Day One; Aftermath
A boisterous roaring of an engine was nothing to match the panicked shouts along the shore, and thundering waves crashed upon the sand, washing up scraps of metal and packs. However, Jade awoke to a bright blue sky and tuffs of pure albino clouds overhead; a peaceful sight rather a dark one. She picked her head up from the ground and looked about her surroundings; she was lying with soft beige sand, her light brown hair splayed out beneath her. Confused and quite hazed she begun to sit up, but as soon as she had a searing pain shot up to her left shoulder, and she bit back a yelp. She took a few deep breaths, clutching her arm close to her chest and finally gaining an unsteady balance upon her feet, legs shaking.
The scene around her was nothing like she's ever seen before. A large portion of the plane was wedged deeply into the sand near the shoreline, the engine wildly spinning and smoking, whilst the cockpit resided too many feet away for Jade to count. Trina was standing rooted to the spot not far off, just standing, and crying out for help from an invisible source of danger. The other's, well…she wasn't so sure of what was going on.
"Jade! Jade!"
She tore her eyes from Trina and snapped her gaze in the direction in which her name was called. Beck and Andre were both leaning over someone, attempting to push metal upward; the person seemed (still slightly conscious by the movements of the arms) to be trapped underneath it but she could not figure out who it was. With wobbly legs she stumbled over, still holding her throbbing and bleeding arm to her chest. Both boys didn't look as beat up as she would have suspected, with minor cuts and a torn shirt they were fine otherwise. Her gray eyes shifted downward and to the person they were trying to help.
Upon realizing that it was no one she had recognized and only the flight attendant, she exhaled a breath of relief and moved over to Beck's side. "What do you want me to do?" She asked him, eyes narrowing.
"Can you drag her from her spot once we lift this thing?" Andre asked, out of breath and panicking.
"In case you haven't noticed, I'm crippled you dimwit" She shouted over the loud engine, but nevertheless making a grab at the woman's arm with her free hand.
"Okay, on three. One…two…three! PULL!" Beck screamed. With all the might she could muster in just one arm, Jade yanked backwards at the attendant's arm, sliding her legs from beneath the chunk of metal atop of her. Blood gushed almost immediately from her calves, and Jade dropped her arm as if it had burned her hands. The woman, despite the protests of the trio of them, stood using the metal she was just trapped under as something to pull her up.
"Where the hell are you going, lady?" Jade asked her incredulously, breaths coming in pants. Flight attendant woman continued on, dangerously close to the engine. "Jesus Christ, get away from there you idiot! You'll get-"
Her shouts were too late, as the engine sucked the woman up like a vacuum did to dust and debris in carpets. Beck threw himself at her and pushed her to the ground, her face smushed within the sand and his body protectively leaning over her own. All at once the engine spontaneously burst into flames upon the woman's idiotic action to walk near it, and more sharp screams pierced Jade's ears.
And then everything went silent, and the only thing she could hear was Beck's heavy breathing from beside her. Her arm was in searing pain by now, but used to it, she held her breath and glanced up once again. From what she could see, Vega had gone over to Trina and the two sisters were both on the ground, with Robbie kneeling beside them with his hands tangled in his mottled curly hair and his large glasses cracked and crooked. Brent was sitting near the forest line with a limp Cat slumping in his lap, his body covering hers from the massive and spontaneous explosion. He was pressing his sweatshirt to the side of her head, but Jade had seen enough. The blood didn't quite match the color of her hair, but it was close.
She pushed herself to her knees and sank down upon her calves, gripping the front of Beck's shirt with her hand. "You're going to have to relocate my shoulder." She murmured to him.
Her boyfriend of two years gave her collected look before situating himself in front of her, but instead of grabbing her arm he tore a piece of his over shirt off and rolled it up, putting it near her mouth. "Bite down on this, okay?"
"I can handle it" Jade snapped at him, pushing it away with a sharp flick of her hand. She wasn't quite sure of her words, but she wasn't going to openly admit that, even to him. Her eyes lingered upon his handsome, tan face as he gripped her arm carefully, and without warning, he pushed up and twisted. Involuntarily she released a loud yelp as he shoulder popped back into place with a sickening crack and she bit into her lower lip until it drew blood, breathing heavily through her nose. Her shout had drawn the attention of everyone, and she blinked rapidly at her watering eyes. She refused to so much let a single tear drop in front of every single person present, therefore kept her head facing the soft sand beneath her.
