Chapter 4: The Jungle
Alex had never been outside his own state before, let alone been lost in a tropical jungle before.
His breathing was labored and his whole body seemed to ache from exertion. His mind was racing and he struggled to remember the day's events as he stumbled blindly through the dense bamboo forest he was in.
As the initial shock that clouded his brain wore off, he recalled how he got himself stuck in the jungle of a tropical island. His plane had crashed, and he had occupied the back-end of a large intact passenger section which he shared with many other surviving passengers. After the initial shock of the crash, the survivors had began to panic, pushing, shoving and running over one another to exit the downed aircraft.
Amidst the confusion, several panicked passengers had knocked Alex over immediately after he had stood up, dazed from the jarring impact. In their race to escape, they had disregarded him and had left him lying on the floor of the shredded middle section of the plane.
Alex deduced that this had to be the source of the throbbing pain he was now experiencing as he trudged through the dark green plant life.
After he had stumbled his way out of the plane and onto the beach, his instinct had told him to flee from the panicked shrieks and yells of the other passengers who were gathered at the beach. Everyone else was preoccupied at the time, and no one noticed Alex silently limp away toward the dark jungle that stood imposingly not too far from the crash, and marked the end of the bright, sandy beach where the others had congregated.
By now, Alex had spent some time in the jungle, and he was fairly certain he had ended up walking in circles now, but there was no way to tell for sure, as the thousands of bamboo trees and other plants all looked the same to him.
In his dazed state, Alex failed to notice the sudden drop off in the land, and fell down a small ravine, barely having enough time to reach his hands out in front of him to break his fall. As he fell, his mouth opened and he breathed out, as if to scream, but nothing audible came out.
The ache in his body doubled in intensity and Alex did not make an attempt to pick himself up out of the mud he had fallen into. In the distance, Alex could barely make out the shouts of his fellow crash survivors who had stayed at the beach.
If he had been born normal, if he had had a normal life, he would have picked himself up, ran toward the sound of the other passengers and shouted to them. Instead he sat in the mud, the same position he had fallen into the pit.
What I wouldn't give to be able to shout right now. He thought. As he lay helpless in the ditch, painful memories seeped into his remembrance, of how he was not normal, and he would not ever be like everyone else.
_
Alex grimaced as his body was shoved against the lockers, the force of the impact caused him to drop everything he was holding. His attacker, tormentor really, held him up against the locker. Alex didn't even attempt to struggle against the other boys grip, he already knew how much stronger the boy was.
"Hey freak, it was good I caught ya before class, wouldn't wanna miss a chance to kick the shit outta you before class starts." The boy punched Alex in the gut, doubling him over in pain.
"Not like your gonna go tell anybody about it are ya?" Another punch in the gut made Alex want to throw up.
The boy spoke up again, "Alright piss face, I'll make you the same deal I always do, either you SAY please stop to me or I continue to beat your worthless ass until I get tired or bored, whichever comes first." Alex just stared back, biting back tears, no matter how many times he heard this, it always cut deeply into his heart.
The boy paused a moment before resuming the beating. First he smashed Alex into the locker, then began to punch him repeatedly in the stomach again. After the third punch the boy began to yell, "All ya gotta do is say the word, just say something and it'll all stop, JUST SAY SOMETHING!" Alex could only silently cry and receive the beating, much as he would like to do as he was told.
"Alright I'm getting tired of this" the boy said as he dropped Alex to the floor next to where his books had fallen. "But don't you worry I'll be back for more tomorrow piss face." The boy turned around and quickly shuffled away from Alex, leaving him alone in the hall. Alex wiped his tears, gathered his books, and walked away.
_
Alex shuddered at the awful memories his mind had conjured up as he sat in the muddy ravine, alone. After several minutes he pulled himself up from the ditch, and did his best to wipe up the mud that had gotten onto him. He stood up, and noticed he could not hear the sounds of shouting from the beach anymore.
The panic must have stopped by now, he thought.
After carefully stepping over the ditch he had fallen over, Alex began heading toward the beach where he had the shouting earlier.
