13 WINDOWS

Chapter 24 Part 3 - FIGHT or FLIGHT

There was an explosion. The cabin rocked from side to side. Rupert awoke and saw smoke coming from beneath the cockpit door. He looked out the window and saw rain and clouds whizzing past at a high speed.

He felt someone touch his hand. He gripped the clenched hand back as he felt the plane veering downward. He wasn't sure how long it took for the plane to fall. The crash was sudden, and the force of it pushed Rupert's head into the back of the chair in front of him. The woman who was clutching his hand screamed into Rupert's left ear. Several other more distant voices screamed as well. And Rupert prayed. There was a thunderous pounding. And then it stopped. Nothing.

Cold water started to curl around Rupert's legs. He gripped the woman's hand. He held it tightly. It was a young woman's hand. He looked over at her.

It was Serena. She held his hand tightly and looked into his eyes.

"Rupert...we've crashed!" she said as if she could not believe it had happened. And then a droplet of blood fell down from her forehead. It fell slowly around her eye and mixed with her tear, dripping down her cheek.

The water was up to his knees now. And it was warm. Rupert tried to walk through the water in the aisle towards the cockpit, but the water was slowing him down. There were bodies in his way. The water kept filling the cabin. But Rupert could see it wasn't water at all. It was red. A dark blood red. And it was everywhere. A body floated by. It was a young boy.

He held the child and lifted his head. Terry stared back at him.

Rupert's eyes looked down towards him confused. "Terry," he whispered. He felt something bump into his back. He turned around. It was Terry again, floating dead in the dark blood. All of the bodies on the plane were Terry's.

As soon as Rupert saw Serena he became half aware that he was dreaming. But even though he knew he was dreaming he knew that it was still important. Something had to be worked out. Something had to be resolved. But he was also deeply relieved the crash wasn't real.

He tried to wake himself up. But his body in the conscious world refused to move. The dream continued. The blood kept rising slowly as the plane sank. Rupert had heard that if you find yourself frozen in a dream that you should try to move something small, like your pinky finger. He tried to wiggle it around.

The blood was around his neck now. The cockpit door was open. He could see the ocean was outside. He swam into the cockpit. Through the window he was sure he could see Nina in the waves. She was waving to him. Trying to warn him again.

Outside of his dream he still couldn't move a muscle. He tried to scream, but nothing would come out of his mouth. Inside the dream his head was now touching the roof of the cockpit as the blood rose. He was now unable to breathe. He attempted to shake his body to and fro. The blood moved up slowly into his mouth. He opened his mouth to scream!!!

Rupert's eyes opened slowly. The blanket was over his head and was covering his mouth. He pushed it off so he could breathe. He could sense some kind of commotion in the plane. He sat up. The seat belt signs were ringing their strange electronic bell. The flight attendants were asking everyone to lift up the backs of their seats.

Rupert pressed the button and moved his seat upwards. He looked out the window. It was raining. They were coming in for a bumpy landing.

"This is the worst part!" said the elderly German woman. "I always think that I'm going to die."

"It's okay. It's not these big planes that go down," he said trying reassure himself. "90 per cent are the small planes."

"I hope you're right," she said, looking uneasy.