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Post by Qwerty333 on Jan 10, 2009 13:51:23 GMT -5
Chapter 1: The Wreck Friday, the best day of the week. Everyone is in a good mood, the classes are more fun, and there is almost never homework. We did have one assignment in Language Arts, though. "This weekend," my teacher, Ms. Davis, said, "your assignment is to write about the most fascinating experience in your life. It MUST be true, and it has to be at least three pages long. Class dismissed." The bell rang, and everyone ran out of the room, ready for the weekend. I heard shouts of "See you tonight, Trevor!", and "Hey, Katie, how's it going?" That's all you would hear at school after the bell on Friday. I was especially excited, because I was going to leave for a fishing trip with my friend, Jon, on Saturday morning. We were both finally 15, old enough that our parents let us take the boat out for a one-day fishing trip. When I got home, I didn't know what to do. I started on my homework, but my mind drew a blank. What fascinating things had I ever done? I didn't know, but I figured I would just blow it off until Sunday night. I played some video games, went to the pool, ate dinner, and, at 11:00, finally went to bed. As Jon and I packed up the boat to go fishing the next morning, I noticed he looked worried. "Are you okay?" I asked. "Yeah," he said, "I'm fine- just- fine. But I have this feeling something might go wrong. How strong is this boat?" "Stronger than will ever be." "You sure?" I gave him one of the "What do you think?" looks that I give him a lot. I told Jon that this boat was completely reliable, and that he didn't have to be a little sissy all the time. Of course, I would soon find out how wrong I was about that… Once we were 19 or 20 miles off shore, we saw an island in the distance, about 30 miles away, looking like a dot on the horizon. We decided to drive towards it (we were using a motorboat), when all of a sudden, SCREEEEEEEEEECH! "AHHHHHH!!!" As the boat collided with the colossal underwater rock, Jon was thrown off the boat and into the icy water. He was the best friend I had ever had, and I would have jumped in to save him even if he was wearing his life jacket, which he wasn't, but neither was I. I strapped the emergency food container to my back with spare ropes, and jumped in after him. As I plunged into the water, the cold shock hit me like a thousand little knives, tearing away at me. I knew instantly that if I didn't get out of the water within five or ten minutes, I would be fish food. But if I didn't save Jon, HE would be fish food, too. I took the more dangerous choice- I swam down as deep as I could to find him, but he wasn't there. It was as if I was surrounded only by the impossibly cold, dark water, and my friend had completely disappeared. I knew he was gone, so I made a choice that I would deeply regret for the rest of my life- I gave up the search for Jon, and swam away, hoping that Jon knew I had tried to rescue him, but couldn't. Horrible possibilities ran through my head. Was he crushed by the boat? Did he not make it because of the cold? Was he swept away by the tide? Either way, I was about to be swept away, too. I fought the current with every ounce of strength I had, but I didn't have much strength, since the water was about forty degrees. If I didn't get out within one minute now, I wouldn't make it. As I fought the merciless current, I saw an island. It had that look that said "Go away, you aren't wanted on this island and you never will be," but I ignored it- I had a sudden blast of adrenaline, and I swam out of the current, and threw myself on the beach of the island, breathing air in and out so hard that my head hurt. Then I realized something very bad- I was alone. No people at all anywhere near me. Nobody within fifty miles. I was stranded on an uncharted, empty, uninhabited, desolate island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, a home for the most dangerous sharks in the world…
