A Colony Forms
~GCS~
The entire survival party was seated on the sand around a fire by the time darkness came. I shouldn’t say the entire party. Brad was standing and sometimes ‘parading’ as he made a speech, describing what they had found on their expedition. His talk was laced with proclamations and commands about what the group needed to do and how they needed to do it. He didn’t ask any questions. He gave orders as if the possibilities had already been discussed and voted on. Maybe they had been. Maybe the group had talked about this on the way back and decided to make recommendations based on what they had found.
I glanced across the fire at Kevin, trying to gauge his support for what Brad was saying but he wasn’t looking at Brad. He just stared into the flames, occasionally tossing a small stone or piece of shell into the fire. Sam sat between his knees, nodding off to sleep. I thought I noticed some of the others watching Kevin, too. Even his friends would cast him a sideways glance now and then and soon I noticed a pattern. Whenever Brad would tell people what they had to do, Nicky and AJ would glance at Kevin. When I followed their glances, I saw that Kevin’s gaze had risen from the fire and fixed on Brad.
I got it. Kevin didn’t like the way Brad was handling this. People had questions and Brad was impatient and dismissive. They were afraid to leave this spot - afraid that if help came, they wouldn’t be found. Soon Brad was making sarcastic remarks and calling some of them whiners. That’s when I saw Kevin shift Sam from between his legs and lay him gently on the sand. Now he was standing, as well.
“The other side of this island isn’t too far from here,” he began. “The site we found is on a bluff overlooking a beach. I think we’ll be in a better position to see and be seen – plus, there is some protection there and a few supplies…”
He spoke gently and with respect. I suspected that Kevin could issue orders as well as the next man but he knew that in order for us to make the best of this situation, everyone had to feel like they had some say in the decision and there was no reason to bark as Brad was doing.
We had only been here for a couple of days and most felt that rescue
was imminent but I suspected there were a few who felt that we might
be here for a long, long time. I wondered
if Kevin was one of these. I thought that
maybe he was. I think that Brad felt this way, too.
The difference was that Brad almost seemed to like the idea.
He fancied himself a leader and, apparently, so did some others. I think he also fancied himself as King of the
After Kevin spoke, he sat back down on the sand and waited while people spoke amongst themselves. After several minutes, the wool salesman spoke and presented a very general consensus, stating that a move might be for the best. I noted that she reported this opinion to Kevin, not Brad. Brad noticed it, too. His expression seemed to darken significantly. I knew then that it was only a matter of time before there would be trouble.
The professor spoke next. As near as he
could tell, he thought we were in
“This is phosphate,” he explained. We
may have crashed in a group of islands known as
“Then people know about this place!” a middle aged woman shouted from the back. “They’ll come looking for us!”
Excited murmurs rose and Georgia, the flight attendant, shouted to be heard.
“Please! I’m sure that search parties
are hard at work, but you have to understand that we were off course
when the plane went down and
“Yeah,” an older man nodded. “If there was an inhabited island nearby, somebody might have seen the plane, in which case, we would have already been rescued - or at least spotted…”
“But the phosphate!” one of the British ladies argued. “You said that it was probably mined here! People know about this place and even if no one is here now, surely people check this place out every once in a…”
“Mining stopped on many islands in the late ‘70’s,” Malcolm interrupted. “Settlements were abandoned. I’m not saying that no one has ever come here since, but if they did, it probably wasn’t intentional. The reefs and currents are not hospitable and there’s nothing here that would encourage visitation, especially if we are hundreds of kilometers away from inhabited land.”
“Are you saying that we won’t be found?” another voiced called out.
Malcolm shook his head. “Of course I’m not saying that! We may be found tomorrow. I hope we are but, frankly, I doubt that will be the case. At any rate, it is my opinion that we need to think in terms of community. At this juncture, we are essentially a settlement and I think it would be a mistake to think of this as a weekend camping expedition….”
Malcolm’s bluntness brought down a curtain of silence that was punctuated with a few whimpers and sobs. Leighanne burrowed her face into Brian’s shoulder and I could see her shoulders were shaking as he tried to comfort her. AJ stood, turned and walked away from the group towards the water. Nicky leaned his forehead against his knees. I couldn’t see his face. Howie had fallen back onto the sand. His arm covered his eyes. People were being forced to face the unthinkable. I watched Kevin as he continued to stare into the fire and wondered what he was thinking.
Then my view was interrupted as people began to stand and move about, preparing to settle in for the night. Les, the nurse, and two others began to pass out blankets. There weren’t enough to go around and people would have to double up – or even triple up. I became aware of someone standing over me.
