David+R


 * __ A Tropical Escape __**
 * __ By David Rose __**

__**﻿ Chapter 1: A Rough Landing **__ My eyes slowly flutter open, awakening my senses to the stiffness in my joints and total body agony. Slightly dazed and confused, I try to recall what had happened. How did I come to be in such a situation? My throbbing headache precludes any attempt to concentrate. As I gingerly sat up, I took in my surroundings and realized that I was awkwardly propped up against what appeared to be a section of volcanic rock jutting out of the sand. The beach I was laying on seemed to stretch on for kilometers then it abruptly ended, wrapping around the curvature of the land. The sand shimmered like gold in the sunlight, a sharp contrast to the vivid, turquoise ocean water lapping onto the beach. The tide must have gone back out before I had awakened. Although the water was not touching me, my clothes were drenched and clung to me as if glued. Finally I managed to get up and set off to explore the undergrowth of my surroundings. As I meandered along the beach, I tried to piece together the nightmare scenario that had brought me to this seemingly isolated paradise....

The preboarding process for the flight seemed endless. But in contrast to the 17 hour flight that loomed in my very near future, this short wait would pass quickly in the scheme of things. The long flight prompted me to spend 20 dollars to upgrade seats for extra leg room at the emergency exit. The extra leg room would really make it all worth while if it allowed me to fall asleep in a more natural position. Although I wasn’t looking forward to the grueling flight, I was happily anticipating escaping the Windy City and basking in the warmth of the Christmas Islands this time of year. Briefly, I glanced around the waiting area. Theother passengers looked as if they were feeling the same way: eager to leave and escape the cold. Finally we boarded. I slumped into my seat, already tired from my little bit of traveling. I got out my ipod and headphones from inside my carry on along with a small bottle of Niquil to help me fall asleep. Mindlessly, I zoned out the boarding routine, ignoring the flight attendants’ instructions describing what to do in the event of an emergency. Currently I was alone in my row of seats, so I was more focused on whether I would have to sit beside another passenger. After flying so many times, the whole process just seemed draining, which was alright because all I planned on doing was sleeping as much as possible. Thankfully, when the boarding process wrapped up, I was still seated alone, isolated from the rest of the passengers in the corner by the exit.

I like to get my money’s worth, so I stayed awake until the flight attendants handed out the first round of snacks and drinks, since subsequently I would be missing much of the minor services offered by the air line during my sleep. I did have my own snacks from home, which I had meticulously packed earlier in the day. However, the long days of work and my terrible sleeping patterns were finally catching up to me, making me aware of how tired I truly was. Upon taking my Niquil, its effects set in momentarily.My eyes seemed to be getting heavier by the second and eventually my surroundings faded away as I drifted off into my own world.

I awoke abruptly. The scene surrounding me was grim, leaving me in momentary confusion. The air was cold and there was crackling over the intercom. Trying to clear my head and figure out what was going on, I turned around swiftly and quizzically enquired to the young man behind me what was happening. “The captain said we are encountering extremely rough turbulence and we must remain seated and fasten our seat belts,” the young man shakily replied. Slowly, I turned back around to face forward, uneasily contemplating the young man’s words. Nevertheless, I maintained my assumed attitude of confidence and tried to get comfortable in my seat again. Not wanting to let the predicament get into my head I put on my ipod and proceeded to relax. Eventually a light sleep took over as I drifted in and out of consciousness, never letting the thought of a possible death enter the back of my mind. Jolting awake by almost a sixth sense, I heard the captain talking over the intercom, “Brace for impact, We are about to make an emergency landing in the ocean, the storm is bringing us down.”

Looking around at the other passengers, their expressions and body language were tense, signaling their fear. Unsure of what to do, I tightened my seatbelt and waited. Abruptly, the oxygen masks dropped down. Reaching out I grabbed my oxygen mask and placed it over my face just as the lights flicked off. The noise outside the plane seemed to increase and the air pressure appeared to have dropped. The increasing noise fueled my anxiety and built up anticipation of disaster. Slowly, the plane began to groan and creak, then instantaneously, impact. My body was rag-dolled, my hands pried from the arm rest from the force of the impact. I was only held in my seat by the seat belt. Within seconds large gashes in the plane opened up revealing the cold ocean air with the wind whipping throughand around the plane. It was evident we had landed in the ocean as large amounts of water began to gush in through openings. Fire was crackling in the cabin, creating a mayhem throughout. Finally, the plane shuddered to a stop. Thinking quickly I opened the emergency exit adjacent to me and scurried out onto the wing. After being enveloped by the thunderous noise of the crash, I now felt an erie quiet, as if I were alone. Of course I couldn’t be alone. There was a whole plane full of people behind me, but this feeling of solitude stayed with me. Looking out off the wing, a bright yellow emergency raft stood out amidst the burning fragments floating in the water. As quickly as I could, I swam over to the raft, careful to avoid the burning material in the water. I grappled my way onto the raft and heaved myself over it’s side. I expected to find other passengers inside, but was surprised to find only one other person. Now that I was out of immediate danger, the rush of adrenaline faded, releasingan overpowering fatigue that took over my body, pulling me into unconsciousness.

