Well, this sucks.
I'm trapped on a plane for fourteen hours with my class, which quite possibly could be the single most annoying class in this universe. Not to mention our mirror dimension or the various pocket universes contained within it. And, to make things worse we couldn't even choose who we sat with. Our teacher put us with random people so we could 'expand our horizons' or something like that.
So now I'm sitting next to a window, my head smashed against it as I stare out at the world flying by beneath us and trying to fall asleep while a rather upset Valerie sulks next to me since a rather pissed-off Dash is sitting next to her.
I don't mind sitting next to Valerie, except that she's so upset. So now I don't get any decent company at all since Sam is up front squished in between Paulina and Stacey, the shortest volleyball player ever. Tucker is a couple rows behind me, with the aisle seat next to Mikey and Jordan, who… honestly, for being in band and playing the trombone, is pretty hot. She's a girl by the way.
I sigh, leaning further away from the people I share my row with as Valerie pulls out a book from her carry-on bag, which also contains a laptop and a small ectogun. As to why they didn't take the ectogun, it's a gift from my parents to the Red Huntress and it's easily hideable. It's shaped like a thing of lip color. Not that anyone in their right mind would wear neon green lip color…
Next to her, Dash is leaning forward to talk to Jason, a friend of his who is on the soccer team. In all honesty, Jason isn't that bad. He's never harassed anyone.
I groan. Whoever is sitting behind me is jabbing their long and painfully sharp knees into my back and needless to say I am not enjoying it. Trying to tune out the annoyances, I close my eyes and try to get some sleep.
When I wake back up, it's because there is a lot of turbulence. As in, so much turbulence that people are throwing up and screaming.
"Please remain calm. It seems as though we are having some turbulence. Buckle your seat belts and do not get up under any circumstance."
Pursing her lips, Valerie sets her book down with a bookmark in her page and reaches into her bag. She pulls out the lipstick gun, slipping it into her bra and I pretend I didn't see that. Dash was whimpering and gripping the arms of the seat, while behind me the person finally stopped jabbing their legs into my back.
That's when all the lights shut off.
Looking outside the window as people scream, I can see endless ocean broken by the occasional island. All I can do is take off my seatbelt, and hope we land in water close to an island that everyone can swim to shore. I had already grabbed my belt- yes I am taking ideas from Batman and Robin- and had clipped it around my waist over the frayed and knotted rope that keeps my too-big jeans from falling down. The belt has my own tube of ecto-lipstick, a length of wire/cord that my parents engineered to be unbreakable, and a tube of black paint to name a few of the items it contains. Placing my hand against the window, I watch the water continue to rise up to meet us. I can distantly hear Lancer yelling something, and the regular passenger screaming- not to mention my classmates as well. No one is calm.
Except for me, Sam, and Valerie.
When we hit the water, the hit is most possibly the most jarring hit of my life. People do get up out of their seats, and somehow Sam, Tucker, Valerie, and I find ourselves together opening the exit at the back of the plane- a Boeing 767. We also find ourselves shoving people out of it- Including Lancer, Dash, Jordan, and Star- until we see no one coming towards the back. Sam and Tucker are the first two out, followed by me and Valerie. Grabbing Tucker, Sam swims strongly for the nearest island after hitting the water. I take note of which direction they're going, and when I hit the water I reach for Valerie and tug her in my direction. Somehow she picks up on my subtle cues and we swim after Sam and Tucker, both of us catching up to them. We keep swimming through the waves, ignoring the grey skies and whipping wind around us. When my feet hit ground, I pull myself upright. Sam already is pushing ahead to the mostly dry land, where we can see people already there. When all four of us finally emerge all the way from the water, we can tell that the majority of our class has ended up here. Lancer is trying to take roll, but no one can hear him over the waves and wind until someone points at us and screams something in a kind of relieved voice.
"Over here!" I can hear someone- maybe Star- shout, as if we don't already know which way to go. We trudge over, with Tucker plopping down hard on the sand while Sam paced to keep her muscles warm.
"We need to find shelter!" I can hear someone yell, and I nod. Looking up, I raise my voice.
"Get inland and stay together!" I shout, and Dash stands up. Our eyes meet for a second, and while underneath his periwinkle blues, I can see trepidation but acceptance.
"Everybody follow me!" He yells, and without hesitating everyone stands up- even Tucker. I make my way over to him, followed by Sam, and point towards a small gap in the dense forest. He nods- he gets what I was pointing to, and starts to lead everybody towards it. When we reach it, we follow what looks like a trail for a short ways, until it was overgrown by ferns and vines and other plants that only Sam knows.
"We're gonna have to stop here," Dash says, and Paulina sighs in relief. Sam crosses her arms, Glaring at Dash.
"We can just make our way through the brush," Sam replies. "I could tell you which plants are poisonous, you know."
"Everyone's tired though," Dash says, looking out at the panting and tired class. There are a few athletes- Jason, Kwan, Stacey, and Dash included- that aren't too fatigued but other than that handful of athletes and ghost hunters everyone else is tired and looking like their feet are falling off.
"How about we rest here for maybe half an hour and then keep going," Valerie suggests, walking to the front. Paulina and Star nod in relief, just hearing the word rest in that sentence and then clocking out.
"Fine," Sam sighs, huffing, and I walk over closer to her.
"I don't want to stop either," I say, wrapping my arms around her. She draws closer to me, even if I am colder than normal. She's warm, and I enjoy the heat she gives off. There are a couple of couples doing this as well, and some best friends getting in on the shared heat too. Tucker makes his way over, and the three of us sit down. Dash and Kwan are right next to each other- not cuddling, but definitely sharing a little bit of heat.
