Chapter 1: Dropped from the Sky
Shout Outs: Hey yall! Want to thank ElphabaandGlinda12 for the review of my previous and first ever fanfiction, I appreciate it a lot as a new author or whatnot haha. Thanks!
Author's Note: Seeing as my last fanfiction focused on actual events from Wicked rather than creating up new moments, I have decided to do something more in the direction of creation in order to really shake Wicked up a little. I actually have no idea where I want to go with this story, so bear with me. Thanks!
Disclaimer: I don't own anything from the Wicked Years or any of the characters. The character Russell Lancaster is fictional and my creation, and if you happen to know anybody of the same name, it's a coincidence. Sorry for any mistakes in advance. Thanks again!
These were the worst times of the year for Russell Lancaster. He hated his father and loathed his step-mother – and he knew they hated him too. His visits every summer were simple formality, but the older he got, the worse his stays became as well. Of course, his father had stopped beating him by the time he turned thirteen, mainly because Russell was getting big enough to fight back, but Russell's step-siblings were getting older as well. Their minds were cultivated over the years with poison that their older step-sibling Russell was the black sheep from hell and that any interaction with him was forbidden. Nevertheless, that did not stop his step-siblings from ganging up on him whenever he came for the summer.
I wish I would just die, Russell thought.
In that instant, the plane shook. The glass of water on Russell's tray began to wobble until it danced off and hit the floor. A woman screamed as a man standing in the plane walkway fell forward and the stewardess ran back to her seat. Turbulence made the plane quiver in an uncontrollable frenzy as the "Please Remain Seated" sign lit up above them and oxygen masks dropped from the ceiling. Russell felt his stomach jump into his throat as he regretted his moment's madness of asking for death.
A loud ringing filled his ears, blocking out the wails and cries of his fellow passengers pleading with God for salvation and the captain's reassurances over the speakers, and his thoughts began to blur as he snatched the oxygen mask and pulled it over his face. The safety procedures Russell had heard probably a million times from hundreds of different flight attendants seemed to disappear from his mind in the moment of an actual emergency.
Life, Russell thought again. I choose my life, not this stupid plane crash. I'll die on my own terms!
Russell's mind was clear. He ripped his oxygen mask off his face, unbuckled his waist from the seat, jumped over the people seated next to him and, leaving his belongings, ran toward an emergency exit. How insignificant did possessions quickly become in the face of death or life!
"Young man, what are you doing?" shrieked a flight attendant strapped into his seat.
"Dying my way!" Russell shouted back. As he succeeded in wrenching open the emergency exit door and taking in what might be his last breath, he closed his eyes and jumped.
Whether I live or die, Russell thought, I chose this! I won't have any regrets!
And falling back into the atmosphere, passing through the clouds, he went unconscious.
"General Kynot!" yelled one of the Birds. "What in the name of Oz is falling from the clouds?"
General Kynot usually brushed aside the nonsense the Birds constantly babbled about, but something caught his curiosity and he turned to look.
"My…that's a human, that is! Call all the Birds, stat! We're going to rally into a flock and catch him," General Kynot ordered and within the next minute, the flock rapidly took off to catch the human dropped from the sky.