Pounding Drums

In 2005, the American ship, Dawn's Glory, disappeared somewhere in the south Atlantic. Three years later, the journal of the ship's captain was picked up by a fishing boat. The journal revealed the horrific fate of the Dawn's Glory. This is the captain's story.

May 4, 2005

The Dawn's Glory was caught in a freak storm last night. I was forced to give the order to abandon ship. 271 of us were on the Glory. Now we are 64 survivors adrift in three life rafts. I am going to keep a count of how many of us are left. I feel an obligation to look after them, since it was my fault the others didn't make it.

Survivor count: 64

May 6, 2005

God has smiled on us today. We have come to an island approximately 120 miles away from where the Dawn's Glory went down. The island appears to be uninhabited. I would like to pay my respects to Jane Rutterburg, who drowned herself the day before. She chose death rather than starvation. If only she had hung on until today. Yet another failure on my part as captain.

Survivor count: 63

May 7, 2005

I was wrong in my initial assumption that the island is uninhabited. Last night, we heard drums pounding in the distance. I have warned everyone to stay near the beach as the inhabitants may not be friendly but two of our group wandered off into the jungle this morning. I am leading a search party to find and bring them back.

Survivor Count: 63

May 10, 2005

The natives of this island are not civilized. We now know them to be cannibals. We found our missing people. They were stripped to the bone. I have ordered everyone who knows how to use a weapon to arm themselves. Unfortunately we have only several dozen knives, two machetes and a spear gun. Perhaps I was wrong in my assumption that God has favored us. This island is not a blessing.

Survivor count: 61

May 23, 2005

Things are not well amongst us. The natives have attacked our group twice. They have made off with all of the children we had with us and killed one of my finest sailors. Given the nature of these monsters, I must assume the worst for the children and I have forbidden any search parties. May God forgive me.

Survivor count: 53

May 25, 2005

The monsters attacked us again last night. They kidnapped one of our women. I forbade the people from searching for her. I know in my heart that she is already dead. Her grieving husband has taken his life. I can't say I blame him. I feel much the same way.

Survivor count: 51

June 3, 2005

The people are on the verge of mutiny. I can see where they are coming from. They have had a terrible leader and every night they have been awake in fear of our enemies and the sound of pounding drums. We have lost 18 more to the natives. I can only imagine the fate that they have had to suffer. I have urged the people to stick together, but fear is clouding their minds and hearts. I'm afraid that they are going to do something rash.

Survivor count: 33

June 5, 2005

Any order we may have had has fallen apart. The people left last night. 2 of them have decided to stick with me. We have no choice but to move into the jungle. On the beach we are sitting ducks.

Survivor count: ?

June 6, 2005

Moving into the jungle was a mistake. My companions were killed by the cannibals not 2 hours ago. I escaped. It is dark now. I'm hiding inside a hollow tree trunk but I dare not sleep. The pounding drums are relentless. And I can see the natives moving in the dark. They make no noise. I can't even see them, I only see the rustling leaves and the kicked up dirt. I'm going to stop writing for now. I don't want the natives to hear my pen scratching the paper.

Survivor count: ?

June 7, 2005

I climbed out of my trunk when the light came. I don't know why, but the natives never seem to move in the light. I came across one of their villages about 3 hours ago. It was the most horrifying thing I have ever experienced. I found one the women in our group in one of their huts. Every inch of her was bruised. She was covered in cuts and blood. She was still alive but I could see in her eyes that she did not want to be. I broke her neck. It's dark again. I have accepted by now that I am not going to leave this island alive. I am going to put this journal in a bottle so maybe the world will know what took place here. I'm on my way to throw this out to sea right now. I can hear the drums getting closer. They're coming for me.

Survivor count: 0

The United States government calculated the coordinates of the island based on the last known position of the Dawn's Glory. A team was sent to investigate. None of them were ever heard from again.