To The End
Chapter 8
When I awoke, the sun was just beginning to rise, and Gerard was on his side, propped up on his elbow, smiling down on Mikey and I. He raised an eyebrow speculatively at me when he saw that I was awake.
"He's married, you know," he whispered.
"Idiot," I said, smiling. "Of course I know that. That's what he was upset about." Gerard nodded, and smiled sadly at me.
"Poor Mikey," he whispered. "Thank you. For taking care of him." I smiled at him, and began slowly to shift Mikey's weight off of me, as Gerard routed around in the flowered suitcase, extracting a couple of water bottles and four granola bars. "Want to get an early start setting up, or do you want to wait for the others to wake up?"
"I don't want to just sit here. Let's get started," I whispered back. He dug around in his suitcase, extracting what looked like a pen and a notebook, then stood up, and offered his hand, helping me to my feet, before handing me a bottle of water and a couple of granola bars. We then walked silently along the beach, eating as we went. Soon, we found ourselves standing in our new camp. "So what do we need to do?"
"Well," he said slowly. "Let's make a list. Here," he handed me the notebook and pen, "I'm sure your writing is neater than mine."
"I wouldn't be so sure," I replied, laughing. "I AM a doctor, you know." I sat in the sand facing the camp site, and he sank down beside me.
"Well, first off, we need to get those seats unbolted, and remove the ones we don't want." I scribbled it down as he spoke. "Then we need to clean the cabin, get all the blood and stuff off. There's cleaning supplies, we found them in the stewardess' closet. Then I guess we need to fill the bottom with sand, to keep the cabin from rolling or anything, and maybe give us a place to sleep if we need it. We should take those cargo nets too, maybe we can make them into a ladder so we can get into the upper level without having to lift people up, they must be pretty strong if they kept all that luggage in place when the plane broke apart. We need to start a new bonfire. Then we need to make the rubber sheets into curtains, and figure out a way to secure them. Probably duct tape is our best bet, Bob has four rolls, and Frank has three."
"Why do they carry duct tape around with them, not that I'm complaining or anything," I asked, laughing.
"Don't ask me, they're strange guys," he said, laughing as well.
"We also need to start going through all that luggage," I said. "Find what we can that's useful, and store it where it can't get wet, and toss what we don't need, like hairdryers and shit."
"Good idea," he said. "Write that one down." I immediately did so. "Ok, so we have a good list to start with. Maybe we should, I don't know, like assign everyone a job for the morning, see how fast we can get this done."
"I think we should wait for everyone to wake up," I said. "I feel like this should be a democratic island."
"Actually, I think you're right. Ok, read the list back to me?" he asked.
"1. Remove Seats, 2. Clean Cabin, 3. Sand, 4. Bonfire, 5. Curtains, 6. Luggage," I read aloud, and Gerard nodded. "And then I'm gonna add one, 7. Sleeping Arrangements."
"Yeah, that's a plan. And I say we give Phil one more chance," he said, looking over his shoulder towards the others sleeping on the sand. I looked back as well, they were now all stirring, beginning to move around. I could see Zara's yellow bikini as she and Amanda made their way down towards the ocean.
"Ok," I said. "Maybe we can put yesterday down to shock. But if he sits around doing nothing today, we write him off."
"Agreed," Gerard said. We stood up, taking our list, and began to walk back towards the others. When we reached the bonfire, Zara and Amanda were drying off from their swim, and the others were eating a breakfast of granola bars.
"Morning, guys!" Tori greeted us cheerfully. "I've been looking over the supplies, and I think we can eat like we did last night tonight." I smiled at her.
"Awesome," I replied happily. "Gerard and I walked up to the new site, and kinda figure out what needs to be done. But we also decided that this should be a democracy, so we wondered if we could have a sort of meeting before we get started today."
"Alright," Tori said cheerfully, as everyone gathered in a small circle on the mat. Even Phil, I was pleased to see.
