Dark Islands

They were all alone. On their way to thier honeymoon, and thier private plane crashed. They were all alone. Marine looked into the glazed, listless eyes of their dead pilate, a flare gun in her hand; their only hope. Joese came up behind her, looking at the wrecked plane. How did they get out unscathed? They had jumped out the window, twenty feet above the island grounds. they figured it would give them a better chance of survival, and it did. Marine started to cry in spite of herself. Joese didn't make much an effort to comfort her. He knew that when you're stranded on a God-forsaken island alone, far off the map, there was no comfort to be found. He turned around to start making the shelter for the night. Marine was slightly hurt by Joese's insensitivity, but tried to understand. It was getting dark and the salty waves were roaring, foaming, warning. She turned to help Joese with the shelter when she saw some dark shadow behind him. it was much larger than he was, like an abnormally large human standing there. She screamed and closed her eyes. But when they were reopened, the shadow was gone. She let the flare gun drop to the sand.

"What's wrong? Marine?" Joese said, concerned. When she didn't answer, he ran over and placed his strong hands on her shoulders and shook her lightly. She blinked and looked into his sea-green eyes. Her curly gold hair was bilowing out of control in the warm tropic breeze. He touched her face and kissed her lightly. "Marine, what did you see?"

"There was a shadow behind you, staring at you, it scared me," she said breathlessly, not able to stop shaking. A smile etched across Joese's face.

"Of course there was a shadow behind me. Everyone has a shadow," he said kindly.

"No, you don't understand, it was like a man was standing behind you..." she sputtered. She stopped talking when she realized how pathetic she must have been sounding. She turned her face from Joese and the beach to glare into the tropical forest, standing tall, dark, threatening behind them. Then she saw it. Not the shadow, but a man. A tall, dark, exotic looking man with strang markings and piercings. He had a sharp spear in one hand, and the other clinging to the trunk of a tree. He was staring back at her, his sunken, death-born glare peircing her, making her blood run cold. The man wove through the trees, letting her catch a glimpse of his body. It was long and lanky, but frightenly skinny. He hardly had any cloths on, say for a wrap of boar skin.

"What are you staring at...." Joese said, letting his gaze follow her's. He saw nothing but the ghoulish orange eyes and gasped. Then, as his eyes ajusted to the dark, he saw the rest. His eyes flicked with fear.

"I...I tol...told you, Joese, we...we're not alone," Marine whispered in a timid voice. She looked as though she was going to faint. Joese decided that if they were going to be able to sleep, he would have to make an executive descision, and fast.

"Hey! You!" he called out to the man. "Sh Marine, I'm trying to reason with him before this gets out of hand. Oh great, he's running back into the forest. Great."

"He's probably going to get the rest of them, we need to hide Joese, now!" Marine said, scared, "Come on!"

Joese didn't protest as she dragged him across the beach and into a knot of trees and vines. They were both breathing heavily, not daring to move. They finally started to relax, and let the moist air seep into their lungs. The smell of the firtile soil wafting in the air. The sound of exotic birds flying high above the canopy, singing to one another sweetly. Not a single native in sight. But then they started to realize something. Things in the trees were moving. The bark on the mossy trees had eyes. The mud was moving progressivley closer to them. The air was filled with breathing that wasn't their own. Then they realized it. The natives were everywhere, disguised in mud and moss. Of course, they didn't have time to do anything before they were being charged at by what seemed like twenty natives. All with those ghastly orange eyes. They screeched and ghnashed their teeth.

"Run," Joese whispered to her. They braced themselves and then dashed out of their hiding place, right before the wretched humans grabbed them. They ran as fast as they could from the blood thirsty humans. But more were appearing from every nook, every shadow. They broke out onto the beach, the moonlight catching their faces. Marine was trying to keep up the pace as fast as she could, but couldn't help but notice as Joese let himself progress past her. "Joese!" she screamed. He grabbed her hand and forced her to run even faster. He kept picturing thier bodies being cooked and uncermoniously devoured. He pressed on harder, ignoring the burning cramp in his side. He decided that they would have to scare them off.

"Start yelling...as loud...and frightening....as possible," he said between breaths. Marine nodded, understanding. They both started to screech, terrible, bone-rattling screams. Then Marine remembered the flare gun. Surely that would scare them. She ran to the plane wreck, and found the bright orange gun on the sand. she stopped at raised the gun above her head. Joese stopped too, facing the army of over one-hundred vicious natives. She shot the flare into the sky, iluminating the night. The natives stopped and stared in awe. Some screamed and tried to throw speers at the bright orange flare. They both began to yell again, even though they felt like their vocal cords were going to rip out. The natives reluctantly turned around and broke into a frightened jog back into the forest. Once again they were alone on an island. They both collapsed onto the beach, not moving a muscle. They were panting, exhausted and terrified of what just happened. They let themselves slowly relax, when the thundering roar of a hellocopter shattered the tranquility. They both cried out it joy as it landed on the beach.

"We saw the flare," the hellocopter pilate said happily. Oh what a story they had to tell. And the best part is that they helped eachother through the most frightening moment of both of their lives; together.

"I love you," Joese whispered gently in Marine's ear, as they took off from the beach. She rested her head on his shoulder and knew that everything was going to be alright.