AN: Here's chapter three (finally). I don't know when chapter four will be ready, so it may be awhile before I update again. Once again reviews are always welcome, and thank you to those of you who did review!Chapter 3
"Jaden" I heard a familiar female voice say. "Jaden, wake up."
I slowly opened my eyes to the same darkness I had found myself in last time I had seen her. "What's going on?" I asked still dazed from the hit to my head.
"Your journey has begun. Good luck to you, Jaden." She said and disappeared.
As I began to truly wake up I found myself lying on the ground in immense pain. The pain was expected after falling out of the sky. What wasn't expected was finding myself separated from the plane.
"Please tell me I did not fall out of a crashing plane." I muttered to myself as I tried to move ever so slightly to see if anything was broken. As far as I could tell nothing felt out of order, just really sore. I could feel several scratches on my arms and face, but other than that I felt fine.
I tried to sit up, which hurt more than I thought it would, and tried to see where I was. Thick, lush forest surrounded me as far as the eye could see. I had never seen most of these plants before in my life. The sounds of birds, flying insects and other animals made it feel more like a jungle than the woods I was familiar with back in Alaska. The only thing I didn't see was the plane or Dan.
"Dan" I thought aloud and began to look around franticly for my lost friend. Above the trees a faint trail of smoke could be seen leading to spot not too far away from where I was. "Hang on Dan" I said and forced myself to get up and look for him. My body screamed in pain at the effort, but I pushed past it. I had to reach Dan and make sure he had survived. Losing Jesse, Pennington and all my other friends was hard enough to deal with. I couldn't bear the thought of losing another friend.
As I came upon the plane the first thing I noticed was that half of it was missing; the tail was nowhere to be seen. "Dan?" I called. "Are you here?" I stood in silence, anxiously waiting for an answer.
"Kid? Is that you?" he answered weakly after several seconds. I let out the breath I hadn't realized I was holding and rushed over to the cockpit to rescue him.
"I'm here. Are you alright?" I asked trying to find a safe way in. Dan's door had been crushed in and the hole in the back was out of the question with sharp pieces of metal pointing in every direction waiting to catch on to something.
"I'm stuck." Was all he said. That didn't really answer my question, but it was good enough for now. I ran to the other side of the plane to find where once had been the passenger side door was now a gaping hole; the door had been ripped off its hinges. I also noticed other marks on the plane that looked like something had scratched at it-something with very large claws. I didn't even want to think about how that had happened and crawled into the passenger seat to see how very stuck he was.
Thankfully he wasn't crushed inside. His seatbelt had simply been jammed during the crash. This made me wonder all the more how I had ended up outside the plane. I pushed that thought to the back of my mind for a later time and focused on trying to get him out. "Do you have a belt cutter?"
"Try checking one of the overheads. It should still be in there, hopefully." He said pointing to the overhead compartments. The one closest to me was already opened with all of its contents spilled on the floor or else where around the island. I didn't see a belt cutter among the few tools there and moved to the next one.
After giving it a few tugs it came open and spilled out several tools, one of them being the belt cutter I was looking for. I grabbed it and reached over to Dan's seatbelt, slicing it with ease. He pushed away the remnants of the belt and began to pull himself out of his seat. I moved out of the way and helped him crawl out of my side of the plane.
As soon as he was free I helped him to the nearest tree and gently lowered him to the ground. "Are you okay?" I questioned again hoping he would actually answer this time.
"I think so. I made it out without breaking anything, so I guess that's a good thing." He said relaxing against the tree's broad trunk. "How did you get out?"
"I'm not sure. All I know is that I woke up back there." I said pointing back into the woods from where I had come.
"Are you trying to tell me you fell out of the plane? You're lucky to be alive!" Dan exclaimed rubbing his obviously sore neck and joints.
"We're both lucky, and it's not like I was trying to. It looks like something attacked the plane." I said motioning towards the large scratches in the plane. He looked over and nodded in agreement.
"You're right. No storm causes damage like that, but I've never heard of any animal that could do that either." He concluded. I tried to reason with myself that the plane had hit something that had torn the tail off and that was what had caused the incisions, but there was something about them that refused to let me believe that. They were too uniform to have been caused by rocks.
"Do you have any idea where we are?" I asked trying to think of something else at the moment.
"I don't know. I've never heard of any place like this near the states. This place reminds me of a rainforest." He observed.
"My thoughts exactly, but it's like you said. I've never heard of any place like this on the coast. None near where we were supposed to be anyway. This is all too weird." I said glancing around the clearing for any potentially dangerous animals that might have come to investigate.
"This may sound like an absurd question, but what happened to your shirt?" he asked when I had my back to him. I turned my head and looked at it as best I could and noticed several large rips in it. I didn't have any scratches on my back or any other injury to accompany them which did seem quite strange. It was almost as if something had tried grabbing me and failed.
"I hadn't even noticed that before." I mused. Dan didn't seem convinced, but that didn't matter right now. We had to find some way off this island. I may have had nothing to go back to, but he had a family that would be worried sick about him.
"I'm gonna take a look around and see what I can find. There might be someone here with a radio or phone that we could use." I suggested.
"You don't have a clue what's in there. For all you know there could be some vicious predators out there waiting for a meal like you to come along." He said trying to talk me out of it.
"Dan, I lived out in the middle of nowhere, and bears and moose were constant visitors that I had to deal with. Survival classes were a requirement for us in school. I know how to take care of myself." I tried convincing him. I could tell this wouldn't be easy to get him to let me go. He seemed to wrestle with the thought for awhile before making a decision.
"Be back in no more than an hour. I shouldn't even let you go that long by yourself, but you'll probably have an easier time getting around in there than me." He conceded, grimacing in pain as he attempted to shift around.
