Young Writers Society

Susan somehow managed to reach the shore without falling off her raft just as Eliza heaved Martha onto the sand. Eliza stopped for a second and without turning she said, "I found some things on my raft. Will you please unload them onto the sand and organize them?"

Susan stood their dumbfounded for a moment as Eliza limped away from the water to a small patch of grass, where orange hibiscus flowers were growing. After gathering herself, Susan managed to turn away from the scene and did as she was told, paddling back out to where Eliza's raft lay abandoned and began to pile things into her own float, being careful to balance it so that nothing fell back into the water.

It took her a few minutes to get it all together before she managed to somehow pull herself up onto Eliza's raft and paddle inwards, the flamingo floating along with the cargo in front of her. She paddled at a much slower pace, her hands tired from the furious paddling that she had done earlier.

As she reached the show, she could see Eliza digging away at the sand, single handedly carving out a hole to bury her friend. A solitary tear making its way down her cheek at the sadness visible in Eliza's eyes, Susan began to pile things out onto the sand, letting the task distract her for the time being as night slowly began to creep up on them.

As soon finished up with her task, she slowly made her way over to Eliza, careful not to make any loud noises to startle her. As she watched from a few feet away, Eliza seemed to finally be satisfied with the hole that she had made. She picked up the body of her fallen friend and held her close.

Susan couldn't help the few tears that fell as she heard Eliza whisper a final goodbye to her friend, promising to take care of someone that Susan assumed was probably a boyfriend judging by the way that Eliza referred to him. Eliza laid the body in the grave and gracefully set the girl's arms over her chest. She began to cover the body.

Susan watched quietly as she waited for Eliza to be done with her single minded task. Once Eliza was done she patted the sand firmly and sat down by the grave. Susan could just about make out a whispered 'Goodbye' and Eliza closed her eyes, the full weight of the situation probably finally hitting her now that he job was done.

Susan's first instinct was to stay away. It wasn't like she knew a single thing about dealing with death. But she didn't think that would be the brightest of ideas. She remembered a time when her father had talked about losing someone, a while ago when she'd been curious about her great grandparents. He'd mentioned something about bottling grief and how it was bad for one's health.

And so she gently sat down beside Eliza. Not quite knowing what to do, she gently put a hand on the girl's back and waited, not uttering a single word.

Week 4 --- Post 3/5 --- 524 words

Eliza felt footsteps come up behind, and she saw Susan sit beside her. She put a hand on Eliza's back.

They sat in silence as the sky darkened, then Eliza wiped her tears away. She took a deep, hitched breath, and put her arm around Susan's shoulder. She hugged her as a silent means of thanks.

"The others should be here soon," she said in a raw voice. "We should go, build a fire, and find something to eat."

She slowly stood up, trying to find the feeling in her legs, and offered her hand to Susan. She kept her arm around Susan's shoulder as they walked back to the shore.

Week 4-- Post 4/5-- 121 words

Susan stayed there, silent and hoping that her presence was doing something to help Eliza even though Eliza didn't seem ready to be saying thing. The time passed by rapidly, flying away as they sat there, Susan trying her best not to look at the mound where she knew Eliza's friend lay.

Then finally Eliza moved. She wiped her tears away, taking a deep hitched breath that made Susan wince. She put an arm around Susan's shoulder and hugged her. Susan held her gently knowing this was probably her way of saying thanks.

"The others should be here soon," said Eliza, her voice raw from crying, "We should go, build a fire, and find something to eat."

Susan nodded quickly. She had no idea how to do any of those things, but she damned if she wasn't going to do her best to help out.

Eliza slowly got to her feet and offered her hand to Susan. Susan took it, hauling herself onto her feet. They were numb from sitting in one place for that long. They kept an arm around each other as they wandered towards the shore.

They walked in silence, Susan trusting that Eliza would talk about it when she was ready to.

