Approaching quickly, Adam was quickly pulled aside by one of the few people combing the wood line. The somewhat indescript man, average in height and build introducing himself as Mathew, scrutinized Adam briefly.

“Hmm, gotta say, I thought you’d be taller” He chuckled sightly at Adam’s look of surprise, “Look Kid you wandered off on a beach, we could kinda see the footprints, didn’t take a genius to realise that someone woke up first, and ran off somewhere.”

Turning round, he gestured at Adam to follow, sprinting up he quickly drew level, and walked apace with Mathew. As they walked towards the small meeting taking place Adam finally realised what the people wandering around were doing. Most of them were in a daze, still not quite with it, much as he had been several hours earlier, a couple of the were sitting, or lying, whilst a small few were wandering, with a few sharp-eyed individuals keeping a gentle eye on them, slowly guiding back those that were wandering too far.

A few others appeared to be scavenging from the tree line, scrounging up both dry and wet wood, and placing them in several small piles. A few small bulbs, similar if not the same to the ones he’d found earlier were being carefully put aside on a small collection of broad flat leaves. As Adam passed, he also noted one man with a large stick thrashing some creeper, his little friend sitting next to him taking it and splitting the creepers into rough and thick fibres, then depositing those onto one of the broad leaves.

Other small pieces of industry could be noted, a young man sat with the rough fibre, spinning it into rough and ready strings, beside him were a small pile of fist sized stones, all remarkably spherical, like misshapen cricket balls. Occasionally a couple people would wander back from the northern cliff face, approach him, and show him their collections, receiving nods or shakes of the head as to the quality of the stones. Those that didn’t make his cut were deposited further off, forming cairn like pile.

As they wandered through the disparate crowd, Adam couldn’t help but note the organisation of it all. Clearly everyone here had been victims of the same circumstance, but there seemed to be a will directing all of them towards some common purpose, some methodology clearly at work. What was remarkable was that many of those working were still clearly not really all there yet, the tasks seemed simple, easy to perform, and they were being performed languidly.

Slowly they reached the small group meeting on the sands. It had taken them a while, Mathew stopping to greet everyone they passed, quiet words and short pleasantries being exchanged. Everyone appeared to be reserved, responses were short and factual if at all worded, simple hand gestures shrugs and nods being far more common. Few if any personal details were passed, small surprise really, people who talked too much about themselves had tended to end up in a bad way.

As they finally arrived the small group made way, almost organically, much like a receding tide. The man at the centre of them, tall with chiselled good looks blond hair and blue-eyed locked eyes with Adam, then let his gaze drift up and down sizing him up. He then turned to Mathew the question in his eyes soon vocalised.

“This him?” his voice quiet and authoritative, the sort of voice that carries in a crowded room, the sort of voice weight. Tall, with chiselled good looks his face was slightly offset by a thin silver scar just below his right eye.

“Yes boss, he came back at a fair turn of speed by the look of him.”

“I can see that, shit even a blind dog could see that” He turned back to Adam, a smile quickly forming on his face, “Well kid, I’m Richard, pleased to meet you, I guess you’re the one who woke first” He was somewhat self-effacing, but for some reason Adam thought there was something…. Off about him. He didn’t know what it was but there was an atmosphere he embodied that just rubbed Adam the wrong way.

Nether the less sharing what he’d found would almost certainly help out the rest of the group. And so, he spoke for about half an hour, with questions frequently being interjected into, and breaking the flow of his narrative. Mostly they came from Richard, but a young lady named Sarah also butted in from time to time. The group was almost ecstatic at the knowledge of fresh water relatively nearby, but the mood grew ever more sombre as it became evermore clear that there was no immediate prospect of rescue. Oddly neither Sarah nor Richard hadn’t asked any questions about that topic, the questions had come almost plaintively from members of the audience.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

Richard damn near broke when it got to the beast. “So let me get this straight” He almost muttered, his teeth clenched, “you wandered off like some kind of bloody idiot, ran into what you think might be a dangerous beast, and at no stage did you stop to bloody think that maybe, just maybe it might be a good idea to just stop, turn around and just walk back?” The tall and scarred man said, his hand clutching his face in sheer exasperation.

He caught himself, and then he was back, a small smile playing across his face, the brief hint of menace gone like morning mists in the face of the rising sun.

