"Castaways" (closed)

[ManInTheLoft]

"I'll go with you, obviously," Claire said to Robert about returning to the other island. He agreed, and after making their short term farewells, they headed for the boat and their destination.

Claire had asked, "Any ideas on a sail?"

"I've been thinking about that almost since we took off yesterday and my arms started aching," Robert responded with a laugh and a stretching of his stiff arms. "The rafts are actually designed to use their roof as a sail, but they aren't very efficient. Their mostly just designed to keep the boat turned one way in the wind, like a sea anchor used on sailboats at night when the crew is sleeping. At least, that was what they did before all the electronics came out. They still do that on smaller boats, but not a lot of people are brave enough to go outside of sight of land in that small of a boat."

Robert noticed Claire's reaction to his explanation and again laughed. "My father had a small fishing boat. Inherited it from my grandfather. But my mother had come from a sailing family, and while my dad was teaching me about using motors, she was teaching me about using cloth, so to speak."

"Do we make one for each of the rafts or will one sail move both?"

"Actually, I don't think we should use both of the rafts for this," he told her. "I think we need to keep one in reserve for emergencies. There's no telling what's ahead of us. I think holding one back would be best."

When she called out to Kazuki and Akira that they'd be back today and then asked if they actually would, Robert told her, "Yes, I think we will."

They got into their positions and started rowing strongly. They seemed to be making better time than they did the day before. Robert's opinion was that after just one trip across the water, they'd learned to work better together. And in less than an hour, they were entering the surf that carried them quickly up onto the shore. The other three women were waiting. They grabbed the boat as a final wave pushed them up onto the the pebble strewn beach. The wave withdrew, and all five of them worked to move the raft up away from the waves.

Betsy, Tamara, and Aurora jumped immediately into asking what the pair had found. Robert hadn't said anything to them in the signals the day before or this morning. But Tamara had been watching them through the binoculars and had seen two figures none of the three of them had expected. Robert and Claire took turns filling them in while simultaneously thinking about the trip back to the other island.

Robert took a moment to head down the beach to look across to the other island. He'd taken paper and pen with him, as well as the rifle. Looking through it and doing some calculations, he concluded that it only about 2,000 feet to the other island. That wasn't nearly as far as it had seemed rowing the boat. But they didn't get there and back as the seagull flies, of course. Robert estimated they had actually rowed between 4,000-5,000 feet, which was at least three-quarters of a mile. They'd had to fight the current a couple of times, which had been the reason it had taken them almost an hour.

"I don't think the sails are going to be necessary," Robert told Claire when he returned. "I think we should put four of us in one boat, using the oars from the other raft. We'll get their with a stronger stroke. The current won't hardly even effect us. It'll mean less cargo per trip, but we'll make it there almost twice as fast, I think. We should at least give it a try."

"I'll stay here and watch the stuff," one of the girls spoke up quickly. She wasn't that excited about crossing the water in the raft. "I'll wait to the end if no one cares."

They made a decision about what to do. Soon enough, the raft was back in the water and fighting the surf again. After the last cresting wave, they repeated the course of the day before, staying away from the rocks. As expected, the raft made the trip in less time. It wasn't the 30 minutes Robert thought they'd make it in; he figured it was the extra weight of the cargo and two extra people that caused the trek to take almost 40 minutes.

At the sea wall, Kazuki tossed down the rope Robert and Claire had left behind. They tied the boat up, and and after Robert climbed up to the concrete walkway again, they used yet a third rope to begin hauling up the cargo. Introductions were made, and the goods were hauled to the Japanese pair's home.

"We should go back ASAP," Robert told Claire. He looked off in the direction of the wind in his face and thankfully did not see any threatening clouds. Still, he told her, "We have no idea what Mother Nature might do in the hours to come."

Turning to Kazuki, Robert smile and held out a disposable razor. The other man laughed, rubbed his prickly beard, and said, "Thank you, my friend."

Then, glancing to the two women he'd only just met, he playfully told Robert, "Akira said I shouldn't be kissing any women before I was clean shaven."

The two men laughed together, with Robert telling him, "Well, we now have 4 women from whom you can choose to test your smooth shave."

 

[ToniTaylor]

Claire's feelings about Robert only continued to become more and more confusing for her with every interaction. His story about his parents -- one a motor boat type, the other a sails type -- only endeared him to her even more, something most people wouldn't expect considering he'd once been part of the organization that had planned to sell her into sexual slavery.

Getting back to Betsy, Tamara, and Aurora seemed so easy this time around, once her muscles had tightened up and then loosened once more. She and Robert rowed together with teamwork, and before she knew it they were being pushed up onto the beach to the awaiting trio.

"Who were those people?" Tamara asked with excitement even before the boat had come to a stop on the pebble beach. "Who are they? How many are there?"

The other two girls laid into Claire and Robert as well, with each answer they received seeming to lead to a pair of subsequent questions. The news that the Japanese woman had a baby was stunning, too, of course. Neither of the three would believe the strange twist.

