The Island

[Cordae]

Julie Malone

Julie sat dazed in the sand until the "boot" woman came to comfort her. She stayed only briefly, Julie could tell it was an awkward situation for both of them. Smiling through watery eyes, Julie thanked the woman for her concern before she moved on.

She looked around at the remaining people, and caught herself when she began to look for her friends. 'What a waste'. Julie thought ironically, 'We had been planning this trip since the end of high school. The only reason we didn't go then, was because we decided it would be more valuable after we had degrees.' Now Julie would be the only one to get to actually use the degree she'd earned... that was if she ever got off the island they had crashed onto.

Looking back at the plane, Julie noticed that her backpack had been thrown during the crash and was lying haphazardly out of a window. Struggling with her one good arm, she stood and moved back towards the plane. With a quick jump, she was able to dislodge her pack, and bring it back with her.

Slinging it over her good shoulder, Julie sat back down in the sand. Digging through her bag, she found a belt and once she had it buckled, looped it around her neck and one shoulder to use as a sling for her arm.

Sighing, she flopped down onto her back and stared up into the angry clouds that denied her a decent vacation. Raising her good arm she shook her fist at the sky.

"What now? What do we do now!" The tears came freely and Julie cursed the clouds as much as she cursed herself. If she had been the one to die, maybe her friends would have survived.....

 

[papillon24]

Angie

She watched frantically as she came close tot he beach. Flame engulfed the plane growing larger and larger with every moment.

"Some on ol' girl. We gotta help." She called to the boat as she turned directly for the beach keeping the white sales oped for as long as possible to speed up her journey.

The sight still baffled her as she watched the bareness of the beach as it approached her. It was wooded densely and not asingle hotel stood along the golden sand.

She chould see a few people gathering a ways from the flames. She could see that people were hurt. She wondered exactly how many and hoped she could help the remaning survivors.

Soon the water became too shallow for her to move the Altima any closer. She dropped anchor about a fifty yards from the shore and prepared her rowboat to go ashore. She packed a few flares, the first aid kit, five gallons of water, a few bags of rice and beans and water filtration kit. Quickly she climbed into the boat and began rowing as fast as she could.

 

[Butch]

Kwame Uhuru

As he was standing silently, watching the ocean, he first felt signs of panic in his thoughts in his head. The goddamned plane had crashed, without an obvious reason. A whole lot of people had been killed and even more had been wounded, some even lethally. They were on an unknown, possibly deserted, island. People who had lost everyone they cared about were running around in panic. All this and yet he remained calm, not offering his help though he had a background in medicine, not even talking to anyone.
Instead he just stood there, staring at the ocean. What was the matter with him? Why wasn't he able to feel anything for these people?

Suddenly something caught his eye, there appeared to be a boat some fifty yards off the shore. There was actually yet a chance they would be saved. He kept his new discovery to himself, hoping to avoid further shock among the others.

 

[Steiner]

Robert had not welcomed the arrival of Reggie initially - but decided that under the circumstances his shattered dignity was the least of the issues to be considered. He listened to the words, still not truly believing them - although he intellectually saw the sense in them - but appreciating them anyway.

He took a belt from the bottle offered, and knuckled his eyes clear, sniffing deeply and feeling utterly worthless.

"What the hell do I tell them, Reggie? Those people back there? What do I tell the people that waved them off on their holiday of a lifetime?" he sniffed, realising that his rhetorical unloading had raised a vital point. With his brain working again, he turned to the man with more animation in his eyes than before.

"What DO I tell them? We've got burns, breaks and god knows what else out there. I don't know where the hell we are - but this is not the Waikiki approach that I know. We need to get the wounded comfortable and set up an airwatch for rescue, and we need to do it before we lose the shocky ones. I haven't a clue how to proceed..."

