Charactors
Lise
She put herself in charge at the beginning. She is very smart, and thinks all the time. She likes silence usually and likes adventure. She secretly crushes on Tiro, but acts shy around him because he is equally shy.
Leader
Namoi
She is very outgoing and Lise’s best friend. She likes housework and doesn’t like being outdoors. She completely flirts with Taaki.
Gathering
Tiro
He is very quiet and loves reading. He secretly crushes on Lise. He feels comfort around Taaki. He loves the color blue and dresses only in blue.
Leader
Taaki
He likes being in the spotlight, and feels like Tiro holds him back. He loves the color red, and crushes on Namoi. He would ask her out but he thinks she’ll get mad.
Building (so he can show his muscles)
Razz
He is good with the ladies, and does anything to put on a tough act, but he is secretly very smart. He is dating rose. He likes jokes and hard work, and was only scared for a second when the plane crashed. If Lise didn’t take over, he would have.
Building
Rose
She likes the outdoors, and playing. She lives free and doesn’t like seeing people sad. She is dating Razz, because she feels like she can break his shell.
Gathering
Lennie
She holds herself high but is quiet. She likes showing off her body to attract attention because she wants it but doesn’t know how to get it.
Gathering
Jake
Jake is good with the ladies, because he plays hard to get, he has shell that is hard to get through, and he doesn’t yet feel like he has a point in life.
Building
Sam
Sam is the school goth girl. She is really weird, and communicates with the dead. She tells everyone that she knew they would be stranded, and everyone doesn’t believe her. She doesn’t like any of the guys, and puts up a tough girl act.
Hunting
Mimi
Mimi is really quiet, and very smart. She likes school, and adults, and doesn’t know how to act around people her age.
Cooking
Xenny
Xenny is really pretty and rich. She is a very good people person, and is both popular and nice. She has been trying to break through to Jake.
Gathering
Sara
Sara is a very frail and delicate thing. She falls ill easily and is very clumsy. She is used to being treated like a princess, and only wishes that she could be a regular person, but even if her parents allowed it, she just couldn’t do it.
Cooking
Ally
Ally loves animals, and nature, because she is so shy. She thinks that people judge her, so she stays in the shadows. She is really pretty, and if she could just get the courage to say hi, she would be the most popular girl, because of her little girl cuteness.
Gathering
Maxwell
Maxwell isn’t strong, hes flexible. He likes sword fighting and swimming. He likes Xenny but was dating one of the girls who left. Guess they’re over. He’s the most popular guy at school.
Hunting
Ike
Ike hangs around the guys but doesn’t intrude enough to be treated like an equal. He idols Maxwell, because they are on the same samurai and swimming teams and he is just as good, but doesn’t think anybody will ever love him. He fancies Sara.
Hunting
Kazi
Kazi puts out a dark aura, and is proud of it. Anyone who wants him will be fine with that. He spends a lot of time looking as creepy as possible, and many people avoid him.. Maybe underneath it all, he’s a good person????
Building
Shadow
Nobody knows his real name, Shadow very well could be it. He is young and cute but he is shy and quiet.
Building
Tyler
Tyler’s whole world is music and girls, but he is nice. Lise doesn’t think so because he is always listening to his MP3 and never hears her say hi. He has a thing for Lennie.
Building
Chapter 1
I was looking out of the classroom window to the dismal looking view. A slight fog was spread over the grass, and all of the color had been sucked from the clouds leaving a dismal gray. Nothing our teacher Mrs. Callatt, our Humanities teacher, said was very interesting, so I let my mind wander. I went to a private school, and got full tuition because I was above average intellect, so I was stuck with a bunch of rich idiots who thought that they could just buy everything. The bell rung and I threw my papers inside my text book and walked out the door, but not soon enough to hear Mrs. Callatt say…
“Don’t forget class that next week we are taking a vacation field trip to Jamaica”
I remembered very well that we had a vacation, it was exquisite, we would take a private plane all the way there and stay for a week in a 5 star hotel. I waited for my friends to leave the class room, the I caught up with them.
“Hey Tiro, Taaki, Namoi,” I said greeting them all by name. Tiro and Taaki were twins, twin boys, and Namoi was my best friend.
“Hey Lise, excited for the vacation?” Tiro said looking me in the eyes.
“Not really, but I guess it will be ok,” I replied.
I rode home with Namoi, and quickly went through the front door and down the halls to my room, so my mom wouldn’t try to talk to me. My room was small, about twice the size of a closet, and barely fit a dresser, a bedside table, and a bed. I sighed and laid down, dozing off, and for the most part, spent my entire weekend like that.
