EPISODE ONE :: HOME SWEET HOME

[Dorian St. Pierre]

It seemed as though the entire beach had erupted in crimson flame. Although the nearly cloudless sky above was a stunning shade of baby blue, it was completely hidden by a massive layer of thick, black smoke. The remnants of the airplane were scarred haphazardly around the shoreline, most of which were burning in the inferno. The fuselage had broken into two segments; the larger of the two, which contained the thingypit, rested on the beach, ablaze. The latter had broken off during the plane’s descent, crashing into the blue ocean, about a mile offshore. One of the twin jet engines had exploded upon impact, while the other, which had not been completely destroyed, continued to spin, churning the blanket of smog.

The scene was tremendously loud, which could be attributed to not only the roar of the surviving jet engine, or the crackling of the burning wreckage, but the screaming and the crying of the individuals who had not been killed in the crash. Nearly thirty of the original sixty travelers, all teenagers bound for a summer oceanography camp off the coast of Australia, populated the smoldering beach. The majority which had sustained injuries and, at present, it seemed as though nobody had any back in first aid.

Jay Sullivan lay unconscious at the epicenter of the inferno, which had once been the plane’s fuselage. Jay had sustained a deep gash above his right eyebrow when he had been thrown out of his seat upon impact. But besides this laceration, Jay had, miraculously, no other visible injuries. Feeling a strange heat on his cheek, Jay woke and instantly began chocking, due to the unbearable amount of smoke inside the fuselage. The sixteen-year-old’s head pounded, as if he had been hit over the head by some unknown object. Still coughing and gagging, Jay peered through the smoke, looking for an exit. His salvation came by way of a broken window, which had obviously been broken by another survivor for a similar purpose. Getting to his feet, Jay felt his way towards the exit, his eye useless and watering due to the smoke.

Coughing profusely, Jay finally found the makeshift exit and made his way to the outside, which was just as saturated with smoke as the interior of the fuselage.

[sam]

Every flight began and ended with the exact same thing. Every singe time. For Samantha this wasn't even close to her first time flying but as soon as she sat down in the chair, after she had placed her carry-on away. She just made herself comfortable. As far as she could do that. Her seat was somewhere in the back of the plain a few rows before the end. Her mother would freak if she told her that. Her mother had the crazy idea that she should be seated in one of the first seven rows, they were the safest. Yea like plain crashes happen that much. Her mother was a truly crazy mother.

As soon as she sat down she buckled up and took the Ipod mini, that she had in her pocket. She placed the earphones in her head and she completely ignored everything that was said. She allowed herself to sleep a bit. What else should she do. The last song she remembered was Halo by Beyoncé. Trough the way to loud music she could hear the engine's start and they took of. She let darkness overtake her as she slowly fell asleep. In dreams there was no one else then her. She ruled them because they were her dreams.

She woke up rather abruptly as she just heard noise. Nothing was clear to her and the only thing that came into her mind was crash. She felt a pain in her neck that she could identify as whiplash and she didn't even want to think about the rest. She had to get our because of the flames she saw not to far from her but even worse. The part she was in had landed about a mile off shore. In sea her first thought of course was how the hell do i get out of here. It was sinking and the water was coming rapidly. She began yanking on her belt trying to escape what fate had in mind for her.

Luckily she got out she managed to brake a window that was still above water and climbed trough it. Ripping her clothes and breaking her skin but she'd rather have that then drown. She felt herself hit the water and go down almost immediately. She tried to use both her arms and her legs but it wasn't until that moment that she felt something was wrong with her left shoulder. She knew that feeling. Just the same as the rest of her body, a cut with lots and lots of blood, any other time she would have been sick. Samantha hated blood. That wasn't anything major because of the fact that she could hear the dieing screams of so many others.

Most of them jelled for help or even for their parents. She tried to get closer to the beach but something inside of her told her to close her eyes and give in to her tired feeling. She knew she had to fight it because she had a feeling that if she did close her eyes she'd never wake up. She had only covered a small distance as she grabbed with her right arm to someone's luggage witch was floating on the water. It was a small help but a help non the less. She looked around being a bit disorientated. Nothing could have prepared the young woman for this disaster. It wasn't until then that she also saw some people on the beach. Other survivors, she concluded, she wasn't alone.