Chapter 2: STRANDED What would I do? What could I do? Sit and mope because I was stranded in the middle of the ocean? I did that for half an hour or so, and then remembered the emergency food supply. I discovered that inside, there were six chocolate bars, a couple of sandwiches, a milk jug, a water jug, a juice jug, a soda jug, some fruit, a pile of raw meat, and then something else. That something else was a different container. It had a Swiss Army Knife, a lighter, a box of matches, some lighter fluid, and a pistol- with no bullets in it. Oh, right- I had taken the gun from Jon because he was messing with it, then we fought over it, and, eventually, the bullet pack fell 25 meters to the bottom of the ocean. So, I put the gun back in the container- because you never know when you'll need a lethal weapon without the lethal. After a while of wondering what to do, I got to work with a fire. I took a short hike, and found some short, fallen trees that I could use for firewood. I took seven or eight trips to the woods, bringing three or four logs back each trip, and eventually had enough firewood to last a week! Then, I got some small sticks for kindling, and started to build a fire. It took a lot of time to build a fire with the materials I had, but, eventually, I did pretty well. But, there's a lesson to be learned when you are around fire. I had heard "Don't play with fire" a gazillion times, but the following story isn't for any reason that involved playing. I didn't do anything stupid; I just tried to start the fire, but sometimes, accidents happen… Chapter 3: Burned Eventually, I had a perfect setup for a fire. I had lots of firewood and kindling, a bucket of water to put the fire out, lighter fluid, and matches. I lit the matches, and when I barely touched the lighter fluid- WHOOOOOOSH!!! The firewood almost exploded, so I guess I put in too much lighter fluid. The fire started so fast that my hand was LIT ON FIRE! But it was only on fire for a second or two. Still, to save you time and a lot of pain, getting your hand lit on fire is not something you want to happen very often. I dumped the bucket of water on my hand, and it only made things worse. I had to rest that hand for the rest of that day and the day after that. Since I only had one free hand and I was stranded on an island and I had lots of chocolate, I ate well for those two days. I had no idea what was yet to come.
Chapter 4: Tsunami! After my hand was somewhat useable, I got back to work again. Every other day, I would go on a three hour search for Jon- because I knew that if I gave up looking for my best friend, I would never be able to forgive myself. One day, as I was starting the fire [carefully], and getting the meat ready, I heard a low rumbling sound. I was instantly terrified, because if you're on an island, low rumbling could only mean one thing- earthquake. You probably know what a Tsunami is, and that it's caused by an underwater earthquake. But this earthquake was ANYTHING but underwater. Suddenly, the ground split right between my legs. Now, I know this is getting to sound like those bad horror movies, but trust me, there is nothing like a bad horror movie in this book. I jumped off to one side of the crack, grabbing the food container and everything else I could. Suddenly, I noticed the ground had stopped moving. After five seconds of indescribable terror, it was over. But, like I said, earthquakes on an island usually cause tsunamis. I ran to the nearest shelter I could find- a small cave in a hill. On my way there, I noticed the number one sign of a tsunami. All of the water started to pull back, forming a small wave way off in the distance; so far I could barely see it. As the wave got closer, it got bigger, and soon, it was huge. This wasn't your average wave- this was a 100 foot tall wall of water, flying towards me at 150 miles per hour. I had seen tsunamis before, and I knew what I had coming. I realized that my little cave provided little, if any, defense for me. But what could I do? Go out and show that big bad tsunami my big bad muscles and scare it away? No. But I could hide in the corner of the cave screaming "I WANT MY MOMMY!!!" like a little girl. Instead of doing that, I decided that if I was going to be swept away, I would face the wave, and at least say my last words in dignity. Even though my last words would probably be "Glub glub glub glub," at least I would know what I was trying to say. So, I went out of the cave, faced the wave, and got swept away and drowned instantly. Just kidding. I did get swept away, but I fought the current just like I did in the first chapter. Then, unfortunately, a big rock carried by the wave hit me on the head. WUMP! Just like that, I was knocked out for three hours- or something like that. When I woke up, I had a headache so bad, you would get a headache trying to think how bad it was. I knew I would have to survive on my own, maybe even through another tsunami. Let me tell you- THAT is not fun.
