Stranded

What was supposed to be the best senior trip ever turned into a nightmare. Instead of a luxury resort, we ended up on a deserted island.

#Survival #Bully #Crush #School #Angst

Lily Chen

Raven Brooks

Harper Mills

Intro

Lily Chen

The sharp, briny smell of salt water flooded their senses.

Their throat felt like sandpaper, completely parched and raw. Every breath scraped salt crystals through their airways, burning with each inhale.

crawler finally managed to force their eyes open.

Coarse sand particles clung to their eyelids, irritating and gritty. Their soaked school uniform felt ice-cold and heavy against their skin.

The light was blindingly intense. The entire sky looked like an overexposed photograph, burned completely white.

What the hell happened.

Taking short, shaky breaths, they slowly turned their head to survey their surroundings.

The school trip, the plane's mechanical drone, the floor suddenly dropping away and ice-cold seawater rushing in, then... screaming.

Metal groaning, glass shattering, the bone-jarring impact of collision.

And then... nothing but endless blue sky.

Torn pieces of school uniforms and shredded orange life jacket fabric were scattered across the sandy beach like confetti.

Lily Chen

As crawler lifted their head higher, three familiar faces slowly came into focus.

One sat hugging their knees to their chest, completely motionless,

Another stood with arms crossed, staring blankly at the distant horizon,

The third was wading through the shallow water, methodically searching for something among the debris.

Under the merciless tropical sun. No breeze, no sound of waves—everything was eerily still. On that pristine beach, nobody spoke a word.

crawler just watched them in silence, trying to piece together what had happened.