Overtaken: Chapter Four

I took a moment to admire the plane's interior. There were four tan leather seats, two facing forwards, and two facing the back of the plane, where the tiny bathroom was located. Everly sat in one of the backward facing seats, to stubborn to share. Eli sat to her right in the other one, gently strumming his acoustic guitar. Across from him Ethan sat, curled up in the seat and staring out the window. Darius had Alexis craddled in his lap in the last seat, who was sleeping soundly with her head on his shoulder. He smiled every time he looked down at her. I sat in the floor in front of them, using Carson for a pillow. He wrapped his arms around me and I attempted to stay awake. Finally someone drummed up a conversation.
"So does anyone know where we're going?" Everly pipped up. Everyone looked at her.
"Collin mentioned something about an island." Eli said. He was the first one to arrive at Collin's house. We all pondered the new information for a moment.
"What kind of supplies do we have?" Everly asked the group.
"I have a few guns." Darius spoke up.
"I brought a bag full of canned food and tons of candles." Eli said.
"Alexis brought some food, and a machete." Darius spoke for his sleeping sweetheart.
"I have a rifle, seven lighters, a pack of matches, three boxes of bullets, and five boxes of food. Oh, and I have some snacks for the trip." Everly chuckled a bit. We all gave her a wide eyed look. She was more prepared than any of us.
"Well I have five handguns, three rifles, two shotguns, and ammo for all of it." Ethan said. The wide eyed look shifted from Everly to Ethan.
"Why so many guns?" Darius asked, obviously jealous.
"He collects them, and hunting is a big deal for him." I answered for him. Ethan nodded, but wouldn't make eye contact with me.
"I have an airplane and an island!" Collin called from the pilot's seat. We all laughed.
"Well, I believe it's time for a bathroom break." Carson said and nudged me up so he could get up. He sqeezed through the bags of supplies piled on the floor and made his way to the back of the plane.
"Why did you bring him?" Everly whispered as soon as the bathroom door had closed. I sighed.
"He saved me from getting hit by an eighteen wheeler. I thought it would only be right for me to save him from this." I explained. She nodded.
"Well he annoys me." Ethan spoke up. I gave him a look then realized how cold I was. I started shivering. Ethan's stern look turned into a look of sadness.
"You're shivering." He sighed. "Come here." He extended his arms. I got up from the floor and went over to him, and he pulled me into his lap. I snuggled into his warmth and he wrapped me in his arms. Yet again I felt as if a fire had been lit inside of me. I leaned my head on his chest and closed my eyes. Finally I heard Carson return, and he stopped to look at me. I could feel his eyes even though mine were closed. He finally moved on and returned to his place in the floor. Soon I had fallen asleep.
I awoke at about the same time Alexis did. We had always had that sixth sense about eachother. The boys were chatting about weapons and such and Everly was joined in. She had always had a facination with guns, and especially fire. Probably from all the video games. I rubbed my eyes, causing Ethan to realize I was awake. He squeezed his grip on me in a sort of hug, and then smiled at me. I returned the favor and hopped up to go use the restroom. Once that business was taken care of I made my way up to Collin, and sat in the empty copilot's seat.
"How's everything?" I asked Collin as I studied the rows upon rows of buttons and switches.
"We are in course and making progress. In fact, we will probably land within the hour." He explained.
"I had no idea that you could fly a plane." I confessed
"Well, my dad taught me. I was flying this by the time I was fourteen. I've never flown by myself, but you don't have to worry, my dad let me do everything myself. Well, before he left." Collin took his eyes from the open black sky in front of us for just a second, glancing down. I could tell a flood of sadness rushed over him.
"It's okay Collin, you and your mom made a great team." I attempted to comfort him. I was horrible at this. He nodded and continued to guide the plane across the night sky.
"Well, I'm going to head back, I'll tell everyone to get ready to land." I said. He nodded again. I stood up and went through the small door and back to the group. Everyone was listening to Eli play his heart out with his new song. I sat in front of Ethan in the floor and let him finish. After a round of applause for Eli, I delivered the news.
