Annika's Islands Ch. 01

Things are looking up! "How is everyone else?"

A dark look passed over his eyes." They're not there. C'omon, we need to go." He reached past me, reaching into the cargo area.

I moved to let him pull out a large canvas suitcase, trying to process what he'd just told me. His expression gave me little clues, set in an almost grim, emotionless mask.

I followed him to the emergency exit, glancing over towards the seating area. The door flapped open, and I realized all I could see was black on the other side.

Not fully paying attention to him, Darian opened the exit door, and somehow I stumbled through it.

The roar of the massive storm was of little consequence in the half a second it took me to hit the cold, black water. I panicked, dropping anything I'd been carrying as I clawed my way up -- or at least in the direction I hoped was up.

The powerful urge to choke gripped me; I realized I'd inhaled a bit of water. Using every ounce of willpower I fought the reflex for as long as I could, and in the long seconds that were eternity, that was the whole of my existence. Don't choke. Don't choke. Don't choke...

Powerful arms reached down around my chest, pushing me back. My head broke water and I gasped instinctively, regretting it as I began to violently wretch the water out of my lungs.

I half-climbed, half fell into the colorless, inflatable boat. I didn't care how it got there, I was just thankful it was. Lightning brightened the stormy night sky regularly, and I could see Darian next to me, fumbling with a pen flashlight, which finally turned on.

"Sis, you ok? Can you breathe?" His hands rested next to my breast, feeling my lungs expand and collapse.

I hacked and coughed, my lungs feeling as if they were on fire, but took a breath. Yes I could breathe. No, I couldn't talk.

I nodded to him, and gave him a thumb up, weakly.

"Good. I need to go see if there are other people out there. I need you to hold this light so I can find you."

I gripped his arm, still struggling to regain my breath, "D-don't," I tried to say, realizing I was shaking.

"I'm not leaving," He had to yell over the roar of the storm. "I'll be right under you." He pulled off his life-vest, and was gone.

Is he insane? I thought, shining the faint LED flashlight at the bobbing tail of the plane. There was nothing past the door separating the rear to the middle. It had been sheared off. The passenger section probably filled and sunk almost instantly. If anyone survived, they would have floated to the surface -- and I could see no one.

Seconds seemed like hours as I waited for him to surface. Eventually, I was able to catch my breath, allowing me to focus solely on the fact I was alone, with only the rain and Darian's bag for company.

Surely an hour had past when I saw lightning reflect off of pale skin, and wet blond hair. I waved the penlight frantically, using my other hand as a rather hideous substitute for an oar.

My brother had always been a better swimmer than I, however, and he closed the distance between us quickly. He tossed in a medium sized bag of some sort, as well as the other lifeboat I'd lost.

"It's too deep!" He yelled, punching one of the bags angrily. "The whole thing was sinking like a stone, I couldn't swim fast enough."

"You did everything you could," I tried to tell him, my voice sounding rather similar to a half-dead frog. I doubt he even heard me over the storm.

He sat on the opposite side of the boat, hand covering his face, his shoulders heaving silently. Seeing him like that tore my heart out... but there was little I could do to alleviate his pain.

He sniffed after a moment and shook his head, "I... are you ok?"

I nodded, not risking the pain of talking.

"The boat is catching too much water. I'll need your help to rig something up. Just keep the light pointed over my shoulder."

We spent the next few minutes inflating the second boat, and flipping it over ours. This was no easy feat with the wind gusting as it was.

I'd no idea if he came up with the idea by himself or it'd been in one of the emergency pamphlets I'd not bother reading, but soon he had the large plastic vessel securely attached over us, blocking out the rain almost completely.

We emptied most of the water out by figuring out the automated drainage system, and in the process discovered the rather limited emergency supplies.

We were both near hypothermic by the time we settled in the center of the boat. There was absolutely nothing sexual as we stripped to our underwear and wrapped the metallic emergency blanket around ourselves. It was large enough for 4 people, but I couldn't help feeling like a rather frozen baked potato.

The blanket reflected body heat well enough -- what little there was to be had -- but wasn't exactly comfortable. The large, muscular form beside however, was heaven.

Imperceptibly, our little metal cocoon warmed. And somehow, I drifted into an uneasy, worried, sleep.