“You're crazy,” Jake shouted, and threw out his arm out to keep Hugh back. “I said stay back,” he gritted. “Or, by God, I’ll kill you right now.”
With a sudden burst of energy, Hugh got to his feet. “I said I can fly this thing.”
––––––––
“What the heck is he doing?” Angela cried from where she still sat in the back of the jet.
Outside the cockpit with the others, Nina barely registered Angela’s hysterical question as her body clenched with dread.
Parker pounded on the cockpit door, his face a mask of panic and disbelief. “What the hell is he thinking?” he gasped.
Desperate, Nina grasped Justin’s arm and shook it hard. “He’s your brother,” she screamed. “Do something.”
“I don’t know what to do,” he snapped in resentment, and jerked his arm free. His face was so devoid of color that his dark eyes stood out against his pale face. “What the hell can I do?”
They stood outside the cockpit door now. Only Rita remained seated with the baby, a horrified expression on her face.
“Hugh,” Parker shouted at the unyielding door. “Open this door now. What in the hell are you doing? You’ll get us all killed.”
Justin wet his lips. “What’s gotten into him?” His eyes held disbelief. “What's he thinking?”
“He’s not thinking.” Neil clenched his fists at his side. “We’ll kick the door down. Stand back,” he warned, but before he’d even finished saying the last word, a heavy thud ensued from inside the cockpit.
“Ben must have forgotten to lock the cockpit door again,” Emily babbled from behind them. The stewardess stood several feet back, her long fingers wringing together and her throat working convulsively. “He does that sometimes.” She tugged at her earlobe in a nervous gesture. “But it’s rare for us to lock the door on a private jet with such a small group of people such as yours. I think he–”
The jet suddenly dipped at a sharp angle, the force of it sending Nina sailing to the right. Her hip struck a nearby seat with a force that had her hissing in pain, and a moment later, the full weight of Angela’s body hit her back, rendering her momentarily breathless. Emily had been sent to her knees, and Justin lost his balance as he stumbled against Parker and ended up sliding down beside Neil who had landed hard on his backside, swearing.
Further back in the cabin, Angela and Rita’s seatbelts had kept them and little Luke in place. “We have to stay calm and not let fear take over,” Angela kept saying, though her voice fractured with anxiety.
Nina tried to catch her breath. The ice bucket near their seats had tipped, and as she met Angela’s blank eyes, Nina's heart constricted. Angela's biggest fear was being realized, and she had promised her that they'd be fine. She’d promised. Unable to speak, Nina struggled back to her friend, gripping Angela’s clammy hand in comfort when she reached her.
Suddenly the captain’s voice sounded over the intercom, rushed and strained. “This is your captain speaking. Please prepare....I’m sorry....please brace for impact.”
Nina froze. “Oh my God,” she breathed.
Emily struggled to her feet. Her mouth trembled and her face had turned chalky. “G-get back into your seats. Please.” Her hair was in disarray and her uniform was creased and stained.
“Come on,” Neil hissed, scrambling to his feet. He grabbed Nina’s hand. “Sit down and put your seatbelt on. Quickly.” He tried to soothe Rita’s panicked questions as Luke began to wail with anxiety.
Angela screamed as the jet dipped at a dramatic angle, and Nina had to clutch at chairs as she just managed to make it back to her own seat as the jet dipped at a sickening angle. Luke was bawling now; his small face red and his chubby fingers clenched into tiny fists.
It felt like a rock falling, Nina thought dazedly as her stomach rolled. Sick with fear, her hands fumbled with the seatbelt as she tried to put it back on. Once she had finally buckled herself in, she laid a hand over Angela’s ice cold one. “It’s okay, Ange, you–" She stopped short when she saw that Angela had fainted, slumped in her seat, out cold.
“Is Hugh still in there?” she demanded out loud.
“He is.” Parker’s hands shook as he struggled to buckle his seatbelt. Across from him Justin snapped his into place. “He won’t come out.” Parker swallowed. “He won’t come out of that cockpit.”