Monday morning I woke up in a panic, remembering that I had to pack my clothes for the trip, and franticly tried to gather my belongings. After I was relatively sure that I had all my stuff, my older brother Tom gave me a ride to the airport, where I met a few members from my class, the ones who didn’t feel the need to be fashionably late. Tiro and Taaki were there, dressed like eachother with polo shirts and cargo shorts, only opposite colors, Tiro in blue and Taaki in red. Namoi arrived shortly with about 5 suitcases, along with the rest of the class, before Mrs. Callatt rushed us through security, and baggage, and then onto the plane, where we all quickly found seats and then we took off. The rows had four to a seat, and the order went Taaki, Namoi, me, and Tiro, closest to the window. Ladies in vests wheeled carts around, selling sparkling cider and salads, and in my head I insulted rich people as Naomi quickly took advantage of the service.
A large TV was mounted in view of every row, and we watched Flicka as it grew dark outside. I yawned, and leaned my head back before falling asleep, and I didn’t even realize, my head rolled onto Tiro’s shoulder.
The plane ride got shaky, and I realized Tiro’s head was resting on mine. I quickly jumped up, startling him awake, and the bouncing of the plane awoke everyone else. I buckled my seat belt, reading up one harsh turbulence before the trip, and my other friends followed my example, as the plane quickly dropped down. My first thought was we were landing, but I looked out the window and saw nothing but ocean.
“Slam!” the plane hit the water so hard that it threw me backwards painfully into my seat. In instinct, I gripped Tiro’s arm tightly, and leaned forward. Water had begun to fill the floor, and about and inch had filled in only one minute. I jumped up and shouted over everyone’s worried voices.
“Everyone shut up! We crashed and if you don’t listen so help me I will make you pay with your own stupidity! Is anyone hurt?” I yelled. The whole plane grew silent.
I looked to the seat next to mine, and saw a girl named Sara thrown against the floor, I quickly went to her aid, and to my relief, she was breathing. A few seats behind her, a boy we called Shadow had his arm stuck in the seat, and was grunting and groaning with pain as he tried to free it. Tyler, who was next to him, helped as I made my way over there, and I knew when I saw his wrist, that it was sprained, and I was suddenly glad that my mother studied medicine. A few of us had bruised faces from being thrown into the seat in front of us.
“Sorry, but there’s nothing much we can do right now for anyone who is hurt. I-”
“Lise! Mrs. Callatt is dead!” Rose, one of the girls in my class yelled.
I turned to her and saw my teacher with a bruised face laying on the floor. She didn’t seem to be breathing, and I checked her neck to feel for a pulse, there was none.
“Alright! Mrs. Callatt is dead!” I yelled sounding insensitive. I could feel more water. “So I’m in charge and if anyone questions that they can fend for themselves!”
I was great at survival, I used to be a heavy camper, and watch survivor man and shows like that, so I didn’t figure it would be too hard. I knew five different ways to start a fire, three different ways to make a house, everything that was poisonous, how to catch food, and I had researched stories on people who survived for years out in the middle of nowhere. But I didn’t know much about being stranded in the middle of the ocean, and hoped there would be an island nearby.
“We don’t trust you with our lives, why should we?” the leader of a group of boys hollered.
“Because shes not an idiot like you!” it was Taaki who spoke.
“ Well we will be fine on our own.” They said and grabbed their carry ons before opening the emergency hatch at the top of the plane, 7 boys were gone in an instance.
“We don’t trust you either!” About 11 girls spoke up, and grabbed their bags before disappearing as well.
I suddenly remembered the pilots and went to check on them, but it was as I suspected, they were dead. I covered their faces with their jackets, and Mrs. Callatts face with her sweater, before checking to see how many people were left. 18. 9 girls 9 boys, including me.
“Grab your bags and the life vests from under your seats and follow me.” I picked up Sara, who to my relief was really light, and asked a boy named Ike, who I knew fancied her, to carry her.
I looked at my friends, and they were following just like everyone else, but I didn’t feel bad because it felt like I was doing the right thing. I hopped up through the emergency hatch, and helped others crawl onto the top of the plane. Shadow had a little bit of difficulty, but we were a team now, and helped him up. Ike had a little trouble too, carrying Sara, and had to get help from Maxwell to get her up. We slid down onto the wing and I looked around, an island was about half a mile away, and I could see the people who left swimming to shore, I hoped that the island would be populated and we would be back home soon.
After everyone was on the wing, I went back inside and then came out with the emergency boats, then passed them out to a few people, and we all pulled the lever that automatically made them fill up. In no time we were on the water floating to shore, with our bags, Mrs. Callatt’s, and a few emergency kits that we had swiped. It was about 6:30, I could tell by looking at the sun.
Meanwhile, the girls and boys who had left us, had swam to shore, and teamed up. Even though they were all wet, and tired, from the long swim, the boy who put himself in charge, Joseph, pushed, kicked, lifted, carried, and led everyone up the tall mountainous pass. Many people hiking had lost their shoes in the water, and were walking barefoot, which led to cuts and scrapes due to sharp rock and wearing of skin, and would later lead to infections. It took a long time, until they were halfway up the mountain, to realize that they had lost one of the girls who had left with them, Jasmine. A very pretty and athletic girl was nowhere to be seen.
