I wake up. The island is empty, and yet a low rumbling begins.  It startles me, waking me up from my deep sleep. Everyone else is gone, vanished into the winds. Chills run down my spine, and I tense, my instincts warning me that something is not right on this island.

I ignore my gut feeling. Logic, not emotion, is what will get me out of this nightmare. This horrible nightmare that left me here, alone, stranded. I have to stand up, go for help. I need to get off this horrible island.

This horrible island. I had read and watched so many movies and books about this type of situation. I will not end up like Chris McCandless, so seduced by the wild that he forgot common sense. I will not end up like the Andes crash survivors, who fed off human flesh and forgot their morals. I will not, cannot, end up like those pitiful human beings. I have to live.

I get up shakily, my legs weak. My mind flashes back to yesterday, was it just yesterday? It was just yesterday. I was with Nicole. Just yesterday I was going to see my child. I was going to live again, to be who I needed to be.

I banish those thoughts. I will get back to civilization. I have to. Not only for myself, but for the rest of the world as well. I’m going to be able to help people with my work. I’m going to be a star. I have to get back.

I look around me, my hands clenched into fists, my breathing unsteady. I’m mad that I’m here, outraged at the island, at fate that I’m here. I should not have been here, not when the world was going to be my oyster. I scream, a scream full of anger and outrage.

I scream for a bit, letting my frustration pour out of me till nothing’s left. I take a breath once I am done with my temper tantrum, and I scan my surroundings.

The beach we landed on is just one sliver of the island. A lush forest, only so far inland, awaits me, tempting me to go in. I take a deep breath. I could wait for the others to come back… or I could go into the wild.

I shouldn’t wait for the others. For all I could know, they’re in the forest. But what if they’re here? What if Nicole is there?

I should not wait. I have to get back as soon as possible.

I take my first step towards the forest. The sand is red, I notice dimly. As concerned as I was with making it to the forest, was it that color when I arrived? I take another step, and another. Then my foot hits flesh.

I scream, my fists clench, my mouth drops open. I step back and see the body I had stepped on.

It is Nicole. Her body is covered in blood, the insides ripped out, her heart next to her, half eaten. The look on her pretty, pale, face is one of horror.

I scream again. As I look up, other bodies line the beach. I did not notice them as I was warped in my thoughts, but now… now I can smell the stink of rotting flesh, hear the buzzing of flies.

How had I not noticed? This was something that I should have seen, should have been aware of. I look around slowly, really looking at the island. Who are all the rest of the bodies? I gasp as the answer comes to me.

Everyone who had been on the lifeboat is dead, all of them looking like Nicole, their bodies mangled, their hearts chewed up and spitted out. My stomach churns at the sight. I want to throw up.

What could have done this to them? I wipe my mouth, trying to cover my scream. Whoever had killed them would surely come back to kill me as well. My hand comes away with blood that is not my own.  

I stare at it, not comprehending, at the blood, and the black fur that is growing on my hands. An epiphany makes my eyes go wide.

My scream echoes throughout the island.