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Subject: {ASSM} [Repost] Stranded: Ch0 - 4 (fM cons)
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*********************************************************
************************ WARNING ************************
*********************************************************
* The following text contains written descriptions of   *
* sexual acts between adults, children and adults with  *
* children.  If it is illegal for you to read acts of   *
* this nature, or if you are under age, please stop     *
* reading right now.                                    *
*                                                       *
* This story is a work of fiction.  Any similarities to *
* actual people, living or dead, is purely coincidental.*
*********************************************************

Chapter 0: Prologue

I'm not very good at being a brother.  I can admit that; at least, to
myself.

I don't think I was always like this.  I remember after Jamie was
first born I was attentive and protective.  I played with her, letting
her grab on my finger and tug on my hair.  I tickled her until she
laughed.  I can even remember her little toothless smile.  I was
everything a good brother should be.

Jamie was something of a surprise.  My parents had not been expecting
to have more than one child.  They had me when they were young; my
mother was 22 and my father 24 and I was pretty much all they wanted, I
think.  So, it was something of a shock for them when my mother got
pregnant when I was 11.

In hindsight, it was a little funny.  I didn't really know what was
going on at the time until they told me I was going to have a little
brother or sister.  I remember wondering what all of the running around
was for, changing my mom's office into a nursery, painting, new
furniture.  It was strange, I knew something was up but I was almost
afraid to ask what it was.

So, I ended up having a brand new little sister when I was 12.  At
first, I was a little rotten, I know.  I wasn't the sole focus of my
parents love anymore and I guess I got a little surly and bratty.
Still, when I saw her my heart filled with love.  She'd look at you
with those beautiful green eyes - eyes of a quiet ocean, my dad used
to call them - and there'd be such a look of devotion and trust
that you could almost feel your heart break just to look in them.  I
remember I used to lose myself in her eyes and the world around me
would just evaporate.  Then, she'd smile and it was like the sun
suddenly appearing from behind a rain cloud.  It's difficult to
explain, really.  Life would be just fine, and then she'd smile and
you'd wonder how the very air around you could suddenly get so
bright.  I couldn't believe how much I could love someone that I had
just met.

Life was like that for me for a long time.  'You are her older
brother,' my father once told me.  'You are her guardian, her
playmate, the one she'll come to when she needs help.  You must
always be there for her.  When she falls, you must pick her up.  When
she cries, you must dry her tears.  And when she's ready to give up,
you must carry her on your shoulders.'  I suppose my father was
something of a poet but his words struck such a chord in me that I've
never forgotten them.  They just helped to underscore how special and
wonderful Jamie was.

So, I spent nearly every free moment I had with Jamie.  I rocked her
when she was fussy.  I played with her when she was melancholy.  I sang
to her, though God above knows I can't carry a tune, when she cried.
I read to her when she was tired and wanted to go to sleep.  When I
turned 16 and she was 4, I was even allowed to baby-sit for her the
occasional time my parents went out.  I guess they could see that I
cared enough for her that I would never let any harm come her way.

It's funny; almost ironic because, in a strange way, it was
babysitting that started all of this.

It was the summer of my graduation.  I was only thinking of school,
really.  I had received a four year academic scholarship to UCLA.
Which, to me, was surprising.  I never really studied.  I never really
tried to do well.  I just had a knack, I think, for remembering the
important things in my classes.  I guess I owe Jamie at least a small
part of the credit, too.  Spending most of my time with her meant I had
much less time to go out and get in trouble.

Not that I was a recluse, mind you.  I dated some, though not much.
Girls just really weren't that interested in a quasi-nerd who was the
perpetual third-string running back of the high school football team.

It didn't really matter to me, though I can be honest and say that it
hurt sometimes.  I just spent time with Jamie and somehow my pain and
fears just seemed to evaporate.  I guess it was kind of magical, in a
strange way.

Spending time thinking about my impending move across the country,
though, didn't stop me from realizing that something was wrong with
my parents.  I think they were having a bit of a rough time in their
marriage.  They never really let me see them arguing, but it doesn't
take a rocket scientist to know when things aren't quite right.  Like
I said, Jamie was a surprise and it took mom and dad a bit of time to
adjust.

Maybe too long.  They decided to take a vacation; just the two of them.
Jamie was six and I was 18, getting ready to start college in the fall
so it really wasn't a big deal to have me watch her.  And it
certainly wasn't anything new.  Like I said, I spent more time with
Jamie than I did with my friends.

Mom and Dad took a romantic train excursion through Canada and Alaska.
I happened to find the brochure on the kitchen table one day, and I
have to admit that I was impressed.  It showed pictures of majestic
mountains tinged with snow and a quaint little train riding along rails
around the mountain.  I was sure that if anything could re-kindle their
flame, this was it.

I truly hope that it did.  I hope that they somehow re-affirmed their
love on that train.  They never made it back.

The train crash was on all the news; usually as one of the top three
stories.  Mom and Dad's picture were there, one of only two couples
from Illinois to be on the train.

I have to admit that I don't remember much about the next few days.
I took care of Jamie almost mechanically, though I know in my heart
that I didn't fool her.  She was a perceptive six-year old and knew
that something was wrong.  For one thing, there were the reporters
constantly ringing on the door.  The phone calls kept coming until I
simply left the phone off the hook.  I can only hope that I hid most of
it from her.

Of course, there were no relatives to call us.  Both Mom and Dad were
the only children in their respective families and the last of my
grandparents had died when I was but 8.  I remember a kindly old woman,
with lines in her face but I don't know if I really remember her or
if I'm just remembering the photos that mom would sometimes take out
of the album.

So, the next few weeks were frenetic.  The police came by several
times, a state social services caseworker in tow.  They checked on me,
checked on Jamie, and checked on the house.  I assume it was legal,
though I was still in shock and can't even remember their faces.  I
guess I passed whatever criteria they were looking for because they
left Jamie with me.

I guess it was lucky that my mom and dad had evidently updated their
will recently, naming me as Jamie's guardian if anything should
happen to them.  There really was no one to challenge it, though I seem
to recall a long interview with the social services caseworker.
Evidently a few weeks later a judge agreed and granted me custody of my
sister.  Looking back, I don't really remember much about the process
though I still have the signed papers filed away.  I used to look at
them occasionally to get some perspective.

As the summer drew to a close and I had my scholarship at UCLA looming,
I knew that it was time for some decisions.  So, I called my parents'
lawyer and made an appointment.  I needed someone to advise me, and I
knew that he was a friend of theirs - though not very close.  I
needed to understand my options, what I needed to do to provide the
best life for myself but more importantly, for Jamie.

My parents had left us with a little money.  They're insurance,
savings, some stocks and bonds left my sister and I with about a
million dollars between us after the mortgage was paid off.  I know
that a million dollars seems like a large sum of money, but I was smart
enough to know better.  It certainly wouldn't last our entire lives.
I was the adult now...the only adult we had.  I had to be responsible.

Mr. Graves, my parents' lawyer, gave me several options, none of them
particularly good.  I remember spending most of a weekend locked in
thought, trying to move the pieces of our lives into some semblance of
a cohesive picture.  It wasn't easy.  I guess being an adult never
is.  I had to make some very tough, very scary decisions.  After a
while, though, I finally knew what I had to do.

To my shame, I sent Jamie away even though she was only 6.  I put her
in boarding school.  I thought it was the 'adult' thing to do.  I
really wasn't qualified to raise a child and I knew it.
Unfortunately, I can't tell if the decision was because I felt it was
the best thing for her or if it was the best thing for me...and
sometimes, many times, that keeps me awake at night.

The Fairmount Academy for Young Women in Vermont had counselors on
staff to help her deal with the loss of our parents.  I justified it to
myself, saying that I would see her on holidays and over the summer.  I
kept telling myself that it was just for a year or two, just long
enough to figure out what I needed to do with my life.  I argued with
myself until I had nothing left to argue with.  In my mind, I told
myself it was the right decision.

I thought it was a good plan.

I didn't go to college.  I joined the Navy.  My thought was that I
needed to make money to support us.  The million or so dollars my
parents had left us really wasn't much, and boarding school was very
expensive.  I had to make enough to cover all of the mounting costs
that being an adult set upon me.  I hired a money manager to invest the
money and Mr. Graves to watch over everything.

I went for pilot training and it turned out that I was really good at
it.  Really good.  I wasn't 'Top Gun', but I was perhaps the 4th
or 5th best pilot in my year.  Even better, I liked it.  There is a
feeling of freedom when you are soaring high over the Earth.  A feeling
that nothing can possibly touch you.  It is serenity and happiness and
peace all at once and it allowed me to forget, if only for a time.

Jamie stayed in school.  I very rarely saw her though I did manage to
make it for Christmas that year.  She was quieter than I remember
though she hugged me and clung to me.  I cried, but I still thought I
was doing the right thing.  She was learning.  Adding and subtracting.
Writing.  Social Studies.  When I left, she begged me not to leave her.
To take her with me.  I knew it was impossible.  I told her that I
would come back to see her soon, very soon.

I lied to her.  Shamelessly.

When her first year was up and summer time came I was deployed in the
Mediterranean on an aircraft carrier.  I drew money from our
inheritance and kept her there for summer school, sure that I would be
able to see her soon.  Maybe even get stationed state side and take her
out of boarding school.

I lied to myself.  Shamelessly.

I'm ashamed to say that the years went on like that.  We shared some
letters, not very often.  We always had the perfunctory 'I love
you' at the end, though I'm not sure she even knew what it meant.
I did, and I truly meant what I wrote and with each letter it got
harder to lie to her.  I think that's why the letters got further and
further apart.  Guilt ripped at me with every envelope.

When my four years were up, I lucked into a deal to start my own
charter plane service in Florida.  It wasn't much, just one plane and
it meant investing a large part of my dwindling inheritance, but it was
the start.  I had found something I enjoyed and I was good at it.  With
a little hard work, I could really make something of myself.

I didn't take Jamie out of school.  The letters I received from her
and the staff always said how well she was doing.  She had a 4.0 GPA
and seemed to be very happy there though I'm not sure if that's
truly what I thought or rather what I wanted to believe.  Besides, I
was going to be busy growing my new business; better to pull her out of
school after I was a little more settled.  No matter that she cried
every time I visited and begged me to take her home.

Flash forward 5 more years.  I was doing really well.  Phenomenal, you
might say.  My one plane had now become 5, including a medium jet I
used to chauffeur the wealthy.  I was making very good money, enough to
purchase a home on the ocean, have several pilots and attendants and
even my own mechanic staff, albeit very small.  I was doing well and
loving life.

Then I received the letter.  It had been a long time since I had
received one.

It was from Jamie and it broke my heart.  The school had an
opportunity, along with the neighboring boys' academy, for some
students to spend the summer traveling in South America - Brazil,
Columbia, Venezuela.  The only problem was a matter of chaperones.
They needed two, at least one man and one woman, to chaperone the 20
girls and 7 boys who would be going.  They had found a woman to
chaperone but they could not find a man.

Jamie had volunteered me.  She signed the letter "It's the very
least you can do".

I wept in shame.  I knew, in that moment, that I had failed my father.

I called the school and agreed to do it.  Furthermore, I told them I
would gladly take them myself on a charter plane.  The school was
willing to go via commercial air, but I eventually talked them into it.
It was, perhaps, the biggest mistake I've ever made.  And that is
saying something.


Chapter One: What goes up...

It was a beautiful day for flying.  The sun was shining and there
wasn't a cloud in the sky.  Weather reports along my flight route
were unanimous in their forecasts.  It was going to be gorgeous.  There
was nothing to mar the day, nothing except meeting the reproachful gaze
of my sister.

