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Chapter 3

             I woke up to Daniel shaking me. He was coaxing my head into his lap. I don't remember much. I remember being cold. I remember being covered with something warm, and I remember drifting back into the abyss. I must have gone through this process twelve or so times. Each time I awoke, all I would see is blurred fuzzy color, and hear something, then I would get sucked back into this, void. That's the only way I can explain it. Each time I would awake, I would get a better sense of my surroundings.

             Before I knew it, I was being dragged by my legs. Someone was pulling me. Skin that was already gone, was being scraped against what I thought was the ground. I would jerk and pull and scream, but strong arms held onto me. Then my eyes shot open. I could barely see because of the pain. The pain seared through my head, and lit a fire inside me. A me that was disassociated with my physical self.

             It was like I had just remembered that I could hear. People were screaming all around me. The dragging stopped and I was held in place, flung over somebody's shoulder. I heard who it was, and embarrassment crept through me. Daniel was the one holding me, I looked up and saw he was carrying me, his jaw flexed, gaze fixed ahead, worry and complete helplessness crossing his features. Then everything came flooding back. The plane. What the pilot had said, "Things are about to be different", and the discreet warning he had given us. The pain when he squeezed my shoulder. I should have been worrying about the situation but for a second all I could think about was how embarrassing this was. The plane must have crashed, and Daniel must have been the one dragging me, and I had put up a fight. I remembered swinging fists. Suddenly it all made sense... how whoever had "taken" me, just put up with my fit. As I screamed and kicked, they politely held my fists in place. No wonder.

As I gained control of my motor functions, I pushed off Daniel, and he looked down at me. I couldn't handle him carrying me like this, and hated the sense of helplessness and dependence I seemed to have had on him now. "What's going on?", I asked, my voice cracking. I tried to stand on my own, but narrowly fell onto the ground and, just as before, strong arms held me. Daniel helped me sit down. "I honestly don't know", he responded. I saw he was bleeding badly on his arm, and already had a nice foot-sized bruise on the side of his face. I then realized my white T-shirt, consisting of the words Go away, was soaked red. But that wasn't the problem, the problem was that it was in Daniel's hands. I realized the warmth covering me, was not only blood, but his wind-breaker. Classic. Just because we were besties since kindergarten doesn't mean I'm okay with him undressing me.

He somehow must have known what I was thinking, because he quickly stated, "Sam fixed you up", knowing this didn't relieve me of the shame, but I gave him a quick smile. "How bad is it?", I asked. "Your wounds or the situation?", he retorted, trying to make light conversation. I looked around me and saw Sam crying over top of Rob. It looked like he was breathing, but blood was pooled under him. "Rob will be okay", Daniel assured me, "It looks bad from here but it's just a puncture wound, and I was able to stop the bleeding". "It looks like he's already lost a lot of blood though", I murmured.

             Daniel squeezed my hand and I remembered that at least I had one ally in this, and not the pilot on the plane. On that thought I glanced around us once more. The plane was no where in sight. "We didn't crash", Daniel explained, "We were pushed out at about what had to have been fifty feet above the ground. Any higher and we would have never made it.", I knew something about this bugged Daniel, which was completely normal given the circumstances, so I tried not to ask questions about the drop. "Did everyone make it?", I questioned, tears filling my eyes. "Lily-", Daniel replied. "We can't find Amy", he said, "but I think she'll turn up". I knew he was lying. Ever since we were little children he could never look me in the eyes when he wasn't telling the truth. This time I just nodded my head instead of calling him out. I knew I didn't want to know the truth anyways.