Week 4 --- Post 4/5 --- 206 words

Jack held Moira, trying to give her the comfort she needed while grieving her friend. She was crying, she was laughing, and she was telling her story... and Jack sat there in silence, letting her cry, laugh, and speak.

He did feel sympathy for her, but at the same time, he felt fear. Fear that the same would happen to him. While comforting Moira, Jack was concentrating on the features of the bodies around them. Their face, their hair, their clothes—were any of them matching Olivia's?

Time passed and the sun was setting. The sea was silent without movement besides the steady wave of the ocean.

There were no other survivors.

At least, not yet. He didn't see Olivia's body. There was still hope.

"We should head back," he said to Moira softly, pulling away and paddling back towards the island.

They headed back towards the island in silence, leaving behind the bodies of the deceased.

Week 4 -- Post 5/5 -- 157 words

As Eliza and Susan walked back to their supplies, Jack and Moira were pulling their rafts out of the water. To her dismay, they didn't have many supplies, but Moira's eyes were red and puffy, and Eliza knew she had lost someone too.

"I'll make a fire," she said quietly, sitting down, for her foot was killing her. Thankfully, there was broken wood around them, so she gathered them up. But there were no matches to be found; and if there were, they would be too wet.

"Susan and Jack, will you two get some stones, preferably flint?" she asked. The two nodded and left towards the woods. While Eliza waited, she set the wood on top of each other.

Susan and Jack returned, carrying stones, so Eliza put those stones around the wood. She struck two rocks together a couple of times until sparks landed on the wood, creating a roaring fire.

Her stomach grumbled, so Eliza stood up, relying on her walking stick.

"I'm going to see if we can cook some fish," she said, and she limped to the water. Eliza pointed the edge of her walking stick down and waited silently. The setting sun made it hard, but she could still see a shadow of a fish. It swam closer, so Eliza raised her walking stick and threw it down, impaling the fish.

After it stopped struggling, Eliza walked back to their "camp" and skinned and gutted it. She stuck it over the fire.

"It's not much, but it'll keep us fed until morning," said Eliza.

Week 4-- Post 5/5-- 260 words

Susan walked back to the pile of supplies in silence. The other two were also pulling in on a raft. The look on Moira's face was not encouraging. If Susan had to bet, she'd say that Moira had also run into a loved one on the way to the raft. She didn't dwell on it however, as Eliza asked her to go get some rocks. She had no idea where she would find flint but thankfully she knew what it looked like and with Jack's help it wasn't too hard to locate.

Eliza got to work quickly, building a fire and then hunting for a fish, which she somehow pulled off with a walking stick despite her broken leg. Susan had to watch, feeling like an idiot the whole time as Eliza, skinned the fish and gutted it, before rinsing it out a bit and putting it over the fire on a stick.

"Its not much," said Eliza, "but it will keep us fed till morning."

"That's fine," said Susan, "thank you for doing so much. You're really good at this whole survival thing. I don't even want to attempt to imagine what would happen if I was on this island just by myself."

Susan went quiet at the end of that, realizing that even though it had been a few hours no one had come looking for them. Ships of the size they'd been in did take a good hour or two to sink and had a tendency to drag anything nearby down with them so a lifeboat would have had to get as far away as possible but by now there had to have been enough time for them to circle around. She was suddenly struck with a horrifying thought. What if Dad thought that I was dead? What if they said there were no survivors in this area? After all the sea nearby has so many bodies. And they must have seen that the spa was blocked off. They might have presumed us to be dead and set sail to some other landmass. She didn't know what to believe in anymore. She settled for staring at the fire and watching the fish cook. She would give things another day before jumping to conclusions.

Week 4 --- Post 5/5 --- 377 words

none of them heard me,
but how could that be?
i'm sure of it reaching
from here to the sea.

no eyes turned to me,
not one two or three.
perhaps they were waiting,
to see who they'd see?

but no, they had gone about doing their tasks,
their focus alone on forgetting the past.
in hundreds of year- first day to the last,
not one thing could make me look more like an-

"Wait a minute. There must be something I'm missing. The sun still reaches these sands, and no evil dare stand in it's rays. When the moon is out, these children shall know evil's gaze."