I was nervous when the vans pulled up.  I also had a large portion of
guilt and shame hanging on my shoulders, a cold, wet cloak hovering
around me.  I hadn't seen Jamie in over a year and I wasn't sure
how I was going to face her.  My failure lay large in my thoughts as I
prepared myself for what was coming.

They piled out of the vans unceremoniously, a rather attractive blond
leading them.  My eyes, however, were on Jamie.

She had grown since I'd seen her last, maybe 5-5, 5-6.  She still
kept her beautiful red hair long, but now it lay in soft ringlets
around her face.  The hint of a red mark lay on her thin button nose,
probably from acne.  Her eyes were still the soft green of a perfect,
flawless opal, however.  And her freckles covered her cheeks in a soft
blanket of color.  She had developed a number of womanly curves as
well, something that both unsettled and scared me.  She was laughing
lightly with a willowy blond who was a few inches shorter than her.
When she saw me, though, her thin lips set in a line and she barely
looked at me as she passed.

"Michael." I heard her throw behind her in greeting as she passed.
It carried the finality of a tomb in that one word.

"Mr. Devan."  The attractive woman had reached me.  She was blonde,
like me, but where my hair was always a nuisance and unruly, hers was
well managed and hung to her neck in a bang.  Her eyes were blue, also
like mine, but where mine were the icy blue of a cold winter stream
hers were the pale, soft blue of a promising morning.  She wore a
patterned peasant blouse, some type of flowery thing and a neat blue
skirt.  Neither article of clothing did much to hide her beauty,
however, especially her well developed legs which I gave a brief
appreciative glance.  Luckily, she didn't seem to notice.  She stuck
out her hand.  "I'm Ms. Clemons, but you can call me Sarah.  Your
assistant said she would supervise the loading of the luggage.  Are we
okay to board?"

"Of course, Sarah," I said as I shook her hand with a somewhat
forced smile that I hoped looked more friendly than I felt.  I know
that I deserved Jamie's reaction but it still hurt more than a
little.  "Please, call me Michael - or better yet, just Mike.  The
young woman, though, that isn't my assistant.  She's my
co-pilot."  Jan would have laughed had she heard.  She was a
bright-natured young woman and she would have teased me relentlessly to
be called my assistant.

We were soon in the air.  It was a three and a half hour trip down to
Miami from Vermont and an hour stop there while I topped off the jet
with fuel.  During that time, I had found every excuse I could to go
into the cabin and each time Jamie had studiously ignored me.

I guess my emotions were plain on my face, because Sarah pulled me
aside on one of my frequent trips around the cabin.

"It isn't my place to say, Michael," she began.  The look on her
face was one of compassion and concern.  Behind her eyes, though, I
could see more than a hint of mischief and laughter.  "But everything
is going to be okay.  I know your sister pretty well; I've been her
teacher for the past three years.  She's been mad at you for a long
time, a very long time.  She thinks that she hates you but I know that
she doesn't.  If she truly hated you she wouldn't be trying to make
you suffer so badly.  Every time you walk away, that puppy dog
expression on your face, she watches you until you shut the cockpit
door.  My guess is that she's going to make you suffer for a little
while longer and then she'll find some excuse to make up with you.
You could, however, speed the whole thing up by suffering more
publicly."

Her words were light and the message cheered me up a bit.  I smiled at
her, not forced this time and she smiled back.  "I'll try to do
that, Sarah.  Thanks."

"Don't mention it." Then, with a final smile, she returned to her
seat.  I made sure to look extremely forlorn every moment after that
and I found myself glancing to make sure that Jamie was noticing.

The re-fuel went uneventfully; I let the children exit onto the tarmac
for a few minutes to stretch while the plane finished re-fueling and
Jan made sure our flight plan was filed.  Customs came out and checked
everyone's passports, the normal stuff.  It was incredibly routine,
except for the hang-dog expression I wore whenever I was near Jamie.
Jan, of course, took one look at it and just burst out in a gale of
laughter.  I guess I was overdoing it, if only a little.

Flight time to Brasilia was about 10 to 12 hours, depending on tail
winds and flight controllers.  I was spending split time between the
cockpit and the cabin, trying to accelerate my suffering.  I wasn't
really trying to make light of Jamie's anger, I just wanted my sister
back and I somehow wanted to make up for all the years that I'd
neglected her.  Acting worse than I felt was impossible, of course, so
I just tried to let a small portion of the misery I was feeling through
to my features.

I sat with Sarah while I publicly suffered, both because it was in
plain sight of Jamie as much as because Sarah was attractive.  I found,
luckily, that she was also a great conversationalist.  We discussed
authors we both enjoyed reading (Ludlum and Heinlein, oddly enough) as
well as those we didn't (Niven, Loughlin).  We talked about the
attractions the kids would be seeing during their 5 week journey
through South America.  She regaled me with funny stories about the
students she had taught.  All in all, it was a great way to spend time.

The shuddering of the plane was the first indication that something was
wrong.  At first I thought it was pretty much normal turbulence but
when the plane dropped twice in a row, I knew something was up.  A
quick look out the windows showed a dark band of greenish clouds that
certainly hadn't been there earlier.

I excused myself from Sarah.  "Students, you'd better buckle up,"
I said as I made my way to the cockpit.  "Looks like a bit of stormy
weather.  I'll see about climbing above it."  I nearly choked on my
words when the plane shuddered hard to the right and I was nearly
thrown off my feet.  My hand on the cockpit door handle was the only
thing that kept me from falling.  I turned the handle as the students
behind be screamed.

"Jan, what the heck is going on?" I started as I staggered into the
cockpit.

"Thank God, Mike," Jan said as she looked up.  "I haven't any
idea where these clouds came from.  I looked down for no more than a
minute to measure our progress against flight plan when the plane first
heaved.  I looked up and there were those damn green clouds where blue
sky had been a moment before."

I quickly took my seat and buckled in.  "That's impossible, Jan.
Clouds don't come up from nowhere.  Not that fast.  No chance you
were dozing?  It's a long, boring flight."

Jan gave me a long, hard look before returning her eyes to the console.
"You know me better than that, Mike.  They came out of nowhere in
minutes...no warning, nothing."  She began tapping hard against the
console.

The sky had turned so dark I had to turn on the overhead night lights
to see what she was tapping.

"What's the matter with the compass?"

"Hell if I know.  It can't make up its mind which way is north."

The pit of my stomach fell away as the plane dropped like a stone
through the air.  The sharp tightening of my stomach told me that we
had just dropped a lot more than 50 feet.  A lot more.  I heard muffled
screams coming from the cabin as I struggled with the suddenly less
than responsive yoke.

"What's our altitude?" I asked, taking my mind off my losing
battle with the stick long enough to try to gauge how far we had
fallen.  My eyes scanned the dark clouds as they wrapped themselves
around us, gently stroking the plane to and fro.

"No idea, Cap.  That's out too.  Damn near everything's acting
funny."

"Did we take a freaking lightning hit or something?  There's no way
so many systems could go out..."  I got a slight shock when I grabbed
tight at the stick.  "Damn it...we're hit.  Lightning or something.
I'm getting a feedback charge from the controls.  It's mushy.
Unresponsive.  We're dropping air here!"

"Cap, it's worse than that.  We're blind.  I've got no
altitude, no compass, nothing.  Everything's gone freaking nuts.  The
radio's quiet too.  I can't even get an echo."

I grabbed the headset and turned to the emergency channel.  "This is
November four niner seven five zulu.  Mayday.  Mayday.  We've taken
electrical damage and are flying blind.  Please advise.  Over."

"Won't work, Cap.  I been trying that for the past couple of
minutes.  We're dark."

"Open the emergency kit; I keep a compass in their as a souvenir,"
I barked at Jan.  I was scared and my fear tempered my words far more
than they should have.  "I'm going to try to turn us around, maybe
get us over, under, or through these damn clouds."

Jan turned and pulled the emergency kit out, opened it, and extracted
an old compass.  I had found the old compass in the hangar when I had
bought the charter business.  I had hung onto it superstitiously; I
figured it had brought me a lot of luck over the years.  I never
thought I'd actually have to use it.

"Jesus," Jan exclaimed as she looked at the old dial.  "Look at
this Mike!"

I looked and a chill filled my stomach.  The dial was revolving so fast
you could barely see it; as fast as a prop propeller.  The stick jerked
out of my hand and the nose tipped down dangerously.  Rain started
pelting the glass in front of my face and I knew that things were going
to get a lot worse.  The rain was so heavy that we were flying blind in
more ways than one.  I needed to come up with a plan real soon but
unfortunately nothing would come to mind.

I grabbed the stick and pulled us up slowly but I couldn't tell how
far we had plunged.  The engines complained a little and it felt like I
was lifting cement, but I eventually managed to level us off.  It
wasn't easy, the wind was in more control of the plane than I was.
It howled around us, angry at us for disturbing its sleep with our big
steel bird.

"Jan, keep sending that distress call.  I'm going to try to keep us
pointed in one direction and see if I can't climb above this."  My
voice was filled with unwarranted comfort; I had no idea where we were
nor where we were going.  The pushing and pulling of the near gale
force winds threatened to tear the stick out of my hands, but I
valiantly pulled the yoke back.

A bright flash lit up the sky almost in front of me and the
accompanying boom thundered in my ears.  I blinked away dark dots
floating in front of my eyes, desperately trying to see.  I thought the
boom had been thunder until I heard Jan scream.

"God, Mike.  We're hit!  We're hit!  Left engine is burning!"

I felt the plane start a shallow, flat spin and I eased back the
throttle on the right.  I banked hard left, into the spin, to try and
get some control but for some reason it only got worse.  I hit the
engine fire button, but it didn't work.  Nothing seemed to be
working.  I went full flaps, hoping to get us into a roll and out of
the flat spin.  The plane shuddered, the hand of the wind shaking her
like a petulant child shakes a doll.  All the while, I could hear the
muffled screams behind me.

I don't quite know how I did it, but I came out of the flat spin with
my heart in my throat.  The yoke was still sluggish and hard and my
prize plane felt like a dying, beached whale.  I eased the right engine
up some and tried hard to compensate for the dead left wing.

"Mike, we're losing altitude fast."

"I can't help it, Jan," I said.  I marveled at the sound of my
own voice, how cold and detached it sounded.  "The right engine
isn't giving us enough of an upward thrust.  I can't help it now.
We're going to go down."

For a second that was an eternity, time stopped.  There was no sound as
my words sank into Jan's brain and her eyes went wide.  She screamed
into the mike "Mayday!  Mayday!  Mayday! This is..." but that was
all she managed to get out as the plane, my prize plane, plowed long
into the raging sea.


Chapter Two: When All Is New
Somehow, even though I was missing an engine, I had managed to keep the
plane fairly level during our hurried descent.  This kept the plane
from getting crushed nose first like a tin can but it also meant we
skipped across the waves for a while, bouncing and bounding until I
thought my teeth were shaking loose and some nice bruises developed on
my chest and arms from the flight harness cutting into my flesh.  I
heard metal screeching, but it didn't sound like anything had ripped
off.  Probably just dented...but it didn't matter.  My prize
possession, the pride of my small fleet, was dead.

When we finally settled, we were floating but I knew that wouldn't
last long.  The residual air would give us a minimum of buoyancy, but
the plane was heavy enough to drag us down within a few minutes.  Steel
doesn't float particularly well.

With each second more precious than the last, I untangled myself from
the flight harness.  "Let's go Jan!  Emergency evac now!" I
grabbed the old compass from the cash pocket with one hand and pulled
my duffel out of the storage bin with the other.  The duffel was an
expensive, water-tight European model that was capable of being used as
a flotation device in its own right.  I got it for my infrequent
white-water rafting trips and it had paid for itself many times over by
saving my belongings from getting lost and keeping them dry.  I had
brought it along thinking I would do some rafting or canoeing on this
trip.  It looked like I was right.