"Collin said we are going to be landing within the hour." In return I recieved mixed emotions. Some gave smiles and were excited to get out of the cramped place, others gave expressions of nervousness and almost fear of what was to come.
"Hang on!" We heard Collin yell from up front. We all braced ourselves as we felt the plane go downwards and finally hit the Earth. We all bounced and shook around uncontrollably until finally the plane stopped moving. After about five minutes Collin appeared.
"Thank you for flying Dawson Airlines, please exit to the left." Collin smiled and opened the door. One by one we got out of the plane. Carson took my hand and helped me down when it was my turn. Everyone looked around at the mysterious island, barely making out shapes in the darkness. Near the plane were piles of building materials, and they seemed to dot the island. Collin noticed our quizzical looks.
"This island belonged to my grandfather. He was going to build a massive home and retire. All the building stopped when he had his heart attack, and after he died no one started again. So it was simply left like this." Collin explained. "Come on, I'll show you around." He turned on a massive spotlight and led the group away from the plane, weaving through the deserted construction site. We made it to what Collin said was the center of the island. A massive slab of concrete lay in front of us.
"The only thing they completely finished was the basement." Collin explained. In the corner a large tarp was weighed down with four huge stones. The boys helped Collin push them to the side. Collin removed the tarp to reveal a perfectly square hole. He motioned for us to follow as he led us down into the abiss. I paused at the edge to find the stairs, and then followed carefully. Once we were all down the stairs Collin started passing out flashlights that he pulled from a backpack he was carrying. I flipped mine on and started looking around. I stood in the middle of a giant empty concrete room. There were a few doors on the opposite wall, so I went towards them.
"Feel free to look around!" Collin voice echoed through the room. I opened the door that was on the far left. Inside was a smaller room, although it was still quite large. It was empty other than the two doors on the opposite wall. I looked in both to reveal a closet and a bathroom. Plain, but still convienient. There were five other doors on the longer wall, and through each was the same thing. The wall that was perpendicular to the wall with the stairway had a set of double doors. I opened one and went inside. There was a small kitchen with an island in the middle, and a few large appliances still wrapped in plastic. I turned on the sink, no water. A sigh escaped my lips.
"No water, huh?" A deep southern voice came from the door, along with a beam of light. I turned to face him.
"Sorry Ethan, no water. " I frowned. He came over and hugged me.
"We're gonna make it through this, you know." He assured me. I nodded. He released our hug and turned to hold out his elbow a bit.
"May I escort you my lady?" He asked with his crooked smile. I laughed and nodded again, then wrapped my hand around his muscular arm. We walked back into the large room and met with the rest of the group.
"So this is where we're staying?" Eli asked.
"I know it's a bit rough, but the construction workers had their own place to stay while they were here. We can raid them for furniture, then I'll see what I can fix up for our water supply. For now lets just get everything off the plane and put it down here." Collin took control. We all went back upstairs and to the plane. Eli jumped up and started handing down all of our bags. We all took as much as we could carry and brought it back, simply dropping it in the center of the big room to be organized later. Finally the work for the night was done. I decided to explore the island a bit, taking my flashlight and moved away from the plane. I passed the basement and then moved on through the piles upon piles of wood and crates of who knows what. Soon I came upon the construction worker's temporary homes, which were simple and rectangular in shape. I counted eleven of them. The ground began to incline after I walked past them. Soon I was weaving through a few trees and bushes. I kept going to find myself on the edge of a cliff. Below I could hear the ocean waves violently crashing against the rocks. I looked out across the inky sea and saw a hint of light peeking over the horizon. Sunrise. I turned off my flashlight and sat about a foot away from the edge.
"It's beautiful isn't it?" A voice came from behind me. I jumped and spun around, attempting to grab my flashlight. Ethan's chuckle filled the air and he walked over to sit beside me. I instantly relaxed when I realized who he was, and turned back around to face the East.
"How are you holding up?" I asked him. He shrugged.
"I guess it's alright. It'll take a bit of adjustin', but nothing I can't handle." I smiled at his response. He could handle anything. "The real question is, how are you holdin' up?" He asked.
