— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Madi expected… a different reaction from Angie, if she was being honest. She just rambled on about people staying here for decades and not getting out and Angie seemed chill about it. Calm and collected for somebody who just learned… did Matthew or Esther or somebody else already told all of this to Angie? But even then it just didn’t make sense, Angie being so okay with all of it. But then Angie said she didn’t hear half of what Madi just said, and suddenly it made all the sense. Angie wasn’t mad or freaking out because she didn’t even pay attention to what she was saying. Then what was she…

Angie was sitting. She was sitting up when just a few moments ago she was finally lying down and Madi let out a long, worried sigh. But then again, wasn’t this what she wanted? Angie to be up and be herself? SHe wanted it more than anything, but at the same time Madi wanted her to just lie down and spend half an hour resting, taking care of herself first and foremost.

“You’re so not making this easy on me, but okay, keep sitting, but please don’t go overboard with it. If you feel tired, just lie back down, and definitely no getting out of the bed, not yet anyway.” She was mothering Angie, she knew that, but she couldn’t help it. She wanted to help, she wanted to make things better for her friend, and this was the only way she knew how. Making sure Angie took care of herself - something that she was prone to forget when she got an idea in her head. And that idea right now was getting out of this place. Which made all the sense, but Madi didn’t want her to strain herself and push herself, potentially making things worse on her own health by chasing something that seemed impossible.

She reached out and took Angie’s hands and squeezed them, finding Angie’s gaze and holding it. “Okay, I’m going to try again, please listen to me instead on focusing on getting up. Please. I… There are other people here. On this island.” It took everything out of her not to just rush through ever information, not to jump into another ramble. “Like, people who weren’t on the plane, people who’ve been here longer. Like, a lot longer. I’m talking years and decades, Angie. They all had accidents and crashes and all kinds of horrible ways they got here and they all got stuck here. No getting out. Nobody managed to find a way out of here, no matter how long they’ve been stuck here. And they tried. The guy who is their leader, Matthew, told me there are always people who tried, and nobody really managed to do, or at least they don’t know about anyone who did. And he’s been here for two centuries, so he’s seen it all, really, and if people couldn’t get out of here in that long of a time, we’re not going to be able to get out of here.”

She tried, she really tried not to word vomit, but at some point it just got out of her hands, to the point where she didn’t even realize she told Angie Matthew has been here for such a long time, that wasn’t her intention at all. “And yes, I know people are actively searching for the plane and for us, too, but we had to be close enough to the island that we didn’t just end up on the bottom of the ocean, but even like that, even being that close, the boat we were on couldn’t find us or the island, Angie. And it’s been weeks since we showed up here, and no signs of them at all. Nothing.”

Angie was a little surprised at how solemn Madi looked, but she tried to have some perspective. It’d been a couple days and Madi probably hadn’t even known if Angie was going to live, much less wake up completely fine (and she was completely fine thank you very much, and was ready to do whatever needed to be done to get back home). She’d clearly been worried sick, and then on top of that had to split her time between worrying and watching over Angie. So she sat still (for the time being) and paid close attention. 

And the news was...not good. Angie found herself leaning in to listen to Madi as though they were sharing some awful secret, as though the doctor couldn’t hear what they were talking about if he really wanted to, as if he didn’t already know. Decades, Angie thought, until she thought she was getting dizzy and maybe needed to lie down after all. That made no sense, that was impossible. Sure, in this day and age planes might be lost in the ocean; it was rare but it happened. But for people to be lost on an island? Stranded with no one to find them? The whole prospect was a jigsaw of nonsensical pieces. With today’s technology, surely people could start to be found. 

No rescue teams and no ships? Stick Angie somewhere for decades and she wouldn’t have cared how many coconuts it took, she was going to make a boat. What about all these people who had supposedly been here so long? They were just...okay with it? Had they landed on some entirely new society that was just independent of the rest of the universe? What did she mean, they’re stuck? 

