Gone

Chapter One : Awake

"What's this? Where am I? What happened?" I asked myself as I lay on my back looking up at the clouds through the trees. I can feel a sharp pain in my lower back but I'm too scared to move or do anything, I can hear screaming and a loud whining noise in the distance. I look to my right and I see a small boy wearing red pajamas, he's looking at me but doing nothing I can almost feel the nothingness on his face. Why isn't he scared? "Hey kid?! Where did you come from? Where are we?" I say as he says nothing but just takes one step towards me, I turn to my left as I hear screams for help "kid I think you should come with..." I said as I turned back to him but no one was there. Slowly getting up from the ground I realize that it is made up of a thick wet sand, "How long have I been out?" I say to myself as I try to adjust to the new terrain. The trees they are so beautiful, they flow with the wind like the the waves roll onto the beach I find it calming. As I was making my way towards the screams I can feel the eerie presence of someone behind me almost as if I am being watched or followed, I keep moving because the screams seem to be getting closer pushing through the thick underbrush I can see the beach. "Oh my god" I say to myself as I gaze upon the beach, there are people scattered everywhere some dead, some injured, and some trying to help the others, I can see a section of the plane engulfed in flames laying half in the water and half on the beach. Running over to the plane  I see a man waving to me, as I run over to him he says "Hey man! This girl is knocked out! Help me out, grab her legs?" I grabbed her legs and we moved her to the shade and tried to wake her. "She's breathing, can you watch over her while I see if anyone else needs help?" I said "Sure man, by the way my names James" he says as he reaches out a hand to me, "Marcus, nice to meet you James" I said shaking his hand. There has to be at least 20 people here on this beachfront, most of which are screaming and panicking I can see two men trying to lift what looks to be scrap metal off of another passenger. "Help! Somebody help! Get this thing off of me please!" The man screamed as the two tried to lift the metal off of him, quickly moving towards them I noticed that not only had this man been trapped under metal but that he has pieces of small knife sized shards stuck in his legs and lower abdomen. "Okay we need to lift all at once, now on three we push and someone pull him out while we hold it up!" Lifting that piece of metal was possible the hardest thing I have done in a while, not because it was heavy but because I knew that if we could not get this off of him that he would die. I've been faced with choices like this many times in my past and they all feel worst that the last, it's like a constant test that never seems to end. After about an hour of trying to get this man out, his screams fell more into a calm realization, realization that he was not going to be getting out from under that metal. "What's your name kid?" He asked me with a struggle to get out each word "Marcus, Marcus O'Brien. And you?" I said shifting my weight in the sand "Patrick, you can just call me Patrick I don't feel like we should get to close due to my current uh situation" he said looking up into the sky following each cloud passing by like he was looking for something. "You think they're looking for us?" He said "All we can do is hope at this point, I'm not sure where we are this island seems deserted but like I said hope. We have to keep that high no matter what." I said looking at my watch I noticed that the hands were not moving I tapped it a few times and couldn't get it to work but I could see it was getting close to sunset and the others were gathering wood, using the plane fire they started making a bonfire for any passing vehicles. "Patrick, what did you do before the crash, I know that you said we shouldn't get close but I can't just sit here in silence while you die." I said very bluntly. "I was a security guard at a bank, I worked the day shift nothing crazy just a regular job except I get to tote a gun around and feel like a real cop. What about you?" He asked. "Well your not going to believe this, but I was a cop and let me tell you our jobs are a lot like. Everyone seems to think that being a cop is all action and gun fights and sunglasses but in all reality I'm just a security guard patrolling a huge area." I said laughingly. We shared a laugh for a moment and then the sun began to set, looking out at the waves and the sunset it almost felt peaceful, "I'm going to go get us some food, it looks like there is some meals left over from the plane crash. How does that sound?" I asked. He looked up at me like I was crazy "Sure, sounds like a plan I mean I'm not exactly going anywhere." He said painfully. I walked over to the others by the fire and was greeted, most of these people are just average people like me and you and here they are making fires and enjoying themselves. I eventually found the man handing out the food and he asked me "Hey bud, looking for some grub?" I said "Yes I am I actually need two of whatever you have." He looked at me very ugly and said "Look we don't exactly know how long we are going to be here, so if you don't mind settling for one meal. That would be great." I said "Well one of the meals is for me and the other is for a man over there laying under a giant piece of metal dying. So if YOU don't mind giving a man his last meal on this earth. That would be great." There was a long silent pause between the two of us and then he sighed very heavily and looked at me and said "I'm.. My bad man, take the food" I took the food without saying a word and made my way back over to the wreckage, it was quite a walk back over to where Patrick was at so I had time to think. The question that kept coming back was "I wonder if anyone is looking for us.." I mean they have to be looking right? At least that what I keep telling myself to try to make this situation a little more calming. On the bright side I have a stunning Salisbury steak with a side of macaroni and