Hi there :)
Just a quick A/n before we begin. I hate Shannon. With a passion. So I left her in Australia :P
There are a few OC's in this story, my main 2, the messed up couple Heath King and Niki Carlyle. (Yep, she's Boone's legit sister) And then there's the three kids.
Hope you enjoy.
Please Review! :)
Day One
Heath
"Crystal!" Niki struggled with our teenage daughter as she held Nik's MP3 player up and out of reach from her seat across the aisle. "Give it back!"
Crystal laughed, "Not till you tell me what my surprise is!"
"It wouldn't be a surprise then, would it?" I said, smirking and arching a brow at her. Crystal frowned at me and handed her mother her mp3 player back.
"Whatever. You have crappy songs anyway."
"Language!"
"Oh come on mom."
Nik laughed and shook her head, putting her headphones in again.
"Momma I gotta go pee!" Eli whined from beside me, giving Nik a pained look. She looked over to me with a sweet as honey smile.
"Heath, could you..?"
I smiled and shook my head, "I got it. Come on, kiddo, let's go."
"Okay daddy."
I unbuckled our seatbelts and picked him up, heading towards the bathrooms at the back of the plane. I reached the bathrooms and let Eli go in and do his thing on his own, part of Nik's teaching him to be independent with that kind of stuff. He smiled up at me,
"I got it, daddy." He assured me, then closed the door. I sighed and shook my head again. That kid was so full of smiles. All the time.
The plane shook a little and the fasten seatbelts sign came on. I sighed and rapped on the bathroom door.
"Eli, kiddo, gotta go back to the seats man."
"Okayyy dad, one second!"
I heard the toilet flush and Eli quick wash his hands. He opened the door and I picked him up again, starting back towards our seats. The plane shuddered again and I shot a hand out to catch us. Figuring it was safer to just take a seat and wait for the turbulence to pass, I set Eli down in an empty seat and buckled him in, sitting down beside him.
"Why are we sitting back here daddy?" He asked.
"'Cause the plane is shaking, bud," I told him, "The Captain will tell us when we can go back to our normal seat." I ruffled his hair, "Then we can go see mom and she can give you your coloring books back."
"Really?"
"Yep."
"Cool! 'Cause I wanna color Lightning McQueen, and Mater and-"
He was cut off by another violent shake of the plane. His eyes flashed with fear and his little hands grabbed onto the armrests. I put one of my hands over his, covering it.
"It's gonna be okay, don't-"
My words were cut short as the plane dropped and violently shot back up, slamming loose passengers and luggage alike flying. Eli let out a scream and I squeezed his hand as the plane dipped forward and I heard the unmistakable sound of our descent. There was a deafening metallic tearing noise and I watched in horror as the floor ripped apart a few rows ahead of us, then the walls and the ceiling, and the plane ripped apart.
"Eli, close your eyes!" I told him.
He did as he was told and I watched with horrified eyes as the rest of the plane disappeared and only water could be seen below us. The plane tipped back and everything fell towards us. I cried out as something came towards me. Then everything went dark.
I woke up underwater. Frantically I noticed I was still in my seat, but Eli wasn't beside me. His seat was empty. I unbuckled myself and kicked my way to the surface. I broke through and was bombarded with a roaring noise from the creaking metal of the slowly sinking plane and the chorus of screams from the passengers. But I could only think of one thing.
"ELI!" I screamed. "ELI!"
I swam around and tried combing through the people looking for my son. "ELI!" I called again.
"Daddy!"
I whirled around and found him being swam to shore by one of the stewardesses. I made a beeline for them and reached them as she hauled him onto the beach.
"Eli!" I called again and he reached for me. The stewardess was reluctant to let him go so I assured her, "He's my son," and she nodded and let him go. He locked his arms around my neck and I held him tight against me as his entire body shook with sobs. "Eli, it's okay. We're gonna be fine, don't worry kiddo."
"Daddy..." He cried, "Where's mommy?"
Tears hit with that sentence. I held my son close and just collapsed into the sand, staring out across the water as what was left of the plane sunk down into the ocean. The middle section of the plane had ripped off mid-crash. So that meant Niki... my family...
"Oh, god." I sobbed and Eli and I cried into each other's shoulders. "Nik..." I whispered.
All I could think about for the entire night was how the fuck was I going to get through this. The mid section of the plane... it was just gone. Just like that- Niki, Crystal, Mikayla, and everyone I ever cared about had been just ruthlessly ripped away from me so easily. After everything we'd been through, everything we'd survived.
They were all gone.
