Keenan+K

=**__// The Survivors //__**=

By: Keenan Klassen
=Chapter 1: The Crash=

I stare blankly out the window at the cotton mist whizzing by. I’m off in another world in the darkness among the enormous chunks of fluff, flying, feeling the refreshing moisture against my face… a sudden jerk of the plane wrenches me out of my imaginary place. I look around at the passengers to see that their expressions reflects the same concerned frown. Another jolt. People are grasping their seat armrests. A voice comes out of the ceiling: “ Sorry for the tremors we are currently experiencing some… problems.” The last words wring an alarm in my head.

I too am now grasping my seat and not just for a sense of false security. The plane feels like its physically free falling, dipping. The next few minutes quickly turn to chaos. Plane jerking, alarm noises, lights flickering, people crying out, black smoke outside my window. The sound of the engine surging, then spluttering out. A yellow mask falls in front of me and I grasp it to my face, and just in time. A emergency door several metres ahead of me, across the corridor disintegrates with a horrible screech, followed by an even more dreadful sucking sound. People who are too shocked to know what’s happening don’t notice the mask and slowly slip out of consciousness. The hole in the side of the plane is a terrible black vacuum greedily dragging everything it can into its dark abyss. And then we hit the ground. Or so I thought, since the feeling resembles and entire building slamming into the earth. But I am fooled. A huge wave of water appears from somewhere near the front of the plane and crashes down the corridor with awesome speed and power. I just manage to slip of my seat belt and duck behind the seat in front of me as it comes. It feels like a thousand bricks smash against the seat, but it does it’s job, as most of the blast from the wave is deflected. I realize that I would have been knocked out or maybe even killed by the blow of the water explosion. Now everything, for a split second, is silent as the water envelops me. My instincts now kick in. Get out.

I swim frantically for the ruined hole in the plane which was once a all-consuming death trap, and now my rescue path. Soon I’m in open water, following the bubbles toward freedom. I explode from the surface, taking the sweetest breath of my life; if it weren’t for the stench of gasoline and burnt metal. Pieces of debris are everywhere, some on fire, casting and eerie red glare on the glassy surface of the water. I grasp a large piece of metal with soft spongy material on the bottom and start paddling away from the grotesque scene. I don’t know where I’m going. Just away from here.

=Chapter 2: Predator=

I regain my consciousness with the harsh glare of the sun in my eyes. I notice the vibrant contrast of yellow and bright blue as I stare into the sky. Where am I? I look down at my steel bed and my mind is stormed with images of the eventful night before. I squint from a blow as I realize that people died last night. But there also might be survivors. I wasn’t the only one scrambling out of the wreckage that night.

Observing my surroundings, I realize the land I scouring upon is more like a heap of rocks than and island. I sprawl up to the top of this small mound and peer over. A wall of green skirted with beige and blue meets my eyes which widens out into a shape that would be like a teardrop if seen from above. But, above all, is an enormous red and black tower of rock and earth. I can barely see the top, which seems to be in a wavy haze, the kind of which you see in a desert. But, I soon realize, my current problem lies before me.

I am, in a way, on a piece of the island at the point of the teardrop, cast a ways from the main part. A space of blue the length of 50 feet lays before me and tropical paradise. I glance to my crumpled metal raft and put some weight on it to watch it sink. It must have gotten water-logged as I lay on it unconscious for who knows how long, gently drifting on the calm surge and withdrawal of the waves on the rock. Anyhow, it looks as if I’m doing this trip on my own.

Just outside the shallow sky blue water surrounding the beach of the island is another, much darker, ring, which indicates a drop off of the sea floor. Its sunset now, for I have been holding off on the seemingly easy voyage for hours. I’ve been contemplating my chances of survival against a beast of the sea. The shark. My worst fear. Grey fins have been periodically slicing the surface of the water around where the dark ring meets the shallows. I glimpse towards the island, and it mocks me, with its juicy fruit smiling, gurgling spring trying its hardest to make itself heard… “Come over here! Aren’t you thirsty?” Now I’m enraged with determination. Taking my chances with the hungry predators in the water is better than dieing of hunger on this piece of stone.

Despite the violent pattering of my heart and my brain screaming to go back, I glide smoothly through the water. I seem to not be I control of my body, my arms just keep reaching, my legs kicking… I let my eyes droop down into the black unknown and shiver goes through my body. I’m almost at the drop-off point, about halfway. There’s no going back now. Just keep swimming… swimming to freedom… trying not to make a commotion- something brushes against my leg. My heart stops, my blood runs cold. Panicking, I furiously smash my way through the black death. I’m now at the light blue and can suddenly see the sandy floor. I wish I couldn’t. Horribly clear. A grey monster with black eyes grins evilly from below like a villain mastermind. He just follows me, laughing, teasing at my fear and helplessness as I desperately charge towards safety. The beast is yet to make a move and id getting closer now that the sea floor is rising toward the shore. Soon we’re almost touching, and then the beast whips around and vanishes as fast as he appeared. I crawl, defeated, on to the soft sand and remain there.

