Keira+S

__ Hidden in the Open __
a novella by Keira Shepherd __ Chapter One: The Island __

We stared at the vast ocean surrounding us, and our hearts sank. The ocean seemed to stretch forever before finally meeting the setting sun. The green thicket of the island looked tiny in comparison to the clear blue ocean slowly swallowing up the island’s white beaches. That was all we could see from the top of the mountain. It had not taken long to climb to the top, after the crash. We had barely said a word to each other, just pointed at the mountain and begun to walk, knowing that that’s where we would get the best view of the island. I tried to remember what happened. I pictured the plane, all of it’s passengers, the beeping lights, the sudden drop. I felt sick just thinking about it. “We have to find somewhere to stay for the night, before the sun sets,” I told the others. There were four of us, two boys, two girls. We didn’t know each other. We were the only survivors. “Somewhere in the forest would be best,” one of the boys said. “We could use the tarp for cover.” The Tarp. One of the few thing we had salvaged, along with a knife, a first aid kit, rope and a bucket. “In the morning, we can look around the island, see what we can use,” decided the other boy. The girl remained quiet, shocked by what had happened. We set off down the mountain. “I’m Keira,” I said half way down the mountain. “Zack,” the taller boy offered. “Kenton,” the shorter boy told us. “Emily,” whispered the girl, still in shock. The light of day was slipping away quickly. We set up camp at the base of the mountain. Then we lay in the underbrush, too restless to sleep. //There’s no food we recognize on the island. The water is undrinkable and there wasn’t an animal in sight. I’m becoming very worried. We can’t last long without food. We’re in the deep green of the forest now trying to decide what berries to try. There’s no obvious signs of animal activity anywhere, no bite marks or half eaten berries. We pick a darker berry almost black.// //“Who’s gonna try it?” Zack asked.// //“We could draw straws,” Kenton suggested, “or sticks, I guess.” I picked up four sticks off the ground and held them up so the others couldn’t see where they ended.// //“Shortest stick eats the berry,” I warned.// //Zack drew first picking the longest, then Kenton. Zack sighed, easied at the sight of Kenton’s shorter stick.// //I looked at Emily nervously and gestured for her to pick a stick. She picked an extremely short one. Kenton recognized that he was safe and breathed a sigh of relief.// //I uncurled my hand, to reveal the final stick which was longer than Emily’s.// //We sat in silence staring at the berries. I tried to calm her nerves a bit, “You only have to eat one.”// //“And if that doesn’t kill you I’ll eat a whole handful of them,” offered Kenton.// //Emily closed her eyes like not looking at the berries would save her. Reluctantly, she picked one up and popped it in her mouth,chewed slightly, and swallowed.// //The three of us watch her in anticipation. Nothing. Then suddenly she began to convulse rapidly on the ground. We all stared in shock. Then she was still.// //“What do we do?” I asked.// //“Check for breathing?” Someone suggested. I couldn’t even determine who before she began to scream, blood curdling screams. We watched in horror as her screams faded and were replaced with gasps for air. Her throat had begun to swell.// //“We should give her mouth to mouth,” Kenton said frantically.// //“That won’t work,” I whispered. It was too late, she was gone.// //The rest of the day was a blur. Mostly we sat on the beach picking dirt and grime out of our bucket of water. No one had the energy to bury Emily, so we mourned in silence, for a girl we scarcely knew.// //Slowly over the week we had less and less energy, sleeping most of the day, and trying to forget the endless hunger all night.// //Soon we would have another body to lay with Emily’s.// //When we could muster the energy we scavenged for food. Finding nothing but unrecognizable berries, and the ones we’d come to know as Black Death.// //We had lost all hope of being found by the 8th day, knowing they had had over a week to find us. We had not travel far off course when the plane had crashed down into the unforgiving sea. The island had only been a couple kilometers away. They should have found us by now.// //Zack had succumbed to his hunger, trying the first berry he could find excluding the Black Death. This berry also proved to be inedible.// //Although his face was hardly identifiable we lay him next to Emily on the beach. By the 10th day everything became a blur. Kenton and I mostly lay on the beach, in silence, next to the bodies of strangers, hoping to save each other from having to move another body.// //By the 12th day we’d stopped drinking and by day 15 we had fallen asleep never to wake again.// I woke up drenched in sweat, my clothes stuck to my skin. My mouth was dry as sandpaper. I looked at the others and watched their chests rise and fall. It was just a dream I told myself. I watch as a mouse scurries into the bushes. There must be food on this island, or else the animals couldn’t live here. I lay back down and stared at the midnight sky. I could see the stars through the gaps in the strong trees. The stars are the lights on a stage, and the sky is the velvet curtain hanging down about to separate for the second act, I thought as I drifted off into a dreamless sleep.

