Ab Aeterno

Pilot

Smoke was the first thing Aura was aware of when she awoke. It filled her nostrils, making her brain foggy and lungs sore. Ringing sounded in her ears, loud enough to drown out all other sounds that may have been there. Slowly opening her eyes, Aura squinted to block out the smoke and light that seemed to be wrapped around her body.

All the blood was rushing to her head, as were fragments of memories that she pieced together to figure out where she was.Peering through the smoke that appeared to be getting thicker as each second passed, Aura saw that the plane she had previously been flying in was tipped on its side. (It was also full of bodies that weren't moving or showing the slightest signs of life, but Aura refused to focus on that at this moment in time.) That meant one thing, the plane had crashed, and somehow, she had ended up against the ceiling (or the wall, depending how you looked at it) crushed by an extremely heavy suitcase that never should have been allowed into the overhead compartments .

Another question was raised in Aura's mind - How was she the only person stuck inside the plane? At the moment that didn't seem like the most pressing thing. She had to get out from under the case, and get out of the plane before the smoke that was just covering her head engulfed her whole body, before she choked to death.

Using all of her upper body strength, Aura tried to push the case away from her chest. On any normal occasion she would've been able lift the case with ease, but today was no normal day, and staying conscious was hard enough at this moment.

After two or three tries that resulted in getting the case no further than a few centimetres, Aura gave up and fell back into the smoke that was rising quickly.

However, the ringing in her ears had subsided, letting her hear voices from outside. Screaming was the main noise heard, but there were also a few voices that seemed relatively collected. The people out there were Aura's best chance of survival, so using all the energy she had left, she shouted for help with her smoke infected voice, "HELP! ANYONE! I'M STUCK IN THE PLANE! HELP, PLEASE!" She repeated this over and over for a good few minutes, until she exploded into a fit of coughing.

By the time the coughing had stopped, the air was thin and rescue seemed unlikely. That was at least, until a voice replied to her earlier pleas for help. The words spoken were slightly muffled by the smoke surrounding the plane, but the majority of it got through, "Hello? Is anybody in here?!"

"Over here." It was intended as a shout, but came out as a low mumble. Although unlikely, the other person heard her, and made their way over to Aura's body that was becoming less responsive by the second. It was difficult to breathe, and slowly, Aura's eyes flickered shut.

˜ " * ° • • ° * " ˜

Aura woke to the sound of voices. She was currently lying on the sand a fair distance away from the carcass of the plane. People were huddling in groups around small fires that decorated the beach.

Aura turned her head in order to view her surroundings. She was on a beach that had fires scattered along it. Kneeling beside her was a man in a slightly ripped shirt. He was looking at a man covered in blood to the other side of him.

The man must've heard her head move against the tarp it was lying against as he turned to face her, surprise painted on his face. The man grabbed a small torch out of his pocket and flashed it in Aura's eyes - a way to test for a concussion. Aura squinted and attempted to sit up, only to be pushed back down.

"You need to rest. You hit your head pretty hard."

Questions rushed through Aura's brain. So she picked two that where nagging her the most. "Where are we? What happened?"

The man - Aura could only assume he was a doctor - ignored his questions and instead asked his own. "What is the last thing can remember?"

Raking her brain, Aura recalled her latest memories. "I was on a plane. Sydney to L.A. We hit a bit of turbulence, and then it got worse. I think - oh god- I think the tail section of the plane came off. People were screaming, and, and-"

"-It's okay," the doctor comforted her. "Do you remember anything else before that - your name, where you grew up, favourite food, anything like that?"

Taking a shaky breath, she replied, "Aura. My name's Aura. I can't remember anything else." By the end of her sentence she was shaking. Would she ever remember?

"You're memories will come back soon. As I said you hit your head pretty hard." He handed her a bottle of pills. "You might want to take some if you get a headache. Try not to stress to much either."

Nodding her head, Aura carefully stood and started walking out of the make-shift tent, but stopped and turned to face the doctor once more. "Doctor, who pulled me out of the plane?"

A frown formed on his face. "I found you lying outside of the plane." Who would pull someone out of a plane and not say anything? The frown on the doctor's face resolved itself. Clearly it didn't bother him much as it did her. "And its Jack."

"Thanks Jack." Aura brushed aside her confusion and gave Jack a short wave as she walked away. The sun was starting to dip and she knew she needed to find somewhere to sleep. There was plenty of empty beach she could have slept on, but the fires seemed so inviting. Aura walked over to the nearest one and sat beside it.

Maybe ten minutes or so later a girl sat next to her and introduced herself as Claire Littleton. They talked for a while about random subjects rather than their life's since Claire didn't want to share her backstory and Aura didn't remember much of hers. Claire explained that forty-eight people had survived the crash (including Aura), and that they had been on the island for two days.

˜ " * ° • • ° * "

Claire had fallen asleep a good half hour ago, as had the rest of the survivors. Aura was the only one awake. A few memories had came back to her, but nothing important, so she had decided that instead of waiting for memories, she would preoccupy herself with other things- mainly to do with the plane crash.

She thought about what Claire said about it being two days since the crash. It didn't bother her. Neither did the fact that they were a thousand miles off course. (That information came from a guy called Charlie Pace, who had allegedly heard the pilot of the plane say so, and then he later went on a trek to find a signal on a transmitter with a group of people)Everyone else was worried by these facts. But not Aura. Why?

Because as she looked up at the stars which reflected against the ocean, she felt at peace, and not just because it was calm. But because a cluster of memories had surfaced that told her not to be afraid. So what was in those memories that separated her from the uneasy others? Knowledge. And what was she going to do with that knowledge? Use it to her advantage.

Aura knew where they were. And she had no intention of leaving.