The Arrival

Meghan swam to shore as fast as she could, slowing down about halfway due to fatigue. She manged to pull herself onto shore, coughing and laying half in the shallows to rest. Dammit, she thought to herself, scowling slightly. She regretted never doing anything physical, really. She could hardly swim to shore and now she was stranded on a god damned island. With a groan, she started to push herself up when she saw the bags. Shuffling over on her hands and knees, she sat down on the ground in front of them. Meghan grabbed her bag, the one that had her name, and opened it.

Looking through the contents, she frowned slightly. Sure, the rope, knife, and matches would come in handy but the sewing kit was close to useless. She had never sewn in her life. Zipping the backpack back up, she turned to face the others that had, or were, making their way to shore.

Christina's head fell under the water a few times before finally being pushed to shore by the oncoming waves. It was dangerous - especially since this was not to happen. How it happened? Well she didn't have a clue. Her lungs ached horribly when she finally sat up a bit - coughing up the water that had went into her lungs. The water had a disgusting taste - salt mainly. It was horrible, something she didn't want to taste again. Her head spun out of control because of the constant tossing she had just experienced and the muscles in her body felt like they were going to turn into a liquid. The young girl slowly lifted her head up after her coughing fit and relaxing was done. Her eyes set upon three bags and her eyebrows furrowed together, ; Why are there bags..that is horribly suspicious. ; she thought to herself before standing herself up and stumbling over there. She examined each name title before finding hers and picking it up. She wasn't going to look in it quite yet, especially with people around that could potentially take it for themselves. She never knew what people were like - never really trusted them either. People can do horrible things just to make themselves last longer.

Jake swam onto shore, keeping one arm under his pup to keep her afloat. He made his way to shore, being Athletic, it wasn't too hard for him. He made sure his pup was okay before checking his bag. He peeked inside to see the useful items. He picked up a few coconuts he saw on the ground and stuffed them into the bag. He then eyed the other people, keeping a hand on his dog while eyeing them over. They didn't seem to suspicious, but better safe then sorry. He eyed them as they began to move away and check their bags.

Lisa managed to swim onto the shore, crawling up onto it. She breathed heavily, coughing out any excess water that she may have swallowed on her swim. Looking around her person, she made sure that her notepad was secure. Good. It was wet, but nothing a little sun couldn't cure. Lisa then stood, eyeing the bags curiously. She picked up the one with her name on it, opening it up to take a look. What was all of this? A snare kit? What good was that to her when she didn't know how to use it? Who left this and how did they know her name...? Then she looked at the other people around her, making a face. "The fuck is going on here?" She asked aloud. Maybe one of them knew.

"No clue," She mumbled, staring off into the woods blankly. She was scared. Meghan knew nothing abou survival. All she had was her waterlogged camera, which probably didnt work, and this backpack. She cursed quietly. The people she couldn't even trust yet. As far as she knew, she was stranded with a jock, some shy girl, and a girl obsessed with her writing. That was it. Nothing made her trust the three.

She hesitated a secodn more before headig into the woods. She was hoping it'd calm her down, but it did the opposite. She had no shelter or anything, no food, no water. She was royally fucked and she was slowly accepting ehr fate that she'd die on the island.

After a hike, she came upon a waterfall. It had a pretty lake infront of it, which was shallow enough to wade in, with some rockier shallows in it. A thought flashed through her mind. It seemed pretty much every movie or book with a waterfall had a cave behind it. Why the hell not check this one?

She made her way over to the waterfall, checking behind her that there was nobody following her, before reaching out a hand to se if the area behind it was solid. Running it along the slick rock, she almsot lost hope in it until at last the rock gave way to air and she almost fell against the rock. Grinning at her slight victory, she ducked inside the cave.

It wasn't large at all. The roof ended only about a half a foot above her own head, but the cave was roomy enough to fit two people inside of it with belongings, or three without. The floor was all small rocks and pebbles, which near the entrance were a bit damp from the spray.

Christina made her way through the forest before sitting down beside a tree and smiling to herself while opening the bag. She went through the belongings and pulled each other - quietly staring at the woodwork book. That could be extremely helpful, especially if there were pictures in it. She opened the book and looked through, absolutely no pictures. That was going to make it harder for her to know if the project was going to be right and to make it even worse, she had no tools except a knife and a rope. Perhaps she could make a hammer or even find other things along the way. Though to find nails would be hard..maybe vines,yes vines would work. She placed the belongs back into the bag and scavenged around the area. It was a good thing she was use to tough situations - if you were you'd end up in a shit hole at the zoo and possibly in the morgue two seconds after.

