Diary Day 6 [Draft]

We awoke to the dawn chorus yet again.
After a small breakfast and some relaxing in the sand with the sound of the waves soothing our minds, we set off on the long flight back to the other side of the island.
We knew we were on the other side of the island, because we had all flown up till we could see where we were this morning, though we didn’t know how the portal had zapped us here.
So we flew into the sky, having no idea what awaited us.
* * *
There actually wasn’t much awaiting us, just an intriguing story about a mutated talking monkey that used to be a human in the cave that the other guys found while we were away.
They told us the story of the monkey who lived in the cave. He had a time machine, and the other guys had gone into it and seen themselves going backwards for the last five days.
Then they had got really freaked out because they had kept going back, and they had ended up breaking their way out of it. Whatever happened, they didn’t want to know what they had done their life and see it backwards.
All the people who had been in the cave were cracking jokes and laughing about the monkey, but Maddy seemed upset about him, as if the idea of a human evolving backwards into a monkey and being doomed to walk this earth in the mutated derogatory body of a simian.
We went back to the waterfall for the night, as everybody liked it there, and it wasn’t haunted with bad memories like the cave and the valley.
We all slept peacefully that night, dreaming of our adventures on Matainui that were to come.

Diary Day 5 [Draft]

Today I woke a lot more peacefully.
If you can call waking to the dawn chorus of a million birds peaceful.
It seems we were all woken up by this, because when I crawled out of the tent I could see everyone else doing the same.
We had a nice breakfast consisting of leftover meat and muesli bars, and then we set off, following one of the large streams that branched off from the bottom of the waterfall. It went in the direction of the two mountains, going through a valley and veering towards the middle of the left of the two large formations.
* * *
We had been walking for almost an hour through the rough terrain when we noticed it.
The water was rising.
It had been steadily rising, and was now only a metre away, rather than the previous 5 metres. How we didn’t notice it until now, I do not know. We were now marching single file through a deep and steep ravine, with the ever-rising water growing closer. Due to the steepness of the sides, we couldn’t walk away.
In the end, me, Grayson and Leon flew everyone else up the rocky sides and set them on another path far up above. We didn’t join them. We had noticed a glowing light out in the middle of the ravine, which was now full of water, like a small lake.
The light was growing. It had started off as what had looked like a small rock, but now was a large column rising to the darkening sky up above. It was spinning slowly, and green foamy scum was forming around the bottom. It looked like it was made of shining golden particles floating around, like when dust is stirred up underneath large window or skylight, and they just swirl around in random patterns in the golden rays of sunlight.
We went up to it, and just floated around it for a bit. It was so beautiful. I could’ve stayed there and watched it forever, but I didn’t because I noticed Grayson moving out of the corner of my eye. He was approaching it, and touched it.
It was like he had been zapped with a bolt of lightning. The metal of his suit turned gold and shiny. He started shaking uncontrollably, and then he disappeared. It was like the flying pyramid all over again.
Me and Leon did the same, and I felt like I was on fire and had no control over my thrashing limbs, but of course, it was all in my head and my body remained perfectly still except for the sparks flying over and under my skin. The next second, the biggest jolt yet hit me and the air around me went black as I was flung into another dimension by the portal of light.
* * *
A sharp pain in my side woke me. I was laying awkwardly on a piece of driftwood, sand around my legs and in my hair. The feeling of the jolt was fresh in my mind and the feeling of the blackness around me engulfed my senses until I felt trapped, unable to escape from the falling, falling...
I sat upright quickly, too quickly, and got head-rush from the sudden trip back to reality.
I was sitting on a beach, with Grayson and Leon scattered around nearby in similar uncomfortable positions.
They woke not long after, and we set up our tents for a long, sleepless night.

