The Memoirs of a Madman Book 1: Asylum Island (Watty Awards 2013)

Chapter 2

II

Alexis woke to a terrible screech. The sound of chaos, a fusillade of cries, and corregated hell. She opened her eyes to a frantic panic. Blurs rushed across the room, calling out to one another. As her eyes began to focus, the blurs became people. The cries pierced her ears. The panic became a nightmare. Gustov was in the centre of the main body of the plane, anarchically he sprinted back to his seat and dived to it. He squatted on his knees, and began praying to his God for divine intervention. Alexis wandered down the aisle, occasionally waiting for the turbulence to cease, it did not. In an attempt to reassure her fellow participants she crouched next her neighbour. Next to her sat a timid looking boy, no older than her. He nervously looked up at her, occasionally attempting to force a quivering smile. He glanced at her. ''Umm...hi'', he whispered, ''I'm Hasan, w-w-who are you?''

After a pause, she smiled slightly, ''Alexis, pleased to meet you'', she smiled falsely.

''I-I-I've never been outside of Toston'', he muttered, ''I-I-It's a small sector inside Konsor-'' he was cut off by a wave of turbulence. The metal skeleton of the plane rippled, and the wind roared through the walls.

Outside the jagged plane they were encased in, only the sea and sky were visible, and both juxtaposed the disaster inside the Pilatus PC 12. The sky was clear and sapphire-blue with the occasional distant cloud. The island in the distance thick with foliage, omnipresent animal life squawking through the canopy. The turbulence suddenly got worse. The walls of the chamber were closing in on its captives, trapping them in a steel prison. The plane started to lose altitude, dipping into a nose dive, pirouetting in the air. Screams rang through the chamber. ''Let us out''! Gustov screamed, his previous happiness replaced by terror. He pounded on the door to the captain's cockpit; digging his nails into a small metal slider on the door, allowing him to see through to it. He managed to open the slider along to the left; after near on ripping off his nails. "What the hell is going on?!" Gustov yelled in disbelief.

But the room was empty, a huge shudder threw him back towards the middle of the mini plane. The plane tore through the canopy, leaving a mist of debris. The wing chaotically collided with a huge branch, and then violently tore off. The plane cut a wound through the trees, a gaping scar amongst the dense foliage. As it came down, it became knotted in vines, each one slowing its descent, but weakening the integrity of the steel. As the plane loomed before the floor, everything stopped. Alexis pulled her head from her hands, stood up and walked around. She staggered towards the window and peered out at the dense blackness of the canopy floor. The plane was floating inches from the ground. A flock of beautiful birds glided in the sky. Dust particles stood mid-air.

And then time resumed: the plane collided with the ground, becoming a collapsed crumple of metal in milliseconds. The cockpit burrowed into the soil, and the surviving wing toppled heavily to the ground. A jet burst at the back and engulfed the plane in flames. Alexis' lifeless body was thrown from the wreckage. She slowly but surely rose to a beautiful island disturbed by a vicious and unstoppable blaze, she masked her mouth from the poisonous fumes and screamed to the others to get the hell out. Four or five just lay motionless and bloody. Alexis presumed she had broken her ankle but continued to agonizingly soldier on. She clutched the camping gear like a rugby ball, swiftly pulled Hasan up and ran out to the debris-full jungle. "Everybody out!! Quick!! Hasan take this!!" Alexis cried, Hasan obediently took the gear and Alexis crazily sprinted back to the scorching mini plane. Phillipe selfishly barged Alexis out the way and manically headed for safety, Alexis, who had been knocked down, quickly got up and overturned Tulva, his face, a blood-struck mess.

Knowing he was dead she moved on to Gustov and Sebastian, Sebastian was cradling in a ball and muttering to himself, whilst violently crying for his twin. "There's no point, just no point anymore, leave me be. LEAVE ME!!" He emotionally screamed, she promptly latched onto his wrist and forced him out towards Hasan and Tulva. A few others swiftly ran past her, again knocking her towards the ground, and slowly everything became a vast blur. Muffled cries became distant and the last thing in her peripheral vision was two young men sprinting towards her frantically, a deafening burst, then silence.