So I've had this idea in my head for a wile. I wasn't going to write this because I don't like to have too many stories going at once (I have 3 up besides this one right now), but I just couldn't resist. I hope you like it!
POV: Calleigh
Full summary: The CSI's have to go to Seattle for a CSI convention. Horatio decides to keep their trip a secret so that the crime in Miami doesn't increase with their absence. But the plane crashes in the wilderness. They think it is unlikely that they will get rescued so they use nature and eachother in an attempt to survive. But nature can cause trouble with animal attacks, starvation, and other problems. EC.
Disclaimer: All of the survival tips mentioned in this story are true as far as I know. However, I could be mistaken. If you are put in a position where they might be needed… use them at your own risk. I am not responsible if they are detrimental. You have been warned, so DO NOT SUE ME!
Disclaimer 2: I wrote this, but I do not own this. I own nothing. This is not mine. Can I make it any clearer?
Sorry for such a long A/N but it was necessary. Please Review!
Ch. 1I walked through the airport with my matching bags behind me. I was actually excited to go to the convention that; Horatio had set it up for the team. There was suppose to be top-of-the-line devices there that could help the lab. But he thought that if the people knew that his team was gone the crime would escalate, so he had made sure that only a few of his superiors knew of their absence. He also did not specify when they would come home. Once I passed through security I saw Horatio, Natalia, Ryan, and Eric waiting for me. The later gave me a small smile that made my beating heart melt. Apparently I was the last one to arrive.
"Hi everyone! Are we all ready?" She asked.
"I believe that we are ready…as ready as we can be," Horatio said.
"Actually I want to go into a store and get a few things," Natalia said.
The team walked into the nearest airport store. Natalia got some gum, Ryan got some candy, Eric got some chips, and Horatio got a book to read. Calleigh was decided that she would get a few tabloids, they were her weakness after all.
"The plane leaves in 30 minutes!" Ryan announced.
"We should get to the gate," I said.
"Ok, we are gate…. A7, so we need to head…. Right," Natalia said after she pulled out her ticket. Horatio led, and I followed him. Behind me Ryan and Natalia were chatting pointlessly.
"Hey bullet girl," Eric said coming up from behind me. I'm not sure what surprised her more: that Eric said something, or what he said.
"We're in the airport, I don't think you should say that," I pointed out. I
"You're right, as always," Eric said, which made her laugh.
"I wouldn't say that. I'm not always right, I'm just right most of the time."
"I can't argue with that," Eric said before they sat down on the chairs outside of where they would board the plane.
"Smart choice," I said after I sat down in a chair.
"I know… how long are we suppose to be there?" Eric asked her.
"I don't know," I said truthfully. Horatio hadn't told any of us it seemed. If he hadn't told me, his second in command, or Eric, his third in command, nobody but him must know. I pulled out one of my magazines and began to read it, and I noticed that as I did this Eric began to read a book of his.
"The private flight to Seattle is now boarding," a voice from the load speaker rang. I was the first of our team to get in line to board the plane. Once I took my seat Eric sat next to me, Ryan and Horatio across from us, and Natalia sat alone behind them.
I finished reading my magazines and then just starred out the window at the land flying underneath us. The flight attendant came by and I got a Diet Coke to drink and, the typical, peanuts. I felt my eyelids closing, and was about to go into blissful sleep, when I felt a hand on top of my own. At first I thought it was a dream, but it felt to real. I looked down to see a large Cuban hand holing my own. Then I lifted my eyes up towards Eric's face, but accidentally looked deep into his mocha eyes. Embarrassed, I looked away.
"Oh, um, sorry Cal," Eric apologized to me, and moved his hand away.
"It's fine," I said. I was about to continue when I saw out of the corner of my eye that we were getting dangerously close to the ground through the window. "Oh my God!" I screamed. We were about to crash, and the pilot wasn't doing a thing! "Horatio!" I screamed. He seemed to know what I meant, because he looked out of the window, and saw the danger.
"Get the pilot!" He yelled. Eric ran to the pilot's room, and then he ran back. "He's unconscious. Drunk, I think. There are a ton of empty bottles. One of them spilled on the controls. We can't fly the plane," He announced once he came back.
"Damn!" Ryan screamed.
"We'll have to jump! It is our only chance!" Natalia said. Then she grabbed some blankets to use as parachutes, and handed one to everybody.
"One the count of three!" Horatio said.