"So first off, we came up with a list of what we need to do today, and we thought if we broke up into groups, we'd get things done faster. I don't know about you guys, but I'd like to be moved in tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest," Gerard said, and everyone began nodding.
"Ok, tell us what you came up with, and we'll divide it up," Frank said.
"Alright," Gerard said. "Angel, can you read them the list please?" he asked, smiling at me.I cleared my throat, and read what I had written earlier.
"I'm on luggage duty," Tori said immediately after I had finished. "I can't really do much else."
"I'll help you," Amanda said. "We can split everything up into piles, and then everyone can look it over, and we can decide what to save together." Gerard smiled at them, and nodded.
"Ok, so Tori and Amanda on luggage. Everyone agreed?" I asked, as everyone began nodding again, and I wrote their names beside 6. Luggage.
"Angel, I think you and I should clean the cabin," Zara said. "No offense, guys, but she and I know, like, the procedure for cleaning bio-hazardous material, so..."
"I was thinking the same, actually Zara. And I'm not gonna ask if everyone agrees. I don't want you all getting hepatitis or anything," I said as I wrote Zara's name and mine next to 2. Clean Cabin.
"There's a box of latex gloves in the first aid kit, and bleach in with the cleaning supplies," Zara said to me.
"And we can use the cabin air masks as respirators, they have filters in them, I checked," I added, and she nodded in agreement.
"I'm gonna go ahead and volunteer Frank for bonfire duty, he's a fucking pyro," Ray said, and Frank started laughing.
"Yeah, I can do that," Frank said. "Charlotte, wanna help me?"
"K," she replied.
"Everyone ok with that?" I asked, and seeing their heads all nod again, I wrote Frank and Charlotte beside 4. Bonfire.
"I'll work on the curtain," Bob said. "But only if I get to use duct tape in some way." Gerard and I exchanged a look, and both burst out laughing.
"Alright," Gerard said. "Who's going to help him?"
"I will," Mikey said. I nodded, and jotted that down beside 5. Curtains.
"So that leaves Phil, Ray, and me on the seats. Are you guys ok with that?" Gerard said. Ray immediately nodded, but Phil just sat there, a stony look on his face.
"No, I don't want to," Phil said. I raised my eyebrows, and heard Gerard draw a slow breath beside me.
"Ok.What do you want to do?" Gerard asked calmly.
"I want to get off this fucking island," Phil replied.
"We all want to get out of here, Phil," Frank said.
"The only thing we can do though is wait until we're found," Charlotte added.
"All we're trying to do is make a place that's fit to live in until someone comes," I said softly.
"Fine," Phil said. "Waste your time. But I have no intention of wasting mine." Gerard took a slow breath, and looked at me.I nodded at him.
"Phil, we're all working here, everyone but you. Even Victoria, and she can't walk. Charlotte's got a huge gash in her head, and she's working! We're all in this together, and you either pitch in, or sleep outside."
"And the sun's not gonna stay out forever. Eventually, it's gonna rain, and I'll bet it can get pretty damn cold out here in the rain," Mikey added.
"Let's have our first vote. Raise your hand if you think that you shouldn't be allowed in the community if you don't pitch in and pull your own weight," Ray said. My hand shot into the air, and as I looked around the circle, I saw everyone else's hand in the air, except for Phil's. "Looks like you're out voted, Phil. So, are you staying or are you going?" Phil merely sat there, looking at us.
"We need to get to work. We'll give you till noon to decide, Phil. If you want to stay with us, come join us, and work.If you wanna die here, well, start walking." Gerard said.
"Ok," I said."Let's take our stuff now over to the new site, and get working. Once we're done, we can do the sand and figure out the sleeping arrangements." We all stood, and began to work, except of course for Phil, who sat there beside the bonfire. I quickly stuffed all my belongings and my purse into my suitcase, and zipped up the flowered suitcase and then began stuffing everyone's blankets and pillows, except for Phil's, into the other suitcase I had found that first day, along with both first aid kits. Then I stood, hooking the suitcases together, and striding off towards the cabin, pulling them behind me. Zara was right behind me, pulling her bags and Victoria's. Gerard was next, carrying his bags in one hand, and one end of the rubber chute in the other, Mikey had the other end as well as his suitcase. Amanda, Charlotte, Frank and Ray followed, all laden with bags and supplies, and in the rear came Bob, pushing Victoria over the sand as she sat on the beverage cart. I fought the urge to laugh. Phil sat alone, surrounded by his own belongings, on the sand.