 

[CollegeCutie]

Noelani

Noelani knelt in the sand, her head in her hands as she cried over the loss of her friend Makani. She had arrived back in the village to find Cho holding the young woman's body and singing of how she had been killed by a fallen tree during the storm. Noelani had planned on telling the other villagers of the large bird falling from the sky and the strange light skinned people that it had brought to the island, but now her thoughts were only on her friend. She knew it was selfish of her to wish that Makani was still with her. Makani was with the gods now, she would be reunited with their people's ancestors in a place where food and love was abundant. Still, she knew that she would miss the companionship of her friend and it saddened her.

 

[Steiner]

Physically hauling himself upright, Robert composed himself before striding back around the boulder towards the group of people huddled there.

"Everybody! We need to get the wounded to shelter before this storm gets any worse! Who's fit to travel? Are there any wounded here who can't travel?"

 

[papillon24]

Angie rowed with all her might coming ashore a few hundred feet from the crash. She pulled the boat onto the soft sand and secured a rope around a tree so the tides would not carry it away. She grabbed the supplies she had brough and started running down the beach towards them.

"Everybody! We need to get the wounded to shelter before this storm gets any worse! Who's fit to travel? Are there any wounded here who can't travel?" She heard a mans voice calling everyone to order. She recognized the voice. It had been the man on the radio.

"Hello!!!"She cried out. she stopped suddenly as the sight of the crash came into view. Bodies strew here and there and the smell of carnage almost made her retch. "I've come to help"

 

[Steiner]

"Thank god! How many of you are there? We need to get these people out of the storm as soon as possible. Can you get the Coastguard on your radio?"

Robert moved as if his feet were in mud, the fatigue was beginning to get to him already. Although the shock was wearing off, so was the adrenaline. He squeezed Julies shoulder on the way over to the voice and waved at his rescuer.

 

[papillon24]

"Thank god! How many of you are there? We need to get these people out of the storm as soon as possible. Can you get the Coastguard on your radio?"

"She approached. There is no one else. I was on my sailboat, The Altima, when heard you cry for help. I came as fast as I could and broguht what supplies I could spare." she watched as his demeanor became saddened by the news.

She began to check on the people sitting around injured and letting them drink from the water jugs as the captian kept following her around with questions and helping mend a few of the injured.

 

[Starsailor2804]

The only thing that brought him back to the group was the yelling and the chaos. That woman could have quite possibly been able to help them, but soon after she ran off the anxiety and craziness of the situation made him totally forget about her. Running over to Robert, the man in the pilot uniform, Paul wanted to help in anyway that he could coaxing people to move further and further away from the plane.

"How do you plan on getting out of the storm!? Do you see shelter anywhere nearby!? Just yelling in general he watched a younger woman, who looked to be in the best condition of all, helping those who were injured. Hearing the pilot talk he soon realized that she must have arrived some way other than the plane. The rain was beating too hard for him to see much as his vision was cloaked every now and then as the rain beat him in the face.

"Just fucking wonderful, I don't mind the rain, but fuck, we were just in a plane crash!" Yelling up at the sky like it would actually listen to him Paul walked off towards the water further and further down the beach. Yeah, he had really lost it, at times he forgot that there were actually others around.

 

[slowandeasy]

Jacques

Proping himself up on his elbow, Jacques looked around peering through a haze that he knew came from inside his head rather than his suroundings. How he got here he didn't have a clue. The last thing that he remembered was the blue had turned to black,along with the sinking feeling that he was losing consiousness. Along with that feeling came a terrible sense of aloneness. Separated from his children, away from everyone he knew and loved he was alone. His last feeling of closeness was with this woman he barely knew. Only her name and her generous smile, her blue eyes and her golden skin. The blue and gold thathad turned to black before he could even tell her his name.

Now that he was awake and aparently unharmed except for a dull ache in the back of his head and a goosebump the size of golf ball, he wondered, Did she make it through what apparently had been a plane crash? If she did the first thing he would do would be to tell her his name.

His vision became clearer and he saw the wreckage of the plane, people were milling around there seemed to be an urgency to move, to higher ground perhaps, it was wet and muddy where he sat now having been able to bring his body to an upright position, no broken bones he was sure of that he stetched and started to stand only to feel the ground become unsteady and he decided he'd better wait a while. he looked from face to face, knowing what he was looking for.

