Chapter 10: Claudia
Everything was so confusing when I woke up. The first thing I remember was an overwhelming feeling of nausea. I wasn't sure if it was because my body fell out of the sky at several thousand feet, or if it was just the lack of sugar that had built up. I decided it was the sugar and looked around for my carry on. Then I remembered my friends, the plane crash, the oxygen masks. I wondered if I was dead, and if dead people knew they were dead.
It was all very confusing.
That's when I realized that I still had my seatbelt on. I was on my back, in what appeared to be a jungle, with my knees above my head. Suddenly, Kristy Thomas appeared in my face.
"Oh my gosh!. You're alive! Thank god. I thought I was all alone."
"Where are we? What's going on? Where is everyone else?" I unbuckled my seatbelt. Then I laughed. It seemed so silly to unbuckle my seatbelt when I wasn't in a car or on a plane. I rolled over and reached for my daypack. It wasn't there. I caught sight of Stacey's purse, dangling from a tree. I opened it, and found some sugar cubes. Not ideal, but better then nothing. I ate one, and put the rest back in case she needed them later.
Kristy looked slightly offended. She gave me a look that plainly said "how can you eat when we don't know where our friends are"?
"Well, it looks like the plane broke apart. These other people are dead. But Mary Anne was a few rows behind us and there has to be more of the plane. It was a huge plane. There are only six or seven seats here." That's when I looked around and realized that I was basically surrounded by dead people. I shuddered and threw up.
"How? This looks like one of those things where everyone should have died."
"I don't know. But we should just be happy we are alive. If we are, then someone else will be, right?"
I wasn't sure about that. I started to get this sinking feeling in the pit of my stomach. My friends – dead? Kristy's brother? My best friends? My only best friend I have ever had? They could all be dead? It was too much. I sunk to the ground again.
"Claudia! We have to do something. I know - I'm scared too. Let's just get away from all of this. I can't –"
That's when a man raced past us. He was wearing a white shirt and black pants. Even in a crisis, I notice apparel. I think someday, I will be a fashion designer. He didn't see us, but we followed him anyway.
We followed the mysterious man all the way to a beach. A beautiful, large, sandy beach. It was hot, and the scene that met our eyes can only be described as pure, unaltered chaos. It looked like the main part of the plane had landed on the beach.
A blonde woman was standing around screaming. White shirt and black pants guy was racing around, pulling people from wreckage and trying to help people. Other people were running around, helping each other, screaming, panicking, and dodging bits of the plane. The part of the plane on the beach was in several parts. There were explosions and loud noises.
I sunk to the ground. I know I'm a good baby-sitter, but this was too much. What could I do? I'm just an average, 15 year old girl who likes to baby-sit, is a terrible student and an excellent artist. I started to cry. Kristy sunk down next to me. She gave me a hug.
Now, I am normally not a crier. I'm mature and sophisticated. That's not to say that I'm not sensitive – It's just that I don't cry very often. So I decided to not let it happen.
I stood up. "We survived didn't we? The Baby-Sitter's Club is strong, and we are survivalists. We've survived hurricanes, snowstorms, broken legs, fights, boating accidents, and even summer camp. There is no way any of us are going to let a simple thing like a plane crash get the best of us!"
"But –"
"Sam's helped us enough. He's like an honorary member. Now let's go!"
So we ran down to the people. We looked for kids, and less panicked people with superficial injuries. We only found one kid, and he seemed fine. We handed out all of the band-aids that I found in Stacey's purse.
We yelled for Mary Anne, and climbed into the plane.
"I can't do this. Claudia. Mary Anne and I have been best friends for as long as I can remember. What if she's –"
"Kristy! She's my friend too. Remember? We all lived next to each other? Bradford court?"
"But… I don't want to see that. Even if it would be better to know for sure." Kristy's face was expressionless. She was trying to be brave, but she looked about to collapse.
"Look. There are tons of people running around. She's probably out there, looking for us." I put on an expression that I hoped was more confident than I felt.
Kristy took a deep breath, and started looking at each of the people. It was horrifying. There were injured people, people who were clearly dead. There was blood and things I won't describe. It was like we were part of one of those movies that my parents still won't let me watch. Kristy and I helped some of the injured people out of the plane, making sure they were clear of the wreckage. Other people didn't seem to have anything wrong with them at all, but they still sat where they were, staring out the window.
There were a few people looking through the dead people's stuff. Or they were looking for their own possessions, but either way – it seemed so cold and mean. When we realized that Mary Anne and Logan were not in this section of the plane, we left and sat on the beach.
"What do we do?"
"If she's not here, and we can't find her b-"
"Shut up!"
We sat in silence. There really was nothing to say. Our friends might be dead.
"The other plane, the one with Dawn and Mallory, Jessi, Shannon, and Stacey's dad probably already left. Do you think they know?"
"I doubt it. They usually don't let people on planes know about plane crashes."
"So they don't even know …"
We fell back in silence. There didn't seem to be anything to talk about. There didn't seem to be much of anything to do. I looked around to see what other people were doing. They were helping the injured, and looking through the plane for stuff. Some people had wondered off. One woman was sitting on a cliff, staring at the water. She looked more alone then some of the others.
A large guy with very curly, frizzy hair interrupted our silence.
"Are you guys okay? That guy over there is a doctor if you are hurt." He pointed at the guy who ran past us in the jungle. "We are looking through the planes for food and water. They say it's best if we all stick together until the rescue boats come."
"Who says?" Kristy demanded, in that less then subtle way of hers. "Where is the pilot? The flight attendants? Shouldn't we build a signal fire or something? And who are you?"
He introduced himself as Hugo – but everyone calls him Hurley. He seemed like a nice guy. He said that no one really was in charge, but that the doctor said the best thing to do for now is to make sure that people with injuries are okay and to wait for rescue. No one knew where the first class and pilot section fell.
At this news, Kristy and I gasped. We asked if he had seen Mary Anne or Logan. He wasn't sure, but took our description anyway. He walked away.
"Well, that settles it. We should go into the forest – I mean jungle – and look for the other parts of the plane. We can't just sit here, waiting."
Privately, I agreed with her. Doing anything – even tromping through a jungle in search of something that we didn't know where it was, without a compass or any sense of direction – sounded better then sitting on the beach, worrying. But at the same time, we didn't know anyone. If we got lost, who knows if anyone would find us.
"Maybe we should wait until tomorrow? It'll be getting dark soon, and we don't know what is in that jungle. There might be tigers like on Swiss Family Robinson, or bears, or ghosts."
"Ghosts?"
"Well, the point is that anything could be out there." It looked really dark in the jungle. "But I still think we should go. We owe it to Stacey and Sam and Mary Anne. What if they are hurt and need help." I stood up. I had convinced myself that we should not wait until morning. With that, we slipped into the forest. I don't think anyone saw us go, or would have cared.