We all immediately got down to business, Zara and I taking the two buckets, one plastic, the other tin, from the pile of cleaning supplies. We brought them over to the fresh water pool, and filled them, lugging them back to the cleaning supplies, and adding bleach to the water, and throwing a few rags each into the mixture. After we carried them to the plane, we faced out first obstacle:getting into the cabin. Bob solved our dilemma by lifting us up into the cabin, then passing our buckets up to us. We cut down a couple of face masks, quickly slipping them over our faces, and then pulled on our rubber gloves. Then we got down to work. Below us, we could hear Gerard and Ray, unscrewing the bolts in what to them was the ceiling, loosening the seats, and laughing and talking. Zara and I, however, worked in silence. It was a grim task, washing away the blood and gore from the passengers who hadn't made it. We started at opposite ends, and perhaps twenty minutes later, had to jump down to empty our buckets and start again. Four times we emptied our buckets far out in the woods in a small hole we had dug, before we were able to fill our buckets with cleaning solution, and remove our masks. As we began wiping down the cabin with cleaner, Gerard and Ray joined us, tossing the bad seats out onto the beach, and moving the good ones out of our way. They soon disappeared, however, and we saw them moving off down the beach, carrying a seat between them, towards the spot where Gerard and I had buried the bodies. When we were finished, we filled our buckets again with cleaning solution, this time heading for the lower level. As we walked, we saw Charlotte and Frank running down the beach, each carrying a flaming log like a torch. It was so Chariots of Fire, Zara and I exchanged a look, and began to laugh. As we cleaned the lower level, as we were now calling it, the mood was much lighter. Zara and I now felt able to laugh and joke as everyone else did.
"He's married, you know," he whispered.
"Idiot," I said, smiling. "Of course I know that. That's what he was upset about." Gerard nodded, and smiled sadly at me.
"Poor Mikey," he whispered. "Thank you. For taking care of him." I smiled at him, and began slowly to shift Mikey's weight off of me, as Gerard routed around in the flowered suitcase, extracting a couple of water bottles and four granola bars. "Want to get an early start setting up, or do you want to wait for the others to wake up?"
"I don't want to just sit here. Let's get started," I whispered back. He dug around in his suitcase, extracting what looked like a pen and a notebook, then stood up, and offered his hand, helping me to my feet, before handing me a bottle of water and a couple of granola bars. We then walked silently along the beach, eating as we went. Soon, we found ourselves standing in our new camp. "So what do we need to do?"
"Well," he said slowly. "Let's make a list. Here," he handed me the notebook and pen, "I'm sure your writing is neater than mine."
"I wouldn't be so sure," I replied, laughing. "I AM a doctor, you know." I sat in the sand facing the camp site, and he sank down beside me.
"Well, first off, we need to get those seats unbolted, and remove the ones we don't want." I scribbled it down as he spoke. "Then we need to clean the cabin, get all the blood and stuff off. There's cleaning supplies, we found them in the stewardess' closet. Then I guess we need to fill the bottom with sand, to keep the cabin from rolling or anything, and maybe give us a place to sleep if we need it. We should take those cargo nets too, maybe we can make them into a ladder so we can get into the upper level without having to lift people up, they must be pretty strong if they kept all that luggage in place when the plane broke apart. We need to start a new bonfire. Then we need to make the rubber sheets into curtains, and figure out a way to secure them. Probably duct tape is our best bet, Bob has four rolls, and Frank has three."
"Why do they carry duct tape around with them, not that I'm complaining or anything," I asked, laughing.
"Don't ask me, they're strange guys," he said, laughing as well.
