CHAPTER 3

It was loud and immediate. There was no mistaking it… something was seriously wrong with the plane and everyone knew it. In an instant, everyone was awake and curious as to what the hell was going on.

"Is that normal?" Tory asked Miguel, for a moment their rivalry put on the back burner. Miguel shrugged.

"No clue." He replied. "I mean it's not like we're droppi-AGHHHHHHHHHHHH!"

He jinxed it. As soon as he said this, before the words had even fully escaped his lips, the plane began to drop like a stone. Miguel and Tory, who weren't wearing a seatbelt due to them trying to get to the bathroom, had to grab onto nearby handles and hold on for dear life to prevent them from being sent flying down the plane. People were in a frenzy of panic as they made their uncontrolled descent but there was literally nothing anyone could do. Something had happened to the plane that had put passengers' survival no longer in the Pilot's hands, but in God's instead.

Suddenly, if that was even possible, things got worse…

CREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAKKKKKKKK!

The sound echoed through the entire plane, deafeningly loudly. It sounded like the shriek of a banshee and for a moment, nobody knew what had caused it. They found out soon enough. Like only possible in the darkest nightmares, the floors beneath Tory and Miguel began to crack. Before they could react, the plane suddenly split in two, almost exactly in half. However, that was bad news for Miguel and Tory who were smack dab in the middle of the plane. With nothing they could do to stop it, the pair were sent hurling into the morning sky, no plane or anything else around them as they began to fall freely.

Falling. As Miguel tumbled through the air, seconds turned to hours. I'm going to die today, Miguel thought to himself. He looked over at Tory a couple of feet away and knew she was thinking the same. Miguel looked down, preparing himself for his fate, and when he did, he couldn't help but gasp. The view below… it was gorgeous. He was hurtling towards crystal clear water, the clearest he'd ever seen. That was the last thing Miguel thought before the CRASH...

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH

Swimming. That's what Miguel was doing. But not in the frigid ocean where he crash landed. No, he was back at his childhood home in Ecuador, swimming in their outdoor pool in the backyard. It was a much, much simpler time. There was no karate. No schoolwork to worry about. Nothing. No, it was just a 7 year old Miguel, living life to the very fullest.

He was playing with a pumped up beach-ball, volleying it up into the air and seeing how high it would go before coming crashing back down, and as he did, he thought to himself… Is this heaven? Have I died and then solved the ancient mystery as to what heaven contains? Because a heaven where you are automatically pulled back to the most care-free, least troublesome parts of your life… now that was a heaven Miguel could get behind. However, that theory quickly went out the window when suddenly, disaster struck…

"OWWW!"

Miguel silently screamed in pain as an excruciating pain ripped through his leg, the pain starting there but eminating through his entire body. His right leg had gone completely numb and his arms alone weren't enough to keep him afloat so like a stone, he began to sink.

Water enveloped his entire body as he thrashed madly, trying desperately to keep his head above the surface but failing miserably. Across the pool, his mom was sitting in a deckchair and as she saw her son begin to drown, she leapt to her feet in shock.

"MIGGY!" She shrieked in alarm, sprinting over towards the pool, using every ounce of speed she had to get to her son before he lost consciousness. However, it was a steep task ahead of her as with every passing second, Miguel could feel his 7 year old deplete their air supply and he felt unconsciousness dragging him closer and closer to the edge. He saw black spots begin to dance before his eyes and he prepared for unconsciousness when suddenly, something changed.

Carmen made it over to him and dragged him out the water. But as Miguel felt himself break the surface once again, he didn't find himself face to face with his mom…

Instead, Miguel awoke to see himself on some kind beach, in only God Knows Where. He was alone, not with his mom, and he slowly struggled to his feet. He remembered what had happened on the plane but he still had about a ton of questions. HOW WASN'T HE DEAD?! That was the first question on Miguel's mind and surprisingly, he didn't care to know the answer. He was alive, and that was all that mattered.

Where am I? That was the second, and this one Miguel really wanted to know the answer for. He had seemed to have washed up on the shores of some kind of desert island. In front of him, about 200 meters ahead, was a jungle, which seemed to stretch for an indeterminable distance.

Miguel's thoughts were quickly brought to a halt as out of the blue, he heard a quiet splutter coming from beside him. He spun around to see none other than Tory washing up right beside him, also gaining consciousness. Miguel internally groaned. Many a time him and his friends had played games where they would ask each other: if you had to wash up on a deserted island with someone, who would it be? Miguel had picked Hawk for his strength, Sam for her resourcefulness, even Demetri for his humor. Never had he ever said Tory though. In fact, she was probably the last person on his list.

