Bailey & Hailey

The airport was a madhouse. People were running around, yelling and screaming at each other, at least that was how it appeared to sixteen year old twins Bailey and Hailey. The blondes were walking with their parents, hoping to make their flight on time. As usual, they were running behind. Their mother always took forever when they needed to be somewhere.

This was a huge deal to the twins; they were going to Australia on a vacation of a lifetime. They were so excited and even more excited by the chance to see Disney World Australia. They had been to many theme parks in the states, but something about going to one in Australia made it feel so much more important. Even though back at home, doing things like this had been "kid stuff" for at least a couple of years.

“Bae, look at that cute boy…” Hailey whispered in her sister’s ear as they waited in line to board their plane, Flight Eden 13. Everyone at Eden Flights Airport nicknamed number 13 as the “Bad Luck” plane, because of the things that had happened on board over the years. One year, a man had went nuts and tried to beat up the stewardesses, before other passengers restrained him, another year there was a breakout of the flu virus, another year someone passed out and the plane had to land early, and yet another year someone gave birth on flight and the list went on.

“Shut up Leigh,” Bae groaned as she play shoved her sister.

---

Benjamen- 12 hours into flight

Benji looked out his window, pressing his face against the cool glass. He sighed, wearily running his hand through his wavy brown hair. It felt like the plane ride was taking forever and his friends who were on the flight with him were driving him crazy. His brother Ron and Kristi, his brother’s fiance were doing nothing but make out the whole time. It was nauseating. His two best friends Chad and Amy were across the aisle from him, but still insisted on shouting back at him and talking about everything and nothing.

He just wanted some peace and quiet and he doubted when they got to Kristi's family home in Australia, that he would find any.

Eden 13 did another weird jerky motion, that made it’s passengers exclaim in excited fear. The plane had been doing that ever since the storm started, though the pilot had came over the intercom and said everything was fine.

The storm in question was the worst Benji had seen before. The sky was so dark that it looked like night, the rain was coming down in heavy sheets and then there was the lightning he had seen off in the distance. It worried him. The pilot should turn away from the lightening, and land the plane until the storm passed.

“Don’t worry folks,” the voice of the pilot came over the intercom again. “I’m going to take a detour around the storm and lightning. There will be some turbulence, so I recommend you buckle up.”

Benji quickly put his seat belt on, looking around as others did the same. Nobody looked too scared yet, but there were a few worried faces in the crowd.

---

Cassie-13 hours into flight

The sudden change in the storm took everyone by surprise, even the pilot who kept reassuring them that everything was okay. Cassie squeezed her fingernails into the armrests as the plane violently shook, the harsh winds from the storm pushing Eden 13 around like it was nothing but a ragdoll.

Her seatmate, someone she did not know, but had been talking to for the last 13 hours, grabbed onto her arm and held on in a death grip. The old woman looked like she was going to have a heart attack.

“It’s okay Maud,” she told the woman.

“Cat,” the lady managed to say, even though she was gritting her false teeth together.

“I know, I know,” Cassie whispered. She swallowed her own fright and let the stranger hang onto her. At least she could be a comfort to this person, this stranger. It made her feel guilty that over the years she had never tried to go back to Australia and see her mother, comfort her and try and help her to clean up her act.

Now her mother was dead and Cassie was going to her funeral to say goodbye.

---

Bailey

She had seen it. The lightning hit them! The front end of the plane was there one minute and the next minute, it was ripped away. About half of the people on the flight were gone, and that meant the pilot was also gone, nobody was flying this plane. How could you fly the back end of a plane anyway?

They were going down. The blonde looked around for her sister, but could not find her. Hailey had gone to the bathroom just before the chaos had started. Though thank goodness the bathroom was in the back of the plane. What if her sister had been in the front end?

Her eyes widened at the thought and she passed out, knowing nothing that happened until what could have been hours later, she was waking up, covered in water and sand.

She was in so much pain. There was a huge, bleeding gash on her stomach and her left arm felt broken or at least seriously sprained. Bae managed to sit up and look around her. The back end of Eden 13 was only 10 feet away from her, sitting on the beach, smoking as if it had been on fire. The smell that assaulted her nose made her gag and retch into the sand.

Wait a minute? The beach? Where were they? On some sort of island?

“Leigh! Mom! Dad!” She yelled, trying to stand up, but having a hard time doing so. Just a couple feet away, she saw the mangled body of what had once been a man. Her eyes watered and she tried to choke back her tears, knowing that she needed to get a hold of herself and find her family.

Though how could she when she couldn't even stand?

My whole body is just frozen. Am I in shock?

