AN: They're down! Hope you enoy the chapter, I guarantee that Alec will be second on your list!

All mistakes are mine as Belynda has been busy with family stuff this week.

I have never been in a plane crash or been stranded in a life raft so everything is just from films and Google

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer has all the copywrites!

Skyjacked

Chapter 10 - Where Are We?

Edward

The plane hit the water with a bang, bouncing across the surface of the ocean like a skimming stone. The engines roared as they slowed and finally stopped. I held onto Bella as tightly as I could; my fear of losing her almost as great as that of losing our lives out here in the Pacific Ocean. I remembered the small flames I had seen flickering around the engine, so I checked out of the porthole to find that the water had washed over it, hoping that the lack of any flames was a good thing and that the fire was out.

I don't think either of us breathed until it came to rest and then all hell let loose for a minute or two. Eventually between the captain and me we managed to get everyone to listen, instead of pushing and shoving to be the first to get out of that door.

After acknowledging my assistance, the captain proceeded to tell the passengers to make their way to the front, while Heidi and Mike prepared to release the emergency evacuation slide. The rest of his instructions faded into the background as, out of the corner of my eye, I saw Caius lead Jacob and the others toward the rear of the plane, shoving passengers out of the way to do so.

I was curious as to why they would be heading away from the evacuation slide, so leaving a reluctant Bella I walked steadily and as quietly as possible in the direction Caius had gone, the water getting deeper the further back I walked. The water was rising on the left hand side, too and I realised that there weren't many options left for getting out; too many of the exits would be under water soon enough.

I approached the curtained off area, leading to the rear of the plane and carefully peered around it. Jacob and Riley were pulling bulky packages from out of one of the lockers, while Caius opened the last of the accessible doors. One of the men, who had guarded those whom Jacob had singled out, was carrying on a low conversation with Jacob but I couldn't hear them uttered angry words.

"Enough," Jacob hissed at him, loud enough for me to hear. "None of them can survive, Felix, they all know too much. This was always the plan; it's just happening a little earlier. Now, shut your mouth and make a few holes in all of these."

With that he grabbed one of the packages and passed it along to Demetri, who passed it to Caius. My attention was drawn back to Jacob and Felix, who was now trying to prevent Jacob from carrying out his plan. I must have made a sound because Jacob's eyes shot over to where I was standing and with an angry grunt he threw himself at me, raising his gun. Luckily for me, he was more interested in hitting me than shooting me. I stumbled backward into the aisle, grabbing the hand that held the gun, and landed heavily with Jacob's full weight on me, and for a moment, I couldn't breathe. When he moved to gain greater leverage, attempting to bring the gun down between us, I could take a breath again.

A shot rang out and for a moment I was confused as to how he had managed to fire his gun, and I waited for the pain. Instead, his body fell sideways, a dead weight now, trapping me underneath him. The smell of whiskey filled my senses and I looked up, shocked to see Bella's face above me, almost comically furious, her arm in the air with a broken bottle in her hand.

Despite how shocked I was, I was angrier that she had put herself in danger. ""What the hell, Bella?"

She helped me out from underneath him. I didn't have time to clarify myself; to tell her I was only worried for her safety, before her anger flared and she snapped back at me. I watched as she turned on her heel and stalked back to Heidi and Captain Hunter.

With the water now almost up to our knees here at the rear of the plane, I could see the passengers heading out of the door. Bella stopped and I could see her back rise with the deep breath she took. I could see her take control of her anger and tamp it down, turning to hold her hand out to me. "Come on, Edward, it's time we got out of here."

Her eyes widened as I reached for her hand, her gaze on something happening behind me. She called out a warning and I turned to see Riley and one of the others dragging Jacob to his feet; back to help the rest of them in their quest to get out and leave us here to die.

Ignoring Jacob's threats, I murmured "I'm sorry, Bella," as I reached her, and allowed her to lead me to the front door.

The slide had now been detached from the plane, forming a raft, but it didn't look as if there was a lot of room. Despite repeated requests, Bella refused to go anywhere without me. I wasn't surprised when her hand slid into mine when I suggested going back to see if Caius had left anything of any use. Unfortunately, I was right; they had damaged all of the emergency life rafts, just as I had expected. There was nothing else we could do now, except find room on that raft and take our chances.

