The Island

It was August of 1975 a pleasant Friday in Quincy, Massachusetts the birthplace of John Quincy Adams. My name is Sam Carter I was 18 years old at the time. My best friends Paul, George and Steve wanted to camp out on Rainsford Island off of Boston Lighthouse. They came to my house at 6 am so we could get an early start. Steve who was 19 had a Crist Craft boat and it was docked at Quincy Yacht Club, his father was a member. Steve drove up to my house with Paul and George both of whom were 18 in his 1955 Chevy (now that was a car to behold!) Cherry red with baby moon hubcaps, made it a girl magnet for sure. But this was a male bonding trip. We were going to be on the island until Monday morning and boy did we pack that car with what we would need.

It was a short drive to the yacht club but it gave us time to listen to a couple of tunes on the radio, It was almost loud enough to drown out the noise from his cherry bomb mufflers which rattled windows when he drove by. Once we arrived after unlocking the gate with his father’s key it took a half hour to bring all we packed to Steve’s boat. This kid had it made; the cristcraft was blue and had a 40 horsepower motor that propelled it fast enough so he could tow people water skiing. We reached the island; the southern part was sandy and after 50 yards sloped up into a landscape with trees and vegetation. The other sides of the island was all rocky and impossible to get a boat in there. It was low tide as we reached the beach and as Steve was tipping up his motor there was a loud twang. Steve has sheared a cotter pin on the motor hitting something in the water.

We drifted into the beach. We threw out the anchor while Steve looked for another cotter pin. Steve cursed, “Damn I forgot I needed to buy some pins . "Well never mind, my dad will come looking when we don’t show up on Monday maybe someone will come to the island and I can borrow a pin. "

"Lets bring everything to where we will camp." We trampled through the mud until we reached the sand. There was a sign. “craps!” Paul said as he read the sign.‘Warning by the Health Department the island is infested with rats "Oh. Great" I said "Now we have stranded ourselves on an island hardly anyone visits and we are chow for rats.” Steve said “Don’t be a baby!” As he reached into a duffel bag and pulled out a Remington 22 rifle, “We just get more target practice!. George went to find a place to camp. He found a great area surrounded by trees with a view of a ridge that was just beyond the beach so we did not have to go far with our supplies and if we heard a boat it would take a couple of minutes to stand on the ridge and shout for help. Steve, who was carrying his rifle on his shoulder by and I went into the woods to get some firewood.

I was loading my arms with broken limbs from trees small enough to carry when I heard George yelling to come back. We ran back to the camp and George was all excited. Steve said "Hey George what’s up?" George was pointing in a bush. There was what appeared to be the carcass of either a dog or a large raccoon so shredded that you could not figure which. George asked "What the hell is that?” Sam smirked “Whatever it is it's dead.” George Said;" Come on guys don’t laugh, I am scared, do you suppose the rats got it." Sam said “I haven’t seen any rats and if I did I would have a trophy gauging from the torn body.” I thought OH! great, here we are stranded on this island with rats and I have the great white hunter to protect us. Paul, who had been silent, asked if we should use the hammocks in the trees to set up the camp the tent or use our sleeping bags on the ground. George said “I am scared of heights and I am not going up on those limbs and fall out during the night breaking my back.” Steve, always the decision maker told us to calm down, “There might be rats on the other side of the island with all the rocks and beside if I open up on them with my rifle they would run away.” “Oh Ya.” George said “like whatever chewed on that would be scared of noise. Paul who was the youngest requested we get on to another subject, Paul also cracked someone move that poor critters carcass away from the camp. Steve called us chickens and retorted “Cluck, Cluck, Cluck.” Alright I said as I picked up one of the trash bags we had brought along. I picked it up with a shovel I had and dumped it in the bag. I asked Steve to join me while I brought it in the woods.

