I know I said three days, but I decided not to wait. And that's with me doing another story too! Please check out "Jackson's Other Lives" if you get a chance.

This story is dedicated to my favorite reviewers, Sugar144, AngelOfVengeance8 and especially Joucelin Hades for her patience with my incessant need for ego stroking. I also want to thank all of the people who added me to their favorite story lists. Take a bow folks!

29 Down alumni news: Johnny Pacar is now on Make It or Break It , Monday nights on ABC family. He has a new band, Fairlene, with an excellent song on MySpace and he has started a Facebook page as well. Oh, his show is up for A Teen's Choice nomination. Run and vote.

This story contains sexual situations, slash, drug references and graphic violence. I do not own any of the Flight 29 Down characters created by D.J. MacHale and Stan Rogow.

Please Note: My stories tend to refer to the books for the series more often than the tv episodes. That's because there was a lot of material in the books that didn't get onto the air. My favorite book character is Big J, from Ten Simple Rules, which was made from the series bible. It's a shame they never made a prequel to the show from it.

Drum roll please:

Flight 29 Down: Uncharted Island

Prologue

California, Los Angeles County

In the evening hours, seven parents dealt with the disappearance of their children in their own unique ways.

In a drug rehab center in a rural area sixty miles from Los Angeles, a desperately depressed woman celebrated her one hundred and twentieth day of being clean by giving a fifty year old orderly oral sex in a closet in exchange for smuggled drugs.

Nelson McHugh was being comforted on his couch by his wife and daughter as he finally, after seventy long days of denial, he finally let his tears flow, his son's picture clenched tightly in his hands.

Lex and Daley Marin's parents were being told the due date on the twin children they had found out two weeks ago they were going to have.

Rex Hagen sat at his desk on the thirty fifth floor of Hagen Tower with his bare feet propped up. He had a glass of seventy year old scotch in his hand and tears in his eyes as he looked at the portrait of his daughter hanging from the wall opposite him.

Roslin McGorrill was on her cell phone, talking to , or rather, screaming at her ex-husband about her alimony check bouncing for the second time.

Kristina Wu was in a graveyard, putting flowers on her husband's grave. She was making a mental note of the fact that the tombstone still had not arrived and was dreading going home to an empty house.

Life had gone on for them, for some, more painfully than for others.

Chapter One

Drifting

Day 71: Early morning

Eric expressed his opinion of the promise of a brand new day in his own unique way, letting a long, somehow ripe sounding blast of gas escape as he stood up and took a leak over the bow of the Rosebud. Jackson shook his head in resigned, affectionate irritation as the ginger haired teens small butt moved from it's spot almost directly in front of him. He fanned the stench away as Eric collapsed in a heap on the front bench, his red shirt and blue sleep pants seeming so bizarrely out of place on a boat being sailed by seven stranded youths in the middle of the Pacific.

" You could've at least walked away from me and Lex before you did that,' Jackson complained quietly, " man, you reek, " he added, his nose wrinkling with distaste as the lingering smell faded. The smallish ten year old on the deck beside the crude captain's chair agreed, yawning as he did so. His hands reached up from time to time to finger the bright yellow bandanna around his neck, his most prized possession and a souvenir of their most recent battle for survival

" You have horrible manners." Alexander Marin said, fatigue showing in his every movement. He , Cody Jackson and the irascible Eric McGorrill had taken the late watch so the other four members of their small group could get some much needed rest. " And please, " he added in an aggrieved tone, " if you have to pee, at least point it where I don't have to try to keep from seeing it. Unlike Jackson, I'm not comfortable around you that way."

The two young men's eyes bulged at the comment. It was the first time Lex had ever made that direct a comment on Jackson and Eric's convoluted love life. Jackson strangled a laugh that threatened to erupt into the air.

Better not laugh, he's being serious. I think he is, at least. The little guy's gotten good at deadpan humor in the last couple of months, Jackson thought to himself, glancing at Eric, who, as always, had a comeback.

" I don't like hanging my big ol' fishing rod over the side of the boat, kid. In these waters, something might bite it off." Eric snapped back, shooting a grin at Jackson. His head seemed to visibly swell with his appreciation of his own wit.