As I tugged at Bella's hand, she stopped suddenly and pointed out that someone was lying on the floor behind the rear seats. Looking closer, I could see it was Felix. I felt for and found a weak but steady heart rate and sent Bella back to the Captain to bring him and the medical kit. I could see she was a bit reluctant, but her training and compassion kicked in and she hurried off, returning with James only a few minutes later.

Before she could ask, I said, "He's not too badly hurt. He has a bullet wound in his upper arm and it's the blood loss that's causing him to be semi-conscious." Bella quickly bandaged it tightly to stop the bleeding, and James and I managed to get him to the doorway.

Bella didn't hesitate and she jumped, landing in the water close to the raft. She was only under for a few seconds and was then helped into the raft by Jasper. James and I jumped with Felix between us, and rose to the surface as quickly as Bella had done, pushing him over the edge with Jasper's help.

There were outraged shouts from some of the passengers but I ignored them, making sure James was next into the raft, before raising my hand to take his. All the noise from them had masked the sound of a gunshot until I saw the blood seeping through the material covering James' leg and he collapsed into the raft. More followed that first one and I did the only thing I could think of and ducked under the water. Holding my breath, I swam underneath the raft, coming up on the other side, now hidden from the sight of whoever was shooting.

I could hear Bella screaming, and then Jasper's voice saying, ""Bella, stay down, please? Edward's fine; he's on the other side of the raft and he's not hurt as far as I can tell."

She was quiet after that and a minute later her relieved face peered over the edge. I reassured her that I was fine and I listened for a moment. With the absence of any more shots, I climbed into the raft, hugging her as close to my body as I could, trying to stop both of us from shivering.

There was silence as heads turned toward the sound of a motor starting up and we watched as the other raft headed off into the distance, Jacob standing and no doubt glaring in our direction.

The silence didn't last long, the voices of the passengers rising, most of it coming from those Jacob singled out. A self-appointed spokesman stood to make sure everyone heard what he had to say, spouting off about how Felix shouldn't be allowed on board with 'decent' people. He had several of the others up and ranting that we had enough problems and to dump him overboard.

I was about to step in and say something, when Bella decided she'd heard enough. "What's your name?" was her first question to the spokesman.

"What's it to you?" his answer back was rude and condescending.

"Well, it would be nice to know your name if we decided that you didn't deserve to live. This man …" she pointed at Felix. "His name is Felix and whatever he has done, he is still a human being. No matter what he's done he deserves to be treated as one."

"He's part of them," he roared at her, raising his hands. I stood, prepared to intervene if the situation turned ugly. "He is the cause of us being here, stranded God-knows-where. He doesn't deserve to share the same space as us."

"And what gives you the right to decide his fate?" Bella's voice was much lower than his but carried to everyone on board nonetheless. "What gives you the right to be judge and jury... what was your name?"

"It's Alec Martins and I am a very wealthy businessman. This man …" he started.

Bella interrupted, "This man deserves to live as much as you do. Survival is not based on money or position. I watched him when I was one of the group singled out and not once did he hurt anyone, threaten anyone or treat any one of you with disrespect." Her gaze roved over the others who had been shouting and calling for Felix's demise. "Are you all totally innocent? Or do some of you deserve to die, too?"

There was now silence as Bella continued. "I didn't think so. I say he stays; after all, we're all human, aren't we? Listen, people, we need all the help we can get if we are to survive this situation, which by the way, was caused by outside events, not by him."

There were still mutterings coming from Alec and a few around him and I could see his belligerent stance.

"She's right and maybe those who would do him harm are just as guilty; maybe they should be the ones to go? I'm a US Marshall, and I say he stays." There was no way I would be making those sort of judgments if I could help it, but we had to stop this in its tracks before someone got hurt. Bella was right; we needed everyone. "If … when we get out of here, he'll be handed over to the authorities to be dealt with by the law. You have my word on it, as an officer of that law."

The only mutter I heard was from Miss Drama Queen; the one who had shrieked at everyone and everything. "They stole my money." It was, however, said quietly and I chose to ignore it but vowed to keep an eye on her.

Surprisingly enough this whole thing took only a few minutes and my attention was drawn back to the plane when the raft began to move about. James, the Captain, nudged at my leg. "Edward, we have to get away from here pretty quick. The plane will sink very soon and we may be dragged down with it. There are paddles strapped along each side of the raft and I would suggest the most able-bodied take or share one and row in any direction as long it's away from here."

