ISLAND IN THE SUN ➳ LORD OF THE FLIES

.two.

the scent of smoke filled jenna's nostrils as her eyes flew open. she was laying facedown on the floor of the plane, and when she looked up she saw that declan and alex were, too.

she forced herself off the floor with great difficulty — every bone felt like it was broken — and looked around. everything was dark, but in the distance about thirty or fourty feet away she could see a light. an orange, flickering light that looked almost foggy, warped. it was smoke.

the plane is on fire, she thought desperately.

jenna jumped up, pulled her bag from the overhead compartment, and then raced to alex and declan. she shook them awake with urgency, almost sobbing from the effort it took to get her brother to open his eyes.

"guys, we crashed—"

"no shit," said alex bitterly.

"alex, will you stop for two seconds? the fucking plane is on fire! we need to get off, now!" jenna practically screamed.

panic was setting in: the tail end of the plane was on fire, it was pitch black and there was no way out. the trio scrambled for minutes that seemed like hours, as the burning light grew bigger, until declan called out, "the emergency exit is right here!" and then, later he shouted, "it's fucking stuck!"

alex and jenna practically flew to the sound of his voice, and for a few seconds they all tried pushing together but the door wouldn't budge.

"maybe—maybe we need to impact it! you know, like a running shove or something." alex offered.

the others agreed. "let me do it," jenna said, "i'm the strongest."

there was no time to argue this point. jenna took a few steps back, urgently kicking off her heels, then shook the stray strands of her blond hair out of her face and took off at a sprint. her shoulder smashed into the door with the force of a freight train. it flew open and she couldn't stop, plunging directly into the water outside.

the remains of the plane were floating, on fire, in the ocean, about thirty feet away from the shore.

"good job, jen!" declan called.

jenna beamed. "throw down my bag and then come out of there, yeah?"

alex chucked the back out of the open door, and it nearly flew out of jenna's hands as she caught it. the russet-haired girl jumped out of the plane, landing with a splash a few feet away from jenna. declan followed.

"can you see land? it's freezing, we can't stay in here," declan asked.

jenna nodded. "just down there — about fourty or fifty feet that way. you can see the light, see?"

she pointed at a flickering light in the distance, assuming it was a campfire of some sort along the shoreline.

they tried to swim quickly, but coupling the ache of their muscles from crashing and the frigidness of the water meant that they could only move so fast. every so often, a wave went over their heads, filling their eyes, ears and mouths with freezing saltwater. once or twice they were even dragged under the waves so hard that they felt themselves hit the ocean floor before resurfacing.

they pushed themselves far into the night, and it felt like hours before they felt the shore begin to surface beneath their feet, and later still when they collapsed in the sand, exhausted, drenched and pained.

jenna's canary yellow dress was wet and clinging to her body, her feet ached and her hair was drenched and full of salt, but they finally made it to land. she pulled herself up into a sitting position, hugging her knees to her chest. declan sat down on her left, shaking water from his caramel-colored hair, and alex sat down on her right.

they could see the smoldering remains of the plane in the distance. it shone like a beacon as it went up in complete flames. they watched it in silence for a few hours, until it went out.

"so, where are we?" alex interrupted the silence at last. "we can't have made it to london; we were nowhere near there when we went down,"

"this can't be london, or else someone would've seen us by now," declan explained, "they would've helped us by now. we must be on a—a island somewhere. or some sort of foreign country."

jenna sighed. "what if—what if there's nobody here? what if we can't get home? i—i'm scared, dec," she whispered.

"it's gonna be okay," he put his arm around her shoulder. alex took her free hand and squeezed it reassuringly.

jenna leaned her head over on declan's shoulder, feeling her eyelids start to droop shut — the exhaustion was getting to her; but before she fell asleep, she heard a voice from behind her.

"my, my, my, what do we have here?"

her eyes flew open and she jumped up. in the dim light of the rising sun, she made out a boy their age with very dark hair and pale skin. he was walking towards them, his eyes flashing madly.

jenna let out a scream of terror as he ran forward, and from behind his back he pulled a knife. he stuck it right up to her face, the sharp point of the knife nearly digging into the space between her brows. "who the hell are you?" he shouted.

"hey man, what the fuck do you think you're doing?!" declan leapt up, shoving the boy away. "we're fucking castaways! that's what's left of our plane out in the water. we aren't trespassing, leave us alone."

the boy laughed wildly. "sure. come on," he said, gesturing back towards the forest he came out of. "follow me."

jenna looked from declan to alex, and they looked about as bewildered as jenna felt. as the boy walked away, they had no choice but to follow him.

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roger die challenge