I moved towards the cabin door, dragging my bag behind me.  As I
started opening the door, I happened to look back expecting Jan to be
following me.  But Jan just looked on in horror, her face as white as a
sheet.  I quickly ran back and started undoing her belt and
half-pulled, half-dragged her towards the door.

"This isn't happening...this isn't happening..." she kept
mumbling, half to herself.  I shook her a little; I was going to need
her before this was over and I didn't have time for her to panic now.
We could panic after we got everyone off the plane.

"It is happening," I yelled at her.  "It has happened.  We have
very little time so come on."

I opened the door, grabbed my bag in one hand and Jan in the other and
ran headlong into pandemonium.  People were screaming and struggling to
get out of their seats.  The emergency breathing masks were swinging
and swaying everywhere.  Evidently, they had been jarred loose from one
of our violent drops.

"Everyone remain calm!" I yelled into the scared crowd.  My words
had no effect.  "We have to get off the plane NOW!" I yelled
louder.  "The plane is sinking; if you do not get off the plane now
you will NEVER get off!"  Finally my words seemed to sink in as the
enormity of our situation began to hit them.  Meanwhile, I turned to
the emergency escape door and started opening it.

"NO!" screamed Sarah, her hands clawing at me.  "If you open that
you'll let the water in and we'll sink!"  Her hair was disheveled
and her eyes were bright.  She was delirious with terror.  I didn't
have time to be subtle or nice; I pushed her hard and she tripped over
my duffel and fell to the ground.

Quickly, I turned and finished opening the door.  A brief glance over
my shoulder showed Jan's panic had subsided; she had finished with
the door on the opposite side.  We both reached for the yellow
emergency cord at the same time and the emergency rafts blew up
instantly, the wind driving the cold rain against us and soaking us
thoroughly.  I silently thanked the gods that Juan and Pablo, my
mechanics, were thorough.  Working quickly, I tied my duffel to the
raft and tossed it out the door.

I tried to be reasonable.  I tried to scream at people to get out of
the plane, but only a few listened and I'm not altogether certain if
they really heard me or just evacuated in terror.  It really didn't
matter in the long run.  Too soon water began entering the cabin and I
started frantically pulling people and shoving them out the door and
into the water, praying that they climbed into the raft outside the
plane.

I don't know how many I managed to shove out the door.  The plane was
sinking fast and I knew that there was not much time left.  Jan was
trying to help me with a young man when I realized that time was up.  I
could see someone struggling in the back of the cabin, but I wasn't
sure if I would be able to reach him or her in time.  I threw the young
man I was holding at Jan and then threw them both out of the plane,
water swirling over my shoulders all the while.

I dove under the water for a minute, my feet kicking hard into the
flow.  I was going too slow, too slow.  The water buffeted me every
which way until I couldn't tell which way was back, which way was
forward.  I grabbed out, my arms searching for something, anything to
tell me which way to go.  I reached frantically in every direction, my
eyes unable to see anything in the dark torrent of water.  As my lungs
began screaming for precious oxygen, my fingertips made contact with a
struggling, squirming mass of flesh.  I grabbed it with both arms and
planted my feet on the closest solid object I could find.  Then I
kicked hard towards what I hoped was the door.

A large thud onto the back of my head, however, put me out of my misery
and I finally let the dark of the waters run through me.


It was a deep, palpable dark.  A dark that has no beginning and no end.
A dark that eternity might be made of.

Every muscle in my body ached and each breath was a labor of pain.  I
thought about that for a while, wondering why someone as dead as I was
could possibly feel pain.  I rolled it around in my head, wondering if
the pain would eventually go away or if it was mine to hold onto for
eternity.  Whispering through my head was the idea that perhaps this
was what eternity was.  Maybe you hold onto the last feeling of your
life when you die, as a means for you to remember what life was like.

Slowly, though, my dark world started to lighten and then colored.   I
could hear a whisper, the faintest whisper of a breath.  It faded in
and out for a few minutes, and I could almost hear what it said.  Just
as I began to touch on it, however, it faded again and I was forced to
try again to climb towards it.  I was beginning to get frustrated,
beginning to feel that I should just sink back into the dark with the
effort of it when I heard one single word.  "Michael."  And
everything rushed back at me.

I opened my eyes and the burst of stabbing pain immediately made me
close them again.  When I found the courage to reopen my eyes, my
vision was blurred, but there was no mistaking the blue of the sky and
the searing light of the sun.  Brighter than the sun, though, was the
face of my sister.

"Michael!" she cried when she realized I was awake.  "Oh my God,
Mikey!  I was so afraid..." Her sniffles and tears punctuated each
word.  My head seemed to be in her lap, I think, but my back felt as if
it were lying on sandpaper.  Hot sandpaper.  "...I was so
afraid...the blood...and when you wouldn't wake up...."

"What's the matter, Jam," I tried to say, but the voice that came
out was weak and communicated in barely a whisper.  The words were
sliding and unclear.  "Are you okay?"

"Am I okay?" and she began crying anew.  "Mikey, Mikey."  I
heard between her sniffles and tears.  "I thought you were gone."

"Where are we?" I said.  My voice seemed slightly stronger now,
though not nearly as strong as it should be.

"Dunno, " my sister whispered between tears.  "A beach somewhere.
No one really knows exactly where."

"Beach?"  I pushed myself up and nearly cried out in pain.  It felt
as if someone had taken a sledge hammer to my head.   The dark rose up
to claim me again, but I pushed hard at it and somehow managed to
remain awake.  I remembered.

I remembered the dark coming for me as fireworks blew inside my skull.
I remembered feeling the strength leave my arms and legs, the bundle of
life in front of me already going limp.  I remembered breathing the
water and the pain of small explosions rocketing through me.  I
remembered the black, a black deeper than the torrent of the water
around me, as it pulled me into it.

Slowly, I opened my eyes again though I couldn't remember when I had
closed them.  My vision was blurry, but slowly cleared.  I watched as a
wave rolled up and tickled my foot gently.

I looked around from my sitting position.  The dizziness I felt and the
weakness that hovered around me told me that I was not going to be able
to stand for a few minutes at least.  So, instead of standing I twisted
my head this way and that.  I worried about the lack of control I had
and realized that my head was just flopping back and forth.  I think I
would have chuckled at how comical I must look, but the graveness of
our situation and the pain that shot through me at the thought of
laughing quickly kept me sober.

My sister sat behind me, her legs crossed in front of her, white sand
all around her.  Her hands were half-reaching towards me as if wanting
to be there to catch me if I fell.  Behind her was a thick layer of
trees and shrubs; perhaps a small forest.  They looked green and
tropical but I don't think I could really comprehend everything.  I
thought I saw coconuts, but I couldn't tell for sure.  I wasn't
able to endure the nausea that swept over me when I tilted my head up.

"Did anyone else..." I started, unsure of how I was possibly going
to word this.  "Did anyone else...make it?"  I asked, desperate to
hear the answer but afraid of what the answer might be.

"Yea," Jamie whispered, concern etched throughout the opals of her
eyes.  "Ms. Clemons and your co-pilot.  Some other kids.  They're
looking around, but I...I...didn't want to leave you..."  She
finished, her words dying out as she spoke them.  There was no
recrimination in her voice but her words cut me like a knife.  She
wouldn't leave me like I had left her.

"Not...not everyone?"  I knew the answer from her face, from the
way she talked, but I needed to hear it aloud.

"No.  Not everyone.  Not yet.  Maybe they'll show up later."  Her
tone was lifeless and I could see the tears well in her eyes.  I longed
to hold her, but I lacked the strength.  I was weak, so weak.

I lay back down, unwilling to continue.  As I closed my eyes, things
got better.  My breathing was painful still, a dark rasp in my chest
struggling with every gasp of air I took but the world stopped
spinning.

"What happened?" I asked quietly.  "What happened...after..."
I just needed the sound of her voice to quiet the ringing in my own
ears.

"Ms. Clemons grabbed me as you tossed me out.  She dragged me into
the life raft.  You kept tossing people out and we kept trying to pull
them in.  We...we...couldn't grab everyone.  Some of them just
started swimming off, trying to get away from the plane.

"Finally, no one else came through the door and we watched as the
plane started sliding beneath the waves.  You didn't come out of the
plane for so long...I...we thought you weren't coming out.  So when
the doorway went under  I...I...I dove in after you.  You were holding
on to Elizabeth, but neither of you were moving...and you were in the
water.  I...I grabbed you and pulled you out.  The plane was slipping
below the waves; I wasn't sure we were going to make it.  It seemed
like forever before my face touched the air again.

"The others, they helped me drag you into the raft.  I thought you
were dead.  You and Elizabeth both.  I...I gave you CPR and Ms. Clemons
worked on Elizabeth.  You didn't respond for so long...but finally,
you coughed up some water and you were breathing on your own again.
You still didn't look very good, your face was white and your lips
were blue, but you were alive and that was something.

"It was all we could do to stay in the raft, though.  The storm
tossed us around quite a bit and there were times when I didn't think
I was going to make it...that we weren't going to make it.  Just as I
thought the next wave was going to toss me over the side, the storm
broke.  The clouds just seemed to disappear as if they were never
there.  It was as if nothing had happened.  If we hadn't been in the
life raft, we might've even believed it.

"We couldn't do much...we didn't have any food and very little
water.  So we just lay back and drifted, trying to cover as much of our
bodies as we could during the day and cooling off at night.  We drifted
for something like three days, I think.  You seemed to come around a
few times, but you never opened your eyes.  You just mumbled and your
face remained so white.  There was blood, too.  A deep cut on the top
of your head...there was so much blood.

"Then today just when we thought we weren't going to make it, just
when we were beginning to lose hope, we grounded on this beach.

"Jan took charge.  She moved us up the sand a little, told us to keep
ourselves covered.  Then she divided us into groups and sent us off
looking for water, food.  The stuff we'd need to survive for a while.
I stayed with you and she didn't say anything.  I think she
understood.

"There's a fresh water lake a short distance in, maybe a half mile
or so.  It's pretty big and the water is really clear and fairly
cool.  There's even some fish in there and Andy has been catching
some and Sarah cooked some for a late lunch; I still have some if
you're hungy...  It really wasn't much but it felt good to eat."

She stopped for a minute and I opened my eyes slightly to see why.  She
had her eyes on the ground, her hand clutching mine.  I hadn't even
realized my hand was in hers, but now I could feel her squeezing it.

"I'm so sorry, Mikey," she started.  "I was so worried that I
was never going to see you again and the last time...the last time...we
were going to be mad at each other..."  Her voice drifted off, but I
could see from the trembling of her shoulders that she was crying.

With tears in my eyes, I sat up.  My head only protested mildly at the
movement.  I reached out and gathered her to me, pulling her tight
against me and all I could hear her say was "I'm sorry, I'm
sorry."

"Jamie, my darling sister," I whispered, my voice thick with the
over-flowing of my emotions.  I felt my heart open again, feeling her
against me, holding her tightly.  I had no idea what I was saying; I
was just opening my mouth and let my heart talk.  "You have nothing
to be sorry for.  I've been an ass and an idiot.  A real creep.
I'm the one who's sorry.  I thought...I don't know what I
thought.  I convinced myself I was doing the best thing for us...but
deep down, I knew better.  I am so sorry and I only hope that one day
you can forgive me."

She turned her tear stained face up to mine, worry and fear etched long
in her beautiful eyes.  "You mean you still love me?" she asked and
her voice was very small.

"How could I not love you, Jamie?" I responded, my voice deepening
with my emotion.  "I just thought...I just hoped...that I was doing
what was right.  That you would grow into a great person because there
was someone to take care of you."

She seemed to stop for a moment.  To measure my words against her own
thoughts.  I don't know what she was thinking in that moment, but I
could see the wheels turning within her.  Finally, she had sorted out
what she wished to say.

