Derick's POV

"So that's the island?" I asked. After the discomforting events at the spring, we both quickly redressed and gathered our things to continued to the other side. Ella and I hadn't spoken since then. Both of us were avoiding eye contact, neither wanting to speak as we walked.

"It is. It's a lot clearer today than the last time I had seen it." She answered, looking out into the sea, presumably at the island.

The island didn't look far in perspective. The greenery surrounding it could be made out against the stark blue of the ocean. Ella earlier had proposed the idea that we could travel to the island. I had my doubts about the entire idea. We had established some sort of security on the island we found ourselves on. The other day a plane had flew over us, but that didn't mean another couldn't shortly.

"What's the risk and reward with leaving?" I inquired. I wanted to know what Ella's selling point was. I knew that I was hesitant of the idea, but I wasn't closed off to her opinions.

"Well, as I told you earlier, we don't know when we're going to be rescued. We've never seen any person or rescue team even searching for us. We're not stranded somewhere in the Pacific, we're near very populated islands. The island we're on is relatively small, we can walk the distance from camp to the other side in maybe twenty minutes. No one has been looking for us Derick, and I don't want to sit around waiting any longer, but I won't leave you here alone," Ella defended.

With her point, it made me think. Search teams would be out looking for a downed plane, or any bit of wreckage washed upon the shore. Why had no one come looking? Our original itinerary had us going to the Andros islands. Where could we have crashed if not there? I cracked my knuckles and furred my brows. Was the pilot even on course?

I looked at Ella, and our eyes met before she looked away, a blush creeping to her cheeks. I hadn't meant to make things awkward as I had between the two of us. I had seen her body for a moment before I truly understood what I was looking at. A lapse of judgement on my end had mortified Ella, and myself. I... couldn't understand what I was feeling about her. I was confused at my own emotions, and the way I felt around her. We had worked together before of course, but getting to know Ella on such a more personal level than Ms. Brooks has hooked me in. I couldn't feel what I felt for her. Jeopardizing a platonic work environment was my biggest concern. Ella had pulled away multiple times from our near... encounters. It's either she felt nothing for me, or felt the same way I had.

But the latter was wishful thinking. Ella hadn't expressed any interest in myself, which was fine. I knew of Ella for a few years, and even had gone through her social media more times than I'd like to admit to myself. Never has another man shown up on her page. She was focused, driven, and determined- like me. She didn't have the room for relationships. She was first to be at work, and last to leave. It was her most admirable trait that I valued among others.

She was looking at me again, and instead of thinking about the idea of leaving the island, I was thinking of where I stood with my own confusing feelings. I took a deep breath. We couldn't live here forever in the event no one found us. No one had thus far, and why should we continue waiting when we can rescue ourselves? Even if the island we stumbled upon didn't have people, we could continue searching.

"We will build a raft, and make our way there," I decided while still being apprehensive about leaving.

"I'm so glad you're on board." Ella beamed at me. The gears in her head could be seen visibly turning, and I internally smirked. Her brain never stopped problem solving, one of her many attractive traits I admired. "We're going to need a lot of wood," She added.

Wood wouldn't be enough though. For us to float, we would need to be more buoyant. In nature, not many things were buoyant, but my mind went to the plane. A lightbulb went off in my head.

"We need to gather some materials from the wreckage, specifically the seat cushions,"

"No Derick..." Ella started, a frown adorning her face. I knew Ella had been put through a lot the last time we were there. Truthfully, I knew that Cynthia had been inside for days, with all sorts of weather, animals, and overall exposure. I didn't want to put her back through that trauma again.

"We're going to find a way for me to get in there, so that you don't need to again. Last time was too much." I promised. Relief flooded her chestnut colored eyes.

"Are you sure you want to do this?" Ella asked. I wasn't entire certain about what this would entail, and part of me wanted to stay, but I felt that we needed to try something.

"We're going to take it as it comes. Ultimately I would like to try all avenues, even if they're unknown." I surmised.

We walked back, passing the spring on the way. I clenched my jaw and took a deep breath. The brunette was behind me, but I could only imagine seeing the spring brought back mortifying thoughts more so her than myself. I hadn't even remembered the fact that we were both in the water bathing. I tried to erase it from my mind the moment it happened, but her body-for what little I saw- was engrained in my mind. Supple and delicate were the best ways I could describe her.

We arrived back at our camp, and I immediately put more wood on the fire. We were gone for roughly an hour, and the fire stayed small, but strong. Glancing in Ella's direction, she was checking out the SOS signal, making adjustments. After we were both done, we walked the beach, back towards our old demolished shelter. Passing by this, we made the walk into the forest. The trail of the crash our guiding compass.

Looking at the crash felt like the first time all over again. The sounds of snapping, rumbling, and screams. The smoke burning at my eyes, and the smell of burning fuel like a reawakening nightmare. I could hear Ella behind me suck in a breath, and I looked back. she was frozen in place like a deer in headlights. I thought back to what she had told me last night. Ella had cried in my arms last night after she confided in me. Her sobs broke something within me, and I had this instinctive desire to protect her even more. I looked at her differently, not because of her past, but because of her determination to continue.