“When was the last time anyone saw Jasmine?” Joseph almost yelled. Joseph was the quarterback on the football team, and was very loud, so his voice startled everyone who wasn’t paying attention. People looked around, just realizing for themselves, that the great softball and soccer player was nowhere in sight.
“Jazzy!” Her best friend Amariah yelled.
No answer
People began yelling for Jasmine, and heading back down the road they came for any sign of her. About half an hour later, they found a small white shoe, and asked Amariah to identify it as Jasmine’s. It was, but there was no way of telling which way she went, and whether or not they were the shoes she had been wearing, or shoes that someone had been carrying for her.
“Jasmine! Where are you?”
Silence, and a few chirps of birds filled the air
“Well, we can’t just stay here forever, we either need to split up, or just keep going and hope she’s not dead.
People stood reluctantly for a second, before following Joseph and a few other boys, who were already treading up the way they had come.
If they had looked into the bushes, they would have noticed that Jasmine, had tripped and lost one shoe in the bushes, set down her other shoe, and wandered in, only to slide down a small dirt hill and be knocked unconscious.
When we got to shore Sara had woken up, but was very weak, with a broken ankle and had to lay down, and using some cloth in one of the emergency kits, I wrapped Shadow’s wrist. I then made everyone sit in a circle, so I could explain what we were to do. Our checklist went like this,
“Lise, I cut my foot on something sharp,” Mimi said softly. I looked and saw she had no shoes, then I felt for what she had cut herself on. Quickly I stumbled upon a sharp, shiny, black rock, and I knew exactly that it was. It was flint, Indians used to use flint to make arrows and hatchets, and I could bet that so could we. The cut one her foot wasn’t very deep, so I took my bandana and wrapped it, then dug in my bag to find her a pair of shoes. I found a pair of converse that my brother had given me last year, and handed them to her.
People were talking quietly, with pale and stunned faces. They were all scared, in shock, and if it weren’t for me being in charge, I would be too. But I like adventure. And in some weird and maniac way, I always wanted something like this to happen.
“Don’t forget class that next week we are taking a vacation field trip to Jamaica”
I remembered very well that we had a vacation, it was exquisite, we would take a private plane all the way there and stay for a week in a 5 star hotel. I waited for my friends to leave the class room, the I caught up with them.
“Hey Tiro, Taaki, Namoi,” I said greeting them all by name. Tiro and Taaki were twins, twin boys, and Namoi was my best friend.
“Hey Lise, excited for the vacation?” Tiro said looking me in the eyes.
“Not really, but I guess it will be ok,” I replied.
I rode home with Namoi, and quickly went through the front door and down the halls to my room, so my mom wouldn’t try to talk to me. My room was small, about twice the size of a closet, and barely fit a dresser, a bedside table, and a bed. I sighed and laid down, dozing off, and for the most part, spent my entire weekend like that.
Monday morning I woke up in a panic, remembering that I had to pack my clothes for the trip, and franticly tried to gather my belongings. After I was relatively sure that I had all my stuff, my older brother Tom gave me a ride to the airport, where I met a few members from my class, the ones who didn’t feel the need to be fashionably late. Tiro and Taaki were there, dressed like eachother with polo shirts and cargo shorts, only opposite colors, Tiro in blue and Taaki in red. Namoi arrived shortly with about 5 suitcases, along with the rest of the class, before Mrs. Callatt rushed us through security, and baggage, and then onto the plane, where we all quickly found seats and then we took off. The rows had four to a seat, and the order went Taaki, Namoi, me, and Tiro, closest to the window. Ladies in vests wheeled carts around, selling sparkling cider and salads, and in my head I insulted rich people as Naomi quickly took advantage of the service.
A large TV was mounted in view of every row, and we watched Flicka as it grew dark outside. I yawned, and leaned my head back before falling asleep, and I didn’t even realize, my head rolled onto Tiro’s shoulder.
The plane ride got shaky, and I realized Tiro’s head was resting on mine. I quickly jumped up, startling him awake, and the bouncing of the plane awoke everyone else. I buckled my seat belt, reading up one harsh turbulence before the trip, and my other friends followed my example, as the plane quickly dropped down. My first thought was we were landing, but I looked out the window and saw nothing but ocean.
“Slam!” the plane hit the water so hard that it threw me backwards painfully into my seat. In instinct, I gripped Tiro’s arm tightly, and leaned forward. Water had begun to fill the floor, and about and inch had filled in only one minute. I jumped up and shouted over everyone’s worried voices.
“Everyone shut up! We crashed and if you don’t listen so help me I will make you pay with your own stupidity! Is anyone hurt?” I yelled. The whole plane grew silent.
