Queen of the Ashes

Castle Rock

Castle Rock was what we named the waterfall, it had towering high walls with two pointed rockets a top it making it look like a castle gate with towers. We had made castle rock our base of operations since it was by the lake and we had access to fresh water. It had been three days since the crash and we were starting to get into a routine. We knew our strengths and who was best for each job, or rather who was willing to go the extra mile for harder jobs.

Lucy was given signal fire duty, while we wanted to survive the island we all knew our best case scenario was to be rescued. The signal fire was built atop Castle Rock where we could all keep an eye on it after sundown when Lucy's shift was over. Rylee, a girl named patty, and I were all given the task of exploring the island. Find new resources for the foragers, ect. Truthfully I was happy for this task, I was a bit of a loner and being in large groups tended to let me up.

"Which way should we go today?" Patty asked pushing her large round glasses back towards her eyes, they always seemed to be sliding down her face.

"I guess we could hike up Castle Rock and go from there?" I suggested "We haven't looked up the mountain areas much." Rylee and Patty nodded, one else seemed to have a better idea.

Lucy had the fire going nicely when we reached her post. I couldn't tell how she was doing, and I wasn't sold on sticking her up here alone day after day. "Hey!" I called over to her waving with a smile. She gave me the same blank stare she had since we got here. She hadn't said much since the first day we awoke on the beach, just creepy and cryptic things about hearing someone call for her. By day she was almost catatonic or robotic no emotion, only able to follow simple tasks. After the sun went down she would wander down to the beach and not return until morning. She was always back by the time anyone woke up, sitting up here near her fire. She looked to me for a moment, dark bags circled her eyes. Quickly she snapped her head back towards the lake.

"Come on!" Called Rylee. She and Patty were already almost out of eyeshot in the jungle. I couldn't quite explain the feeling but something told me I should stay with Lucy. I shook off the feeling and turned to meet up with the group.

I wasn't sure how long we had walked, three, four hours? We hadn't seen anything noteworthy, until we found the plane. It was a military cargo plane and old from the looks of it. Patty guessed it was at least 40 years old. The plane was in pretty good shape considering it had crash landed on an island. One wing appeared to have been totally destroyed during the crash but the body only had minor holes.

"Let's find out what you've got!" Patty chimed happily as she pulled open the rusted door. Inside was musty, and dark, aside from stream of light filtering down through the holes. "Check it out! Dynamite and candles!" Patty squealed joyously. I couldn't think of one single use for dynamite that would prompt me to carry that back to camp.

I shook my head and made my way up to the cockpit. One pilot sat in his station, impaled my a branch, presumably during the crash, the other seat was empty except for and old leather bound journal. I picked up the crumbling journal and leafed through it, the entries looked as if they started after the plane crash. I gently closed the book trying not to destroy it so I could read it later. Seeing as there was only one body, I was hopeful the other pilot had been rescued and this journal might give us insight into the way off this island.

We filled canvas duffle bags we found in the plane with any supplies we deemed useful enough to cart back for today, I was sure we would be coming back again tomorrow, I was curious how long the other pilot was stranded, perhaps he had a more sturdy shelter. At least the hatchet we had found would help us make the one we'd built a little more solid.

The trek back seemed to take ages, as it started to get dark I wondered if we had gotten lost. Suddenly the tree line broke and we were atop castle rock. I felt disoriented in the dark the very ground seemed to be rumbling. "What is that?" I quivered as I set my duffle down. Above us a plane flew overhead.

"Why is the fire out." Rylee said, barely a whisper. "Why is the fire out!?" Rage built in her shaky voice as Patty began to cry.

"I just want to go home." Patty sobbed.

"There has to be a reason right!?" I held back my own tears. We made our way down the trail back to camp in complete silence. Distraught, hopeless, and exhausted we dropped our duffles near the fire but the camp was deserted. It seemed like an eternity before the other girls returned.

"Where were you!?" Rylee bellowed towards the group. Girls glanced around speechless, until Jackie made her way through the group.

"Lucy started freaking out, she ran down her screaming about some beast. She said she had seen it many times now. We tried to calm her down and she ran into the jungle back towards the beach, by the time we found her we heard the plane, but I guess the fire had gone out." She crossed her arms and in the light of the campfire I noticed a line of bruising that was eerily similar to the one that ran up Lucy's leg. "Look if one plane came over in less than a week, more will come. Let's just go to bed." She commanded flatly.

"Where is Lucy?" I asked searching the group of girls.

"I don't know." Jackie scoffed.

"You just said you found her." Patty timidly injected.

"Well I guess she ran off again." Jackie shrugged. "I'm not her babysitter and I'm exhausted. Goodnight." The other girls followed suit robotically as they all piled into the shelter for the night.

"I'm going to relight the fire." Rylee turned to head back up castle rock, the other girls didn't seem to even hear her. I shared a glance with Patty before we both grabbed our bags and started trekking to catch up to Rylee. When we reached the summit we noticed the fire had been put out with water.