You groan as you wake up, you hear the sounds of surf behind you and feel the soft sands of a beach below you on your knees, and the warm sun on your skin and your gut tells you it’s the early morning judging by the angle.
You feel naked… both in the sense you have no clothes on and it feels like something is… missing. You try think and realize your forehead hurts like you took a hit to it… and then your life comes rushing back! Now you remember!
You’re Jonathan Carter, a professional bush master and survivalist. You had been on the ocean on your boat when a freak storm rolled in and… and it starts to get hazy before and after that, aside from your survival knowledge and you’re general history, the part where your boat must have sunk or you got tossed over board is a blank and as is the last several months… except… except that woman.
You do remember talking to a gipsy woman crystal clear at a bazaar over in… uh, somewhere... You remember feeling restless, aimless, looking for the next challenge the voice in the back of your head tells you, and when you came to her, she seemed to see straight into your soul, either she had a gift for people or magic powers because she pegged you right away.
“I see a man before me, strong, renowned, and successful… yet aimless, looking for the next big thing in his life.” She said to you.
“Yeah you could say that…” you agreed.
“Well, I do believe I know such a challenge, an island, one that will give you the test you crave, and reward you well, should you best it’s challenge.”
“And what challenge would that be?” You ask.
“Oh one you are familiar with, survival, but with its own unique twists… I won’t tell you more, that would ruin the surprise.”
“Oh… surely you can give me a hint?”
“Hmm, very well, let’s just say you will be deprived of your… tools forcing you to use what you find in the island.” She says with grim humor.
“That’s nothing I haven’t done before…” you say, crossing your arms unimpressed.
“Maybe, but maybe you haven’t thought of what defines a tool… but yes, that is the challenge, survive and find a way off, with absolutely nothing but what you can wrestle from the island, and do so in more or less pieces than you are before me now.”
“That’s an odd thing to say.”
“Maybe, but it will make more sense later… here is the island…” she says pulling out a cellphone and sharing the coordinates with you.
From there it gets hazy again and faintly you remember having dismissed her challenge at first but… as time wore on and gnawed at you, the challenge and urge to test yourself grew stronger.
Well here you are, naked, might as well see what you have to work with around you. You try to stand up but… your arms are numb don’t work bellow your shoulders and so are your legs below your knees. You look at your right arm to try to see the problem, and gasp at what you see… or rather don’t see!
Your arm is gone! No blood no gore, just smooth skin right below your shoulder blade and above your arm pit. A look to the left confirms it’s gone too!
You roll over and look down and scream! Your legs terminate below the knees and worse… your penis and testicles are missing too! No hole or blood just more smooth skin.
You sit up and and look around… the beach stretches on a ways and there’s jungle inland and… there’s a sign!
In plain English it says. “Find what you’ve lost, or replacements…”
You look around again and spot:
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