Fearing that the boat would be carried away by the current and become a tramp boat again, the three of them immediately used their hands as paddles in the direction of the island, taking turns paddling with their arms, which barely kept the boat from spinning around in the water. They could see the island in the distance, but they had no oars and the boat was still moving slowly forward. Alice, a little worried, jumped out of the boat and swam behind it, pushing it forward. Seeing this, Michiko also jumped in and helped as much as she could. Ronnie couldn't swim, so all he could do was cheer them on. The three of them worked hard for a long time and finally reached the beach. "So tired!" Michiko panted heavily and lay down on her back on the beach. Alice fixed the boat and lay down beside her. "Ronnie, is this place the 'strange island' you were talking about?" she asked.

"I don't think so, 'Strange Island' is not that far away,but we could call this island 'Strange Island' instead."

"Do you think there are people on this island?"

"Sister, we can go to the highest point on the island and take a look to find out, this island shouldn't be too big."

After resting on the beach, the three of them got up and walked towards the center of the island. "Ronnie, don't walk so fast, be careful of falling," Alice looked at Ronnie bouncing in front of her and spoke up to warn him. Ronnie stopped walking, turned around and smiled at her, "It's okay, I'm flexible, I won't fall."

"Aren't you tired?" Michiko asked with a frown.

"I've been sitting on the boat the whole time and I'm not making any effort, how could I be tired?" Ronnie said, continuing to walk forward. However, he slowed down because the path ahead wasn't easy to walk on, filled with reefs and broken rocks that they could trip over if they weren't careful. It took the three of them more than half an hour to reach the highest point of the island, looking far and wide, not realizing that they were greatly disappointed: it was a very barren island, with no more than fifty trees on the entire island, bare, and about two kilometers long and only one kilometer wide, with a height of seventy to eighty meters at its highest point. At the same time, they thought, "How can such an island be inhabited?not even a bird would come here, would it?"

"It's all right, it's better here than on the ship, we survived all the hardships on the ship," Alice spoke comfortingly.

"Sister, we still have to find a way to get out of here, do you want to stay in this hellish place for the rest of your life?"

"I don't care, as long as I can be with you," Michiko said quietly.

Although the words were well spoken, a trace of worry still flashed across Alice's face, "The most important thing right now is to survive on the island, let's figure out the other things slowly ... Ronnie, you go and move the ship's things here, Michiko and I will split up to look for a place to land, we'll meet back here in half an hour!"

"Sister, aren't I the captain? why are you calling the shots?" Ronnie was annoyed and immediately objected.

Alice laughed and replied, "It's not like you're on the ship now, of course your captain's identity is useless ...well, split up and move!"

Ronnie still listened to his sister and went back to the ship to get things moving. The way down was much easier and it wasn't long before they were back at the boat. Looking at the thirty or so crab shells laid out in the middle of the boat, he didn't know what to do with them, as there was still some fresh water in them, and it would be a shame to pour it out, but he couldn't take it with him if he didn't, so in the end he decided to drink it all. Then he took off his jacket and wrapped the crab shells, dried fish, and shrimp into a ball, untied the flag and rope from the sail, folded the flag neatly, and returned to the meeting place. He was the first to return and did not see the two women, so he had to find a rock to lie on and wait for their return. Fifteen minutes passed without him noticing, and there was still no sign of the duo. Bored for a moment, he got up and wanted to move around a bit. First, he found a branch to hang the flag from, and then he stuck it in the mud. Then he walked to the other side of the island, looking down at the road and walking carefully, afraid of stepping on snakes. A few moments later, he saw a mountain overhanging under the cracks in the stone where water was seeping out, but the amount of water was very small, only two or three drops per second. He opened his mouth to take a bite and praised, "So sweet, but it's just that the amount of water is too small,” he took a sip of water and came to these two conclusions.

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"Sister and Michiko should have returned to the rendezvous point, I have to go back as well before I can do that, maybe they have something to gain," he thought in his mind and hurried back the same way. When he returned to the rendezvous point, he saw the two girls looking around, "What are you looking for?" he asked.

When Alice saw him, she said angrily instead of happily, "Where did you run off to? didn't I tell you to wait here? we thought you were lost."

