When Raymond Garraty woke up, he was lying on a beach and had absolutely no idea how he'd gotten there.

He remembered boarding a plane and he remembered the plane going down. Anything between that and now waking up, he didn't know. Maybe if he figured out where he was, it would be easier to remember what had happened.

He sat up, glancing around. His head hurt, and he had to squint against the sun to see what was going on around him.

There were motionless boys scattered around him in the sand. Dead? Garraty thought so, though he didn't really want to believe it. Hopefully there were a few more people still living here, on this beach – was it an island, or just some random beach? Inhabited or uninhabited?

"There's a living one!"

Someone was here – thank God, he wasn't alone. Garraty turned to see a black-haired teen with a bad scar on one side of his face picking his way through the dead bodies toward him. Garraty tried to get up but ended up slipping on the sand, falling back. The fact that he was slightly dizzy may have helped with the 'falling down as soon as he tried to stand up' thing, too.

"You okay?" the black-haired boy asked, offering his hand. Garraty took it and the black-haired boy pulled him up. "What's your name?"

"Ray Garraty," he said, and the black-haired boy nodded, as if contemplating this.

"I'm Peter McVries," he said. "Parker's got everyone further inland – we're seeing if anyone lives here, if this actually is an island after all. Parker's already sent out a few guys, but I'm supposed to be taking another group around…"

Garraty blinked. He certainly was talkative – but now that he looked closer, he could see that McVries was a bit pale, so perhaps it was a coping mechanism. "Um," Garraty said. "What happened?"

McVries paused, and just then did Garraty realize that he was still holding the other boy's hand. He let go awkwardly and averted his eyes. They stood in an almost crippling silence until a sweet-looking blond boy bounded over. "McVries! Parker's getting a little bit mad," he said. "You should probably go soon."

"Yeah, yeah, Parker's an ass," McVries said, rolling his eyes. "I'll get it done when I get it done… go find Olson, will you? I can take you and him and… Garraty? Do you want to come?"

"Sure," Garraty said, still wondering what exactly had happened to put them onto this beach in the first place. They'd boarded the plane to get to somewhere… safe, he supposed, to get away from the war. Boys aged thirteen to seventeen on one plane, girls aged thirteen to seventeen on another. He remembered kissing Jan goodbye before getting on the plane; he'd sat beside a cheerful boy with glasses and a notebook.

He briefly wondered if the boy with the notebook was still alive, then decided that he didn't want to think about it, just in case he was dead.

"Coming?" McVries asked, and Garraty shook himself out of his thoughts to follow him. A few moments later the blond boy came back with a boy that was trying to look cocky but still trembling a little. "You okay, Hank?"

The boy who Garraty supposed was Hank Olson managed a grin. "Fan-fucking-tastic," he said. "Now c'mon. We don't want to take all day."

"I wanted to help bury the bodies," the blond said, glancing down at the body at their feet. "I'd prefer it if we could get back in time to help with that."

"Baker, you're weird," Olson said. Baker shrugged, grinning and turning a little pink. Olson threw an arm around Baker's shoulders and pulled him close. "But we like you anyway."

Garraty exchanged a look with McVries, who looked slightly amused, slightly confused. "Ahem," McVries said. "Are we going to be going anytime soon, or do you two want to go house shopping?"

Baker turned a darker shade of red and pulled himself away from Olson, who grinned and put his hands in his pockets. "Lead on," he said.

Garraty followed McVries off of the beach and into a forested, almost jungle-like area. After only a few minutes sweat trickled down his face and pricked at his back and he pulled off his jacket. It was ripped up anyway, and it didn't seem like it would get cold here, so he pitched it into the trees. It caught on a branch and hung there like an escaped convict that had slipped up and caught himself around the neck with a rope.

It was silent. Olson cracked a few jokes near the beginning of their trek, but soon the only sound was everyone breathing and Baker whistling every for a few minutes every once in a while.

After a while, McVries stopped. Garraty, not expecting this, ran into him and nearly fell. McVries caught him and righted him. "Still dizzy?" he asked. Garraty wiped sweat off of his forehead with the back of his hand.

"I'm fine," he said. McVries sent a dazzling smile his way.

"Good," he said. "But we should take a break, anyway. Hey! Olson! We're taking a break!"

