In Times Of Struggle

Traveling for work was never her favorite thing, in fact she down right hated it. It meant getting up earlier than she was used to, and having to pack a bag full of things she wouldn't normally bring with her anywhere. She had a knack for over packing, so she ended up with extra baggage fees the company wouldn't pay for. It seemed counter productive to seen her to Hawaii when she'd only be back in less than four days, the flight there had go well, it wasn't until her return flight took off that she noted the angry clouds outside her window. Furrowing her brow she wondered if it were even safe for them to take off; but without a second though she turned on her kindle and began reading the book she'd been dying to finish. There was never a way to travel comfortably in her opinion, everything was cramped, the air was stale - and sometimes there were crying babies. However, she seemed to get lucky this time despite the loud laughter from the seat behind her that made her smile on occasion. Part of her was happy they could be entertained but the other part of her wished they'd at least tone it down a little bit.

Tailia gasped when the plane jerked and she swore she felt it swerve, and when she looked outside she was shocked to see that they were surrounded by black clouds - she couldn't even see the wing anymore due to the water covering the window. Again the plane jerked and the seat belt light turned on causing her heart to flutter in her chest out of fear. There was a crash of lightning that made her wince, she hated lightning, it was bright and the noise that followed was more than loud - and in the sky it was only louder. Her ears were ringing now and she did everything she could to keep calm.

Yugeyeom opened his eyes when he heard one of the flight attendants rush past him, he didn't make much of it till he saw them strapping in. He sat up in his seat and buckled in, because obviously they had reason for it. He has slept pretty much since take off, so he didn't even really know what was going on, he could make out panicked words from other passengers but he didn't really know what they were saying because they were talking so quickly. He turned and looked at Jackson with a furrowed brow then shrugged a little before he leaned forward to turn on a movie on the seat in front of him then winced when the plane gave a jolt again shaking everyone on the plane, a couple people screamed and he looked over to the girl across the isle from him, then to the other side to see two elderly people holding hands and praying. Was it really that serious? He'd been through this before, maybe not as violent but he figured it was normal - the captain hadn't said anything. It was like suddenly they were freefalling out of the sky that he realized something wasn't right, his eyes went wide and he pulled his seatbelt on tighter. When the oxygen masks became available, despite trying to stay calm he could feel the fear swallowing him as he grabbed the mask with shakey hands; within seconds of grabbing the mask the plane crashed.

He groaned a little as he opened his eyes, he could hear people crying, and some screaming in pain. When he slowly began to unbuckle he realized that this had happened - their plane had crashed. It was then he began to look for his members, calling out their names one at a time.

---

Talia squeezed her eyes shut and counted down from ten; her flight anxiety had been something she struggled with since she was able to fly on her own. Whenever she flew with her mom, there was never an issue it was like the maternal guidance made it easier for her to cope with the thought of the possibility of death. Suddenly it was loud in the cabin, like wind hitting the windows with a loud scream of sorts. The lights flickers and the whole plane seemed to shake like a toddler was playing with a toy, the air bags came down and she reached forward without hesitation to put it on. Her eyes still clenched shut as she felt the tears streak down her face. There were screams of fear coming from all around her but she did her best not to look when she opened her eyes the lights were off. "Oh god," she gasped and suddenly it was like they hit a ton of bricks and the world around her went dark.

Talia coughed a little as she squeezed her eyes shut then slowly began to open then, she didn't want to move her whole body ached. She reached up to her head then winced a little when it hurt to touch it. She slowly unbuckled, she was more than confused. There was crying and people checking on others. She removed her mask as one of the flight attendants told them to only take light items and head to the wing of the plane. Slowly she got up and looked at the girl in front of her then grabbed her backpack then pulled her carry on off the floor, she dumped her laptop and anything electronic but her phone - even though she had no signal it'd be good to know how long they'd been out there, what time it was, and so she could time the sun rise and sun set. "I don't know how stabilized this plane is right now, we need to get off it as soon as possible. I don't know how deep we are ," she said as she took note that the plane was rocking so it could only mean water.

She shoved her water bottle and glasses into her bag thankful that they weren't broke. She knew in her checked luggage she had more things that they could use but right now she was too scared to go down there to check - it could be flooded and impossible to find anything.

