Ray surfaced flailing wildly and coughing up swallowed seawater. Everything around him was chaos. There were people in the water, living and dead, and Ray was going to do his damnedest to get away from the dead ones. As he trudged up out of the water, he got his foot caught under a partially submerged tree branch, and fell forward wrenching his knee.
"If I wanted my fucking kneecaps broken, I'd have stayed in Australia!" Ray screamed as he finally drug himself up and onto dry sand.
"Who are you yelling at? You can shut up and help or you can get out of the way!" Ana Lucia was livid. "And watch your mouth! There are kids here!"
"Right. Out of the way it is!" Ray headed for the shade of the nearest palm tree. "I'll get a sunburn..." he trailed off, catching a glimpse of the palest woman he'd ever seen in his life. "But I've survived a plane crash and at least I'm not her," Ray managed to dig up some cheer.
Of course, talking to himself was probably a sign of some sort of madness, but not one he couldn't ignore. Ray had decided to sit down to rest his knee and wait for rescue when a man came running out of the jungle.
"Help! There's somebody in the jungle, come on!"
Ana Lucia came running towards them, "Well, useless—you gonna help or not?"
"I object to that! My name is Ray Scoresby and I'm not useless! Only...my knee hurts," He flinched as Ana shot him a disgusted look and ran after the man from the jungle. Where had the guy come from anyway?
"Oi! Wait for me!" He rubbed his knee as he limped quickly to catch up with them. When he finally did they were yelling up to a guy in a tree.
"What's your name?" Ana Lucia yelled.
"Bernard," responded the man Ray guessed was Bernard.
"Is the other guy dead?" Ray attempted to join the group only to be glared at by Ana. He crossed his arms, it was a good question. Sure, he wasn't moving, talking, or even the right color, but hope springs eternal and all that.
"I think he's dead," Bernard said.
"We should climb up there," he looked at Ray for support.
Ana Lucia interrupted before he could respond, "No."
Ray sighed, "My knee wouldn't take it, anyway."
"I need you to focus, Bernard. Unbuckle your seatbelt," Ana Lucia was directing him, and Bernard managed to get it undone. "Now, grab the branch next to you."
Bernard looked worried, "I don't think I can do that."
The seats were swaying dangerously and Ana Lucia called out, "Those seats are going to fall," noticing the same and Bernard finally started to reach out. "Come on, you can do it Bernard!"
The seats wobbled and fell just as Bernard finally got a grip on the tree, "Alright, hold on tight, okay. I'm coming up to get you."
Ana Lucia started to climb and Ray turned to the man he would come to know as Goodwin, "Scary, but at least the worst's over now, right?"
"The worst," he seemed preoccupied watching Ana Lucia climb. "I suppose we can only hope."
There was something in his tone that made Ray's stomach churn. They had made it though the crash alive, and really what could be worse after that?
A/N: First glimpse of the tail section, opinions? I mentioned another OC here, because it would be odd for someone so strange to be unnoticed. In unrelated news, there's a link to the Lost kink meme on my profile, some very cool prompts already—submit some more or write a fic!