The pitiful mewing sound is what brought her back to reality. It was a cat, in a cat carrier, stuck under debris from the airplane. The poor thing must have been in the cargo department. The blonde managed to crawl over to the animal and pull it's carrier from under the debris. Despite how dented the metal carrier was, the cat inside looked perfectly healthy. She sighed. At least that was something.

"I'll leave you in there for now," she told the cat. "You can help me find my family."

Finding the strength she had lacked before, she was able to stand up. With her good arm, she picked up the cat carrier and with her hurt arm, Bae managed to press her hand against her bleeding stomach though it made her cry out in pain.

She staggered toward the smoking airplane. Maybe they were still inside?

-- Dakota --

Dakota hated plane rides. Not because he was afraid of heights or anything, but he couldn't stand sitting still so long. Luckily, he had scored a window seat. He sat with his face in his hand, elbow braced on the arm rest as he stared out the window at the ominous-looking sky. The rain was coming down in thick, fat little droplets, making it hard to see very far. The ground, that was still visible up until just a few minutes ago, was hidden away in the darkness of the storm. Blue streaks of lightning arched between the gaps in the cloud cover. He was faintly aware of the threat the storm could pose to Eden 13, but was to impressed by it's natural beauty to be concerned.

Josh, his best friend, sat in the seat on his right. He was just four months older then Dakota, so he had just recently turned 16. "Hey, Kota, lemme take a selfie with you." He said, holding up his iPhone.

"You're a dork." Was Dakota's response. He leaned his head next to Josh's anyway, making a stupid face with his eyes crossed and tongue sticking out. The two boys were flying to Australia for a championship swim meet that was to take place in two weeks. Dakota's mother, who lived in a city near where the race would take place, had agreed to let them stay with her so they could prepare. On top of being able to compete in one of the biggest races of their swimming careers thus far, they'd get to spend a cool vacation together.

It had been almost six years since Dakota had seen his mother. He was a little nervous about being reunited with her after so long, but he felt better with Josh there with him. He watched his friend making faces at the camera of his phone and grinned. What would he do without him?

Josh turned to him and was about to say something when the pilot come on the intercom, politely advising the passengers to put on their seat belts. Dakota struggled with the buckle, not quite able to get it to clasp. "Move over, Josh,you're in the way." He complained, nudging him in the side. His friend was sitting on the buckle.

"Gimme it, you klutz." Josh chided. He took the seat belt from Dakota and reached over his lap to grab the clasp on the other side. "There." He said as he clicked it together, then pulled it tight, securing Dakota in his seat.

"If the plane crashes, what good would seat belts do anyway?" Dakota asked. Josh leaned back into his seat and tightened his own belt before he answered.

"Nothing. It just keeps your body in place so they can identify you, and maybe keep you from flying into other people."

The plane shook, and a few passengers groaned. Dakota swallowed a lump that had suddenly formed in his throat. "Oh, that's reassuring, thanks." He complained.

Josh looked at him, his eye brows raised, as he plugged one ear with an ear bud. "Hey man, we're gonna be fine, it's just a little storm." As he spoke, the plane shook again, more violently this time.

Their eyes met for a brief moment, and Dakota saw a trace of his own fear reflected in his friend's eyes. A blinding light flashed, and he felt his body being forced back against his seat as an ear-shattering groan of metal-on-metal filled the cabin. Screams filled his head, and he stared, horrified, as the front of the plane was ripped off just two rows from where they were sitting. Josh reached for him, and Dakota grasped his arm as their screams joined the others. Dakota blacked out as the plane spiraled towards the Earth below.

---

The first thing he noticed when he came two was the pain in his head. It felt as if an elephant was standing on his brain, and he struggled to open his eyes an bring the world into focus. It only took him a few seconds to figure out that the pain was equally as bad throughout the rest of his body. With numb fingers, he found the clasp on the seat belt and undid it. Their part of the plane was apparently laying on it's side, so he slid a short ways from his seat onto his side up against the now shattered window. He gasped in pain as he made contact. His side burned like fire, and he moved his hand to touch it. It was wet with blood from a gash across his rib cage, all the way up into his armpit.

He lay there for a moment, tears welling in his eyes. How could something like this happen. A sense of dread settled in his heart, and he swallowed hard as he looked above him, over his right shoulder, to where Josh's seat was. He choked out a scream as he saw his friend, hanging limply from his seat belt. His face was hidden from him, obscured by his shaggy blonde hair. His skin was an natural color, almost blue, and blood ran down his arm that was extended awkwardly towards Dakota. "Josh!" He croaked, his voice caught in his throat. He struggled to sit up, reaching out towards him. He froze just before his hand touched Josh's arm. Please, he prayed silently, then let his fingers make contact. Josh's skin was cold and stiff.

