Chapter 1 Deserted Island

“Sir, are you going to Dubai too?” I heard the question as soon as I planted myself onto the plush seat. “I am, indeed,” I casually answered. At the same time, I tilted my head to steal a glance at the girl next to me. She wasn’t the type that would take one’s breath away. However, her almond-shaped eyes, round nose, and faint dimples made up a pleasantly affable face. She instantly left me a good impression. I must clarify. It wasn’t because of the curve of her chest but rather, it was the way she dressed. I liked that all her fashion items were costly yet understated. Her Chanel spring outerwear grabbed my attention. I was sure one of the Kardashians had the exact same piece. One might ask how I could tell. Well, it was all thanks to my previous job. As if the girl could sense my intense gaze, her face turned pink. “Sir, are you going to Dubai for business or pleasure?” Pleasure? I didn’t gamble all my savings to go there for pleasure. I was on my way to beg for money! I beamed. “Oh, no. It’s for business. I am doing some research to prepare for international financing.” The girl responded with a slight, cordial smile. She was indifferent to the flashy words I just threw at her. Hmm, she must hail from an affluent family. “What line of work are you in?” On the other side of my seat, another woman seemed enthusiastic. Her worldly eyes lit up as her thin lips formed a plastic smile. I looked at the woman and explained to her while trying to keep a low profile, “I was a security consultant at one of the top 500 companies, but I left because of our differences in development philosophies. I now work in I.T...” But I was interrupted by a familiar voice, “Dang. Aren’t you a genius for making security guards and network administrators sound so fancy!” I could feel the blood rushing to my face. I looked up in frustration to find a flight attendant who possessed a pair of endless legs. “Hailey Lewis, I wanna file a complaint against you!” I spat through clenched teeth. Hailey, whose facial features resembled Lily James, widened her eyes sarcastically. “I paid for your ticket! How can you turn against me like that? It’s fine for you to leech on women, but please have some morals.” Denying me a chance to speak for myself, she gave me a dirty look then turned away. I glared at her departing figure as her voluptuous hips swayed from side to side. I was irritated, wishing I could smack her! Hailey was my older distant cousin. Although our family was so huge that we weren’t technically related, our parents were very close. We basically grew up together like siblings. Just like real siblings, we never got along well and always ended up bickering. That was probably why she felt the need to clarify my situation with such brutal honesty. I was in the military before I worked as a security guard in a notable clubhouse. After getting sacked, I got a job as a network administrator at a cybercafe, which also didn’t last long. Just when I was struggling to make ends meet, I read online that a beggar in Dubai could make a few thousand a day. I had a full-on lightbulb moment right then and there. I knew Hailey could get me a flight ticket to Dubai, and she was happy to comply. In her words, this was her charity case since I didn’t have to burden the country anymore. That was the backstory of how I got on this flight. After Hailey left, both women stared at me with an odd look. It was so awkward that I wished the ground would open up and swallow me. I quickly looked away to avoid eye contact, but I came upon something more dreadful outside the window—thick clouds of smoke. Jeez! What the heck... My heart sank into my boots. I shot up to yell, “Smoke... smoke...” Before I could form a sensible sentence, I felt a powerful jolt yanking my body backward. Then, a violent force pulled me down. The cabin suddenly lit up as sunlight came in through a hole in the wall close to me. Strong gushes of wind sucked several passengers out. We heard their shrieks before they flew off. “Lord have mercy...” “Holy cow!” People exclaimed in all languages like cats on hot bricks. The hole grew larger by the second and I saw pieces of glass and metal flying all over the place. A shard of metal stabbed right into the thin-lipped woman’s chest. The plane tossed violently about, resulting in my disorientation. I felt the whole world spinning until suddenly, my head hit the seat in front of me. After that, everything faded to black. I regained consciousness with a nasty headache. Although I was confused, I could feel myself cuddling something soft and snuggly. I opened my eyes to see the girl who had been sitting next to me. She was clinging to me with her eyes squeezed shut. Her makeup was all gone, revealing the pale complexion on her face. Totally passed out, she appeared defenseless and innocent. I tried to move my body, but she held me tighter reflexively and buried her head into my neck. That movement sent her perky breasts close to my chest. My mind went blank for a second. However, the whooshing waves redirected my attention. I scanned the surroundings to find us lying on a beach in the middle of a pile of ruins. Debris coupled with motionless bodies were scattered along the coastline. As the waves crashed on the shore, they brought in parts of the plane and bodies only to take away the previous ones. The cycle repeated as if it was never-ending, yet nothing had changed. Where... are we? Is this a deserted island? I tried my best to recall anything and everything to piece the crash together. Holy moly! I couldn’t believe that I had just survived a huge plunge! I definitely lucked out. I was so elated that I kissed the girl in my arms. She opened her eyes to stare at me vacantly before letting out a shriek. “Ahhh! You creep!” To her dismay, the only response she got was a gust of sea breeze and my bitter smirk. “Stop screaming. It’s not like there’ll be cops here. God knows how I don’t mind getting locked up if you could make them show up.” The girl looked around anxiously and finally realized she was surrounded by corpses. Pulling her hair, she let out an even more deafening cry. I pushed her onto the ground and covered her mouth. With a muffled voice, she struggled to break free. Her wriggling body brushed against mine and gave me some sort of physical reaction. There was no way to be subtle about it. Obviously, she felt it too. Her bulging eyes were now tearing up. “First, we are on a deserted island. We don’t know if there’s freshwater around, so you better save your energy. Second, we don’t know anything about this place, and we definitely don’t need your cries to attract any predator. If that happens, we could end up worse than these dead people around us. Understood? Let me know that you understand, and I’ll let go.” She looked at me with her innocent eyes before she nodded unwillingly. I flipped over and released her. It was quite a shame that she played nice, or else... Ah, my dirty mind! I got to my feet and helped her up. “What’s your name?” Tears flowed down her cheeks. “Tina.” “I’m Zayn. I’ll take care of you from now on. As long as you do as I say, I won’t let anyone bully you!” “But... who else is here to bully me?” That was amusing. I couldn’t believe how naive she was. Couldn’t she tell it was a joke?