For those of you that haven’t read “The Most Dangerous Game”, it is a short story written in the 1920’s. As a homework assignment from my English teacher, I had to write a second part to the story. Since my teacher and my entire English class liked it, I supposed you bored people coming across my blog would enjoy it. Enjoy!
The Most Dangerous Game – Part II
Rainsford woke up to tropical sunlight streaming in through the curtains of the posthumous General Zaroff’s mansion on a deserted isle. He slowly remembered how the last few days unfolded. First, he fell of a yacht. Then, he met a hunter that hunted a different type of prey: humans. Then, he survived the hunter’s island and killed him in then end; after this, he claimed the island as his own.
When he left the bed chamber, he went off to explore the island. He saw expanses of trees, all kinds of plants. He liked it, but to him, it was nothing to get overexcited about. After all, he had hunted exotic animals all over the world. But, he was marveled at the cliffs on the edge of the island, above the rocky piece of land you could call a beach. “Such intoxicating beauty they possess,” he thought to himself. He continued to look at the cliffs and into the sea for a while. Minutes, hours, he didn’t care; he was just amazed by the beauty of the landscape and sea. He was in a moment of complete bliss until he was snapped out of his daze by a loud crunching sound. That is, the sound of a boat crashing onto the rocks below.
He dove into the water, and onto the rocky beach below. There he saw some sailors and the captain of the ship. He greeted them, and the captain replied, “Bonjour monsieur, nous, nous sommes emprisonnés, pouvons vous nous aider?” (Hello Sir, we, we are imprisoned, can you help us?) It was clear this man was a Frenchman, probably sailing goods to one of the port cities further down south.
In his best French, he replied, “Oui, seulement dans les circonstances qui une fois que vous partez, vous me prennent avec vous.” (Yes, only in the circumstances in which you leave, you take to me with you.) Rainsford then received an assurance of this, and began to help them fix their ship.
Within the close of the week, the hole in the hull of their ship was completely fixed. As Rainsford and company prepared to leave, he asked for one last view of the island he had lived on for barely a week. As he went to the mansion one last time, he heard a gigantic crunch and saw that the boat split in half. It then began to sink into the deep blue waters, with unknown creatures in its shadowy depths. As he stared, he thought of people on the ship, lives now lost Rainsford stared at the coast with awe, as he had when the strangers had washed ashore. Only this time, it was the awe of sadness, the awe of disappointment, the awe of disbelief.
As Rainsford got over the loss of the people he barely knew, and the fact he had no way to get back home, he came to the realization that he must make the island his home if he intended to survive. He then went into Zaroff’s liquor cabinet, and drowned his pain in chardonnay and caviar. Over the following months, he developed a daily pattern: wake up late, make himself breakfast, walk around the island, go into the study and read, eat dinner, and go to sleep.
Rainsford soon faced a big question: where was he going to get food? As time passed, he began to run low on supplies. It was then he began to wonder where Zaroff got the food from, considering that there were no animals on the island that were edible. The only animals on the island were snakes and birds, due to the fact that Zaroff hunted humans, not animals. It was then he remembered Zaroff’s heinous killings, the hunting of the people, and Rainsford began to ponder the actual ethicality of Zaroff’s killings. “Sure it was wrong, but how is killing humans so much different than killing animals?” he thought. “Although animals are only animals, and therefore don’t have a conscience, they are still living things and are entitled the right to life. Who are we to take it away?” He then began to think of his past hunting animals, and even though he missed it, he wondered, was he doing the right thing, hunting them for sport. It was a dark and stormy night, and then, Rainsford heard a familiar sound. The sound of a ship crashing onto the rocky beach below the cliffs….
When Rainsford went to see what happened in the morning, he was surprised to see his friend, Whitney, washed ashore. “Whitney!” he screamed, as he ran across the rocky beach. “Whitney!”
Whitney then got up and ran towards Rainsford. The met at the middle of the beach and shared an embrace. Rainsford then began to tell of the tale of how he fell of the yacht and wound up on the island, and the dark events that followed. He told of Zaroff’s heinousness, and the events that followed Zaroff’s defeat. He told of the previous crew arrival, and demise, and the loneliness that clung to him as a baby sloth clings to its mother. They then shared stories of their lives since he had disappeared, and shared a few good laughs
As Whitney and Rainsford had no way out, they accepted defeat and stayed on the island. They came to the realization that they’d die, due to their lack of food. Day by day, they became frailer, emaciated to the point of resembling living corpses. Eventually, they died, but in the company of a good friend, so death was easier to accept.
