I searched the rocks for a while and almost thought that I wasn’t going to find anything, but a little ways down the beach I found some crabs. I couldn’t believe it and started laughing hysterically. I grabbed some of them up and started back towards the woods, when another thought occurred to me. I didn’t have any way of making fire. I gathered up some wood and some small sticks. I had seen on TV, before everything went to shit, that if you rubbed them together long enough you could make fire. So, I did. I rubbed and rubbed and rubbed. Nothing. My stomach was screaming again and the crabs just looked so delicious. I went down and grabbed some rocks, and a few more crabs, and tried hitting them together to see if I could make a spark and still nothing. The rocks just crumbled and the happiness of finding the crabs faded with each broken piece. Sweat was rolling down my face and my shirt was drenched.
“Damn it!” I screamed. I could’ve just ate my beans but the beans would last a lot longer than the crabs would and I didn’t know how long it would be before I had the chance to eat something fresh. I pulled the crabs apart and decided to eat it anyway. My insides were screaming to eat something. I could taste the salt from the ocean and even though it wasn’t cooked, it was delicious. It’s weird how, when put into a situation like this, you’re willing to do something you would never do normally. After all of the crab was gone, I sat there for a while, enjoying the view. I had never seen the ocean before coming to this beach. I only wish it were under different circumstances.
Getting lost in the waves, swooshing back and forth, a pain exploded into my stomach, bringing me back to reality. The pain was complete and felt like my guts were being ripped from my body. I could feel my face becoming pale and my head becoming light. The colors around me began to almost flicker and that’s when the vomiting started. Part of me thought that maybe this was punishment for everything I had done but most of me knew that it was because of the raw crabs. I mean, even the cannibals cook the human meat before they eat it. It was definitely a stupid decision but I needed the nutrients. A new feeling in my stomach came and I immediately knew what it was. I had gotten a mild case of food poisoning before, so I started taking off my pants, thankfully, just in time. The diarrhea started and fell from me in convulsions. I was emptying out from both ends. I was sure that this was the end for me. All of this went on for a long while and eventually my legs started to ache I couldn’t hold myself up anymore. I fell to my side and the flickering colors intensified, until I could no longer see anything but white light. Then, there was nothing.
I was out for a while before waking up. I’m not sure how long but it had to have been a couple of hours. When I woke I was lying in my own excrement and almost vomited some more. Colors still blended and when I sat up, the most excruciating headache I’ve ever had glided through my head. It felt like my brain was stuck to the side of my skull and when I sat up, it unstuck, leaving a chuck behind, like when you rip your tongue off a frozen pole. My lips hurt were cracked and swollen. I could feel the dehydration setting in.
I got to my feet and put my pants back on. I needed to find drinkable water, so I wandered along the ocean to try and find something. Oh, the ocean, the big taunting ocean, all that water and none of it drinkable. It was the sickest joke ever. I wandered for a while not really knowing where to go and stumbling over each step. Then I saw her.
Off in the distance, on top of a sand dune, I saw a silhouette. My mind wasn’t right and I started walking toward it. Normally I would’ve ran away but I couldn’t walk let alone run. As I inched closer, I saw that it was a female. She just stood there staring into the ocean.
“HEY!” I screamed. The words were hoarse and burned as they came out. The smell of my own breath was horrific. “HEY!” I waved to try to get her attention. Still nothing. I inched closer and closer. When I was close enough that the sun wasn’t blinding me anymore I saw who it was. It was Kai.
“KAI!” I shouted with such happiness. Tears began to run down my face and I tried to pick up my pace, but that just caused me to fall more. After falling a couple of times, my mouth was full of sand and my knees scraped by what felt like millions of tiny, scolding hot knifes. “KAI!” but still she didn’t look. She stood there, staring into the nothing with an empty look on her face.
When I reached the bottom of the dune, I could no longer walk. So, I crawled, filling every wound that I had with sand. About half way up the dune, she finally turned her head towards me. Her eyes were piercing. She didn’t say anything at first, she just lifted her arm and pointed out into the ocean. I followed her finger and floating, just off shore was a boat. It didn’t look like anybody was aboard. I looked back towards her and she was standing right in front of me. My neck cracked as I looked up to see her. The sun eclipsed behind her head.
“Why did you do it?” she said. Her eyes were full of pain now and a single drop of blood started from the corner of her eye, like a single tear. “WHY!” she screamed and I could feel my heart break. She kneeled down next to me. Her unbuttoned flannel shirt blew in the boiling hot wind. She touched my cheek and wiped the tears that were falling, forming little canyons in the caked sand and dirt on them. “Goodbye, love.”
“Wait, Kai, I’m sorry.” I said, frantically trying to get to my feet. I looked down at the sand below my hands and saw that it was now a dark brown from the tears and sweat rolling off of me. “Please, Kai, Don’t…” when I looked up, she was gone. I rolled onto my back and searched the entire beach around me. She was gone and now, I remembered everything.