And then Madi mentioned some dude named Matthew, who claimed to have been there for two centuries and it all clicked together. Angie sighed, thoroughly deflated, and sank down into the cot until she was lying down again. She stared at the ceiling of the tent and counted backwards from ten. Then she did it again, and this time she felt calm enough to speak. Her anxiety had spiked, and truly she could feel her blood pressure rising. 

“Madi. We promised,” she stressed that last word as though she was reminding her of a sacred vow. “That time when I had you over after work and we watched that documentary on Waco,” and wow, niche memory, but it was relevant here. “We promised that whatever happened to us, we would never join a cult,” she turned to look at Madi now and gripped her hand tightly.  

“So I was out a few weeks. I get it, and I’m really sorry I scared you, but Jesus Christ. We cannot join a cult,” she whispered, in case the doctor was actually listening and he was in the cult. “I know it’s scary, and weird, I get it, but no one lives for two hundred years. Madi, you - you know that. Just tell me they haven’t made you do anything weird.”

♥❤♥

Besides the brutal bump to her head from her steering wheel, now a large, but fading bruise above her right eye, Piper was largely fine. It had been a terrifying stint so far, but surprisingly uneventful until now.

As familiar hands grabbed her face, she let out a breath all at once, both in relief and bafflement. She followed suite, gripping Angie’s shoulders for dear life and looking her over. 

“I—just a few days ago, it’s been a long weekend of chaos! How are you here, how long have you been here?” She paused. The murder island may have been the reason the other woman hadn’t returned her texts. “Wait, your partner’s here too?”

Piper stood on her knees to look out over the boulder, keeping one hand clenched in her friend’s shirt, half afraid if she let go she’d be revealed as some other specter, but couldn’t discern anything except shifting bodies. Pleas for help and the odd shriek cut through the dim Jungle. “What’re you going to do, you could be pinned again?”

--

“A few days,” Angie cursed, sweeping a thumb gently over Piper’s faint bruise. “Lot can happen in a few days,” she murmured. “I’ve been here just a few weeks. Yeah, me and Madi were going to rescue the plane that crashed, Flight 441. As you can see it didn’t exactly work out. You alone?” Piper was a traveler, she knew that. But of all the places to end up...Angie just shook her head.  

Angie shifted to mimic Piper’s movements, and didn’t protest when she kept a death grip on her shirt. She tried to get a hold of what was going on, what these figures wanted, but there was absolutely nothing but chaos. Everyone was running and shrieking words she couldn’t make out. 

“Well, the plan was to not get pinned,” Angie said with a wink and a smirk at Piper. “Can’t say I’ve got much more than that...Unless I can find a way to distract them,” she wondered aloud, and then frowned at Piper. “You. Stay here.” 

∞

Sylvie was in a full-blown panic as everything seemed to erupt around her. Where earlier in their journey there had been some distinction between the voices of the search party and the sounds of the jungle, she could no longer tell the difference between all of the screaming and calling out. She felt a presence on her like frozen static, and could hear a lady murmuring something unintelligible in her ear. With a start, she crashed forward a few feet, spinning around to try and face the source of the sound. 

Goosebumps dotted her skin during an instant of eerie silence, but Sylvie could soon hear someone thrashing around near her. Fearfully, she peered through the shadows and saw two figures struggling, one clearly overtaking the other. The woman on the ground told her to run, but Sylvie had other ideas. “Hey!” she shouted, praying that her voice sounded tougher than she felt. She took another step closer, readying herself to shout again, but the shadowy figure suddenly vanished. “Hey,” she repeated herself softer this time, closing the gap between her and the stranger and reaching a hand out to help her up, “Are you hurt?”

There was no use in struggling. The water would overtake her in moments and she would sink. It would be black, and she would be breathless, and there was nothing to be done for it. Still, she couldn’t go peacefully. She would fight every moment until it was over. 