“We’ll be okay.” It was Rita who spoke. Her face lay pressed against Luke’s wet cheek. The baby continued to cry, clearly absorbing the fear from everyone.
“Yes,” Nina said in a voice as strong as she could manage. She wished she had Rita’s faith, but she was struggling.
The jet nosedived again. Bile shot up Nina’s throat as her stomach itself flung somewhere behind her. She felt the blood drain from her face, her hands became moist, and when the jet veered sharply to the right, she closed her eyes. Chills sped up her arms, causing goosebumps to break out on her arms despite the warmth of the ski jacket she wore. She had to swallow her scream as the small jet shook and rattled with a sound as if it would come apart in mid-air.
The captain speaks again over the intercom, but it’s drowned out by Luke’s wailing, Emily’s screams, Rita’s cries, and Parker and Justin’s string of curses. A moment later all the lights in the jet went out completely.
The death spiral. She’d heard about it before, whispered among those people lucky enough to survive it and tell their stories. She’d hoped never to experience it. Yet now she was. She grabbed the emergency evacuation manual with hands that shook so violently she nearly dropped it. Why didn’t I pay attention to this earlier when Emily was demonstrating it? The question raced through her mind as terror seized her. Now, the words outlined in the evacuation guide just blurred in front of her eyes.
A sudden shriek rang out of nowhere, and a moment later the jet began to spiral downward at a terrifying speed. They were no longer heading for Salzburg, Nina realized sickly, but towards the inhospitable snowy ground below. She could see it clearly outside her window. She wanted to pull out her phone, send a farewell email to Hazel and the twins, but her damp hands wouldn’t stop clutching the armrests.
Nina was beyond fear, fear had been several minutes ago. Now, as the jet spiraled downwards towards the snow covered ground, her life flashed before her eyes. Angela was still unconscious, and Nina forced her friend’s head down before quickly balling herself into a ball and covering her head with both hands in the brace position.
This was it, she thought in morbid clarity as the jet slammed down. The noise and impact was incredible. To Nina it felt like the worst train crash imaginable. The jet bounced up, came back down on its nose, and began to cartwheel. The noise the jet made drowned out all their screams. Nina couldn't keep the brace position, and she bounced upright with her arms over her head. Although her seatbelt kept her glued to her seat she was still thrown around viciously, every limb she possessed struck something hard and solid.
Screams, gasps and cries of pain rang out across the cabin. Nina could do nothing but bear the turbulent assault. Just as she hoped the nightmare would soon end, her head slammed against the back of her seat and she lost consciousness.
Chapter 4
––––––––
She couldn’t move; couldn’t see. Her eyelids were glued together. Her mouth felt like a block of wood lay wedged inside it, her throat burned, and a throbbing pain began beating at the base of her head. She smelled smoke, thick and pungent, but she didn’t know where it was coming from.
And she was cold, icily cold, her face damp with it. She shuddered.
“Nina? She moved.”
A man’s voice, she noted, he spoke between coughs and one she couldn’t identify. I’m alive, she realized in wonder. I’m alive, and she almost wept with gratitude.
“Neen?” Another man’s voice, and this one familiar to her: Neil.
“We should check her body for broken bones before moving her,” said the voice of the other man that she didn
’t recognize. Again he spoke through racking coughs.
She groaned in protest. She didn’t want to be moved. Her body would surely fall apart if she was.
“Neen? It’s Neil. I think she’s awake,” Neil said to the other man.
Nina tried to speak, but no words emerged from her lips and a dry cough began to tickle the base of her throat.
“You’re going to be okay, Neen,” Neil whispered. “I’m just going to make sure you haven’t broken anything.” With a light but thorough touch, he ran his hands over her sides. “Nothing feels broken.” His voice rang out with relief. “Just that bump on her head.” Gently, he lifted her eyelids.
So they weren’t glued together after all, Nina thought as the light hit her pupils. A moment later, her legs were being lifted and placed on something solid.
