David+K

David K Flight 147 "Just find your seat and try to relax, everything is going to be fine." Then everything went dark. As I struggled to stand on what appeared to be a beach, I remembered the other passengers. I had to find the plane if i ever wanted to have a chance at getting rescued. As I trekked through the jungle, a thin line of smoke caught my eye, "That must be where the plane crashed." It took about 45 minutes to reach the crash site. There were bits and pieces of the plane scattered all over the scorched jungle floor. Suddenly I heard some one cry out, "Over here! help! I'm over here!" I rushed to the emergency door from the plane that was lying on top of the man screeching for help. His right leg was clearly broken below the knee, I picked up a large branch that had been snapped off by the plane crash and gave it to him as a crutch. "Whats happening?" "We've crashed, on an island I think. But we need to - "Hello!? Is anyone there?"shouted a voice from beyond the tree line. A man walked out from the jungle. "Are we all thats left?" said the man who had just arrived. "I think so."  We new that we needed to find shelter and soon we would need food, we would also need to make a fire. We decided to set up a camp just above the beach in case any ships pass by the island.  It appeared we where on a tropical island, there was a beach with gold like sand and the waves see to sink into the sand as they crashed on the beach. The sand stretched into the distance, where the sand met the jungle vines creeped out onto the beach like fingers. Peering through the jungle, there was a wide variety of plants and trees and above that there was what appeared to be a volcano.  "Hey, what do you think this is" ,said the tall dark-haired man who had introduced himself as Jorden. Before I went to examine whatever object Jorden had found, I looked at the man with the broken leg, who briefly introduced himself as Pepe'. I was glad we where able to splint Pepe's leg so he could move. Jorden had found a silver medallion that had been scribed with illegible markings. The medallion had a thick chain just long enough to be worn as a necklace, Jorden decided he would keep it. After gathering some supplies for getting a fire going we where walking back towards the beach and noticed a food cart from the plane. It seemed to be untouched by the crash except some small dents. "Hey Jorden, we should search that food cart for water and food, and after that we should search through the rest of the plane crash for other things we might need" There was both food and water in the food cart. When we got to the beach the sun was setting, the clouds looked like pink and purple mist glowing over the reflecting ocean. We needed a shelter because it would be dark soon. Jorden and I gathered drift wood from the beach and strapped them together to make a lean-to. We used the tarp from the plane and put it over the drift wood in case of rain. We were to tired to make a fire and decided we would leave it until tomorrow, then we went to sleep.

When I woke up there was a sharp sound of a candy bar wrapper, one we found in the cart, Jorden and Pepe' were both eating. As I stood I noticed I was very hungry, my stomach felt like it was shrinking. I ate one of the candy bars and was almost done my water bottle when I noticed both Jorden and Pepe' where staring in the direction of the volcano. I turned as quickly as I could only to see the same jungle as yesterday. Then I saw the volcano which had a thick cloud of fiery smoke bellowing out, up into the deep blue sky. The day before when we saw the volcano we though it was inactive.

We went back to the crash site searching for something to make a fire with and found an emergency kit with a pack of water proof matches. As Jorden and I made our way back to the beach we heard what we though was screaming in the distance. The screaming continued for about thirty seconds then it ended abruptly. We would have to check it out later in case there were other survivors on the plane.When we got back to the beach Pepe', who we left behind because of his injury, was patiently waiting. "I guess you didn't hear the screaming?" i asked Pepe' "I did not hear any screaming" he managed to say despite his lack of english vocabulary.

After talking among ourselves, we decided we would build a better shelter for Pepe', so that Jorden and I could investigate the scream. If we lived through the crash it was possible that some of the others had as well. Once we had built up the shelter a bit more we where getting ready to go check if there was anyone else on the island. We though we should head towards the volcano because of the smoke. It took about twenty minutes of hiking through thick brush until we reached the base of the volcano. We hadn't seen or heard anything yet so we kept going.