__ Chapter 2: The Rabbit __

The sun crept across our faces waking us. We were groggy and confused. We remembered yesterday’s events as the forest came alive around us. The flying birds reminded us of our fifteen hour flight that was cut short just twelve hours in. The waves crashing on the beach brought up memories of the plane smashing into the freezing ocean. The sun glinting around the mountain called up memories of yesterday’s hike. “Do you think we should find food?” Emily asked. “What about shelter?” Kenton wondered. “We also need to set up a signal so we can be found,” Zack mentioned. “Well there are four of us,” I reminded them. “We could do all those things at once,” “Should we really split up?” Zack asked. “We could go in twos,” Emily suggested. “And meet on the beach when we are done,” I offered. “Zack and I could go and set up shelter then make a signal,” Kenton said, “and Keira and Emily can go look for food and drinkable water.” “Ok, and we can meet back on the beach at noon,” Emily recommended. “Ok, but how will we know when it’s noon?” Zack asked. “Whenever you think the sun is highest,” I told them. “Let’s go,” Kenton said. The forest was not as big as it appeared but was filled with deep green trees and bushes. The blue sky peaked through the tops of the trees. Black clouds were rolling in from the east. The animals didn’t even notice us. The birds still sang in their trees as we walked by, and squirrels barely looked up as we passed. “Foot prints,” I pointed out. Emily asked, “Rabbits?” I replied, “I think so.” “Rabbits need food and water.” “Well then let’s hope this rabbit knows where it’s going.” We followed the footprints through the forest easily. They lead deep into the forest crossing many other sets, some shallower and smaller, some deeper and larger.

Emily and I passed many berry bushes some with berries that were partially eaten figuring these to be a safe choice we collected some fresh ones. Our bucket was half full by the time we found where the tracks lead. There was a river that ran straight through the island, and there were many small animals drinking from it. A few looked up as we arrived. Emily and I filled a bucket with water from the river. Looking at our reflections in the water, we could barely recognize ourselves. My sandy blonde hair was a bees nest on my head, and my dark blue eyes looked darker next to the clear blue water. My face was covered in dirt and my clothes were ripped. Emily didn’t look much better. Her light brown hair was disheveled, and her face was filthy. Emily’s clothes were tattered and grimmy. “Do you think we should clean our clothes, while we’re alone?” I asked. “The animals aren’t reacting to us,” Emily observed, not hearing my question. I looked up from my reflection, across the river was a small rabbit drinking the water. There were other animals too, none of them reacted to us either. “That can’t be normal,” I added. As we headed back to the beach along the river, we watched for other animals and noticed many things we had not on our way from the beach. The birds nests were low in the trees, you could have reached up touched them. There were many rabbit holes, and other animal homes all over the forest. We approached a group of small birds thet didn’t fly away until we were a step away from them then they hopped to the side just far enough that we wouldn’t step on them. The boys arrived on the beach first. I noticed for the first time how bad they looked. Their hair wasn’t as tangled since it was short but it was still greasy. Their clothes were worse from the work they had done. The shelter they had built was small. It would barely fit the four of us.The shelter was just the tarp strung up between four trees using vines, grass had been spread on the forest floor below it, in an attempt to make it comfier. They had also made a small fire on the beach out of twigs and dry leaves causing lots of smoke. We sat on the beach eating some of the berries, Emily and I had collected. The boys had also noticed that none of the animals seemed affected by our presence. “Maybe there is someone living on the island and we just missed them because we were so caught up in the plane crash,” Kenton suggested. “That’s impossible we could see the whole island from the mountaintop and there wasn’t a single sign of human activity,” I retorted. “It was late, and we were all dazed from the crash,” Kenton stood his ground. “We also were desperate for a sign of hope. If there was anything we would have seen it,” the anger in my voice rising. “We don’t have time for fighting,” Zack shouted. “We’ll climb to the top of the mountain and look again.” he decided. We climbed to the top of the mountain in silence. “I don’t remember this,” Emily said. We all stared at the obstacle that lay before us. The mountain had become a wall, rock straight up and down. “We can walk up that,” Kenton said trying to lighten the mood. It didn’t help. “We might not be able to walk up it but i bet we can climb,” I said with delight. “That sounds dangerous,” Emily worried. “Only one of us has to get to the top,” I reminded her. “I’m the most athletic, so I’ll go,” Kenton said already ascending the wall. At first he found hand and footholds easily but before his feet had even passed our heads the hand and footholds were getting harder to find. We held our breath as one of Kenton’s footholds broke and he scrambled to find a new one. The rocks fell around us as Kenton’s hand slipped from its hold and sent him falling to the ground. We watched in horror as he landed on the mountain before us screaming. __ Chapter 3:The Climb __