Dakota jerked his hand away, horrified. He stared at Josh a moment longer, before he broke down sobbing uncontrollably. He lay there for several minutes before he was able to control himself again. Struggling to catch his breath, he eased himself onto his hands and knees. He crawled forward slowly, keeping his eyes focused down to avoid looking at anyone else. The pain in his left side increased, and he could feel the wound seep more blood with each moment. A few painful feet more and he was sprawled across sand just outside the wreckage.

He turned his head enough to look up and see sky above, then rested his cheek on the sand. He halfheartedly wondered where he was as he lay there, trying to catch a break from the pain. He took a deep breath and closed his eyes, feeling his consciousness slip away once again.

Summer & Autumn Dillon

Humming softly Summer hardly paid heed to those around her, a young ball of youth sat curled up in her lap, the trip had been long so far, the wait in the airport was tiring for a tyke and this no doubt led to her nap through a majority of the trip. Pale blue eyes almost that of grey flickered from out the window to down at the sibling, pink tinged lips curling up as she continued to hum and returned to looking outside.

Arms coiled around the child as she almost appeared to be the mother from behaviour and appearance, sitting nearby on the same 3 seat row was a man, he was quiet, sitting and reading a magazine offered for distraction. He wasn't a fan of flying by the looks of it.

He raised his hand and fixed what appeared to be a cowboy hat upon his head, similar to that of the one the young woman wore herself. They were all family on that row, he was their father, though he didn't seem to interact too well with them at this point. Autumn fidgeted in her sleep, trying to roll over as Summer moved her arms to catch her movements and allow her to get comfy in her own way.

“It's gone ta be so much harder without mum around, so much more challenging, huh pa?” she turned her head to look at him as she spoke lightly, the Australian accent ringing on every word.

Dark chocolate hues didn't even budge to look at the girl speaking, his hands visibly clasping the edges of the magazine as he listened. Suddenly he raised his head. The pilot spoke through the intercom, “Don't worry folks, I'm going to take a detour around the storm and lightning. There will be some turbulence, so I recommend you buckle up.”

Summer stared blankly at the man gazing down the isles of the plane. She huffed and her pale lightly freckled almost shifted the child, moving her quickly into her seat which caused a stir, the child began to moan and grab at her shirt obviously not wanting to move.

“Naa! Ahhh!” Autumn squealed as she was awoken and forced to move, small digits wrapped around the blue plaid fabric her sister wore. She kicked her legs and began to squeal louder as her sister's firm hands worked to unwrap her.

“Lookie here Missy, you gotta sit in that there chair or else this planes gone'a crash!” Summer couldn't think of much else to say, “Mum wouldn't be too happy know'n that you ain’t done what'ya been told huh?” her own voice was firm, it was the voice of a woman well worked and understanding that being gentle aint always the answer. With big bright blue eyes now on her she grabbed the child’s arms, “Now sit down and lemmie buckle you in so we can continue a peaceful flight.” The child complied and with an unpleasant looking expression she sat within the large chair and allowed herself to be buckled in.

Summer received no help from her father in the matter of settling the girl and once finished buckled herself in as well.

---

After a small while of a fairly decent flight with harsh turbulence everyone began to hesitate. The plane was going down. Summer went wide eyed looking towards her father, he had his head back against the chair, hands clutching the ends of the arm rests, white knuckles visible. Autumn was squealing again, she was young and didn't understand the matter of the sudden declination in angle and rough shaking of the plane as it moved. Summer reached over and placed an arm over her sister, acting like a second belt.

“It's okay, your okay, stay calm …. Dad! What do we do!?” Summer looked at him and waited, but, got no reply, he was terrified of planes, his eyes were glued shut and his mouth wasn't going to open any time soon.

Autumn began screaming and crying as she grabbed at her sisters arm. This was all Summer heard before everything shut off, silence and darkness shrouded her. There were no words in her head, there were no images baring anything, it was only pitch black and not even crickets creaked.

---

Summer came too after who knows how long. She stared from where she was, on the wall almost wedged between the window and another row from in front of her. Fuzzy vision made it hard to see as she glimpsed up to see her father and sister still clasped into their seats, she tried to get up and a shooting pain through her made that hard as she collapsed with a partial screech. A slender hand wrapped around her as she inspected the element of pain, a large part of the window obviously when she'd landed there had lodged itself within her side and she recoiled slightly.

“Atty! Dad!” she spoke firm as she sat where she was, her dad made no response he was leaning half over limply into Autumns seat as the child twitched the smallest with a high pitched groan. She's Alive! was all that Summer could think, she could care less about her own condition as she tried to stand, haunched over as she tried to reach for the girl.

