The World of Rhune

There has been a sudden rise in the "gifted" population once again. No large scale changes in population, but an anomaly is too strange for most. As a result, a company under the name of Orchid (I don't know that's what's sitting next to me) has started to take measures to ensure the gifted population is kept down, all while making a quick buck. 

Unknowingly, twenty-three "gifted" anomalies got onto a small passenger plane that was not headed to the destination they believed. These twenty-three young adults (as the rise is fairly recent most of the gifteds are younger, though no younger than seven as Orchid thought people might be more compassionate towards young children) were "crash" landed on a small island in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. 

The island has been used for years as a dumpsite for all things strange to man. Creatures and plants that could not be explained and studied have been dropped here. 

Orchid has decided that there good deed should be advantageous to them though. They plan to gain a profit by televising the ensuing weeks to the world (the "gifted" do not know). This does mean, however, that Orchid may have a hand in the strange occurences on the island so as to up their ratings.

While for the rest of the world it seems only as an entertaining false reality show, for the twenty-three young anomalies it is hardcore survival.

Andan rubbed ash and sand from his face, leaving a smear of clear tanned skin amid a face dark with grime. He began to cough and bent over as he heaved his breakfast onto the sand. His breakfast burrito with salsa no longer seemed as appealing the second time around. Andan stepped back from his breakfast and squinted into the sun. Everything seemed blinding and yet he could hear nothing, everything was silent. Andan reached up to run his fingers habitually through his dark brown hair only to find it stiff with wet sand. For some reason the stiffness of his hair seemed to trigger the reality to him. Here he was, a seventeen year boy, stranded on an island infested with who knows what.Andan fell to his knees on the wet sand and screamed out in frustration. Yet though he could feel the vibrations of the scream in his throat, his ears registered nothing. Andan realized why everything was silent when it should be loud. With that small thought it was as if the someone had flipped the switch to the stereo of the surrounding area. Suddenly Andan could hear the crying and shouting of others, the crash of the waves on the beach, and the explosion of a turbine forty feet out in the water. And at that moment Andan ached for nothing more than his headphones and iPod so he could play classical music. Everything seemed peacful when you had a piano playing behind it, everything seemed to make sense.

This did not make sense. Why was Andan surrounded by other people on a beach in the middle of the ocean when he should have been on his way to France? Why was there no adult telling them to stay organized? Why had this happened to him? Andan stood up shakily and his sharp green eyes surveyed the small piece of the world around him. A boy with red hair lying on the beach, his knees pulled to his stomach and soft weeping coming from his mouth. A blonde girl, about his age, crouched over a young blonde boy, making crooning sounds towards him. A brown haired boy, older than Andan, pale and sticky with sweat, screaming as he struggled to push a piece of wreackage off of him.

Andan moved in what felt like slow motion towards the pale boy, all the while the sounds of the beach seeming to echo in his ears. He took one step towards the boy, the sounds got louder. Another step, the loudness increased. A third step, the sound seemed to richochet off his skull and pound at his brain. "Silence!" Andan screamed. Of course no one stopped, yet to Andan everything was peacefully and utterly quite. He looked at the red haired boy and could see he still shook with sobs, yet he could not hear them. The blonde girl's lips still formed an oval as she crooned at the little boy, yet he heard none of it. The pale boy Andan now stood over had his mouth stretched as wide as possible in a scream, yet all was silent. And in the perfect silence Andan thought he could just hear a hint of a piano in the back of his mind.

Andan grasped the tip of the planes wings with his long fingers. The metal was still hot from the explosion, but Andan ignored the heat as he pushed. Such a small piece of the plane and yet it weighed so much. Andan attempted to plant his feet but the sand slipped from beneath them. Gritting his teeth, Andan pushed his shoulder into the wing. He was glad for the silence because he could see the pain of the scream on the boys face. With a final shove the wreackage was clear from the boy's body. Andan looked down as the bloody wreck of the boy's leg and wondered quietly if he would die anyway.

In his perfect, beautiful silence Andan turned from the pale boy and looked at the rest of the beach. Twenty or so people, all young it seemed, stranded on an island to fend for themselves. Home, sweet home, Andan thought.

She was in a lump, curled in her side, distant physical stinging everywhere. She could smell smoke. Smoke, charcol, melted plastic, burned gas, sweat. Sweat, that was her. the small beads on her forehead starting to dry from the cold wind picking up, but the wind was only able to touch the top of her head and exposed arm because something heavy was above her blocking it. She heard a creak of metal that had held itself up too long, and only instincts made her roll out of the way before a thick aluminum piece crashed down in the sand. Sand? The girl looked down, she was covered in it, everything was. The girl looked up, the sun blinding her as she attempted a simple squint to see. It was a movie set. No, a beach. A beach movie set? Was she already on set at her Uncle's studio? She attempted to stand, and managed a wobble before she realized her legs were asleep and went crashing into the sand. She took a deep breath, and then instantly screamed. She could taste it all, burning through her. The pain...heart break, lonliness and terror. All the emotions she stupidly snuffed up. Where was she? The girl didn't want to open her eyes. It could only be a desolate scene before her, but her uncle would never put her in such a high emotioned place. It burned, the emotions, she could feel them all as freshly as the owners of them. Her uncle would never, he knew so he would never do this to her. 