I looked to the seat next to mine, and saw a girl named Sara thrown against the floor, I quickly went to her aid, and to my relief, she was breathing. A few seats behind her, a boy we called Shadow had his arm stuck in the seat, and was grunting and groaning with pain as he tried to free it. Tyler, who was next to him, helped as I made my way over there, and I knew when I saw his wrist, that it was sprained, and I was suddenly glad that my mother studied medicine. A few of us had bruised faces from being thrown into the seat in front of us.
“Sorry, but there’s nothing much we can do right now for anyone who is hurt. I-”
“Lise! Mrs. Callatt is dead!” Rose, one of the girls in my class yelled.
I turned to her and saw my teacher with a bruised face laying on the floor. She didn’t seem to be breathing, and I checked her neck to feel for a pulse, there was none.
“Alright! Mrs. Callatt is dead!” I yelled sounding insensitive. I could feel more water. “So I’m in charge and if anyone questions that they can fend for themselves!”
I was great at survival, I used to be a heavy camper, and watch survivor man and shows like that, so I didn’t figure it would be too hard. I knew five different ways to start a fire, three different ways to make a house, everything that was poisonous, how to catch food, and I had researched stories on people who survived for years out in the middle of nowhere. But I didn’t know much about being stranded in the middle of the ocean, and hoped there would be an island nearby.
“We don’t trust you with our lives, why should we?” the leader of a group of boys hollered.
“Because shes not an idiot like you!” it was Taaki who spoke.
“ Well we will be fine on our own.” They said and grabbed their carry ons before opening the emergency hatch at the top of the plane, 7 boys were gone in an instance.
“We don’t trust you either!” About 11 girls spoke up, and grabbed their bags before disappearing as well.
I suddenly remembered the pilots and went to check on them, but it was as I suspected, they were dead. I covered their faces with their jackets, and Mrs. Callatts face with her sweater, before checking to see how many people were left. 18. 9 girls 9 boys, including me.
“Grab your bags and the life vests from under your seats and follow me.” I picked up Sara, who to my relief was really light, and asked a boy named Ike, who I knew fancied her, to carry her.
I looked at my friends, and they were following just like everyone else, but I didn’t feel bad because it felt like I was doing the right thing. I hopped up through the emergency hatch, and helped others crawl onto the top of the plane. Shadow had a little bit of difficulty, but we were a team now, and helped him up. Ike had a little trouble too, carrying Sara, and had to get help from Maxwell to get her up. We slid down onto the wing and I looked around, an island was about half a mile away, and I could see the people who left swimming to shore, I hoped that the island would be populated and we would be back home soon.
After everyone was on the wing, I went back inside and then came out with the emergency boats, then passed them out to a few people, and we all pulled the lever that automatically made them fill up. In no time we were on the water floating to shore, with our bags, Mrs. Callatt’s, and a few emergency kits that we had swiped. It was about 6:30, I could tell by looking at the sun.
Meanwhile, the girls and boys who had left us, had swam to shore, and teamed up. Even though they were all wet, and tired, from the long swim, the boy who put himself in charge, Joseph, pushed, kicked, lifted, carried, and led everyone up the tall mountainous pass. Many people hiking had lost their shoes in the water, and were walking barefoot, which led to cuts and scrapes due to sharp rock and wearing of skin, and would later lead to infections. It took a long time, until they were halfway up the mountain, to realize that they had lost one of the girls who had left with them, Jasmine. A very pretty and athletic girl was nowhere to be seen.
“When was the last time anyone saw Jasmine?” Joseph almost yelled. Joseph was the quarterback on the football team, and was very loud, so his voice startled everyone who wasn’t paying attention. People looked around, just realizing for themselves, that the great softball and soccer player was nowhere in sight.
“Jazzy!” Her best friend Amariah yelled.
No answer
People began yelling for Jasmine, and heading back down the road they came for any sign of her. About half an hour later, they found a small white shoe, and asked Amariah to identify it as Jasmine’s. It was, but there was no way of telling which way she went, and whether or not they were the shoes she had been wearing, or shoes that someone had been carrying for her.
“Jasmine! Where are you?”
Silence, and a few chirps of birds filled the air
“Well, we can’t just stay here forever, we either need to split up, or just keep going and hope she’s not dead.
People stood reluctantly for a second, before following Joseph and a few other boys, who were already treading up the way they had come.
If they had looked into the bushes, they would have noticed that Jasmine, had tripped and lost one shoe in the bushes, set down her other shoe, and wandered in, only to slide down a small dirt hill and be knocked unconscious.
When we got to shore Sara had woken up, but was very weak, with a broken ankle and had to lay down, and using some cloth in one of the emergency kits, I wrapped Shadow’s wrist. I then made everyone sit in a circle, so I could explain what we were to do. Our checklist went like this,
- Check to see if the island is populated
- Assign jobs
- Lay out all belongings and see what we have
- Make a shelter
- Find fresh water
- Find food
- Explore the island
- Survive
“Lise, I cut my foot on something sharp,” Mimi said softly. I looked and saw she had no shoes, then I felt for what she had cut herself on. Quickly I stumbled upon a sharp, shiny, black rock, and I knew exactly that it was. It was flint, Indians used to use flint to make arrows and hatchets, and I could bet that so could we. The cut one her foot wasn’t very deep, so I took my bandana and wrapped it, then dug in my bag to find her a pair of shoes. I found a pair of converse that my brother had given me last year, and handed them to her.