Then, like a lighthouse calling ships back to shore, a voice rang out. Angie was no longer in the ocean, but on the cold ground of the jungle. Whatever had been holding her down - hands, not water, she realized - had vanished. She rolled over to her stomach, coughing as though her lungs had been full nonetheless. 

When the woman offered a hand she took it with some effort, staggering to her feet. “M’fine,” she said, before actually asking herself if she was fine. She would have to take time to check for trauma later. This was the middle of an emergency. She looked at the stranger, and the words of Magnolia and Madi both began to echo in her head, and she felt fear rise into her throat. 

“Has this happened before?” 

♥❤♥

Happy to follow direction, and not have to think through the chaos of ghosts of all things, because there was no other explanation for them, Piper collapsed behind the boulder without protest. She peered over the edge on her side, biting her lip hard. Whispers persisted through the trees, making her head ache, but none had followed them.

She turned back around, pressing her back against the cool stone and took heaving, gasping breaths. When the woman spoke she looked over to assure her she was fine, and then looked again. Really looked. There was no way, absolutely no possible way for the woman to be who Piper thought she was.

“Angie?” she asked, sitting up on her knees to face her, hand outstretched uncertainly. 

Now, what killed weird ghost-y things? Not real ghosts, obviously, because they didn’t exist. And yet they had dragged her down, and pulled the woman’s hair, and were making awfully real noises. Hmm. Her walking stick didn’t work, but something had to. She’d meet up with Madi, clear the area, figure out a way to kill these things, make a plan, and attack. Simple enough, so-

She turned, eyes widened as a very familiar voice said her name. “Piper? Are you kidding me?” she gasped, and then she held Piper’s face in her hands, searching wildly for any signs of injury. 

“Since when did you get here? Look just-just hold on alright? I gotta go find Madi.” 

♥❤♥

For a split second Piper feared the stranger was swinging at her, but the stick sailed past her and collided with a half-formed entity. The pressure on her scalp abated immediately. She pressed close to the other, her eyes roving around them for an opening in the mass of attackers.

She saw it, a sliver between two encroaching forms.

“Here!” She cried and gripped the other woman’s sleeve, yanking her as she took off towards it. The forms converged, but she shoved through them, itching cold digging through her sweatshirt at the contact where they bumped her and grabbed at her clothes. Where was she going? Into more woods and off the beaten path, but hopefully away from things that belonged only in horror flicks. She spared a glance back to see if the other woman had made it through the barricade. 

--

Angie turned around to face the phantoms. Her first priority was to see the woman get away safely and her second was to live long enough to figure out what was going on. She spared just a few seconds to kick, sending the phantoms (and there was no way that’s what they truly were, but that was all that could come to mind now) dispersing from them. She raced behind the stranger until the agonized cries behind them faded some. 

“Here,” Angie said, gesturing towards a large boulder they could hide behind. She collapsed with a groan behind it. Inhale, exhale. There. That was enough rest. 

“I’m gonna have to find my partner,” Angie said. Even now, she was peering behind the rock. “Stay here. You’re not hurt right?” 

♥❤♥

As people scattered, and she was left exposed, Piper froze, gaze darting around as shadows and ghouls converged. 

Piper was no fighter. Instead she just endured things over and over. Piper was a battlement, not a warrior, but when she saw someone in such clear distress she couldn’t exactly go be a fort someplace, could she? What sort of hero-level strength was required to be pinned down by ghosts and still have the wherewithal to tell someone else to save themselves?

With ferocity she didn’t feel, she stormed forward, her shoulder getting bumped by unseen forces, and grabbed the stranger’s arm, tugging with all her farm-bred might to pull her up and out of the grip of whatever held her. “Come on, come on, come on,” she prayed. An unseen hand yanked at her hair, but she clenched her jaw against the sharp pain.

It wasn’t ice cold air surrounding her anymore but water and as the moments crawled by she was back there, under the cruel waves of the sea. It wasn’t until she felt something solid grasping her arm, something warm and alive that her eyes flew open and she twisted and turned with a newfound strength. After everything, to die from some...whatever these things were? Hell no. 