"You sure handled that well" Beck teased her, hooking his finger beneath her chin and pressing a kiss to her lips, in which she hungrily returned.
Someone cleared their throat, and the couple reluctantly pulled away from them. Jade snapped her gaze to none other than Tori Vega; when she had come over, she wasn't sure. "Is um, everyone alright?"
"Well, you tell me Vega. We just survived a fucking plane crash! Check back into reality and then ask us!" She snapped at the half Latina, grimacing and pulling herself to her feet.
"I was just making sure!" Vega held her hands up in surrender, brows furrowed. "You screamed so…"
"And why would you care, little Miss. Perfect!"
"Err, guys? Does any one of you have bottled water?" Brent asked as he approached the group, Cat still limply hanging in his arms and her head lolling back and over his forearm, one of her own arms from her side. He sounded out of place with his British accent, but with two years of living with him she was already completely used to it.
"What the hell happened to her?" Jade asked, watching as Andre and Robbie ran off to find the water the older boy was asking for. Concerned for her friend she brought herself from her recline and stood, rolling her shoulder back and taking a few steps toward her unconscious, tiny form.
"Same thing that happened to the lot of us, she just hit her head. With water, I'm sure she'll wake up." He explained, lowering the tiny girl onto the sand gently. "Her head was bleeding badly…but I've managed to stop it for a little while at the very least, that is."
"This is just insane" Tori sighed, pressing her palm to her forehead as she turned and scanned the area.
"Yeah, but I mean we're not going to be here for long anyway" Trina commented with a half smile, playing with the strap of her bikini top. "Right?"
Beck ran a hand through his insane, ebony hair and tousled it with a frown. "There should be a transceiver in the cockpit of the plane, and if we can get that to work we can send out a distress call they'd be able to pick up." He explained dully, as the other two boys returned with a single bottle of water and a cooler they had packed. Andre knelt down beside Cat as Brent held her head up and pressed the water to her lips, tilting upward. Almost instantly her friend sputtered and gasped, evidently choking as she sat up. Jade released a breath of relief she didn't remember she was even holding in the first place, her hand fixing at her light brown hair absentmindedly – something she always did when she was stressed.
Cat's hand found the wound upon her hand immediately, her other fingers curling around a clump of sand and picking it up, letting it slide through them. "Where are we?" She asked quietly, doe brown and watering eyes tearing from the grit and examining the shore just as Tori had only moments ago. Brent helped her up from the ground, her balance wasn't perfect but she was able to hold herself on two feet without falling flat on her face.
The silence that had previously loomed upon the beach expeditiously returned, this time lingering so loudly over the group that Jade's stomach tied itself in knots. The unanswered question glued itself into her mind, and as everyone else did, she turned to glare and scowl at the forest; something in which she knew, would surely bear many secrets.
Jade had planned this very carefully. Though that was something extremely odd for her, as she liked to do things almost spontaneously, and taking things cautiously and carefully weren't exactly what she would call her forte. But with this tattoo, something that was going to be permanently on her skin for the rest of her life (however long that was going to be), she had to make sure it was perfect; like when she acted or sung a song. The meaning had to be well-thought out, what exactly this tiny little decoration of red and white ink would symbolize…everything.
It was the summer of her sophomore year and she was sitting in Cat's too bright bedroom that gave her a headache, her back leaning against the plush pillows on her best friend's bed and her smoky eyes staring intently at the ceiling, a small empty container at her side. She had spent the day with entire day with Beck, making out and doing other not important things – like watching movies or sitting in Skybucks while he bought her coffee, black – but she had made plans to spend the night here, and well, she doesn't blow people off unless you didn't mean much to her, and this tiny redhead did. Hell, she had known her since she was in diapers; how could she not have?
