Wings of Fate: The Lost Ones

Raven almost burst into relieved tears when she opened her eyes the following morning. Glorious sunlight poured through the windows to illuminate the faded gray passenger seats. Rubbing a hand over her face, Raven winced. The seat beside her was empty.

“Austin?” she called out. When there was no response she called his name again, louder this time, and then sighed when she heard a muffled noise from the rear of the plane. Pushing the blanket off her legs, Raven stood and began pulling herself up the aisle towards the bathrooms where she was sure Austin would be. Heat from the morning sun began to infiltrate the limited space of the airplane and it was rapidly becoming stuffy. With every step she took, the glinting sunlight sparkled at her through the small passenger windows, like a flashlight turning on and off, and on again.

Memories flooded back and she recalled pressing her fingers into the seats last night. In the darkness it had been impossible to remember the woven pattern of the fabric, impossible to remember whether the seats were gray or brown or blue. Everything was alive again; a part of reality once more -- and she let last night’s dreamy quality of their trek slip from her mind.

They weren’t dead.

When she reached the bathroom doors Raven found herself, again, wondering which door he would be behind. “Aus?” she called, turning her head back and forth, trying to anticipate which door would open.

Austin froze in the bathroom. He’d been sitting against the door in the dark, so no one would see him crying, when he heard a female voice calling for ‘Aus’.

Aus was what his mother always called him -- unless he was in trouble, and then he was Austin Alexander Barrett. He shoved down the abandonment that always came with thoughts of his mother. He tried, once again, to remember she wouldn’t have died if she could’ve helped it.

He tried not to feel guilty, all over again, for playing with his friends while she was dying. He should have known something was wrong. He didn’t want to laugh and play anymore. He just wanted his mom. His smiling, laughing mom.

Austin pulled the door close to his chest so he could squeeze his body through. The difference between the blackness of the bathroom and the brightness of the cabin was startling. Rays of sunlight darted around the edges of Raven’s body -– the thin lines jutted around her head and shoulders making her look like an angel.

Brushing his thoughts away, he glared at her. “Don’t call me Aus, I don’t like it.” She frowned but stepped back, allowing him to pass by. Keeping his gaze turned from her, he pushed the lingering thoughts of his mom away.

They watched the dust streams floating across the empty aisle. “So,” he started, “I noticed we are not under water.” He said calmly, as though the announcement were nothing more important than noting the time of day. In truth, he almost shouted with glee when he found they were not at the bottom of the ocean. He searched the plane, noticed the oddities and kept silent about them.

“Yeah,” Raven replied as she moved away, leaning over seats to peer through the window. “I noticed that, too, but haven’t had a chance to look outside yet -- did you?” she glanced over her shoulder at him and he watched her in silence for a moment before moving to the row opposite hers to gaze out the window. “All I have are trees over here, how about you?” Raven asked, straightening and backing out of the row. She moved around a few rows, heading closer toward the cockpit, to look through another window.

“Yeah, just trees over here. Do you know -- did you notice anything else, Raven?”

She glanced at him with a frown. “Like something outside? No, just trees over here,” she added, looking back again. “Wait. No, wait, there are people over here!” He flew to where she stood, pressing his nose against the windowpane.

“What are they doing?”

“It looks like they’re just standing around.” She answered with a shrug.

“Why are they just standing there?” his breath fogged up the window. Austin leaned back and rubbed his arm against the window to wipe off the fog, then leaned in again. He didn’t want to tell Raven how glad he was to see a group of men standing outside -- feeling at once the strength and security a man represented.

Raven was a nice lady, and she would probably do her best to protect him, but he felt safer now there was a man around. She backed out of the row and moved to the emergency exit. “Do you know how to work that?” he asked as she leaned in closer to the door.

“I can read can’t I?” she grumbled. “Looks like I just have to pull hard on this lever and then push the door open. You want to come give me a hand?”

Austin moved towards her and she stepped aside so he could reach in to help. It was impossible to believe they hadn’t died. No matter what Raven tried to convince him of last night, he believed they were at the bottom of the ocean; or in Hell. Austin wasn’t sure what Hell looked like but there was no way they could have survived a plane crash and since there weren’t any heavenly lights -- he was left with assumptions. Waking up offered relief -- not just because they were alive, but also from the eternity of Hell he expected.

“What’s wrong?” Raven asked.

Glancing up, Austin met her eyes and whispered. “I’m glad we’re not at the bottom of the ocean, I didn’t want to die at the bottom of an ocean.”

“I didn’t want to die at all,” she crossed her eyes at him and smiled, and then they both turned their attention to the door. After much pulling and pushing, and some loud complaining from Austin about her ineptness, they managed to pry open the door; pushing it hard until it swung away.

Warm wind rushed in, bringing with it the smell of summer rain along with the perfume of wet trees. Raven eyes were wet as she stared out at the trees where the rays of sunlight danced in every direction over the treetops. The side of the plane where he and Raven stood was surrounded by tall trees -- hundreds of them. In fact, other than trees, there was only the small group of men Raven spotted.