"How could us being apart be right?" she asked, her voice gaining a
bit of an edge.  "How could you not being there for me, taking care
of me be right??  I didn't know what to think.  I thought you
didn't want me any more."  Her voice was growing harder, angrier.
She was working herself up to it.  I knew this...and I did nothing.  I
wanted her to get it out.  I wanted her anger to just wash up and carry
me away.  I deserved this and I would endure it.  "I used to cry
myself to sleep because I thought you had abandoned me.  Every time you
came...every single time...I told myself that this was the time you
were going to take me home.  I used to tell the other girls that you
were coming to take me home...but you never did.  Eventually, they
started laughing at me...and I knew.  I thought you didn't love me.
I thought you had abandoned me.  Do you know how terrible it is to know
that you are alone?  You stopped calling, you stopped writing.  You
never came to visit any more.  I figured that I was just some trash
that you needed to get rid of."  Her voice was hard and bitter and
she had every right to be.  I had abandoned her.

I stayed silent; there was nothing or me to say.  Everything she said
was right.  I knew that in the depths of my heart.  I had been a
selfish fool, a very stupid, selfish fool.  I didn't deserve the love
my sister showed me.  I didn't deserve to breathe the same air.  My
only hope was that I could somehow make the past 9 years up to her.

I could see the anger in her face, could feel the heat coming from her
in waves.  She yelled for a while, she screamed.  I'm not sure
everything that was said but the meaning was clear: "I was the south
end of a north-bound donkey."  Still, her hand never left my own and
her fingers never betrayed her rage.

Finally, it ended and she just devolved into gasping tears, her face
planted against my chest.  I knew that it was small comfort, but I held
my arm around her my other hand still holding tightly to her own.  I
waited, patiently, letting her anger and pain wash through her.  I
could feel her sobs reach a peak and then slowly sink away.

"Jamie," I started, unsure how to proceed.  "I can only tell you
how sorry I am and make a promise that it will never happen again.  I
will never abandon you.  I will always be here for you.  I will listen
to you and hold you and never, ever leave you again."

Her sobs continued for a small time, then slowly turned to shallow
breaths.  Her arm held my back, her face never leaving my chest.
Finally, she turned her head and I could tell that she was looking out
over the sea.  "Promise, Mikey?  You've got to promise me that
you'll never leave me again.  Promise me, Michael.  Please promise
me."

"Of course, Jamie," I replied, my heart in my throat.  "Of course
I promise.  Never again.  I will make sure we are never apart again."


Chapter Three: Taking Stock
After a while, the sun grew too hot and our skin was far too tender to
remain on the beach.  With Jamie helping me, I managed to stand and
hobble the short distance to the edge of the trees.  There was some
shade there and it helped to cool us, if only a little.  I leaned back
against the bark of what I thought was a coconut tree, but I was too
tired and in too much pain to look.

Jamie's presence at my side had a calming, relaxing effect on me.  It
was almost as if I had been incomplete for the past 9 years and not
until she was again close to me was I truly, finally whole.
Eventually, basking in the comfort of my sister's presence, the tree
shading me from the pounding sun, I closed my eyes again and just
rested.  I had slept for three days but I felt as if I could sleep for
another three.  Everything about me hurt, right down to my toe nails.
I'm not sure when I drifted off.

When I woke again the sun had long set and I was actually shivering a
little.  For that brief moment between sleep and wakefulness, I was
able to believe that the past few days had been a crazy nightmare and
that I'd wake up in my own bed.  It was a wonderful, fleeting dream
that disappeared into the ether as soon as consciousness flooded me
completely.

The flickering of light drew my eyes further up the beach.  Someone had
started a roaring fire on the beach and there were a number of figures
sitting around it.  The hypnotic pulsing of the flames cast strange
shadows, giving the whole spectacle a surrealistic tint that baffled me
for a moment.  When I blinked, though, the illusion was shattered and I
was able to see some of the faces.  I recognized Jamie, Sarah and Jan
immediately, but the others were just vague memories surrounding the
re-loading at Miami.

I nearly went back to sleep but my curiosity overcame my body's loud
protests.  I struggled to a knee, pain lancing throughout my abdomen.
Using the tree I had been resting upon for balance, I slowly made it to
my feet.

Immediately, Jamie was at my side.

"You shouldn't be up, Mikey," she scolded me, insinuating herself
under my arm.  "You should just rest some more.  There's nothing
you can do tonight anyway."

"I know, sis," I responded contritely.  "I just want to get some
warmth."

"Oh," she replied quietly.  It hadn't occurred to her that I
might be cold.  "In that case, we dragged an old dead wood that you
can lean against."

I would've laughed at her turn around, but I didn't dare.  Just a
few days ago, she wouldn't have thought to offer me a civil word and
now she was half-carrying me to a comfortable spot in front of the
fire.  I knew that we had some tough discussions ahead of us but at the
moment I decided just to enjoy being around my sister again.

As I sat, with Jamie's help, I noticed Sarah's haunted eyes looking
at the fire without really seeing anything.  I knew she was in a crisis
- weren't we all? -- but I wasn't quite sure what I could do
about it...or even if I could do anything at all.  I tried smiling
reassuringly at her, but she never even looked at me.

"Hey, Cap," Jan greeted me hesitantly.  "Welcome back to the land
of the living."  Jan's eyes had a bit of that haunted look, too,
but I could sense the strength and determination moving the fear
further and further back.  Jan was a fighter, which is one of the
reasons I had chosen her as my co-pilot.  She hadn't had the
credentials of some of the other applicants, but there was something
about her.  I had endured some jokes because of it from one or two of
the other pilots I employed - heck, as beautiful as she was I
wondered myself whether that hadn't shadowed my selection somewhat
- but as soon as I saw her fly solo I knew the real reason I'd
hired her.

When Jan flew, she became the airplane.  She knew intuitively
everything that was going on, able to assimilate even the most minor
facts and make the correct decisions.  I was a good pilot, maybe even a
great one.  Jan was simply the best I had ever seen.

I suppose her good looks had cost her some jobs.  Honestly, she simply
looked too beautiful to be a capable pilot.  Her auburn hair was cut
shoulder length and it framed a model's face.  Captivating brown
eyes, a thin sliver of a nose, and full red lips set in pink, dimpled
cheeks drew your eyes to her face even as her full breasts commanded
your attention elsewhere.  Add hips that begged to be held and long,
rounded legs that begged to be caressed and you had the makings of a
model more than a pilot.

Maybe that explains why she became such a good pilot.  Instead of
compensating for her beauty, she had to work harder to become a pilot
in spite of it.

At Jan's raised eyebrows, I brought my attention back to the present
and left her motives for becoming a pilot in the past.  I nearly
chuckled at her continued stare; Jan was almost as much my sister as
Jamie was.  Although we had flown hundreds of hours together in cramped
quarters, we had never been intimate preferring a camaraderie that
transcended sexuality.  Simply, we were just best friends...and that
was enough.

"How are we doing, co-pilot," I said in my gruffest voice.  Based
on my weakness, however, I think I came across more pathetic than mean.

Jan, though, laughed.  I'm not sure if her laughter was because of me
or to relieve the tension of our situation, but it worked.  Her musical
giggles brought chuckles from around the fire.

I smiled, letting myself enjoy this moment. Unfortunately, it ended all
too soon, the chuckles dying back into that uncomfortable silence.

"What's our situation, Jan," I asked more softly.

"Actually, it could be worse, Mike.  We've got fresh water and some
edibles around, not to mention a sea of fish.  That should keep us from
starving or dying of thirst, anyway.

"The bad news is that wherever we are, it's pretty much uninhabited
- or else the people are really shy.  We walked for about 4 hours up
and down the beach and into the forest and didn't find a hint of
anyone else around here."

"You walked how much?" I asked, my face trying to put together the
numbers.  I couldn't help but wonder how long my nap had been.

Jan looked at my face and laughed.  "Don't get too worked up, Rip
Van Winkle.  You only slept a few hours.  *I* didn't walk, *WE*
walked.  Some of us went up the beach and some down.  I took a few of
us into the trees."

"How many of *us* are there?" I asked quietly.  I dreaded the
question, but I had to know.  We had started out with a group of 30 -
20 girls, 7 boys and 3 adults; how many had survived?  Just from
glancing around the fire I could tell that not everyone was here -
but I held out the barest glimmer of hope that the others were
somewhere else.

Jan knew what I was thinking and her face fell.  The night turned as
quiet as a mausoleum.  "18," she began.  "You, me, your sister
and Ms. Clemons, 12 of the girls and 2 of the boys."

My eyes closed, a pained expression taking over my face.  I dropped my
head forward, unable to comprehend.  12 dead.  12 children gone.  Had I
not been fast enough?  Had I not gotten enough of the children out??

"It's not your fault, Mikey," Jamie whispered in my ear, her
voice breaking.  She sat next to me, her arms around me.  "You got
everyone out of the plane, we think.  The storm...we just couldn't
keep everyone in the rafts.  Some of the waves threw people out and
we...we...we couldn't find them in the dark."

"She's right, Mike," Jan whispered.  "You got everyone out.
The storm got them.  There was nothing you could do.  Nothing anyone
could do."

Tears filled my eyes and I cried in futility.  Cried in pain and anger.
I went over the crash in my head, looking at it from every vantage
point.  Could I have gotten more out of the engine?  Could we have made
it to dry land?  No matter how I looked at it, I couldn't see a
single thing wrong with each of my decisions.

I didn't know what else I could have done nor did I know what to do
now.  When the pain and agony of those 12 deaths finally peaked within
me, I buried my face in my sister's shoulder and finished crying.

As with all things, eventually I could cry no more.  Self-pity was not
what was needed here.  12 souls were beyond my reach, but the remaining
18 needed me.  I would not let them down.  I would do everything in my
power to see them safely home again.

With a false air of determination, I turned to Jan.  "Is this
everyone?"

Jan looked into my eyes for a moment, searching for something.
Apparently she found what she was looking for because she nodded
absently, an almost contented look coming over her.

I turned and looked at the faces around the fire.  No one looked back
and the silence was deafening, marred only by the soft swell of the
surf and the occasional crackle of the fire.  I wanted to break that
silence but I didn't know how; I didn't know any of these faces.

I turned to the girl beyond Sarah.  The flickering of the fire made it
difficult to see her clearly, but as my eyes adjusted to the changing
light I managed to make her out.  Her eyes were young but the lines on
her face made her seem older somehow.  Those tired lines wrapped around
her pale blue eyes and the bags under them told of sleepless nights.
The lines and dark circles were not able to hide the cute curve of her
cheeks or the soft pudge of her nose.  Her lips were thin and set in a
tight line that enhanced the dull deadness of her eyes.  A soft wind
blew through her frazzled hair, twisting it this way and that.  She
wore what had once been a long white t-shirt that hung over her knees
as she sat on the dead wood.  Her arms crossed beneath what would one
day be breasts but for now they were just soft mounds.

"Mattie," Jamie whispered, her lips unconsciously brushing against
my ear as she spoke to me.  "She's in 7th year, I think.  12 or so.
Her parents sent her to Hairy Mounds because they both travel for
their jobs."

"Hairy Mounds?" I whispered in confusion.

"It's what we call Fairmount, Mikey," Jamie replied, the brush of
her lips making me feel warm and uncomfortable though I couldn't
quite figure out why.  I suddenly became aware of her hair brushing
against me in the breeze and the feel of her skin against my own was
raising goose flesh for some reason.

I quickly moved on to the next person around the fire rather than try
to analyze what I was feeling.

"Who's she?" I asked.

