 | by
Paige in my world of make-believe |
July 7th, 2006
Flight 137
Chapter One The Ultimate Family Vacation
Everyone was either seated or standing in The Gate area, waiting to board Flight 137. The plane was set to leave at 5:30am, travel across the Atlantic Ocean over to Africa. The plane was leaving from Virginia. Everyone was watching the flight times to see if their flight would, indeed, be delayed because of bad weather.
~ Kris and his parents, along with his little sister Paige and his parent’s friends, were in on of the many food lines to buy snacks before they got on the plane. Suddenly, an announcement came on overhead declaring that the flight would continue and no further delay was in store for the travelers. Kris heard Paige let out a sigh and Kris just barely smiled. While their dad let out an obnoxious yell of exaggerated joy.
‘Why does he ALWAYS have to do that?’ Kris wondered, rolling his eyes. Kris had learned over the years how to act like he had no idea who his dad was, just because his dad tended to be a little embarrassing, only if he didn’t mean to. Not only was he stuck with his crazy dad, but he didn’t even want to go on this vacation on the first place. He’d rather be home in Arizona riding his Dirt Bikes with friends.
Kris and his family (and his family’s friends) had traveled from Arizona (their home), all the way up to South Dakota where they visited the Grandparents then to Nashville, Tennessee where they went sight-seeing and now they were in Virginia where they stayed for a week and saw what was to see there. Now, they were going to the best pat of their vacation, Africa. It was the ultimate Summer Vacation, said Kris’s dad. Staying in SD for a week, then in Nashville for another week, then in Virginia for a week and now Africa for 2 weeks! By the time they’d get back, they’d have 5 weeks left of Summer Vacation.
~ Paige grabbed the sour skittles out of her older brother’s hands and hurried to catch up with her parents and Tony and Laura, leaving her brother in the dust. “Are we really going across the Atlantic for three hours straight? I thought it would take longer…” Paige asked Kris as he caught up.
~ Kris looked down at his 16 year-old sister who knew a lot, but still didn’t know enough to satisfy him. She had blue eyes and dirty blonde hair and not the prettiest face that a 16 year-old could have, but Kris couldn’t say he was the handsomest guy either.
~ Paige stared up at her big brother, at the age of 21, waiting for his answer. Like herself, he had dirty blonde hair and blue eyes, except his were a little darker. He had a small beard and a slowly-but-surely-growing mustache. “Yeah, we are, so watch for whales.” He told her.
“Ha, funny. We won’t be able to see any.” She replied back, smiling.
“You will if you’re about to hit water at an uncontrollable speed.”
“Shut-up!” Paige hit her brother in the arm, playfully knocking him aside. Her eyes got wide as he accidentally bumped into a girl who looked about his age. Paige giggled and watched as he stumbled.
“Sorry. My sister-” Kris glared over at Paige as the girl said “No problem,” and walked away in a hurry. Paige giggled again and then ducked behind her dad as Kris tried swiping at her head.
“Guys, come on! We’re boarding.” Tony called, waving his hand over towards the entrance.
Paige handed the lady her ticket, and she walked in and boarded Flight 137. . .
Chapter Two Flying High
Seated and about to watch the movie King Kong about 10 minutes later, Kris and Paige had seated themselves in the row in front of their parents. Kris was sitting by the window and Paige next to him, there was a seat open next to her.
~ Paige watched as the last of the people began seating themselves. Suddenly, a young man with dark brown hair that went down to his shoulders in a Rockstar look with dark, sparkly, blue eyes and a ‘fancy’ goatee and small mustache placed his bag on the overhead luggage holder above Paige. Paige and Kris watched as he grabbed his magazine and chips and settled into the seat next to Paige. Paige’s heart leaped. He was cute! Paige smiled and looked over at Kris. He just shook his head and smirked, looking out the window, but watching the guy out of the corner of his eye.
~ What Paige didn’t know, was that Kris had felt a stab of… well, he didn’t know what he was feeling. Maybe a feeling of uncertainty, or protection. He pushed the feeling away by thinking it must be some kind of Big Brother feeling…
~ ”The name’s Jessie.” The man stuck out his hand towards Paige.