People were talking quietly, with pale and stunned faces. They were all scared, in shock, and if it weren’t for me being in charge, I would be too. But I like adventure. And in some weird and maniac way, I always wanted something like this to happen.
Chapter 2
After using the rest of the time in the day to find population, we decided there was none. We walked around the island, and slightly ventured into the forest at the center, and found no sign of life, except a huge group of footprints that we knew belonged to the group of kids that had left. People grew more tense, and silent. I was the only one who spoke, and these annoying rich kids were too shocked to argue. It was getting dark, so we came back to where we were at first.
“Ok, what is everyone good at? Who is good at gathering and exploring?” About five kids raised their hands. “Who is good at building?” About 6 kids raised their hands. “Who is good at cooking?” Two girls raised their hands. “And who is good at hunting?” 3 kids raised their hands. The only one left was Tiro. “Ok Tire, you are with me, you will do everything. “Ok, Gathering group, go find wood and kindling, make one giant pile in the middle of this circle,” I drew a circle about 9 feet from where we were all sitting. “ Building group, go find big logs and make one big pile, and also vines,” I said, pointing to an overgrow of trees. “Cooking group, I want you to go through everyone’s bags and lay out everything, (Mainly because Sara was one of the cooks and it was something she could do laying down), and hunting kids, collect all the flint you can, and make a pile. Everyone must wear shoes, it’s mandatory!”
Everyone set out to do what I told them. A giant pile of wood and dry grass was soon generated and I used the flint and a shaving razor to start a small fire in the middle of our sitting circle.
I used a stick to draw our sitting circle, because I felt that it was really important to be social. We would meet here often, and discuss things. I realized that we wouldn’t have enough time to make shelter, so when it got dark, and people began getting tired I decided to find shelter. We had three rafts, of fairly good size, so I divided up 3 groups of six, and we crawled under the rafts bunched up together to sleep, but we were all warm and nothing disturbed us.
While we slept soundly and semi comfortably, the group of kids that had left was not. They had spent all day climbing up the mountain, until eventually reaching the top. A little ways down, there was a huge pile of rocks that had slid off the top and had rolled down, forming a small hole in the middle of the pile, like a cave.
“We will sleep here,” Joshua said.
“Why can’t we just sleep outside?” Matchel, a stupid kid in my class asked.
“Because we could get wet, and we’ll get cold and we don’t know if there’s animals on the island, but if you wanna die, be my guest.”
He looked at the sun that was setting in the west, and followed his peers into the cave, where people crawled tightly together in the small space and tried to sleep, unsuccessfully.
Then next day, Tuesday, I woke up feeling worse than I did going to bed. The sun was barely creeping over the horizon, and I could hear people talking inside their rafts, which meant I wasn’t the first person awake. I wondered if some people ever slept.
“Alright everyone up!” I yelled, pushing the rafts off people. They all looked like I felt, tired and restless. We would be better organized today.
“Building team, when you get enough logs, call me over.”
“Yep!” they hollered while putting on their shoes. They had holes in their socks already, and I decided to look at the supplies we had. A lot of clothes, some soap, cameras and ipods, which had managed to not get wet. Nothing really useful. We had been instructed to pack 10 pairs of socks, and I wasn’t yet sure how long we would be here. Everyone had their phones in their pockets, so they were water damaged, all of them. So far we still didn’t have any way back home. Then I looked at the supplies from the emergency kits, bandaids, disinfectant, some cases of freeze dried food, two pocket knifes, matches (which had unfortunately gotten wet), and something that cleaned the salt out of water.
“Hunting team, build traps and put them in places that we can’t get stuck in them. If you don’t know how to build one, call me over.”
“We do!” they hollered, and put on their shoes. Luckily our teacher made sure everyone was wearing tennis before we got on the plane. I thought about Mrs. Callatt, about how we would never see her again, and about how we left her body and the bodies of the crew on board. About how sad their families would be. I shook the memory from my head. It wasn’t the first time I had seen a dead body. Once when I was little I was walking home from school and saw a few cops surrounding something. So I pushed my way through and saw the bloody body of a man laying there on the ground. I gasped, then quickly ran home only to cry my eyes out for two days straight. I built a giant fort in my room out of crates, boxes, and furniture, and stayed in there shaking the image from my head. After that experience I was almost used to seeing dead bodies. But this time I couldn’t cry, I had to be a leader for all those who had never had an experience like this. I had to be tough, and smart.
“Cooking team!”
“The two girls quickly got up (somewhat) and raised each others hands, “Yes?”
“Go find clean water.”