Nevertheless, he sprinted over to his ex-girlfriend.

"Tory! Hey, Tory! Get up!" Miguel shouted. Tory slowly shook off her daze, and stumbled to her feet.

"Owww…" She murmured, clutching her throbbing head.

"Hey, you good?" Miguel asked her, slightly concerned, but more wrapped up about everything else. Tory nodded.

"Yeah, fine." She grumbled in reply, before looking around and a confused look overtaking her face. "Where the hell are we?"

Miguel shrugged.

"Beats me. Plane went down. We went down with it. I'm just happy we're alive." Miguel remarked. Tory glared at him.

"Yeah, we might not be dead, but we're stuck on a deserted island with each other. Don't know if the alive part is good or not." She remarked. Miguel scowled at her, before realising something. His face paled.

"Holy shit." He murmured, his face white. "The dojos… our friends…"

Tory, realising what Miguel was implying, had a horrified face to match Miguel's.

"You don't think…" Her voice trailed off but they were both thinking the exact same thing. Had their friends and senseis survived? Were they on this island too? The chances of that seemed extraordinarily unlikely. They had watched as the plane had split in two in mid air and surviving a crash like that would be a miracle. Tears pricked in Miguel's eyes as he thought about Johnny, Hawk, Sam, Demetri and all of his other friends from Miyagi-Do, no idea whether they were alive or not, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach telling him that they weren't. He sunk to his knees, the tears refusing to fall but his heart overcome with devastation. The not knowing was the worst part. The uncertainty about something so huge was weighing heavily on his mind.

Meanwhile, while inside Tory was feeling the exact same, her emotional outburst was much more measured. She didn't say a word, merely staring blankly out into the horizon for a while. The two stood side by side for what seemed like an eternity, before finally, as they saw the sun beginning to set, Miguel turned to her.

"Okay, so what's the plan?" Miguel murmured. Tory looked at him, confused.

"Huh?" She grunted.

"What's the plan?" He repeated. "The sun's starting to go down. We're stuck here, and it's not like there's anyone coming for us anytime soon. What do we do?"

"We?" Tory scoffed. "There is no 'we', dude. Each of us can just go off, do our own thing, and when we're eventually found, we can go back to never speaking to each other ever again."

Miguel sighed.

"Look, you're not exactly my first choice to be stuck here with either." He snapped. "But if we want to survive, our best chance is to do so by working together. There's no telling how long we're going to be stuck here for."

"Bullshit. You don't know what you're doing. I don't know what I'm doing. The only thing us working together would do is piss us both off to the extent we both drown each other in the ocean." Tory commented. Miguel, just as loathful of her as she was of him, raised his hands in surrender.

"Alright, fine. Let's split up." He agreed. "But in a couple of days, if you're starving and begging for water and food because you haven't found any, don't come crying to me."

Tory stared daggers at him, nothing but unbridled hatred rising to the surface between them, their enmity only amplified by their disastrous situation.

"Fuck you." She growled at him. Miguel smirked, genuinely enjoying riling her up now. He had so much animosity towards Tory, almost as much as he had for Robby. He hated her with every fibre of his being, and he was grinning as he delivered one final verbal lick.

"You know, when I get out of here and go home, I'll make sure to go home and tell your family you said hi. Oh wait, they'll probably both be dea…"

Before Miguel could finish his sentence, a deafening SLAP rang through the air as Tory drew her hand back and slapped him across the face as hard as she could. As she did so, Miguel stumbled backwards, clutching his face as a nasty red welt already began to form. The pain quickly wore away and as it did, Miguel began to laugh. He began to laugh like a maniacal madman, like the Joker on crack. Even Tory had to stop for a moment as confusion overwhelmed her anger.

"What now?" She spat. Miguel, grinning wildly at her, nodded.

"You know… thank you for doing that Tory. Thank you for hitting me." He smirked.

"Huh?" Tory grunted, genuinely confused now. "What? Why?"

"Because my mom… she taught me never hit a woman. UNLESS… however, she hits you first. So…"

Tory couldn't even react before a crushing uppercut cracked against her jaw, sending her flying backwards and landing flat on her bum. As she did, Miguel stood over her and scowled.

"See you around, Tory." He snarled, before turning around and walking away…