“Paige.” She answered, taking his hand in hers and shaking it in greeting.
“Where are you from?” Jessie asked.
Kris eyed Paige, but she said, rather bluntly, “Sun Lakes, Arizona.”
“Whoa. That’s a long way from Virginia. What are you doing all the way out here? And going to Africa, too?” Jessie asked, his eyebrows going up.
“Wee taking a months’ and a weeks’ vacation. We were in South Dakota, then in Nashville, then in Virginia and now, finally, on our way to Africa for 2 weeks. Why are you going? Are you from Virginia?”
“No, actually. I’m from DC. I’m going to help out a friend who helps some of the sick and in need of desperate care. Do you know what city on Africa your family is traveling to?” Jessie asked, never taking an eyes off of Paige’s beautiful, blue eyes.
~ Not wanting to be left out of the conversation, Kris spoke up, “We’re not exactly sure. We want to check it when we get there.”
“I see, your family are THOSE kind of tourists. And, who are you?” Jessie asked, ripping his eyes from Paige’s and staring over at what Jessie thought to be Paige’s older brother.
“Kris.”
“Well. Nice to meet you, Kris.” Jessie said, then quickly turned back to Paige. “So, Paige, are you-”
Suddenly, Jessie was cut off when Ken’s load voice came from the seat behind them. “Everything alright up here you two?” Ken, Paige and Kris’s father, peered down at them, then at Jessie, his eyes narrowing.
“Yeah, everything’s fine, Dad. This is Jessie. He’s from DC and he’s gunna be helping some of the civilians down in Africa with his friend.” Paige answered, quickly.
Jessie and Ken shook hands in meeting, but Ken kept an eye on his son and daughter. He sat back down shortly after when Joann (mom) started talking to him. The plane was now going down the runway, the flight had begun. . .
~ Kris sat back in his seat, iPod blasting the song Savin’ Me from Nickelback into his ears. Paige was reading one of her girl magazines and Jessie was reading the book, LOST. ‘What a good book to be reading on a plane flight.’ Thought Kris, snickering silently. With two more hours of flight left Kris was about ready to take a nap.
~ Paige looked over at her brother who was gazing out the window, looking as if he was about to fall asleep any second. Smiling slightly, she looked over at Jessie, watching his eyes scan over the page and take in the words. He looked up to smile at his examiner. Paige liked his smile. . . a lot.
Suddenly, the plane jerked. Kris banged his head against the window. Paige laughed at her brother, but Jessie looked around, worried. Another sudden jerk and Paige’s smile faded. She put away her magazine and looked outside in time to see huge storm clouds all around them.
“What in the world is going on?” Kris asked, rubbing his forehead and turning off his iPod.
“Doesn’t seem good, whatever it is.” Jessie answered.
Another jerk, bigger than the others. Paige grabbed onto her seat’s arm rest, accidentally grabbing onto Jessie’s arm. They looked at one another. Dark blue against light blue. The lights went out and people screamed. The plane jerked again… then dropped straight down. . .
Chapter Three CRASH!
~ Chaos everywhere. Paige staggered to her feet. She was surrounded by pieces of metal. Metal from the plane. She looked around and saw fire, bodies, blood and people running.
The plane was missing many parts. The nose and tail were missing and one wing. The other wing was 10 yards away from where Paige stood, going up in flames. She staggered towards it, seeing people get up and try to walk. The middle section of the plane was about 6 yards away from Paige and to her right. She saw her brother getting up, only 2 yards away from the middle section of the plane. She wanted to run to him, but her feet kept her going towards the wing.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, Jessie came flying at her, tackling her to the ground. She heard a loud boom, shouts and screams. She was pushed into the dirt, smothered by Jessie’s body. Heat hit her like a stream of water. What had happened?
She was thrust up again and onto her feet. Jessie was pulling her and they were running towards a jungle of trees. She looked back, sand in her eyes, and could make out the exploded part of the wing, and fresh bodies lying around it. The feeling sunk in a she ran, she could’ve been one of those bodies.