"The next girl?  That's Liz - short for Elizabeth.  She's in my
class - 10th grade.  She's pretty cool, really.  Has an English
accent."  Liz was blonde, with her hair pulled back into the remains
of a pony tail.  Her eyes, like Mattie's, were soft blue but set
close in on her long, thin nose.  Like Mattie's they had a dead and
haunted look echoing within them.  Liz wore a tank top that was ripped
and fraying down around her blue jean shorts.  Unlike Mattie, her
breasts were fairly well defined against her shirt and I could just
make out the pointed tips of her nipples against her shirt.

With a blush, I moved my eyes on to the next girl.

"Beth," my sister informed me in a whisper, answering my unspoken
question.  "Also short for Elizabeth.  She's also in my class.
She's only 14, though.  She skipped a grade and might skip another
- she's really smart.  She's the one you were trying to save
when...at the end."

Beth had soft, braided, black hair that framed her caramel skin.  Her
nose was on the pudgy side, but her brown eyes were somehow soft and
gentle.  Her face was long rather than round, but her flawless skin
made it beautiful none-the-less.  Her lips were full, and set close
beneath her nose.  Underneath, her chin was soft and round.  She, too,
wore a t-shirt but hers was yellow.  Underneath her tee, breasts far
too large for her age bulged enticingly.  'A c-cup, maybe,' I
thought to myself, feeling guilty for looking at the young girl in that
light.

Her eyes glanced up at me, but looked quickly away when she saw me
looking at her.  My blush only deepened.

"I think she has a bit of a crush on you, brother dear," Jamie
whispered, repressing a light laugh.  "Next to her is Andrea.  You
should find her...interesting.  Most men do."

I turned to the next girl and I could see what my sister was talking
about.  Andrea was another blonde, like Liz.  Her eyes, though, were
not blue...hazel maybe, or green.  It was hard to say.  Her face,
though, was the face of a model.  It was flawless; soft, milky cheeks,
full, red lips, and thin eyebrows surrounding a soft, nearly pointed
nose.  As my eyes traveled down her, they were drawn to her full
breasts and I nearly gasped in amazement.  Her breasts were very large,
at least a d-cup, and round.  Her waist was thin, a fact easily seen by
her bare mid-riff.  Her tee was white, and knotted beneath her breasts,
possibly making them look larger than they were - but I didn't
think so.  Her legs were stretched before her shooting out from the
shortest shorts I had ever seen and they, too, were flawless and
perfect.  She didn't look like it was possible for her to be in
school...she should be in college, at least.

Jamie's whispered laugh shook my attention.  "Told you.  Would you
believe she's only 13?"

Scared to trust my voice, I merely shook my head in amazement.

"Most people can't.  Word is that she was sent to Hairy Mounds
because she was too...promiscuous for her parents to handle.  She
doesn't talk much, though."

"Next to her," Jamie went on either not noticing my creeping blush
or choosing to ignore it, "are the female twins Patricia and Tracey.
Don't try to tell them apart, no one can.  They're seniors -
17."

Patricia and Tracey had brown hair surrounding round, little faces.
Their brown eyes were framed by bushy eyebrows and a long, almost flat
nose.  Their thin lips were separated slightly and showed pearly white,
straight teeth.  They both wore halter tops, soft, pale blue for the
one on the right and a deep burgundy for the one on the left.  They
huddled together, either out of fear or to keep each other warm.

"Beyond them are the male twins.  I think their names are Alex and
Tony, but I'm not sure.  They're from Sandoval Academy - we
don't have much interaction with them so I've only know them since
we started the trip."

It was clear the boys were of Spanish descent.  They each had golden
skin that gleamed in the flickering light.  Each sported short-cropped,
dark hair that sat above bushy eyebrows.  Below these were hard brown
eyes that gleamed in the fire.  Their noses were short and full and
they had a soft growth of hair above and below their thin-set lips.

They each wore white wife-beaters that showed off their muscular arms
and hard chests but their legs were covered in bell bottom jeans.
Their hands were planted solidly on their knees but I watched the arms
flex and release, like they wanted to do something but couldn't think
of anything to do.  I imagined they felt as I felt, frustrated and
powerless.

"Morgan's on the other side of the twins," Jamie continued, her
warm lips still touching my skin.  I couldn't believe how sensitive
my ears were, but I imagined I could feel every ridge in the touch of
her skin.  "She's the youngest, only 10.  She isn't even supposed
to be here - the trip is only supposed to be 12 and up - but word
is her parents paid off the school to take her.  They're working in
Europe; diplomats or something."

Morgan looked miserable.  Her dark hair was cut in a page-boy style,
but the bangs had deteriorated into frizzy little frays that danced in
the wind.  Her dark eyes glittered in the dancing light as if the tears
held within were in imminent danger of being released.  She sniffed
occasionally, holding back those tears tightly but her trembling lips
put the lie to her brave front.  It was evident that she was huddled
within herself not only in the way her arms wrapped tightly around her
knees but in the scrunched, uncomfortable look of her face itself.  I
felt my heart go out to her; I wanted to hold her and let her cry.  I
wanted to take away all her fear and agony.

"Next to her is Samantha, but everyone calls her Sam.
She's...outgoing.  Talkative.  I don't think she shut up at all on
the plane ride.  Everyone seems to like her, though, so I guess it's
more of an endearing quality than a nuisance."

Maybe Sam couldn't keep quiet on the plane ride, but she sure
didn't have that problem now.  Like everyone else, she remained
silent...lost in her own thoughts.  Her brown eyes gazed within the
fire with almost a longing expression that I couldn't quite place.
Her face was dirty, smudges on both her cheeks hiding doing nothing to
detract from her attractiveness.  Her long brown hair blowing in the
wind, her thin eyebrows, the soft curve of her nose and the full pout
of her lips set in the tanned bronze of her skin all added to her
charm.  But somehow, she was cute rather than beautiful.  Perhaps it
was the long neck rising from pert, little breasts clothed in a ruffled
black tee or the soft length of her thin arms.  Something hinted at
beauty but didn't quite make it.

"Chris - short for Christine - is next to Sam.  She's a year
ahead of me so probably around 16 years old.  She's something of a
mystery really...she actually wanted to go to Fairmount.  No one knows
why.  She's a bit of a nerd and sort of sticks to herself."

Christine's skin was dark, though the flicker of the fire brought out
the lighter, brownish tones.  Her dark hair was braided in tight corn
rows.  Her face set her apart, though.  It was longer than wide and was
so gaunt it looked like it was almost sunken in on itself.  The rest of
her body bore that out: her arms and legs, though long, were very thin
and her torso was wiry and lean.  If not for the feminine features in
her face, she could almost be passed off as a boy rather than a young
woman.

"Holly is on the other side of Chris.  Holly has actually already
graduated but Hairy Mounds let her come on the trip anyway.  She's so
smart it's almost scary - straight A's since forever.  She
could've skipped all kinds of grades but her parents wouldn't let
them.  They were afraid that the accelerated learning would harm her
somehow.  She's really nice though...I've met people who weren't
half as smart and they've really held it above you.  She doesn't.
She's one of the friendliest people I've ever met."

Holly was a redhead and like most redheads, my sister included, she had
very pale skin that almost seemed to glow in the firelight.  Where my
sister's accompanying freckles were light and fairly spread out,
Holly's face was covered nearly completely in them.  Somehow, though,
they seemed almost an affectation rather than a detriment - they
added to her beauty.  I'm not saying that she was beautiful - she
wasn't.  She was attractive, though.  She was also short though I
couldn't tell how short while she was sitting cross-legged in the
sand.  In a strange way she reminded me of a mythological creature like
a pixie or a fairy.  She was small, but pretty...as I always imagined
one of those creatures would be.

"Elaine's next to Holly," Jamie whispered in my ear.  "She's
a little strange...I'm actually kind of surprised she came on this
trip.  I mean, she's only 12 and I've heard of her - a lot.  Word
is she doesn't sleep and walks the halls at night.  Plus, she's
always making up these outlandish tales about her exploits.  They're
really creative but really wacky.  One day she talks about how she's
been taken by aliens and the next she's talking about how she's
climbed Mt. Everest.  I mean, it's always something new with her."

Elaine's light brown hair was perfectly straight and fluttered gently
in the wind.  She was almost constantly brushing it out of her face.
Other than that, though, she was perfectly average.  Her eyebrows were
plucked, but not overly.  Her nose was neither full nor slim.  Her eyes
were brown and her mouth was thin.  She looked so...ordinary.  She was
neither fat nor thin, neither busty nor flat-chested.  She didn't
look like she was tall nor did she look like she was short.  She was
even dressed ordinary in a light blue blouse and blue jeans.
Completely average.

"Finally, that's Karen on your right.  She's a year below me but
she's really nice.  She sometimes hangs around with me and my
friends.  A bit quiet and shy, but she's cool.  She's artistic,
always carving or painting or drawing.  She sketched me once with pen
and paper and it was really, really good.  Only took her 15 minutes,
too."

Karen's hair was so blonde it was nearly white and hung straight to
the middle of her back.  Her skin, though, was tanned a dark bronze.
It made an interesting contrast...though I couldn't quite determine
whether her skin accented her hair or vice-versa.  Her eyes were a soft
blue.  Against her skin, her eyes seemed to almost shine.  Her nose was
long and thin and ended just short of her full, red lips.

She wore a short-sleeved yellow shirt that was opened to the waist.
Underneath was a white tank top that ended in dirty white shorts.  From
her shorts sprang two long, firm legs that finished in feet that were
partially buried in the sand.  I watched as her toes wiggled and
churned beneath the sand, covering and uncovering them in turn.

"Put your eyes back in your head, bro," Jamie teased me.  I felt,
though, that her teasing was almost forced.

"I wonder what everyone is thinking," I whispered back softly.

"I miss my husband," Sarah cried softly.  I jumped a little and I
could feel Jamie jump as well.  I was almost positive that Jamie and I
had been whispering low enough so that only we could hear, but Sarah
seemed to be answering my whispered question.

"I didn't know you were married, Ms. Clemons," Jamie said to her
cautiously.  "We...I...just assumed you were single."

"We've been married for less than a year...still on our honeymoon
kind of.  I didn't want to leave him for the month, but he was
planning on taking a vacation and meeting us down there for a week.
He...he...he said that I should go.  That the girls needed me..."
Sarah's voice broke down and the tears started flowing.  Jan scooted
over and consoled her, and Sarah just buried her face in Jan's
shoulder.

I didn't know what to say.  I didn't know if I should say something
or comfort her or what.  The others were watching the two of them and
the silence grew even more uncomfortable until finally I felt I just
had to say something.

"Don't worry, Sarah," I started.  "We'll be out of here soon.
They're probably looking for us now.  You'll see.  Heck...we might
even be out of here tomorrow."

Sarah stopped crying for a minute.  She looked up from Jan's shoulder
right into my eyes.  In that moment, I felt like I was being
judged...and found seriously wanting.  "How do you know, Mike?  How
can you be so sure."

I had no answer.

Chapter 4: The Hint of Paradise Found

As consciousness began to return to my slumbering mind, I found myself
content.  I was warm and comfortable.  I had a woman cradled in my
arms, with one of my hands gently stroking an obviously erect nipple.
My morning erection was comfortably nestled in the crack of her butt
and my morning bladder was not yet to the point where pain cancelled
out the excruciatingly wonderful feeling of my hard-on stroking itself
up and down that intimate cleft.  Her hips returned my attention,
pushing gently but insistently back at me making the pleasure more
pronounced, more insistent.  The clothing between us quickly became too
annoying and I reached to remove those last barriers between us.

