With a ding, the seat belts light in the Lear jet flicked off. Phil reached to his waist and pressed the release button on his seat belt. A flight attendant walked into the large plush cabin and asked the two men sitting there if they would like a drink.   Phil asked for a coke and Mark asked for a sprite.  As they waited for their beverages they discussed their work.  These two men were heading to Hawaii to oversee the building of 4 new apartment complexes.  As their custom tailored suits may have suggested they were very rich and influential men.  Their plane alone was worth more than the average mansion, around 5 million dollars to be precise.  After around an hour of flight, the speaker crackled to life; “we will be landing in about half”- the captains voice was cut off by an ear shattering tearing noise.    The plane shook violently and began to spin.  Phil and Mark were thrown around the cabin, as they desperately tried to find something to cling too.   In this Phil succeeded in only a few seconds, thought it seemed to take an eternity.  Once Phil had gotten hold of the luggage rack, Mark got hold of Phil.  Phil looked up to see the flight attendant crawl out of the kitchen and open a compartment, which spilled its contents of parachutes out into the cabin of the plane.  Phil pulled himself along the luggage rack while alternately being pressed against and hanging from it.  He reached the flight attendant who passed him a parachute which he struggled into.  Mark had also procured a parachute and was just about done strapping himself into it.  Before putting on her own parachute the flight attendant opened the door to the plane allowing Phil and Mark to throw themselves out of the spiraling plane.  Once out Phil yanked on the ripcord of his parachute, and heard it rustle as it was pulled out to its full size.  Floating gracefully Phil saw Mark 10 meters from him, and the Lear Jet oddly deformed spiraling to the sparkling sapphire ocean below.  He watched as one more white parachute unfurled but the plane was already less than 20 meters above the water; the jumper wouldn’t slow down enough before impact with the water.  The Jet smashed into the water and exploded, a massive ball of fire consuming the last jumper.  Phil averted his eyes and grimaced as he thought about the grim fate the crew had suffered.  The water was coming up fast now, and Phil removed his shoes in expectance of the swimming he would have to do, but when he splashed into the water he discovered it was only waist deep.  Phil dragged his soaked parachute to the nearby island, and once he reached it commenced wrestling it off of himself.  By the time he had removed his parachute Mark had arrived on the beach as well, and with a look around, commented “What, no hotel?”  Phil chuckled but then the seriousness of their situation overwhelmed him.  Their crew was dead, they were alone on a very small island, and they didn’t know if they would be rescued.  “Well, I guess we should look for some food, and start working on a shelter in case we don’t get found tonight” reasoned Phil.  “Good idea,” said Mark “I’ll work on shelter, could you look for food?”  Phil answered with a nod and the two men started on their respective duties   Phil went to the small grove of palm trees, and looked for some trees with coconuts on them.  They were in luck; there were coconuts on almost every tree.  He took of his jacket and commenced shimmying up a tree that had loads of coconuts.  Once at the top Phil was panting, but it was worth it for he managed to knock down 4 coconuts.  His job complete, Phil slid back down the palm tree and picked up his prizes, which he carried over to where Mark had the beginnings of a hut going.   Although the coconuts were some food, Phil would like some meat, and he knew just the place for it.  He walked over to the water’s edge on the side of the island opposite to where they had landed.  He searched the water with his eyes, looking for meat.  After a while he saw what he was looking for, a fish.  It wasn’t a massive fish, but it was a good size, around 40cm in length.  He knew that catching the fish would be hard, but he also knew it would be well worth it.  He remembered an episode from the history channel where First Nations had caught fish by stabbing them with spears.  He knew that would be his best bet in catching a fish as he didn’t have any bait for a traditional fishing pole.  Maybe once he caught a fish or two, he could use string from his parachute to make a fishing rod, and use bones and meat from the fish for bait and hook.  Phil scoured the beach in search of a piece of drift wood he could use for his spear.  Once he found a suitable piece (a sun bleached stick about 1 meter long) he returned to the ocean.  Before entering the water Phil ripped his silk pants at the knees, and removed his shirt so they didn’t get wet.  Phil waded for a while before catching sight of a fish, the same fish he saw earlier in fact.  He moved very slowly, and tried to create as little movement in the water as possible. Phil lunged forward stabbing with his spear, but to no avail, the fish swam away unharmed.  After around an hour of wading around, stabbing at fish, he finally hit his mark.  When he pulled his spear back from the water, the impaled was fish writhing and squirming in its death throes. Delighted with his catch Phil reached out to hold the fish on his spear, making sure he wouldn’t lose it.  Content with the one fish, Phil waded back to shore to show Mark his catch.  “Wow, fish sticks tonight” grinned Mark upon catching sight of the fish.  “That is, only if we can get a fire started” replied Phil.  Mark grinned again, and answered “Don’t you worry about that, I’ve got it covered.”  “Anyways, how’s the shelter coming?” questioned Phil.  “I finished it up just a few minutes before you got here, come take a look.  Looking over Marks shoulder Phil saw their shelter for the night.  Mark had taken driftwood and arranged them into a sort of Tee-Pee.  Next he had taken palm leaves and attached them onto the driftwood to create a bit of protection from the elements.  Last he had bound rolled palm leaves around the top of the structure to give it extra support.  “Nice” commented Phil, “That should keep us out of the rain.”  Phil hadn’t noticed but as he admired the shelter, Mark had been busy building a ring of rocks.  Phil guessed they were for a fire, but wasn’t sure so he asked, and they were.  With Phil watching Mark got his fire making materials, which included dry palm leaves, a stick, a small flat rock, and a piece of bark together.  