The Island

The impact was incredible, but the damage didn’t reflect that. Most of the teens escaped with minor bruises. Tim seemed to have a twisted ankle but was otherwise unharmed. Tiffany had a large cut on her forehead that stretched from her hairline to the bridge of her nose.

Most of the windows had shattered sending large shards of glass everywhere. Some of which were stuck in the soft cushioning of the seats. Cole was the first person to stand up on the floating plane. “I’m going to check on the others.” I thought about this, I wanted to know if Mr. Ross and the captain and Michelle were okay more than any of the others. And if we were still alive then the adults had to be too right? So I shakily stood up, using the seat to assist me. “Wait, I'm going too.” I guessed nobody else had the nerve to stand up so Cole and I went with alone to the front of the plane, not in any way prepared for the horror that waited for us.

First we found Mr. Ross. It was a sight straight out of a horror movie. His jaw was slack and his glazed over eyes stared up at the white ceiling. His glasses lenses were cracked and splattered with red. I shrieked and clutched Cole’s shoulder for support when I saw his neck. A large piece of glass had embedded itself into his neck and blood soaked it and the collar of his blue shirt. Some blood still dripped from the angled glass. He seemed to have bled out from his wound. Cole gently pressed his wrist and felt no pulse. Barely above a whisper he told me “He’s dead.” I cried in emotional agony, but refused to go back with the others. So we moved on.

Next was Michelle. She sat in a seat, also staring up at the ceiling, but when the kids looked closer they saw her gasping for air and heard her cough fiercely. She was alive. I held Michelle’s hand while she gasped. Cole could make out a single statement. “I-it, it hurts to breathe!” She must have had a punctured lung, I guessed. I liked to watch medical shows on TV. Suddenly Michelle violently coughed up a handful of blood. I gently lifted her shirt to reveal her badly bruised stomach. Internal bleeding and a punctured lung. She’ll never make it. It’s only a matter of time. I tried to think of someone who could take her to the others gently without freaking out. “Brian!” I screamed “Brian get up here NOW!” He was the strongest one here and only someone really strong could lift her steadily. In less than a minute Brian was there. He gently scooped Michelle up into his arms without effort and took her back to the others. Again, they moved on.

Lastly we found the captain and were surprised at his condition. He had a silver letter opener sticking out of his chest, directly over his heart. He killed himself. I realized, he probably thought we were all going to die anyway. I started to cry harder but maintained my posture. Letting tears fall onto his pale cheek. I knew that I would have time to mourn later. We walked back to the others. Cole explained everything to them. “Mr. Ross and the captain are dead. Everyone grab your seat cushion, we need to get out of the plane. Brian you help Michelle onto one.” Everyone did as he said. Once we got out of the plane we could see a small island. It seemed to be close enough to swim to. So we all swam towards it. Brian pushed Michelle along as she clutched the cushion. Eventually the water became shallow enough to walk in. We waded to the sandy beach and collapsed.

I saw Niki as she dropped to the sand, exhausted and sobbing. She crawled to a palm tree on the beach, sat up against it and broke down. No longer controlling her sobs she began trembling in agony, her deep cries echoed through the humid air. Cole then walked up to me “I know we’re stranded on an island in the middle of nowhere and all, but now is the perfect time to make your move.” I didn’t need any more encouragement than that. I walked a little apprehensively towards Niki, sat down beside her, and wrapped my arms around her. One around her shoulders and one around her waist, gently pulling her towards him. She scooted her way closer to me until she was practically in my lap and wrapped her arms around him, her nails digging into my shoulders through my tee shirt. She had sharp nails and it hurt a little but I didn’t care. I started stroking her hair and rubbing her back, trying to calm her. It seemed to work gradually and I let her cry herself out there with me. After what seemed like hours she let out a gigantic sigh and relaxed in my arms. Her breathing became slow and even. I peered down and saw that she was sleeping. I leaned his head back against the tree and fell asleep too, not wanting the moment to end.

I woke up and found that Niki was still cradled in my arms. It was light outside so I guessed that we had slept through the night. I gently shook Niki’s shoulder until her eyes fluttered open. When she saw where she was and who she was with she blushed a deep pink color and started to stand up. I let my arms fall away from her. She walked away from me quickly and over to where they had the wounded on the beach.
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I couldn't believe where I had just woken up. I remembered the night before and how Kyle had been so nice to me. I remembered waking up and looking up into his warm amber eyes. I pushed my thoughts about Kyle away and went to the wounded people. Tim wouldn’t need much attending to, twisted ankles practically healed themselves. I talked to Tim “Just try to stay off of it as much as you can and it will practically heal itself.” He seemed unhappy about this but he limped off to where Vanessa was sitting, drawing pictures in the sand. Glad to see being stranded on an island hadn't affected her artwork.

Tiffany looked worse than I had ever seen her. Her constant crying had made her eyeliner drip down her cheeks and dried blood matted her blonde hair to her forehead and stained it dark red. “I’ll need to boil some water to clean the cut with. But since I don’t have a pot it will have to wait. Will you be okay?” Her response was a shaky nod, so I went to Michelle.

She looked terrible. Her skin was pale and her cheeks were shallow. Her gasping had become lighter and less frequent; I guessed that she didn’t have much time left. Poor Michelle didn’t even have the strength to nod anymore. I took off my shirt so I was just in my camisole and bra. I folded it and gently lifted her head as I placed it under her. I wanted to make her comfortable for what little time she had left. I held back my tears as I held her hand. After what had to have been hours she started to fade. Her gasping eventually stopped and her eyes seemed empty. I felt for a pulse but to no avail. She was gone. And despite the fact that I had only known her for a day, I cried for her death.

I walked over to the others to break the bad news. “Michelle died.” I was shocked that nobody cried for her. Everyone just stared at me with sad expressions, but nobody besides me shed a tear. I started out calm “Brian, Alec, Cole…” I listed the names of the three strongest guys in the group, “Can you dig a grave for her?” Brian and Alec just looked at me with baffled expressions. Cole was the one to answer “Of course we can, let’s go guys.” I walked over to Michelle one last time and gently closed her eyes. Goodbye.