"The Long Drop," by Eric Lund

On an island, no one can hear you scream; so we learn the hard way in The Long Drop, in which Eric Lund must get his hands dirty while stationed on Laysan Island after a gray-backed tern finds itself doing laps in the loo.

“I didn’t think much of the glancing blow, but when I looked down I realized that the gray-backed tern that had apparently thudded into me had crash landed on the lua and was now teetering on the toilet seat, its partially outstretched wings barely spanning the opening. Caught in the glare of the stage light gaze of my headlamp, the frightened bird flopped and flailed on the otherwise empty toilet-seat stage. My heart racing, I lunged for the bird, but not before it dropped out of sight into the abyss beneath the long drop’s trapdoor.”

Next Chapter: "The Tower Colony," by Brianna Williams