It wasn't long now before the sailors would understand what they had stumbled upon. It seemed to be out of the Captain's hands, and so as he had done since he first arrived on the island, he decided to sit back and wait for his time to come.

word count: 156 words

The evening seemed to go by as a blur.

As Jack pulled back up to shore with Moira, he was trying to think of ways to keep the group together and survive. There were no other survivors that he could see; they were alone, and they had to figure it out themselves. He didn't have an answer to how or if they were going to make it out of here, and even though he didn't know these girls at all, he somehow felt responsible for them... like they were the three girls of his family.

Jack couldn't keep up with his head being so fuzzy and brimming with five thoughts a second, so he was secretly grateful when Eliza took the assumed leadership role to make a fire and catch fish. He was honestly very impressed with her; she was able to do all this with a broken foot, and even engineered her own cast using the resources available. He knew if Olivia was here, she would say she was proud of her.

Dusk fell as Eliza started to cook the fish.

Jack looked around. He noticed there was a man-made mound in the sand nearby, and he wondered if it was a burial. He didn't want to pry and ruin the peaceful moment.

"What kind of supplies did you find?" he asked to Eliza and Susan.

Week 5 -- Post 1/5 -- 227 words

By the time Jack and Moira made it back to shore, it was nearly dark and Eliza had already started a fire. They hadn't found much on their excursion, only the wreckage of the ship that Moira could only assume was now at the bottom of the ocean. Like Jack, Moira stared at the mound of sand, and it gave her an uneasy feeling. She didn't want to press it further.

Instead, Moira sat next to the fire. There was a part of her that wanted to be the one cooking the fish. She was a good cook, after all, and it was probably where she'd be most useful in the days ahead. She hugged her knees to her chest, and thought about her friends. She thought about the people back home who would assume that she too was dead.

She was too weak to cry now. Instead, she started to sing what was in her head. Maybe it was morbid, but she didn't care.

Every night in my dreams
I see you, I feel you
That is how I know you go on...

She was too busy staring down at the sand, at her feet blackened with dirt and grime, to notice anyone's reaction.

Week 5 -- Post 1/4 -- 179 words

Another five more minutes and the fish would be done.

"I found some clothes, silverware, and a first-aid kit," said Eliza, gesturing to the piles Susan had set up. Speaking of silverware...

"The fish will be done soon," she said. Eliza handed around four plates and a fork each. She looked up at the sky. Millions of stars twinkled. Eliza didn't know her constellations, or astronomy very well, but she was willing to bet that some of those stars were other planets.

"You know, I've never seen so many stars before," she said. "The city's lights usually block them out."

Eliza poked her fork into the fish and was pleased to see the fish flake. "Hold your plates up," she said. Eliza struggled to cut the fish with only a fork, but she managed to do it, although it was a little messy.

"Bon appetit," she said gloomily, trying not to look at Martha's grave.

Week 5-- Post 1/5-- 155 words

The darkness was really starting to get pronounced as the time seemed to quickly fly by. The fish roasted away on the fire, crackling at random intervals. After a few minutes, Jack, asked them about what they had managed to find. Susan opened her mouth to reply but Eliza was already answering and she let her talk, not wanting to talk anymore than necessary. She still wasn't a hundred percent sure if the man was going to start yelling. He seemed a lot less wound up than earlier but it never hurt to be careful.

Eliza then announced that the fish would be done soon and she moved to get the silverware from the piles that she had set up. She handed four plates and forks off to Eliza, who served up the fish to the four of them, cutting it up into even chunks with a fork. It came out a little messy but Susan didn't care about that at the moment. It was cooked beautifully and it flaked nicely which meant it was going to taste good and that was all that was necessary. Eliza mentioned something about never seeing so many stars before before she began eating with a "Bon Appetit".

