She was choking.

That was the first conscious thought Emily had as she started to come to. She tried to swallow down but something was jammed in her throat, blocking the contraction of her muscles. She gagged against it but it wouldn't move, it just pulled painfully as her throat squeezed down in protest. She couldn't breathe…oh sweet baby Jesus, she was going to die. Her left hand blindly found her mouth, but her right arm felt slow and heavy and she couldn't feel her fingers move. The lights above her were blinding - a dizzy swirl of shapes and colours against her bleary eyes - as her palm touched against the cold metal sticking out of her mouth.

Numb fingers managed to get a grip on the slick sides and she tugged. It felt like she was ripping out her windpipe. She screamed - or tried to scream - everything was muffled around the metal in her throat and she kicked and gagged and felt a jolt as her side and head hit something hard. She couldn't breathe; God, she just needed to breathe. She managed to get a grip on the metal, again, and this time she just pulled past everything. Past the tearing, screaming pain. Past the choking and gagging. The metal eventually slipped from her hand, clattering against the floor near her head as she just lay on her side and coughed and sobbed. She could taste blood as she gasped, but finally it felt like she could take a breath.

Emily could hear things now, too, over the pounding heartbeat in her ears. There was a high-pitched sound wailing in the air like a car alarm. Over it she could hear what sounded like voices - they were yelling things she couldn't understand. Was she still in the plane? Was she being rescued? She tried to shout for help but her voice was raw and weak, and it all came out in a jumbled whimper. Get up! her voice screamed in her head. Stand up or they'll not see you! She heaved and hauled and scrambled until her knees knocked hard against the floor, still coughing each breath into her lungs. She lifted her head to look around, but everything was a grey blur. Was she already in a hospital? Where were the other passengers?

She tried to push herself up on to her feet, but froze when she saw her arm. It didn't make any sense. Her whole arm and hand looked huge; it was like an inflatable joke arm had been put over her own. It was mottled black and brown and an almost fuchsia shade of bright pink, the skin cracked and weeping. Emily pressed her left fingers against her inside elbow, the texture was strange - a sort of spongy wetness. She couldn't even feel where her fingers were pushing down, her whole arm felt heavy and numb, like it wasn't even attached. She tried to flex her hand, move her fingers - anything - but they barely twitched.

A sound coming from directly above her, drew Emily's baffled gaze. It sounded like a Clanger had been shoved through a synthesizer. She looked up to see two orbs of aqua blue light staring down at her from half a meter away. The two 'eyes' were set into silver metal shaped like the grille on the front end of a car. Emily watched as the thing bobbed in front of her, whistling and buzzing, as three long metal arms reached out in her direction. When the cool press of the first claw touched her left arm, it was like a hypnotic spell had been broken.

She punched it.

Now, in her defence, Emily at this point was fairly certain she was in some sort of fever induced dream. She watched her fist, cracked and swollen and oozing blood, as it seemed to fly in slow motion - entirely out with her control - until it smacked the thing square in the middle of its metal face. The pain that exploded out of her hand and down her arm was so intense, she blacked out for a few seconds.

It was lovely. Peaceful, even.

Then suddenly all the noise and pain was back. Emily retched; whether it was from the broken hand or from all the screaming she just realised she was doing, was still unclear. She tried to stand up, but it was like her legs had been swapped out for cooked noodles. She kicked her way across the floor, using her left hand to claw herself along, making for the wall closest to her. When she was close enough to bump her shoulder, Emily leaned herself against the brushed metal, freeing up her hand to try and scrabble for purchase on its strange grooved panels. She needed to get up and run, because fuck knows where that floating metal thing had gone. There were still sirens and odd, disembodied voices all around her. She managed to use her weight against the wall to balance herself, slithering her way up until she was finally standing on shaking feet.

It hurt like hell to lean the right side of her face against the panelling, so she slowly turned until her left cheek was pressed on the cool surface, still struggling hard to fill her lungs through the tight grip of panic in her chest. When she opened her eyes, another set of blue eyes were looking back at her through a dull glass panel in the wall. These ones though, were entirely human. Emily hadn't even realised that she'd pushed herself off the wall until the bearded face started to tilt away from her. It was almost funny, watching his eyes widen as she began to tip, his hands reaching out as if he could grab her from through the glass. She twisted as she went down, and it was only in that millisecond before she hit the ground, that she realised she'd turned her body the wrong way.

Emily managed to groan out a "oh, fuck!" before her right arm hit the floor, and all her thoughts were replaced with pain.