Plane Crash

Everything is blurry, I see people moving around me, but my brain isn’t working fast enough to understand what they are doing. I see people screaming, but I can’t hear them. I’m struggling to understand exactly where I am and what is going on. I remember I was on a plane, I went to sleep, next thing I know I’m here, wherever here is. My vision starts to clear and my hearing starts to come back. There’s a lot of screaming, crying even. I push myself up on my feet and begin to look around. There is luggage strewn everywhere, hunks of metal, and when I turn all the way around I see the wreckage of the plane. My breath hitches in my throat, the gears in my brain start to turn again and the sudden realization hits me like a brick wall. Our plane crashed.
I spin on my heels as I realize why the people were screaming, looking around I see a young woman laying on the ground. I practically sprint over to her, hoping to God she isn’t dead. I kneel down beside her, looking for any signs of life. I check for a pulse and let out a breath I didn't even know I was holding when I feel her steady beating pulse. I see her chest rising and falling and can feel her exhaling so it doesn’t look like breathing is an issue. I scan the woman's body with my eyes, looking for any injuries she may have. It’s as I’m trailing my eyes back to her face that I notice her arm is at a weird angel, nothing seems to be broken, but it seems that her shoulder is dislocated. I know how to pop it back in, but it will take more than one person. Deciding that it could wait, considering there were other people who were probably dying, I stand up and run off in search for someone else that needs help.
It is what I’m assuming to be a few hours later. We were able to save thirty-seven people, some had cut and broken bones, those were the easier ones to save. It was the people with deep gashes and internal bleeding that were just to far gone to help. Exhausted, covered in blood and dirt, all I want to do is fall in to my bed and sleep. That’s when I remember that I no longer have a bed. Our plane crashed and no one has come to save us yet.
Dragging my feet as I carry any luggage that could be of use over to the pile we are starting, I see the same girl from before with the dislocated shoulder. She’s propped up on her good arm, I can see her gritting her teeth as she tries to move the arm that’s dislocated. I hurriedly place what I’m carrying on the the ground and jog over to the woman. She must hear me coming, because for a second she turns her head in my directions, but then turns her attention back to her arm. “It’s dislocated.” I say as I get within earshot of her. My voice seems to have startled her, like she wasn’t expecting me to say anything. Her voice is shaky, but the confidence in her eyes is calming. Without looking away from her arm she asks, “What do I do?”  I finally reach the point where I am standing next to her and kneel down at eye level. “I can help if you would like.” She’s silent for a second, her dark blue eyes are glazed over, most likely contemplating whether she can trust me or not. Eventually she nods her head, telling me it’s okay for me to pop it back in. I tell her I need to go get someone else to help and she just nods, while absently looking around at all the destruction.
When I return to where she is sitting on the ground I can tell she is in a lot of pain, she is trying to pop it back in herself. I go kneel back down next to her. I tell the man I brought back with me to hold her steady so she won’t move when I go to pop it back in place. “I’m going to count down from zero and when I reach one I’m going to pop it back in, ok.” I say. Once again she just nods, “What’s your name?” I ask. She hesitates for a second, but finally says “Miranda.” “Well Miranda, here goes nothing. 3… 2…” When I reach two, I pop her shoulder back in before she can anticipate it. As soon as it pops back in I hear her inhale sharply, knowing that it’s going to be sore for a while I pull out a piece of cloth that I had grabbed and create a makeshift sling so she doesn’t have to move it for a while.
Using her good arm I pull her up to her feet as we walk over to the pile of all the supplies that we gathered. We reach the pile and there is a man standing at the front of the crowd, he must be in his mid 40s, he has a very honest and kind looking face. He’s conducting a meeting amongst the survivors, deciding what needs to be done first. The group as a whole decides that first we need to build shelter, and locate food and water. The group split into four groups, one to watch the kids and the injured, one to create shelter, one to collect water, and one to collect food. The groups start to disperse, mine walking off towards the forest to collect the food. My feet shift in the sand as I start to make my way to the tree line. I’m almost to the edge when I see Miranda just standing there in the middle of the beach. I knew she was supposed to be collecting water, but I decide it would be better if she came along with me. “Miranda! Why don’t you tag along with me.” She slowly makes her way over to where I’m standing, her big eyes are trained on the forest, as if she is scared to go in. I barely know the girl, but I can tell she is scared out of her wits. “It’s okay.” I say. “We’re not going to find the big bad wolf in there or anything.” At this she smiled, and it was in that moment that I decided I wanted to become her friend.