She turned her head and saw he mom, dad, Kris and Tony and Laura running not far behind. Paige looked forward and saw that Jessie’s shirt had torn off. A huge gash was on his left shoulder blade and other scratches were all over his body. They ran deeper into the forest. . .
~ Kris had never ran that fast in his life! After seeing his sister almost get blown to smithereens, he had gotten his parents – who got Tony and Laura – and ran for dear life! Now Paige was running up ahead with Jessie, who Kris still didn’t fully trust, and his mom, dad, Tony and Laura ran behind him. He had a single cut (that he could see) beneath his shoulder. He flinched, but kept running.
Soon, he saw Jessie and Paige stopping some ways up ahead. Kris looked back and saw the others slow to a jog instead of a run, his father clutching his side and grimacing. Kris jogged up to Jessie and Paige.
Paige ran to him, tears rolling down her face. “I thought- I was- I was so scared! I thought I was going to die!” she sobbed.
“It’s okay. It’s okay.” Kris cradled his sister like a small child, like a scared child, but was it he who needed the cradling?
~ Paige felt a tear in her brothers’ shirt, near his shoulder. She looked at her hand and saw that it was smothered in blood. “We need to find a doctor! We need to find someone!” she insisted, as her parents and Tony and Laura came up to them.
“I’m a doctor.” Jessie breathed. He walked over and examined Kris’s cut.
“What are you going to do about your gash, then?” Ken asked, his loud voice shaking ever so slightly. For once, Paige saw fear in her father’s eyes.
“I’ll worry about that later. First, we need to make sure all of us are okay. Then, we need to go back and find survivors.” Jessie had already moved onto Paige and was looking at a small cut near her eye.
Moments later the small group was jogging back to the place where the plane had crashed. More metal pieces lay on the ground, bodies were sprawled everywhere along the shore. Other people were crawling, stumbling or calling out for help.
Paige ran over to a small, five year-old girl. Kris and Jessie had ran to an elderly man’s aid. Paige didn’t see where the others ran off to.
“Help! Please, help me!” The little girl was curled up in a tight ball in the sand, her foot caught under a piece of metal.
“Don’t worry! I’m here. I’ll help you!” Paige cried. The metal had cut a deep gash in the girl’s leg, just above her ankle bone. Paige lifted up the piece of metal, using just about all her strength she had left in her arms. She heaved it off of the girl and dropped it to the side.
“Ohhhh! Ow! I want my mommy!” the little girl cried.
“It’s okay. We’ll find your mommy, just, hold on. Just tell me your name.” Paige replied, sitting down by the girl, trying to lift her into a sitting position.
“Kayly,” The little girl replied, sniffing her nosy. She tried whipping away the tears on her face with her hands, but that caused more sand to smear over her face.
“Kayly, my name is Paige. I have a friend who is a doctor. He’s gunna make you all better. I just need you to go over by that tree and wait so he can look at your owie. And Kayly, what ever you do, do NOT think about you owie. Think about anything else in the world.” Paige lifted Kayly up and together they made they made their way over towards the palm tree Paige had pointed to earlier.
~ Kris and Jessie heaved the 61 year-old man to his feet and carried him over to where Paige and a small girl sat.
“Sir, you need to stay with this little girl. Take deep breaths and stay calm. Do NOT try to get up. We’re going to help more people.” Jessie explained, setting the man slumped up against the tree where the small girl Paige had rescued sat, staring up into the trees. The man just nodded and closed his eyes. Kris could tell the man was in pain, and he should be with a huge cut in his arm.
Paige, Jessie and Kris all headed towards the middle section of the plane. Most of the bodies and people were around that area. Kris spotted his parents and Tony and Laura carrying other survivors up to the trees. Other ‘healthy and strong’ passengers from the plane had started helping with other survivors, too.
“Help! Please! Someone help over here!” Kris was the only one who heard the faint cry of a woman in pain coming from behind the middle section of the plane. He ran.
