Island Rush (5 page)

He wrapped his arm around me, pulling me up with him until he dragged me over the bodies under us. I tried to pull my own weight, but the black spots were blocking out reality. He guided and dragged me… then all I could feel was that my lips were given access to more air someway.  I breathed in what I could, and he was back to towing me. 

For however I got the air that time, it wasn’t enough for long.  It was like a dizzy dream and all I remember is just pushing.  Swimming and pushing with him guiding me. The air I got wasn’t enough; my eyes shut as he still pulled me through the water. I could feel the sensation of climbing, being lifted through the water after that. Then, just as that feeling of rising entered me, I felt a very deep and painful sensation cross me.  Along with a lack of air, it was that sensation that made me finally black out. 

Chapter 4

I felt a rough texture against my back through my wet and sandy clothes. The sound of calming waves crashing together met my ears, and a slight breeze caressed my face.  The most noticeable sensation I received was from the burning in my throat.

I couldn’t open my eyes, even as I heard a shuffling sound around me. I did try to move a little from my uncomfortable position since I was leaning up against something rough. Even still, just at that little movement, it left me gasping and moaning in pain.  It also brought on another feeling.  Two hands steadied me against where I was leaning. 

“Janice? Janice, open your eyes,” a familiar voice whispered in front of me.

I knew if I did, the sun would shock my eyes.  It already was shining bright red through my eyelids.  For some reason that voice triggered something inside of me.  I opened my burning eyes slightly, taking in a mass of a man in front of me. It made me wince as the sun hit my eyes, making me close them again.

“Open your eyes,” the voice repeated.

I coughed as I tried to speak, finally managing even though it hurt.  “The sun.”

He must have realized what I meant because the glowing red soon faded from behind my eyelids.  Blackness took its place, promising the sun was blocked. I opened my eyes again and this time, the man was blocking the sun from my view.  It gave me the opportunity to take in the sight before me.

The tree I was being propped against, I saw, was on the edge of a shore of the endless ocean. The water was a pretty light blue, unlike what you see anywhere else. I was surrounded by the start of tall grass and sand, which was sticking all over my wet clothes. Down the beach to my right, big jagged rocks stood in the water, climbing until they reached the shore and kept climbing to make a cliff above the water and sand.  I looked back before me.  Mr. Rush looked anxious as he stared at me.

I stared back at him.  And my god, it was like I was taking in a completely different person.  He wasn’t perfect, he was a mess.  The plaid shirt he had before wasn’t on him.  Left was the soaked and clingy white undershirt.  It made his chest more visible, and I noticed it had rips in it.  It gave me the chance to see his chest hair, which was a strange sight.  He was covered in sand too, blending into his tan wet shorts.  His tennis shoes were still intact on his feet as I continued looking him over.  What drew my attention the most was his hair. 

It was not pulled back perfectly for the first time.  Now that it was damp and free, it actually curled around his face. I never knew he had bangs until that moment where they hung in his eyes. And his eyes… wow. Even though he showed me he was opening up more, it wasn’t like this before.  Everything came pouring out as he searched my face.  His brown eyes radiated loads of worry, nervousness, pain while also relief.

Mr. Rush bent forward and sat facing me next to my outstretched legs. I tried sitting up more, but all it did was cause me to cry out again. His eyes swept over my body and landed on my stiff back. He inched closer and took my hand in his, steadying me. “Are you okay?”

He sounded so worried, and his eyes confirmed it. Regardless, his question made me laugh; it helped block out what happened too. “That is all you have been asking me lately. Yes, I am okay.”

He eyed my stiff form again. “You don’t seem okay.”

I looked around again and this time… it was sinking in.  The realization was coming with the full force of what happened. “W-what happened exactly?”

He looked down to the sand, avoiding my gaze as his eyebrows creased in sadness. I immediately regretted my question as I already knew.  “The plane crashed…” he nodded, jaw tightening.

I needed more information, no matter how much his broken tone already revealed.  “Nobody… nobody made—”

He cut me off, not willing to hear it said. “No, they didn’t. It’s just us.”