So she kicked with her legs she had to go on. Once she had answers to her main questions she could rest. The first of course was were the hell where they. Secondly there came how did this happen and thirdly did they call mayday. But then again a plain full of school kids. From the moment the crash happened someone should have noticed and they would come find them right? She was completely exhausted when she finally reached the beach. After coughing up some sea water she looked around. And she tried to stand up.

What had happened? Something blew up that was all she could tell from the giant flames that she saw. Where was she? She didn't know and she had a feeling that no one here knew that. Had they called mayday? She could only hope. For now they had to survive but who would even live after this. She only hoped that most people would. No one should die in this way. With her wobbly legs she tried to put some distance between herself and the burning plane.

[kayla]

The smell of something burning hung in the air, what it was, Kayla didn't want to think about. Her eyes closed, Kayla wished that everything she remembered was just a dream. Slowly, she opened her eyes, not wanting to see the truth. Smoke had filled the plane, making it hard to see anything at all, though the second she had opened her eyes, she knew what had happened. The plane had crashed, there was no doubt about that, but how it happened, well that was up for debate. All that Kayla could remember was the plane had hit some turbulence, nothing to worry about. Or so she had thought. Turbulence was supposed to be normal on flights, not something to be concerned about. But instead of getting better as time went on, it had gotten worse, and the sensation of descending quickly had come over the plane. That was all that Kayla could remember before she had blacked out. Now that she was coming to, the realization of the crash washed over her.

Looking all around her, she tried to access what was going on. The plane she had boarded merely hours before was completely destroyed. It was so badly mangled, she was surprised that she had survived. Fear sank into her heart when she realized this. What if she was the only person who had survived? 'No,' she told herself, 'it's not possible, someone else would have had to survive.' Kayla kept that thought in the front of her mind as she continued to evaluate the situation. As Kayla thought through what was going on, she was pretty surprised that her mind was clear enough to handle all that was going on without panicking. But then again, she never really was one to panic, and usually kept a pretty level head.

Taking a deep breath to try and calm herself, she choked on the smoke that still filled the plane. Kayla realized that she needed to get out of the plane before she suffocated, or the fire reached her. Glancing around, she saw the window, probably the only way out from where she was, and decided that that was how she was to escape from the plane. Slowly and carefully before she moved, she checked herself over to see if she was injured in a way that would handicap her in any way. Other than a few scrapes and bruises, she saw nothing to be concerned with. But as she looked down at her right leg, she saw that it was covered in blood. Closing her eyes and looking away quickly, she took another deep breath. Kayla couldn't stand the sight of blood, especially her own. But she had to deal with it, and get out of the plane. Turning back to look at her leg, she tried to move it, seeing if she could. It moved easily, just with a little stiffness, and not very much pain.

Making her way over the rubble, she crawled toward the window that she had seen earlier. She kept her head down low so that the smoke didn't suffocate her, and looked in horror at the destroyed interior of the plane. Luggage had fallen out of it's respective places and littered the plane. Kayla didn't even want to think about what had happened to the owners of those bags. Reaching the window, she looked for something hard to break through it. Finding nothing, she laid down on her back and kicked the window out. Covering her mouth with her sleeve, she tried to crawl out of the plane through the window. Luckily she fit, and was on the soft sand of the beach within seconds.

Getting away from the crash and out of the smoke as quickly as she could, she laid down on the soft, warm sand, in the cool air. Taking a deep breath, her lungs filled with the clean air that she had so desperately needed.

[blake]

&& my heart beats faster ;

A girl stood with her luggage at the airport where dozens of students mingled about, awaiting for the same plane she was. Blake eyed the groups of people who had 'friends' and such.. talking and laughing like this trip was an everyday occurrence for them. However, it wasn't like that at all for the seventeen year old girl who stood by herself, closest one to the entrance of where the plane would eventually be. Yes, she was quite the loner, but the fact that everyone was having a seemingly good time kind of bugged her. Taking a deep breath, she decided that it didn't -and shouldn't- bother her to this extent. So, she casually crossed her arms and just let her thoughts free about the current formulas that she had been working on for her project when she came back from this oceanography trip. To be completely honest with her, she wasn't sure that this trip was the best idea for her. Usually things like this were exactly what she strayed from, but, this time, she had finally given in. But the main reason she'd said yes was because of her horrid father; the one who didn't even deserve the title of 'dad'. Blake rolled here eyes as she mentally slapped herself for thinking about him. This wasn't about him; this trip was her time and no one else's. Well, minus the other students that were going as well, of course.