__** Chapter 2: Bucket and Rope **__ My feet sunk into the dry sand, hindering my progress as I made my way along the beach. Pieces of the plane had drifted ashore along with the odd piece of what must have once been a passenger’s luggage. A ragged rope caught my eye. It was tangled around a bucket. This seemed an odd assortment of debris to me, but I was not about to scrutinize my good fortune. Upon collecting these items, I was on my way again. I moved closer to the shoreline to make walking less demanding, on the more compact sand. As I began to tire, I decided to temporarily lighten my load. Setting the items on the sand, I realized they were too much of a burden to carry for a longer period of time, figuring I would come back and collect them later.

As I glanced out over the ocean into the horizon, the realization of isolation struck me. My chances of rescue, let alone survival, just kept getting slimmer. I was alone. Tediously, I rounded a fairly large rock on the beach. A ragged body came into view. It was intertwined by what appeared to be the remains of the raft I had arrived on; now tattered and deflated, the raft was barely recognizable. The urgency of the situation prompted me to rush over to the tangled raft and assist the person. It was a young male. I gently propped his head up on my knee. Sputtering and coughing up water, he gasped for air. As I waited for him to recover, my head was spinning with an overload of thoughts and worries. In hasted I urged him to revive and enquired, “What is your name?” “Mike” he murmured with a raspy voice. “Here, I’ll help you up,” I said offering my hand in support as I pulled him up with a heave. Mike was able to right himself off the ground. He seemed shaky standing for the first time in a while but was stable enough to stand without out my help. His gazed wandered, working his way through the same disoriented confusion I had not so long ago experienced myself, upon waking up on land.

“ As soon as you feel up to it, we ought to make a shelter and find food.” I suggested. Looking over, Mike nodded in agreement. “Why don’t we head into the forest and look for anything that could be useful to build with,” Mike suggested. “Good idea. Lets go in up there. It looks like there is a break in the foliage,” I replied. Mike and I made our way over to the spot I had pointed out. As we left the beach, I glanced around, taking in the landmarks as we made our way into the forrest. Later on, I would need to be able to find my way back to where I had left the scavenged rope and bucket. The sounds of the forest flooded our senses, disorienting both of us momentarily. I could barely think, unsettled by the yelps of unseen animals. There seemed to be a faint animal trail at the entrance to the forrest. Following the trail, Mike and I made our way deeper into the forest. Winding its way through the dense undergrowth, the trail left us to squeeze through very carefully. We tried to limit contact with the foliage in case anything was poisonous. Eventually, we came to a small clearing. Light filtered through the slightly thinned forest ceiling, although it did not seem to let any of the heat escape from the sauna we had entered.

“This looks like a good place to set up camp. Why don’t we split up and bring back whatever we can find, ” I suggested. Mike replied,“Yah, don’t get lost.” His comment muttered almost to himself as much as to me. I made my way back along the trail to the beach, planning to retrieve the rope and bucket I had left behind. The sweltering heat from the forest was quickly overwhelming me and I was beginning to second guess my decision to make camp in the forest. As soon as I saw the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, I increased my pace. Bursting through the foliage, I greedily gulped in the fresh air. The sun’s heat bore down on me, but it was nothing compared to the oppressive heat in the forest. Regaining my sense of direction, I retraced my steps back to the bucket and rope. To my surprise, when I returned to where I had recalled leaving it, there was nothing to be seen, other then a few faded footprints leading away in the opposite direction. Following the footprints led me to another entrance into the forest. This trail appeared more open and wider. Creeping forward, following the footprints like a seasoned hunter, I was careful not to step on twigs or rustle leaves. My heart was racing, but I pushed on. I could hear muffled voices just off in the near distance, but couldn’t quite make out what was being said. It sounded faintly like English, so that was a good sign.

