A Thousand Miles from Anywhere

Shocked, Emily's first reaction was to do nothing, her eyes wide. After a moment, though, Kristen pulled off, sensing her reluctance. "Sorry," she said breathlessly, although anyone could tell she truly wasn't sorry, "I kind of lost control for a second."

"Don't...it's cool." Emily stammered. It was rare that she was at a loss for words, much less for her to blush, but she was doing both now. She never felt bisexual urges; during college, the most "experimenting" she ever did was arrange with another broke girl to make out at a bar to get horny guys to buy them both drinks. She wasn't sure how to take the kiss. It wasn't that she was unattractive; Kristen was strikingly beautiful, with bright, mahogany-brown almond-shaped eyes, long black hair, and a svelte figure with a perky butt and boobs. Her facial shape made her look a good fifteen years younger than she actually was, not betraying her thirty-seven years. "I'm going downstairs to let them know the good news." Kristen watched, rapt, as she slid her shorts over her statuesque ass.

Three hours later, they made landfall. Temperament among the castaways greatly improved, even before they landed. Once upon the sugar-white sands, Mathagani raised his hand for quiet. "Ok, we've made it through the worst. We made it two and a half days on the open ocean with nothing more than rainwater and raw fish. Now, we have solid land beneath our feet, our location is fixed, and someone will be here for us shortly. In the meantime, however, let's have a look at where we are, and find out what resources we have at our disposal."

The atoll, shaped like an elongated triangle, surrounded a lagoon teeming with fish and shrimp. Three main islands formed the perimeter, separated from each other by small channels. On the southernmost island, thick vegetation choked the rocky paths left by the local giant tortoises. The castaways landed their lifeboat on an interior beach on the northwestern island.

They split into small groups to scout the island, and would return to the lifeboat in two hours to debrief the others on what they found. Kristen, Emily, Johann, and Kafil took to the interior of the island, where a large hill jutted above the tropical landscape. The going was slow and arduous; the undergrowth was thick and the soil pocked with volcanic rocks. As they walked, they saw interesting tracks in the loamy soil; large, smooth, flat lines, almost like paths, with drag marks in the middle and round indentations to the side.

"What are these tracks?" Kristen asked. "A predator dragging a kill, maybe?"

"No, I don't think so," Kafil replied. "Growing up in the Masaai tribe lands, we saw lions, cheetahs, and other predators drag their kills, and it never looked like this. This is one animal."

They kept a vigilant watch as they hiked. More than once, they fell over exposed roots and stones. Onward, ever upward, they trudged, their flimsy shoes and sandals doing nothing to protect their feet from the harsh terrain; their shins and feet began to show scratches, scrapes, and bruises. Emily, an avid hiker, began to outpace the others as they tired. Every now and then, she would stop and let them catch up before she started again. A noise began to creep into Emily's keen ears, a rushing noise. At first she thought it was the surf, but the sound was constant, not intermittent like ocean waves crashing upon the shore. "I hear water!" she called to the others.

Giddy, the rest of her group caught up to her, and they half-ran, half-stumbled towards the sound of the noise. Suddenly, they broke from the woodland to the rocky shore of a large pool of water, fed by two meter waterfall. Each of them collapsed at the water's edge, greedily drinking from the sweet, cool spring; it was the best water any of them had tasted. After they had drank their fill, they looked around, and that was when they saw the source of their bizarre tracks; a large tortoise, slightly smaller than the famous tortoises of the Galapagos, stood stock still across from them, looking at them with confusion and bemusement. It had seen nothing like the group of bedraggled travelers in its century of life.

"That certainly explains a lot," Johann said simply, causing the rest to laugh. Although the comment wasn't that funny in itself, they had had little to laugh about for days. Tears streamed down their faces from the sudden break of gloomy routine. "And I don't know about you all, but I am sweaty, stinky, and all around gross. So I'm going to take a bath and wash my clothes as best I can." He took off his dirty blue polo shirt and dropped it by the water's edge, followed by his mud-stained khaki golf shorts. He paused for a moment at his boxers, shrugged, and stepped out of them too. Emily then noticed how in shape he was. He wasn't Mr. Olympia jacked, but all around in shape; his abs were well-formed, along with his pecs, back, shoulders, and legs.

