the island - 1. the landing

by nick nelson

part 1 of ?

the pilot, an easygoing sort named mike worthington, landed the plane safely on the desert island. some of the passengers were impressed, and grateful. others, not so much, and they angrily demanded to know why it had been necessary to land the plane at all, and insisted that the pilot should have showed some backbone and attempted to make it to san francisco. be that as it may, the plane was down, with all the passengers safe, at least for the time being. outside on the island, all was dark and silent. the two stewardesses, mary harris and betty baker, moved down the aisles, trying to soothe the more agitated passengers. there were twenty-six passengers. the flight had started in hong kong or shanghai with a crew of four - the two stewardesses, the pilot, and an assistant pilot, but the assistant pilot. a surly fellow named dave hunter, was, unknown to the passengers. dead, his lifeless body propped upright in his chair. the twenty-six passengers were: al andrews, an adventurer with a checkered past barton bascomb, a banker cecily chandler, a cocotte daisy dalton, a daredevil - and dynamite eddie edgeworth, an early bird with his eye on the worm frank fairleigh, a fashionable man about town. gary garth, a freelance debt collector herbert hoover, a former president of the united states isaih, a prophet jezebel jones, a lady with a jewel case - and a checkered past kelly kamikaze, a debutante with a fiery temper luke lynch, a lawman and straight shooter miss marcia morris, a harmless looking old lady norris nicholson, a nonentity ollie oliver, “the champ”, a heavyweight boxer pete porterfield, a power broker quentin, a drifter rosalie rogers, a big game hunter loaded for bear sally smith, a school teacher tara tempest, a torch singer uncle bill, a philosopher vinny, an odd jobs man woodrow wilson, a former president of princeton unversity happy, a clown yeti, a captive in the custody of luke lynch zeke, a fiddler and diddler to be continued