Once she scrambled to her knees, things became a little easier. She let the girl’s momentum tug her up and she immediately swung at the figure behind her. 

“Back the fuck off her,” she barked to the shadows, and then looked for a route out of there. It really was a shame that they were now surrounded. 

When: During the phantom attack

Who: Open!

It took record timing for all hell to break loose, and Angie had nothing more useful than a walking stick to defend herself with as people around her began to scatter. She cursed, rushing towards the shadows and swinging as hard as she could. In the next instant she was pinned to the dirt by what felt like dozens of unseen hands, fingers clasping at her throat and...

Oh god, she thought. I’m drowning. 

She snarled and tried to beat the phantoms off of her, and from the corner of her eye she saw a figure - solid, this time - but not moving. 

ᵒᴼᵒ▫ₒₒ▫ᵒᴼᵒ▫ₒₒ▫ᵒᴼᵒ▫▫·∙∙∙✈

Iyaz wondered how Matthew did it. Disappoint and disillusion the new people. So many times over the years, if one believed his two hundred year claim. Which by now Iyaz did. Too many inexplicable things had happened for Iyaz to keep denying his own eyes, why not have an ageless Anglo-Saxon when developing elemental powers was as common as puberty here. 

With Matthew on his mind Iyaz paused. “Good. Yes. Just like that. Keep breathing, take it slow. It will help” He nodded, getting up to his feet and the flap of a tent. He had to wave someone down first seeing as they were all occupied and he didn’t want to upset the newly risen Angie. 

After a few brief words his helper was off to spread the word, to the first, maybe try and find Madi, and probably any other busy body or older organizer that felt they needed to know about this sort of thing. Iyaz just really didn’t want to be the person to talk about the island’s eccentricities. He couldn’t do it with Madi and he wasn’t about to attempt it with a waking coma patient. Let Ester soften the blow, or Matthew direct his odd questions. Not him, he was just here for… something. Doctoring, that’s what it was.

“I’m here.” Iyaz turned his attention back to Angie. Skirting around the ‘where is everyone’ question. He crossed back over. “Your words seem to be getting easier. That was a full sentence. Breathings stronger too, seems like.” This one was resilient. Which made Iyaz job of doctoring easier, but likely would make his attempts of slowly easing Angie into the reality of her current predicament harder. Still, hardy as she was, maybe Angie could survive the shock. 

“Can you tell me if you’re feeling pain anywhere? I’m going to palpate a few areas to check there’s no internal bruised or broken bones.” Which he would have known already were they in an actual hospital. Here if the injury was internal only patient feedback was the only real indicator they had.

-

“Palp-ate away,” Angie said, and braced herself as best she good against the possible pain. She couldn’t remember ever having a time when she messed her organs up, but she did know that she’d broken ribs before. The exact scenario wasn’t coming to her, but she just knew that it sucked. “No ribs,” she said, as though that made any sense at all. Not only did broken ribs suck, they’d slow her down, and she really needed to get to Madi and get off this beach. She wiggled her toes as Doctor Iyaz worked, and was glad to find that no stars were exploding in front of her eyes, or she suddenly felt like she was dying. 

“You’re...good...at this,” she said contently. “Convenient. Having you here.” With the disaster of the rescue of Flight 441 becoming more and more apparent, she was thanking her lucky charms (her favorite cereal) that some medical personnel had survived the whole thing. No matter how bad things were, they could always be worse, and usually were worse without people around who knew what they were doing. Doctor Iyaz probably was working around the clock helping several people like her, and he was attentive and kind, announcing each thing he did before doing it. Easily top three in the bedside manner department of all hospitals she’d been to. 

Thanks for checking on me all this time, however long it was. I’d probably be dead if you hadn’t stepped in. I know you’re probably really stressed and don’t have much supplies other than coconuts, but you’re doing really good. 