The tattoo came up out of nowhere. Jade had told the small girl that she had wanted one, but she never exactly told her what it was because at the time, she hadn't a clue. But when she had finished ordering the Chinese food, since Cat's mother wasn't home, her stepfather had gone along with her and apparently Mouse was at a friend's for the past week (always leaving her), she had blurted out what she wanted it to be. Perhaps it was because she wanted to tell somebody, as what it was, was supposed to be a surprise for Beck.
And no, it wasn't going to be a portrait of her boyfriend on her shoulder or something because no matter how symbolic those were; she thought that kind of thing was stupid, amongst other things of course. She would never do that even if her life had depended on it.
When she had told Cat she had been offered a deal. She had raised her eyebrow and gave the other girl an intrigued look because it wasn't like the redhead to make bargains.
"Be my singing partner for vocal class and I'll draw it for you Jadey!" Had been the deal.
She almost laughed at the thought. Jade knew Cat liked coloring books and had colored outside of the lines countless times before, and imagining her drawing something that had to be perfect was almost comical. But she agreed anyway because she herself a partner (the two had sung together many times before, and they're different voice styles harmonized) and hell, why not give it a try? If it was bad, then she'd scowl and throw it away. If it was good and something that she had imagined it to be like, then she'd use it and give it to the tattoo artist when the time came for it.
Sliding her tongue over her glossy lips, still tasting the aftermath of the fried rice she had ordered only 15 minutes before, she glanced over at her friend. It was the quietest and the most focused she had ever seen her be, and though Cat screamed impromptu and wasn't as perky as she was when she was around the others, the only thing that was piercing the silence was the soft strokes of the pencil – and Jade couldn't help but wonder if this girl was actually being serious.
"Almost done?" She asked impatiently, pondering how such a small thing could take so long as she glared up at the white ceiling; the only thing that wasn't pink or multiple colors in this God forsaken room she'd grown to loath.
"Yup!" Cat chirped, and she could hear the smile in the girl's voice as she sat cross legged on the carpeted floor.
With a dramatic groan Jade rolled herself over and onto her stomach, turning her face sideways into the fluffy and colorful pillow so she was facing the bedside table. The drawer was cracked open just slightly but it was enough for her to see a small white package she knew too well to be cigarettes. Her father was a daily smoker regardless of his position in Law Enforcement, and there were boxes identical to that one practically littering her house. And so in mere curiosity, she tugged the drawer open and snatched them up, throwing her legs over the side of the comforter.
"Cat, why do you have these?" She asked attentively, eyes narrowing at the other girl as she looked over.
"They're Mouse's, he asked me to hide them for him since mom and Brian always search his room for drugs." She said a little bit too quickly, brown eyes wide.
"So they're not yours." She deadpanned skeptically. "Right?"
"Of course not, silly! Why would you think that?" Cat giggled with a shake of her head, putting the pencil upon the desk and glancing over with a gentle smile. She didn't give Jade any more time to question her, and instead began to speak – she assumed, only to change the topic. "Your drawings done, want to see it?" She asked excitedly.
"Yeah" She muttered, dropping the cigarettes back into their formal place reluctantly before turning her gaze back to Cat. She was holding up a white piece of printer paper, and directly in the middle was the drawing she had been slightly anticipating since the two had made the deal. Her jaw dropped and her lips parted as she took in the star her best friend had drawn; it was, without a doubt, the perfect image of what she had imagined it to be. "How…When did you learn to draw like Michelangelo 'Rina?" She teased with a light snort and chuckle.
"Hidden talent I guess!" Cat's smile could have shown all 32 pearly whites it was so large, it was almost Cheshire. "Why'd you want a tattoo of a star anyway?"
Jade allowed herself to smile genuinely, something she only did when she was around either her or Beck, and reached over to grab the piece of paper. "Because. It's what I'm going to be."
"So this transceiver thing, it could get us out of here?" Jade asked, breaking the sudden silence with her sharp and annoyed tone and glancing over at her boyfriend impatiently.
"Possibly. That is, if we even have a signal" He answered her with a shrug, shoving his hands into his pockets.
