The crash left me disoriented. It felt like my whole body was tingling, spinning, and throbbing. My head felt as if it was going to burst any second. I inhaled the smell of sea water and tried to focus my vision. It was blurry and darting all over. It seemed too quiet. Then, I realized I just wasn't hearing it. Looking around I could see people were running, flailing their arms, toppling each other to reach the door. Suddenly a wet, hot trickle slid down my forehead.
I swipe at the trickle and brought my hand up to see. Warm, sticky blood coated my fingers. Then, like someone flipped a switch, all the sound came back at once. It was so loud, the screaming and wailing. That's when I noticed the water steadily rising in front of my seat. I quickly reached for my seat belt and pushed on the clip. It wouldn't budge as I pulled. I glanced back at the water just as the plane slid. It jerked me forward and slammed be back against my seat.
I wrestled with the belt and I could feel water soaking into my shoes. Finally, I was able to unclasp the belt and stand. I was half way up the aisle when I realized I'd left my bag. I hurried back as I felt another slide. The overhead storage opened and I was able to get my duffel out quickly. I moved to hurry back up the aisle in the crowd, when another slide—harder than before—occurred. I fell and dropped my bag. A few people ran past me, and I noticed one of them took my bag with them. "Hey! That's my bag!" I said.
I moved to stand, but was met with incredible pain in my right leg. "AH!" I fell back down and turned. My knee was exposed, raw and bloody looking. My ankle didn't look too good either. I was just more than half way to the door, so I started crawling, using the seats. It was obvious the people flooding out were more concerned with themselves. They pushed and shoved each other, trying to get out first.
The plane was taking a nose dive into the ocean. It was all I could do not to panic. Just then, I heard a voice saying, "There's still people inside! Let's get them out." I glanced up just as a guy that looked not much older than me slid down the aisle, holding onto the seats. "Need some help?" he asked, as he reached for me.
"Yes," I said, grabbing his hand. He helped me up to my feet and we started moving for the exit. "Can you swim?" he asked.
"What?" I asked.
"Can you swim?" he repeated.
"Um, yeah, usually," I answer. We reach the door, and sure enough, the plane is far in the water. We're going to have to swim. "Everything's gonna be fine, okay? Can you trust me?" he asked. An odd creaking sound came from the plane. I nodded vigorously. "Yes, I trust you," I said, my voice shaking a bit. The adrenaline was making it hard to speak clearly, but I did my best. I guessed he heard me, because he nodded. Then, suddenly I was shoved from behind and sent down the yellow slide that was now half under water.
I vaguely heard myself shriek before sliding quickly into the dark water. I used mostly my arms to try and swim back up above the water, but the pain in my leg was debilitated. I would open my eyes but the salt water wouldn't feel too good. Suddenly I felt strong arms around my middle and a tugging, pulling me upward. Then my head broke the surface and I sucked in a breath. I coughed out some salt water and turned. The same guy from inside the plane was holding me above water.
"Thank you," I said. The water was extremely cold, and my teeth were almost chattering because of it. "Let's get you to shore," he nodded. He helped me get to where I could stand, and then I walked/limped the rest of the way onto the beach. It was dark, but I could see there were a lot of survivors. When the water was too shallow to carry me, the guy that rescued me put my arm around his shoulders to help me limp along. "What's your name?" he asked, raising his voice to hear over the ocean.
"Maddie," I said.
"I'm Casey," he said, as our feet hit the dry half of the sand. Suddenly we stopped and he turned to me. "You're bleeding," he said, staring at my forehead. My hand instantly went to the wound on my forehead. Yet again it was wet and warm. "I think I hit my head on the seat in front of me," I said, looking at the red on my fingers.
"Looks like there's a triage set up over there," he said, gesturing to the left with his free arm. I nodded and we started heading over there. In fact there was a triage set up for the injured, to put everyone in minor to serious injury categories. When we got there, a woman directed Casey to sit me on a blue blanket that was laid down on the sand. A second after sitting, another woman came over with a small first aid bag. "Hey there. Oh, that gash on your forehead there looks bad," she said, kneeling to my right.
Casey hung around to my left, standing. The woman examined the gash and then unzipped her bag. "I always come prepared on vacations. Thankfully none of this got wet," the woman commented, digging in the bag. "My name is Cecile. Don't worry, I'm trained in first aid. What's your name sweetie?"
"Maddie," I said. She dabbed up the blood with a piece of cloth, then splayed a small bandage over it. Next she examined my knee and ankle. "Well, your ankle's just bruised. Your knee will need a wrap, though," she said, as she worked. She wrapped up my knee and helped me stand on it. It was only then I noticed Casey was gone.
I could hardly sleep. I had dozed off for maybe an hour the whole night. In the morning, I woke to find a crowd massing not far from the tree line. The people were all gathered around someone. I knew because I could hear him bellowing all the way from where I was. I pulled myself up to stand and meandered over there to the crowd. I slid past a few people and they let me through so I could see.
It was a tall, buff looking black man that had at least a foot on everyone. "...If we stay here, we're likely to starve to death before we're rescued," he said. "But if we go inland, we'll find civilization and get help faster." The crowd murmured, some people applauded in agreeance. And then, like a ball of roaring thunder, a woman with black hair came charging in through the crowd. "Move it people. Come on, move." She elbowed into the crowd and walked up to the black man. "Who are you?" she asked.
"Darius," he said.