"JANE!" someone screamed desperately, she knew there was fear but held her breath and didn't dare inhale. She could sense the deep emotion with her normal senses let alone her gift. "JANE!" it screamed again, and she heard feet running near her. "Jane!" it yelled, less confidentally and energetically as before. Foot steps stopped, ten feet or less near her, then sprinted towards her. "Jane, Jane oh my God Jane..." something grabbed her, arms wrapped around her familiarly. "Jane Jane Jane..." the deeper voice said cradling her. She knew the arms, the voice, she'd known them her whole life. "Toby?" she asked, she didn't open her eyes because why was Toby on set? The camera was rolling she felt the pain so the actors were really into it, Toby wasn't an actor though he wouldn't be acting. "Jane you're okay you survived," Toby's voice became thick. She was so confused, and opened her eyes "Toby what are you talking abou..." She opened her eyes to the beach set again, but then looked around. It wasn't a set...it wasn't her uncle's studio, there were no actors anywhere. Jane's eyes widened, there was a bloody and destroyed beach with people...people scattered hurt and in pain, and as Jane put her hand to her mouth, and felt the slippery blood on her cut lip...she realized she was one of the ones among it

Hailey rocked Benjamin in her arms rythmically. Back and forth, back and forth. It seemed that this one motion was all that was holding her together at the moment. Her baby brother's head was smeared with blood, his blonde bangs hiding his eyes. She brushed the hair away, crooning to him, "You're olay. We're Okay. You're okay Benji." It seemed so hopeless. Here her little, eight year old brother cradled in her arms. She could feel how weak the life was within him, yet she could do nothing about it. The person who could was sitting right there. Benjamin could help himself. He helped everyone else feel better. When there father was in that car accident everyone said he should have died. But Benji was there and he was alright. Why couldn't Hailey help Benjamin now?

There was a small flutter of motion beneath Benjamin's eyelids and a small hope rooted itself in Hailey. Maybe Benjamin wasn't lost, maybe he was healing himself. Maybe the damage was just so bad it would take awhile. He was cut from the sand, but he didn't have any major external injuries. But Hailey didn't know how to tell if he had internal damage. He could have cracked ribs or punctured organs. Hailey set her fears aside and decided to cling to that small hope that had rooted itself inside her.

Looking up from her little brother's face she took in the turmoil around her. Everywhere it seemed someone was crying and screaming. A hysterical boy was calling out "Jane." Who was Jane? His friend? His sister? With still wet eyes Hailey watched as one boy who seemed in more control of himself than those around him push the wing off another boy. How could this boy seem so in control. Even in the turmoil his face was serene. Hailey's gaze was fixed on this one boy. In all this desolation he seemed to hear none of it. Yet, Hailey was fixed on this one boy. Nothing seemed to make sense it terrible ordeals.

Hailey made an attempt to call the boy to her. Perhaps he would know how to help Benjamin. Anyone as calm as he must know what to do in this situation. At first her voice was a croak, but when she tried again her words were clear, "Please, help my brother." Though the boy was only a few yards from her he acted as if he heard nothing. She didn't try to call out again, but watched, her gaze fixed, as the boy took slow steps towards a girl on the ground. He crouched down on his heels and stared intently at her. He tilted his head to the side as he looked at her. In a swift, deliberate motion the boy closed the girls eyes and stood. In that moment it seemed the boy had felt her gaze. He turned and his unsettling, peaceful green eyes met her own grey eyes. Hailey made no motion or call to the boy. One thought ran through her head, over and over. She's dead.

Danny startled awake, and instantly winced. Everything was sore, very sore. His head throbbed a bit and his leg was tingling in a painful way but wouldn't stop. He glanced at himself, and realized he had a few sharp plastic shatterings in his leg, thankfully not too deep. He pulled them out slowly, gritting his teeth as he did. After a moment of soft pulling he had successfully removed three wedges of plastic each as long as his thumb. He checked and saw tiny slivers in the wound, and knew he wouldnt be able to get them out himself. He looked around for water to wash them out, when he realized where he was actually sitting.