The girl continued looking about in the area, coming across long enough branches and such to use for a shelter. When she found the decent pieces, much to her disadvantage it lost a lot of time and made her forget to find food or animals. Well this was going to be hell of a night for her. A small sigh escaped her lips, she hated it already. Not even a full day and she already wanted to be off this damn island. The frustration began to built up in her while looking at the perfect tree. Eventually she sent a punch towards the tree to lose the pent up anger but swore to herself in realization to the extreme pain running through her nerves. God that was a stupid idea, thinking to herself. She rubbed her hand and shook the pain away, it was better to ignore it. She can start taking care of it after she gets a decent base.

Christina began to climb up the tree to tie the rope around a sturdy branch then made her way down again. She brought a few branches closer to the tree to tie them to it and started to climb the tree before attempting to bring a branch up. There was one little problem - the branch unfortunately failed to make it up because of how big it was and because of the tree branches stopping it. This was going to be one hell of an evening to get the huge branches up here to line them up from branch to branch to make a decent base. She bit the bottom of her lip and stared at the branches trying to figure out a way to get them up here without hurting herself.

(ps the tree)

Spoiler:

He shrugged at the girls response, and wondered into the woods, carrying his dog to make sure she didn't get bitten or anything. He looked for places he could find shelter. He found a small shady area, which was only shady because of the large trees overhead. He Decided this would work for now, and cleared the ground of rocks and such so Jade could lay down for a bit. He looked for something that he could do, to help them survive. He looked to the ground, finding leaves all over. Pretty decent sized ones. What could he do with those? He decided to try to make something, well, he picked up a fairly decent sized rock, and tried to throw it at a tree to crack it. He was a quarterback after all, pretty strong arm. He threw it and threw it, until it finally broke. It revealed a hollow center. Perfect! He went to the nearby ocean and put water int he bowl like rock, and dug a pit in the dirt to let it settle. He put a couple leaves over the bowl, and secured them by tying them to the trees with some of the rope he had, leaving a still pretty good amount of rope. From what he had learned in science, the water would evaporate off the leaves and fall down into the other bowl of water, hopefully. He needed fresh water to live. He pet his dog Jade, sighing at the fact that now he was alone with him and his dog to take care of on this horrible island. He stroked her back, and lay down onto her soft fur. He placed his head on her back, and let himself take a short repose, and woke up ready to go again.

She watched all of the people go, deciding to stay on the beach. Lisa slung her bag over her shoulder, moving to start collecting branches and sticks on the outskirts of the jungle. She laid out an "SOS" symbol on the beach, starting a pile of sticks next to it. It wasn't completed, but she figured it would in a matter of days. Proud of her work, she figured she would be home in no time. If the others wanted nothing to do with her, that was their loss. She could go home without their help! Lisa decided to save trying her new snares later, going to explore nearby. She didn't find anything of use other than some more sticks and some rocks, returning to her small camp with it. Looking up at one of the large-leaved trees on the beach, she took one of the knives in her bag to reach and cut some leaves off. She placed two on the sand, laying down on them and keeping her bag close. Soon enough, she fell asleep to recuperate.

Meghan began dragging branches toward the cave, breaking them in half if need be, and stacking them neatly against the wall where they’d take up as little room as possible. She didn’t want to risk losing the sticks for any reason, and having them inside would be the safest for the time being. She couldn’t really start a fire inside the cave, so she made a stack outside of the cave as well to start a fire. When done, she’d scavenge the sandy beach of the waterfall, where a few palm trees stood, and collected a couple coconuts. It wasn’t the best meal, but for the time being it would do.

With much cursing and a couple wasted matches, she used some pieces of the paper of the letter in her backpack to start the fire, careful to rip the margins out around the words so she would be able to read it after the firelight was there. Setting it to the side, she cracked open a coconut with a rock, drinking the milk before picking the letter back up. Her face, lit up by the light of the crackling fire, turned from an expression of confusion to shock. They were stuck on a damn island for some stupid experiment. Where they could easily be injured, or die if they were lying about them sending help? She cursed again and crumpled it up, almost throwing it in the fire before she gained her wits and threw it back in her backpack.

After eating the coconut, she set out on making herself a spear. It was a survival instinct, really. Mostly in order to get herself food in the morning. She found a good length stick that was straight enough, and carefully workedon whittling the end of it to a point in a fashion that wouldn’t slice open her fingers. When she was done with that, she refilled her water canteen, kicked sand over the fire, and carried her gear into the cave.

Christina quietly stared off in the distance to where the smoke was coming from (since obviously people forget that smoke can be seen easily). She gave off a sigh and slowly climbed down the tree with her stuff - being careful to not touch anything that could potentially harm her. There was a lot that was learnt about the animals in the rainforest and plants - she had to learn them. The girl slowly made it off the tree before quietly making her way around the bush and plants - careful to not harm herself while leaving the surrounding area. Her eyes were set upon the smoke - hoping to come across some sort of person to help her a bit. She can't do this on her own after all.