"We also need to start going through all that luggage," I said. "Find what we can that's useful, and store it where it can't get wet, and toss what we don't need, like hairdryers and shit."
"Good idea," he said. "Write that one down." I immediately did so. "Ok, so we have a good list to start with. Maybe we should, I don't know, like assign everyone a job for the morning, see how fast we can get this done."
"I think we should wait for everyone to wake up," I said. "I feel like this should be a democratic island."
"Actually, I think you're right. Ok, read the list back to me?" he asked.
"1. Remove Seats, 2. Clean Cabin, 3. Sand, 4. Bonfire, 5. Curtains, 6. Luggage," I read aloud, and Gerard nodded. "And then I'm gonna add one, 7. Sleeping Arrangements."
"Yeah, that's a plan. And I say we give Phil one more chance," he said, looking over his shoulder towards the others sleeping on the sand. I looked back as well, they were now all stirring, beginning to move around. I could see Zara's yellow bikini as she and Amanda made their way down towards the ocean.
"Ok," I said. "Maybe we can put yesterday down to shock. But if he sits around doing nothing today, we write him off."
"Agreed," Gerard said. We stood up, taking our list, and began to walk back towards the others. When we reached the bonfire, Zara and Amanda were drying off from their swim, and the others were eating a breakfast of granola bars.
"Morning, guys!" Tori greeted us cheerfully. "I've been looking over the supplies, and I think we can eat like we did last night tonight." I smiled at her.
"Awesome," I replied happily. "Gerard and I walked up to the new site, and kinda figure out what needs to be done. But we also decided that this should be a democracy, so we wondered if we could have a sort of meeting before we get started today."
"Alright," Tori said cheerfully, as everyone gathered in a small circle on the mat. Even Phil, I was pleased to see.
"So first off, we came up with a list of what we need to do today, and we thought if we broke up into groups, we'd get things done faster. I don't know about you guys, but I'd like to be moved in tonight, tomorrow morning at the latest," Gerard said, and everyone began nodding.
"Ok, tell us what you came up with, and we'll divide it up," Frank said.
"Alright," Gerard said. "Angel, can you read them the list please?" he asked, smiling at me.I cleared my throat, and read what I had written earlier.
"I'm on luggage duty," Tori said immediately after I had finished. "I can't really do much else."
"I'll help you," Amanda said. "We can split everything up into piles, and then everyone can look it over, and we can decide what to save together." Gerard smiled at them, and nodded.
"Ok, so Tori and Amanda on luggage. Everyone agreed?" I asked, as everyone began nodding again, and I wrote their names beside 6. Luggage.
"Angel, I think you and I should clean the cabin," Zara said. "No offense, guys, but she and I know, like, the procedure for cleaning bio-hazardous material, so..."
"I was thinking the same, actually Zara. And I'm not gonna ask if everyone agrees. I don't want you all getting hepatitis or anything," I said as I wrote Zara's name and mine next to 2. Clean Cabin.
"There's a box of latex gloves in the first aid kit, and bleach in with the cleaning supplies," Zara said to me.
"And we can use the cabin air masks as respirators, they have filters in them, I checked," I added, and she nodded in agreement.
"I'm gonna go ahead and volunteer Frank for bonfire duty, he's a fucking pyro," Ray said, and Frank started laughing.
"Yeah, I can do that," Frank said. "Charlotte, wanna help me?"
"K," she replied.
"Everyone ok with that?" I asked, and seeing their heads all nod again, I wrote Frank and Charlotte beside 4. Bonfire.
"I'll work on the curtain," Bob said. "But only if I get to use duct tape in some way." Gerard and I exchanged a look, and both burst out laughing.
"Alright," Gerard said. "Who's going to help him?"
"I will," Mikey said. I nodded, and jotted that down beside 5. Curtains.
"So that leaves Phil, Ray, and me on the seats. Are you guys ok with that?" Gerard said. Ray immediately nodded, but Phil just sat there, a stony look on his face.