Rounding a corner, two people came into view. They were sitting around the bucket and rope, along with the remains of a tarp and several other miscellaneous pieces that looked to have come from the plane. Startled, they both looked up at once, giving me quizzical looks. Breaking the silence I questioned, “Such a relief to see another survivor, I’m David. I hope your both as well as can be expected.” “Yes, we are making due, I’m Kyle and this is Dennis,” the one with the glasses replied. “Nice to meet you. This looks like a much better place to build a shelter. I think we should set up camp here,” I responded. “Yeah, this was the first place we came to,” Kyle answered. “I found another survivor. We split up to find supplies for our shelter at a different location, so I’ll go back into the forrest and get him,” I advised them. “Alright, we’ll look around for anything that may help us.” Kyle stated.

Walking away, my spirits were greatly raised after discovering Kyle and Dennis. Now there were four of us. Tired from trekking both ways, finding my way back to Mike and the campsite was proving to be an arduous task. Mike was patiently waiting my return. He had not found much in the forrest, but he had gathered some vines to add to our collection of rope. He was also in the process of fashioning a spear. After telling Mike about the other survivors, we made our way back to Kyle and Dennis on the beach.

When Mike and I finally reached the new campsite, Dennis and Kyle had already made a small shelter. Using the raft as a tarp, they had stretched it taut and fastened it to nearby trees with the rope from the beach. I was impressed with their survival skills. They had also made a small fire pit just under the cover of the tarp, while still leaving room for all of us to lie down under shelter. Everyone was feeling the stiffness and soreness from the plane crash. We slowly drifted into slumber as the sun waned through the trees, gently pulling our camp into darkness. Awakening in confusion, I was introduced with the darkness that had blanketed our campsite, leaving me disoriented and chilled to the bone. My clothes were drenched from what I presumed to be a flash-flood. Trying to stay calm I awoke the others, hoping the collaboration of our thoughts could provide a helpful solution quickly. In a panic we bundled as much as we could carry and and headed off deeper into the forest, following the trail further, slowly being swallowed by the darkness.

In haste, we scurried through the increasingly dense forest; our progress was slowly being hampered. Making our way through with the unshakable chill from our damp clothes was making getting out of the forest or even into a clearing a challenge. Finally we managed to escape the clutches of the forest, breaking out into a clearing. We had managed to make our exit from the forest at the base of a mountain, that somehow no one had been able to see prior. Looking up the sheer faces of rock, the mountain loomed over us. To our luck, Kyle spied what appeared to be a sizable cave, not too far up, but the angle of incline was almost too great for us to climb up and get to it. Although we were all tired, a thought popped into my head, but in order for it to work, we would all have to fight through our fatigue.
 * __ Chapter 3: Funeral For The Masses __**

“I think the only way for us to get up there is to build a ladder or grapple hook or something to help us climb up,” I proposed. “That seems doable, we could definitely make a ladder out of two sturdy bamboo trees and some strong green vines,” Mike added. “Why don’t we put all of our stuff down here and head back into the forest quickly and maybe we can find some trees on the outskirts.” “Sounds like a plan. Does that sound good to everyone?” Mike enquired. “Yup,” Dennis and Kyle responded simultaneously.

Everyone was working together like a well oiled machine, finding everything we needed within minutes. To my surprise, Mike brought out a small pocket knife that he’d concealed on him, forgetting to mention it because he hadn’t realized he’d kept it on him before boarding the plan. His knife became increasingly useful when it came down to cutting down the bamboo and making pieces of vine. Slowly but surely, the ladder was beginning to come together, but just in the nick of time as the rain was starting to increase in intensity and the area we were in was beginning to flood also. Eventually the ladder’s preparations were complete and with a group effort we propped it up, making its way almost all the way up; the rest of the way was not as steep and could be easily climbed. Looking from one to another we all stood nervously not sure who should go first; after all, we didn't know what would be up in the cave waiting for us. Breaking the silence, Mike said, “Here, I’ll go first.”

With that solved, I steadied the ladder as Mike made his way up; the ladder groaned and gave a little under his weight but other than that, the vines managed to stay strong in keeping the cross sections in place. I thought I would wait for the him to reach the top before I started heading up, but the anticipation was starting to set in. All three pairs of eyes bore into Mike, waiting for him to get to the cave. Finally he had gotten as far as the ladder could take him, and he clambered up the rest of the way; no one uttered a noise. “It’s fine guys, Come on up!” Mike yelled down to us. Hearing this I sprang to action, making my way up as quick as possible. “This is perfect. Why don’t you start bringing up supplies?” Mike suggested.

