Day 1

Sam opened her sore eyes only to be momentarily blinded by such a bright light so she screwed her eyes shut and turned over so she was facing down on the surface that she was laying on, which seemingly felt like sand. She almost felt paralysed with aching limbs, a heavy bag on her back, strapped to her by her hips and chest, and her wrists tied together. Suddenly, she realised that she was wet, but she was oddly warm as the sun was beaming down on her in her camouflage army jacket and trousers with combat boots.

She finally felt able to open her eyes and looked in front of her, to see that after several metres of white sand, there was what looked like a jungle - but no sign of other humans. She could hear the waves, gently lapping up onto the beach and the gentle wind causing the trees to sway.
"Sam?" She heard and she twisted her neck to see a dark silhouette of a human where the beach met the horizon in the distance. "Sam!" She heard him shout and it finally clicked that she recognised that voice. She tried to move her lethargic limbs but from his point of view, she looked like she was struggling so he threw his heavy rucksack off of his back and dived down onto the wet sand in front of her, where she was just a couple of metres from the ocean where she had washed up on the beach after landing in the water when she had fallen out of the low flying helicopter.
"Tom..." Sam managed to croak.
"It's okay... Sshh, I'm here. You're okay, you're safe." Tom said softly as he used his pocket knife to cut her wrist restraint open and then he helped her onto her feet before he took the bag off of her back and put it besides his heavy bag.
"I love you." Was all Sam could say as Tom wrapped his arms around her wet, clothed body and pulled her into a hug.
"I love you too." Tom replied. "Are you okay? Are you hurt at all?" He asked worriedly.

"I'm just a bit sore." Sam admitted.
"Yeah me too." Tom nodded and as the couple pulled apart, they looked around them. Behind them was the clear blue ocean, whilst in front of them was the beach, followed by jungle. "Where are we?" He asked eventually.
"I don't know." Sam admitted feebly. Suddenly, the only sound of the waves and the trees swaying in the wind was interrupted as Sam vomited down onto the sand.
"It's okay... I threw up too." Tom admitted softly as he rubbed her back to comfort her as she bought up a second lot. "It's mainly water, you must've swallowed some last night... You finished?" He asked kindly and Sam nodded as she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.

Whilst he let Sam recover, he noticed a large stump of rock just a couple of metres away from the beach surrounded by water that made him realised something. When he had woken up he'd seen that rock, and decided to walk along the beach to his right hand side. And he had walked for less than half a hour until he had found her, so he had circled the small island completely.
"Right um... Phone. I need to see if there's signal." Sam said as she tried to conjure a plan in her head so that she knew what she had to do next and she wasn't just improvising. She got on her knees and opened her camouflage rucksack that was damp, only to find that everything inside was soaking wet, except for the one thing that she had in a ziplock bag : her box of the contraceptive pill. She took out her phone and water dripped off of it. "Okay fine. Right, we need to make our way inland to see if-"
"Sam there's nothing here." Tom stated helplessly.
"What?"
"I woke up on there beach there by that rock, and I walked the whole way around this island in no time. I didn't see a single person or sign of human activity - this island is uninhabited." Tom stated.

"But... But I don't understand we were in Poland and it was cold, then Ukraine and then in Crimea, and then the helicopter and... What are we supposed to do?" She whimpered. "We have no communications, we have no food, no clean water - we have nothing. And we're stuck in the middle of no where." Sam fell from her knees to her backside onto the sand before she hung her head in her hands and closed her eyes.
"But we've got each other, that's what matters." Tom said reassuringly as he sat next to her on the sand and wrapped his arm around her shoulders.
"And what about the rest of our team? What about the 398 other soldiers who were going to invade that military base? The Russians obviously knew about our plan so what if they've been taken hostage? Or killed?"
"Don't go through the what ifs, you know that's not going to help anything." Tom stated. "Look, why don't we lay our things out to dry, to give us something to do?" Tom suggested. "Our phones might dry out." He added.

Sam felt Tom get up besides her and she saw in the corner of her eye that he was beginning to unpack his bag on the golden sand under the beaming sun to dry - the climate was so hot that there was no way they could be any where near Crimea anymore, after all they had been flying for hours in the helicopter. She was just about to join him when he offered her something, and she turned to see him holding her wedding ring that glistened in the sun, and he had just put his ring on too. She gave a small smile as he slipped the ring onto her finger for her and then kissed her hand.
"We're going to be just fine. I'm sure the army already know that we're gone and they're sending out a search party as we speak." Tom stated.
"Stop talking crap." Sam laughed lightly. "I don't need you to try and fill me with false hope... We're stuck here aren't we?"
"I hope not." Tom admitted. "Look, we will be rescued. Whether it's by a search party, or a fishing boat." He stated. "But hey, this is like the honeymoon we never had." Tom joked. "And do you know what takes place on a honeymoon?" He smirked.
"Yes but not now. I'm dirty, I'm tired, I'm wet and I'm hungry." Sam grumbled.
"Oh, apart from that, you're fine then!" Tom joked and Sam couldn't help but smile as it tugged at her lips.