Garraty sat down, resting against a tree. McVries sat next to him, and, after a bit of hesitation, Olson sat on his other side. Baker disappeared into the trees for a moment before reappearing with an armful of bananas. They were demolished in minutes.

"I wonder what other kinds of food this place has?" McVries wondered. "Like, other fruit. Mangoes, maybe?"

"Maybe there are pineapples!" Baker asked, looking a bit excited. Olson smirked.

"What I'm hopin' for is something we can hunt. Like in that book. I forget what it's called, but I had to read it for school…" he trailed off, thinking. Baker, who still hadn't sat down, began to idly hit the trees around them with a stick.

"You mean Lord of the Flies?" he said. Olson nodded.

"That's the one."

"Well, if we're done discussing savages and symbolism, let's get going," McVries said, abandoning the tower of banana peels he'd been building and standing up. Garraty stood up as well, yawning. He was sort of tired – a plane crash did that to you, he guessed. "I'm thinking if we keep going up we can maybe see everything?"

"Does that actually work, though?" Baker asked. "I mean, what if there are too many trees to see properly?"

"We'll just have to hope that this place is a seriously nice island that gives us whatever we want," McVries said, shrugging. Garraty grinned and followed McVries. They went deeper into the forest, and Garraty noticed a slight incline. He hadn't noticed it before, but they had been going up.

It was a little boring on this island, but he figured that something would happen sooner or later to make it exciting. No school, at least.

McVries stopped and held out his hand to signal that the others were to stop, too. Garraty ran into his hand, and McVries kept it pressed to his chest for a few moments before lowering it. Olson stretched over McVries's shoulder to see why McVries had stopped.

A smallish, darkish boy in a black hoodie and jeans was stretched out on the forest floor. Garraty didn't know if he was sleeping or had been knocked unconscious – he looked like he'd been in a fight, with a large bruise on his left cheek and his lower lip a bit swollen, but he looked too…. Peaceful. Like a little kid, almost.

Baker is the one who moved, ducking past McVries and putting a hand on the boy's shoulder. The boy twitched. Baker shook his shoulder, and after a bit more twitching and Baker poking him a bit, he opened his eyes.

Almost at once his expression changed from childish peace to a sort of annoyed cockiness. Garraty wasn't quite sure how this expression worked, but it was certainly present on this kid's face. The kid jerked away from Baker's touch and looked at them.

"Who are you?" he asked. He seemed like he was trying to keep his tone neutral; trying to be normal.

"I'm Art Baker," Baker said, smiling at the kid. The kid turned slightly red, averting his gaze.

"Where are we?" the kid asked, apparently not caring about the rest of them. "I mean, I know the plane crashed. And I know that nobody on this godforsaken island has a Plan for what we're going to do until we're found. Not a decent one, anyway. I'm Gary Barkovitch, by the way."

Olson snorted and pushed his way past McVries and Garraty, looking down at Barkovitch. "Yeah? What's so special about having a 'Plan.'"

"You have to have a Plan," Barkovitch said, insulted. He began to talk faster, like he was afraid that they wouldn't care what he had to say unless he was talking at a hundred miles an hour. "If you don't you'll die. No, you need to have a Plan-"

"Look, kid, shut up," Olson said, cutting off Barkovitch mid-sentence. Barkovitch paused and shut his mouth. He looked like he was about to murder someone. Garraty rolled his eyes. "We're seeing if this really is an island, you can either come with us – which I don't think anyone here wants – or you can scram."

"No, you look, Dumbo," Barkovitch said, standing up. The top of his head barely was even with Olson's chin, but he crossed his arms and glared up at Olson anyway. "I-"

"If you say another word about your stupid 'Plan' I swear, I will fucking murder you," Olson said. Barkovitch looked like he was about to stay and argue more, but he turned on his heel and stalked away through the trees, swearing under his breath and ripping leaves off of branches and branches off of trees as he did so.

"You didn't have to be that mean," Baker said mildly. He was still crouched down from when he had woken Barkovitch up, and stood up fully. "I mean, sure, he seems a little annoying, but you made him run off. Who knows what he'll do? He seems kind of emotionally unstable."

Olson just looked at Baker, who shrugged.

"What?" he said.

McVries grinned and rolled his eyes. "C'mon. Let's keep going."

i just really like long walk aus

like

i almost kind of feel like starting a high school au too

but

i probably won't

for a while