Chapter 5: Discoveries I decided to start keeping track of the date, starting at June 14, which is the day I was first stranded. It was day 3, I found out, and by now, the food supply was almost gone. One day, as I woke up, I suddenly noticed something. There was a HUGE mound of sand near my little camp site, probably ten or eleven feet tall, maybe more. So, being the crazy idiot I am, I unfortunately went over to inspect the giant mound… As I got closer to the pile, I could see tiny black dots, scurrying around, in and out of it. Suddenly, I saw what they were- black widows! I didn't know why they were here on an island, but I didn't care, either. All I wanted was to run away, run away to a far away place with good food, no spiders, lots of roller coasters, ice cream, and PEOPLE! I knew I couldn't go too much longer without other people around- I would go insane. So, anyway, I was frozen with fear staring at the black widows who were staring at me staring at them. I let out a long, quiet, "eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeek!", and then ran. Ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran and ran until I found the lake. The lake had what I needed most- a small cave right on the very surface of it. I didn't know it, but there was a certain someone in the cave. That certain someone was Jon.
Chapter 6: A Beautiful Day for a Swim (Sorta) The cave was small- probably 6 feet tall and four feet wide. I decided to go in it just to find what I could find (nothing). It was day 6, and I had enough food for one more day. Thankfully, the emergency kit had- wait, no. The pistol was useless. Unless you would like to try pistol whipping an animal until it was dead. So, before thinking twice, I jumped in the ice cold water… SPLASH! The water was fre- wait, no. It wasn't freezing. It was actually hot! It had to be at least ninety or so degrees. I swam around for 10 or 15 minutes, found some really cool plants that I had never seen before, and then saw a ledge. I climbed up onto the ledge, and out jumped a dark, dark- nothing. I decided to explore the path that led away from the ledge. I walked down, past pools of water, little crabs scurrying around, and other random junk you would expect to find in a cave. I kept walking down the pathway for a while, then started to wonder- how long would it take to get to the other end of the tunnel? What would I find there? It was getting very dark- but I had brought my waterproof supply backpack that had everything I would need in it. "AHHH!" I heard a CRACK, and then everything was gone. Chapter 7: Deep Down in the Cave I stood up, surprised, not knowing I was in a cave, then remembered what happened. The rock that had landed on me lay on the ground in the cave. I picked it up, and figured it was about four pounds. I decided to forget what had happened (I'm stupid like that), and kept walking through the cave. Splosh, splosh, splosh. I stepped in a puddle after traveling in the cave for about five more minutes. Then I noticed that all the light was gone after I got past a couple of other puddles of cold water. I turned around- and I could no longer see the light from where I had started. How long had I been in the cave? Had I somehow moved to a whole new path in the cave after being hit by the rock? Would I ever get back? I had tons of questions, but couldn't answer any of them. I decided to reach into my backpack to get out my flashlight and some food. As I reached in, I realized something terrible- There was only a piece of cheese left in it. So, as most people would do, I conserved the cheese, put it back into my backpack and turned my flashlight on. Then I started thinking, will that cheese be the last thing I ever eat? Will I get a chance to eat it, or will I be smashed to smithereens before I even try to eat it? Many, many, many, many horrible thoughts ran through my head about- well, I shouldn't be telling you what was going through my head. You would probably go and jump off a cliff. By now, I was really creeping myself out, so I reluctantly kept on walking. Splosh, splosh…
Chapter 8: I See a Light…
Now, as I told you, my flashlight was on, but as I kept walking, I saw a tiny light way, way far away. The light started to get brighter and brighter. I stepped about ten yards back and the light started to get dimmer. This was a little… no, this was VERY odd. But then I thought, I have nothing else to do but to keep going. So I did, and the light became brighter and brighter again, until it was almost blinding. Then… I saw it. The end of the cave- but there were lamps everywhere. It looked almost like someone had set up camp, and in the middle I saw a human like figure, sitting down, mysteriously.
Now the figure didn't look too large, so I figured if he (or maybe she) started to try to fight me, I might be able to take him/her. However, I was frightened like a fly on a frog's tongue. I couldn't tell if it was a human, an alien, or maybe a giant muffin. Finally, I decided to speak. "Hello?" I said quietly. Startled, the figure jumped around to face me. It said "Why are y-y-you here?" Strangely, the voice sounded familiar. "I came here for protection and shelter" I said, now a little more confident.