His attitude sparked the others. Emily ripped off her halter and cutoff jean shorts, and her tiny g-string swimsuit, and waded in after him. Looking over her shoulder, Kafil and Kristen were right behind them. Whereas Alfredsson was built like the hockey player he was, Mathagani was built like a long-distance runner. He was tall, at close to seven feet tall, lean, and hardly had a spare milligram of fat on him. She stole a glance at the lanky Kenyan's groin, and was awarded with the sight of one of the biggest cocks she'd ever seen. She wasn't sure if she could handle almost eight inches of man meat in her, and was torn between being turned on and fearing for her womanhood if they made love. Four long scars traced their way over his shoulder and down to his navel, like a scar-tissue sash. They looked to her like lion claw scars, and given the man's upbringing in the wildlife-rich south of Kenya, she would not have been surprised if that was the case.

She directed her attention to Kristen. She was not nearly as curvaceous as Emily; her breasts were well-formed but petite B cups, her hips far narrower. A small, narrow, well-groomed landing strip of jet-black hair adorned her pussy. While she may have not had the drastic curves of Emily, she was gorgeous and stunning in her own right.

After quick scrubbings with the fine sand of the spring's shore, they lay in the sunlight to dry off, still nude. Emily lay on her back, supporting herself with her elbows as she watched the rest come in. As Johann got a good look at her, she saw his impressive cock begin to harden as he saw the piercing through her shaved clit hood in addition to the three in her navel. She couldn't blame him, that's why she had it pierced; plus, the sight of him made her more than a little wet. However, she wasn't ready. She blushed and scrambled to put her sopping wet clothes back on. She could handle nudity in a non sexual setting at the moment, but wasn't ready for putting her trust in another man.

"We should get back to the others," Kristen mentioned as she noticed Emily's abrupt change. She hurried to get dressed, going so far as to put her bra and shirt back on as she walked to catch up to the redhead. The others grudgingly acquiesced and got dressed slowly. They walked back much slower than they ascended, taking their time getting down the hill. As they walked, they realized they weren't on the same route they took on the way up. Keeping the sound of the surf in front of them, they kept walking down the volcanic basalt and pumice hills, until they broke through to the beach.

"That way is south, I remember walking north to get here." Kafil mentioned as he checked the position of the sun.

"South it is, then." Kristen took to the wet, compact sand left behind by the receding tide. After twenty minutes of walking, the group had returned to the beached lifeboat.

At the beach, they waited for the others to arrive, passing the time sunning themselves on the beach. Everything about the island was picturesque; the sands sugary white and fine, the sago and coconut palms abundant, the waters a brilliant teal. Why the island hadn't been turned into a resort was a mystery to them. The chief engineer, LeMieux, stood with a meat cleaver in hand, chopping palm fronds and turning them into small lean-tos. "Eet will be too hot in ze lifeboat to use eet as shelter. Eef eet storms, we could use ze boat to keep safe, but only for a short while."

"Tu as raison, monsieur." Emily responded in French, indicating he had a point, and began helping him weave the fronds into mats, chatting in French as they did. Despite her thick French Canadian accent, he was clearly happy to speak with someone in his native tongue.

The groups began to return from their scouting trips, carrying sago and coconuts. By the time the last group had arrived, LeMieux, Alfredsson, Mathagani, Kristen, and Emily had finished another lean to.

"Ok, now that everyone is back, let's just go over some things. We shouldn't be here too long, but in order to survive while we're here, we need to have jobs. My group found fresh water at the top of the hill. We'll need people to bring water here. We'll also need fishers. We also need some temporary shelters, which Marcel over here is starting on. Are there any questions or things someone would like to bring up?" Mathagani stated.

"We should start a fire and keep it going as a signal," a blonde woman said. "I can keep it going."

"Zis ees smart. We should make eet smoke during ze day and make eet bright at night, non?" LeMieux commented with his thick French accent.

"Good call, Marcel. We can use some of the reflective blankets to reflect the light at night. Is there anything else we should cover, any other ways we can get rescued sooner?" Nobody had any other ideas. The meeting dissolved into a compilation of people panicking over trying to survive in a tropical environment.

"Ladies, gentlemen, please, calm down. We have everything we need here. We have fresh water, we have shelters, and I saw fish and shrimp in the water. We will make this work." Kafil Mathagani stated, his voice reassuring. He hoped he sounded convincing; doubt gnawed away at his confidence like a dog at a bone.