Diary Day 4 [Draft]

A throbbing ache in my head woke me up.
What had happened?
The memories came back as a fresh wave of pain hit me from the side and knocked me off my elbows and onto my back again. I put my hand behind my head for support and to check out the lump that was forming. I was rather surprised when I felt hair, not hard metal. I must have hit the watch and caused it to turn me human on the way down, because the bruise on my side from hitting a chunk of stone on the way down was definitely flesh, not metal. I push the button on my watch to turn invincible again, and jump up. The other boys are lying around me, but the girls are nowhere to be seen. If they had already got up and not woken us, it would’ve been most rude!
From the look of the daylight filtering through from above, it is mid-morning.
Josiah woke to me shaking him, and (yet again) swung his hammer at me. This time I was prepared though, so I grabbed it, and ducked. He still managed to jar my arm though, and the metal made a soft plinking noise as he hit it.
Together we woke everyone else, and went looking for the girls. They were lying in an adjacent building, under some ferns when we found them. Well, we didn’t exactly find them. Under the ferns were two goddess-like people, with wings, and a white Pegasus. They stirred and woke. The all jumped at the sight of each other and themselves, but then they realised that they had been turned into magnificent beings, and left the weird building with us. We saw a huge swamp monster climbing over the crater, carrying something, and one of the goddesses behind us screamed.
A voice came floating over to us from the other side of the crater.
“Don’t worry, it’s just me,” said the creature in a rather familiar British accent.
“James!” we all exclaimed, and ran over to meet him.
He was carrying Emma, who was badly hurt. We used the combined powers of Sam’s skull and Mac’s one (which he found on the spaceship) to heal her. She was still a little hurt and sleepy, so we muscle men took turns carrying her as we went down the mountain.
But before we descended, we climbed up to the top of one of the temples, the biggest one, and we could see the whole island. We could see the whole island! It was incredible. We could see caves, valleys, hills, rocks, forests, trees. The whole island was spread out before us.
We could see a water fall down below, crashing into the pool with a thunderous roar. That was where we were headed.
We finally got to the bottom and found the waterfall. We drank from it, and we instantly felt refreshed and better. We gave some to Emma, and she fully recovered in a matter of seconds.
Even though it was only mid-afternoon, we all agreed to set up camp and take the day off. Some of us went off hunting, and others went out foraging. But I was tired, so I set up my tent, crawled inside, and went to sleep.
* * *
It was dark when I woke up. I crawled back out of my tent, and slowly walked towards the mesmerizing light and heat of a fire that someone had set up. Most of the others were around, but some, I presumed, were still sleeping or had gone into their tents. I noticed that Morgan, Leah, and Maddi were human again. What a relief!
Mac and Malik had done a great job of hunting, so we all had a bit of roasted meat that they had caught before we retired for the night.

Diary Day 3 [Draft]