"Where the hell's he going?" Aurora asked about Robert after the man spoke to Claire alone and then ran off with the rifle. The eldest of the four women explained, and after Robert returned and said that four of them should return to Hashima while one remained behind, Aurora was quick to say, "I'll stay here and watch the stuff ... I'll wait to the end if no one cares."

"Fine with me," Tamara and Betsy said almost simultaneously. They laughed, and the latter said, "I want to see the baby."

They soon had the raft loaded and back in the water, and in what seemed like no time at all to Claire, they were catching a rope tossed down by Kazuki.
Claire made the introductions, which were repeated in a sense when Akira came walking up during the unloading of the boat. Betsy and Tamara were essentially lost from unloading the boat as they fawned over Chieko, until finally Claire told them to get their asses back to the ropes on which their resources were being lifted.

"We should go back ASAP," Robert told her, looking in the direction from which a light but steady breeze was coming. "We have no idea what Mother Nature might do in the hours to come."

Claire laughed when she saw Robert hand Kazuki a disposable razor, and laughed again when she overheard the Japanese castaway joke about kissing with stubble. "It would be my honor to give you your first kiss, Kazuki-san, if you would permit me."

There was laughter from those who were up on the topic, and after Claire explained to the other two women, Betsy said with humor to her sister but for all to hear, "Hey, why do you get the first kiss. You have Robert. One of use should have the honor."

There was more laughter, but Claire couldn't help but glance to Robert to see what his reaction was. There had been speculation amongst the four women while their sole male companion had been afar that Claire would be the only one of them getting any, based upon Claire and Robert's previous history. Claire had shut that conversation down quickly, reminding them, "I sucked the man's cock to get you three free, and don't forget that. There's nothing between Robert and me!"

But ... of course ... that wasn't entirely true. She didn't know how Robert actually considered their relationship. Sure, he'd told her he didn't expect anything sexual from her, but c'mon, really? Robert would fuck any of the four and even all of the four -- together! -- if he was given the opportunity.
All four of them were beautiful, sexy women, and there wasn't a man on the planet who wouldn't stick his cock in one, two, three, or four of them if possible.

"I must reserve the honor for Miss Claire," Kazuki told them all, giving her another respectful bow before adding hesitatantly, "I do not see it as an honor to be given, but if Miss Claire does, who am I to contradict her?"

"There, it's settled," Claire said, poking a finger in the air at the other two women before telling them, "Now, get to work. We have to make another trip to and from."

Robert continued to send things up from the raft as Claire and Kazuki pulled the ropes from above, and Betsy and Tamara -- with Kazuki carrying very light things, as well as Chieko -- got everything delivered to what everyone by now was simply calling the siblings' home. Once they were finished, Claire said, "I'm staying behind. Robert, you and Tamara and Betsy take turns rowing, and you make Aurora get in that boat whether she wants to or not. Throw her into the surf and drag a life jacket behind you if you have to, but make her join in on the work."

The raft once again headed out into the sea, and Claire returned to the house with their new friends. The three of them went through the newly delivered things, doing an inventory. Claire held up some of her sister's clothes to Akira's body, seeing that the smaller Betsy's things would fit the Japanese girl so much better.

"I wish we had more," she said regarding clothing, "but when we made our escape we nearly literally had only the clothes on our backs. There were some clothes on the Agatha James ... that's the boat we ran aground in ... clothes that were meant to show us off to our future patrons."

Speaking about the future she'd avoided sent a painful chill up Claire's back. Akira showed concern when Kazuki translated, then spoke to her brother but at Claire.

"She says the Heavens smiled down upon you and your sister and friends," the brother told Claire. "You have been blessed with a second opportunity to make of your life what you wish it to be."

"Here, on this rock?" Claire laughed. She told Kazuki to confirm to his sister that she was right without the sarcasm, then asked, "Will you take me to the north end of the island, Kazuki? I want to look at the open terrain." [north is to the right]

They left Akira to organize the treasure the newcomers had brought into their home and took a slow walk to the open field beyond the decrepit apartment buildings. Claire reminded Kazuki that Tamara knew how to grow vegetables from the root ends of some of the fresh food they had with them. "It won't be much at first, but you've been here a year. If another year passes, we'll have a crop ... and of course, more new roots to plant."

She didn't honestly think that this crazy idea was going to work, but like they'd discussed, they had no idea how long they were going to be here and they might as well plan for the long term now.

"Not a good place for a garden," Kazuki told her when he realized about what Claire was speaking. He gestured her to follow him again, and when they were again south of the northernmost building, in amongst the debris of several others, Kazuki told Claire, "This is better place for garden."

