Men in Paradise - 1. Chapter 1 - The Genesis

The total flight fatalities in the world due to aviation accidents since 1970 is 83,772 deaths. The total number of flight crashes and incidents is 11,164 until now. Between 2018 to 2020, more than 1500 deaths due to flight accidents. And this does not include the year 2014, the disappearance of Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 over South China sea which had 869 passengers. The Aircraft lost its communication with the control room an hour after its take off, it was found by Navy radar signals a few hours later but lost its track again. Malaysian government conducted the most expensive search operation as a joint mission with Australia, Norway etc. But concluded its search mission after four years without success except finding few aircraft debris below Indian ocean. Not even a single passenger yet to be found dead or alive.

Sakthi's PoV

21 JAN 2019, 4.30 AM GST:

Clouds were moving faster and they were bonding together in the sky. Heaven was beautiful indeed, bright and silent.

I heard nothing and nothing was visible either, except a white blank screen in front of me. My body felt lighter, it weighed so less. And I had wings on my arms shuddering in the wind. The cold wind from my left, blew soothingly on my face comforting me.

I never thought I would become an angel one day. But it was my destiny and God's will that I finally ended up in heavens.

I tried to move my arms and checked if I could flap my wings and fly, but I couldn't flap my wings and I wondered why. Wings connected with my arms were heavier than I expected.

'Shouldn't this be light and easy?', I wondered then.

'Probably because I just arrived there and I might adapt to my "angel stuff" slowly' I convinced myself.

I closed my eyes again to give my body some time to get adjusted to that 'new me'.

When I woke up again, I felt a stabbing pain on my right leg. I remembered that I got new wings. But it felt heavier to move even after. I heard a familiar noise coming from a short distance.

Waves. Did I hear that correctly or was I still in dizziness? The pain on my leg grew worse. I raised my head and looked above.

White clouds were still moving, but the sky was blue instead of white. I slowly lifted my head and tried to focus on the direction where the noise came from. I saw greenish-blue water a few feet away from me. I turned towards my right and looked around. That's when I realized I was lying on the sand which looked like a seashore. I started doubting whether I was really in heaven.

I shook my arms to check if my wings are still intact as I earlier thought, nope... I was wrapped around by an orange sheet probably made of plastic or rubber material. It must have been the airbag tied to my arms from behind. I slowly and painfully tried to untie myself from it. It wasn't easy. It took several hours or minutes, I had no idea, but I finally released myself from it. That's when I noticed someone lying on the sand a few feet away from me. It took a few more minutes for me to rise from the ground and sat on the sand. I tried to recollect what had happened and where I was.

'Oh my God, Did my flight meet with an accident or something?'

The last I remembered was a loud blast which deafened my ear and followed by a yellow light emanating a few feet away from my seat on the flight.

'What was that? Where is my plane? And Where am I now?'

Those thoughts awoke every single sense on me. I realized my clothes were completely wet. It was covered by sand and saltwater. I stood up hastily. My legs were trembling and the pain on my right leg was unbearable.

A few more minutes later, I tried to regain my composure. I started walking towards the body which I saw earlier, it was still lying on the sand. I knew him, he was the Zayn alike teenage boy who was sitting next to me on the plane taking selfies.

'Is he dead?'

I touched his shoulder and felt no movement from him. I moved an inch closer to him. I knelt down and put my ear closer to his heart. Initially, I thought there was no heartbeat, but later I doubted there might be a slower one or so. His eyes were closed and his mouth was slightly open. I never took CPR lessons before, but I remembered how they do it in the movies. I put both my arms on his chest and pumped it, even after that there was no movement from his body.

I decided to breathe some oxygen into his mouth the way they do it in the movies. His lips were dry and salty. It was gross and uncomfortable though, but I had to save him at any cost. I put my mouth on him and breathed some air into him. He choked twice and then continued thereafter for a few more seconds. I moved my face away from him and pumped his chest once again. He puked water. I patted his cheeks like a mad guy. I didn't know what I was doing but I was trying to do everything I could to bring him back alive. It worked after a few minutes of trying, he puked some more water and then opened his eyes.

'Thank God, he is alive' I thought.

I rubbed both his hands and feet for some time and gave him enough time to come to his senses as I did earlier. His eyes wandered around, I noticed fear engulfing on his face. He got up after a few minutes.

"Where are we?" He asked me, looking at me in fear and shock.

