Chapter 3

The Best Class

Chapter 3

Once again, the plane shifted and the rear of the plane dropped a few more feet. A couple of the children fell in the aisle as they lost their handholds.

“We’ve got mere water coming in from the front of the plane,” reported __Braxton. He spoke calmly. “But it feels like the plane is still stuck on something. We’re not sinking.”

“Not yet,” said __Bridger. “But the tide could tear us loose from whatever is holding us. If that happens, there’s no way this plane will stay afloat. We’ve got to get to land.”

“__Bridger is right,” said _Tanner. “We’ve got to get ashore, but it’s a cinch that most of us can’t swim that far. Especially not with these waves. Anybody have any ideas?”

Everybody but Doug, who was crying softly, was quiet for a moment.

“Planes are supposed to have a life raft on board, I think,” said __Alex.

“I’m afraid that it’s gone,” said _Zoey. “__Mr. Anderson was getting it out when the explosion tore the tail off the plane.”

“There must be more than one,” said __Alex. “Let’s all fan out and do a search.”

There were murmurs of agreement, but just then __Rhylla spoke up. “That won’t be necessary. It says here that there is another raft in the closet behind the galley.”

Everyone turned to look at __Rhylla. The plane was a little more level now that the tail had dropped a little. She was sitting down reading from the small card of emergency directions that was located near each seat.

“What’s a galley?” asked someone.

“That’s where they store the food,” replied _Troy.

“It says that it’s a ten person raft and to be careful not to inflate it inside the plane,” continued __Rhylla. There’s also another raft stored just behind the pilot’s compartment.”

“Here it is,” shouted _Asher, who was closest to the galley. “This closet door says “Life Raft.” _Asher turned the handle and pulled the small door open. _Braxton helped him pull out a large gray plastic package. On one side of the package was a bright yellow handle with red tape across it.

“It says that pulling the yellow handle will automatically inflate the raft,” said _Rhylla. It also says that the best place to inflate it is on one of the wings.”

“I’m afraid that’s the only one we have,” shouted _Kaide from the front of the plane.

Everyone looked past the galley to where _Kaide stood in water up to his hips. In front of him was an open closet door. Spilling out in front of him was the ripped remains of a life raft.

“It looks like it got ripped up pretty badly when we crashed,” shouted _Seth.

“Great,” said Bryan. “We have one ten person raft and there are ___26 of us. “How are we going to solve that problem?”

“Only __25,” said _Jessica. “Someone can have my place. I’ll try to swim it.”

“Mine too,” volunteered _Remi. “I’m a fairly strong swimmer. I think I can make it.”

“No you can’t,” said _Kody. “These waves are much too rough. We’ve got to stick together.

“_Kody’s right,” exclaimed _Jocelyn. “We’re all classmates and we’ve got to help each other. Nobody can make it on their own.”

The class all nodded agreement but Doug. He sat quietly now, watching his classmates closely.

“Nobody is going to have to swim it,” said _Cheryl. She had begun reading another emergency card. “This says that the seats can be made into “flotation devices.” I think that means they are like life jackets. It says to pull them up and shows us how to strap them on, just like the flight attendant showed us before we took off. That raft is made for ten adults, We’re just kids, so most of us should fit in. Those that can’t, can wear the seats and hang onto the side of the raft.”

“That should work,” agreed __Bridger. We can certainly give it a try.”

The class broke up into several groups. Everyone started working to pull up the seat cushions and experiment with the correct way to wear them. _Patrick and _Tanner fiddled with the door that opened up over the wing and after a few minutes got it open.

Everyone climbed out onto the wing. The sunlight was much stronger outside the plane and glimmered brightly off of the water. At the front of the plane, the children could see some large rocks poking up from the ocean. It was between two of these that the front of the plane was stuck. The nose of the plane was still underwater. The rest of the plane had settled so that the wing was only a foot above the water.

