The Taken

I opened my eyes and stared at the sky and knew I was dreaming. I sat up and looked around at the lush growth around me, the palm trees, listening to the seagulls. The breeze was warm as I stood up and looked down at the almost sheer white sundress. The grass felt cool beneath my bare feet and I spun a slow circle. I was up on a high hill and through the trees and the palm trees I could see and hear the ocean to the east and the north. I could also see the beach to the east.

I lived in Ohio, nowhere near any ocean at all and I wondered about the dream. I hated the beach, hated the ocean, the outdoors. I detested the sun with a passion and it hated my fair skin.

So why dream about a lush paradise beach?

"Wake up," I demanded of myself, looking around again. I tried to remember how I might have gotten here and I couldn't remember anything. That also told me it was a dream. "Wake up!" I told myself again.

I walked into the trees to the west, moving out of the direct sunlight. My skin was already turning pink. Did you get sunburns in dreams?

"Hello?!?"

The yell was distant, far to the south and I froze. I didn't really feel like I was dreaming... I was too focused. It was all too real.

I started carefully making my way to the south with my bare feet, searching out the voice.

"HELLO?"

It was closer now, and feminine now that I could hear it better. Should I yell back? What if it wasn't a nice person? Where the hell was I and how the hell did I get here?!?

I tried to remember anything, but all I could really remember was leaving class and walking out of the lecture hall with one of the international students, talking to him about the Halloween traditions in the US and why everyone was going to be dressing up for all the parties. Nothing at all after that. I couldn't even remember leaving campus or making it to my car.

"Hey!" a male voice yelled from off to my left.

"Hello?!? Who is there?" the female voice in front of me yelled, still a ways away.

"Walk towards my voice!" the male voice called.

I hurried towards both of their voices, trying to be silent as I stepped through the grass.

"Where are you?" she called.

"Keep coming! I am coming to you too! Keep talking!" he yelled.

I paused and hung back, feeling like I was about halfway between them now. They would converge on me. I hid back behind a tree and the bush at it's base.

Less than a minute later, a man came through a few yards in front of me, dressed in black shorts and a black t-shirt. He was average height, slender but athletic looking with a dark tan, black hair and dark eyes. He kept going and I followed behind at a distance for about twenty seconds when the girl came into view. They stopped, both of them panting and staring at each other from a distance.

"Who are you?" he demanded of the girl who was in a white dress just like mine.

"Nicolette, who are you? Do you know how you got here? I can't remember shit!"

"David, I can't remember either. I was on my way home from work. I think I heard someone else yelling down the beach, but you were closer."

"What's going on?" she asked fearfully.

"I don't know, but if there are more of us, we should probably try and find everyone, right?"

"Are you sure? What if this is like some reality show, or one of those messed up places where hunters hunt humans?"

"If it is, then we will have strength in numbers. Come on, let's go to the beach and walk it until we find who else was yelling. Ok?"

Crashing noises through the undergrowth made both of them and me as well look back to the north. A man came pushing through the bushes, panting and sweating. He was also in a black t-shirt and black shorts, just like the other young man.

"What the hell is this?" he demanded of the two of them. "I heard you yellin'! Where am I?"

"We don't know. I woke up here, I think she did too. We can't remember how we got here."

"Me either! What the fuck man? What the fuck???"

"Were you yelling up the beach?"

"Naw, I just heard y'all yellin and talkin'."

"I think there are more people here," David said, looking back at Nicolette. "My name is David, this is Nicolette."

"Nicki," the girl said quickly to the taller man.

"Javon."

I stood up and stepped out and they all turned to me, gaping. "Kai," I said softly.

"Where did you come from?" David asked, stepping closer to me and looking over my head behind me.

"I heard you all yelling... I was too afraid to answer, but I came to see."

"Shit!" Javon said breathlessly, looking around. "HELLO! ANYONE HEAR ME???"

I hunched down, covering my ears as Javon yelled. He was loud!

"Are you ok?" David asked me, moving closer again.

I stepped back, circling wide of him and the others. "Fine. Just... stay over there."

"I'm not going to hurt you," David said calmingly, sidestepping closer with his hands up.

"There is no reason for you to get any closer!" I said anxiously, backing up further.

He stopped, putting his hands up. "You're right. You are absolutely right," he said, backing away. "I am an orderly at a mental hospital, it's sort of habit. What do you do, Kai?"

