"The past is a ghost, the future is a dream and all we ever have is now." ~Bill Cosby.
As I get closer to the two shadowy figures, it becomes clear that it's Guad and his friend. Luckily, they don't show any obvious injuries.
"Are you out of your mind?" I scream as I help them to their feet. "Riding in the hull of a plane like that, do you have any idea how dangerous that is!"
"Nice to meet you again. I'm Bob," the old man says, rolling his eyes at my anger. He acts as if what he just did was no big deal.
"How did you know we were in the plane hull?" Guad asks. "And why do you care what happens to us?"
I don't answer, but rather sprint ahead to return to my sister; Diana stayed behind to try to fish Angelina out of the tree that her parachute got caught in. I don't expect Guad and Bob to keep pace with me, but I trust that they will follow me.
As I get further away, the treeless coast of the lake melts away, and morphs into the thick jungle of South America. The plane took down a few trees when it fell, making a small clearing around it.
"Perry, help!" Diana screams from the plane wreckage. "I found someone!"
I run faster, until I get to what my sister is looking at: someone, it looks to be a man, is wedged under the wing of the plane, the weight surely crushing him.
Fortunately, adrenaline is still coursing through me, enabling me to lift the deadweight wing just enough for Diana and Angelina to pull the man to safety.
He props himself up on his elbows, looking behind me. Due to his position, he coughs up a nauseating mixture of blood and saliva.
"He's alive," he whispers into his bloodstained earpiece. Who's alive? I think.
It's bad, I know, but there's no saving this man. He's bleeding in over a dozen places, one of which is his head. I feel awful abandoning him, but there could be people alive in all that plane rubble.
Guad and Bob come stumbling over to the plane, Bob gasping for breath. He sits down with Angelina, and Diana, Guad, and I begin the search for survivors.
Over the next hour, we accumulate a total of four bodies, all of which are dead. It's terrible knowing that all these people had a story that the world will never know, and that abruptly ended in a tragedy.
"Perry, I found someone," Guad whispers. Together, the two of us pull out a girl around my age, dirt streaking her blonde hair. I check her pulse, and even though she's unconscious, she's alive. Glee fills my insides, knowing that our efforts saved a life.
I carefully lift her into my arms, and carry her over to Angelina. Being as graceful as I am, I half-drop the girl, her head hitting the log that Angelina sits upon.
"You're so stupid," Angelina sighs, trying to prop the girl up better. "Are you trying to kill her?"
"Yeah, I can't stand the-"
"Don't get sarcastic on me, White," she cuts me off before I can finish.
I return to the rubble, and find Diana and Guad dragging another body out from between folds of metal. My sister is struck with recognition, for I can see the stress drawn on her face. Lisa, I think.
She stays silent, but walks away from Guad and I. Diana sits beside Angelina, but they don't speak a word to each other; some things go best unsaid.
I get Guad to help me move her to the hole we dug for the deceased. He doesn't question who she is, and I'm glad, because even though I never knew her that well, I still don't want to talk about it. I never realized how different seeing someone like this was to a funeral; at least at a funeral, they look peaceful.
Guad walks past the plane wreckage, and sits with the rest of the group. I join him on the ground, not knowing what else to do. A curtain of silence hangs in the air, and everyone who isn't in mourning is too afraid to move it.
Out of the corner of my eye, I see the blonde girl open her eyes and sit up.
"Hey Alice, what's going on?" She pauses to stretch. "Wait, who are you people?"
I watch as a few members of our group jump, having not seen her sit up. The girl runs a nervous hand through her blonde hair, but stops when she realizes her ponytail is restricting her. I watch in silence as I see the confusion on her face morph into fear.
"I don't know how much you remember, but that plane you were on crashed. We're sort of stranded in the jungle right now," Guad starts. I didn't even process that that's our current situation; sure, I was aware that this is no longer a vacation, but still. "The wreckage is over there. If you want, you can help us search through it."
She nods, and the three of us head over to the large stacks of metal.
"I'm Perry, and that's Guad," I introduce, since I'm guessing Guad didn't know he needed to.
She smiles as she paces slowly around parts of the wreckage. "I'm Janis Bradshaw. Nice to meet you, I guess. I mean, I would rather have not met you, because then I wouldn't be in this mess. But I think you get the point."
