Clint is travelling on a small Cessna Citation over the Pacific. When the plane hits a pocket of turbulence, he is wrenched from his nap and plunged into a nightmare. The plane plummets into the ocean. Clint and one other passenger, a man named Carlos, survive. The hulk of the plane sinks, leaving them adrift with no land in sight. They fight to stay alive, but thirst and exhaustion overtake them. Purely by luck Clint finds himself washed ashore on a mysterious island. But where is Carlos? Did sharks get him? Did he drown? With survival foremost in his mind Clint finds clean water and fruit and a safe place to rest. Then Clint discovers the island is inhabited by other castaways, men who have been washed ashore on this unknown island over the years. One of the men is Andy, with whom Clint falls in love. Only much later does he discover Carlos’s fate, along with the fact that the island has more secrets to reveal. One that could cost him his life.

An Island, Lost

We held each other without speaking. A sense of calm descended upon me and I felt every muscle in my body relax. I could have stayed with him like that for eternity, yet too soon he spoke and broke the spell.


“We should be going,” he said. “If there’s any chance of you talking Miranda out of what she intends then we shouldn’t anger her by being late.”


We hadn’t gone far when our nostrils were assaulted by something infinitely more repulsive than what I had regurgitated a few metres back.


“What is that?” I asked as I screwed my nose up.


“You didn’t vomit again, did you?”


Andy’s light-hearted comment fell flat.


“But you’re right,” he said. “That stinks! Something must have died.”


We pinched our noses and had a poke about in the grass with sticks we found lying in the grass. It was difficult to see by the light of a full moon, but not impossible.


Chapter 15