“Look around fool! There in’t an island around here ‘part from this one we’re stuck on” Replied the man with sarcasm.
Paul walked off, this time away from the beach and into the overgrowth of the island. He thought about his children and their gentle faces struggling in the sea. Paul wish he had sent his twins to go swimming as they would have had a better chance of survival in the sea but he knew that it was his fault why they did not go due to his busy job. He continued walking until a silver shimmer caught his eyes out at sea. He stared deeply at this shine until it shimmered so bright he had to stop staring and then he realised that it was the top half of the plane he was staring at out at sea. He quickly walked over to the sea and then he started running with his mind in a deep frenzy of hope that his children might be in there. Clive noticed what Paul was running towards and stopped him.
“Paul, wait! we’ll all go. It’ll be safer that way.”
Clive walked over to Paul with the other survivors. Clive felt what Paul was hoping to find in the plane and he sensed a great urge to help him.
“Paul, you never got the chance to introduce yourself to these five before you ran off.” Clive spoke with great enthusiasm as if this introduction he was about to make would make him the leader of some such?
“This is Ed, this is Mark and this is Dave.”
Paul looked at Ed and realised he was the man who annoyed him earlier. Mark had sandy blonde hair and looked like he had injured his arm, as it was limp compared to his other. Paul felt obliged to see if he was all right.
“What’s wrong with your arm?”
“Oh, this? I think I did it when I was being sucked out of the plane. It’s all right, “ replied Mark
“So what are we going to get out of the plane over there then” Dave queried.
Paul walked closer to the group and he noticed that Dave had a massive scar along the side of his face. It looked as if it had been a birthmark that was removed.
“I’m going to get my children. They have to be in there! After we find them I suppose we could get the radio out of the plane to see if we could call for help,” replied Paul with too much of optimism.
Ed walked out past the group and looked out at the plane wreckage. He sat down and watched the sun flicker off the sea like a light being shone at a crystal.
“You do know, Paul was it-,” whispered Ed.
“Yeah!”
“You do know your kids are dead and even if they are in that plane over there they’ll be dead,” said Ed solemnly.
Paul held back his emotions and tried to ignore this comment. Ed got up and called over to the group:
“Come on then let’s go get this Paul’s dead kids!”
Paul flinched with hearing this comment and he leapt off his point over to Ed and lunged a fist of fury at Ed, which connected right in his eye. Ed fell back and gave a slight moan. He lifted his head and a large poppy bruise swelled around his eye. He took a dive towards Paul like a spear taking him to the floor. With Ed now on top of Paul, he was at his mercy until Clive pulled away Ed.
“You two leave it out and Ed just keep your trap shut!” shouted Clive.
“Whatever,” Ed spoke with a sarcastic tone, which also started to annoy Clive.
Clive walked over to the sea. “Are we swimming over there then?”
An answer was not necessary so Paul, Mark, Ed and Dave followed in after Clive. Paul was ever so determined to make it there as fast as he could so he forced his arms and legs to swim as fast as they could possibly go. Once they made it over to the floating wreckage, they hung onto the broken wing of the plane to regain their breath as they were now a long way at sea.
“How is this thing still floating?” Mark said, gasping for air.
Paul quickly analysed the plane and noticed it was slanted in an angle with the cockpit sticking out in the air and the right wing balancing the whole plane on a rock.
“There must be air trapped inside. That’s why it’s floating,” shouted Paul.
“So how do we get inside then, bright spark?” Ed quickly said with wit.
“Well if you’d look there’s a rip in the plane’s metal just above the wing so we’ll climb on to the rock then into the-“ replied Paul.
“Yeah we get!”
Clive was the first to climb up onto the plane as he now had the distinct impression he was the leader. The others followed with Paul entering second. When he peered into the hole he saw a dark damp pit of seats and a Holocaust pile of bodies drowned at the bottom of the plane in the stream of blood and water that had leaked in. Ed was the last to climb in.
“Oh my god, this place is a death pit. They must have got bashed up a bit before crashing,” assumed Paul.
“Ed, can you keep your mouth shut if you’re going say stuff like that? You know Paul thinks his children are in here,” whispered Clive.
Paul eased himself down towards a seat and looked at the bodies just lying there motionless. He couldn’t find the courage to dig through to find his children as he now knew there was no hope for them. Paul quickly got up off his damp seat and started climbing upwards among the seats while trying to avoid getting tangled by the dangling oxygen masks.
“Clive, you three, we need to get up to the cockpit so start climbing,” explained Paul.
The others followed by climbing over back of seats that were hard to reach, as the plane was nearly vertical.
“ Why… are… we trying to get to… get to the cockpit?” asked Mark struggling to make his way over the seats with an injured arm.