cheese TV dinner to enjoy, hopefully Patrick has as much as a positive attitude as me. I feel for that guy I mean here he is sharing his final moments with a complete stranger and not even his family knows wether or not he is safe. "Hey Patrick I hope you like Salisbu...." I said as I looked at the giant piece of metal laying in the sand "Patrick?" He was gone, no not dead, gone. His body was no longer trapped under the metal, as a matter of fact his body was nowhere to be found I searched all over the wreckage and there was no sign of him. I faced the beach and watched the waves crash upon the sand trying to understand or comprehend what had just happened, then behind me I heard a load CRACK! I turned quickly towards the woods behind me and I could see trees falling "Patrick!" I said running into the woods towards the cracking noises and falling trees. The woods progressively got darker and more silent the further I got in, until I noticed that there was no more cracking. I was alone, looking around me I can feel something lurking in the darkness it also feels like the temperature has dropped to a cool chill. The goosebumps slowly took over my body "Patrick?! Patrick are you out there?!" I screamed hoping to hear some kind of voice or just any form of anything. There's just something about not knowing what's out there that makes this so much more terrifying, twigs broke behind me and I spun around. The boy, the boy in the red pajamas, he's back "Kid what the hell are you doing out here?" I yelled as he just stared at me standing there I noticed that he had a scar on his cheek "Kid are you.." Before I could finish I heard twigs from behind me again and then BAM! I woke up on the beach with a large man looking down on me, I recognized him from the flight "Hey dude, you okay? You don't look so hot." He asked as he raised an eyebrows "Yeah I think I'm okay.. Damn my head is killing me.." I said as I felt the back of my head, I could feel a large bump. "Did you fall or something man?" He said offering a hand to me "I'm not sure, I was in the woods last night looking for someone and all I remember is talking to this kid and then I woke up here." I said taking his hand. I couldn't tell him about Patrick, I didn't want anyone to panic more than they already were. "Well it sounds like someone has it out for you man!" he said picking me up "The names Paul, Paul jones, please to meet you." He said. "Marcus, nice to meet you, you seem kind of happy to be stranded out on this island." I said. Paul is a large man and when I say large I don't mean tall I mean he was average height but he had to have weighed over 400 pounds, I guess it's true what they say about big people they're jolly. "Well I guess you can say I'm happy, to be completely honest with you man I'm just trying to stay positive I mean like see the glass half full type stuff. Or in this situation the beach half full, you should get that checked out man." He said pointing at the lump and my lower back. I had completely forgotten about the pain I felt earlier, I guess I was so caught up in helping Patrick that I had blanked that out. Touching it I can feel a huge scrape or cut spreading across my lower back, I hope it isn't infected. "You said I can get this checked out? How?" I asked not completely understanding if he was joking around or not. "Yeah man! We're all in luck there was a doctor on that plane and she's still alive, she's been helping people out all night, where have you been man?" He said sarcastically. He pointed in the direction of the Doctor and I began to make my way toward the others, they seemed to have fastened some of the blankets from first class blankets onto the wreckage to make small tents and shelters. There is one tent that has a Red Cross on it from what looks like a medical kit, I didn't know they came with stickers or labels but I came to find out that it wasn't a sticker at all, it was blood in the shape of a cross. The smell around this tent was horrid, it was a mix between dead animal and rotten meat or rotten anything for that matter, before I could open the tent someone opened it. Before me stood possibly one of the most beautiful woman I have ever seen, she had curly hair, not wild but tamed and her cheeks were pronounced and her smile was perfect and her eyes were a shiny brown especially when she opened the tent the light was perfect on her. "Doctor?" I asked nervously "That's me! What can I help you with?" She said. All I could do was stare at her, she seemed stressed out but even at that she was outstanding and don't get me wrong I'm no pervert or anything when I say this woman is beautiful I completely mean she is making me feel that weird feeling in your stomach you get when your name is called to present something in high school and you are way late with the project. "Well I hope so, I think I was knocked out last night and I have a cut on my back." I said this realizing that this isn't really a doctors office, I guess I was so blown away by her that I forgot exactly where I was and the situation we are all in. She asked me to have a seat so she can further examine me, I sat down on her examining table which was just a row of seats with the back rests removed. I was laying on my stomach with her hands running on my back and head "Wow someone really hit you pretty hard, and for this cut on your back your going to need stitches, but lucky for you I found a sewing kit in the baggage. Not the best but it'll do." She said looking at me smiling. "Well let's get this over with, you wouldn't happen to have anything to drink would you?" I asked. "Well I think that guy who was handing out food last night might have some water, I didn't catch his name though. We can find him once we get you all patched up, now stay still unless you want this to hurt more than it has to." She said. As I was laying there all I could think is wow this woman is amazing, not only is she nice but she's caring, she could've told me to go get my own water but she said we could look for this guy together. I might be over thinking this a bit but like Paul said we have to try to look at the glass half full.