"Are you going to hurt me?" It said.
"Why would I do that?"
"Oh, uh, never mind" said the voice. Then, as I stepped closer to the figure it started to look more and more familiar. "Jon, is that you?" I asked.
"What? Oh, yes, it's me!"
"Oh my gosh!" I yelped "What happened, how are you alive?"
"I really don't know," He replied. "I just woke up and I was on an island, which you must have swum to!"
"Yea!" I exclaimed.
"I thought I would never see you again."
"I felt the same way! Wait, do you have any food?"
"Just two fish and a crab. Do you have anything?"
"Just some cheese… and not much of it."
"Oh, well I think we should get out of here," he suggested.
"Good idea."
We started the long trip back. I told Jon about EVERYTHING! I told about my hand, the Tsunami (which, according to him was probably the reason that the water level in the cave raised so much), and about all of the black widows. When we finally reached the end, we set up camp (very far away from the black widows). We were exhausted, and it was night, so we hit the sack.
Chapter 9: It's a Trap! Day nine. We were out of food, and Jon was throwing up from the heat. We were tired, hungry, and scared. We had only seen a couple of animals, but they were too small and fast to be worth catching and eating. We were desperate. One day, we both went almost insane. We had to keep under control, or it would be over for both of us. Eventually, after he was done throwing up, I made a suggestion. "Let's go for a walk."
"Why would we go for a walk?"
"Because if we're going to stay alive, we might as well explore the island and see if we can find any food."
"Oh, yes. There's LOTS of food around here," he replied sarcastically.
"Come on, we don't have anything else to do."
"Yea- we do have stuff to do. We can sit here and wait peacefully for the end to come."
I walked away, knowing he would follow me. It worked. We had made a promise that we would never go anywhere alone on the island, and I knew Jon would never break a promise.
We walked along the beach for about thirty or forty minutes. Then, after that, we went back to the cave from two days before. Well, actually, we went back to what used to be a cave, but was now the shattered remains of a cave. I realized there was water shooting out of cracks and other small openings that were left, and knew that Jon would ask me a question. He did. "When we left the cave, did you think about what could have happened?"
"What do you mean?" I said.
"Well, the cave is destroyed. How long do you think we could have stayed alive in there?"
"I think we could have stayed alive until we died."
"Nevermind", he said, annoyed. I wasn't trying to annoy Jon; I was simply trying to be logical. Sorta. Anyway, we went back to the beach, and, as we got to what was left of our camp, we heard a sound. It sounded like something I had heard before, but I couldn't remember what. Then Jon heard it, too. I think he asked me what it was, but I'm not sure. I was too happy to hear anything except the mysterious sound. Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh. I came closer, and closer, and closer, and then I knew it. I was so happy, I screamed. I ran around, happier than I had ever been before. "What IS it?!" Jon shouted at me. I was still too happy. I was so happy, laughing so hard, I barely had enough breath to choke out "HELICOPTER!!!" Then, Jon caught the happiness, and we were both running around in circles, happier than any human being has ever been. The helicopter landed, about thirty feet away, and two people got out, wearing dark suits. "Who are you? What's your name? Where did you come from?" They asked us a billion questions, but we didn't answer. We just kept running in circles. Finally, we stopped, too out of breath to keep going. They asked us a billion questions again, and we answered them. Yes, we're from America. Yes, we're the two kids who went missing nine days ago. Yes, we're hungry. Yes, we would love to ride in a helicopter. It went on and on and on for almost an hour. Then, they took us to the helicopter, which was surprisingly huge, and we both jumped on two cots they had, and fell asleep instantly.
Later that night, we were both awake. We called out their names, which, they had told us, were Jason and Michael. We realized they weren't in the helicopter, so we decided to look around. The helicopter, like I said, was huge. It even had a file cabinet. "Hey Jon" I said.
