Chapter 1 – Chap 1

“DING” “Attention, Flight 237 for Sydney, Australia will be leaving shortly, all passengers please board.”

I hear the announcement the second I step out of the public restroom. I was practically vibrating from excitement all morning, and now it’s time. After almost two years of saving, planning, and blind hope, I finally get to have an adventure that I will never forget; no limits, no supervisor, no regrets. My family was a bit skeptical of this decision, but they supported me. Me being a financially-struggling, workaholic shut in of a college student, this was going to be the biggest highlight of my life.

As I board my plane and get settled in, I shoot my sister Roxy one last text before the altitude makes it impossible to get a signal.

She texts me back “Have fun, don’t do anything I wouldn’t do! ;)”

I chuckled, that was just about what I always wanted to do.

“Yea yea, thanks mom. <3”

“Attention all passengers, the plane will be ascending shortly. Please find your seats.”

Turning off my phone, I watch the plane take off from the runway, into the sky, and watch the world get smaller and smaller. How funny is it? I always feel so small down there, but up here…I am above it all. The world, my world, my life…got farther and farther away.

After hours of on-flight wifi troubles, and a shitty on-flight movie, I decided to get some sleep. Unlike back at home, I can’t exactly stay up all night in this environment. Especially because the concessions cart ran out of coffee. There were no assignments I had to cram, no late-night gaming raids, no anything. So, why not just sleep my boredom away? A lot of other people had the same idea, but they were already out cold.

My seat was between two sleeping passengers, The on my left was a bald tank of a guy, and the girl on my right was a small twig, but looked close to my age. As slowly as I could, I pulled out a blanket from my backpack and curled up into my seat.

I don’t know how long I slept for, but I do remember when I woke up.

It was when the plane had first jerked up, and I nearly fell out of my seat.; like a racecar had run over a speedbump. Everyone else who had been asleep like me had been startled awake as well, with some very unhappy reactions coming from the majority of them. The flight attendants had tried to calm everyone down, brushing it off as turbulence, but it kept happening, and it was getting more and more jerky. People around me were looking antsy, some even starting to get into the ‘take cover’ position, and I was starting to get nervous too. I had flown on a plane before, just once, but I was pretty sure whatever this was, wasn’t normal.

A warning alarm sounded from somewhere up front, and all the crew who were out with us had left, practically sprinting inside the tiny, 600 square foot plane cabin. That left almost 120 people, panicked, looking for an emergency exit, and trying not to die.

Meanwhile I was just sitting there, still under my blanket, in my crappy middle seat, trying to process what was going on. The people I was sitting with were doing two different reactions. The guy on my left had gone to find an emergency exit near the back of the plane, while the girl sitting on my right curled into a ball. As I was looking at her, I noticed…she was sitting next to the window…

I reached over her, and pulled up the blind. Wherever we were, it was night. But I could still tell we were moving fast…and arching downwards.

The last thing I remember was hearing a stewardess run out and shout for everyone to “Everyone please return to your seats, we need to make an emergenc-AUGH!”, and then I heard a very loud creaking noise, followed by a flash.

…

When I came to, I was lying on my back, feeling like I had just gotten run over by a truck. Everything around me sounded like I was underwater, and my vision was at the same level as well.

I tried to turn my head, but I could barely even move my eyes. I tried to rotate on my side, I felt this white-hot slash sear its way up my leg. I think I screamed when I felt it, but I don’t exactly know. But a few seconds later, I found someone standing over me, pushing me back.

“You shouldn’t be moving, you’re badly hurt.” a male voice said, still slightly muffled, but becoming clearer.

“What’s going on?” I asked.

Another voice came from behind me, “We crashed, that’s what.” I heard footsteps walking over, and there was a woman standing above me, she looked like she was one of the stewardesses I saw earlier. “Are you alright, miss? You have been asleep for a long time.”

“I could go for something to drink.” I replied, gritting my teeth from the now present ache from my leg.

“We could all,” the man from earlier said. “But I think we may need to ration, we’re gonna be here for a while.”

I asked if I could be sat up, and they positioned me against a rock. It was then I began processing what was happening.

The scenery around me temporarily made me think we were in Lost or something. A thick tropical canopy, white sand beaches, scrap metal from the plane and luggage strewn about, and people either hurt or discussing the situation. It looked like 9-10 people of multiple ages stood gathered in a circle. If they were trying to discuss something, I wasn’t sure what.

From past them stood the empty husk of the airplane. Or at least what was left of it; a huge hole was gaping from the center of the plane’s hull, the tail was gone, the cockpit was smashed in by a large boulder in front, and the wings looked more shredded than a couch with twenty cats on it.

I thought to ask them what we were gonna do, and if the other injured people were okay, but then I realized; there were over a hundred of us on the plane, now from what I could see there were less than twenty.

Every fiber of nerve in my body prayed that this was some stupid dream. “This isn’t real, this isn’t real, THIS CAN’T BE HAPPENING!!!” I kept trying to tell/lie to myself.

I leaned back against my rock, breathing hard. I tried to focus, but my brain felt similar to mashed potatoes. The sky above me was slightly clouded, and the sun filtered through the fronds just like it did in the movies. I was pretty sure that, in the same scenario, this would also be the moment something happens to the “group”, and attempt to come up with a game-plan. Or at least, that is what would happen, but I wasn’t exactly optimistic about those odds.

I thought back to what I said to my sister before I took off, regretting that I didn’t do the same with my parents. I regretted all those times I didn’t tell them how much I loved them. For so long I wanted to get away from it all, now all I wanted was to go back.

I was on the brink of crying, for what I can’t recall, when I heard…

“Excuse me, are you okay?” a voice from next to me said.

It was the girl from the window seat, “Yeah, I’m fine, thanks.” I reply and turn my head to her. She had some blood on her face, I was scared to find out who’s.

For fucks sake I just wanna go back to sleep.

I asked her to help me back onto the ground. As I tried to get some rest, I thought I saw something move in the canopy.

I wasn’t sure if it was due to the pain or my fatigue, but I saw it. Nothing too distinct, but I knew that it was big. But before I could say anything, I blacked out.