 He looked accross a desolate scene, a beach covered with could only have been a plane crash. My plane's crash he remembered instantly. Danny looked at the scattered blackened remains of the crashed plane and then on to the plane's passengers. He saw many mouths open, obviously saying something but he could hear none of it. He took in the blood and seemingly broken bodies, people franticallty running around or still unconcious, some even just staring shocked. Pain was everywhere, he could clearly see it, but it only struck Danny when he saw a little girl no older than thirteen dead in the sand. It was something he just instantly knew; there was no other explanation for the clouded, sightless expression on her face and the way a boy looked at her and then walked away. His eyes followed the boy, taking everything in but hearing nothing. He watched him go to another girl and the unconscious, bloodied boy in her arms, and try and help. Danny looked around at this desolation and realized thats exactly what he needed to do, help. Danny pulled himself up, forgot about any of his worries, and ran over to the nearest person, though they were a good thirty feet away. Do you need help? He signed to a black haired, scared girl moving what seemed remainders of the plane away from the pile it had melted into. She took no notice of him, just kept moving when he tapped her and signed again. She stared confused, scared, and slightly defensive. He realized she didn't understand, and simply decided to show her what he meant by lifting his hand to the pile and levitated the sheets away in the same manner she was. The girl looked in awe at him, and after quickly looking at the empty spot remaining ran away as fast as she could, glancing behind occasionally to make sure he wasn't following. Danny glanced confused at her, but realized that the rest of the hurt were still on the beach, so he turned quickly and looked at anyone else needing help. He glanced around and then realized it would be hopeless with the plane bits all over shielding and hiding people. He raised both hands and started just moving any of the plane he could and setting in a pile in the water. He saw the red glow of it, and if someone touched it... What looked like a part of the plane tail levitated as if it were weightless through the air, and crashed into the water spraying ocean everywhere. Danny looked around after moving a few more bits of wreckage and saw a boy kneeling over in the sand, struggling with something. Danny instantly went over. 

Toby woke up suddenly, and shot up, and then instantly regretted it. A wave of vertigo overtook him and he laid his head back on the wet sand.  He reached back confused at the wet sand, picking it up and rubbing his fingers with it to make sure it was real. Toby stared incredulously at the wide, slightly clouded blue sky. No birds flew across it, and the sun shined vigorously down upon him.

He quite simply didn't understand. 

Toby sat up slowly and cautiously again, rolling his neck to loosen its stifness, and coaxed his legs to stand him up cautiously. He looked down at his messy state, with his brown slightly curly hair filled with sand and his new denim jeans ripped and caked with who knows what. Toby took his shirt off, and faced what appeared to be the ocean, because he could see nothing but blue water for miles on end, only distant waves breaking upon each other. Shaking the sand out, Toby turned around in a somewhat dream like state, still shaking his shirt and legs to attempt and loose some of the sticky sand. He glanced about, and then his eyes settled upon a graveyard of a still smoking and burning plane crash. Toby's eyes enlarged and he stumbled back a few steps at the sight of the smodlering wreckage, remembering. 

He remembered sleeping deeply, Jane sleeping on his shoulder and twitching every so often in her sleep. The flight attendants came around for the last check they would before the crash, and then closed the curtains so no one could see them anymore. Toby and Jane were on their way to the States from their home in Switzerland, where they were born and raised yet were ethically from the grand USA. They were flying to meet his Uncle for a movie Jane was going to be in, her big Hollywood break. He remembered startling awake when he heard yelling and commotion, passangers moving with wide, scared eyes and then he felt the plane tip a little more down wards. Why were the people up? Toby had wondered, they were just going on descent. He looked out the window to see the time, and instead saw the seconds before the plane would spiral and crash. "JANE!" He screamed, waking her and pulling her to the nearest exit, causing anyone who tried to touch them to fall unconscious immediately. He yelled, causing the remaining and surprisingly young passangers to wake up alarmed. Grabbing the emergency escape door Toby opened it, and grabbing onto the wing with little more than fifty feet threw himself and pulled Jane out with him. He jumped, but then Jane's hand slipped and he watched her as she was pulled back by a passagner. He screamed as he watched the plane spiral down to the left of him, and then hit the sand beach hard into unconsciousness. 

"Jane....JANE!" Toby moaned and then yelled hoarasely as he snapped out of his day dream, his voice thick and filled with sand. "JANE!" He bellowed, running everywhere screaming amongst the dreadful wreck until he could find his little sis. 

  Hailey sat in the wet sand, her knees folded beneath her, quietly stroking the white blonde hair of her little brother. The boy who walked with such calm and grace approached her. He did not seem scared or even worried, and Hailey attributed that to shock. His face and clothes were grimy. It appeared as if he had been wearing a pair of dark jeans and a white collared shirt. The shirt seemed more of a brown color now, but did not appear to have any rips. The boy came and stood above her. His green eyes stared intently at her and her little brother. It was unnerving, the directness of the boy. Then the boy reached up and ran his fingers through his tousled brown hair and he didn't seem quite so distant. His eyes seemed to react and he registered what was occurring around him. "How is he doing?" The boy's voice was hoarse but not unkind; it seemed as if he genuinely cared.