---

He walked over and checked on each of the members, they were all banged up but alright. He put his pack on his back then looked around to see if anyone needed help, he saw several people were obviously dead. The gashes on their heads were enough to give it away, "Should we leave them here?" he asked the girl who'd been across from him in english. On the inside he had never been more panicked in his life, seeing a dead body was never something he'd have thought he'd do. "Maybe we should take their wallets - so when we get saved we know who passed away?" he offered as he looked at her.

She put her bag on her back then sighed a little, "I'm a decent swimmer, and these waters don't look to rough but the ocean is not our friend," she said as she looked at him then looked to the flight attendant. "do you have surran wrap or anything on here? If you do, pack it into a bag, that goes for all cups, bottled water and packaged foods, we'll need it," she murmured the last bit as she helped people get ready to go into the water as the sun slowly began to come up. So far the plane was holding up find in the water. It didn't look like it was sinking so she wasn't too concerned. "Does anyone know if the pilots made it?" it felt like a switch had been turned on inside of her, the need to care for others around her to make sure her own anxiety stayed in check.

---

Yugeyeom nodded a little as he looked at the people who had passed then began to grab things off the floor like bottles of water and stuffing them into his pack, he grabbed a handful of peanuts from the trolley at the end of the isle that had fell over. He opened it up and saw alcohol, "Will this be useful?" he asked as he held up the tiny bottles of vodka.

She helped load everyone into the boat then looked back and sighed a little as she began to help load all the water into the raft with everyone. There were several cases of water bottles which was good, it'd let them worry about other things. Like shelter and figuring out their fresh water situation. With fifty people to look after, some ill - they would need to make sure everyone had enough. Just her alone could go through two gallons a day on a normal basis, now? In the heat? she could go through even more.

Talia climbed into the raft then sat near the edge grabbing a paddle as she watched them, "come on the waves are getting bigger, please we have to get to shore soon," she said as she looked off in the distance for rocks. She'd be more worried if there were rocks near the shore but she couldn't see any, if she could see under the water she'd do it but the chance of there being jelly fish or sharks made her apprehensive. "If we go off that way we can avoid the rocks I see peaking there," she said speaking to the person in the front of the raft then wet her lips, "if anyone has been white water rafting now would be the time to speak up,"

Yugeyeom held his hand out for her, "It's going to be okay, you can just look at me the whole time or close your eyes. If you passout thats fine too, it'll be over before you know it," he said softly as he stepped back into the raft gently pulling her with him.

Getting to shore was easier then she had anticipated with the amount of people they had paddling it kept the raft from hitting the rocks - when she felt sand she jumped off the raft and onto the shore grabbing the rope on the side of it to keep it from going back out with the retracting wave, "Alright, everyone out. Be careful," she said as she looked at their surroundings trying to figure out where they were then sighed as she helped one of the elderly off the raft then sat her over on a log, "I'll get you some water in a second," she told her lightly with a small smile. Once the raft was completely on shore they unloaded all the supplies and she went to work making a shelter from the sun, exposure was sure to kill them before hunger. They had enough water to last around two days but she needed to get to work on that as well.

"We're going to need to work on finding fresh water, what we have won't last long and dehydration and exposure is our biggest worry right now," she said out loud so everyone could hear her. As an avid hiker she knew how to find water, but she worried that the island was too small with no natural water without salt.

A woman looked at her and shook her head, "We need food," she said to her and Talia shook her head.

"you can go weeks without food so long as you have water, you can only go four days without water and with this kind of heat we're going to be exposed to - maybe less," she said to her, "shelter and water are first priority, but since there are a lot of us some can work on securing food. No berries though, unless you know what it is other wise don't touch it. Those.." she pointed to the tree, "look like coconuts, we can eat those and drink the water from them, and use the shell as cups," she offered.

Yugeyeom looked at where she pointed, "I'm a good climber, I can get up there," he said as he thought about it, the tree had what looked like little steps on it anyway, "Just watch out below," he said as he walked over to the tree.

"Does anyone have medical training?" Another woman asked as she looked around, several people were working on getting leaves for shelter and for to lay on so they didn't lay on pure sand which would definitely be uncomfortable.

