Tomboy Island

The latest in the chain was quite the image of a man. Alexander was a tall man, standing at 1,87 metres. His skin was tan from the time he spent outdoors during his survivalist expeditions or just wandering around the cities during their short stays there. He was broader than most men, in addition to his above-average height, making him an impressive figure. Green eyes sat in a handsome face, contrasting nicely with his dark hair.

A gash at the side of his head was a blemish too intense to ignore.

“So that’s how I die, huh?” he muttered to himself, his ephemeral presence touching the wound that had knocked him out. He wished he would have been more useful. That he… somehow could undo that damage.

Before his mental eye, the flesh knit itself back together.

Blackness spat him back out.

Alex barely managed to suppress his inhale. He was in the middle of the water. Looking around, he found himself among drifting pieces of wreckage of the plane. Very little of the wreckage, he found. Barely more than the cockpit tumbled down the water by him. Two bodies were nearby.

One was Marvin. The old pilot was bleeding crimson red into the clear, warm water of the tropics. A terrible wound in his stomach betrayed that something had sliced him open. Eyes managed to, despite the salt and exhaustion, focus on Alex one final time. A light smile twitched on his lips, and then the spark of life left him.

The conflicted emotions of being saved and being put in this situation by the now dead mentor had to wait. Alex instead focused on the second person. Hanging in the water was one of their passengers. A pale woman that he barely recognized as the gym manager.

What mattered was that she was alive, caught up in a safety belt. With the last of his breath, Alex swam over and helped her out. Salt burned in his eyes, but adrenaline kept him calm. She gave him a thankful nod, which was about all they could manage, before desperately paddling for the surface.

It was not far away. Bright sunlight guided them, shining through the blue like a promise of life. First Alex, then the dark-haired woman broke through the calm waves and took a swift breath.

“What the-” she started to ask, but swallowed the question.

Now was not the time.

They both set eyes on an island not too far from them. Blood still pumping with adrenaline, they swam. Alex deliberately kept it slow. The woman was fit, but she also had curves as far from hydrodynamic as the human body could be.

After a twenty-minute swim, they dragged themselves ashore. The exhaustion Alex felt in his limbs was stress and adrenaline more than genuine fatigue. He dropped onto the gorgeous sand of the beach. The tropical paradise before him was stained only by the sight of the sinking wreck and the event that had made it.

Slowly, he evened his breath and so did his companion. The woman was one of the fifteen passengers. Her black hair dried swiftly under the pleasant sun rays, reflecting on her glistening skin. Her breasts were huge and firm, her midriff nicely defined and only by the time his gaze wandered over her wide gips did it occur to him that the grey-eyed woman was naked - and so was he. Safe for a few scraps of his socks and the sleeves of his shirt, his clothes were gone.

‘Did they get torn that badly during the impact?’ he wondered.

“What - happened?” the woman asked, pulling his eyes back to her. His blood was still pumping, making his survival instincts focus on her red lips. How could they be that red without lipstick?

Alex shook his head to get his mind out of the gutter. Now was not the time.

“Marvin - the main pilot - he fucked up… he wanted to take a slight detour and got us into an anomalous weather phenomenon. He tried to fix it, he really did, but…” Alex stopped and gestured out to the sea. “...obviously wasn’t enough. I’ve never even heard of something like that though.”

Tess chewed on the inside of her cheek for a few moments, then let out a long sigh. “Well, not like I would believe he wanted to crash. Let’s take the miracle that we got out of there unscathed.”

Alex blinked a couple of times and reached for his head. His fingers came back wet, but only with the remains of saltwater in his hair. He blinked a couple of times. ‘Didn’t I…?’

“Are you going to sit there or are we going?” the gym manager asked.

The question pulled Alex out of his confusion. Immediately getting up, he gave her a stoic nod. “Sorry about that. I thought I had hit my head in the water.”

“As long as you haven’t,” she said and gave him a quick once-over. She put a hand on her hips. “You look fine.”

“You sound fine,” Alex noted. “Professional training?” As a pilot, he was trained for stressful situations like this, it was surprising to have her remain this calm despite the situation.

“Panicking is about as useful to me right now as that giant hot ball in the sky,” she answered in a sarcastic tone. “Let’s try to find some shade. Then we can plan our next move.”

“Shade and water,” Alex agreed. The two of them started moving immediately.

It definitely could be worse than being stranded with an olympic gym manager. Much as he liked the sight of walking behind her, though, he also had a duty.

“Let me lead,” he requested. She looked at him for a moment, then nodded. They were in uncharted territory and while she was no doubt a fit and fairly tall woman, she was still a woman and he was a man of broad build. Best he stepped first into anything worrisome.

As they walked away from the water, he scanned the environment. They were without clothes, that was bad, but the good news was that they had crashed somewhere tropical, so the lack of clothing was only a bother insofar as sunburns were concerned - and potential parasites, admittedly. It was warm, but not too warm.