"Zoe." Fletch began as he approached her with the staff iPad in the middle of cubicles.
"Is that Mrs Carmichael's results?" Zoe asked.
"No um, it's a news article."
"Fletch I don't have time for-"
"Zoe, you need to read this." Fletch stated solemnly, and Zoe became worried as she took the iPad and then began to read the BBC article.

'Almost 300 soldiers are currently unaccounted for after a top secret mission in Crimea was not so secret. The Russian infantry who were guarding the base that 400 British soldiers were trying to take back for Ukraine had found out about the operation and many of the soldiers were taken away from the scene. There are 33 confirmed deaths, and almost 70 men and women who are safe and are being flown back to the UK.'

"You don't know that that's Sam and Tom, and you don't even know if they've been deployed yet." Zoe stated as she handed him the iPad. She could tell by his worried face what he was thinking.
"Zoe listen!" Fletch ordered as he stopped the woman from leaving the room. "I was down as Sam and Tom's next of kin, I've just had two phone calls, they're two of the unaccounted soldiers." Fletch explained and Zoe's face fell.
"And what do they think has happened to the unaccounted soldiers? Prisoners of war? Hostages?" Zoe asked.
"They don't know. They only know from the survivors that some men and women were taken away in lorries or vans, and others were taken away by helicopters." Fletch replied.
"Right um... Well do you want to take today off? If your mind isn't going to be on he he job then-"
"No, I'd rather work though it, take my mind of things." Fletch admitted.
"Okay, but keep me updated yeah?"
"Yep, will do." Fletch nodded, but he knew he was going to have a hard time focussing on work, as all he could think about was his best friend, and the man that she clearly loved so much...

Sam and Tom had laid out all of their camouflage gear on the sand under the sun in an attempt to dry them, whilst they redesigned the clothes that they were wearing then, using their pocket knives. Sam was wearing her combat boots, with her camouflage trousers cut into short shorts with just her black sports bra on because as the day progressed, it had only gotten hotter. Tom on the other hand had nothing on his muscular torso, and knee length camouflage shorts on along with his combat boots.
"Right, I need the toilet." Tom announced as he put his knife in his pocket and then began to walk to the jungle.
"Thank you for letting me know that." Sam said sarcastically before she knelt down by her phone that had been laid out on top of her bag to dry because she didn't want it getting too hot. It was still a little bit wet so she left it there, when suddenly she heard her husband.
"Sam! Come here!" He shouted and Sam leapt to her feet and then legged it into the jungle just several metres away. Tom had to grab her because she was running so fast, in case she fell in, as Tom had just found a blue lagoon with a beautiful waterfall. And from the lagoon was a river that presumably lead out to sea.
"Wow." Sam whispered, though she had thought that he had found some kind of human life or something that could rescue them.
"You said you felt dirty and it's fresh water." Tom stated as he squatted down and cupped a little of the clear water into his mouth. "So shall we have a shower under the waterfall in a minute?" He suggested.

"Maybe later, we still need to get everything sorted before it gets dark." Sam stated. "And because this is probably our cleanest source of water, no peeing anywhere near here or it'll just be washed into the water." Sam said sternly.
"Well where am I supposed to go then?" Tom protested.
"Just go over there away from here." Sam stated as she pointed down the jungle into an area filled with trees and grass on the ground.
"Fine." Tom huffed before he walked in the direction that she had pointed. Once he had gone, Sam squatted down besides the lagoon and cupped some of the water in her hand. Reluctantly, she took a sip, and it didn't taste odd at all so she had a little more before she headed back to the beach where her things were.

Tom returned to the beach after relieving himself to see Sam sitting cross legged on the sand with her head buried in her hands. He got a little closer to hear that she was trying not to cry as she took deep breaths, but he then heard her sniffle. He knelt down on the sand behind her and engulfed her in his arms.
"What's the point in even pretending that we can survive here?" She asked. "We're stranded, we don't know where we are, nobody else knows where we are, we've got no food, water from a lagoon that is probably ridden with cholera and other bugs. And we're only going to end up starving to death. Tom we might as well just use the pocket knives and go for a major artery becau-"
"Don't even consider that. Please, I never want to hear you speak about that." Tom pleaded softly as he rested his chin on her shoulder. "We might not have all of that, but we've got each other." He stated. "The best thing to do, is for us to have a plan in our heads so first of all, we're going to set up a camp for the night, and get a fire ready to light for when it gets dark - I've got matches in my bag. And then we're going to lay the rocks out and make a big SOS on the beach. And we can try and find some fruit to eat, and then we'll have a shower in the lagoon." He said sternly because he knew that Sam would cope far easier if she knew what she had to do. "C'mon, come and help me find fire wood." Tom stood up, put his hands under Sam's arms and lifted her up off of the sand so she rolled her eyes before she followed him into the jungle.

