The story opens with the following
epigraph:
Survivor Type is an
epistolary story written as the diary of a disgraced surgeon, Richard Pine, who, while attempting to smuggle a large amount of heroin aboard a cruise ship, is forced to escape when an explosion causes the ship to sink. Pine relates growing up poor in New York City's Little Italy, attending medical school, and establishing successful practice until his illegal distribution of prescription medicines led to the loss of his license. He arranged to smuggle
heroin from Vietnam to make a large amount of money, which would then be distributed for bribes that would enable him to return to practicing medicine. Pine finds himself marooned on a tiny island in the Pacific Ocean whose exact location is completely unknown to him, with very limited supplies and no food. A self-proclaimed "survivor" type, he bitterly whiles away the time by using a logbook as his diary, detailing his rise and fall in the medical profession and his determination to survive this ordeal, get even with the people that "screwed him over", and return to prosperity. Over time, the diary entries become more and more disjointed and raving, revealing Pine's slow mental decay and eventual insanity caused by starvation, isolation, and drug use. Determined to hold out for rescue, he goes to horrifying lengths to survive. He eats insects, kelp, and seagulls. After fracturing his ankle while attempting to signal an airplane, he
amputates his own foot, then realizes he has to
eat it to survive. He continues to
amputate his own limbs to use as a food source, ingesting the heroin as a crude
anesthetic during these operations. Although he initially keeps track of the dates (the entries begin January 26), his increasing mental instability causes him to lose perception of days passed (finally ending his entries with "
Febba" and "
Fe/40?"). His last few diary entries, barely comprehensible, indicate that Pine has sliced off and eaten both legs, as well as his earlobes, and drools uncontrollably as he ponders which body part to consume next. The diary entries end when he cuts off his left hand to eat it and writes that his fingers taste just like
lady fingers. ==Development==