The songs of birds overhead was enough to wake up a dead body, coupled with the crashing waves along the shores of the beach. Broken pieces and floated parts of the plane were pushed on to the shore along with bags, boxes and clothes laid waste on the sand of the beach.
Lucas's eyes shot open as he coughed out water from his lungs, before crawling away from the crashing waves onto the beach, panting and gasping for air as he struggled to keep his mind from wandering
His eyes scanned the scenery around him, taking in the trees that stretched into miles and miles of darkness and then turning to stare at the ocean which stretched so far, with no view of land in sight. He winced at the pain throbbing from his right shoulder as he tried to crawl even further away from the water behind him. He turned to sit on the sand and then it hit him.
The memory crashing into him, like the way the plane crashed into the ocean. The broken parts of the plane now sit plainly in front of him, as he ran his unbroken hand through his wet damp hair.
After the sudden declaration from the pilot in his cockpit that the plane was falling, everything else seemed to move in slow motion and before he knew it, they were submerged in water. The glass shattered from the intense pressure, sending chards flying across the plane, with one sniping the side of his cheek leaving a rather nasty bloody scar on his face.
Asides the dislocated shoulder, slashed cheek and busted lip he seemed to be okay but can he say the same about his professors and the rest of the Misthaven bunch?
He pushed himself up from the sand, holding himself back from screaming at the intense pain his body was just subjected to, holding his right shoulder with his left hand and staggering towards the water to look for anything or in this case, anyone.
"Elijah" He yelled at the top of his voice "Owen… Milo… Evan… Ava… Caleb…" He screamed but there was no answer. The only thing he could hear was the crashing waves and his voice echoing back to him
"Where the fuck are you guys?" He yelled out again but there was still no response.
He groaned as he turned back and returned to the spot where he sat and watched and waited for someone to maybe pop out of the water or call out his name like he did others just now. But there was nothing and there was no one.
"I don't think I'm the only one that survived the crash" He thought to himself "I can't be the only one"
Yet again, groaning in pain as he forced himself up from the ground, he moved carefully over to the bags and clothes floating on the surface of the water, pulling each item with care and then tossing them behind him, onto shore.
He was at it for a while clearing out the shallow water and rescuing any and every useful item he could lay his one good hand on, before lifting his head to watch the current of the ocean pull everything else away.
"Maybe someone one would see the clothes or plane debris and follow the trail back to the island" He thought hopefully before going back to land
"Is anybody out there?" He called out loudly again
But this time his cries didn't go unanswered "Lucas?" The voice called out to him "Is that you?"
"Oh shit it's Owen" He said joyfully "Owen is that you?"
"Yeah" Owen responded and then walked into sight, from the trees behind him
He turned his head around to meet Owen who had the same level of injury as he did, the only difference is that Owen lacked a dislocated shoulder, but obtained a sprained ankle instead as he limped to Lucas's side "It's so good to see someone else" Owen said pulling him into a hug "It felt like forever. I thought I was the only one that made it"
"We have to find the rest of the class" Lucas said winching at the pain that erupted from his shoulder after the hug
"Sure thing but first we have to do something about that shoulder of yours" Owen said looking around the littered floor "He hopped over to the barely open suitcase, rummaging through the contents before smiling at the item he was obviously looking for. he hopped back over to Lucas who was wide eyed, as he watched Owen fold a thin leather belt in half and handed it over to him "Bite down hard on this"
"Why?" Lucas asks taking the belt from Owen
"You might scare the birds in the trees" He chuckled
Lucas looked to him and then to the belt in his hand before placing it between his teeth, biting down hard as instructed.
"So at the count of three I'm gonna try to pop the bone back in place. Thankfully it's only dislocated and not broken" He said after examining the shoulder
Lucas nodded in approval, his teeth gripping the belt hard as Owen held his hand "One, Two-"
Not waiting until three before he pulled on Lucas's arm fast and hard, till the bone went pop. Lucas's eyes went wide yet again as he screamed through gritted teeth. Tears flowing down his cheeks just as the pain slowly subsided before letting Owen wrap the shoulder and arm into a makeshift sling with a scarf from where he grabbed the belt "That should do it for now, at least until help comes''
"Thank you" Lucas said between deep intakes of air, fighting the nausea that crept up his throat
When he calmed down he took a look at his new casted shoulder, with feelings to his fingers slowly returning, he pointed with his eyes to Owen's hurt ankle "And what are we going to do about your injury?"
"Well you're in no condition to treat me so we'd just leave it as it is for now till we find someone that's not partially disabled" Owen said motioning to the sling
"We better do that fast. It's going to get dark soon" Lucas said looking up at the slowly setting sun
"You check that way" Owen said pointing to the right side of the island which he was staring at "And I'll check the area behind me"
"We'll meet back here before it gets dark with survivors-"
"Or the dead bodies we were able to recover" Lucas finishes the sentence
"Let's hope it's the first instance and not the latter" Owen said before limping away to begin his search.
With each step he tried to take, the pain was mortifying but at the same time, relieving. He stopped limping about half an hour later when he came across three bodies sprayed across the beach "Shit" He pushed himself to run even though his leg was still healing.
Dropping to his knees as he arrived at the first body, he checked to see if she was breathing, praying hard that he hadn't discovered the first dead body of the group and thankfully he hadn't. Air slowly climbed up her nose, filling her lungs before slowly exiting
"She's alive" He thought as he crawled over to check the other two, with a sigh of relief escaping his lungs as they all were just knocked out and not on their way to judgment's throne.