Instead what came out was, “Good doctor.” 

Angie was killing this speaking thing, and she sat happily while the doctor worked. Eventually though, the silence was deafening again, and she realized that he’d never actually answered her question. 

“You’re hiding something,” she said matter of factly. “’s okay though. Can I go?” 

angie:

❦

No met Angie’s incredulity with the grace of someone rarely believed after the first explanation and replied with a succinct: “So?” Whether or not Angie believed her right now or not was of little concern to her. She could be in denial for the next week, a month, a year, but eventually the unfortunate reality would grind its way in like sand into a shoe. It was inevitable and aggravating.

“Fact doesn’t need your believe. Neither does the island.” Magnolia looked down to the sand, absently rooting around in it with the toe of her shoe. She’d taken a look at the plane, but beyond the supplies she’d helped salvage the burnt out wreck with its dangling wires and metal structure didn’t offer her any more answers. She hadn’t even been an engineer in her time, a hundred years later she was utterly lost.

Turning a shell she’d uncovered in her fingers, she began to wonder. “What is your… perception of the island so far?” she asked with a quirk of her brow and an assessing stare. This woman seemed shrewd and unafraid to speak her mind, two characteristics No saw great value in and felt kindred with, and she couldn’t help but be curious what sort of belief that conjured.

“You’re one of the few that aren’t taking the whole ‘functionally immortal’ and ‘magic powers’ explanation at face value,” she drawled, continuing her meandering path whether Angie stuck close or not. “Rather surprising, really, that your generation has apparently lost their skepticism.”

Angie said nothing, and followed Magnolia to get a closer look at the wreckage. The camps on the island were often hastily put together but functional, and it was obvious that everything worth salvaging had been salvaged. Still, Angie had resolved to see this thing through, and she wasn’t going to count out any plausible possibilities until she could see it with her own eyes. 

She’d never worked a plane crash before - there was that one commercial plane that caught fire at Boston Logan, and it had been taken care of swiftly, no one had been hurt. A disaster was a disaster though, and she was used to looking at the charred remains of an accident, or a sabotage. Fires hollowed everything out, leaving grim skeletons behind, and Angie could imagine for just a brief moment the unbearable heat, the uncontrollable flame. She allowed her eyes to close for only a moment before she moved on. 

Angie was so quiet because she was trying to buy herself time. So far, everyone she’d met was resolute that they were not leaving the island, and Angie got that, really. A few months go by, hell just a few days maybe, and people try to start imagining their world within the confines of the horizon. It was the strange looks they’d give her when she talked about rescue operations, the hushed admittance that no one ever left. And now, a Magnolia Beaufort (seriously, was that even her name??) decided to add magic to the whole mix. 

This was insane. And Angie started to get the feeling that letting everyone know she thought they were insane would be less than helpful. 

“My perception of the island is that it’s an island,” Angie said, crouching down to inspect a place in the dirt that indicated something large had slid several yards. Hmm. If only she knew anything about planes. She’d really like to know how this thing crashed. “Nothing special about it, nothing particularly dangerous if you’re not an idiot. Where did you say this place was again? I mean, the coordinates.” 

Angie sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose. She wasn’t even gonna touch that last bit. “So you were here when the plane crashed? What happened? What did you see?” 

“Madi,” Angie said without missing a beat. “....What?” 

“She’s hot!” 

Luke gives the woman a long, dead stare of disappointment at her response, like somebody poured a bucket of icy water on his head. This is the fourth or fifth time today people with nothing in their hands approaching the fire. Most of them were, of course, the newcomers. He probably needs to rethink his approach in trading, now that there are a bunch of empty-handed, fresh off the plane people on the island. “Finish your thought. In charge of what,” he sighs, turning his attention to the fire. 

