#006 | Paradise Lost
Waves lapped against the shore and the sun beat down on a white sand beach. Jacob and Alexandra Howard were on the final day of their honeymoon in Tahiti. The weather had been perfect all week long, and neither one looked forward to the journey home to LA.
A shadow cast over Jacob, who lay on his back.
“You can’t sleep all day,” Alex said.
“It’s our last day here,” Jacob said and motioned for his wife to lay down next to him.
“Which just means all the more reason to go adventure,” she said and raced off into the water.
Jacob let out a fake groan and joined Alex in the crystal clear water.
While their experience had been perfect thus far, there had been reports of pirates terrorizing locals on nearby islands.
As the newlyweds walked amongst the shallows, they planned their remaining time on the island.
“Akamu will be here to pick us up in an hour and take us to the airport,” Alex said. “We should head back and pack our stuff so we don’t keep him waiting.”
Akamu was a local who taxied tourists around the island, and was someone Alex and Jacob had befriended in their time on Tahiti.
They gathered their things and began to walk along the beach back to their bungalow.
“What’s that?” Alex shielded her eyes from the sun and pointed off in the distance at a plume of black smoke. The row of bungalows they had been staying at were on fire.
“Oh my god,” Jacob let out. A boat tore around the corner from their bungalow with three men aboard.
“Those are the pirates we’ve been hearing about,” Jacob stammered.
“We need to-“ but he was interrupted as bullets whizzed by his head and kicked up sand on the beach behind him.
“MOVE!” Jacob screamed.
They ran out of the water and took off sprinting down the beach. They could see the main building of the resort a quarter mile away.
They approached the entrance and noticed there was no one outside.
As they rounded a corner, Jacob nearly collided with a man, and he turned, fists balled and ready to fight.
“Wait, wait!” It was Akamu.
“Akamu! What’s happening?!” Alex said. “There are armed men headed this way.”
“I know. The hotel staff is holed up in the basement, they’ll be safe for awhile and we’ve put out a call to local police, but they are nowhere near us. It could be a few hours.”
“What are we supposed to do?” Jacob asked, his voice understandably sounded desperate.
“My truck is out back. If we can get to my house, I have weapons there that we can use until help arrives,” Akamu said.
The trio crouched low and headed for the back of the hotel to Akamu’s truck. They climbed in and Akamu floored it onto the main road.
They had been on the road less than 10 seconds when the back left tire blew out.
“You got to be kidding me!” Akamu yelled. They looked to the left and saw a boat speed. The man in the front of the boat peppered the truck with gunfire from his AK-47.
The trio jumped out of the truck and hid behind it.
“Great, now what?” Jacob said.
“We’ll never make it to my house if we try and make a run for it.” Akamu stopped and looked at the newlyweds crouched next to him. “But you two might.”
“What do you mean?” Alex stammered.
“I’m only going to slow you down if I go with you. You two can make it to my house. It’s less than half a mile away,” Akamu said.
Alexandra sputtered, “That’s crazy! What are you going to do?”
“You two follow the road a half mile and my house is on the right, you can’t miss it. I can draw them into the woods and take the long way. No one knows this jungle like I do. If I’m not there in ten minutes, head towards Landshark Beach on the north side of the island, that’s where the police will likely land,” Akamu said.
The Howards looked at him in disbelief.
“Go to my back shed, there are guns there. Go now, go!” He said as he pushed Jacob and Alex down the road.
They took off down the road and turned to see the pirates jump off the boat and follow Akamu into the woods. They continued down the road and arrived at his house in a matter of minutes.
Just like Akamu said, in the back shed they found a shotgun, a bolt-action rifle, and two pistols.
“We went shooting for Ryan’s bachelor party last month,” Jacob said as he began to load the shotgun. He turned to show Alex how to load the pistols, but she had already loaded two full magazines into the guns and racked the slides. She grabbed the bolt-action and threw it over her shoulder.
“You know I grew up in rural Montana, I know how to handle a gun,” she said as she threw her stunned husband a wink.
Precisely ten minutes after they left their friend, and with him nowhere in sight, the Howards took off for Landshark Beach.
They ran out the front door and stopped suddenly. Parked in the driveway were two ATVs, with keys in the ignition. With this sudden stroke of good luck, they hopped on and gunned it out of the driveway.
They whipped along the road, and on any other day, it would’ve been a thrilling adventure. On this day, they rode for their lives.
They came upon a bend in the road and saw a boat rental shop up ahead. Surely someone in there could help, they thought.
They abandoned the ATVs and ran onto the beach, the rental shop a short ways away.
They banged on the locked door, but to no avail.
Suddenly, they heard a truck approaching from the direction they had rode in; it was Akamu’s truck. Akamu was driving, but this time he had three new passengers and they did not look friendly.
Jacob and Alex split up; she hid under an overturned boat and he ran behind the rental shop.
The truck shut off and Akamu was pushed to the end of the dock and forced onto his knees.
Unbeknownst to them, they were in the sights of Alex’s bolt-action rifle. She took a deep breath in and exhaled slowly. Right when she brought her finger to the trigger, she was yanked out from under the boat by a pair of unseen hands. Alex clawed for the rifle but it escaped her grasp.
“Move and you die,” she heard. It was accompanied by the feeling of a pistol barrel against the back of her head. She froze.
The pirate ripped Alex to her feet and pushed her towards the dock. Just like that, there were two hostages.
The pirate who had grabbed Alex yelled, “I know there is one more of you here! You have until the count of three, or they both die,” he said as two pirates pointed their guns at Alex and Akamu.
“One…” But he wouldn’t get to two. There was a flash of silver steel through the air, and a spear stuck out of his chest. Both remaining pirates looked up to see Jacob standing there holding a spear gun.
Hit with a sudden surge of adrenaline, Alex threw her elbow back and caught her pirate captor in the groin. He doubled over in pain and as she stood up, she turned around and rammed her knee into the side of the pirate’s head, knocking him out cold.
Simultaneously, Akamu threw all his weight back and knocked his captor off the dock and into a boat that was tied up. However, the pirate had wrapped his arm tightly around Akamu’s neck, sending the big Tahitian into the boat with him. A brief scrap ensued, and the pirate had recovered his weapon.
A shot rang out, and Akamu froze. He looked up to see the pirate standing before him, a spot of red quickly growing larger on his white shirt. He slumped into the water. Akamu looked up at Alex, who held one of the pirate’s rifles.
She dropped the gun and ran towards Jacob and embraced him. Neither of them wanted to let go.
They helped Akamu out of the boat and looked up to see six police boats speed towards the beach. They landed and jumped into the surf. Like a well-practiced regiment, they fanned out in all directions to secure the area.
While it was not the ending to the honeymoon they expected, they were just happy to be alive. And they still had time to make their flight home.