Hailey was glad she seemed out of tears. She could see what a fool she would look as a blubbering mess besides the resoluteness of this boy. "I don't know." The boy nodded, “It’s good if he is still with us. The immediate crash was probably the worst of it." Another absent flick of his fingers through his hair, "We should try to group everyone together. Figure out who's here and what are plan -" "Holy shit," Hailey interrupted. Her gaze was fixed on another boy past the one in front of her. A little ways down the beach pieces of the plane were levitating off the sand. The floating wreckage seemed to be center around one boy who moved amid the others. The other boy turned to see what had startled her. His eyebrows rose in appreciation but he did not appear as shocked as Hailey felt. "Interesting," the boy remarked.

"Interesting?" Hailey said to the boy, incredulous, "more like God damn amazing." "Well..." The boy trailed off. Hailey leaned down to her unconscious brother and placed her forehead against his, "Benji we're not alone," she whispered.

Jane felt her brother's arms around her, keeping her slight figure close as she rocked herself. She remembered it all, and remembered herself. It was all there, she'd been spared nothing memory wise. Jane's eyes soaked up the scene before them filling in the blanks of what had happened to other passangers who had gone down with her. Toby seemed unscathed for the most part, though he had what seemed bruises everywhere. Where had he landed? She remembered him jumping despite her groggy state, and almost taking her with him when she was caught and pulled back in. Jane shook her head, getting rid of the scene. She didn't want to remember it, she'd just end up feeling all the panic and confusion and other depressing emotions she had tasted on the plane before.

     Jane glanced around, her eyes passing over groups and piles of unrecognizable debris, some glowing slightly from heat. It was scattered everywhere over what was about a thousand square feet with people, mounds, piles, and turbulently thrown sand scattered throughout the area. The sun was beating down on the whole decaying scene while the wind was whipping and distorting any yells or cries as well as smoke. Most of the people amidst the wreckage it seemed were simply just rocking themselves with glazed over eyes, a few were walking about searching. All had some way an injury or the remnants of one. Jane wondered whether Toby had been one of those no less than a few minutes ago. 

     "Are you okay?" Jane asked him, turning and facing her brother. He nodded, flooding Jane with a little relief. "You?" He asked, and she nodded too but shook her hand in a "so-so" gesture as well. She needed to breathe now, her earlier talking taking most of her oxygen. Despite having learned to hold her breath for a long time, Jane still needed air. She breathed in only slightly through her nose, hoping to catch just Toby's emotions. She was filled with a taste of relief, such a dramatic difference from the emotions before that it was nearly over whelming. Jane tasted pain though, too. She could feel the emotions as her own, pain and fear. Fear of the pain, fear of the fresh unknown, fear for a sibling, fear for self, and fear for the lost. Jane could taste it all, and it all burned just as much as before, but was a little less potent because of Toby's dominating emotions. "Should we try to help anyone else?" Jane asked when the huge aluminum piece next to her levitated, nearly taking off half of her face. She screamed and pressed as far as possible into Toby to avoid being hit. She watched as it floated quickly away and landed in the water where it seemed any piece of plane was being moved to. Jane looked up scared at a man, or a boy? The build of a man but the face wasn't quite there...moving his palms about in the air and guiding the floating debris into the water. "Jane....oh my god Jane look at that" Toby's voice was quiet and slightly raspy, as if if the person levitating could hear them and he was trying too hard to be quiet. Jane just watched in amazement at levitating pieces. A Gifted person?! No....the odds are too few Jane thought with amazement as he continued what seemed like a gift. How? She wondered there are less than a half percent of the total population gifted, and even then our numbers were starting to go down. Jane stood up, eyes still locked on the boy. "How stupid is he?" She said to Toby as he stood up. "Like he'd last a moment if we're all wrecked on this island, the regular people will get rid of him in a second if he doesn't end up getting rid of them in defense." Jane quickly walked away from him, and then let Toby lead. She nor Toby didn't want to get close to him incase he could sense gifts, and they had been in this low condition before where they knew the aftermath. Jane quickly pushed her six year old memory away. Being kicked out of the house for her gifts had been more than brutal, and even though it had been many, many years since then she would never forget those days. 

Andan had opened himself to the sound, not entirely, but he could hear them all again. He always thought that humans together seemed more of a single entity, a machine almost. The all breathed in, and out, creating the low background to the symphony. Murmurs and voices led the beat and often a single noise or voice would lead the chorus. This was different. All at once no one was working in synchronization, yet it was still some how beautiful. The screams and sobs of others harmonized with each other, creating a melody with the faster beat of panicked breathing. Enough, Andan thought to himself, focus on the matter at hand.