“Come on. We have to share.”
It sounded like an order.
*****
~KSR~
God he was such a pompous ass…
Didn’t Brad understand that these people are scared to death? I hated the way he was talking to them, as if they were helpless children. Some of them almost were but most were not. I sat and listened to him for a while. Part of him was getting off on this, I could tell. Brian was practically snorting beside me.
Maybe I shouldn’t have said anything, but I couldn’t help myself. Years of dealing with fans had taught me to be careful with the way I said things. You can be firm and still be nice. Sometimes you just had to spin things and most of these people needed a spin real bad. I could have used one too, but I couldn’t lie to myself. Not now. I’d spent too many years lying to myself already and found out that all that lying never changed reality. Right now, reality sucked. The Prof’s evaluation of our situation was harsh but probably true. One day, we would be found but whether that would be in one day or one year or one decade, who knew? We needed to get the moaning and groaning over with so we could take care of business.
My thoughts flew back to my family. Jesus,
Mama was probably sick with fear and grief. I’m
not much of a praying type but I did shoot up a couple of requests
when things were a little quiet and I could think.
I tried to guess what the reaction to this was at home.
I knew that my family would be on their knees.
Fans would be in shock – some maybe even hysterical if their
reactions to the good times were any indication.
Kristin? Well, who knows?
I mean, I think she would be sad and all. She’s not a viper and we do have a certain history. We just hadn’t been on good terms in quite a while – weren’t
even living together when I left for
When the group had gotten into trouble a few months ago, I thought
she would shit. I was so upset, I didn’t
know what in the hell to do. Nick had gotten
a taste of independence and was making noises about doing his own
thing. It was true that we were having a hard time settling on
a direction but we had finally decided that we would try this again
and we would try it as friends, not as label mates or business partners. Lou had manufactured BSB but even the ‘Great Pearlman’
couldn’t control what emotional connection we had formed for each
other. We had lived in a fishbowl for a long, long time and that
gave us a common ground that we would never have with anyone else. So we decided to go down under.
Kristin was upset about the possibility of a break-up, too but I couldn’t help but feel that her motivation was a little different than mine. It was likely that Kevin Richardson would never be the celebrity that Kevin Backstreet was and Kristin loved celebrity. All of the parties and premiers and photographers were right up her alley. When things got tough, I had to face the fact that we really didn’t share the same alley at all. I thought we did. I wanted to believe it. I had to smile when I thought about all of the attention she was probably getting right now.
I couldn’t do anything about all of that, though. Our respective worlds had been turned upside down. Our lives no longer depended upon musical or financial success. They depended on food, water and shelter. Christ, talk about a wake-up call!
I can’t begin to tell you how pissed off I was when I heard Brad tell Glynnis that they would have to share that fucking blanket. It was none of my business but it griped my ass. To her credit, she refused and, from what I could gather, wrote him an explanation saying that she had promised Sam that she would stay with him that night. Guess Brad didn’t like the idea of sleeping with a five year old. He pushed it and argued but she just shook her head. He didn’t like that, I could tell. That was twice she’d failed to respond to him. He huffed, grabbed the arm of one of the English women and disappeared into the darkness with his blanket
When she had fallen asleep near the fire, I picked Sam up, laid him down next to her and covered them with my blanket. I watched them for a while as they lay in the firelight and felt a surge of protection towards them both. I’m not sure why. There was just something about them hanging on to each other as they slept that touched me in some bittersweet way. I felt totally alone.
I wished they were holding onto me, too….
Moving Day
~GCS~
We all picked up what we could and started moving to the other side of the island. This was going to take several trips and probably several days. There were a few who had already grown disheartened after three days on this deserted island and felt like this move was an exercise in futility, but most welcomed the diversion. It was hard work, trying to move our meager salvage through the brush and jungle but I think it was helpful in a psychological way. At least we had a project - a ‘goal’ of sorts.
