Day 1…Midday
Cody looked out at the crashing waves as the people around him hurried and rushed to help one another. It was as if it was calming to him, the clutter around him. He let out a sigh as he saw that familiar redhead girl romping about and trying to save everyone she saw. He wondered how she knew so much about health and doctoring and all of that, but that wasn't any of his business.
He barely even remembered waking up, his mind was so whirled around; it made him incredulous of how active that redhead and the boy she was criticizing could be. They were carrying bodies up the shore as the tide came in. It was as if they were hoping that somehow the people would reawaken and help them through this. Cody knew it wasn't going to happen. He was a realistic boy, with wisdom beyond his sixteen years.
"Aren't you going to help?"
Cody was taken by surprise when he saw a girl standing in front of him. He'd been so concentrated on his own thoughts he'd forgotten that people might want his help. She had long, straight brown hair and sparkling brown eyes that were sharply pointed in his direction. "What's the use?" Cody said calmly. The girl narrowed her eyes and stalked away to help the redhead drag a limp body into the many trees.
Cody hadn't seen it from far away, but he could tell that this island, or whatever they'd crashed on hadn't yet been touched by humans, until now. The jungle was sparse, and as far as he could see, it took up most of the island. There was no way he was going in there; there could be some huge bear waiting to tear them apart. The only thing he was sure of was that he wasn't ready to get up and start helping people. He needed to let this sink in.
He didn't quite remember everything yet. The crash was still fuzzy. All he knew was that the back of the plane was completely torn off, bringing most of the people on the plane into the water, and most likely killing them. It was remarkable that he had even survived the crash; he was sure that all of them would've died from such an intense crash.
He let out a sigh as the redhead dragged another body out of the water. It was a dark-skinned girl that he recognized. He held back the tears in his eyes as the redheaded girl dragged her up to where the sand was soft and dry. He couldn't help leaping up onto his feet and had an urge to go and help. Unable to stop himself, he rushed to the redhead's side.
Looking down at her, his heart lurched when he saw her glazed eyes. It all came back to him when he saw her beautiful face.
She sat down next to him on the cushioned seats and let out a giggle. "Hey, Julie," he said softly while putting his arm around her. She had a beautiful face, with makeup on and soft brown eyes that matched her short black hair. Her skin was dark, like Cody's own.
"Where were you?" he asked.
"Oh, nowhere," she said teasingly. "Just with…someone…" Cody rolled his eyes, knowing that she was only joking.
"Don't go stepping out on me, Jules," he laughed. Julie laughed along with him, and leaning against him. She kissed him lightly on the cheek and he grabbed her hand.
"You're the greatest, you know that?" Cody sighed. Julie simply cocked her head innocently, as if she knew he was right. They stayed like that for a few minutes as people moved around them. It seemed so strange to be on this flight. It was a once in a lifetime chance, and Cody was glad that he could share it with his dream girl, Julie. She flipped her hair over her shoulder and glanced at a girl walking by. She had curly red hair and was talking with a boy in a seat nearby. A small girl and her mother were sitting in front of them and she was complaining loudly and shouting at her mother.
The plane lurched slightly. Cody figured it was just a strong air current, but he could feel Julie's grip tighten on his hand. "It's okay, just an air current," he assured her. She nodded. From the fear in her eyes Cody could tell she wasn't convinced.
Screams emitted from people as the plane lurched again and objects started dropping from the compartments above. Cody quickly shoved a bag away before it hit Julie's head. She let out a gasp and clutched onto Cody's gray shirt. The redhead was hanging onto the sides of the seats and stumbled into the boy's lap. Cody wrapped his arms around Julie, figuring this was a bit more than just a simple air current.
"Cody!" Julie screamed as the back of the plane tore off. By now it was just a blur. He grabbed an oxygen mask and put it on Julie, and then put one on himself. His stomach flipped as the plane dove downwards and he fell unconscious as it smashed into the ground.
"Hey! Hey!" Cody was brought back to reality as the redheaded girl snapped in his face. He looked up at her blue, blue eyes and raised his eyebrows. "I asked, could you help me with this?"
"This?" Cody asked incredulously. The redheaded girl cocked her head and explained.
"We have to move all the dead bodies off of the shore so that their not swept away with the tide," the redhead explained. Cody only nodded and grabbed the body's hand. He shivered when he felt how cold her hand was. It made his eyes wet as the redhead roughly dragged her along, but he dared not to cry. Everyone around was crying, that is everyone except for the dead and the redhead pulling them out of the tide.
They pulled the body until they were at the edge of the jungle. Neither of them knew how high the tide would come and they didn't want to take any chances. The redhead set the body down and looked at it for a moment. Cody collapsed beside it and tried to hide his tears.
Obviously he was unable to suppress the sobs that escaped his throat. The redhead didn't sit down for a moment, but she stood and watched him sob into the sand. "You knew her, didn't you?" Cody didn't look up; his eyes weren't even open. He couldn't bring himself to look at her, especially when Julie's dead body was lying next to him. He hated crying because it always made him feel so weak and vulnerable.
"I'm sorry," the redhead said softly before retreating to drag more bodies up the beach. It was as if she couldn't stop to rest, and that made Cody restless. He finally glanced up at Julie's dead body and held her hand before standing up and helping with the wreckage. A few people had moved on from dead bodies to moving the plane wreckage from the shore. Cody figured that they probably wanted to use it all for something. Some were moving suitcases and bags and tarp, others were moving metal pieces.
There were a few injured people sitting at the edge of the jungle, groaning and writhing about. Cody was sure they would be dead by nightfall, and he hoped desperately that a rescue plane would come by then. But, of course, wishing for such things were childish. He was intelligent enough to realize that wishing for something wasn't going to make it happen.
