Date: Thu, 14 Jun 2007 01:00:27 -0400 (EDT)
From: Pear III David <drakanian32@yahoo.ca>
Subject: Crash Survivor Chapter 1

CRASH SURVIVOR

By Drake

Author's Note:
Hi, this is my first story on Nifty; I hope you will like it.  Be kind to
me, English is not my primary language, so maybe it will contain some
errors in my sentences...  ;-)

General Disclaimer and copyrights:
This is just a fantasy work of fiction.  Any resemblance to persons or
places is a coincidence.
If you aren't old enough to read this in your country, don't read.
If it's a criminal offence to read this in your country, don't read.
If male to male relationships and sexuality offend you, don't read.
If you think the story will be lame and boring, don't read it.


Chapter 1


As usual, it had been a busy week!  My office had sent me overseas to lay
down a big contract with a company located in Australia.  If this contract
is accepted and signed, it will give good opportunities for our office to
make a lot of money.  Therefore, because I'm the one that negotiated this
contract, I'd get a promotion, meaning more responsibilities but, more
important, more net income into my wallet!  Having no family, no wife, and
children, I was an asset to the company because I had a flexible lifestyle
that permitted me the freedom to go everywhere on the spur of the moment
without causing family problems.

Right now, I'm returning home on a commercial flight.  Our company always
reserves first class seats, but for some reason, I don't think I fit there.
Probably because I don't like to wear a tie in the first place.  No, I
prefer to be in economy class because I like to mingle with other peoples,
other nationalities, watch how they act, what they do.  Also, I like to see
families ruffling around me when I travel for work, it distracts me from
the intensity of my crazy job and remind me that there is life beside me
trying to maintain the business of everyday life.  Sometimes, I don't luck
out and get seated beside the plane's engines, but this time, I'm just near
the window, at the front tip of the right wing, with no one in the seats
beside me.  I can give a look to the outside, but it's really boring
because at our flight altitude, about thirty thousand feet, the only thing
we see is cloud formations.

We've been flying over the Pacific Ocean for two hours, heading to Honolulu
for a flight connection and some refueling.  I'm reading the local
newspaper I took before aboard the plane.  My concentration was being
interrupted, a bunch of twelve years old kids blabbing about their trip.
From what I can ear, they're coming back from a class trip to Australia
where they'd been for two weeks.  I suppose with the hubbub and aircraft
background noises, I drifted into a light sleep.  I awoke to a small boy
gently touching my shoulder.

"Sorry sir, I didn't meant to wake you up..."

"Oh, that's not a problem, I was about to come from the limb!"  I told him,
smiling gently while stirring up myself from the lazy subconscious dream
world I was in.

"I apologize sir."

"There's no need to apologize young man, and stop the sir thing, it makes
me be older than I really am!  I'm just thirty-four you know?"

"Oops... sorry, so how may I call you?"

"You may call me by my name.... it's Greg." I smiled.  "What's yours?"

"Hmm... I'm Matthew, but everyone's calls me Matt" he said extending his
hand with a friendly smile.

"Happy to meet you Matt!  Uh.... may I ask why you woke me up?"

"Oh, I was going to ask you if I can go over to the window to see outside.
My teacher says that there's no problem if it don't bother you.  I tried to
go to the other windows, but they are all taken by kids in my class, and
they don't want to move.

"OK Matt, it won't be a problem, you're more than welcome to my seat."  I
told him as I got up.

"You're really kind sir... hmm... I mean Greg...  uh... sorry I forgot..."
he said sadly as he was about to seat.

"Hey listen buddy, you don't need to be sad for a little mistake, I'm not
going to spank you or ground you in your room for the weekend!"  I said
with a large grin and a little giggle in my voice.  "It just means that
you're polite with your elders.  But a lot of people like me are terrible
when it comes to spoil kids, and you'll probably meet some in the future! "
I told him while he was giggling.

"Thanks Greg, I wish my father could be like you..."

"Why?"

"Hmm, nothing..." he said, while turning is head toward the window.

