2 Meeting

A jolt of pain woke Amar from the darkness of his slumber. Trying to move around was too painful for him, so he stopped trying and just opened his eyes. He was lying on his back and his face was facing west. He saw that the sun was over the horizon and thought it never looked as beautiful as it did at this moment. However, the pain felt all over his body reminded him that something serious had just happened.

"The plane…. Argh, this pain is killing me," Amar screamed while grabbing his head.

(My body feels like it went through a grinder.)

Although the process of moving his head felt like someone drilling a hole in him, he looked around to see where he was. Feeling the sand beneath and around him, Amar had an idea about his general location.

"Looks like I am on a beach. The last thing I remember is something hitting the plane and then I was knocked unconscious. Did the plane crash?"

Thinking if the plane had crashed, he wouldn't be alive, Amar dismissed the idea of a plane crash.

(I am feeling sleepy. Maybe this is a dream and I'll wake up on the plane again after this. That would be nice.)

A couple of hours of sleep did wonders for Amar as his pain was gone and he felt as good as new. Although the sun was long gone, the light from the full bright moon made it possible for him to see things clearly. In front of him was the wide ocean and behind him a little far ahead was what looked like a lush forest with small hills visible far in the background.

Standing up and taking a short walk towards the edge of the beach, however, revealed a horrifying truth to him. A bit in the distance, Amar could see pieces of a wing and the tail of the plane floating around along with various other objects from the plane.

"It can't be real. I must be seeing things. It must be a nightmare," said Amar with a shaky voice.

He just stood there, watching the broken pieces of the plane float by, still shaken by the realization of what had happened.

A while later, Amar shook himself up from his shock and thought about what to do next.

"There must be a way to find what happened. Maybe someone else survived as well. I couldn't even swim but somehow I safely floated to the beach. Maybe others are on the beach as well. Yes, I should try to find them, then we can plan what to do next," speaking with grim determination, Amar started his plan to search around for survivors.

However, the next few hours of searching for the survivors turned out to be disappointing. He didn't find anyone and the beach seemed to go on forever without any end in sight.

"Ahhh!!!! I should just give up. It seems I was the only one to survive. Or maybe they ended up on some other part of this place. Maybe even on some other island. Yes, that's what must have happened," he reasoned as if trying to convince himself to give up.

Just as Amar was thinking of giving up, the edge of his eyes caught a glimmer of sorts. Trying to look in the direction of the shine, he saw the glimmer again, confirming that it was indeed real and not his imagination. He slowly started to move towards the area, which was quite far ahead from his position. Hoping against hope that it would be someone from his plane, he moved towards it.

"Please God, let it be someone, someone alive. The last thing I need is to see a dead body," he prayed.

A few minutes of a deliberate slow walk, he reached the shiny object that was glimmering in the moonlight. It was a Rolex watch lying in the sand.

(It must be very expensive. I haven't even seen a Rolex watch in person.)

After seeing the watch and being fascinated by it, Amar pocketed it and was about to turn around when he heard a coughing sound near him.

Surprised and alert, Amar quickly looked around saw what looked like a bunch of seaweed bundled together, lying in the sand. The same coughing sound came from its direction. After deliberating for a bit, he decided to check it out.

Getting near the seaweed, Amar realized that it was a person covered in seaweed. Crouching down, he quickly removed the seaweed covering the face and found it to be a woman. Hurriedly he removed the rest of the seaweed covering her and check for the woman's breath. Relieved that the woman was breathing, he sat down beside her.

"Who is she? She isn't someone from my plane. How did she end up he-," another cough ended his musing.

"Hey! Hey! Can you hear me? Are you awake? Please say something," he frantically asked as he shook the woman.

"Ugh! Stop shaking me so much. I feel like puking my guts out." Julie moaned weakly.

Opening her eyes, she saw a dim figure in the night sky, watching her with concern. The figure seemed to become clearer as more seconds passed. She saw that the person watching her while holding her arm was a man. The light from the moon was being reflected from his eyes, making them shine.

Looking around, Julie found that she was on a beach, lying flat in the ground with the guy's hand laying on her left arm.

"How are you feeling? Are you okay?" the guy said softly. His voice had an accent.

She nodded her head and saw his face lit up with a warm smile.

"Thank God. I was worried that you were hurt. Do you want to try and sit up?" he gently asked her.

Julie slowly sat up while the guy was supporting her by holding her arm. A bit of nausea and a slight headache was all she felt at the moment.

She faced the guy and questioned, "Where are we? Do you know what happened? How did I come here?"

Shaking his head, he explained, "I don't know where we are. I believe it's an island, maybe somewhere in the South Pacific. The last thing I remember was that the airplane I was flying with hit something then I was hit and became unconscious. After that, I woke up on this beach a bit farther from where I found you. So, I don't know how I or you came here."

His reply about the airplane being hit brought back the memories of her own jet and its accident. She quickly explained her own experience with her jet to the guy. Hearing her story, the guy was shocked to the core and he told her everything he knew.

"Tha- that means maybe our planes crashed into each other and that's why we ended up together here," he reasoned.

"It looks like it."

There was a pregnant silence and Julie saw that he had an unreadable expression on his face.

A moment later, the guy spoke, "I forgot to ask your name. I am Amar Maz. What is your name?"

Julie froze for a moment. Usually, wherever she went, she didn't need any introduction. She was famous worldwide and people knew about her. But the guy in front of her didn't know about her.

(How in the world did that happen? Did he live under a rock or something?)

Still, she braced herself for the eventual realization that came after hearing her name and so she proudly replied, "Nice to meet you, Amar. I am Julie Robinson."

She was waiting for the moment to see Amar surprised but to her disappointment, he just smiled as if he didn't know who she is.

(Oh! Well. You can't help if not everyone knows about you.)

"So what's our plan? I mean it appears we two are the only survivors from what you told me. We ought to plan our next step, oughtn't we?" Julie hopefully looked at Amar.

"I think tomorrow we should probably go through the jungle in the east. I saw some hills up there. Maybe people live there and we can get help. And even if no one lives here, we have to at least try to find water and food. I don't know about you but I could eat a whole pig right now."

"Yeah, we should do that. And are you feeling sleepy? Because I am not," she said.

"Me too. I am not feeling sleepy as well. Maybe we should chat tonight," Amar suggested.

So Julie and Amar spent the night talking about different things till the sunrise.