"And what exactly do you think you'll find out there in the jungle, Darius? Candy Land? The Temple of Doom? Disney World?" she questioned.
"If we go inland, we'll find civilization," he repeated his speech, daring her to challenge his way of thinking.
"And who gets to make that call, huh? You?" she said. "Who are you to make that decision? There are eighty-eight people here. We can't all pack up and move into the jungle." Darius crossed his arms over his chest. "And you think you get to decide, little girl?" he asked. She scoffed. "Okay, big guy. You call me little girl again, and you're gonna wish you'd died in that plane crash, got it?" she asked. When he didn't respond quickly, she repeated, "Got it?" She took his sigh as a yes and continued. "The people should get to decide," she turned to the crowd. "If you stay here, you'll be spotted if a helicopter or plane comes looking for the crash. If you go inland, there's no promise you'll find civilization."
"My guess," she said, turning back to Darius. "Is that you'll find trees."
"Fine, show of hands. All for leaving into the jungle with me to find rescue?" A lot of the crowd held up their hands. "Come with me then. We leave as soon as we're packed." Darius shoved his way out of the crowd and everyone split. A few people stayed back. The girl turned to those of us that stayed. "If we're staying here on the beach, then we'll need to journey inland a bit to look for food," she said.
"We can send a small group in," a man next to the girl said. I only just noticed him, he came up so quickly. The girl nodded in agreeance. "Who's going? And how many go in?" I asked. The girl looked at me oddly, as if she'd just noticed me. "We can't bring everyone, I mean, someone has to stay here and flag down a rescue plane."
"If there is one." I nearly jumped at the sudden voice beside me. Casey and two other younger looking guys stood to my left. I wrapped my arms around my middle as a breeze blew through. It was still pretty early in the morning, at it wasn't exactly a desert. "We left Jurassic World. They'll come looking for us," one of the guys, a brunet one, said. The other one, a blonde, sighed in disagreeance. "We'll send three people," the girl said. Then she eyed me. "Can you walk?"
"Yeah, for the most part," I replied.
"If she's going, I'm going," Casey said. The guy next to the outspoken girl turned around to the mass of people farther down the beach. He started walking in that direction. "Hey, anybody know anything about plants?" he called. Someone met him half way, a short Asian-looking man who looked to be in his thirties. They talked for a second, using theatrical hand gestures.
Then the Asian man pointed down the beach and another man—this one American, tall and brunette, maybe thirty—walked over to the man that was beside the outspoken girl. Then they started talking, and they began walking back toward our group. "Who is that?" I asked, leaning toward Casey.
"His name's Ben something. I think he's military," he said.
"No, I mean the brunette one," I clarified.
"I don't know who he is," Casey shrugged. Ben and this new guy made it back to our group. Ben put a hand on the guy's shoulder. "He's coming with you," Ben said. "This is Eric."
"I'll get people started on water," the girl said, before turning and heading down the beach. The other two guys left with her as well. "Make sure you don't get so far in that you can't get back before nightfall," Ben instructed. "Find what you can, and get back in one piece. Okay?"
"Got it, boss," Casey said. Ben gave Casey a pack, then nodded and hurried down the beach. "So...we just go, then?" I asked.
"I guess," Eric said. Casey started toward the tree line and Eric followed. I looked down the beach a second before following behind the boys. We got a little ways in before any talking ensued. And it was mainly just discussing what types of food might grow in the tropics. It was obvious that we were still close to Costa Rica. But how close was uncertain. "What are your names?" Eric asked, while Casey chopped down some fauna a little ways ahead.
"I'm Maddie Grady," I said. "And that's Casey."
"Nice to meet you, Maddie," he said, with a polite smile. "So, why were you at the park?" We continued moving as we talked. The jungle was kind of thick, but we all stuck to a small path-like opening. "Well, I went with my Journalism class—I'm in college—and I visited my uncle while I was there. He works as like a weird sort of dinosaur trainer," I said.
"Your uncle trains dinosaurs?" Casey asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Velociraptors," I nodded. "I know how it sounds."
"It sounds crazy. Velociraptors can't be trained, they're not dogs," Eric said.
"That's what I said. But, hey, everyone has their stupid ideas," I said.
"Whoa, hold up. I got fruit," Casey said. He was far to the right of the path, looking up at a tree. "What fruit?" I asked, moving over to him. Eric came over behind me, and he squinted at the fruit. "Star Fruit," he said. "Not uncommon in a Costa Rica tropical environment." We spent the next few hours trying to get the Star Fruit off the tree. We filled the pack Casey brought, and then moved on to look for other sources of food. The jungle was extremely humid. I took off my jacket and tied the arms around my waist.
We walked for a long while. No one saw anything that would be edible. Casey, who was leading the group, held up a hand for us to stop moving. Eric and I quickly froze. "What is it?" Eric asked. Casey made a shushing sound, looking through a patch of tall fauna. I carefully stepped past Eric and moved beside Casey. "What is it?" I whispered. He pointed through the foliage and held it out of the way. I gasped. One-by-one, a trail a knee high Triceratopses trotted past us.
"What do you think they are?" Casey asked. "They can't all be young."
"I have no idea," I said, breathless. The little dinosaurs had no idea we were standing there. They were so small, yet they looked like full grown adults. "We should be getting back," Casey said. "The others will want to know that we're sharing the island." I nodded and we started heading back to the beach.