Dear Sir/Madam:

CONGRATULATIONS!  You have been randomly selected to go on an all-expense paid vacation to Jamaica.  You will be taken on a small jet with five other lucky winners to your destination.  Here, you will enjoy exotic food, friendly natives, beautiful weather, and so much If you are interested in this special offer, please call 555-5555 by the thirteenth of May.  You will be given more information when you call.  Please, remember that this is your only chance to go on this sensational vacation.  The opportunity will not arise again.

Sincerely,
John Smith

Leah read her letter again.  It claimed that five others would also go on the trip.  So far Leah didn’t see anyone.  Had she misunderstood the instructions?  Leah refolded the letter and slid it back into the back pocket of her jeans.  She headed for the cheap benches on the opposite side of the terminal.  That was when she saw him. His brow was furrowed in confusion, and he had a piece of paper in his hand.  Leah squinted at the piece of paper and realized that it was the same off-white color as her letter.  She wandered over and tapped the young man on the shoulder.  This was rather bold and outgoing for Leah; she was normally pretty reserved and shy.

“Can I help you find something?”

The man was startled when she spoke, obviously not expecting anyone to approach him.  He glanced around, wondering if anybody saw him jump.

“I’m sorry.” Leah apologized and tried to hide her smile.

“Oh, it’s okay.  I just didn’t expect anyone to come over here.”

“I understand.  So, do you need help?”

“Actually, I received this in the mail a couple of months ago.  I was told that the plane would be leaving from here.  I’m not sure exactly where to go, though.  When I made the phone call, I was told that the pilot would retrieve us somehow.  I doubt you’ll know anything about this, though.”

Leah stuck her hand in her back pocket, reaching past a stick of gum and her MP3 player for the letter.  She pulled it out and handed it to her new acquaintance.  He took it from her and read it, telling her that it was almost exactly the same as his.

“Well, if there are two of us, the other four must be here somewhere.” Leah commented as she glanced around in search of other winners.

“Yes, yes.  I suggest we stay together.  At least we won’t be alone.”

“I’m Leah.” She stuck her hand out and smiled.

“Oh, where are my manners?  My name’s Edward.”  He shook Leah’s hand and smiled back at her, “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

Leah made a noise of agreement and crossed her arms.  She immediately regretted doing this, as her bag slipped down her arm and almost pulled her to the ground.  After all, it did weigh almost as much as she did.  Leah was very petite and pixie-like.  Edward caught her and offered to take her bag.  Leah politely refused.

“Are you sure? It must be awfully–” Edward’s voice was drowned out by an announcement over the terminal intercom.

“All passengers who will be going on a trip to Jamaica, report to gate seven now.  All passengers who will be going to Jamaica, report to gate seven now.  Thank you.”

Leah and Edward looked at each other and headed for gate seven.  They both had their doubts, due to the fact that there could be another plane leaving for Jamaica.  Still, they continued on to the spot announced by the speaker on the intercom.

“I hope we’re right in assuming that this is for us,” Leah began, “because if it’s not, I don’t know what we should do.”

Edward only nodded in agreement and looked ahead.  Gate seven wasn’t very far away, and when he looked closely, he was pretty sure that there were five people standing there.  Leah also took notice of this, and was bit concerned.  Weren’t there supposed to be four others?  When they reached the gate, Leah asked a man wearing a uniform if they were in the correct place.

“Excuse me; is this the group that received the letters?”

“Yes, ma’am!”

Leah and Edward glanced awkwardly at the other members of the group.  They weren’t sure if they should let the others start the conversation or if they should introduce themselves.  Finally, Edward chose the latter.

“I’m Edward and this is Leah.” Leah smiled thankfully at him.  He must have picked up on her shyness.

“I’m Annette.  It’s always pleasure to meet kids these days.”

She was an elderly woman with wrinkled skin and graying hair.  There was sweetness about her.  She smelled, for some reason, of freshly baked cookies.  Her expression was warm and comforting.  Edward and Leah both nodded in acknowledgement.

“It’s lovely to meet you, Annette.” Leah shook her hand and smiled warmly.  Edward also shook Annette’s hand and flashed the woman a crooked smile.

Another person in the group cleared their throat.  A balding, older man with a long, silver beard glared at them.  Edward and Leah turned to face him, expecting him to introduce himself.  However, it was Annette that spoke.

“This is my husband, Harold.” Annette gestured to the crotchety, old man.  Leah and Edward couldn’t help but wonder how someone so pleasant could live with such a curmudgeonly person.  They both shook Harold’s hand.