Realizing this, I started to make my way back down; with my feet firmly on the ground, I grabbed the bucket with the rope stuffed in it. Dennis and Kyle would have to take the rest up. Carrying the bucket was not that much of a burden, but the makeshift ladder in combination added a degree of difficulty. At last I reached the end of the ladder and pushed my body close to the cliffside which ended up being for vertical than I had anticipated. I noticed what appeared to be a small goat path switch-backing up the mountain. Following this, I was able to creep up to the cave; it was much harder with the bucket and rope.

With much effort I eventually made it up to the cave’s entrance; the darkness was eerie and unnerving leaving me to hesitate to enter. “Finally you made it up. I was starting to get a little spooked up here alone,” Mike said suddenly. “Yeah, it is pretty spooky up here. I’m not too fond of this place; I have a bad feeling about it,” I replied. “Oh, it’s not too bad, once we get a fire going, it’ll be better.” Mike said reassuringly. “Why don’t you look for some brush just outside the cave, the drier the better,” he added.

I nodded in response and started to keenly look for small low lying shrubs. My spirits had been lifted after the idea of a fire had struck me. Intercepting Kyle as he made his way to the top of the ladder. I lead him along the small path I had discovered. He had managed to bring up more vines and tarp, and told me that Dennis taking up some brush that we could use for a fire, so I wouldn’t need to find much.

Deciding I would follow the trail in the direction opposite to cave, I started to make my way down. The path was getting steeper and steeper as I made my way down. Due to the difficulty of the path, I was forced to turn around as the already narrow path continued to taper and wind its way along a corner. It was getting too dangerous for me to follow, and the thought of what animal took this path scared me a little. Brushing the idea aside, I headed back. Dennis had arrived at the cave and everyone was huddled around the brush as they attempted to start the fire. The glasses were useless at the moment because of the rain outside, so Dennis had found a piece of flint to use with he knife to make a spark, but so far they were not having success with that At last Mike produced a spark igniting what pieces of brush he had managed to keep dry. He fed the fire a few damp sticks which made a lot of smoke as the fire wicked out the moisture. I decided I would go out and climb down the ladder and get some wood substantial enough to keep to the fire going for a while. I made hastily made my way down the ladder and hurriedly made my way over to the forest. It was still dark, but I was just able to see my way around well enough to notice a patch of spotted mushrooms growing at the base of a large tree. Collecting these up, I placed them in my pocket and moved on. It took me several minutes to find any wood, but eventually I did find some fairly sizable pieces. With one armful of wood, I made my way back to the ladder, spirits lifted because I felt I had contributed to everyones survival, finding food and wood to contribute to the fire.

Adjusting to the added weight of the wood, I carefully made my way up the ladder, not wanting to drop anything. Pushing on, the end of the ladder slowly became nearer and I clambered off onto the edge of the cliff. Quickly, I made my way along the path the cave, knowing the fire wouldn’t last long with only the few sticks the others had gathered. Upon reaching the cave entrance, I was a little surprised to see everyone lying down, spread out around the fire. No one acknowledged me as entered, but I didn’t want to disturb them, for they all looked so peaceful. I made my way over to the slowly waning fire and placed my logs around it to dry them out a bit before I put them on the fire.

Waiting for the wood to dry, I took a seat near everyone else. Taking a second look at everyone in the light of the fire I noticed how ragged all there clothes had become already; they would need to last a lot longer while we waited for rescue, we’d have to learn to take better care of them. Suddenly I noticed an bump on Mikes neck; it was inflamed and swelling. A trickle of blood was coming from it. It looked like some sort of insect bite, but I couldn’t be sure. Instantaneously I realized that there were no other noises other then the crackle of the fire, no one was breathing. The grave situation hit me, and with urgency I went over to Mike and grabbed him by the shoulders, hoping to shake him awake. His body was limp felt cold to touch. Disturbing the stillness of his body, I had managed to shake a substantially large hairy spider out from his shirt, it lurched for my hand, but I pulled it back in recoil, horror-stricken by size of it. Backing away from Mike hurriedly, I rushed over to Dennis and Kyle, who also appeared in the same state. I shook both of them in a last hope, even though I had already realized the situation. Finding matching bites on Dennis and Kyle, I realized their fate. I rushed out the cave, fueled by fear and the uncertainty of my very near future, incautiously ambling my way along the narrow path. I reached the ladder and turned to step, but in my haste I lost my balance, falling to my certain demise. Within the few seconds I was falling, my life flashed before my eyes; my life’s accomplishments all for nothing. Although the fire was still burning in the cave, mine flame would soon be out. With the impact of my head hitting a rock below, there was darkness.