Grabbing the mesh cosmetic bag, I wondered if there might be something in it I could use to open one of the eye looking spots on the coconut. Unzipping the bag and dumping out all the different tools, I didn't understand what half of them were. I knew what the tweezers, nail clippers and nail file were, but for the rest of it, I was clueless too.
Picking through all the strange things, I found some really sharp cutters; they looked like small fancy side cutters. If anything, these were going to be the best tool for the job. I could just keep cutting away at the hard brown shell until I got a hole large enough to drain the water into the water bottle. Then I could smash the coconut with the large rock against one of the larger logs.
Picking them out of the sand, I took them with me to go get my prized coconut. I was going to get into the darn thing with these fancy cosmetic side cutters one way or another. Grasping the coconut, I took it back to my makeshift bed. Plopping down on the 'bed', I crossed my legs and got the plastic bottle ready. Clipping away at the top of the coconut, the fancy side-cutters were doing an amazing job. This shell didn't stand a chance.
The smell of coconut burst out of the shell and signalled I had punctured it, and now I just had to work to make the hole larger. I snipped around the hole, making it larger and larger. I tucked the coconut between my knees and picked up the bottle. The cap was already off and all I had to do was place the bottle over the hole and tip the coconut up so that the water came out.
The water flowed into the bottle and when it was done, there was only about a half cup of liquid that came out, but it was more than needed. If I could find a few more, then I would be set on the water for a few hours and food for a little longer than that. I had crackers and coconut now, I just had to crack into it. After closing the bottle of coconut water, I stood up and took the coconut with me. I had a date with a rock to smash this thing wide open and eat the flesh inside.
I needed to find a good log for support that I could place my coconut on and smash it. That meant going and looking for a log. Remembering the body on the other side of the beach, I would walk in the direction to have a look. I didn't want to have to look at it for a second time. Digging through all the stuff again to find the flip-flops and try them on. I had high hopes for them. I wanted them to fit.
Pulling off the socks, I slipped my foot into the first one and, well; it was a tight fit. I got my whole foot on the foam piece. That was perfect. I had not even a single millimetre of space left, and I assumed the other one was going to be the exact same situation. And it was.
With both flip-flops on my feet, I felt pretty comfortable going for a stroll down the other end of the beach. I had yet to walk. I was hoping for more bags and nobodies, but I knew there was a chance. There had been many people on that plane, and so far, I had only counted one body.
Taking the empty canvas bag with me, I walked down the beach. The flip-flops really helped me, even if they weren't a perfect fit, they seemed to block enough of the warm sand from scorching my feet.
This side of the beach was a far worse scene than what I had witnessed earlier. There were multiple bodies. But these had drawn the attention of birds and other creatures that were feeding off them. I stayed a good deal back, not wanting to alert them that there was a live one only a few feet away.
Thankfully, the wind was blowing in the other direction; I was sure there was going to be a scent to those bodies. If they had been here as long as I had, then they were going to smell ripe when the wind changed directions.
I couldn't say how long I stood there and watched all kinds of life eat from the bodies, but it was a while. I knew it was gross to watch, but I couldn't stop. The way the birds were pulling and eating away at the flesh of all the bodies made me glad it wasn't me and I felt terrible about it.
Taking a few steps back, I turned around and headed back towards the other way. Perhaps heading into the jungle was going to be the game here. There shouldn't be any bodies in there, and I could look for more edible plants and maybe animals if it came down to it.
Eating small birds and even lizards was not off my menu if I was going to survive here. There were a ton of things that could be food if you cooked them. Waddling through the sand, I made it back to camp and tossed a few more logs into the fire and grabbed the fancy side cutters before heading out again. This time into the jungle.
I had a bunch of faith that there was going to be food in the jungle. There had to be. It was a jungle. Tv shows had told me there were plants, bugs, and tiny little frogs I could eat though they were probably poisonous, so that wasn't the best thing. There were coconuts. At the fire, I had one. I was praying there would be more plants and fruits that I could eat. I was also hoping that it rained again so that I could collect the water and figure out some way to store it. The two water bottles I had wouldn't do much in that way.
If I could find some way to boil the water for safety, then I would need to worry about the rainwater. I was hoping for a metal tin or cup, even a metal water bottle. The little glass cosmetics bottles would work in a pinch, but I was worried about them shattering if they got too hot.
Armed with the little cutters, I snipped leaves and bushes, stuffing the fluffy leaves in the canvas bag to use for shelter or crafting a new bed. I couldn't spend another night on the handmade nightmare I had slept in before. There were quite some large leaves that made up bushes on the ground that I cut and laid out in the sand. I would pick them up on the way back because they wouldn't fit in the bag without ruining them.
I was making a pile of all the things I might use in the camp I was making. So far, I had a log to crack my coconut on and some leaves. I picked up anything that looked useful to me and stuffed it in the bag. That meant feathers, branches, and a couple of mushrooms that I might chance if I was hungry enough. Heading even further into the jungle, I tried to keep track of the places that I went and the direction I had gone, so I didn't get lost. Hearing a crashing sound, I did the stupid thing and went in that direction.
Hearing another crash, I looked up.
A giant palm tree was above me and it had plenty of green coconuts on it. There were some around the base as well. They were both green and brown. One rolled around on the ground. This had to be the sound of the crash. Reaching out, I grabbed a few, tossing them into the bag and filling it to the max it could hold. I didn't want to rip it further.
Finding my way back, I grabbed my log first; it was way more important. When I got back out of the jungle, I set the log and bag down. Peeling the sweater off; I was overheating. I knew the temperature would drop again soon, so I kept the sweater close by. My homemade camp looked like a mess. There was stuff all around. I further made it worse when I hunted the crackers down after forgetting where I had put them.
Opening all three packs, I stuffed them down one by one, hardly chewing them. For one of the blandest crackers out there, they tasted better than I ever thought they had. It had to be because I was starving. This was the first thing I had eaten in two days.
Moving the log away from the fire, I set my prized coconut on it and grabbed the rock. I smashed the shit out of it. The coconut cracked apart, and I dropped the rock over to the side, away from my feet. I snagged all the chucks off the log and darted back to the makeshift bed to pick them apart and clean the coconut from every single piece of the shell.
The sweetness of the coconut was heaven in my mouth and I missed the taste of all the coconut treats I had before. This was a far more unique experience with coconut. I had never had to work so hard to eat fresh coconut before; I was used to just getting it from the grocery store before today.
I ground my teeth against the shell as I peeled out the flesh of the coconut. It was super crunchy and pleasant. This coconut was juicy too. It was letting off more coconut water as I chewed it. This was way better than a poisonous frog any day.