Litanya: Hey again. This chapter is dedicated to everyone who has read this fic. Thank you for the support! I don't own Digimon.

The Island Holiday

Chapter 8: Far Away

Sora had been right; Tai found a small spring only a few meters inland away from the beach. There was a problem with it however. They had nothing that could act as a bucket to keep the water in. He frowned at the spring. Why did things like this always have to happen to him? He supposed that he could go back to the beach and ask Sora what to do, but he was determined to do it himself. He had already been wrong once, and he didn't want to embarrass himself in front of Sora by asking for her help. He had been the leader in the Digital World; he should know what to do here. After all, they had managed to survive there on a meager supply of food and water. They hadn't had a bucket then either. He looked around at the surrounding area. He could see trees and a few rocks, but nothing that he could really- his eyes stopped on a large rock a few meters away. It wasn't the size of the rock that drew his eye- it was about the same size as an ice-cream tub- but its queer shape. The bottom was rounded, and rain had eroded the top so that it had turned almost into a container. If he was careful, he would be able to carry water with it. It really was his lucky day. In some ways he felt that it was too lucky. There had to be a catch somewhere, he knew it. He walked over to the rock and tried to pick it up. His shoulder screamed at him and he was forced drop the rock before he screamed out loud. He felt useless. He was going to have to ask Sora to come and help him with it. Sighing to himself he marked the position of the spring in his mind. He then turned to go back to the beach where he had left Sora, but he ran into a problem. He didn't know the direction from which he had come.

"Why is this happening to me? Is God really this cruel?" he grumbled as he desperately searched for a familiar landmark. Not that he had really seen any landmarks on the way there. His mind had been on other things, such as his shoulder injury and proving Sora wrong. He knew that he hadn't gone very far away from the beach, so he decided to pick the direction in which the sound of waves was the loudest and walk towards that. He was rather proud of himself for thinking about the waves. If he had been the same as when he was younger, he would have just picked a random direction and walked that way. At least now he was able to make educated guesses.

"Hey, did you find one?" Sora asked him when he finally made it back to the beach. (He had somehow managed to turn a complete circle and he had found himself back at the spring a couple of times before he realized what had gone wrong.) A small pile of wood sat beside her on the beach, and she was examining what looked to be several leaves. How she had managed to collect all of that whilst he had been lost was a mystery.

"I found it, yes, but I wasn't able to bring any water back. There is a rock that would make a good sort of bucket, but…" he gestured to his arm, which was hanging limply at his side, "I tried to pick it up to fill it with water, but my injury wouldn't let me. I know where the spring is; at least I think I do. It isn't very far from here, so if we need it quickly we'll be able to get it. I don't suggest going to get it at night however- I got lost on the way back even though it isn't far away. What are you doing?" His curiosity had finally gotten the best of him. She patted the sand next to him and he obediently sat down next to her, grimacing as his leg protested against the movement.

"I'm trying to sort out what plants we can eat and which ones we can't. These leaves here have a slight red tinge to them at the stem of the leaf. That means that it is diseased and it would be safer to leave it alone. This one, however, is really green and this white flower growing off of it tells me that it is edible. I can't remember the name of it, but I read about it in one of my mother's books," she explained everything calmly, carefully studying the leaves and pointing things out to him as she spoke.

"So we're eating leaves?" the idea didn't really appeal to him. He heard Sora sigh.

"Yes, we're eating leaves for now, until we can devise a way to fish. We can't do much else. We will starve if we don't eat. The leaves can't taste that bad… after all, most vegetables are nice, and they came from plants," the look on her face however, told him that she wasn't as sure of that as she tried to sound. He had to laugh at her expression, "Do you find something funny?" She demanded to know, taking her eyes off the leaves for a few seconds. For some odd reason, that only made him laugh even more. "What is so funny Tai? Tell me!" He wished he could tell her what it was, but he didn't know. He just had an urge to laugh that he couldn't refuse. She frowned as he continued to laugh. She placed her hand on his forehead, before putting placing it back onto her own.

"What's wrong Sora?" he managed to ask when he finally stopped laughing. She began looking through the leaves a little faster.

"You have a slight temperature. The wound in your arm is probably becoming infected," he shrugged, or tried to, and looked down at his wound. It seemed to be alright from what he could see, but he knew better than to question Sora when she was in this mood.

"I'll be fine. I've survived being sick before, and I will now. Can I help you? It's not fair for you to do everything," he hated sitting around doing nothing. He was right-handed, and so it shouldn't have mattered that his left hand was basically unusable for the moment. He felt bad for not even being able to get water for her. Sora hesitated before she replied.

"Well… you know in movies, how people get stranded on desert islands and they… they search the beach for things that could have washed up on the shore? Would you be able to do that?" she kept her eyes directed at the sand. He understood. She felt bad for asking him to do the gruesome task, but at the same time she knew that she couldn't do it.

