Darkness. Shock. Smoke. Jake came to. How could he have survived? The cabin was a disaster. He moved his hands and feet to see if they still worked. They did and he evaluated himself further. The seat belt had left an enormous bruise across his body but other than that he was ok.
He knew he had better get out of the plane. He smelled what could only have been jet fuel mixed with smoke. The plane would almost certainly explode at any minute. He climbed out of the plane and saw flames. Could the pilot have survived too? As he wondered how much time he had left, he found his way into the cockpit. He stared in disbelief as he recognized the unconscious but still breathing pilot. It was Ming, his old coworker who turned out to be an agent for the Aye and had given him the time travel orb in the first place, claiming that it was an alien device.
It felt like Ming weighed a ton, for such a small man. Jake’s hours at the gym seemed worthless. He was barely able to drag Ming out and away from the plane. Once they were clear, he debated about whether to go back to the plane to retrieve supplies or whether to attempt to radio for help. His internal dialectic took no more than a few moments when the fire exploded into the passenger compartment and seconds later into the pilot’s compartment. He hoped that the plane had some sort of automatic distress call built into it or that Ming had called for help before the plane went down.
Jake looked around. The forest was green and lush, certainly by the standards of an Angeleno. The weather was quite mild, if slightly cool. Ming was dressed in rather informal attire and an unusually thick jacket but Jake's suit, shirt and tie were more suited for an 80 degree day.
They were in a meadow and conveniently next to a rock which Jake sat down on. He pondered what to do. Rescuers should be here in a few hours he concluded; waiting was the best option. Ming, lying on the ground next to Jake, began to stir. “Ming! Ming!” He knelt down by the older “Taiwanese” man and grabbed his shoulders. Ming’s eyes opened slightly: “Jake,” he groaned.
