"Ready?" Luke asked at the door.
"Just about." I said as I zipped up my suitcase. I stood it upwards and pulled up the handle.
"Here." Luke said taking the suitcase and presumably taking it to the car. I swung my backpack over my shoulder.
Me and Luke are best friends and have known each other for years now. Our families are close too. Both our families had planned on going on a trip. We intended on going by plane, but decided it would be more interesting and fun to go by ship, so that's what we decided to do.
"Okay," said Luke's dad, "I think we're ready."
We were 6 people and 10 packs of luggage fitting into two cars - me, Luke, my parents and Luke's parents.
----
We finally got to the ship. We were sitting down in seats, just talking.
"Hey Taylor," Luke said to me, "come here."
I got out of my seat and walked over to him - on the side of the ship.
"What?" I asked.
"Look at this."
I looked ahead at the beautiful blue sea. It looked amazing. Luke always loved looking at water in lakes, rivers, seas oceans. He'd never get tired of looking at it.
"I love it so much." He said.
"I know you do."
"Isn't it beautiful though?"
"I'll never find it as beautiful as you do, you're addicted to looking at water."
He laughed. "You know me well."
"I've known you for 10 years, of course I'm gonna know you well."
We were silent for a moment. I rested my head on Luke's shoulder, he put his arm around me.
Suddenly, we heard a scream behind us. We turned around and saw many people panicking - some were running out of any direction, others pointing in awe.
What scared me was the gunshot.
Next thing, everyone was screaming. Luke grabbed my wrist and started running somewhere. I didn't resist.
People were evacuating the ship. Luke took me to where some people were taking small boats to escape. I saw that it would take ages till we got one by waiting, so I leaned forward to try and get my hand on one. Luke saw what I was doing and helped me. We managed to get to a side and get hold of one.
Then a thought hit me.
"Luke!" I said, "What about our parents?!"
Luke looked concerned. He turned to look for our parents, but he only managed to take one step before the shooting increased.
Luke turned back around. "We have to leave them. They'll find a way."
Before I could say anything, Luke had dragged me into the boat. He grabbed a rowing stick and began to move the boat. I got the other one to help him.
We heard more and more shooting behind us, motivating us even more to keep rowing. But every time I went faster, pain cut my heart deeper and deeper, knowing that I was leaving my own family behind. I didn't have a choice.
I didn't dare look behind. The dreadful thought of seeing my dead parents hovered above my mind, haunting me each second.
Tears were uncontrollably running down my face while the wind whipped, causing shivers going down my spine and passing thorough my whole body. I glanced at Luke - he was in the same state of mind. He didn't cry a lot, and he'd always be there to comfort me whenever I would cry, but this was probably the only time he wasn't, and I wouldn't blame him - him and me were both scarred for life.
It's the worst feeling. You know, having to leave your family behind in a ship being shot down and go off with your best friend to find safety. But what choice did I have?
Hours passed. It felt like years. The sounds of the shooting and screams had died down.
I saw something in the distance.
"Look." I said, my voice croaking as it made it's way out of my salty, dry throat and spilled out of my mouth. I pointed to what I thought was a piece of land.
Luke looked at where I was pointing. His eyes widened. He immediately started rowing faster, as did I.
As we came closer and closer, we saw that it was sand and had a forest on it.
Thirst hit me and my mouth became drier as we came closer to the island.
We finally got close enough and Luke got out of the boat and started pulling it towards the island. I did the same.
When we got on the island and parked the boat firmly on the sand, we collapsed on the soft, white sand. We'd been working our arms for hours. And finally got to relax our aching bodies.
After a few minutes, I moved closer to Luke, who wrapped an arm around me. I cried. He cried. We cried together for what felt like forever.
I'd lost track of time, but I think it had been half an hour, and we heard voices.
Luke and I sat up. A boat was coming our way. 3 guys were in it.
A few minutes later, they got to the island. They parked their boat and collapsed onto the sand in relief.
