As he lay there on the soft sands he simply could not sleep. It had been a long day, terrifying in many ways, and with the adrenalin from earlier thoroughly gone, Adam simply felt empty, hollow even, like a water pack drained dry.

The sounds of the forest weren’t helping. Every small sound from beyond the wood line caused his body to tense, his hands to move to my sides ready to push himself up, ready to fight or run. The ephemeral mists swirling through our ramshackle camp weren’t helping, thick as New London smog Adam could barely see the sentries, let alone beyond the first few trees.

The lapping waves creating an unnerving counterpoint to the creatures of the forest. A calming rhythmic back note to the intermittent rustles and creaking’s of the forest, animal calls rising over the rhythm of wood and water.

Through this auditory harmony of nature flowed the mists, streaming up from the waters through the camp and between the trees into the forest beyond. Rivulets of silver swept between the trees as indistinct shapes formed within them, the bright light from the moon and the shifting of clouds and shadows gave rise to an illusion of movement, humanoid figures forming, then flowing away, like wax from a lit candle.

The whole of it, the indifference of it, the sheer baffling mystery of how they ended up on island that seemed untouched by man in a world of ash and smog threatened almost to overwhelm him. Once again he tried to just let it all go, to simply sleep.

So he thought back on better times, on his family, their small home complete with open fireplace. The joy of fresh bread, slathered in butter with clean and bitter coffee. The small community of good neighbours. Complete with those small conversations one has with one’s neighbours, generally griping over the cost of food, or the weather. Small things, almost background noise, but the simple things one takes for granted were the first things he found himself missing.

A quiet padding on the sands broke off his most recent attempt to sleep. Through the fog a feminine figure gradually came into focus, the mists still swirling almost ominously around her. Silhouetted behind her were one of the small groups of sentries barely visible through the fog though they were less than thirty feet away.

“Can we talk” she said softly, her voice, though musical, was quiet and suppressed, as if smothered though the thick and shinning mists.

“Sure” equally quiet he responded to her, as Sarah came closer. She sat slowly, her legs curled to the side as she leaned on one arm. Adam in turn pushed himself up slightly, rather than simply lie there while they talked.

Almost conspiratorially she leaned in, and began to speak.

“So you woke first.” She stopped, waiting and judging his reaction. Not really sure what was expected of him he simply lay there, quiet and non-responsive, his face impassive, giving no hint of what he thought.

They sat there for some time, the mists swirling around and between them, the silence building, not uncomfortably, but rather in the awkward way of such things. Finally, as the conversation seemed done before it could even begin, the silence was broken once more.

“You know its odd right, this island, and this situation.” Sarah said looking intently at Adam, as if to divine some kind of response, some answer from his face. He remained impassive, but she seemed satisfied with what she saw.

“It’s impossible, all of it.” She stopped again, catching herself, but seeing Adam’s interest she went on.

“Look we all ended up on some weird island, none of us remember anything about getting here, I asked around, and literally no one has any memory of how we got here.” She leaned in, closer, her face almost directly next to him. Her voice dropped, even lower, quieter, almost fearful in tone.

“You heard the rumours back home right? The disappearances, but there was always some kind of point to them, dissidents, malcontents, they were the ones that ended up vanished. But everyone here?” She stopped suddenly, the sound of a whistle carrying softly through the shrouded air.

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“I better go, my watch is up shortly.”

She got up slowly, almost reluctantly. “Look if you can think of anything else, anything amiss, tell me or Richard okay. We don’t know much about where we are, or how we got here, but any little bit of information could give us a clue, a way back maybe?” and with that she was off again, the mists slowly swallowing here, from features to silhouette.

The night went on much the same as it had before her visit, the sounds surrounding the camp created an unnerving accompaniment to the thick and swirling mists that the group were engulfed in. Adam managed to grasp at a few thin strands of sleep, though when the sun began to rise, and banish the thick blanket of fog; his eyes were deep set, and his movements languid and halting.

Many in the camp were much the same, it was clear that most of them had been awake almost all night, their nerves resting on hair triggers, the sounds of the forest, and unfamiliarity of the situation conspiring to keep sleep at bay across the course of the evening.

The activities of the morning, such as they were consumed them for a short while. A fair number of the group went for a quick drink from the nearby stream. Others stripped down and dived into the azure waters surrounding the island, despite objections from the majority of the group; which seemed to be mainly focused on the decency of the whole thing. Many still wanted to wash; Richard only allowing it after the rest of the group had drank their fill, and only then if they limited themselves to only two of the improvised buckets, and kept themselves a good distance from the stream, no risks were going to be taken with their sole supply of water.

