Chapter Two: Searching
Sam Hawkins woke up to the raucous roar of the hotel's alarm clock. He was right in the middle of a dream, just as it was getting good. Then good old Mr. Sandman had to take his lunch break and leave Sam annoyed and unsatisfied. He outstretched a floppy hand out towards the source of the buzzing, hit once, missed. Hit again, missed. Hit again, third time's the charm. He withdrew his hand and rolled over on his back to stare up at the ceiling. He went into one of those dazes where he began counting all the lines and cracks on the face of the ceiling, and even tried to slow the fan blades down with his mind. His daze ended abruptly when Eric stuck his frizzy brown head into the picture and said, "You're awake?"
***
Sam woke for a second time in the night to the sound of voices. He opened his eyes slowly, hoping to find something other than the white sands of the beach, maybe even the warm comfort of the plane. But no, there it was in all its beauty: the beach. He took both hands and rubbed his eyes, forgetting about the sand that clung to his skin. He quickly put his hands back down to the sand and shook his head. He looked around the camp to find a small group of people standing by the medical area. Amongst them stood the doctor, David, his friend and that Chris guy he met last night. He turned his head to face the left of him, where Kelsey still lay, lost in a dream. And he looked behind him to find Eric still in a deep sleep. He then rose slowly, taking care not to wake either of them, and began walking towards the crowd.
As he got closer to the group, random bits of their conversation began to reach his ears.
"She was here last night?"
"Where the hell do you think she went?"
"Where? I'm wanting to know why she left."
"Maybe it has to do with that Tim guy screaming last night."
"Boy was that loud, heck of a yell that guy has-."
"What's going on?" Sam butted head first into the conversation. The group looked at him dumbfounded for a moment, and then David informed him, "One of the survivors has gone missing?"
"Who?" Sam asked.
"Rosaline," Chris muttered. The group looked at him for a moment, and then Diana asked, "Did you know her?" Chris looked up at each of their faces and said quickly, "She was sitting next to me, she didn't say much, only got her name."
"Well you seem damned attached to her kid," Greg slandered.
"Hey now," David implored, "Let's not get nasty here."
"Sorry," Greg looked down to his feet, "I-I'll just head on back to my fire." And with that he left, leaving the group somewhat empty. Sam got a little closer and whispered, "And who, might I ask, was that?"
"His name's Greg," a young man stated, "Met him last night. Poor bloke was roasting his garments over his fire."
"Hey," Chris interrupted, "not to be intrusive on your lively storytelling, but where the hell did Rosaline go?" The group fell silent and Sam looked off to somewhere by the medical area. He then saw something shimmering in the sand a little ways away from the camp. He turned away from the group and began to walk towards it, causing Elijah to state abruptly, "Where the bloody 'ell is he going?" The group followed him past the edge of the camp and to a spot where the sand lay disrupted. In the middle of this disruption shined a small, circular object half-covered by the white grains. Sam reached a hand down to the object and pulled out a tiny, black compass. The compass spun for a moment, and then pointed to where North was supposedly located.
"Is that," Diana spoke, "A compass?"
"Yeah," Sam said looking upwards, "And by the looks of it, Rosaline came through here not too long ago." In front of where the group stood was a long trail of footprints, leading so far down the beach that they disappeared from plain sight. Sam stood tall. He knew that something had to be done; they couldn't just ignore the tracks. And to answer this, Chris stepped forward and turned to the group.
"I'm going to follow the tracks," he stated, "Anyone who wants to go with me can. But we need to go now before the rain gets here."
"Rain?" Elijah turned and looked out towards the ocean to see fast approaching storm clouds heading their way, "Oh, that rain."
"I'll go," Diana raised her hand.
"I'll go too," David added, but Diana retorted, "No, you need to stay and help the injured."
"But-."
"You are the only doctor on this island, aren't you?" Diana smiled and walked over to Chris.
"Alright," he said, "Anyone else?"
"I'll go," Sam said and walked forward, "I'm always up for a good adventure."
"Count me in," Elijah's smile was big and ready, "Beats staying here and worrying about nothing."
"Right, that should be good," Chris ended. The other survivors turned back around and headed off to their individual fires, and David stood there staring at the group leaving.
"Don't worry," Diana called back to him, "I'll be back in two shakes of a lamb's tail."
"I'll count you on that!" he laughed and waved. His smile faded to a half frown as he turned away as well. That's what I get for going to college.
***
They walked for nearly twenty minutes before coming to a stop. On the way, Elijah had entertained the group with lively jokes, always ending with a valuable lesson of some sort.
