2. The Nameless Isle

A deafening thud reverberated through the cabin. As soon as the emergency door was opened, two cabin crew members, still looking deathly pale after their plane had performed a dramatic *ditching, were wide-eyed with shock. Rainwater entered through the airplane door, hitting their faces along with splashing sea waves that felt sticky on their skin.

The flight attendant, who had just been conversing with Kiya moments ago, turned back toward the upper-class passengers, his body still trembling. His gaze swept over those still strapped into their seats.

Among them, some were crying and screaming from severe shock, while others immediately unbuckled their seat belts and vomited onto the messy floor of the plane. The remainder sat frozen in their seats, faces twisted in a mix of shock and fear.

The steward approached several passengers still struggling with their life jackets, including Kiya, who had just thrown up in her seat due to difficulty undoing her seatbelt.

“Miss Kiya, let me help you with that,” he said, brushing the fallen oxygen mask onto her face.

Kiya, like the others, remained silent, her expression blank with shock. It wasn’t until the pilot’s urgent shout from the cockpit that she reacted.

“D—do we really have to jump into the sea?” she asked, her voice barely audible. The girl struggled to breathe, her eyes widening at the sight of the high, dark waves and the terrible weather outside.

“It needs to be done right away, Miss,” said the steward with a shaky voice. “The captain mentioned that the ditching might have caused damage to the fuselage. If we don’t leave now, the cracked parts could break at any moment, and we’ll sink fast.”

“You asshole!”

The man, who had previously bullied Kiya, shouted angrily from the front, causing both Kiya and the steward to turn their heads. Suddenly, the man hit the captain, who was standing nearby.

He had already put on his life jacket, but because he hadn’t fastened his seatbelt properly, he had been thrown against the cabin divider when the plane ditched, forcing him to grab onto the seat’s metal frame.

“Why are we paying so much money if something like this can happen?!” the man continued, his face still flushed with anger. “Are you guys incompetent?! Didn’t you check the plane’s engine properly before we left Tokyo?!”

The sound of the man’s punches and shouts caused Gina Lee, who was sitting not far from Kiya, to start crying harder. She looked even more shocked than Kiya, unable to move from her seat. As the steward finished helping Kiya with her life jacket, the man darted towards Gina’s seat.

“How will we all survive if we’re asked to swim in the sea like that?” Gina muttered through her tears as she looked out the window. “We’re all going to die, right?”

“Miss Gina, listen to me,” said the steward, trying to calm her down. “My name is Shinji. I will help you get out of here safely. Don’t worry, you just need to leave the plane as soon as possible and swim away from the fuselage. Everything will be fine.”

“But Daniel’s right,” Gina said, referring to the man who had punched the captain. “This wasn’t supposed to happen to us.”

Shinji glanced toward the open emergency door and saw the captain focused on saving others at the front, despite being hit by Daniel. Seeing his colleagues busy helping other passengers, Shinji quickly adjusted Gina’s life vest.

“Miss, the captain of this plane is very experienced,” explained Shinji, who is Japanese. “He did the right thing by making an emergency landing as soon as possible to save us all. If he had insisted on flying with the plane’s backup system and radio communication suddenly broken, we could have crashed at any time.”

“Therefore,” he continued, “you must fight to stay safe now. I promise, you will survive. Air traffic control will soon realize our condition and they will quickly move to search for us. In the meantime, we must swim. You can do it, right?”

Inevitably, Gina nodded. After Shinji adjusted the life vest on her body, she finally tried to stand up even though her legs were still weak. Now, both she and Kiya began to walk toward the emergency exit, which was already filled with others who were still trembling.

“The waves are so high,” said one of their friends, choking on his breath, from the front of the emergency exit. “Are you sure we’ll survive and be found soon? The conditions outside are terrible.”

“Sir, you have to jump quickly. We don’t have much time left,” the pilot captain said to the man standing in front of him, a worried look on his face. “Like I said earlier, if this plane sinks, we could all be sucked into the sea, and that would be very dangerous.”

“B—but what if we get scattered at sea?” asked another person who looked like he was holding back vomit from the violent upheaval of the fuselage being buffeted by the waves. “What if we can’t be found later?”

“Swim to the north of the plane,” the captain replied. “I saw through our navigation earlier; there is an island not too far from here. We can all swim there and wait until the rescue team arrives to help us. But we have to be quick because it’s already dangerous in here.”

“B—but…”

Splash!

An annoyed Daniel suddenly kicked his friend’s butt from behind, propelling him into the sea. He briefly looked back at the captain he had hit with an angry glare before diving into the water without uttering a word.