About an hour later, Blake had gotten a bunch of snacks and juices from the gift shop, knowing that she'd most likely get hungry on the long flight to Australia. And as she finished placing the items into her backpack, she heard the announcement of her plane, finally arriving. Hefting her luggage up, she made her way through the large throng of people, fighting her way to get onto the plane itself. Finally managing to make it all the way through, she eyed the seats and debated on where she should actually take a seat. Quite a few seats were already taken and ones beside them held luggage so that they could save the seat for their friends. Blake ended up sitting in one of the middle rows, in a seat closest to the window. Gritting her teeth a bit, she immediately slammed down the slider that made it so you couldn't see out of the plane. This action made the unknown person beside her jump, but she didn't care. There was no way in hell she was actually going to sit there and stare down at the ground, knowing that she'd just cause herself an anxiety attack anyway. Which, she just wanted to avoid so that she could make this plane ride a bit more tolerable. As the pilot's announcements were heard through the speaker up above, Blake leaned her neck back onto the seat and stared at the ceiling, listening to the usual 'Don't unbuckle your seatbelt until so-and-so time.' And so on.

Soon enough, though, they were in the air, taking off and on their way to Australia. Oh, what fun and joy she was going to most likely have... not. She couldn't help but let out a sigh as the plane kicked into gear and the person beside her fell asleep.. enough to begin snoring directly into her ear. Blake rolled her eyes and shoved their arm off the armrest as she folded down the table that was on the back of the seat in front of her. Grabbing her bag, she pulled out a stack of paperwork and a pencil, getting ready to continue on with the theories of Science that she had been working on for at least a week, hoping her teacher would become impressed by her work. Scribbling away at the sight of the equations, she couldn't help but feel a tad giddy at how fun this actually was. If planes were good for anything, it was that she could have massive amounts of free time to do with as she wished, as long as it was appropriate. Her work continued onward for another hour before she finally became frustrated with one small part of the problem. Not being able to fix it, Blake tried to not get more annoyed than she already was. Instead, she leaned back again, took a breath, and put all of the ideas, maps, and such away. Shoving the papers back into her bag, she basically traded her work for a chocolate chip granola bar. Before eating the sweet treat, she made herself comfortable and then ate the snack as she slowly became a bit bored.

At this point in time, she felt rather annoyed at herself for being a 'bored'. Blake wasn't one to have nothing to do enough to make her anxious and have a headache. But, it was happening now. She shifted her position and bit her lower lip, staring at the slider of the window, debating on if she should just take a small peek toward the areas below. Guessing it was just the ocean, she opened pulled it up and peered outward, feeling her throat close up as her eyes went a little wide. Slamming it shut, yet again, she gulped in a few breaths of air before tucking a lock of dark brown hair behind her ear. Obviously it was a bad idea in the first place, but she just had to check.. just had to know. Hopefully, however, she hoped that she wouldn't convince herself to look out it again.. it was too creepy to be up this high in the sky. Heights were not her worst fear, but they were a fear nonetheless. She wasn't one who wanted to die and, well, if the plane crashed, then they would fall into the whirlwinds of the sea. The sea was beautiful and all, but she often killed a lot of people for her own enjoyment, forcing water down their throats and gagging them until they can no longer breathe.. Enough to make them re-surface as a stiff, where no one will ever find that person again, because the sea had eaten them up in the end. Of course, this all had been in a book that Blake had read last night. Wasn't that a bright idea? To read a book about the ocean before flying over one the next day. Boy, was she a smart cookie or what.

