The wind gently caressed my skin as I stood on the dock of a cruise ship, gazing at the sunset. The sky beamed lights of crimson, pink, and violet, with gold shining near the exit of the sun. It was mesmerizing. I stood there for a couple more minutes, when my friend, Mae, shook me out of my thoughts by a touch on the shoulder. “Zara, what are you doing here?” she exclaimed. “Let’s go have some fun!” She dragged me back towards the rest of my friends and handed me a drink. We spent the night making memories and being reckless teenagers, unaware of what was to come.

My dreams were abruptly interrupted by my best friend, Amir, yelling at me to wake up. Feeling the panic in his voice, I shot up. “Ship-sink-sperm whale-,” he stuttered. I stared, confused and afraid. Suddenly, I became aware of the noisy chaos outside my room.

“We’re gonna die!”, I heard some lady yell. And then it hit me. My stomach dropped. I tried to get up, but I couldn’t, because I had fainted.

I realized I was on what seemed like an island. I crawled out of the sand and began walking around, searching for someone, something, anything. The thought of being here alone scared the life out of me. Feelings of anxiety were taking over, and I felt teardrops starting to form. “Is anyone here?”, I screamed, desperately. I kept walking. “Is anyone-”

“Up here!” someone shouted. Relieved, I headed in the direction of the voice. I climbed up a narrow path, wondering if anyone else had been stranded here. The path resembled a hiking trail, and it reminded me of the hikes I would go on with my sister. Shaking the thought out of my mind, I brushed against the branches, trying to find the owner of the voice.

Up ahead, I saw Amir with my friend, Mya, eating fruits under a tree. As I approached them, Mya extended her arm, offering me a banana. I promptly recognized that I was starving, and accepted her offer gratefully. After taking a couple bites, I began my questionnaire. “What happened? Why are we here? Where is everyone else?” They exchanged looks. Finally, Mya spoke.

“The ship was attacked by sperm whales. We used one of the emergency rafts to come here. Amir and I tried looking for the others, but everyone was running around, shrieking, so we left while we could.” She paused. “The others could be dead for all we know…” I tried to grasp this information. What the heck is a sperm whale? I thought. I tried not to think about where my other friends were. For a moment, I was actually glad that I had passed out. Not knowing how to respond, I attempted to change the topic.

“So the raft we used, where is it? We can go home then, right? We’ll pack lots of fruit and-”

“Mya destroyed the raft,” Amir said, giving her a look.

“It was an accident!” she replied, defensively.

“So we’re... stranded?”, I asked, afraid to hear the response. There was silence.

“Yeah,” Amir answered.

“But there’s food and fresh water,” added Mya, hopefully. “We looked around while you were unconscious.” I sighed. This is bad, I thought. I’m the worst person to be stuck in the wild. I couldn’t stand living here for more than a couple hours. I need a bed, a shower, proper meals… My thoughts drifted off. Amir, as if reading my mind, said, “Don’t worry, we’ll be fine.” He didn’t know that, but for some reason, I was reassured.

We headed back to the beach so we could discuss further what to do. We sat in the shade, beneath a large palm tree. I waited for someone to speak.

“This isn’t that bad guys,” Amir said, “People will be looking for survivors once they find out that the ship sunk. And we got lucky. This island has food and fresh water, so we’ll be fine even if they take a while.” Mya nodded. Enlightened, I became hopeful. I opened my mouth to speak but then I heard ruffling from the hiking trail. I wasn’t sure whether to feel scared or excited. I looked at Mya and then at Amir. They seemed to be calm. After what seemed like an eternity, out popped a boy and a girl, who looked around the same age as us. Still unaware of what to feel, I watched them amble towards us.

“Hi, I’m Josh.”

“And I’m Makena.” We all introduced each other. “Were you also on the cruise?” Makena asked. We nodded.

“We were just discussing what to do,” said Mya, “Come join us.” They sat down with us, between Amir and Mya.

“Okay, so let’s distribute jobs first”, Amir announced. We delegated tasks that had to be taken care of during our stay. Josh and Amir were in charge of shelters, Mya and I were responsible for food, and Makena would prepare a signal fire, since she had glasses.

“If we get really hungry, then we’ll start hunting. But for now, fruits will suffice,” Amir said. Everyone nodded in agreement.

For the next few days, everyone fulfilled their duties successfully. Mya and I brought fresh fruits to the beach every morning. Amir and Josh were almost finished with the shelters. And Makena had the wood for the rescue fire prepared for anyone passing by. Days felt really long since there was nothing to do. No cell phone to go on, no books to read, no sports to play, no television to watch. It was hard not to think about our helpless situation and the probability of being rescued versus dying here. In addition to that, fruits were definitely not enough. I wanted more. But I couldn’t hunt for the life of me, and I knew it would be wrong to complain if I’m not the one who would be forced to hunt. So I kept my mouth shut. It’s fine, I thought. We’ll be rescued in a few days anyway. I can wait a little longer.

Everyone was sitting under the tree eating berries, on a particularly humid day, they were conversing, but as usual, I was too busy lost in my strange thoughts to listen. All my beautiful clothes were being worn by fish in the deep, blue sea. Dolphins were taking a break from echolocation and using cell phones to track their prey. Sea turtles were having drinks at the casino. I envied them. I snapped out of my short-lived thoughts when voices grew clamorous. “Why don’t you want to hunt?” Josh cried, “Everyone’s starving!” That’s not true, I thought. It wasn’t that bad  anymore; I got used to it. But I didn’t want to add fuel to the fire, so I kept my mouth shut.