"Hey... are you guys okay?" I looked up at a young blonde woman as she sat down next to us beside the fire.
"Yeah," told her, "We're good."
She nodded and turned to stare at the flames. Eli shifted in his sleep and I carefully set him down in the sand, wrapping my jacket tighter around him. I looked to the blonde woman,
"Hey, what's your name?" I whispered.
"Libby." She told me.
"I'm Heath," I said, "Look, can you do me a favor and watch him? I gotta, you know, take care of business."
She smiled at me and nodded, "It's cool, I'll watch him."
"Thanks." I slowly got up and started to walk towards the bushes.
"Hey, Heath!" She called, and I turned around. "What's his name?"
"Eli." I answered, then walked away.
I went back pretty far into the bushes where there wasn't much light from the fire anymore and quickly relieved myself, then started back towards the camp. I stopped when I heard a grunting noise and some scuffling around. I spotted the dark silhouette of a few men rolling around and ran to help. A black man I recognized from the beach was being attacked by two others wearing tattered clothes. I pushed one off of him and received a right hook to the side of the head as payment. I growled and kicked him in the shin and he groaned and dropped on one knee. I knocked my own knee into his chin and he fell back into the sand. He grabbed for my knife and I hissed and snatched it off my belt, driving it into his hand on the sand. He cried out and tore it out, at the same time kicking me back with both of his feet. I cursed and knocked my elbow into his stomach. He dropped the knife and I scrambled for it, grasping it and bringing it around to pin his shoulder but he moved the wrong way and the knife caught him in the throat. He started choking so I wrenched out the knife, blood gushing from his neck and down his shirt onto the sand. I dropped the knife in the sand and backed up as he made gurgling noises for a few moments before stopping, his eyes closing. I looked to the black man beside me and his victim similarly lying dead in the sand.
Ana Lucia and that guy Goodwin came running up with a torch and I just stormed past them towards the water, breathing hard. I had to get the damn blood out of my shirt before I went back to my son.
Niki
"Heath... could you?" I gave him an innocent smile and he smiled back and shook his head.
"I got it. Come on kiddo, let's go." He unbuckled Eli and picked him up, taking him back towards the bathrooms. I went back to my MP3 player, skipping through songs. I got fed up and just turned it off, stuffing it into my bag at my feet. Crystal laughed at me and I stuck my tongue out at her.
"You, hush." She threw her hands up like 'what'd I say?' and I just laughed and shook my head at her.
She smiled. "I can't wait to get home."
"Me neither. That trip was... something else."
Crystal just dropped the subject after that and started staring out the window, putting in her own headphones and blasting them as loud as she could. I turned and looked over at Mikayla, where she sat still asleep somehow in her seat across the aisle. I unbuckled my seatbelt and stood up to go and sit beside her. Boone smiled at me from his window seat.
I reached out and moved her blanket so it covered her a little better. Turbulence shook the plane and I was tossed forward a little. My hand slipped forward and it smashed against the armrest between my and Mikayla's seats. I let out a squeal as more turbulence hit and pain throbbed through my hand. I held my breath to keep from screaming and knocked my head against the back of my seat. My hand hurt like a bitch.
The seatbelt sign came back on and I nearly rolled my eyes.
"Oh, now it comes on." I mumbled.
More turbulence shook the plane and all of a sudden everything was in chaos. There was a huge crash and the plane dropped down. Carry-ons fell from the overhead storage and Mikayla's eyes flashed open.
"What the hell is going on?" She shouted. Boone was nearly hyperventilating. I looked over to see Crystal crying and gripping her armrests like the string of life itself. The oxygen masks dropped and I scrambled for mine, trying to slip it on one-handed to no avail.
Mikayla and I both screamed as we heard a deafening metallic tearing noise from behind us and suddenly felt the rush of cold air. Tears streamed down my face. I didn't want to turn around. I couldn't. Heath and Eli were back there.
Mikayla reached over and helped me put on my oxygen mask and then grabbed my non-injured hand. I squeezed tight, looking over at her. I saw the fear in her eyes and choked back a strangled sob as the plane made another roaring noise and I felt the sting of smoke entering my lungs. I watched in white-knuckled horror as the front end of the plane was ripped away like tearing out the pages of a book and it disappeared, revealing only smoke and the blue waves of the ocean. I kept my death grip on Mikayla's hand.
I screamed when the plane hit the ground.
