[ WP ] You have been stranded on a desert island for some time . One morning , you awake to the sight of mushroom clouds upon the horizon .

He shielded his eyes. 
 
 You should always shield your eyes in the event of a nuclear blast. He was always told that, in school. Right along with *Duck and Cover! * 
 
 It was a pity there were no desks on The Island. 
 
 Yousef had once tried to come up with a name for the thing. Aleutia. Danaba. Tigrees. 
 
 Over twenty years of thinking, nothing seemed to fit quite right. 
 
 Over twenty years of pondering, nothing matched the grim majesty of the two words, article and noun: The Island. 
 
 He ’ d come here to be alone, all those years ago. The Sufis back home had once told him: the only path to enlightenment is that of the hermit. 
 
 So he followed the trail of the hermit crab and shuffled off to sea, until he found a home that fit. 
 
 The Island. 
 
 *It ’ s just as well, * he thought, looking out onto the pillars of smoke that rose from beyond the horizon. *It seems as though the rest of the world is disappearing. * 
 
 *** 
 
 They were three hours out of the blast zone when the shockwave finally caught up with them. 
 
 Davis pressed his hat to his head and ducked back inside the vehicle. 
 
 John and Lucas were up in the driver ’ s pit, and Manuel was stacking boxes in the back. 
 
 “ Typical Bearclaw. Ship us out here with minimal equipment, and fail to tell us we ’ re about to get fuckin ’ *nuked. * ” 
 
 Davis scratched the back of his head. “ How could they have known? I bet every PMC out here is scurrying out the way, too. Governments don ’ t ever tell us *shit. * ” 
 
 Manuel called up to the front seat, “ Hey, so what the fuck is the game plan here, fellas? We just ride the blast wave? ” 
 
 Lucas looked around back from the passenger seat. “ We ’ re going to pick up supplies. People must ’ ve abandoned most of their stuff to get outside the effective range of this thing. ” 
 
 “ Oh. You mean, we ’ re going to be looting. ” 
 
 “ Picking up *supplies, * ” he said coldly. “ And we ’ ll get a bigger vehicle. The world ’ s going to shit, boys. We ’ re going to have to take care of our own. ” 
 
 *** 
 
 Yousef ’ s days went on much the same as before. 
 
 The distant mushrooms had changed nothing. 
 
 He rose with the sun and sat on his favorite rock at the waterfall. The water was cold, and it turned a groggy, foggy world into pure lucid crystal. He was awake. 
 
 With that he climbed to the peak of the central mountain, where a crater still smoked and bubbled. In the rolling waves of heat he sat and contemplated God, the Universe, and all of the people in it. 
 
 Those three, of course, were the same thing. 
 
 When his belly started to grumble he trekked down the slope and gave a palm tree a mighty kick, catching a coconut in mid-flight. 
 
 He went to his favorite sharp stone, and bashed the fruit until the milk leaked out like liquid pearl. 
 
 Yousef brought it to his mouth and drank. 
 
 One would think that eating the same thing for years on end would drive a man to madness—but not Yousef. 
 
 When he drank his fill he ripped open the coconut and peeled the insides, tasting the hearty flesh. 
 
 Delicious, always delicious. 
 
 In his garden was a scaffold of tomatoes and carrots, along with a few nuts he ’ d found. 
 
 A small black bird was worrying at a tomato and ripping it off the vine. 
 
 “ Oh hello, ” he said, his eyes wrinkling with a smile. 
 
 The bird jumped back and chirped a reply, before going back to work. 
 
 “ It does you no good to be so prideful! ” Yousef admonished. “ It is okay to ask for help. ” He reached down and pulled the fruit off the vine. 
 
 The bird chirped a thank you and flew off into the canopy. Yousef tried a tomato himself and relished in the juices, and the taste of a full stomach finally overcame him. 
 
 He went to the beach to listen to the tides. The salt and sand had scarred his skin and pitted them beyond repair, but still he could not resist the profound beauty of the seas. 
 
 They were deep, clean, infinite. 
 
 Yet they licked up the land like a shy bride, forever coming close and falling back again. 
 
 The water foamed. 
 
 Beautiful. 
 
 *** 
 
 “ Water, ” he said. 
 
 “ What about it? ” Davis had been asking Lucas about possible safe zones, and all of a sudden he ’ d started talking nonsense about water. “ What the fuck are you talking about? ” 
 
 “ Water dissipates radiation. I remember that, because that ’ s what they stick around reactor cores and shit. ” 
 
 “ And? ” 
 
 Lucas pointed out to the ocean. “ What I ’ m saying is, radiation can ’ t go out that far. Because there ’ s *water. * What we need to do is find a nice island, and then we can settle down. ” 
 
 Davis put the cap back on his head. “ Alright, sounds good. There should be some docks about a mile down. Hopefully there are a few boats left. ” 
 
 He climbed into his truck, and the rest of the team climbed into theirs. They had enough supplies to last more than a lifetime, pilfered from abandoned and some not-so-abandoned storehouses. 
 