"Wait!" I screamed. What about the pilot! We couldn't just leave him here! IT wasn't his fault that he was drunk. Well it actually might be, but he doesn't deserve to die! IT could happen to anyone… like my father.
Horatio seemed to know what I meant because his eyes went to where the pilot was. "We can't save him! I already thought of that. He drank too much. He isn't unconscious; he's dead…. NOW!" Horatio screamed. In his talk he had wasted the time to count apparently.
He, Natalia, and Ryan all jumped. But Eric saw that I wasn't going to yet. "Come on Calleigh!" He screamed. We were just about a hundred feet above the ground.
"I know! One second!" I said, and then I grabbed both of our carry-ons. After I grabbed then he nodded and then we both jumped out of the emergency exit door, with our blankets as parachutes, and flew to the ground. We jumped just in time, because as soon as we jumped it seemed that the plane crashed to the ground and exploded.
I flew down to the ground. It seemed like the blanket barely slowed my decent. But I held on to it for dear life, it was the only thing that could help me! The bags were hanging from my shoulders and banging into my sides, throwing my center of gravity off. The land seemed to be speeding toward me, and my hands almost let of my homemade parachute.
I just missed hitting a tree and then landed on my butt, which was less than pleasurable. Eric very nearly missed hitting me when he fell down a second after me. After I got up and brushed myself of from the painful hundred foot fall I saw Natalia, Ryan, and H all recovering from it about twenty yards in front of Eric and me.
"Come on, we should go with the rest of the team," I told Eric once he stood up. He appeared to be in pain.
"Yeah, you're right again. Bu can you help me? I think I hurt my ankle…" He said.
"Of course. Put one arm around my shoulders and the other around my waist. I'll help support you," I said. He did as I instructed his and then I grabbed our blankets and carry-on bags, and we walked over to the others.
"What took you two… so long… to jump?" Ryan asked, breathless.
"I had to get these. They might help us survive. Nobody knows that we left, or crashed. They will figure it out eventually, but it might take a while…Nobody panic though, it is our greatest danger." I said showing the carry-on bags.
"That… was very smart," Horatio said smiling in approval. I sat Eric down on the ground next to the rest of the team, and then I sat down.
"So, what's in them?" Natalia asked.
"For me there is basic hygiene items, a pair of clothes, pj's, gum, and some magazine. I also have some medicine. Advil for headaches and Claritin for allergies. I don't know what is in Eric's," I said as I emptied my bag.
"Calleigh, your cell phone!" Ryan said pointing to it. I had forgotten it was there.
"You're right!" I said and then I dialed 911 so that we could get rescued. But all I heard was a beep, beeep, and beeeep. "No service."
"Damn!" Ryan exclaimed in anger and disappointment.
"Eric, do you have your laptop?" Horatio asked.
"Yes, but it had no connection, I already checked…" Eric said. "I have pretty much the same stuff as Calleigh: hygiene stuff, clothes, pj's, cell phone, but it is out of service, a bag of chips, and that is it."
"Well that is just great…" Natalia complained.
"We should stay by the plain, it might be seen from above," Eric said.
"Are you crazy! It is a biohazard site! Or it could explode… or I don't know!" Ryan said.
"How about we…. We move further away from the plane, but stay close enough that if rescuers come we will still be in the search area," Horatio compromised.
"That would work," I agreed, trying to keep the peace. If we turn on ourselves nothing good could happen. We already had enough problems right now: little food, no water, dangerous wild animals, cold, and that was just the beginning of it! We didn't need to fight among ourselves too!
"Ok, but my ankle hurts. I think I sprained it…" Eric said to the rest of the team. He knew that I already knew.
"Here, have an Advil and I'll help you walk," I said to him. He took my Advil and swallowed it dry, because none of us had any water. All we had were the things in Eric's and my carry-on bags, and the blankets. Then we began to walk away deeper into the forest wilderness.
"Thanks Cal," Eric said after a few minutes of travel. It broke the silence, but I didn't really mind.
"No problem, I know that you would do the same for me," I said with a smile. It was a lot easier supporting him this time because Ryan, H, and Natalia had taken the bags and blankets.
"I see… I see a river," Horatio said, putting on his sunglasses, which had miraculously survive the plane crash.. And I looked up and saw, sure enough, a river twenty feet ahead of our group.
"We should stay there. After all the human body needs three quarts of water a day to stay hydrated," Ryan said mater-of-factly.
