[ WP ] After years living on an island after a shipwreck , help has finally arrived . But now nobody wants to leave .

This island had terrified me initially. 
 
 
 I can remember the night I made landfall clearly, shedding the life preserver that ’ d gotten the me here I stood under a brilliant moon and let my eyes travel up and down the beach and encroaching jungle in front of my. My mind conjured beasts and monsters lurking in every shadow, and the noise of the wind in the leaves seemed eerie and unnatural – a normal sound that I had not encountered in so long that it now seemed otherworldly indeed. I am not ashamed to admit that I shed more than a few tears in the dark that night. 
 
 
 Only thirty seven of us made it to the shore, what became of the others I do not know. Most likely they went down with the ship, I know that the Captain and a skeleton crew had stayed behind, trying to right the distressed ship in the hopes of bringing her back to pick us up. They must not have been successful, as we never saw them again. As for the rest of the crew and passengers, they could be anywhere by now, perhaps strong currents steered their life preservers toward other islands, perhaps not. I have long since given up wondering if any survived – if they did they are as helpless to reach us as we are them. 
 
 
 With that dark and foreboding wall of trees and vines in front of us we unanimously stayed on the beach that first night, none of us even brave enough to venture to the treeline for fuel for fires, instead spending the night under the stars and moon which hung above us for the long hours until sunrise. 
 
 
 We very quickly found under the light of day that the island we were on was relatively small an uninhabited island in the middle of an ocean. The foliage that had seemed so overbearing and unfamiliar by darkness was now clearly made of varieties we were familiar with or at least closely resembled them. A lot of fruit and some good hardwood trees, tough fibrous vines that could be quickly processed for rope, long straight lengths of tough bamboo which fell easily when a couple of us put our shoulder to them. 
 
 
 Needless to say that by the time night rolled around again we had shelter, bellies full of fruit and a rather more positive outlook. A spring in the centre of the island fed several streams that ran off into the ocean – the water was sweet and clear and there was nowhere on the island where you could be more than a few minutes stroll to one of the streams. If we had to get stranded somewhere this was it. 
 
 
 A few weeks later and we ’ d built a hut for every one of us, some of us would paddle out beyond the breakers each day to fish and dive, and without fail brought back crayfish and clams, as well as baskets of a variety of unnamed fat fish which were fun to catch and good to eat. 
 
 
 The ones that remained behind built our village. Over time they carved a clearing out of the jungle facing the beach where we ’ d first landed and adding a communal hall with kitchens, an ablutions block and a common green for us to play and gather on. And a small garden was eventually planted with wild carrots and yams, beans and something that was incredibly similar to Kale. 
 
 
 At night we would gather to share the days catch, tell stories to each other over campfires while filling ourselves with fresh caught seafood roasted over open flames accompanied by platters of roasted or boiled vegetables, with fruit for dessert. The only thing missing in my opinion was an occasional steak or sprinkle of salt, but I could live without those all things considered. 
 
 
 Life was not always easy, but it seemed we were incredibly lucky all the same. Looking back now I realise that without the ship ’ s doctor we should have lost a dozen or more of our number to infection alone in those few years. Accidents would happen and someone would end up with a gash to the arm or leg, and without antibiotics and artificial skin to seal them we should have been in real trouble. But the wounds all healed without trouble, and now that I think about it we hadn ’ t had a single illness during our stay. When some of us began falling pregnant the babes were all carried to term without difficulty or trouble and birthed in the same way. 
 The Island ( as we called it for lack of a better name ) produced her bounty for us, sheltered us and kept us safe and healthy, and in turn we began to give thanks to Her for it. 
 
 
 It took a few more years for the Village to eventually recommend that we no longer send any of our number to climb the highest tree on the highest point of The Island to scan the horizon and heavens for sign of our rescue. If they were coming they would have already we reasoned, but most of us were content to admit we liked it here, and given the chance to return we ’ d likely stay. Oh there were a few holdouts waiting for the day of their Rescue, fools asking Her to bring their Salvation when She ’ d already provided it, but in truth we were happy and healthy here, and more than a few of our number would stay if for no other reason than to avoid explaining to a family they ’ d left behind for the voyage the existence of the family they ’ d made on The Island. 
 
 
 So when they finally came for us, landing in a ship that ’ d cracked the sky with its sonic boom and made the ground rumble under her landing thrusters, they were confused to find us hiding from them. A childish attempt of course, the few of us left from the Original 37 knew full well that the ship they ’ d brought them in would be able to identify each of us via thermal and tag our location to the HUD these new travellers wore. 
 
 
 I prepared myself to explain to them that we wouldn ’ t be leaving; we ’ d rather stay and enjoy our peaceful existence in conjunction with Her. I had words ready to say to these new people, carefully crafted over the years in an attempt to encourage them to join us and live in balance with The Island. 
 
 
 I stepped from the door of my hut, straightened to my full height and stopped dead in my tracks. The elegant oration I ’ d prepared to give dropped from my mind as I saw the badge on the closest woman ’ s uniform – Survey Corps. She hadn ’ t noticed me at all – she was looking into a device I wasn ’ t familiar with and smiling as she spoke to someone on the other end of her radio. 
 
 
 “ Yup, yeah they ’ re here. Nah shouldn ’ t be a problem, they ’ re stranded and we can take them home. What do you mean? Well if they want to stay we can evict them, they ’ re technically squatters now that the corp has bought this system. Yup. Yup. Definitely – oil and gas – the scanner tells no lies. We ’ ll need to level most the place but production should be up in a couple of month ’ s tops. ” 
 
 
 For the first time since that first night I began to weep. 
 
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