“We’re at least a little lucky,” Alex stated, trying to remain optimistic. Beyond the shore, there was a dense treeline. Where there were trees, there was cool shade and water could likely be gotten by digging. They wouldn’t dehydrate, at least. “Going by the position of the sun and the last time I checked our latitude, we’re on the south-western tip of the island.”

“Any idea where we are though?” she asked.

To that, Alex had no good news to report. “Somewhere in the Bermuda Triangle.”

“...Of course,” she said with dry sarcasm. “Let me guess, we lost contact with the world before we crashed?” Alex just nodded. “Fantastic…” She turned back to the shore, scanning the same bits of sand both of them had already scanned four times before. “Let’s hope the others made it to shore safely…”

“We had hardy women on board,” Alex suggested in a hopeful tone.

“That we did…”

“Alex, by the way.”

“Oh, yes… Tess.”

They walked and Alex began to construct a map of the area in his head. Knowing where was always important.

“....Think you got enough energy in you to prioritize the beach?” Alex suggested carefully.

It was the worst idea for their own survival, to stay out there under the brooding sun, but rescue chances for the others decreased rapidly with every passing minute. He and Tess had, all things considered, gotten away unscathed.

The goth woman slowly nodded. It must have gone through her head as well that this was a terrible idea, but they both dared to hope for the best.

They were smacked by the cruel reality rather harshly.

Swerving northwards exposed them to the sun rays for longer than was healthy. By the time Alex realized that his skin was starting to hurt, Tess was suppressing her sway. He only realized she did that after something like an hour had passed in total. They had marched down a fair stretch of beach, with nothing to show for it whatsoever except exhaustion and thirst.

“We have to go east,” Alex made the pragmatic call. Tess was too affected by the sun to do more than give a weak nod. The remaining adrenaline had been scorched out of their system and now they had to find a place to sit down and fast.

Fast, outside the modern world, was still an hour of marching. Alex was rapidly re-learning just how convenient something as simple as pavement was. The hot sand under his soles made walking more of an exercise than the treadmill. At least that was replaced with sandy soil and then just soil swiftly.

Their initial target was the trees. An objective right on the way became visible soon though. Bushes, bright purple bushes, that looked juicy already from a distance.

Eager for something to eat, the two of them decided to check it out without exchanging a single syllable. It wasn’t until they had stumbled up to the plant that Alex was starting to question whether that was wise.

The bushes looked like nothing he had ever seen, either in a book or in person. They were shaped like enormous cabbages, the bulbous berries attached to the rotund centre. They did look sweet, like oversized, semi-translucent blueberries, but they also were entirely alien.

“Should we?” Tess asked, voicing the same doubt.

“We need the energy… but let me do some tests first,” Alex stated. He picked one of the berries and rubbed them against a part of his upper arm. The berry juice was sticky against his skin, but left no other sensation. Trying a nibble afterwards, he found it to taste like a particularly watery strawberry. “Should be good.”

And it was… adequate.

After all the walking, anything would hit the spot, even watery strawberry-esque berries from an odd bush. They both had their fill and went on their way, leaving plenty of berries behind. At least they knew they had some food for now, even if it was unlikely to cover their dietary needs on its own.

Refreshed by the berries and after some rest in the nearby trees, the two felt confident to try and scan another segment of the beach. Their path took them north-west.

They knew their limits better this time, especially Tess. The black-haired woman was not afraid to ask for pauses. Really, she seemed not too afraid of anything, which was equal parts pleasant and mildly disappointing. Alex was flattered that she did not regard him as a threat, at least. He must have been trustworthy by his looks.

There was plenty of reason to fantasize about ravishing her. Every time he looked in her general direction, something about her was jiggling. ‘Seriously, what are those tits? F-cups?’ he asked himself.

“I’m not going to judge you, but I do notice,” Tess drily reminded him of the fact that she had a face above those mountains of sin.

“I’m not going to apologize, because I too notice,” Alex responded with a bit of confidence. He had been walking around with a half mast since eating those berries and she most certainly had stared as well. They were two nubile people and he was even more well built than she was. Half the time she used him for shade.

Their talk was interrupted when they heard someone shout. Their eyes drifted out to the water and immediately they started to walk towards it.

The worried reaction was defeated by the speed at which the person who had shouted swam towards them. The form was immaculate, both of her strokes and of the body that came out of the water. Lean and yet soft, with wide hips and medium-sized breasts, her torso highlighted by the tanlines of a swimsuit that was no longer there.

The short-haired woman stepped up the beach, as naked as the two of them. She ran a hand through her brown hair and smiled with her bright pink lips. Again, Alex had to wonder how those lips maintained their colour without makeup.

“Charlotte,” Tess said.

“In the flesh. Can’t say this is the swim I expected to be delivered to,” the green-haired woman spoke. Alex only noticed her French accent because he knew who had been on the plane - at least when he could put a name to the face. “I went up and down the seaside for a bit, hoping I’d run into anyone.”

