Chapter 1: The Crash, Day 1

I sat up right and looked around terrified. My arm ached as did my head and when I reached my hand up to brush the hair from my eyes, I felt a warm, sticky substance on my hands. It was dark red: blood. I stared around again, this time noticing what was going on around me.

People were wandering, dazed, lost and confused. They screamed and crawled around the sand, either trying to move their bodies away from the wreckage of the plane or to find their loved ones. One blonde woman in particular was screaming someone's name, or at least that's what it sounded like. I looked around again, and then down at my arm. The brace was still wrapped around it and in fairly decent condition. I pulled at the Velcro straps and pulled it from my wrist, flexing my fingers and turning my wrist in a circle to stretch the muscles.

A backpack was lying next to me on the sand and I grabbed it, hoping that it was mine. The name on the inside confirmed it, Kalila M. Walker. I always wrapped the pack around my ankle. You never know who is going to fly next to you, and I don't want to take any chances. The airplane blanket that had been wrapped around me was still draped across my legs, so I folded it up and stuffed it into the backpack.

I need to stop this bleeding. Rummaging through the pockets, I found an old, ratty tee shirt, just in case the airplane lost my luggage, and rolled it up to wrap around my bleeding head. The wound didn't seem deep, but what do I know.

The blonde woman screamed again and I was surprised she still had enough voice to scream. What do I do? It seemed as if time had stopped, or was moving in slow motion. I'd only been sitting for a few minutes, but it felt like hours.

It took me a moment to stand up and I tried to brush the grit and sand from my denim cutoffs. I began to walk, unsure of where to go or what to do. People screamed around me, ran around in circles, helped pull people from beneath wreckage and out of the water. It would have been comical, had it been a movie. What could I do? Who could I help?

"Pen? Do you have a pen?" A young man came up to me and grabbed my hand. "Do you have a pen?" His bright blue eyes stared at me.

"Umm, yeah, hang on a moment." I dropped to my knees and rummaged through my backpack. "Here," I said and handed him the Bic ballpoint pen from my notebook.

The man nodded and took the pen without even saying thank you. He vanished back into the crowd of people, still yelling about a pen. Someone yelled, yelled for everyone to move and I looked around to see who he was talking to. Is he talking to me, I thought and glanced up. Above me, one of the wings flopped in the breeze, slowly moving towards the ground. Shrieking, I began running, as fast as I could away from the fuselage, away from the wing that was threatening to comply with gravity.

The wing came crashing to the ground and I dove, into the sand to protect myself from the explosion. Pieces of the plane flew across the beach and exploded into fiery pits in the sand. The smell of burning gas and metal filled the air, causing me to choke as I inhaled.

"Are you alright?" A man stood over me and held out his hand.

"Yeah," I said softly. "Yeah. Thanks." I took his hand and he pulled me up to my feet. For the third time in twenty minutes, I brushed the sand from my pants.

The man pulled his hand back and wiped it on his pants. "Yeah, sure." He wandered back off, around the wreckage, leaving me to stare after.

I shut my eyes and took in a deep breath. I needed to calm myself down. After counting to ten, I opened them again and looked around. Some people hung off to the side, trying to build a fire. The sky was growing darker by the minute and there was no sign of a plane or ship on the horizon. "Do you need help?" I called out to the men by the fire and an Arab man looked up.

"Yes, yes of course. The bigger we build it, the easier it will be to see. Help gather wood and bring it here." At least someone sounded like they knew what they were doing. I dropped my pack and went off to the trees, looking for spare wood.

The Pen man walked past me with a cell phone. "Any luck?" I asked as he walked past. He kept walking, either not hearing me or not caring to take the time to answer.

I stayed close to the edge of the forest… jungle… whatever it was. I wasn't about to go exploring by myself when darkness was just minutes away. Twigs and branches littered the jungle floor and I picked them up, carrying holding them in my arms like I'd hold an infant. I filled my arms with the twigs and began walking back to the beach.

By the time I returned, there were several fires going with people huddled around each one. I handed the collected wood to the Arab man and walked away, picking up my pack as I went.

I glanced around me as I walked around our make shift camp. Away from one of the fires, I found a young woman painting her toenails. Of all the things to do after a plane crash, she was giving herself a pedicure. "Mind if I sit here?" The woman looked up and shrugged, returning her concentration to her task. "I'll take that as a yes." I paused as I dropped my bag, "so where did you find the polish?"

"It was in my bag," she said. Her voice had an aloof tone and I glanced at her in surprise. Excuse me for interrupting I thought rudely.

"Well lucky for you that you found it." I unzipped my pack and pulled out a bottle of water. After taking a small sip and showed it to the woman, offering her somee.