“Hey! Hello?” Raven called to them. “Hey, you -- down there, can you help us?” She paused and then called out again, “Hello?” They did not appear to hear.

“Can’t they hear you?” Austin asked, distracted by the men’s clothes. The warm wind pushing through the door soon became sweltering and he, beginning to sweat, was wishing he had cooler clothes to change into. The men outside wore dark full-bodied uniforms. The men were too far away for him to hear anything they might be saying, though it appeared they were talking to each other. Soldiers wore matching outfits like the men outside did and Austin wondered if that’s what they were.

“They can hear me Austin, if not it’s because they’re deaf.” She muttered in annoyance. He and Raven leaned forward through the open doorway and, looking down, both realized they were going to have another problem. The emergency exits were placed in the middle of the plane, which put them at about fifty or so rows up in the air -- so maybe one hundred feet or more.

Raven gazed at him with a thoughtful expression and he looked questioningly back at her.

“I can’t make that jump,” he said, all seriousness.

Raven smiled. “Course not, Austin, even I can’t make that jump.” He smiled at her and they moved back into the aisle, looking around for some means of escape. “Do you think they have any rope on the plane?” she asked.

“No idea.” He shrugged, glancing around the plane as though a coil of rope would magically appear because they needed it.

“I’m thinking we need to go check out the cockpit.” Raven said, moving around him.

“I’m going to go check where the stewardesses keep their supplies; maybe they might have some there.”

As she moved further down the aisle, Raven thought about the men outside and heard Austin’s question repeat itself in her head. Why are they just standing there? Surely the men knew they were here. Even if they were deaf, the men couldn’t also be blind and she and Austin opened the door; leaned through it. But the group on the ground hadn’t acknowledged the two of them were there at all. Perhaps the men spoke another language and didn’t answer because they didn’t understand her, she thought, though with room for doubt. Much doubt.

When she managed to get inside the cockpit her first thought was it was empty and dark. Something crunched beneath her tennis shoes and she realized the windshield must have shattered when they hit the ground. Well of course, she berated herself. Briefly Raven considered the idea they could squeeze through the windshield but gave the thought up as she noted the windshield was busted and the room was pitched in shadow. The hole must have been sealed with dirt and rock -- buried in the ground because it was still too dark for her to find anything.

Stretching her arms away from her body, Raven moved counter clock-wise around the surface of the room. Her hands skimmed over the thick, fabric-covered chairs and a large control panel. She pulled her hands back when her fingers scraped across glass fragments imbedded in the walls’ surface. She found nothing resembling shelves or cabinets that might have held rope.

Moving back into the light, Raven sighed in relief. “Austin, did you find anything?” she called, wondering for a moment if he could hear her before realizing, in the vault of silence, she could have whispered and he would probably have heard. Above her, he poked his head out of a closet and shook it.

“No, but what about -- do you know anything about tying knots?”

“Uh, sort of, why?”

“I watched a movie once where the boy was sneaking out of his house in the middle of the night. This kid was stuck on the second floor and couldn’t jump, you know, so he tied some sheets together -- we don’t have sheets but we do have these blankets.” He held up several of the brown fleece blankets, his voice trailing off as he waited for her to respond.

Raven thought about the dangers of such a stunt. What if the blankets ripped? Came untied? What if their hands slipped from the makeshift rope? But it was starting to swelter and it was the only idea they had. She sighed. “Sure, I’ll grab the blankets down here, you grab the ones up there and we’ll meet in the middle, how’s that?”

Austin nodded and they both gathered blankets as they moved through the aisle. It took them an hour to tie the blankets into knots and when they finished she had even more misgivings. They only came up with twenty-three blankets, which were only four feet long before you started tying knots, and afterwards were more like three feet. That only gave them a blanket rope of about sixty-nine feet. The distance to the ground was at least a hundred feet. At least. That meant a minimum of thirty feet, the height of a one-story building, they would have to jump in the end.

“Let me think for a minute.” She grumbled, frustrated.

Austin sat back, staring through the open doorway and Raven wondered again why the strangers outside hadn’t attempted to help. It was strange behavior. Obviously there was a plane crash. Obviously one should try to help. Shouldn’t there be fire trucks and ambulances? She watched Austin as he stared at the men and knew he was wondering the same things. “Those guys still out there?” she asked.

“Yeah.” He said, glancing down at the knot he was fingering.

“Still just standing there, hanging out?” she asked.

Austin looked again. “Yeah, it looks like they’re waiting for something.”

“Listen, this blanket thing isn’t long enough, there would still be too much of a jump. We need more blankets so look around again okay?” Austin climbed towards the cockpit, returning a few minutes later with ten blankets he found in the stewardess’ supply closet. That provided another thirty feet once tied, making Raven feel better. “Okay, next, do you want to go first or last?” She held her breath, waiting for him to answer, not sure herself which way she wanted him to choose.

