Island Rush (28 page)

“You can’t expect me to just let you do this and probably die. Is that what this is? Are you giving up? You really that weak, huh?” He pushed, anger flooding him.  It was obvious though he was having a hard time keeping that tough-guy face.

I gave him another reason why I wanted to do this.  “No! I can do this because I am not weak!  We are here and not leaving. That’s the simple truth.  Think long-term.  We need things to help us live.  Do you know the stuff we could find? My phone still worked that day!  With how many things that plane is holding, we could have a chance of finding another.  And for whatever reason, luggage keeps coming up – apparently including carry-on bags.  That means there is probably easy access.”

He shook his head. “It’s not worth it! Yes, we could go down there and leave safely with a lot of supplies. And it would probably happen; it looks much closer than I thought and it can’t be that deep. But it is a huge risk, one I’m not going to let you take.  If you want me to apologize—”

“That is the last thing I need from you!”

“I don’t understand your goal in this.”

“I don’t understand what you don’t understand. 
I am going!
” I stressed those last words.

His breath became shallow.  Mr. Rush stayed silent for a long moment. “If you get us killed down there…”

I nearly laughed!  How could he think he was going?  Scoffing, I spoke in a harder voice.  “I’m going. You’re not. I don’t need a goddamn babysitter!”

“I’m going. That’s how it’s going to be.  Or I will literally haul you back to camp right now.”

I searched his furious expression after taking in his harsh warning. His eyes gave away just how worried and scared he was.  I didn’t want him doing this with me.  I had to prove I could do this — without his help.  But if it were him going or nothing, I would have to deal with it.  I needed to do this.

It took me a minute to answer. “Fine. There were air pockets down there before. Do you think they are still there?”

He nodded, looking confident with his answer. “The plane is far down, but not far enough for much pressure.  Some air should still be down there.  There was quite a lot when we were getting out.”

He let go of me after a moment but did not look okay doing it.  He appeared ready to slap me and beg me at the same time. Saying nothing else, he strode out past me into the deeper water. I followed him out into the sharp rocks along the bottom. It started to get rougher. Soon, there was no bottom.  The water was over our heads this far out.  He stayed close to me while we swam further out to safety; I honestly just wanted to be far from this man.

This didn’t mean there was forgiveness between us. No, there was no choice in this. I know he would have hauled me back up if I said no to him coming. I honestly wasn’t sure if I would still have the guts to sneak back and try again like I said, so it was either this or nothing. And I was dead set on doing this.

When he finally stopped swimming out, he looked down and around him many times until he faced me.  His eyes looked ready to explode with emotion. “You stay behi—”

“I am done with you. I told you that, and it’s also what you wanted. You’re here on your own, and I just happen to be here at the same time. You go your way, I go mine.”

He looked ready to break, but he didn’t. Averting his eyes from mine, he responded.  “That’s fine. But you need to know where you’re going so follow me first. You’ll want air more than anything by the time you get down there.  You won’t get to the air bubbles in time without me to show you where it is.”  His voice sounded dead while strangely reasonable.  He brought up a very good point.  I guess it was better he was coming.

“Okay,” I said, getting impatient with the continuous rocking of the waves.

“I’m serious. Take the biggest breath you can and stay close.”

I nodded reluctantly. The second he inhaled and went under, I did the same.

The second I was under, I opened my eyes only to immediately close them.  The salt water burned my eyes, which I needed to get over.  I continued kicking hard and opened my eyes, forcing myself to follow Mr. Rush as he went deeper. I started to worry more and more the farther down we went. It hadn’t even come into sight until I was already nearly out of breath! The pressure against my body didn’t help.  It became harder with each second.  It was relieving when I managed to see something besides him.

It was insane to think the plane crashed this close to the island.  That was how we were able to see it after swimming for what left like forever.  It was a huge mass, laying there at the bottom, on rocks.  If it were out any further, in deeper waters, there would have been no hope to even reaching it. 

When we got close enough, Mr. Rush grabbed something on the side of the plane, keeping him still.  At this point, I was close to panicking. We needed air now.  He knew it too.  He turned to face me, grabbed my hand, and roughly pulled me with him through an opening on the side of the plane.  He wasn’t careful about it either. 

A red haze filled my vision through the water as he rushed us into the plane.  That second, a loud noise came from him, muffled in the water. He kept pulling me along, guiding me down the aisle and towards the back of the plane.

I didn’t completely realize I would be forced to see the bodies of my classmates and internally scolded myself. I guess I didn’t put much thought into it. No, an understatement. I hadn’t thought about much at all. I just did it. I didn’t bother to consider the internal consequences.

The water was tinted red ahead of me still.  It started to get blocked out though by my spotty vision thanks to the pressure. My chest was ready to explode, but finally, we reached the back of the plane.  We came up into one of the air pockets on the ceiling of the plane.

We both inhaled deeply. I looked to Mr. Rush in the small space and saw him wince, his eyes squinting with a twitch of movement. “What is it?” I asked, dreading what I now suspected was the red haze.

“I’m fine,” he said close to my face, breath shaky. “Don’t waste the air. Grab what you can, fling it out and up from the opening. There are more air pockets up near first class.”

“Okay,” I said, trying to sound sure.

He was about to go back under but stopped himself.  “Don’t put a bag of irrelevant things before you. You want out, start swimming. Don’t worry about me. I’m going to move to where the luggage is, under the plane. There is a way in there.  Deal with the carry-ons,” he said.

He didn’t give me a chance to argue before he was back under again. I took another deep breath and went under with him. He went in one direction, moving towards the opening while I went in another, moving down the aisle. Mr. Rush out of sight, I remained in the hall, staring at all the bodies. I had to block it out and get this done.  Easier said than done.

