by Alice Ward
He was strong, and he was able to turn, his elbow crashing into my jaw. It knocked me back, but I lunged forward again, tackling him into the dashboard. The gun went off again. And again. And again.
The plane dipped so suddenly, we both crashed into the ceiling, my vision growing dark again as I rapped my head. Still, I fought. As the barrel turned on me again, I used all my strength to change its direction.
The struggle was terrible, my arms shaking as the black eye of the weapon turned from me and toward my enemy, each inch of its movement taking all of my effort.
Bam!
The pilot slumped, a blossom of blood forming on his chest. He was dead, but we were still in trouble.
I shoved him out of the way and took his seat, assessing the damage. It was extensive. The radio and control panel were shot to shit, smoke filling the cockpit. An experienced pilot would have probably known exactly what to do… but I was still a student.
I shook my head, refusing to give up.
“Kendra!”
Reaching up, I pulled an air mask onto my face after yelling for her. The change in pressure had caused them to fall and the blessed pure air cleared my head.
“I’m here.”
Glancing back at her, I met her eyes. She was shaking badly, her lungs sucking in the smoky air, making her cough. “We’re in trouble.”
She looked down at the dead men at her feet, and a tear fell down her cheek as she glanced around at all the damage.
“You can cry later,” I said, my tone harsh as I got her to focus back on me. Her eyes snapped to my face. “We have more important things to attend to, soldier.”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Kendra
Eli reminded me of my father. Wiping my eyes, I shook my head to clear it, stuffed my emotions down, promising to revisit them later.
Tapping the air mask, he clearly indicated for me to put it on. I took the copilot’s seat, inhaling the clean air, feeling the oxygen help with the cobwebs in my head.
“We’re going down,” he said bluntly, and I appreciated the honesty even though I could have done without the look of terror in his eyes. “The radio is gone, and they’ve destroyed the tracking system. It’s you and me.”
I nodded and reached out to squeeze his arm. “What do you need me to do?”
Pointing at some small dots on the horizon, he said, “I think we are close to The Barra Isles, a cluster of small islands in the Outer Hebrides of Scotland, but I’m not sure because the system is done.”
I chewed my bottom lip. “Do people live there?”
“Some of them are inhabited.” He smiled at me then ran his hand along my chin. “Some aren’t.”
I nodded, understanding what he wasn’t saying.
“I need you to gather anything you think we could use once we make it out of the plane. Place it near the door. Think survival. Nothing for luxury. I’ll dump our remaining fuel so that we’ll be lighter and hopefully reduce the risk of an explosion once we hit.”
Okay… maybe he didn’t need to be quite so honest, but I liked that he was being positive at least. I took another long inhale of the oxygen and stood. Leaning down, I kissed his sweaty temple.
“No matter what happens after this, I’m proud of you, Eli. You’re my hero.”
I took off before he could say anything, jumping over the dead bodies in my way. Survival. I needed things we could use to survive on an island for who knew how long.
Maybe Eli was wrong about the GPS tracker on the plane. Maybe someone was already on their way to save us. Maybe we’d luck out and land on an inhabited island. But we needed to be prepared, just in case.
Running to the bedroom, I nearly stumbled over the dead cook on my race to the closet for our bags. Heaving them up, I dragged them to the door and raced back to pull a sheet from the bed. Spreading it flat on the floor, I tossed all the water and food I could find from the small kitchen on it. First aid supplies. Lighters. A couple of pots. Flares! I nearly kissed the flares once I found them, and stuffed them in a trash bag to stay dry then tied the sheet around everything to make a bundle.
I screamed as the plane turned sideways, throwing me into the wall. Looking out the window, the ocean was close, so very close below us. Another hit of adrenaline went through my system, and I sped up my pace.
Fighting to get to my feet, I dragged the bundle of supplies to the door and then tied life preservers to each bundle and bag to help them float. Hopefully. I didn’t know if they would or not, but it was worth trying.