The woman shot me a glare and went back to her nails. Rolling my eyes, I put the water bottle back into my pack and stared out over the water.

We were on the plane, flying from Sydney to Los Angeles, and then it crashed. I remembered the turbulence, the shaking and shuddering of the plane. The oxygen masks fell out and then the tail section separated from the rest, dropping straight down to the Earth below. Then I passed out.

Someone sat down next to them, pulling me from my memory. I glanced over and met eyes with the Pen-man. "Who are you?" He asked, staring at me with his brilliant blue eyes.

I stuttered caught off guard by his short tone, "Um Kalila. I… You can call me Kalie."

He nodded and began talking to the young woman sitting next to me. It appeared that they knew each other, boyfriend and girlfriend perhaps? "I'll eat on the rescue boat," the young woman said loudly, ending their conversation. Pen-man shook his head and opened up the candy bar, taking a large bit out of one end.

"What's your name?" I bravely asked the Pen-man. I usually avoided chatting with people I didn't know, but who knew how long we were going to be stranded on this island. It couldn't hurt to get to know a few people.

"Boone. And this pleasant ray of sunshine is my sister Shannon." Shannon looked up from her toenails and glared at her brother. Well that through my whole 'boyfriend/girlfriend' assumption out the window.

"Do you mind if I stay here tonight? I mean in this general area? I have my own blanket…" I trailed off, feeling my cheeks blush bright red. Why couldn't I form a coherent sentence lately? The crash must have thrown off my brain, sure that was it.

The faint light from the nearest fire illuminated Pen-man…Boone's face. "Sure." He looked out towards the water. "Do you want a bite? I can break you off a piece."

I smiled, for the first time since getting on the fated plane. "That'd be nice. Thank you." I took the small piece of candy and took a bite, enjoying the feeling of food for the first time since that morning. "Thank you," I said again.

Turning away from the siblings, I reached into my pack and pulled out the small airplane blanket that had been wrapped around me on the plane. "You're well prepared," Boone commented. "Do you happen to have a radio in there as well?"

"No, I left it in my purse at the bottom of the ocean," I said sarcastically and flashed a small smile before turning back to my bag. Reaching up to tie my hair into a ponytail, I remembered the tee-shirt wrapped around my bleeding head. I untied it and felt around the wound. When I didn't find any fresh blood, I tucked the tee-shirt underneath my pack. Using it as a pillow, I wrapped the blanket around me and curled up tightly.

'Yes, I'll call you as soon as we land. Yes, I'm excited to see you as well. No I can't believe it's been four months. Adam, will you give me a minute to answer with more than one sentence! No, we haven't started boarding yet.'

I smiled at the woman on her cell phone. Must be a long lost friend she's visiting in LA. Turing my eyes back to her book, I tuned out the sounds of the airport terminal. My plane was flying from Sydney to LA. We had a layover in Singapore for fuel before landing finally in LA some twenty hours later.

'Is this chair empty?' A man stood in front of me in a black suit and tie, gesturing towards the empty chair next to me..

'Yeah, of course. Go ahead and sit.' I moved my bag underneath my knees and went back to reading my book.

'That's a good book.' The man said, pointing to my hands.

'Yes, I've read it once already." Not in the mood for small talk, I buried my head back in the wrinkled pages, hoping the man would get the hint to stop talking to me…

I sat up straight as a loud growl sounded from inside the forest. "What the…?" I asked rhetorically, turning to look back at the trees. Pen-man… no, Boone stood up with several other people and they moved towards the larger fire.

It took me a second or so to react and then I also stood up, just as several trees were pulled down inside the forest. "Did anybody see that?" A young pregnant girl asked and several people nodded their heads. Everyone huddled together trying to figure out what was making the growling noise. What was on this island with us?

Trees were being pulled down all around us, but it was too dark to see what was causing the chaos. Subconsciously, I moved closer to the Pen-man, Boone. He was the only person on the island I knew -- at least -- knew his name. I wrapped my arms around my body trying not to frighten myself into a panic attack. The noise stopped after a half hour or so, and people began moving back to their own private sections of sand, still looking around nervously.

*~*~*

The next morning, I woke up and stretched, forgetting for a moment we were stranded on an island. When I sat up, I noticed that mostly everyone was already awake and moving about the beach. I folded up my blanket and packed it back into my backpack. After taking a sip of water, I walked towards the group of people gathered by the larger signal fire.

Boone and Shannon were sitting in one of the small groups, along with the Arab man who told me to collect firewood yesterday. I smiled slightly as I sat down in the group. They were chatting, idle chit-chat about the island, and the noise from the previous night. Apparently no one else could figure out what was there.