…

That was four years ago. The plane crashed, we were stranded on what seemed to be a deserted island, and it didn’t look like anyone was coming to rescue us. The first year was hard, we used what resources we had to build shelters and find the things we needed to survive. Even then, many people died. Some were from the injuries from the plane crash, others were subject to sickness, the wildlife, some freak accidents and we even had two people that killed each other fighting. Like I said it was hard, but eventually we got the hang of it, those that have survived are strong, we know what we’re doing.
That first day on the island is a day I will never forget, not for the reason you would think though. It’s not because of the plane crashing, but because I met Miranda. I never was a very sociable person in my life before the plane crash, I didn’t have any close friends. After I met Miranda though that all changed. As the days passed and we spent more and more time on the island I saw Miranda change. She went from a girl who I thought was scared of the world and everything in it, to a strong human being. The first day I met her you could see the fear in her eyes, she needed someone to wipe her fear away. I consider myself to have taken a part in that over the years, but at the same time she has been my rock. I got sick once, like really sick, on the verge of death, it must have been only a few months after the crash. I wanted to give up, slip into death, but Miranda wouldn’t let me. We weren’t super close yet, but she was strong when I couldn’t be. I hadn’t realized how much I meant to her up until that point, but I saw something different in her eyes that day. She didn’t want to lose me.

…

“Must have been something I ate,” I thought, “or even an infection from a small wound.” No matter what the cause I felt like I was dying. I tried using my will power to force myself to get up, but my body was failing on me. I had been so positive up until this point, but as my body physically started to fail me I let my mind follow, seeing no point in fighting any more. I let my eyes slip shut slowly, thinking this may be the last time I see anything. I was so close to drifting off, when I feel a hand on my cheek, and someone is softly calling my name. “I recognize that voice.” I think to myself. I muster up enough strength to open my eyes and I see Miranda kneeling over me. I don’t have the energy to talk or the want to do so for that matter. I can only imagine what I look like through her eyes, pale, skinny, lifeless. There is something that I see in her eyes though, it’s sadness, fear, that she may lose me. A few tears cascade down her face, landing on my shirt. Only a few though before I see a different emotion flicker in her eyes. She sets her jaw and her eyes stare intently at me. Up until this point Miranda hasn’t spoken much, only really when someone speaks to her first. It surprised me when she began to speak, I didn’t expect her to be so upfront. “You have to hold on, fight this, you can make it through. I need you, we all need you. You can’t give up on yourself.” She said. I tried to tell her that I was done fighting, but my voice got stuck in my throat. “I know you’ve given up, but I won’t let you.” Miranda said.

...

In the days that followed Miranda was by side 24/7, she barely let me close my eyes in fear that I might leave her. Fear was still there, but there wasn’t that lost look in her eyes. It was a look of determination. I think she was scared to lose me, and what I meant to her, and she decided she wasn’t going to let me slip through her fingers. From then on she had a new outlook on our situation. She so dearly wanted to fight for life when it looked like all hope was lost, after she prevailed I think something clicked in her head and she decided that she was going to do everything in her power to never get that close to death again.
Behind her blue eyes is much more than you would ever guess. She’s smart, I don’t mean book smart, but common sense, putting two and two together smart. She comes up with the craziest solutions, ones that you would never think of, but that are perfect for the situation. She’s observant too. In the first few months she didn't talk much, her eyes were always scanning around, taking in her surroundings and what was happening. When she eventually started talking, and even now, seeing as how she loves to talk, you understood just exactly how much she saw. She can read people like an open book, she knows when to simply sit down and rub your back or when to crack a joke, even if you are the punchline. We all miss our family, but Miranda always finds the positives, like how she met us, and every time she talks about her family, not once have I heard her talk about them like she won’t ever get to see them again. She radiates positivity, I think she found herself here on this island. She has control over her life, she can work hard and fight or give up, and in fighting she found how strong she can be. It’s hard not to smile or laugh when you are around her. She’s strong, maybe the strongest of us all. After she broke out of the fog that she was in when we first crashed, I’ve never seen her that down since then, she gets upset or sad, but never with life itself.
We’ve all change because of the experience we have gone through. Miranda told me she was never as confident as she is now, she says she changed, that this has helped her be who she was supposed to be. Miranda, being the insightful person that she is, told me that sometimes we need a push, a push to be who we are meant to be. She doesn’t believe that everything happens for a reason, or anything like that. What she does believe though, is that sometimes things happen, and they could seem like it would be the worst thing possible, but if it wasn’t for that thing we may never rise to our potential. After crashing on a deserted island and leaving everything behind, she is happier than ever and would never choose to go back in time before the plane crash and be the person she used to be. I think she would be happy to spend the rest of her life here, no matter how long or short that may be.