What should I do next?
Shit. After everything Dad taught me about survival, I was finding it hard to think of all we may need in the few minutes I had to do so.
Grabbing two more flotation devices, I made my way back to the cockpit, my heart nearly seizing as I saw how close we were to the water.
“Buckle up! If anything happens and we get split up, swim for that larger island. Our chances are better there.”
I did as he said, my fingers trembling so hard I almost couldn’t complete the simple function. “I hate landings,” I said, handing him a flotation vest.
Eli nodded, a sad smile playing on his mouth as he pulled it over his head. “I remember.”
Twenty feet.
Ten.
“Brace for impact.”
I bent forward and covered my head, watching Eli pull back on the stick with all his might. He was trying to lift the nose, I realized, to keep us from flipping.
The impact was incredible as metal screamed when we collided with the concrete of the water. I was rammed forward, crashing my head against the dash, causing my vision to turn gray.
It felt like it went on forever, but only a few seconds passed before the roar turned into the sound of the sea pouring in through the windows. I looked up. Unbelievably, we weren’t far from the island. It would be a long but doable swim.
“Let’s go!”
Eli unbuckled my belt, yanking me from the seat, blood streaming from a wound on his forehead. But he was alive. I was alive.
I looked down at the cold water that was now up to my knees. My teeth immediately began to chatter.
We were alive for now.
“Our things are by the door. I grabbed what I could.”
I raced behind him, my body feeling bruised and battered as I went, but I knew adrenaline was masking the worst of it. The plane was tilting to the side, making it even harder to walk, but the tilt was a lucky one. It meant the door wasn’t covered in water. If it had been, we’d have had to attempt escape through the narrow windows.
Removing the emergency panel, Eli yanked the handle and the door popped out. Once it was open, he ejected the slide. “We can cut it off, use the plastic for something.”
“Great idea.”
I’d stuffed a pair of scissors in the side of Eli’s bag, so I got them out and ready as he tossed everything through the door.
Metal creaked, an eerie sound that made me nervous as I waited for Eli to do what he needed to.
“Maybe we should have gone to Australia,” Eli shouted as water moved up his legs. “At least it would have been warmer.”
I knew little to nothing about Scotland. “How cold will it get?” I really didn’t want to know, but talking seemed a good way to keep my panic down.
“Even though it’s summer, the temperatures are cooler here year-round. Water in the fifties. Outside temperatures just a little higher.” He flashed me his dimple as he began to cut through the plastic. “On a good note, shark attacks are more rare here than Australia.”
Sharks! Shit. I hadn’t even thought about sharks.
He looked at the bags sitting by the door and pulled the little cords to make the floatation devices fill up with air. “Smart thinking, baby. This’ll make carrying them so much easier.” He pulled the cord on mine, and it inflated, then he did his. “Give me your shoes.” He took them from me, slipped off his own and quickly stuffed them in his bag.
“How deep are we?” I looked o
ut a window, only to see a gray mass was looming ahead. “E—” His name was cut off as the plane connected with the object, throwing me backward several feet. Something sliced into my shoulder, pulling a scream out of me.
“What’s wrong?”
I was pinned to a piece of metal, a sharp protrusion still piercing my skin. I yanked away and could feel blood leaking down my back. It wasn’t a life-threatening injury but it still hurt like hell.
Eli checked the wound, explaining that the tide had crashed us into a rock. “The good news is that it might keep us from sinking for now, but we still need to get out.”
He started tossing the bags and bundles of supplies out of the door before coming back for me. “Ready?”
“No.”
He grinned. “Let’s go.”
Eli jumped into the water first, swimming hard to gather all the bundles before they could be swept away. I held my breath and said a prayer, going in next. The water was freezing. If nothing else, the desire to be warm again would make me swim harder.
The scream of metal on the rock startled me, and I turned just as the plane slid a few additional feet into the sea. I was yanked forward by the drag of the water on the vessel that could have so easily been our tomb.