After a while of walking, Christina made it to the waterfall area and bent down to notice the smoke still coming from the area before disappearing. There had to be someone there otherwise the fire wouldn't stop and she was going to investigate - despite her being horrible with people and not sure what to do in any kind of situation. She attempted her best to be quiet and get over to the cave hoping to meet someone who wasn't going to kill her in the first five seconds of meeting her.

There was no doubt about it that Christina was terrified of getting closer, the fear that had built up in her body had made it obvious by the appearing sweat and how she moved. There was fear clear in her eyes making her looking around while moving closer at each step. Her hands clenched and unclenched in an obvious motion before finally staying clenched to keep herself from freaking out. Christina made it closer to the entrance before standing in it and letting out a quiet, "Hello." Her voice heavy with a British Accent and it contained a shaky tone. It was clear that she couldn't see - due to the dark sky and dark forest.

When he awoke, he woke to the faint smell of smoke. However, he shrugged it off. This was an island, and he had met people who had matches in their bags, as well as him. He didn't need their help. Well, in all honesty he did, but hell if he was going to admit that! He woke his dog, and drank a bit of their fresh water, and gave her some. His priority was going to be able to find a freshwater source. However, he needed to scavenge for materials to build a home. He figured he'd make his way out to the beach, and find food, such as fishes. He had a harpoon after all. How hard could it be? He made his way out to the beach, finding Lisa and her S.O.S. sticks. He chuckled. "Need some help there? Also, don't think the hole S.O.S. thing is gonna work. Haven't seen a plane fly around here since I got here. Best bet would be the docks, if we can find them." He said, raising an eyebrow to the girl and awaiting a reply.

Lisa woke back up soon enough, studying her pile of sticks to estimate how many she would need. If anyone was going to ever find her, it would have to be and obnoxious. Getting enough sticks for that could take weeks. She cursed under her breath, knowing damn well that she should find food and water. She looked up when someone addressed her, turning to look. It was that boy from where they had washed up earlier that day. Lisa scowled, not wanting to admit that she needed help. Too much pride for that. "What do you mean 'it won't work?'" She asked with a scoff. "It works in all the movies! I'm gonna prove those talented screenwriters ri--wait, 'docks?'" Her entire expression changed from indignant to curious. "What docks are you talkin' about?" She asked.

Meghan was lying down, using her backpack as a pillow, trying to fall asleep so she wasn't dead tired the next morning. She was mostly staring up at the slowly darkening ceiling, listening to the rush of the waterfall near the cave, unable to sleep. Her mind kept making its way back to her college, imagining what the few people she could consider actual friends were doing. She wasn't even sure what time it was back in New York. She sighed and shook her head at the thoughts, trying to push them out of her mind.

When Christina called out, Meghan jumped slightly, cursing under her breath. She sat up, looking towards the entrance of the cave, squinting and trying to see who it was in the lowering light. The voice wasn't that of the blonde girls. She remembered that much, since she had no accent. It wasn't the guy’s either, since it was obviously a feminine voice and she had heard him speak too. The only other person was the quiet girl who had left into the woods without a word, or someone who didn't land on the same stretch of beach as them.

Thoughts still racing on who the mystery voice was, she replied with a “Hello,” of her own, voice slightly unsure. If it was someone willing to harm her, she did have that shitty spear. The knife was of less use, really. It was in her backpack, and she’d be less likely to be able to get it out if the person was prepared to actually do something. Meghan didn't move, however, and decided to let her eyes adjust and listen for something the person might say in return.

Christina quietly entered the cave when hearing the voice, "Your....fire gave you away." quietly speaking out to the girl - since you know its a female voice and obviously a girl and female so female. She really couldn't see much in the cave due to the darkness so trying to figure out where the person was, would be a difficult task. She wasn't going to quickly start moving around the cave to just find a person - that would just be the stupidest thing on the planet to do. Christina did though begin to move, not quickly and not fast but she needed to see where that person was. It bothered her to speak out in an open cave, and plus it feels more secure if you know their facial features and how they talk and move when talking.

The girl continued to walk about before finally tripping over something well someone since Meghan was conveniently in that spot. Since gravity is a bitch she obviously fell on top of the older girl - her forearms stopping the rest of her fall as well as her knees. They were basically in that awkward straddle position because those positions are fun and even more awkward than everything else. Her face was about an inch away from the other girl's. Her whole body froze up and her eyes went wide like a deer stuck in headlights. She had no idea what to do at this point but basically stay in the same spot.

"Yeah, well, sorry buttercup this ain't a movie," he rolled his eyes a bit, amazed at her stupidity. "Well, whered'ya think the boats were headed? Gotta be some dock around here somewhere." He said, raising an eyebrow, considering the fact that this may have not even crossed her mind. "For now, I think its best we work together. Find freshwater, food, shelter, et cetera, better to work in pairs, right buttercup?" he said, proud of the nickname he had given her. Buttercup, just like the powerpuff girls. Except she wasn't powerful, puffy, but she was a girl. 1/3 not bad, not bad.