=Chapter 3: Escape=

Like a bloodthirsty zombie, I sombre along the white sand, looking for something… anything. I smell it before I see it: Fire, cooking, food, civilization… people! I’m off to a stumbling jog now, filled with a new power.

My eyes are soon drawn to a spiralling grey funnel of smoke shooting towards the sky. The sky. It has been swallowed up by an angry mass of blackness. As I’ve been walking, its been going steadily up and bit of a cliff has formed before the water. Now I can hear them, a quiet mumble drifting among the trees. I’m drawn to them, barging through shrubs, crushing twigs beneath my feet-- the mumble stops abruptly, followed by a faint hush. “Hello!” I yell, my voice trembling. I’m answered violently by hands gripping my arms, and putting a cloth in front of my eyes. I’m handled and pushed roughly through the forest and forced to sit down on what feels like a log. My hands are now being tied together. “This isn’t necessary,” I protest, but again, nothing replies. The blindfold is yanked off and I find myself in a bit of a clearing with trees guarding all around, some little huts in a corner, and a dark ceiling overhead. I’m faced with three attractive women, and, instinctively, my eyebrows raise with surprise. “Who are you?” one says. The word is shoved in my face.

“Just a doctor on a flight to Australia… the crash…”

“So you survived too…” she says, with a slight spark of remembrance to her eyes.

“How long since…”

“We guess 40 hours since the plane hit the water.” I throw the number around in my mind. Between the drift to the rock, the shark, passing out… It seems reasonable although it feels like years since I was sitting in the plane. “Can we trust you?” she says.

“Of course,” I answer. She smiles as she sees the honesty in my face and words.

“Let him go,” she says. The rope is cut from my hands, and I test them out painfully. “We have set rules here, and in order to get rescued, we need to follow them. First off, that fire,” she points to a smouldering pit in the ground, “ always needs to be going. I’ll explain the rest in the morning. Lets get some sleep, its going to pour tonight.” And so it did. All night long I shifted in and out of sleep in my makeshift lean-to, regularly waking abruptly from an explosion and bright flash coming from above. But, eventually, the pattering of the rain would lull me back to my nightmares.

I’m the last one to wake the grey morning. I sit up stiffly, am drawn out of my shelter by the promising smell of breakfast. Fish cooking on the fire, along with several colourful round tropical fruits. “How was your sleep?” asks a dark haired girl, sounding more friendly than the one I was greeted by. I reply with a grunt. The rest of breakfast is eaten in silence.

The day is spent repairing the shelters, feeding the fire, and collecting food. Throughout the day, grey dominates the sky, and the mountain seems to sit restless upon its thrown, intrigued by its visitors, always watching. As the dark haired girl and I are collecting fruits, I notice the frequent appearance of black rocks across the forest floor, with more and more of them as we move towards the black mountain.

That night, an eerie calmness and silence hangs in the air. Not even the chirp of a bird challenges it. In fact, the only living animal besides fish on the island that I’ve seen is us.

Sleeping holds no rest as nightmares continue to haunt me. I’m in the plane, with no one else, and everything is on fire around me and there’s a rumbling like an earthquake. The heat is getting more intense, and suddenly I’m awake. Except I’m not. I can still feel the heat, and I’m drenched with sweat. I burst out of my hut, and what I see shocks me in place. A creeping ooze is slithering among the trees, and everything, even what was once deep green, is bright red and orange and yellow, and very close. The heat seems to melt my face as I stare into its eyes. Then I spring into action. I leap to the nearest hut, and yell inside. “What…”

“Get out of here now! Its lava! Its coming!”

“Huh?” Having no patience for this, I wrench her out of the shelter and as she sees the wall of fire quickly approaching, she seems to not believe her eyes. I manage a glimpse at the evil mountain, red veins glowing on its sides. We get the next girl out as well and as we move towards the last hut we realize with horror that flames were now licking the side of it. With adrenaline running through me, I barged into the hut, ignoring the searing heat, and scooped up the girl. Screaming as she woke, I carried her, running away, running towards the sea.

But then a new sound arose, a more familiar one, competing with the hungry blaze of the fire, and it was getting louder. I spare a look behind me. Its amazing how fast a fire can go. It was right on our heels, seemingly slowly but consistently consuming the island. As we break the tree line, a searing white light blinds us, and the sound is all-consuming now. Helicopter. The girl I have been carrying is now fully awake and I stare into the terror in her eyes. “Your going to have to jump!” some one yells from the helicopter, which is turned sideways, ladder hanging down over the steep cliff and treacherous rocks below. Without hesitation, two of the girls make the jump to the swaying ladder. I look back, and the red ooze I just meters away. Its now or never. I lift off from the cliff in slow motion and reach out for the closest rung. The tips of my fingers just graze it and then I fall. I’m desperately grasping now, falling towards a sure death- I just manage to secure onto the last rung of the ladder. With the lava literally touching her heels, the dark haired girl jumps off- but its not enough. I bend down, reach out, and grab hold of her hand. “Gotcha,” I say.