Michelle+D

=__**On My Way.....To Australia**__=

**Chapter 1**

 * The Blackhole**

I was awakened by the rumbling noise of the planes engine. The sight of bright colours of orange and red pierced through the metal wing. Panicking people hurriedly strapped on their safety belts, and grabbed the oxygen masks hanging from above. The co-pilot came on the speaker explaining that they were trying to handle the situation. The once metal wing was engulfed by the flames into nothing but dark gray clouds. There were bolts of electricity lighting up the entire sky. I was in shock, everything a blur.

Waking up to a nightmare. Something that you think of only as a bad dream was becoming my reality. The stewardess was checking every aisle for safety equipment on all the passengers. The plane was tilting to one side. It shook more rapidly, swerving from side to side, and all of a sudden a great explosive noise came from the engine, and the next thing I knew was that we were going full speed straight for the salty ocean water below. Sheer terror came over every face on the plane, and the air was sucked out of every pair of lungs because of the intense force. The fall down seemed to be unending, like a massive black hole. But then in an instant I was frantically gasping for air. Thousands of tons of solid metal hit the oceans surface like a brick hitting a concrete slab. Instant head trauma came over me. I could only see a few people trying to reach the top of the plane for air. I wondered where the others could have been? The plane was quickly filling up with salty water, I’d gag on a mouthful every time a gallon of water rushed into my face.

I was sitting near the front of the plane and was still near the entrance when the plane went down. Time was running out, for I had little breath left to escape the plane. I swam to the door of the plane because that was my only option of escape. As I was struggling to swim to the door, I saw that the plane window had been shattered. Although the plane was going down and my breath was shrinking I swam as fast as I could. This was a matter of life or death, and I was not going to let death take over the chance to live. I shot to the top of the oceans surface to breathe the cool salty air, although relief came by for a second, my challenge wasn’t quite over yet. I was dodging giant pieces of debris, and pieces of hail, that felt like golf balls, on my traumatized head. The rain started to pour, the lightning burst, and the thunder rolled.

Treading water, with all the energy I had left, I saw a buoy with a rope attached floating by. I grabbed onto the rope and pulled it close. ‘My saviour,’ I thought. So then I slipped it on and let the current, and destructive waves take me away. My vision became very limited, considering the circumstances, but I was still trying to keep an eye open for any other survivors.

By the time the rain, thunder and lightning died down I was at peace with the now calm waves that had lead me to a tropical island. I stepped out of my buoy onto the warm, dry sand. I was still a little shaken by my previous experience, but was able to walk without to much plummeting to the ground beneath me. And by now the clouds had completely smoothed over, and the rain was nothing but a gentle drizzle, on my hot, stressed face. Looking around the island I decided that I was very lost. Not just because I didn’t know where I was, but also because I still couldn’t process the fact that I was on some random deserted island that I knew nothing about. I didn’t think it was Australia, where the now crashed plane was going to take a small number of us to. Because there no civilization in site.

I couldn‘t help but frown at the thought of all the lives that were lost, and how it was all because of a thunder storm that could have been prevented by not going on the plane in the first place. But I was considered one of the lucky ones. One of the survivors. And I guess I had to cherish the fact that I still had my life. After all I was determined to be one of the survivors during the crash.

Darkness was setting in. I had to find a spot to sleep for it was to frightening sleeping out in the opening. So I took up a rapid pace, and started to sprint down the beach trying to make up the time that had been lost. I finally regained my strength, by mid-afternoon, and had been searching a portion of the island for the remainder of the day. As I was sprinting I acknowledged that being in all those sports had paid off, and quickly found a small cave on the side of the mountain that centered in the middle of the island. I sat in the tight cave and looked back on all the things that I was going to miss. One of them being the sports. But then realized that I was to tired to think anymore about the sadness and pain that had come so fast to my life, and closed my eyes and then immediately fell asleep on the cold rocks in the cave.



Chapter 2

 * The Coconut**

The sun penetrated through the opening of the cave. It pierced through my eyelids, and instantly woke up my heavily weighed down body. I had aches all over, and I realized that the plane crash was starting to get to me, but laying here all day was good for nothing. So I dragged myself out of the cave, and onto the cold, wet, morning sand that sunk between my toes. My first thought was this is so relaxing, like a day in Hawaii, but in an instant a horrific rumbling noise interrupted my dream and brought me back to my new reality, which was not a vacation in Hawaii, but a nightmare on a mysterious island.