"I've seen the stars more times than I can count," said Susan. "My sister loves them, and she always drags me along. It is quite relaxing, isn't it?"

Week 5 --- Post 1/5 --- 232 words

When Jack first arrived at the beach, there was, of course, hysteria to figure out what they could do to survive and find other potential survivors. Now, here they were, eating roasted fish on ceramic plates and polished silverware, sitting in front of a fire, listening to songs, and gazing up at the stars.

If he didn't know any better, he'd have thought they were here on purpose on vacation.

He took some bites of the fish and looked up at the sky after hearing Susan's comments. Despite the circumstances they were in, Jack did admit that the sky was rather beautiful. It was virtually impossible to stargaze in London.

He shifted his gaze over to Moira. She had a pleasant voice even if it was a little shaky, but... was she singing that song from the Titanic? Awful song selection, although without knowing it was from the Titanic, the lyrics were rather comforting.

"Thank you for cooking, Eliza," he said after he finished the meal. "And also..." He paused to put his plate down, trying to find the words he was looking for. "I'm sorry for yelling at everyone earlier. I wanted to make sure we caught any survivors in time, but..." He trailed off, unable to finish his sentence: But we didn't find any.

Week 5 -- Post 2/5 -- 216 words

Eliza took small bites of her fish, chewing them slowly, and trying to make it last. When Jack spoke up, she crossed her legs.

"It was no problem," she said, "and I forgive you. It was stressful and scary. It takes a lot of self-control to not freak out."

"I wanted to make sure we caught any survivors in time, but..." Jack trailed off, so Eliza finished the sentence for him.

"...But there are no survivors," she said, her breath hitching slightly. She stole a look at Martha's grave and looked down. Eliza had promised Martha that she would take care of John, but...she had lost hope. John was dead. His body was lost at sea.

Tears trickled down her cheeks, but Eliza wiped them away. She couldn't cry, not in front of them.

Moira started singing, and Eliza listened to her. She had a pretty voice, and it was comforting to hear amid the crackling of the fire and the water lapping onto the beach.

"So, Jack. Why did you decide to come to our great land of America?" asked Eliza sarcastically. "England sounds like a much better place to live."

Week 5-- Post 2/5-- 195 words

Moira trailed off with the song. It had been a while since she'd sung anything. Before Stephen, really, and she had forgotten what it had felt like to let other people hear her voice. She knew from the way they looked over at her they were listening.

She looked up at the stars. It really was beautiful, and it's not like you could ever see stars like this in the city. Too much light pollution. Moira remembered-- had it only been last night?-- when she thought the next trip, whenever that might be, had to be camping. Or something else like that. Off the beaten path. This would have been nice if not for their circumstances.

Eliza turned and asked Jack why he decided to come to America.

"Probably not too many cruises leaving from Britain," Moira said quietly, even though she knew that no one had asked for her opinion. "Though it does seem nice."

Week 5 -- Post 2/4 -- 155 words

Susan listened a Jack made his apology. She hadn't expected to be hearing one but going over how stressful the situation must have been, it did at least make sense. She nodded at him through a bite of fish, smiling and hoping that he got the message that it was fine. The way he trailed off in his thoughts made her uneasy however.

As Eliza finished the sentence for him exactly as she had imagined it to end, Susan couldn't help but feel uneasy, nor could she miss the fact that tears were streaming down Eliza's face even as she wiped them away quickly. She really hoped that he theory about the life boats were true. If it isn't... She couldn't finish the thought. Even entertaining the idea that something like that could have happened was too horrible.

Then Moira started to sing and she focused on that, allowing herself to get lost in it as she looked up at the sky. It really was one of the clearest skies that she had ever seen. Daph would love to be here. I hope she's having fun. Hopefully they all are and not worrying about me and dad. Oh no. They're going to hear about this on the news aren't they. They're gonna think I died. Oh God. Mom will be...Oh no...I have to get off this island somehow. I have to survive.

Week 5 --- Post 2/5 --- 234 words