Lisa glared over at him. "I don't see you makin' any effort ta get home," she grumbled. Then her expression softened. She hadn't thought of that, had she? No, she hadn't. "But these docks could be anywhere on the island, and who knows how big this place is?" She asked. Then she took a deep breath before sighing, scratching the back of her head. It was against her pride to accept the help, but, God, she needed it. Lisa was never meant for camping and the wild, let alone being stranded on an island. "Fine," she said. "N' my name's Lisa, not Buttercup."

"I wasn't really trying to hide the fire. Nowhere really to." She frowned slightly, squinting as she tried to see where the girl was going. It was hard to jduge, what with her eyes not being adjusted yet. She was a bit worried about the girls intentions, though she still made no move for either her knife or spear and instead pushed herself up from herself up to a sort of sitting position.

When she was tripped over, however, she sort of fell backwards again, staring wide-eyed up at her. Meghan had no idea what to do either. Or what to even say to suggest the girl get up, though she wasn't really going to complain too much. It didn't stop them from awkwardly staring at eachother not knowing what to do, though.

Once Christina's mind got back on track she quickly moved away from the older girl - a few feet away from her. She was in a standing position, though the way she was standing indicated she was nervous and not really sure what to say because she wasn't actually expecting anyone and just hoping for a figment of her imagination. Her face was a bit red - more so she embarrassed herself within the five seconds of meeting someone on this island. Christina was glad that she couldn't see it due to the light.

"I'm..sorry." shifting her weight a bit when talking, "Dark..soo.." Her hands clenched a bit and she moved her hands forward to kind of play with her own fingers. "I....need help." She kind of reached in her bag to pull out the woodwork book she received and slid it on the ground, "Really don't understand it...without images to help.."

"Aww! Come on, buttercup! You're no fun, just deal with the petname." He said, petting his dog. "Well, I'd assume we'd follow the shorline, but first, it would be nice to build some sort of shelter, and I can try to use this fuckin' harpoon to fish with" he sighed, raising an eyebrow to her. What was she? Some kind of writer? Not very useful when your stranded on an island besides writing "50 shades of sand" for fucks sake, will this help at all? He sighed. Power came in numbers, and he better deal with this chick, better to have an ally than an enemy.

Lisa rolled her eyes at him. So the nickname was staying, apparently. Even if she didn't want it, it was staying. "That could take forever though..." Then she gave him a look. "Harpoon? That sounds more manageable than these snare things. I have no idea how to even set them up. If I did, I'd set them up in the woods for unsuspecting creatures. If there are any, but I'd assume there are." Personally, she didn't want to need the help she needed, nor did she want to work with someone else; however, she needed to survive. She would have to suck it up and deal. "So, what's your name, hot-shot?"

When the girl moved away, she pushed herself up into a sitting position. "It's fine. My fault you tripped. Should've told you where I was." Meghan did feel a little bad. Being straddled didn't really bother her, other than being a little surprised, but she could tell the other girl was nervous.

When the girl told her she needed help, she waited for her to pull whatever out of her backpack. When the book slid over to her, she squinted slightly trying to read what the book was. "I.. don't know anything about woodwork either," she said apologetically to the her. Meghan slid the book back over to her. "Was never really into woodworking or anything like that."

Kind of glancing past the girl out of the cave, she noted that it was pretty much about to be night time by now. "If you want you can stay in the cave. A bit dark to be walking around in a jungle. I don't care how long you stay here if you do, either." She didn't admit it, but having someone else around would be nice. It'd be easier to survive too, if there were two people working on things than one. Meghan wouldn't admit it though, or pressure the girl to stay. It was her choice.

Christina gave out a small sigh, "shame.." Mumbling under her breathe while shifting her weight again. She could easily figure everything out but without pictures it was hard to know if you were doing everything right. It was rather hopeless though, the chances of finding someone who would have enough patience to deal with someone so quiet was really rare. Usually people got frustrated to the point they just leave.

She was going to open her mouth to say no to it but she knew it was really dangerous out there in the dark. One small mistake could potentionally kill you and she rather not have that happen. "I..thanks." Glancing to the ground in a nervous matter. It wasn't usual for someone to be nice to her. It was odd actually.

"The names Jake, buttercup" He said, raising an eyebrow to her snare comment. "Can't be that hard." He said, sighing. "Well if you know how to use a fuckin' harpoon be my guest" , he added, "Yeah, but even if it would take forever, we'd get home" he said, sighing. He missed playing football. It seemed like a minuscule thought when he compared it to their situation, but it was one of the few things he enjoyed. Oh well. Jade began to growl at Lisa....