Chapter Text
After Smackle had cut her father’s leg off, Riley was completely out of it. She didn’t want to eat or drink any of the food they had salvaged from the wreckage. Her body felt numb, and her father hadn’t woken up yet.
“Come on Riles, just eat some corn nuts, for me?” Maya pestered, but Riley didn’t move to grab them from her best friend’s hand.
“Way too be ungrateful, Riley,” Smackle snarked, chomping on a peanut.
“You just chopped her dad’s leg off, four-eyes, cut her some slack!” Maya shot back, putting a protective arm around Riley. She wasn’t going to let them bully her friend and mentor, not now.
–
“Well I don’t know about you all, but I don’t want to sit around anymore,” Lucas cleared his throat, “I’m going to search around and see if I can find anything.”
He stumbled off before he could have anything added to his plan, good or bad.
Zay watched his friend wander off before looking over to Riley and Maya. The latter was curled around the former, and huddled around their teacher. Zay walked over to them with a cloth and his water ration, pouring a bit of the water onto the cloth he decided to try and clean Mr. Matthew’s face up.
This action, while sweet and genuine, startled both girls were startled and jumped as Mr. Matthews moved as Zay blotted his face.
“Sorry,” Zay mumbled, “I just wanted to clean the blood.”
He moved away a bit before Riley grabbed his arm, nodding that it was all right for him to stay, and leaned back into Maya’s arms. The blonde nodded at him before wrapping her arms around the brunette and leaning up against a tree again.
This was going to be a bad time.
–
Farkle wandered around in the trees for a bit, they all looked the same.
He knew they weren’t the same, obviously his science brain knew, but the trauma and the effects of a plane crash had made him feel like nothing was distinguishable and it all was monotonous and the same. There was nothing real about this to him.
How did their plane, pay-rolled by his own father, crash into, what he assumed, were the Canadian Rockies?
This was never supposed to happen to them, him and his friend were supposed to make it to the end. They were supposed to make it out of highschool and into college, all of them together, and now some of them were dead.
–
As the group wallowed in their misery, Lucas returned, overly cheery for their dire situation.
“I found a lake!” He yelled, running into camp, and cheered.
Everyone, but Mr. Matthews, stood to attention at that. The prospect of a lake and maybe something to do, water to drink, and a food source, was enough to have everyone up and ready to go.
“Where?” Maya questioned.
“About a mile down the way, it’s perfect!”
“Why should we leave the plane?” Farkle questioned.
“Why shouldn’t we?” Maya pushed back, knowing how dire the situation was, seeing how it was affecting Riley.
“What if rescue-”
“Rescue isn’t coming!” she snapped, “So grab your shit and let’s go.”
Everyone else seemed to get the memo that Maya wasn’t playing around at the moment and started to pack up. Even Farkle reluctantly got his things gathered.
“Peaches,” Maya gently pushed, “We’re going to go and move locations, you got it, ok?”
Riley nodded, getting up and helping someone move her dad onto a stretcher.
-
“There it is!” someone, maybe a blonde or red headed girl yelled, pointing to the lake.
All of the students took after her, running down the hill to make it to the water. The kids stripped down to their undergarments on the shoreline before diving or wading in. They had qualms about cleanliness or being seen “half-naked” anymore.
“It was way longer than a mile,” Smackle remarked, her face red with exertion.
“Well, at least I contributed good to the group,” Lucas shot back, before going to dive into the water.
Smackle huffed, organizing everyone’s things before sitting down with Mr. Matthews on shore to watch everyone play, she had never liked water or swimming and was happy to sit this bonding activity out.
The rest of the class was not as content, Riley and Maya were currently locked in a chicken stalemate with Lucas and Zay with Farkle as the referee, and some of the other classmates were playing Marco-Polo.
Mr. Matthews was well enough to sit up and smile at his daughter and her friends, watching her play was the best medicine he could get out here. Losing his leg was the worst way to start a vacation but he was starting to gain some timeless memories from this experience it seemed.
–
Just as the sun started to set, Farkle was looking at the skyline. He always loved the sky, space, all of the unknown.
The thoughts consumed him, almost causing him to miss the reflective mirror-like glare he saw from the corner of his eye.
“Guys?” He said, pointing to the ridge above the lake, “I think there is something up there?”
Farkle’s tone was questioning, and a bit worrisome, but it got the attention of almost everyone, who turned to look and saw the same glare.
“What the fuck is that?” Lucas cursed.
“I’m not sure?”
“Well let’s go check it out!” the Texan gestured, running to the shore and making a beeline for the direction of the glare.
“Are you sure-” Riley started.
“What’s the worst that could happen,” Zay assured, smiling as he put his shirt on, “Our plane already crashed, can’t get much worse than that!”