Around the plane, nearest the ocean, was a young girl (possibly in her late teens) stuck in her plane seat that had somehow come loose in the accident. She was on her back, the seatbelt squeezing her tight. If this wasn’t a life or death situation the Kris would’ve probably been laughing at the sight.
“Help!” she called again.
“Hang on! Hang on! I got you, I got yah.” Kris heaved the seat into sitting position. The girl gagged and puked, sobbing out cold tears.
Kris looked away, almost gagging himself. He looked at the sand, looked for something sharp. Huge metal pieces were scattered everywhere. Kris took the nearest and smallest sharp piece from the plane he could fins and began to furiously cut at the seatbelt. He had no other choice since it was jammed and if he tried pulling he’d probably hurt the girl even more, causing her to [likely] vomit again.
Finally, the seatbelt had snapped apart and the girl fell into Kris’s outstretched arms. Sobbing and breathing heavily all the while. She stared at Kris. Kris stared back at the brown-eyed, blonde hair girl. He had saved her life. . .
~ Kris had disappeared and Jessie had found another injured survivor. Some people had started gathering the dead and putting them into piles while others continued searching through the debris and bodies to find other survivors. Paige could bare to look at the dead bodies. She ran to Jessie’s side, only to be told to help another small kid at the age of eight and about seven feet away.
Paige ran to the little boy and helped him to his feet. He only had small scratched on his legs and face, nothing serious. He was crying and scared, his eyes wide with terror. “I want my mom!” he cried.
“We’ll find your parents, just come with-” Paige started.
Suddenly, “KAYLY!” the boy had spotted the five year-old girl and had started running over to her. Brother and sister embraced.
“Kayly! Make sure your brother stays over there with you! Big Brother, watch your little sister!” Paige called. Each one nodded their heads “yes”.
Paige ran over to a couple who were staggering and carrying a three year-old child. “Here! I’ll take her over to the other kids! We need your help! If you’re strong enough go and find others who aren’t.” Page cried, running up to them.
“Please, be careful with her!” the woman pleaded, hesitantly handing over her child.
At that same moment Kris and another girls probably a little older then Paige had stepped out from behind the middle section of the plane. The girl was stumbling and clutching her stomach, Kris was helping to support her. ‘Rescuing the damsels, of course.’ Paige thought, then, she carried the three year-old to the palm trees where Kayly and her brother sat.
~ “Doctor! Over here!” A tall man with black hair and hazel, gold eyes was waving madly for Jessie to come over where he stood. Kris watched as Jessie ran over to the man and a slumped over figure lying at his feet.
Kris needed to get the girl over to his sister, and fast. He was afraid she was going to puke again.
Paige was up at the trees, about 5 yards away, with a three year-old girl and other injured or exhausted kids and people who were slumped against the trees.
Suddenly, as Kris made it up to the trees, three girls all between the ages of 12, 13, 14 and possibly even 15 came out of the trees.
“Help others! Help the injured!” Kris cried, letting the girl’s back rest against a tree next to a woman who was holding tightly to the three year-old girl. The lady had a deep gash on her lower leg, but still, she would not let the little girl out of her sight.
There was a total of about 12 people gathered around the trees near Kris. Three kids, two pairs of couples, two other men and three ladies. About 40 people were out helping the injured or gathering the already-dead. The pile of dead, Kris guessed, already had twenty bodies in it.
Kris looked away and ran to catch up with his sister, who was with Jessie and the black haired man and a woman with brown hair and green eyes.
“Come on, Kris. Lets see if there’s any more survivors. . .”
Chapter Four I See A Light!
~ By the time everyone was gathered by the palm trees it was sunset. According to Paige’s watch, it was about 6:30pm set eight hours ahead of time.
There was a total of fifty three alive and forty two dead. There was a memorial service held after all the major wounds were treated by Jessie and a nurse named Karen, and of course two emergency-aid-kits found in the plane. By then it was about 8:00pm. Karen was about forty eight with longish brown hair and gold eyes.
At the memorial service names of the dead were read off and crying was heard. Tears flooded Paige’s eyes. She didn’t even know these people and yet she felt so sad.