_Remi, _Braxten, and _Bryan worked together to get the bundled raft out the door and onto the wing. It was heavier than it looked, but with everyone helping, they managed to get it onto the wing. _Asher peeled the red tape off and grabbed the yellow handle.

“Stand back,” he said.

“I hope this works,” someone added.

_ Asher gave the yellow handle a jerk. He stepped away from the bundle as it gave a loud hiss. The package seemed to spring to life as the sides folded away from the middle. It seemed almost like magic, but in just a few moments a large raft had sprung up in front of them.

The class all crowded around it. A couple of the children even climbed inside it.

“Look at this,” said _Aliyah. She pulled a pistol from a small compartment in the side of the raft.

“Put that down,” exclaimed someone. “We should never touch guns.”

“It’s a gun alright,” explained _Aliyah. “But it’s a signal gun. Look, these must be flares. And here’s some water bottles and some food.”

“That reminds me,” said _Seth. “I’m hungry. Maybe we’d better eat before we go.”

“That’s a good idea,” agreed _Braxton. “Also, we’d better take all the food we can find with us. There’s no telling what we might find over there.” He pointed towards the island.

Everyone trooped back into the plane and rummaged through all of the closets that weren’t under water. When they returned to the wing, they brought mostly snack foods like crackers, peanuts, and candy. There were five of the airline dinners, still wrapped in their aluminum covers, left over from their dinner the night before. _Kaide had also taken the food from the raft that had been torn up.

_Bryan surprised everyone a few minutes later when he carried out two big boxes. “Look what I found,” he shouted. The children all gathered around. The first box was full of pop and cans of fruit juice. The second had little glass bottles in it.

“What are those?” someone asked.

“Those are called mini-bottles,” said __Alex. “I heard the flight attendant offer __Mr. Anderson one. Of course he didn’t drink any. Those are full of whiskey.”

“Throw them in the ocean,” suggested _Asher. “We don’t need that junk.”

“No,” said _Jessica. “Just put it back in the plane. We may be in the middle of nowhere, but we still shouldn’t litter.”

_Camron thoughtfully added. “Actually, I think you can use alcohol to clean wounds and stuff. Maybe we should hang onto some of it for that?”

“Good idea” said _Orion. “We can store it with the medical supplies.”

__Brooke and _Caitlun carefully divided the food into ___26__ piles. Only Doug complained about how little food there was. Everyone else, knowing it would do no good to complain, quietly ate what they were given.

The children made a second search of the plane to get anything else that might be helpful when they got ashore. They gathered the small bags that they had carried on with them, the small blanket and pillows from the campartments over their seats, and managed to find a few books of matches in the galley. __Zoey put these into a plastic bag. “The waves are high out there,” she said. “I want to make sure these stay dry.”

They were all standing on the wing getting the raft loaded when the plane began to shift again. The tail dropped down to the water’s surface. The plane was now nearly level. Water began to splash across the wing, and they could hear water rushing in through the tail of the plane.

“I guess we’d better get going,” said _Zoey. The others quickly agreed. They pushed the raft into the water and climbed aboard. _Cheryl had been right. The raft, which was designed to hold ten adults, held _23 of the children. _Orion, _Jessica and Brooke-- all bravely volunteered to just hang onto the side. Everyone had on life vests made from the seat cushions of the plane. They weren’t comfortable, but the three children in the water discovered that they kept their head above water quite easily.

The raft was round, and had no paddles. Fortunately, the wind was blowing gently towards the land. The three children in the water got on the seaward side of the raft and began to kick their legs. The raft slowly started towards the island.

They had only gone about a hundred yards when, with a tearing sound, the plane sank beneath the waves.

The waves were still a little rough after the storm. _Talan found that by standing up, he could make more room in the raft. Also, he could see the island better and give the others reports of how close they were getting. _Bridger and _Zuri held onto his legs to keep him steady.

Suddenly he pointed to their right. “Get out of the water,” he shouted. “There’s a shark!”

Everyone looked. There, coming quickly towards the raft, was a fin cutting through the water.