There were so many bodies.  People.  Each of them was still strapped into their seats.  When we crashed, most people were stunned instantly by the impact or the shattering of the windows.  And if it wasn’t that, they drowned from screaming.  To know that each one of these people died in one of those ways was tormenting.  Especially because I knew most of these people.  

I recognized a boy from my math class.  One of his eyes appeared slightly pulled out of its socket, and the other completely gone. Some had no eyes at all, like Nathan Preston.  He was one of the smartest kids I knew. They all resembled skeletons in a way. Skin remained on most while others didn’t look so lucky.  One thing was consistent with the bodies, though.  The hair on their heads was floated up above them, appearing to me like eerily like seaweed.

It was the worst thing I’ve ever seen, next to finding my mother dead.  This time, though, it was my fault I was putting myself through this. I had no idea what compelled me to do this, not anymore. It was too late, and I was already here so I had to get to work.

My hands finding the backs of the seats, I moved forward and over all the heads. Looking sideways, I saw the carry-on bags.  Grabbing as many straps of them as I could, I hooked them all on my arm.  I turned quickly, swimming towards the opening on the side of the plane we came through. Taking all the straps in my hand, I pushed them up and out into the ocean where they floated up.

Turning around, my eyes landed on her. I knew Emma right away.  Yet she looked… tortured. Her mouth was open, the hair she had left waving in the water above her. Her eyes were open, and when I looked into them, I looked away immediately. Too familiar, too much considering one was a lot bigger and a different color than the other. 

I felt the pressure build up in my chest again.  I was running out of breath and instantly swam up to first class. Looking up at the ceiling of the plane, a few bubbles trapped there were enough. I swam up and kissed each bubble, taking enough air for me. Coming back down, I turned around and froze at the sight before me.

All the bodies were facing me, which was normal because I was at the front of the plane. Except they all looked the same. They were all the same body, same person. They wore the same white and red material, holding the same expression too.

Each dead body in sight was my mother’s body.

I let out a gut retching scream, releasing most of the air I took in. I clamped my mouth shut with my shaking hand, my heart failing in my chest.  I repeatedly told myself this was not real
. Not real, just like it wasn’t real before.  Not at all!  I know that.
  But it was so… realistic.

The air I lost forced me to move towards the back of the plane where there was another big air pocket. I kept my eyes on the ceiling, swimming quickly until I reached it. Coming up, I not only took in deep breaths.  I screamed as loud as I could too.

Unfortunately, I knew this couldn’t be a dream.  It was too real and vivid.  Forcing myself to calm down, knowing I needed this air for more than screaming, I took slow even breaths.

Mr. Rush told me that if I had to, to leave with no hesitation over him. I wanted out more than anything and knew where the opening was to leave.  I couldn’t do that, though. I needed to realize this wasn’t real, I needed to grab more bags, and I sure as hell wasn’t leaving without knowing he was safe too.

I went back under and paused. All those bodies no longer resembled my mom. All the bodies were of my classmates like I knew they truly were. It was a relief to see I was imagining it. The fact that there were still bodies to begin with wasn’t enough for me to start smiling, though.

Movement caught my attention from my side vision.  I turned and faced a pale Mr. Rush. He left that red haze in his path, and it made my eyes widen.  It was clear validation that he was bleeding and was really hurt.  The man headed up towards where I had been seated next to Emma during the flight.  He grabbed the seat handles from where he floated from above.  Not sure what he was doing, I watched as he pulled himself down face first to the ground under the chair. His legs in the air with his front moving, I couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing.

Suddenly, something happened I couldn’t explain.  My vision became blurry but not because of a need for air. The plane started to shake violently! It made my eyes widen and my stomach drop.  I didn’t have any idea what was going on, but that didn’t stop what was happening.  A loud creaking sound echoed throughout the plane. Holding onto the back of a seat, my eyes tried fighting through it to see where Mr. Rush was.  He looked up at me instantly but didn’t stop whatever he was doing.  His hand started scrambling over the floor near my seat quickly.

The shaking suddenly stopped, and my eyes found him. I didn’t know what it was he was searching for on the floor, but that didn’t hold his attention anymore.

I never saw that look on a man’s face before. He was staring past me, complete terror filling his features and disbelief. I felt a shift in the space around us and knew something bad was going to happen. Right now.

I turned my head, not wanting to see what he staring at. My heart dropped out from my chest as I looked out of the opening and broken windows. Huge gray figures swarmed the plane. And it wasn’t in a natural way. It was in a way that said they wanted to eat us.

Three? Four sharks? Did it matter because one was enough for me!? One of them hit the side of the plane, near the opening. It shook the plane hard again and made me realize that was what was making the plane shake along the rocky bottom. Mr. Rush was at my side in a second, pulling me with him towards one of the air pockets.

Pushing me up fast, he followed, and the air seemed to lessen more when our faces surfaced in the small bubble.  With how hard the plane shook — as if it was going to cave in — it made the water rise up over our shoulders. The continuous banging and shaking didn’t distract him.  He looked me straight in the eye, so much feeling within his gaze. “Get out of here! Go towards the front of the cockpit. The windows there are already broken. You can make it out through there!” he yelled just before the plane stopped moving. “Understand?”

“You won’t do that to me,” I said, trying hard to convince myself of that. He could not leave me.  He needed to stay with me! He was hurt!

“Yes I will,” he said. The plane shook again for a second and then stopped. But each time it did, the water tilted slightly and closed in on the little air left.

“No! You’re coming up with me!” I hissed.

He took a deep breath, swallowing hard and turning his eyes away before returning them. “I’ll meet you up there. Okay?”