Claire could see why the man thought so. The wind here was significantly lighter than it had been out in the northern open space. And the plant life here seemed to indicate that the soil could maintain a garden. There was still the question of whether or not the soil was healthy, but Claire neither thought they could learn whether it was or wasn't nor could they pass on taking the chance, even if it killed them. Looking at Kazuki and Akira, she knew that they couldn't survive on fish and shellfish alone.

Of course, there were the cats and rats.

Another one of the former caught Claire's eye as it moved from the shadows into the light for an instant before disappearing again. The feral feline -- one of the biggest now-wild domesticated cats Claire had seen in her life -- had been carrying a rat in its mouth as it hurried along, likely to its own home somewhere in the rubble.

Kazuki had told Claire and Robert the night before that he and his sister had trapped and eaten a number of both animals when they'd first gotten here. The rats had reached Hashima the same way they'd reached just about every spot in this world in which you could find man, by hiding out in boats. The cats had originally been invited here, of course, pets of some of the first humans to settle the island. They'd begun to go feral even while the Japanese miners -- and after them Korean and Chinese POWs -- were still working and living here, and their numbers had increased, decreased, and then leveled off after the retreat of the humans to other locales.

Claire didn't know how the others would feel about eating cat, but personally, she had no problem with it at all. She'd never liked cats, which was strange for a girl, everyone had told her. She'd never liked dogs either, particularly after her parents had forced one on her during her depression-filled tween years. Claire was pretty sure that she could set a deadfall trap to kill them a feline dinner ... if someone would just show her how to make a deadfall trap.

"Can we get up there?" Claire asked, looking almost straight up to the roof of the building near which they were standing. "I'd like to look out over the island."

Kazuki led her to a stairwell, up which they climbed to reach the third floor before crossing to the other end of the building to use another stairwell to reach the highest floor. When Kazuki began to show obvious signs of exhaustion, Claire told him to sit on the steps and she'd make her way to the top on her own. She had to negotiate the debris of the partially collapsed roof to get to the still-intact portion of it.

At the top, she gave a sigh of awe as she looked out over the island and the sea beyond it. Despite the reason for her being here, Claire found the sight simply incredible. She heard shuffling feet and looked to find Kazuki making the climb. She hurried over and downward a bit to help him the last couple of yards.

(OOC: In the upcoming Google map link, you have to imagine that the horizon is nothing more than ocean, not the island of Kyushu.)

"That's our island!" she said as she pointed to the northeast. She laughed at the sight of a small blip of yellow-orange on the water. "That's our boat!"

She watched as the raft disappeared behind the long, low-lying southern tip of the island, then surveyed the rest of the view. Other than their island -- which Kazuki had already informed them was called Nakano Island -- and Hashima, there was nothing to see but open ocean in every direction.

How the hell did we end up so far away from everything? Claire thought to herself. They'd headed away from the compound island for hours, only to be tossed around by the storm all night long. If Kazuki had not known where these two islands were in respect to Japan to the northeast, Korea to the north, and China to the west, she might have thought they'd ended up in Costner's Waterworld.

"Japan's how far?" Claire asked Kazuki. He pointed without being asked to and told her, but he had a hesitant tone in his voice. She asked, "What...? What is it...? Is there something more?"

Kazuki diverted his eyes for a long moment, then looked to Claire and admitted, "I am not certain how far Kyushu is from here. I ... I'm sorry, Miss Claire. I was only making a guess."

Claire's eyebrows raised in surprise. "Excuse me?"

"It could be a hundred kilometers ... um, 60 miles? Yes, 60, a little more, I think," he told her. When she only continued to look at him with surprise, Kazuki said, "But I think if we were that near to the Japanese Homeland, we would have been found ... even with the islands being restricted. I think ... I'm sorry, Miss Claire, but ... I think we are much farther."

"But ... how could you not know?" she asked with shock in her voice. "You're a fisherman. Don't you need to know things like this before you go out on the ocean?"

"I am not a fisherman, I am a student," he told her. Kazuki reminded her that he'd been at University studying Aquaculture, and this last trip on the family fishing boat had only been his second ever. "Even Akira, who went out with father often, doesn't know the relative positions of Hashima and Kyushu. My father was not fishing the waters off this island. The only reason we were here was because of the pirates."

There was a long silence, during which Claire looked out over the sea again, back to her host, and to the water once more. Behind her, Kazuki tried to break the tension by saying softly, "Aaargh."

She looked back to him with wide eyes ... then smiled, shook her head, and laughed. "Yes ... argh."

Claire went to the tired, gently swaying man and took his arm, steadying him as they looked out over the ocean. They spoke about the island, the ocean, the garden concept, fishing, and even cat catching before climbing back down to the ground and returning to find Akira sound asleep with Chieko in her arms. They let her sleep, and a little more than an hour later, the raft returned with all four of her comrades rowing from their own quarters.

"Tamara, come with me," Claire said, taking her off to look at the proposed garden site. They spoke about sunshine levels and of preparing the soil to be more fertile, then returned in time to find the boat emptied. She asked Robert, "Another trip today?"