To Paige, it seemed cruel, but everyone else ‘agreed’ that it was best they burnt the bodies. The flames reached the great height of nine feet. Surely some passing plane or ship would see it, but as the flames died out and people began making shelters out of plants and pieces of the plane, no plane or ship had come.
As Paige’s parents, Kris, Tony and Laura set up shelter, Paige sat alone on a rock near the shore, staring out at the sea. She was too tired to work, the day had been too stressful. Paige soon heard footsteps behind her. She sat still, without turning around to see who it was, it was probably Kris come to comfort her.
~ Jessie sat down, cross-legged, next to Paige who looked up, surprised to see him. “You haven’t said anything since the memorial, everything okay?” Jessie asked.
“Yeah. I just feel, weak, confused and a bit freaked out. This usually only happens in movies or books.” Jessie was relieved to hear Paige speaking again.
“Yeah, it is pretty scary. We’ll look for a radio or other communication devices from the plane tomorrow when we’ve all gotten some sleep.” He explained.
“And what if we can’t find anything? Paige asked.
“Then we’ll search the plane for food and clothing.”
After a short pause Paige replied, looking over at Jessie, “You know what is REALLY freaky? Paige asked.
“Yeah, this is exactly like the show and book called LOST.” Jessie answered, staring out into the sea, not caring if that’s what Paige was thinking of anyway.
~ Paige froze. Now that she thought about it the crash WAS almost exactly like the hit show called LOST on ABC. And Jessie had been reading the book earlier on the flight!
“Whoa, it is. And you must be Jack!” Paige playfully shoved Jessie the way she shoved Kris. “hey, who knows, you may fall in love with Karen. Kate? Karen? Get it?”
“Ha, real funny.” Jessie then leaned over and whispered in Paige’s ear, “Truthfully, she’s too old for me!”
“Uh! How rude!” Paige turned to Jessie and gave him a look, then smiled and laughed, looking back out into the ocean. The moon was high up in the sky now, and Jessie sighed.
“I’m gunna go and help some people get shelters set up. See you in the morning.” Jessie patted Paige on the back and got up, walking back further up the beach.
Paige watched as he met up with the same young couple from earlier. The guy with the black hair and his wife.
Paige turned back to look at the sea when suddenly a bright light out of nowhere shown down on the ocean. The light was shinning down from the heavens (it seemed) and it made the outline of a circle as it lit up a small chunk of the ocean only about 5 yards away from where Paige sat.
“What the-?” Paige leaped up and back away slowly. The light stayed. Paige looked up into the sky to see where the light came from, but there was no beginning. It went on and on and on until you couldn’t see anything except for a faint outline.
“PAIGE!” Kris came running over and grabbed Paige’s arm.
“Kris! Paige! Whaaa-” Ken came running over, too, but was cut off. He stared up at the never-ending light. Joann, Tony and Laura followed close behind. Noticing the light and all the commotion other people began to run over to the rock. Soon, almost everyone on the shore was gathered around the rock where Paige and Kris stood.
Suddenly, there was a loud crack, a low rumble from the earth, and the light vanished. Just as suddenly as it had appeared.
“What… what in the world… was that?” Kris breathed.
“Something not from this world, that’s for sure.” Jessie replied, staring at where the light had shown moments before.
“You guys… where ARE we?” Paige gripped tighter to Kris’s arm.
The strange light had been seen by everyone on the island. No one knew what the light might’ve been or where it came from. It was about 10:00pm, but to mostly everyone it felt about 6:00 at night. Everyone was hungry and Paige and Kris were in their tent chewing on some candy Paige had stuffed into her pocket before they had left the airport.
Everyone had agreed the sooner they got off of the island the better and Jessie explained we would search the plane tomorrow, early in the morning.
“We should try and get some sleep.” Paige suggested.
“Yeah, really. Wake me up when the aliens land the spacecraft. Okay?” Kris replied, smirking.
“Well, I’m going to sleep. You can be the guard dog if you’d like to stay awake and be the first one to alarm us of any ‘aliens’.” Paige pulled the blanket over her head and crumpled up into a ball to stay warm.
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