Flight 118

Chapter Two

The world blinked in and out of focus. Then suddenly the darkness ceased to exist with a blind and penetrating light.

I groaned against the pounding in my head and blinked away the black spots from my vision. Sitting up with a hand to my head I looked next to me slowly. Clarisse wasn't in her seat.

After carefully unbuckling my seatbelt, I slowly stood up. It was then that I heard groans, cries, and a little movement. As I moved to the center aisle, I looked up and realized the roof of the plane was gone. Wincing, I looked around only to gasp. There was blood and bodies everywhere. Some of these people I had spoken to earlier. I immediately started checking bodies for pulses. Then I heard a cry for help.

Looking up, I went towards the sound to find a bloody Clarisse trying to help a guy who was barely hanging on. As in, the front half of the plane was separated and our half, which began at this guy's seat, was stuck in the trees. Relief filled me at the sight of her but quickly vanished when I realized she was about to fall. I quickly grabbed her and yanked her back.

"Clarisse, you need to wait. We are going to have to think this through because he has no floor and we have no way of catching him without falling ourselves."

We soon got the man down and found around forty other survivors on our half of the plane. It seems like a lot, but when you consider us being the better half of a plane that carries roughly 300 passengers, it's not.

After about 3 hours and a lot of teamwork, the people not seriously injured helped get everyone to the ground twenty feet below us.

A few men had gone to check on the other half of the plane but had only found three survivors and charred plane wreckage.

Since it was getting dark, we had all gathered around a fire that someone had managed to make.

Many of the people were injured badly, and we all hoped help was on its way. However, by morning we realized our best chances were to send out people who were mostly uninjured in every direction so we could try to find help. I happened to be one of them.

One of the men staying behind, who happened to be a doctor, said, "Now remember, there are 48 survivors. 28 female and 20 male, two of which are minors. 31 of them are in desperate need of medical attention. It is important to remember this because we need help as fast as possible and can't risk not getting enough help soon."

With the knowledge that so many people relied on the five of us, which included Clarisse and me, we all set off in our separate ways.

It was close to sunset when I finally broke through the tree line and onto a dirt road. All I could think about was how thirsty I was- and how tired. Sitting down I decided to take a small break when I heard something in the distance. It sounded like a horse.

I scrambled up off of the ground as a horse-drawn carriage came around a bend in the road. I frowned wondering where we had crashed but pushed the thought away. It didn't matter. Help was here! I frantically began to wave my arms and began to walk towards them. I was too tired to do anything more.

When the carriage pulled to a stop I saw four men on it- and one other girl who had gone to search for help.

"Hi! Hi! I see you already have been told-" I began but the man stopped me with a gentle smile.

"Yes, we sure did. Don't worry we'll just make sure you are both taken safely into town and we'll get you all checked up."

I did not know why I had a strange feeling but shook it off. I was sure I was looking too much into his smile that seemed a little smarmy and his forceful response when I had tried to talk. So, I took the offered hand and got in the carriage.

I looked over at the other girl with a smile as I settled next to her and was about to talk to her; maybe introduce myself. But I stopped and my smile fell at the terrified look in her eyes and nearly imperceptible shake of her head.

What was going on?

We got into a run-down-looking town around 30 minutes later. I looked around at the ghost town. There was grass coming through most of the pavement. The buildings were empty, some with graffiti and broken windows.

Looking up from my place at the bottom of the carriage I asked, "Um where are we? Where is everyone?"

The same man who had spoken earlier didn't even bother to turn around to look at me when he said, "We are almost there. Don't worry."

We pulled up to a building that looked just as desolate and run-down as the rest of the town. It was huge, almost like a warehouse, and had candles lighting just the sides of the doors. My bad feeling was back and I shifted to stand up and ask something again when it happened. It all happened very fast.

I was suddenly grabbed, along with the other girl, and yanked off the buggy. Two men had yanked me out but two other men grabbed my legs when I managed to hook my leg around a part of the buggy as the girl next to me was screaming. We were surrounded by men and there was nothing we could do to stop them. Then we were dragged into the warehouse-like building through a set of doors in the shadows.

Once inside I was thrown into a cage. At least that's what it looked like from the inside. I felt like a dog.

I quickly lunged to the opening but ended up grabbing the bars as the door was shut and locked before I could get through. I clung to the bars and started yelling, ignoring the sobs coming from the girl in the cage next to me.

I could barely make out the many men in the shadows but I knew they were there. Someone had to help us.

Though I did not know what was happening or where I was, I quickly came to understand that I was sure those men did not plan on helping us.