Asiatica 5679

ACT ONE

Kakete Island, Chimei Archipelago, ~100KM south of the Ogasawara Islands

Madison takes her feet. Her face is littered with wet sand. Her clothes, sopping wet. Her throat aches of inhaled salt, and her forehead is bruised from the crash. The sound of washing waves surround her. In the distance, someone coughs. She looks down at her hands, and examines the abrasions coating her palms. 

She breathes quickly, sharply, but in a controlled fashion. The adrenaline is still coursing through her veins, and yet she maintains her composure. Her gaze lifts to the island before her. In front of her, up the beach, a dense forest obscures a distant mountain. Beyond it, the tempest looms. She pivots to view the crash behind her. In the water, some twenty metres from the shore, the aeroplane is in the middle of being swallowed by the ocean. Only but a few pieces of splintered metal still rise above the waves to be visible. In the water between the wreck and the beach, Madison's peers can be seen swimming towards the land. The water is shallow. The risk of drowning is low, but not impossible. Still though, the students seem to have pulled through relatively unscathed all things considered.

As Madison peers out to the wreckage, the overcast from the storm causing the island to look grey and gloomy, she hears a voice behind her, "29... 30... 31..."

"What are you doing?" she questions, turning to meet the voice.

"Counting survivors," Averie answers. "Looking for a voice of reason. Plenty of things, really."

"That's a bit... grim, don't you think?" Madison returns, still shaken by the events that have just transpired.

"It's only logical," Averie smiles. "We are going to need to figure this place out, and the first step to doing that is figuring ourselves out." Madison nods, concerned by the lack of regard her friend demonstrates for the macabre situation. She turns back around the beach, and spots Jacob, standing atop a large rock. Before him, other students amass, looking to him as though he may hold the secrets to their survival. 

The crowd is sandy, shaken, and above all else, wet.  Jacob has removed his jacket, and instead stands in the sky wearing just his pants, and a linen shirt. "Everyone!" he shouts, the particularly cynical among the crowd cringe in response. "I need everyone's attention please." Averie takes his side, and tells him the number of survivors. "44? That's everyone I think. No teachers?"

"No, only students," she answers. 

"Oi actually?" he returns his attention to the soaked, distraught crowd before him, a smirk spreading across his face. The thunder of the storm cell rumbles behind him, and as the students look up at him, a flash of lighting strikes in the distance, and he recomposes himself. "Okay so guys, I think we're going to have to start organising ourselves. As far as I know, there's no teachers here. So, in light of this fact; I've decided to start organising us."

"Leave it to Jacob to assign himself supreme leader of the island on first touchdown," Rachel laughs, brushing sand off her outfit, and walking up behind Madison.

Jacob continues, "To this point, and as school captain, I have decided to nominate myself as coordinating our rescue."

"What the fuck?" Karen exclaims, from across the beach. Nobody pays her any mind. There is a chorus of confusion and exclamation as people each think their opinion matters.  They do not. Jacob has already determined what should be done to help arrange for their rescue. He, in all of his infinite wisdom, wants to be back before December 12th so he doesn't miss his results. Those results are his only motivators in life, and he isn't going to let a little aeronautical disaster stand in his way of obtaining them. He couldn't care less about everyone else getting home alive, but if everyone dies here who will he have to boast to? 

Jacob interrupts the crowd once more, "I know you're all afraid, nervous, or whatever, but we need to remain united, and stay calm." The group has already begun to break down, as many of the injured, cold, and dirty students do not agree with the decision to let Jacob rule. Still, with a lack of a better option, nobody dares to disagree overtly. Jacob continues to converse with Averie, as people look around the beach. 

The beach is a right angle, with two seperate beaches conjoining to become the location at which the students have made their their way onto dry land. In one direction, a small island off the coast can be seen. It is steep, and sparsely vegetated. It looks like it may be close enough to be accessible. In the other direction, the beach is in tatters. Pieces of debris and vegetable matter lay scattered across the sand for as far as the eye can see, some of them on fire. There is a mixture of metal scraps, torn rubber, glass shards, and flaming jet fuel. One of the engines has been tossed into the forest, where it now lies motionless, dented and destroyed. 

Madison looks around her. The crowd talk amongst themselves, some of them limp towards the treeline, others sit down where they are. The storm continues to rage in the distance, thunder cracking beyond the mountain on the island. Jacob starts his spiel again "I think we need to start looking for shelter, so, uhh, fan out, find somewhere suitable, and if you find something let the rest of us know."

With that, the students disperse. Most of them make their way into the dense, dark jungle just near to the crash site, where they find somewhere to sit down. Some, however, spread out down the beach, searching for somewhere remote to reside. Madison makes her way towards the trees, where she spots Ryleigh arguing with Jacob away from the group. She takes a seat on a recently-felled tree, and overhears the discussion. 

"Jake, we're supposed to be united in this, what the hell are you doing?"

"We are," he responds. "You can, I don't know, help make things better for people by going out and gathering some berries or something."

"For fuck's sake..." she mutters. "You always do this. You always take over and when anybody wants to try and help or give some advice you just ignore them. We are both the school captains, we shouldn't just be bowing down to you. And, besides, how do you know we're even going to need a leader out here? You're awfully quick to assume things will fall apart the moment we don't have a teacher."

He scoffs, and grins at her, "Have you met these people? If you leave them to their own devices they'll be in shambles before we know it... And, we're stuck with them, do you really think they stand any chance of surviving out in the wilderness?"

Ryleigh sighs in anger, and turns away from Jacob. "Whatever," she says, spotting Madison sitting nearby and realising that she and he were overheard that whole time. "Just don't expect any help from me." Ryleigh stomps through the forest, past Madison. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine. I was just... sitting here." Ryleigh smiles down at Madison, and continues back to the beach, where she finds some others and starts having a conversation with them. 

"You didn't hear any of that," Madison hears from behind her. She turns to face Jacob. "Oi, if anyone asks where I am, tell them I'm looking further up the beach for a place to start some kind of camp, okay?" She nods in response, and he walks back along the treeline further away. 

"Oh," he stops for a moment," I forgot to say." He hesitates as he speaks. "Good luck."