Arrival
My name is Alex Winter. I am Twenty-one years old. I live in East Attleboro, Massachusetts. I am wearing baggy khakis, a plain black shirt, a green jacket, and black sneakers. I learned this technique at one of the random hospitals I’ve spent most of my life in to deal with my schizophrenia. Keep saying things that you know are real until you can separate fact from fiction. I need to do this whenever I feel like I’m having an episode and boy am I having a big one. Currently, I am on an island. The only thing around is a flare gun and a few spare flares. I don’t know how I got here. Now I know that to most people that sounds not so much normal, but reasonable and within the realm of possibility. Well, there is one other thing. Half of the island is daytime and the other half is nighttime.
There’s a half sun half moon in the sky. It’s even hot on the day side and cool on the night side. I’m hoping that either I’m dead, in a padded room somewhere, or in a coma. Either way, I need to figure something out. I picked up the flare gun along with the extra flares and started to explore. From the looks of things, the sky was the only weird thing about the island. White sandy beaches, a massive jungle on the island full of towering trees and bright colorful flowers, it was a Instagram models dream photo shoot. Place could’ve easily been a prime spot for Spring break. I wonder how big it is? I can’t see the end of the island and the jungle's enormous so I have to assume that the island is pretty damn big. I muscled up some courage and ventured inward. I was relieved to see some fruits and coconuts on some of the trees. Thank God food won’t be a problem. Vines and moss covered most of the trees. Didn’t see many animals. Not too sure if that’s a blessing or a curse. There weren’t even mosquitoes or other insects buzzing around. It looks like there are some small mountains on the island as well. Through the thick foliage I saw something move. I snuck closer to get a better glimpse of it and started to panic when I saw what it was. I found the ‘animals’ on the island.
Whatever this was it had a spherical body about four feet wide with spikes all around it. It hopped around on a spaghetti-like leg. It had bright yellow eyes and two razor sharp fangs sticking out of its mouth. I turned to walk away and stepped on a twig. Shit. I turned to see if the monster had heard. It did. Those bright yellow eyes narrowed and turned red. I‘ve seen enough movies to know that red isn’t a great color to see. Its leg popped inside and its body and it started rolling towards me dangerously fast. Somehow the spikes seemed longer.
I ran as fast as my feet could carry me. I didn’t want to be this things breakfast or dinner or whatever meal it would be if I had any grasp of time on this stupid island. It bulldozed everything in its path. It was gaining on me fast. I dove out of its path of destruction. It rolled straight into a rock. It was disoriented but I had a feeling it wouldn’t be for long. I reached for the flare gun and came up empty. CRAP. It must’ve fallen out of my pocket running from the monster. I darted for it as the monster regained its composure and started rolling towards me again. I made a dive for the flare gun and shot it as it was about to go all hole puncher on me. It blew up in a burst of light. After I unclenched my sphincter, I went back to find the spare flares. I noticed an opening in the jungle close to me. Screw it, I was almost killed by a monster why not investigate further while I’m feeling boastful.
There was a small stone platform in the middle of a large flat clearing. I walked to the middle of the platform and found a strange symbol on it. It looked like a gear with two big squiggly lines sticking out from the center with arrows on the ends of the lines. It almost looked like a misshapen clock. My curiosity got the best of me and I decided to investigate further. Out of nowhere, the hands of the clock started to move. Then the stone platform started to rotate. I ran down the steps and hid behind a nearby rock. After the run in with ol’ spiky, I had to be more careful in case something else tried to murder me. Still, you wanna to see what’s gonna happen next you know? I peeked out from behind the rock. A reddish metal cylinder rose from the platform and expanded. It was about a foot tall and (once it expanded) six feet wide. It opened up and a blinding white light rose from it. I thought I saw something rise from the cylinder. Then, just as soon as it appeared, it shrank and vanished. It was replaced by a body lying on the stone platform. Only this body wasn’t human: it was a cat.