"What?"
"Let's look in here."
"Why? It's their file cabinet, and it might have private stuff or something inside it that they want to keep secret."
I continued opening the drawers.
"Stop snooping around!" he complained.
"I'm not snooping." I replied. "I'm rifling through their drawers to see what lies within. And if you ask me, secrets aren't nice. And besides, if we look at it, it won't be a secret anymore, so it won't matter." This argument went on for a while, and, finally, Jon agreed. One peek inside each drawer, and then leave whatever belonged to the pilots alone.
It was when we looked in the file cabinet that we knew something was wrong. We looked in the top drawer, and just found papers, pencils, and old flight paths. In the second drawer, we found a set of headphones to communicate with the control center at the airports they landed at, and an iPod Nano. When we opened the bottom drawer, we knew that we should run. Fast. Now. But we didn't. We just looked at it. The bottom drawer had three Beretta 9 millimeter pistols, with ten rounds for each of the deadly weapons. "Jon, I think we have to go now."
"I agree," He said.
"I agree too." We spun around, and saw Michael and Jason, our seemingly nice so-called rescuers, standing in the doorway of the helicopter. Each one of them held- actually, they weren't holding anything. They were just real scary looking. I knew they were going to attack us, so I stood up, ready to fight until the bitter end, no matter how bitter it was. Suddenly, they were both gone! I thought it was some sort of trick, but then I heard Jon yell, and I turned around to see that the pilots could move incredibly fast. Jason was holding Jon against the wall, and Michael was already running toward me. He hit me like a bus hitting a twig, and I was thrown to the ground instantly. He yanked me up, and tried to put my hands behind my back in a very painful bending position. But I was somehow too fast for him. I spun around, lashing out with my foot and nailing him right in the jaw. He didn't even cry out. He just fell to the floor and lay there. "One down!" I shouted to Jon.
"Good for you. Let's… make it… two!" He was barely able to talk, and I noticed Jason would do anything to get Jon out of the way. Even choking him seemed to be an option. I knew the last resort would be much worse. I ran over to the filing cabinet, and, as my last resort to save my friend's life, I took out the gun. Jason froze, and released Jon from his grip. Jon fell to the floor, unconscious at this point.
I knew I wouldn't shoot Jason. I didn't have the guts to end a person's life. But the gun had the desired effect. I dropped it, and ran towards Jason, hitting him with everything I had, which was, in this case, my hands, my feet, and my head. He didn't stand a chance. No matter how scary the pilots looked, they weren't very strong. Jason was down in a few seconds. I had accidentally broken his nose, but it did the trick. I then realized that I was alone in a helicopter with three unconscious people. One would wake up and help me, and the other two- they wouldn't be happy.
Chapter 10: The Way it Ends I am now officially freaked out. It's been almost twenty minutes, and no one, not Jon, Michael, or Jason, had moved. Had Jason- when he was holding Jon against the wall- no. I wouldn't let myself think that Jon had been killed by Jason. But had I done something horrible to Michael or Jason? Of course not. I had broken Jason's nose, but that's never KILLED someone, right? Suddenly, I heard a noise. "Ugh". It was Jon. "What happened?"
"You got choked by Michael and almost died."
"Hmm. Fun," He replied.
"Very."
"So... what happened to Michael and whatshisface?"
"You're forgetting stuff now," I said. "That's not good. His name is Jason. If you're wondering what happened, I kicked Michael in the jaw, and I broke Jason's nose."
"So you're a combat warrior, huh?"