I left it in a bunch of thorn bushes and thought "Boy will someone barf if they find it and look inside. By noontime the camp was set up and George had brought a hibachi and some coals and was preparing some (weenies) to cook. . Paul was looking around real nervous as the air became filled with the smell of the hot dogs cooking. George said “Now what’s bothering you Paul, the wieners don’t feel a thing.” Paul responded “What if the rats smell the cooking and assault the camp?” I told Paul to relax, “First of all we have yet to see any critters except whatever that thing was I bagged up and second I think someone put that sign there to scare people." Paul said “Well if the sign was a phony what was that carcass, it looked like lions tore it apart?” Steve broke in “Wow big game ha!ha!ha!" hope there is room in the boat I want to show my dad.” “I will put it’s head on my Bedroom wall next to the picture of my girlfriend, "good thing I brought a brick of 22’s maybe there’s rhino’s too.” "Lay off Paul," I said, if you had fitted your boat with extra cotter pins we could get the hell out of here and go to George’s Island which has no critters on it." " Steve just smirked and sat down beside the Hitachi. There was enough hot dogs so we each had three, a little burnt but when you’re hungry and as they are covered with mustard who cares. George brought out his transistor radio and put it on a station playing the top 40. We drank cokes from the cooler I brought and played cards until dusk. Paul and George went into the tent and got into their sleeping bags. Steve sat in front of the campfire he had made and laid the rifle across his lap. I think he actually thought there was something to shoot at if he waited long enough. I told him I was going up on the ridge to take a whiz. “He said hurry back and I will tell you about the babe who moved in on my street.” Oh! I thought, I bet she will be his next conquest, In his mind, . It was getting pretty dark so I took my flashlight I wanted to look out on the water and see if there were any boat lights in the distant and I could flash my light at them. Let me see it is three dots three dashes and three dots. Or is it the other way around. Oh well, they will get the drift. I was on the ridge looking for boats when I felt like I was being watched. I shuddered and I knew it wasn’t from the cool breeze. All of a sudden I noticed little red dots all along the beach when the moon came out from the clouds. Oh! My God their eye, hundreds of sets of eyes and it seems they were all looking my way. I played my flashlight along the beach and caught a glimpse of something as big as a cat, but I knew it wasn’t. I backed away as I was so scared and did not want to turn my back to the beach. When I was over the ridge I ran back to camp. I yelled when I got there “Steve you should have brought a machine gun there is an army of the biggest rats on the planet!” George and Paul opened the tent and looked out. George said “I am going to bring a hammock up into a tree and stay there until daybreak. Paul said "I am not going to climb a tree in the dark and fall on the ground to be easy prey for those monsters, I am going in the tent and climb into my sleeping bag , zip it up completely and not moving all night.” Steve said “ Come on guys I will sit here and pick them off , I waste a couple of them and they will go back to the beach and gnaw on clams or something, you are all babies “. With that he made baby sounds “ Wah! Wah!Wah!” I said “Don’t be such an A-hole Steve we are all scared and I bet you are too.” Well George climbed a pretty big tree and I don’t know how he did it in the dark but he had his hammock slung and was snoring in no time. I went into the tent with Paul and told Steve to close the tent up tight when he came in. I zipped up my sleeping bag and told Paul not to worry as we will probably see some one fishing from a boat or something or maybe a coast guard boat and we will get off this island, this adventure will give him stories to tell for quite a while. A half hour went by and I heard a couple of shots, I got out of the sleeping bag and looked outside. There was the big game hunter with a smile like the cheshire cat in Alice in Wonderland. He said “I nailed the sucker, I can see them walking up on the ridge against the moonlight, it’s like a trail they follow. They will be able to take that sign down when I get through." This I had to see. I went outside and sat with Steve who was sitting Indian style with his eyes watching the ridge. I went into the tent and got my shovel in case I had to whack anything and Paul now was sitting up with his sleeping bag unzipped. He said “Come on back in, I don’t want to be in here all alone,” I told him I would not stay outside too long but I wanted to watch Steve de-populate the Island .” Steve yelled bring a couple of cokes out. Killing makes me thirsty.” I thought about how will Steve tell stories of fighting thousands of rats big as dogs with his rifle. As usual the girls will be thrilled and he will score the new girl on his street, guy has all the luck.

