Part 1. 

In the darkness that had occurred when the light went out, he reached out for anything to hold onto, to keep him afloat. The cold dark, raging water toyed with him and he cried out for the others. A bright light from lightning in the sky above lit up the world and he saw a figure come to the surface farther away from him. He dove into the water, swimming towards this figure.

  “Hey!” He yelled and grabbed the person who was struggling to keep himself above the water. Another bright light lit up the wreckage of the boat that had tipped over and was now sinking into the water. A of horror hit his chest and he gazed upon the person in front of him. “Ten?” He asked as he noticed the round face, black hair and wide brown eyes staring back at him.

  “Johnny!” The other exclaimed and they both turned around to look for any other survivors. Another boy was yelling somewhere near and the two boys recognized the owner of the voice. “Jaehyun!” Ten yelled.

  “Over here!” Johnny tried to wave, but a wave nearly separated the two boys that kept a strong hold on each other. Ten’s fingers were digging into Johnny’s skin, but the cold water had numbed him, he barely felt the pain. Darkness embraced them and they shivered in the cold water. “Jaehyun, over here!” Johnny yelled and coughed when a wave hit him in the face and he inhaled in shock. He nearly choked on the salt water.

Lightning crossed the sky and the two saw Jaehyun looking frantically around and they immediately swam towards him to make sure they didn’t lose sight of him. The wind was loud, the sky roared and Johnny gripped onto Jaehyun’s arm.

  “Swim!” He told the other.

  “But Taeyong!” Jaehyun said and Johnny frowned while Ten clutched onto Johnny, making sure not to be dragged away by the water.

  “Did you see him?” Ten asked and when lightning once again lit up the world around them, they tried to scan the water but saw no signs of life. “TAEYONG!” Ten yelled and Jaehyun echoed him while Johnny turned away from the boat, kicking with his legs to keep him above the surface.

  “Didn’t we see an island in the horizon?” He asked, but immediately gripped Jaehyun’s arm tighter when he felt the other move away. “Where the are you going?” He asked with a glare that was lit up by the storm above.

Jaehyun sobbed. “I have to find him.”

  “If he’s not above water by now it’s too late.” Johnny said.

Ten was turning around as well as Johnny had done. “I think it’s this way to the island.” He said and Jaehyun tried to make the others help him look.

  “We need to live to be able to find him.” Johnny snapped which shut Jaehyun up. “ing get going or we will drown.” He directed the two others towards where he thought he’d seen the island and Ten released a cry before swimming in the same direction and Jaehyun followed with a look thrown back to where the boat had been.

The swim was endless, they could be swimming out towards the very middle of ocean, but they could also be swimming the right way. They could be attacked by any predators of the sea, crushed by waves, by being stung by poisonous fish or torn apart by sharks. Still the only thought they had was to get to shore and as they kept swimming, with the lightning as guide to make sure they were close and constant calls of reassurance, they heard the sound of waves crashing against shore and when lightning , they could now stand upon ground and Johnny marched towards land with one hard grip on Jaehyun’s upper arm who was still crying and who nearly drowned when a wave crashed upon them and they tumbled closer to shore.

With heaves of breaths they saw the jungle in the pale light of lightning and Johnny walked with determination towards shelter from a large cliff. Ten followed still whimpering slightly and the three boys sat against the wall of the cliff, slightly covered by it as well and sheltered from the rain. Drenched and cold the three boys looked into the night with pale faces. Jaehyun curled into a ball still crying out the name of a friend that never appeared above the surface and Ten and Johnny gazed ahead with a grim feeling in their bodies as they knew two other friends should’ve been with them too.

They were six, but now it was only three. Caught on an island with no idea of how far away they were from where they took off, and with a sure feeling that the friends they sailed with, they would not come back to the harbor with them. And that’s if the three even survived on the island.

Dawn came like a bitter realization of the night’s events and Johnny sat with his eyes squinting at the pink sky while he eyed Jaehyun sleeping’s form and Ten who was sleeping against Johnny. Johnny shook him off and stood before walking towards the water. Maybe something had been washed to shore? They swam for a long time yesterday, but maybe they were lucky?

Johnny huffed. “Lucky.” He said with irony and watched the calm water. Where were the others? Had they really died? Johnny felt a sick feeling take over his body and he crumbled over when the food from yesterday found its way out again. Johnny hurried away, shifting between all fours and stumbling forwards and he washed his face with water. He ran a hand through his hair and turned to look at the jungle that waited to be explored. His first thought was to find fresh water, second thought something to eat and third to gather wood for a fire. He remembered Yuta calling over the radio for help in the storm. Right after hearing him do that Johnny opened the door to walk out on deck, they had to get the sails under control. Ten tried to make up an excuse to stay inside, but Taeil forced Jaehyun, Ten, Johnny and Taeyong to go out and get it under control while he and Yuta tried to call for help. As soon as they had exited the safety of the cabin an enormous wave crashed into the boat and Ten was swept off deck and into the water. Johnny had never seen something scarier than Ten’s petite body being dragged off into the dark sea. Taeyong was slammed into the railing and the boat threateningly tipped to the side while Johnny and Jaehyun grabbed onto mast. Jaehyun called for Taeyong who cried out for help and Johnny watched Jaehyun let go and slide towards the other. In that moment a second wave crashed into the boat and it tipped over. Johnny watched the light from the cabin windows vanish in the darkness of the water and let go of the mast letting himself fall into the deep.

Johnny saw something in the water. A box. Johnny remembered the cooler that stood on deck when they all had been sitting in the sun, drinking beer and enjoying the cool sea wind and each other’s company. He hurried through the water and grabbed onto it. He walked further in and placed it in the sand before opening it with anticipation in his chest. When he opened it he cried out with happiness. There was a cool package of kimchi and four beers and two water bottles. Johnny closed it again and kneeled down onto the ground and rested his head upon the box. They could live with this for the first day and get food for the other days.