Guad and I watch closely as Janis makes her way to the top of the metal. Once she gains her balance atop the pile, she first scopes the area, but then cups her hands around her mouth.
"What are you-" I try to say, but get cut off by her yelling.
"Alice Wrynn Bradshaw, scream if you can hear me!" She yells, and draws the attention of all the survivors to her. "If you don't make any noise, I will freak out on you!"
"This isn't a freak out?" I hear Angelina mumble from her seat with the others, and I have to muffle a laugh.
Something, or more appropriately someone, kicks from under the metal wreckage. Whoever is down there is saying something that I can't understand. Janis begins trying to frantically grab and move sheets of metal, so Guad and I jump in and help, noticing that they're too heavy for her to carry alone.
After minutes of frantically throwing scrap metal and having Janis yells at us, claiming that we are not moving fast enough, we uncover someone. Janis screams with joy, and pounces on the girl.
"You're alive and breathing!" Janis yells, shaking the girl. "I mean, I didn't doubt you for a second."
"That's great," the other girl says with such lack of enthusiasm that is worries me. "Now can you please get me out of this stupid hole? I'm wet, cold, and in pain."
Janis says something about how happy she is to see her as she pulls the girl to her feet. "This is my fraternal twin, Alice. She's super sarcastic, like, all the time. Proceed with cation."
"I'm not that sarcastic," Alice says, standing up atop the mountain of metal. She then spastically wraps her arm around Janis' neck, probably chocking her. At first, I think she's trying to be funny, but I can tell she's actually putting her weight on her twin. "I don't think my ankle got the memo on 'functioning' today. I- I don't think I can stand on it."
"If I could breathe, maybe I could help you!"
I take the hint that my assistance is needed, and I help Janis support her sister's weight. Together, the three of us limp down to the ground. There's a vacant log around what Diana made to be our "campfire," so I guide them in that direction. Once Alice is sitting down, Janis takes off to find food or something, as if the rest of us haven't looked yet.
"Anyone around here know how to make a splint or something?" Alice asks, pushing strands of her chocolate brown hair out of her face.
"Um, I was a Cub Scout in third grade," I say, and now I can feel rivers of dignity pouring out of me.
I feel eyes from over my shoulder, and turn to see Bob looming over us. He smirks at Alice, or whatever it's called from an old man, and says, "Lucky for you, we didn't have fancy plaster casts or metal splints back in my day. I can whip one up for you in a jiffy!"
Guad casts his old friend an odd look, as though he's never spent time with someone elderly before. Bob sends me away to hunt for some wood and rope.
When I return several minutes later, Bob is telling Alice some story about a sack-race in Australia that he attended some 30 years ago. She looks intrigued, but is in too much pain to keep a disgusted look off her face. I take a seat beside Bob, and as he begins to work, he keeps telling his story.
"And so then I was all like, 'Wow, how can someone hop a mile that quickly?' And the dude was all like..." He pauses to make some hand gestures, but stops abruptly. "I mean, and that's the day I learned that it was humanly possible to jump more than five feet in a potato sack."
"Great story, but if you wouldn't mind, could we have less talking and more medical stuff happening?" Alice says this insult so kindly that I'm not sure if Bob will get the message.
"Oh, sure," he says, shaking his head like he should have known better. "Let me tell you about the time that I had to preform open-heart surgery on a chimpanzee! And it's a medical story, like you asked. It was a warm afternoon in the jungles of..."
I watch as Alice rolls her eyes, but then smiles sweetly at Bob. It's weird to see someone as passionate about something as Bob is with his stories. Sitting next to a 72 year-old man and a girl with a sprained ankle has been the most relaxing part of my day, and I take a moment to take a deep breath and attempt to enjoy the moment.
Reflecting on the plane crash scares me, and I try to push it out of my thoughts. But what else is there to think about? This is what my life has become, and it will stay like this until I get to safety or I'll, well, die out here.
Bob's story and work comes to an end, which rouses me from my pessimistic thoughts. Maybe they're realistic thoughts now, I think.
I help Bob to his feet, Alice wants to stay sitting, and I make my way over to Janis, whom I shall help try to find food.