The boy with levitation was strange, but not unknown. No, Andan understood gifts, he of course had one. Though none as flashy as levitation. Andan, however, was of the strong belief that coincidences were far and few between, and this hardly seemed a good one. Just as Andan always found patterns, he looked for them now. Instead of with his ears though, he watched, his deep, intelligent green eyes observing the scene in his beautiful, perfect silence.

A girl to the left, too small to be lifting that piece of wreckage. The small boy cradled in the arms of his sister beside him, small cuts from the sand stitched together seamlessly, hardly noticeable. Another boy flickering in an out of his vision. A mirage? Possibly, but that would be too much of a coincidence.

A small smile crept onto Andan’s face. Now he could hear the violins, the piano, all the instruments working in concert. It made beautiful, perfect sense in his beautiful, perfect silence.

And then it broke. “Hey!” Andan exclaimed at being hit with a fist on his leg. “Jeez,” I have been talking to you the blonde hair girl said. Her voice was somewhat husky, but not unappealing. “I apologize,” Andan said tonelessly. Andan did not notice the strange look she directed at him, “Okay, well what are we going to do?” Andan turned to look at the blonde haired girl, his gaze fixed on her. Strange grey eyes framed by dark eyelashes and high cheekbones. Wisps of white blonde hairs escaped from her ponytail hung around her face. Now what can you do? Andan wondered. The girl was clearly become uncomfortable, Andan offered a false smile, “I am Andan, and I am planning on surviving.”

Noticeably disconcerted by his response, the girl replied “Alright, I’m Hailey. But I thought you were planning on gathering everyone or something?” The girl gently lifted the little boy’s head from her lap and stood beside him. Andan noted the boy’s ever disappearing scratches. “I think that we’ll find we have a lot more in common than we think. People will naturally start congregating.” Andan noticed that the girl appeared to be getting frustrated with him. “Fine. You can stay here with my brother and I’ll start directing people over here so we all gather in the same spot.” Andan merely nodded and the girl left with a shake of her head.

Andan stood, his feet slightly spread, his collared shirt sticky to his abdomen with sweat, the cool breeze refreshingly blowing on it. Once again, everything was in perfect sense and beautiful silence.

Toby was leading Jane out of what he now called the graveyard. It seemeed fitting, he had seen at least one death there and it was the grave site of the plane. He turned around and saw Jane just walking behind him, looking around and absorbing everything. "Jane.." Toby grabbed her hand repremandingly and started pulling her even though she more than willingly followed. "This is weird" Jane spoke quietly as they walked carefully through the remains of splattered plane. "That guy's gift..." Toby looked at her with a weird look. Was she trying to creep him out? He was already afraid enough, they had just crashed for heaven's sake and now she was worried about something else? 

Toby looked around again, and had a feeling though they were running they would have to come back to the graveyard. While he was sure he and Jane could be fine on their own, after looking at the levitating boy and then noticing a girl push something that was just a little too big for even him to move, he was starting to have thoughts of his own about the "coincidences" Jane was talking about. "Jane we need to leave now..." Toby spoke in a cautious tone. Too many gifts in one place...and nothing good ever happened when gifteds came together. 

Toby set off at a run pulling his little sister besides him. It was clumsy, both of them were hurt in some way or form, and he could tell Jane was still slightly shocked. They ran across the graveyard to where he saw a slightly denser ground they could escape into. Well, really anything was denser than an open beach, so he wasn't passing up this chance. He passed a few battered people, but passed little plane wreckage. Toby assumed it was where the levitating boy had started. They ran quickly across the sandy plain, passing a few people as they went. Toby could hear his sister gasping every once in a while, tripping each time she gasped. He knew she was feeling each wound and each presently broken mind when she took a breath, and he wished he could help her but there was no way to as they ran about the desolate scene where they were surrounded by the pain. Toby kept running and pulling his sister however, because the sooner they got away the sooner he could free his sister from these emotions.