I awoke on silky smooth bed sheets, and wondered how I had come to be in such a paradise. Then I remembered.
The memory of reaching out to the spaceship and the never-ending void of the blackness hit me like a bullet train.
I. Was. In. A. Spaceship!
I leapt up to survey my surroundings. Luckily enough I was in some sort of cell, and Leon, Grayson, Malik, and Mac were lying around on other beds.
I looked at myself. I was still silver, and eager to get out. I figured that between me, Leon and Grayson we could carry Malik and Mac.
Before the others woke up, I began pushing some of the other buttons. I knew that the first one activated/deactivated the silver surfer-ness, and the second one enabled me to fly (I had figured that out on the way to the spaceship after pushing it and falling). But there were still the other seven to experiment with.
I pushed the third button and I couldn’t find any difference. “Oh, well I’ll try that one again later,” I told myself. It actually enabled me to walk through walls, but I didn’t know that then.
After pushing the fourth button a few times, it also wielded few results. It turned alien force-fields on and off (little did I know that then), but I hope I caused some disruption.
I decided to skip the fifth for now and push the sixth. I couldn’t feel any difference in me after pushing it, so I looked around me. I then looked down and saw, well, didn’t see anything. I was invisible! This was so cool!
I pushed the seventh, and nothing happened, so I looked to the one I had skipped. I didn’t know then, but it would help later on when
The fifth, as soon as I pushed it, the air around me turned red and everything within 2 metres of me was incinerated. I was now glad that I had gone down the other end of the cell so I wouldn’t be disruptive to the others. I soon pushed it again and turned the heat thing off. I stopped experimenting after that, so I just sat and waited for the others to awake.
After the others were awake, I proposed my plan to escape. Malik and Mac told us that there were girls from their group in another cell, but I tried to smash a hole in the wall anyway, and ended up hurting my knuckles. Even though I was invincible, it seemed that I couldn’t break through this wall.
We soon gave up and sat around, wondering what we were in for. Some of us caught up with our friends, and all the latest happenings on the island, and some others started thinking about our current predicament and how to escape from it.
After a while we were escorted to a small chamber. There was so much hustle-bustle that I didn’t even get to see the escort very well, but I think they looked rather other-worldish and alien-like. The girls were also being herded into the room from the opposite side.
After a quick reunion, we were seated in front of a great computer. On its display a movie had started rolling, so we sat quietly and watched.
“IN THE BEGINNING,” It boomed. “THERE WAS EARTH. EARTH WAS A SIMPLE PLACE, INHABITED BY CREATURES LIVING IN HARMONY, UNTIL ALONG CAME THE HUMAN RACE.
“THE HUMAN RACE DESTROYED MOST OF WHAT WAS GOOD AND BUILT HULKING GREAT STRUCTURES, DESTROYED THE ECO SYSTEMS, AND FOUGHT THE NATURAL BALANCE OF THE PLANET.
“IT WAS THE BEGINNING OF SOMETHING TERRIBLE. PRETTY SOON THE PLANET WAS DYING, MUCH BEFORE ITS TIME.
“AS THE HUMAN RACE EVOLVED, SO DID ITS GREED AND WAYS OF DESTROYING THE PLANET. BUT THERE WERE ALSO SOME GOOD HUMANS. THEY SET UP ECO-HAVENS, WILDLIFE SANCTUARIES FOR MOTHER NATURE’S CHILDREN.
“ONE OF THESE WAS SET UP BY A GROUP OF EXPLORERS FROM HAMILTON, NEW ZEALAND ON THIS ISLAND HERE, MATAINUI. AS THE POLLUTION GOT WORSE, THE HUMAN RACE GRADUALLY DIED OUT, AND NOW, IN THE YEAR 3059, THE SPECIES ARE ALL BUT EXTINCT. WE ARE FRIENDS TO THE GALAXY, AND COULD NOT SIMPLY SIT BY AND WATCH THE PLANET DIE. SO WE INTERVENED, AND SET UP PROTECTIVE SHIELDS AROUND THE MOST SUSTAINABLE HAVENS ON EARTH. MATAINUI WAS ONE OF THESE”
It finished talking, and a bunch of symbols flashed up, and I interpreted them as being some sort of end credits. Another feature soon started rolling, narrated by the same booming voice as the last.
“A BRIEF HISTORY OF MATAINUI,” it boomed at us.
“EVEN BEFORE MATAINUI WAS DISCOVERED BY MAN, THEIR POLLUTION REACHED IT BY WAY OF SEA, KILLING OFF NATIVE BIRD, ANIMAL AND SEA LIFE. WHEN A GROUP OF EXPLORERS FROM FAIRFIELD INTERMEDIATE, HAMILTON DISCOVERED IT IN 2009,” (everyone gasped at that) “IT WAS NOT LONG BEFORE THEY HAD EXPLORED THE WHOLE ISLAND AND DECIDED TO SET UP A SUSTAINABLE COLONY.
“THE ‘TRIBES’ WERE SET UP IN DIFFERENT AREAS. SOME LIVED IN THE TUNNELS AND CAVES THAT DOTTED THE ISLAND. SOME LIVED ON THE BEACHES AND OTHERS IN THE TREES. ONE VILLAGE SPECIALISED IN FARMING AROUND THE LAND, AND CARING FOR THE ENVIRONMENT, WHILE OTHERS SPECIALISED IN RESTORING NATURAL HABITATS. SOME EVEN ADVENTURED INTO THE SCIENCE OF CLONING EXTINCT ANIMALS.” Another gasp at that. “THEY BROUGHT BACK TO LIFE WHAT OTHERS HAD DESTROYED.
“THEY MADE INTERNATIONAL NEWS HEADLINES ALL OVER THE WORLD. OTHERS MIGRATED FROM COUNTRIES TO FOLLOW THEIR EXAMPLE, BUT MANY WERE TURNED AWAY AS THEY COULD NOT RISK BRINGING UNSUSTAINABILTY AND BAD LIVING HABITS INTO THE GREAT COMMUNITY THAT WAS MATAINUI.
“AFTER A WHILE, IN THE AGE OF THEIR DESCENDANTS, AS ALL GOOD THINGS DO, SOMETHING WENT WRONG. THE FIRST SIGNS OF UNSUSTAINABILTY APPEARED. THE OTHER TRIBES DISCOVERED THAT ONE OF THE TRIBES HAD BEEN DUMPING RUBBISH IN HIDDEN PITS, AND IMPORTING STUFF FROM THE MAINLAND. THE OTHER TRIBES WERE SO USED TO BEING ECO FRIENDLY THAT THE IDEA OF DUMPING RUBBISH IN A NATURAL CREVASSE AND IMPORTING COMMERCIALLY MADE PRODUCTS WAS ABHORRENT TO THEM, AND THEY ALL DECIDED THAT NO PUNISHMENT WAS EXTREME ENOUGH TO BRING JUSTICE TO THE LAND, SO IN THE NIGHT THEY CREPT INTO THE VILLAGE AND KILLED ALL ITS MEMBERS. THAT WAS ONLY THE FIRST OF THE DARK SPLODGES ON MATAINUI’S RECORD.
