Chapter Text
It was immediate, the fall that is. I remember distinctly how I felt when the wings of the plane broke into pieces, how my mother held me, face pressed tight to her chest in an attempt to save me from the impact. The worst thing was it did, I was breathing, I was alive, wrapped in the arms of the woman I once knew as my mother and just lying there.
Was I the only one left? I thought as I opened my eyes slowly, the distinct smell of iron rang through the air, faint but present. I wondered for a moment if I should even get up from my mother’s limp hold, was it even worth it to try and rise to the challenge of whatever this place was. It’s obviously an island, we were over the Atlantic Ocean when it happened. As that thought left my mind I nearly decided to give up, an island, somewhere in the vastness of the Atlantic, trying to get rescued. It would be hilarious if it wasn’t the only other option I had.
Then a rustle, from behind me, that of something alive moving closer to where I lay, it most likely was just an animal however, with my luck it possibly was a predator that would maul me right there.
“Oh my goodness!”
A voice, another person’s voice. It rang through my ears like an angel’s call from the Heavens above.
“Are any of you alive? Oh who am I kidding they all look beaten up to no recovery.” She sounded so sullen, and slightly disgusted, as she talked, probably from all the blood leaking from the bodies that lie lifeless around me.
“On the contrary.” My voice, it sounded so harsh and dead even when muffled, as though death had already taken it, maybe it was from all the screaming before—
“Holy lord above! A–are you okay? Do you need any medical attention or uhm… do you want some help?”
“That would be nice.”
Soon after I said that I could feel some arms try to pull me up, she wasn’t that strong however, but it was enough for me to easily get my feet under me. As I turned around the mystery girl stepped back to give me space. She had a lot of bruising around her cheeks, arms, and legs, anywhere else I would have no clue. This girl had round glasses that had a few scratches on them, and her beaten up uniform jacket covered any inclination of what her body looked like underneath but it was easy to assume she was on the heavier side. Her face wore a worried expression with the kindest almond eyes I hadn’t seen until now and her hair was down with some noticeable matts starting to form.
“I suppose we should get to know each other since we are stuck here together. I’m Mariana, Mariana Anne Smith." She seemed eager to learn my name but I walked away after simply nodding to her statement, which would’ve earned me a slap across the head by any adults around, if they were still living.
My obvious indifference and disregard for her did not seem to waver her desire to speak with me however, instead Mariana chose to make me a listener to her ramblings about her physical health and person in general.
“I have really bad asthma, which makes anything athletic harder for me. I can’t run very well, swimming is a no go, and climbing is a pain.” She kept talking for who knows how long, until we finally made it to a beach, where she finally stopped trailing so close behind me I could almost feel her breath.
“Why did you stop walking?” Why I even cared to ask was unknown to me but I completely halted in any more movement into the beach.
“I easily burn in the sun.” Mariana hid in the edges of the shadows of the palm trees by the beach. “An– And the sun is probably very hot and I seem to have lost my shoes after the crash.” She quickly added after her previous statement.
“It’s not that bad, now come along, I want to look for somewhere to relax and wash off this grime.” I motioned for her to follow after me to help look around for a small tide pool to sit in.
It took some time to find a deep enough place to lay in but when I did it felt like Heaven finally came to Earth, the cool water soaked into my ruined uniform and I felt almost all my woes had jumped off my shoulders. Mariana soon followed but only let her legs dip in, nothing more, instead looking at the various shells around, soon picking one up, a big one with a spiral like shape to it.
“What type of shell is that?”
“This is a conch shell! I heard that they could be used to make a loud noise that can be heard for a mile.”
“And why is that important?”
“To see if there are any other, alive, people in this place.”
It was pretty solid reasoning, I was a little surprised I didn’t think of that beforehand. But when she tried to blow into the conch, it only caused her to cough a lot, almost to a choke, but she seemed to recover easily enough, only an annoying cough remained.
“Do you mind blowing into the conch, I don’t think, cough, I don’t think I could with my asthma. I would probably cause an attack if I tried again.” She lowered the conch down to my level in hopes that I would grab it.
“Hm, sure, it would be useful to get any other survivors, for survival and rescue purposes.” I said absentmindedly, grabbing the conch as I stepped out of the water back onto the sand.
“Thank you, uhm, what was your name again?” Mariana still had yet to learn my name, which, thinking back, made sense, I had ignored her implied request for my name earlier.
“Call me Rachel.” I never was one for last names being given for new acquaintances.
Mariana said something but I couldn’t hear her over the loud, vibrating sound of the conch after I blew into it. It seemed like it could’ve been a compliment but I never asked for her to repeat it.