Falco didn't even hear the pilots all-but-too-late warning when the plane began its final descent towards the planet several hundred miles below, deep into sleep as he was at that point in the flight. Nor did the sinking, falling, squeezing feeling of the fall, like riding an elevator down a million floors with no stop between them, rouse him either. His sisters' panicked breathing and clutching fingers on his arm brought him too, though, her grip cutting off circulation to his hand so that it was tingling almost painfully. He glanced around quickly, his vision in that halfway zone between murky slumber and adrenaline fueled hyper-clarity that allowed him to make out the faces of each of the passengers.
The instant before the plane collided with the surface of the ocean he locked eyes with their parents, saw the absolute, all-consuming fear in their eyes turn to a stern parental order that needed no words to drive its meaning home. Protect your sister. In the instant after the unsaid command was given everything turned to a sea of darkness. Wet, constricting darkness that was trying to suck him down into the depths of the murky blue even as his tired hand clutches onto Lizzie's arm in a desperate attempt to keep her near him where he can at least attempt to save her. With so many forms rushing around him in circles, and sounds reverberating dully through the saltwater filling the cabin, he couldn't possibly know that the plane itself was being torn in two by the waves colliding into it as the storm raged on. His body was on autopilot, his brain to much in a panic to make conscious choices or decision - it was just swimming desperately for the only source of any light it could find, praying that it would lead somewhere with air, somewhere that wouldn't try to pull him back under.
How he managed to make it out of the sinking wreckage he couldn't remember. He almost thought he'd lost Lizzie the moment his head broke the surface and he gasped in a mouthful of dirty seawater, choking and retching on it even as he tried to get air into his lungs alongside. His hands were numb like most of his body; numb, cold and bruised from the impact of water and debris flying through the ocean like an undersea hurricane was roaring through around them. Fortunately his protective instincts were keeping his body two steps ahead and just as he made up his mind to dive back down in a futile attempt to save her, he was in the process of dragging her up onto the jagged and torn sheet of metal he'd taken refuge on. He wanted to sleep, close his eyes like his sister had now and pretend it was all a dream, pray for it to be over by the time he opened them again. He was all adrenaline now, though, all rush. Every terrifying wave towering over them as visible as it might be between flashes of lightning tearing the sky apart above them as the siblings clung together. 'Save Lizzie. Don't let go.' he kept telling himself as they surfed the wild torrents underneath, repeating it whenever he could feel his grip loosen on her as he tried to keep a hold of anything he could. He wouldn't lose her, not now. If he couldn't keep her with him, protect her like he always did, the scraps of life he clung to now wouldn't be worth a thing...
It all seemed like a dream to him now as the sweat grew denser and denser on his brow, sun beating down on him without mercy. He was only barely even aware that he wasn't dead, dreaming some final cruel dream recounting the last minutes he'd spent on Earth. He wouldn't have assumed he was living if not for the stinging, burning sensation in his lungs as the saltwater that had settled inside the organs worked its wonderful magic on his body. He wanted to open his eyes and look around, try to figure out why he couldn't feel his arms or legs, or hear anything around him but the constant droning he would have, a week ago, associated with the sound of the ocean in a conch shell or some such. His body was being disobedient, however. All his reserved energy spent up with the effort of saving his sister, his sole accomplishment, so that now all he could do was bake in the sun, resting.
A combination of aching, throbbing, stinging pain made up the entirety of Falco's world as he slept. It was sleep only insomuch as he wasn't awake - he never for one moment felt as if he were truly resting and recuperating from the intense ordeal he'd managed to survive. Never felt his consciousness fade from awareness into the soothing oblivion of dreams.
He was glad for that, he thought as he felt the harsh sun evaporate what little moisture his body was still able to retain. His second worst fear after failing to keep his sister alive was the possibility that he might dream and see his parents again, haunted by the memory of that last fleeting look of terror on their faces in the moment when they could give no strength to their children as they had none even for themselves. His minds' automatic defenses were blocking their faces from him now; mother and father being just abstract ideas that everyone must own, though his were for the moment forgotten. It's better this way. Just for now. he tells himself again as he lays unconscious waiting for the sun to cook his flesh and bleach his bones. Oblivion couldn't be much worse than that.
Something cool pelts his chest and he winces, the reflex making the saltwater in his lungs shift and burn horribly so that he fights to stay still as possible.
It should have been a relaxing, soothing feeling, but because of how sunburn his body was he only felt still more pain from the sudden contrast of colds and hots. His eyes tried to open, caked closed with tears that tried to fuse the lids shut, but he manages to steal just a peak into the world around him like peering through the crack of a bedroom door. The sky overhead was oppressively and endlessly blue, he noted. No clouds stood as obstacles to the cruel sun providing merciful shade down on him, or to serve as a memorial to the storm that had claimed the majority of his family. Just never-ending bright blues as far as his tired eyes could see.
With no markers up above he couldn't have known he was moving as his sister dragged him out of the sun and into the shade of the trees he didn't know existed nearby. He could certainly feel the difference, though, when the skin on his chest no longer felt like it was being peeled off of his body. It was enough to finally coax him awake.
His head turns to either side as he tries to lift it, barely able to pull it up an inch from the ground. He coughs loudly as he attempts to push himself up, one tired arm propped underneath him as his hands dig into the sand for support, and the sand woven into his messy brown hair and sprinkling his shoulders.
He half retches the seawater in his lungs and stomach out, sputtering and hacking loudly before beating himself on the chest trying to force the remainder free - and regretting that decision almost instantly when he remembers how badly sunburnt he is. Sweat was produced en mass to the point of dripping from every surface of his body, indistinguishable from the little bit of water that still clung to him in defiance against the solar rays above. It takes awhile before he's able to breath normally again, and to focus on something besides how much pain he was in.
He could hear the ocean, of course. The ever present crashing of waves reminding him of the worst night of his life, like the sea was warning him to think better of further trespass. To his right he looked into the opposing sea of green foliage, an arboreal paradise the likes of which he'd only seen in magazine or encyclopedias. It was, by his estimation, halfway between being a rain-forest and a jungle, though the definitions of both were mixed somewhat in his addled mind. He was brought away from this reverie by the sound of chewing, teeth sinking in to something so plump that when the skin broke the juices burst free of their prison in loud celebration.
He turned slowly as he could and then was overcome with emotion when his eyes lay upon his sister. Her unmistakable yet dirty long black hair draped unevenly over her sunburnt shoulders, and her shining green eyes focused on the fruit she was devouring. Without thinking he lunges towards her, pulling her into a hug as tears start streaming down his face, his hoarse voice only just barely able to call out her name before he starts coughing again, whispering thanks to some higher power that his prayers had been answered and she was okay.
Your support makes Blue Moon possible (Patreon)