“A LOT LATER ON, POLLUTION GREW SO GREAT ON EARTH THAT THE INHABITANTS OF MATAINUI WERE UNDER GREAT STRESS TO PROTECT THEIR BELOVED OWN. THE HUMAN RACE, AND INADVERTEDLY, ALL THE OTHER SPECIES ON EARTH WERE DYING. THE POLLUTION WAS POISONING EVERY LIVING THING IN ONE WAY OR ANOTHER.
“WE GREATER BEINGS WERE WATCHING FROM OUTER SPACE, SPYING ON THE UNAWARE HUMAN BEINGS. AT THE POINT THAT RICH HUMANS EVACUATED THE PLANET IN FAVOUR OF ANOTHER ONE, AND SOME OTHERS MOVED UNDERGROUND TO ‘SAFE’ HAVENS KITTED OUT WITH HYDRO POWER FROM THE POLLUTED STREAMS UNDER THERE AND SUPPLIES TO LAST A NUMBER OF YEARS.
“WE SET UP PROTECTIVE SPHERES AROUND SOME HABITATS THAT WERE NOT BEYOND REPAIR AND DESERVED TO SURVIVE. MATAINUI WAS ONE. OTHERS INCLUDED SOME SECLUDED SPOTS OF THE NORTH AND SOUTH POLE, AND CERTAIN UNINHABITED POINTS IN THE DESERTS OF NORTH AFRICA AND THE PLAINS OF NORTHERN ASIA. THERE ARE SOME OTHERS, REMOTE PLACES UNTOUCHED BY MAN THAT WE ALSO SET UP SPHERES AROUND.
“THE SPHERES ARE THE REASON WHY YOU CANNOT SEE THE STARS AT NIGHT, AND THE DARK ROLLING CLOUDS OF POLLUTION STOP ABOUT 200 METRES OFFSHORE.”
More strange symbols rolled up, and an alien walked in as the screen went blank again. He was dark skinned, his skin looking almost hippo-like textured. He was big and had strange tentacle-like things where his seven legs and three arms would’ve been. He wore a simple garment made of white cloth; it flowed over his large body like a silk blanket over a large rock.
He spoke in a smooth, yet commanding voice that was like music to my ears. He was talking about us being released, but as I looked around, I realised that only us silver surfers could hear him and also understand. We somehow came to an agreement that we were to be released on top of the big mountain I the South-west (?) corner of the island.
* * *
As we were beamed down, we found ourselves in a Machu Picchu-like set up. It was like being sent back in time, only we were in the future. I soon remembered about Josiah and Sam, so I flew over to the little mountain as fast as I could to get him and our stuff so we could make it back to the big Mayan/Aztec city before dark.
I arrived and knew something was different straight away. I couldn’t see anybody. I searched around the campsite, before taking a peep inside the tent. Josiah was laying limply, his chest rising and falling as he slept peacefully. He had a large hammer next to him, resembling Thor’s Hammer, which I had seen in a cartoon once. I thought about cartoons and sighed. That world was long gone, and I wondered if I would ever see another animated figure get up to crazy things ever again. I got over it quickly though, and leant over him and shook. I shook him slow at first, but he wasn’t waking, so I shook him violently.
He woke with a start, a rather large start. He grabbed the hammer and tried to hit me, but I managed to get it through to him that it was me, and not some intruder person.
I asked where Sam was and he replied by saying “He wasn’t here when I woke up, and there was his faceprint and some footprints in the mud over there.” He pointed to a stand of trees about ten metres away. I was secretly glad inside because it meant I didn’t have to carry TWO people back across the island. I tried not to let it show on my face though, and helped Josiah grab up all our stuff and told him he could fill me in on everything on the way back to the city. He told me that he had woken up and Sam had been gone, so he looked around and found the marks. Sam had left all of his stuff, including the skull, so I still had a rather large load. After he had looked for Sam, Josiah had gone and done some exploring in the cave that we had found our cool stuff in. Instead of looking in the bit of the cave where we had found the chests, he dived into the black stuff and had found another chest. He had taken ages to get it to the top, taking several tries, because it was so heavy. When he had opened it, he had found THOR’S HAMMER!!!
At first he couldn’t lift it, but then he had put on the amulet underneath it. It had given him the strength to lift the hammer, and smash anything in his way with it.
After telling me all that, he fell asleep.
* * *
He awoke to me shaking him again to tell him we were almost there. I was glad that he hadn’t tried to hit me with the hammer again, as it would’ve been a bit awkward considering we were 100 metres in the air. It was fast approaching dark. We were approaching through a narrow crack in the roof of one of the temples, and I had to yell to make Grayson move out of the way so we could land. He asked what happened to Sam, and I explained. He didn’t say anything, but busied himself by going through all the stuff we had now. When I asked Grayson where the others were, he just pointed and said “Uhhh” in a grunt-like fashion. When I found the others, I asked them what was up with Grayson. They just said he had wanted to camp somewhere else for the night, not in a big scary temple place, but they had come here for the night anyway. Shrugging that info aside, I set up my bed for the night and went out scouting for food with the rest of our new group. It was a while before we came across anything. Mac yelled “Come look at this, I found something.”
It was only a small bush with a few shrivelled-up berries on it, but we kept looking around that area to see if there were any more fruitful bushes. I said this pun out loud, but no-one seemed to understand it.
After another five or ten minutes of searching, we found another bush hiding underneath an ugly and twisted tree, so we picked some berries and took them back to the temple.
After we had eaten them, we immediately felt full and contented. They made us drowsy. So drowsy, that most of us fell where we stood.

