Drift

Blurb:

A 24-year-old man named Drift Chase is on a boat when one stormy night, the boat cracks and he washes ashore on an island known as “Skull”. Drift must find a way to survive until someone can find him, but the more he stays the more he discovers the horror about“Skull”.

DISCLAIMER: This story may remind you of the show 'Arrow' on Netflix and CW by D.C. This may remind you of Oliver Quen's past on the island. Please do not spam me with comments saying I stole a story. Thank you!

CHAPTER 1:

“Drift, Drift, Drift.” My mother called my name. I opened my eyes to see my mother standing in front of me. “Mom?” I gasped. “You’re supposed to be dead! You died when I was 15!” My mom nods her head. “I am dead,” She speaks in that soft voice that I miss. “But I have a message for you,” I look at her eagerly. “It is not your time yet. Wake up Drift. Be that strong boy I knew.” Before I knew what was happening, everything fades away and I sat up, off the ground, breathing heavily. My head hurts as I try to remember something. The boat....storm...washed ashore. I discover I'm lying down on the sand, and in front of me is a broken boat lying sideways. Oh yeah, I'm also surrounded by water. I'm on an island.

I take a step up, only to come crashing down again. "Fudge!" I hiss. My legs ache with cuts. I use my arms and drag myself into a forest behind me. I'm leaning against a tree when I hear some rustling of some sort. I panic. What if someone's here! What if they kill me? I decide to stay where I am because I'm in no shape to run or fight. No one comes. Instead, I feel a tingle on my arm and see a 1-foot spider crawl down my arm. I freeze. I hate spiders. The spider crawls up my arm and, BAM! The spider drops off me, dead. Blood pouring out of it as well as an arrow. "Pick him up." I hear a voice growl. The next thing I know, someone inserts an arrow into my arm and I fall asleep, unconscious.

"WAKE UP!" Someone screams. I start blinking and my eyesight returns. Standing in front of me are 3 people dressed in all black cotton clothes that look makeshift, and they all wear a skull mask. Someone else hisses. "He's a spy from Fire here to destroy us! We must kill him to protect Skull!"

"Wha-?" I mutter. "Who's Skull?" I rasp. All three of them stare at me with menacing dark glares. "LIAR!" One shouts.

"Who are you?" My next question comes out.

"I'm Bone." The one that shouted 'liar' said.

"Leaf." The one that claimed that I'm a spy said.

"Alpha." The one that woke me up said.

"Drift," I reply.

"Tell us about yourself, Drift," Alpha says.

"I washed up here from a boat. I'm from Australia. What are you?" I ask.

"We are a gang named Scrim. We used to be bigger, but we got overthrown. A man named Li was part of our pack, but threw a rebellion against us and persuaded some of our men to follow him. They have created a gang called Fire, on the complete opposite side of this island. They own the west side, we own the east side." Alpha shrugs. I swallow. I know what I'm about to ask.

"Can you teach me how to survive?"

***

"Pull back your string but hold onto the end of the arrow." I try to follow what Bone is saying. Bone fires an arrow perfectly into a thin tree. Be that strong boy I knew. My mother's voice rings in my ears. I breathe in sharply and draw back my bow. Taking the string into my hand, I raise the bow, aim, and fire. The impact has me stumbling back. I almost fall.

"Congrats Drift. You have a natural talent," Bone claps. I look up and see the arrow I fired, in the center of my target. "Your first try and you centered it." We spend the next hour or so firing arrows. By the time I'm done, my arms ache. Bone notices, because he says, "Let's head back for something to eat. You did well today. Tomorrow you're going to do actual combat fighting with Leaf. Finally, you will learn to sneak with Alpha."

Bone and I start to head back to camp. Bone suddenly looks at me and asks, "Smell that?" I sniff and I catch a whiff of smoke. "Look!" I cry. I see flames through some trees.

"That's our base!" Bone yells. As if on cue, we both start running as fast as we can, to reach our burning camp.