As my hands began tugging at our clothing, I opened my eyes trying to
will consciousness into my head.  My cock released as my hands pushed
the flimsy cloth from around my waist, down to my knees.  My eyes saw
the hair in front of me, red ringlets just beginning to glow from the
light of the rising sun, as my hands pushed her clothing down her legs.
The hair looked familiar, so familiar, but so did the intense feeling
of pleasure as my cock finally made flesh to flesh contact with the
soft feel of her ass.  A niggling thought began to creep into my mind
as my hips lowered.  It was driven from my mind, though, as the head of
my cock exploded in pleasure as it dragged itself slowly and inexorably
down the expanse of that fissure.  I felt her legs part, felt her leg
slowly rise to give me room, and felt the head of my cock find purchase
at the entrance of her sex.  I could feel the wet kiss of her lower
lips as they welcomed me and just as I began that first promising,
magnificent thrust inside of her, the niggling thought shook me and
screamed at me.

My sister.  My cock was about to enter my sister.

It warred within me for a fraction of a second, the vestiges of my
morality still sunken into the stupor of a sleeping mind versus the
tangible reality of that pleasure-filled entrance.  Finally, luckily,
my morality awoke and I slowly pulled myself from that forbidden union.

Jamie whimpered as our flesh parted, the wetness of her dew slowly
drying on the head of my exposed member, a single tear to what might
have been.  I trembled in shame and fear at what had almost occurred.
What, in a twisted way, I still yearned to do.

I mentally shook myself, willing myself away from that dire chasm.
Almost with regret, though, I pulled my lower torso back, the sand
adding its painful scream to that of my slowly deflating member.  How I
had not noticed the uncomfortable sand but a moment ago was beyond me.

I waited like that - exposed and vulnerable -- for an eternity,
waiting for Jamie to awaken and scream in horror, but slowly her
breathing returned from the quickness of excited passion to the even
slowness of sleep.  I breathed a sigh of relief.  She slept; our close
encounter would remain unnoticed.

It seemed hours passed as I slowly returned our clothing to normal,
slowly re-covered our nether regions.  My blood pounded in my ears as I
listened for any hint that I was waking her.  In truth, though, only a
few minutes could have passed before I finally got us re-clothed.

Finally, I slowly pulled my arm from under her, finding that my hand
sorely missed the feel of her breast within it and silently admonishing
myself for thinking things like that.  The hormones raging within me
slowly ebbed and died and the fear took me anew.  Fear of what I had
almost done, however innocently.  Strangely, though, buried deep down
in that morass of sub-consciousness that rarely sees the light of day,
also fear that I would never get that opportunity again.

I stood quietly, willing myself to be completely silent.  I looked
around the impromptu campsite and sighed in relief.  Everyone else was
still sleeping; no one witnessed my near transgression.  I almost
laughed in a mixture of relief and amusement: Jan's eyes were only a
half-foot or so from the juncture of my sister's legs.  Had she but
opened her eyes...

After my silent hysteric amusement died, that thought sobered me
quickly.

I looked at the woods behind our encampment - west, my mind corrected
me, as the sun was rising slowly above the sea to my back -- my mind a
little clearer than yesterday.  The forest looked lush and extreme; it
rose like a curtain from the pale white sand clearly demarcating the
beach from the land.  Palm trees and coconut trees grew in a sparse
area immediately adjacent from the beach and behind those I could just
make out fig trees and what I believed to be banana trees.  I wasn't
a botanist by any means but I don't recall ever hearing of those two
types of trees growing so close to one another.  Still, it didn't
look like we were going to be starving any time soon.

Somewhere inside that forest and slightly north of us, rising above the
lush foliage, was an impressive looking mountain of black, brown and
purple with scattered patches of green.  My neck creaked in protest as
I moved my vision up to the top of the mountain.  It must have been
many thousands of feet high, for just at the top of the seemingly flat
mountain I could make out waving plains of white that looked like snow.

Looking north up the beach I could just make out a bluff where the sand
slowly rose maybe a hundred feet or so above the sea.  The forest
seemed almost to grow right to the top of that precipice, but a few
large rocks or boulders could be seen at the extreme edge.

My eyes traveled south, but the beach disappeared around a large
outcropping of land and I was unable to see very far.  It looked like
the beach we were on was inset in a small, shallow cove.

After relieving my most pressing need, I flipped a coin in my head and
started jogging to the south.  This was a morning ritual for me, as
much a part of the start of my day as peeing or showering.   In the
absence of familiarity of location I chose familiarity of routine.
After what I had almost done, I needed something in my life to be a bit
more normal.

I reached the large outcropping to the south rather quickly, though the
sand beneath my feet was really testing my endurance.  My gym shoes
were not in great shape either, having survived the three day journey
here in a sodden mess and only finally drying out near the fire
overnight.  I thought perhaps they had shrunk for it hurt a little to
put them on.  After a while though, my feet found comfort within them.

Another rocky outcropping rose further down the beach, this one a bit
larger than the last.  I decided to abbreviate my run somewhat, both
because of the exhaustion that was quickly overtaking me as much as the
panic I feared my sudden disappearance might cause my companions.  I
decided to run around the next outcropping to survey what lie beyond
and then turn my steps back to camp.

What lay beyond, however, pushed all thought from my mind.

She was beautiful, a bronze goddess standing nude at the edge of the
sea.  Her black hair streamed away from me in the soft wind and I
wondered if I might still be dreaming, goddesses were not part of my
normal waking experience.  Her back was to me, but it appeared soft and
inviting, calling to me to run my lips down the soft plain.  I could
make out the soft sides of her breasts just inside the inviting swell
of her faultless arms; her breasts were large, but not overly so, and
there was very little sag to their heft.  Her buttocks were firm and
feminine, begging a hand to be run down the soft flesh, lingering here
and there.  Her legs were soft and supple and appealing, only hinting
at the treasure they might be hiding.

I stood dumb-struck, the last vestiges of my ability to communicate
lost by the vision before me.  I could only watch and admire, as she
turned minutely this way and that, scanning the sea before her.
Finally, she turned and began to walk back from the water's edge.

If the back of her nude body had been beautiful, the front was
perfection.  Her blemish-free face was the same soft tan as the rest of
her body and thin, perfect eyebrows arched above her eyes.  The soft
swell of her nose was set daintily above deep red lips parted only
minutely.  Even her chin was amazing, a soft, gentle swell which began
its life in the silky swell of her cheeks and ended in a gentle curve.
Her neck plunged gently into her shoulders, and those supple curves
gave way to the perfection of her breasts.  The dark reddishness of her
erect nipples were rounded flawlessly and seemed almost an affectation
of her body.  They stood, pert and trembling, above a flat stomach that
begged me silently to run my tongue down the imperceptible line of
hinted at muscles, and delve my tongue deeply within the perfect, small
cavern of her navel.

My gaze traveled still lower, my mouth open and watering at her supple
legs rising and falling rhythmically as she walked.  With each step the
alluring cleft at the juncture of her legs peeked at me and my mouth
watered even further.  In echo of my forbidden near-encounter and
perhaps because of its interrupted nature or perhaps it was the gentle
glory of her sex, the complete lack of pubic hair, the barest hint of
what lie inside, but something begged me to come and suckle, to take
her into my mouth until she screamed with pleasure and then to enter
her with my grossly swollen cock and fill her with my seed.

I took a step towards her, unable to resist, unable even to think.
Somewhere deep within me, I knew that I must stop, that I must not do
what I wanted but the compulsion to take this goddess of the sea was so
strong I feared I would not be able to control myself until this
coupling was complete.  I took another step towards her, my mind
warring with itself for control of me.  I had to have her.

"El Capitan?" Even her voice was perfect, a whisper of sex on the
warm sea breeze.  The voice, however, shook me from my stupor and
returned control of my body back to me.

Her eyes were wide and her hands were trying unsuccessfully to hide her
natural blessings from my sight.  Rationality returned to my mind and I
looked at her again, but I could not find a blemish to her perfection.
Her very pores seemed to exude sex, and even the unnatural pose of her
trying to hide from my sight only served to make me want her more.

With a trembling sigh, I reasserted control of myself.  I closed my
eyes for a moment, morality once again returning to my mind.  'Twice
in one day,' I admonished myself wryly.  'You'd think I was some
kind of sex maniac.'  With another sigh, stronger, I gathered my
control and re-opened my eyes.

I almost lost it from the very beginning.  Her eyes were centered on
the sharp outline of my engorged penis and the barest hint of a smile
was tugging at the very edge of her lips.  I gritted my teeth, willing
myself back into control.

"I'm sorry; I was running and didn't know someone else was
here."

With a last lingering glance, her eyes moved to hold my own.  In that
moment, I felt myself falling into the gentle pool of her brown eyes.
Fearing I might become lost in that gaze, I looked beyond her trying
desperately to return control from my little head to my larger one.

"It is okay, Michael," she said at last, drawing my eyes back to
her own.  I was startled at her use of my name, but the open, friendly
smile relaxed me.  "You must not recognize me in my...er...state.  I
was on the aeroplane with you."  Her voice was lyrical and heavenly
but it was evident she used care to choose each word.  Her accent was
not very thick, but I recognized it as being of Spanish origin.  "Did
anyone else make it?"

"No, I came alone," I replied, the soft curves of her naked body
lingering in the corner of my vision, disrupting my thoughts
completely.  "I mean, yes, there are others but I'm the only one
who came down here.  Came running...uh...ran down the beach."  My
mind was unable to work properly.

"How long have you been here?" I tried to take command of the
conversation, hoping that this would keep my mind on track.  "I was
told that others came down the beach yesterday and I have to believe
they made it this far."

The smile slowly left her face.  "I made land late last night.  When
the plane went down...you got me out of the plane and into one of the
rafts.  The sea, though...it was so bad.  I fell out and the sea washed
me away from the little raft.  I am a good swimmer, but I was no match
for it.  I don't know how long I swam, but I could find no one."

"Just as my strength was giving out," she said with a sigh, tears
welling in her eyes.  I narrowly resisted the urge to take her in my
arms and wipe the tears away.  "I came upon some of those big steamer
trunks bobbing in the sea.  I tried to climb on one, but it wouldn't
hold me, I kept falling off.  There were others around and I tried to
hold two of them together, but I could not.  Many times, I was afraid I
was going to drown in the sea because the trunks kept moving apart.
Finally, I used my clothing to gather four of them together and tie
them.  They became my raft and I floated on it until last night.

"The sun was very hot and I had no protection.  I opened one of the
trunks, hoping that there was something there that I could use.
Imagine my surprise when the trunk was filled with bottles of water and
of sunscreen and large blankets.  I was able to make it to shore very
easily after that."

I looked around her and my eyes finally noticed the steamer trunks a
short way down the beach.  She followed my eyes, forgetting for a
moment about her nudity as her hands came down.  "Yes, those are the
trunks.  I am very thankful for them."

'So am I,' came into my head unbidden but I quickly shook it out of
my head.  Aloud I said, "There are another 17 people further up the
beach.  Not everyone, but maybe others -- like your -- made it ashore
even further down the beach.  If you'll...um...get dressed, I'll
help you carry those trunks back to our camp."

"Are you so very sure you want me to get dressed, Michael?"  she
replied, her lips turning up into a secretive smile.  When I was unable
to do anything but stutter incoherently, she laughed openly and turned
towards the trunks.

I could only watch as she clothed herself...but I watched as closely as
propriety would allow.

It took us over an hour to drag the trunks back up the beach.  The
silence between us was palpable but not uncomfortable with just a small
edge of sexual tension.  I can't say why she remained stoically
silent but my silence was brought on by ineptitude.  I simply had no
idea what to say.

As we came around the second rocky outcropping, we were sighted and
squeals of recognition and relief could be heard.  It wasn't long
before we were surrounded by the remainder of our little band, with
Alex and Tony taking hold of the trunks from each of us and pulling
them the final distance up the beach.

Patty and Tracey were bouncing up and down in glee.  Evidently the
trunks belonged to them and they were extremely happy to get them back.
Maria was apologizing for opening them, but they were so happy they
immediately forgave her.

