MYSTober 2024

31 vignettes based on single-word prompts. One story.

3. Harmony

Julius grunted from the effort of carrying wood back to town on his shoulder. The cruise ship had run aground on this island two months ago. The captain still hadn't given a good explanation of what had caused the ship to go so far off course, but at this point, what did it matter?

Julius had been a third deck passenger. Out of some three thousand passengers and one thousand crew members, he had been passenger 583. Or at least, that's the number he'd assigned himself. His favourite numbers were 11 and 53, so he'd just multiplied them together and claimed the result. It was a bit of fun just for him on an island where everyone was still figuring out how to survive.

Being here wouldn't have been so bad if they'd been able to leave. Cruise ships make port multiple times, so this would have been just another port of call. It was only when they'd discovered that the radios couldn't reach anyone and one of the propellers was destroyed that the true nature of their situation had revealed itself. This wasn't a port of call – it was a shipwreck.

The one nice thing going for them was the island itself. It was completely isolated from civilization, which meant clean water, clean air, no city noises, and no distractions from social media. The island was also very large. He'd set out to trace its perimeter one day, and the sun was setting by the time he'd finished. The interior held a wide variety of biomes, everything from woodlands to marshes and plains. Food was abundant, and so was space.

Another thing that had given them all a giant push towards survivalism was the fact that the ship had come to rest at a steep angle. As convenient as it would have been for everyone to go on living in their quarters onboard, it just wasn't feasible for the indefinite length of time they would likely be stranded here.

So, over the last two months they had begun dismantling the ship to create shelters, along with wood scavenged from the forest. Aside from some anger and arguments as people came to terms with their fate, everyone had come together for the common purpose of keeping themselves alive. There was quite a nice little town coming along, with warehouses, pantries, a granary, and a church.

Julius didn't partake in the church services – he was an atheist. He didn't lament its construction, however. He supposed that if he were religious he would be seeking an explanation for why God would have forsaken him here. Religion provides comfort to those in need, he reasoned, and he wasn't about to kick up a fuss when he was part of a group that desperately needed that comfort. Just because finding it in scripture wasn't for him, that didn't mean he was about to stop anyone else from doing so. All he could really do was contribute to the budding community, and hope that their rescue would come soon.

MYSTober 2024

Table of Contents

3. Harmony