"It's Thursday, and it's also time to stop joking around. We have to find a way out of here." I said. I knew we had to leave fast. Surely there was a radio transmitter or something? After endless searching and listening to Jon complain about being hungry, I found a small black box. It looked pretty old, and I was unsure weather or not it worked. I found a small blue button that said "POWER", and pushed it. Nothing happened. Suddenly, Jon screamed. I jumped and whirled around to see what had happened. I froze. Jason was attacking Jon, kicking him and trying unsuccessfully to choke him again. Michael was holding the pistol. I knew he would shoot me. I could tell by the look in his eyes. He pulled the trigger, and I heard a small CRACK. I looked down. What I expected was blood spewing out, but there was none. I realized that the explosive CRACK was the gun going off, then jamming. Michael, I can tell you, wasn't all that happy when he, too, discovered that the gun was jammed. He threw it on the floor and charged at me. I was ready for this, given the thirty seconds he spent by standing there like an idiot. So, I simply stuck out my foot, and, well, you know. He fell to the floor, and, just for the fun of it, I stepped on him as I ran over to save Jon. He was putting up a great fight, I can say that. But I think he needed some help. I decided to use the good old pile drive for my entrance in the fight.
This time around, Jason was giving all he had. He coiled up, then lurched away, throwing me into a nearby wall. Michael, up again, ran towards the file cabinet, and grabbed the other gun. Click! Everything stopped. Jason sat up, but didn't move more. Jon stood motionless next to me. I didn't move either, because I knew what was coming. I didn't want it to happen. Jon didn't want it to happen. Even Jason looked like he didn't want it to happen. But Michael wanted it to happen.
"Have a nice life," he said. "What's left of it." The shot was deafening! Jon screamed. Jason looked away. I knew it was over. There were two BANGS, one shot whizzed past my head, missing me by a centimeter. The other found it's target. I screamed in pain, and fell to the floor. I had been hit in the arm. The pain was worse than I could have ever imagined! The last thing I saw was Michael standing over me, with Jason and Jon sitting in the background, whispering quietly. About me, probably. Then, everything went black…
I woke up a few hours later, according to my watch. By now, it was three o' clock in the morning, and Michael and Jason were asleep. Jon was sitting next to me. He finally noticed me moving. "Is your arm okay?" He asked. "We put bandages on it." I noticed my arm was covered with disinfectant and huge band-aids.
"What do you mean, we?"
"It turns out Jason was waaay against the idea of you being shot, as was I. Michael went to bed, saying something about escaping this place, and Jason followed," He said. "I waited here, though." I thought about this for a minute.
"So," I said, after a while. "Jason is with us?"
"Not exactly. But he's with us a lot more than Michael."
"But Michael tried to shoot me! He even pulled the trigger! How could Jason, a good friend of him, even kind of be with us?"
"I don't know." Jon said. "But that doesn't matter. We have to get off of this Island, and that's all I care about."
"I'd love to, you know, persuade them!"
"Huh?"
"Point a gun at them and tell them to fly to a city. Then we can turn them in, and go back home."
"I like that," he said, nodding. "I like it a lot."
"Well, then," I said. "Let's get started."
Chapter 11: S.O.S. "GOOD MORNING, EVIL PEOPLE!" I screamed. "I'M YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE!" Jason and Michael both jumped up, then ducked back down when they saw the guns that Jon and I were holding. "I SAID GET UP!" I bellowed, in my most annoying, crazy voice. No matter how dangerous the situation was, we couldn't keep from laughing a little. The pilots slowly got up. "NOW!" I continued. "LET'S GO TO OUR WONDERFUL COCKPIT!" We walked there, and told them to sit in the pilot chairs. "NOW, START 'ER UP!" I said. Michael pressed a few buttons and turned a key. Whhoooooosh, whoooooosh, wooosh, woosh, shhhhhh. I heard the rotors start speeding up. Suddenly, the ground disappeared, and we were in the air.
"What now?" Michael asked
"FLY TO THE NEAREST CITY!" I yelled.
