Fly over the sea

- Chapter 4 -

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Kerem~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The smell coming from the wreckage is the worst I've ever smelled in my life. I look at Anil, who is already prepared with a tissue covering his nose and mouth, just like me. We start moving bodies and getting them out. It takes a long time, just long enough for the other group to get everything ready. They have made some kind of tools with sticks and stones, we look like Neanderthals.

I pick up belongings from the plane and deposit them on the sand.

I feel dizzy. I haven't eaten anything all day, but it's like I've eaten something bad.

"Kerem, are you all right?" Anil says, putting a hand on my shoulder.

"This is fucking bullshit," I say seriously.

"I feel nauseous too, but we have to finish this."

I recover little by little, without taking deep breaths so that the smell doesn't get into my brain. We load the corpses one by one and take them to the area a little further away, where the group has been digging.

"It's horrible," I hear Evrim whisper.

That's the only dignified thing we can think of for all those people who didn't meet the same fate as us. There are 8 of them. We begin to bury those inert bodies in silence.

"Kerem, I have brought this," Anthony shows me a piece of a cut tree trunk where he has put the number of dead people and the date they died with a knife, "so that we know where they are and so we can tell the people who come to rescue us." I smile and pat his shoulder.

"Mom, when they come for us, will they dig them up," Umut' voice breaks the silence and makes me turn around.

"Umut, I told you to stay on the beach with Maya," his mother tells him.

"But mom..."

"Get out of here, Umut!"

"No!" the boy shouts, "I want to know what's going to happen to those people!"

I decide to intervene and squat down next to the boy.

"Umut, you must listen to your mother."

"But why did they die and we didn't?" the boy asks innocently.

I look around and see everyone watching me. Even Umut' parents don't know how to answer.

"I don't know Umut..." I smile tenderly, "but whatever the reason is, we are here, we bury them so that when they come for us, their families can recover them and have a place to bring them flowers".

Once all the bodies were buried, everyone positioned themselves around the improvised grave and Anthony placed the trunk in the sand.

Soon after, the group slowly dissipated. I stood there, staring at that grave. For a moment I was terrified at the thought of being down there.

I noticed a hand on my arm. It was Hande, smiling tenderly. I smiled back as I started walking toward the beach again. I had to eat something or I would pass out.

"Here," Hande said, offering me a piece of fruit, "You haven't eaten anything all day." I took the fruit smiling gratefully. "Are you going to burn the plane?"

"Yes, I'm going to burn it all..."

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The plane burns. I decide to look away from the fire, it's disturbing me too much. Hande approaches me with a straight face.

"I've talked to Belma... Maya is a bit affected after..." she gestures towards the plane.