"Might as well relax then!" Said Trina with a laugh as she threw off her clothes and revealed nothing but the most hideous bathing suit Jade has ever seen. She ran off into the ocean's salty water without another word, splashing around and calling the others, specifically Robbie – for whatever reason - and Cat (whom she probably thought was childlike enough) to join her, truly believing that rescue was already on its way here to save them.
"Well shouldn't we go ask the pilot then? For this…transmitten thing." Vega asked with a furrowed brow, causing Jade to automatically roll her eyes.
All seven of them looked over their shoulders, ignoring Trina's yells of fake enthusiasm, to glance at the cockpit that had snapped from the plane's body itself mid-fall. Like the plane had been, it was wedged between the sand – the only opening it seemed to have been so small it looked as if only a midget was able to get inside of it. If that was the case, there was no way that they were getting in, and there was no way that the pilot was getting out. That was of course, unless one of them were small enough to get inside.
Suddenly, as if five people were thinking the same thing that Jade was, six eyes simultaneously locked onto Cat, who was nursing her head wound with Brent's sweatshirt. She was staring at the piece of the plane with wide eyes, oblivious to those staring at her until Jade had the guts to clear her throat to catch her attention.
"You could probably fit under there, Cat." Robbie said for her, pushing his broken glasses up the bridge of his narrow nose.
"What's that supposed to mean!" She asked sounding scandalized as she turned toward him with wide eyes and a horrified expression etched across her pretty features. Jade rolled her eyes, her arm cradling her left as her shoulder was still throbbing painfully.
"He means you're puny enough to squeeze under there. You're what, ninety pounds or less and 5 foot nothing?" She retorted with a snort, intently staring at her best friend through piercing gray eyes.
"But, I don't know what this thing is or what it looks like or…" Cat began to ramble, her voice trembling as she shook her head, clearly nervous and under pressure.
"Just ask the pilot, Cat." Beck said, putting a comforting hand on the small girls shoulder. If it had been another girl Jade would have snapped at both him and whoever it was, but she knew for certain that there was no competition between Cat and herself like there was with Vega, and therefore she hadn't said a word.
"Someone could help her and the rest of us could start setting up camp or something, using those trees" Andre suggested lightly as he pointed to the forest. "I have a feeling rescue won't be coming tonight."
"I'll help her." Both she and Vega said at the same exact time. She snapped her gaze at the stick thin girl across from her, a deadly glare making way upon her face that made her automatically take a step back and cringe. Jade smirked at the dominance she had over this girl – she made it far too easy. Everyone one besides Miss. Perfect, apparently, were well aware of how possessive she was over Cat and their friendship; it was just a smidgen less than what she had over Beck, and she was going to make that shown whether she liked it or not.
"Great, come on Dre, Rob, Tori and Brent" Beck said, pointing his head toward the forest. "We can use branches to make small huts, and things from the plane." While the other three headed off to forest line, lightly kicking up sand, Beck remained behind for a second. He gave her a corny kiss on the cheek and slapped her on the ass before heading after them.
Cat giggled.
With a roll of her eyes she nodded her head in the direction of the cockpit and at once the two began to walk toward it, having to pick their feet up a bit more due to the collecting and hot sand that made their sandal's sink into the ground. She rolled her aching shoulder as she walked, her eyes glued upon the smoking chunk of metal not far ahead. "Maybe if we push some of the sand back you'll be able to get in there better." Jade murmured as the two girls came to a halt beside the piece of the plane, unable to see anything inside or for that matter, hear anything. She knelt down and attempted to peer within it, but the moment her shoulder came in contact with the ground she sat back up, gritting her teeth at the sharp pain.
"Kk" Cat whispered with a gulp, and when Jade looked over she was instantly met with the terrified expression of her companion, who began to shovel at the sand with her bare palms.
"There's really nothing to worry about, all you're doing is getting the pilot to give you the transmitter and then you're coming back, okay?" She said through gritted teeth, her voice firm as she tossed a bit of sand to the side. The gap was widening to the point at which she thought was quite enough. "Alright, you should go in now."