Everybody. Every person on that plane. Every junior that went, the staff and teachers, everyone. Dead.  The kids I grew up with, all of those people I knew.  Those people whose families loved them.

“Why did you do it?” I asked in a small and painful voice.  His eyes rose, and they met mine. He knew what I was asking.  I wanted to know why he saved me.

“I don’t know,” he said in a whisper. I didn’t believe him.

“You came to save me.  I told you to leave me too. Otherwise, it would be the end for you.  Then you left as I wanted,” I said, unintentionally replaying what happened again.  “Then I remember I was happy for that minute.  You were maybe going to make it out. But you came back. What changed your mind?” It seemed like the longest speech of my life.

He looked confused. “I didn’t change my mind. When you wanted me to leave you, I saw you fading and blacking out.  I knew my time to save you was almost up. I left because there was this air pocket at the front of the plane. I breathed in more air and came back, giving you air. I was saving you or dying if I couldn’t get you out. I wasn’t leaving without you.” His voice filled with so much heart, it shocked my mind. He would die trying to save me? That made no sense!  Neither did him coming back and giving me air; I didn’t realize that was even possible. It made me recall that last bit of air I also managed to breathe in.  He must have pulled me up to that air pocket quickly too in those last moments.

It was the nicest thing anyone could ever do for me. I was just some annoying kid to him, but I would always be grateful he cared for me in some way.

I was pissed off too.  Why me?  Why couldn’t he let me die and go to heaven?  Why couldn’t he let me be with my mother?  He should have saved someone who actually had a good life going for them. 

“Why? Because I was the only one left alive?” I recall me being the only one still conscious (though that’s based on my poor eyes and what I could hear).  Everyone else probably died from the impact or drowned from screaming.  He nodded after a minute, looking back down. 

“Y-You shouldn’t have done that,” I said.  When he didn’t respond to me, I continued after a minute.  I could not think about what just happened; I wanted to focus on the present.  “Well, what now? We’re stuck.  What are we going to do?”

The man leaned up more, running a hand roughly through his hair. “We try to live.” 

The words were ones I didn’t want to hear, even though that was the plan the second the plane went down.  We try to live, but how? We were stranded on an island!  It just made me wonder where we’re at exactly.  This place was probably just a small dot on the map.  Yet looking around, it didn’t seem that small.  Was it even an island?

He helped me to my feet, which was a painful process. I still felt broken and, with him getting to his feet too, I could see he wasn’t in the best shape either. He didn’t seem bad this whole time, but he went through the same thing I did. Having to now balance myself, I could feel a big source of all that pain.  It made me freeze.

I kept myself from gasping so he wouldn’t notice my injury.  Instead, I gazed down at myself and saw I looked just as he did. Wet, sandy, with cuts in my peach shirt. After inspecting myself, with our backs to the water now that we were standing, I took in the palm tree I was leaning against before.  Behind that one tree, there was a forest, brightly lit by the sun. A distance in, it seemed as if the forest climbed to higher land.

I looked over to Mr. Rush, neither of us knowing where to start. He scanned what was in sight too, his eyes stopping on where the sand blended with the grass.  He started to walk towards the forest.

I could see how tense he was. The guy hurt just moving too. It just felt somewhat surreal to witness.  I mean I never thought I would see the sight of perfect Mr. Rush not perfect. Not even able to walk without a grimace.

I was glad his back was to me as he slowly moved.  I didn’t want him to see my face or the blood that I felt seeping through the shirt on my back. I would be fine, and the last thing I wanted was his sympathy.

He turned to me and frowned. “We need to find a source of fresh water. That is our first priority.”  At least he was actively thinking.  I didn’t know how to after what just happened, though I was trying.

I nodded, following his lead towards the woods.  Not a few steps later, I felt myself falling to the ground.  Unable to stop myself, I landed on my stomach. I tried getting up before he saw my back but it was too late as I heard him running back to me. A shadow loomed over me, and I swiftly tried moving.  That made the pain much worse to where I let out a very loud grunt. 

“No, don’t touch it. I’m fine and can take care of it,” I groaned after my noisy grunt and whimper settled. 