"Well, surprizingly well actually. I'm confident we can make this work." I said. He nodded. We both turned to watch the sunrise. The ball of light slowly moved it's way higher and higher, filling the sky with light pinks and warm oranges. I switched from my cross legged position to prop myself on my hands and cross my legs in front of me. Ethan followed my lead and extended his legs in front of him, then propped on his hands, crossing his left one with my right one. I smiled a bit to myself.
"You're such a great friend." I said to him. His smile faded a bit, but then picked up again.
"So are you." He responded. "Well, I think I'm going to go back up to the basement to see if anyone needs any help." I nodded and he jumped up and strolled back down the hill. I stayed and finished watching the sunrise alone. After the entire sun had finally been lifted above the water I decided to go back down to the basement. I treked through the barren land, past the buildings, and though the piles and crates of things until i finally made it back. I bounced down the stairs and flipped on my flashlight once I reached the bottom. I found bags seperated into piles, and Eli, Everly, Collin, and Ethan going through them.
"Find your pile, then pick a roomie." Everly instructed. I found my bag and threw it over my shoulder.
"Ethan, I claim you." I looked at him. I could see his smile in the light of my flashlight.
"I'd be honored, ma'am." He bowed. I laughed at him.
"So which room is ours?" I asked Collin.
"Well, the one second to the left is taken by Darius and Alexis." I rolled my eyes. "The rest are fair game." Collin explained.
"Is the left one okay with you?" I asked Ethan and flashed my flashlight at him. He nodded, still smiling. I walked towards it and Ethan gathered his stuff and followed. I opened the door and flooded the bare room with light, then dropped my bag in the middle of the floor. Ethan did the same.
"Well roomie, I think we are going to have a hard time without furniture." I joked a bit.
"Collin said we should spend some time moving some in today." Ethan responded. I nodded.
"I guess we should go furniture shopping!" I smiled and left the room, making my way back to the group of people.
"We're going furniture shopping." I laughed a bit as I explained myself. They all laughed a bit and nodded. Ethan and I bounded up the stairs, almost running into Darius and Alexis. We came out into the morning light and went straight to the houses. Now that I could see clearly I noticed Carson walking along the beach in the distance. In front of me was one of the small houses, and I went inside. Looking around, I saw the twin sized bed covered in a solid navy blue quilt and three pillows. There was a dresser with a mirror on the opposite side of the bed, and a small end table.
"Let's look at some of the others before we pick one, okay?" I asked Ethan. He nodded. We exited the room and explored a few more houses, finding them all to be the same aside from the variance of the color of the quilts on the beds. I decided on a green one, as did Ethan.
"Green is my second favorite color, second only to purple." I commented. Ethan laughed.
"Mine's green." He replied. "Let's get this stuff back to our room." I nodded and went over to the other side of the dresser, preparing myself to lift it. Instead of helping Ethan crossed his arms and shook his head.
"You really don't think I'm gonna let you lift that do you?" He raised an eyebrow and walked over to the bed, then ripped off all the pillows, the quilt, and the sheets and threw them to me.
"You can carry that." He said sternly. I rolled my eyes and exited the room. Ethan came out to the door and yelled across the island to Carson, telling him to come move furniture. I strolled back to the basement with my fluffy but light load.
When I had gotten back the large room was lit with about five candles. The dim light flickered as I walked in, finding all but Ethan and Carson unpacking bags.
"Hey the guys got an early start on furniture moving, anyone want to help out?" Eli, Collin, and Darius dropped what they were doing and nodded, then went upstairs. I went to my room and dropped the bedding in the floor, then went to help the girls unpack. I grabbed a bag and unzipped it, finding it to be full of snacks. I pulled out a pack of ramen noodles, then held it up and laughed.
"You brought ramen noodles to the zombie apocalypse?" Alexis laughed.