We found what looked like a frequently used trail leading up the mountain. We went to the top of the volcano, following the trail that wrapped around the mountain so we could get a better view of the island. As we reached the top we could feel the heat of the volcano like a warm wind, at the top we could see into the volcano. it was a pit of molten lava bubbling and blistering with an orange glow that radiated up the inner wall of the volcano and crept through the thin yellow grass. We had a view of most of the island from here, we could see the beach and where the plane had crashed. On the opposite side of the island there was an opening in the trees, and what looked like the top of a grass hut. "If someone lives on the this island they might be able to help us" announced Jorden. "They might even have medical supplies, for Pepe's leg" I stated. "Should we go there now?" questioned Jorden. "I think we should tell Pepe' first so he knows where we are" I said. As we head back towards the beach we discussed the possibilities of someone living on the island, and the medallion, it could belong to how ever lives on the island. As we neared the beach and Pepe and the shelter became visible it became clear something was wrong. It appeared as if Pepe' was sleeping but he didn't seem to be breathing. We rushed to him to try and help but there was no physical damage. Then, I thought I saw something move near the back of the shelter, it was a snake. It must have been poisonous because we saw bite marks on the back of his arm as we lifted him out of the shelter. We had lost Pepe'. We decided to wait another day before venturing to the other side of the island where we though we saw a hut, we also needed to do something with Pepe's body since we had no shovels we weren't sure what to do. We decided to light a fire as it was getting dark and there was now the threat of snakes. As the last sliver of golden yellow sunlight disappeared the clouds lit up with orange and yellow from the still present but no longer visible sun. When I woke up the fire was a bed of dark charcoal. Jorden was still asleep, the sun was about to come up and we would need to re-light the fire incase anyone noticed that our plane went down and was searching for us. I wondered to myself if the tour guide I was going to meet had reported me missing or checked if the plane had landed. When Jorden finally woke up, about twenty minutes later, we got the fire lit and put enough wood on it to last for several hours. Not knowing how long we would be gone we decided to bring two bottles of water and a candy bar we could split. As we trekked through the lush jungle we noticed the was an abundance of red flowers that looked like roses but twice the size and they were growing off of vines. When we reached the volcano and passed the trail we used the day before, there was now what seemed to be some sort of shrine with the same type of symbols on the medallion. We knew there was someone else on the island and we had to find them. We continued our journey and passed the time talking about what we were doing before we were stranded on this island. "I was going to stay in Costa Rica for a few days, then I was going to Columbia for a couple weeks." Jorden said. It was midday when we started to get close to the place where we though we saw the hut. The jungle seemed to get thicker as we pressed on. When we finally made it to a clearing we could see, what we now knew was a hut. There where five of them grouped together in a semi-circle. The huts were made from long strands of dried yellow grass. We peered through the hut furthest to the left of the semi circle, but it was empty. We check another three and they were empty as well. When we got to last hut, the biggest of the five, it too appeared empty but with a small shrine similar to the one at the trail to the volcano. I guess this trip was a waste of time, there isn't anyone here, I thought to my self as we left the empty hut. As soon as we left we noticed something moving in the trees were we had come through. We began to walk towards whatever was moving through the jungle, but before we even realized it, we were surrounded by people. They were dressed like savages, their hair was bleached from the sun and knotted, there clothes seemed to be made of animal pelts and they all carried spears. We had walked into a trap without even realizing. The tribe had formed a small circle around us and were pointing their spears at us. The circle had opened between two of the men, then another member of the tribe approached, only this one was wearing a head dress. This must be the chief or the leader I thought. In a demanding voice he shouted one word, "SIT!". We did, mostly out of fear, but he did nothing after that. He just stood there, looming over us with a disturbing presence for about five minutes. Then he stepped to the side. Behind him stood a short slim man with snow white hair and circular glasses and a white lab coat which was stained with dark green smudges. "What are you doing here? This island is off limits to the public, it is home to one of the last of a very old tribe" he said sternly. "We are stranded here, our plane crashed on the other side of the island, we are just looking for a way home." I answered cautiously. The scientist uttered a phrase in another language to the chief and then the chief left and the other men lowered there spears and stepped back, still watching us carefully. "There is a boat due to come buy every three days, and it will be here tomorrow at midday, I'm sure they could take you out of here." the scientist said. "Thats great" said Jorden "I just need to go back to the crash site, my brief case is there and it is very valuable to me". We made plans to meet back at the huts the next day. When we got to the crash site it was almost completely dark, so we lit a fire near the crash site so we could see better, then we took some branches and lit the ends to make torches. It took about fifteen minutes to find the brief case, when we did I could tell by the look on Jordens face there was something of great value in it. "Whats in the brief case?" I asked. "Just some paperwork and my passport." he said. We decided to sleep near the crash by the fire so we could stay warm and would have a shorter walk the next day. The next day when we woke up the fire was out, and there was the dull roar of an engine in the distance and it seemed to be slowly getting closer. We walked towards the beach, and through the trees we could see a boat, that must be the one that the scientist was talking about. I began to jog towards the beach thinking I could flag them down and save the walk. Just before I broke through the tree line, i felt a hand grasp my shoulder and jerk me to the ground. It was Jorden looking like he had seen a ghost and pressing his finger to his lips as if to tell me not to make any noise. When the hum of the boat motor had faded away and all we could hear was the light breeze through the trees, Jorden said very quietly, "Theres something you should probably know before we go any further" "What is it?" "Well, I'm not on vacation I'm actually working. My brief case doesn't have any paperwork, its full of cocaine I was supposed to deliver as soon as I landed. And I think that boat was looking for me." "So you're a drug dealer?!" I blurted out. "Yea I guess, but we don't have time to talk now, we have to get to the huts so we can get off this island." We started running in the direction of the huts, it only took about five minutes to reach the volcano, we stopped to rest by the trail. Then we heard the same boat circling back, and pull up on the beach. We couldn't see them but we could hear them talking, then we heard them walking in our direction. We started to jog through the jungle again and about five seconds later we heard a gun shot, and the bullet flew between us. Now we were sprinting through the trees, jumping over fallen trees and small bushes, finally we could just see the huts ahead through the trees where we were ambushed. We broke through the tree line running as fast as we could, Jorden must have forgotten that there were tall vine like roots at the entrance because he caught his foot on one and fell flat against the ground. His brief case flew through the air spinning until it hit the ground with a thud, and it exploded with a cloud of white dust into the main hut were the tribe was gathered. We had just made it in time for the boat, it was ready to leave, the scientist waved to us to come down through the small trail that lead to the beach. Jorden was in a daze, there was a gouge on his right temple trickling blood at a steady pace. I tried to get him to the boat but he must have had a concussion, he looked very confused and didn't know where he was. The members of the tribe that were in the hut with the shrine came out to see what was going on, they looked crazy with white on there faces. Just then the three men that had been chasing us came through the trees, the tribe saw them and charged them with there spears. But before I could do anything one of the men pulled his gun out, aimed down the sites at Jorden and shot him three times in the chest. He collapsed lifelessly to the ground, I turned towards the boat and ran faster than I thought was possible. As I neared the boat they had already begun to take off, so i jumped for the boat, i just made it. And as we roared away, I turned for one final look at the island. I could see what used to be Jorden, laying by the huts, and I though how lucky I was to still be alive.