“I didn’t say I don’t want to hunt, I just don’t think we can without any tools or guns,” Amir said, voice rising.

“Who cares what you think!” Josh aggressively hollered. “Maybe you can’t, but what about me?!”

Amir got to his feet, simply muttered, “Good luck,” and walked away.

Makena attempted to pacify Josh. “Maybe he’s right, Josh. It does seem pretty difficult.” Josh shook off Makena’s hand off his shoulder and stood up.

“I’ll show him”, he mumbled, as he stormed off. After that day, Josh went hunting every morning, unaccompanied. He would return at around noon, with nothing but a dull stick in his hand, and chagrin over his face. On the other hand, I had developed some things we could do to kill time. We played tic tac toe and pictionary in the sand, and sometimes even tried some wood carving. None of us could perform the latter very well, but it still counts for something. Everyone loved it when I thought of games and activities. They thought it was entertaining. But I knew that they didn’t like them for the enjoyment. They liked them because if we spent any longer on this villainous island doing nothing, we would go crazy. It’s okay, I thought, We’ll be rescued soon. I can wait a little while longer.

It was a bright and early morning, and I was collecting fruits with Mya. The sun felt warm on my skin, a feeling that was unfamiliar during the night. My skin had gotten a lot darker since my first day here. I could really use some sunscreen, I thought. But then again, I could also use a ship that would take me back home. Bhavneet rested another bunch of bananas in my pouch, composed of Amir’s shirt. We walked further into the depths of the greenery, noticing that we’d been wiping out all the fruits off this island. I spotted a bush of berries and we marched in its direction. We began our ambush, when Mya asked me an unpleasant question.

“What if we don’t get rescued?” It’s too early for this conversation, I thought.

“That’s always a possibility.”

“Aren’t you scared, Zara?” I thought about this for a moment, still picking berries.

“Of course I am. But I’m also hopeful.” She seemed to linger upon this response, and then turned back to the bush. After cleaning out the bush, I transferred the pack of the fruits from my shoulder to hers, and we strolled back to the others.

Weeks passed, and there was no sign of rescue. I felt dirty and worthless. I wanted to go home. I wanted to shower. I wanted to sleep in my bed. It was getting very difficult to be hopeful. I would release my emotions late at night, when everyone was asleep. An image of my family popped into my head. They were worried sick waiting for me. I tried to console myself. It’s fine, I thought. I’ll be home soon. Just be patient. But it was getting harder to convince myself.

Mya and I were playing tic tac toe with a stick in the sand, while Amir and Makena were snacking on the berries under the tree. Shortly, Josh emerged from the hiking trail holding merely a stick, slightly sharper this time.

“Look who couldn’t get some meat,” Amir murmured. Triggered by the comment, Josh stomped towards Amir and pushed him with all his force. Amir fell onto Makena, slapping the glasses off her face. Mya and I rushed to prevent any further damage.

“My glasses!”, Makena wailed. Josh showed instant remorse, but it was no help.

“How’re we going to get rescued now? We can’t even light the signal fire,” Mya said.

“Nice going, hunter”, Amir remarked. I ignored them and knelt down to check the state of the glasses. The broken pieces were too small to be used. My body ached at this sight. Now what? I thought.

“We can still try to make a fire with stones or sticks,” Makena suggested. A couple heads nodded unenthusiastically.

“It’s okay, guys”, Mya added, “We’ll be fine. We can’t give up now...” I stopped listening after that. I knew that it was hopeless. We’re not getting rescued. None of us even know what we’re doing. We’re just a bunch of clueless teenagers. And now we have no fire. We are all going to die out here. Everyone else refused to acknowledge it, but I knew. It was ugly, but it was the truth. We are not getting rescued.

The following morning was dull. Mya didn’t feel good, so Amir kept me company while I gathered fruits. We travelled further than I’d ever gone before, so we could have some peace and quiet, away from others. I added a few coconuts to my side bag, and perceived that we had collected more than enough fruits for today. But my heart sank at the idea of going back, so we continued with our hike.

Other than the occasional small animals, all you could hear were our footsteps. It was very soothing, and helped me clear my head. I looked around at the endless jungle. I would’ve viewed this place as a beautiful island if the circumstances had been different. I might even come here for a vacation. Amir reached over and grabbed the bag of fruits off my sore shoulder. I smiled in remembrance of a novel claiming that humans turn into animals when isolated from civilization. I knew it was wrong, I thought.

I snapped out of my thoughts when I tripped and fell into a bush. Amir helped me out and we discovered a large, flat piece of wood that read “HIKING TRAIL”. We faced each other, curious and perplexed. We walked further down the path, at a faster pace. This side of the island looked more friendly. At this point we were jogging. I don’t know what we were expecting, but definitely not this.

After trotting for a few minutes, we were standing face-to-face to a beach resort. We stood like statues, jaws dropped. I was so overwhelmed that I couldn’t help but cry. Amir pulled me into an embrace and I sobbed into his arms. “We’re going to be okay,” he said. And this time, I believed it.