“Look kid I appreciate that you found water, and it’s good to know that there might be some dangerous animals around here, but wandering off alone is a good way to get killed. That goes for all of you to. If you’re going somewhere take at least two others, and tell someone where you’re going and how long you might take.” He paused briefly, deliberately. “Sarah grab a few of the walkers, see if you can get them to help us get some long pieces of wood, maybe some sharp stones. Conner see if you can get a party together to escort people to the water, the rest of you; well see if you can find anything we can store water in, I don’t really care what it is so long as we can start building some kind of provisions.”

“Mathew take the kid and show him round the camp, get him up to speed on what were’ doing at the moment” He said turning back slightly. “Oh you might as well help him make his introductions while you’re at it.” He said this all with a slight smile, but the moment he turned, Adam could have sworn his face morphed into a passive mask, still and soulless.

The next few minutes were a blur of activity. Sarah rapidly corralled a group of dazed individuals, and carefully but quickly began to show them long pieces of wood, communicating with them in an exaggerated manner, with plenty of repetition. A couple of the others from the meeting were fliting around the group, showing the walkers again and again and again exactly what they wanted. The group slowly but surely headed to the wood line, where they proceeded to pull and tear long pieces of wood into some kind of jumbled mess.

There was almost no uniformity in what was being collected, piles of half rotten wood from the forest floor joined ramrod straight javelin length pieces of green wood in a haphazard pile. The two who’d joined Sarah from the meeting, their names eluding Adam for the moment sorted the almost random assortment of wood into a series of usable piles. Long and thin pieces of wood were being sorted into one, whilst shorter stouter pieces went to another. Dry wood was separated from green and there was a rapid and tangible sense of progress.

There was a brief shout of elation as a group came running back and spoke quickly with Richard, before gathering another ten or so people, and running back north along the beach. The rapidity of industry on the beach almost took Adam’s breath away; the lethargy of the past seeming to have no part in this groups present.

Through all this Mathew took Adam from person to person, making introductions, and smoothing Adam’s way through quiet and passive conversations.

The young man he’d seen spinning fibre’s earlier was called Dave, apparently he was making some sort of weapon, he’d remained fairly quiet on the subject when asked about it, but apparently he’d used them a lot as a teen, and was anxious to prove himself to the community.

A young lady was fretting over the still sleeping members of the group, she was almost overly protective of them, not allowing either Adam or Mathew to even approach them. Introducing herself as Mary she barely looked up as they approached.

There were others of course. Elizabeth, fretting over Mary, and the newly awakened. Sam who seemed far too consumed with his own thoughts, he was chatting intermittently with his companion Joe, whom Adam gathered had once been a builder as they threshed creeper into some kind of workable fibre.

He gathered a veritable trove of names and faces, tasks and hopes, all the many disconnected and disparate information blurring together until Adam could hardly maintain eye contact, let alone listen.

Noticing this Mathew eventually took pity on him. Leaving him with Sarah's group of wood collectors, he soon proved far more effective than many of the others; this didn’t really stand as a testament to his skills, rather to the state of the others.

Slowly but surely they began to assemble a pile of would that could be turned into some viable short spears. The group that had come run back with such excitement earlier had found some large bamboo outgrowths, and using some of the discarded rocks to chisel through the tops of messily split bamboo, managed to make some improvised pots. Many of them were put aside for water, but others still were reserved for the fibres, thick and thin being produced. A few of the stones were stashed in pockets, but Dave carried by far the most, having turned his shirt into some kind of improvised bag slung precariously at his waist.

The sun now sinking toward the horizon the group was finally ready to retrace Adam’s steps back to the small stream. Almost the entire group was getting ready to move, improvised buckets in hand, with a plethora of weapons; short spears for the most part, with a smattering of thin light javelins, and two rather hopeful looking men with rather dodgy looking clubs.

They cut an interesting sight, modern cloths, with clearly improvised pre-stone age tools and weapons. Cautiously they advanced, the wood line being carefully scanned, and the few still suffering the after effects of whatever had bought them were being carefully corralled, Mary darting from person to person, with a light touch carefully steering them back into the group.

Finally the sun now beginning to set they made it to the small stream. Buckets were rapidly filled and passed back, as people rapidly drank their fill. Soon those buckets were being returned to the front of the line and refilled.

Nearby sentries were being stationed. Lacking fire they were being placed in groups of three, with four watches being planned across the course of the evening, chunks of wood placed haphazardly around the group, as an almost plaintive defence against the unfamiliar island.

As the sun finally set, as the bright full moon began its illumination of their small camp; the mists came billowing in.