The Unexpected
Rainsford had nowhere to go so he did what his instincts told him to do. He jumped. He jumped right off the cliff into the beautiful blue Caribbean waters that glimmered like a million diamonds. Rainsford was not a huge fan of water, but that was the only thing that he could do to save his life. General Zaroff came running to the side of the cliff, just to be sure that his game was killed. He slowly muttered, “Looks like I win again,” and with that he turned around and walked back to his beloved home.
After Rainsford held his breath for an astonishing amount of time he came up from the water. Letting out a loud gasp, he floated there for a while, and thought about what he should do next. He had a thousand ideas going through his head, but then he began to swim. He swam for a long time until he got so tired that he felt light headed. His exhaustion reminded him of what he felt like during the war. He thought of the possibility of a boat coming by to save him, and realized the possibility was very high, considering his location.
As night fell, Rainsford began to get very hungry. He tried to relax, but there were too many things he was thinking about. Rainsford felt very uncomfortable; the voices in his head were telling him that he was not safe. When he began to swim again, he saw three large fins that were coming full speed ahead. The fins were cutting the water like a blade. Rainsford stayed perfectly calm, hoping the sharks would swim right pass him, but all of a sudden a loud bang rang in his ears. Rainsford opened his eyes and saw that the sharks were dead.
When Rainsford finally realized what happened, he saw an enormous boat next to him. There were two men and a woman on the boat. Rainsford swam over to them, and one of the men helped him up. The man was dark haired and heavily built. The man’s face had a childish expression. He had rosy cheeks and dimples. The last thing Rainsford remembered seeing were the man’s eyes that were so vibrant they resembled two blue topazes.
The following day Rainsford woke up in in a small room painted yellow. There was a large table in front of him that had a variety of food. After a great meal he went outside on to the top deck. The woman was there putting on scuba gear. She had beautiful blond hair and bright blue eyes. She had a perfect complexion, and a smile that was like a ray of sunshine.

“Hello”, said the woman.


“Hello, my name is Rainsford. Thank you for saving me last night.”


“Nice to meet you Rainsford, my name is Elizabeth. If it is okay to ask, how did you get stranded in the middle of the Caribbean?”
Rainsford did not know what to say. He wanted to tell the people what had happened to him, but he did not want them to think he was crazy.


















So he just said, “I was on a boat with my hunting partner, and fell off late during the night. I tried to swim after the boat, but I was too slow.”
“Oh my,” said the woman. “How long were you stranded?”

“Two days,” said Rainsford trying to make his lie sound good. Then the two men came down from the stairs.
“Hello, how are you feeling?”, said the man that helped Rainsford into the boat the night before.
“I am good, thank you for asking. My name is Rainsford. Thank you for saving me last night.” Rainsford shook the man’s hand. “If I may ask, what were you guys doing out at sea so late at night?”
This time the other man started to talk. He was average height, and on the plumper side. “We are marine biologists. We are doing a study on tiger sharks, and we found that they are more active at night.”
“Oh,” said Rainsford, “How long will you be staying out at sea?”
“For a couple of days, but we already contacted another boat from Key West to come and get you. We figured you were tired, and the last thing you wanted to do was to be out at sea! ” said the heavier man.
“Thank you,” said Rainsford with smile.
Several hours passed by and the four of them started to have intense conversations on marine life, hunting, and politics. Their discussions came to an end when the other boat arrived to pick up Rainsford. He said his goodbyes and boarded the other boat. He was not really sure what happened to him the next couple of days. He slept a lot, and was taken to the hospital.
After several days of being in the hospital Rainsford had a visitor come. It was Whitney.
“Thank goodness you are all right! The morning after you fell off the boat we went back and traced our steps to find you, but you were gone! Then we sent out a search party for you.” said Whitney, who was out of breath.
“Thank you Whitney, I am so happy to see you. Yow will not believe what I have been through. You might think I am crazy, but you have to believe me.” said Rainsford.
Rainsford told Whitney everything. He talked about the chateau, Ivan, General Zaroff, his new “game”, and about how he survived.
Whitney was not sure if he believed Rainsford, but he could tell he was speaking the truth because he saw the fear in Rainsford’s eyes.

