My Least Favourite Character (Han Solo Fanfic) #Wattys2016

Chapter 9 - Wave after wave

"So who exactly is this Admiral Pytt? Never heard of him."

"He's a recent addition to the rebel base. I don't really know how he managed to get to the Admiral status so fast, but he's a decent guy."

Gray and Han had been yelling at each other to be heard over the whistling of the wind in their ears. The little blue biplane had been gliding over the north American land for a long time now. Under her seat, Gray had found a map, a parachute bag, a few energy bars and water bottles the man had thoughtfully left for their trip.

"Are you sure you can handle this ? I'm really not an expert in planes." she'd said when handing him the map.

"Kid, put your head back, close your eyes, relax and remember I'm the best pilot in the galaxy, okay? "

Of your galaxy, perhaps , Gray said to herself as she leaned back, anxious for an opportunity to get some rest. But could she rest?

*****

The girl's eyes opened slowly. For a moment she wondered where she was. She felt cool humidity on her cheeks and wind blowing on her face. Suddenly, she panicked, noticing how hard it was to breathe. She straightened up at once. It was dark. Only when she heard a whirring sound did she remember she was on a biplane with a fictional character, and her throat seemed to get extra tight. The humidity she was feeling came, she deduced, from the clouds they were going through.

"Han," she croaked, "I think we're flying too high. It's hard to breathe."

"Where I come from, the atmosphere is like this. I can easily adapt - "

"Han, shut up and get the plane down already! I can't breathe!"

"Okay, alright!"

He seemed to manipulate the buttons and levers and then froze.

"No." he said gravely. "No, no, no! "

"What do you mean, 'no'?! Hurry up!!!"

But suddenly, her lungs filled with new fresh air and her head felt light. They were going down.

"Finally!" she said sarcastically.

"Kid, stop your laments now. I'm not the one who's doing this!!!"

"What?!"

And then she noticed she couldn't hear the sound of the engine anymore. They were going down - unusually fast.

Gray screamed. Han was making hopeless efforts to lift the plane again, but it kept falling, nose down. They were reaching the sea.

Gray didn't think much. It was all so quick, so automatic. Her hands shot under the seats and pulled out two parachute packs, one of them she threw to Han.

"Put that on your back and jump!"

They both did so, and, leaping out of the vehicle, Gray yelled:

"Pull the string!"

It was a narrow escape. Only a couple of seconds later, the plane landed catastrophically in the water, catching fire. Heaps of black smoke rose in the sky as the pair of survivors descended like feathers. They were silent, except for their heavy breathing, and watched the remains of the biplane sinking further into the ocean. Gray's heart was pounding fiercely, reminding her of how lucky she was to be alive.
Their bodies reached the cold of the sea and immediately they began to move their arms and legs so that their heads stayed above the surface.

Panick completely took over Gray as she saw waves starting to form.

"We're going to die, we're going to die..." She whimpered. And then she sobbed uncontrollably, thinking of her family she'd never see again.

A hand gripped her arm. Gray was startled, taking it as a sign of affection from Han, but it was nothing of the kind. His eyes reflected nothing but fear, and he pulled Gray closer.

"Look out!!!"

Gray hastily turned her eyes and gave a cry of terror: a pointy fin was sticking out of the water and heading towards them.

"It's a shark!!! It's a shark, Han!!!"

"Is it harmful?!!"

"Yes!!!"

She kicked as hard as she could to swim away from the animal, and Han did so too, going into an impressive crawl, heading away much faster than Gray was. The waves started to rise even more.

"Han!!!" she yelled as a wave came to fill her mouth with water.

Han looked back and started swimming towards her, but he too was slapped by a wave. Gray looked around for the shark but the pointy fin was nowhere to be seen. She supposed it had gone because of the rising of the waves. She tried, desperately, to get to Han.

"Kid! Come closer!!!" she heard him shout over the clashing of the waves.

But Gray found it very hard. She was beginning to feel tired. She tried as hard as she could to swim forward, but she was stopped abruptly. Her eyes widened. She felt a horrible, piercing pain in her left leg, as if a hundred flaming needles had stabbed it deeply. She howled with the last of her energies and brief, terrifying pictures flashed through her mind; a shark, and then her, sitting miserably on a wheel chair, one leg missing...

And then, a beam of red light. A blasting sound. The stabbing stopped, but the pain remained. A strong arm wrapped her around the waist and heaved her up. She was being carried away as Han did all he could to keep swimming. She looked at his face and her eyelids felt heavy.

"Kid, hang on, please."

Gray couldn't move a muscle. She knew she was going to die there, but she was too exhausted, to weak to feel any fear. The last thing she remembered hearing Han say was: "We'll be okay now, we're gonna be safe!! Hang on...hang on..."

And it seemed to her that she saw a very bright flash of light coming closer and closer in the dark, and the deep sound of a horn filled her head.
She passed out.