"Mom! Wake up damnit!" I was being shaken when I came to. My head throbbed, my hand still ached. I took a look around and found I was still in the plane. Crystal and Boone weren't in their seats. Mikayla sat beside me trying to unbuckle my seatbelt. She managed it and I nearly dropped forward. I shot my hand out and completely forgot my injury for a moment, but it was too late. The pressure of my weight on my wrist strained it and I screamed as I heard the unmistakable sound of bones cracking. I turned around and rested my back against the seat in front of me. The plane was lying at an angle so I was looking up out of the back of the plane and at the sky. I could hear the roar of turbines and a chorus of screaming people.
Mikayla unbuckled her own seatbelt but she was able to catch herself on the seat and not fall like I did. She manoeuvred herself so she was lying next to me and looked down behind us.
"We have to get out of here." She said slowly, voice cracking.
I nodded, "We have to find everyone!" I cried, "And where are Boone and Crystal?"
She whirled around and gave me a pained look. "Mom-"
There was a loud roar of an engine and we took that as our cue to leave. Mikayla slipped into the aisle and sat down so she didn't fall forward. She turned to me and reached out her hand. I took it with my good hand and inched towards the aisle. The plane creaked and rocked to one side and I nearly fell again but Mikayla caught me and pulled me down so I was sitting behind her in the aisle. She slowly went forward towards the exit and I moved down behind her step for step, using my good hand to keep me steady on passing seats as I moved. The cabin was a mess, luggage littering the place and a few bodies. But none of them were people I knew.
I covered my mouth and kept moving. Mikayla reached the exit first and jumped out. She turned around as I reached it and helped me down from the plane and onto the hot sand. I bit my lip and used my left hand to hold my injured one to my chest. The beach was littered with flaming pieces of the crashed plane and people running around and screaming. Mikayla ran off and I followed her, finding Crystal helping a young woman sit down.
"Crystal!" I called for her and she turned to look at me.
"Mom!" I reached her and she collapsed in a heap of tears into my arms.
"God, Crystal, are you okay?"
"Hey! Get out of there! Get the hell out of there!"
I whirled around to see a man in tattered up suit motioning for us to move. He pointed and I looked up. The wing of the plane was teetering, about the fall. I grabbed Crystal's arm and moved her fast as I could to safety, Mikayla and the pregnant girl following behind.
"Get down!"
Instincts kicking in I dropped to the sand and Crystal grabbed my hand as an explosion shattered above us. My entire hand throbbed with pain as I rolled over and just laid there for a moment, eyes closed and breathing hard. How the hell could this be happening?
"Mom," I opened my eyes and found Mikayla helping me and Crystal to our feet. I let go of her as I spotted Boone running towards us.
"Boone! Oh my god you're alive!" I pulled my brother into a hug and then held him at arms length. "Have you found Eli? Or Heath?"
"Nik... I'm sorry..." He started, tears stinging his eyes. I froze and grabbed his arm tightly.
"Now I need you to be very clear with me right now, Boone. Where are Heath and Eli?"
He choked a bit and shook his head, "The tail section of the plane... Broke off. It's not on the beach. They're gone, Niki."
I let out a sob and Boone caught me as my knees buckled. My son! Heath! My SON! MY ELI!
"NO!" I found myself screaming, "NO!"
My girls sat together in the sand, holding each other, and I collapsed into Boone's arms, still shrieking my baby's name at the top of my lungs. My head was numb and I couldn't completely grasp what was going on around me.
"Eli..." I sobbed into the gritty sand. "My baby..!"
I woke up feeling a little more clear-headed but still numb and disoriented on the inside. I sat up. It was dark out, but I could see campfires scattered across the beach. I groaned as I tried to stand, and gave up, falling back onto the sand. And then it hit me all at once.
I'd been on a plane crash. I'd survived, and so had my brother and 2 daughters. But Heath had died. And so had my son. My three year old son. My Eli. And Heath. God, what was going on?
I buried my face in my hands and let out a dry sob. My son was just, gone! And Heath! Heath and Eli!
How could they be gone?
"Mom... You okay?"
I sniffed, wiped my eyes, and looked up. Crystal stood a few feet from me, a bottle of water in her hand.
I nodded, "I'm okay, I'm sorry."
She sat down beside me. "There's no need to apologize, mom. We all pretty much did the same thing when we realized."
I nodded as I burst into tears again. I took my daughter's hand as she started crying, too. "Mom, how could this happen? Why us?"
I shook my head and wrapped my arm, around her shoulder, "I don't know, baby. I don't know."
Suddenly a loud metallic roar echoed through the jungle and I sprung to my feet. I looked out over the trees and stared on in confusion as entire trees started disappearing from the treeline. The noise continued, followed by a loud clicking sound.
"Terrific." Someone mumbled.
