A Sinking Feeling

"Please God, somehow let me live through this..." James thought as his car entered free-fall.

The world slowed down for him, and agonizingly his mind flashed through everything in his life that he loved. Everything that he had to live for. His wife that he loved, the home and life they built together, the career that he worked so hard for, the family and friends that he may never see again, and pleasant memories long since forgotten or taken for granted.

His windshield wipers were still futily doing their job, and with each slow swipe against the sheets of rain he caught a glimpse of the coming impact. He could barely see the turbulent water below, the moonlight only slightly exposing it in spite of the driving rain that he was now falling with. Each slow movement of the wiper blades revealed an end coming closer and closer.

"Sarah, I'm sorry..." His mind whispered in defeat as the car violently impacted the water.

Everything went black.


Flashes of awareness surged back to his mind...

He tried opening his eyes but saw only darkness.

He could feel water flowing into the interior of the car.

He heard the muffled sound of churning water.

In between the moments where his senses returned to him, he saw the the last events of the night replay themselves...


"I'll be back before you know it, don't worry." James said nonchalantly as he grabbed his car keys.

His wife looked at him with concern. "Missing one class isn't going to hurt anything! Please stay, the weather is supposed to be horrible tonight..."

"Sarah, if I can let a little rain interrupt my training I might start to get lazy. Then before I know it I'll be one of those 'once a month' guys that can't survive in the competitions, much less in the ring. Muay Thai isn't very forgiving to couch potatoes." James chucked.

She said nothing, but gave him a pitiful look that tugged painfully at his heart. "Hey," He moved in and embraced her. "...Stop worrying, besides when I get back we'll snuggle up on the couch and watch that movie you wanted to see."

Her eyes lit up. "You mean?"

James smiled and grumbled halfheartedly. "Yes, that sappy romance movie that I swore I'd never watch."

"Oh come on, you know you want to see it!" Sara playfully slapped him on the shoulder.

He just smiled and stared into her eyes, a slightly more serious look on his face. "I love you."

A peaceful look washed over her face. "James, you say that at least once a day... ...but I'll never get tired of hearing it."

They both leaned in for a kiss as she whispered "I love you too." right before their lips touched.


That moment. Standing there in that warm embrace.

The thought immediately brought him to full awareness, a rush of adrenaline surging through his body.

"I can't die..." He thought desperately as he took in his surroundings.

The car still hadn't filled with water yet, and seemed to have been taken by the current of the water. The front windshield was submerged, and in a surreal way he could see out into the darkness of the water with his one surviving headlight. The other one, he quickly surmised, must have been taken out by the oncoming truck that had knocked him off the bridge. Considering the truck was recklessly speeding down the wrong way of a 2 mile bridge in the pouring rain, James had no doubt that the driver had been a drunken moron.

The car suddenly lurched to the side, seemingly being struck by something while traveling with the current of the large river.

After weighing his options, with dread he realized that he was stuck there. He had driven about halfway across the bridge, and there was no way he was going to be able to swim a mile of rapids in a torrential downpour. So instead of kicking out the window and making a break for it, he waited and desperately hoped that somehow the car would stay afloat and take him to safety eventually. A fools hope he knew, but it was all he had.


He wasn't sure how much time had passed before the car had become completely submerged in the river, what was just a couple of minutes agonizingly seemed like hours. Suddenly the car lost power and went black. Cursing at himself for how he'd not just tried sooner to make a swim for it, he unbuckled his seat belt and positioned himself to kick the driver side window. His vision blurred as he desperately tried to keep his head above water while at the same time trying to maintain his position.

With all his strength he tried to kick out the window, but it was too late. He was floating in the icy cold water now, and any attempt to kick just futily pushed him away from the window.

He felt the car sinking rapidly deep into the river as he tried desperately to get the door open. The interior was still partially pressurized due in part to the car's rapid descent into the water, causing any attempts to push the door open to fail miserably.

Calm started to wash over him as the water raised to the roof of the car. He realized this was the end. One final thought entered his mind. "I love you Sarah."

With no more air and no more strength to fight, he prepared to take his last breath and let the water fill his lungs...

Suddenly, a burst of light came spilling from in front of him. The car lurched forward towards it and soon the light filled it, illuminating the interior in a bright blue-green glow.

He felt images start filling his mind.

Strange beings were being slaughtered by the trillions. Death. Destruction. The end of life.

A cruel joke he mused, that his last thoughts would be some hallucination of some kind of armageddon. He tried to resist the images and instead focus on thoughts of his wife, but they soon overpowered him and completely took over his mind. He felt the car abruptly stop moving as the light became blindingly bright.

An explosion threw him to the back of the car and knocked what little air he had left out of his chest.

Instantly, blackness took him again.


James lurched up as he coughed water out of his lungs and immediately as he expelled it he desperately started gasping for air. His body hurt all over and he felt as though he had fallen from the roof of a tall building.

"Sarah..." He weakly managed to get out before he collapsed back to the ground.

"It's ok, just breathe!" Said a female voice above him.

Another voice, this one male, suddenly came from his left in a frantic tone. "What the hell just happened, who is that?"

James became groggily aware that he wasn't alone, he certainly wasn't underwater, and that he was lying on a hard surface with a gloved hand supporting the back of his head.

"I don't know! He just crashed through the window of that... is that a CAR?" The female voice yelled in confusion.

"Alenko to Normandy, we need a pickup NOW! We have two casualties, notify Dr. Chakwas!" The voice paused before continuing, his voice taking on a low worried tone. "One of them is the commander..."

Consciousness slipped away from him again, leaving him only with confused thoughts of some kind of rescue operation in progress, the horrible visions he'd witnessed moments ago, and the desperate thought that he had to keep himself alive to see his wife again.