Chapter 1
It was a hard landing definitely, considering he had plunged from a moving helicopter into the ocean below feet first. He had not thought of diving head down like what professional divers do as after all, he ain't one. The plunge to the bottom seems forever, he was almost out of air when he finally felt himself rising instead of sinking.
When Sawyer finally emerged from the water, he was coughing and breathing harshly. He fought hard to stay afloat in the sea, using his exhausted limbs to tread water the best he could. It was water all around and he didn't have the faintest idea which way was the shore. And unlike the last time, he did not have any piece of floating pontoon to hold on to.
Gosh, was it a bad idea to volunteer to jump off the chopper just to offload it a little? He did not know why he was so heroic all of a sudden. He ain't no damn hero. Maybe the island did not want him to leave after all. After pausing to gain his breath a bit, he thought it would be easier to do the marathon swim without his shirt flopping around his torso, so he took it off and chucked the cumbersome piece of material into the sea. His water-logged boots felt heavy too, but he did not think he would be able to undo his shoelaces while bobbing in the middle of the ocean so he left them on.
Sawyer looked around the water and finally decided on a direction which he hoped was the island. Using strong and steady strokes, he slowly made his way forward, knowing he should not swim too fast else he would not have the stamina to last it to shore.
Suddenly he felt a sharp painful sting on his abdomen, near the right side. As he was not prepared for it, the shock of it made him lose his momentum and his entire body sank into the water, causing him to drink a few mouthfuls of the salty water unwillingly.
"Son-of-a-b" Sawyer managed to cough out when he finally had his head above the water again. "What the hell is that?" He saw the shape of an eel-like thing swimming in the water away from him and hoped that it was not poisonous, but knowing his luck better, he was doubtful. He felt the site of the pain on his abdomen gingerly with his fingers and could make out a swell coming up.
"Guess I better make it to land fast" Sawyer thought to himself as he continued his swim before the interruption. The sting did not hurt so much now but as Sawyer swam, he could feel himself getting a little light-headed. "Couldn't be heat stroke" he thought, as he doggedly made his way forward.
However, the more he swam, the more light-headed he got. Just when he thought he would pass out and drown in the watery grave, he spotted land ahead. He stubbornly shook away the dark spots that were threatening to claim him and swam even harder, concentrating on each stroke as he moved ahead.
Finally his feet touched sand and he started to stumble onto the beach. He thought he saw a lone figure sitting about 100 meters away but he could not make out who it was in his current delirious state. The dark spots in front of his eyes were getting more and more and when they merged to a single mass, the last thing Sawyer thought before falling unconscious into the wet sand was who the hell was that.