I was very hungry and no amount of dazing was going to take that pain away, so I began my search for food. Strolling down the strip of beach was a hard task to handle. Every part of my body seemed to have a reason to scream out to me, but then the annoying gurgling in my abdomen came rolling back. So I stayed focused on the most important task, and kept searching for food.

Every now and then I would stop. I would stop and smell the sweet, but salty air that came rushing into my lungs, and relaxed my entire body, and its aches. Although being stranded on an unfamiliar island was uneasy, I still tried to stay as sane as possible by enjoying the things I could not back in the city. I would find myself thinking of Australia and wondering if it was anything like this. Did it have sand so soft you could pack it tightly into your pillow case, instead of those itchy feathers back at home? Were there palm trees as tall as buildings, or caves so unique that it looked as if it they were carved by man. I still wasn’t sure of what to make of all this chaos that was surrounding me, although it was only me sitting here on the edge of the waves. But I had to control the rest of my sanity to make it through the rest of my days here, however long that will be.

My stomachs voice spoke so loud that it could have been heard for miles. I knew that it was getting desperate. So I went to the most obvious source for food. Palm trees. I stood underneath giant hunks of what seemed to be coconuts, and tried to figure out how I was supposed to get them down. I wasn’t willing to think logically, but was willing to think quick. I then grabbed a giant stick of wood and started wailing at the tree. Nothing. I stood for a moment and thought with the little sense I had left. I then tried shaking the tree. And one coconut plopped on the ground, much like the plane hitting the oceans surface in the crash. I knew the thought of the crash would be in the back of my mind for quite sometime, at least for as long as I was stranded. But I had to deal with the loneliness, and the hunger as best as I could.

I sat there on the dead palm leaves, and the single coconut staring at me. Its three perpendicular eyes taunted me, knowing exactly what was going through my head. How am I supposed to eat this? It was hairy and hard on the outside, making it impossible to bite into, and I had nothing sharp to pry it open with. So I had another task. I needed to figure out how to open the coconut, I needed to find something sharp. I then got off my comfy leaf throne and headed back down to the sandy beach, focused and determined on only one thing. I was starving, so I searched swiftly. I spotted the cave I slept in last night and discovered it was surrounded my spear like rocks. I aimed the coconut so one of the eyes were lined up with the tip of the rock. I hammered as hard as my tired body would let me, and miraculously the liquid of the coconut dripped out. Frantically, I put the dripping milk above my mouth and savoured every part of it. The milk wasn’t much, but it quenched my thirst, and kept me nourished until my next meal. I hammered on the rock a bit more, and the coconut burst open, and now I was able to taste the soft, white, inner layer plastered to the hard outer shell. I was satisfied with myself, proud, that I was able to stand on my own two feet.



Chapter 3

 * The Three Musketeers**

Rustling came from the trees behind me. I could no longer ignore the irritating disturbance, so I got up from my daily drink of coconut milk, and quietly crept to where I heard the sound. The noise continued as I followed it down a newly made trail of flattened leaves and trampled branches. I finally came to a stop. The sound had led me to a meadow. The meadow was surrounded by the presence of neatly arranged palm trees. At the edge of the meadow stood a tall girl. Her clothes were ripped, as were mine, and her hair was knotted, and full of leaves. She took a couple of steps closer to where I was standing. She put out her hand, and I shook it. Her face lit up, almost like she had a moment of relief. She could tell I was civilized, and friendly.

For the next couple of hours she told me all about herself. Her name was Breanne, and she too was in a plane crash. She also led me to the beach where she set up her camp. She had found a spot on the other side of the island from where I was. It was different there, not as windy. Full of different types of fruit that I did not have on my side. Breanne showed me around some more, where caves were, and where she found some of her food, when we both saw something laying in the sand only meters from where we were standing. We caught each others’ gazes and ran to the mysterious object lying flat on the sand.

Breanne and I stood before this figure: a girl. She looked like she was in the same state as the two of us. Washed up from the sea, tattered clothing, salty hair, but instead this girl looked unconscious. Breanne bent down and checked for a pulse. Her pulse was thumping, like the beating of a deer-skin drum, but she still looked dead to the two of us, because we were not doctors. Suddenly, Breanne yelled, ‘’Hey! Wake up!’’ The girl’s eyes slowly opened, like a sunrise after a long night. She looked exhausted, so we helped her up. ‘’Thank you,’’ replied the girl. We sensed that she was still a bit tired and we took her to some shade, offered her some food and water, and talked for a bit. ‘’My name is Taylor. I was also in a plane crash. I have been here for awhile. I was just laying in the sand and dozed off.’’