"Good job, Mr. Obvious," Eric said. Apparently he was feeling better now that the Advil had kicked in.
"Thanks Delko," Ryan said in return.
"It is getting dark everyone. I think we are in the northern part of the country, based on the amount of time we were in the air. Because it is fall it will get cold at night, so we should stay close together, and sleep under the blankets," I said.
"Your right," Eric agreed. I thought I saw a smile form on his lips, but I couldn't be sure so I didn't say anything in response.
"I'm hungry!" Natalia complained. I almost wanted to laugh. Her hunger was only going to get worse. We were going to have to hunt, or gather, at some point (probably soon) in order to stay alive.
"We can all share my chips," Eric offered. We all dug in to the small amount of food, though it barely satisfied our hunger.
"What will we eat now?" Ryan asked.
"We…. Will survive off of nature," Horatio said.
"How will we do that?" Ryan asked doubtfully.
"We will do it… the only way we know how," Horatio replied.
"First we need to build a fire, it will help keep us warm tonight" Eric said.
"Anyone have matches?" Natalia asked sounding almost hopeful.
"No. I don't think they allow there to be matches in airplanes because it would be dangerous…" I said.
"Ok, well any other ideas?" Ryan asked.
"Yeah, flint, Wolverine," Eric said. Then he got up, putting minimal pressure on his hurt ankle, and walked around looking for flint. I got up and joined the search with him, and so did the rest of the group.
"I found some!" I screamed. Then walked back to where we had set our few belongings. After everybody returned I pulled out my magazines and began to crumple some pages. Eric made sparks with the flint, which ignited the pages.
"Nice job," Ryan said. He was right. If Eric hadn't known what to do, then we would all be in more danger of freezing to death, and the odds weren't that good right now.
"Thanks."
"We should add some sticks to keep it going," I said as I tossed some sticks into our small fire. Then Eric added some rocks around the fire to control it. I raised my eyebrows at this.
"Boy scouts…" He muttered, then he winced in pain.
"What?" I asked.
"Nothing…" He said trying to brush it off.
"It was obviously something, so tell me. You know you can tell me anything, I already know that you are macho and manly," I said with a wink. He was very manly with all of those muscles…
"Ankle," Eric said.
"I'll wrap it," I said. "Horatio, can you give me my bag?" I asked.
"Of course Ms. Duquesne," Horatio said and then he handed my bag to me. I pulled out my tank top, and began to wrap it around his ankle to compress it. "Now remember RICE: Rest, Ice Compression and Elevation. I know that we don't have Ice, so you will have to make do without it," I said.
"Great, Thanks," He said. He pulled out a book to elevate his ankle on.
"We should get some rest, and enjoy pleasant dreams of food," Ryan said pointing to the moon that was now almost directly above us.
"Yes, we should. Tomorrow we will need to get food and build shelter," Horatio said. We all curled up in our blankets, with out pillows, around our fire in a circle. I was next to Eric, who was next to H, who was next to Ryan, who was next to Natalia, who was on the other side of me.
I stared up at the stars for who knows how long. Just hours ago I had been looking forward to a nice vacation, and now I was worried about my survival. Would we ever be found? And that pilot, he had died because he had been drinking. It could have been Dad…
"Hey…" I though I heard someone whisper. When I looked around I saw Eric smiling at me. "Thanks for everything…" He said.
"You're welcome," I said, then I shook because of the cold. I was use to the heat of the south, not the cold of the north.
"Are you cold?" He whispered to me.
"Not really," I lied. But another shudder gave away the truth.
"Here," Eric said offering me his blanket.
"No, you need it," I said.
"Fine," Eric said. But he scooted closer to me so I could share his blankets, and his body heat. I normally would have objected, but it really was cold.
"How is your ankle?" I asked.
"Fine. I'm sorry about the pilot…" he said.
"You don't need to be," I said. And then I turned away from him so that he couldn't read my face. We stayed like that until we both drifted away to better, happier, and easier places. Places were I wouldn't have to worry about survival. Places with relaxation… and Eric.
All mistakes are mine. No beta, sorry. I have a lot of good ideas for this story, so it will only get better from here, I promise. Any danger that could possible happen in this setting will be in the story. And so will EC fluff, of course. It will just take a while to build up to it. Please stick with me though!
Survival tip: If you are in the dessert stay still in the shade and breathe through your nose to loose as little moisture as possible.
Please Review!!!!!!
~ Katherine ~