Short Story - Adrian E. and Rigo E.

My name is Jose Gutierrez, I am currently on a boat from Spain headed towards the Caribbean it is now day 25 on our voyage, and we are now in the middle of the Caribbean and as we were passing through this one area of the ocean when all of a sudden. This horrible storm just flashed all of a sudden and then these big old rocks came and basically wrecked our ship. I was lucky enough to have survived the crash and after swimming for some time I had finally reached the distant island.

As I had finally approached the island I found myself lagging through the beach due to exhaustion, as I had finally entered the jungle I decided to sleep in a tree that night for safety reasons from any kind of animal. I slept thorough throughout the night and made my way around the island when I had finally stumbled upon a huge house that almost seemed like a castle, it was truly a monstrosity in size, so I knocked on the door, famished from all the energy it took to swim from the ship to this island.

The door had swung open only to show this gigantic man he must’ve been about 6’5” at 300 pounds, oh god he was so huge that the revolver he had in his baseball mitt sized hand he had seemed miniscule, I said “hello sir, my name is Jose Gutierrez. My ship had wrecked and I was one of the lone survivors that have stumbled upon to your property, may I come in?” The only reply he made was the cocking action on his revolver. Just as he was about to put a bullet in between my eyes, this other man came and patted him on the back and said “Ivan do not shoot our guest, he is alright with me.” The giant uncocked the revolver and holstered it in reply. Then the man turned to me and said “I apologize for Ivan’s poor behavior, he has the misfortune of being deaf and mute.” “My name is general Zaroff and you are?” “My name is Jose Gutierrez, I am a sailor that ship had wrecked in the ocean and I swam to this island, and well here I am.” I said. “Well come in then” he said.

As I had come in he told me to wash up and to join him later on for dinner, it was excellent as I was finished bathing the giant came with fresh clothes for me. As I entered the dining room I saw filet mignon waiting for me with a fine glass of champagne. So we talked and finally he came on to the subject of hunting, and how he had hunted all kinds of rare and dangerous species, and how after a while it all began to bore him since he always got his quarry he never missed and they never got away, they just weren’t cunning enough. So then he showed me his new theory of going head to head with a species that had the same intellectual range as he had. It finally occurred to me that he was talking about hunting humans! He then took me to his collection of heads there were boars, bison, cheetahs, tigers, leopards, grizzly bears, and even a rhinoceros. It was amazing but then it became sickening as I saw the human heads mounted on the wall.

He then told me to follow him down to the basement, there they were about a dozen humans all exercising, and he explained to me he likes to get them in shape before he hunts them so they provide more of a challenge. It made me nauseous as I knew I would also have to join and so from there the instructor worked us like dogs all night long, doing jumping jacks, pushups, sit-ups, crunches, and even benching weights in excess of 175 pounds constantly. Then in the mornings he would have us run around the island twice followed by a swim he always monitored us with a lever action rifle, if we attempt to escape he’d shoot us down.

Finally after a week of training Mr. Zaroff came and told me to get ready and rest for the rest of the day and that I would need it. Finally in the evening Ivan came and gave me a heavy duty hunting knife that was razor sharp, hunting clothes like a deerskin material and a pair of moccasins. I then went in a b-line straight from the house I didn’t even know what to do then later on in the middle of the night the dogs came and started tearing me up and just when I thought I couldn’t take any more Zaroff came and finished me, then everything went black. I guess I just wasn’t good enough to win the most dangerous game.