He grabbed the edge of a large hunk of metal that a small boy was trying to haul up towards the jungle. "L—let me help you with that." He was still a little dizzy from seeing Julie's dead body, but he decided that he was going to do something about it. The little boy, who looked about thirteen, looked up at him in surprise.
"You're helping now, are you?" he questioned. "Instead of sitting around?"
"Excuse me?" Cody dropped his side of the hunk of metal, causing the metal to shift onto the boy's foot. He let out a yelp of pain and leaped backwards, holding his foot in the air.
"Hey!" the loud redhead came over with a look of annoyance on her face. "Cut it out! Unless you want us all killed!" She glanced between the two as if they were idiots. "Is that what you want? I didn't think so! So stop fooling around and get some work done!" She trudged off and picked up some tarp.
"Sorry, dude," Cody said quietly. "I didn't mean for it to drop on your foot." The boy nodded in acceptance.
"I shouldn't have insulted you," he said. Together, they both carried the metal to the edge of the jungle. Both collapsed and looked around to see that practically everything was brought up to the jungle. Cody wondered what they were going to do next; hopefully wait until the rescue plane came.
Cody closed his eyes tightly, trying to keep Julie off of his mind. It was almost impossible, but he could at least try. Her death was so hard, it was like a dagger had been plunged into his heart and he'd been killed himself. He felt almost guilty, as if he was the one that should've died. It was hard thinking of her as…gone.
Cody heard a shuffling nearby and opened his eyes. There was the redhead, dressed in only her camisole. He wondered why, but the blonde crawled over in the sand with an answer. "Do you want your shirt back?" she asked. The redhead looked up and shook her head. Cody could see that her shirt was wrapped around the girl's arm and stained with blood.
"Hey, uh…" A boy with dirty blonde hair strolled by, but he paused when he saw the redhead in just a camisole. She looked him up and down with a sour expression playing across her face.
"What?" she said. Her voice was breaking. She grabbed a suitcase that was near her and started shuffling through it. Finding a sweatshirt, she wrapped it around herself and sat down with a sigh.
"So…" She was the first one to speak. Cody could already tell she was headstrong and hopelessly eager. "Does anyone have any idea what's going on here?"
No one answered her. It was as if the scene around them was much too horrible to bear. Cody didn't want to speak either; he was still in shock from Julie's death.
"Who else is hungry?" said the skinny boy with dirty blonde hair.
The redhead looked over at him. "Owen, that's the least of our worries right now." Everyone pondered this for a moment, and looked at each other.
"Where are the adults?" asked the blonde girl worriedly. Her voice was squeaking and panicked.
"There's one over there…" the redhead said. They all stared over to where she was pointing. A man was groaning and grimacing on the ground beneath a palm tree. The blonde groaned in disgust and everyone looked away. Cody knew it was most likely impossible for him to disguise. Cody looked at the little boy next to him. He finally took the time to gaze at the people around him. From what he could see, there were only nine. Why was he one of those nine? There was an Asian girl sitting next to a strangely dark seventeen-year-old guy. Beside them was an African American guy about Cody's age. The dirty blonde boy was sitting next to the brunette that had criticized Cody for not helping. Cody couldn't help gazing at her deep brown eyes for a moment. They were so much like…
He shook his head, forgetting that he wasn't supposed to be thinking of Julie. It only made the sick feeling in his stomach worse.
"I have a question…" the dirty blonde boy announced, standing up. There was a scar along his right shin, and another one across his cheek. His gray eyes darted around at everyone. "Why is it that only kids who have no idea what they're doing survived?"
"Dude, who cares?" the African American sixteen-year-old said hauntingly. "Our plane just crashed and everyone around us is dead."
Cody couldn't stop himself from flinching. Everyone looked at each other uncomfortably, as if the African American boy had said exactly what they'd been pushing away. Saying it only made it seem more real, and most of them had hoped that everyone else would feel the same way. Apparently, the African American boy didn't think that saying it would make a difference.
There was a loud and horrified scream from the man over beneath the trunk of the palm tree. The blonde girl let out a whine and the redhead leapt to her feet. Cody followed her to where the man was.
He looked down at the redhead as she knelt beside the injured man and pressed a white t-shirt into the gruesome wound on his stomach. She was trying to stop the bleeding, but it didn't seem to be working. Cody was beginning to wonder if she thought she could actually save him. As the man let out another terrifying screech, Cody sighed.
"Just give up. It's not going to work," he told her. She looked up at him as if he had three heads, obviously offended.
"What?" she accused. "You want to take over? You want to just let him die here? I'm going to keep him alive until the rescue planes come, how about you?"
The man coughed and spluttered, throwing up blood. "They…" he tried to say. The redhead patted his head.
"I need water!" she ordered Cody. He felt like she was pushing him around, but decided to listen to her. He wanted the man to survive, but it was practically impossible. Going as fast as he could, he raced over to the others.
"Does anyone have water?" he asked quickly.
"What happened?" the blonde girl breathed. She was obviously going to throw up if Cody told her anything, so he didn't answer her question.
"Water!" he repeated. Everyone shook their head. He let out a groan and returned to the redhead. "There is no water." He saw this than more of a problem for the dying man. It was much more than that; if they were here for too long without water, then there wasn't much hope of surviving.
"Damn!" the redhead cursed and pressed the t-shirt into his wound. "Get me another shirt." Cody wrinkled his nose as more blood came spurting out of the man's mouth. "Now!" the girl snapped.
Cody obliged and found one as quickly as he could. He was beginning to think this wasn't worth it. The man would be dead by nightfall, he was sure.