One woman didn’t want to move at all and she started crying when we started to discuss the logistics of hauling our belongings three miles across the island to our new encampment. Others probably wanted to cry along with her. We were still in shock, hungry and afraid, but to actually make long range plans for our survival meant admitting that help might not come. No one really wanted to believe that but there was a small group who was still getting off on playing ‘Robinson Caruso’. You can guess who I’m talking about…
Brad had gone off last night, grabbing Linda, one of those English women, and taking her with him. She had gone without protest, appearing somewhat proud that she had been ’selected’. I preferred to believe that her compliance was based on the fact that Brad had one of the blankets and not because of his self-proclaimed ‘studliness’ but, at any rate, she went with him. They came back this morning after everyone was up and moving. It was clear that they had done more than sleep last night. Brad strutted into camp like a rooster, very pleased with himself. Linda was several paced behind him, carrying the blanket. There were hickeys on her neck and shoulder. Hickeys, for God’s sake – like high school! I guess that was his way of marking her - just in case there was any confusion his sexual conquest - but she wore her wounds like a proud soldier. I looked over my shoulder and saw Leigh Anne standing and staring at the ‘couple’ with a scowl on her face. She glanced my way and rolled her eyes in disgust. I had to smile. Little Sam was nearby, standing next to AJ.
“Uh-oh, she gots boo-boos on her neck…”
AJ nodded at the child’s observation before giving him an explanation.
“Yeah, kid…. They’re dick-bites. You get ‘em when you’re around dicks. They’re kinda like a brand of something…
“What’s a dick?” Sam asked.
AJ never missed a beat. “Brad is a dick…”
Sam accepted the definition without further question. “Oh….,” he nodded.
A few people gave Brad what he wanted, which was recognition in the form of juvenile kidding about his sexual ‘acheivement’. Even Linda seemed triumphant, as if was an honor to service the ‘King’.
I saw Brad searching the crowd as if he was looking for some one. His eyes rested on me for a split second and he smirked. Then he looked past me and frowned. I followed his line of vision to Kevin, who was gathering and up some of our supplies and completely ignoring Brad’s unsubtle display. I wasn’t sure if Kevin was even aware of Brad’s grand entrance back into camp but, if he was, he wasn’t about to let Brad know it. Intentional or not, it was like a mental kick to Brad’s groin.
Anyway, back to the move…
It took several hours to cross the island. Some people were in better physical shape than others. While Brad and his cronies lead the trek, Kevin and Brian brought up the rear. Looking back, it was almost as if they formed a kind of safety net, catching and reclaiming those who stumbled or couldn’t keep up. Brad never looked back. Half of the survivors could have been swallowed up by the earth and he probably wouldn’t have noticed. Generally, it was a maudlin group. No one spoke. Everyone seemed to keep their eyes to the ground. We were tired and dirty. Then, out of the blue, Backstreet broke into song.
I was near the middle of the line, close to AJ, when Nicky started singing the opening lyrics to ‘All I Have to Give’. The others came in on cue to render the song acapella as we trudged through the brush. It’s hard to explain what a difference the music made on the general atmosphere. People smiled and looked back at the group and then at each other. A few, who knew the words, started singing along. You know, when there’s no hope, music ceases to exist. There song was a statement of sorts – a statement that many needed at that time. It was encouragement.
The encampment, sparse and run down, looked like a five star hotel
to most of us. It was close to
The lagoon was one of the most beautiful sights I’d ever seen in my life. The water was cool and clear. There were waterfalls and cliffs, softened by rich foliage - even orchids. Everybody there, including King Brad, became almost child-like and jumped into the lagoon as if this was a field trip to a water park. Young and old, it didn’t matter. For a little while, people enjoyed themselves, doing something they wanted to do and not something they had to do. Tragedy temporarily took a backseat to physical and psychological relief. People left the water feeling clean and refreshed. God, we all needed that…
There was still a lot do, though. When we straggled back to camp, people were talking to each other. I even heard a little laughter. The ‘desperation level’ seemed to have dropped a little. Once again, assignments were made. Food gatherers went to work, organizers began to sort out supplies we had managed to bring and make plans to retrieve what we’d left behind. The gatherers would try to scope out the area surrounding our little village as they looked for food and some would start an inventory of the things in the ramshackled wooden building. The earlier search party had not taken the time to do a thorough search. Maybe there would be some surprises. I was one of those who would help with inventory. So was Kevin. So was Brad….
