Craigs' humble beginning

The ocean was calm today. Opposite of yesterday but then, yesterday is gone now. Waves gently lapped at the white sand beach, picturesque so if it was frequented by tourists the beach would be featured in adds worldwide and draw thousands of people to come and sit in the sun to enjoy its perfect views and sand. The palm trees and thick jungle ground cover stopped just over fifty feet from the high tide line and thanks to the current that deposited all floating debris on the other side of the island, this beach was pristine.


The sun was just rising over the eastern horizon sending bolts of bright yellow light through the few low lying clouds while a few birds walked the beach to pick up a quick snack of the small creatures too slow to move back into the lowering tide. Bright colors were everywhere from the white sand to the vivid blue sky and the emerald green jungle. Makes one wonder why there were no fruity drinks with mini-umbrellas and bikini clad sunbathers. Unfortunately for the beach goers, this island wasn’t open for the spring break vacation. This island was radio-active.

During the most recent world war, of which there had been three in the last fifty or so years, this particular island sat in the middle of a communist Australian fleet set to be tactical nuked. The fleet was destroyed, the island bombarded with nuclear radiation, and as with everything in that war, all was quickly forgotten as the world got back to its habitual pleasure seeking. But there was one ship not totally destroyed by the nuclear missiles. A submarine that dived only seconds before the first missile struck was able to survive the initial blast only to be disabled by the electro-magnetic-pulse and flooded with radiation. All hands abandoned ship and made for the island only two miles distant. Only three made the long swim. Only two survived the following day, the Sonar operator and a weapons specialist.

After the two had sat alone on this peaceful island for just over three months, though neither was counting, the weapons specialist decided to build a raft and take his chances. He build the raft, he left the island, leaving the sonar operator alone because he thought rescue would be more likely if he stayed in one spot than if they floated free on the currents. Because of this, the sonar operator was the only person to enjoy the morning’s sunrise on the pristine beach in the middle of the Pacific Ocean.

Standing in the shade of a palm tree that would grace walls of travel agencies if it didn’t make coconuts that glowed in the dark, Craig watched the sunrise with patience of a man who hadn’t had to hurry in a very, very long time. Craig watched through the eyes of a man for whom the sunrise from that particular horizon had become common place and was only watching because he really didn’t have anything else to do at that moment. He had just woken up from his bed of sand under the foliage at the edge of the jungle and stood up, happened to be facing the east so he watched.

Craig had slept on that beach now for just over nineteen months but wasn’t counting so he didn’t know that. He just knew it had been a long time. After the only other survivor left Craig didn’t do much. He had water from a spring in the center of the island and food from the trees and lizards that somehow survived the fallout. Craig survived, little else, although he had discovered something strange the other night and was in serious danger of thinking this morning.

Two nights ago Craig had woken up with a start as a lizard climbed over his chest. Surprised and frightened he violently shoved it away and jumped before he had come completely awake, holding onto the nearest palm tree for support. That would be when he noticed something wrong. Instead of standing on dry sand with his back to the base of a palm tree though he did have his back to a palm tree it was to the part that happened to be about twenty-five feet up. Somehow he had jumped to just under the spread of fronds and was at that moment standing on nothing but insubstantial air. That was the moment he fell...

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