On a fleshy yellow raft coddling an empty rations container and a human skeleton, a seagull pecked at a rock-hard biscuit. The brittle man of bones held onto a little red book, Life Out at Sea: Your Guide to Survival. In the other hand lay a pencil, whittled down to the marrow. After a few more nips at the biscuit, the seagull hopped over to the raft’s co-captain. It eyed the skeleton and his loyal hands, picked up the book with its beak, dropped it back onto the raft. The pages fluttered.

            Among the suggestions on finding safe drinking water and gutting Skipjack tuna were mad scribblings tucked in-between thick text. But day by day, sun and salt rubbed away the gray scribbles.

The waves rocked the skeleton and bird gently. The bird dropped the book into the ocean. There was a pause, a gurgling cough, a muted gasp. Silent waves popped against the raft, spraying up spits of water. Water gathered around the skeleton, darkened its ragged olive uniform dried with black blood. An empty flare gun bobbled out of one pocket and fell onto the skeleton’s lap.

            The bird took one last look at those corn kernel teeth, flew away, and forgot

Joshua Pantano is a writer from Saint Augustine, Florida, currently studying journalism at Ithaca College. His work has been featured in Buzzsaw, Stillwater, and Zoetic Magazine.