“I already did,” Mimi said quietly
“Is it clean?”
“Um, maybe not clean, there was bugs flying in it, but fresh,”
“That will do, um… Take Razz with you and find something you can carry water in and haul some of it here,” we’ll see about boiling it,” I said worriedly
“Ok boss,” Mimi said saluting me.
“And gathering team, I want you to go and collect any modern day objects you can find, just, go explore,”
“Ok, do you need us to do anything else?” Xenny asked
“No, I think that is good.” I answered, smiled politely at me before gethering her friends for the walk.
The building team hiked slowly into the jungle part of the island, where the trees had branches. They finally found some trees with good, heavy, branches, but had no way to cut them down. Taaki climbed up on one branch, Jake followed his example. Kazi helped Shadow up, and then, the branch began to crack and snap, and break. They collected three branches this way, before Mimi came to them, with Razz’s hand in hers, and she was pulling him behind her.
“We need help.” She told them matter-of-factly.
“With what?” Jake asked in his semi angry voice, only because he always sounded like this.
“We need help carrying water back to camp from a spring I found.”
“Um…..fine. Ok, we’ll help” He said before following Mimi. The building team followed as well, and they found the spring next to the three life rafts.
“We’ll carry it in these.” She said. The building team used shells, and bowls, and bottles to fill the rafts. Once they were full, they carried them back to camp.
Me and Tiro cleaned up our area, and decided to make a little storing area slightly in the forest. We did this, by weaving little bins out of dry grass, and then hanging them from trees. We cleared the area out and then covered the plants with sand to make a floor. We weaved vines in and out of the little circle of trees, to make a wall surrounding the little area. Using a small shovel from the emergency kit, that I could guess was for toiletry purposes, we dug a 2 foot wide 2’5 foot deep hole for storing food, and then found a very large flat stone to cover it with. We let mud stay out in the sun to harden a little, then lined the edges of the hole with it. It took a long time, but looked nice once it was finished.
Sara was still laying down, and was already turning red, so I decided she needed some shade, so I made a bed out of dried grass and leaves in the storing room, and carried her there.
“I’m sorry to be such a burden,” she said, “I should have buckled my seatbelt.”
“Don’t worry about it, we’re a team.”
We smiled at each other, then Tiro and I gathered all the belongings from people’s carry-ons, and folded and placed them in the bins.
I turned around to see the whole building team, plus Mimi, hauling the rafts back here, full of water. I laughed at their dedication, and took Tiro with me to help haul them. We stacked the rafts in the store room, and I took a look at the water. It looked pretty clean, and I had found a few pots in the emergency kit.
Mimi and I had pots of water boiling very quickly, and when one pot was ready, they would pass it around in the circle so everyone could get a drink. Although it was warm, it was refreshing, and nobody had had a drink since yesterday. Mimi, Sara, Tiro, and me worked hard for an hour, boiling all the water in one raft, saving the water in the other two for later. Then Tiro and Me decided to focus on coconuts. I had seen a few trees with coconuts on them yesterday, but had put it off until today. Maxwell, being the most flexible, helped us climb into the trees and pull off the coconuts. Almost an hour later, we had cleared all of the coconuts in one area, and carried them back to the shelter. Using some flint and some heavy stones, we cracked the green shell off of half of them, and then put the rest in some tree top bins. The others, we put in the food storage hole.
By that point, the building team had gathered enough logs, but it was way too late in the day to build any shelters, and all of the rafts were full of water. So we faced a new problem, where we would sleep.
That same day, those who had left us were having a hard time. There was almost no water on the top of the mountain, and the water there was, was contaminated with bugs and mud, and after drinking it, people would throw it back up. They were hungry too, and ate onions that grew on the banks, but tasted horrible. They made their cave into a shelter, by stuffing dry grass in the crack and using dried grass as a floor on the inside. Many people couldn’t walk because of foot injuries, and spent their day getting burnt in the sun. Everyone was freaking out trying to follow orders, so little got done. At the end of the day, when they were all laid down in the cave, Joseph spoke.
“We can’t survive up here, and we will have to head back down, carrying those who can’t walk on our backs.”
There was a series of moans
“I know, but there is nothing else we can do. First thing tomarrow, we will head down.”
At that same moment, Jasmine woke up. She had broken her arm and had a broken knee, that was so bad she couldn’t move.
“Help!”
We didn’t hear her. She whimpered in pain and tried to get in a more comfortable position.
“Help!”
She cried and screamed in vain, until she had exhausted herself.
“Nature calls.” Kazi said, standing up from the circle where we were relaxing after a long day.
He walked down the path, until he hear Jasmine faintly. Her voice was now hoarse and pitiful.
“Hello?” He yelled
“Help!” She repeated. He followed her voice until Kazi saw Jasmine laying on the ground.
“Kazi?” She asked in a small voice.
“Yes it’s me, I’m going to carry you to camp. Ok?”