A smile came to his lips as he saw those familair cerulean blue eyes. Not far away just a few feet,.. close enough to get to his knees and crawl towards... close enough to reach out his hand and say.

"My name is Jacques Laforge, I can't begin to tell you how glad I am to see those blue eyes again."

He didn't know if it was for her that he had said that. Glad to she was among the living, or glad for himself knowing that he had another chance at life. Either way it didn't matter now. This wasn't the adventure he had planned, but that's how life works he decided.

 

[Steiner]

"Right! We are getting OFF this beach. Right now! Grab the wounded, grab the bags and let's head up the slope to that hilltop. Maybe we'll find some shelter."

Robert had a ulterior motive. He thought he knew these damn hills, but if he was right then they were far away from the airport. Thing was, there were a few landmarks that should have been visible from here if the storm hadn't been so strong, so they'd be able to set out and get help when it abated.

If they found a deep cave system about three quarters of the way up and on the West side, then they might be where he remembered and - either way - they might have some shelter. One thing was sure - they had to get the casualties out of this rain and wind.

 

[Messalina]

Messalina Bishop

As a vague awareness of her surroundings eddied hazily to the surface of her re-awakening consciousness, Messalina's eyelids fluttered open, though she remained perfectly still waiting for the rest of her senses to catch up with the distorted fun house mirror imagery of her brain.

Voices. Retching. Screams. Pleas for help. Panic.

Pandemonium.

Convulsive jolts. Vibrations that jerked and jarred like someone in the throes of St. Vitas Dance that ended in a macabre pirouette that left her dangling precariously. A breathlessly pitched battle for... release? Plummeting into piceous darkness.

Shrill, piercing inhuman screeches followed by...

Light. Bright and glaring. Like fire without heat. Blinding.

The feel of something familiar. Clutching. Racing in a headlong flight with madness nipping at her heels.

Even now she could taste the fear, both acrid and sweetly pungent in the back of her throat. Stinging her eyes. Burning her nose. Astringent, like the smell of burning tires and electrical wires.

Looking skyward, she recoiled, crying out sharply when a droplet of water slid down from a deep green... leaf? and splattered against her forehead with the all the force of an explosion that spurred Messalina into action. She struggled to move though every effort ignited searing pain.

Scrambling to her feet she began to run, heedless of the light rain or the cold that seemed to permeate her very soul. Away from the trees.

"Fire!!!!" Was that her?

Messalina plunged toward the conflagration despite every instinct that told her it was wrong. She had to find... the eyes! Those eyes. Anomalous. A paradox in an incongruous face that somehow bespoke of strength and... invulnerability.

Oblivious to her surroundings, she urged herself mindlessly onward, stopping only when her momentum was halted by a huge boulder.

"Fire!" she rasped.

"Help!" she whispered.

"We crashed," she mouthed as the abstract pieces fell together to form a fragile yet somehow tangible whole.

The plane had crashed.

"Pfft!"

Messalina blinked. And blinked again. The eyes! As he staggered to his feet to face her, she instinctively knew she was safe.

 

[Vikingstone]

Reggie

Where are the fucking boats and helicopters was the question swirling in Reggies slightly inebriated mind as he turned to face the shuffling sounds behind him.

"Good God, woman!" Reggie shouted as he got to his feet and focused on the supremely bedraggled form of the lovely Ms Bishop. "Where on earth did you come from, my dear, here, sit down."

Reggie stared open-mouthed at the poor woman for a long moment before snapping back to reality and checking her for any serious injuries. She was deep in shock and had myriad bumps and bruises like everyone else but Reggie was terribly pleased to see that otherwise, she seemed to be whole.

Reggie took her face in his hands and gently wiped some of the jungle detritus from her reddened cheeks. "How the hell did you get out of there?" Reggie asked rhetorically, knowing the lovely Ms Pfft was still in no condition to answer any questions. Hell, they may never know how she got out, if her memory had been wiped by shock. The brains' facility for repressing horrible memories was well known. Messalina just shrugged and sagged toward Reggies' shoulder as he sat down against the big rock with her.