After she calmed down a bit, the plane began to jerk a bit and, well, Blake gripped the seat as hard as she could as she tried to figure out what was going on. Feeling the familiar, yet unwanted tickle in her stomach of going downward at a fast pace, she couldn't help but feel her heart pound in her throat, panic striking her. Blinking back tears of fear, she took deep breaths, telling herself that everything was going to be okay. Except, that, it most likely wasn't because she was re-living her entire life. The memories of childhood, of her father, of her mother, of her sister, and of herself.. they all seemed to 'flash before her eyes'. Granted, she wouldn't have said that herself, because the saying is completely cliche, but that's exactly what she experiencing. Not knowing exactly how much time had passed since the first jerk and now, she tried to determine exactly what was going to happen. Okay. Things will be alright. They're going to find what's wrong, fix it as quickly as possible, and save us all. That's a good plan, right? Blake thought these things to herself and couldn't help but let out a hysterical laugh. Of course that wasn't going to happen.. the pilot's were baboons and couldn't fix the issue if they tried. Praying to dear God that she wouldn't die, she repeated it over and over as she watched other people continued to sleep.. all until the rather large CRASH

[/b].

The plane landed not so nicely onto a part of land and into part of the ocean. Blake's seatbelt held her lower body and yet, her upper half slammed hard against the seat in front of her. And then, she slammed her head on the side of the wall after being jerked that way by the movement of the plane. Screams, loud noises, creaking sounds, and even more things were what filled Blake's ears as she hurried to unbuckle herself and get out of the plane. Scrambling to grab her small bag, she suddenly smelled the scent of smoke.. of fire. Moving out of the seats in a rush, she looked up a bit and could see the flames licking a the interior of the plan, and was most likely devouring the exterior as well. Blake took a breath of smoky air and tried to think of all of her options, knowing that she didn't have many. Finally deciding to risk being burned, she shoved her way toward the front of the plane, elbowing random people and stepping on many toes of those freaking out. Finding a broken window nearer to land, she closed her eyes and pushed her small body through the hole, feeling the scrapes of the glass scratch her skin and even move deeper into her body. Gasping at the sudden pain the glass brought, she pushed herself out fully, falling into the ocean, but close enough to the shore that she could just barely stand. Adjusting her bag on her back, she attempted to run as fast as she could out of the water, feeling her blood soaking into the water itself.

Thoughts of the hungry sea filled in her mind, assuming that the sea probably missed the taste of blood, Blake shuddered. By now, however, she threw herself onto the sand, gasping in deep breaths of fairly clean air.. but it was enough, her heart began to pound and panic began to rise yet again inside of her. Choking on her own anxiety, she grabbed and scratched at her own throat, trying to breathe and rid the horrid thoughts out of her mind. Usually she had so much control.. she could usually handle disasters just like this one. But, obviously, she couldn't. Her hands clenches in the sands of the islands, her body squirming, her lungs feeling like their about to collapse. Blake attempts to take off her bag, enough to open the smallest compartment, her hands shaking as she tries to grab the inhaler located there. But, it just wasn't that easy. No, instead, her hands shook so badly that she dropped the much-needed necessity into the water itself. A dry and unheard scream erupted from her throat, making it even harder for herself, she jumped for her inhaler, the sand rubbing into her wounds as her pale hands finally grasp the small miracle of air. Blake propped herself up enough to take in three puffs, her lungs finally filling with air, tears streaming down her face as she continues to catch her breath.[/size][/blockquote][/blockquote]

[sara]

There was something about airplanes and airports that Bianca had always found sort of exhilarating: being around people of different origins, the excitement of going somewhere new, and the feeling of leaving her own careworn world behind for but a summer. The only thing that sat a bit uneasy with her was the fact that they were traveling pretty much halfway around the world. She traveled generally light and made sure to pack strictly necessities, gladly leaving out the needless stuff, such as excessive makeup and clothing that most people would expect a girl like her to lug around with every little trip she made. The thought of it caused her to roll her eyes. A couple of ipod ear buds were lodged in her ears as she listened to some quiet music, quiet enough so that she could also hear what was going on around her. The murmuring of people and the hum of the plane was what had initially lulled her to sleep, her head leaning against the side of her seat.

Soon she felt the sudden queasiness of the airplane going down at an incredible speed. She gasped right before waking up, pulling her ear phones violently out of her ears. All she heard was screams, a large scraping commotion in the back of metal against metal and then blackness and silence had overtaken her senses. It felt like only minutes before her eyes opened once again. She found herself lying on her back, her vision of pale blue and grey. She couldn’t feel anything but heat at the moment. Sound was not reaching her hears, everything was muffled as if she were wearing ear plugs. Her vision sharpened as she realized she was staring into a completely covered sky by black smoke, which was only occasionally broken to show that there was indeed a sky behind the mass. Understanding dawned on her of what must have happened, which caused her stomach to almost loose her last meal.