Fingers and arm extended as she gasped from the pain in her side and jerked. Fingertips rubbing across the buckle as she tried to get the button. Click Autumn suddenly fell, Summer moved her fastest to catch her and in her own movements fell under the weight and pain. Summer curled up in a ball around the child and she sobbed softly, from the pain and relief. Knowing her baby was alive, she had spent most her life raising this child while her mother was too busy and in return gained a bond greater than most.

Once she regained her composure she drew herself with the child to her feet. Arms holding the unconscious being as she moved towards an opening in the wall, limping on her left leg due to the glass lodged in that side of her body. She ached everywhere, though she tried to bite her lip and ignore it, there were more important things to do. That's what you learnt on a ranch. [/i]Suck it up princess, theres a lot worse that coulda happened, you fell off, waa waa, get back on and show them whose boss,[/i] she remembered her daddy always telling her. That gave her motivation.

They came out near the bottom of the plane. Autumn wasn't coming too yet and remained quiet and limp in the arms of her sister, being carried around the plane as no one else had yet been spotted. Around the bottom side of the plane where the cargo bay was located Summer set Autumn down in the sand for a moment as she headed towards another girl who seemed to be coming towards the plane.

“Hey! You alright?” she called out, the girl was visibly holding her stomach that was coated a crimson red which made her worry, even if she wasn't a child she worried anyway. She herself had that coating down her left side as she latched her side fingers spread around the glass there. What else did she have? Summer asked herself, it looked like a carrier. As she got nearer it was visibly a cat carrier.

“Tiny!” Summer said out loud as she suddenly headed towards the girl, almost collapsing in her movements from the sudden shoot of pain down through her entire side and body. She could hear a mew from the direction as she got closer and stopped in her tracks. “Where there other carriers with that there one?” she asked hoping that there were, “I need to find Tiny before she wakes” is all she managed as she waited for a response. Autumn was stirring slowly in the sand, moving about as she let out a quiet groan, she'd be in pain just as everyone else was.

Felicia

Felicia walked quickly through the airport as her mother nagged her and her older brother Harley, about everything she could think of. after checking their luggage and going through security, it was time to bored the fight. "You take care of your sister. Love you both, and remember this is temporary." Their mother said kissing them on the cheek. Felicia rub her cheek and rolled her eyes at her mother. Harley groaned and that was that. Her and Harley were sitting in their seats on a flight to Australia, to live with there Aunt Susanna, until their parents sorted out there issues. There was a pregnant woman sitting to her right, and on her left her Harley was already playing his ipad, and ignoring everything around him. Middle seats sucked, but she was planning on sleeping and listening to her ipod for the whole flight. The pregnant woman introduced herself as Erica, and proceeded to treat Fee like she was a four year old, which made Fee raise her eyebrows and stick her ear-buds in her ears. The inflight movie started it was ‘finding nemo’, a movie she had seen about a million times. Harley was preoccupied playing candy crash on his ipad, and Fee was growing border by the minuet.

Hours past, and through all the turbulence, and thunder noise, Fee was fast asleep. Then came the screaming, as the plane jerked about in the air and the front of it ripped away, The Erica woman was screaming, and her brother looked to be in complete shock, as his eyes rolled back and he fainted. Then they hit the ground, fire, screaming, crying, twisted metal, and flying wreckage. Harley was dead, practically decapitated from a huge chunk of metal through his neck, and the pregnant woman, who had been tightly grasping Felicia's hand, had stop screaming and gone limp, Fee was shaking, she was alive. She un-wedged herself from the broken flaming seat that had her pinned, and checked the Erica woman’s pulse...Nothing. Looking around her dead bodies and flames, she covered her mouth with her sleeve and she squinted through the smoke for an exit, her brain was in survival mode, as she climbed out of the wreckage, only to look back for her brother, seeing his lifeless body, and crawl back to him. The rain from the storm that hit the plane was still going strong, and it put out the fires around her, as she passed out from hyperventilating and crying, her older brothers blood all over her hands, and shirt. Less than a dozen or so people were still alive, some wounded others helping pull out bodies.

She woke up, and looked at her brothers lifeless body again, she was in shock and her emotions had no time to catch up to her, as she catatonically walked out of the plane. Their were others on the sandy beach, who were alive. She knelt down in the sand and broke down. Physically she only had scraps and bruises.

---

Janelle

Janelle was on her fathers private jet when it had to take an emergency fuel stop in Washington, DC. Jana was on her way to Australia for her brothers wedding, why the hell he was having it in Australia was a mystery, he and his bride to be were not even from there. Really if they wanted a romantic destination wedding Italy, France, practically any other option would have been great.