Toby cut to the edge of the mess, doing his best to avoid any smoke or smoldering objects, and especially any people. They neared the levitating boy, and Toby pulled Jane as far away as possible. Who knew if he could levitate people? The only thing he couldn't do was stay out of the guy's line of vision, which proved to be a mistake. He glanced at the huge guy, who met his eyes with a quizzical expression. "Uhuhh...uh..aoh!" Toby tripped forwards, bringing Jane down with him. "Toby!" She yelled annoyed, but Toby didn't understand what he had tripped on, the beach had been clear a...he looked down and saw he had tripped into what looked like a "W" shape ironically. No...not ironiclly...Toby realized as he read the new shape written in the sand. Where are you going? Come Help It read, and Toby stared incredulously at the boy, nodded but didn't speak, every from thirty feet away. Toby just stared wide eyed, pulled Jane up, and bolted. He noticed in a last glimpse behind him that a girl was running in their direction, a hand waving beckoning them the other way. What are they in cahoots? Toby wondered, and then was yanked back into a stop. "WHAT?" he yelled at Jane, who had pulled him back so violently for her figure. "He is genuinely trying to help" She said softly, "I just wanted you to know before you go charging off and dragging us who knows where, we should go just to the perimeter and keep and eye on them." She glanced behind at the girl Toby saw earlier coming closer. "If they're a threat we need to keep tabs". Toby nodded, seeing what Jane was saying. His sister was crazy like that, able to tell anything and everything from one little breath. Her gift was really a gift and a curse, just like his. "Fine, we just need to go before the guy stops us" Toby said as he broke into a jog. They both were tired now, they weren't trained for running let a lone a thousand yard dash through sand. Toby took another glance behind him, and looking past Jane saw the girl waving a little more franticlaly at them before he tripped on a newly formed obstacle again. 

Hailey muttered curses under her breath as struggled across the beach. Hardly productive, but it was a coping mechanism. It seemed as if people were slowly collecting themselves, there were fewer screams of panic though crying could still be heard. Hailey stopped first at a trio of teenagers who seemed to have congregated together. She quickly pointed them in the direction of Andan. “I swear,” Hailey said as she looked at the guy. There he was standing as peacefully as ever. He looked as if he was surveying the scene to decide whether it would be a nice place for a beach house. Hailey briefly thought about how people’s reactions in a crisis are supposed to tell a lot about a person. She told the trio to go over there and bring the others too.

Hailey continued moving across the beach, pointing people in Andan’s direction. A pair caught her eye as the scrambled across the beach, stumbling to get away from the scene. It seemed strange to Hailey, wouldn’t they all be better off if they helped each other out. She yelled out, trying to get their attention. The pair stopped but it didn’t appear to have anything to do with her. At least she had their attention now. She waved them over to her and continued making her way in their direction. She came up to another boy first who was turned away from her, watching the strange pair. “Hey. We’re trying to get everyone to meet up over there so we can figure out what to do.” When the guy didn’t respond Hailey reached out and lightly touched his arm. “Hey, did you hear me?” She asked.

    Danny had moved slowly down the beach, moving any large bit of debris, plane, or just plain junk. He had even uncovered a few stuck or hiding people, though some looked as if they didn't want to be found and were more afraid of the inanimate and extremely heavy objects suddenly moving as if weightless. Danny just kept moving, pulling objects off and away from people, his pile that he had created earlier in the water growing rapidly. 

      Something caught his vision in the corner of his eye, and he looked over and met eyes with a guy pulling a shorter, younger girl away from the beach scene. Running away? Danny wondered. They'll...shoot they'll get hurt. Danny had kept eye contact with the older boy, but they were so far away that he knew he wouldn't be able to sign to them. He dropped his most recent debris piece in the pile and reached out for the sand in front of them to condense into words. It was his only way of speaking normally, er that is when I'm allowed to use my gift Danny thought wistfully. He hated hiding it, why couldn't people just understand he was one of them? He liked his gift it was a good gift, not a curse. Danny watched the boy turn around and waited for him to read his "Where are you going? Come Help". Instead though, the clumsy thing fell right into the beginning of the message and drug the girl down with him. He watched as they read the message in confusion, and the boy stared back at him comprehending but not believing. Danny nodded, confirming, and wished he could just yell. The boy turned around again annoyingly despite Danny's efforts, he knew better than to just let someone leave into unknown. Danny quickly compressed the sand down again into "STOP" just infront of them and witnessed another fall when out of no where something lightly tapped his arm. Danny freaked and jumped backwards away, staring with wide eyes shocked. No one snuck up on him, ever. He could always feel the vibration of footsteps before they came. The sand? Danny thought, still shocked and trying to find an explanation. He looked over at a girl standing above his fallen down self, confused but clearly misunderstanding. Danny felt bad, she probably thought he was rude or something. He glanced at the girl and smiled a bit, running his hand through his hair shaking out any sand but also getting rid of some of his nerves from just before. He made delibrate eye contact with her and pointed at himself and then sighed "deaf" by placing his index finger on his lip straight and moving it back to his ear. Maybe she was the stewardess that understood sign language? He had looked all around to see if she had survived, because without her he was lost. The girl looked even more confused, but yet she seemed to recognize what he was trying to do. Her lips moved a bit, Danny couldn't tell if it was a nervous reaction or words but he simply gave up and moved the sand next to him to read "Sorry, I'm deaf". Danny hoped she spoke English or the situation was hopeless. 