With a soft moan, Nina forced her eyes open and blinked against the harsh daylight that immediately bombarded them and she squinted. Though sunny it was cold, though the hood of her ski jacket protected her head and ears. She squinted up at Neil’s face that hovered over hers. He had cuts and bruises all over his face, and his jet-black hair had sprinkles of dust in it. He sat crouched on his knees beside her.
She tried stretching her neck but stopped when searing pain came with the movement. She lay on a navy blanket spread out on the snow, and she recognized it as the woolen one that their stewardess Emily had provided to Rita. Several feet away sat an enormous heap of disintegrated metal. The jet, she suddenly remembered in horror, and moaned. She wanted to ask where they were but was afraid to.
“It’s okay,” Neil said. The other man bent and squatted down beside her. His face was drawn and grim under the hood of his jumper. Smoke stains and snow powder lay caked in the creases of his jacket. His hair also carried dust and debris and he had a bandage on his nose. His clothes were ripped and soiled with dirt. Nina recognized him as the flight captain as he eyed her critically.
Neil sputtered on a cough before speaking again. “You’re back.” He indicated the man beside him with a slight jerk of his head. “This is Jake; the captain of the jet.”
She had to swallow twice in order to speak. “Hi,” she managed, but no sooner had the word escaped her smoke-choked her lips her body was assailed with painful coughs. Once she had her breath back, her gaze shifted to the mangled remains of the jet only several feet from them. Its broken wings and parts of its once elegant cabin lay strewn across the white snow while smoke billowed out from three different sections of it. How had this happened? She focused on Neil again.
“Did...did everyone else make it out?” she managed, and took deep breaths in an attempt to ward off another attack of coughing.
Neil lowered his eyelids, effectively shielding his eyes. “Don’t try to talk now.”
Her stomach clenched with fear. “Neil–?”
“We need to get out of here,” Jake cut in. “We don’t know if that thing’s going to blow up. And she’s cold, put this blanket over her.”
“I - I’m okay.” Her voice was hoarse and she fought to make it stronger. “I’ll get up. I can walk.”
“No, you can’t,” Neil said. “We’ll carry you.”
Now she felt like an invalid. “No, really, I can–”
He shook his head, which made her want to roll her eyes.
“I’ll take her if you like,” Jake offered. “Can you take Ben’s sack?” He lifted Nina and moved away from the shattered jet; trying not to wince at the strain it caused his bruised arms. He was lucky to be alive; he knew that. But the crash had left his mark on him; he was battered and bruised all over.
He would have sprinted from the jet if he’d had the strength. As it was, he didn’t know which part of his body ached most. Somewhere over the last two hours since the crash, he hadn’t been able to isolate one body pain from another. But the bodily pain he could deal with; the situation he now found himself in was a different matter altogether.
He looked down at Nina. Blood and dirt streaked her face. Her bottom lip was split, and the bump she had sustained at the base of her head needed more treatment. His chest twisted painfully as he watched Neil take Ben’s black rucksack. Only hours before, he’d teased Ben about the bulging rucksack. His friend’s penchant for always packing medication and his lucky antique cricket bat was well known among Jets by Gwynne. Yet the medication in Ben’s rucksack was what they now desperately needed.
His sore nose twitched. The bandage Emily had hurriedly applied on it had stemmed the flowing blood from Hugh’s punch, but it wasn’t his nose that bothered him. He could smell food – and not just any type of food – but his favorite, fish and chips of all things - which he was sure, were his nostrils playing cruel tricks on him.
He avoided looking around again. He’d already seen the miles and miles of snow that surrounded them as far as he could see. They were nowhere near the thriving town of Kitzbűhel. They’d crashed too early for that. They were in the backcountry and completely alone. Their neighbors weren’t a thriving skiing community but the tall dark snow-capped mountains.
He felt hemmed in.
The sun peeked through the vivid cornflower blue sky, almost seeming to smile down at them yet adding no warmth to the cold sterile atmosphere around them.