“I’m Melissa,” A woman, probably in her late twenties began, “and this is my son, Toby.” She pulled a young boy over to her side.

“Nice meeting you.” Edward said as he shook Melissa’s hand.

“It’s a pleasure to meet you, Toby.” Leah said as she kneeled down and extended her hand to the little boy.  He shook her hand vigorously, and Leah noticed how much Toby and his mother looked alike.  They both had dark, curly hair.  Their eyes were the same icy blue, and they both had pale, freckled faces.  Toby and Melissa had the same bone structure, and they both looked almost unreal.  They were extraordinarily beautiful.

“Is he the pilot?” Edward asked the others, gesturing to the uniformed man.

“Yes, he will be taking us on a trip!” Toby answered rather excitedly.

Everyone giggled at Toby’s cheerfulness.  Leah found the little boy charming and couldn’t help but smile each time she looked at him.  As much as she enjoyed chatting with Toby, though, she hoped that they’d leave the airport soon.  After all, she was missing a week of her senior year for this.  She didn’t want to be stuck in a crowded terminal the whole time.

“Is everybody ready to go?”

Everybody looked around at each other, nodding and mumbling ‘yeah’ and ‘sure’ at the pilot.  Edward was silent, and Leah noticed this.

“Are you okay?” Leah whispered to him.

“Um, no… I-I don’t think so.” Edward seemed to have barely gotten the words out of his mouth before he had to run to a nearby trashcan.  Leah cringed as his lunch spilled into the wastebasket.  She walked over to him and rubbed his back.  Wasn’t that supposed to help comfort people… or something?  Leah pulled her hand back, feeling kind of embarrassed.  At the same time, Edward pulled his head out of the black trashcan.

“Thanks.”

“What for?” Leah didn’t know why he was thanking her.

“I don’t know.  Thanks for, uh, being concerned, I suppose.”

“Oh.  I never liked being sick alone.  It sounds weird, but it made me feel even lonelier and even sicker.  I always wanted someone to be with me.” Leah felt stupid for saying all that.  She never really knew why she felt that way.  Edward nodded understandingly.  Did he really know what she meant, or was he just being nice?

“Are you dang kids ready yet?” Harold’s grumpy, old voice called out to them.  Leah looked at Edward.  He looked better, and he nodded at her that he would be fine if they went.

Leah and Edward began walking over.  They noticed the pilot punching holes in the others’ tickets, so they both fished their tickets out of their bags.  When they reached the group, the pilot took their tickets and punched holes in them.

“Thank you!  Now, please follow me out to the plane.”

The pilot actually led them down the stairs and outside.  The group continued to follow him until he stopped.  Leah, Edward, Annette, Harold, Toby, and Melissa all looked around.  The only plane they saw was a decrepit, old Grumman.  

“Are you sure this is safe?” Melissa asked, holding Toby close to her.

“It most certainly is.” The pilot answered matter-of-factly.

Edward and Leah looked at each other uneasily.  It didn’t look like it should even be legal to fly.  It looked like it should have been condemned!

“Folks, please begin filing onto the plane.  Pick a seat, it doesn’t matter where.”

“Do you want to be my seat partner?” Edward turned to Leah and smiled.  She noticed that he had a really nice smile.  It was one of those cheesy, crooked smiles that all the dreamy guys in the movies have.  Only, Leah didn’t think it looked cheesy on Edward.

“Leah?”

“What? Oh, sorry. Sure, Edward, I’ll be your seat partner.” Leah smiled back.

All the winners began climbing on the plane.  The Grumman seemed to whine every time a new passenger got on.  Edward and Leah boarded last, and by the time the pilot joined everybody, the artifact of a plane was weeping.  Finally, a voice boomed and the pilot was talking to them through speakers located in various places around the ancient plane.  Leah was surprised that the Grumman had any modern technology.

“Ladies and gentlemen, welcome.  My name is Mike Jones.  I will be your pilot today.  Should you have any questions, please feel free to come and see me. Thank you.”

The passengers whispered things to each other and looked nervous.  Leah heard Melissa mention something about the plane crashing and safety devices.  Edward must have heard this too, because he handed Melissa a safety pamphlet from a pocket in the seat.  He told her that it was unlikely a crash would occur, though.

“How do you know that?” Leah quizzed.

“I don’t.  I just thought I’d make it sound like this was safe.” Edward smiled his crooked smile at her.

“Well, what are you going to do if the plane does crash?”

“Die.” Edward answered sarcastically.

“Oh, that’s real comforting.”

