Chapter 3

Blinding light... The raucous chatter of birds. A blaze of light against her closed eyelids, pink and burning. The smells of salt, decaying vegetation in her nostrils. Her heart was pounding. Lisa-Marie lay still, snaking as if shed just been trample by a stampede of wild horses. Finally she groaned, rolled over, opened her eyes.

She winced as sun glare sent needles into Lisa-Maries tender eyeballs. It took several seconds for her vision to clear. She sat up, groaned again as every over stretched muscle, every scrape, every fresh bruise sent out a chorus of agonised protest.

Lisa-Marie looked around in confusion, the sunlight bouncing off the water so brightly she had to turn away, temporally blinded by the glare. the beach and around a point of land covered with trees. No sign of human occupation was visible, and she could imagine that she was alone in the world. Across the narrow strip of white sand the jungle began. From here it looked impenetrable, a wall of high, green foliage so dark it was almost black. The spaces between the thick, waxy brown trunks were choked with weeds, brambles, and thick-leafed undergrowth. She saw sharp flashes of colour in the canopies of the trees, and heard strange sounding bird cries.

She wobbled to her feet and nearly fell back down when a wave of dizziness swept over her. But she held on, just barely managing to keep her balance, and finally, still swaying slightly, took another look at her surroundings from her new vantage point.

Tears welled up in her eyes and blinded the sights in front of her. She fell to her knees in the sand and heaved out heavy sobs of grief and loss.

Shit!!!!! She told herself to stop being so fucking silly. She had never even cried this hard over anything not since running away from home at fifteen.

Stretching to her full height Lisa-Marie brushed the loose sand from her flawless skin, staggering across the thin strip of sand she entered the thick undergrowth of the islands jungle, pushing the hanging vines and vegetation back Lisa-Marie forced a path through the dense underbrush, as she hunted for drinkable water... A strange strong heady aroma was given off by the jungle vegetation which was sweet and rich, as her path immediately closed behind her, almost if the island was removing any evidence of her passing.

But for the first time in the last two days luck was with the young actress this as she came upon a small brackish pool of water trapped between a tangle of tree roots, drinking deeply from her cupped hands, Lisa-Marie sated her thirst, rocking back on her snakes Lisa-Marie considered her options.

Survival was utmost, water, food, shelter, hopefully the pilots had sent a mayday, and some form of rescue was already on the way. Now all she could do was await that rescue an survive as best she could until they found her.

Returning to the beach Lisa-Marie trawled the shoreline, she spotted some clams buried in sand at the edge of the beach, washed ashore by the violent currents, scooping the meat out of the clams shells, Lisa-Marie gingerly ate the slimy flesh as she stood at the tides edge, gazing outwards at the sea savouring her first meals for two days.

A furrow marred her perfect features through out the day she spotted, not one search plane, not even a high contrail from a passing commercial jet. How far had the raft taken her, from the crash site, how long, if ever would it take her rescuers to find her. Realising this dreadful possibility, Lisa-Marie came to a decision, that until help arrived, it was up to Lisa-Marie to rescue herself.

So in the morning she would start, by first exploring her island, and so without a backward glance at the ocean Lisa-Marie settled into a depression in the sand for the night underneath the blanket of silent watching stars.