Sam was sat on the sand on the beach, watching the colourful sunset on the horizon where the sky met the sea - the sea that appeared endless as there was no sign of other land, or even any ships. Unfortunately, the water damage had been too much for both of their phones - not that they had much hope of getting a signal anyway - and they were yet to make sense of what happened. But they had made progress. They had made a little settlement for the night where they would sleep at the edge of the beach where it was covered by a few dotted palm trees, and they were going to sleep on several green palm leaves laid out to make it comfier than the sand. And they both had their bags packed with their things that had now dried, but they had very little: a few changes of clothes and underwear, a box of matches, a stainless steel water bottle, a pocket knife, their combat boots and a pair of flip flops/sandals each. They didn't have any toiletries what so ever because they had planned on getting supplies when they arrived at the base because they had to pack their bags as light as they possibly could.

They had also created a large 'SOS' sign out of rocks on the wide beach to attract attention from anything in the sky above them.

"Look what I found." Tom said proudly as he sat next to Sam on the warm sand with a brown, hairy coconut in his hand. "Here, drink some of this." He offered as he handed Sam the object with a small triangular hole that Tom had made with his knife. Slowly, Sam tipped the coconut up and poured some of the milky water into her mouth.
"Mm. Much better than water." She forced a smile. But she was still thirsty and there was nothing left inside of the fruit. And her stomach was almost making her feel a little sick because she was so hungry - she hadn't eaten in over 24 hours.
"I don't think there's a lot of liquid in there, but the inside should be ready to eat. Tom stated as he used his knife to slice the coconut open and cut a chunk for Sam where the husk was on one side, and the soft white flesh was on the other. They both eagerly took bites off the fruit and ate all that they could until their piece was only a bit of the tough husk that was left so Tom cut them another bit each until they had eaten the entire flesh of the coconut. "Right, shall we go for a shower, and then get the fire going and settle down?" Tom suggested.

"It's getting a bit cold, I think I'll leave the shower until tomorrow morning so my hair will dry quicker." Sam replied as they both stood up and headed to their small camp where they had set up a fire with plenty of firewood to add to it throughout the night to keep them warm. Under the scattered trees, it was a little darker as the sun was almost set. But Tom lit the fire using a match before he laid next to Sam on the palm leaves, wrapped his arm around her abdomen and they both looked out onto the ocean as the waves lapped up onto the sand.
"Someone will be coming for us." Sam said but she didn't believe it at all. She was just trying to persuade herself not to lose hope.
"Of course they are. In the army, no one gets left behind." Tom stated. And a silence lingered over them for a few minutes as they watched the sun disappear from the sky and the fire's presence became evermore important.

"If you wake before me in the morning, don't wonder off will you? Just tell me where you're going please." Sam said questioningly as she realised that she sounded a little clingy, but she just didn't want to wake up alone on the strange island.
"Wake up before you? You do realise this is me you're talking to right?" He laughed. "Knowing you, you'll probably wake up and go for a run around the island." Tom joked.
"That's not a bad idea actually. I might do that before I have a shower."
"And burn up the remaining energy that you have left inside of you? Don't, that's a bad idea Sam." Tom warned.
"Fine." She huffed as she turned around his his arms with her back facing the fire two metres away to keep her warm and then snuggled her face into his chest.

"Are you warm enough?" Tom asked kindly.
"Mmhmm." Sam mumbled.
"No you're not. You're arms are cold." Tom stated. "Here, wear this." He ordered as he grabbed a camouflage jacket from his holdall and once Sam had sat up, he put it over her torso and buttoned it up for her. It was quite large for her, but it was comfortable. And then they settled back down on the palm leaves with only the sound of the fire's warm crackling and the gentle waves breaking on the beach. "Night night." Tom pecked Sam on the forehead as she laid with her eyes closed.
"Night." Sam replied sleepily and both had to fall asleep out in the open, under the stars without a clue as to where they were, or what else was happening in the world because as far as they knew, there was still a world war going on. But would they ever be found? Or would they die in each other's arms?

Thanks for reading, please review :)