Leah felt the plane start and turned to look out the window.  She watched as the plane gained speed and climbed higher into the sky.  She felt her stomach lurch.

“Hey! Want a piece of gum?”

Leah looked into the aisle to see adorable, little Toby offering Edward a piece of gum.  Edward politely refused, and Toby shoved the gum into his mouth.

“Mommy, nobody else wanted it!” he hollered and ran back to seat himself beside his almost identical mother, Melissa.

Leah read a magazine and Edward listened to his MP3 player.  After a couple of hours, everyone seemed to fall asleep.  Toby had sprawled across his mother’s lap.  

Melissa’s head leaned back against the seat, and her mouth hung wide open.  Annette and Harold had both reclined their seats and passed out that way.  Edward’s head leaned on top of Leah’s head, and Leah fell asleep on his shoulder.  Nobody on the plane stirred.

“MAYDAY!  MAYDAY!  ALL PASSENGERS BUCKLE YOUR SEATBELTS. ALL PASSENGERS BUCKLE YOUR SEATBELTS.  WE ARE EXPERIENCING ENGINE TROUBLE.  PLEASE!  FASTEN YOUR SEATBELTS! THIS IS NOT A DRILL!  FASTEN YOU SEAT—“

Mike didn’t get to finish.  The plane hit the ground.  Everything inside skated across the floor, bounced of the walls, and slid out of overhead compartments.  Every single person on the plane screamed and shrieked in terror.  Edward was the only one who wasn’t screaming.  Actually, Leah noticed that Edward wasn’t doing anything!  He didn’t even appear to be breathing.  She began shaking him violently, and when he didn’t respond, she unbuckled her seatbelt and tried to perform CPR.  Edward didn’t move.  Leah began crying and started yelling out.

“He’s dead!  He’s dead!”

The passengers of the demolished Grumman began screaming, yelling, and hollering again.  Leah buried her face in Edward’s chest and sobbed.  She didn’t know why she was so upset, but she was.  Eventually, she calmed down.  Edward still wasn’t moving, and he seemed to be getting cold.

“He… he… he is… is… dead.” Leah stammered.

Annette managed to get up and waddle over to Leah.  She embraced her and held on tight.  Leah actually felt quite comfortable in Annette’s arms.  She never had a mother, Leah’s mother passed away while birthing her.  Leah had always grown up with a lousy, unemployed father.  When Annette finally let go, Leah felt cold and empty again.  She looked at Edward, and then looked away quickly.  It was too much.  She wasn’t good with dead people.

“I’m so sorry, sweetie.” Annette sounded so sincere.

“It’s okay.  I am, too.”

“He was too young.” A single tear rolled down Annette’s cheek as she spoke.

“Yes.”

Leah took off her sweater and covered Edward’s face with it.  He shouldn’t have had to die this way.  It was so unfair.

“Can you help me get out of my seat, Mommy?” For once, Toby’s cuteness did not cheer Leah up, not even a little bit.

“Hold on, Toby!  I’m not even out, yet!” Melissa snapped.

Leah sat down in an empty seat.  She felt sick.  Every noise sounded so much louder than it really was.  She had a terrible headache, and her stomach was churning.  Leah couldn’t stay on the plane.  She would throw up if she did, and Leah hated being sick alone.  She stood up, walked to the door, and pushed it open.  It was easy to open, because the hinges were broken in the accident.  She inhaled the fresh air.  It actually smelled quite wonderful.  Leah noticed that it smelled surprisingly fresh.  She looked around.  Leah was surrounded by sand, palm trees, and ocean.  It was beautiful, but how was everyone going to get home?

“Gosh, it sure is pretty here!” Toby commented.

“It is.” Leah turned around and weakly smiled at Toby.

All the other plane riders began filing out, except for Edward, of course. Everybody was confused and disoriented.  It was likely that if a volcano formed right in front of them, nobody would notice.  The only person who seemed to have any idea what might have been going on or observed anything was Harold, oddly enough.

“Has anyone seen the pilot?” He asked.

“Did you check the cockpit, dear?” Annette responded.

“I’m not that stupid, of course I did!”

Leah took her shoes off, wandered over to the shoreline, and let the calm waves lick at her toes.  The water was cold at first, but after a couple of seconds, she got used to the temperature.  The others were all standing in a circle trying to figure out what had happened to the pilot and how they were going to survive.  Leah didn’t care.  She didn’t even want to go on.  She just wished that she could be struck by lightning or something.

“Excuse me, Leah?” Toby’s little hand tugged at her shirt.

