Boarding Flight 227

Chapter 2

My eyes fluttered open to a mask in front of me with instructions to put over my mouth. There was loud beeping noises and screams throughout the plane. The plane was shaking crazily and going what felt like rocket speed downwards.

My head quickly snapped up and whatever tiredness I had before was replaced with fear. I looked to my side the see Kale gripping the arms of the seats with his eyes tightly closed as if to ignore his surroundings.

"Kale?!" I yelled over the screaming and crying, "what is going on?!"

Without opening his eyes, he pushed up the arms of the connecting chairs and pulled me to him in a side embrace before saying, "The plane is crashing."

And that's when the plane connected with the ground and I quickly lost consciousness.

************

I was awoken with pain all over my body. My neck was sore and I couldn't move without an incredible pain in my stomach. There was this irritating beeping noise coming from my left and when I opened my eyes slowly, I saw it was a heart monitor.

I looked at the monitor and watched for a moment at the steady beat. Ignoring the pain in my neck, I looked to my right very slowly. As I did so, I saw a very pale male lying in a bed with a heart monitor like mine on the other side.

That's when all the memories flooded back. The runaway, the plane, the crashing, Kale.

I went to use my right arm and reach for the button to call for a nurse, when my arm didn't want to move.

Confused, I used my left arm to lift the sheets and let out a screamed at what I saw.

My right arm was missing from the elbow down and wrapped in gauges at the end of what was left.

As soon as I screamed, two nurses scrambled in. One had long red hair that was kept back in a low ponytail while the other had short black hair in a bob haircut.

"Oh," the red haired one said, "you woke up."

Before I could respond, the one with the black hair lady spoke. "You were in a plane crash, Ms. Hennings. You have lost your right arm, have two broken ribs, and a sore neck, but you are very lucky in comparison to others. The hospital placed you in a room with the person you were next to on the plane, in case you were wondering."

"Kale?" I asked the obvious. The both nodded. "What's wrong with him?"

"It's nothing too bad and because you two were closer to the back of the plane, you didn't get the impact versus people in the front," the red haired girl answered.

"But what is wrong with him?" I pressed.

"He is in a coma and is planned to wake up by tomorrow. You both were two of thirteen survivors," the one with the black bob explained.

"But," the red haired woman interjected, "you did not give any names to the air line to contact in case of emergency. Please give us a name and number and we will give a call."

It was at that moment I remembered the things I saw when I briefly woke up before help came. I didn't even know I woke up until I saw it in my head. Blood. Lots of it. Luggage cases torn and opened. Dead bodies. Little children. The soft cries for help. Until it all went silent.

"Ms. Hennings?" the red haired nurse asked.

They both continued to ask for my attention but I refueled to look up.

I couldn't.

I continued to stare at my lap and briefly heard something about getting fitted for a prosthetic, but I wouldn't look up.

I don't think I could ever get those images out of my head, and felt tears rolled down my face.

It was when one of the nurses came to my side and lightly touched my shoulder, I lost it.

I screamed.