The Reign of the Lost (ON HOLD)

Chapter 2.3

Alia’s senses slowly returned to her as she sat and watched the scene around her intently. Scattered across the beach they had crashed upon, were clusters of teenagers, some around small fires. The sunset had turned the sky a fiery red, its colour reflected on the glittering ripples of the sea.

One might’ve looked upon the scene and found it beautiful- a serene camping trip, but they could not see the pain these teenagers burdened. In silence they sat with only the crackling of the fire and the crashing waves to be heard, trying to make sense of what had occurred and come to terms with their losses. Today was the day everyone lost someone, some more than others, but it hurt nonetheless.

“Come on, let’s go get some wood.” Said Annabelle, as she stood up and swiped the sand off of her jeans. She had realised that they too would need a fire as it would get colder at night. Alia got to her feet and followed after Annabelle, who was now making her way towards the edge of the forest. With the night approaching, the light was slipping away, leaving only a little, for the girls to make out the shapes of the twigs and branches, they collected. Not long after, they returned to the beach and relieved themselves of the wood in their hands by throwing it into a pile. Alia flopped onto the floor next to Ellie, who lay asleep, whilst Annabelle contemplated how to start the fire. Annabelle picked up a small branch and scraped it against another, nothing happened, she tried again this time faster and with greater force, again nothing. After continuously failing she decided to twist a branch in between her two hands, like she’d seen in the movies, again and again , it didn’t work. Alia watched her waiting for her friend to give up, and surely enough she did; “Oh for fucks sake!” Annabelle moaned, as she violently stabbed the branch into the sand. Alia knew it was unusual for Annabelle to get angry over something so miniscule, but she also knew that Annabelle was human too and this whole situation had to have got to her also. Annabelle, until now, was quite calm compared with the others, but this was only a front she put on, she was in denial and it would only last so long.  Suddenly Ellie gasped and sat up, her eyes were blood red and searching wildly around her, taking in her surroundings and realising the looks on her friends faces her breathing returned to normal and she lay back down.

The girls heard someone cough behind them, and they turned to find George; a tall sickly looking blonde boy, stood with some clothes bundled in his arms, “You guys can share our fire if you want,” he offered “we’re just over there’’ he said nodding his head in the direction of his group of friends.

‘’Erm... Yeah, thanks, I think we will’’ said Annabelle. George nodded his head in reply and walked away.

She got to her knees and grabbed a hoodie from her suitcase which she had luckily come across earlier that day. Alia followed suit and picked up the scarf, which she guessed belonged to Annabelle, she had been sat on. Both girls turned to Ellie, Annabelle knelt down beside her and told her to get up, Ellie didn’t respond. ‘’C’mon, you’ll freeze if you stay here’’ She gently pulled at her arm and helped her up, walking with her to the fire.

They approached the four boys, who were sat in a half-circle around the fire looking sullen, with vacant stares. Alia lay down the floral scarf and sat upon it. She looked around at the faces of the same boys she had sat with at lunch for the last 4 years of her life; the last time they were together they were laughing and playing on the coach. And of course there were more of them then. She looked around and noticed Joe wasn’t among them, before she opened her mouth to ask where he was, she stopped her self as her eyes filled with tears, she realised that he too was probably gone... like Samar.

Alia was looking at the endless sea ahead of her and thought of how Samar might be part of it. Her thoughts were interrupted as Matt handed her a box of ‘coco pops’, and only then did she realise how hungry she was, as saliva filled her mouth. She munched on a handful and though she wanted more she stopped herself and passed the box along. She didn’t know how they would survive on such little food even with people sharing what they had; she doubted many people had packed much food for a trip to Australia.

Alia stared into the fire until her eyes became heavy with tiredness and she finally lay down on to the floral scarf and shut her eyes, continuously prying her thoughts from the crash and Samar, in hope that her restless mind would find some sort of peace and sleep.