William R

Survival

By William Richardson

Grayson looked around the large, loud airport searching for gate 36 where the rugby team he was captain of was waiting. His mouth watered at the sight of a large cookie a middle aged man just purchased from the new café that had just opened. He had skipped breakfast and ran out the door as quickly as he could because he had slept in. Grayson finally found the gate sign hidden behind another tall column supporting the roof. He was greeted by loud cheers from his own team, although he also received some boos. Gray looked across the room and saw their rival rugby team captained by Jack, a boy that had taken one too many hits to the head. Grayson also had a suspicion that he wasn’t all that bright to begin with either. Grayson’s rugby team had an extreme distaste for Jack’s rugby team because if you so much as touched them, they started to swing incredibly weak punches.

“We are going to board now” said a loud voice on the speaker phone. Just in time he thought while breathing heavily from running around the airport. Grayson pulled his ticket out of a pocket inside his jumper where it was safely hidden and went outside to the small plane that was going to transport both rugby teams to Greece for their international tournament.

The rugby team that Grayson captained was known as the Crushing K9's with their symbol being a dog. They all walked up the stairs with their heavy suitcases, while Jack complained about his feet hurting even after he gave his suitcase to one of the rugby players who wasn’t struggling. Grayson realized that the plane was a lot more spacious than it looked and the interior smelt clean, something he wasn’t expecting after he saw how dirty the outside of the plane was. Grayson also noticed chocolate’s that were nearly all gone now that Jack had gotten into them. The pillows were soft and much better than the ones you usually get on a short plane flight. Grayson found that his best friend James had already fallen asleep and he thought it might be a good idea to get some sleep as well.

After what seemed like seconds later, he suddenly woke up to the sound of Jack sobbing into his pillow while the plane shuddered and shook. The pilot spoke into the mega phone and told everyone to go into brace positions, making Jack sob harder. The plane hit the ground with extreme force and nearly everyone was knocked out instantly.

Grayson woke up with a sore head and slowly took in the scene around him. A tree branch had punctured the window and was sticking out just in front of his head. Grayson tried to stand up but his knees were shaking too hard. He finally managed to get his body under control and stand up even if he was still a little bit shaky. He went around to everyone checking to see if they were all still alive. No one had died and people were waking up, slowly observing the wreckage. Grayson realized that he hadn't heard anything from the pilot and went to check the cockpit and saw the pilot, sitting in a pool of blood, unseeing eyes staring blankly ahead. He jumped back in shock.

Jack came in as well and instantly threw up all over himself. Grayson jumped out of the way trying not to get any of the disgusting green vomit on his brand new shoes.

"We must split up into groups because I am not working with him" Jack said pointing a finger at Grayson. “Rugby team storm out with me,” he said.

His team stood up quickly worried they would get in trouble if they weren’t fast enough.

"Well that settles that," Grayson said happily. "I was worried that they he would actually want to work together."

Everyone still sitting on the floor of the plane instantly agreed working with Jack would have been a nightmare.

"As I see it we need to get water food and shelter in that order" said Gray.

"I saw a river out my window just before the plane crashed" chimed in a boy that had just joined the rugby team.

Grayson thought his name was Clyde but he couldn't be sure. They all hopped out of what used to be an emergency exit. They couldn't find the river even with Clyde pointing the way through the thick forest. Even though the sun barley shone through the thick trees that covered the sky creating low visibility it didn't stop the strong soaking rain from completely wetting the group.

Suddenly a loud explosion went off and the shock wave sent the group sprawling. Grayson slowly got up and his ears were ringing noisily. One of the fuel tanks must have exploded he thought wearily. This had to have been the worst day of his life but he was sure things would pick up once they built shelter and had a fire going.

Once his ears gradually stopped ringing he started to hear the sound of flowing water. Grayson realized that the river must be close and he led the group through the thick jungle towards the river using only his keen hearing to guide them. The group started to hear as well and the walking turned into a steady jog. They parted two large ferns and there was the strong flowing river. Grayson suddenly realized they left all their luggage on the plane and the plane had blown up. All their spare clothes gone. The river was very fast flowing and a boy in their group named Axel deemed it safe to drink after trying it several times. Everyone put their heads in the water and drank. Trudging through the muddy rainforest had made them sweat a lot and now they were extremely thirsty. Grayson lifted his head from the delicious cold water. "Ok" said gray "our next goal is to get food. Meat would be great but any fruit or vegetables is ok."

Even as he said this his stomach rumbled. Grayson looked down and saw a small bulge in his pocket. He was curious to see what it was. He slowly put his hand into his pocket and retrieved a small silver whistle. Grayson wondered where it came from and then he remembered placing it in his pocket earlier that morning in his rush to leave. An idea suddenly sparked in Grayson’s head. "Listen up everyone. We will go out in groups of two and search for food for an hour and when I blow this whistle, follow the noise and find me."