"Are you okay?" I asked. Ella snapped out of her trance, and caught up to me.

"I never get used to looking at it." She confessed, wrapping her arms around herself, staring in the direction of the plane.

"I don't want you to go inside, but we're going to need to find a way for me to get in." I told Ella. The physical relief was visible as her shoulders sunk, and she let out a breath. I looked at the planes door, and estimated it was about maybe eight or nine feet tilted. I stood at six-two, but that wasn't going to be enough to jump. Looking around, I looked for downed trees in the area that could be used as a makeshift ladder. The forest gave a lot to offer, but without tools like knives, hatchets, and tents, this became my biggest lesson in survival.

My father and I's trips were of irreplaceable value. The moments away from the big city, and into the quiet serenity of nature took me back to myself. My father's favorite quote from mountaineer Wilfrid Noyce always brought me solace, "If adventure has a final and all-embracing motive, it is surely this: we go out because it is our nature to go out, to climb mountains, and to paddle rivers, to fly to the planets and plunge into the depths of the oceans... When man ceases to do these things, he is no longer man."

All the years of our adventures in the outdoors had changed me. My father was wise, calculated, and an optimist. Hoisting up a narrow fallen tree onto my shoulder, I looked into the sky. Just the thought of him looking down on me as I've figured out these harsh factors of life gave me the encouragement to continue fighting.

Ella aided in helping me set up the tree against the plane. Ella and I placed the secondary support next to the previous. I chose these specific pieces, as the branches sticking out of them could be used to climb.

"Please be careful," Ella cautioned, her lips drawn tight in worry. Her eyes made me feel warm inside. I put my hand on her shoulder.

"I will be, don't worry. I wont be in long."

I began climbing the shaky makeshift ladder. I took slow steps as I rose, taking my time. I stepped on the next branch, but it snapped under my weight. Ella gasped as I sunk, my body becoming off balance as I gripped onto the unstable piece of wood. I looked up to the entry of the plane, and got prepared to lift myself, forgoing the remaining branches.

Placing my arms on the bottom of the door entrance, I lifted myself up. Straining as I pushed my body, I made it into the plane. I grabbed onto the seat immediately to my left to keep from sliding to the other side of the plane. Looking around, it was nearly unrecognizable from before the crash. Glass crunched beneath my feet, and I wondered how Ella hadn't cut herself when she was in here. Reaching for the seat, I took the partially torn portion, and set it aside. Underneath, I was expecting a life jacket of some kind, but it was empty.

The more I pieced things together, the less sense they made. Planes had locators on them which gave signals of a planes location. In between the times of when the plane first starting having issues, to the point of crashing, those coordinates should have been received.

But they weren't.

The lack of recovery personnel also had stumped me. Why if there was a locator wouldn't we have been rescued by now? Finally, the lack of survival equipment. The bare minimum life jackets should have been installed on any plane in the event of a water landing. My mind went to the most incredulous theory. Everything from the plane being switched, the crash, no rescuers, and no survival equipment pointed to me to this crash wasn't an accident and maybe instead it was-

"Derick are you okay?" Ella called out, snapping me from my thoughts.

"I'm fine. I'm going to start throwing some things down, so stand back." I said. I gathered what I could, and began tossing them out of the aircraft. Moving inward, the pungent smell of decay invaded my nostrils. The odor of death stuck to my lungs, and I had to swallow the acidic bile that threatened to spill out. Decomposing on the far end of the other side was Cynthia. From the light trickling in the gaps of the plane, I could note her skin a muted green color.

I didn't want to stay in here any longer than necessary. The desire to go back in time to save her racked me with guilt. Even if I had gotten here in time, there was no way I could have gotten back into the plane without assistance. I tried not to get held down by the weight of my failures, but this one was like a bullet to the chest.

I moved past her, to look for anything of use towards the back. Scanning the ground for anything useful, there was nothing of immediate value. Looking through some cabinets, I found a small first aid kit. I pocketed it, and continued my search.

I made my way back to the entrance, and began tossing my findings down. Ella was anxiously glancing up at me. I wouldn't tell her about Cynthia if she didn't ask, and if she did, I wouldn't tell her about the state she was in. I maneuvered my body back onto the makeshift ladder, and jumped down.

"Did you see her in there?" She asked quietly, almost ghostly past her lips. I sighed, almost knowing she would.

"I did." I wouldn't give her anything else.

Ella nodded slowly, emotions on full display. Her eyelids drooped, and the inner corners of her eyebrows angled up. I never knew the stoic woman had emotions on the outside, but the time here has shown me otherwise. She was readable, and full of more than just cool demeanor. She was more than that, which is why I thought I looked over her in more than one way.

I didn't know how to respond to her display though. Instead, the two of us gathered our cushions. Ella is incredibly bright, and smart, but I couldn't help but feel deep down this would go dreadfully wrong.