[b]Introducing [color=ed1c24]Javier Flores[/color], gun runner:[/b]

Javier was one of the many survivors who'd found himself dangling from a left side seat. After his eyes had adjusted to the low illumination of the moonlight spilling in through the small bulkhead windows, he pulled loose his own seat belt buckle and fell away from his seat. He fell away toward the plane's right wall, which of course was now the floor, and screamed out in pain as he seriously twisted one of his ankles on that window seat's arm rest.

A pair of men got him out to where the other survivors were gathering, and soon a fire was lighting up the night. There didn't seem to be much to see, which confused Javier. His occupation -- gun running and money laundering -- took him up and down the I-5 corridor from as far south as San Diego, California, to as far north as Bellingham, Washington.  Some of that travel was done in the dark of night, and never in all of those thousands of miles had Javier ever seen a stretch of land that wasn't fouled by at least one light from a house, barn, street lamp, or passing automobile. 

Javier looked to the night sky for lights as well. They were obviously under the north-south air corridor, and yet over the next couple of hours he saw not one single airliner passing overhead. With no light pollution, he should have been able to pick up satellites reflecting the light of the sun which, of course, was over the horizon and out of their direct sight. And yet again, nothing up there either.

A nurse came around to check on him, having heard he was injured. He told her it was just a twisted ankle and asked for something with which he could wrap it. He explained, "I've been a competition runner since I was a kid. This is nothing new."

The next hours were busy with activity, both at the plane and around the fires. And all that time, all Javier could think about was getting to the cargo compartment where his checked luggage was stored. He's put a lot of effort and expense into creating a suitcase that -- if chosen by TSA for random X-ray scanning -- would look like it was filled with anything other than its true contents: 16-9mm semiautomatic pistols, 16 spare clips, and 6 boxes of hollow point bullets, a total of 300 rounds.