"And that's why you never go drinking in Amsterdam." He ended one of his rants as they came to a stop. The tracks had come to an end right before a large drop off into the sea below. The level of the beach had gradually increased as they made their way down it, and now a cliff ended it with a sheer drop down into a sea of rocks and waves. Chris went to the edge of this cliff and stared down into its bowls. He muttered something under his breath and looked back to the group for help.
"She must've climbed down," Sam searched for an answer, "Or something."
"Then we'll just have to climb down as well," Chris said, and turned to find a way down.
"Hold up, mate," Elijah spoke fast, "Why are you risking you're neck for a girl you met on a plane?"
"Because," Chris's tone was harsh, "she's just like anyone other one of us, and as equally important. Now are you going to help me or not?"
"Chris," Diana tried, "Let's talk about this before we do something stupid."
"Do something-, if you're not going to help me then I'll find her myself!"
"Chris," Sam said, looking off to the side.
"What?!" Sam pointed to an out-of-place laying a few feet from the tree line. The branch had several leaves on it, and each had been coated with sand. Around the branch were swipes in the sand, as if someone had-
"Covered up her tracks," Diana whispered.
"Why would she cover up her tracks?" Chris asked anyone.
"Maybe she didn't want us to find her," Elijah answered. Chris ignored this and began to tramp towards the jungle.
"Whoa now," Elijah said rushing forward, "You sure you want to do that?"
"Like I said, I'm going to find her; you can stay here if the jungle scares you." Just as he finished his sentence, a clap of thunder and the sky broke. Rain poured onto them as if someone had upturned a bucket. Chris stared up at the sky, and Elijah raised his arms upwards, as if to embrace it. Sam threw a hand over his eyes to block the water. Diana did the same and yelled to him over the roaring, "It's raining too hard, we need to head back!"
"Right," Elijah agreed and began walking away, "Sounds like a plan to me!" Diana followed and Sam yelled to Chris, "Come on Chris, we'll look for her as soon as the rain clears!" Chris stood there for a moment, staring into the dark recesses of the jungle. It called to him, provoking him. He shook his head slowly and fell back, muttering inaudible phrases underneath his breath. Sam followed him, and the group trekked back to the beach in the pouring rain.
***
"It's eight-twenty, Sam."
"I know."
"Why'd we leave so early?"
"Better to be early than have no time at all." The rain lashed at the car window, making the road almost invisible to Sam's eyes. Eric sat in the passenger's seat next to him, opening his mouth wide to yawn the morning away. Their jeep came to a stop in front of a red light, or at least it looked like one. That jeep had traveled half way across America, from their starting point in Fayetteville, Arkansas, to here in sunny Miami.
Except today, it wasn't sunny. It had been raining ever since the early hours of the morning, and it hadn't stopped.
"Think our flight might be canceled?" Sam looked over to Eric.
"Nah," Eric shook his head, "This isn't too bad of weather. Go." Sam looked back to the light and pressed down on the accelerator. The jeep lurched forward and kept close to the blue Camaro in front of it. Sam noticed from the corner of his eye that Eric was staring at his phone. He opened it up to show a picture of him and an auburn-haired girl as his background. They were both smiling against a sunny backdrop; Eric sighed.
"When was the last time you talked to her?" Sam asked. Eric closed his phone and looked up.
"To who?"
***
Kelsey rushed back over to the fire. The rain had just begun, and many survivors were already huddled together underneath the plane wreckage, the broad leaves of the jungle trees, and even a tarp held up by a couple of volunteers. The tarp had been recovered from the plane wreckage by David, who was the only one who would willingly go anywhere near the bodies in the fuselage.
Kelsey had rushed off to find someone to help her transport Eric's body from their fire to the tarp cover. The only person she could find was a Hispanic man by the name of Cortez, who told his friend to go take cover underneath the plane wreckage. Upon arrival however, the two found Eric wide awake and staring up at the sky. His mouth hung open as he let the cool rain water pour down his throat. Once he caught sight of Kelsey, he halted this odd behavior and rose to his feet.
"Eric!" she cried and ran to embrace her friend.
"How long…was I out?" he asked slowly.
"What? Sorry I can't hear you over the-."
"Excuse me, Miss?" Cortez yelled to her, "We really must get under cover!" Kelsey turned her head back to face him and nodded. She grabbed Eric's arm and led him to the cover of the tarp, making sure that her friend didn't pass out on her again. She pushed her way into the large crowd gathered there, and looked back to find Cortez gone. Probably went to go be with his friend. She then turned to Eric and asked, "Now what did you say?"