We stood frozen as Kenton screamed. “My leg! Oh my god! my leg: it hurts, it hurts! Make it stop! Make it stop!” he begged. The bone was snapped in two, one half protruding from his skin. “Help! Help!” he shouted. Zack began to rummage through the first aid kit he had brought, Emily consoled Kenton trying to get him to stop moving his leg so I could inspect it. “It’s most definitely broken, but I don’t think any major arteries have been cut,” I told the others, “but we will need something to slow the bleeding and keep the wound clean.” “There are some bandages in here and vines nearby that we can use as a tourniquet,” Zack shouted over Kenton’s screaming. “Shhh, it’s going to be ok, but you have to stop moving your leg,” Emily warned Kenton. I grabbed a roll of cloth bandages from Zack. “I hope this works,” I pleaded as I wrapped the bandage around the open wound. “Emily, come put pressure on this,” I ordered. Emily continued to console Kenton as she followed my instructions. I grabbed some iodine and poured it on the wound. Zack passed me a clip and another roll of bandages. “The bleeding isn’t slowing,” Emily observed. “Somebody get me a vine,” I ordered. Zack threw some at me from in the forest. I tied it quickly below the knee, just above the wound. I began to undo the bandage; it was already soaked through. I poured more iodine on it and rewrapped it as quickly as I could clipping it when I was done. Emily released the pressure. “Next time we use harnesses,” I said. I tightened the rope around my waist. Luckily, the boys had decided to save it for something more important than the shelter. I examined the rope that would act as my harness. It wrapped once between my legs, then across my chest, over my shoulder and around my waist. It was a similar design to one I had used at a summer camp years ago. While I did this, Kenton braided vines. Emily had gone down the hill to find more vines with Zack. “Time to change those bandages,” I told Kenton in my kindest voice. I looked at the blood soaked cloth. He was losing a lot of blood, and that was never a good sign. Nobody had much medical experience or knowledge, only what we had seen on TV, read in books or picked up from other places. “The bleeding isn’t slowing, is it?” Kenton asked noticing the worry on my face. “Well, it’s um-” I began. “Don’t you dare lie to me,” Kenton warned. “It hasn’t slowed enough for me to notice,” I sighed. It was the truth. “I’m gonna try and tighten the vines. I’ll see if we can slow the bleeding more,” I warned Kenton, as I finished wrapping the new bandage. “Try and focus on braiding the vines, not the pain,” I suggested. Kenton’s jaw tensed as I untied the vines. I retied it as tight as I could. “That should help,” I said with a gentle smile. Kenton nodded, jaw still tensed. “We’ve got more vines,” Zack said, as he and Emily came into view holding arm loads of vines. The rope was very long and just barely reached the top of the mountain. They had thrown it over a tree branch nearby. Zack acted as anchor for my climb. I tested each hold before using it, so it took much longer than I had thought to reach the top. As I climbed, I thought of the crash, for there was nothing to distract me from the awful memories. I had been headed home from a trip to Australia where I had been visiting family. There was almost nobody on the morning flight. I assume it was because nobody wanted to sit on a plane all day. Half way through the flight the turbulence started. Children began to cry and people were shouting. The door to the cockpit swung open; you could see lights flashing and things beeping and even hear the captain shouting. “Mayday! Mayday!” Gas masks dropped from the ceiling. The rest of the crash was a bit blurry. Screaming. The plane shaking. Sitting on a raft. Watching another raft float off in the opposite direction. Grabbing useful things that popped up in the ocean. Losing the raft as we scrambled to the island. I sighed happily as I reached the top of the mountain. It had taken hours to get to the top. Once I got there, I almost fell off in shock at what I saw before me. I hurried back down wanting to show the others what I had seen. Racing through the forest we headed for the beach, dodging trees and jumping over roots as we went. Emily and I were in front. Zack followed us with Kenton on his back. Three figures stood on the beach. Three faces I would never forget for the rest of my life. We were sitting in a circle with the three newcomers. The oldest had red hair and a kind face; her name was Donna. The other girl was young with dark skin and hair. Her name was Violet. The last face was Jack. He was tall and well kept with brown hair. We explained what happened, and they told us why they were here. This was a preserved animal habitat for an endangered species of water snake and multiple types of birds. For generations someone had been coming by periodically throughout the year to check on the reserve. Donna, Violet and Jack helped us carry Kenton to their boat. Once on board, they feed us and gave us beds to sleep in. I had never been so excited to eat a sandwich in bed. We stayed on the boat for a few days while Donna and Jack did all the science stuff that they were required to do every few months. Violet stayed on the boat with us and recorded what Donna and Jack found. When all their work had been completed, we sailed for three days before finally arriving in a port near Vancouver. Even all these years later we still meet up occasionally. Although we all moved on we still avoided planes as much as possible but not entirely. We realised the last time we met up how ironic the jobs we chose are: Kenton became a nurse, Emily is a travel agent, Zack became a tour guide. I write adventure novels.