Frank tumbled through the sky. The shock of hitting the frigid air took his breath away, and the lack of oxygen at altitude compounded the problem. He was fortunate he had been able to hold on long enough for the plane to dive and slow down. If Frank had been sucked out immediately at the original cruising altitude and speed, he would have quickly died from the temperature and oxygen deprivation.
Frank quickly stabilized his spinning, grateful for the many hours he had practiced skydiving at the Bayport airfield. He scanned the skies and identified Vanessa flailing through the air. Frank dove toward her, knifing through the air and quickly catching up. She clung to him like a drowning swimmer.
"Hold on!" Frank shouted. She locked her long legs around Frank's waist and threw her arms around his chest.
"Under the parachute," he yelled. He wasn't sure if she could hear him over the rushing air, but she quickly slipped her hands around his back from the outside of the vest to the inside. Frank reached under her armpits and grabbed his left wrist with his right hand.
Frank's dizziness was abating, but he still didn't want to pull the chute until they got even lower where the air was thicker. After a few more seconds, he warned Vanessa and pulled the ripcord.
The jerk when the parachute opened almost made Vanessa lose her grip. Frank quickly reached around her again to help them stay together. On the horizon, Frank noticed a bright glow that quickly faded. The plane had exploded.
They drifted down in freezing temperatures that didn't warm as they descended. Frank scanned the ground, thankful for the cloudless night and the full moon, although what they revealed struck dread into Frank's heart. They were coming down into a mountain range covered in snow. Frank knew they wouldn't last long without supplies in the extreme Rocky Mountain winter. Just then, Frank spotted a dark shape against the white relief of the snow. A cabin?
"Hold on, I need to steer," Frank told Vanessa. She responded by tightening her grip and almost squeezing the breath out of Frank. He grabbed the steering lines and maneuvered toward the shape. As the ground grew closer, Frank was relieved to see it was indeed a small wood cabin.
Their landing was cushioned by several feet of untouched snow. Frank sprawled on top of Vanessa in the white powder. They lay there for a second, catching their breath, until Frank realized he was crushing Vanessa. Frank rose to his knees. Vanessa's eyes were closed, and her body began to shake. Frank was worried she was injured until he realized she wasn't sobbing, she was laughing.
Her laughter became audible, and Frank joined her in hysterical laughter from the absurdity of the situation combined with the catharsis of relief. They eventually caught their breath, and Frank helped Vanessa to her feet.
"What do we do now?" Vanessa asked as Frank rolled up the parachute.
"We head to that cabin over there," Frank said, pointing at the structure about a hundred yards away.
The two struggled through the waist-deep snow to the building. The door was locked, so Frank broke the only window and cleared out the glass before climbing through. He opened the door to let Vanessa in. Frank looked around the dark cabin. It was small, consisting of one room about five hundred square feet in size. The only light shone in through the open window. Frank was relieved to see a fireplace stocked with wood. He found matches on the mantel and a container full of kindling on the floor.
"Take off your clothes," Frank commanded as he began making the fire, which his uncontrollable shivering made difficult.
"Excuse me," Vanessa asked, confused.
"They're wet from the snow," Frank said as he coddled a small flame. "They'll leech your body heat. Wrap yourself in the quilt from the bed to dry off and stay warm."
Frank heard the noise of clothes hitting the floor and resisted his male impulse to turn around. As the fire grew, Vanessa came and sat down next to him.
Frank smiled at her appearance. "Hello, babushka," he joked.
Vanessa smiled. "It's more like a burka."
Frank glanced at the plaid pattern. "Did you emigrate from Saudi Arabia to Scotland or the other way around?"
Vanessa's laughter relaxed Frank. Once the fire had grown to self-sufficiency, Frank exchanged his clothes for the blanket under the quilt, leaving the bed with just a sheet on it. The two warmed themselves by the fire. Once Frank was dry, he turned his phone on to use the flashlight and investigated the cabin. It didn't take long. Frank then used the parachute to cover the broken window and hung up the wet clothes to dry.
"Do you want the good news or the bad news?" Frank asked as he rejoined Vanessa.
"Bad news first," Vanessa said.
"There's no phone, electricity, or running water. My phone is dead. Do you have your phone?"
Vanessa shook her head.
"You probably wouldn't have service anyway. I didn't before my phone died."
"What's the good news?" Vanessa asked.
"There's about two weeks of canned food, plenty of wood, and we have unlimited water from snow."
Vanessa furrowed her brow. "I thought you weren't supposed to eat snow when you were lost."
Frank nodded. "That's normally right; it lowers your body temperature and can cause hypothermia, but with the fire that's not an issue."
"Two weeks is enough to find us, right? Won't they send people looking when the plane lands?"
Frank looked at Vanessa's hopeful face, not wanting to burst her bubble, but he had to tell her the truth.
"No. The plane exploded."
"What?" Vanessa asked, shocked. "From the laptop bomb?"
"I don't think so." Frank explained. "The damage from the first bomb was severe, but a competent pilot can land a plane with a hole in the side. It happens from time to time. I wondered why the guy next to us kept checking his watch and took his backpack to the bathroom. I don't think it was a backpack; I think it was a parachute. The plan was to blow a hole in the side of the plane with the shaped charge in the laptop bag and then jump out before the bigger bomb blew up the plane."
"If he had a bigger bomb on the plane, then why did he need to be on the plane in the first place?"
"I don't know," Frank answered. "Maybe it was the only way he could get the bomb on. I assume he checked it in his luggage. It also explains why he was so upset people were sitting in his row."
Vanessa chewed her lip. "So, they won't be looking for us because they won't know people fell out of the plane, but won't they look for the wreckage?"
Frank nodded. "But at the speed the plane was going, it could be at least ten miles east of here. In this wilderness, that's as good as a thousand miles. I looked around as we were coming down. I didn't see any signs of civilization. I have no idea where we go from here."
Vanessa shuddered. "Do we wait here and hope for rescue or try to find help?"
Frank shrugged. "I don't know right now, but it gets worse. To get help, we need to advertise our location. The only problem is that the guy who blew up the plane chose this spot to jump out. That means he's around here somewhere, probably with friends."
Frank paused. "We need to be very careful. If they find us, they'll kill us."