A man said after he knelt down next to the group. "We're going to look for the cockpit. There might be a radio or transceiver there we can use to send a rescue signal." The man gave Boone some instructions and I assumed they must have met the previous day, during the chaos.

"I'll come with," a guy across from me said as he stood up. He couldn't be much older than me and looked faintly familiar, like I'd seen him somewhere before.

"No, that's okay. We don't need any help," the first man said as he stood up to brush the sand from his pants.

"No, I want to help. I don't really feel like sitting around." When the older man nodded, the young one smiled, "Excellent," he said and followed them as they walked away.

I stayed with the other three, not really feeling like talking, but not wanting to be alone. "Who was that guy? The one going on the search for the cockpit?"

"That is Jack and he is a doctor. I do not know the woman with him, but the younger man who left with them is Charlie." The Arab man spoke, without looking at me. "I am Sayid. What is your name?"

I smiled, happy to chat with someone other than Boone and Shannon. "Kalila Walker…"

"Your name is Kalila?" He turned to me suddenly.

I nodded, slightly confused. He hadn't shown any interest in me until now, why? "Yes, but everyone calls me Kalie for short. Why?"

"It is Arabic, is it not?"

I nodded again. "So my mum tells me, why do you ask."

"Do you know what it means?" When I shook my head he replied, "It means 'beloved'."

"Really? My parents were Muslim, from Iraq. I tried to learn to speak the language on my own, but the only word I ever learned was in Farsi, salaam."

"It is the same in Arabic." Sayid smiled at me and I couldn't help but smile back.

"Well this is just great; enjoy your conversations in terrorist languages. Come on Boone," Shannon stood up and walked a few paces away. "Boone! Let's go."

Boone shrugged his shoulders at me and Sayid and stood up to follow behind his sister.

*~*~*

I had lain back in the sand, my eyes closed against the harsh sun. The group in search of the cockpit had been gone for most of the day, leaving the rest of the survivors to wander the beach and forest edge looking for fruit. The sun was still high in the sky, but it would soon be falling fast, plunging the camp into darkness again. I hoped that tonight, the strange, terrifying noise wouldn't sound from inside the jungle. I hoped that we would make it though the night.

"They're back," a voice said from above me. I opened my eyes and stared up into the blue ones of Boone.

"What?" I asked as I sat up. "I must have fallen asleep."

Boone grinned and offered a hand to help me up. "Well you couldn't have slept much last night. Come on."

I took his hand and let him help me off the sand. "Where's your sister? She's not attached at your hip right now?" I picked up my pack and followed him off towards the crowd.

Boone rolled his eyes and shook his head. "I think she's fixing her nails at the moment."

We walked up to where a small crowd had gathered by the signal fire. "What's going on?" I asked, seeing two people fighting, punches being thrown back and forth.

The Arab man, Sayid, and another man were fighting until the doctor, Jack and someone else pulled them apart. "I can't watch this," I said, walking away from the group towards the largest fire. I sat down next to the young pregnant girl and stared off into the forest, watching the leaves and branches sway with the breeze.

"I'm Kalie, what's your name?" I asked softly, offering a friendly smile to the girl.

"Claire," she said, smiling back.

"It's a pleasure to meet you. I'm sorry to ask, but do you know how far along you are?"

Claire smiled again. "No worries. I'm almost eight months. But I haven't felt it since yesterday after the crash." She placed her hands on her stomach, rubbing small circles around. "I don't know if it's okay or not."

I nodded, unsure of what to say to comfort Claire. "Well, at least we've got a doctor here. That's got to be a good thing." We fell into silence, awkward silence.

"Hey, we're going to try and send a rescue signal using the transceiver. Did you want to come along?" Boone stood over us, looking down.

"No, thank you. I think I'm going to stay here, but thanks for offering." I offered a smile and Boone nodded then turned to walk away, leaving us to our silence.

"He's a cutie. Do you know him?" Claire asked, breaking the silence. Her hands were still on her stomach, rubbing circles round and round.

I shook my head. "Not really. Yesterday I gave him a pen and I spent the night by him and his sister, the rude blonde painting her nails." I pointed to the blanket in the distance where Shannon was working on her fingernails.

"How long do you think it's going to take them to rescue us?" Claire's voice was a bit shaky and she looked nervous. "I don't know if I can have the baby here."

I shrugged. "I don't know," I whispered. "I heard the pilot said we'd been going in the wrong direction for hours. They're probably looking for us in the wrong place."

We lapsed into silence again, both staring off towards the trees, both with our own problems and thoughts racing through our minds.

AN: I've edited this chapter and changed the POV. I think I can write it better from the first person :-) New chapter should be up soon! Please leave a review on your way out!