The sun now well and truly risen everyone could finally be corralled into some kind of meeting. The options were laid out quickly and clearly, they could remain here, with fresh water close at hand, and a convenient natural stream to follow inland if they wanted to move inland in order to hunt. This idea was almost immediately rejected by the entire group, Adam’s tale of some large and ferocious beast still hanging heavy in their minds, and with a sleepless night behind them it made little to no sense to remain in an area which so clearly might contain a dangerous hunter.

The second idea put forward was that they should return north, the cliff face presented a good natural barrier, and with an abundance of loose stone it should be relatively easy to build some form of defensible barricade whilst they waited for rescue.

The third option was that they should carry on south, maybe there would be some kind of settlement they could get help from, maybe there were resources that would help? The argument was weak but had some merit. Conner and Sam were strongly in favour of continuing to explore, Conner for his part was pretty eager to get off and just do something, the man positively radiated frustration at being stuck in a meeting, and argued strongly that he should know about any possible threats. Sam though had no real argument, curiosity itself seemed to be his motivation. Adam idly thought to himself that he would have been in favour of anything that gave him the opportunity to discover something new.

Regardless they argued for some time over the best course of action. Mary and Elizabeth were by far the most vocal about returning north, and creating a small fortified camp, though Dave also seemed to support this idea, happy to get back to making his weapon.

Naturally everyone wanted to have their say, and so runners had to be sent out on a fairly frequent basis to relieve the sentries, after each gave voice to their views on the matter.

Adam spent most of the time separate from the argument, truth be told he didn’t particularly mind what they did, only that they got on and did it. His new friends thought much the same as him. Mark silent and self-confident, was leaning back, his half closed eyes surveying the group with barely concealed contempt. William though hardly paid attention, his eyes fixed firmly on the azure sea just beyond the group. They’d met whilst grabbing a drink that morning, and had remained close to one another across the course of the morning meeting; not so much out of actual friendship, rather convenience, and not uncomfortable company.

The meeting finally came to a close when Richard decided to speak. The whole time he’d barely said a word, simple thank you’s when people had finished speaking, and little more. Throughout his face had remained impassive, giving few, if any, of his thoughts away across the course of the morning.

“Thank you everyone for your opinions” He said, finally breaking the meeting up. “It seems to me that we have to take the long view.” He paused briefly sizing up the group. “We have to assume no help is coming” Overwhelmed by the clamour of the crowd, he went silent, and simply waited, he didn’t shout, he didn’t puff himself up and try to force people to listen, he simply waited, silent and still. When they were finally silent he still remained still, waiting for a full minute, the silence turning cold as ice, as sharp as daggers.

“So this is what we’re going to do. Elizabeth, take a group back North, get a basic camp going, for the moment that means shelter, try and find a point against the cliffs so we can fortify it later.” He stopped for a moment, eyes darting from face to face, and as if to forestall any further objections he went on.

“I know some of you are worried about what Adam saw yesterday, and honestly I don’t blame you, but since we weren’t attacked during the night it should probably be okay for us to split up. However we need to confirm the danger” he nodded towards Adam, “You okay to take a group up stream?” Adam nodded, a small lump forming in his throat, nerves getting to him somewhat.

“Then I’ll take a third group south, and see if we can find anything. Sarah you should stay here, and keep an eye on things, act as a relay point for the rest of us if things go wrong” Sarah frowned slightly when Richard said this, but Adam noted that she’d turned her head slightly, hiding her thoughts from him.

Groups began to form up rather quickly, most people had clearly decided to head back north; carrying a large supply of water, enough for maybe a day or two for the whole group they were clearly going to take some time.

Two smaller groups formed around Richard and Adam, Sam was clearly still intent on heading south, and had quietly joined Richards’s small team, hanging to the side of the group he was a clear oddity, thoughtful and quiet in comparison to the loud bravado of the other explorer’s.

Adams team was by far the smallest. Barely a handful they seemed to be braggarts for the most, their own words filling them with courage for the task ahead. Mark seemed alone among them to be aloof from it, leaning quietly against one of the trees at the edge of the beach, his spear held loosely in his hand. They were just about to head off, when Conner ran up, he’d been chatting with Richard for a while now; but with a simple pat on Mark’s shoulder and a quick word he was in.

Quickly, and with a rather poor attempt at stealth, they slipped into the forest.