Date: Sun, 17 Jan 1999 00:19:57 EST From: Phaedrus57@aol.com Subject: Isle of Refuge 2--tt/bb, consensual, Young Friends Caveat: This is a story of love and adventure among a group of teenaged boys. It contains scenes of sexual activities between boys. If this offends you, do not read the story. Please go to some other site. If the laws of your country or locality say that it is illegal for you to read this type of story (i.e. that you are too young to have erotic thoughts or sexual questions and your innocent little mind shouldn't entertain such possibilities as are portrayed in this story), you should obey the law. If you read this story nevertheless, don't get caught! Hide your downloads and delete your history. Enjoy the story, which will go on for many chapters. I hope that it will appeal to your minds and hearts. It isn't primarily a sex story, although it has its erotic moments. Comments are welcome and strongly requested. Flames will be ignored. E-mail me at phaedrus57@aol.com. Isle of Refuge Chapter III: The Second Day The boys gradually awoke, yawning and stretching, as the rays of the rising sun hit them. Tommy, surprised but not displeased to find himself in Miguel's brown arms, shook the older boy awake and said in a stage whisper, "Miguel, it's morning!" As soon as Miguel's eyes opened, Tommy jumped up and shouted, "I gotta go to the latrine!" He ran down the hillside, followed slowly by others. The last to get up was Mike, who emerged from his hammock looking sleepy and cranky. "Did you sleep OK, Mike?" Richard asked from beside Chris's stretcher. "What's it to you, faggot?" Mike snarled. "Sorry I asked!" Richard said quietly. "I woulda slept a lot better if you guys hadn't been fucking around all night," Mike complained. "We didn't mean to bother you, Mike," Richard said. "So you admit it? You queered Kevin and Miguel and Tommy? Tommy's just a little kid, for chrissake! " Mike said accusingly. "As matter of fact, Tommy wasn't involved. But nobody did anything he didn't want to do." "Shit! Marooned on a desert island with a bunch of fags. For this I left Yonkers?" "Mike, you don't have to do anything you don't want to do either, except help everyone else survive," Richard said. "Hey, can somebody help me get to the latrine?" Francois called out, still lying on his blanket. "Mike, as soon as someone comes back to stay with Chris, will you help me take Francois to the latrine?" Richard asked. Mike looked sullen, but didn't refuse. Richard heard Chris cough painfully. "Do you want some more morphine, Chris?" he asked. Chris grimaced, but said weakly "Naw, I wanna be awake ... for awhile. I don't wanna, like, miss everything!" Richard went to the pool and returned with a cup of water, which he held to Chris's lips. "Drink some water, bro," he said softly. Chris tried to swallow, but only gagged and coughed. "Maybe later," Richard said. Just then Kevin walked back up the slope, returning from the latrine. "Kev, would you stay with Chris while Mike and I take Francois to the latrine? Did you see Tommy down there?" Kevin grinned and replied, "One: yes. Two: no." "Quite a smart mouth so early in the morning!" Richard said, grinning in return. "Chris, you take Francois' left arm and I'll take his right." Seemingly in better spirits than a few minutes ago, Mike complied. He and Richard got Francois upright, carefully helping him keep his weight off his broken leg. With an arm over the shoulders of his two muscular companions, Francois was carried downhill to the latrine. As Richard and Mike helped him perform his necessary functions and performed their own, Richard thought, "We're going to get to know each other awfully well in this place!" As Mike, Francois, and Richard returned to the campsite, Richard looked around for Tommy. Just as he began to worry over the little boy's absence, Tommy ran up the hill on the path from the beach. The eyes and ears of the group as usual, he shouted, "The boat's gone! The Venture's gone! Ya can't see anything on the reef!" He stopped in front of Richard to catch his breath. Richard lifted the little boy up in his arms. "Thanks for the information, dude. Remember what I said to you last night?" Tommy grinned delightedly, but Richard looked stern and added, "DON'T EVER GO OFF BY YOURSELF WITHOUT TELLING ANYBODY! No one knew where you were. What if you'd gotten hurt or fallen in the water?" Tommy's expression changed immediately from delight to chagrin. Richard held him very close and said quietly in his ear, "Please don't do that again! I was really worried about you!" Tears started in Tommy's eyes, and he laid his head on Richard's shoulder. "I'm sorry! I won't do it again!" Richard stroked his back, kissed his cheek, and put him down. Meanwhile, the other boys were absorbing the import of Tommy's news. They looked at each other grim-faced in the bright morning sunlight. Everyone except Mike was holding someone else's hand. Kevin voiced all of their