One of them had coloured hair, ear piercings and an eyebrow piercing. Another had curly hair and a bandana. The third one had black hair and tanned skin.
A few minutes later, the curly haired one with the bandana got up. "Are you guys also from the shipwreck?"
"Yeah." Luke croacked.
He nodded. "I'm Ashton. But I don't know these guys, we got onto the same boat."
The one with coloured hair sat up. "I'm Michael."
Ashton went and nudged the black haired one with his foot. "What's your name?"
He slowly sat up, knees crunched up to his chest and his arms wrapped around them. He cleared his throat. "Calum." He said.
"Who are you?" Ashton asked us.
"I'm Luke," Luke said, "and this is Taylor."
I waved, not wanting to speak because of my dry throat.
The blue sky changed as the purple, orange and red colours of sunset painted the sky in streaks, telling us that sunset was near - it was getting late.
Without saying anything, Calum stood up and went towards the forest.
"Hey!" Ashton said, "Where are you going?"
Calum didn't show any signs that he'd heard Ashton.
"Hey!" Ashton went towards him, grabbed his shoulder and turned him around. "Hey!"
Calum faced him and looked at him, confused.
"Look, none of us know each other," Ashton said, "but we're in this together. We're sticking together and we're gonna find our way out to our own homes. Together."
"Calm down," Calum said, "I'm only going to build ourselves a place to sleep."
Ashton smiled. He patted him on the shoulder. "I'm gonna go to the boat, they usually put emergency food and water in them."
----
Within an hour it was night, and we were sitting around a fire we'd made, eating some food that was stocked in the boats.
"We should get to know each other." Ashton said, "Maybe we could go in a circle and talk about ourselves?"
"Sounds like a good idea." Luke said.
"Who should start?" Michael said.
"Should I start?" Ashton said.
"Sure."
"Well," Ashton began, "I, Ashton Fletcher Irwin, live with my single mum and her boyfriend, he taught me how to play drums. I have a friend who lives away. He wants to make albums. He has a guitarist, but needs a drummer. So he asked me and I said yes. So I took a ship. And now I'm stranded here, with 4 people, and hopefully, great new friends."
"Nice." Michael said in his deep, slow voice, "Well I guess I'm next. I'm Michael Gordon Clifford, I live with my parents, but I'm not as polite and posh as they want me to be. So to show them, I dropped out of school one day, dyed my hair, pierced my ears and eyebrow."
"All in one day?" Ashton asked.
"Yeah." He said confidently. "Came home and they kicked me outta the house. I wanted a break from them and they wanted a break from me. And I took a ship and now I'm here."
I was next. "I'm Taylor Katherine Matthew and I live with my parents. Mine and Luke's family decided to go on a holiday, we thought it would be better by ship than plane, so we went and now we're here."
"I'm Luke Robert Hemmings," Luke said, "I live with my parents and... yeah, Taylor's told you pretty much everything."
All eyes went on Calum.
Calum cleared his throat. "Um, I'm Calum Thomas Hood," he said, "I lived with my parents and sister, Anna. My parents started fighting one day and it got more serious every day. My dad gets drunk sometimes, and he nearly raped my sister once. So Anna and I decided that we'd leave the house, stay with our uncle for a while. So that's why we went on the ship. I came onto this boat," he indicated to the boat he came on, "but... I lost Anna. She must've found another boat."
We sat in silence.
Ashton patted Calum on the shoulder. "Don't worry mate,"he said, "your sister's gonna be fine."
Calum responded with a sad smile.
----
We went and made beds out of huge leaves and different things. We decided where to sleep, I was sleeping with Luke. Michael and Ashton's beds were just a little bit far from each other, and Calum's was the furthest away.
"Okay guys," Michael said, "when we'll wake up tomorrow, we'll see what we can do. Goodnight."
"Goodnight." We all said.
The beds weren't really comfortable, but we didn't have an option. I lay down and let sleep envelope me.