"Orlando it is," he replied. I turned around, and saw a small crack in the wall. There was a little hole, which I tore more out of, until I saw some wires. Making sure I wasn't being watched by anyone, I cut one wire with some scissors that were on the floor. I would only learn later how bad a choice that was. Pretending like I didn't do anything, I looked out the window, and saw the Pacific Ocean, stretching out to the horizon, far below us. I thought about what we would do when we landed. Where would we land? And what would everyone think when they saw two kids coming out of a helicopter with guns trained on the heads of two pilots? I didn't know, and I really didn't want to find out. If we were carted off to jail, fine with me. At least we would get food and decent shelter. Suddenly, my thoughts were interrupted by an explosive "BEEP! BEEP! BEEP!", The helicopter whirled violently around in two circles. "Oh-" Jason said. The rest of his foul sentence was drowned out by the beeping noise. "What's happening?!" I shouted.
"Engine malfunction- the rotors are spinning too fast and are almost too weak to hold on!" Michael replied. ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ- SCRRREEEEEEECH- WHUMP! I had half a second to watch one of the four rotors fly off the top of the helicopter, shoot past the window, hit the helicopter violently, and continue down into the ocean. The helicopter started to rock rapidly, then tilted alarmingly forward and to the right. "Almost too weak?" I thought. "Try weak enough to fly into the ocean." Suddenly, we were spinning wildly, twisting, flipping, and spiraling. Everybody was flung off the floor and into some surrounding object. I hit the file cabinet. BANG! BANG! The gun fired two shots. BANG! Jon's gun fired as he hit the floor. Michael and Jason were flung around like rag dolls, hitting walls, floors, and chairs. Michael screamed. Jason screamed. Jon screamed. I screamed. The engine screamed. The wind screamed. The alarm screamed. Everything seemed to be screaming as we continued our horrifying, spiraling plunge, down into the cold, blue ocean below. Down to our deaths…
FWOOSH!!!! BOOOOM!!!! The helicopter slammed into the water just as the engine exploded. Jon and I, along with Michael and Jason, were flung many feet into the air. I'm pretty sure I went the highest of all, and when I hit the water, everything went black for a few seconds. I woke up about a dozen feet below the surface, so I swam back up, my lungs burning, to find out where I was exactly. For one, I was next to a lifeboat, which Jon and Jason pulled me into. "Where's Michael?" I asked. Jason's reply was unexpected.
"When the engine of the helicopter exploded, Michael was so close to it. The shock from the explosion knocked him out and…" He trailed off. I knew what he was going to say and I didn't want to hear it. Michael was dead. He was at the bottom of the ocean, killed by a helicopter accident, never to be seen or heard from again. I knew I had done it. I had cut the wire. I had caused some reaction that had led to the death of a helicopter pilot. I had to tell.
"Jason?" I said quietly.
"What." He didn't say it like a question, he just said it.
"I'm sorry. I'm sorry for attacking you. I'm sorry for almost shooting you. And… I'm sorry… for killing Michael. I cut one of the wires sticking out of the wall, and I guess that's what made the helicopter rotors spin too fast."
I waited for him to throw me into the ocean and curse me into oblivion, but he didn't. Instead, he started laughing! Laughing and hopping up and down as if he was happy Michael died! I think he was, because he screamed, "THANK YOU!!!" right in my face.
"Why are you thanking me?" I asked. "I KILLED your friend!"
"FRIEND?! You thought he was my FRIEND?!" Suddenly, he tilted alarmingly to the left, and fell on the floor of the lifeboat.
"Jason! Are you okay???" Jon said, obviously scared out of his mind. It turned out Json was laughing!
"Of course I'm okay!!! Do you know who Michael WAS?" More laughing.
"No," We both said.
"He was a SERIAL KILLER! He went around killing people for no reason! He took me hostage, and went to find you two because he had heard about it on the news! He forced me to help him find and kill you two, but I'm FREE!!! I'M FREEE!!!!!" I looked at Jon, who was standing there, gawking and making strange noises. "Bu- did- how do- when-" This went on for awhile. Jason was still laughing the whole time. I seemed to be the only person there at the moment that didn't belong in the Wacky Shack in a pretty white jacket while drinking funny colored water.