"I can do that. Then, when I get back, I'll take you to the water so we can have a drink, okay?" he didn't really wait for a reply. He was glad that he had something to do, but he felt awful about what he might have to do. At first he kept his eyes on the sand in front of him, but then he realized that he might miss something if he concentrated only on a small area. He slowly lifted his gaze until he could see into the ocean. He continued along the beach, stopping to look at random objects that had gotten stuck in the current close to shore. Most of the objects were useless- what need did they have for a small doll? But there were also some useful objects, like blankets. When he found a blanket he unfolded it further up the beach and placed rocks on the corners so that it would dry. Other objects caused tears to gather in his eyes. These objects were usually family photos, or other objects that obviously had held meaning for the passenger who had held it. He found a silver pocket watch which looked as though its owner had polished it every day. Inside the cover was an engraving:

Dear Isabella, may this watch guide you and remind you that time is precious. But no time is more precious than the time I spend with you. Love Graham.

He assembled all sorts of useful objects, but most of them wouldn't ensure their survival. The most useful thing he had found, he thought, was a large bucket, which had been used by the airhostesses to hold flowers. He could still smell the scent of roses. He wondered briefly why they had had roses on board the plane when they could carry diseases, but he didn't dwell on it for too long. Finally, after a couple of hours of searching, he stumbled upon something that he couldn't ignore, something that seemed to horrific that he couldn't move another step. A child lay on the beach, unmoving, and silent. He thought that he had accepted that he had been involved in a crash, he thought that he had accepted the fact that hundreds of people had died whilst he had lived. But he hadn't. He sank down to his knees and did something he hadn't done in years. He cried.

She knew that she was being mean by sending Tai to sort through the wreckage that had made it to shore, but she just couldn't bring herself to do it by herself. She looked up at the position of the Sun in the sky, wishing that she could read the time from that alone. But whatever the time was, it seemed to be late afternoon. The Sun was already halfway down to the horizon, and it was beginning to get cold. She couldn't see Tai anymore- the beach curved around from where she was and he had disappeared around that curve- and she had to admit that that worried her. Not only was she afraid of being alone on this island- she was sure that it was an island, although she wasn't 100 sure- but Tai already had a slight temperature, and he was injured. She shouldn't have made him go looking. It must have been about an hour after she had sent him off, and he hadn't come back. She tried not to worry too much, but she couldn't help it. Her conscience was telling her that it was her fault if something had happened to him.

'Tai can look after himself for the moment. I should go and get some of the water that Tai found. He came from my left and he said it wasn't far, so I should be able to find it,' she gathered the edible leaves together and tucked them safely behind a rock. The inedible leaves she took to the water and threw them out into the ocean, saying a quick prayer as she did so. She only wished that she had some real flowers to throw to honour the souls of the dead. She turned away from the ocean quickly to stop all thoughts about death and set off in the direction of the spring. It took her quite a while to find it, but she found both the spring and the rock which Tai had told her about. She filled the rock up carefully and managed to make her way back to the beach quickly. It must have taken her at least an hour to do that, and yet Tai was still not back from his task. She was really worried now. She placed the water-filled rock next to where she had stored the leaves and began walking in the direction she had last seen Tai walk in. She followed the trail quite easily. Although it was getting dark, objects that Tai seemed to have found lay in a straight line along the dry sand of the beach, with rocks holding them down. Bits of paper drifted around in the light breeze. She made sure to keep her eyes averted from what the papers contained- some of them seemed to be photographs- and hurried along the trail. When she finally caught up to Tai, she stopped a few meters behind him. He seemed to be digging a hole, and it sounded as though he was crying.

"Are you alright Tai?" she asked after a few moments. He jumped and turned to see her and in that movement she saw that he wasn't digging a hole, but filling one in. He was almost finished as well.

"I'm fine, I just… I just found something that I never really wanted to even hear about. It's okay," his tears were stopping, but his voice sounded strained. He had been there for a while. She watched as he finished filling the hole in. She decided that she wouldn't ask him about it. She had a feeling that she didn't want to know and that he didn't want to tell her.

"Come on, we'd better gather everything up and head back to our 'camp'. It's starting to get too dark," Tai held something up at her.

"I found these near- near here," it was a flashlight and a packet of some sort of pain-killing medication, "I've tried turning the flashlight on, and it works. I think that it was one of the ones the airhostesses had. I heard somewhere that their lights can work in water. Along with the lights on our life-jackets, it could be useful. And the tablets will be helpful if ever you get sick." She just nodded. She had heard the emphasis on the word 'you.' In other words, it was another one of the medications that he was allergic to. She had known him for so long that she knew what happened when he took medication he was allergic to, even though the only time that had happened had been when he had been five. She felt bad that the only medication they could find could only be used for her.

"Is your arm okay?" she asked as they began to walk back.