"Wake up Emma" He patted her cheeks lightly, before increasing the pressure of each slap. Her hazel eyes shot open as he jerked up from the sand, gripping her ribs in pain
"Welcome back to the land of the living" Owen chuckled as he moved to the other two "Come help me wake the others up"
"What happened? Where are we?" She asked grabbing the side of her head only to feel a cut across it
"Survive now, questions later" Owen said moving over to Elijah whom he didn't bother to start with slow cheek taps. A quick hard slap across Elijah's face was all it took to pull him out of his slumber
Elijah held onto his cheek looking around, still trying to process why he got slapped that hard before his brain informed him that he has more cuts and bruises to worry about. "Fuck" He whispered holding on to the back of his head
"Wake up Avery" Emma grabbed hold of Avery as she tried to shake her awake
"Do you need my help?" Owen said lifting up his palm
"Take another step closer and you'd wish you died in the crash" Emma threatened shooting him a look hinting that she definitely meant every word. Even Elijah took a few crawls back
"Avery" Emma shock her with a little more force before her eyes slowly blinked open
"She's awake" Elijah said with a smile on his face as he managed to push himself up from the sand
"Am I in heaven?" Avery asked, certainly unaware of her environment
"She's concussed" Owen says from behind the pair
"Avery, can you hear me?" Emma asked
She blinked a couple of times before her vision adjusted to Emma's bloodied forehead and bruised lip "You've looked better" Avery said holding onto her ribs
"And you don't even look like you just survived a nasty plane crash" Owen said as her eyes met his
The words sent chills down her spine as she looked around to see plane debris floating on the ocean top, nausea creeping up her stomach as she let loose everything she had to eat on the plane and the night before
"Damn that's a lot" Elijah said looking away from the puking classmate "Tell me when she's done"
Emma rubbed her back as the wave of vomit finally subsided and she was now breathing fine.
"Sorry about that" Avery said, wiping her mouth with a piece of cloth she picked up on the ground. "Where's the rest of the class?" She asked, her eyes searching between Emma, Owen and Elijah
All other eyes looked towards Owen as he sighed "So far I can only attest to five people been found and alive which includes You-" He said pointing to Avery "Me, Emma, Elijah and Lucas"
"Where is Lucas"? Elijah asked looking over Owen's shoulder
"He's hurt but he's fine" Owen says before looking over the four of them "Then again everyone is hurt"
They looked at him, holding at least one bruised part of their body
"It's getting dark. Let's go back and regroup with Lucas" Owen said stretching his hand out to Emma as Elijah does the same for Avery
The four of them made their way back to the point where Owen and Lucas agreed to meet, joy filling their hearts as they saw more people, standing around the meeting point. Their pace increased as they return to meet wounded but familiar faces, grouped together like they were having a meeting
"Emma" Max called out as he caught sight of her running towards him in the distance
"You're okay" She said between gasps of air and the tears streaming down her cheek
"You too" He smiled as he held her tight
"I'm alive too" Evan said from behind Max lifting his hand and waving it at Emma who breaks from the hug and buries herself in his arms "A little warning next time" He groaned in pain as he hugged his sister tight
"Good job finding them" Lucas said as he placed his free hand on Owen's shoulder
"Well you found more than I did" Owen said placing his hand on his shoulder as well "Thankfully no dead bodies"
"No dead bodies, yet" Lucas said, dropping his hand to his side. "I didn't find Ava, Caleb, Zara, Mia, Milo, Isabel, Natalie, Professor Turner and Dr. Bennett"
"I'm pretty sure they'll turn up soon" Owen sighed
"I hope so" Lucas said, turning to look at the reunited siblings. "It's getting dark already and we'd need to make a fire. So grab what you can from the shore and the entrance to the forest behind and bring them back here"
The group looked at Lucas and then carried out the instructions without a single complaint. They moved in pairs instinctively, grabbing clothes, twigs and stones, hurrying back to the proposed camp site, then setting the sourced items down
"Does anyone know how to make a campfire?" Lucas asks the group
"Yeah I do" Max raises his hand and steps forward
"Well the floor is yours now" Lucas said, gesturing to the items in the ground.
Max bent down, kneeling on the ground before digging a hole in the sand with his hands, placing the sticks and a few light clothing into the hole, setting stones around the hole creating a border and then striking stone to stone to create sparks which failed on the first twenty strikes.
"Finally" He cheered as the sticks finally caught fire and consumed the clothes in the mix.
"Good job" Lucas said as he turned to look at the group. "We'll set up camp here for the night and then set our tomorrow to look for our missing professors and classmates. It's best not to assume the worst without confirmation"
"Look at you taking charge and being a good leader" Owen chuckled as he settled down beside the fire to warm himself up "The rest of the group mirrored his movement as they all found warmth by the side of the campfire
"I wonder who's clothes those are, at the bottom of the fire" Max said looking at the fire he created
"A few of mine" Avery said not looking up at Max
"And a couple of mine" Sophia added
"Thank you for your sacrifice" Max bowed his head at the both of them which caused a small laugh within the group
"I hope the rest are fine" Sophia spoke softly, like a silent prayer into the fire and just like that the mood was thrown back into the depressive atmosphere it was in earlier
"We'll find them" Lucas assured her
"I think we're going to find them sooner rather than later" Owen said, his gaze fixed on the ocean
"Why'd you say that?" Lucas asks trailing the line of his gaze to meet the bubbles popping at the surface of the sea
Before he could speak or say anything else, something popped out of the water and flowed with the waves to the beach
"Is that a body?" Elijah asks causing the group to turn their attention to the unidentified figure approaching
"It is" Owen confirms rising to his feet and rushing the body on the water
"Shit"