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Author's Chapter Notes:

I'm attempting to make this a more realistic tale.  A more personal perspective from the victims point of view.

Dilemma


By: wildcatman





Joe held onto the controls tightly, as the tiny plane dipped down, and diverted into a sharp nosedive. The other two passenger's, Mike, and James, were strapped into the seats, and quickly began to prepair themselve's to jump from the side door...

The three men, had left just two hours earlier, and along with the cargo, which wasn't but one small cardboard box, the flight was suppose to be just a simple 'short trip', to the mainland...

They had boarded that morning, with the intent of arriving at their destination, unpacking the plane, quickly refueling, then returning back to their home base.

The weather was good that morning, not a single cloud in the sky. The forecast had called for a storm system that could possably produce some high-wind's, but that wasn't going to effect their trip, because they should have been ahead of the predicted storm system by at least three hours.

Mike yelled out in a panic-stricken voice, screaming up into the cockpit...

"Keep the nose UP!", he screamed.

"I'm trying TO!", Joe yelled back, as the little engine whined, and droned, from the extreme acceleration.

The velocity increased to the point, that the struggling pilot couldn't fight it any longer, and he released the controls, and crawled out of the seat and prepaired to bail-out...

The three men quickly secured their parachute's, and held onto one another, unsteadily clinging to the railing on the inner-wall, they opened-up the side door, and tryed their best to support each other.

The force of the sharply diving plane, made it quite difficult, but the three men expertly 'jumped', and suddenly found themselve's free falling at three thousand feet...

The tiny plane continued plunging down, and gaining speed as it dove into the shore-line of the overgrown island just below.

All three of their chutes opened, and the three men slowly floated down toward the jungle island, without any choice but to guide their flight-path, right into the shoreline, where their plane had just crashed-down...

Black smoke billowed up from the crash site, as the three parachutes floated past, and drifted farther inland, deeper into the heavily jungled island...

Mike drifted in and awkwardly and crashed into some trees, he was then followed by James, who tried to avoid the tree-tops, and ended-up tangling up in some thickly over-grown vine's.

Joe, the pilot, came-in last, and drifted even further inland, and found himself glancing off of some tree-tops just beyond a small waterhole...

The island was so small, uninhabited, an uncharted, that the three men were very lucky to have 'miraculously' crashed into it. Otherwise, they would have been lost at sea, floating aimlessly, and drifting with the currant for days, or weeks...

Joe hit the sand with a grunt, as he landed, and tumbled into a clump of vines and bushes. He felt lucky to be on dry land. The thought of drifting in the ocean, for days or weeks, along with the sharks, had been avoided, and he was grateful for that aspect, aside from the fact that he had just lost his plane...

Mike, and James, were gathering up their parachutes, and after locating each other, they started looking for Joe, whom had drifted in farther into the jungle.

"Mike, I think he's over there, in those trees", James yelled out, as he pointed toward the thicker jungle-brush...

"Yeah, I saw him in those tree's there on the otherside of that pond", Mike answered back.

The two men joined up, and headed off in the direction of their pilot...

Joe had removed his chute, and was gathering it up, when he heard his two companion's yelling out for him.

He yelled back, and the three of them quickly regrouped beside of the waterhole.


"Damn, I thought that we were gonna be 'Shark-bait!', Mike said, as he squatted down next to a small clump of bushes...


James removed a small folded map, and carefully opened it. He studied the paper, and shook his head with disbelief...

"This isn't even on the map,...it's 'uncharted", James informed the other two.


"Well, 'uncharted' or not, we're here, and we'll just have to make the best of it", Joe spoke, as he dropped his rolled-up chute, and quickly flopped down into it, and stretched out and tryed to relax.


"I'm going to the plane, and see if we can recover anything", James told them, folding his map back up and stuffing it into his pocket.


"Hang-on, we'll all go, I just need to catch my breath first, alright?", Joe told the two younger men.



*****



James was 30 years old, and had a wife, and two young son's. He had been flying with Joe for eight year's, and the two of them were like, the best of friend's.

Mike had just started working for Joe, and this would be his first trip with him to the mainland, that is- 'If', they had actually completed the short flight...

Mike was 22, and it was his first, paying job, outside of the military, and he was thrilled to be working for a pilot, and he thought that Joe was one of the best.

The three of them had planned on pooling their resourse's and purchasing another plane, and expanding the bussiness...

However, this little 'unsuspected' turn of event's had thrown a wrench into their plan's. The situation that the three of them were into now, would prove to be a simple matter of survival...

They had survived the 'crash', only to be stranded on this deserted island. The sound of bird's, and the ocean wave's crashing into the beach could be heard, as they gathered themselve's up, and headed back out to the beach to investigate the crash site.


Joe had been flying since he was in the air force. During Vietnam, he had clocked hundreds of hour's flying over the jungles, and extracting wounded soldier's from the war torn front-lines.

