Story Summary

An airliner traveling from Honolulu to Papua New Guinea is caught in a violent storm, and is forced to ditch in the Pacific Ocean. Only one man and a pair of dogs survive, washing up on a remote South Pacific Island. The man, a wanderlusting university student visiting his sister, is injured by debris, and nearly dies before he can locate a damaged first aid kit to treat himself.

While this is happening, a particularly virulent strain of influenza develops unlike none the world has ever seen, affecting 90% of humans, leading to a massive depopulation of the planet. A nuclear war between desperate superpowers also occurs, causing further destruction and loss of life. Even though the man has a working emergency transponder from the plane's survival kit, and would have been seen within days in normal circumstances, rescue never arrives.

Forced to accept the notion that civilization will never find him, the man begins to make the island his home. As he grows stronger, he swims out to the plane wreckage and salvages what supplies he can, which will serve him until he can begin producing his own. Furthermore, he discovers that the island has frequently hosted other castaways across the centuries, who had all died in their forced captivity, such as a World War II fighter pilot with unexploded ordnance. He wonders if he will simply die with the rest of them, or whether he can survive until help comes...

5 years later...
Joe, haggard and barely able to clothe himself, has established a somewhat comfortable life in exile. He produces much of his own food via primitive farming, and maintains a crude fishery on one shore. The dogs have become pets of his own and provided him with a small litter of puppies. However, attempts to produce his own sailing vessel have failed, and he has all but abandoned the idea of returning home himself.

One night, he hears an unusual sound: a motorboat engine. Rushing to investigate the sound, he spots a small flotilla of boats on the horizon. Thinking that rescue has arrived, he hastily pops signal flares and lights a large fire, which attracts the fleet's attention, and is returned with a hail of gunfire that severely injures him. Staggering to higher ground, he begins to observe the group.

Rather than saviors, these appear to be pirates, speaking Indonesian and all wielding old weaponry and bloody machetes. They also carry with them a number of civilians, who are summarily dragged out of the boats and gradually tortured and slaughtered, with many of these victims even being eaten and roasted on large bonfires. Joe assumes the situation is hopeless, and prepares to kill himself...Before he realizes his long-lost sister is among the hostages. Stabilizing his injury, Joe and his remaining dog begin a guerrilla campaign throughout the night, killing the pirates one-by-one with his spear as they are lured into dark and unknown areas of the island. In the early hours of the next day, the remaining pirates are explosively eliminated after Joe pushes the WWII fighter's 200 lb. bomb directly onto their camp. However, in the ensuing chaos, he realizes that he had gravely wounded his sister, who dies in his arms...

7 years later...

In the years following the pirate attack, Joe has built up a small arsenal using their captured weapons. The horrors he witnessed and the loss of his sister have made him intensely paranoid, and he has constructed crude defenses and fortifications all across the island in the event of an attack.
One day, he awakes to discover a fishing boat that had struck a sandbar near the island. Swimming to the ship, he discovers 12 refugees who had run out of provisions during their journey. Not willing to take risks, he threatens to shoot them if they do not leave, but he is soon forced to accept their presence and takes them ashore. From the leader of the group, he learns that they are the remnants of a group of Mormons fleeing from the ruins of Honolulu, attempting to seek safe haven in Australia, which is said to have never been affected by the Great Plague or the Great Fire.

Joe does not accept this theory at first, but realizing it is his only means of rescue, he declares his intention to leave the island with them once they have recovered. Over the next few days, he finds himself increasingly suspicious of the travelers. His supplies begin to go missing, despite the rationing system he had set in place; however, the group ascribes this to Joe's paranoia. Various group members display intense curiosity over the exact details of his small farm. Finally, the Preacher increasingly insists on changing their plan and staying on the island, to which Joe repeatedly refuses. Eventually, one of the group kills Joe's dog after it bites him, which prompts Joe to violently attempt to make them leave. The group quickly takes advantage of this and overpowers him.

He is imprisoned in the cargo hold of the fishing boat, along with 3 others that Joe had not originally discovered, including the ship's captain. They reveal to them that the leader of the group wishes to take the island for himself in order to build a primitive utopia, and had mutinied rather than agree to continue to Australia, despite having sufficient supplies to do so. Joe is later released by the Preacher and told that he will die unless he submits to their demands, which includes teaching them how to farm and how to operate his fishery. While he is in no position to disagree, Joe begins to form a plan. Through small-talk and quiet manipulation, he turns the group against each other, feeding false knowledge and suggesting group members are too incompetent to take on the roles for the party to survive.

Forming alliances with other refugees, he is able to free the prisoners from the ship, and create a compromise with the Preacher at gunpoint. In exchange for being able to remain on the island, the group will allow Joe and his companions to take the ship and sail for Australia. Bidding farewell to his island, he packs his meager belongings and boards the fishing boat, which sets sail the following day...

2 months later...
Joe arrives in Australia and finds it to be exactly as shitty as he expected it to be. Involves him traveling through the middle of Australia Mad Max-style as he deals with road warriors and bandits. TO BE CONTINUED.