Reggie craned his neck and listened to a raised voice on the other side of the rock. The Captain was shouting something about moving up into the forest to look for respite from the relentless tropical rain. Excellent plan. Ms Bishop could definitely use a bit of drying off and Reggie was himself beginning to tremble from the extended drenching.

Where the hell were those blasted helicopters?! As Reggie rose to confer with Robert about his plan to move those who were in the worst condition, his mind was struggling to understand why the air/sea rescue people were not already evacuating the wounded. It's not as if they were flying a goddam Sopwith Camel! It was a modern craft with all the safety bells and whistles available. Black box, homing beacon, automatic alerts for every problem one could imagine. The beacon alone would have allowed control to triangulate their position in seconds via satellite. And the weather was nowhere near bad enough to keep those brave folks from the Coast Guard from screaming out here at top speed. Those giant jet helicopters could zip along at 200 miles per hour or more. They should be here by now...

 

[papillon24]

SHe hurried getting water to the rest of the survivor as well as helping bangage them up the best she chould.

In the background of all the moans and cries she heard the captian talk about moving. She made her way over to him again.

"Captian, I have something to tell you about my trip into shore."

She pulled him aside and began to explain.

"I know that I left the Oahu marina this morning. The island was booming with activity. When I got your call on the radio it all kinda disapeared. I don't know, but maybe I made a wrong turn. I could have sworn I passed Diamond head this morning"

 

[Steiner]

Crisis management...

Robert turned to the boat skipper and nodded. "My radio went to hell too. I don't have clue where we are - was there a lot of mist at sea level? I was hoping you'd be able to bring me up to speed, Navwise." he paused and shook his head.

"Let's get these people moved - I've an idea I know where some shelter might be."

Suddenly he spied Reggie coming around from behidn the rock...

"Reggie? Thank God. We've got to get these people moved - and fairly rapidly. Christ alone knows where the Search and Rescue teams are - something major must have happened. Either way - we have to get up this slope onto drier ground. One flash flood could kill all of us!"

Some of the shockier passengers were already in deep trouble - they needed a fire and they needed shelter and they needed the hell out of this swampy, soupy mud. Robert tried to gather the passengers together - some had wandered off and he was very dubious about ever finding them. Others were huddled on the floor and he tried to rouse them with words, boots anything that would work.

Gathering people together he cajoled them up the side of the hill, lending encouragment and hoping this was for the best. Rounding the gravel shoulder he was heartily discouraged to find a large cavemouth - about 4 feet high and 8 feet across.

Damn it. It was here - though smaller than he remembered. What did THAT mean?

 

[Vikingstone]

Reggie

Reggie listened to Roberts' assessment and agreed immediately. Reggie, of course, took a moment to eyeball the new addition to their happy little family. Another woman of stern stuff...most welcome indeed. And she's rested and undamaged which none of the rest of the company assembled could claim.

"Reggie is the name, dear lady, your arrival is certainly fortuitous," he said in a voice that belied his almost collapsed nervous system. "

"Hello, Reggie, I'm Angie, wish I could say it was a pleasure to meet you," she spoke loudly over the groans of the passengers Robert was prodding to their feet.

The cave was small but would certainly do. Roberts memory was keeping them alive once again. Reggie pulled out his butane cigar lighter and began to burn the documents from the satchel he inadvertantly carried out of the plane when he went back for the tall man and his liquor. They began to dry off the twigs and sticks Angie had gathered and withinn ten minutes a fairly robust blaze was crackling a few steps into the mouth of their new home away from home.

His adrenaline reserves ebbing fast, Reggie took another long pull off the whiskey and told Robert he was heading back down to that boat to see what Angie was talking about.

"There can't be nothing, old man, there has to be some sort of crosstalk or something, the weather simply isn't that bad. We have to get ASR here soon. Keep some wood drying around the fire at all times...Messalina!" Reggie called to the shivering woman.