Cat gave her a look and hesitated before lowered herself onto her back and stuck her arms through the gap, tugging herself in headfirst for whatever reason Jade wasn't aware off. She was able to wiggle her way in without a problem, and as soon as everything but her calves and feet were in there was a soft clunk coming from the inside, and a muffled "Owwie"
"We don't need you hitting yourself in the head more, Cat" She grunted loudly so she could hear, because whilst her friend squirmed into the cockpit she herself was watching as the group of five worked together by building their camp. They were using branches and leaves from the pine trees and scraps of heavy metal to hold things together. Beck and Andre were doing heavy work by hauling a log close to one of the three huts already built and near the body of the plane. She didn't know what they had in mind with the third hut, but in such little time they managed to get quite a lot of things done.
She couldn't help but laugh when Vega tripped over a branch and fell face first into the sand; it was just too funny she couldn't resist.
And then Cat screamed a blood curling scream.
Jade must have jumped a mile in the air the moment it had happened, and she snapped her gaze away from a flailing Vega to the cockpit that rested beside her. The rest of the group immediately dropped what they were doing (even Trina stopped splashing herself in the ocean) and ran over, but she paid them no attention. "Cat? Cat, what is it?" She shouted, banging her good fist upon the metal body.
"The-the p-pilot!" Was her stuttering response and by the tone of voice she had used one would automatically suspect she had suffered or witnessed a traumatizing experience, and Jade did not consider that a good thing.
"What about the pilot?" Brent asked as he arrived over, panting just as heavily as the other four flanking him.
"He's, he's d-dead! Please get me out of here! Someone else do this!" Cat screamed in response, only to be followed by a weird noise made within her throat and a bit of rustling. Jade sank down upon her calves, absolutely winded.
"You're shitting me…" She muttered to herself, running her hand over her face and tangling her fingers within her locks of wavy brown hair in disbelief.
"Okay, Cat listen to me. Just get the transceiver, it should look like a complicated phone. The sooner you get it, the sooner you get out of there." Beck reasoned, kneeling down beside Jade to attempt to peek through the gap Cat had just entered. "Don't look at him, just grab the transceiver and come back."
"I-I think I see it." She called back, her voice thick with tears; which was really no surprise. No one responded, instead waited anxiously as the rustling continued from within the cockpit. Jade imagined she could handle this type of situation much better than anyone around her, being as death hadn't really bothered her – she had seen that flight attendant get sucked into the engine after all, hadn't see? It wasn't a trauma to her as it might have been to others, and she was beginning to wish she had originally been the one to go inside instead. She'd get the job done quicker than one could blink an eye.
Suddenly, an odd looking black device was chucked none too gently from the gap, sliding within the sand and landing at Andre's feet. Cat scrambled from the hole next, squirming and wiggling faster than she had when she entered the cockpit, and when she had fully gotten out she stood straight away. And what was the first thing Jade noticed? The shaking girl's shirt, neck and arms were covered in crimson blood, in which could be none others than the pilots. Cat leaned back into the body of the cockpit, holding a hand above her heart and trembling head to toe.
"Oh my God." Vega muttered, falling back into Andre's side as he, Brent and Beck examined the transmitter. Jade said nothing, nor did Robbie, but made a grab for her best friends hand anyway, in which she had gratefully latched onto.
The transceiver made, as the boys surrounded it and turned and pressed buttons, an annoyingly loud static noise as if one was watching a dysfunctional television. Beck toyed with the antenna, moving it from place to place and holding it high above his head as an attempt to get a signal. "It's not working, there's probably no signal from here in miles." He muttered, dropping his arms to his sides and releasing a breath.
"Just great, so now we're stuck here and THEY DON'T EVEN KNOW WE CRASHED!" Jade shouted as she stood, making Vega and Cat wince. But she didn't care about that.
They were stranded on a fucking island. Could life get any worse than that?
So, there you have it, chapter two! (: Hoped you guys liked this one and I hope I captured the characters well. I'm still working on that, but I think I've got it down for now. Anyhow, I'll be updating the next chapter sometime today (it's almost finished), because I started working on it as early as I possibly could since I'm starting the first day of junior year tomorrow – Tuesday. Woohoo…But I have half days all week, so I'll probably have another two chapters in by the weekend. That is if I'm not doing something else.
The more reviews I get, the quicker the update! So, you know what to do! (: