Total pages in book: 163
Estimated words: 150878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 754(@200wpm)___ 604(@250wpm)___ 503(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 150878 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 754(@200wpm)___ 604(@250wpm)___ 503(@300wpm)
Seconds later, we all hit the ground when a giant boom filled the air, an explosion creating a whoosh of heat. I screamed, covering my head as flying debris crashed to the ground with a thud. Close. Too close. Breath sawed from my lungs as I lifted my head moments later, taking note of Charlie and Tuck just rising as well. Flaming pieces of what had been the plane were scattered on the ground nearby. Behind us, the entire body was engulfed in fire. Tuck’s eyes met mine. “Are you okay?”
I nodded jerkily. Yes. But he almost hadn’t been. Thirty seconds longer in the plane, and he’d have gone up in flames.
fourteen
Tuck
Day One
I hated the thought of leaving behind the body of the man who’d saved our lives and given his own in the process, but there was really no other choice. He now lay between two massive evergreens in the middle of the field we were in, his body covered in the rocks I was able to gather, hopefully offering some protection against scavengers. It’s the best I can do for you. I’m so sorry, man. My hope was that we could find help and send a crew in to recover his body.
From the corner of my eye, I saw Charlie and Emily rummaging through their suitcases and changing into warmer clothes. Wherever we’d crashed was frigid. As I arranged the rocks around Russell’s body, I tried to determine how far we’d flown and where we might be. I’d been angry and stewing and because of that, my internal clock was likely off. But my best guess was that we were either in Indiana, or Illinois. Had we traveled far enough to be in Ohio or even Pennsylvania? Maybe, but I didn’t think so. I’d never been to the East Coast, but it was early December, and it was cold as hell, maybe even on the verge of snow, and so we definitely weren’t in Arizona or Colorado. Plus, no mountains or desert. Maybe Charlie or Emily would have a more accurate guess. I assumed they’d flown this route at least a few times. But frankly, I didn’t much feel like talking to either of them. They hadn’t so much as offered to help grab what we could off the plane. They’d stood aside and watched me do it. They were clearly useless. Unless one of them could get their phone to work.
I placed the final rock on Russell’s cairn—the best one I could manage anyway. I had balanced larger ones on top, so he was mostly covered. I turned away, the lump in my throat making it difficult to swallow. I didn’t even know the dude, but he deserved better than this. I made a mental note of the landscape here, and the direction of the sun, so as soon as possible, I could send the authorities to collect his body and bring it home to his family. He’d been wearing a wedding ring that I’d removed and put in my pocket to return to his wife.
“Nothing,” Charlie was saying, staring down at his phone and pressing buttons and then holding it up to the sky as he turned in circles. He’d done the same thing thirty minutes before when he’d taken his and Emily’s phones from the blanket I’d used as a sack to collect what I could from the plane. “It won’t even turn on.”
“Same with mine,” Emily said, staring down at hers. I’d looked for my own phone but hadn’t seen it anywhere. It’d likely rolled under something in the mayhem of the descent and the crash, but since we had two phones and the smell of jet fuel was strong and worrisome, I had decided it wasn’t worth the risk to search for mine.
“They weren’t low in charge, so maybe they got banged around in the crash,” Emily suggested, turning hers over as though there might be evidence of damage on some part of the device.
“Even if it starts working, we’re probably too far out in the middle of nowhere,” Charlie said, his expression glum as he put his phone in his pocket.
The blanket from which they’d retrieved their phones lay open on the ground, the water bottles, snacks, and other items I’d deemed useful still inside. Of course, I hadn’t had any idea where we were or what we might be up against, so who even knew if I’d gathered anything useful, other than food provisions.
All I did know was that we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, the sun was lowering in the sky, and Charlie was right about one thing: it was cold as fuck.
Emily had put on a white jacket with a fur collar and a pair of tight black leather pants, but she was still shivering. “Do you have anything warmer than that?” I asked.