"Well duh, I couldn't leave the breakfast of champions behind!" Everly laughed. Alexis fell over in laughter. I laughed too, but I froze. No one had called this a zombie apocalypse. I hadn't realized that those people who had gotten sick were considered zombies. They weren't people anymore. They didn't know who they were. All they knew was one simple instinct, hunger. I shook my head a bit and snapped out of my deep thinking.
"I think I'll go help the guys with the furniture." I said, carrying the bag and tossing it in the kitchen on the way upstairs. I came out into the light and stood out of the way as Ethan and Carson carried a bed towards the stairs. I went over to the construction worker's houses, and I heard Darius and Eli in one of the houses that Ethan and I hadn't went in. Once I had had a good look at it I realized it was a bit bigger than the others. I peeked in the doorway
"Check this out Skye!" Darius noticed me and motioned me to come over. He and Eli were standing around a microwave with massive smiles. I laughed.
"Nice, except you're forgetting one thing. No electricity." Their smiles faded.
"Damn, forgot about that." Darius grumbled. I laughed again.
"Maybe we can see what Collin can do with it." Their smiles came back a bit at my comment, and I decided to look around. The microwave was on an end table next to the bed, which matched the rest of them. This house was big enough to have a dresser and a couch squeezed against the same wall. at the foot of the bed was a chest, completing the narrow walkway between the furniture. I opened it. Nothing. It was completly empty.
"Hey, maybe we could use this in the kitchen or something?" I asked the guys. They agreed. Finally they decided to take the couch back to the basement, and I grabbed the microwave. We met Carson and Ethan on our way back, they passed us on their way to get more furniture. After about ten minutes of slow movement down the stairs, they finally got the couch into the large room, and I followed behind with the microwave.
"Oh my gosh! It's a microwave!" Everly got excited.
"No electricity, hun." Alexis reminded her. Her excited smile faded a bit. I walked through the double doors and felt my way around the dark kitchen, finally placing the microwave on the countertop. Then I went back to help move more furniture, bringing along Alexis and Everly.
Within a few hours we had moved just about all of it, giving each of the five bedrooms two beds, two dressers, and two nightstands. The main room held the extra bed and the couch. We stood for a moment to admire our hard work.
"Hey wait, where's Collin?" I asked. Everly and Alexis shrugged their shoulders.
"Oh yea, he wandered off earlier." Eli finally answered. I sighed.
"I'm going to go find him." I said as I went to the stairs and bounded up them. At the top of the stairs I scanned the area. The plane was still on the landing strip to my left. I could barely see the beach in the distance in front of me. I walked across the concrete, towards the houses. I stopped and decided to make a right turn, because I hadn't explored that side of the island yet. I walked through the forrest of palm trees and other tropical plants. Finally I met sand. Looking around I found Collin sitting on a massive piece of driftwood, drawing in the sand with a stick. I walked over and sat beside him.
"This place is really great." I told him. He nodded.
"It's better than getting eaten." He responded. I smiled a bit.
"What is that?" I asked, gesturing towards the confusing drawing.
"This is a model for a water purifying system, and I'm attempting to figure out a way to get electricity." He explained. My eyes widened.
"That's impressive. Turning salt water into drinking water is fairly difficult." I responded. He smiled.
"We don't have to do that." He said. I gave him a confused look. "Come on, I'll show you the real reason my granddad bought this island." He smiled and stood up, then starting walking down the beach. I stood and followed him, trying to keep up with his wide strides. Soon he made a sharp right and went through the tangles of plants and I struggled to keep up. A roaring sound filled my ears and got louder as I made progress. I had trouble pushing through the bushes and vines for about five minutes, but finally the greenery began to be more sparse, and finally disappeared all together.I found myself in a small field of grass and various flowers, and in the center was a medium sized pond of crystal clear water. It was disrupted by a beautiful waterfall. It was a bit wider than my armspan, and fell from the rocky cliff that towered above. My mouth fell open.
"This can't be real." I whispered. Collin laughed.
"Seems that way doesn't it? This is almost completely natural, aside from the flowers." He explained. I stood in awe at the beauty of the waterfall. I walked closer to the falls, then bent and put my hand in the water. I cupped my hand and scooped some up, letting the lukewarm liquid fall through my fingers.