By this time it was fairly dark. The exhausted sun started to set on its journey for sleep, and so did the three of us. After a pain-staking twenty minutes Breanne, and Taylor fell asleep, but I was still awake with nothing but my thoughts. I was thinking about my trip to Australia, curious on how it could have been if I did not end up here. To some this island was paradise, but to me this island made me homesick for civilization and a nice warm bed, because it was anything but paradise.

My eyes began to shut. The sound of the night crickets and the heat slowly diminishing down, filled my achy head. It was a perfect setting for a good nights sleep. BANG, BOOM! ‘’What was that?!’’ Whispered a startled Taylor. Something hurtled itself out of the bushes, and was rolling towards the water. So much for my good nights sleep.

The object stopped right before the waters edge. Jumped up! And started sprinting back towards the bushes. It was a person, a boy specifically. It seemed that he didn’t notice us lying there and just kept running towards the bush he rolled out of. ‘’Back! Back crocodiles back!!’’ He kept on shouting at the bushes, and he kept poking them with a long tree branch. But finally he stopped. It appeared he had taken care of the infestation of reptiles. The boy turned around and stared in our direction I could not tell if he was looking at us for it was very dark. Taylor started to whisper to Breanne about something, I could not quite make out. ‘’Hey! Who goes there?’’ The strange boy heard them. I quickly decided that it was a good time to step up and solve this chaos. ‘’Hello?’’ I said timidly. My name is Michelle, and these are my two friends, Breanne and Taylor, what is yours?’’ It took him a moment to respond but when he spoke it was more calm. ‘’My name is Keenan.’’ It turned out that Keenan had also been a survivor of the crash, and had been traumatized from the crocodiles living in the tropical swamp. He said he had no greater fear than crocodiles.

So now it was the four of us. The four ‘Musketeers’ you could say. We all worked together as a team, because we knew what was at stake; our lives. We all wanted to be rescued. To the point that we had a fire going the entire day. Maybe a boat or a plane would see the smoke and rescue us, like an SOS.

On another humid morning, the four of us did our daily routines. I would get the coconuts, along with Taylor, Breanne and Keenan made the fire. The fire was started but there was no smoke coming from it at first. And I wondered why the air seemed quite smoggy from its original clear blue colour. I didn’t think it was a factor at the time. But then from the top of the mountain came a rumbling noise, the ground shook and a big gust of hot steam came roaring from the spout of the mountain. ‘’VOLCANO!’’ Shouted Breanne. Heavy dust flew over the entire island, putting out our small insignificant fire. And hot lava oozed out of the sides of the volcano and engulfed everything as it seeped down. Taylor and I dropped our coconuts and ran for our lives. We could feel the heat from the glowing lava on our backs, burning through our ragged shirts. We were far from the safety of the beach, but we kept running. ‘’TAYLOR, MICHELLE!! WHERE ARE YOU?’’ We heard the voices of Keenan and Breanne scream out our names. They were getting closer, the lava was getting closer. As we were sprinting down the hill I met the frightened faces of Keenan and Breanne, ‘’Where’s Taylor?’’ Asked Breanne. ‘’What!’’ I replied. There was nothing and no one behind me but the red, hot, suffocating depths of the lava.

Breanne, Keenan and I found safety on the giant rocks by my old shelter. At this point I had realized how serious the situation was. Taylor was gone, and the three of us could soon too, face our fiery deaths, but I was not willing to give up all I had been fighting for just yet. We stood there and waited patiently until it was safe to step on the ground. A hardened layer of molten lava covered the once sandy beaches. We were all a little shaken up, as if we were just in a paint shaker. The thought of Taylor only made everything worse. We had all became such good friends since we reached the island, and the tragedy in the end made it a hard pill to swallow. But we all had hopes, for there was still three.

‘’HEY YOU THREE DOWN THERE!!’’ Shouted a voice from above. A man in a jumpsuit threw down a rope ladder. A black helicopter loomed above the three dishevelled beings. Rescue had come. The pilot had seen the smoke from the volcano and came down just in time to find us. ‘’We were just on our way to Australia, when we saw the smoke, you guys sure are lucky.’’