EPISODE 1 – ALTERING LIFE COURSEA nurse on the verge of a mental breakdown seeks refuge in solitude following tragic events that test his sanity.
A nurse on the verge of a mental breakdown seeks refuge in solitude following tragic events that test his sanity.
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⚠️ The family tragedies within this fictional narrative may disturb some readers. Continue with discretion.
Physically Fit
TRENT was an all-star athlete in high school. This along with exceptional scholastic performance earned him a higher education scholarship to work towards a medical degree. The classes have been arduous, so something had to give. He pivoted his focus from becoming a doctor to a nurse.
During his internship at a hospital, a tragic event rocks his family. While adjusting the bed for a patient, the news reports a murder-suicide as cameras pan to his parent’s home. Trent begins shaking uncontrollably before blacking out and falling to the floor.
State of Shock
When he awakens in a bed at the same hospital, his supervisor attempts to ascertain what happened but Trent stares into the distance unresponsive. The next day it becomes apparent to management and staffers that the violent tragedy involved Trent’s mother and father. So, Nurse Trent receives admission to a psychiatric hospital.
In the weeks that follow, Trent begins uttering a few words after prodding from a therapist named Dr. Julie. This is not their first acquaintance. She is an assistant instructor in his psychology classes. Although she’s at least five years his senior, he’s attracted to her beauty. But now’s not the time to entertain romantic thoughts.
“I’m deeply sorry for your loss,” she expresses with sincerity. “Do you want to talk about what happened?”
“Words cannot undo it,” he replies without making eye contact.
“In the medical profession, there’s a stark difference between caring for a patient who expires of natural causes and visiting a crime scene. Some companies can clean your home before you return. Do you want me to take care of that for you?”
“Yes Julie, please.”
“Does this mean you think you’re ready to return home afterward?”
“My parents had a timeshare on a remote island that became abandoned when the natives succumbed to a deadly virus. I think I need to get away for a while, perhaps there. But first, I want to stay in a hotel for a few days.”
“It’s not good to make major decisions during a time of grief. I’ll have your home sanitized and if you need me for anything else, call the office or email me directly.”
The hospital discharges Trent, who uses his laptop to make arrangements to cremate his parents, receive life insurance benefits, make airline reservations, and purchase a boat to reach the final destination. All this takes much more than a few days. During this time, he keeps in contact with Dr. Julie via email.
The boat has enough fresh and dry emergency provisions to last six months. In the cabin there is no electricity or cell towers to use a mobile phone. Trent resorts to skills he learned on childhood camping trips. He positions tiki torch lamps around the perimeter and cooks outdoors, boiling water from a nearby stream.
When the fresh food runs out, he hunts for small wild animals with a rifle. However, the ringing of gunfire triggers the trauma that brought him here.
Mysterious Night Visions
Even sane prisoners have difficulty coping with solitary confinement. Trent doesn’t fully anticipate the effects of isolation on his fragile mental condition. During the night, his eyes are open more than they are closed. Backlit figures cast shadows on the windows with the sound of breaking twigs suggesting footsteps.
He rushes to the door, calling out into the distance with no reply. The only response is the howling wind and rustling tree leaves. As the frequency of shadowy figures increases, he no longer runs after them. Instead, he names them, holding one-way conversations to cope with loneliness.
“I used to be quite popular. At one time I seemed to have everything going for me. Then, like a house of cards, it all came crashing down. I don’t know if you can relate to that. Oh well, goodnight.”
During the days, when he isn’t hunting, Trent hikes to unsuccessfully clear his head of troubling thoughts. Flashbacks of childhood events fill his mind at times while trying to make sense of why his father would kill his family. Trent includes himself in the homicide, as his goals and aspirations figuratively died.
Uncovering a Viral Threat
While running through the forest the next day in pursuit of a wild boar, his panting becomes louder than the grunts of his prey. With the belief that he has a clear shot, he hurries to a slight elevation, but trips over a human skeletal corpse. An arm’s distance away is another.
With Trent’s medical training, he recognizes from the shape of the pelvic bones that one is a male and the other is a female. This transports his mind within the crime scene of his home, viewing the likely positions of his mother and father when paramedics found their bodies.
His eyes dart back and forth in tandem with his racing heart as he wonders if these victims of the virus might have passed something onto him. Trent rushes to the coast to bathe himself and opens the first aid kit to obtain some antibiotics. Later in the afternoon, he drinks citrus juices for vitamin C.
During the night, he breaks out into a cold sweat, screaming at the shadow that he feels infected him. In the morning he staggers around, unable to prevent relieving himself in the middle of the floor. Trent now feels he has certainly contracted the deadly virus that will leave his corpse in an unmarked grave.
By the evening, he is still alive and without fever. The fears must have been all in his head. Later, during his conversation with a shadow, Trent hears a grunt as a possible reply. When he races to the door to look on the other side of the window, he hears agile footsteps sprinting through the brush in the distant darkness. He grabs a tiki torch and pursues the sound of rapid panting and snapping twigs like a tight end about to receive the football, until he steps into a snare.
Narrowly missing an arrow through the heart, Trent is wounded in his left shoulder, falling in agony. Though dark, it’s obvious that he’s rapidly losing blood, and the howling of a coyote makes the situation more urgent. The need for medical attention ends his pursuit so he returns to the cabin, staving off the tendency to faint.
At daybreak with little energy, he heads to the boat for more medical provisions but the vessel is gone. For months, it’s been tied securely. There’s no chance it drifted away.
It troubles Trent that his only means of getting back to civilization is gone. This triggers heart palpitations and feelings of impending doom. After a saunter back to the cabin, he assesses how long he might be able to survive on what’s available. More importantly, he reasons, that either he’s not alone on the island. Or the person he was pursuing took the boat to leave him in permanent isolation.
Unilateral shadowy conversations resume in the nights over the next few weeks until Trent begins talking about his hopeless prospects. The hunting stops, and he begins starving from lack of will to survive. Like his parents, is he destined to see his life end ignominiously?
Continued…
Return twice weekly for miniseries. Any relation to actual persons or events is coincidental. Login provides the most immersive experience. About 4400 total words. Audio may include sound effects that alter reading time. Cinematic materials are available with ClinicalNovellas Cinematic membership.