 With a single pull of the horn they were off towards Shuwaikh port. Shipping lines ended there: which must ’ ve made for some *big* fuckin' boats. 
 
 They arrived in less than an hour, which was magnificent considering the amount of rubble and scrap on the roads. 
 
 Davis got out his truck, and— 
 
 *BANG. * 
 
 Gunshot to the west, spark off the hood of his rig, and the pinging ring of a ricochet. 
 
 “ They ’ re firing on us! ” 
 
 Lucas jumped out the truck and got behind the cover of the trailer. “ No shit they ’ re firing on us. ” 
 
 “ *Why?! * ” 
 
 “ It ’ s the end of the world, son. Everyone ’ s in survival mode. And that means killin ’. ” 
 
 *** 
 
 
 In the recent months, Yousef had been granted a gift: 
 
 It seemed as if all the birds and swimming turtles of the world had come to his little island, hungry for food. He ’ d been planting trees and vegetables for a long time, and there was more than enough for their hungry stomachs. 
 
 “ Come, come! ” he said. Many of them seemed shy, but after a few days they would perch on his shoulders or nuzzle him as he slept at night. 
 
 “ Ah, ” he smiled. “ To be so lucky! ” 
 
 It was good to have the noise of life be so strong around him, again. It wasn ’ t distracting, either: it made his heart soar even in the depths of meditation. Things were simply *good, * and he was grateful. 
 
 During the mornings he would sit on the beach and look for newcomers. The Island had three sides ringed in sheer cliffs, but the third was soft sand where the creatures could make their landings. And there, he directed them along their proper paths. 
 
 “ Why hello, bird! ” He pointed the exhausted creature towards the roost of his own species, close by and to the North. “ There you are! ” 
 
 “ Oh, welcome, wise Turtle! ” Yousef offered him some seaweed and sent him off towards the coves. 
 
 “ Why, hello, little lizard! ” He picked up the limp and tired creature and rubbed its head. “ Did you swim all this way? ” 
 
 Yousef walked him to the comfort of the shade and let him loose beside a pool of stagnant water, where he could feed on the insects. “ You will be alright, here, I think! ” 
 
 And then he went back to the beach, to await his next visitors. 
 
 It was a beautiful day. 
 
 *** 
 
 “ Goddamn, Lucas, it ’ s been ages. ” 
 
 Lucas looked back at him with a furrowed brow. “ What are you complaining about, huh? The food you eat every day? The fresh water you still have access to? ” He slammed a hand down on a metal rail. “ You ’ re living like a king out here. ” 
 
 Davis was still sea-sick. He couldn ’ t help it. 
 
 “ Take some fucking dramamine, you pussy. ” 
 
 Manuel was cleaning their guns. Never knew when you might need them. But he looked up from a polish to say, “ I agree, though, man. I ’ d prefer to have some land under my feet. Something *still*, you know? ” 
 
 “ Well, we ’ re looking for a place where that land won ’ t be irradiated for a fuckin ’ century. Somewhere clear of the dust clouds, too. ” 
 
 Manuel shut up and went back to work. 
 
 And then there was the call. 
 
 * ” Land! ” * John yelled from upstairs, finally bursting belowdecks and shouting into the living quarters: “ Land! ” 
 
 They rushed off to the deck and got a good sight of it: a big island with a smoking volcano sitting dead center, surrounded by cliffs. 
 
 “ How the hell are we going to get on it? There ’ s cliffs everywhere. ” 
 
 Lucas squinted in that frozen way of his and gave a simple command, “ Sail all about it. There has to be an opening. ” 
 
 Thirty minutes later and John was smiling at the helm. “ You were right, captain. Beach up ahead. I ’ ll anchor at the reef. ” 
 
 “ Good. ” 
 
 Davis had been peering through a rifle scope. “ Uh, sir? ” 
 
 Lucas grit his teeth. “ *Yes*…? ” 
 
 “ This island already seems to be inhabited. ” 
 
 Lucas grabbed the rifle and took a look down the sights. Some wrinkled old beef jerky of a man was sitting naked on the beach, smiling like a jackass. “ They look like primitives. Can ’ t stand some good old firepower, it looks like. ” He handed back the rifle. 
 
 “ So…? ” 
 
 “ So we take them out and set up. This looks as good a place as any. ” 
 
 Davis nodded. 
 
 “ So what are you waiting for? ” 
 
 Davis shot him a puzzled look. “ What *am* I waiting for? ” 
 
 “ The takeover starts *now. * Take the shot. ” 
 
 “ Oh, okay. ” Davis put his eye back to the scope and braced the stock against his shoulder. He set the tripod nice and steady on a metal beam and lined up the shot. 
 
 Lucas grinned. “ This ’ ll be easy as shitting in a bucket, you ’ ll see. Fighting a bunch of savages, heh. Alright: breathe, breathe, breathe… ” Lucas shielded his eyes from the sun. “ Take the shot. ” 
 
 Davis pulled the trigger. 
 
 *** 
 **END** 