"Sister, this is an island, I just wandered off and couldn't get off the island, you really are blindly worried ...did you find anything?"

Michiko tapped Ronnie on the shoulder and said, "We thought you fell in a hole."

"There's a hole here?" Ronnie asked rhetorically, his eyes wide.

"Of course there is!" Michiko pointed to the other side, "there are cave pits north of where I went, quite a few of them, and I found a big rock, half the size of a football field, we could pitch a tent on it."

"I didn't find anything on my side, just a little hole, just big enough for one person to lie down," Alice shared her own discovery.

"Sister, Michiko, you failed too much, you didn't find anything, I found a water source, it's just a very small amount of water."

"Oh! Where is it?"

"Right over here!" Ronnie pointed in the direction where it appeared.

Alice nodded and turned to Michiko, "Michiko, take us to the big rock, we'll land there first."

"Good!" The three of them immediately took off and headed for the big rock. The big rock was backed by small mountains, it was big and flat, like a small square, the biggest disadvantage was that it was open air, afraid of rain and sunlight. Ronnie opened his mouth when he saw it, "Michiko, it's okay to dance here, but if we want to live here, we'll have to build a wooden room, tents are too inconvenient to get in and out of, and they can't keep out the heavy rains and sea winds."

"Can't we set up tents on the boat?" Michiko said unconvincingly.

"That's no better than making do," Ronnie replied.

"It's almost dark, let's stay here for the night and decide tomorrow if we want to build a house," Alice made the final decision.

With their experience on the boat, the three of them set up the tent with great skill. Ronnie took out the dried fish wrapped in his jacket and the three of them shared it. Then they laid out the crab shells, ready to catch the dew at night that had become their habit. The three of them entered the tent in turn, Ronnie squeezing into the middle and lying down, saying to the two girls, "You two protect me.”

Michiko laughed, "You are such a useless boy, you need us to protect you."

The tent with the flags was still too small to cover their entire bodies, and while their torsos were inside, their feet were exposed. Still, they were happy, and for the first time in a month, the three of them slept with their legs stretched out. A wave of drowsiness came over them, and after a short while they fell asleep. It wasn't until nine o'clock the next morning that the sun shone into the tent and warmed their bodies. Michiko was the first to wake, and when she opened her eyes and realized that her arm was trapped between Ronnie's legs, she blushed and hastily pulled it out to sit up. As soon as she moved, Alice also woke up, and when she saw that she had gotten up, she smiled and said, "Good morning!"

Michiko was a little embarrassed and looked down to rub her eyes, "Morning, Alice!" when she finished, she saw that Ronnie was still asleep and tried to shake him awake, "Ronnie, Ronnie ..." she called out a few times, Ronnie played dumb and continued to pretend to be asleep, but it didn't escape her, she stood up and gave him a light kick in the ass. "Earthquake ... earthquake ..." Ronnie screamed in horror.

"Giggle!" Michiko covered her mouth and laughed at his antics, "Okay, okay, I'm teasing you! "

After the three of them all got up, Alice spoke up, "I thought about it last night and I think we can dismantle the boat first and use it to build a house, we won't be able to leave in the near future. Besides, the current boat is just a few pieces of wood tied together, it's easy to dismantle. If you two have any opinions, say something."

"Sister, do you really want to stay here for a long time while the boat is being dismantled?" Ronnie was very displeased to hear this.

Michiko, however, was very agreeable, "I think it's a good idea, this ship has no sails or cabins, it can't go very far, we're lucky to be here."

"Two votes against one, Ronnie, you die!" Alice clapped her hands and laughed.

"So what are we going to eat in the morning? I don't want any more dried fish," Ronnie backed away.

"Let's go find some fruit trees and see if we can find some fruit to eat, then we'll go to the beach," Alice said.

So the three of them started looking for fruit trees on the island, but unfortunately they searched the whole island without finding a single fruit bearing tree, and the biggest gain was a deeper understanding of the island. There are almost no living things here, a completely dead island. The only source of fresh water is Ronnie's last sighting of the mountain overhang. The trio was so discouraged that they forgot they were hungry. They went straight to the beach, and at a glance, the spot on the beach where the boat had originally been parked was also empty at that moment, and the boat had disappeared.