"Student."

"Where from?" he asked, like he was afraid I was about to bolt.

"OSU. Ohio."

"I'm from Florida, what about you, Nicki?" he asked the other girl.

"Nevada."

"Pennsylvania," Javon volunteered.

"Hello?" a male voice called distantly.

"HERE!" Javon yelled. "Come on, that's towards the beach," he said, then started that way.

I had to move quickly to get out of the way since that put David and Nicki coming straight at me to follow Javon. I stayed well back, following at a distance. Javon kept yelling as he jogged towards the voice.

When he broke out of the trees onto the beach, David and Nicki right behind him, I stayed back in the shade and watched.

There were two men in a black t-shirt and shorts and two girls in white dresses and everyone started talking all at once. I listened a moment, then finally stepped out enough that they could all see me. "Everyone! Quiet a moment!" I yelled and they all looked at me.

"Which way did you come from?" I asked one of the new men.

"That way," he said, pointing north.

"Then we need to follow the beach this way to look for more people. How far that way?"

"A ways. I found Heidi, Braydon and June all on the way."

"We need to walk the beach to the south and around where it turns to the west. Did you wake up on the beach? All of you?" I asked all of them.

"I did."

"Me too."

"Yeah."

I nodded as they all agreed. "I woke up up there," I said, pointing up to the high hill that I could see from the beach. "I think this is an island. We need to circle the island, comb the beach, yell as we go and see if there is anyone else. We need to look for fresh water and food too, and a good place to make shelter."

"We aren't staying here!" one of the new girls said desperately.

"I have no intention of staying," I said, stepping out of the direct sunlight. "But if I don't have the choice, I would rather be prepared and not die because I just shut down in denial. Javon, see that deadwood there? Pull it out and lay it across to point at the beach so that we know when we come back to this spot if it is an island."

"Won't we see our footprints?" one of the girls asked.

"I have no idea when tides come in or how far," I answered. "Let's start walking."

I yanked three large leaves off of a bush and splayed them out, then held them like an umbrella over my head as we started walking.

"What the hell are you doing?" Nicki asked.

"I burn easy."

"So your hair is real?" another girl asked.

"My name is John," one of the other boys said to me, moving closer. "Haven't we met?"

"I don't think so," I answered, half rolling my eyes. Was this guy really trying to flirt?!?

"No, I swear we have. Where are you from?"

"Where are you from?"

"Ohio."

I looked at him then, looking him over. He didn't look familiar to me at all.

"OSU?" he asked. "You come into the campus coffee shop where I work, right?"

I looked at him again, but still didn't recognize him. "I go to the Electric Bean, but Ellen always takes my order."

"Yeah, I work in the back usually, I bake and work in the office," he said, blushing.

Right. His way of saying he was sort of a creeper who watched people from the back. I glanced at him again and the way he was looking at me sent all kinds of alarm bells off in my head.

I dropped back to walk next to David who was taking up the rear. Javon was in the lead, Nicki staying close to him. I slowed down and David took the hint and slowed down with me. He glanced at me several times as I scanned the treeline. I finally spoke. "You really work with the mentally ill?" I asked softly.

"Yeah? I mean, I wasn't a doctor or anything, just an orderly, but yeah."

"The tall new dude, how do you feel about him?"

"I mean, he seems stressed, but we all are?"

"Everyone is from somewhere else, no one from the same place so far. Except him. He's from the same place as me and he knows me. Knows who I am and where I went to school and where I went to get my coffee. I have never seen him before. He says he worked there, but I went there every day for my coffee. I knew the people there by name."

"So what are you thinking? He has something to do with this?"

"I don't know. I only know he gives me the creeps and I have learned to trust my gut. I have no idea what is happening here, but I know that he isn't like the rest of us."

"Duly noted. So you are in college?"

"Yeah, I'm 20. Just short," I said in exasperation.

"Oh, I mean, I didn't think you were young. Those dresses, they don't leave a whole lot to the imagination. Sorry. I was just going to ask what you were majoring in. See if there was something that tied everyone together."

"Oh," I said blushing and looking down at the dress. It didn't leave much to the imagination with small strips that covered my nipples and some of my pussy. I realized as I looked down that I saw no hair between my legs.

I froze. What the fuck?!?

I spun away from him and yanked my dress up, looking down at my bald pussy. No hair at all...

I went to my knees.