“No, the spirit of the forest gifted it to me for finding its magic lamp,” Luke drawls dryly as he tends to the grill. He flips some of them, and moves the others next to the fire to keep them warm. He glances back at her to take a better look at the woman. He doesn’t recognize her. “It fell into the trap. Happens sometimes.” 

Oooooooookay. Not the happiest camper in the park, which was fair considering that they were temporarily stranded. “I mean, in charge of all this,” Angie waved a hand around, like she was in a department store asking for the manager. Christ. “I mean, people are clearly organized, so. I was wondering who was doing the organizing.” For a somewhat sizeable group of people waiting to be rescued, the inhabitants sure seemed...Settled. That was the word. Settled with their own routines and ways of doing things. It was a good sign that Angie would be able to work alongside everyone as they waited. 

Angie snorted at his sarcasm, and despite his obvious desire to be left the hell alone, she plowed on. “Right. Well, uh, sorry I don’t have anything to trade. I just got here, surprise, I know,” she rocked back on her heels. “But, I could maybe run an errand or something? Deliver a message? That boar really does smell good.” 

— ✿ ❀ ✿ —

Angie was trying to fight her, but Madi really wasn’t surprised about that, she was pretty sure Angie would tell her she was totally okay and everything was fine and she could totally walk if both her legs had casts on them. Usually she loved that stubbornness about her friend, but usually Angie hasn’t been unconscious for weeks, so now Madi simply wanted to make sure she was taking care of herself even if she didn’t want to.

“You say that you’ve been lying here forever as if it was a choice, Angie, you’ve been… you were unresponsive, you were completely unconscious, you…” Madi took a deep breath, closing her eyes for a moment before she said the actual words, “You were in a freaking coma, Angie. Not really sure how or what kind or how any of that worked on this island, but that’s what happened so please, please don’t fight me on this and just lie down. I bet Iyaz and Tomas would tell you the same. –Iyaz is a doctor from the plane, he’s been checking on you while you were out and Tomas runs the apothecary on this island, you probably haven’t met either of them yet.”

And then Angie started talking about plans and radio communication and how they’d get out of here and Madi got really quiet really fast. This was the hard part, the part where she had to tell Angie that there wasn’t any rescue coming and they were stuck here. And as much as she wanted to have this conversation with the other woman because it meant Angie was up and okay, now that Angie brought it up, she wished she could just put a pin on it and get back to it.

Her discomfort must have been all over her face, though, because Angie was asking her what was wrong and really, she needed to come up with a better poker face. Or needed to learn not to go completely quiet when something was wrong so the people who knew her didn’t see through her right away.

“It’s nothing, nothing is wrong– well, that’s not exactly true, but…” She paused for a moment, ducking her head and then she leaned down to Angie and awkwardly, kind of sheepishly gave her friend something that tried to resemble a hug while Angie was lying down, pulling back after a couple of seconds.

“Okay, so… I’m not exactly sure how to tell you this, but there’s no… there’s no radio communication with anyone. There’s no working radio on this island, period. I mean, there isn’t even a non-working radio on the island, either, and the phones don’t work, there’s no reception, no data, nothing, and nobody found us here. There’s really… there’s no plan because this island is– I don’t even know how to explain it, but people have been trying to get out of here for years and years now, and when I say years, I don’t mean like one or two, I mean some people on this island have been here for decades and still didn’t manage to get the hell out of here, so no plan, no rescue on sight which really just makes no damn sense because if we managed to get to shore alive then the boat couldn’t have been that far off when–”

And that was the moment when Madi realized she was rambling and what she was rambling about, and she sucked in a long breath, letting out out slowly, her shoulders slumping. “I’m so sorry,” she said, a lot quieter now. “I”m sorry about the boat and dragging you down with me and getting you stuck here without any sort of way out of here, I’m so sorry.”