Looking around, I could see he was right. Holding up my hands, I spoke a little louder. "People, the captain has pointed out we need to get away from the plane. So, if you can see an oar close to where you are sitting, please grab it and start to row in the opposite direction, away from the plane. We can decide later what else we are going to do."

I looked around at each person and although there were some faces with thunderous looks still present, most people had accepted the situation, no doubt turning their minds to the more important issue; somehow saving ourselves. I could see a tall, muscled man peer behind the woman next to him and pull out an oar. He and a young man beside them grabbed it and placed it over the side, standing to get some leverage.

On the other side, Mike grabbed another oar, and he and one of the girls started rowing. Back closer to me, I pulled another out and Bella and I managed to do the same. For once, everyone was pulling together and we managed to slowly draw away from the plane. A metallic groan from it had all eyes staring toward it as the tail dipped sharply, distress cracks showing in the outer metal skin.

"Keep rowing," I yelled and everyone renewed their efforts to get further away, glancing up every few minutes. Slowly, foot by foot, the body of the plane slid under the water, the nose being the last to go. Silence reigned as the surface of the water swirled leaving behind a few pieces of luggage that had managed to drift out of the open doors.

I sat down beside Bella and took a deep breath as she fitted herself back into my arms. "What you said was very brave, my love," I whispered close to her ear. "I love that you stand up for what you believe in."

Looking up at me, her answer was clear. "It needed saying and I believe it one hundred percent; I don't think he's a bad man. Maybe he was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. Everyone deserves a second chance."

After the mutterings died down, there was quiet for a time as everyone took a breather, assessing the situation they had found themselves in. Felix had managed to drag himself upright and tapped me on the shoulder to thank both me and Bella for intervening on his behalf and promising his help wherever it was needed. I nodded, smiling at him and thanked him for the offer.

James, meanwhile, had his head in the lap of a tall, slim woman with long red curls. Beside them was a boy of about seven or eight, who looked scared but was hugging the woman whom I assumed was his mom and trying to be brave. Bella made her way over to them to see that Heidi had already torn away the leg of James's trousers, exposing the bullet wound. She assured them it was not too bad as the bullet had only sliced through his outer thigh. Between them they cleaned it up and bandaged it, comforting the woman and child, who were obviously his family.

With the plane gone and everyone calm, or maybe stunned was a better description, it was time to assess what we had and decide on the next steps. I looked over the passengers, not seeing anyone badly injured and then stood.

"I know we are in a bad situation …" I began.

"No shit, Sherlock; tell us something we don't know." The mutter probably came from Alec but I chose to ignore him for the moment.

"The situation isn't good …" I started again. "But, we can't just give up, can we? Let's take a few minutes to check out what we have on board the raft and we can then decide on a direction."

Looking around, I took a breath, confirming that there was now nothing in any direction except sea and sky. Taking my own words to heart, we checked into all the compartments on either side of the slide. The first thing we would need was water and judging by the heat of the sun, shelter so at least each of us could spend part of the day in the shade.

Counting both me and Bella, crew and passengers, we had sixteen men, including Felix and the same number of women, one of whom was pregnant, and two children; the captain's son and Bree. With airline rules it was unlikely the woman was much further along than six months but she would need watching, just in case the stress brought on early labor.

I didn't want to step on the captain's toes, but I could see that he was not really up to leading at the moment. Kneeling beside him while everyone searched through the compartments, I spoke quietly. "How are you feeling, James?"

"Better, thanks, but you're right. Not only does my head ache like a bastard, I'm still seeing double occasionally. I can stand but it would be shaky, and 'doc' here," he smiled, pointing at Bella, "Says I will make a full recovery but I need to rest. Are you okay with teaming up with Jasper? I know you're a marshall; Heidi told me, but I think the passengers would benefit from the authority both of you can supply."

I nodded. "I agree. There are a total of thirty-four passengers, one of whom is pregnant, and I assume that the other rafts that were destroyed should have taken some so we are likely to have to ration both water and food. This raft is capable of taking more passengers than we have but it's not designed to carry anywhere near that number for a long time and I think we're likely to be on it for a while."