I shook my head vigorously like a typical Indian guy "I have no idea".

I continued saying "I think our flight met with an accident".

He looked at me in shock, his mouth was wide open in fear.

I had no idea what to tell him or how to console him as I was not sure about what exactly happened neither. I looked at him and stayed silent.

He mumbled something in Arab, I didn't understand it. And he looked at me for a reply.

"Dude, I don't speak Arab" I told him.

He shook his head nervously and stood from the ground by holding me for balance. I guessed, he was surely a teenager. He looked healthy and fit. But his body was weak at that moment and his legs were shaking too.

"Can we go and look around?" He asked me.

"Yes, and I am thirsty, I need water," I told him.

He held my hands tightly and started walking with me, I didn't know why he was holding my hand, probably we both needed human comfort at that time.

"Hello" We both shouted on the air and screamed for help on the seashore. We got no response in return though. We looked at each other frightened and started walking again.

After a few feet on the shore, we found another body lying on the beach closer to the water. Waves were still drenching it. The body belonged to an Arabian, I guessed it from the white color sheik gown he/it was wearing. We both moved the Arabian guy away from the waves. I gave him the same CPR process to the Arabian guy, but the body refused to move an inch, I tried to listen to its heartbeat and found nothing.

After a few more minutes of CPR, I gave up trying. His mouth was wide opened and I came to a conclusion that he was dead a long time back.

The teenage boy looked at me wanting to know if the Arabian guy was alive.

I told him "I think he is dead".

Sadness gripped both our minds.

We both looked around searching for more bodies or people. We started walking some distance on the shore but found nothing else. We were stranded on the beach all alone. I ended up staring at a big rock closer to the sea at the dead end of the shore.

"I need water, I am thirsty", I told the boy.

He didn't say anything, he was still in shock, trying to grasp his situation. I looked at his face. He looked too young and frightened. He spoke hardly anything to me throughout our search for dead bodies on the shore.

I remembered I carried a backpack on the flight, I kept a small water bottle in it. So I dragged the boy along with me to the same place where I found myself on the beach. The airbag that wrapped around me earlier was lying lonely on the shore. Probably, it helped me from sinking under the sea. I noticed a similar orange sheet wrapped around the boy too when I found him.

I found my bag near the sheet. I took it and found my water bottle was still in it. I opened the bottle and drank half the water from it. Even though I didn't quench my thirst completely, I gave the bottle to the boy. He took it from me and drank the remaining water. I took back the empty bottle from him and kept it inside my backpack again.

We started walking towards the land. The land we saw was a few miles away from the sea. We found coconut trees everywhere. I never climbed on a tree before,.so I decided not to try.

We walked further away from the shore where we found tall trees and bushes. It looked like a deserted forest with no human habitat around its vicinity. And that concerned me, I was sure he was worried too from the sigh he gave.

I needed to reassure him somehow, he was too young to handle that situation.

So I started the conversation by asking him "What is your name? "

He said "Afridi and yours?"

"I am Sakthi from Chennai, India," I told him.

Suddenly, he put his fingers into his jeans pocket searching for something and he took a smartphone out. It was switched off, the screen was blank. Both our clothes were still wet, and I guessed water might have gone inside the phone. I remembered my iPhone which I kept in my bag, I looked for it. My iPhone was off too, it lost its life in the seawater a long time back. We both looked at each other in dismay.

We started moving quickly into the land looking for help. The more we walked into the land away from the sea, we found more trees and bushes, but nothing else. After we walked a few miles, our legs were weakening, we both were tired and thirsty. We shouted once again for help, but received no response from the other end.

Further down, more trees, plants and bushes, we even found a small stream. Water was flowing into the land, it was not deep just a couple of feet tall. It was crystal clear.

I dragged him towards the water flow, I was so thirsty that I didn't have any second thoughts about drinking it from an unknown water source. I just fetched it with both hands and drank as much as I could, I even filled my small bottle and kept it inside my bag. Initially, Afridi was hesitant but then he decided to drink the water too after watching what I was doing. He washed his face and tried to remove the salt which was on his jeans, but he couldn't achieve it completely. He gave up trying, I gave him a wry smile.

"At least, we are alive. We should thank God for that and that airbag saved us" I told him.

"Yes, but where are we now? How can we get help from others?" He asked me with a concerned look on his face.

