Survive

The plane isn’t burnt to a crisp like I thought it would be. The water must have smothered the flames because the part on land is completely burnt but the part in the water isn't.

I climb on and look for anything useful. I see dead bodies, some burnt, some in the water, and some lying in the aisle.

The cockpit stayed intact and relatively unharmed. I search through it, hoping to find some things we can use. I do find a few.

I find walkie-talkies, water damaged but I think I can work with them to try to make them work. I also find a tool box with a few useful things in it. I find that the radio is completely fried, nothing I can do about it. I find a few blankets, burnt or soaked, but still useful.

I go through tons of drawers and cabinets but not much else is useful. I find a few parachutes.
They probably would have been useful before the plane went down. I grab them anyway because…you never know.

Altogether I have two full backpacks of things we might be able to use, including the walkie-talkies, blankets, food-just awful airplane food, some water bottles-empty but useful, a lighter-don’t know if it works but cross your fingers, and I threw in a few sharp objects that could be useful for another attack. I grab the tool box and three parachutes.

I make my way back to the cave and am surprised to find all the girls at the entrance.

“What’s going on?” I ask them. They all jump.

“We were just waiting for you,” Brooke says. She runs over and takes two of the parachutes from me. Anna follows her lead and grabs the last parachute and the tool box.

“We found a waterfall,” Anna exclaims.

“Where?” I ask. Anyone who can walk is helping show me the way.

They lead me only a few yards away. They stop and pull back a few branches. There is a waterfall, a little higher than my arms reach.

“It’s perfect,” I sigh. I turn back to the girls. “In the backpacks I brought back there should be a few water bottles. We need to find a few more but that should be fine for now.”

Penny and Mac go back and get the bottles. We fill them up but there are only five of them. At this rate we will have to fill them up every half hour. I look around to try to find something to use but there is nothing. No coconuts or thick weeds or even big leaves.

We all head back to the cave. The storm looks like it will be coming in a few hours. And it looks bad. We are going to need more food, water, and warmth.

When we get back to the cave, I see long thick weeds and huge leaves. Perfect.

“Okay,” I say once everyone is sitting around the fire, “we need to plan out what we still have to do. We found shelter and we have the fire for warmth but we might need more. We need people to collect the dry, dead wood from around the bottom of trees. We have to keep it in the back of the cave so that it can’t get wet. We also need to make baskets for more water. It’s great we found the water and filled the bottles but we need more. I saw leaves and weeds we could use to make the baskets. I can show a few people how to make them. We also need more food, but we don’t really have anything to take anything down with. We can look for fruits in the trees but we need meat. The liger was just a fluke, pure luck. We need spears or arrows or something that you can throw from farther away.”

“So we split into groups again,” Leah states. I nod in reply.

“Probably the same groups,” Lucy sighs. That means that they would have to stay back again and probably make the baskets or weapons.

“No, we need one more group this time,” I say. I count the girls, twelve of them, not counting Mila who is still unconscious. I need to check on her again soon.

“How about Penny, Mac, Quinn, and Kay go collect and stack wood?” They nod and get up to leave.

“And then Anna, Brooke, and Tori can work on the baskets,” I say. They nod and stand up to leave. Tori seems fine now. She’s at peace with the pole in her middle.

“Claire and Riley can try to fix these,” I say as I show them the walkie-talkies I found. At school they were the tech people, computers and engineering. If anyone could fix them, it would be one of them. They nod and begin to look at them.

“Liv, Leah, and Lucy can work on weapons,” I say. I dump out the sharp objects I found and set out five of my knives. They nod and get to work.

I go outside and show the girls how to make the baskets. I start by tying two weeds together.
Then I begin to swirl them around in a tight pattern and begin to weave them together. I do it quickly, just for show, so it won’t last long. I weave in a huge leaf and show them how to tie it off to finish it. They get to work and make much better ones.

“Skylar,” Liv calls me over. I squat next to her and she shows me a drawing in the dirt of a bow and arrow set. She explains it to me and tells me what to get. I go out and find the stuff she needs.

The four of us work together to build some weapons. It takes a while because we don’t know what we’re doing. Dad taught me many things but making weapons was not one of them. Using them…now that’s another story.

Before we know it, the sun is setting. Taking with it all of our light. I build up the fires, three of them. I make a few torches for those who need it and I find places to place them so that we don’t have to hold them all the time.

We line up the baskets of water, four of them total, against the wall in the back. Two of them will be for drinking water and two of them will be for washing and in case the fire gets too big. The girls all line up so that they can wash their faces and hands and the remaining blood.

Mila wakes up just as we bring in the water so we give her a big drink. She’s stiff and it hurts to move too much but she’ll live. She’s not in that much pain but that was one of the things I found on the plane so I give her some.

We have a large stack of wood, enough to last through the night and most of tomorrow.
Claire and Riley were working on the walkie-talkies but they aren’t working yet. I was thinking of seeing if we could try to contact an airplane somehow. I’ll ask them about it tomorrow.

The weapons are coming along nicely. We have two spears made from a branch that is cut to a point. We have one bow and two arrows. We also still have the knives if we really need them.

“So we survived our first day on the island,” I say when everyone starts settling down.

“Do you think we’ll be here for long?” Liv asks.

I shrug and reply, “I don’t know. We could be here for a few hours or a few days. We should prepare for the worst. And a good way to do that is to set up watches. Every one to two hours we can switch and there can be three up at a time.”

“I volunteer for first watch,” Mila says. I nod because it wouldn’t be good to deny someone of a watch, even if she wouldn’t be able to do much if there was a threat out there.

Claire and Riley both agree to keep watch too. They all grab a weapon and sit near the entrance.

I turn to everyone else. “Who will be next watch?” Anna, Brooke, and Tori volunteer. Penny, Quinn, and Leah are after that. Mac, Kay, and Lucy are after that. Liv and I are in the morning. Each group will only stay on watch for at most two hours. Because of the stress today, I don’t think many of them will be able to stay up longer than that.

I settle down in the corner. There are only so many blankets so everyone huddles together and lays close to the fire. It may be hot during the day but at night it is freezing.

I don’t sleep. I simply rest.

I think. About the day, the food, the water, the upcoming storm, the animals out there. My mind is constantly going. I can’t stop it.

When they switch watches, I decide that enough is enough. I can’t sleep and I don’t like just sitting here.

“I’ll be back in a little while,” I say to Tori.

“Where are you going?” she asks me. I turn back to her and see her holding a backpack. She offers it to me and our eyes meet. She knows why I’m doing it and where I’m going. I don’t know how but I know she does.

I take it and look through it. There is a sweater, two knives, the bow and 4 arrows, and a bottle of water. “Thank you,” I say when I look up at her.

She nods in reply and I slip outside.

I walk to the beach. I sit in the cool sand and look up at the moon.

Again I think.

By the time I stand up, the sky is lighter, preparing for dawn. I head back to the cave.

We are just switching shifts when I come back. It’s Liv and I’s turn. I put the backpack down and sit by the entrance.

Notes

Hope you liked it! Happy Reading!