If I go join them, then at least I might get something to eat.
Alex's stomach groaned from hunger, and he quickened his pace as more of the beach was now visible through the dense bamboo forest. An unfortunate side effect of his hunger quickened pace was that he did not pay attention to where he was steeping and once again he found himself falling, this time because of misplaced footstep in front of a tree root.
Alex fell onto his side a tree root digging into his shoulder. A new wave of pain coursed through his nerves which had only just subsided from his earlier incident. Again, Alex simply sat in the dirt, feeling very defeated.
_
After the abysmal day Alex had just experienced, Alex had been very eager to duck out of school before he might receive an encore beating. His body was still aching for the one he had received earlier that day.
Today is Friday. He thought. I swear waking up on Friday is the only thing that keeps me alive. Alex ducked into a side street and down a worn pathway. In the distance lay a small park, which had some rusted playground equipment, some trees and bushes, and several wood benches strewn about the park.
Alex walked quickly to a certain bench which lay just in front of large oak tree, tall and worn with age. He sat down on the left side of it, and nervously glanced around the park. He looked down and checked his watch.
3:28. She should be here by now. Matt looked all around him, scanning the park, looking for someone. He sighed and turned around. His head quickly snapped upwards when he heard the sound of a familiar voice calling him.
"Alex! Hey!" The voice belonged to a blue-eyed pale skinned girl roughly Alex's age. She smiled and took a seat next to him on the bench. Alex quickly took out a pen and an old notepad and scribbled the words "hey violet" on it. Alex handed the notebook to her with a smile. When she read she smiled and elbowed him in the shoulder softly.
"I haven't seen you for a week and that's all you got?" Her smile widened as she spoke. Alex smiled back at her. Friday's really do keep me alive, he thought.
_
The pleasant memory served only to remind Alex of what he had lost by crashing on this island. Alex sat up, now determined to join the others. He dusted himself off and set off toward the beach at a brisk pace. The sun was setting showing brilliant orange rays through the jungle and coloring the sky above a deep orange hue.
Alex neared the beach, careful to watch where he stepped, and went on without incident. As he neared the beach he saw some people there crowding around a man in uniform. He assumed that the man had been the pilot of the plane. Most of them seemed fairly relaxed, a far cry from his earlier experiences with the other passengers. He made sure to keep his footsteps loud, he'd rather not have them perceive him as a threat.
Some of the group turned their heads toward the jungle, where Alex was, with concerned looks on their faces. Alex slowly revealed himself from behind the brush, with his hands held in the air and took a step onto the beach, putting himself into plain view.
For a few seconds, everyone remained silent, Alex because he had no other choice, and the crowd because of shock.
A short dark-skinned man was the first speak up, "Hello their boy, my names Enrique, what's yours?"
Alex gestured toward a notebook that happened to be sitting on a piece of luggage near Enrique.
Enrique's face changed to confusion at this. "You want this?" he asked. Alex nodded. Enrique picked up the notebook and handed it to Alex along with a pen he had fished out of his pocket. Alex began scribbling onto the notebook as everyone watched him with curious expressions on their faces. After a minute or so, Alex clicked the pen and handed the book back to Enrique who read it aloud for the others.
"Hello, my name is Alex, I was on the plane with you guys and got lost in the jungle, I am mute so I have to write things down to communicate."
Enrique's expression quickly changed from confusion to kindness, and a smile spread across his face.
"Yo Hudson! Put down another name on your list, cause we got 62 in our family now." From the back Hudson did just that, and as he finished, the others in the crowd looked at Alex with approval. "Welcome to the family man make yourself at home" Enrique said.
Maybe this wasn't so bad, Alex thought.
AN: Hey again! I'm so so sorry I haven't updated for so long, and I wish I had a legitimate excuse for not doing so, but honestly its just been my own laziness. It's summer now so hopefully i'll be able to update more often. Please tell me what you think of this chapter I would greatly appreciate any feedback because I wanna get better! Thanks!-Writingbrick