Maya sat alone on a broken piece of fuselage, legs crossed, arms folded, glaring at a passing ant like it owed her rent.
She was bored.
Painfully, soul-eatingly bored.
No one to talk to. No Arjun. No sarcasm volley. Just sun, salt, strangers, and awkward half-smiles from passing survivors. She poked the sand with a stick for entertainment. That lasted thirty seconds.
Then she saw it.
People were forming groups.
Actual cliques. Like it was high school, except instead of lunch trays and gossip, it was bruises, hunger, and the looming threat of death.
One group was made of strong, bulky men, talking like they were building a shelter from scratch. Another had older folks sitting in a circle, humming a prayer. But what caught her eye was a cluster of mostly women, seated under a large piece of shade cloth tied to two leaning pieces of wreckage.
Maya tilted her head. "Hmm…"
After watching for a moment, she got up, brushed the sand off her shorts, and headed their way.
They looked up as she approached.
"Hey," she said casually. "Mind if I join you all?"
A woman with a tight bun and bandaged knee nodded. "Sure. Sit. There's space."
Maya lowered herself into the group, sitting cross-legged. "Thanks."
A pause.
Then she asked, "Sooo… just curious—why is everyone making groups?"
One of the women, an athletic-looking woman in a tank top, answered simply: "To survive."
Maya blinked. "Oh. Okay. But… why can't we survive alone?"
Another woman—short, round-faced, and already irritated—snapped, "Then why did you come to join this group?"
Maya raised her hands. "Relax, chill. I just came to… you know, timepass. I was bored."
Silence.
The air went heavy.
Then one woman gasped. "Wait wait wait… Timepass?!"
Maya smiled sheepishly. "I mean, not just timepass… also friendship! Team bonding, beach therapy—"
The round-faced woman stood up, pulled off one of her slippers, and stormed toward Maya. "You don't want to survive? You want to timepass?!"
"Sorry! Sorry!" Maya scrambled up, laughing and dodging. "Survival timepass! Educational timepass!"
"You never leave TIMEPASS!!" the woman screamed, chasing her in circles.
The others broke into laughter, some trying to stop her, others too busy wheezing.
Eventually they grabbed her, held her back, and someone said, "Okay, okay! Enough. Let's talk like adults."
The woman panted, still holding the slipper like a weapon. "You're lucky I wore the soft one today."
"Thank you for your mercy," Maya mumbled, fixing her hair.
Tank top woman took charge. "Let's introduce ourselves. It'll help. Make this group… official."
A woman began counting heads. "We're eight total."
Tank top clapped her hands. "Alright. Who starts?"
Maya shot up immediately. "I'll go!"
Everyone sat politely, ready to listen.
Maya cleared her throat dramatically, as if she were giving a TED Talk.
"So. I'm Maya Kapoor. 22 years old. I'm from Bangalore. Married. Recently. Like, extremely recently. You know, fresh-level married. We were flying to Vienna. I'm a graphic designer—but I'm also good at cooking, organizing, and, clearly, being chased with footwear. I hate beetroot. I love loud music when no one's around. I once won an interschool debate about penguin conservation. My secret fear is—"
"Okay okay okay!" the tight-bun lady interrupted. "Sit down now."
"Wait, one more thing—"
"No!"
Another woman grabbed her arm gently and pulled her down into sitting position. "We got it. You're very… thorough."
Maya sighed and faced the group.
Only to find all of them were staring at her.
Eyes wide.
Some mouths slightly open.
Faces pale.
She tilted her head. "What? Guys, come on. Don't be scared. I swear I'm done talking."
No one laughed.
One woman slowly raised a hand and pointed behind her.
Maya frowned.
"What? You think I'm gonna launch into another story? I promise—no more penguin debates!"
A voice whispered, dead serious.
"No... not you."
Another woman, trembling, said:
"See behind you."
Maya's heart skipped.
She turned her head slowly.
The shade cloth rustled in the wind.
And behind her…
Something was moving.
Something big.
Something not human.
Maya turned her head slowly.
The cloth shelter behind her rustled once… and she saw it.
A shape.
Not clear. Not close. But real. It moved just beyond the edge of the shade, in the blurred border between light and forest.
Tall. Not human. Two legs. Bent back. Long arms. Not running—gliding. Almost like smoke trapped in a body.
And then—
Gone.
It slipped into the trees like a thought that didn't want to be remembered.
"What the hell was that?" Maya whispered.
But before anyone could answer, a scream erupted from the side—one of the women from the group, standing too close to a tree.
Something pulled her.
Fast. Brutal. A hand? A claw? They didn't see.
She vanished into the forest.
"SHANTI!" someone screamed.
Chaos exploded instantly.
People leapt to their feet, some screaming, some running in circles.
A man from the same group—mid-thirties, jeans torn, face scraped—grabbed a broken branch and charged into the forest without thinking.
"I'M COMING!" he shouted. "JUST HOLD ON!"
He disappeared between the trees.
For a moment, everything was still.
Just heavy breathing. People whispering.
Maya stood frozen, one hand over her chest. "No no no no—"
Ten minutes passed.
No scream.
No footsteps.
No voice.
Only the breeze brushing through the leaves like it didn't care.
Maya took a breath.
Then, slowly, she stepped forward.
Toward the forest line.
She moved quietly, each foot pressing into the sand like a whisper. Just close enough to see the opening between the trees. Just close enough to—
THUMP.
Something landed in front of her.
Wet.
Heavy.
Round.
Maya stared.
It was a head.
Just the head.
No body.
The neck was ragged, torn—not clean like a blade. Chewed. Skin still twitching. Eyes open. Mouth parted like it had tried to scream even after it was too late.
Blood oozed from the base, dark and slow, soaking into the sand.
It was the man who had gone in to help.
Maya screamed.
A sound pulled from the bottom of her ribs. Not panic. Terror.
She turned and ran, stumbling, crashing back toward the group.
"RUN! RUN! GET AWAY FROM THE TREES!"
Others saw the head.
More screaming.
Someone fainted. Another vomited. The group scattered, some grabbing others, some just bolting blindly across the sand.
"No no no no no—" Maya collapsed behind the shade tarp, her hands shaking, heart pounding.
That thing… it was still in there.
Watching.
Waiting.
The beach was no longer just a crash site.
It was a hunt zone.
And now… they knew.