7 months... 13 days... 4 hours... that's how long it had been since Stan last saw any sign of civilization... since he had tasted cooked flesh or drank untainted water... Following the storm (and the subsequent wreck), he'd spent the better part of a year on this beach... sustaining himself on seaweed, crabs and whatever else might washup on shore... and during those months, those long, long months... well, let's just say it wasn't easy... fatigue, sickness, loneliness... they'd all threatened to end him at one time or another... but somehow... for the love of god, somehow... he'd managed to keep going. Then, off in the distance, something cut through the haze... a vision... a red sphere like object, skidding across the sand... and behind it... could that be? Another person? He struggled to bring it into focus, and as he began to make out what could only be a little girl running to meet the tide and retrieve the sphere (and actually was just the first in a long line of tourists returning to the shore for the summer), a single, incredible thought formed in his brain, "My god! ...I 've been going through hell... and.. she's just strolling across the sand? How on earth did she ever last this long!"
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