“Alright alright fine, I’ll lay down,” Angie lied. It was her every intention to sneak her way into a full on sitting position and then finagle her way into standing. After that she would manipulate her way into walking out of the tent and con right into a full on active position in the rescue. Sure, she could concede that she shouldn’t do any heavy lifting, but she could help with the planning at least. She would do whatever she could to help them get off the island - she was the reason Madi had stayed this long surely. 

Okay, no radio communication. That wasn’t the end of the world, and Angie found herself staring at Madi incredulously. Why did she seem so shifty about it? So there wasn’t radio communication yet. Angie would be able to figure it out once she was let off of this cot. And there was no plan because they probably had to spend much of their energy on emergency supplies - Angie guessed she wasn’t the only one who had been seriously injured, and it had taken awhile to get a grasp on things. Again, not the end of the world. But as Madi kept speaking, Angie found herself more and more confused. 

“Madi-” she half whispered, but Madi either didn’t notice at all or couldn’t stop the torrent of words that poured out of her. Madi, slower, I’ve got some brain damage, Angie thought. But once she got started, there was no stopping her, so Angie busied herself with trying to sit back up. This time she was able to do it with minimal grunting which was good. And by the time Madi was finished she’d probably have made it all the way out of the tent. 

Madi finished her rambling with an apology, and Angie opened her mouth to automatically dismiss her remorse, but then she stopped. What was that last part she said, about Madi dragging her down? Angie slumped down some, hoping that Madi wouldn’t notice how much she was sitting up as she tried to conjure the memory. She got...nothing. No real image of what happened before she was in the water, only the panic when she realized that she wasn’t able to swim, that she was being pulled down, down, down. 

Angie swallowed her fresh panic. She cracked a smile. “Madi, babe,” she said breezily. “I love you, but I didn’t hear half of what you just said. If the radio isn’t working, we’ll just find another way. We know we’re actively being searched for, so we just have to be a little patient. How are you doing? I know it probably looks bleak, but we’ll figure it out alright? And I don’t know what you’re talking about with the dragging me down thing. I don’t remember any of that, so don’t beat yourself up over it. It’s fine.”

ᵒᴼᵒ▫ₒₒ▫ᵒᴼᵒ▫ₒₒ▫ᵒᴼᵒ▫▫·∙∙∙✈

“Don’t try to strain yourself. You’ve been out for some time. A long time, your body’s going to be in rough shape” He should be calling for something. A nurse, medicine, something. Iyaz wondered if they even had in the apothecary for people coming out of a coma. An herb for pain, ease respiratory issues, steroids was a bit too much to ask for even in the scavenged medicine. 

Might be best suited from some sort of physical therapy regimen; worked out with exposure to whatever element to which the woman would become attuned. He was getting ahead of himself of course. Angie only just begun showing signs of alertness. They weren’t yet out of the woods.

“What’s that?” Iyaz had to get on his knees to be able to hear her more clearly. Leaning over her prone body. He didn’t necessarily want her to hurt herself trying to talk so he may as well make it easier.

“Flight…” Iyaz swallowed. His heart dropping into his feet. He was getting over the bitter disappointment he felt after finding Madi on the beach and being so sure rescue would be coming the same day, then after, and again and again. Still a part of him was sure there must be something on the way. 

It was just so– It was just unfair, cruel even. To meet two rescuers and no rescue. He couldn’t even blame the two women for getting his hope up. They were going to be stuck in the same mire he was.

“It’s okay Angie. Yes. You found us. The flight. I’ve spoken to Madi, she’s here too.” He tried to assure her, use her name. They all knew it, everyone working triage around Angie had seen Madi here too. Eager for her friend’s recovery. It might have been a mistake to say ‘us’ but the word slipped out already. No taking that back now.

“Just take your time. Focus on breathing first. Can you nod for me? Move your head?” He’d be asking if she felt pain next. First he had to work out if Angie was cognizant enough to understand what he was saying, well enough to work out communication. Words were a good start.

Angie blinked furiously, the only movement she could muster for the time being. The doctor’s words soothed her and frustrated her at once, but she knew it wasn’t her fault. She just had to get her brain back online, and the rest of herself too, so she could see what was going on with the rescue efforts. 