Todd the pilot, walked over to her, as she waited in the Jet to be on their way. "Um, Miss Mason, take off will be delayed for...quite awhile, their seems to be some trouble with the engine, if you don't want to wait, there is a flight leaving this airport to our same destination. its leaving in thirty minutes. Should I send Cameron to get you tickets." He asked to her.

"Yes, that would be great." She said to him. Todd had worked as the pilot for her family for the last nine years, so he knew how she felt about waiting.

She rolled her loui vuitton luggage behind her as she walked across the crowed airport to her new flight, sadly she had to sit in coach, as all the first class was taken.

Getting to her seat she buckled herself in, and opened up her magazine.

.....

A dozen hours later she was freaking out along with the rest of the passengers, as the plane ripped into two, Jana was in the front part of the plane, she saw people falling out of there seats and into the cold ocean waves below, people holding on for dear life, and trying to catch the hands of the falling. You could see people with there mouths open, screaming but the wind and rain the zip of the air as you fell drowned out all noise.

Still buckled into her seat, the plane part she was in slammed into the water. She held her breath, and unbuckled her seat belt as quickly as she could, It seemed to take her forever to brake to the surface, her lungs burned. Her clothes weighing her down, and her jimmy choos not fit for swimming, she was shedding layers of clothes one by one, as she came to the top of the water, she took as deep breathe in and she promptly unsnapped and ripped her shoes, letting the see swallow them up.

Swimming to shore was seemed to take ages. Jana was in shape but not for a mile long swim in stormy waters. Crawling to shore she was, soaking wet, cold, silently freaking out she, coughing up salt water, and trying to hold back the screams that had been waiting to come out since she was in the air.

The plane shook again for what seemed like the hundredth time and Blake was not having a good time, in fact he was having the opposite of a good time. Ever since he was a kid, Blake had been afraid of heights. He never had a real reason, no fall from a great height, no traumatizing hang for dear life, no plane crashes, Blake just didn't like heights. His fear was so great that he risked being late for his match in Australia because no isle seats were available. Thankfully a last minute opening came up as a guy had to cancel his flight. After he jumped through the hoops at security, Blake took out several of those mini bottles of alcohol and drowned them in quick succession, getting weird looks from others.

"Screw them." He thought to himself, Blake was never one to judge people and it pissed him off when people did. With a final shot of kidney courage, Blake made his way to his terminal. After getting to his plane and his seat, Blake set his carry on up and sat in his seat. His neighbors for this journey were a recently married couple heading to Australia for their honeymoon. Terry and Kathrine. They were a nice couple, high school sweethearts and such. Either way, Blake made heavy use of the in flight drinks and he was definitely feeling it now. Feeling himself grow drowsy, Blake passed out and it was fairly uninterrupted except for some screaming he was sure was from his dreams.

When Blake awoke, everything hurt... everything hurt and he was wet. Blinking away his sleepiness, Blake was surprised to find himself face down in sand. Struggling to stand, he was denied as a wave crashed with his back and threw him on the ground again. He tried this several more times, getting the same result every time. Finally he managed to just drag himself to the shore as another woman did the same. This didn't make any sense, how did this happen? Struggling to stand, Blake brought his hand to his head and found it bleeding. No bother, it just stung. What bothered him was the pieces of glass lodged in his leg and the unnatural angle his thumb had set itself in. Bracing himself for what was to come, Blake grabbed his thumb and pushed it back into place. The pain was immense but it wasn't the first time he had done it and it was bearable.

Limping over to the lady who had came up to shore roughly the same time he did, Blake Bent down more to her level to get a good look at her. She was coughing which was a good sign, that meant that she was breathing. Giving her a gentle shake of the shoulder, Blake said "Hey, can you hear me? Are you ok? Do you need help standing?" He was genuinely worried for her safety, same as everyone else as he saw the wreckage of the plane. However he couldn't go two far with this glass in his leg, while awaiting any reaction from the lady he did what he could. With a fast tug the glass came free and with little more than a grunt of pain, Blake tore his shirt and quickly wrapped the wound in a makeshift bandage.

Falling on his ass, Blake said "Ain't this fucked." and let his headache subside as he waited on the lady next to him.