"Keep this fire going my dear, that's your job until I get back, keep wood drying around it and toss it on when it's dry enough," he looked into her eyes to make sure she was "in there" enough to keep up with the task.

"Aye, aye Commodore, we'll keep the home fires burning," Messa said, saluting in the backhanded British way.

Reggie smiled, "Wonderful you're going to be just fine my pet!" With that he scrambled out of the cave, through the swamp and ran down the beach to where Angies' boat lay listing slightly. He clicked on the radio and quickly learned that what she had told them was inexplicably true. Just fine white hiss. Not a mic pop, not a click, not a hint of a ghost transmission in the background....nothing.

 

[papillon24]

Angie

Angie felt dizzy with the commotion around her ash the fire crackled in the cave. She set up the protable water distilation kit and moved over to Robert.

"CAptian. I must find a way to anchor my boat a bit. I will return. If the Altima stays safe then there are more supplies on board."

She hurried out of the cave and down to the beach where the rowboat was. There at the boat was Reggie fideling with the radio she had brought along.

"Um, excuse me. I must go back out and secure the Altima. It's just right over there a few hundred feet off shore. it was too shallow to bring it in." She began unpacking the rest of the supplies she had brought along from the Altima and set them on the beach..

She pushed the rowboat out into the water a bit and then jump in.

"Could you drag the rice, beans and dried veggies up to the cave. I'll be back in a bit." calling back

 

[Snow-Guy]

Sean

Sometime later, it started to rain. Sean lay on the beach for a while, rain was always nice.

Scratch that. Rain was always nice for a while.

Pretty soon, the while was up and Sean walked back towards the wreckage. A few wisps of steam were the only signs that this had happened recently. There must have been other survivors, but where were they? Probably hiding out in the jungle, trying to keep dry. People tended to do that.

Sean walked along the beach for a while, and spotted a boat. Perfect. Boaties usually had food, and all the trappings of civilization.

"Hello. Hello." He called a couple times but there was no response. "Um ahoy, or whatever it is you say. Look mate, I'm tired, wet, and bleeding. Can I come inside or not?"

 

[Vikingstone]

Reggie

"Yes, yes of course...terribly sorry," he answered Angie distractedly. Reggie then tossed the bags over his shoulders and began to walk back up the beach.

How could there be nothing? Even with the small AM/FM/shortwave Angie had along with her survival gear, there should have been SOMETHING. He must apologize for doubting her.

"And where the HELL are those fucking helicopters!!" Reggie screamed into the rainy sky. "Why am I carrying this bllllllloody food, someone will be here to rescue us any minute won't they...WON'T THEY?!" Everything began to spin for a moment and Reggie decided that screaming at the top of ones lungs in the condition he's in was probably a bad idea.

He set the sacks on the ground inside the cave and sat down next to Messalina, who'd gotten quite a merry little fire going. He looked into her eyes and smiled ruefully. Then up to Robert who stood above them.

"Um, she was right, old man....empty space...nothing but fine background hiss...as in the RF the planet gives off as it revolves?!" Reggies' voice took on a tinge of desperation.

Messalina squeezed his arm firmly and motioned with her head to the rest of the jolly crew shivering around the fire....yes, yes must keep a cool head. But it was all so damned confusing! In Reggies' experience, one turned on a fully powered and properly functoning radio and one heard something!

 

[Snow-Guy]

Sean

Bye bye duplicate

 

[Steiner]

Grim tidings...

Robert lowered his voice and spoke to Reggie directly.

"You know that's impossible, don't you? We were on final approach to a fucking AIRPORT, we should be able to raise them from here by going to the top of this fucking hill and shouting...." he let his voice trail off tiredly.

"Something has gone very, very badly wrong. I hope we can patch these guys up because, frankly, I don't think anyone is coming soon. We must have come down in an atmospheric bubble of some kind, or the wrong side of a mountain range or something equally improbable. And even then, that doesn't explain why the GPRS failed on the frigging plane Reggie. I haven't got a clue what's happened but I have a really bad feeling about it. I'm not going to let it psyche me out or anything, but I just wanted SOMEONE to know before I went insane."