"Kai? You ok?" David asked.

"Get the other girls!" I whispered desperately. "Hurry!"

He yelled at the other girls and they came running back to me to see what was wrong.

I turned and looked at them, in too much shock to be shy or circumspect about what I said. "My pubic hair is gone!"

One of the girls giggled in confusion, but Nicki bent slightly and moved her dress so she could see, then yanked her dress up. The other girl turned and did the same.

"What the heck?" the other girl screeched.

I looked at the girl who had giggled and she shrugged. "I wax? I don't have any hair there anyway?"

I turned and David was turned away, looking in his shorts as the other men were walking back to us curiously. David turned back to me and shook his head. "Nothing different."

I was on the verge of panicking. Someone had removed our pubic hair? Not shaved it, it was gone! I let out a scream of despair at the thought of someone having done that.

"Hey! Easy," David said gently, taking a knee next to me.

"What's up?" John asked, also taking a knee next to me.

I jerked away from his reaching hand and stood up, staggering back. "Nothing! Nothing. Let's keep walking," I said wiping my face. "It doesn't matter. It doesn't change what we have to do."

"You sure?" John asked, stepping close again.

I backed up quickly, staying out of his reach. "Just go on ahead. I was walking back here on purpose, to keep an eye on the trees and look for things without distraction. Go on ahead."

There was hesitation, but everyone started moving again. The other girl who had freaked out hovered back with me looking as spooked as I felt. Nicki caught up with Javon and the waxed girl walked with John and Braydon.

"I'm Heidi," she finally said, looking at me with huge eyes.

"Kai. Keyser, but everyone calls me Kai."

"Keyser?" David asked with a slight smile. "Like Keyser Soze?"

"Exactly like that," I answered, watching the treeline again. "Tell Javon to keep yelling for people."

He yelled up to Javon and Javon started yelling again.

"So, what is it you are majoring in?" he asked quietly.

"Socioeconomics."

"Oh... what is that exactly?"

I smiled sadly. "It's complicated. I am minoring in Medicinal Plant Chemistry."

"Like... pot? That's a thing?"

"That's a huge thing right now."

"I mean I know it's a huge thing, but there is a college course for it? And you can get a degree in it?"

"Yeah. Times are changing."

"Holy shit! Wow. What about you Heidi?" he asked the still shellshocked girl.

"I smoked weed once," she said softly. "I didn't like it."

"I meant what do you do? You go to school?"

"No. I took a semester of college but I sort of hated it. I dropped out and started working at my Aunts online store. Taking orders, answering emails, shipping stuff. Boring shit but she pays well and my hours are whatever I want them to be. How do you think we got here?"

"Dunno, trying to find a common denominator," David said softly. "I work as an orderly at a mental hospital. Nothing huge or major, mostly heavily sedated or quiet patients. I'm not one of the big guys they use on the second or third floors, obviously," he said with a self deprecating smile. "Just the calmer, older patients on the first floor."

"Wait!" I interrupted, cutting off and going to the forest's edge, catching a glimpse of something.

They all followed me, some of them coming back to go in where I had. I hurried through the woods to try and find what I had seen peeking through the treetops. I stopped when I found it, looking up.

"What is that?" Heidi asked.

"It's a tower of some sort," John said, looking up.

"Platform," I corrected. I went to the ladder on the side of one of the tall legs and shook it. The structure seemed very sturdy. "Any of you guys want to go up?" I asked. "I am not keen on flashing any of you more than I already have to."

"I will go," Javon said, coming around and climbing up the ladder quickly. He disappeared up top. "HELLO!" he yelled.

"Hello?" came a distant response from in the trees.

"Follow my voice! Come to me!"

"Hello?" came another voice from up the beach.

"Come towards us!" Javon yelled.

"We can camp up there!" the waxed girl said excitedly.

"No," I said quickly. "It's too high, if there was a storm we'd get fried by lightning. Maybe under it if we can make some walls. If we don't find a better place. I wonder what this is used for? Who put it here and why?"

Javon kept yelling, kept leading the other voices to us.

I looked up and around. "David, it's about 3 in the afternoon. We have about 4 hours of light left I think, unless we are much further south than I think we are. Maybe you could take John and try going around the beach and circling back here."

"Yeah, that's a good idea, but let's wait till the other people get here and maybe Javon and Braydon can go too?"

"Ok, one of you keep an eye on the woods as you go, watch for more structures."

