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The silence was the first thing Sabine noticed as she came to. She had blacked out to a chorus of awful, chilling screams, but now there was nothing but the ringing in her ears. She could remember the final moments, people scrabbling to make phone calls or sob what they thought were their last words to those beside them. Sabine had been surrounded by the horrified expressions of her fellow passengers, people anticipating their own deaths as they’d plummeted out of the sky. And yet here she was, in near darkness, in complete silence with nothing but the broken seat against her spine and the pressure of the belt against her waist. Was this hell? She wondered, quickly dismissing the idea as a shooting pain lanced up her side. Sabine groaned, shifting just enough to press a shaking hand to her ribs.
Her head was bowed to her chest and she slowly lifted it, gasping on choking, dusty breath. The coughing fit that followed was enough to jar her already sore body and make her well aware of the pounding behind her eyes. As the racking coughs subsided, Sabine wiped her mouth with the back of her hand and leant over the aisle as far as the arm rest would allow. She could see a few shadows moving in the darkness and hear the hoarse voices carrying from the front of the plane. All sorts of debris lay strewn in the gangway, bags and plastic panelling, wires coiling down from the ceiling. A few people in her vicinity began to stir, emitting low groans or scrabbling to get themselves free from their chairs.
Sabine reached down and grasped the clip of her belt, wrenching it aside with as much energy as she could muster. The action made her head spin, but she sagged with relief as the clasp came free and clattered against the seat below her. Taking a few deep breaths Sabine tried to ignore the lightness in her head and grabbed the headrest in front, using it to heave herself to her feet. Her legs shook beneath her but they held as she took two tentative steps into the gangway. Bracing herself heavily against the seats around her, Sabine peered through the smoky blackness towards the exit up ahead. A few shafts of sunlight penetrated the cracked ceiling, casting the decimated interior in light and shadow. But though the smoke made Sabine’s throat burn, it was the torrid heat that made her fearful. The temperature in the cabin was stifling, sweat already carving trails through the soot on her skin. She needed to get out, before the flames or a spark ignited the entire vessel.
Using the seats as a crutch, Sabine stumbled blindly through the chaotic interior trying not to trip or stumble or look to hard at what lay on the floor around her. Many people were stirring in their seats, but others lay utterly still. The sight of blood and limp bodies bowed over the aisle was enough to make Sabine pause. Bile rose in her throat and she clutched a hand to her mouth, whirling away from the scene. She might have closed her eyes were it not for the next face she saw. A shock of dirty blonde hair and a cluster of familiar features - the man from check in. Sabine lowered her hand from her mouth as she looked at his face. She remembered him, he’d helped her get through the departure lounge, talked his way past the attendant at the gate. His name had evaded her but Sabine never forgot a face. The steady rise and fall of his chest assured her he was still breathing, he was still alive.
Sabine wet her lips and threw a tentative glance towards the exit. She could leave, get herself to safety. Her feet shuffled forward another step. No. If it weren’t for him she’d still be stuck back in Aus arguing about the flag against her name. They probably would have arrested her if they’d looked into it any further. Swallowing her unease, Sabine side-stepped a piece of luggage and bent down next to his chair. Save a few cuts and the odd shining bruise he appeared physically okay, but Sabine couldn’t speak for the internal injures. She herself was wondering if the ache in her side might in fact be something more sinister. Forcing away those thoughts, she reached out and grasped his shoulder giving it a gentle shake. When she didn’t get a response the movement became more violent, more jarring.
“Hey!” she tried, in a voice so harsh and so raw she had to wonder if it was even hers. “Wake up! Come on, get up! We have to go!”
Mod
The seat belt sign lit up as soon as the plane started to toss the passengers in their seats. Tyler had heard a couple of people falling and yelling as the winds grew stronger and the plane started to plummet to the ground. It wasn't long before the emergency oxygen masks were triggered. He thought of reaching up to one but as he extended his arm the lady beside him unbuckled her seat belt and tried to get up. She yelled out that her husband was in the back, panic screaming through her voice that mimicked the others. She tried to climb over Tyler but the plane jerked again which made her slam against the side of the plane.
Horror continued to fill the room, there was so much noise that the captain's announcement was drowned out. "We're going to die, I need to get my phone," a man shouted, as he got up he fumbled to reach the overhead bins that held the carry on luggage. As soon as the passenger opened it all of the luggage inside flew out, one large suitcase in particular struck Tyler square in the head. He tried to fight back the many dots that appeared in his vision, the slight feeling of warm blood on the side of his head. But the darkness consumed him, his mind going blank and the crash of the plane disappearing into the recesses of his unconscious mind.