Emily strode away from the others, back to the beached lifeboat. It listed lazily to starboard, and she waded into the calm water to the stern deck. Awkwardly, she clambered up to the short deck, and sat beside the hatch, letting her feet dangle in the water as she laid against the tilted deck. Confusion racked her. She wanted nothing more than to let Johann in, to lose her inhibitions and let the pleasure he could offer take her mind off her ex-husband and the current situation of being stranded. Despite her desire, she couldn't. The wounds were still too fresh.

She heard the splashing of someone walking through the water towards her. She turned her head and saw Kristen coming towards her. "What's wrong?" the Canadian asked as she hopped up on the deck beside Emily. "Something's eating at you."

"It's a long story," Emily tried in vain to cop out of talking about her problems, as tears started to run down her freckled visage.

"We literally are stranded on a deserted island, Emily. If there's one thing we have loads of, it's time. Humor me. Let me carry some of your load."

"If you must know," she began, smiling wanly, "I was married to a guy I thought was great. He was with me through undergrad, as well as law school. He was an assistant district attorney in Columbus, and life was a fairy tale. We got married our first year out of school, and I couldn't have been happier. Not only was he successful and wildly attractive, he was smart, funny, compassionate..." she stopped to wipe away tears. "He was my everything. One day, I was sick at work. I left, and came home to crash and try to get some rest. I came home, and his car was in the garage, which I thought was weird. He was supposed to be at work." The tears began to fall in earnest. Kristen took her hand, and squeezed it between hers, in a purely comforting move unlike her moment of lust earlier. She felt awful for her; she knew what Emily was going to say. Tears began to well up in her own eyes.

"And I walked in, and my darling husband was on the couch, fucking his college-sophomore intern. My heart jumped into my throat, and then plummeted. My world was falling apart before my eyes. I threw him out. Taking him back was never an option. We're divorced now. I never dreamed I'd be married and divorced by 28 years old."

They were silent except for sniffling. Kristen hugged her tightly. "I'm so sorry. You don't deserve that. You deserve someone who will love you, adore you, and live for you. That man was an asshole. And to answer your question that you didn't ask, yes, you are gorgeous. It's more than just your looks. It's everything about you, from how you carry yourself to your humility. He was too stupid to realize he was pissing away his chances with such a beautiful woman. He didn't cheat to get with someone more beautiful. He cheated because he liked the chase, and was an asshole willing to seriously hurt someone who loved him in the process."

"Are you sure therapy isn't your true calling?" Emily laughed through her tears. "All this talent and insight, you're wasting on chasing rocks."

The two laughed. Kristen said nothing, and held the recovering American, who rested her head on Kristen's shoulder. Despite her physical desires for Emily, she held them in check. Right now, Emily was a woman in need of a sister, not a lover. Emily sniffed one last time, dried her eyes, and composed herself. "Thanks, Kristen. I needed that. I've been silly, crying over something that happened eight months ago."

"It's ok. Sometimes you need to let it out. And it's not silly, it's natural. Pain isn't just physical, it's mental, too. You can't run from that pain, you have to confront it, and over time the intensity wanes." Emily embraced her in a tight hug, and kissed her on the cheek, a sisterly kiss. Kristen's heart sank. There would be no converting Emily to the Sapphic pleasures, and she knew it. She didn't let it get to her, though; she was content with the company of men, also, and had Kafil in her sights.

"Ok, I think I can face humanity again," Emily tied her wavy copper hair back.

"Or at least our 45-person representation of humanity," Kristen laughed as she slid off the deck and into the water. Emily followed suit, and the two women strode back to the beach camp. "It's fucking hot, isn't it?" Kristen asked.

"I swear I just saw two hobbits throw a ring into the sand and say 'It's all over'," Emily replied, and both women laughed.

"You think we could get away with going naked?" Kristen asked her, fiddling with the straps of her cami and bra.

"Nobody can arrest us, that's for sure. Also, Kafil seems to have a thing for you and would probably enjoy it, and I don't think he'd let anyone try to take advantage of you."

"True, and I'd love to get down with him too, but I don't need him to protect myself, I've studied martial arts and boxing since I was a kid."

"If you want to, why not? I might even join in."