He was kneeling next to me in a second. I felt his hands lightly graze over the stain on my back.  Then, I felt him take fistfuls of my shirt, tearing the fabric on my back in half and leaving my bloody back bare.

“How bad is it?” I asked.

He stayed silent, and I realized he wasn’t looking at the huge and fresh cut that somehow got there. He must have seen the ugly scars that came from my father’s hand. I was hoping that the blood would cover it, but I’m sure it didn’t.

Of course, the wind just had to pick up at the moment.  The sand flew up and managed to enter the cut, making me groan loudly. Mr. Rush must have realized the real problem here.  The next thing that happened was he helped me to my feet.  I held what was left of my shirt against my chest so it wouldn’t fall off. He managed to guide me into the first few trees of the forest and had me lay back down on my stomach, this time in the long grass. He knelt at my side and brushed his hand lightly on my back.

I breathed in sharply, and he instantly pulled back. I saw he pulled the white shirt he was wearing off and ripped it, taking a piece of it.  Before he did what I predicted and pressed it against my cut, he left my side quickly and headed back towards the water.  It only took a second until he was back and kneeling at my side.  When he pressed the fabric against the cut, I knew what he did.  He soaked that strip of his shirt in the ocean.  

It made me hiss because it stung.  Then I hissed for a whole other reason because he applied more pressure.  “Sorry,” he sighed. “It’s a long and deep cut. Plus there is a lot of blood. We need to get it cleaned.”

He stroked my back with his shirt, absorbing most of the blood. He pressed it harder into my back and made me cringe more.  And it wasn’t just the cut that made me do that.  Oh no… that’s just where most of the pain was.  My whole body still felt shattered. 

“Ah! Fuck! Fuck,” I groaned loudly, the pain spreading over me more.

“Shhh.  It’s alright.  I need to apply pressure.”

I bit my tongue as he kept pressing. I felt the tickle in my veins that the pressure of his hands caused; it was not pleasant. It not only burned but made my whole body sting in response. It went on like that for a while until he asked in a whisper, “What happened to you, Janice?”  He was obviously referring to the lashes that aged into scars on my back.

“It isn’t important.”

“Your father,” he stated. It wasn’t a question - and he knew a question wasn’t necessary by my silent response.

“Do you know how I got that cut today?” I asked.

He sighed. “I got us out of the plane and was able to get us up in time.  The plane crashed near the shore, and that’s how we made it in time to the surface.  But I pulled you out the front windows where the grass actually broke.  I imagine you got caught by the broken glass. In fact, that was probably it since all I cared about was getting us out of there as soon as possible.  I didn’t care about taking time avoiding glass.”

I nodded.  “You did the right thing. If you bothered with trying to avoid it, it would have wasted time, and we might not have made it.”

He finally stopped with wiping my back and leaned forward, laying on his stomach too next to me.  I could see him as he spoke to me. My eyes though were instantly drawn to his messy hair.  I couldn’t get over how different he looked!  He was dirty, hurt, messy, and covered in sweat and sand.  The perfect looking man was no longer present. And not just physically either.  My eyes snapped up to his as he spoke.  There was so much there…

“Tonight, you’re going to have to sleep on your stomach. First, we need to wash it out in the water,” he said, gesturing towards the ocean. “There is still sand and dirt in it, and this isn’t doing the trick.”

After he wiped up what was on my back, he stood up and helped me up with him.  He guided me back towards the active water to wash my cut out as I still held the front of my shirt there. And as he guided my painful body, it was the first time I realized that my feet burned with the heat. I was no longer wearing my sandals.  Great.

I bent my head down so I didn’t have to meet his eyes as we walked into the water.  I didn’t like him tending to me like this, let alone being around me right now.  Something traumatic happened to us, and we will need time to process it. It would be best if we weren’t around each other for that.

He had me slowly kneel down in the water.  His torn shirt he soaked up my back with, he now rinsed.  He then applied it to my cut again.  And oh boy, it stung like a bitch. I didn’t know how much more pain I could endure in front of him while staying strong and not cry.  Maybe talking could help.

“We aren’t getting out of here, are we?” I asked him from where I was kneeling.  His hand and the water on my back made me shudder and groan loudly.