Johnny brought it with him back to the others. Ten was awake, sitting with wide eyes staring ahead, and hands pressed to his lips. Johnny dropped the box in front of the other and Ten jumped.  The boy frowned.

  “That’s the…” He breathed. Johnny looked away from the other and into the horizon. Ten silenced but instead chose to open the cooler and look into it. “Water!” He said cheerfully and grabbed a bottle but Johnny was quick to grip the other’s wrist.

  “Save it.” He snapped and Ten stared at the other with wide eyes.

  “Okay.” He said and pulled his wrist back. “Alright.” He continued and closed the cooler. “This won’t last more than three days though.” He explained and Johnny nodded with a look that told the other that he already knew that. Ten blinked. “I forgot for a moment that you always were such a know-it-all.” He said and Johnny rolled his eyes.

  “And I forgot that I should’ve said that I didn’t want to come with you guys.” Johnny retorted back and walked off. Ten gasped.

  “Hey!” He yelled which startled Jaehyun awake. “Don’t you think it’s stupid to walk alone? We have no idea of what could be on this island?”
Johnny turned to glare at Ten. “I’d rather be alone than with you, thank you very much.” He said and walked off and towards the water again to look for anything that could’ve washed up on shore.

Ten groaned and was about to stalk after Johnny when he noticed Jaehyun stand up. “Oh, you’re awake?” He asked and Jaehyun nodded but he didn’t say much.

  “We found the cooler, it has water in it, but for now let’s see if we can find anything left from the boat.” He said cautiously, watching Jaehyun’s expression.

The other just hid his face in his hands and Ten went forward to embrace the other. “It’s gonna be okay, Jaehyun.”

  “He’s dead, Ten…” The other cried and Ten patted the boy’s shoulder. “Yuta and Taeil… they’re dead too.”

  “I’m sorry, Jaehyun.” Ten said but felt his own eyes stung and his face scrunched up as he cried for the loss of his friends.

Johnny turned to look back and saw the two boys embrace each other. He stopped in his tracks and turned back to look out upon the water. Taeyong had hit his head upon the railing, he didn’t move much but instead called for Jaehyun. Johnny had to take a deep breath to calm himself. Those two… The whole group knew that there was something different about their relationship compared to everyone else. Johnny had heard Jaehyun talk about Taeyong in the same way one would talk about his crush. Johnny didn’t mind though. He had grown up with his aunt loving another woman and he knew that love had no boundaries, so he didn’t think of it as anything wrong. Still he did want to puke whenever they looked at each other in that disgustingly loving way.

Johnny chuckled when he remembered himself commenting on it and the two of them turned red. Johnny covered his eyes and looked down. Don’t cry. He told himself.

Johnny shook his arms and looked up. His image of being the one without feelings was being ruined right now, he couldn’t let the others know. He couldn’t let… Johnny trudged forwards eyes focusing on the water.

  “Johnny!” Ten yelled and he and Jaehyun came running towards the other. Johnny turned around with a look of annoyance.

  “Shouldn’t you be watching over the food?” He asked and Ten and Jaehyun froze. Johnny crossed his arms over his chest. “If any animals get to it, we’re pretty screwed you know that?”

The three of them turned to look where the cliff was, but Johnny had been walking a long way and they couldn’t see it anymore. Johnny gave them another look and Ten and Jaehyun looked guilty.

  “How could we know?!” Ten yelled in their defense and Johnny raised his arm threateningly.

  “How could you-” He repeated but then stopped himself. “Go back. I can do this myself.” He told them and turned away. Ten stood watching him for a moment as Johnny walked towards the water and walked along the shore. Jaehyun turned back and walked back to their spot and Ten ran to catch up with the other.

Johnny stopped when they had vanished from his sight. He thought he saw something in the water further out, but he had a feeling that he couldn’t shake off. Johnny stepped into the water, but stopped once again. A voice in the back of his head told him not to step further and with lips pressed into a thin line he turned around and walked back to dry land.

Ten and Jaehyun stopped running when they saw something move back at their camp. Ten frowned, it looked like monkeys.

  “Ten it’s the cooler!” Jaehyun gasped and pointed at the monkeys who were currently digging into the cooler. The two ran forward and yelled with loud voices. Ten grabbed a long log and threw it at the monkeys who immediately screamed and ran off into the jungle. Ten grabbed the opened bag of kimchi and tried to save what could be saved. Only half of it was left. Jaehyun stared at two broken beer bottles that had been shattered against a rock and he angrily kicked a broken bottle away.

  “Johnny is going to murder us.” Jaehyun cried and quickly collected unopened bottles into the cooler and the half bag of kimchi.

Ten started picking glass pieces up with careful hands. “We didn’t think.” He said angrily and turned around to make sure the monkeys wouldn’t come back. “We aren’t taught to survive in the jungle, how could we know?”

Jaehyun sighed and looked around. “He knew.” He said and Ten spun around to face the other.

  “Then he should’ve stayed here and we could’ve gone looking!”

Jaehyun raised his hands in defense. “I’m not Johnny.” He said quickly and Ten calmed down.

  “I’m gonna take it with him, okay?” He promised and looked at where Johnny would show up again. “Can you stay here and protect the cooler?” He asked.

Jaehyun nodded. “I’m gonna use the log you threw after them.” He said in a soft voice and carried the cooler over to the cliff to make sure no one could get to it. Ten sighed and began to walk in Johnny’s direction.

A/N: Thank you for reading! Comments are always appreciated! The ending isn't planned, so I'm waiting for your reactions in order to plan it out. <3