After a few days had gone by Rainsford was allowed to leave the hospital, and go back to New York with Whitney. They went to the police to explain to them about the island, but no one believed them. Finally when they told the Coast Guard, they believed them. They had been hearing about many ships vanishing around those coordinates, and how they never seemed to find any bodies during the search and rescues.

In the following week, a team of about seven hunters and government agents prepared to set sail to the island. The plan was to have Rainsford swim to shore, and go to the house to meet General Zaroff. Rainsford was to pass it off that he was living in the jungle for the past few weeks. At that point, the ship that the rest of the men were on would “wreck”, and they would swim over to the island. Zaroff would leave to go meet his new pupils. When all the guards come with Zaroff, the agents would kill all the guards, and they would capture Zaroff. A boat would come and get them within a few hours.

The plan worked well, up until Rainsford reached the house. Rainsford felt very uncomfortable going through the raggedy, rigidly road, which lead to the house. He could feel the thumping of his heart as he got closer to the chateau. It was almost like something had changed. Rainsford just had that feeling that something was wrong, but he could not put his finger on it. The thumping of Rainsford heart grew louder and louder. Right before Rainsford was going to open the door, it opened on its own. Rainsford at first was hesitant about walking in, but he did anyway.

The house appeared different. Tables were flipped, chairs were broken, and beautiful paintings were ripped. Rainsford could hear voices in the house. He walked very quietly to where they were coming from. The door was cracked slightly open and Rainsford saw an emblem that he despised. The Nazis sign. It was as if the emblem was mocking him when he saw it.


“Zaroff, we are very disappointed in you. You let that man get away. What if he tells everyone of what he has seen! Then they will be on to us!” said a tall man with pale skin, and the same black eyes as Zaroff, but with a pointed nose.

“I know, and I am sorry. It will never happen again. I will make sure that every time I have a new visitor that they will be dead with in the first day and half of the game.” said General Zaroff. You could hear the fear in his voice.

“I am most positive that it will never happen again because you will not be staying here. Another general from the Secret Nazi and Cossack Organization will be taking your place. We have a meeting next week to discuss how we can get more people on to the islands. We have come up with many ideas. Some of these ideas would be to have a fake travel agency. Others involve kidnapping. Even though we have lost most of our supporters after the war, we still have to carry on the dream of Nazism. Well, anyway you will no longer need to know any of that. You will be going back to Russia.”, said the tall man with a stone cold voice.

The only thing going through Rainsford’s mind was that he should have seen this coming. When General Zaroff told him he was a Cossack it seemed a little odd because, how could a Cossack live so lavishly? After the war the Cossacks that fought with the Germans were despised. They were exiled from Russia and left in poverty. One question still remained unanswered to Rainsford. If General Zaroff was fighting against the Germans, why was he exiled? The whimpering voice of General Zaroff interrupted Rainsford thoughts.

“But sir, they do not like the Cossacks that were fighting with the Germans in WWI. They will put me in prison or kill me!” said General Zaroff frantically.
“Good then.” And with that, the twelve men left with General Zaroff in handcuffs.
Rainsford was so in awe of what had witnessed, and heard he did not even realize all the men from the boat were behind him listening too! With just an exchange of glances they knew that this was bigger than them. The government agents were already talking about what they needed to inform the President on, and how to prevent any further murders. With the information they just heard, they realized that there are many places all around the world that are doing the same thing as General Zaroff. They also found out that a very well organized group of military men were responsible for all of these murder filled islands.
Many questions remained unanswered. For example, how big was the organization, and how many islands were involved in this crime? One thing was for certain and that was, this was just the beginning of a major mission. And in some ways, it was a continuation of a war that the world thought had ended years ago.