“Ok”
He put one hand under her knee and she almost screamed in pain.
“No! Stop that hurts!”
He pulled his hand back and tried to calm her down
“It’s ok, what hurts?”
“My knee, and my arm, and my head!” She whimpered.
He tried lifting again, with one hand under her thighs, and one under her back. He found that by moving her legs to his hip, and her head next to his, he could carry her, like a little girl. She whimpered as he lifted her carefully, and carried her back to camp. And she had never felt as comfortable, as in his arms.
“Ok, what is everyone good at? Who is good at gathering and exploring?” About five kids raised their hands. “Who is good at building?” About 6 kids raised their hands. “Who is good at cooking?” Two girls raised their hands. “And who is good at hunting?” 3 kids raised their hands. The only one left was Tiro. “Ok Tire, you are with me, you will do everything. “Ok, Gathering group, go find wood and kindling, make one giant pile in the middle of this circle,” I drew a circle about 9 feet from where we were all sitting. “ Building group, go find big logs and make one big pile, and also vines,” I said, pointing to an overgrow of trees. “Cooking group, I want you to go through everyone’s bags and lay out everything, (Mainly because Sara was one of the cooks and it was something she could do laying down), and hunting kids, collect all the flint you can, and make a pile. Everyone must wear shoes, it’s mandatory!”
Everyone set out to do what I told them. A giant pile of wood and dry grass was soon generated and I used the flint and a shaving razor to start a small fire in the middle of our sitting circle.
I used a stick to draw our sitting circle, because I felt that it was really important to be social. We would meet here often, and discuss things. I realized that we wouldn’t have enough time to make shelter, so when it got dark, and people began getting tired I decided to find shelter. We had three rafts, of fairly good size, so I divided up 3 groups of six, and we crawled under the rafts bunched up together to sleep, but we were all warm and nothing disturbed us.
While we slept soundly and semi comfortably, the group of kids that had left was not. They had spent all day climbing up the mountain, until eventually reaching the top. A little ways down, there was a huge pile of rocks that had slid off the top and had rolled down, forming a small hole in the middle of the pile, like a cave.
“We will sleep here,” Joshua said.
“Why can’t we just sleep outside?” Matchel, a stupid kid in my class asked.
“Because we could get wet, and we’ll get cold and we don’t know if there’s animals on the island, but if you wanna die, be my guest.”
He looked at the sun that was setting in the west, and followed his peers into the cave, where people crawled tightly together in the small space and tried to sleep, unsuccessfully.
Then next day, Tuesday, I woke up feeling worse than I did going to bed. The sun was barely creeping over the horizon, and I could hear people talking inside their rafts, which meant I wasn’t the first person awake. I wondered if some people ever slept.
“Alright everyone up!” I yelled, pushing the rafts off people. They all looked like I felt, tired and restless. We would be better organized today.
“Building team, when you get enough logs, call me over.”
“Yep!” they hollered while putting on their shoes. They had holes in their socks already, and I decided to look at the supplies we had. A lot of clothes, some soap, cameras and ipods, which had managed to not get wet. Nothing really useful. We had been instructed to pack 10 pairs of socks, and I wasn’t yet sure how long we would be here. Everyone had their phones in their pockets, so they were water damaged, all of them. So far we still didn’t have any way back home. Then I looked at the supplies from the emergency kits, bandaids, disinfectant, some cases of freeze dried food, two pocket knifes, matches (which had unfortunately gotten wet), and something that cleaned the salt out of water.
“Hunting team, build traps and put them in places that we can’t get stuck in them. If you don’t know how to build one, call me over.”
“We do!” they hollered, and put on their shoes. Luckily our teacher made sure everyone was wearing tennis before we got on the plane. I thought about Mrs. Callatt, about how we would never see her again, and about how we left her body and the bodies of the crew on board. About how sad their families would be. I shook the memory from my head. It wasn’t the first time I had seen a dead body. Once when I was little I was walking home from school and saw a few cops surrounding something. So I pushed my way through and saw the bloody body of a man laying there on the ground. I gasped, then quickly ran home only to cry my eyes out for two days straight. I built a giant fort in my room out of crates, boxes, and furniture, and stayed in there shaking the image from my head. After that experience I was almost used to seeing dead bodies. But this time I couldn’t cry, I had to be a leader for all those who had never had an experience like this. I had to be tough, and smart.
“Cooking team!”
“The two girls quickly got up (somewhat) and raised each others hands, “Yes?”
“Go find clean water.”
“I already did,” Mimi said quietly
“Is it clean?”
“Um, maybe not clean, there was bugs flying in it, but fresh,”
“That will do, um… Take Razz with you and find something you can carry water in and haul some of it here,” we’ll see about boiling it,” I said worriedly
“Ok boss,” Mimi said saluting me.
“And gathering team, I want you to go and collect any modern day objects you can find, just, go explore,”
“Ok, do you need us to do anything else?” Xenny asked
“No, I think that is good.” I answered, smiled politely at me before gethering her friends for the walk.