thoughts. "That's it. Now there's nothing to connect us to the world. Everything starts new now. We're alone, on our own." Richard thought, "It's all up to me now. Will I be strong enough? I love these guys, but can I get them through this? I can't let them down!" He forced himself to smile confidently and say cheerfully, "OK, guys, let's get cleaned up and find some food. Then we need to talk!" The gloom lifted, and the boys ran and jumped into the pool, laughing and shouting. Even Mike looked happy, but he stubbornly kept his boxers on. Richard said to Kevin, "Go get cleaned up. I'll stay with Chris until you come back." The boys played and cavorted in the pool, scrubbing their own and each other's bodies with sand. While they dried themselves in the sun, Richard organized a foraging expedition to gather fruit for breakfast. When everyone had eaten his fill, Terry, Joey, and Angelo dug a shallow pit near the latrine for food waste to prevent the contamination of the campsite. Chris's eyes were closed, but they opened when Richard spoke to him. "Is there anything I can do for you, Chris?" "Just hold my hand and don't leave me," Chris whispered. Chris's body had grown very white. His breathing was shallow and labored, and Richard could feel his heart beating rapidly. Still holding Chris's hand, Richard summoned the other boys to gather around him. Kevin sat close to Richard on his left, and Miguel sat close to Kevin's side. Terry, Angelo, and Joey sat side by side, their arms over one another's shoulders opposite Richard. Little Tommy sat on Richard's thigh, wrapping one arm around him. Chris lay on his stretcher, and Francois sat upright on a blanket next to Chris. Mike, arms folded, stood just outside the circle behind Joey. "Guys, here's our situation," Richard began. "We don't know exactly where we are. We know this has to be an island, and we know that we were headed for Australia after we left Hawaii. We didn't find The Venture's log, so we don't know what our position was yesterday, but we are probably in the Santa Cruz Islands or Vanuatu. We don't know if anyone else lives here, but we haven't seen any sign of anyone, and it's hard to believe that any people living here wouldn't be living in a place as fine as Tommy's Falls." Tommy beamed with delight at the thought that the campsite was named for him. "As far as we know, no one knows where we are or what happened to the Venture. Someone on the crew may have sent a distress call, but we have no way to know whether it was received even if it was sent. Our next port of call was supposed to be Brisbane, Australia, and someone may start looking for us when we're long enough overdue there. But where will they look? How can we attract attention? "The bottom line is that we're probably going to be here for some time, maybe weeks, maybe months. What we have to do is survive. We've only got each other, and we have to take care of each other. I know from being with you guys for the last two months that we can do that. And each of us has to take good care of himself. If anyone gets hurt taking an unnecessary risk, he creates a burden for everyone else, and there isn't anyone here who can treat serious injuries. "We need to agree on a few things. First, it's really important that no one ever goes off alone by himself without telling anyone. We don't know what dangers there are here, and if somebody disappears, we'll all have to look for him. Second, everyone has to do his share and always put the welfare of the group before his own. This place may be a tropical paradise, but survival here will take work. "Third, we'll have to respect each other. That means not picking on people because they're different from us or weaker than us. It means listening to other guys and caring about what they feel. It means telling the truth and trusting each other. It means settling disagreements by talking and listening, not by fighting. "Fourth, we have to take care of the place where we live. No one is going to pick up after us, and we can mess this place up totally before we know it if we aren't careful. That's why using the latrine and the trash pit is really important. "We have two basic needs: food and shelter. We can't just live on fruit. We need protein. We can get some of that from fish, and we'll have to learn what birds and animals there are here that we can use for meat. We'll have to figure out ways to catch them and learn how to cook them. We already know that the weather here is not always as fine as this, and we need to build a shelter where we can all live. We'll all have to learn to do things we've never done before and figure out what skills we have to contribute. "Guys, you know I love you all. I wish I had the knowledge and skills to take care of you and keep you safe, but I don't. I'm still a kid. Some of you know more about danger than I can even imagine, just because of where you've lived. I was your counselor on the boat, but that doesn't necessarily