Conversation instantly broke out as the boys tried to get into groups with their best friend. There were a couple of arguments that broke out that were quickly decided by a game of rock paper and scissors, the best out of three. Grayson and James set of looking for any type of fruit they knew was edible.

"That's weird" said James looking down at the ground. Why is there a rotten mango lying on the ground?"

Grayson shrugged his shoulders. He heard a gasp from his friend and turned around to see what was happening. His friend was looking straight up in the air. Grayson looked up as well and he saw the most beautiful mango tree he had ever seen, hundreds of delicious looking mangos draped off every branch. Grayson blew his whistle and everyone came back relatively quickly with all of them grumbling about there being no food anywhere on the island. Grayson pulled on one of the fruits that was hanging low. He sunk his teeth into the ripe red and yellow skin of the mango. There was an explosion of flavor, large amounts of mango juice dripped from the hole he had just made. Saying it was delicious is an understatement.

They all agreed to build shelter under the giant mango tree to make sure they didn't lose their one source of food. Fortunately, the river was close so it would be hard to die from dehydration. Grayson remembered from when he was about eight on a father and son camp they taught him how to put together a small one man tent that would keep the rain out which was made only out of sticks. Grayson instructed the group to gather up as many sticks as possible. They had no idea how to build any sort of shelter but they were confident that Grayson knew what he was doing. Everyone came back with arms full of sticks. They dumped them all in a giant pile. Grayson stood on the sticks and gave them a quick lesson on how to build the small one man tents. They knocked together the tents just in time because the rain had started up again and this time it was really coming down hard. The small, quickly made shelters did an ok job of keeping the rain out.

As the day turned into night, the rain continued showing no sign of faltering. All that Grayson could do was think "What next?" Gray finally dosed off into an uneasy sleep, worried about what was to come. He awoke to ferocious growling. In the shadows was a horrid like creature. Suddenly he realized it was a bear. He could just make out its white teeth glowing in the darkness. He looked across to the other tents where he could see everyone was awake. He signaled the boys to run towards the river in "three, two, one" with his fingers. Jake, one of the faster kids was the quickest to start running but was jumped upon by the bear before he had taken five steps. Grayson couldn't tear his eyes away from the gruesome scene of a boy he had known since Year five being murdered brutally. Grayson felt sick in the stomach though he knew deep down that it wasn't his fault but right now he felt completely responsible and he was partially motivated to jump on top of that stupid bear and beat it to the ground. Common sense prevailed for he knew if he tried anything he would surely have the same fate as Jake. This thought obviously didn't cross Jake’s brother, Jonah, as he sprinted towards the vicious beast shouting some sort of war cry. The beast swiped at Jonah but he ducked under the slow attack. The bear obviously didn't have a thirst for any more blood but Jonah wanted to avenge his fallen brother. He stepped forward and jabbed twice at the bears nose. This only succeeded in making the bear even angrier than it was before. The bear swung again, this time aiming for the legs. Jonah tried to duck again but the giant claws scraped across his leg opening a giant cut. Jonah didn't feel it though for he had too much adrenaline coursing through his veins.

Grayson realized that he was going to lose another member of his team. He looked around and thinking fast he picked up a huge moss covered rock that was ten meters away and lobed it at the back of the bear’s head. There was a sickening crack as the rock shattered the beast’s skull.

Gray woke up the next morning with his head hurting an extreme amount. He sat up for a second not remembering where he was or what he was doing the night before. Then he suddenly remembered all to clearly last night’s run in with the bear. That was the first time he had ever seen a dead body and he wasn't too keen to see it again.

Everyone else started to wake as well and it was now that Grayson decided to go back to the plane and scavenge for lost items. He described the plan to everyone and they all agreed that that was the best path to follow. It was lucky that part of the plane was still ablaze even after the strong rain, otherwise there would have been no smoke to follow. When they arrived it was evident that an explosion had taken place because there was a large crater although the inside of the hull of the plane was still relatively intact. They walked through what used to be an emergency exit but now only sharp bent metal. They opened up the luggage compartments and Grayson opened up his suitcase and lying on top of the clothes was a fishing knife that was technically illegal to get through customs. He attached it to his belt using some sticky tape that James had in his bag. His friends took clothes and that was about it because they knew the importance of packing light. Grayson took a backpack to hold all of those beautiful mangos.

As they walked back he saw a large amount of bamboo. Gray had the idea of carving spears, an obvious thing to do when you were trapped on an island. He used his knife to saw away at the bottom of each long stalk but the bamboo was surprisingly strong, even though each beam looked quite thin. After about ten minutes he had his bag filled with two meter long rods of bamboo.