“Well, it worked,” Alex stated in a happy tone. He couldn’t say that was the smartest strategy he could think off. Regardless of what he thought, they had found a second person. “And you’re just as naked as we are.”

“Yeah… which someone is enthusiastic about,” Charlotte gave a wink and a nod towards the member that was now pointing straight at her.

“Of course I am,” Alex answered in just a bit of a flirtatious tone. Then, he shifted gears and gave the swimmer the breakdown of what had happened. “It’s best we stick together for now. The day is getting shorter and we know too little to spread out and do different tasks.”

“Authoritative, like your namesake.” the French tomboy purred. “I’ll trust you to protect me.”

Charlotte took half a step forward. Alex met her in kind. She bit her lower lip. He looked at Tess, who followed the scene with a passive expression. “Let’s get moving,” Alex stated before he could be accused of anything improper. His cock may have been hard, but he still had his wits about him and the crash was still at the back of his mind.

He did not know how long he would be able to keep his hands to himself if Charlotte kept being that forward in her signals, but it was past the current point. For now, he wanted to be either further down the beach or back inland.

“It is actually miraculous that you’re also unscathed and naked,” Alex pointed out.

“Once is a chance, twice is a coincidence,” Tess added. “It is still weird that it happened twice.”

“I count three,” Charlotte pointed out and grabbed Tess’ arm. By the annoyed groan that elicited, Alex guessed that this was less about the two being particularly close and more about Charlotte being flirty.

“We swam ashore together,” the pilot stated. “Still…” he touched the side of his head. Those unnatural winds on a clear day, the cutting communications, and their unharmed arrival at the shore, there were too many coincidences piling up for comfort.

“Still what?” Tess asked.

“I don’t know,” Alex answered honestly.

“Magic?” Charlotte joked.

Tess rolled her eyes and Alex just walked onwards. Obviously, that was ridiculous. Turbulences were nothing new and neither were mysterious plane crashes. “Everything has an explanation,” he assured them. “Just feeling a bit woozy from all the sun, I guess.”

“Can’t have that, you’re our… what is the word again Tess?”

“Parasol.”

“Right, that.”

“You’ll have to get closer if you both want shade,” Alex told them. He had meant to just make it sound joking, but Charlotte shuddered at the degree of seriousness in there and did as he asked. Tess, rolling her eyes again, followed suit. Granted, since Charlotte just attached himself to his side, the goth was still a half-step away. “We’ll get sticky.”

“I don’t mind getting sticky together,” Charlotte said. “Not like there’s anything else to do.”

Alex was not sure if blue balls were good for walking long distances.

From that point onward, he was less leading and more guiding. The difference lay in the short-haired brunette that kept herself attached to his side. She obviously enjoyed his glances and the reactions she got out of him by rubbing her breasts against him. “You’re playing a really dangerous game,” Alex cautioned her. “We don’t know how long we’ll get stuck out here.”

“I like dangerous games, they usually work out for me,” Charlotte purred.

“The incarnation of wisdom,” Tess remarked drily.

That bit of tenseness put aside, their situation was pretty good. They came across another one of the berry bushes, enough of it on it to feed the three of them, and then headed into a particularly thick part of the jungle.

“No,” Alex told Charlotte off when she tried to stay attached to him. “Keep an eye out. A jungle is no place for a careless approach.”

For all her teasing, the French tomboy did listen when he was serious.

Once they were inside the forest, Alex would leave the women behind to scout ahead 20 metres or so, then return once she knew the route was clear. So far, the environment appeared to be forgiving, another blessing in their current situation. The insects buzzing about were few and not interested in them, the ground was firm, and there were no signs of predatory or territorial animals around. The worst the survivalist spotted so far was a terrestrial bird the size of a Kiwi. Hardly a danger.

Then, he struck gold.

Alex squeezed himself through a narrow gap between two trees. They formed an entrance gate to a little slice of paradise. Seven mighty trees surrounded, as a nearly continuous wall, a lake of clear water, constantly bubbling up from some kind of underground source. The humidity in this little cage was much higher, causing it to be wreathed in a continuous, gentle, mist.

As if that wasn’t enough to make the place attractive, there even was a sizable and pleasantly dry burrow under the roots of a tree. Alex was very careful to look for signs of usage. It appeared it had been created by a series of storms tilting the mighty jungle tree above just enough for a group of five to find pleasant shelter in there. A group of three certainly fit as well. It even came padded with some sort of pink moss.

No question would they spend the night there.

“You’re really good at this!” Charlotte complimented, once she and Tess had been guided to the shelter. She felt around the pink moss. Alex had already assured there were no weird stingers or needles in there. That did not speak to the complete safety of the moss, but tired as they were he was willing to take his chances.

The three of them took the opportunity to drink from the fountain and wash themselves off by splashing the fresh water over themselves. Eventually, they could not remain awake any longer. Tugged away in the safe corner, they let sleep take them.

For as terrible as the event had been, this first day had gone well.