Eli swam up, pulling me with him. “Kick hard!” I did as he said, feeling the pull of the suction letting me go. Once we were free, we clung to another rock, trying to catch our breath.
The shore looked far away, and the rush of adrenaline was already going, leaving me so very tired and light-headed. But we couldn’t stay here. It was too cold, the water too rough. We wouldn’t survive an hour like this.
“We’ve got to go,” Eli said, pressing his cold lips to mine.
Then we swam, pulling our meager supplies behind us, and I’d never been so grateful to be alive.
CHAPTER TWENTY
Eli
The water was colder than I expected it to be. The shore was further away than I thought it was, the water getting choppier as the sun began to set. Everything was moving too fast, and I felt like we were merely treading water rather than getting to our destination.
“We have to get to that island before it gets dark. We’re not making any real progress.”
“It’s the waves. They push us forward then pull us back. It’s impossible.” She looked at me with worry-filled eyes then I saw something in them pop, like a mini-explosion. “Damn! I’m so dense. I guess all the shit that’s happened in the last few hours has my brain in a fog. We need to swim underwater as much as possible. I knew that. We went to the beach a lot, and Dad taught us that little trick.”
I tried to dive under but found the floatation device wouldn’t let me. “It’s too dangerous to take off the life preservers. We’ll just have to make this work.”
“Take off one of those bags and give it to me. And don’t wear it across your body like that.” She pulled the preserver off but hung onto it, holding it out in front of her and kicking her way to me. As I watched her, I came up with an idea.
“Wait. I have a better idea that will let us keep these things on.” I took one of the bags and gave it to her. “Push the bag in front of you, using it the same way you were using your life preserver.”
With the new idea, we were finally moving ahead. Not as fast as we would have if we could have swam underwater, but we needed to keep the bags with us. We couldn’t chance losing them. We had nothing but the clothes on our backs without the bags.
Kicking along, we heard an odd scraping sound and looked over our shoulders. “The plane seems to be falling off that rock.” Kendra looked at me as worry took over her expression. “If it falls to the bottom, we don’t have a chance in hell of getting anything else out of it. Like the radio.”
“Don’t worry about that. I’m sure we won’t even need it. Someone will come along. You’ll see.”
“Eli, what are we going to do when we get on land?” She huffed and puffed, clearly overexerting herself.
I grabbed her bag and pulled her next to me. “Let me kick us the rest of the way there. You’re worn out.” I could feel her body shaking as I ran my arm around her. It had me worried she’d go into shock if she kept pushing herself.
Her teeth were chattering with the cold. I felt terrible. There was no way I could find wood to make a fire with how dark it would be when we got on land. If I remembered correctly, sunset was around ten-thirty p.m. in Scotland and we probably went down around nine local time. At the rate we were going, it would be fully dark by the time we touched sand.
When the sun set, darkness covered us like a blanket, with only the sliver of the moon to guide our way. If I’d had enough energy, I’d have shouted with victory when my feet touched land. As it was, it took everything inside me to pick Kendra up and carry her and our bags to the shore.
With dry land under my feet, I slowly fell to lie back on the sand. The water lapped at our legs as Kendra laid out next to me and I urged her to crawl with me to dryer ground.
“Honey, we’re home.”
Kendra was shivering violently, and I knew we needed to get off this beach. Our wet clothes and the cold wind were our enemies.
“E-e-e-eli?”
“Yes?”
“We’re a-a-a-alive.” She began to cry softly. “W-w-we m-m-made it.”
With a kiss to the top of her head, I gave her a gentle squeeze. “Yes, we made it. Now, let’s get out of these wet clothes and try to build some type of shelter with our supplies.”
“S-s-sleep.”
“Yes, baby. As soon as we’re dry, you can sleep all you want.”