Jamie, for her part, just grabbed me and held me close, not saying a
word.  The scent of her hair, the feel of her body against me brought
back visions of what almost happened earlier that morning.  My member
rose with the recollection, becoming harder and harder until I was
almost sure Jamie could feel it.  Just as it was becoming uncomfortable
lodged between us, Jamie disentangled herself and I could see the tears
on her face.  "I was so afraid that after...when I saw you gone...I
was afraid you had left me again!"

"Sis," I said seriously, carefully holding her at arms length under
the pretense of looking her in the eyes.  "That's not going to
happen again.  You're stuck with me, okay?"

She sniffled for a few minutes, but took me at my word.

"So, where'd you find my roommate?"  She questioned, holding onto
my arm and falling in step with me.

"Your roommate?" I questioned blankly.  Lust was reeling inside of
me with each step, my hard cock brushing against the distended cloth of
my shorts.  Silently, I sighed in relief that there was a small crowd
around us so the evidence of my lust would be hidden from view.

"Yea.  Maria.  Didn't you know she was my roommate?  She's half a
year younger than me, but in the same class.  I thought I'd told you
before?"

My mind went quickly through the sparse letters that we had exchanged
in the past years.  Finally, I remembered references to Maria in them.
Vaguely, I remembered that she hadn't been roommates with her for all
of the past 9 years...maybe the past 5 or 6.

"She replaced Tiffany, didn't she?" I asked, trying to pull the
memories from my head.

"Tammy, Mikey," Jamie corrected me.  "Tiffany was my best friend
until her parents pulled her out of Hairy Mounds three years ago."

"Oh.  Right," I replied lamely.

Jamie didn't even pretend to hear me.  "Tammy was a major pain.  I
was so glad when she shacked up with Amber and Maria became my
roommate.  Maria is the ultimate nice person.  You'll see.  I'm so
glad she made it okay.  I was so worried."

I let Jamie lead the conversation, only half listening to her.

Jan had remained at the camp cooking over the revived fire.  She eyed
me quizzically as the small mob broke up to sit near the camp fire.
Jamie had left my side to sit near Maria.  Maybe it was all the years
since we had truly been a family, but I felt a strange pang of jealousy
as I watched her talk animatedly with the other girl.

"Another adventure, boss?" Jan asked quietly.  "Wasn't one
enough?"

I grinned at her in spite of myself.  "I was just going running, Jan.
I didn't expect to find anyone."

"Ah," Jan replied, her attention moving back to her cooking.  The
scent elicited a large grumbling in my stomach.

"That smells pretty good," I remarked.  She was cooking cut up
pieces of meat amid stalks of green on a flat rock that was placed atop
the roaring fire.  "What is it?"

"Salmon, I think," her nose wrinkling in thought.  "Some kind of
fish, anyway.  The boys caught them.  They found this large rock near
the lake and brought it for us to cook on; it holds the heat really
well."

"Probably volcanic," I remarked quietly.  "I think that mountain
back there might be a dormant or extinct volcano."

"Maybe," she replied noncommittally.  "If you're thirsty,
there're some gourds on the other side of the deadwood.    One of the
girls found them dried out in the sun and Sarah hollowed them out
yesterday.  They don't hold much, but there should be a little water
left."

I didn't realize until that moment how thirsty I really was.  I
thanked her and then drank water from two of the gourds.  It was
amazing how much the cool water managed to revive me.  As I drank from
the second gourd, I tried to gather my thoughts somewhat.

We had been overdue for over three days by now.  That meant that there
were probably people out there right now searching for us.   However,
unless they flew very low they were unlikely to see us on the beach.
We'd need to come up with something that could be seen from the air.

"How are we doing?" I asked Jan as I rejoined her by the fire.

"Well, breakfast is nearly done," she replied.

"That wasn't what I was asking, Jan," I said evenly.

She sighed.  "I know."  She grew quiet for a minute.  "I'm a
bit worried about Sarah.  She's been very moody and introspected.  I
think she'll pull out of it...she's been showing some signs...but I
just don't know.

"The girls are taking this fairly well, for the most part.
Morgan's the worst besides Sarah.  I've tried to bring them both
into conversations, but they aren't really talking much.  Elaine is
handling things the best, I think.  She's been going on about how she
knew we were going to be here because of her horoscope or Tarot reading
or something.  She seems in fine spirits, though.  The others are
handling it remarkably well.  I think the 'grand adventure' part of
this whole thing hasn't worn off for them...either that, or they just
don't realize the predicament we're in."

"Well, they've survived a plane crash.  That's a lot for most
adults to handle...us included," I remarked, interrupting her.

"That isn't quite the predicament I was talking about, Mike," Jan
admonished me with a look.  She went on through my protests.
"You're pretty speech last night was really nice and all...but you
have no clue where we are.  No one does.  That storm with hurricane
winds?  It blew us way off course and whatever happened to the
instruments means we couldn't get a bearing.  Then let's throw in
the flat spin of death, the long flight into the ocean in God knows
what direction...there's no way anyone COULD know where we are.

"You can fool everyone else, Mike...but I'm as much a pilot as you.
We're completely lost."

I wanted to argue with her, but the words just died in my throat.  Jan
was the most amazing pilot I'd ever met; she could tell direction
using her women's intuition it seemed.  If she was lost, there was no
way I could pretend otherwise.

"So we have no idea where we are, anyone looking for us doesn't
even know where to begin looking, and it's a mighty big ocean we were
flying over.  Let's face it that our odds of being rescued aren't
really high right now."

"Then there's the male twins...Alex and Tony?...they worry me a
little.  I can't shake this creepy, scary feeling I get whenever
I'm near them.  It's almost as if they aren't taking any of this
seriously; as if this is just some kind of big game to them.  I don't
know how to explain it - they just really weird me out."

"I'll keep an eye on them," I said in what I hoped was a helpful
tone.  Jan just looked at me for a moment, her eyes unreadable.  Then
she returned to her cooking.  "What do you suggest we do to make our
odds better at being found?"

"I don't think we can make our odds better," Jan replied.  "I
think what we need to do is separate into groups and walk off in
different directions.  We can keep one group of people here and use it
as a kind of base camp.  We walk off for a period of time...say, two
days...and if we don't find anyone we come back here.  If we do find
someone, we bring them back here."

"It's not an ideal solution," Jan continued.  "But I don't
think we can just wait around to get rescued...I think we're going to
have to rescue ourselves."


We divided into teams that night and set off the following morning.
Jamie, Beth and I formed one team - mostly because Jamie didn't
want to let me out of her sight and Beth quietly asked if she could
come with us.  Sarah, Karen, and Andrea formed a second group, Jan,
Elaine, and Christine formed a third group, Holly, Liz, and Mattie
formed a fourth group, and Alex, Tony, and Samantha formed the fifth
group.  That left Patricia, Tracey, Morgan and Maria to mind our
'base' camp.

We were each sent in a different direction, my group was going straight
through the forest, Sarah's group would go off at a southern angle
and Jan's group would go south.  Holly's group would go straight
north, and Alex, Tony and Samantha would go in a northern angle, moving
around the mountain as they went.

The trunks had been found to contain a number of cosmetics and other
personal items such as nail clippers, blow dryers, curlers, and such
(there was one small case that Patricia and Tracey were extremely
secretive about; based on the blushes on their faces and the quick way
they grabbed at the case I was pretty sure that the case held lingerie,
nighties and the like).  One trunk, true to Maria's account,
contained bottles of water, sun block, and a number of blankets.  I was
amazed at the amount and weight of things that girls would pack, but
considered it better to keep my thoughts to myself.

Patricia and Tracey's water supply (they had brought a couple of
cases to ward off Montezuma's revenge) was split between all of the
groups so that we each had two bottles of water except the male
twins' group who took the hollowed out gourds because the lake was
directly in their path.  The 'beach' groups -- Jan's group
heading down the south beach and Holly's group heading up the north
beach - also took some fruit along as well as the sun block.  Since
the other three groups were heading straight into the jungle, we
assumed we'd find something to eat along the way.  Finally, we
carried blankets and some large flint rocks that Holly had found the
first day.

The forest was dense, but not impenetrable.  It was, however, slow
going and very hot work.  There was little in the way of breezes, so we
found ourselves sweating profusely almost from the beginning.  Add to
that the countless nicks and cuts we sustained from brushing against
the pliable-looking flora, and we were fairly miserable well before we
could break for lunch.  Jamie and Beth, however, said nothing about it.
In truth, there was little breath left for conversation.

We found a banana tree along our path about mid-day and decided to
stop.  I tried to climb the tree, but my skills left quite a bit to be
desired.  In the end, I boosted Jamie up.  As she climbed over me, her
body brushed against mine and memories of dawn the previous day
flittered through my mind though I tried desperately to stop them.  Her
breasts traced up my face as she climbed, her foot anchoring on my leg
and it was all I could do not to open my mouth for just a moment.  I
knew that I should turn my head, but I couldn't -- dreading the
contact on one hand and relishing it on the other.  However, when she
slipped and the juncture of her legs made contact with my face - when
I could imagine the scent of her drifting across my nose - I could
deny my hunger no longer and I pressed my nose into her for the barest
fraction of a second.

If she noticed, she said nothing, only continued climbing up on my
shoulders and then into the tree to gather the fruit.  I, however,
trembled with a mixture of carnal lust and shame at not being able to
control myself better.

Jamie and Beth whispered quietly as we ate, but I had neither the
energy nor the curiosity to eavesdrop.  My mind was a confused swirl of
emotions, desires and morality.  I could not tell what was happening to
me, how I could think to betray my sister after all of the other pain I
had heaped upon her in this lifetime nor how I could think to betray my
own sense of what was right and wrong.  I was yet fighting a battle
within me; I had the unpleasant feeling that no matter which side won,
I lost.

That single thought over-shadowed me as we started out again.  It
haunted me as we made our way painstakingly through the verdant forest.
It echoed throughout my mind until I no longer wanted to think, no
longer wanted to dwell upon it.  I promised myself that no matter what
else happened, I would not harm my sister in that way.  I would not
ever cross that line.

As dusk began to settle into the trees, we came across a smallish lake
that was fed by a small stream from somewhere to the north.  We crossed
the stream and decided to camp for the night, using the lake as our
haven.  The girls unwrapped the blankets we had carried on our backs
and lay them along the river while I gathered some dry firewood and
underbrush.  It took me some time - I was unfamiliar with flint --
but I managed to get a blaze going.

Jamie looked at Beth and I speculatively.  "Well, I don't know
about the two of you, but after that long march, I could use a swim.
I'm tired, dirty, bloody and I'm pretty sure I smell."  She said
it as if it were a question, gauging our mood.

Beth just looked at me as I turned to my sister.  "Sis, we don't
have swimming trunks or a change of clothes.  If you take a swim now
you're going to be very uncomfortable in those wet clothes
tomorrow."

"Well," Jamie replied, her eyes turning to Beth and a small, sly
smile slowly creeping across her face.  "I wasn't planning on
getting my clothes wet."

I began to ask her what she meant...but my words stuck in my throat as
she pulled her shirt from over her head.  "Surely even YOU have heard
of skinny dipping, brother dear."

She wore no bra and at the sight of the supple, round orbs that adorned
her chest a choked cry escaped me.  She was beautiful, her full round
breasts defying the gravity that begged to hold them down.  I
couldn't look but I couldn't stand not to look.  My breath was gone
from me as my eyes beheld the firm stomach below her amazing breasts.

"Geez, Bro!" she rebuked me lightly, but there was a hesitant
little laugh within her words.  "Put your eyes back in your head!
Maria said you liked to look, but for pity's sake!"  With a giggle,
she stood and my eyes had to follow her.

It didn't really register in my head as her shorts dropped around her
feet.  All I could see was the smooth perfection of her butt, the dark,
inviting crevice where my length had been nestled only yesterday, and
the limber flesh of her gorgeous legs vanishing beneath it all.  It
wasn't until she ran into the water that I was again able to breathe.