He dug a small hole out of the bark with the rock, and then after placing the bark on the sand with the palm leaves, stuck the stick in the hole and rotated it to create friction.  He kept at this for at least 15 minutes, all the while embers accumulating in the bark.  Suddenly Phil saw flame among the palm leaves.  The embers from the bark had eventually caught on the palm leaves.  Mark quickly placed the palm leaves in the ring of rocks, and then put some pieces of driftwood on the quickly starting fire.  After a quick few minutes of blowing on the flames, Mark had a nice fire going.  “How do you think we should cook the fish?” asked Mark.  “We really only have 2 options, a spit, or use a rock as a sort of frying pan, but I think we should go with the rock” answered Phil.  “Why do you say that?” questioned Mark. “Well, seeing as we don’t have a knife this fish is going to be in a lot of little pieces, and I’m too lazy to make a spit right now” replied Phil.  Mark chuckled, and then said “Well, how about you go find a rock while I tend the fire” “Sure” muttered Phil as he walked off toward the grove of palm trees.  He searched for a while among the trees hoping to find a rock.  Eventually he found one but it took a lot of searching, and even a little digging.  The sun was just about to head over the horizon when Phil got back with his rock.  Mark had gutted the fish as best he could with the small rock he had.  Phil put the rock he had found down into the fire and waited for a while before pushing it out with a piece of wood.  Mark placed the pieces of fish onto the rock and pushed it as close as he dared to the fire, and then they waited.  After a good 15 minutes, the fish was sizzling, and Phil removed the rock from the fire.  Picking up a twig, Phil speared a small piece of fish, and sampled it.  The fish was very good to the two men who hadn’t eaten for most of the day, but to most people would have been your average fish.  The sun now completely set, the Men finished up eating, added more wood to the fire, and crawled into the hut.  Phil was happy to find a mat of palm leaves on the floor which he hadn’t seen before.  They both drifted off to sleep quickly, and before long the new day was upon them.  Opening his eyes slowly, Mark sat up and moved out of the tent, to find Phil already up and about tending the fire.  “Hey sleepy head, you’re finally up. Why don’t you help me here?” exclaimed Phil.  Only then did Mark see the pile of wood and palm leaves Phil had amassed.  “I’m building a bonfire, that way we’ll have a greater chance of getting rescued.” “Good idea” replied Mark, “We should get picked up right away with this” he said gesturing at the pile of combustibles.  They labored for a while, taking both small palm trees and driftwood they found.  All this wood was amassed in a big pile, with some dry palm leaves at the bottom, for easy ignition.   They also threw in a couple regular palm leaves, to add some smoke.  A smokier fire meant a bigger possibility of being spotted.  When completed their bonfire was around 4 feet across and 4 feet high.  “Today looks like it’s going to be pretty boring.” said Phil dryly.  “Yep” replied Mark, plopping himself down next to the hut.  “I wonder if anyone is searching for us” commented Phil.  “I hope so” muttered Mark.  Phil sat down next to mark and agreed “Me too” They sat there for a while, watching and listening, alert for any man made noises.  The sun had just reached its midpoint when Phil heard it.  A distant buzz, as if from a bee grew louder and louder.  “I hear something!” exclaimed an excited Phil.  He stood up as did Mark.  They looked in the direction of the droning, and saw way off in the distance a plane.  “Quick, the bonfire!” said Mark, but Phil was already lighting it.  He took a couple sticks from their smoldering fire and lit the dry palm leaves of the bon fire.  The fire quickly spread from branch to branch, igniting the entire pile of wood.  The fire lit, Phil and Mark jumped and waved at the plane, which was coming closer and closer to their island.  When the plane was 200m out it waggled its wings, which Phil and Mark took to mean it had seen them.   Was wondering how a plane would pick them up out here, when he realized the plane had floats.  After passing their island it turned in a wide ark, and descended to water level.  Spray rose from the water as the floats made contact, and the planes drone slowed.  The plane turned toward the island, and slowly glided forward.  The overjoyed Mark and Phil were jumping and screaming, waving at the plane. Someone made a thumbs up signal out of the window.  Phil and Mark were swimming towards the plane now, and when they reached it, eager arms helped them up onto the floats.  Once both men were on the floats of the plane, a burly fellow in a flowered shirt said “Welcome back to civilization!”  “And we’re glad to be here!” replied Phil.  “Very glad” added Mark. The plane’s propeller started to spin faster again, and it began to turn back out to sea.  The man in the flower shirt ushered Mark and Phil into the cabin, where he gave each of them a couple of granola bars.  “In case you’re hungry” he said.  Though the fish had satisfied them last night, they were starting to become ravenous again, and therefore, both devoured their granola bars.  Granola bars nonexistent, they leaned back into the comfortable chairs as the plane cleared the water.  The planes propeller was now sounding a nice hum, the ecstatic Phil and Mark were very happy they had been found.  “Why did our plane go down?” asked Phil.  “A commercial jet came too low down from its airspace and hit you guys.  There was a real panic back at the airport when two planes disappeared of the radar at once.  We’ve recovered a few of the passengers from the other jet, but is anyone else alive from yours?”  explained the burly fellow.  “No, the crew went down with the plane” mourned Mark.  That sobered everyone up quick, as well as the numerous people on the other plane who might have died.  The rest of the flight to Hawaii was in silence.  Mark and Phil were shuttled out of the airport in secret because of the numerous reporters waiting outside.  They were driven to a hotel, and given fresh clothes as their current ones were quite dirty.  After changing Phil and Mark phoned their families assuring them they were ok, and phoned the families of the crew in their jet.  They told them what great people the crew was and what happened to them.  They both lived on to be 83 and became multibillionaires, the end.