*****
~KSR~
I don’t know who got to me worse, Linda, the Duchess of Slutsburg or Brad, the self-proclaimed Lord of the Fuck. I made sure ‘not to notice’, if you get my drift. That seems to get to Brad pretty good. Besides, he had a big enough audience to witness his triumphant return. I suppose some were impressed. Personally, I couldn’t give a shit who he sticks it to. Well, that’s not true exactly…
We started to the move across the island with mixed feelings. I think some people were upset. Some were numb. Brian and I stayed at the rear of the line with the slow movers. It was a good thing because the group had almost split before we reached the storage building. Brad seemed so intent on leading that he forgot his troops. Nick was up the line a bit, carrying Sam on his shoulders. Sam still had his little bag. I still wondered what was in it. AJ and Glynnis were walking near each other. I could see him talking to her and she would nod or smile or even grin. I admit I felt a little twinge of jealousy. There was something about this woman… I’m not even sure what it was. I just felt like I needed to be close to her. I tried to believe that she needed protection. I still felt a dangerous vibe from Brad so maybe that was true to some extent, but it was more than that. She wore cut off shorts and this tee shirt thing with string like straps. It wasn’t real tight or anything but she filled it up pretty good. Her shoulders were freckled from the sun. She was just so damn tiny. Had the longest legs I’d ever seen on a woman her size and her ass was damn near perfect. Maybe, subconsciously, that’s why I had taken the rear of the line. I watched that ass for three miles.
I don’t mean to sound so crude. She was one well-wrapped little package but that’s not why I had this…this…’connection’ or whatever you want to call it. I couldn’t tell any of that on the plane and I had still felt some kind of attraction to her. It wasn’t lust. Not yet anyway. Hell, I don’t know what it was… I still didn’t really ‘know’ her but there was something there. She’d look back at me every once in a while and give me a slight smile, kinda like she was making sure I was still there or something. Made me feel like some kind of guardian angel. I liked it. I wondered about the fact that she didn’t talk. I was pretty sure she could talk because I’d heard her make little sounds in her sleep so it wasn’t like her voice box didn’t work or something. I’d have to ask AJ if he could hear her laugh….
It surprised me when Nick started singing. His
audience wasn’t all that big but I think it was appreciative. He’d found his ‘safe place’ and the rest of us joined in. It wasn’t exactly
So anyway, we finally get to our new camp. Some people just stared but some others seemed downright excited. What everybody was, was tired and hot and thirsty so, after we dropped our stuff, I suggested we move over to the lagoon for a little while. Brad balked at this, saying there was too much work to do but Les countered saying that if people got sick from dehydration, they wouldn’t be able to do anything. Brad rolled his eyes and mumbled something about ‘the pussies’, but I noticed that he led the way to the lagoon.
When we got there, people started jumping into that water like their asses were on fire – me included. Some, like Nick, found a higher perch and cannon balled into the water like a kid off a diving board, splashing everyone within twenty feet of him. I remembered how many times over the years I had fussed with him for doing that but it tickled me now. He may have been twenty-three but, at that moment, he was twelve again and still showing off. I noticed a young black girl watching him with a great deal of interest. She might have been 18 or 19 years old. Her father was watching her watch him, too. Oh, Lord…
I was surfacing from the water when I spotted Glynnis at the edge of the lagoon with Sam. All I could do was tread water and stare. That little tee-shit thing she was wearing was sopping wet and didn’t do much to hide – or support – what was underneath. Not that they …uh .. she seemed to need much support. I realized that modesty had taken a back seat to more pressing priorities for all of us but, dayum…. I cringed when I felt my nuts tighten up but I still couldn’t take my eyes off of her. Her nipples were stickin’ out of that stretchy fabric like marbles under a wet wash rag. Christ, I was getting’ hard as a brick.
Sam, squealing and laughing, grabbed at Glynnis’ shoulder. I’m not sure if he was trying to climb up out of the water or if he was trying to pull her down but, at any rate, the result was that he grabbed the top of her shirt and pulled. When he did, the material stretched to such a degree that one of her breasts was almost exposed. I didn’t know what in the hell was wrong with me. It wasn’t like I’d never seen a tit before. Jesus, I’d had them pushed into my face and offered up on a platter. I’d even autographed them, for Christ’s sake, but…I dunno….. I hate to sound like a sappy idiot, but in those few seconds, the sight of that creamy flesh, swaying slightly as she bent, made the orchids and waterfalls pale in comparison. She was absolutely beautiful. And totally wet…
I glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed Glynnis’ close call with nakedness but most of the party was several yards away, scattered among the rocks and foliage. One person was not. Brad.
I watched him as he stared at Glynnis and Sam. He was up to his chest in water but from where I was, I could see the muscles in his right shoulder twitch. He also looked a little dazed. The motherfucker was jerking off. I can’t explain how that made me feel. For a split second, I could have killed that cocksucker. My own reaction stunned me a little. It was then that I realized that civilization, as we had come to know it, was not going to be relevant in this ‘new’ society. We were going to be forced to deal with very primitive instincts in a very primitive way as if this was the beginning of time.
Sex, possession and ‘territory’ were very primitive instincts….
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