CHAPTER 4: LUKE
Voices. I heard voices. They were coming from somewhere in the near distance, and they sounded very familiar. And then I recognized them: Hayden and Emilee. They were a bit muffled, but I knew I wasn’t just imagining them. I knew what I’d heard.
I opened up my mouth to cry out for help, but the words were caught in my throat. Taking a deep, shaky breath, I opened up my eyes and looked around at where I was. My vision was blurry at first, and it took a minute for my eyes to adjust. But once they did, I took a good look at my location.
I was still on the plane. The plane that had just crashed. I’d survived the crash! In an instant it all came flashing back in my mind. Boarding the plane, feeling excited about our trip to Rome, talking with Hayden, everything going perfectly fine. And then out of nowhere the ride became a bit more bumpy, the pilot ordered us all to fasten our seatbelts, the passengers aboard began to scream and cry out in fear, and then I went into a state of exhilarated terror as the plane began to descend down to earth.
I breathed deeply, trying to relax my much-too-tense muscles. But I was too petrified to relax. I tried to lift my arm, but I couldn’t move an inch. My body was trapped under a large, heavy mass of people’s suitcases, clothes, and other belongings. That’s when I realized that I was now lying on the floor in the back of the plane. And that’s when I remembered that my seatbelt hadn’t been working properly earlier, so I couldn’t buckle it.
I began to choke on my own breathes as I comprehended what had happened. I’d fallen out of my seat and gotten tossed to the back of the plane along with everybody’s luggage. That’s why I was practically buried alive under everyone’s stuff.
I heard the sound of Hayden’s voice once again, and was filled with the slightest bit of hope. If I could call out loud enough for either Hayden or Emilee to hear me, they would come and rescue me. I’d be free.
So gulping down a deep breath of air, I opened my mouth and shouted as loud as I could. “Help!” My voice came out sounding strained and unfamiliar even to my own ears. “Please help me!” I continued to cry out. “Hayden! Emilee! It’s Luke! I’m alive! I’m still in the plane! Please help me!”
I waited for a moment, praying that one of them had heard me. About thirty more seconds passed by, and no one had come to rescue me. Tears flooded my eyes, and I began to feel more and more pessimistic. But I knew I couldn’t give up. I had to keep calling out to them. So I did.
“Hayden, can you hear me?” I yelled at the top of my lungs. “It’s me, Luke! I’m in the back of the plane! I survived the crash! You’ve got to help me!” I waited a few seconds, but when no response came I felt even more doubtful than before. “Hayden? Emilee?” I cried. “Anyone?”
But nobody replied. Nobody came to help me. Nobody had heard me.
I wasn’t the kind of guy who lost hope very easily, and I definitely wasn’t the kind of guy who cried when I was down. But in this situation, both of those things occurred. Every ounce of hope that had passed through me was now completely drained away. And for the first time in a long time, hot tears rolled down my cheeks, as faint, frightened whimpers escaped my throat.
And as I lay there, feeling completely deflated, my head beginning to throb. Pain washed over my entire body, and every muscle inside of me ached. Anger coursed through me. This wasn’t fair. I didn’t deserve this.
I gritted my teeth together, hating myself for being so weak and pathetic. I was Luke Ellison, quarterback of Bridgeport High’s football team, point guard of the basketball team, pitcher and first baseman of the baseball team. I was strong enough to get through this. I wasn’t going to give up.
So using all of the strength I could summon, I began to pull my right arm out from under all of the debris. “Ugh!” I cried out in a mix of pain and frustration. My wrist felt limp and had an excruciating burning sensation running through it.
More tears filled my eyes, but I blinked them away, refusing to cry any longer. I grimaced in agony, and with one last tug, my arm was finally free. I lifted it up so I could get a better look at my throbbing wrist. It was a dark purple color, and it looked severely bruised and swollen. I wasn’t positive, but I was pretty sure that it was broken.
My hand just hung there limply, dangling from my bruised up wrist. In fact, my wrist injury was so bad that I was literally unable to lift up my right hand. Squeezing my eyes shut to block out the tears, I rested my right arm down by my side and began trying to free my left arm.
Luckily, this wasn’t as much of a struggle as freeing my right arm was, because my left wrist wasn’t broken like my right one. It still hurt extremely bad, and it was still a bit bruised up, but it didn’t even begin to compare to the damage that had been done to my right arm.