A pair of thick arms encircled an attractive, strong featured woman in her thirties at the airport, one sheathed in a white and green checked shirt, the other in a solid, drab brown. The arms belonged to her parents; her mother Aiki wearing the drab brown, long sleeved shirt, was a heavier set woman with a face that greatly resembled her daughter's features, if aged a few more years and bearing a bit more flesh. Her skin seemingly naturally resistant to the weight of time, lines and wrinkles few and sparse, leaving her strong jawline, and beautiful green eyes, quite noticeable still in her early sixties. She smiled as she hugged her daughter, her eyes moist, but glad to have seen her youngest, if only for a few short days. As she released her daughter, she kissed her cheek, and then stooped to her grandchildren, giving the pair of them great encompassing hugs. Aiki enfolded them in her embrace, and the mixed scent of earthy clay, and a light, berry-like fragrance that they would always associate with mummo. When little Kamryn pulled the kerchief from her mummo's head, the short ponytail of rich chestnut hair, carefully tucked away unfurled and fell to just below the older woman's shoulder, tickling Kamryn's nose. Aiki gently pried the blue and white kerchief from the five year old's hands, before untying it, and wrapping it around her youngest granddaughter's auburn hair with gentle care, and a warm loving grin.

In contrast to his wife, Russl bore the deep lines and creases of age with a stern, pensive expression that was just as natural as stone. As he released Seikku, his stubbled cheek brushing hers before he kissed her goodbye as well. His blue eyes, now faded with time, caught his daughter's glance, and a rare smile crept across his face. As his wife said goodbye to the children, he turned to Cecil, a handsome man with a strong, French appearance, and engulfed his outstretched hand with his bear-like mitt of calloused, leathery skin, and gave it a solid shake. Cecil, the man his daughter loved, and the father to her children had a firm grip, despite his more slender appearance. A lean muscled, physical trainer for the motorcycle team that Seikku managed. In the few short days they had spent together, Cecil had earned Russl's respect. As Aiki rose from the children, Russl stooped to their up-stretched arms. A deep grin of playful jubilance cracked his stern gaze as he took the pair by their waists, and straightened with the pair over his shoulders, their shrieks of laughter could be heard by all around as they beat at his broad back ineffectually. He sung softly in his deep, resonant bass, a passage of an old song his mother sung to him as a child.

---

The comfortable weight of Aiki's head against his shoulder as she slept, kept Russl's nerves calm as he watched out the window, to the growing storm. He couldn't say he liked it, he had always viewed thunderstorms as somewhat ominous. They were rare back home, but could be fiercely damaging. Having his business burn down to the ground, caused by a lightning strike of course, might make him slightly biased against nature's display of power. A flash of lightning rippled through the clouds, and the thunder drowned the constant drone of the engines for a moment. A tense sigh escaped the older man, as he looked back to Aiki. A careful gesture of brushing a stray hair away from her closed eyes, revealed his thick finger, rough from a life of hard work and scarred from cuts, abrasions, and burns of both heat and chemical, skin long stained a darker tone from the dirt and oil of his work. He envied her, being able to sleep so soundly. The first time they flew to America to see Seikko, he hadn't slept at all. This trip, he had managed an hour or two on the way from Finland, but eight hours out of Seattle, and he hadn't slept for a second. Not for lack of trying. Even so, he tried again, casting his solemn eyes out the window. Silently praying for this storm to pass, as he closed his eyes.

---

Buckled into the seat during the thirteenth hour of the flight, his nerves were frayed by the violence of the turbulence, Aiki's face was white with terror as she gripped his left hand.

A blinding flash of light, and the deafening blast of the air splitting in the wake of the electrical charge was trailed by the metallic ripping and popping of aluminium and steel. Aiki's hand shifted, and he grabbed hold of her hand int the split moment, as vision came back to his eyes, he saw the chasm between the front of the plane, Aiki, and himself growing as the front pivoted to the side, sucking Aiki out into the darkness of the storm, he gripped her hand as tight as he could as her body was whipped around to the exterior side of the aircraft, her arm meeting the jagged and torn metal at the elbow, where it separated and parted in an instant. Wind tore at his skin and clothes, lashing his silver hair in furious turbulance, his legs would have dangled in open air if they had not been pinned under the seat by the air pressure, rain drops pelted him with stinging velocity, as he snatched the arm of Aiki to his chest.

---

Grit.

Grit lined his tongue, his teeth, his cheeks. He tried to lick the grit away, but his tongue felt like sandpaper. He coughed, and flinched, the sharp stabbing pain near his diaphragm causing him to try and curl in on himself momentarily. A sudden wash of water flooded over him, filling his gaping mouth as he tried to deal with the pain. He coughed again, racking the water from his throat, as the pain stabbed harder, shards of black and white filling his vision as the pain threatened to take him once again. He fought the coughing down, grateful for the water to clear the worst of the grit from his mouth. Another blast of cold salt water crashed into his back, with some awareness, he kept his mouth closed, but this time opened his eyes, letting the salt water flush the grit from his corneas.