"That's true, so the next thing is to work out in which direction to head. I did set the mayday on the aircraft before we came down but it does depend on where we are, as to how long it might be before search and rescue are sent out." James stopped for a minute, taking a sip from the water bottle offered to him by the woman, and then closed his eyes for a few moments as pain flashed across his features. Bella checked her watch and shook two more tablets out of a small bottle and nudged him to open his eyes to take them.

He said nothing for ten minutes until I could see his face relax as the painkillers kicked in and his eyes opened, clearer than before. "You feeling better now?" I asked.

"A little." A tired smile crossed his face as he looked up at the woman who was running her finger through his hair. "This is Vicky, my wife." He squeezed the hand that was lying across his chest, "And this is my son, Jared."

His eyes closed for a short while but when he opened them he looked stronger already as the painkillers did their job. "Sorry I don't have what it takes right now, but it's best if you and Jasper team up; the passengers need direction. I have no idea if there was any broadcast from the plane so I think we need to move away and try for land. I have to say I have no idea in which direction that might be. First job is to look for the main emergency survival kit; it should have a compass and a map at the very least, along with a flare gun and two or three flares. There's more, but you need to find it first, and I think there should be more than one kit containing emergency rations."

"Jasper," I raised my voice a little and watched as he stepped over the people lying down.

Crouching down beside me, he took in James's condition. "Not looking bad, James, but maybe you should sit this out for a while and let me and Cullen, here run things for a bit. Just until you feel better, yeah?"

"I think, under the circumstances, you should call me Edward." I held my hand out to Jasper, who clasped it, saying, "You'd best call me Jazz, then."

James nodded and repeated what he had told me about taking over. Jasper agreed, and together, we set about looking for the main emergency aid kit. Meanwhile, those passengers who were invested in helping us survive had found some of those containing high protein foods, water, and a couple of general medical kits, which I made sure Bella knew about. The small stash of antibiotics and painkillers would come in handy in the coming fight for survival..

Since the raft was not designed to be utilised for as many passengers as we had, we would have to severely ration food and water in particular, especially as we had no idea how long it would take us to find land.

Jasper knew where the main one should be and found it within minutes, discovering flares, some thermal blankets ideal for rigging up some more shade, a fishing kit, which would come in handy given that the protein bars wouldn't last long, and a couple of flashlights with batteries.

The best find was two small desalinators which put our minds at rest and gave us at least a way of extending the water situation. It immediately gave us a greater chance of survival both here on the raft and when we made landfall.

By now the sun was sinking in the sky and Jasper and I, along with those who had helped to row earlier, directed the raft back to the site where the plane sank hoping that some of the baggage now on the surface would contain anything that would be useful. As we hauled the cases into the raft and unpacked them, we found toiletries and sunscreen, which would be a godsend, and mostly clothing, books and other electronic items. Unfortunately a lot of that was damaged beyond use and despite the protests of the passengers we ended up throwing it back over the side. We didn't have enough space for the passengers, let alone extra useless bags.

The passengers were getting pretty antsy by now so Jasper put some to work creating areas of shade and distributing items of clothing that might help with the coolness that would come with the setting sun.. That was the one good thing about having more passengers; we could huddle together for additional warmth. Luckily Heidi had remembered the safety procedures and had made most of the passengers take off their shoes before they leaped into the raft so at least it would be relatively safe from possible punctures.

By the time twilight was falling, most people were settled and ready for sleep. It had been a very hard day and we would have a few to come yet. Heidi and Mike walked through the passengers, taking the survival instructions with them and speaking quietly about what they should be doing and what to look out for to keep themselves healthy.

"We need to open a discussion, Edward." Jasper hunkered down beside Bella and me while the flight attendants were busy. "We have a compass and a map, but with only a vague picture of where we might be, we have to decide where we should head. It's bound to cause dissention, so I think it's better if we decide between us now."

"What do you think, Bella?" I drew her into the conversation.

"I grew up in the Olympic Forest in Washington and my dad is a park ranger. I spent my vacations camping out with him while he investigated animal attacks, or searched for lost hunters and campers. He taught me to read the stars for direction, so maybe I can help." She sat up and looked up at the stars that were beginning to appear now; the moon had not yet risen.

"I've some survival training but nothing that would help until we find somewhere to land." I shrugged. "Just let me know what you want me to do and I'll back you up. We need to work together if we're going to survive."

After a few minutes, Jasper quietly added, "I've had desert and jungle training, and some water survival training, so I think between the three of us we have the skills and now only have to convince the passengers that we know what's best."

