Any Port in a Storm: Chapter 7

Hey my awesome Patrons!

I decided to look at the activity on these Any Port chapters only to discover (assuming I am reading it correctly) that literally NOBODY is reading this story!!!  Zero views by patrons.  Yikes!

I announced it on Twitter, on here, in the Discord, and even mentioned it in the Date Night story I am working on on Chyoa.  Outside of being a pest and emailing you guys directly I am not sure how else to let you guys know there is content happening here.

So...while I had been thinking of leaving this as a Patreon exclusive serial I think I better start releasing it on Chyoa as well as that is where you guys would be accustomed to seeing my stuff.  I'll do it so that the Patreon will always be a chapter or more ahead of the Chyoa version.

Take care all.

Grim

Tony's Story

I wake the next morning to a rich symphony of birdsong along with a deep throbbing pain in my right knee and ankle.  I could feel Ash asleep against my side.  Blinking my eyes open I smack my dry lips and look around.

We sat with our backs to fat trunk of some sort of tree-fern at the cliff's edge of a lush forest.  The sun had already risen and the day was clear and warm.  The blue ocean stretched out in front of us, a sight I was far too familiar with at this point.  I close my eyes and take a deep refreshing breath of moist sweet smelling air before checking out what was closer to us.  Soft grass was under us and nothing but thick greenery behind.  A small lizard dashes by in the corner of my vision and a curious little lory with dazzlingly bright green, red, and blue plumage sits in a nearby shrub and watches us.  I force a smile and nod at it as if thanking it for its hospitality.

My eyes then scan around to lock onto the most magnificent sight of all!

There, no more than 10 feet away, was long crooked hollow in the cliff stone that was filled to the brim with clear clean rain water.

I squeeze my wife's arm.  “Ash.  Ash, wake up.”

She stirs and moans softly.  “Mmmmm.”  Before long she rubs her eyes and sits up.  She sits there a time before turning to hug me.  I hug her back.

“We made it.”  I whisper.  “I told you we'd make it.”  I then direct her toward the puddle.  “And look.  It might not be coffee but...”

“Water!”  She gasps.

Wasting no more time the pair of us scramble over to take our fill of the life giving drink.  There was even enough left over to wash our faces and hands.  We share another embrace and just take a moment to appreciate our survival.

As we part she asks.  “You okay?”  She was looking at my arm but in truth it was my leg that was killing me.

“My leg is fucked.  I don't think anything is broken but...SSSSS...it's not good.”  Trying to bend it had been a mistake.  Both my knee and ankle were swollen to twice their normal size and pulsing with incessant pain.  I knew already this was going to be a problem.

Ash checks me over and beyond the leg my injuries were mostly scrapes and bruises.  Even the cut on my arm wasn't as bad as we initially thought, thankfully the sharp stone hadn't cut deeply.  As she bound my arm with another section of the towel I looked into the forest.  “Wonder how big the island is.”

Ash shrugs.  “Didn't look too big.  Couple miles wide maybe, can't say how long.”

“Cook Islands maybe?”

“I don't think so.”  She looks up into the forest.  “I just don't know.  But look at this place.  It's a paradise.”

“Well...”  I grunt and struggle to my feet with her help.  “...once we find some locals we'll know soon enough.”  I walk to the cliff's edge and peer over.  The dinghy was gone, taken by the tide.  I was neither surprised nor disappointed.

“If we find some locals.”  Ash says in low nervous voice.  “Maybe it's uninhabited.”

I chuckle.  “We will.  This isn't the old days, there's no corner of the Earth we haven't settled at this point.”

“I didn't see any fishing boats or...”

I limp back to her and squeeze her shoulder.  “We'll find them.  They'll help us get home.”

We were a sorry sight.  Two white folks from Michigan a LONG way from home.  Thin and sunburnt, with only a bikini, a pair of trunks, a tank top, and two beach towels to our name.  I fashion a walking stick from dry length of banyan root and consign myself to the painful journey ahead.

Our choices were to try to skirt the edge along the precarious cliff edge or delve straight into the forest.  We opt for the latter and set out inland.

Ash's Story

The glorious drink of water that morning made a world of difference and I was almost feeling like my old self again.  As we set off into the forest I felt ready for anything.  Nothing ahead of us could possibly compare to what we had already been through.

Despite his hobbled condition Tony insists on taking the lead and I knew better than to argue with him.  Walking at half speed behind gave me plenty of time to admire the sights and sounds around us.  The forest was abuzz with the activity of lizards, birds, frogs, fruit bats, and insects.  The rich cornucopia of trees, soft ferns, broad leaved bushes, and exotic flowers made seeing beyond 10 or 20 feet impossible.  I kept hoping for a high clear spot so that we could look out over the island but none came that morning.  Travel was challenging yet surprisingly pleasant.  The temperature was warm but manageable, the insects hadn't yet stung or bit, and the plant life hadn't thorn or thistle to scratch our exposed skin.  This place truly was an Eden, which would make us Adam and Eve.

Unfortunately the apple from the tree of knowledge had already been tasted.

Walking so slowly behind my husband also gave me time to think and reflect.  I knew I ought to be focusing on our dire situation and that I should just be thankful we'd made it this far, but there was something niggling at me that I could not put out of my mind.  With all we'd been through in our ordeal and all of the time we'd spent alone together...not once had he told me that he loved me.  Not once.  While this wasn't out of character for the emotionally guarded Tony I thought surely at some point over these past few weeks, as death threatened us again and again, he would let his feelings be known.

I worried that perhaps he had let his feelings be known.  Perhaps by not saying it another hidden truth had been revealed.  The discovery of his true attitude toward having children had me questioning everything about us.  Doubts surfaced that had always been there but I had never allowed myself to give credence to.  When we got home conversations would be had and our relationship would be reassessed honestly.

We press onward.  I could see Tony was struggling.  He was moving ever slower and occasionally he couldn't hold back the groans of pain.  I suggested rest but he wouldn't hear of it and I began to worry that I may end up being forced to seek out help by myself if he couldn't go on.  About midday we come across a small clearing of flattened grass.  Walking out into the middle of it Tony had his eyes on the ground while mine were scanning the forest around us.

“Something's been here to flatten the grass.  Some large animals or...humans.”  He takes another laborious step.  “Is that...a trail?”

“Tony, bananas!”  I say as I spot a big cylindrical bunch of them hanging from a nearby tree.  I see another and then another.  I realize the area was likely flattened down from something or someone coming to gather this wild fruit.  “Ha ha!  Bananas!”

Tony, leaning heavy on his stick, smiles.  “Would you look at that.”

I spin toward him with a laugh and was about to say something...until I spot them.  Eyes.  A pair of wide round crystal clear emerald eyes staring right at us from behind a thick patch of matching green foliage.  Though I could not see the rest of this figure the eyes were unmistakably human.

There is a long frozen moment of fear and excitement as my gaze meets theirs.

“Tony.”  I whisper without breaking eye contact with the green eyed stranger in the forest.  “We're not alone.”