"Don't worry Dan. I'll be back before you know it." I reassured him and walked off in no particular direction. The hike wasn't all that bad to be honest. I was expecting it to be much more strenuous, but for the most part it was flat with only light amounts of brush obstructing my way. That was a big difference from what I was used to. Anytime I went through the woods back home I always had to be wary of Devil's Club, a plant with large pentagon shaped leaves that were completely covered in thorns, which always threatened to stab me.
The thought of home brought up old memories of hiking in the woods with Jesse. That was how we had met. We were in the same outdoor class and on the first day he had to come save me from a huge patch of Devil's Club I had been idiotic enough to attempt to go through while wearing clothing not nearly thick enough for that kind of brush. He was my knight in shining armor that day and for several years to come.
Pushing this thought aside before I began to tear up I thought about what Dan had said. He was right about one thing. There were probably worse things here than bears and moose. Then again, he was never nearly trampled by an angry mother moose when his dogs were barking at her and her baby. That was something I had no desire to ever relive. Either way, I had to see if there was anyone here that could help us. All of this made me feel like a modern day Gilligan's Island only without the Gilligan to mess up everything.
After about half an hour or so of walking I could hear the sound of a river nearby. This reminded me that I hadn't had any water in very long time. I quickened my pace and came up to the river. It was about twelve feet wide and stretched several miles in both directions. Farther down the way I could see the water become rougher turning into dangerous rapids that if anyone were to fall into, they would quickly get sucked in. Making a mental note to avoid this, I got down on one knee and carefully bent over to take a drink. After sating my thirst I decided to head back. Dan was probably just as thirsty as I was.
"It's about time. Did you find anyone?" he asked hopeful.
"There's no sign of anyone, but I did find a river about three quarters of a mile that way if you think you can make it." I reported.
"I think so." He said and attempted to stand, even as he winced all the while. With a little help from me he was on his feet and walking slowly behind me. After carefully retracing my steps back to the river we arrived. As Dan drank I surveyed the length river to see if there was any safe place to cross. There was a trail of rocks not far from where I was that came up high enough out of the water to provide a safe enough way across.
"I'm gonna cross the river and explore some more. I'll be back in awhile." I told Dan.
"No, you're not. It's too dangerous. If you fall in what do you think will happen? I might not be able to get you out." He protested.
"Dan, I've done this before with more difficult paths than that. I'll be fine. You worry too much." I reassured him and walked towards the rocks.
"You know, I'm starting to think you Alaskans are insane. Has anyone ever told you that?" he called after me.
"Well, when you're trapped inside your house all winter long with just about nothing to do you get a lot of energy built up, so during the summer we release that energy. Trust me. I'm one of the sane ones. This is nothing compared to the things I've seen people do." I said as I got onto the first rock.
"What do you mean exactly?" Dan queried, looking not entirely sure he wanted to know the answer.
"I've seen people go out in shorts through three feet of snow when it's twenty degrees below or colder." I said jumping to the next rock. I didn't have to look at him to know that he had a shocked look on his face. I chuckled to myself at that thought and jumped to the next rock.
When I was about half way across I yelled back, "See, this is easy."
"Don't get so cocky." Dan yelled back.
"I'm not." I yelled over my shoulder. I turned back to make my next jump and that was when everything went from purely okay to one of those oopsy movements that will forever stand out to me. The rock I tried jumping to was slicker than I had anticipated which caused me to loose my footing and fall, tumbling through the air in unanticipated free fall and crashing into the wild river below. I screamed as the cold water encased me, dragging me down stream towards the rapids that I knew would be there. Every so often I would manage to surface to see Dan trying to reach me, but then the current would drag me back under.
I felt the pull of the river grow stronger as I went through what I knew were the rapids. Somehow I managed to get a hold of one of the protruding rocks and pull my head out of the water.
"Hold on!" I heard Dan yelling to me. That was easy for him to say. Now I knew how every damsel in distress felt whenever they were told to 'hold on'. It royally sucked. Even so, I hung on for dear life trying to keep my head out of the freezing current. I had survived this adventure so far, and I was not ready to die here.
My arms began to tire quickly making the strength of the current seem that much stronger. "Just hold on. I'll be right back." He called to me, disappearing out of view. It surprised me just how irritating it was to hear that a second time. If he said it one more time I was going to defy every law of nature and physics to jump from the river and strangle him.
I looked up trying to see where he had gone and found him running back with what looked like a vine. It was better than nothing I supposed, my mind drifting down more morbidly inclined possibilities.
"Grab on!" he urged as he tossed one end of it towards me. It floated down to me, and I lunged out with one hand. I managed to grab it on the first try and hung on with both hands as Dan began to pull on the vine, grunting all the way.
I was a little over a yard away from the river bank when all of a sudden the vine snapped. With nothing else to grab on to and Dan too far away to grab me I was swept up again by the rapids. I vaguely heard the cries Dan shouted as the water pulled me down.
I surfaced again to see the land and water cut off. That only meant one terrifying thing: a waterfall. I didn't want to give up now, but I didn't have much choice at this point. There was no way Dan would ever get to me in time and there was nothing else for me to grab onto. Black began to invade the edges of my vision from lack of oxygen. I could see the edge and waited for my eminent demise to come when something unexpected happened.
I felt something grab me around the waist and pull me away from the waterfall to the other side of the river. I was pulled up on the welcome, solid ground where I proceeded to cough up all the water I had unintentionally swallowed or inhaled.
"Are you alright?" I heard a distinctly female voice murmur as I finally regained my ability to breathe again. I turned ready to face the questioner when I froze. Staring down at me with a more than slightly concerned look gracing her face, I saw something that I never thought could have existed: a living robot. Before I knew what I was doing I began to run away in fear of this new discovery.