trapped on the raft i watched the men go slowly mad, the emotional stress took it's toll on everyone, but compounded with thirst and hunger the men were driven to the extremes f human behavior. being captain had it's disadvantages, despite the respect and trust i had built on the ship here on the raft at the limits of life the men were pushed far beyond normal conditions and in such circumstances often acted out of character, in fact they were all teetering on the edge of sanity, hallucinating wildly and suffering from forms of paranoia and delusion. the main concern was cannibalism which had been held at bay by my vigilance but i was getting tired and my judgement was questionable. i was now thinking there was a conspiracy by the remaining crew to eat me. my sword had kept them at bay, but i was exhausted and weak, it was only a matter of time.
we had attempted to catch a fish but the only fish in this ocean were the sharks that trailed our raft. one morning three great whites circled us for a few hours, one was the size of a small ship itself and i contemplated dark thoughts that i had to fight to suppress, anything was better than this slow death.
the sun ravaged us and our skin was blistered and raw, there was no respite from it's powerful rays, our beards had grown long our hair wild and we looked like animals and behaved less. i was laying down eyes closed waiting for a air of hands to wrap around my neck and another to hold me down, but instead each man was to exhausted to move, hunger and dehydration would get us before the sharks.
it was the cabin boy who saw it first, a shape on the horizon, a vessel. we paddled towards her yelling and waving our tattered clothes as flags, the vessel saw us and changed course. we were saved.
a Norwegian crew hauled us on board, washed us and fed us and put us to bed.
after a week at sea we were all up and about, grateful and attempting to communicate to our rescuers, who were generous to a fault.
their captain was captain urloff a serious and introverted soul, his cabin filled with books and maps, both ancient. i scanned his books, mostly esoteric, books about lost cities, sunken kingdoms and sea mysteries. i was looking at a chart on urloffs desk, it plotted a chart towards the south americas, a small string of islands of the peruvian coast. there was a small x and some numbers, coordinates indicating our destination.
urloff stood in the doorway, 'it's an island, skull island. we will be there in under a week, weather permitting.'
'what's there.'
'it's not gold captain mission, we are not treasure hunters., we believe the island is a portal, a gateway into another dimension. there are many such places on the earth, we have reason to believe this is one.' he hovered on the doorway and then plunged into the room, i moved away from his desk as he shuffled around moving bit's of papers and turning pages in his books.
'this portal on skull island is the gateway to the cosmos, we believe that it is the entrance to another world.'
i laughed, 'i have heard of such things and i do not doubt their existence, in fact i have had my own experience with these enigmas but why would your crew agree to such a venture.'
urloff smiled, 'these men are not sailors, they are physicists and philosophers, seekers of truth, our research has taken 7 years of planning and systematically checking and cross referencing, many of us have never even travelled across water. i am a seafaring man but i am a scientist as well.'
'incredible urloff.'
'forgive me mission, i must write my journal now.'
'yes of course,' i walked out, heading to the deck to get some air.

the following days were spent reading and acquainting myself with the crew, they were indeed scientists, they enjoyed sharing their hopes with my crew and their ideas were beyond anything i had ever heard. they said that space was filled with holes some of which connected up, they claimed that if you found one hole it would lead to another but that time and space can be crossed like this. they called them snake holes. i didn't doubt them but my men all looked quite bemused by the idea. they were more interested in returning to land and seeing their families again.

