So this was it… the moment where everything fell apart and the world came to a sudden, alarming, terrifying, awe-striking stop. This was the very instant where lives flashed before people’s eyes, where people looked back on their past achievements, past faults and fails, past regrets and decided if … right now… they died… would they have fulfilled their grand design. That moment, took an eternity. Everything slid in front of Jade as if the world had come to a stand still, as if luggage and masks and magazines and the occasional shot bottle of tequila went whizzing by her, weren’t actually there. As if she was standing at a cross roads between life and death, as if she was standing in front of a sign and reading the inscription. Sadly, the inscription was illegible… unreadable, and yet she knew exactly what it said. Come whatever may, she was prepared.
Jade Michaels had worked her entire young life to become the person she was, sitting on the airplane, on her way to do a vacation piece for her magazine. Her down home southern charm and already won the locals over of her destination. They truly adored her accent, her drawl, her sweet tea attitude. It was as if everything was falling into place. So, she had boarded this flight, she had packed for warm weather and sunlight, her purse stocked with sun screen, note pads, her iPad and other assorted items for her trip. Though, at the moment, her purse could be at the back of the plane for all she knew. Everything, was out of place.
So she stood, sat, huddled between her legs with her hands over her head, but in her mind she was on the ground, watching the sun rise over a brilliant horizon and she had to make a decision. The light of day was striking, sobering… illuminating. She wanted to live, she had the will, the drive, the desire, to do good in the world. It wasn’t fair that she be taken, from her mother, father, friends and family. Then again, it wasn’t fair for anyone else to be taken either. So why was it happening? Retribution, redemption, fault and error, human ignorance? Who knew, all she knew was…
IMPACT.
Pain. All she knew was pain, agony. She was alert, blinking, breaking, coughing, wincing. Looking to her side, red liquid oozing out of her arm and leg. The plane had turned into shreds, sharp, painful shreds. Jade was lucky to be alive, lucky that no arteries were cut, lucky that the wounds were superficial, deep… painful, but not life threatening. A needle, thread, alcohol, her t-shirt, perhaps some Tylenol and she’d be right as rain. But would she get those? Was she alone? Immobile? She was hurting, so she wasn’t dead.
Grimacing slightly, shaking fingers reached for torn buckles, unclasping them, her oxygen mask long gone. Her hair drenched, her cloths soaked, stained, torn. She was a hot mess, or a cold one, depending. Could she stand? Yes… she could. Moving. slowly, but with purpose, Jade made her way to an opening and fell out onto the sand. She cried out, the sudden jolt causing anguish to grip her once more. She opened her eyes, looking out at the horizon… the brilliant sunrise… the sobering, somber, painful, bloody sunrise.
Then… everything went black.
