The Survivors

Chapter 1-Chaos on the Beach

To my friend DerangedBlueCat who also helped edit during Survivors' first days and created the hottest winter elf imaginable and Levi's elf counterpart. (Check out her book Heart of the Winter King!)

The ringing. The constant ringing in my ears is the first thing I hear. My senses are murky and slow to catch up. I can't hear anything over the ringing. My breaths don't come. I can't breathe. The sickening, thick smoke fills my nose suffocating me. I cough violently feeling moist sand inside of my mouth. Gritty pieces rub against my bare skin and coat my entire body.

My heart jump starts, followed by a rush of adrenaline. I continue to cough and pry my eyes open. My vision is cloudy and blurred from the dark smoke. I smell the burning fire. It's so strong it is choking me. I look down to find damp sand underneath me. I panic and whip my head upwards.

I almost scream but my voice is completely gone. A ceiling of blazing flames above me creating thick black smoke, the fire engulfing the metal ceiling and spreading across the walls. My arm is bent behind me but I don't think it's broken. I hope it isn't. I groan and cough a couple more times, struggling for breath making my head light.

I shove myself to my feet, realizing the floor is sandy instead of carpeted. I'm still in the plane yet the floor is made of sand. My brain doesn't understand what's going on. The last thing I remember-

"HELP!!"

I jump at the screech looking around wildly. I realize the seats are on the ceiling and the ground is covered with luggage of all different sizes. Some are open, spilling out the contents onto the sandy ground. The fire is burning the cloth seats above and creating even more smoke. I cough and cover my mouth with my sleeve. I duck my head and squint through the smoke.

I still hear the ringing in my ears and everything is still muffled. I hear distant screams and the popping of the flames. My head spins dizzily from the choking smoke and I see black spots. I drop onto my knees and hands and start crawling aimlessly trying to get out of this oven. It's blazing hot, scorching my skin from the flames overhead. I see mangled lumps inside the sand that are burned to a crisp. I assume it's more luggage and ignore it.

I continue to crawl seeing the blinding sunlight at the gaping hole at the end of the plane. The white light pierces my eyes through the dark haze of the smoke. I freeze at the sound of another desperate scream that was too close. I look back with wide eyes to see a human lying under the sand. I cough again and turn around to help them trying to crawl quickly.

My limbs are still numb and sleeping and my head is fuzzy. My heart is pounding rapidly inside my chest. I reach the person and brush sand off them quickly because they are pretty much buried. I find a tear-stained face staring back up at me. He coughs loudly and reaches out weakly, the flames reflecting in his eyes.

I panic and grab his wrists tightly. I yank back frantically trying to get him out. He's going to die! He struggles to kick his legs out of the deep sand and pulls himself towards me. I grit my teeth and pull back sharply. I burst into a coughing fit feeling the smoke swirling inside my nose, burning the inside.

He groans in pain but continues to dig himself out. I rush to his side and dig frantically, making sand fly everywhere. Come on!

"Help," he pleads weakly as he limply digs at his legs. I thrash at the sand trying to go faster. I hear a low, metal groaning from above me. I freeze, feeling goosebumps traveling up my spine despite the burning heat. I look up fearfully finding nothing different than before. Just the burning ceiling. A slimy worm of horror slips inside my stomach and I realize that it's going to collapse on top of us.