Diary Day 1 [Draft]

Please be honest with what you think about this, it is my draft and I am open to suggestions and please also feel free to point out any grammatical errors as well.

As I floated through the choppy waters with my leg in agony I reflected upon how I had come to be in this mess…
When we got off the bus and looked across Kawhia Harbour towards the Grumman HU-16 Albatross sea-plane I had been so excited. Going on a class trip was one of the things I always looked forward to, especially just the teacher and the students. We had been planning it for weeks. On the bus on the way there the excitement had shown on everyone’s faces. We boarded the plane and I saw Sam headed towards the pilot’s cabin. I said “Hey Sammy, I really don’t think the pilot would like to be disturbed before the flight”
“Don’t be silly”, he replied. “I am the pilot”.
A small feeling of dread formed in my stomach, but I quickly repressed it as I double-checked that I had buckled my seatbelt correctly.
* * *
I think we were a bit over halfway through our flight when it happened.
I was in the bathroom when the plane started rumbling and shaking. I now realised that we must have entered a lightning storm. Finding it hard to use the bathroom while shaking and jiggling, I came out and spotted my shoelace was undone. I bent down to do it up and was suddenly overcome with a weightless feeling and floated into the air as the plane dove and fell. I still managed to do my shoelace up, and not a moment too soon.
My mind entered Alpha State, that weird state of mind where everything moves slower and you can only think calmly and rationally. I felt, and heard, my leg crunch and crack as I came back to the floor and landed awkwardly in the aisle, all in slow-motion. The plane must have gone underwater then come back up again, because it was bobbing up and down. In the confusion that followed, someone helped me up and got me through the door and into the sea. Unfortunately I never got to thank whoever it was because I didn’t get to see them clearly. Past the red haze of pain that was glazed over my eyes, I could see the shoreline 100 metres ahead of me. I tried to swim, and almost passed out with the pain that hit me.
As I struggled to get to terms with the fact that I couldn’t swim, I was getting swept further and further away from the beach. I felt my bag on my back, and realised that it was watertight and could be used to float upon. I was heading further towards the mountain and the sharp rocks that surrounded it with every wave.