Hailey glanced from the boy in front of her to the sand at the ground. “Levitation boy has a few more tricks up his sleeve,” She remarked to herself with a small smile. Hailey glanced up to boy’s brown eyes before squatting down on her heels. She pushed away a few strands of her white blonde hair away with the back of her hand and began tracing her finger in the sand, Hailey. Group Together. Hailey pointed down to Andan who was now surrounded with about a dozen or so of the other survivors. Hailey raised her shoulders and tilted her head in that direction, questioningly.

Andan reluctantly relinquished the silence as the others began to congregate around him. He glanced down at the girl’s, what was her name again? Oh yes, Hailey, at Hailey’s brother. He was pale and glossy with sweat, but Andan did not miss the continually disappearing scratches. He counted the people in front of him, thirteen in total, disregarding himself and Hailey’s brother. He could see farther down the beach Hailey stood with another boy. That would bring them to seventeen. The dead girl made eighteen, a straggler approaching the group now made nineteen. That appeared to be everyone on the beach, though there were sure to be a few stragglers. The plane had been more or a tin can in size. Andan smirked now as he remembered how he had thought what a strange plane for a trans-Atlantic flight. Now it was beginning to make sense.

“Well, I imagine this is almost everyone now,” Andan began, clasping his hands together. Andan’s orotund voice carried well over the group, “The first thing we’ll need then is a plan because it appears as if we will be staying at the summer camp from hell.” Andan gave a reassuring smile to the dismal group and waited.

Danny was slightly dissapointed, this girl wasn't the stewardess. He watched her read the words, and watched as she said something but he couldn't read her lips to understand. He watched as she wrote something back Hailey. Group together. Danny smiled, so they were on the same thought train. He got up, ignoring the urge to push Hailey's escaped blonde wisps away from her face. They bugged him in a wierd way, he didn't get it. He wrote out instantly "Okay, I'm finishing looking. Two people up ahead running away" He condensed the sand into a little line in the two runaway's direction, and then helped Hailey up. Danny smiled a bit, he was glad she hadn't tried to mouth anything and over exaggerate like that would be easier to read. He gave Hailey a hand up, pointed again, and on an after thought wrote out "do you want me to go with?" The girl looked young, and despite the determined look from her eyes the runaways were farther out than a girl should go off on her own, even ironically in their situation. There was no reason not to be agentleman  anyways, so Danny figured he might as well offer. 

Hailey couldn’t help but appreciate whatever it was this kid could do. He obviously wasn’t strictly limited to levitating heavy objects. The sand formed into words at his thoughts apparently. Hailey’s eyebrows pulled together in momentary confusion as she read the words traced in sand. Running away? Why would they run away? The boy created a line in the sand pointing in the direction of the two and helped her stand again. Hailey glanced back to the group and noticed it seemed that most everyone else had grouped together. Hailey decided she could be of better use convincing the others to return to the group. Hailey looked at the boy, pointed at her chest then to his and nodded in the direction he had indicated.

Danny was confused for a moment as Hailey pointed to herself and then to him, and nodded in the direction of the runaways, but assumed it was a yes. He really wouldn't have let her go even if she'd refused. Danny nodded back to her, and figured he should lead the way. He started off at a quick run, just slow enough were he wouldn't run out of breath easily and where the girl could maybe keep up if she had any athelic talent. 

     The runaways were probably about fifty feet ahead of them, a hard run in loose, dry, and thick sand. He constantly checked on Hailey to judge if she was okay. He couldn't really feel the vibrations her feet made each time they hit the ground, and not being able to hear any panting (or so he was told thats what the sound was for exaggerated breathing) so all he had to go off of were his eyes and feeling the sand spray against he bare ankles, kicked up by Hailey just behind him. Danny squinted at the running pair ahead of them. It was clear they knew they were being chased, but Danny and Hailey weren't as winded as they were. Maybe after the fifty feet of catching up they would be just as winded, but Danny had to stop them somehow. He lifted his open palm in their direction, willing the sand to rise. He watched as a distant wall of sand rose ten feet in front of the running pair, and slowly began to block off any way away except for back. As Danny and Hailey neared closer while the pair frantically tried to figure out what to do, he saw his ten foot walls of sand dominanting, and he saw the girl bend over slightly clutching her ribs and palming her mouth/nose as if there was something wrong with her breathing. Weird...Danny thought. I hope I just didn't give her some type of asthma attack. Danny felt worry creep through him. 

Hailey followed the boy as he started jogging after the others. Running was always something she had enjoyed, being on the cross-country team, but sand was a different matter. Sand made every movement seem impossible as your feet sunk further into the sand. Her eyes widened slightly at the massive walls that began to form in front of the pair. She wasn’t sure that was quite the direction she would have gone, but having no way of suggesting otherwise, she followed the boy. She wasn’t even quite sure why the pair were running away, but she didn’t think they would take kindly to being cornered.