i was sleeping in my quarters when the bell rang, land had been sighted. i ran on the deck up to the lookout. he waved and pointed starboard, there was skull island, surrounded by fog, we could see it's jagged peaks and some treetops. uloff smiled, and passed me his binoculars, 'look captain, see how beautiful it looks.'
it was indeed beautiful and mysterious, like something from a fantasy, i looked along the coastline for any signs of life, nothing, but there was something a small trail of black smoke. something was not right though, the wind direction was east, the direction we were traveling in, but this trail of smoke was traveling into the wind, from the west.
'urloff, somethings not right, look at this smoke.'
he studied the scene for a moment.
'get the men armed, it's heading towards us.' he said quietly.
there was not much in the way of ammunition and arms, a scientific expedition, i was given a machine gun, and a couple of grenades. the men were all positioned, we waited with urloff and myself taking turns looking at the black trail heading towards us, the smoke trail seemed to break up a bit, scattering into smaller parts, and then a few minuets later i could make out they were insects, a swarm of insects, large ones, huge ones, heading towards our boat. they were man size and they did not look friendly. they were in firing range but we were reluctant to shoot until we knew what their intentions were. they hovered over us, making bussing noises and clicking to one another. the noise was loud and overwhelming. they had huge bug eyes and were quite hairy like monkeys, their silver wings were about two meters across, and they had large protrusions that i think may have been mouths. they stayed with us for about an hour and then began to return to the island. but a crew member who was manning the harpoon fired at the last remaining insect, the harpoon penetrated it's face and the bug fell to the ocean.
'what are you doing?' urloff cried.
'we need samples,' he was already towing in the bug.
'no, no,' uloff yelled.
suddenly we faced the swarm again, this time they were not as friendly.
almost in a matter of seconds they had wrecked havoc upon the men, their strange mouths emitted a high frequency noise that exploded the brain should it get to close. the deck was covered in brains, and awash with blood and twitching headless bodies. i dived below to hide, the last thing i saw was urloff running towards his quarters while a huge insect followed him. the buzzing sound drowning out the screams of men. i hid in one of the store rooms placed my hands over my ears. the boat rocked from side to side violently, for a moment the sound penetrated and my head started to pound, i prepared to die but the wave of sound passed over and soon all was still.
i pushed open the door and looked at the staircase, a body lay halfway down, at the foot lay a decapitated head and a pile of pink goop which i took to be a brain.
it had exploded from the inside. i walked carefully up the steps.
the horror that awaited i was unprepared for. bodies and brains lay over the deck, smeared in blood. there was no sign of the awful insects. the boat itself was undamaged, sonic attack.
urloff appeared from below deck, he was clutching a sword in one head, in his other was a gun. he looked dazed as he walked towards me, kicking a brain away with his boot. he walked passed me, straight to the side where he threw up overboard.
i patted him on the back, 'i'll get you some water.'
he stared at the island.

after we had thrown the bodies and their brains overboard we washed the blood of the deck and attempted to scrub the surfaces with soap but the work was hard and our hearts were not in it at all, plus the size of the vessel meant scrubbing for most of the day, eventually we settled for getting the solid mass of the ship and leaving the wood stained in blood.
urloff smoked a joint with me, he looked pensive and i knew he was contemplating the island.
'i have to go mission. i owe it to my men.'
'i understand.'
i assisted him with the rowing boat, packing it with supplies and water. i handed him my gun. 'your need is greater than mine.'
he saluted me and began rowing. i watched him land on the island through the glasses, and wave again. he walked up the yellow sand, and disappeared into the jungle.

i retired to my quarters and fell into a deep sleep. i would work out my situation after a rest. i dreampt of the jungle, strange creatures loomed out from the branches of trees, eyes staring at me, i was surrounded by invisible creatures, they made a chanting sound, whispering and the ground began to tremble, there was a vibrating sound, a buzzing. i woke with a fright. i was covered in sweat, i threw on a sarong and drank some water from the jug. it was night time, i lit a candle and sat down, i would need to consult the maps in urloffs room. making my way towards the room i became aware of the noise, a buzzing, it was softer than my dream but it was there, i could feel it more than hear it, as it send sound waves through my body. each step towards the captains quarters brought the sound nearer, there was no doubt where it came from. his door was half open, he stood there in his long trench coat, his body thin and his hands and boney fingers holding a volume flicking through it thoughtfully but his head...with it's big bug eyes.