“For the radio,” replied Paul and Clive in unison.
Once making it to the top, Ed spotted the radio installed into a panel of damaged buttons, cursors and monitors. Without being told he started to rag at the radio like a madman trying to release it from its damaged panel.
“Wait! If you go at it like that your cause a tremor causing the plane to sink,” shouted Dave.
Mark slowly eased himself up to the cockpit in a snake like fashion due to his injured arm. “Paul, you try and get it out but be careful” exclaimed Mark.
Paul pulled himself onto the pilot’s seat and tried to get his hand up and behind the radio. Once he had done that he started to pull carefully and slowly at the radio.
“Paul let me do it your taking too long,” shouted Ed.
“No, I’ve got it,” replied Paul.
Ed walked forward over to the radio and pushed Paul out of the way. “I’ll do it, move!” said Ed with excitement.
“Ed get away,” shouted Mark.
Clive backed up Mark with an enraged moan.
“Move!”
Terrified that Ed would cause an accident, Dave hauled himself at Ed pulling him back although by the time he had reached his destination Ed had removed the radio and fell backwards into Dave. Dave was hit in the face with an incoming radio, which then sent him flying backwards-knocking Mark into the vertical aisle of the plane. While the others just watched, Mark was taking a freefall drop into the pile of bodies at the bottom adding to the remorse pile.
“Mark, are you OK?”
Dave’s cry was not answered. Instead, a violent vibration shuddered the plane causing an ominous decent of the plane. Words were not needed. The four survivors in the cockpit made a desperate scurry out of the cockpit. Ed was jumping the seats of the aircraft as if he were an animal being chased by his predator while the others were taking their time. Ed continued to hurdle the seats until one of the oxygen masks had him caught round the neck. The more he struggled, the more tangled he became by the ropes attached to the masks. The other three were now just about to leave the plane through the gap near the wing with the radio intact. Paul called out for Ed.
“Get out quickly! The plane’s sinking.”
“I know… I’m trapped…help me!”
Paul was in a deep frenzy and moral dilemma as the exit and his safety was just next to him but he couldn’t just leave Ed. Paul looked at Ed, scared, struggling and in need of help. Paul jumped over the three seats separating them. The water was rising fast and their chance of escape was shrinking.
“Ed stop struggling!” shouted Paul.
“Help me!”
“I’m trying, just stay still”
Paul rapidly untied the noose of ropes around Ed’s neck but the water continued to rise and the plane continued to sink the gap to escape was nearly covered and Ed realised this. He knew they were both going to die so he pushed Paul down the aisle and into the water.
“What are you doing?”
“You don’t have time the exit’s nearly covered. Go!”
“No!”
Paul tried climbing back up but Ed forced Paul down with his foot. Paul couldn’t get back up to save Ed if he tried as Ed was putting up too much resistance. Paul turned quickly and froze as the exit was now covered in water. He took a deep breath and then exhaled and looked back at Ed to listen to his final words.
“Go… and sorry I was such a prat.”
Paul looked at Ed and realised he wanted this. He was no longer struggling and just hung there rested against a seat, looking completely vacant inside. Paul held his breath again and swum through the plane to get to the hole near the wing. Paul swam until he could clench his hands on the jagged metal of the hole, which pierced through his skin. He overcame the pain to dig his hands even further in the metal to pull him self out. The water turned into a red mist from the blood until he pulled himself out through the hole and saw two faces in a panic looking at him.
“Where’s Ed?”
Paul’s eyes were blurred at first and then he realised it was Clive talking to him.
“Where’s Ed?”
“He… I couldn’t save him,” murmured Paul.
Clive and Dave sympathetically just shook their heads, knowing Paul wouldn’t want to talk about it. Clive and Dave slowly swam Paul back to shore while trying to keep his hands out of the water to avoid the stinging pain he would get from the salt water. Back on the sandy beach the three survivors lay motionless from exhaustion. Paul stared deeply at the tranquil blue sky until his eyelids shut and he was asleep
“Paul, Paul, wake up Paul!”
Paul slowly opened his eyes to see Clive and Dave looking extremely pleased with themselves.
“Guess what?” whispered Dave.
“What?”
“Me and Clive got the radio working and we managed to contact a shrimping boat near-by.”
“That’s great news,” replied Paul who was now on his feet.
“They said they could be here roughly in about three hours.”
“How can they find us?” asked Paul.
“They mentioned something about homing in on our radio signal,” answered Clive.
Paul walked off from Clive and Dave. He strolled along the beach staring out at the bright orange sunset sky. He thought about the crash of the plane, Mark, Ed and especially about his children whom he would miss dearly. Paul continued on walking until the boat came to collect them.