I decided to let this one go.  He probably didn't want to talk to a
stranger about his family problems.  That's understandable.  While he was
looking outside, I took a glance to him.  He's really beautiful.  He didn't
seem to be too skinny, but was tall for his age.  He wore a black Yankees
baseball cap on his blond hair, a red shirt and blue jeans pants.  His face
is adorable, always smiling, but wearing a sad look in his eyes.  His nose
is little and straight, his lips are thick and seems to be glossy cherry.

My comforting thoughts were broken when suddenly, the plane started to
shake abnormally while emitting a noisy roar.  Normally at this altitude,
flight turbulence is less than what was happening right now.  I kept my
thoughts to myself trying not to show the concern.

"What's going on Greg, are we going to crash?" said Matt in a rather
frightened voice.

"I dunno.  To be honest, I've never been in a plane that shook this much!
You should put your seatbelt on and pull it tight like the flight attendant
showed us," I told him just as the belt sign came up.

"My ears hurt bad!!!"  He whined, as the plane's inside pressure seemed to
drop.

"Put on your belt Matt!!!"  I said again, this time quite firmly.

"Yeah, but my ea..."

"I said put your damn belt!!" I almost yelled to him.

"Ok, now it's on," he said to me.  I reached over to make sure it was snug
around his waist.

The kid's ears was hurting bad and now, so was mine.  Being in a couple of
flights before, this particular feeling meant just one thing, we were going
down at a very fast rate.  One kid in the other side of the aisle said he
saw smoke and fire coming from the left engines.  The air supply masks
started to fall from the ceiling.  THAT was not a good sign!

All kids were crying and yelling.  At the rate we were losing altitude, I
didn't know if we'd be able to make it safe to the nearest airport.  Just
as I was thinking, one of the flight attendants came down the aisle and
looked to the left, took a look out the window, then rushed back toward the
front of the plane, probably to talk to the pilot.

The plane stopped shaking and aircraft sounds returned to a normal level.
We were traveling slower than before, but now we were descending at a slow
and normal rate.

Matt was very afraid; he was shaking and was almost in a catatonic state.
I took his hand into mine, trying to comfort him a little.  Two minutes
passed by then another flight attendant started to give us some details
over the PA system:

"Ladies and gentlemen, this is Mary, your flight attendant speaking.  We
are in control of an emergency situation right now.  Please stay calm while
I explain what's happening with the aircraft.  We have lost both left
engines; we can still stay in the air with the remaining ones.  The fire
you saw on left engines is now extinguished.  One or probably both engines
damaged the left wing tank and the underside of the wing.  We are trying
save the remaining fuel from the left wing by transferring it the right
one.  Stay seated with your seatbelt on.  We will try to give you more
information as soon as we can."

Shit, that's not good.  We're still going down, and still in the same
direction.  So we weren't going back to Australia.  That means we were
nearer to Honolulu.  We'd gone through the cloud and now, we were able to
see the ocean.

"Is...  Is everything okay?"  came from a frightened voice beside me.

"Yes Matt, for now, it's okay."

"What do you mean...  I mean, why only for now?"

"I don't want to lie to you Matt.  Probably what I will say might scare
you, but the information I'm going to tell you may be crucial if the
situation get worse.  I said `for now' because I don't know if we have
enough fuel to make the distance and land safely at an airport.  I don't
know where we are right now, and at the rate we're going down, I don't know
if we're really able to fly and maintain altitude."

"I'm not afraid Greg...  yes a little but I think I'm safe with you holding
my hand."

"You're a good boy Matt...  Is that your seat right in front of me?

"No, it's the other one to the left.  Why?"

"Is this your hand luggage?"  I told him after I got a blue bag under the
seat he pointed out.

"Yeah, why you want it?

"To be honest, I want to prepare my surviving kit..."

"SURVIVING KIT?!?!?"  He exclaimed in a loud voice.

"Shhhhhht, calm down..."

"How do you want me to calm down when you are talking about a survival kit
on a plane that's almost crashing down?!"