It stung. It stung like hell, and he snarled, hissing in pain as the water receded again, wrenching his eyes shut.

Another two waves washed against him, but not over him as he waited for the searing fire on his eyes to ease, he forced his eyes open, even as it brought more agony, he surveyed his immediate situation. He was on something soft, which turned out to be one of the floating seat cushions. Around him was sand, to the limit of his currently blurred vision. He was on his stomach, his right arm clutching something to his chest, between him and the cushion, his left was buried in the sand, clinging onto the cushion itself. A grimace of distaste washed over him, he couldn't even administer proper first aid to himself with his arms trapped like this, but if he moved and he had a spinal injury...

He forced the thought from mind, and focused on his feet. Cold. He wiggled his toes within the flooded confines of his his shoe on his left foot, and free air on his right. He could feel the grit between his toes, and no flashes of pain. So far, so good. Ankles worked, to his knees and thighs, nothing but deep aches, and the stinging of slight lacerations or abrasions. Trying to check his hands for feeling was useless, numb from lack of circulation with his soaked body weight pushing them into the sand. The only thing for it was to move. A grunt escaped his lips as he pushed with muscles that felt dead and spent. Shoving himself to his right, and rolling over onto his back. He took a deep breath after the exertion, and at the rising noise of the water, he closed his eyes and held the second intake of air, letting the wave flood over him. Feeling crawling back through his alien arms, his skin prickling with salt, cold, and sand.

The cushion was clumsily cast up the beach overhead, as he righted himself. Finally, he looked to what he numbly clutched to his chest, and halted. The tone was wrong. The tanned skin was grey and lifeless, the fingers still entwined with his from the parting hold. The forearm ended at the ragged cut through to the elbow joint, a couple shreds of skin dangling loosely. He stared at the arm of his lost wife blankly. Trying to process this. At some level, it registered. His wife was dead. She had been ripped from the plane at over three thousand meters of altitude, and fallen. Her arm had been severed.

Slowly, he pried his fingers from hers, kissing the back of her hand one last time before he carefully removed the wedding ring from her ring finger. Looking into the simple ring, his mind lurched, but he held it back. His vision was clearing. There were others. There were others who were alive, and who may need his help now. Nothing could be done of Aiki at this moment. Grief could wait. It had to wait. He forced himself to his feet, against every muscle, ligament and bone in his body's protests. He leaned over, picking up the cushion, before he trudged, slowly up the beach to the edge of the sand. He laid the cushion down, and Aiki's arm above it, keeping her from rolling back to the water. The ring, he shoved into a soaking wet pocket, as he turned to look at the blurred white shape of the wreckage of the fuselage.

His breath hitched on the pain. He looked down as he pulled up his shirt; across his abdomen was a deep bruise that spread up to just overlap the lowest of his left ribs. A touch there confirmed it in his mind, a rib or two were broken. Maybe three. Must have been wrenched when the seatbelt failed. It would hurt like hell, but there was little he could do about it, he had to push on. He began through the drizzling rain towards the shape of the aircraft. His eyes squinting against the stinging pain, his skin covered in small scrapes, and lacerations. Seeing movement of human shaped masses, he called simply waved, while moving towards them.

Bailey

The redheaded girl who was suddenly in front of her, startled her out of her zombie like mind phase. She blinked a few times and looked at her, oddly enough, wondering how the girl kept on her cowboy hat during the plane crash. She rubbed her eyes and sighed, feeling so tired and sore that she wanted to sit down and forget everything that happened. Just go to sleep. Though maybe her stomach wound and the missing blood was what was making her feel woozy.

“I’m…” She tried to answer. Was she okay? What a silly notion. Of course she wasn’t. Nobody could possibly be okay after what had just happened. Even the people who only ended up with a bruise or scrape could not possibly be fine. She looked around her now, seeing the people who were starting to wander about, before turning her attention back to the redhead.

“I don’t know,” she answered, “if I’m okay. Are you okay? Is she?” She nodded toward the toddler the girl had been carrying. Another redhead.

The girl was suddenly focused on the cat she was carrying and now almost seemed frantic. Bae looked down at the animal, who was nothing more than a kitten.

“No-no, I mean I was mostly out of it when I found this cat. I did not see anymore.”

Clearly the girl had some sort of pet on the flight. It could possibly still be secured in the cargo department, unless it had been in the front part of the plane. She knew that the cargo bay ran throughout the whole bottom of the airplane. The cat must have been in the very middle where it ripped apart and somehow came unsecured.

