EVERLAST [EXO Baekhyun]

CHAPTER 2 - ISLAND

        When consciousness came to him, he found himself amazed to be lying on sand. Or at least what he thought was sand. A soft bed of material sunk into his skin, coating him with grains of the tan substance. His eyes fluttered, the setting sun in the horizon. It was his only source of light, and it was fading. That left him with one question.

What the hell happened?

He shot up, panting and holding a hand over his chest. His breathing was ragged, entering his lungs almost forcefully. His eyes darted around, scanning the vicinity. That was when he noticed the wreckage of what looked to be a plane resting in the water ahead of him. So he was on a small, beach-like place, waves crashing onto the sand at a moderate pace. He got on his feet, regretting it seconds later when he landed on his knees again, vomiting. He didn't recall feeling any nausea, but he felt much better after letting it loose.

"Congratulations stranger, you're stuck here," a female voice said.

Baekhyun whipped his head around, coughing as a result of his sickness. A single woman stood there, arms crossed over her chest with what Baekhyun swore was a pout residing on her lips. "What the hell is happening? Am I dead?" he asked. In retrospect, it was probably a dumb question. Sure, she looked like an angel not to sound cheesy, but he had never seen this woman in his life. He'd hope that someone he knew would be waiting for him when he passed on. Maybe that was his inner child speaking.

"I wish we both were. We'd be better off." She shoved her finger in the direction of the wreckage. "It's been an hour, no signs of anyone else coming out of that thing, and I'll be damned if I'm going back to search. I think we're the only ones left."

A huff passed his lips. "Thanks."

"For?"

"Getting me out of there," he said.

"You should be thanking yourself. You swam your ass here and passed out on the beach. Only thing I did was tilt you on your side so you didn't choke on anything. Even then I didn't have much hope that you'd make it. Nice to know I'm not alone," she replied.

Although wary, he still strode over to her, offering her his hand. "I'm Byun Baekhyun. 25, I was on my way to see family."

She cautiously shook his hand, the two shakes she gave solid. Strange to compliment such a grip, but Baekhyun found himself amazed by the ease. Maybe a businesswoman? Political figure? "Kim Rona . I didn't really ask for your information, so I hope you don't mind if I don't give you mine. We have more important matters to attend to."

He didn't comment on her attitude, instead eyeing the smoke rising in the air. A smoke that clouded his eyes and had his skin forming goosebumps. The trails of lumps that formed on his arms resulted in a tiny tremble hitting his legs, almost knocking him back on his knees. "What the hell? Wait hang on," he mumbled, the reality of the situation dawning upon him. "Wait did we fucking crash?!"

"We crashed," she answered. If there was emotion in her voice, he didn't hear it.

"We fucking crashed?! What the fuck?! Where are we?" He glanced around, dying to get some sort of clue to their location. His hands went to his pockets, pulling out the slim device clogged with water.

The woman, Rona, shook him off. "Mine is drying out, I left it in the sand. Not exactly rice, but I'm hoping it'll work at least a little bit. We landed right in the ocean, place was half-flooded. You were out before me, I swam as fast as I could out after you. Managed to grab someone's carry-on in the process, maybe it'll have something good."

Baekhyun had no memory of swimming himself out of the plane. Maybe he struck his head, which was likely considering the situation, or maybe he simply pushed it out of his mind. Sometimes survivors of trauma do that. Or at least Baekhyun heard that was what they did. "Well, what are you waiting for? Check."