"I don't know, but we will find out, but we can't walk any further in this forest. It is getting dark quickly and I don't think it's safe out here" I cautioned him.

He nodded his head and asked me,"What shall we do?".

It seems he was completely dependent upon me then.

"Let's go back to the shore and look for help, there must be a fishermen area somewhere nearby. It is safer to walk around the shore" I told him.

He agreed with me, but then suddenly he asked me "What if this is a deserted island, how do we get help?" His voice was shaking on that terrible thought.

"We don't know anything for sure, let's find out, we need help to return home safe," I told him, even though I was worried about what he said.

"We were flying for hours on the flight before the blast, we could be anywhere on earth now," He said.

I remained silent and started walking.

After an hour or so, we returned to the beach again. It looked deserted as it was earlier. Then we walked towards the big rock. It was at the edge of the Sea, waves were hitting the bottom of the rock. I tried climbing the rock from one side, there were several big stones on it, it was slippery but I managed to climb on top of a stone.

I got a good view of that place around me, the big rock was situated at one end of the shore followed by several similar rocks which were even bigger than that and then followed by mountains. I could neither see any human habitat nearby nor any signs of help. I did signal the boy who was climbing yet and asked him to hurry towards me.

I showed him what I saw. I held his hand and dragged him to the top of the rock, we both were exhausted in a few minutes. By then we got the map of the place we were in. As we were afraid earlier, we were stuck on an island indeed. Its area was cylindrical in shape, one end was covered by mountains and the other end was a dense forest. No towns or human habitat could be seen anywhere. We even saw the blue layer of ocean water beyond the mountains.

Yes, we were stuck on a deserted island. We even found some parts of our plane at the other edge of the rock lying below where little sand was visible closer to the sea.

We both were speechless, we sat there thinking what else to do next. Slowly, the thoughts of the dangerous situation we were in, was dawning on both of us. But miraculously we found someone right next to the plane parts, he was just sitting on the edge of a rock.

"Who is that, is he alive?" Afridi turned his head and asked me.

I didn't say a word in response, I started climbing down the other end towards the new guy. He saw us too, he looked happy and relieved. He got up from the rock and started walking towards us. He looked even younger than Afridi and I didn't recall seeing him on the plane. I took the water bottle out of my bag and gave it to him.

He took it from me and drank the water. "Is there anybody out there on the other side of this rock?" He asked us.

"No, I don't think so," I told him, and continued "but we saw an Arabian guy's body on the shore, we tried, but he was dead already".

"God" he was in utter shock too, as I and Afridi were a while ago.

He pointed his finger at a nearby rock and said "There were two more dead bodies in there, one is a lady" his voice was trembling in fear. I took his hand and held it tightly just like I did to Afridi earlier.

"There might be some people in that forest," he said as if he was not buying that idea.

"I don't know, we both walked into it for a few hours, we found nothing except trees, plants, and bushes," I told him.

"And a water stream, that's where we drank and took some in this bottle" Afridi finished my conversation with that.

The boy looked very young probably in his teenage life, he looked like a Southern Indian but spoke fluent English. So I asked him "What's your name, where are you from?"

"I am Jai from Calicut, (a city, Kerala State in India), I was supposed to take a flight to Philadelphia from New York where my brother lives, I was visiting him," He said in a depressed tone, I was sure he was worried too.

"Don't worry, we may find fishermen on their boat from the nearby place or people from our home might have heard about the missing plane, everybody including our government will look for us and do a search, they will find us for sure" I told him with an assured tone as if trying to convince myself not to lose hope.

Afridi also nodded his head, as if he believed me. And he introduced us to him "I am Afridi and he is Sakthi".

I left them behind me to find those two bodies mentioned by Jai. Climbing on the rocks in between wasn't easy, I even saw a few crabs running around it, and finally, I reached the lower end of the big rock to find the smaller one pointed by Jai.

The first one I saw was the lady who was carrying a baby with her on the flight, her head got smashed on the rock, blood was still leaking from her head, by that I already became an expert finding if someone is dead or alive. I took her right hand and looked for any beat in it and found nothing.

The body was cold already and I opened her eyes to found pupils in its corners. I assumed her dead and I moved to the other one lying a few feet away. He was one of those software professionals I noticed on the plane busy with his laptop. I moved closer to him and held my ear to his chest. I couldn't find any heartbeat, I shook his body a few times to confirm if he was dead. I looked around to find any other person dead or alive, but none found except a few more parts of the plane.