A sharp jolt knocked me out of my miserable reflection. I had arrived at the rocks, and one had just knocked the wind out of me. The second time I managed to get a grip on the rock but it was so wet that I slipped and lost my grip, instead smashing me against it again. The current was threatening to pull me under, so I tried one last time to grab on to it. The saying “third time lucky” flashed into my head as I just managed to hang on, but then pulled myself up a little further, and hung on for fear of being sucked away again and dashed against the sharp rocks.
I looked around as I was probably going to be stuck here for a while. There was not much around except rocks. Oh, wait, there IS something. I can just make out a cave further up the rocks of the mountainside. It seems to be glowing. I can now make out some weirdly coloured water flowing from it. It is glowing brighter now. The water is swirling the colours faster now. The cave is glowing really bright now; it’s beginning to hurt my eyes. I gave a short shriek of terror before I slumped over the rock as I passed out
It must have been several hours I hung there, in and out of consciousness, when I heard someone approaching on the rocks above. I yelled out to them for help.
“Help”, I yelled. “Help me. I’m stuck here and my leg has been muntified in the crash. I’m tired and hungry because I’ve been hanging of this rock here for hours”.
Grayson poked his head over the top of the rock and I croaked “Help”.
“Give me your hand and I’ll help you up” he replied.
I reached up and he grabbed my hand and tried pulling. Hard. I suddenly noticed that my shoe was feeling rather loose, and my teeth were feeling a little wobbly. Uh-oh. I had all adult teeth. This couldn’t be good. I pushed it to the back of mind, and focused on getting out of the water.
“Good thing you found me”, I said thankfully, as I was being hoisted up.
“No problem, just glad to help”, he grunted as he pulled.
My body suddenly felt achy all over, and I gave a violent shudder as my leg gave way. Grayson pointed at it and suddenly went pale and shivery. I looked down, and lo and behold, it had turned into an octopus tentacle. I would have fainted and fallen over if I hadn’t already been on the ground. I gave another shudder and my arms felt like they were burning. I lifted one up and it had suckers all up one side. I was turning into a mutant octopus thing! I turned to run, to hide, and to get away from it all, but my leg gave way under me. Those teeth that had turned wobbly were jarred with the sudden impact, and all of them fell out. I put my finger in my mouth to feel around for any remaining teeth, but all I found was one.
A big fang directly in the centre of my mouth.
Grayson looked horrified, but he steeled his resolve, and helped me up.
“I guess you are still my friend, even with your tentacle and suckers” He pronounced decidedly. “I’ll help you back to the beach, and you can stay with me, Josiah, Leon, and Sam.
* * *
When we got to the beach where everyone else had washed up, it was dark, and Josiah, Sam, and Leon had already set up camp for us, and all were feeling tired, as they had swum out to the aeroplane to recover Grayson’s lost bag, and a parachute, plus Luke’s pocket knife. No one payed much attention to me, they were all too tired to notice. I would’ve been able to tell if they had seen.
Grayson helped me cut a strong branch off one of the trees to use as a make-shift crutch/walking stick type thing.
After a “small” meal consisting of my packed lunchbox from that morning, and one of the One Square Meals from my pack (I hadn’t eaten since breakfast, remember) and some water, I went to crawl into my shelter, but before I did I looked up to see the stars in the sky, except they weren’t there. The whole sky was black, pitch black, like an endless void filled with tar. And round the edges, even more menacing, were big black clouds, smothering the horizon and looking like they were only 100 metres off shore. I could see the lightning booming and rolling inside, and I decided to count how far away they were.
I watched a flash of lightning and started counting...
“One, missisip...” BOOM.
The thunder boomed after less than a second.
That wasn’t good. If three seconds meant 1 kilometre, then less than one meant...

[thinking really hard]

Less than three hundred metres!
That couldn’t be good at all. I was too tired to give a stuff about it right now though, so I crawled into the shelter and dropped off to a troubled sleep...