"Where's Sam?" Eric looked around.
"He went out to go look for a survivor, are you hurting anywhere?"
"No, I don't think so," he looked down at his body and then back up to meet Kelsey's eyes.
"Where are we, Kelsey?"
"I don't know, I don't know…" They stood there in silence for a moment. All that was heard was the continuous pounding of the rain against the tarp, the jungle, everywhere around them. Kelsey then remembered something and looked back over to Eric.
"Eric," she asked, "What were you doing in the jungle?"
"Look!" Eric said pointing out to the beach. Kelsey spun around to see the slender dark form of Sam running towards them, behind him Chris followed. Once under the cover of the tarp, Sam recognized the sharp face of Eric and his eyes widened.
"Dude!" Sam exclaimed and embraced his friend. Eric patted him on the back, "Glad to see you again."
"You were out for so long, you just wake up?"
"Yeah, rain must've woke me up." Sam smiled and laughed. And there they waited, that small group underneath the tarp, drips of water dropped from every body.
A little ways away from the tarp, Diana rejoined David, who was still gathering up items from the medical kit.
"Come on!" she yelled over the rain, "I think there's some room underneath the tarp!"
"Hey," he looked up to his friend, "Did you find her?"
"No, we think she ran into the jungle!"
"Why on Earth would she do that?"
"Don't know, but once this rain clears we're going to go look for her."
"Alright, can I go on this excursion?"
"Ha," Diana laughed, "We'll see." David closed the medical kit and the two ran towards the cover of the tarp.
***
"Damn blasted rain," Greg looked up to the sky. He crouched close to the ground underneath a piece of metal jammed into the beach. He held, clutched in his hands, his suitcase which he asked David so kindly to retrieve from the plane.
"Hey, might as well get my stuff too, and maybe a nice beer while you're at it."
Greg grumbled under his breath. He looked down at his suitcase, hoping to God that nothing in it got wet or ruined. He then looked up at the sky and laughed.
"Yeah," he muttered, "Probably last hours, maybe even a God damned day-." The rain stopped. Greg was still staring up at the sky when this miracle commenced. The clouds were nearly gone, and the sun came shining brightly from the sky, as if to say, "Hey, it was all just a joke!"
Greg smiled.
***
Sam, Kelsey and Eric emerged from beneath the dry underbelly of the tarp and stared up at the sun. The sky had a clean plate, not a cloud dared ruin its blue beauty. Others from underneath the tarp, in the jungle, and underneath the wreckage began to emerge as well and some returned to their fires, now smoldering from the rain. David walked up to Kelsey and tapped her on the shoulder.
"Hey," he asked, "Want to go look now?"
"Sure," Kelsey said and looked over to Sam and Eric. "David and I are going to look for food in the fuselage; you guys want to come too?"
"Yeah, sure," Eric said, "Maybe I can find my luggage somewhere in there."
"Alright, sounds good," David said looking away to see Diana at their camp, "Hey, you guys go on ahead, I'll catch up."
"Okay," Kelsey said and the three began to walk towards the wreckage. David walked in the opposite direction towards Diana, who seemed to be struggling with her suitcase. He reached her, and asked, "Need some help?"
"No, it's just…" she frowned and held a hand out towards her suitcase, sopping wet. She had laid most of its contents out to dry, but there were still some articles left in the case.
"Well, I guess all you can do is hope that your stuff will dry."
"Are you kidding me?"
"What?"
"Look," she held up a night gown now soaking wet, "My husband gave this to me…"
"Your…husband?" David's mind skipped a beat. Diana laughed and looked up at him.
"Don't worry, we broke up ages ago."
"Oh, I see." David's face turned bright red. Diana laughed and laid the gown out beside her other clothing.
A little ways away, Samantha and Clark finally returned to their fire with their suitcases. Earlier that morning, they had retrieved them from the plane prior to the rain. They threw the luggage down on the sand, and Clark shook the water from his hair. They had taken refuge underneath the broad leaves of one of the palms, but discovered quickly that that wasn't enough to keep them dry and happy. Samantha squeezed some of the rain from her yellow dress, and said jokingly, "Well, I guess that could count as my shower for today."
"I wonder how that Murphy guy's doing," Clark looked around to try and find the face of Tim Murphy.
"Why are you so worried about this guy?" she asked him.