“I’m looking for my twin sister and mom and dad. My sister looks just like me except she has a punky short haircut.” Bae herself had really long, straight blonde hair.

---

Benji

He woke inside the plane. Everything was hazy. There was a strong pulling pain behind his eyes, as if something had hit him in the head. He reached up and touched his forehead, filling a very large bump there that was oozing blood. Well, that explained the pain.

Everything was still hazy. He blinked a few times, expecting his vision to clear, but it did not. He could still see, but it looked like he was looking through window blinds on a very dark night. This was troubling.

Benji shook his head. Get it together. Figure out what’s going on… what is going on? He did not remember much from before, only small snippets. Screams. Screeching metal sounds. Crashing.

That’s right. He undid his seatbelt and dropped a few feet against another seat because the part of plane he was in, was sitting on it’s side.

He squinted his eyes and looked around, vaguely able to make out the bodies of several people still stuck to their seats, limp and lifeless. He recognized Kristi’s vibrant dress she always wore, and his brother’s all too familiar leather coat. They were also not moving. He gripped the armrests near him and climbed his way back up to his brother and brother’s fiance.

When he felt for a pulse, he got nothing. He should be having a panic attack or at least crying, but he could not get his emotions to work. He just felt blank.

He looked across the aisle and saw that their friends, Chad and Amy were also unmoving. Amy seemed to have something lodged into her chest and Chad had an awful looking gash across his neck.

How did I end up with only a banged up head and messed up vision? Benji asked himself.

Benji pulled himself up and managed to get the overhead compartment open, grabbing his, his brother’s and Kristi’s carry on bag. Kristi was neurotic about having a first aid kit on herself at all times. Lot of good it would do her now, but it might be helpful to Benji.

As he was trying to make his way out of the wreckage, he tripped over the limp body of a young girl. He assumed she was dead at first like the others, but she moaned at being touched.

Benji put the bags around his shoulder and bent down to the girl’s level. She was blonde, around 15 or 16 and seemed fine, other than being passed out. He checked her pulse anyway. It was strong.

He was worried about picking her up, but knew that she could not stay in the plane. So he gently picked her up and somehow managed to stumble out of the airplane.

Unbeknown to him, he was on the other side of the plane from where the passed out girl’s twin sister was frantically trying to find her.

Dakota's senses came back slowly, bringing him back to his current predicament. His eyes were still closed, and he kept them that way as he listened to what was going on in his surroundings. People must have started to stir, because he could hear the shuffling of feet as someone climbed out of the wreckage. He thought he heard faint voices coming from quite a distance away. Clearest of all, he heard his own heartbeat. It pounded in his ears, adding to a headache like no other he had experienced before. He forced himself to take a deep breath, filling his lungs as much as he could, despite the searing pain it sent through his ribcage. He didn't think any bones were broken -- besides his left pinky finger, which must have gotten lodged in the cup holder or something -- but everything ached.

Exhaling, his forced his eyes open. The world was blurry for a few seconds, and he blinked several times before it came into focus. His cheek rested on the sand from where he lay. Scraps of metal were spread about around him, charred black in places, and stained red in a few spots as well. After much procrastination, he pushed his hands against the sand and slowly sat up, sitting back on his knees. Each movement made his vision blur from pain, so he took it slow. He assumed he had gotten himself a concussion, though it was hard to tell if the dizziness was caused by a head injury or loss of blood. He raised his left arm slightly to check the gash on his side. It still looked awful, but his little nap must have helped to slow the bleeding. Where his shirt wasn't shredded, the blue fabric was stained a nasty dark purple color.

Kota carefully pulled his arms out of the sleeves and twisted the shirt around so he was wearing it backwards. As he gently pulled it back on, the fabric brushed against the wound, making him wince. The hole of the shirt was now on his good side, and the wound was covered by the intact part of the shirt. The materiel stuck slightly, and was already adopting a blood stain, but he hoped maybe it would help to keep it clean. It rubbed painfully, but at least it would keep some of the sand out.

He sat there for another moment, gathering his thoughts. The fact that he was sitting in sand just then registered with his brain. Did they crash on a beach? From where he was, he couldn't see the ocean, but he could hear it's rumble in the distance. It provided a source of white noise, so that it was never completely silent.

With a groan, Dakota forced himself to stand. Again, his world spun, but he managed to stay up right. Just then, he noticed someone else. He stumbled out of the plane, carrying a blonde girl in his arms. The man was bleeding from a large, swollen lump on his head. It was a wonder he was able to carry the girl, who looked to be somewhere around the same age as Dakota.

He knew it was a stupid thing to ask before he even said it, but he couldn't think of anything else. "Are you okay?" He questioned, "Can I help?"