The flight had been found and she wasn’t dead and Madi was safe. That was good, those were the most important things, weren’t they? Outside this tent, the beach wherever they were was probably bustling with excitement: emergency crews flying in and helping to coordinate the survivors of the flight wreck, getting them medical care and food and hopefully flying them right back to civilization. No more time needed to be spent on Angie, she would be fine, she was just tired. All she wanted was to know when she’d be getting off this beach. 

But to get up, she would have to follow the doctor’s orders. Trying to sweet talk herself into an early discharge from the hospital rarely worked, and it definitely wouldn’t work if she couldn’t talk. Focus on breathing, the doctor had said. She could do that. Her eyes glazed over some as she breathed in and out, concentrating on the questions he was asking. 

“Yeah...yeah,” she said at length, and with an enormous effort she nodded once, then twice. “M’good,” she paused then, furrowing her brow. “I...Thank you...helping.” 

She sighed and thought of how she would string the words together to ask when they were getting off the beach, what his name was, why they hadn’t already been transported off the beach already, and how long had she actually been here? A few days? That would explain why she was able to speak at all, and why some memories, the most urgent ones at least, were coming back so rapidly. Any longer than that, and that only made things more confusing. If she’d been unconscious for long, why hadn’t she been moved off the beach? Sure, she had gotten injured but there was no reason for the rest of the rescue mission to be faulty. 

The seconds ticked by, and in the silence she realized it was...well, silent. There were at least a handful of people on the beach, with the doctor and his assistants and Madi somewhere. And there would have to be dozens more for the rescue nearby. So why couldn’t she hear anything? 

“Where...Is everyone?” 

About a day had passed since Angie woke up, and most things were still fuzzy. But there was one thing that was unnervingly clear: something was off about this island. It was both too quiet with its calming breezes and too loud every time someone spoke to cut through the stillness, and Angie decided the human voices echoed somehow, tinny in the pristine landscape. The shabby tents spoke of temporariness, which made sense given that they were all waiting to be rescued, but people walked around with an air of permanence around them, going through routines, living normal lives. Not to mention the weird looks she got whenever she mentioned rescue operations, the half assed answers when she demanded the plans. 

It was starting to freak her out. 

So, Angie decided to take matters in her own hands - as much as one could when they had no idea what they were doing - and sought out answers on her own. Her search led her to one Magnolia Beaufort, who had looked her up and down, looking utterly unsurprised and if Angie was reading her right, less than impressed, before agreeing to take her to see the wreck. That was Angie’s first order of business, viewing flight 441. It was what she was there for after all, and maybe getting to look at it would help some things fall into place in her mind. 

It was such a shame, then, when Angie realized that Magnolia was out of her mind. For all her composure and confidence as they marched across the beach, absolutely nothing she was saying was coherent. Possible. Real. Angie bit the inside of her cheek and prayed there was something she could use from the plane as a signal of some sort. The sooner she and Madi got someone to come rescue them, the better. Angie had no doubt there’d be another team coming within a few weeks, but she wasn’t sure she wanted to wait that long. 

“One hundred years huh?” Angie said, once Magnolia had paused. She whistled lowly. Her companion had claimed that she’d been on this very island for one hundred whole years. “You know I don’t believe any of that, right?” 

“Well...” Angie pursed her lips and stared off into the distance. “I’m sure everybody who knows me - family, friends, my boss, and once upon a time my probation officer - would say I’m impulsive. I don’t know how many times I’ve been told Angie, you gotta think before you do stuff. I’m just not sure I agree with that though. 

“What do I - Are you asking me for my beauty routine? Okay see what you do is you get some mud, from anywhere and just smear it all over your face. Tropical mud, full of antioxidants. And you bathe in coconut milk, and also don’t underestimate the moisturizing powers your tears have when you cry yourself to sleep.