The building team hiked slowly into the jungle part of the island, where the trees had branches. They finally found some trees with good, heavy, branches, but had no way to cut them down. Taaki climbed up on one branch, Jake followed his example. Kazi helped Shadow up, and then, the branch began to crack and snap, and break. They collected three branches this way, before Mimi came to them, with Razz’s hand in hers, and she was pulling him behind her.
“We need help.” She told them matter-of-factly.
“With what?” Jake asked in his semi angry voice, only because he always sounded like this.
“We need help carrying water back to camp from a spring I found.”
“Um…..fine. Ok, we’ll help” He said before following Mimi. The building team followed as well, and they found the spring next to the three life rafts.
“We’ll carry it in these.” She said. The building team used shells, and bowls, and bottles to fill the rafts. Once they were full, they carried them back to camp.
Me and Tiro cleaned up our area, and decided to make a little storing area slightly in the forest. We did this, by weaving little bins out of dry grass, and then hanging them from trees. We cleared the area out and then covered the plants with sand to make a floor. We weaved vines in and out of the little circle of trees, to make a wall surrounding the little area. Using a small shovel from the emergency kit, that I could guess was for toiletry purposes, we dug a 2 foot wide 2’5 foot deep hole for storing food, and then found a very large flat stone to cover it with. We let mud stay out in the sun to harden a little, then lined the edges of the hole with it. It took a long time, but looked nice once it was finished.
Sara was still laying down, and was already turning red, so I decided she needed some shade, so I made a bed out of dried grass and leaves in the storing room, and carried her there.
“I’m sorry to be such a burden,” she said, “I should have buckled my seatbelt.”
“Don’t worry about it, we’re a team.”
We smiled at each other, then Tiro and I gathered all the belongings from people’s carry-ons, and folded and placed them in the bins.
I turned around to see the whole building team, plus Mimi, hauling the rafts back here, full of water. I laughed at their dedication, and took Tiro with me to help haul them. We stacked the rafts in the store room, and I took a look at the water. It looked pretty clean, and I had found a few pots in the emergency kit.
Mimi and I had pots of water boiling very quickly, and when one pot was ready, they would pass it around in the circle so everyone could get a drink. Although it was warm, it was refreshing, and nobody had had a drink since yesterday. Mimi, Sara, Tiro, and me worked hard for an hour, boiling all the water in one raft, saving the water in the other two for later. Then Tiro and Me decided to focus on coconuts. I had seen a few trees with coconuts on them yesterday, but had put it off until today. Maxwell, being the most flexible, helped us climb into the trees and pull off the coconuts. Almost an hour later, we had cleared all of the coconuts in one area, and carried them back to the shelter. Using some flint and some heavy stones, we cracked the green shell off of half of them, and then put the rest in some tree top bins. The others, we put in the food storage hole.
By that point, the building team had gathered enough logs, but it was way too late in the day to build any shelters, and all of the rafts were full of water. So we faced a new problem, where we would sleep.
That same day, those who had left us were having a hard time. There was almost no water on the top of the mountain, and the water there was, was contaminated with bugs and mud, and after drinking it, people would throw it back up. They were hungry too, and ate onions that grew on the banks, but tasted horrible. They made their cave into a shelter, by stuffing dry grass in the crack and using dried grass as a floor on the inside. Many people couldn’t walk because of foot injuries, and spent their day getting burnt in the sun. Everyone was freaking out trying to follow orders, so little got done. At the end of the day, when they were all laid down in the cave, Joseph spoke.
“We can’t survive up here, and we will have to head back down, carrying those who can’t walk on our backs.”
There was a series of moans
“I know, but there is nothing else we can do. First thing tomarrow, we will head down.”
At that same moment, Jasmine woke up. She had broken her arm and had a broken knee, that was so bad she couldn’t move.
“Help!”
We didn’t hear her. She whimpered in pain and tried to get in a more comfortable position.
“Help!”
She cried and screamed in vain, until she had exhausted herself.
“Nature calls.” Kazi said, standing up from the circle where we were relaxing after a long day.
He walked down the path, until he hear Jasmine faintly. Her voice was now hoarse and pitiful.
“Hello?” He yelled
“Help!” She repeated. He followed her voice until Kazi saw Jasmine laying on the ground.
“Kazi?” She asked in a small voice.
“Yes it’s me, I’m going to carry you to camp. Ok?”
“Ok”
He put one hand under her knee and she almost screamed in pain.
“No! Stop that hurts!”
He pulled his hand back and tried to calm her down
“It’s ok, what hurts?”
“My knee, and my arm, and my head!” She whimpered.
He tried lifting again, with one hand under her thighs, and one under her back. He found that by moving her legs to his hip, and her head next to his, he could carry her, like a little girl. She whimpered as he lifted her carefully, and carried her back to camp. And she had never felt as comfortable, as in his arms.