Robert paused for breath, hoping the cave hadn't magnified his voice. Hoping Ms Bishop was busy listening to the crackles and pops of the fire and not to him and Reggie.

Some of these wounded are desperately iffy, Reggie. There might be internal bleeding - I'm worried we'll lose a couple tonight...

 

[Tibxo]

As the afternoon continued, the rain started to let up, only to be replaced by stronger winds. Not that he minded. The day before was a hot and swelting one with no let up at all.

As he often did, he spent all the morning at the strange coloured water pool. The majority of it dozing though that wasn't the only reason why he had been there. In his small sack were three scaled creatures which infested the waters in abundance. He didn't know what they were as he had never seen anything like it before coming there but then again he didn't care. They tasted good and that was all that matters.

With the creatures safely secured, he had started back on his round-about route towards his camp, making sure that he avoided the village. After what had happened to his fellow crew passengers, the natives had made it clear that they didn't want him anywhere near their village or them. That was fine with him as long as they left him alone.

Reaching the top of a large hill, he stood for a moment as he surveyed the view, his hand sweeping through his long blonde mane. The cooler temperature caused by the wind was soothing on his flesh and he closed his eyes to savour the sensations.

I'd better get...

He stopped as his eye caught something on the horizon. It was a column of smoke. He tried to work out what was causing it.

A jungle fire?

He doubted it. It was far too damp for that.

He considered going and investigating it and if had been a few months ago, he would have gone without a moent's hesitation. But now things were different. He felt different. He was far more cautious.

No, he will leave it until the morning and then decide...

 

[Vikingstone]

Reggie

Reggie patted Messalinas' hand and stood up, taking the Captains' elbow and leading him out of the cave into the wind, hoping it would mask their words.

"I realize all of this, Robert my lad," Reggie spoke quietly next to the pilots ear. "But we seem to be dealing with some sort unprecedented anomally. There was nothing on that radio and it was fully functional. The ASR people should have been here by now, they aren't. For the moment at least...we are on our own."

Reggie looked into Roberts' eyes and saw the same thing he was feeling...overwhelming confusion. Reggie felt something else creeping into his mind...fear. How could this be happening? Were the satellites gone from the sky? Was Air/Sea Rescue just simply not there? How could that be?! Alien invasion...the final war...Armageddon?!! These were becoming real possibilities. Reggie began to sense a touch of hysteria entering his tortured brain. Then he looked back into the cave and realized there were others to consider and it would NOT do to allow himself to unravel.

Reggie released his death grip on Roberts' shoulder and took several deep breaths. "Alright, good sir knight, we must let these people know what we know and what we don't know and brace for the worst. Prepare for anything from outright hysteria to personal attacks to actual violence. Let's wait until the Skipper gets back, at least she can corroborate my story of the blank airwaves."

Reggie sighed deeply and turned to look toward the beach, "You'll have to take the lead here my friend," He looked Robert in the eye, "You're the Captain."

 

[Messalina]

Messalina Bishop

Tending the fire wasn't exactly what Messalina would have called busy work, but it required concentration to keep the wet wood from sputtering out while she waited for the rest to dry. They had food now, she noted, but nothing to cook in or on and that set her thoughts to other things.

She'd be lying if she said she was completely all right, just as she'd be lying if she said she wasn't concerned by the snatches of conversation she'd heard between Trowbridge and the pilot. The Brit hadn't seemed like the sort who'd panic over nothing and that alone was enough to raise the short hairs on the back of her neck.

Messa let her gaze wander from face to face of those who were huddled around the fire drying out and recovering from the shock and then to the bodies who had been gently placed close enough to gain some benefit from the heat. Trowbridge was right... they were going to lose more than a few before dawn, and foolishly wished that someone had grabbed blankets from the plane before it started to burn.

Adding some more wood to the fire, Messa felt at least the warmth would offer some surcease, but at this rate it wouldn't last very long. Standing up, she stretched and walked toward the mouth of the cave for a breath of fresh air that hopefully would clear her head a bit more.