apply here, and if you think that someone else should be the leader, I'll accept that. Okay?" "Just what do you mean by `love', Richard? Do you mean you want to fuck around with us now that you've got our pants off?" Mike asked sarcastically. Kevin's face clouded with anger, Miguel looked at Mike anxiously, and Tommy clung to Richard more tightly. The others turned toward Mike in astonishment. "Mike, what I mean by `love' is caring about another person, putting his needs and feelings above your own, sacrificing for his welfare, understanding him, appreciating his good points and putting up with his bad points, maybe helping him be a better person. But you're really worried about sex, aren't you?" "Your goddam right I am!" Mike said angrily. "I'm not a fag. I don't wanna live with fags or hear them doing stuff with each other at night. I don't wanna get turned into a homo!" Kevin spoke up. "No one can turn anyone else into a `homo', Mike, so don't worry about it!" "Kevin's right," Richard said, "but I think it's really important for us to agree that no one should ever be pressured or forced to do anything sexual that he doesn't want to do. We're all guys, we've only got each other, and we've all got hormones. We're all scared, too, and cut off from everything we've known, and we need to feel close to someone and know we're not alone. Some of the rules that applied at home don't work here, and I think that includes the ones that say that sex between guys is wrong. It's gonna happen! Just think about all the grab-ass that went on when we were in the pool. We're all experimenting, and we all have needs. "I'm pretty sure now that I'll always be gay. I wasn't sure about that when I signed up for the Venture. Some of you might be gay later on, or you might be straight, or bisexual. But you don't have to have sex with someone in order to love him. I don't think you should have sex with someone you don't love, either. My love for you guys doesn't have anything to do with sex. "I like to be close to Richard because he's treated me better than anybody else ever has. He's bigger and stronger than me and he makes me feel safe. When I was in the group home some of the older guys made me do sex stuff I didn't want to, but Richard would never do that. He's totally kewl!" said Tommy. "Mike, man, I know you don't got no place else to go, and I'm sorry for you. But stuff's gonna happen," Miguel said. "Richard and Kevin and me did stuff last night, but we didn't, like, plan it. I felt bad about it at first, but now I feel okay. In fact, I feel really good about it! Can you deal, bro?" "I dunno. Do I have, like, a choice?" Mike replied, seemingly resigned. He grinned a bit sheepishly. "I'll just have to go to Confession big time when I get home!" The tension broke, and all the boys laughed uproariously, hitting each other's backs and arms playfully. Richard heaved a quiet sigh of relief as he felt Kevin squeeze his hand. Mike finally sat down beside Joey. Chris had lain quiet during the entire discussion, his eyes sometimes open and sometimes closed. Now he coughed as he tried to sit up. Richard put his arm beneath Chris's shoulder and asked quietly, "Is there anything I can do for you, Chris?" Struggling for breath, Chris whispered, "Can you lift me up a little? I wanna say something." Richard helped him raise his head and shoulders, and the other boys drew together in a tight circle around the stretcher in order to hear. Chris continued, "I'd like to hang here with you guys, but ... it ain't gonna happen." As Chris stopped for breath, tears started in the eyes of several of the boys. "Hang on, Chris! Don't die!" Tommy cried out. Richard said, "It's okay, Chris. We're all here with you. We all love you, and we'll never forget you!" "You're the best brothers a guy could have ... the best family I've ever had. Don't get all sad for me ... Do what Richard said. He's the best -- listen to him. Take care of each other. I'm gonna be watchin'..." Suddenly Chris was coughing blood. He struggled for another breath. Then his body sagged in Richard's arms and he made no more sound. Richard, his face bathed in tears, felt Chris's neck for a pulse, but found none. "Bye, Chris!" he whispered, almost breaking down. All of the boys were weeping and holding each other now. Even Mike, his expression grim and stoical, had tears running down his face. He didn't object when Richard, moving from one boy to another to embrace and comfort each one, gently put his arms around him. "You okay, Mike?" Richard said softly, then added, "You were his brother, too. He loved you. I love you!" Finally, Mike began to sob. At last, Richard and Kevin cut a piece of sailcloth and wrapped Chris's body in it. Then, feeling utterly drained and desolate, Richard collapsed into Kevin's open arms and wept until he could weep no more. The redheaded boy held his older lover as a mother comforts a child. Chapter IV: A Burial and a Beginning Coming soon...