"Fuck it, I don't care. I'm doing it." She crossed her arms in front of her and pulled her tank top over her head, and unbuttoned her shorts, leaving her in the same lingerie she'd worn on the boat. Kristen unclipped the front clasp of her miniscule bra and slid out of it, followed shortly by her thong. "SO much better!" she exclaimed, spreading her arms and taking in the breeze that hit all of her, uninterrupted. Kristen's nudity brought out a change in the others. Soon, people began to lose their own clothing, starting with Kafil and Johann, then Emily. It was simply too hot for clothing, and by the end of the first night, everyone was at least partially nude. The only daytime respite for the heat was the daily rain that fell at around noon, falling steadily with no hint of thunder or lightning. Typical tropical storms, they lasted for a half hour to an hour before dissipating, leaving the lush island feeling like a sauna.

For the most part, nobody openly gawked at the nudity of others. Most of the castaways were young professionals, each attractive in his or her own right. However, Emily's piercings, as well as her figure, were checked out by the men and some of the women. Some of the stares were lecherous, some were envious, some were simply curious. She pretended not to, but she couldn't help but notice. The stares were too much to ignore.

Johann and Emily were easily the best anglers of the group. They volunteered to do the fishing, and Kristen volunteered to use the cast net to catch the massive shrimp that lived in the island's small bay. She taught Kafil, who was a quick learner, and quickly learned the nuances of how to perfectly throw the net. The man had been hunting since boyhood, and was quite the efficient hunting machine. The smaller shrimp, they saved for Emily and Johann to use as bait. The fish greedily ate them, and by ten o'clock each morning, they had provided enough meat for the rest of the camp. Despite Johann's obvious interest in her, Emily kept him at arm's length. The two rarely spoke of anything unrelated to fishing. She had to give him respect, though; on the occasions they did speak, he met her eyes. She halfway expected him to ogle the shit out of her at every opportunity. He did sneak glances, but never fully eye-fucked her.

The pair stood on a meter tall precipice at the edge of the channel leading to the lagoon, watching the fish swim by. Had the circumstances been different, they would have enjoyed the beauty of the place; sugar white sands were gently lapped by brilliant teal water. Mosquitoes were miraculously absent. Each held a bamboo spear, fire-hardened and sharpened to wicked points. The only things both wore were sunglasses and survival knives from the lifeboat; Johann strapped his to his bicep, Emily wore hers on her thigh. "There's a shark," Johann mentioned, pointing out to the sea. The black and grey dorsal fin of a blacktip shark broke the water intermittently, heading for the channel they stood over.

"Looks like a decent size. Just shy of two meters, maybe." Emily spun the spear in her palm, pointing the tip down. "Let's go for it." The shark swam beneath them, and both flung their spears with all their might. Neither of them had accounted for the refraction of the water, and both missed high over the back of the shark as a result.

"Fuck!" Emily swore. "We need to aim below them."

"Yeah, I forgot about that. I'll go get the spears." Johann leapt from the rocky point, landing in the deep water with a splash. In a moment, he'd returned, passing Emily the spear.

"Johann, I've got an idea. If we jump with the spears, we can use our body weight to drive the spears further into the fish. We can also aim as we're jumping."

"I'm not sure. Let's try it your way and the throwing way, we'll decide what works better." As he spoke, he pointed to a rainbow parrotfish swimming in. "I'll try." He flung the spear, landing a perfect hit on the fish. Diving in, he just managed to grab the spear before the fish swam away with it. Emily smiled and applauded as he came back up.

"Wicked good!" she high-fived him. "Now it's my turn." Johann tried to pay attention to filleting his fish, but the long legs and tight, round ass of Emily in peripheral vision was making it difficult. He had the fish filleted before she exclaimed, "Got one!" She leapt off the ledge, nearly horizontal, holding the spear with both hands over her head. As she entered her dive, she thrust, striking the stingray she had spotted square in the vitals.

Johann silently shook his head in disbelief as the beautiful redhead emerged from the water, triumphantly holding a spear with a meter and a half wide stingray in its death throes. She reminded him of Ursula Andress in the classic James Bond film Dr. No as she emerged from the sea. He didn't think she knew how sexy she looked, with her bright copper hair plastered to her perky breasts and dive knife strapped to her impeccably shaped thigh. He tried hard not to stare. The spear had completely impaled the ray, the barb penetrating from under the belly of it. "You have a...how do you call it...a carpet?" He asked, holding his hands apart to demonstrate size.