“Yes, Toby?”

“I was wondering if you wanted to play with me…”

Leah didn’t really want to play.  As much as she liked Toby, she just couldn’t bring herself to play with him.  She politely refused to play any games with him and shot him an apologetic look.  Toby looked disappointed for about two seconds, and then he got over it and skipped back over to Melissa.  Leah headed over to the group and listened in on what they were saying.

“I think he must have deployed some sort of parachute.  He’s probably safe somewhere.  What a jerk, saving himself and not anyone else.” Harold mumbled.

“He may very well be dead.” Annette replied.

“Who cares,” Leah started, “don’t you think we should try building a shelter of some kind?  I mean, how much good is complaining doing?”

“She’s right.  We should start making survival plans.” Melissa agreed.

“Yes.  Let’s begin gathering supplies.  I’ll try and find some materials we can use to build.  Harold, why don’t you take Toby and attempt to catch some fish?”

“Annette, you need to get help.  You can’t do all that alone.  Toby and I will go start fishing.  Come on, boy.” Harold took Toby’s hand and walked over to a bamboo patch.  He grabbed to bamboo sticks and handed one to Tony.  They could use those as fishing rods.

“Annette, I will go with you.” Melissa offered.

“I’ll stay here.  I think I’m going to figure out something to do with–”

“Edward?  Yes, I think that’s a good idea, Leah.” Annette said.

Annette and Melissa headed into a forest of tropical plants, trees, and bushes.  Leah turned around and faced the destroyed Grumman.  She walked toward it and climbed on.  When she saw Edward again, she was almost sick.  She managed to keep down the food in her stomach, though.  Leah pulled her sweater off of Edward’s face and slipped it on over her t-shirt.  She then picked Edward up.  He was surprisingly light, and Leah managed to carry him all by herself.  She made it off the plane with Edward, and she gently sat him down.  Leah kneeled on the ground and began digging a hole in the ground.  The sand moved quickly and easily.  She soon dug a hole deep enough, wide enough, and long enough to fit Edward in.  Leah rolled him into the grave and started pushing the sands back in on top of him.  When she finished covering Edward, she grabbed two pieces of driftwood and tied them together with washed-up seaweed, forming a cross.  She stuck it in the ground, marking Edward’s burial spot.

“You will be missed.  I didn’t know you for very long, but… I’ll miss you.  You were much too young to die.  I’m sorry, Edward.”

Leah got up and walked into a densely forested area. She picked up lots of sticks and large leaves.  Anything Leah thought looked useful; she picked up and put into a pile.  She also went around and picked ripe fruit off of trees.  She managed to get coconuts, papaya, mangoes, pineapples, bananas, lemons, and a few other edible items.  Leah wanted to make sure that she wouldn’t starve to death.

Finally, the sun started going down.  Leah walked back out onto the beach.  She didn’t want to get lost in the dark jungle.  When she got back to the “camp,” Leah noticed that Toby and Harold had started a fire and were cooking two decent sized fish over it.  It looked like everyone would eat tonight.  Leah decided to save the fruit until tomorrow morning.  They would need breakfast, too.

“Whew!  We seem to have gotten a lot of supplies.  I think we’ll be able to start building right after dinner.” Annette commented.

Soon, everyone finished their meal.  They immediately started working on a small lean-to.  It wasn’t long before everything began coming together, and you could see the shelter forming.  However, the project wasn’t finished in time for bed.  Everybody slept without cover.  Of course, there was a storm that night.  It rained and thundered.  The wind blew at unbelievable speeds.  When the group woke up, their hard work from the previous night was ruined.  The wind had blown all of their materials across the beach, the shelter was knocked over, and the bamboo supports had all snapped.  Harold whined and complained, but everyone else just tried to come up with other ideas.

“We could just start over.” Annette recommended.

“That’d take too long!” Harold fired back.

“Maybe we could come up with something else.  Hey, what if there are other people here?  I bet they’d help!” Melissa said.

“There aren’t people here!  Are you that dumb?” Harold asked sarcastically.  He was being pretty mean.

“Why don’t we ‘explore’ a little bit and see if we can find a cave or something?” Leah suggested.

“That’s actually not a bad idea.” Harold replied.

“Alright, we’ll split up,” Annette started, “Melissa, Toby, and I will go in a group.”

“I’ll go with Harold, then.” Leah said, ignoring his protests.

“Let’s go.” Melissa took Toby’s left hand and Annette grabbed his right.  They walked into the forest, taking a path to the left.