Daniel’s actions emboldened everyone standing near the door. One by one, they began to leap into the sea, donning their life jackets and carrying whatever they could.

Kiya was about to follow suit when a noise from her right suddenly caught her attention. She turned around to see two of her friends, Bayu and Kevin, being carried by Shinji and his cabin crew colleagues toward the emergency exit.

Surprised, Kiya looked at Bayu and Kevin, who both seemed to be unconscious. “What’s wrong with those two?”

“They’re fine,” Shinji replied. “They were in their seats with their seat belts on, but not their life jackets. Apparently, Mr. Bayu and Mr. Kevin are both very drunk and don’t realize that we’re in an emergency situation.”

“So, how will they swim later?”

“Don’t worry, Miss. The rest of the crew and I will assist them at sea until we reach the island the captain mentioned,” Shinji reassured, attempting to sound convincing.

Upon hearing this, Gina immediately snickered, then swiftly turned to Kiya, ignoring her two intoxicated friends.

“We have to jump now. Do you want to jump with me?” Gina asked Kiya, her expression still hesitant and scared. “I really don’t want to be alone down there.”

Kiya was silent for a few moments before finally nodding.

“But hold on, Gina,” Kiya said, suddenly remembering something. “I need to grab something from the front cabin.”

With a sense of urgency, she darted towards the front, navigating through the chaotic scene in the cabin. Moments later, she returned with a waterproof backpack clutched tightly in her hand.

As soon as she got back to her place, Kiya immediately pulled Gina to jump in with her before Gina could ask her anything. The cold, biting water greeted them as they plunged in, the heavy rain adding to their discomfort. Kiya’s body shivered uncontrollably as she struggled to stay afloat amidst the turbulent waves, her mind racing with fear and uncertainty.

After wiping the salty water off her face, Kiya surveyed the surrounding black sea with trepidation. It was the first time she had ever experienced such terrifying conditions in the middle of the ocean at night.

“Damn it, it’s cold out here!” complained Gina, her body and head already soaked. She rubbed her eyes vigorously, wincing at the sting of the sea water. “My eyes hurt, and I can barely see through the rain. Kiya, please don’t leave my side. I’m scared.”

Kiya nodded in understanding, feeling the weight of Gina’s hand on her life vest. Clutching the waterproof backpack tightly, Kiya struggled to maintain stability in the turbulent water.

“Where are the others?” Gina asked, her vision blurred from the sea water.

“I believe they followed the captain’s instructions and swam north,” Shinji interjected, appearing behind them. He fastened the straps of Bayu’s life jacket around his body along with his own life jacket. “They may have feared the plane sinking and hurried to escape the area.”

“And Kevin and the rest of the cabin crew?”

“Mr. Kevin is in the back with the captain and the rest of the cabin crew,” Shinji replied again, wiping his wet face. “Miss Gina, Miss Kiya, just follow me. If we can get away from here quickly, we’ll all be fine. Just try to keep swimming and not fall asleep in the sea.”

Gina and Kiya didn’t answer him. Nonetheless, both of them immediately followed Shinji in hopes of reaching the island faster. Unfortunately, even after painstakingly swimming for the next hour, neither of them had seen any sign of land around the ocean.

“Are you sure we’re swimming in the right direction?” Gina asked Shinji, her voice starting to sound tired. The girl’s face already looked deathly pale, and her body didn’t stop shivering from the cold.

Kiya, feeling similar to Gina, also began to weaken. One relief was that the weather and sea conditions seemed to be improving. Yet, her arms and thighs felt numb, a worrisome sign of exhaustion.

Looks like we got separated from the rest of the group,” she muttered through chattering teeth. Since earlier, she had been helping Shinji rescue Bayu, who had come close to being swept away by the waves several times. Meanwhile, she accompanied Gina, who was prone to panic and fear.

“I followed the captain’s directions correctly and didn’t deviate from the north direction at all,” Shinji replied, now beginning to sound doubtful about himself. “Maybe… we should continue swimming north?”

Gina, who was currently closest to Shinji, didn’t react immediately. Her body floated limply, her face taking on a resigned expression.

“I’m already exhausted,” she said with a fading look in her eyes. “I’m not sure I can keep swimming in this cold. They’ve probably scattered because of the waves.”

Kiya swam over to her. “Gina, you heard what Shinji said earlier, right? Don’t let yourself doze off here. It’ll be dangerous if you fall asleep before we reach land.

