Writer's Block

Drifting…
Stuck in a little lifeboat in the middle of the Atlantic with only a wet border collie for company. It wasn’t quite how Aldernak had imagined his cruise turning out, but the moment he’d seen Sideways Sam’s name on the passenger list it was obvious that things probably weren’t going to go well.

Of course, he hadn’t expected things to take quite this turn of events. While the plan had been to try and avoid Sam on what was an extremely large ship, he hadn’t expected that Sam would actually be there looking for him. Being woken at 3am by a bucket of icy water quickly corrected this misconception. Five expletive-filled minutes after that, he’d found himself gagged and being marched at gunpoint to a quiet area outside, where two of the largest men he’d ever seen were waiting with a menacing-looking trunk.
Fortunately, it appeared that it was just Sam’s luggage. Unfortunately, Sam’s luggage included some non-standard holiday additions, such as knuckledusters and an unpleasant-looking machete. He’d donned the knuckledusters and pummelled Aldernak for a few minutes. Then he’d taken the machete, cut away most of Aldernak’s pyjamas and added a few bloody cuts to the arms and legs. Then he’d spoken. “Bye, Aldernak. Put him in the boat, boys”. There had been a sound behind him and then a sharp pain in the head.

That had been several hours ago and his head still hurt. The blindfold was long gone and the cuts had stopped bleeding, but that was the only good news. He had no food or shelter, there wasn’t a ship in sight and a storm was coming. It seemed that he had nothing to do but wait for death or rescue, ideally the second. He lay back and tried to relax, but his mind refused to move away from the one thing that had been puzzling him since he’d regained consciousness.

“Where did the dog come from?”