"Ok, Matt, let me ask you something."

"Ok."

"Are you able to see in the future?"

"Huh?"

"You understood correctly, so answer to my question.  Are you able to see
in the future?

"Hell no!"

"Me either!  That's why I'm preparing a survival kit for us.  We probably
won't have to use it at all.  But if the situation get worse and we
survive..."

"You mean that the plane could crash into the ocean?"

"Yeah, anything's possible, so listen carefully to what I tell you, so if
we do crash you'll have good chance to survive. "

"Ok, go on.."

I continued to speak as quietly as I could.  I didn't want to start any
additional panic around me.  "Right now, I'm preparing survival kits with
our belongings.  Everything that can be used to survive, I'll put it in
there.  Then I'll attach my bag to me, and yours to you.  Since we're over
a wing, I must tell you that it's the strongest part of the plane, so we
have a better chance of survival if we have to do a sea landing.  If the
plane touches the water, the wing will probably be torn away from the
plane.  What I want you to understand is to remain calm when it happens,
even if it looks like a nonsense.  I want you to try to take a deep breath
at the last second before the plane touches the water.  While the plane is
on the water, try to exit the plane as fast as possible before it sinks.
Inflatable boats should be launched on the water.  Try to reach one of them
as soon as possible and climb into it.  We could be in a region full of
sharks so you have to hurry up.  If the boat is upside down, don't try to
turn it right side up because it's too heavy for you.  Just climb on it.
When in or on the boat, keep your arms inside and huddle to yourself so you
keep your warmth.  You'll probably make it to a land, but don't expect to
soon, you could be on the ocean for more than two days, two weeks..."

"Two weeks? "

"Yeah, but you'll have to supply yourself to stay alive."

"What...  what do you mean?"

"The human body can stay alive without food for more than three weeks, but
if you don't drink water, within two days, you'll die!"

"Oh, this is not a problem, there will be plenty of water around the boat
and I..."

"NO!  That's a mistake, this water is undrinkable!"

"Why?  There's no Exxon Valdez that sank in this region?"

"I said no because this water is like poison to us.  It contain too much
salt.  You must remove salt from it before you can drink it.

"Oh, so how can I drink water then?"

"You have to distill or filter the water with what you have on hand.  Or if
it rains, trying to gather and keep as much of the rain water as possible."

"Oh, ok..."

Wow, that was amazing, this little kid was listening to me as if nothing
was really happening.  Probably, knowing what to do was helping Matt to
remain calm and confident.  I didn't explain the fact that the ocean was
"climbing up" toward us little by little.  I'd organized everything I could
find in and around us into the two backpacks; put Matts on him and then put
my own on as well.

The same flight attendant came back on the PA sytem and announced:

"Ladies and gentleman, we are in a critical situation right now.  I want
everybody to get as quickly as possible its life jackets underneath the
seat and to put it on properly and to inflate it.  THIS IS NOT AN EXERCISE!
When done, I want you to take the emergency landing position.  We will have
to land into the ocean in about two minutes.  The left wing condition will
not allow us to keep a constant flight altitude.  Our fuel reservoirs are
full enough to reach the nearest airport, but we are emptying it to make a
safer landing and..."

I didn't listened any longer.  Everything she told us, I told it already to
Matt just before.  Now, I was bent forward in the brace position.  Matt
imitated me.  I stroked is back and he did the same to me.

For the first time of my life, I started to shake, almost losing control.

"Don't...  Don't forget to take a deep breath ok buddy?"  I told Matt with
a little weak voice.

"I won't Greg, and if ever we don't make it, it was a pleasure to have met
you."

I didn't answer, I just lost it and cried.  Matt would have been the son
I'd wish I could have, if I survived the crash.

Then I heard a big crushing sound and we were shaken; than another sound of
metal sheets tearing apart and...

.... and it was dark.

To be continued...

____________________________

Yep, a cliffhanger!

Let me know if you like the story or not.

Flames will be ignored.

Drake

drakanian32@yahoo.ca