Seven feet to go. Dark spots were now appearing in her field of view.

Five feet to go. She started coughing violently, swallowing gulps of water against her will. She couldn’t help herself.

Three feet. She thought about stopping to rest, and just letting the natural buoyancy of her body do its job.

No. If she stopped now, she would just sink back.

One foot. She could already feel the warmth of the sun in her arms and face. Just one more kick.

Jodi’s head broke the surface of the water. She tried to breathe and took a big gulp of air, only to vomit the water she had swallowed seconds ago. It took her a few moments to control her coughing fit, but when she did, she felt the icy coolness of oxygen coming into her lungs.

She allowed herself to just float, breathing deeply, inhaling and exhaling over and over again. It had been a close call and her body knew it; she only wanted to find a bed and sleep for a day or two.

Jodi lost track of time. It could have been a few moments… or an hour… before the pain in her had subsided enough to allow her to raise her head and look around.

She could see the shore; it wasn’t more than 100 meters to the north. She could see others on the shiny beach… some were running, some were limping, and most were just laying there, motionless. And of course, there was the plane… of what was left of it. As far as she could see, it had been split in two… the front side of the plane jotted out of the sand like a twisted and broken titan version of one of her sculptures, while the back side – where she and Tom had been sitting – was upside down on the opposite side of the beach.,.

She felt her throat tighten, and the unfamiliar sensation of tears welling in her eyes. She wiped them away with the back of her hand. She could cry later. Right now, she needed to find her friend and make sure he was okay.

Jodi willed her tired body to move, and she slowly started swimming towards the shore.