"Yeah, it's fine. I can't feel any pain anymore… I think that's a good thing. I found a sewing kit if you want to try sewing it up," she shivered at the thought of doing it, but she knew that she would have to. She just hoped that it wouldn't hurt him too much.

"Alright, let's get moving. I've got some water back at our camp, so lets gather everything up so we can go eat and drink, then I'll deal with your arm, okay?" he only nodded. He looked as exhausted as she felt. It had been less than a day since the plane had crashed and yet she felt as though they had been on the island for days. She picked up a blanket and prayed that help would come soon. She wasn't sure how long they could survive on the island alone.

The memorial service had been the hardest thing to get through. As the airline still had no idea where the plane had crashed, no bodies had been recovered. There could be no proper funerals that way. To 'help' the families and friends of those killed, the airline had built a small monument dedicated to the passengers of the flight. The monument had all of the names of the passengers carved onto it, and a huge service had been held. Hundreds of people had turned up, which only signified the huge number killed in the accident. The airline still had no idea what had happened and that made Matt very angry. In his view, the airline needed to know what had happened.

"This is so stupid," Kari muttered from beside him, "I mean they are just doing this to try and make us less angry with them. If they would tell us what had happened, then maybe we could try to forgive them. If the hijackers had control of the plane or something, if they'd just tell us anything, then maybe they would be held less responsible. But they lost a plane, hundreds were killed and they expect a ceremony to absolve them of all guilt." Although Matt felt the same way as Kari, he didn't put it quite so harshly. Then again, the Kari he knew should have been one of the first people to forgive the airline.

"It's not completely their fault Kari. Remember what Sora said on the phone. And once the plane is in the air, the controllers cannot necessarily control the plane, now can they? I'm not saying that it isn't their fault, because the controllers have to be blamed for losing the plane, but there always has to be more than one problem in a crash like this," he didn't know why he was defending them. It was probably because he still felt guilty, and so he knew what it was like to have blame shoved onto his shoulders.

"But I can blame them, can't I?" it sounded as though she was questioning herself rather than asking him. She seemed to have been doing that a lot since the accident. It was almost as though when she had lost her brother, she had also lost a part of herself. It scared him, and he knew that it scared T.K. His younger brother now spent practically every waking moment at the Kamiya apartment with Kari, making sure that she didn't go crazy. Matt wished that he had someone to be there for him like that, but he knew that he could handle it by himself. Everyone was going through the same sort of emotional torment as he, and so he knew that they all had to be there for each other.

"I just wish that there was something that I could do to make this more personal…" Matt whispered to himself. Tai and Sora deserved more than just having their name read out to a crowd of people which mostly didn't know them. Everyone who had been on the plane deserved more than that.

"Would anyone like to say a few words?" no one moved. He knew that everyone wanted to say something, but the fact that there were hundreds of others there stopped them. He wasn't going to let that bother him. His band was all there. They had all known Sora quite well, as she had attended most of their rehearsals. They had also known Tai, as he had attended only a few less rehearsals than Sora. They had had something planned for if anyone was asked to speak. Matt politely moved to the front. The speaker appeared to be relieved that someone was taking her up on her offer.

"If any of you are like me, then you think that this 'ceremony' thing is too impersonal to honour the lives lost in this tragedy. My best friend and my girlfriend were killed in the accident and I think that this 'memorial' just doesn't do them any justice unless there is something that makes us feel anything but angry at the airline. This is a song that Tai and Sora always told me was their favourite. I hope that this helps to make this thing more personal somehow," he took a CD out of his pocket- the song was by his band, but they didn't need to know that- and placed it in the stereo one of his band members had brought. The song was about how different the world seemed when someone important had gone. The song had been written by the drummer after his girlfriend had broken up with him, but the words seemed to fit for this situation too. The song expressed the futility of wishing and dreaming that someone was going to come back, but at the same time it expressed the sadness and utter emptiness that the person left behind felt. Matt had loved the song from the start- Tai and Sora had listened to the song almost every day. By playing this song he felt that they were being recognized. The world had recognized that they were gone, and it was mourning. When the song ended, the crowd was in tears. The song had helped them to release their pent-up emotions. The ceremony was over, and although they were still grieving, they now knew that their loved ones had been acknowledged. That was how Matt chose to read the situation anyway. They would never be fully healed- they could never forget the ones they had lost- but the people at the ceremony were beginning to get on with their lives. It was time that he got back on track too…

To be continued…

Litanya: Thank you for reading this chapter. I'm sorry if the end part was a little rushed- I want to skip ahead in time a little next chapter. For anyone who is interested, this fic was inspired by the song 'Perfect World' by Simple Plan. It's a fantastic song, and that is the one that I was thinking of for the ceremony. Anyway, please review and hopefully I will update in about two weeks. (I have assignments due in so I can't write it sooner.)