On shaky legs, I stood, pulling her to her feet. I hauled the bags to the tree line before going through everything. Kendra’s suitcase was filled with water while mine was only damp. Yanking her wet clothes off, I used a t-shirt to dry her. “I had so many fantasies about seeing you naked for the first time,” I attempted to tease, “but this scenario wasn’t in any one of them.”
She offered a chattering laugh, too tired to make any fuss. I pulled another of my t-shirts over her head along with a pair of workout sweats I’d brought along. A light sweater came next. They swallowed her whole, but that didn’t matter. She’d be warm.
I changed too, feeling better as each piece of salt-soaked article was gone, then set about making a shelter from the slide I’d cut away. Feeling better too, Kendra took out a couple bottles of water and some food as I laid my other dry clothes down as a mattress.
Soon, she was in my arms, our bodies pressed tightly together for warmth. And within moments, we were both fast asleep.
***
The sound of birds screeching their good morning calls woke me, and that’s when the stiffness and pain set in. I’d taken a beating and could feel it all the way to my bones.
Kendra groaned as she rolled over. “I feel like shit. Everything hurts.” She rubbed her eyes then looked at me. “You have sand absolutely everywhere.” Then she smiled and rubbed my cheek.
I felt the sand scraping against my skin and took her hand, stopping her. “You have sand everywhere too. I suppose we can get into the water and get the majority of this shit off before we’re rubbed raw, but I don’t relish being that cold again. More importantly, we need to figure out what we can do. I’d like to get rescued today, if that’s possible.” I sat up, groaning like a hundred-year-old man.
Kendra didn’t sound much better. She held her head in her hands. “My head hurts. My entire body hurts. Ugh! I just want a hot shower and to put on some fresh clothes.” She stretched and groaned some more.
“The things in your bag are soaked. We’ll have to hang them out to dry on some tree limbs.” Getting up was a chore, but I managed and we spent some time getting organized.
She found a hairband and pulled her long strands into a knot on top of her head. “I guess I’ll be sporting the beach hair look until someone finds us. It could be worse.”
I knew how much worse it could have been. We might have been in that plane at the bot
tom of the ocean, becoming fish food. Anything was better than that.
Wrapping my arms around her, I relished having her alive and semi-warm in my arms. “Let’s split a water and eat. We’ll need the energy.”
She nodded, and I let her go so she could move around a bit. “There wasn’t much food that I could find.” She tossed me a granola bar and broke one open for herself, taking a large bite. “Granola, candy bars, packets of nuts. String cheese. The whole ‘cook’ thing must have been a complete ruse because they certainly didn’t stock anything for a meal.”
I took a bite too. “We’ll be okay until we can catch some fish or something.”
I’d never fished. Never hunted. Never had to get my own food at all. Shit, my meals were always brought to me. I didn’t know if I could figure it out or not. Then my stomach growled and somewhere inside of me, I knew I’d figure shit out.
Kendra hung up her wet clothes and began to sort through our supplies while I went in search of wood for a fire.
When I returned with an armful of it, I found her stretching, her face twisted into a grimace. Tossing the wood into a pile, I found some small sticks to help light it.
“Thank you.”
I glanced at her. “For what?”
“For being my hero.”
Her words made something inside of me stir. She saw me as her hero. As the man who could protect her. And I knew then and there that I always would. This was meant to be, for some reason. She and I were meant to go through all this together.
I looked at her for a long moment, then kissed her gently, making a promise to myself to make this thing work between us. She was made for me. I knew it.
Even if that meant marriage.
I involuntarily shuddered at the thought.
“You okay?”
I looked down into her lovely face and kissed the tip of her nose. “Yeah. When I get the fire going, I think I’ll explore the island, see if we’re lucky enough to find someone else.”
She nodded. “I’ll work on our shelter, just in case.”
I looked over at the plastic flapping in the wind. “You dissing my crib?”
She laughed, wrinkling her nose. “I’d never do that.”