Tyler was awakened by a violent shake that made his body react faster than his brain could process. He still felt like he was in the middle of the plane plummeting to the sea and reached out to the closest thing to him for stability. But as he focused on the thing he just grabbed onto he saw that it wasn't a thing but a person. He shook his head, regretting it right after wards because it only made his head hurt more. He wanted to fall back to an unconscious state, his entire body ached and he started to close his eyes to turn away from his blurry vision. Another forceful shove followed and he opened his eyes again, "Wake up, come on, get up! We have to go!"
The woman in front of him instructed him, sounding like a plea and he furrowed his brows to focus. It was the girl he had seen earlier at the airport. The one who he had spoken with at check in when she was having trouble with her passport. She was here, in front of him, trying to save his life. Tyler looked around him, lifeless bodies were to his left and right. He could see little movement coming from the front of the plane, toward an open exit that had just been made.
He coughed a couple of times, the smoke from the gas fumes and the debri had already penetrated his lungs. He focused back on the girl, making him snap out of his distraught state of mind. He quickly reached down to his waist, grabbing at the seat belt and snapped it off. He got up with shaky legs, using both the back of the chair and the girl who woke him for support. Once he was up and out of the chair his adrenaline kicked in and he was finally able to speak, "Let's go," he said in urgency feeling like there wasn't time to assess the damage of the situation. His body felt stiff, he ached all over but he had to push past the pain.
Everything around him was going in and out of focus, the only thing that helped him was the voice of the girl that he could hear. Even though he was now able to stand on his own, Tyler couldn't ignore the throbbing pain that echoed on the side of his skull. He started to walk toward the opening, following after the girl until he saw something familiar on the floor. "Wait," he shouted out and reached down to pick up his green duffle bag that must had fallen from the overhead bins during the crash. He swung it over his shoulder and continued toward the exit made from the crash.
Those blue eyes flickered open and Sabine felt a slight flood of relief as the man stared blearily up at her. He blinked a few times, slowly coming back consciousness. Her hand slid from his shoulder to rest on his arm as he looked at the carnage surrounding then, Sabine didn’t miss the horror glistening in his gaze as he took in the mangled bodies on either side. “We can’t help them,” she murmured, more for her own benefit than for his. These people couldn’t be saved, those that hadn’t already perished were too injured to try and move, and if they didn’t leave the plane now they risked being burned alive themselves. The man seemed to realise this as he got to his feet beside her. Sabine stepped forward to give him room to manoeuvre out of the seat, if was difficult enough without the threat of the ceiling caving in on them.
“Please,” she responded to his urgent request, clutching a hand to her aching side as he clambered into the aisle. Keeping low, Sabine peered through the smoke ahead and began to advance towards the exit. She could feel the man close behind her, and would have kept going were it not for his exclamation. Sabine watched through watering eyes as he turned and ducked away towards his seat. She could only fathom that there must have been something truly important in his duffle bag as he reappeared at her side. Sabine herself was not about to risk her life to go and get hers, there was nothing more than clothes and an old phone, remnants of a life she was leaving behind.
The smoke was thick in the air around them, burning her throat and making her eyes water. Sabine kept a hand over her mouth, but it did little to stop the toxic fumes invading her lungs. After several achingly long minutes, stepping over bodies and ducking beneath hanging wires, the light of the exit finally came into view. She approached it slowly, crouched so low she was almost crawling by the time she reached the edge. Much of the door had been ripped away and all that remained was a broken ledge of shattered metal. Sabine braved a glance back at the man, dipped her head in an affirming nod and then slung herself off the side. The fall was a hard one, not ankle-shatteringly hard, but enough that she winced and let out a curse as her feet connected with the ground. She took a few backwards steps away from the plane, peering up to where the man waited to make the same jump.
It was as she was stood there, that Sabine suddenly realised something. The silence. There were no police officers or aid crews, not even a screaming local. The only sounds came from the creaking body of the plane and those few people who had managed to crawl from the wreckage. Sabine turned to stare at the empty beach and the untouched jungle ahead of her. It didn’t look like any island she’d every been too before. Wiping the ash from her smoke stained eyes, Sabine took a couple of steps down the beach. If there were no police perhaps she could escape unnoticed, pretend she perished on the plane.
(Lyn, would you be interested in coming back to this? Really liked the concept, but might shelve it for now...)
