Everything was dark and silent; no not silent, there was the sound of shallow breathing and a pounding heart, but not much else; not at first.  The senses had yet to form a coherent picture of what was going on outside the body to which they belonged and the brain had yet to assemble the memories that would tell it where the body was and why.  Everything was still jumbled and confused.

There came the gentle caress of a cool breeze on exposed skin and the salty aroma of the sea brought along with it.  That told the brain its body was near the ocean, and fingers on something with a soft granular texture soon confirmed this line of thinking.  The question of why, still remained.  The reason for the darkness was eventually uncovered, in more ways than one; as the fingers ventured towards were the brain was telling them a face would be found, only to encounter some sort of coarse material.  Once removed the eyes were flooded by a harsh bright light tinged with blue.

The brain slowly pieced the parts of the puzzle together.  The last memory had been of darkness, of wind and driving rain that stung the face and hands like tiny needles.  Brief flashes of light had illuminated the underside of black menacing clouds and the tops of huge rolling waves.

There had been a storm at sea; and a powerful one at that. It was enough to answer some question, but not all.  Like where was the ship, or for that matter anyone else who would have been on board?

Dinari Lyambo realised that if it was no longer dark and the storm had passed, he must have been unconscious for a while.  How he got to where he now lay, was part of this unsolved mystery.

Dinari carefully ran his fingers over his body; nothing indicated any broken bones or major cuts, just bruising and a couple of scratches.  He assumed it would start to hurt more as nerve endings final started sending signals to the brain.  At least he was in one piece.

By now his eyes had got used to the bright clear, cloudless sky.  The water of the ocean below the sky carried a green tinge, and was mill pond flat; a far cry from how it had been during the storm  There was no sign of any ship, either intact or wreaked by the storm, no sign of anyone.

He eventual stood up; once he was sure both legs would cooperate with the task of holding themselves and his body, up.  A line of seaweed and other flotsam, just beyond where he had lain, indicated the highest point up the beach that any waves had reached.  Beyond that, rows of palm like trees, some apparently baring fruit.  Whether any of it was edible, he couldn’t be sure, that wasn’t his field of expertise

There was a movement in the undergrowth beyond the first few lines of trees; then a screech; as some exotic bird with pink and blue feathers took flight. But it had not been the bird that had moved the bushes; whatever had caused it to take flight, had been responsible for that.

Dinari scanned his surroundings for anything that might prove useful as a weapon; there was nothing close to hand.  Whatever the unidentified thing was, it was big, and didn’t seem too much care who heard it coming.  This wasn’t good, Dinari backed way, watching the relentless progress of some unimaginable beast.

The universe has a fondness for replicating things that work on one planet and creating something almost identical on another; that coupled with the human races attachment to the familiar; which has resulted in them taking countless species from Earth and depositing them on new worlds; meant that seeing something familiar, wasn’t all that unusual.

However with this in mind; watching something that looked remarkably like a Giant Tortoise come lumbering out of the undergrowth, still came as a surprise.  Unlike its Terrain namesake, this particular specimens shell was more of a vibrate orange and was covered in protruding spikes, all of which contrasted with its blue leathery skin.  This thing was clearly designed to protect itself from any animal that may dare to attack it.

Dinari relaxed and let out a chuckle; the tap on the shoulder made him jump out of his skin.  How the stranger had got that close and completely undetected Dinari hadn’t a clue; had they been of evil intent, the young Namibian would likely not have still been standing.

This unknown individual looked remarkably like himself; both in height, build and skin tone.  But with all those similarities, there was still the issue of communication.  Neither of them understood a word the other was trying to say.

“Well Friday.” Dinari said with a smile, comparing his current predicament with an old story he’d half paid attention to at school.  “What do we do now?”

The man looked back puzzled; whilst trying to copy the smile.

What in fact followed was three days of learning about the island and what it had to offer.  There was a lot of waving arms around, pointing and drawing pictures in the sand; but slowly things were understood.

The hairy green fruit could be eaten, but not the skin, same with the orange banana like fruit.  The small red ones were to be avoided at all costs, but the leaves of the plant made a good roof for a shelter, once tied to sticks and branches with vine.

Half of a clam shell, found on the beach, proved a useful cutting tool for the vine; it had no problem with skin either, as Dinari discovered.  His new friend was able to bandage the wound using the leaves off another plant.

On day four, Dinari was beginning to wonder why he’d not seen any rescue teams.  Surely someone was out looking for survivors?   There was no way that they wouldn’t be looking for the ship, so why hadn’t he seen anything in the sky or on the ocean?

By day six, he was starting to believe he was stuck on this island, just like that Robinson guy from the story.  Dinari only wished he could remember how it ended, or in fact if any part of it was true.  If he got off this place, he was certainly going to find out.

Day seven and eight went much the same as those that preceded it, other than Dinari managed to spear a fish himself, rather than just watch Friday doing it.   Once cooked over the open fire, it was very delicious, tasting a bit like salmon.

Dinari slept well that night, and was disturbed the following morning by his shoulder being gently shuck. “Friday?” He yawned, eyes still closed.

“No, it’s Tuesday actually.” The reply he received.  “But, a nice try.”

The Namibian’s eyes shot open and he rolled over, but instead of being under the leaves of the shelter he and his island companion had built, he was back at the water’s edge.  Two members of a search and rescue team stood off to the left, whilst a third, who’d woken him, knelt down and opened up a medical case.

“Where’s the other guy?” Dinari asked.

“What other guy?” The rescue medic next to him asked, running a medical tricorder all over Dinari’s body, tapping a combadge like device with his over hand. “Revol 7, please confirm there are no other life signs on this island.”

From just beyond the line of trees a helicopter like craft swept in, swiftly yet virtually silently.  “Confirmed, only indigenes life signs of varying sizes located.”

Dinari was puzzled, he could have imagined the last eight days?  “How long have I been here?”

“Four hours.” The medic replied. “We’d have got here sooner, only that storm hung around a bit.  Malfunction in the system.”

“What about the ship?”

“Perfectly fine Sir.  You were the only passenger to get knocked overboard, by a freak wave.”

“It honestly felt much longer.”

The man stood up and satisfied Dinari was ok, helped him to his feet, with assistance from one of the other two members of the rescue team.

“Ok, Revol 7, come pick us up.”

The craft came into land, roughly 25 metres away, and once the blades of the rotors had stopped spinning, Dinari and the rescue team approached it.  He took one long look, back at the beach, and the tree’s.  Had he really dreamt it all?