It was when the smell reached her nose, however, was when Bianca became completely aware of her surroundings and she tried to jolt herself up, which she only made it up to propping herself with her elbows behind her. She regained her hearing as well within the second. There were some cries, shouts, and of those that were struggling. With that, her breathing began coming a bit faster; she accidently inhaled some of the smoke, causing a raspy coughing fit. God, it hurt to breath. It almost felt like her lungs were rejecting all air at this point. After her breathing had steadied once more, she looked down at the rest of her body. Her arms were bruised and dirtied, but her legs were covered in blood, one of them half hidden under a large piece of metal from the plane.

She bit her lip to keep from crying out at the sickening sight. Her eyes shifted to the side and it was then that she realized that she was lying right next to the split fuselage. Her seat was close to where it had cracked and saw that she may have been thrown out of her seat by the pure impact of the fallen plane. Some passengers were still lodged in their seats, struggling to get out. Bianca looked once again where her leg had been pinned to the ground and decided to try and move it out. Her left leg, despite the trickling, dark blood felt fairly fine and could move easily, but the right one that was pinned down hurt like hell when she tried to even struggle away from the offensive piece of metal.

The initial pain after she moved nearly brought tears to her eyes, as it was very sharp and relentlessly throbbing. The pain caused her to immediately stop moving her leg. The smoke was beginning to choke her again. She knew with slight embarrassment at her situation that she needed help. It was most likely that something was broken and she couldn’t move with that heavy piece of metal on her leg. With that she looked around, specifically for people. A couple of individuals ran past her, probably trying to help others or attend to their own wounds. Bianca tried to get their attention, but the smoke and dryness had completely parched her throat, only allowing her to give off a soft, cracked plea, “Please.. someone.” Her eyes widened in panic when she realized that she had to get out before the fire grew worse or even if the growing smoke suffocated her to death. With that, her raspy voice grew louder and more desperate.

[sam]

She tried to pull herself together. Something that was way more easier said then done. The beach was burning or so it looked from where she stood. Get yourself together girl she said to herself over and over again. Her breathing pattern was uneven and when that went back to normal she was a little reveled. Her legs weren't stable but at least she didn't have the 'i am going to fall over any second now' feeling. With her right hand she went to her head and wiped away all the wet hair that clinched there to her face.

She saw several other stumble around on the beach. Everybody was confused, and everybody probably had the same main questions. She felt helpless at the moment and since she was fourteen she had never felt that way. She didn't want to feel that way she wasn't exactly someone to follow a leader but at this moment they really needed one. An adult for crying out loud was there an adult over here. Wasn't there anyone who knew why they were in the middle of now where standing close to a burning plane.

She also noticed that several people were hurt. She only knew the very basics of first aid and this was clearly nod enough to help them. She, on this moment, didn't know what to do with her own injuries. She tried to figure out what was the best course of action for her at the moment. Then she heard the screams of a girl, by the sound of it, still in the plane. Probably dieing, but she herself was in no condition to save anyone. And that went against everything her parents had told her about survival but it wasn't right to just let her die either.

She hoped that someone else would safe the girl, she did not know who it was that was crying out for help but no one deserved a faith like this one. No one deserved to die this way. That again made her wonder about the death tole. How many had died when they plane started to burn and how many were dieing in there. It was as if her world had turned up side down. From the rich kid with seemingly no problems to the stranded girl surrounded by hurt and dieing people. She would need serious therapy after this.

Here she was assuming that they would get off this island. She was in a daze but then she felt the cold sea water hit her ankles she was back again. She snapped out of her face and looked around. Her hand once more over her face as if she was guessing what had happened. She was but she was more guessing on the what would happen now question. Her fast beating heart was slowing down good she didn't want to have an attack.

But someone here had to know what to do. Someone here had to take control right? This wasn't like a silly survival show on TV this was for real. And while she always had said that those players for the silly survival show had it hard. She had a feeling, a feeling that they – the survivors- would get it harder. Way harder.