-------------------------------------------------- About this story:
Hello again, faithful followers. After my humble beginning, I have decided to write another story here on Nifty. If you're wondering just who I am, you might recognize me as the author of the sometimes controversial story "The Dreamer." Response to my first story was so great, I'm kind of afraid I won't be able to live up to it with my second story I call "Survivor," but I hope you like it just the same. As usual, please Email me your questions, opinions, and suggestions at RomanGenesis@hotmail.com
And now, without further ado...
Survivor - Day 1 (One Small Step...)
The van pulled up into the gravel parking lot and with the noisy combination of screeching van door and childish yelling, everyone in shouting distance knew that our journey had begun. After the remaining children in the younger Patrol had filtered out of the car, I slowly emerged and squinted into the sun.
Jack came out right behind me and placed his arm around my shoulder triumphantly. "Well, Eric," he said to me. "We finally made it."
I looked past the assorted buildings that lay between us and the small lagoon and docks that held the huge sailboats firmly against their wooden decks. Jack was right, we had made it. I allowed the childish awe that I was feeling cross my face in a giant grin. Three of those sailboats were ours and I couldn't wait to see which one I would be on.
"Troop 258," one of the counselors that had come out to greet us yelled. "If you could come over to the pavilion here before you unload your stuff." The two adults that had driven us here led us over to the covered pavilion.
"We've got two more vans coming," Mr. Arnold told the counselor as we got to him. I ignored them and looked out at the vast expanse of water that stretched on beyond the bay. We wouldn't be leaving for a few days, but I could almost taste putting the sails up for the first time. My boy scout troop had been planning this trip for almost a year and the anticipation was almost over.
It was the summer between my sophomore and junior year of high school and this week long trip was going to be the pinnacle of the whole summer.
Jack sat down under the pavilion by me and looked out at the forty foot sail boats. He couldn't hold his excitement any longer. "This is so cool," he muttered. I looked over at him and smiled. Jack was probably my best friend that I was in Boy Scouts with. At school he usually hung out with the track and swimmer people, but at Scouts I guess he felt we shared some things in common so we usually shared a tent and excluded ourselves and just hung out at meetings.
He was also rather attractive, but I had known him for so long so the chance of anything happening between us was slim to none. We heard a vehicle coming across the gravel parking lot behind us and our patrol and the younger boys who had come in our van turned around to see which van it was.
It was the van carrying the rest of the younger kids so me and Jack turned back around and continued talking. For this trip, Jack was the Patrol Leader for our small patrol of four. We usually had seven kids our age in the troop, but the others couldn't make it to Sea Camp with us. Shawn and Mark, the other two in our patrol for the trip were off talking to Mr. Arnold. Mark had on that worried look that he was destined to walk through life with. I looked back out at the water and realized that it was getting late. The sun was sinking lower and lower towards the water.
I guess the counselor got tired of waiting for the last van and decided to start without them. I found that rather odd, knowing who was on the last van, but then decided that Mr. Arnold knew what he was doing. The six younger kids and the four in my patrol all gathered around and the counselor began to explain where we would be staying before we went out on the boats.
As the conversation moved to boat etiquette I let my gaze drift over the younger kids. They were all completely engrossed in what the counselor was saying. He spoke of scuba diving and fishing and what we would do when we got to the different ports. My eyes landed on Austin and I had to smile.
Austin was fourteen and had just gotten done with middle school. His dark, messy hair constantly fell down into his eyes and he had to brush it away. He hung on the counselor's every word and the wonder in his eye reminded me of something. It was the look of a child at Christmas waiting for the next present, the next worthless piece of plastic that would fulfill his every waking need. It suddenly hit me. He reminded me of myself at that age.
The whispering and giggling of the younger boys suddenly died off as we heard a vehicle coming across the gravel behind us. Everyone, even the adults it seemed, turned to witness what all of us secretly wished wouldn't happen. The third van rolled to a stop, kicking up dust and swirling it through the living afternoon air.
The van simply sat there for a moment and every single one of the younger boys held their breathes. Perhaps the trip had just seemed to perfect and now we had to realize who exactly was in charge here. The door was ripped open in a violent display of power and suddenly, the area around the van was crowded with giants. They had emerged, all at once, like a virus emerging in the pits of some utopian society to infect everyone.
The older boys had arrived.
I quickly looked back at the counselor and hoped be would continue his little speech, but he was waiting now. I glanced back around and saw them quickly making their way across the expanse towards us. Kyle was leading, like always, in his everything business way. His brother, Philip, was right behind him and the grin on his face was not one of wonder or awe or anything good for that matter. His grin was one of complete evil, the same thing it always was.
There was five of them and they created a parameter around us, waiting like vultures for the speech to continue. "Are you the Senior Patrol Leader?" the counselor asked Kyle.
"Yeah," Kyle responded.
"Good, I need to see you after we're done here." Kyle was eighteen and although he had already gotten his Eagle award, his dad was the leader of the troop and had allowed him to go on this one last trip with the troop. His dad had not come though and I was thankful for that. As frightening as Kyle and his twisted brother Philip were, their dad was ten times worse.
The introduction speech was over and we were allowed to go put our stuff in our temporary rooms before dinner was going to start. Dinner was nasty, but no one minded to much. We were still looking forward to getting on the boats and living on them for a week. It was going to be the best time of our lives. We wouldn't have to put up with the older boys for too much longer because they practically had one of the three sail boats all to themselves. The other two were going to be a mix of younger and middle aged boys.