As they neared the pair the girl bent over in pain. Hailey wondered if she was hurt and grew concerned. She slowed her jog to a walk as they approached them. She followed the boy a few feet behind, holding her palms up in a sign of peace. Hailey meant to start with a reassurance but somehow, “Where the hell are you guys going?” slipped out. Hailey’s hand covered her mouth in embarrassment, “I did not mean that,” she tried to recover, “well I did. I mean, we’re who knows where and you guys are leaving the group. I mean…” Hailey let out a groan, “I’ll just be quite now.”

One moment they were running, and the next huge walls of water-like sand rose right in front of them, nearl causing them to crash into them if Toby hadn't stopped them both from going head in. She looked confounded at it, but then after breathing in slightly she knew exactly what without turning around. Jane bent over, trying to contain the new emotions she had inhaled unknowingly. After leaving the plane wreck the emotions had all but left save for Toby's, and his she could cope with unlike the emotions obviously from crash survivors. How could it not? 

     Jane tried to almost squeeze the emotions out of her lungs, but made sure not to take another breath. She could feel immediately not only her aching pain, but what felt like two...two different passagner's emotions? One was extremely overwhelming compared to the other. A strong emotion of determination richocheted suggesting both were emitting it. So definitely here to take us back Jane thought for a moment, but then was forced back to focus on the painful heartbreak she had just inhaled. It became her own, consuming her. Loss...no, fear. Heart break out of fear of a loss. Jane sorted through it but it just molded and became her own trapping heartbreak, nearly making her want to cry. The depseration, quietly trying to hide the fear, terror, and anguish but that only made it worse for her because Jane could feel the full impact. Two figures neared, Jane heard them and barely saw. She opened just her mouth, not daring to breathe in, and could taste how this painful gut feeling was radiating from the smaller, slighter figure. Words were exchanged but she didn't pay attention. The taste would go away soon enough. it would wear and fade but until then she was stuck drowning with the heart wrenching pain of fear of lost and the deep, depressing emotions that went along with it and had then become her own. 

Toby kept his legs pumping, pulling both his weight and now some of Jane's. She wasn't built for this, especially with the wounds she had acquired from the crash. She was already then even weaker from the overwhelming emotions she must have experienced and taken in as her own. It had been hard enough for him just to look at it let alone feel it. Toby glanced back at his little sister and then turned back arou--BOOM. The sand before both of them rose sharply straight up infront of them creating a wall. Toby barely kicked his heels into the sand and drug both him and Jane to the floor to avoid running straight into the wall. Toby shook his head to get rid of the sand now piled there and pulled him and Jane up. He didn't understand where this wall had come from. "Jane...Jane are you okay?" He asked, turning to his sister only to find her bent over, almost as if gagging but he knew she was trying to stop herself from breathing in. "Jane" Toby whispered again, before shielding them as the wall started to expand around them in all directions except for where they came. He looked, slightly scared, around at their new trap. There was no way out besides back, which was obviously the way whoever had created this thing wanted them to go. Toby's eyes locked on two approaching figures, and recognized instantly the levitating guy from earlier. So he's the douche causing my sister this Toby concluded. It had to be the figure's emotions causing her to double over, and the levitating guy had caused them to stop running away from them where Jane would be free. Toby stood in front of Jane, realizing that this guy had at good two or three inches on him as he came up closer with a girl, younger than him but around Jane's age. From the look of sand all over and ash streaked clothing and skin, where else could she have just come from than the graveyard. She rudely started with a blunt "Where the hell are you guys going". Toby bit his lip, not taking the bait, and choosing to just stay silent with an expressionless face. The girl instantly after tried to restate what she meant to make it sound better, but Toby had gotten the meaning across just fine. She wanted them to go back, whether or not they wanted to. Toby only trusted first impressions anyways, second impressions were always changed to be more likable, exactly as this girl had done. "You should be quiet now, and you should leave back to your little "group" or whatever the throng of broken people spread about that graveyard is." Toby said quietly, unnervingly. He blinked once, slowly and unfazed because he knew if they got closer he would have the upper hand in a heartbeat. Er...well unless he accidentally stopped theirs for a moment. 

"We are fine, just leave us alone." Toby commanded quietly, not glancing back to see if his sister was okay. "You've already hurt us enough," Toby met eyes with the levitating boy, obviously with some black heritage to him "and quite frankly we left where I'm guessing your little group is for a purpose." His eyes flashed slightly, and he couldn't help adding "Gifteds are trouble anywyays,". Toby stood up straighter, and made his face a little more open "Thanks for the concern, but its not needed I'm sure someone else back there could use it more, so we'll be on our way" He gave a blunt, slightly mocking but not offensive face to them as if the simple truth he'd just said were obvious, and stepped back without turning around to Jane who was beginning to stand up straighter from her earlier more crumpled position.