The swelled head was effortlessly deflated by Lex's pithy comment: " They would have to be flying fish or starving to get out of the water for such a small snack."

" That's enough of that, please." Jackson broke in before the red faced Eric could explode, whether in laughter or outrage, Cody didn't care. He just wanted to enjoy a little more peace and quiet before the others arose.

A soprano voice rose quavering into the air from the pontoon like outrigging from the port side of the small vessel. Taylor Hagen's frazzled blonde mane appeared as she testily spoke, " Can we have a little quiet?! Some of us are trying to sleep and it's not easy with the waves and Eric pissing and farting and trading insults with Pee Wee." She fell back down with a thunk, her sleeping bag flying up into the air for a moment as she nestled back under it. On the other end of the same pontoon, Melissa Wu's head peeked out from her green sleeping bag. She palmed her long, mussed up hair out of her bright brown eyes as she squinted up at the rapidly brightening sky. With a yawn, she peeled the sleeping bag back and got her shoes on. She carefully climbed the tiny gap from the pontoon to the main body of the boat, looking uneasily onto the deep blue waters as she did. She cast an unusually baleful look on Lex as he told her good morning.

"I wish you hadn't told me the bottom of the ocean is almost two miles down, " she said, an undeniable green tint to her usually olive complexion, " I get all wierded out every time I think about it." He grinned at her, showing his bright, white teeth. Mel reached down and ruffled his hair as she passed him. She stumbled over and sat on the captains chair Jackson had vacated as she was climbing aboard. He walked over by her, kneeling down to softly kiss the top of her head as she hugged his hips, resting her head on his left flank as they watched the beautiful sunrise.

It was an admittedly awesome view. The dark blue and purple clouds seemed to be haloed with crimson and gold flames momentarily as the golden sun rose. With flash of light, the clouds turned white as their 70th day of survival began.

Half hour later, everyone, even Eric, was up and about. Jackson and Taylor ere in the pontoons fishing for breakfast. Daley and Lex were rearranging the supplies they had gotten from the pirate cave, a great deal of it having come from them in the first place. Mel and Eric were manning the sails and Nathan, …

He was doing exactly what he'd done since they left the little cluster of islands behind yesterday. He was doing nothing but sitting there on the front bench. He seemed to give off an almost visible miasma of sheer depressed funk. He had barely spoken to Daley in two days. He was just barely even acknowledging the presence of the others, even Jackson or Lex. And his reddened eyes bore the unmistakable signs of someone who has been crying recently. A lot.

I wish I knew what to say to him, Mel thought as she watched him for a few seconds as she adjusted the sails with Eric's help, I mean, it's not exactly like Daley and I weren't forced to do some pretty graphic thing s to one another too. Images of the red haired girls bushy mane between Mel's own legs flickered behind her eyes, as did images of her own hands and fingers plying the drug crazed flesh of the pale woman. She forced the cascading images to a stop, but it wasn't easy. Sooner or later, we're going to have to talk about what's happened to all of us. If we don't, it's going to be like spontaneous combustion. The whole group will go up in a blaze of things we won't be able to undo, she thought with wisdom that belied her relative lack of years. Maybe Cody can get everyone to agree to try. God knows he's had plenty he has had to work through and he's had hideous things done to him in front of us all by now.

More images, this time of her lover being ravished in front of her went through her mind. Jackson in a crazed sixty nine with a Subverted Eric. Him being raped by Bob Russell almost a dozen times in as many hours. She felt a tremendous throb of guilt and shame as she remembered how she had even taken part, using a sex toy of Russell's on the young man. And most recently, how he had been forced into giving the other Russell oral sex in front of all of them and a half dozen slavers as well. And he still somehow not only managed to function, he made sure everyone of them knew how very much he cared about them..

She made up her mind to speak to Jackson about it after breakfast. She was busy helping Eric give the sail a final adjustment when a sudden movement to the side caught her eye. She looked up just in time to see Nathan rip one of the two pistols they had liberated from the slavers from where it was lashed under the front bench. She heard Lex and Daley both screaming NO as Nathan stood , thumbed the safety off , put the barrel of the .44 magnum that had belonged to a special man named Little J to his head and squeezed the trigger.