Later that night, we still didn't know where we were. Were we floating towards Antarctica? Were we near Florida? Were we off the coast of Japan? I didn't know, but I really wanted to find out. We had paddles, but didn't know where to row to, so we left them on the floor. We decided to make a flare using gasoline, a match, a paddle, and something to stand on, all of which we had in the boat. Jon tried to unscrew the small gas jug while Jason set up a small platform using the seats in the lifeboat that he tore off the sides. I dried the paddles, and eventually we were all ready. I stood on the chair. Jon poured gasoline on the wider part of the paddle. Jason held the box of matches, waiting to light one. We would stay like this until a cruise ship came in sight, then we would light it and scream really loudly. We waited, and waited, and waited. I could hear the dramatic music in my head. We waited, and waited, and waited. Suddenly, off in the distance, we saw a bright glow, reflecting off the surface of the ocean. Jason lit the match.
Chapter 12: Rescued Once again, everything was screaming. The paddle was blazing, and my fingers were about to be burnt. But I didn't care. I hadn't eaten for three days, I was filthy, and I needed to see another human. Suddenly, we saw thousands of lights. It WAS a cruise ship. We all screamed louder. Jon put the whole gasoline jug on top of the paddle, and it exploded, sending me to the floor of the boat. I got right back up on the chair, and shouted out when I saw the flare. FWOOOSH!!!! BOOOM!!!!! A white flare lit up the sky like daytime, and the ship changed course. It was headed directly for us now, only about a mile away, and we could see tiny clumps on the deck. People- crowded around the rails to see what was going on. When it was about a hundred yards away, I heard people shouting, 'It's those kids from the news! And that missing pilot!". The boat pulled up, and a roar came up from the crowd. We were hauled up on the boat, and people shot questions at us like flaming missiles. I only heard a few words, before I passed out with relief…
I woke up in the hospital. I had a cast on my foot (did I break it?), and a bunch of IV cords stuck in me. A really good-looking nurse walked in. "Oh, you're awake!" she said cheerfully. "My name is Stacy, so if you ever need anything, just call my name. Are you hungry?"
"Yes, but it has nothing to do with the fact that I was stranded on an island for ten days, if that's what you were asking." She laughed.
"What would you like?"
"I'll gladly pay you Tuesday for a hamburger today." I said in a goofy voice. That was the one line I had ever heard from Pop-Eye, an old TV show. Stacy knew what it meant, I guess, because she laughed again. "You don't need to pay me, I'll be right back." Five minutes and seventeen seconds later, she was back with the best hamburger I had ever tasted. After I ate the hamburger, which took all of three seconds, I asked her a question.
"Where was I on that island?"
"About 120 miles offshore of Texas. You floated south and ended up near Florida." she replied.
"Where am I now?"
"Children's Medical Center in Dallas."
"Okay, good to know. But where's Jon?"
"Jon? Oh, you mean your friend?"
"Yes" I said. "The one that I was with the entire time. That Jon. And also, where's Jason?"
"Jon is in a room right down the hall, and Jason is in a different hospital."
"Okay, what about the bullet wound in my arm?" I didn't know what would happen, and as long as it didn't involve any surgery, I would be fine.
"You will have an operation to get whatever's left of that bullet out of your arm next week," she said. Just my luck. I've had so much bad luck. When I die, I'll have to remember to ask someone why I got such a raw deal. Bullets? Operations? Starvation? Yea. Not the greatest course of events if you really want to be living your life to the fullest.
"Okay," she continued. "I have to check on another patient, so just press that button if you need me." I looked at the orange button with a stick figure on it. I would much rather have a hot young nurse come to my rescue than I would a pencil sketch.
I knew what I had been through, and how dangerous it was. But I knew also that I was lucky. I decided to do more things outside of school. I started playing the guitar, I joined a baseball team. I learned how fast I could run on the island, so I took up running track. Then, I started to write. I learned that I loved it. So, I started to write a book, and I had it published recently. Want to know where to find it? You already found it. In fact, you've just finished reading it.
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