One day Mercedes and Lucas decided to go to Africa to see animals they had never seen before. Mercedes loved wild animals and luckily Lucas loved Mercedes and decided he would go with her. They packed up their bags and headed to the airport. Mercedes had never flown before and she was pretty scared about flying but the excitement of seeing such a new environment kept her going. Once she was aboard the plane she thought all was well. Halfway across the ocean between America and Africa the seat belt light came on and the captain came over the intercom, “Ladies and Gentlemen, please be prepared we are headed right towards a storm so the turbulence will be pretty rough. Please stay in your seats if at all possible.” Mercedes started to get nervous, she had heard of turbulence but didn’t know how bad it would be. A few minutes after the captain came over the intercom the entire plane started shaking. Mercedes and Lucas were scared and they didn’t know what to do, the plane was shaking so much that the oxygen masks fell down and they were told to put them on as an extra precaution. The captain came over the intercom one more time, “Ladies and Gentlemen I just need you to know that the storm clouds we thought we were going through is actually a hurricane. Please brace yourselves as the plane might be going down. After about twenty minutes they thought they were going to be okay and not have to make a water land until there was one flash of lightening that hit one of the engines. One of the stewardesses grabbed the intercom speaker and gave them the instructions to prepare for landing, “Brace! Brace! Brace! Your seat is a floatation device! Brace! Brace! Brace! Please follow the exit signs when we land!” Everyone was going insane; they were screaming at the top of their lungs. After a few minutes the plane made a water top landing, the captain cleared out the plane and everyone made it into the life boats. The life boats got separated but were going in the same direction. After what seemed like days of being stuck on a life boat they finally made it to an island. Once they arrived on the island everyone was so happy to see land. Once everyone was on the land the captain set search groups to look for food, water, shelter, and people. Each group had a responsibility, each group came back almost empty handed. There were no people on the island, very little food, and there wasn’t a good place for a shelter that would be big enough to fit everyone. The captain then decided that it was fend for yourself because he knew that there was no way that everyone was going to make it off the island if there weren’t any people or ships around. They started getting their supplies together and split up all of the goods and tools that were on the plane. After dividing all the supplies from the plane each person only had one days’ worth of food to last them who knew how long on the island. After being stranded on the island for 9 days they experienced their first death. Every day after that more and more people were dying from starvation. Mercedes and Lucas were among the last 5 of the passengers that were still alive after 2 months. They had the mindset that they knew people were coming to save them. People knew the plane went down, now they just need to find the passengers. After 2 months and 5 days they finally saw a helicopter. The helicopter lowered down a rope ladder which they then climbed up and into the helicopter. The crew gave them food and water. Once they finished the food and water one of the crew members asked, “How many of you are there left?” Mercedes answered, “We are the last 3” signaling to Lucas and the Captain. The helicopter took them back to the United States. The next day the president awarded them all with medals of bravery for fighting to live so long on such a deserted place. They also set up scholarships in their names, and gave them a place to take a vacation and recuperate from their journey.
Africa trip
Bibliography:
The Arabian Nights' Entertainments by Andrew Lang
Authors note:
For this story I took the fifth voyage of Sinbad and mixed it a little bit with the plot line of Cast Away. I tried to be creative and come up with another way to be left alone on a secluded island but plane and ships are about the only way to get to those islands.
Hi Ashley!!
ReplyDeleteNot going to lie, I definitely judged your story by how it was formatted, it seemed so intimidating and very long. Once I started reading, I became very interested. I like how you went into detail about the plane ride. Almost everyone has been on a plane so it was easy to relate it back it a personal life event. One time, I had the pilot say the exact thing about going through a storm and there being a lot of turbulence. I started to imagine being on the plane from your story. I though your story was detailed nicely and the narration was smooth and consistent through out the story. Although the story was a little sad, it was very realistic. I'm glad they remaining three were rescued to safety and received a medal for their bravery and pain they went through. Very good story!
Hi Ashley,
ReplyDeleteMuch like the comment above, for me, the formatting of your story was a lot to take on at first. Just as side tip, maybe try breaking up the paragraphs to make the story easier to read for the eye.
As for the story itself, your retelling actually makes me want to read the original. Because you brought the story into something more tangible like the plot line of cast away the original doesn't seem as intimidating. I really enjoyed your attention to detail most of all. Any questions I naturally had while reading were answered within the next sentence or so, which is a quality I look for and admire in good storytelling. This story was a great read, overall.
Hi Ashley
ReplyDeleteI also read the Voyages of Sindbad for this week. It is interesting how you were able to connect the stories of Cast Away with Sindbad. I liked all of the detail in the beginning and middle because it really painted a picture in my head but I do wish you added more detail to the ending! Overall though, your story had a really good plot line and was enjoyable to read. Keep up the good work!
Not going to lie, the huge block of text concerned me a bit there, but once I started reading the actual story caught my attention and the story seemed to just fly by! I had never seen cast away but it sounds interesting. I like it how there a lot of detail in the plane part of the story. It was cool!
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