Castoff - An Enclosed Beach

An overcast sky lay above him. He had just opened his eyes moments earlier, noting a certain silence that rung in his ears like countless bells clanging together; an almost overwhelming sense of quiet and nosielessness; then they adjusted to his surroundings. He could hear water lapping, but that was it. At the same time he moved and felt his fingers dig in to what felt like sand. 



"I'm on a beach." he thought to himself. "How did I get here?" He tried to remember, his memories like stills, flashing through his mind, but he could find nothing to indicate how he had gotten here. In fact, his last set of memories were of getting sick and feeling terrible for the last couple of days. His confusion grew. "Why do I feel better all of a sudden?"



He decided to get up and try to shake off the confusion and saw that he was indeed on a beach. He sunk slightly into the white sand standing up and saw nothing but ocean before him... and a rowboat on the waterline. His confusion only grew as he tried to figure out if it was for him or not. He turned around only to face a sheer cliff face about 20 feet in front of him. Looking to either side, he realized he was on an enclosed beach, with cliffs on 3 sides of him and water on the other. "I guess this boat is for me." He thought, relieved by his certainty.



"How did I get here?" he thought again when he investigated the beach and found no feasibly safe way to reach the beach he was on. Furthermore, he found that the current pushed him back towards the beach... something clicked. If the current directed him to the beach, does that mean he came here by this boat and dragged him here by the current?



He took a look into the boat and a look of concern etched its way into his face as he found that there was no food and no drinkable water, only the oars and a compass were there. He was certain he had gotten here by boat. 



"What happened to me? One minute I'm on vacation in the Bahamas, next thing I know I wake up here. Since I went without food or water for some reason, my hotel shouldn't be very far. I hope they're searching for me." As these thoughts went through his head, another set came up with a variety of scenarios which could've landed him in the situation he was in involving drugs, drug dealing, delirium and other such stressful thoughts, but that was then, and this was now. Right now, he had to get off this beach as there was nothing here, and get back to civilization.



He pushed the boat into the surf, jumped in, and started rowing like a madman, fighting the current, fighting the waves, fighting to get away from the only visible piece of land around. Remembering that the Bahamas were relatively close to Florida, all he had to do was go north. He followed the needle in the compass and rowed his way across the sea.