Talia nodded a little, "Alright, well.. be careful," she said as she looked at them, "grab everything you can, but priority is food and water. Then blankets and first aid, and then carry on luggage, I'm sure there are people here who need stuff inside of them. Be it extra clothes or medicine," the thought of someone needing medicine and not getting it made her concerned. There was a lot at risk here with where they were. It scared her to think they were at the mercy of the island at this point. Talia had forgotten about the wound on her head when she went to wipe the sweat forming on her head already as she used dried leaves to make a twine of sorts to tie sticks together, "Ow," she winced a little then closed her eyes.

"I can help you once I get this set up, luckily there are a lot of branches, we can build a shade shelter which will help a lot. Make sure to shake the leaves off before we lay them across the back of it - I don't know what kind of bugs are here so I want to avoid being bitten,"

Yugeyeom nodded to Jackson then sighed a little as he looked at the other members who seemed to just be coming to terms with what had happened, he was happy no one was panicking just yet but he knew in a matter of time there would be fear spreading among the survivors. "Food, water, blankets... so just everything?" he said as he looked to the brunette who was fixing up a makeshift shelter.

"Basically, everything you can get your hands off. Start by clearing off the kitchen, pans, pots, cups, alcohol, it'll have a purpose," she said to him as she wet her lips.

The flight attendant stood, "I'll go with them, there are two EMT bags in the plane and there is a lot of stuff that is hard to explain where it is," she said as she brushed the sand off her outfit, "And I'd like to find something else to change into, this isn't very practical,"

She nodded a little as she began to build a shaded area, she dug a small hole about 1 foot by 1 foot and pout the branch into it then cover it with sand and rocks for stability then moved to to the same to the other wise. "Can someone pour some water around that column I just put in, when the sun dries the sand it'll get really hard, like concrete but until I find mud or clay this will have to do," a older but able bodied woman grabbed a empty water bottle filling it with salt water then dumping it onto the post slowly. After she finished grounding each one she began to use the twine she made to make little lines to each post then added a third post to each side leaving enough space so you could get through them, "Now set dead leaves on first, then put fresh ones on top, it'll give more stability to it, start on the outside edges work your way in, I'm going to build another structure this one will be smaller than that one, lay a blanket on the ground of this one as well,"

She was beginning to feel sick from the heat and she knew it was because she was over heating, she pulled off her t shirt and used it to cover her neck and head. "Alright, I need more rocks about the side of golf balls and tennis balls,"

Yugeyeom helped the attendant into the raft then began pushing it out into the water before hopping into it with Mark, "We'll be back as soon as we can," he said as he grabbed a paddle then sighed a little. He could see some fish swimming towards the bottom of the water - maybe they could make nets somehow and work with that.

Talia nodded a little as she looked at her, "Alright, I can do that," she said as she finished tying the twine to the branches, "Alright get started on this one too," she told them, "It might help to weave the longer leaves in and out of the twine here like this," she demonstrated for them, "then lay the healthier leaves on top of it," one of the guys made a sound of understanding and she smiled a little as she walked over to the tree line, she saw a branch hanging down then pulled it off the tree. she tested it by putting all her weight on it, it didn't even bend. Using some of the twine she wrapped it around the rough edges to make a sort of handle. "It's not much but it'll have to do, also for anyone gathering fire wood make sure its dry so it'll catch fire easier anything wet can be set out to dry over there,"

She could hear a woman crying off to the side then looked at her making sure she wasn't hurt, but she knew it was probably the stress of the situation getting to her, "Hey," she said softly crouching next to her, "Why don't you come help me, it'll keep your mind off things. I'm sure we won't be here that long, but we need to make sure we're safe in case of a storm or something," she said to her smiling a little as she helped her to her feet. She had the woman starting to braid more twine, and told her if she knew how to make it stronger it would be very helpful, it turned out the woman knew how to sew so she knew how to mend clothes and might even be of use medically.

Walking over to where they were setting the fire wood she began to dig out a small area about eight inches deep and two feet across each way, lining the bottom of it and the edges with rocks, "alright, now we can make a self feeding fire. If you're interested in learning then watch on. My dad taught me this, basically you build this little structure then add wood through out the whole thing then add dried forage in the middle, then light it I'm going to save our matches and use a stick," she said as she began to use a small piece of dried wood and some grass to start kindling it then set it on the large logs. she blew on the small fire then let it begin to grow, "Great, this is perfect," she murmured softly as people brought her salt water in a bottle and some fresh water as well as two bottles of vodka.

"do you need anything else?" she asked her lightly, "I can build a splint if you need it,"