"Do you realize how wealthy this kid is? After Hammond bit the dust, Murphy inherited almost half of his earnings and took his place as Ruler of the Tycoons."
"So this guy, Murphy," Samantha suddenly got an odd look on her face, "He's worth something right?"
"Right," Clark got the same look. They shared this look for a moment and then went back to whatever they were doing beforehand.
"I believe we should become well acquainted with Mr. Murphy," Clark spoke.
"As do I," Samantha agreed.
***
"Good Christ this place smells," Sam placed a hand over his nostrils. The inside of the fuselage burned with the stench of the dead. Death hung in the air, as if they were stepping into a tomb. Basically, this was a tomb. Eric led the way, looking in every seat with Kelsey and Sam behind him, checking the cubbies in his wake. Sam stared at the bodies scattered through the plane, their faces frozen in time, some eyes stared into the recesses of nothingness. Sam couldn't help but close these eyes, placing one hand to their cold faces and sweeping downward. Finally they reached the end of the aisle, having collected only a small amount of edible material along the way. Then, Eric kicked open the door leading into the storage room and low and behold, there was the mother lode. Food ranging from sandwiches to in-flight cookies neatly wrapped in aluminum packages filled the shelves, and drinks from Coke to red wine stacked tall next to that. Their faces lit up at the sight of this, and Kelsey stated, "We need to use this as sparingly as possible." But just as she said this, Eric reached for a sandwich, unwrapped its aluminum wrapping, and dug in.
"Eric!" Kelsey said slapping him on the shoulder. Eric laughed through the wad of food shoved in his mouth, a piece of lettuce dropped to the floor. Once Eric was finished, the threesome filled their arms with as much food as they could, and left the storage room.
Outside, people were beginning to gather in little groups, complaining about not having any food. Greg said a few unsettling statements, and Elijah scolded him for it, stating that women were present. Away from these groups sat Timothy Murphy, alone with his arms wrapped around his legs. The twenty-five year old brave man he had ambitioned to grow up to left him, and now the scared nine-year old boy came out to replace the brave face. He didn't do well in these types of situations, at least not at first. Ever since the accident on Isla Nublar, he seemed quieter, more focused when the situation turned to the worse. And right now he was focused on a long stream of storm clouds that lined the horizon. He had noticed them this morning, and thought that they were just part of the rain they had just had. But there they were, just as before. Never moving, frozen against the blue sky above.
He also focused on whether or not anyone was out to find them. Of course, he thought, they would notice his absence and send rescue out as soon as possible. But that should have happened hours ago, when their plane went down and off the radar. They were taking too long, longer than Tim expected.
A couple of cheers burst from the groups behind him, and then the whole crowd ignited with chatter as three survivors arrived with food in their arms. Tim stood up, brushed the sand from his slacks and made his way over to their saviors. One of them gave a long speech about how they should ration the food amongst themselves, but Tim didn't pay much attention. All he knew was that they had food, and he wanted one of those sandwiches.
"And there's more in the fuselage," Sam added, "But to keep anyone from stealing it, the storage room will be locked at all times." This disrupted the audience.
"What?!"
"Why the hell did you do that?"
"Who puts you in charge?"
"And who will be holding the key?"
"I will," Kelsey spoke, "I'll be in holder of the key." The audience hushed. They knew that the key was safe with her, but they didn't want to admit it. Sam closed the meeting with a couple assuring words, and the crowd dispersed, splitting off into their separate groups. Sam looked over to Kelsey and handed her the key.
"Promise not to eat too much?" Sam joked.
"Oh yeah," Kelsey laughed, "I'll try to resist temptations."
***
"My boy, has anyone seen my boy?" the woman asked anyone. The airport was vast, people came and went all around her, but no one seemed to bother. That's when Sam and Eric entered the lobby, and looked up at the gate reading: Gate D8, Puerto Rican Connections Flight 513. They began to walk towards this large gate, but stopped upon hearing this woman's cries. Sam looked at Eric, and Eric shrugged. Then they both walked up to the woman, who was about to break down in tears, and Sam asked, "Hey, do you need help?"
"Yes!" the woman spun around to meet them, "My son, he's missing. P-please can you help me find him?" Eric looked at his watch. Thirty minutes before take-off. Then he looked at Sam and saw him smiling.
"Good thing we left early."
***
Sam returned finally to his fire and sat down. Eric had left to go help with passing out food to people with Kelsey, leaving him alone at his camp. The sun was directly above his head, and for the first time in a long while he looked at the face of his watch. 1:32. On this island, time seemed to move slower to him. He supposed that it was due to the lack of things to do, or the absence of electricity from their lives. Everything was slower here.
