Don't Forget Me Yet

Chapter Two: Awake, But Not Alive

"Wha-what's going on... Karliah? Where are you-" I moaned as the emergency response helicopter lifted me from the wreckage. As I emerged, I realized I was almost frozen solid, and the only thing keeping me afloat (and alive) was a miniscule piece of stranded metal from the door of the airplane. As I stumbled uneasily onto the heli, I asked an attendant, "Wha- Where's Karliah? M-My wife? Where is she? Ughn..."

Then I accidentally pushed myself into a coma.

Two hours later, I awoke, still wondering what had happened. I managed to crawl to the front of the helicopter, and asked the pilot, "What happened? Where's Karliah?" The pilot responded, "Well, you guys were on a plane to your honeymoon, and the engine failed. You started plummeting, and that's when the side flew off. As for your wife, well, we don't know..."

He drifted off purposely, making me feel sick to my stomach. "What? How could we not find her?" I asked, not wanting to know the answer.

The pilot took a very long time to think about his response, and even longer to say it. He said, "Well, ah, um... There's a, um, two out of three chance of her, uh, survival... so, uh..."

"So you're saying she's probably dead. Right?"

"Um, not exactly..."

I was so angry with him that at this point, I wasn't even remotely listening. The only thing that was invading my mind was my lost wife. How could that stupid pilot be so-so ignorant as to not look for Karliah?

Now I know. Back then, I didn't, along with everyone else. But now I know why.

I crawled back into my temporary bed, if you could call it that. All it was was a cot with an extremely thin sheet, but I accepted it all the same. It was unbelievably hot inside the helicopter, but my bones were so chilled with what seemed like Karliah's un-presence, that I was cold.

I started to think crazy thoughts, like Karliah was hiding somewhere on the heli. Then came the hallucinations.

I saw her everywhere. Smiling. Crying. Dead. Scared. Alone. Dead. I could hear her voice, lingering in the air. "Don't forget me yet, Jason. Don't forget me yet." What did it mean? How could I forget the loss of half my heart?

There was a ringing in my ears. My vision went fuzzy. My heart beat slowed to a frightening, "Boom-Boom. Boom-Boom," as if going in slow motion. I fell off my cot, onto the cold hard floor. A nurse immediately attended to me, her standing words being, "Pilot! He's having a heart attack!..."