I wondered what would have happened to the baby the woman was carrying with her on the flight.

I returned to Afridi and Jai. They were watching me all along in silence. They understood what I witnessed, without any words, we three together started moving back to the deserted shore.

It went dark very fast, we needed to find a safe place to sleep that night and probably move into the forest to look for help in the morning.

My tummy started making a cranking sound, I was hungry.

"What shall we do next?" Jai asked me.

I remember Afridi did that too a few moments earlier, probably both were very young and scared, depended upon much older guys like me to find ways and help.

"Let's stay closer to the beach tonight, we can start moving into the forest in the morning and see if we could find some help". I told him.
And they agreed with me.

When we reached the shore again, we were engulfed in darkness and we could hardly see anything in front of us.

My tummy made that weird noise once again.

"Are you guys hungry too?" I asked them, as if that thought just occurred to them, they both said "Yes" in uniform.

"You got something in your handbag for us to eat in your?" Afridi asked me. I could see his dull face, his fair skin which was paler than before.

"I saw a few bags scattered around the lady near that rock, maybe we could find something in it" Jai interrupted me.

"Yes, but it's already dark now, we can't go back there. Let's stay near the coconut trees and find shorter ones to reach to collect some coconuts. Also, I do have a biscuit packet" the idea convinced both of them.

With little visibility, we were able to spot a few coconut trees shorter in height and reachable by us. Jai was taller than both of us, so he made a few steps climbing up to reach the hanging coconuts. I took a small nail cutter from my handbag and gave it to him to cut the cord off from the tree. Half a dozen coconuts fell from the tree and Afridi collected them.

We found a somewhat decent place nearby but maintained some distance away from the corpse of the Arabian guy. I was hungry, I started digging one tender coconut with my nail cutter. I gave the biscuit packet to the boys, we sat there gazing at the sea.

The cold wind was blowing from our right, we could see the moonlight reflecting on the arrival waves.

No ship or fisherman boat was on sight.

Afridi asked me "How did this happen?"

"I don't know either, I dozed off right after the takeoff and when I woke up there were disturbances on the flight, I heard the Pilot was screaming louder, trying to calm our nerves, and then the blast, I woke up on the seashore covered by the airbag a few hours later, I had no idea how did it all happen," I told him.

"It happened exactly 7 hours after our takeoff, our plane went on a top gear mode I guess, and climbed upwards. Our pilot lost control of the flight and communication from the ground. He tried to push the plane in a downward direction and I think he did. But immediately our plane went on a spiral mode. He announced to us to wear our seatbelt again and keep the airbags intact. Within a few minutes, the nose of the plane hit that big rock over there and did burst into flames. The rear end of the plane fell on the ocean. I saw some parts of it were scattered on the rock and some sank below the ocean. I fell on the rock too, but my airbag saved my head from hitting on the rock. And then I had a concussion, I was lying there half-unconscious on the rocks for an hour or so. Yes, I think I had a concussion. And then I saw you guys" Jai explained to us in detail about what happened. He said it in one breath.

"Do you know where we are right now?" Afridi asked him.

"I have no idea, assuming that our flight was halfway across, we could be anywhere in the North Atlantic, but then our flight deviated from its path out of control for nearly two hours or so, we could be anywhere". Jai said.

It was scary to believe even though deep down in our hearts we knew the possibility of his assumption. I read somewhere that there are several deserted islands in the world and several in the North Atlantic ocean. Greenland and Canada have several islands in particular covered by ice and lands. The one we were in, matched that description.

I couldn't guess the size of the island accurately from what I witnessed in the evening, probably close to 5 miles or so, but I noticed there was a large mountain right after the rocks we saw earlier. Also, I saw another distant island that had a couple of mountains completely or partially covered by ice.

The water stream we saw in the forest earlier probably came from the mountain on the island. We never knew.

I couldn't share those thoughts with the boys and scare them off completely, so I kept my thoughts to myself and I hoped that next morning we would be able to find some help or at least find a way to escape from there.
Also, I wanted to check if any of the dead bodies we saw had a working mobile phone so that we could call for help. I decided to do that by myself.

We spoke randomly about the flight accident and ways of finding help.

Cold winds started blowing again, I was tired and exhausted, I had no idea when I closed my eyes and went to sleep that night not knowing the horror that awaits us the next day.