Prisoner of Non Effugere

James Scott woke up with a splitting headache. He had no idea where he was or how he got there. All he knew was that his feet were wet.

He stood up, and when his eyes focused, he found himself on a beach.

“Hello.”, he said.

There was no answer. His voice was low and weak. It cracked. He cleared his throat and tried again.

“Hello!”

It was stronger this time. Louder. It still cracked. There was still no answer. He cleared his throat again.

“HELLOOOOOOOOOO!”

This time, a few birds flew away. They went into the trees away from the beach. His voice was much stronger. Much louder. Yet there was still no answer. He started to walk around and found himself on an island. What island? He did not know.

Just through the trees there was a small body of fresh water. He quickly bent down and started to scoop some up with his hands. With his throat moistened, he started to call out again but figured it was no use. Nobody else was there. He was all alone. He had to figure out a way off the island himself. Whatever happened, though, he would not die from thirst.

James was very resourceful. He was able to build an ax with a rock, a stick, and some twine he made from the moist, green fibers taken off tree branches. He learned a lot from watching movies. He chopped down a bunch of bamboo and built a raft. He pushed it into the water and hopped on with some fruit and a paddle. He made it a few yards out before the raft fell apart and he found himself floating in the water. He tried again and again with similar results. They all ended with him in the water. Sometimes the handmade twine was not tight enough. Sometimes he loaded too much stuff on the raft. There were many times that the raft held together tightly but the tide would wash him back into the water.

After being on the island for 3 years, his ax making skills improved. He had knives, spears, a bow and arrows. He had all he needed to stay alive. He managed to chop down a large tree. That was the easy part. He wanted to carve it into a boat. He wanted on with enough space to store food and water for a long trip. It would not be easy. But he was up to it.

It took him 2 more years, but his boat was finally ready. The bottom of the boat was attached to 2 rafts. This gave the boat extra support against the tide. There were plenty of trees with large strong leaves which gave him a sail. He had paddles made from bamboo. He even had Franklin, A basketball that washed ashore. It had a face drawn on it from plant-based ink that James had made himself. Franklin was his only friend on the island. He packed it full of fruit that grew on the island along with water filled into coconut shells. He pushed his boat into the water and jumped in. On the island, he left a large sign that read “James Scott Was Here.”

He paddled as hard as he could to get away from the island. At the right moment, he let up the said and let the wind take him away. It was not long before he was in the open ocean. He had no idea where he was or where he was headed. The fact that he was moving was good enough for him. He had been a prisoner on that island for 5 years and things were set in motion for him to go home.

After 3 days, his food supply had run out. Although this was bad, he heard of people surviving 3 months without food. He didn’t expect to be out there that long.

After 3 more days, he had run out of water. This was worse. A person could only survive 3 days without water. Salt water would not help. It would only make matters worse. But his freshwater worries wouldn’t last long. Just when he thought it was all over, it started to rain.

The rain came down as just a light sprinkle at first. He was able to refill his coconut shells, but the rain was starting to fall harder. It was in danger of filling up the boat. And it continued to come down harder. Soon it was a full typhoon. Yet he managed to keep the boat afloat.

As the storm continued to get stronger, James was thrown out of the boat. He would have drowned if it was not for his best friend. He held on to Franklin and was able to keep his head above the water. Weak from the fight to stay alive, everything went black.

When he came to, he was still floating in the water with the aid of Franklin. The storm was over, but his boat was nowhere to be found. He looked around but did not see it. He did however see land. He started to swim toward it when he saw a sign on the beach.

“James Scott Was Here.”