When my left arm was free, I used it to push my body out from under all of the wreckage. I slowly inched my way out, and soon enough, only my knees, calves, and feet were trapped. And I pulled them away from the destroyed luggage remains with ease.
I grinned to myself, proud of my accomplishment. I didn’t need Hayden or Emilee to help me. I had rescued myself. When I rose up to my feet, pain shot down through my legs, and I almost collapsed back down onto the ground. But I grabbed onto the back of the seat in front of me for support just in time.
And I made my way through the main aisle of the plane, grabbing onto each seat for assistance, until I reached the front of the plane. The entire way, I kept looking straight ahead, because I couldn’t bare to even glance at any of the dead bodies all around me. But when I reached the door of the plane, I saw the flight attendant lying there, completely lifeless. I had to swallow back the acidic-tasting vomit that rose in my throat when I saw this.
Turning my eyes away from the flight attendant, I reached out for the door and pushed it open. And when I stepped out onto the warm sand outside of the plane, I fell to my knees.
I ran my hands through the sun-kissed sand, letting it trickle out between my fingers. I breathed in the warm, sultry island air, in through the nose, out through the mouth. I crawled towards the ocean’s edge, cupping the water in my hands and splashing it on my face. And it felt so good, so cool, so refreshing.
“Luke?” I was so relieved to hear Hayden’s voice calling out my name.
I turned around, only to see Hayden rushing towards me. I smiled weakly, so thrilled that he’d found me. “Hayden,” I muttered, mostly to myself.
Hayden finally reached me, holding out his hand to help me up. I didn’t take his hand though. I could get up by myself. So I used my left hand to help push the weight of my body up and climbed to my feet. It still ached for me to stand, but I managed to do it nonetheless.
“I can’t believe that you’re alive.” Hayden stated in shock. “I thought Emilee and I were the only two people who had survived. Emilee and I were inside the plane. I didn’t even see you.”
“I was buried under all the debris.” I informed him. “My seatbelt wasn’t working so I fell out of my seat and got tossed to the back of the plane.”
“Oh my gosh!” he exclaimed, concern washing over his face. “Are you alright?”
“Well I’m bruised up pretty bad and I think I broke my right wrist, but besides that I’m fine.” I told him.
“You broke your wrist?” he inquired, looking panicked. I bit my lip, nodding in response. “Oh no, this is bad. Maybe Emilee will know what to do. Come on, follow me.” And without waiting for me to reply, he began walking towards the jungle in the near distance. I hadn’t even noticed it until now.
Sighing, I trailed behind him, staggering through the grainy sand. With each unsteady step I took, the muscles in my legs ached even more. But I managed to make it all the way to the large jungle of foliage.
“Hayden?” I heard Emilee’s voice say when she heard us brushing past the trees and bushes.
“Look what I found.” he replied, smirking in self-satisfaction. She turned around to see what Hayden was talking about, and when she saw me her face lit up with astonishment.
“Luke?” she exclaimed, sounding stunned.
“Hey,” I replied casually.
“You’re alive!” she cried, taking a step toward me. She reached out and placed her hand on my shoulder, as if to make sure that she wasn’t just imagining this.
“Yeah, I am.” I told her. I glanced at her hand, which was still on my shoulder, eyeing her black-polished nails.
She noticed me looking at her hand and removed it from my shoulder immediately. My eyes flickered back over to her face, and I noted that her eye-make-up was smeared. It looked like she’d been crying.
“Do you know how to treat a broken wrist by any chance?” Hayden asked her.
Emilee’s brow furrowed in perplexity. And I lifted up my wrist for her to see. “Oh my gosh!” she gasped. She gently took my wrist in her hand, causing me to wince. “Sorry,” she murmured apologetically, closely examining my wrist. “Yeah, that definitely looks broken to me.”
“So what do we do?” I queried. “We don’t have to amputate it, do we?” My stomach turned just thinking about that.
“No, of course not,” she replied. I let out a relieved breath of air. “Come here,” She led me over to the small campsite that they had began to set up.
They had found a small clearing in all of the vegetation, and had placed all of their supplies there. There were two blankets set up with four pillows placed at the top of them, two pillows for each blanket. Placed next to those two makeshift beds, were three neatly folded piles of clothes, along with a few bags of chips, three water bottles, two packs of gum, and an umbrella. And on the other side of the beds were three folded up towels and three belts. They had hung three blankets from tree branches overhead, which were all tied in place on the branches that they’d hung from with iPod ear buds. They also had some space outside of their sleeping area that didn’t have any blankets hanging over the top of it.