When everyone sits down to rest, that's when the first bolt cracks across the sky. Paulina screams, and I bolt to my feet along with everyone else.
"That's it!" Valerie yells. This time she's taking the lead. "We need to keep going now. The storm's only going to get worse!" Spurred on by those words, Sam stands right next to the ghost hunter as we whack a path for our tired classmates. I'm right next to Kaitlyn, one of the cheer squad fliers. She whacks just as hard as I do, and I guess that I'm happy she's helping out. I even get a glimpse of Paulina and Star helping, despite groans and exclamations of "Oh my gosh! That vine just ruined my hair!" As if the storm and salty swim hadn't already.
Lightning continues to crack across the sky, followed by thunder and the downpour's increase.
"Is it just me," Kaitlyn yells to Kwan, who is right next to her, "Or is the ground starting to slope upward?"
"It's not just you," he yells back, and that's when I'm clued in to the little rivulets streaming past my feet. The sky continues to darken as the sun sets- an orange hue lights up the clouds as it gets harder and harder to see.
We continue fighting our way hopefully towards shelter until there's a yell.
"I found a cave!" Stacey shouts back at us, and we all move in her direction. All of us are tired, and I'm willing to bet the other half of my life that most everyone's muscles are burning. Mine are a little fatigued, but then again every day of my life is spent fighting. By now, I've built up some fairly good stamina.
Once we all get into the cave, Mr. Lancer stands up. He's starting to sort us into sleeping groups- boys on one side of the cave, girls on the other. When all of us are with our respective genders, he lays down in the middle of the cave.
I wait, eyes open in the half-light of the cave, my ghost-augmented sight picking out perfect details of the rock. There was a band of crystals over where Star was curled up, and some roots hung down over Kwan. After Lancer, and most everyone else, had started snoring, I pull myself to my fight. I'm not the only one, as Sam and Valerie rise. Tucker is already asleep, and the three of us meet at the mouth of the cave where rain is still coming down- not as hard, but harder than usual in Amity.
"I'm not the only one deciding to keep watch," Valerie says to us, and I smirk. I'm sitting next to Sam on one rock, while Valerie's on the other. Sometime in the night, I fall asleep, to be woken up by Sam. Valerie is asleep as well, and Sam curls up against me to sleep. Apparently they decided to have shifts. I shrug, not really caring as I stare out through the drizzle. I watch as the rain thins further, and it's stopped completely by the time everyone else wakes up. When Lancer notices the three of us on the rocks- Sam and Valerie have woken up- he walks over with his arms crossed.
"And what were you three doing last night?" He asks, staring rather scrutinizingly down at us.
"Not what you're thinking," Sam snaps back, and I chuckle.
"We were keeping watch incase anything… Unsavory, came last night," Valerie gives him the answer he wants, and he nods.
"Good thinking," he says, as we stand up and walk back over to the main group. Everyone's getting up, and Dash crosses his arms.
"We need to find food," he says, and Lancer nods.
"Let's split everybody up into groups so that we can find more food," Paulina suggests, and I just stare at them.
"Shouldn't we find fresh water first?" Kyle, an English nut, speaks up.
"If you want you can do that," Kwan says. "We need food."
"Everybody split up into groups of three or so!" Lancer says, and everyone begins to do so until Valerie yells.
"If we all split up, how will we find out way back?" She asks, crossing her arms.
"Maybe we should go back to the beach and make camp there," Jason suggests. "Then, assuming we get some sort of fishing system set up and the crash didn't kill all the fish then we could have pretty much all the food we want."
"See there! That is a great idea," Sam says, and Valerie, Tucker, and I chuckle. Eventually everyone decides to go with Jason's idea, and we start to trek back to where we swam ashore. With the sun peeking through the clouds, it's a lot warmer than it was yesterday while it was pouring buckets on our heads. Everyone's clothes are dry and salt-free, having been washed by the downpour.
When we reach the beach, some people split off to find food and water that will help keep us going with the fish. They leave Valerie, Sam, Tucker, Jason, Kyle, and I behind, and we all circle up almost like a varsity football huddle.
"We should work on the camp for when they get back," Kyle suggests, and everyone nods.
"I'll make a firepit," Jason says. "I've been camping in the Rockies before. Tucker, want to help?" Tucker shrugs, and the two of them walk off to find rocks.
"We should start making little huts or something," Kyle says, and I nod.
"We'll need vines to maybe tie palm fronds together over a framework of branches," Valerie suggests.
"I… I have a knife," I say, rather cautiously. Kyle looks at me, an eyebrow raised.
"How'd you sneak that past customs?" He asks. I shake my head, suppressing a smirk. He and Valerie get the idea. "Maybe you and your knife can come with me for vines while Val and Sam work on finding downed tree limbs and fronds."
"There might also be parts of the plane we could salvage that could wash up on shore," Sam says, pointing to a piece of white metal gleaming in the sand. Kyle nods.
"Well… Uh… Let's get going," he says, and I follow him into the forest in search of vines. Honestly, it wasn't going to take much searching.
"And may we hold a moment of silence for the Boeing 767 that went down in the Pacific Ocean while on its way to Australia from LAX. On board were fourty-three local Casper High students, as well as their teacher, Mr. Lancer. We hope and pray that search parties find any survivors in a timely manner, although we are still searching for the exact crash site.
From what was being transmitted to air control, the Boeing 767 had encountered a rather strong storm. Just last night, that storm was named Tropical Cyclone Travis."
"Jack!" A woman in a blue jumpsuit calls, turning off the TV and running to get her husband. She wraps her arms when she finds him, burying her head in his orange jumpsuit. "Danny's plane crashed…"