I sat with Steve and it was remarkable, how the rat who to me they appeared the size of large hamsters were following a trail on the ridge. They were shadows against the moonlight. One would pop up on the ridge and Steve would fire his rifle. “This is like the shooting gallery at that carnival .” Steve said. There must have been a dozen carcasses up on the ridge. George, who was up in the tree, had a view of the beach from that height, and said “ The beach is covered with shadows running back and forth . It seemed hundreds of rats were aimlessly running up and down the beach. All of a sudden George was yelling “A boat, some kind of cabin cruiser was coming to the island. Sure enough we could hear the rumble of its engine. He said the craft was playing a search light on the beach and the rats are no where to be seen. We looked up on the ridge and sure enough the rats were no longer running by. “What’s happening now George?” I yelled. He replied “ They are coming in some kind of dingy. “Tell us when they land and we will go to meet them, I want to know it is safe before we venture to the beach.” “They are on the beach.” George said “there are three of them.” All of a sudden George started Yelling “oh no here they come, hundreds of rats, maybe thousands.” We could hear screams from the direction of the beach. George said “oh no, they are down under a blanket of the rats.” The blood curdling screams did not last long and it became silent. We sat there terrified looking at the ridge when I could not believe my eyes, there was what first I thought was a dog ,but with its beady red eyes I knew it was a monster rat. It actually was growling. Paul came out of the tent and ran towards the tree George was in and started climbing. George yelled “ Come on guys , get up here!”

Steve said “I am going to get the king of the rats.” He had a wild stare in his eyes as he squeezed the trigger as fast as he could. The monster let out a screech that sounded like a cat that had his tail stepped on. The vermin came off the ridge towards us, and went right for Steve. The vermin came off the ridge towards us, and went right for Steve. Steve fired his rifle as fast as he could but the rat kept coming, I was frozen with fright. With a leap the ray, jumped on Steve and knocked him over. The Demon sunk his teeth into Steve’s throat and I heard a gurgling sound. I picked up the shovel and started bashing the rat. I heard something behind me and the ridge was covered by rats all with those red eyes glaring at me. I looked at Steve and he was still now and the rat was gnawing on his neck. I ran to the tree and just got up on the limb near George and Paul. Paul was crying and trembling out of control. I looked down and all the rats were now covering Steve’s body and gorging themselves. . George said “Oh No!” and gave a scream. I looked down and the rats were clawing at the tree and some were gaining foothold . I said “ Rats can’t climb freaking trees !”


‘Rumble,Honk, Honk, Honk" I sat up in bed in a start covered in sweat. My Father yelled up the stairs “Sam, tell that clown to stop beeping and shut off that car!” I ran to the window and there was Steve, George and Paul standing outside the red Chevy, The sounds of the top forty could be heard. Steve yelled” come on Sammy lets go!” I ran outside and hugged each of them and tears were in my eye. Steve said “What’s up Sam, did your father find your playboys?” I asked, Hey Steve do you have extra shear pins on your boat? Steve said “I have been meaning to get some and I will sometime this week but we will be okay as I don’t think the island has rocks on the side we are going.” “Are you packed and ready? I thought and said “ Geez guys I can’t go my aunt from Maine is coming today and my Dad wants me to meet her , maybe next time. “ Steve said, "Well I will see you Monday, oh I have to tell you about the new girl on my street when I come back." “They all got in the car and sped off shaking the windows in the neighborhood, I went back in the house and my Father said “Sam why are you staying home I overheard you and your aunt from Maine passed away three years ago.” I smiled and said “I have to go the movies today and see BEN, it is playing and there is a girl on Steve’s street I met who I will ask to go with, My dad said" Ben, isn't that the story about a kid who has rats for friends ?" I smiled and said "Yep!"

© Eddie@Ducksoupe.com

NOTE: The following is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to actual persons, places or events is entirely coincidental. The following is the sole intellectual property of the author (unless otherwise noted) and should not be distributed or altered without permission of the author. The author does not condone or support the actions or opinions of the characters I have created