"Wow," Beth said and I turned to look at her again, noticing her
for what seemed the first time.  "I'm...uh...not
as...uh...free...could you please look away?"

I didn't register her words for a moment, my mind shocked into
submission.  Finally, though the words penetrated the growing fog.

"Oh.  Right.  Sorry."  I turned my head and closed my eyes.  After
a few minutes I heard her splash.

"Okay...you can look now."  Beth called to me.  I looked
half-expecting to see her there, but she had disappeared under the cool
water of the lake.

"Mikey, come on," Jamie called to me.  "The water is great.  In
the center its maybe 15 feet deep, but everywhere else seems to be a
bit shallower."

I didn't trust myself.  I didn't trust what I might do in the water
with the two nude young women.  I didn't trust my ability to maintain
my resolve.  Finally, though, the heat of the day and the long march
got the better of me.  I moved off into the shadows and discreetly
removed my clothing.  From out in the water I heard Jamie laughing at
me.

The water was cool as I ran into it and it almost immediately soothed
the pains of the day away.  I felt serene, maybe even happy as I swam
within it -- like all of my troubles were gone.  I was at peace.

We swam for a while, separately but together.  I wanted to swim to my
sister and touch her, feel her, run my lips along the softness of her
skin.  My body screamed at me to do it, but I held myself to my
promise.  The line must not be crossed.

For a while, as I swam around the center of the lake, I heard them
whispering and giggling in the shallow edges.  From where I was,
though, I could not make out any words and I found myself too lazy to
swim closer.  Instead, I decided it was probably better for them to
have their secrets.

Finally, the night grew dark and we only had the flickering light of
the fire for company.  We stood at the edge of the lake, then, me waist
deep and the girls hunched over.  For a long moment we looked from one
of us to another, not knowing what to do or what to say.  No one wanted
to make the first move.

"Oh, for pete's sake," my sister groaned impatiently.  She began
walking out of the water and I was again treated to the soft swell of
her buttocks and the sheen of her perfect skin glistening in the fire
light.  Her red hair radiated in the firelight and the soft reflection
of the water on her skin made her seem like a dream come to life.  She
stopped and hunched over the fire, warming herself.

"The two of you might as well come out," she called to us softly.
There was determination in her voice, but also the slight tremble of
fear or excitement.  "I'm not putting on those dirty clothes to
sleep, so you're going to catch my nudity anyway."

Beth and I stood for a moment and then resolutely began walking out of
the water.  When we realized we were both moving we stopped suddenly,
each of us waiting for the other.  The comedy of it all hit each of us
then, and we burst out laughing.  It wasn't much, but it was enough
and Beth and I walked out and joined Jamie at the fire.

Beth was very cute, the dark caramel of her skin almost glowing as the
fire light touched her.  Her black hair was thick and lush, and it hung
in great frizzly waves down the side of her face.  Her breasts were
pert and large and her nipples crinkled enticingly as they strained in
the cool night air.  She had the barest hint of fat on her, but rather
than detracting from her it enhanced her beauty.  Her behind was full
and lush and I caught myself wondering what it would feel like to bury
my face in it.

As she crouched, my eyes were drawn to the soft splay of her legs.  She
was covered with a wondrous mat of soft hair around her sex and I could
almost taste how they would feel between my lips.  I wondered what it
would feel like to have my tongue inside of her.  I wondered what it
would feel like to bury my cock in it.  I wondered what it would feel
like to go to jail for statutory rape.

The last thought cooled my ardor if only for a moment.  As I looked up,
Beth was watching my face.  She knew where I had been looking and did
nothing to cover herself.  And when our eyes met, she didn't look
away.

I almost didn't notice my cock growing hard beneath me.  It didn't
matter.  As our eyes held each other, everything else faded into the
distance.  There was nothing but the two of us, nothing but this
eternal moment where we were together.  It held us both and would not
let us go.

"Wow, Mikey," Jamie whispered.  Her words broke into the trance
that held Beth and I, and I realized almost belatedly that we weren't
alone after all.  "I really need to start calling you my BIG
brother."

I blushed, my hand moving to the 9 inch length of my swollen manhood.
I covered myself with my hands and moved away, folding my blanket over
me and then scooting closer to the fire.  I couldn't help but see
Jamie's face as she watched me.  There was discomfort in her eyes and
indecision, as if she were holding herself back form some unseen
precipice.  There was also a sort of strange strain in her eyes that
both intrigued me and frightened me.

I drifted off to sleep with the two girls whispering animatedly to one
another.


I woke to that strange half-sleep where reality and dreams mixed
interchangeably.  Something was different, but in my stupor I
couldn't tell what.  My blanket had been tossed open and the cool air
fought with the heat of the dying fire on my skin.  I began to reach
for the blanket to cover myself again when another sensation intruded
upon my consciousness.

A warm wetness engulfed my turgid member.

I opened my eyes suddenly awake, the last vestiges of sleep abandoning
me.  Between my legs, her brown eyes looking up at me sexily, Beth
slowly bobbed her head on my glistening cock.

"Beth," I started moving to remove her, but neither my arms nor my
voice had much strength to them.

"Shhh," she whispered, taking her mouth from me.  "You'll wake
Jamie."

I watched as she extended her tongue and drew it down the long length
of my shaft.

"I wanted to do this for days now," she whispered anew, her hand
slowly jacking my member.  "Consider it a thank you present."  Then
she engulfed the head of my dick in her warm mouth.

"Beth, please," I began quietly, a groan growling through me from
her ministrations.  "You don't have to do this.  I don't need to
be thanked."  But I somehow lacked the strength to pull her from my
shaft.

"Oh, but I do," she whispered back, her mouth again moving from my
penis.  "I've been so horny for this, I almost couldn't stand it.
Besides, think of all the wonderful ways that you can thank me for my
thank you present.  My poor little pussy is just drenched thinking
about it.  Not now, though.  Right now, I want to taste you.  I want to
eat your cum.  A girl has to keep up her protein, you know."

"But," I replied softly, my mind running out of objections.
"I'm twice your age!"

The smile she gave me was somehow both sweet and sexy.  "That's
just all part of the fun.  Boys my age are just...boys.  You though, I
think you'll know how to treat my pussy.  I'm really looking
forward to it.

"Right now, though, I want to drink of you.  I want you to cum down
my throat."

Something inside me broke then, something very small but significant.
As she plunged her mouth down over my cock, I no longer wanted to stop
it.  I no longer wanted the young girl to take her mouth off my cock.
Morality be damned, I no longer cared her age.  I just wanted her.

Her head began bobbing slowly as she rolled my balls in her hand.  She
was gentle and wonderful and the warm sounds of her suckling mouth
combined with the soft popping of the fire had me in their spell.  I
felt my hips bucking up to meet her mouth, and I watched her eyes hold
mine as her mouth met each of my thrusts.  She couldn't take me
completely though; I could feel my head bumping against the back of her
throat.  She tried, though, and what she couldn't fit in her mouth
she covered with her gently pumping hand.

Her tongue whipped itself around my glans with each outward stroke and
my eyes closed, my head thrashing from side to side.  Her mouth plunged
up and down and my hips met her thrust for thrust.  The soft ballooning
of her cheeks as I moved within her, the look of adoration on her face,
the feel of her gentle fingers strumming on my sack...it all was too
much.  I turned my head towards the fire, slowly moving towards the
point of my release but not wanting it to arrive.  I wanted to feel
this way forever, never removing my dick from that special place.

My eyes, however, met Jamie's.  She was watching us, that look of
strained indecision on her face.  I watched her for a moment before she
realized I was looking at her, and I saw her eyes following Beth's
head as she bobbed down upon me.  I watched the tip of her tongue swipe
slowly and gently at her lips, her eyes never moving from the sight of
the joining of my cock and Beth's mouth.

Finally, she realized I was watching her and she looked.  Our eyes met
for a moment that was an eternity.  There was no anger on her lips, no
betrayal in her eyes, but there was a hunger of some kind that I could
not quite place.  As I felt Beth's throat giving way, as I felt the
length of me traveling down her neck, Jamie blew me a kiss and it was
all I needed to send me over the edge.

"Oh God," I groaned, no longer concerned whether Jamie could hear
me or not.  "I'm coming.  God, Beth, I'm coming down your
throat."

And I did, spurt after spurt of my seed bursting into Beth's mouth.
She pulled her mouth out a little and a look of rapture came over her
face as I emptied myself in her waiting mouth.  I watched as she
swallowed, watched as my cock jumped and jerked in her lips.  She took
it all and let none escape.

When I was done, she slid up my body, her breasts dragging across me,
her hard nipples lighting my skin on fire.  She hugged me close, her
mouth inches from my ear.  "Thank you, Mikey.  I wanted that so
badly.  Next time, it's your turn.  Next time, I want your tongue in
my pussy until I scream and then I want to suck your cock with my lower
lips.  Think you can handle that?"

I could only nod, caution and morality thrown to the wind.  For a
moment, we stayed like that...then she sucked briefly at my neck and
moved away.  I groaned in disappointment.

"I was going to cuddle with you tonight," she whispered as she drew
away.  "But I hear you have a tendency to leave girls hanging when
that happens.  So I guess I'll just leave for now and we'll have to
find some time when you can put those wonderful muscles of yours to
good use.  Anticipation is half the fun, isn't it?"

I watched her crawl on her blanket and pull it over herself.  Her words
echoed in my mind until I understood them.  As the implication of her
words hit me, I turned to Jamie's blanket, but she had already rolled
over.


We woke in the morning and cleaned up the camp.  It was surreal, no one
talked of the previous night and Beth had once again become the shy
little girl that I remembered.  I wondered if I might have dreamed the
whole thing, wondered if my over-active imagination had conjured up a
fantasy that I so wanted to be real.  The infrequent looks at me from
Beth, however, assured me that last night had been no dream.

Beth had a playful frown on her face as I got dressed.

The second day was as hard as the first, but I felt almost renewed.
Meanwhile, Beth and Jamie took to whispering and giggling and I began
to worry about what they were talking about.  Try as I might, though, I
was unable to overhear any of their conversation.

We were pushing ourselves hard, me trying to escape the demons I had
loosed last night and the girls trying to keep up with me.  I was about
to call out, about to end the second day, when we suddenly broke
through the edge of the forest.  The sun was hanging moments above the
lip of the sea, the arcs of its amber fire stretching out like fingers
above us as we came rather suddenly out onto a sandy beach.

"Did we go the wrong way, Mikey?" Jamie asked me, but the sun was
beginning its long descent into the sea and I knew better.  "Did we
get turned around?"

"No, Jamie.  It looks like there's an opposite shore.
Maybe...maybe we're on a peninsula."  Deep in the pit of my
stomach, however, I knew that I was lying.  I knew that there was but
one explanation and I shrank away from that realization.  We stood
there for a moment, just gazing out at the sea, none of us had any
words for how we were feeling.  The lap of the surf pounded loudly in
our ears, and I could feel myself begin a long spiral into the pit of
despair.

We heard soft shouts around us and turned around, believing for just a
second that someone had found us, that we were saved.  As we turned to
the shouts, however, our hearts sank even as they were elated.  The
shouts were coming from a large group that we recognized.

We walked towards the group half in dejection and half in elation.  As
we approached, I was able to pick out the faces of Jan, Holly, Sarah,
Karen, Liz and some others.  I didn't see the boys however, nor
Samantha who was with them.  Still, the significance of their presence
on this shore slowly sank in.  As we neared, our worst fears were
confirmed.

"It's an island, Mike," Jan called to me.  "We're on a
god-damn island."

-- 
Pursuant to the Berne Convention, this work is copyright with all rights
reserved by its author unless explicitly indicated.
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