The cries of seagulls roused Sylvia awake. Despite being
pasted almost shut, she forced her eyelids open, tearing at eyelashes as she
did so, regretting instantly her decision to do so. Despite its lower angle in
the sky, the sun still beat down harshly on the open sea. Additional shorebird
cries roused her further.
A
sudden epiphany roused her fully—birds meant land.
Mustering what little strength she had
left in her dehydrated and starved state, Sylvia rolled over in the life boat.
Despite the blisters covering her hands and sunburn on the rest of her flesh,
she managed to pull herself up onto the edge of the large inflatable life raft.
As she had concluded, she was drifting towards a small island.
Somewhere,
deep down inside, she managed to draw upon a yet unknown reserve of strength
and will. With this, she managed to reach down into the water, meekly
propelling herself towards the shoreline.
After
a torturous infinity, she managed to make it to the shoreline. Looking back,
she saw the sun was quite low in the sky. Realizing how little daylight she had
left, Sylvia forced herself out of the boat and onto the sandy beach.
Lacking
the strength to stand fully upright, she managed to slowly crawl her way to the
edge far edge of the beach where the vegetation started. Bunking her head
against a palm tree, she half-flopped, half-rolled over into a sitting position
up against it.
Sylvia,
despite all her fatigue, all her pains, couldn’t help but feel anything but
gratitude for finally finding land. As far as she knew, she had been the only
survivor of the plane crash. All of the passengers, including the pilot of the
small sea plane, had been researchers traveling to the mid-Atlantic in search
of a reportedly new species of aeonium.
A
group of Portuguese sailors had brought back a single plant and several
harvested samples, claiming that it had medicinal properties. Initial testing
had indicated that certain essential oils it contained could have drastic
effects in the restoration damaged ocular cells, but the only living sample had
unfortunately been lost due to a lab accident.
Too
tired to keep her head up, Sylvia let it fall to the side, the rest of her
torso following.
And
then she started laughing uncontrollably.
There,
a mere few inches from her face, growing on the cusp of the vegetation line, was aeonium she had been seeking.
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