"No, I don't want to," Phil said. I raised my eyebrows, and heard Gerard draw a slow breath beside me.
"Ok.What do you want to do?" Gerard asked calmly.
"I want to get off this fucking island," Phil replied.
"We all want to get out of here, Phil," Frank said.
"The only thing we can do though is wait until we're found," Charlotte added.
"All we're trying to do is make a place that's fit to live in until someone comes," I said softly.
"Fine," Phil said. "Waste your time. But I have no intention of wasting mine." Gerard took a slow breath, and looked at me.I nodded at him.
"Phil, we're all working here, everyone but you. Even Victoria, and she can't walk. Charlotte's got a huge gash in her head, and she's working! We're all in this together, and you either pitch in, or sleep outside."
"And the sun's not gonna stay out forever. Eventually, it's gonna rain, and I'll bet it can get pretty damn cold out here in the rain," Mikey added.
"Let's have our first vote. Raise your hand if you think that you shouldn't be allowed in the community if you don't pitch in and pull your own weight," Ray said. My hand shot into the air, and as I looked around the circle, I saw everyone else's hand in the air, except for Phil's. "Looks like you're out voted, Phil. So, are you staying or are you going?" Phil merely sat there, looking at us.
"We need to get to work. We'll give you till noon to decide, Phil. If you want to stay with us, come join us, and work.If you wanna die here, well, start walking." Gerard said.
"Ok," I said."Let's take our stuff now over to the new site, and get working. Once we're done, we can do the sand and figure out the sleeping arrangements." We all stood, and began to work, except of course for Phil, who sat there beside the bonfire. I quickly stuffed all my belongings and my purse into my suitcase, and zipped up the flowered suitcase and then began stuffing everyone's blankets and pillows, except for Phil's, into the other suitcase I had found that first day, along with both first aid kits. Then I stood, hooking the suitcases together, and striding off towards the cabin, pulling them behind me. Zara was right behind me, pulling her bags and Victoria's. Gerard was next, carrying his bags in one hand, and one end of the rubber chute in the other, Mikey had the other end as well as his suitcase. Amanda, Charlotte, Frank and Ray followed, all laden with bags and supplies, and in the rear came Bob, pushing Victoria over the sand as she sat on the beverage cart. I fought the urge to laugh. Phil sat alone, surrounded by his own belongings, on the sand.
We all immediately got down to business, Zara and I taking the two buckets, one plastic, the other tin, from the pile of cleaning supplies. We brought them over to the fresh water pool, and filled them, lugging them back to the cleaning supplies, and adding bleach to the water, and throwing a few rags each into the mixture. After we carried them to the plane, we faced out first obstacle:getting into the cabin. Bob solved our dilemma by lifting us up into the cabin, then passing our buckets up to us. We cut down a couple of face masks, quickly slipping them over our faces, and then pulled on our rubber gloves. Then we got down to work. Below us, we could hear Gerard and Ray, unscrewing the bolts in what to them was the ceiling, loosening the seats, and laughing and talking. Zara and I, however, worked in silence. It was a grim task, washing away the blood and gore from the passengers who hadn't made it. We started at opposite ends, and perhaps twenty minutes later, had to jump down to empty our buckets and start again. Four times we emptied our buckets far out in the woods in a small hole we had dug, before we were able to fill our buckets with cleaning solution, and remove our masks. As we began wiping down the cabin with cleaner, Gerard and Ray joined us, tossing the bad seats out onto the beach, and moving the good ones out of our way. They soon disappeared, however, and we saw them moving off down the beach, carrying a seat between them, towards the spot where Gerard and I had buried the bodies. When we were finished, we filled our buckets again with cleaning solution, this time heading for the lower level. As we walked, we saw Charlotte and Frank running down the beach, each carrying a flaming log like a torch. It was so Chariots of Fire, Zara and I exchanged a look, and began to laugh. As we cleaned the lower level, as we were now calling it, the mood was much lighter. Zara and I now felt able to laugh and joke as everyone else did.
10/13/13