The Desert Island (Unedited Tweenager Story)

The Desert Island

“Boarding passengers for Flight E1132 to Boston at Gate 23”, announced the voice over the intercom.

“Quick, quick, you got to go, call us when you get there, love you, bye, now leave!” said mom.

“Bye sis, remember to email me” called my sister as I walked away. I walked to Gate 23 with my big carry-on backpack. I showed my passport and ticket to the lady standing outside the plane.

“You’re sitting in a window seat, no. 29, row E”, she told me, “Hope you have a nice flight!” I walked inside and went to row E seat 29. It was close to an exit. I took out my phone and my headphones and pushed my bag under my seat. I was feeling a bit thirsty so when a stewardess walked by I asked her for a bottle of water. A couple of minutes later she brought me a glass of water and a bottle. I stuck the bottle in my carry-on bag and drank the glass. I put my phone on flight mode, plugged my headphones in, turned on music and closed my eyes.

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*Bang! Crash! *
I woke with a start as my head hit the seat in front of me. I looked around. I could see the corpses of the other passengers around me. I could smell smoke. I looked out the window and saw pieces of the plane on the ground on fire. I realised the plane had crashed so, not thinking rationally, I grabbed my carry-on bag from underneath the seat and ran to the exit in a blind panic. I wasn’t watching where I was going so my foot hit something hard and I tripped. I got up and looked at what my feet had hit. It was a body, a woman’s body. With a start I realised it was the woman who I had given my ticket and passport to outside the plane, the one who had hoped I’d have a nice flight. I ran out side with my carry-on bag on my back. I ran and ran, not caring where I was going. When I became too tired to run any further I fell to my knees and vomited violently. I got up, coughing and heaving and kept walking. I felt numb, as if when I had thrown up I got all the panic out of my system. I looked around and saw sand everywhere. I was in a desert. There were cactus’ every few feet. Off in the distance I saw shapes that looked like mountains, with one sticking up higher than the others. I decided to head that way, hoping that I was not the only one in this place. It was quite dark out and I was tired from having run so long so I decided to sleep first on some clothes from my bag.

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When I woke, I kept walking and walking, but it seemed like the mountains were getting farther and farther away. It got hotter, and hotter, and then hotter still. Sweat plastered my hair to my scalp and made my blue t-shirt cling unpleasantly wherever it touched. In the afternoon, scorching gusts of wind kicked up, blowing sand in my face. The dry air sucked the sweat away, crusted my hair with grit, and fanned my shirt out from my body; it moved as stiffly as cardboard with the dried salt. I looked in my bag for some water and found the medium sized one I’d thrown in earlier on the plane. I quickly unscrewed the lid and started gulping it down. I knew I shouldn’t drink it all but I was too thirsty to care. When I had half the bottle drank I forced myself to stop. I knew I’d want it more tomorrow. I put in back into my bag and saw a granola bar. I quickly pulled it out. Although it was reduced to crumbs it was still food. I tore it open and started shaking it into my mouth half chewed. The mountains suddenly seemed much closer. I kept walking until it was dark, taking little mouthfuls of water every now and then. When it was almost too dark to see, I chose a place well away from a cactus and got a jumper out of my bag. I knew the night was going to be cold. I put it on and pulled the hood up and went to sleep.

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The next morning I ate the other granola bar I had in the bag and drank the rest of the water. I put the jumper in the bag. When I walked, I walked with a spring in my step, full sure I’d reach the mountains by the afternoon and find civilisation. I finally got close enough to the mountains to see a forest at the base of them. I looked up at the tallest one and saw it was a volcano. I knew it was a volcano because last year I had gone to Lanzarote and I had stayed in a hotel near a lot of volcano’s and this one looked exactly like them. I ran into the forest, looking for a steam. It was the evening, getting dark but still bright enough to see. I went over to a tree that had low hanging branches. There were berries on it that looked like cherries. I pulled off a couple and was about to eat them when I looked up and saw a red dragon fly overhead, glowing and sparkling in the sun like a bed of blood-red coals. I went to scream, not caring about survival, I was going to die from dehydration anyway, when a hand clamped over my mouth. I turned around and saw a wrinkled face, tanned from the sun, with brown eyes, a big nose, thick white eyebrows and a white beard. I knew I wasn’t the only survivor, I knew it! I was overwhelmed with relief and passed out.