I continued spooning my mashed potatoes and dreaming about scuba diving deep into the reefs when Jack pulled me out of my reverie. "Eric, did her hear what Shawn said?" I looked up and saw that Shawn was looking right at me.
"What's wrong?" I asked.
"I thought I heard Philip talking about a midnight run tonight," Shawn repeated himself.
"Damn," I muttered. The older boys sure knew how to spoil a trip. "How are they going to do that without any tents? We're staying in hotel type rooms." Midnight runs usually consisted of attacking the younger boy's tents in the middle of the night by pulling up stakes and basically making the whole thing cave in around them. They usually did it when it was pouring rain down outside, making sure the younger boys, ourselves included, got very wet while putting our tents back up.
"I don't even want to know," Mark said, as scared as ever. Mark was a frequently used target by the older boys and we all felt sorry for him. Not that stuck up for him or anything when he was under attack, though. Defending someone who was being attacked by the older boys was an instant death wish.
"At least we won't have to deal with them much longer," I said.
That night we were all allowed to go out and meet with the captain of our particular boat. We got our assignment and saw that it was going to be me and Jack and three of the younger boys, Austin, Henry, and Dennis on one boat. We walked out to the docks and saw our captain waiting there for us.
"How y'all doing?" He asked as we came up to him. "I'm Captain Bill and I'll be your captain for the next week. And this here," he said, turning and patting his ship, "is the Bermuda Battleship." He continued to show us around the top and then down into the cabin. I couldn't believe how big it was in the cabin. There was a huge kitchen area and a wooden table to eat at. Near the rear there was two small bedrooms that consisted mostly of mattresses. "The room at the front is off-limits," he told us. Apparently, that was his bedroom.
We all said good-bye to Captain Bill and started heading back down the dock towards our rooms when we saw Philip and two of his lackey's with him halfway down the dock. They were sitting there throwing stones into the water, but there was no way to go around them. They were blocking the dock.
"Oh shit," I heard Henry say. He was a preferred target just like Mark was. Deep down I was just happy they would mess with him and not me. We got closer and they saw us and stood up. Jack was right next to me and I felt safe. Jack could hold his own and so could I. We made a good team around the older boys and no one messed with us when we were together.
"Oh, look who it is," Philip said as we came up to them. I saw that the two kids with him were Randy and Travis. They were practically his right-hand men. I don't think I've even seen one of them without Philip's leash around their necks.
Travis walked up to Henry and poked him in the stomach. "How's it going doughboy?" He asked. Travis was usually just a stupid ass when it came to messing with people, but Randy was rather cold and calculating. He eyed the younger kids for a moment and then eyed me and Jack. Did I mention that Randy is also incredibly hot?
My heart began to speed up from excitement and fear. "How's it going guys?" He asked.
"Pretty good," Jack responded. "You guys meet your captain yet?" Jack was so good at diffusing situations. He could keep them talking long enough for the rest of us to make our escape.
"Yeah, the guy sucks," Philip said chucking a stone as far out as he could. I think I can classify Philip in one word and pretty much sum him up. Skinhead.
He hates the whole world and the whole world hates him. It's a give/give kind of relationship, but I'm sure if you asked him, he would tell you it's a take/take kind of relationship. I began to walk away from them. I didn't want to deal with them right now.
"Where you going Eric?" I heard Randy call when I was halfway down the dock.
"To bed," I said back and continued walking.
"Aww, it's past Eric's bedtime," Philip said and started making crying noises. I ignored him and continued walking. Letting people like that get to you was about as effective as watering the lawn with saltwater.
I was getting closer to the rooms when I heard Austin yelling for me to wait up. I turned around and saw the young boy running up to me. "Hey, you shouldn't worry about what those guys say. They're pretty dumb," he said to me.
I had to smile at that. Here was one of the younger kids giving me advice on how to deal with the older ones. "Thanks for the advice," I said slightly sarcastic. I turned around and began to head back to my room when he came up beside me again.
"Hey, you want to go rent one of the volleyballs and hit it around for a while?" he asked me.
I looked down at my watch. "Yeah, I guess we could do that for a while." He turned and ran off toward the counselor's office. I watched him with a smile on my face. He was a cute little kid, that was for sure.
We hit the volleyball around for a while and soon had most of the troop playing with us. It had been a long day and I was starting to feel really tired so I headed for my room again. I walked into the room and saw a disaster area. My clothes were everywhere, scattered randomly around the room. I looked and saw that everyone else's clothes had been tossed about mercilessly and it suddenly hit me. Philip and his goons hadn't been down there playing volleyball with us. They had been up here throwing all our shit around. I began to pick up my stuff that was laying around and put it back in my bag. They had been cruel before, but this was pretty low even for them. They were probably making up for the fact that they wouldn't be able to mess with us after we got on the sailboats.
I laid down and closed my eyes. The day had been a long one and tomorrow we would be getting our scuba lessons before we left. Back then, we couldn't wait to get out on those boats. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. None of us did. We were just so washed up in the thrill of it all that the true danger was never made apparent until it was too late. Something would happen to each and every one of us, and we all would soon learn that we had left our youth and our innocence on the shore as we sailed out into the morning sun.
continued...
Things begin to swirl into action as Eric and the troop get ready for the journey of a lifetime. Day 2 is coming in a few...