CHAPTER ONE

It was the day that had changed my life. The day that my College class decided to go on a trip to an island. We were going there to do our 40 hours of externship. The school had paid for the entire trip, rooms, food and everything. It was the offer of a lifetime. Or so we all thought…

“Mom… I’ll be fine.” I said, jamming the suitcase shut. My Mother looked at me, her hands on her hips. “Are you sure? Do you have some Advil in your bag? You might get a headache…”

“MOM!” I cried, looking at her. “I will be fine. Jessica will be with me, and even if she wasn’t, I can take care of myself. I’m 20 years old.” I smiled. My Mother smirked. “Alright. You got enough pairs of underwear?”

I shot her a look. “Mom… please.” There was a knock on the door. I ran over and opened it. In front of me, stood one of the most beautiful girls ever. Jessica. My girlfriend. I smiled. She smiled back. “You ready? We have to meet everyone at the airport by Two.”

I nodded. “Yea. Let me grab my suitcase.” I said, waving her inside. I turned and ran back into the room, and grabbed my suitcase off the bed. I ran back and followed Jess back to her car.

The line at the airport was long. We met up with everyone else, at the check in lane. The teachers handed out the tickets to everyone. I took my ticket and smiled. It read Isle Gol’Dor. I chuckled. It was an interesting Island name. An Interestingly cool name. “This is so awesome!” I hissed quietly. Jessica laughed as we moved through the metal detectors. It wasn’t easy. We had to be personally scanned and then have our suitcases scanned and man it was a mess.

We were finally cleared through and we went to the boarding area. We handed the woman at the desk our tickets and she pointed us to the boarding hall. We walked down the hall and boarded the plane. We all took our seats, mine being next to Jessica.

I had to beg Dustin, one of the other guys for it, though. That wasn’t anything new. We were good friends, and always pulling pranks on each other anyway. We sat there, waiting for take off. Suddenly, Dustin tapped my shoulder. I turned and looked at him, As did Jess.

“What do you want, scum bucket?”

“Oooo. Nice touch Matt. Hey uh, I just wanted to let you know, that the teachers said there is to be no bunking with each other.”

“Ah, Ha. If I recall…” I said started, throwing a glancing smirk at Jessica, “Mrs. Keller also said that it was OK if you and Josh over there bunked though.”

Dustin made a face and sat back in his seat. “It’s OK.” Jess said, “You can take your time thinking of a comeback. We’re not going anywhere.”

We both laughed. Suddenly the seatbelt sign came on. “Time flies.” I muttered. We put our seatbelts on and prepared for takeoff.

In less then a half an hour, we were flying high. Literally. Mrs. Keller stood up and made an announcement. “We’ll be arriving at Isle Gol’Dor in a few hours. Please relax, enjoy a soft drink or two as well as the view.” I put my seat back, purposely bumping it into Dustin. “Quit being a…” Suddenly the plane rumbled. “Jerk? No way man. I make my money being a…” The plane rumbled again. “Jerk.”

“Man, lay off. I gotta use the bathroom. Too much soda.”

“Figures.”

“Would you prefer I use you head?”

I put my seat back up and he scrambled out to the bathroom. Jess and I chuckled as we watched him leave. “What a chicken…”

“That’s an understatement.”

We both laughed. The plane rumbled again. Then the pilot’s voice filled the cabin. “Sorry ladies and gentlemen. We’re experiencing a bit of turbulence. It’ll be over shortly.”

“Glad to hear it…” I muttered under my breath. It was making me nervous. Then again, I had terrible thoughts of a zombie apocalypse and a nuclear war too, so it wasn’t anything new.

Jessica placed her hand on mine. “Relax. We’ll be there before you know it Matt.” I nodded. “Sure thing.” I said, with a nervous chuckle. Then there was a door latching. Dustin came back, and sat down, buckling back up.

“So… did you overflow the toilet?” I asked. “No. I saved some to put in your soda.”

“Typical.”

Suddenly the plane lunged downward, sending a few people who weren’t buckled up, into the cabin ceiling. It wasn’t too bad. But they were all holding their heads. I looked past Jess, and out the window. It was dark outside. “We’re flying into a storm…” I murmured.

Suddenly everything was quiet. No one was daring to breath. I looked straight ahead, toward where Mrs. Keller was sitting. “Why are we flying into a storm?” I asked. At that moment, the wing on our side of the plane tore off, and the window Jess and I were sitting by shattered. The air pressure began to suck out and our oxygen masks dropped from the cabin ceiling, hanging in front of us.

There were multiple screams as the wind gushed inside. I grabbed a hold of my oxygen mask, as did Jess, and we put them on, and held on to our seats. I suddenly felt lightheaded. Lack of oxygen. The bags weren’t working. That or I was just out of breath. Oh wait. Same thing. Suddenly the front of the plane tore away, and I felt my eyes open wide, in pure shock. I looked over at Jess, who was staring in shock as well. I grabbed her hand and held on tight.

Finally, the blackness overtook me.