“I’ll go first,” he offered, rising to his feet and glancing through the exit toward the ground.

She stood and began tying the blanket rope to one of the seat posts. “When you reach ground -- don’t run off, you understand? I don’t want to have to come after you. I also don’t know those men so I want you to stay close to the rope.”

Austin nodded and, with a shiver, glanced over the side as he clutched the blankets. Raven, feeling the need to comfort him, patted his back awkwardly. “It’ll be fun man, something to tell your friends about, huh?”

Holding the blankets, he inched backwards and leaned through the doorway, all the while looking up at her with a scowl. “No one would ever believe this.”

As soon as the kid’s feet touched the ground he shielded his eyes with one hand and looked up at her. Raven glanced at the group of men who now watched the spectacle without offering assistance. Turning back to the knot around the seat post, she tugged at it again, ensuring the binding was still good and tight. She hated heights. She hated being at the top of some high place. She really hated having to shimmy down a rope of blankets from the top of some high place.

Raven shifted her purse, which was weighted down with her laptop in it and hanging awkwardly from her shoulder but she refused to leave it behind. Clenching her hands around the rope she stepped to the edge of the door and leaned backwards until she was more out of the plane than in.

“What the hell are you doing Raven?” she muttered quietly to herself. “Oh, you know, just trying to get myself killed is all.” She continued, glancing over her shoulder at the ground, “nothing to see here.”

Pulling one foot away from the edge, she wrapped it around the rope and then pulled her other foot away until she was dangling outside the plane. She crept down the rope as slowly as she could, torn between not wanting to fall and not wanting to take so long the blankets gave out and she ended up falling anyway. Holding her breath, she increased her pace.

In the end they were still short a few feet and had to jump, but it was an easy leap and neither of them was hurt. Raven rubbed her hands on her jeans in an attempt to soothe the raw skin and, looking up at the gleaming 747, the enormity of the situation hit her. They lived through an airplane crash. They should have been dead.

“Hello travelers from afar. We have come to see to your safe journey to Nicaru Village.” One of the five men approached them with a small bow. “Ah,” he murmured. The man’s chestnut eyes skimmed over her before glancing at Austin. “You are injured.” He tilted his head to the side then and said, “I am surprised you do not have even more injuries -- this seems like a terrible crash. We will take you to Nicaru Village so you can be helped.”

“What?” Raven asked. “Take us where? And why didn’t you help us? We needed help getting out of the plane!” she complained, pointing over her shoulder at the plane just in case he missed the shiny object.

“Did you not get out of the plane?” he asked.

She gritted her teeth and glared at him. “Yes.”

“Good, we will go to Nicaru Village -- to the wise woman.”

“Wait -- a wise woman?” Raven waved a hand in front of her face, attempting to shift the stifling air away and bring some cool air in, she was beginning to sweat. The acres of trees surrounding them stood still, any sign of gusty wind remained invisible as the leaves hung lifelessly, and the higher the sun climbed in the sky, the hotter it became. “Does she have a phone?”

“Phone?” the man repeated.

“Yes, a phone, to call our families with -- to call for help?” Raven hitched her sliding purse straps more firmly onto her shoulder before reaching inside its’ confines to dig out her cell phone. Flipping it open she held it high above her head, twisting around, looking for a signal. Nothing. She sighed and glanced at the man again. “Phone.” She reiterated, waving hers at him.

His expression was blank as he glanced from her phone to her face. “Ruth will help you.”

“Ruth?”

“The wise woman.”

“Ah, okay.” Raven glanced around them, searching the forest for something, anything. The plane, though the nose was buried in the ground, jutted skyward. The sunlight glinted off the metal exterior, blinking in the windows, highlighting smudges along the plane’s side. It looked out of place there, surrounded by nothing but trees, like wearing high heel shoes while gardening. She and Austin could follow the men to this village -- to this wise woman, and perhaps the men were upstanding citizens only trying to help. Perhaps they were not.

Raven glanced down at Austin who remained silent with an unreadable expression. “Okay,” she said again, nodding her head at the man. His eyes held hers steadily as though he never doubted her decision. Raven tried to read his thoughts through the expression in his eyes but there was only surety in his gaze. “Lead the way.”

“Come this way.” The man instructed as he turned. After he moved away, Raven stared hard at the four other men who remained silent behind him. Each of the men paused for only a moment, watching her and the boy as though they were insects to be studied. Their arms hung at their sides -- giving Raven the impression they meant no harm (or were unworried about defending themselves against her). Four sets of brown eyes turned away, glancing at the ground as they followed the first man through the trees. The men were not identical, she could see various slight differences, but they were similar enough to have been brothers.

Austin lingered beside her as she hesitated, looking around the forest again in search of an alternative. Finding none, Raven turned to follow the men. Before the trees swallowed them, she and Austin glanced over their shoulders one last time at what remained of flight seventy-four, nonstop to Puerto Rico.