He had, in his hands, his suitcase which he got from the cubby above his seat just as they were exiting the plane. He opened the case to find several articles of clothing, some running shoes, and his cell phone set neatly on top of a pair of jeans. He sighed, took the phone from the jeans and opened it up. He found what he already knew, no signal. Just the background of a girl stared back at him. The girl had blonde hair, with shining blue eyes the sea would be jealous of, and a smile whiter than the sun. His heart sank at the sight of this and he turned off the device. He placed the phone back in his suitcase and raised his hand to his face. He ran his dry hand through his hair and stared at the beach. The slew of thoughts rushed through his mind, just as they did the night before. He still was hanging on to the hope that rescue would be there soon, but when was soon? How much longer did they have to wait? And even when the rescue did come, what about the other half of the plane? He saw it break off, the front section. But what if those people were still alive, in the front section? And what about Rosaline, he knew that Chris was determined to find her and wouldn't give up until he did. And Cassie-."
"Sam?" the sweet voice broke his strain of thought.
"Yes?" he answered compulsively.
"You said that we'd try and look for my son today, are you willing to?"
"Oh," Sam said, snapping out of his daze, "Yes, alright if you can find two backpacks and I'll get some water-."
"For what?" the voice was quick. Sam looked past Cassie to find Elijah standing there with that smug grin plastered on his face.
"We're forming a search party," Cassie told him, "Care to go with us?"
"Sure, I'm up for it. I've been told I tell the most wonderful of stories."
"Okay then, three backpacks. Elijah, you got any water to spare?" Elijah withdrew a full bottle from his pants pocket. He shook it enthusiastically, causing Sam to smile. Cassie went and found three backpacks, and brought them back to Sam. Sam packed them each with a bottle of water and couple of granola bars. He told Cassie and Elijah to not make a big deal about leaving, and they moved very quickly towards the green jungle. They were stopped however, by the voice of Samantha from behind them, "And where are you all off to?" Sam turned to find her and Clark standing there with hands on their hips, giving them a cocky look. Sam sighed and said, "Alright, come on."
***
Sam sat to the right of Eric, who was fast asleep, as the plane cruised above the clouds. He had, held out in front of him, a copy of Golding's Lord of the Flies, one of his personal favorites. He had just gotten to the part where the "monster" landed on the island. Turned out to be a dead pilot, he thought that was ironic. The one thing they feared the most was the only connection they had to the outside world, a human being. It was just bad luck that he happened to be dead.
Sam adverted his gaze to somewhere outside of the cold window next to him. The sky seemed to go on forever, and, in his mind, it did. He began to feel a little light headed and, believing it to be dehydration, called for a stewardess. The attendant rushed to him and asked in the most polite of voices, "How may I help you, sir?"
"Yeah, do you have any rum or whiskey? I'm feeling lightheaded and sometimes a nice strong drink helps."
"And are you over twenty-one?" she asked with a smile.
"I can be," Sam laughed. The stewardess laughed as well and said, "Don't worry; I've got just the thing." She was about to leave when another stewardess signaled her to come to the front. She began to, and turned back to tell Sam, "It'll be just a moment, sir." Sam smiled and nodded his approval. The stewardess walked to the front and disappeared behind a curtain. Sam followed her until she went out of view, and noticed something towards the front of the plane. A girl with long blonde hair was looking up towards where the stewardess had disappeared into, and then looked back down to her magazine. Sam's heart skipped a beat, and was about to jump right out of his seat when the plane lurched forward. It balanced itself, and the yellow "Fasten Your Seatbelt" light came on above his seat.
The next minute was the longest minute of Sam's life. The plane began to rock back and forth. Sam clutched his seat with a tight grip, although he knew it was just some turbulence. Then all hell broke loose as the plane shook as if it an earthquake had hit. Several passengers were thrown from their seats, and a man came bursting forth from within the bathroom. Sam closed his eyes and began to pray. He mumbled a few words underneath his breath, and the plane dipped downwards, sending luggage flying from the confounds of the cubbies. Sam opened his eyes for a moment to see the screaming passengers, the flying suitcases striking them, hair rising into the air, Eric still sound asleep, and, after what seemed like an eternity, the whole front section of the plane broke off into nothing. Sam felt the shock of metal ripping from metal, and then a sudden jolt as something broke off behind him. He turned and saw that it was gone. The tail section was gone.
Screaming.
That awful screaming.
And then.
Silence.