"You can come too," John said quickly, moving closer to me.

I danced back quickly, circling around to put David between us. "I am going to stay here and forage for some food and look for a fresh water source."

"You probably shouldn't go alone," John said, easing closer to me, watching me with bright eyes. Like he really wanted to get me alone.

I swallowed hard and moved closer to David, hiding behind him for protection. "John?" David snapped irritably. "Why don't you and Braydon walk up the beach a little ways and take a look. Not too far, just keep an eye out. If there is this here, there might be something else nearby."

John looked down at David with a scowl. "I don't want to take Braydon," he said acidly.

I was getting seriously creeped out.

"John, go take a walk up the beach," David hissed, stepping up to John.

Just then, two men stepped into view of the platform, shading their eyes and looking up. "Holy shit, what is that?" the taller one with the shoulder length hair said. "Where are we?"

Javon kept yelling for the other person that was coming.

I stayed close to David, keeping him between John and I as John followed me, scowling down at me.

"Hi, I'm Dave, this is Kai, that's John, Heidi, June, Braydon and up there is Javon," David said soothingly to the two men in black t-shirts and shorts.

"Brody," the tall one said. "This is Simon," he offered, gesturing to the boy who was smaller than David with bright blue eyes and white blonde hair. Brody looked like a Brody with his tan beach body and surfer style hair. Simon looked like he was younger than he probably was and was into social media.

A hand touched my hair, sliding a curl behind my ear and I let out an embarrassing yip as I ducked away from John. "Dude, what is your issue?!?" I demanded angrily. "Don't ever touch me again!"

"John! What the fuck man? Not fucking cool!" David yelled angrily.

John moved so he could look at me, staring down at me with another scowl.

"Uhh, everything cool?" Brody asked.

"No!" I answered angrily. "That creeper won't leave me alone and he just freaking touched me like a weirdo!"

"Uhhh... dude, you should probably lay off?" Brody said, his eyebrows high.

"Go walk the beach!" David demanded.

John turned and left with a huff and David turned and shared a look with Brody. Brody looked stunned.

Another man and two girls came through the trees, looking around in spooked shock. He was medium height with long black hair that was gathered at the sides and tied back. He looked maybe hispanic and had a darker complexion than David did. The girls were both clinging to him. One girl was taller than him and the white of her dress popped against her dark skin. She had very short hair, the opposite of the other girl who had tightly curled hair down her back. She also looked hispanic and the white looked good against her darkly tanned skin.

"Hi," David said, stepping closer to them. He introduced all of us again as the newcomers looked around, obviously stressed.

"I'm Tamika," the tall girl said, trying to sound confident.

"Marco," the boy said. "And this is Salome," he offered, gesturing to the girl clinging to his arm. "Does anyone know what is going on?" he asked as Javon climbed down to join us.

"No. I wonder if this is all of us?"

I looked around. "I don't think so. Seven guys and six girls? There's at least one more girl, maybe more people."

"You think there's an even number of us?" David asked curiously.

"Whoever put us here, whatever reason we are here, it seems very deliberate that there are males and females our age and a somewhat even number of us. I think there is at least one more girl somewhere."

"I mean, it makes sense in a way, but we can't bank on it being the only answer," David said judiciously. "We can go out in teams of two to look for more people. Kai, you said you wanted to stay here and forage, you girls can stay here with her. Javon, catch up with John, he went up the beach. Brody, you and Simon go back down the beach and around. Marco, Braydon and I will cut straight through the trees and if this is an island we should all meet in about the same place. Keep yelling, but not constant. Yell and wait for an answer. Ok? Kai you got the girls?"

"Yeah," I answered, nodding.

They took off and I turned to the girls. It felt odd, all of them looking down at me. "Do any of you know anything about plants that are safe to eat?" I asked.

They looked at each other and shook their heads.

I nodded, assuming none of them would have. "Tamika, Salome, you both look in shape, athletic. Do you think you could try and get some coconuts from those trees? Look on the ground, some may have fallen. I will keep an eye out for other fruit trees. Heidi, June, see these leaves? Try and gather some to lay down on the ground under the platform for us to lay on. If we don't find a better place to make camp than here, we can worry about building walls and a higher floor off the ground later. I am going to go look for fresh water and more food sources, as well as some clue as to why we are here. If there is a structure like this here, there might be more hidden on the island somewhere."