Leah and Harold headed down a different path.  This path was on the right, and it didn’t look quite as “tame” as the other one.  It was being overrun by tropical plants and vines.  Leah was sort of uncomfortable with going this way, but it wasn’t as if there was a choice.  She began walking and stepping over the undergrowth, thinking that Harold was only a few steps behind her.  However, when she turned around, he was nowhere to be seen.  Leah didn’t know where he possibly could have gone.  She hoped that he hadn’t gotten lost.  She was too far in to go back and search for Harold.  Hopefully, he would find his way to safety.  Leah continued on.

After a long time, Leah gave up.  She didn’t seem to be getting anywhere.  She just plopped down beside an enormous boulder.  Here, Leah stayed for several hours.  She actually fell asleep there, leaning up against the boulder.  Leah woke up a while later.  She dragged herself up and walked around the boulder.  She couldn’t recall which direction she came from.  However, as she reached the other side of the massive rock, Leah saw an opening.  This was no rock, it was a cave!  She’d found a cave!  She started running back to the camp.

When Leah reached the beach, though, nobody was there to greet her.  She didn’t know what to do.  She looked all around.  Leah glanced at Edward’s grave, the unfinished shelter, the Grumm– the Grumman!  Maybe they had all gone inside the small plane.  After all, it was still more or less in tact.  It might be able to provide some very temporary shelter.  Leah bounded over to the plane and climbed aboard.

“Hello?  Harold!  Melissa, Toby, Annette? Anybody?”

There was no response.  Leah once more exited the Grumman.  Surely someone would return soon, right?  So, she waited around on the beach for almost a day.  It didn’t seem like anyone would be coming back.  Leah set off, once again, into the forest.  This time she took the left path.  She plodded through the jungle for what must have been almost twenty miles.  After much walking, she came to an open clearing.  There was a bonfire that still had smoke coming from it.  The others must have been there fairly recently.  Leah couldn’t be much more than an hour behind them.  If she were to jog or walk at a brisk pace, she might be able to catch up.  Leah decided not to dwell in the clearing and keep going.  This time, she picked up her speed and tried her best to gain on the rest of the stranded people.

Sometime later that day, Leah heard voices.  She broke into a run, and in a few minutes, she found Toby and Annette.  Toby’s eyes were red and puffy, and Annette wasn’t looking too joyful, either.

“Hey!  Wait up a minute!” Leah called out.

Toby and Annette stopped.  They didn’t turn around, though; they didn’t even make an effort to see who was hollering at them.  When Leah reached them, she inquired about where they had gone and what was wrong.

“Toby’s mother, Melissa, has been killed.”

“Killed?!” Leah was astonished.

“Yes.  We ran into a native tribe.  As it turns out, they’re cannibals.  Apparently, Melissa looked the meatiest.  They chose to eat her and let us go.  We absolutely have to stay out of their sight, or they’ll boil us and eat us, too.  Let’s keep going.” Annette spun around and walked faster than Leah had ever seen her move.

“That’s… terrible.”

Toby began to cry again, and Leah wished that he would stop.  It was hard for her to control her emotions with everyone else getting all weepy and sad.  Ultimately, Leah found herself tuning Toby out.  She didn’t hear anything else, either.  It’s too bad she didn’t hear Annette get caught in a trap.  She might’ve been able to help.

“Help me!  Please, Leah, help me!” Annette screamed.

Toby didn’t look at Annette.  He couldn’t do it.  Toby reached for Leah’s hand and squeezed it tight.  Without listening too much, he heard an arrow fire.  There was a thump, and Toby knew that Annette had died.  Leah didn’t even notice she was missing for almost an hour.

“Toby!  Where’s Annette?”

Toby stopped dead in his tracks.  He turned around and pointed back.  Toby made a noise like a gun, indicating that Annette was no longer with them.  Leah’s jaw dropped.  How had she not noticed sooner?  She had been so busy focusing on her on emotions that someone had… died.

“No.  This isn’t right!” Leah yelled.

Her yelling must have scared Toby, because he ran away from Leah and was as speedy as a cheetah when he fled.  Leah couldn’t bottle it in anymore.  She collapsed on the ground and screamed.  She screamed at the top of her lungs.  That was when it hit her.  An arrow, razor sharp and deadly hit her right in the middle of her chest.

“We eat good tonight.  That is another one for food. We shall have feast.  Chief Kalakh shall be pleased.”

The natives took Leah, Annette, and Toby to their chief.  Chief Kalakh was pleased.  He was evil and cannibalistic.  He was greedy, selfish, and unfair.  He was Harold.