked everything I found so far on the map (well, my drawing skills are not that good, but I think I will understand it later on) and went in the direction of that reflection, humbly hoping that I will not get lost more than I already was.
I tried to navigate myself following the sun’s position; however, it was not an easy task as the trees were close to each other, and maintaining a direct line of walk was also a bit complicated.
There were a lot of bushes with thorns, and I also needed to maneuver around several fallen trees.
When I almost wanted to turn back, fearing that I will never find my way back, the light around me started to brighten, indicating that I am getting to a place with fewer trees.
Five more minutes, and I recognized the cliff I had seen before to be just under a hundred meters from me.
When I finally reached its heel and got through the thick bush, I suddenly slipped, fell on my butt, and landed with my feet in a small brook.
Firstly, I wanted to swear that I will need to dry my slippers again, when I realized that this is probably the most important find of the day — a water source, and obviously fresh!
I immediately tried it, and it tasted perfect. Well, maybe I will regret drinking unfiltered water later, but diarrhea is better than a painful death from dehydration, right?
So, I filled two of the now-empty bottles, washed my face a bit, and started my next walk, following the stream, leaving the cliffs at my right hand.
Another hour or so passed; the cliff was already not visible, and the brook, now wide enough to be jumped over and not only crossed with one wide step, started to widen more and more.
It was probably fed by another smaller stream that I missed, but it was really obvious that the amount of water in it is higher than before.
All of a sudden, the trees split open, and I found myself on the edge of a pond, about a hundred meters wide.
I continued my walk around its edge, when a visible path, clearly man-made, sprouted from the water body directly to the left.
My curiosity again navigated me on that path, and just after several hundred steps, I emerged back on the shore, really close to the hut where I spent the night.
The end of the path was again full of overgrown grass, so I had not seen it previously, but hey — I was so proud of myself that I was able to get back to at least somehow a familiar place, that I was not eaten by local fauna (or flora), and that I have found a source of (hopefully) drinkable water.
Full of optimism, I decided to go back to the hut, thinking that it would be good to prepare it a little bit for another night that was closing horribly fast.
However, upon reaching the building and entering the ‘kitchen-living room’ or whatever you call it, I almost got a heart attack.
In the middle of the room, on the old table, there was lying another suitcase, looking very similar to the one I was still holding in my hand.
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