She nodded and added that finding the North Star would be the best way to work out directions and to stay on course once we had decided where we were going.

Eventually, after a quiet discussion between us about direction, Jasper stood up and called for everyone's attention. "Hey, everyone, listen up." When he had everyone's attention he continued. "The captain is not feeling up to leading right now and I'm sure you all know he's been through the wars in the last few hours. I'm Jasper Whitlock, and as the co-pilot, I'm the next in line, so to speak. I have asked Marshall Cullen, Edward, here," he pointed to me, "To assist me, so please follow any instructions we give you, even though you may not like them. This is about survival and we all need to pull together to make that happen."

"Why should we listen to either of you? Why should you lead?" Alec Martins as usual was already causing trouble and I was beginning to think it was involuntary; he just had to argue about everything.

I was about to say something, when Jasper spoke up, his voice hard. "Because, if you'd been listening at all, Captain Hunter has been injured and besides my being second in command, I also have, in common with Marshall Cullen here, extensive survival training." He lowered his voice. "Of course, if you think you or someone else can do better, we can put it to a vote?"

There was silence and even Alec had no come back. Jasper continued in a much softer voice, "You have all helped a great deal today and because of that we have shelter from the sun and sunscreen for any who need it. We also have food, which unfortunately will need to be rationed until we manage to catch fish; we have no idea how long it may be until we are rescued, so that makes sense. We're good for water because the main emergency kit contained two desalinators, which will allow us to produce fresh water from sea water. Just remember not to drink sea water directly."

"What about rescue? Should we stay here?" Emily spoke up, her arms crossed protectively across her body, obviously worried about her baby.

Jasper nodded to me and I picked up the question. "Well, there are a couple of problems we need to take into account. Firstly, James has said that before we had to force a landing, the storm knocked out our comms. That means we have no way of knowing if any mayday got through to the authorities. Second, the storm also blew us off course, so we don't exactly know where we are…"

"What does that mean?" Alec interrupted again.

"If you'd let me finish, you'd know. Please sit down." I was beginning to lose my patience with this man and turned away from him to speak to everyone else. "As I said, we don't know exactly where we are, but we do have a number of people with us who can help work out which direction we should take." I paused to take a breath, knowing that there would be those who would disagree with our decision. "We can't stay here, so tomorrow we'll be rowing in the direction decided by Bella and Jasper." I pointed at each of them.

Thankfully, it wasn't Alec who asked. The passengers were beginning to realise that we would have to pull together. A young man spoke up, "Name's Ben Cheney and this is my wife, Angela." He pulled a young woman with long, dark hair protectively against his side. "We could head in the same direction they took off, couldn't we?"

I contemplated his question, working out the best way to tell him that wasn't going to happen. This wasn't a democracy right now, we were just letting people know what we had planned and give them a chance to have their say. We had already decided what we were going to do.

"Jasper and I have already discussed this possibility, but they have an engine and have been gone long enough that we may never find them, or even if that would be advisable. We also have no idea if they know where they're going, either. Add to that, the fact that they have guns and clearly don't want to be caught, I think it would be dangerous for us to be anywhere near them. They could kill us all easily, just by puncturing this raft. We may be in the tropics, but the water is still cold if you're immersed in it for any length of time, it's burning hot in the day and cold at night, and then there's sharks. That scenario will kill us as surely as bullets and a lot more painfully."

Jasper held up his hand when the shocked looks on people's faces morphed into horror. "Okay, Bella here will be assisting us in working out where we are and we'll be setting out in the morning. I will warn you that we were still around six or seven flight hours out from Australia. If we can work out our direction, it's best we head toward the direction I think Fiji would be, which was only a few hours away. The authorities would most likely expect any survivors to head in that direction, anyway. There are also more islands between us and Fiji, so we'll head east with the rising sun. Any questions?"

Apart from the mutterings from Alec and his crew of discontents, everyone else agreed with our decision; not that it would have made any difference. We didn't mention the small motor and fuel we had discovered; that would come in handy later when we, hopefully, found land.

The voices gradually died down as one by one, the passengers fell asleep. Lying down, I pulled Bella into my body, wrapping her in my arms for warmth and felt her relax against me. Despite the circumstances, I couldn't be sorry that we were together.

** Skyjacked **