"It's amazing." I whispered again, but finally spoke up. "Where does all of this come from?"
"There's an underground water supply, but I'm not sure if it's safe to drink. That's why I'm trying to find a better purification system than just boiling." Collin told me. I nodded in understanding and then touched the water again.
"Have you shown this to anyone else?" I asked. He shook his head.
"Do you think I could just keep it a secret, just to visit when I need some alone time?" He chuckled.
"I guess so, but everyone is going to get thirsty at some point." He said. I smiled.
"Yeah, I guess so, but until then?" I asked.
"That's fine Skye, I know we all need some alone time." He nodded.
"Oh, thank you! You're the best!" I ran over to him and tackled him with a hug. He laughed again.
"Well, I think it's time to head back. This time we can take the trail." Collin said. I released my hug.
"Wait, you put me through that and there's a trail?" I squinted my eyes at him. He shrugged and smiled a bit.
"Well, that was the fastest way from where we were. Come on, I'll show you the easy way out." He led me to the opposite side of the field and parted a few bushes to reveal a dirt trail just wode enough for a person to pass through. I followed behind him until the trail opened up near the end of the landing strip, with the plane still on the far end. I sped up my pace and started walking beside him.
"Thank you for that. I really needed it." I told Collin.
"No problem." He smiled. We made our way back to the basement finding everyone in the large room. Darius and Alexis were snuggled together on one end of the couch, and Everly sat with her feet tucked underneath her on the other end. The extra bed was against the wall in front of the couch, and was filled by Ethan and Eli, who once again had his guitar in his hands. Carson sat in the floor leaning his back on the bed with his legs crossed. I hopped up on the bed between Eli and Ethan, and Collin sat beside Carson.
"So did everyone pick a roomie?" Collin asked.
"I want my own room." Everly said in her stern voice.
"I agree!" Eli spoke up.
"Ugh." I could tell Collin was rolling his eyes. "Fine. Looks like you're with me, Carson." Carson fist bumped with him and laughed.
"Tomorrow we should work on a stable door, just in case those bastards know how to swim." Darius started a conversation. The next few hours were filled with conversation of to-do lists, strategy, and supplies, most of which I didn't pay attention to. I stayed wrapped in my own thoughts.
"Well I think I'm going to go unpack my things if we're going to be here for a while." I made an excuse to leave the group. Ethan tossed me my flashlight and I went into my room. The beds were on the same wall as the door, with the two end tables seperating them, and one pressed against the far wall. My bag was on the bed farthest from the door. I dumped out all of my clothing on the bed and folded them, placing each one neatly back in my bag. I picked up the last one and my locket fell out of it. I quickly folded it and put it away, then picked up my locket. I admired it's delicate flowers engraved on the heart shape, then opened it and looked at the pictures. I could remember the day I had gotten it. I closed it and clutched it to me.
"Skye?" Ethan's voice came from the doorway. I turned, hidding the locket behind my back. "Everyone is going to bed, are you ready?" He asked. I nodded.
"Yes, definately. I feel like I haven't slept in a week." I responded. He laughed.
"Same here." Ethan said, then got into bed. "Well, goodnight."
"Wait." I stopped him. "Will you help me with this please?" I asked. I unhinged my locket's clasp and held it up to my neck. Ethan got out of bed and came over to me. I stood my light up on the end table to make a sort of lanturn as I felt Ethan's breath on my neck. He reached around my neck on both sides and grabbed the ends of the chain, and I pulled my hair to the side. He clasped it with a single try, then dropped his hands. Freezing for a moment, he kept his breath on my neck, which caused me to have goosebumps. He picked up his hand, letting it trail up my arm, leaving a line of fire. His hand came to my hair and gently pulled it back in place. I closed my eyes and tilted my head a bit, containing a deep sigh.
"Well, there you go." He said, letting his hand drop. I opened my eyes and turned around, then cleared my throat.
"Uh, thank you. Goodnight." I managed to get out. We both got into bed and I turned out my flashlight, sending our room into complete darkness.