This is just a little story I threw together. Only one person is real, and she is only a made up personality that may or may not have any relation with the actual real person.
Please comment with specific comments about what you like and do not like. I am interested in constructive criticism.
This is a single story, without a follow on. It is about the time until the escape from the island, nothing after that.
*****
I pulled the emergency release on the lifeboat and it fell. I made sure it landed safely, then I dove in next to it. Fuck this was screwed up. Years of investment, lost because some asswipe couldn't keep his fucking mouth shut. At least he was one of the dead. I had no idea how many were left alive. My crew of ten, all dead. Thirty passengers on the deck, machinegun fire had mowed them down as well. I'd been out of uniform and below decks checking on the illegal cargo when it all went down. The machinegun fire had ripped through the decking and the hidden cargo hold started to fill. I took one bale of the pot and stripped out of my clothes, leaving just my bathing suit. I went to my private bolt. It included some clothes, money, some survival gear, rations, a gun and a short range transmitter. Also my own rubber raft lifeboat. I'd popped the inflate and put the bale and my bag in the boat then took to the water.
The pirates had moved off and were leaving, so I hung back where they could not see me and waited hoping the ship didn't sink before they were far enough away. A couple of bottles of sparkling water floated past and I scooped them up. Then I saw her. No blood in the water, one of the guests. She was dressed in a bikini and wrap, with strap on flat sandals and was face down in the water. I pulled my self along the sinking boat and checked her neck. She still had a heartbeat.
I pulled her aboard the small raft. Nothing in her mouth, I breathed into her, once, twice and she began to cough up the water from her lungs and then lapsed into unconsciousness. Another floated nearby, and a third and I saw the rear of the boat was underwater. Many of the guests were floating free. I used the oar now and checked them. Dead. Fuck. I was fucked. Sunk ship, no islands nearby. The coast of Puerto Rico wasn't far, I'd have to try for there. The next woman was dead, but like most of them, she was a hot model type and they were mostly the same size as the live one, so I pulled her aboard, stripped her clothes and pushed her back off. I did the same for two others before the first shark came. I managed to scoop up a dozen more bottled waters as well and finally pulled out the small electric motor and headed away from the site as my boat slipped beneath the water.
I grabbed a tank top from my bag and pulled it on. I also grabbed the hat and the sunglasses then slathered up with sunscreen. The girl I'd pulled from the drink had medium skin, maybe an islander or latina, hard telling, so I put just a touch on her as well. No use saving her only to let her burn and have to deal with that. I dribbled a little water in her mouth and she swallowed it. Damn she was hot. Her skin was baby soft and she reacted to my touch with a little moan. Her lips parted and her tongue flicked out as she arched her back. Damn, I thought. I shifted my attention back to the situation and started motoring slowly to the south. I really didn't know how far east and west I was, but I could see the lines of clouds to the east. That meant a tropical storm. I tied everything down including my passenger and pushed the speed a bit. The batteries wouldn't last long if I kept this up, but then I spotted it, a smudge to the south. Land.
The island didn't look very hospitable or at least the beeches didn't. There were lots of rocks on every approach, but the skies behind were getting darker and darker. I found a place I thought looked good on the surface, but we'd have to surf the boat in to avoid rocks beneath. That meant I needed my passenger awake and, hopefully, helping. I grabbed her leg and shook it. "Hey, wake up," I said, then again louder.
She moaned and pulled a hand to her head as she sat up, "Where the fuck am I? Oh shit, those dudes were trying to kill us!"
"It's long over now, we're the only two left," I said, "but listen. We are almost out of options. That storm is coming fast and if we're at sea and it catches us, we are dead. Understand?"
She nodded, "Yes," then she looked around wildly, "What do we do?"
She was panicking and that wasn't going to help, "I have a plan. Look behind you, that beech. We're going for that beech," I said stripping back to my suit and stowing the rest. "But there are a lot of rocks, probably some under the surf. I need you to help and we need to surf the boat in to shore."
"Surf, those are some crazy waves," she said.
"And they are going to get worse," I said. "we need to do it now or we die."
She digested for a moment. It was a lot to take in. I'm sure in her mind, she was just on the deck, maybe falling, and getting shot at with a .30 caliber deck gun. I have to say, she took it well, at least for now and turned to me, "What do I need to do?"
"Make sure you are tied securely," I said and indicated the tie on my ankle to the rope around the gunwale of the lifeboat. I had tied her, but I'd been in a hurry and steering with my ass while doing it. "Then grab that oar and sit up where you can stroke the water on the right. We'll get in closer, I'll lock the motor up, then I'll get next to you and we'll paddle like hell to catch a wave." She nodded and got in place, "Make sure you slip the oar rope around your wrist."
We got into position and some big waves started coming, pushed by the storm. I signaled her and we dug. She was strong and I didn't have to hold back much to keep us even. We shot forward, lost the wave we were on and the trench got low enough to show we needed to be on top to make it. I screamed to dig and we paddled harder. Just before the rocks ripped us to shreds, the wave behind us lifted us and we were propelled forward. Unfortunately, that was the end of control as we began to spin. But we passed the rocks and held on. Then the wave folded over and the raft tipped end for end. We landed in the shallows and I got my feet under me and braced against the backflow of the wave as the next one started coming. I grabbed the girl's arm and drug the raft by the tie around my ankle as we struggled in to shore where we collapsed just out of the incoming waves, our breath labored and not yet out of danger.
We dragged the lifeboat up under the palms on the beech and I tied it to a tree firmly. I pulled out a shirt and pants and a slacks and shirt I'd acquired for her. The pants were a bit tight, but she got them on and the shirt as well. I had a single solar blanket which wouldn't help a lot but was better than nothing, so we huddled under it and the storm hit. It wasn't a hurricane, but the winds were probably close, maybe a tropical depression. The noise was horrendous and we could not do anything but hold the tree and each other. After a while, I had her wrap her arms and legs around the tree and I got behind her with my back to the wind and we rode it out. At some point during the night, she fell asleep and still was when the storm finally passed. I looked around, no eye, so I relaxed. I leaned against her and fell asleep myself.
I woke up to her movement. She was trying to get out of where she was pinned between me and the palm. "Hold on, let me unkink and I'll move," I said and stretched my muscles a bit. They were sore as hell. And her body was soft and warm against me. She had quit struggling, but she was not comfortable being trapped in place. I groaned as I bent my legs, "Fuck, that hurts." but I rolled my shoulders, got my arms and legs in place then pulled back and let her get up. She disappeared into the brush and I could here a little trickle as she peed.
She came back and sat down on the edge of the raft and looked at me, "I'm Nicole," she said. "Thanks for saving me. What about all the rest?"