He could fly helicopter's, twin-engine, large cargo plane's, he had flown them all. He was one of the best war-zone pilot's that had returned from Nam, and hadn't stayed in government selected employment. Civil service position's took most of them, but not Joe, He wanted to have his own bussiness...

At 52 year's old, he was starting to feel the effects of his past injury's, and his body was starting to slow down,.. although, he kept up with the two younger men, the pain in his leg's was nearly unbearable...




***




The three of them stumbled over the thick overgrown vine's and brush, and made their way back out to the beach. The billowing smoke rising up from the crash site, made the search an easy one. The heavy black smoke still swirled up into the air with a slow drifting rise...

Upon reaching the small plane, Mike instantly spotted the cardboard box that had been thrown from the wreckage, and was stuck in the sand just a few feet away from the burning plane. He quickly ran to it and picked it up. He carried it over to the tree line, and set it down, then he turned and ran back to the plane, and took another close look for anything else that the three of them could make use of...

James found some tools that were scattered out on the sand. He quickly gathered them up, and placed them into a towel that had blown out onto the sand. He secured the tools, and carried them away from the burning plane.

Joe watched the two of them, and with a close eye on the approaching storm, that was vaguely starting to form in the distance.... as the wind started to pick-up, and he knew that the three of them could be in for a serious problem...

They would need to find something for shelter, like a cave or something, but they would have to do it fast.


Because the sky was quickly turning, and the wind increased...


"Hurry-up, guy's", Joe yelled down to them.


"Storm's on the way, and we need to get under-cover!", he explained, as he stood up next to a huge stone that a palm tree had taken root on. Looking down he noticed the gnarly-old root's had tightened up around it, with a strange-looking 'fist-like' appearance...

Joe examined the roots of the huge palm tree, and it was as if they were trying to crush the huge stone, with four scraggly-looking 'finger-like' root's...

Joe felt a pang of fear, as he studied the roots. He looked back up at the approaching storm cloud's, and told his two comrade's to hurry, he walked around the tree's encapsulated root-system. The tree had another root, a fifth one, that strangly appeared like a thumb, completing the appearance of a 'human-like' hand!

The men regrouped, and the three of them started down the beach. Looking for something that would serve as a shelter from the incoming storm. They staggered along in the fluffy-white sand, and discovered an opening under a huge, smooth stone, just large enough for the three of them to crawl under, and protect themselve's from the high-wind's that were approaching like a hurricane...

They had found several package's, the tools, some food, and the box, that they were susposed to be transporting in the flight. The three men carried the supplys with them, and they stuffed them up under the large rock, and crawled in tightly to protect themselve's from the approaching storm...

Within moments the rain blew in, and the high wind's started blasting around them and blowing sand and dirt all over the place...

The rain poured down in a hard, torrential down-pour!

The sky turned black, and the wind howled like a living beast...

The sound of the wind drowned-out everything, as it whipped all around them...

The three of them huddled together for safety, as they rode it out.




*****



Three long hour's passed, and the rain continued to tapper-off after the major part of the storm had slowly passed, and the three men crawled out from under the rock, and stood-up to survey the situation...

Mike stood up, the drizzle still forming a misty hue all around him, he slowly, straightened out, and dusted himself off...

Joe stood up next to him and grunting, as he worked the kinks out of his cramped-up old body. The misty-fog formed a thickly dense, cloud around them, as James crawled out, and stood next to them, they all turned to listen to the strange quietness that they had suddenly realized...a weird silence had overtaken the entire island...

Their visability reduced to only a few feet, they stood in shock of the sudden change that had taken place.

It seemed so 'different' to the three of them, to be suddenly enveloped within this thick, white fog...

They stood in silence, and looked all around,....they could feel a 'presence', something, or someone, was very near, and it was watching them,...they could feel it!

The soft air currant, that seemed to 'breath', in a 'pumping-motion' above them, caught their attention when the warmth of it seemed to raise the temperature, and a sweet scented fragrance contained within it smelled of a feminine aroma...

The ground shook, with a sudden impact from something very large!

A second impact shook the ground, again!

A third impact, was even closer, and the three men quickly scampered back under the rock, and squeezed into the hole as fast as they could move...

The next impact slammed down hard, right next to their hiding place, and a crushing mass of heavy weight smashed into the sand just outside of their rock, and settled in for a brief, fleeting, moment, just before it quickly lifted away, and dissapeared!

The heavy impact's moved away from them, slowly becoming further away, and more faintly in sound...

The shocking event had passed, as quickly as it had arrived, but the three men stayed huddled together for a long while, just trembling, and listening for anything to happen...


Finally, after the 'Thing' had passed, Joe crawled out and stood up. He was followed by a very cautious, and frightened Mike, whom slowly stood-up next to him, and waited for James to join them...


"What the, 'FUCK', WAS THAT?", Mike asked, as he stood trembling between the other two men...







*************
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