Mangrove Island

I

On sand, cases and soaked boxes littered the shore as several bodies lay half out of the water. A young stewardess gagged up water onto the sand, puking up what was left in her stomach all over her blouse. She shook her head, wiping the vomit away. Someone was shouting in the distance, another woman carrying a child in her arms. The stewardess tried to push herself up, shaking as she wobbled to the woman who had fallen.

"Hey!" She screamed to them. The woman had stopped moving, the child coughing in her arms. The attendant fell, crawling to the woman and child. She had shaken the woman to wake her only to feel her heart beat stop under her own palm. She gasped, taking the half conscious kid. He looked up at her.

"Mommy..?"

"Hey, hey- your mommy is right here, but I'm not mommy." She brushed his hair back trying to keep him awake. "My name is Dilan. What's you're name?" She lifted him as much as she could resorting to dragging him by his arms into the palms. He never answered her about his name, Dilan beginning to worry. Tears fell down her cheeks, sobbing from the stress. "Come on kid... Please stay awake." She lied there for hours, both having fallen asleep. It was only noon when her eyes opened again, the sun high in the sky beating down on her back. She checked the kids breathing and his pulse, him as steady as he could be. She leaned his back against the tree so she could search the shore, crawling to the lifeless bodies beginning to decompose.
Dilan dug her hand into pockets checking wallets and gathering lighters. She stripped them of their clothing, taking hours to pull them as far as she could into the trees. She rolled back suitcases, her eyes focusing on a small figure in the distance. The child was walking around the beach. "Heeey!" She shouted dropping the suitcases and running to him.

The kid looked at her, frightened and in tears. "Are you the lady who saved me?" He glanced around the sand. "Where'd my mom go? She was right here with me." Dilan kneeled huffing as she calmed down.

"I'm sorry... She's gone. She died trying to keep you alive." She bowed her head, sighing before pushing herself to her feet again. "Are you thirsty? I found some suitcases and bags that might have food & water." The boy shook his head yes, taking her hand to follow her down the beach. Dilan unzipped about seven suitcases, digging through the clothes finding only one water bottle and a few soggy crackers. She cursed as she tore open the packages keeping her eye on the kid as she pulled a giant airbed from one of the boxes, the only valuable item she could find. "Come here."

The boy went over, flopping on the ground beside her. "What is it?"

"An air bed. We can use it for shelter if I can find something to cut it open." She looked to him smiling. "We have a few hours until the sun goes down so I'll need your help." He nodded, shaking the sand from his blonde hair. She pulled the plastic bed over to the trees, throwing it and the box to the ground before they left to explore the coast.
The boy held onto the back of her shirt, trailing behind her.

On the other side of the Island, Lira crawled from the water coughing water onto the rocks. She pulled herself up the shore by the mangrove roots surrounding her, the water thrusting behind her making it harder for her to stand. Lira pushed up, standing and moving towards the sand cliff.
Her eyes still burned, blinking as they searched the beach. She smiled hoping she was close to civilization screaming out for anyone close. "Hello! Is anybody out here?!" She took her shoes off, holding them in her hand before running through the sand. "Caleb, where are you!?"

She tripped over a box causing him to fall over it and tear it open from it being so wet. She sat up, pulling back the cardboard. Everything inside was wrapped in foam and boxtape, her tearing back to reveal kitchen-ware. She ignored it, thinking it wasn't important since she believed there would be a town nearby.
She continued onward, excited once she could see people in the distance, a woman and a boy walking towards her. They yelled to her, all running as fast as they could in the sand. Lira realized their condition was worse than hers, both from the same crash as her.

"Oh finally, someone alive." Dilan spoke, hugging Lira tightly. Lira was shocked. "What's wrong? Did you see anyone else?" She exhaled.

"Uh, no... Just me." She furrowed her brows. "Have you found a road? Or my husband, Caleb?" Dilan shook her head, looking out to the water. "Just a deserted island." Lira looked to the boy, him testing his hand on the other woman. "What are your names? I, uh, I'm Lira."

"Dilan."

"Is he yours?" She asked

"Oh. No, no. His mother died after the crash, I've just been trying to take care of him for the past few hours." She looked down to him, grasping his hand. "I still don't know his name but I'm not going to press." The other bit her lip, thinking back to the kitchen ware she found only a few yards back.

"I found a box with kitchen-ware, like knives and shit." She coughed, wiping sand off her face as she lead them back to where she woke up. Dilan kneeled next to her, careful to take everything out of the box. There wasn't too much silverware as much as it were almost entirely a knife set, the girls using Dilan's staff jacket to carry it all back to the air bed. Bugs were coming out, all three being bitten by sand flies and mosquitoes. They rushed to cut open the air mattress, slicing it down the short side and one long way to hang it over a large branch stretch out low. Dilan made stakes out of small branches with one of the many blades, sharpening them to stab the dirt when she pinned down the edges of the tarp they made.

The sun was falling fast and the bugs had gotten worse, water trickling from the sky. The adults panicked, taking clothes from the suitcases to cover the ground they would sleep on and layered themselves to prevent bugs from attacking them. "These damn nats are pissing me off." Lira curled up next to the boy who lay in between the two, shivering in the pitch black night. There wasn't much to be heard at night, birds silent but twigs still cracked from snakes and insects.

The boy rested his head against Dilan, her rubbing his back as he slept. "Do you think we'll ever be found?"

Lira looked at where Dilan's face would be. "I don't know... I hope so. This isn't a place to die, for us and especially not him." She wrapped her arm around the other two, closing her eyes and drifting to sleep.