The next ten days went by in a flash. It was the same thing every day, eat, drink and sleep. He could feel his mind and soul changing. The life he once knew was deteriorating in his memory and he now only cared about survival. The one thing that stopped him going insane was his amazing friends. They were always there to comfort him when he got any sort of injury.

When Grayson fell into a sleep filled with nightmares he suddenly awoke to a gag being placed in his mouth. He tried to scream but a hand silenced his efforts. He was dragged across the jungle floor and as much as he struggled he couldn't get rid of the many hands that held him in place. As he was dragged through the darkness he craned his head and saw an orange light ahead. Grayson was not sure what it was but as they got closer he was sure it was a giant campfire. He was eager to feel the warmth that the fire would bring. He was curious to see who had taken him and he wasn't scared by these people although he was sure they were enemies - anyone who puts a gag in your mouth can’t be good.

They seemed to have arrived at their destination because the things pulling him had stopped and he was finally able to wriggle out of their strong grips. As they drew nearer to the fire he felt joy spread across his body. Grayson hadn't been properly warm for days. The rain had pelted down for days now non-stop. But this feeling of joy had come to an end because a hell of a lot of fists started to rain down upon him for no apparent reason. He could partially hear the sound of a voice that he could meekly make out. It was the sound of Julien's voice over the sound of fists hammering into his body and the occasional grunt. "Let this be a lesson, do not take the only source of food on this godforsaken island. Give the mangos to me or something even worse will happen."

That was it. He had finally crossed the line, insanity has set in. He pulled out his knife and it slid smoothly out of its fern made sheath. Using stealth, he swung the light but deadly weapon wildly and he heard a cry of pain from the attackers as the sharp blade scraped across their shins. Grayson stood up quickly as the boys prepared to release an entourage of attacks, except this time they saw a glint in Grayson eye that told them to back away.

“What are you waiting for? Grab him” Jack shouted angrily but nobody stepped forward. They were all obviously more afraid of the crazy boy wielding a knife rather than the weakling they called leader.

Grayson sprinted off into the woods not even feeling the sharp rocks digging into his feet with every step that he took. After running for about ten minutes he got his knife and carved Jack’s stupid face into a large oak tree. He pummeled that tree for hours. He also threw his knife at the pictures forehead, drilling it into that one spot every single time.

Grayson woke up to the searing pain in his hands. He looked down at his heavily bleeding knuckles and also noticed heavy bruising all over his body. Now he felt ashamed of how he had lost control but he knew if he hadn't, they probably would have killed him or at the very least injured him more than he already was. He stood up slowly a little light headed from all the blood lost through his hands. Grayson wondered around the island hoping to find shelters by sheer dumb luck.

As he was walking he realized that they had just assumed it was an island, in all books and movies after a plane crash the main character was stuck on some sort of island. What if they were in the middle of the Amazon? Wait that couldn't be right. There were no bears in the Amazon. They must have been in the middle of nowhere, otherwise someone would have come by now. Also, fresh water rivers don't flow across small islands.

As he walked he started to recognize the area around him. He broke into a jog as he saw the group that he had learned to love. He ran towards them. James saw him and a surprised but happy face suddenly turned to a frown. “Where? Where were you?” he shouted angrily. “We thought you were dead. We were about to pick a new leader.”

"Oh, I am sorry for getting kidnapped in the middle of the night, then beaten up" he said sarcastically while revealing one of his large bruises. "Men" Grayson shouted. "We need to prioritize our escape. I suggest we build rafts to sail on the river using bamboo and see where the flow takes us. I know it’s a high risk but at this point who cares. We are all going crazy and the forest will consume us soon. So what the hell! We are all going to die soon except if we build the rafts, we might not."

He went over to the patch of bamboo and started sawing away at the bottom. The other boys did this as well but using sharpened rocks instead of a knife. They started to sketch a design of what the rafts would look like. As they finished drawing it on the dirt he realized that it was going to take some time to build the rafts, maybe a couple of weeks. After all, it has to transport 15 boys across the large ocean.

As he walked towards the vines that he would have to cut down to keep the rafts intact, he saw something heartwarming that made him long for home even more than he already did. It was a mother rabbit caring for her many kittens. Grayson was filled with renewed energy and he channeled this into his work and within ten minutes he had cut down roughly fifteen kilos of bamboo, the amount they needed for the rafts. He cut down all the vines they needed as well. As a group they collectively picked up the long green shoots and took them to the side of the river. As the sun started to set the sky turned a beautiful shade of pink orange and red. Gray smiled because he knew this would be the last time he would be sleeping on the ground.