A cold sweat broke out on his top lip as he trudged along with Nina in his arms. His eyes were gritty, his throat ached from the smoke he had inhaled, and his nose where Hugh had decked him earlier continued to throb like a sore molar. “Want to take a break?” he called out to Neil, hoping the man would say yes.
Neil stopped and turned, his face was drawn; his mouth slack but he shook his head.
Jake nodded in grim acceptance. Nina stirred in his arms and he looked down at her waxy face. Her eyes, dull with pain, squinted up at him.
“How’re you feeling?” he asked. Then realized that was probably a dumb question.
“I - I’ve had better days.” Her teeth chattered as she spoke. “Thanks for...c-carrying me.”
“Don’t mention it.”
An explosion suddenly shook the whole area, making them both jump and cutting her off in mid-sentence. “Was that...was that...?” She couldn’t bring herself to finish her own question.
“The last of the jet,” Jake concluded for her. “Yeah.”
She shuddered violently. “We were so close.”
He’d known the jet would blow up. That was expected and inevitable. What mattered was they no longer had anyone in it. What he hadn’t expected or been prepared for was for it to remind him of how little control he had, how little control any of them had. “Almost there,” he told her. He spotted the makeshift resting place area only a hundred yards away where the others waited huddled together, shaken and numb. The meager personal belongings they’d managed to salvage from the jet rested in bundles beside them.
Nina struggled to crane her neck to see the group. “Did everyone make it out?” she repeated.
His mouth was a grim line. “You’ll see soon enough,” was all he could say.
Chapter 5
––––––––
Dread threatened to choke Nina. Their captain wasn’t answering any of her questions and neither was Neil. What was going on? Where was everyone else? She wished she didn’t have to ask those questions, yet she found she had to.
She could see the captain was in pain. A gray cast shadowed his face, his mouth drawn, and the slight wince with each step he took.
Where were they now? she wondered in confusion, looking around. They were completely alone out here. She sighed in relief when Jake and Neil finally stopped, and it was then that she spotted Angela.
“Neen.” Eyes awash with relief, Angela took Nina’s gloved hand in hers. Like Nina she was still in her ski jacket with the hood snug around her head. “They got you out,” she whispered.” They said they would.”
“Ange,” Nina whispered. Overwhelmed with relief to see her safe, she grasped her friend’s gloved hand and absorbed the strength in it. “Ange, you
’re all right.”
“I fainted.” Angela sounded disbelieving.
Nina managed a smile. “You did faint but you’re awake now. Rita and Luke?”
“We’re here, we’re fine.” Rita appeared to the right of Nina and bent over her. Rita’s mouth was almost blue from the cold and her lovely shiny hair hung limp and bedraggled around her drawn face. “Emily’s over there. Luke’s sleeping.”
“Parker?” Nina queried. Then she saw him.
He lay on another navy blanket three feet away with Hugh who was also lying down. Hugh’s chest rose steadily though his eyes were closed.
She stared at him. He had made it out of the crash that he’d caused.
Justin was wide awake and sat with his arms wrapped around his drawn up knees. Debris covered his face too, but out of the whole group, he looked to have sustained the least injury. He looked over at Jake. “Can I do anything to help?”
Face pinched and stiff, Jake collapsed beside Emily, digging his gloved fingers into his eyes. “Manage to reach anyone?” he asked Justin without looking up at the younger man Justin grimaced. “No. No signal yet.”
It was then that Nina took a good look at her ski suit, and she grimaced. Like the rest of the group’s her ski jacket was no longer the vibrant blue it had been when she’d left London this morning Instead the smoke, fumes and dirt from the crash had turned most of it a dirty grey. Only a few spots of the original colorful blue it had once been showed through.
A sudden thought struck Nina. Where was her luggage? All her client files. Her cross-body bag? She had been wearing her bag when the jet went down. “Neil,” she croaked. “My - my handbag?” she croaked. “Did it?” In the back of her mind she knew it was crazy to worry about something so trivial, but right now she needed to have been able to have something – anything – to connect her to a time before the horror of the accident.
Spiral and Torn Books 1 and 2 of The Salzburg Saga Trilogy Page 4