“Come on, Gina, we’ll make it,” Kiya urged, tugging hard on her friend’s life jacket. “I’ll help you swim. Once we reach land, we can rest in comfort and warmth.”

Despite her efforts to encourage Gina and herself, Kiya found herself struggling. An hour later, exhaustion took its toll, and she unknowingly drifted off to sleep in the middle of the ocean.

___

5:30 CST

“Wake up!”

Kiya’s screeching voice echoed on the shore of an empty beach where she was stranded. She was in a state of panic — extremely panicked. When she had awoken there earlier, she found only Bayu beside her, with no sign of Shinji and Gina.

Noticing that Bayu wasn’t breathing, she instinctively began chest compressions. What she didn’t know was that her friend was actually alive and just unconscious.

“Please wake up! I don’t want to be alone here!” Kiya shouted again while crying. “Come on, wake up, you jerk!”

As if in response to Kiya’s desperate pleas, the man beneath her stirred. Opening his eyes and meeting Kiya’s panicked gaze, he coughed and furrowed his brow.

“Scholarship girl…?” the man croaked, his gaze fixed on Kiya, who still appeared damp. Slowly, he glanced around, his expression morphing into one of confusion. “Have we… have we made it to Natuna?”

Kiya, upon hearing that, immediately wiped her tears in exasperation and suddenly threw the life jacket from her body towards Bayu’s face. “Natuna, your ass! This is what happens when you drink too much! Do you know that you could have died last night?!”

With that, she rose to her feet and surveyed their surroundings. With the sun rising in the distance, the island’s beauty unfolded before her eyes.

The sand felt soft and powdery beneath her toes. The sea behind her appeared much calmer now, its waters a brilliant shade of blue, shimmering like gems. The gentle lull of waves and the sweet melody of birdsong filled the air. Coastal trees dotted the landscape, adding to the island’s natural allure.

“Why am I wearing a life jacket?”

Ignoring Bayu’s questions, Kiya began to step around, scanning the area for any sign of Gina and Shinji. Despite her own safe arrival on the island, she held onto the hope that her companions had also made it ashore unharmed.

“What went down last night? Where are we now? And where are the others?” Bayu persisted, louder this time, as he got up from the sand and trailed after Kiya with a confused expression.

Where could they be? Kiya wondered to herself, still ignoring Bayu’s questions. Are Gina and Shinji searching for the rest of us? They must have made it here too, right?

She kept walking, scanning the area for a few more minutes. Her sole focus was on locating the rest of their group, until Bayu’s voice reached her from a distance.

He seemed to have sensed something amiss and had joined the search for their friends in a different direction.

“Scholarship Girl, there are some life jackets over here too!” he shouted from behind a tall rock on the beach.

Upon hearing this, Kiya hurried over to Bayu. Relief flooded her as she spotted several other life jackets from their plane scattered across the sand.

“They’re here too!” she exclaimed, her eyes bright with relief. “They must have made it!”

“Made it?” Bayu glanced back at Kiya, puzzled. “What do you mean, ‘they made it’?”

“I’ll explain later, but for now, we need to find…”

Kiya’s words trailed off as she spotted a figure in uniform, reminiscent of Shinji, seated behind a tree not far from the shoreline.

Excitedly, she sprinted towards the area, filled with rows of shady sea waru trees with large branches. So absorbed in her excitement, she didn’t hear Bayu calling after her and instead stumbled, falling over something on the ground.

Wincing, she touched her sore leg and glanced back at what had caused her to trip earlier. However, as she turned back again, her gaze froze at something near Bayu that startled her.

Almost a dozen soldiers with uniforms of different colors than usual suddenly emerged from the other side of the beach, bordered by rocks. They were slowly advancing towards Bayu with their long-barreled guns pointed at his head.

Taken aback by this unexpected sight, the girl tried to stand up again with a stunned expression on her face. Before she could even lift herself, her eyes flicked to something near her feet that had caused her to fall. 

Near the toe of Kiya’s damp shoe… lay a bloodied piece of human calf!

Kiya, still seated in the sand, couldn’t comprehend what she was witnessing. Unsure of what to make of it, she instinctively turned her head towards Shinji, who had been seated behind the waru tree just a few meters away.

As she fixed her eyes on Shinji, her heart seemed to lurch in her chest. From her vantage point, she could now discern the flight attendant, who had aided her the previous night, more clearly.

Shinji was indeed there, but he wasn’t whole anymore. Almost the entire lower half of his body, from his stomach down to his legs, was gone. All that remained of him was his face, frozen in horror, and the blood splattered beneath the remaining portion of his body, staining the pristine white sand of the island.