Emilee stepped inside their sleeping area and knelt down on one of the beds, pulling me down with her. She reached over to the pile of clothes and grabbed a t-shirt from it. Then she wrapped it tightly around my wrist and hand, so tight that I couldn’t bend it anymore.
It hurt a little bit when she straightened out my wrist, but it hurt even more when my hand was just hanging there, all limp and lifeless. And after the t-shirt had been wrapped around my wrist, some of the pain subsided.
She tied the two ends of the t-shirt together to hold it in place, and then gently set my arm back down. “Thanks,” I said to her.
“You’re welcome,” she replied. “Just try not to bend it.” She rose to her feet and stepped outside into the unroofed area of the clearing. She then stood up on the tips of her toes and began to untie one of the blankets from the tree branches.
When it was untied, she lay the blanket out at the foot of the other two blankets. She also took one of the pillows and placed it at the head of the new bed she was preparing. “There you go,” she told me. “You can sleep here.”
“Cool,” I said, walking over to my new bed. “So do you two happen to have any idea where we are?” I asked.
Hayden shrugged, looking absolutely clueless. Why had I even asked him? I should’ve known that he wouldn’t have any idea. “Well obviously we’re on an island.” Emilee stated. “And since it’s deserted, I’m guessing it’s not a well-known one. I’m also guessing that we’re somewhere in the Atlantic Ocean near southern Europe. We have to be near southern Europe by now, since we were on the plane for so long.”
Hayden stared at her, not exactly comprehending what she was saying. He’d never been good at geography. Or any other subject for that matter. I, on the other hand, understood her assumption just fine.
“You’re probably right.” I told her. “So, do you have any idea how we’re going to get off of this island? After all it’s deserted, so nobody knows where it is. And nobody knows we’re here either. We have no cell phones to call for help, and everybody else is dead. So what are we supposed to do?”
“I haven’t figured that part out yet.” she replied flatly. “But there’s not much we can do right now, so why don’t we just try to get some sleep?” she suggested. The bags under her eyes let me know how tired she was, so sleep probably sounded pretty good to her at the moment.
But I had just been passed out for who knew how many hours. What I wanted right now was to get off this stupid island, not to go to sleep. But I knew that I wasn’t nearly as strong with a broken wrist, especially since I was right-handed. I needed someone else to help me. I knew that Emilee was much smarter than Hayden, and would probably be better help than Hayden too. But Hayden was my best friend. Emilee on the other hand was just some freakish goth.
Plus, she seemed like the kind of person who liked to think everything through before doing it. I needed someone who was willing to take risks in order to get off this island as soon as possible, and I knew that I could get Hayden to do whatever I told him to. After all, he had absolutely no clue how to survive on his own.
He needed me just as much as I needed him. And besides, friends were supposed to help each other. So technically it was Hayden’s duty to help me if I needed him to. Especially since it was for both of our benefits. If Emilee wanted to stay behind and sleep, then she could. But I wanted off of this island, and I wanted it now. And if Hayden knew what was best for him, he’d want the same thing as me.
And this was exactly what I was going to say to him in order to convince him to come with me tonight when I tried to escape off of this island. I would tell him after Emilee fell asleep, that way she wouldn’t try to stop us.
Sure she’d helped me with my wrist, which was very kind. And sure it would be horribly cruel for Hayden and I to leave her here while we tried to escape. But she wasn’t our responsibility. If she wanted to escape off this island, she could do it herself.
She’d never done anything for Hayden and I before, so we didn’t owe her anything. If she didn’t want to help me with my wrist, she didn’t have to. That was a choice she’d made on her own. So she shouldn’t be surprised tomorrow morning when she wakes up all alone.
If she really were smart, she’d have seen this coming from the second she found out that she was stranded here with Hayden and I. In fact, she probably did already see this coming. She probably knew that we would try to escape when she was asleep. This was probably all part of her plan to get us off her back. Well congratulations to her then. By tomorrow morning, she’d be free to figure things out by herself.
“Yeah, sleep sounds good to me.” I lied. So we all got settled into our extremely uncomfortable makeshift beds, and I waited until I heard the soft, barely audible sound of Emilee’s faint snoring.
Then I sat upright, grinning to myself. It was time to put my plan into action. It was time for me to get off this island.