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)
She looked down at her outfit and shook her head. “I have a pair of pajama pants.”
“I’d put them on. Layer up.”
She appeared ready to argue, but then nodded, bending toward her luggage. Charlie had put on a jacket too and was sitting on his suitcase, fiddling with his phone again.
I opened my duffel bag and pulled out a jacket and some boots, and then tossed the useless clothing items on the ground and began transferring the things I’d gathered from the plane into the bag.
“What are you doing?” Charlie asked.
“It’ll be easier to carry this,” I told him, zipping it closed.
“Carry?”
“Yeah. Carry. I’m going to start walking.”
“Walking?” Emily balked. “Why would you start walking?”
“Because there’s probably some sort of civilization within a few miles, and it’s better than sitting here and freezing our asses off.”
“But…but air traffic control must know our plane went down,” Charlie said. “Help has to be on the way.”
“Didn’t you hear Russell?” I asked.
“Who’s Russell?”
“The pilot.”
“Oh,” Charlie said, his gaze skittering toward the place where his body lay and then away.
“He was trying to contact air traffic and couldn’t get through. No one was answering. That was right before the engines failed. It’s very possible no one knows where we are, or even that we went down.” Plus, something weird had happened. Everything on the plane had very suddenly shut down. And I had wondered about an electric storm because of the lightning. But would that have caused fires on the ground too? I couldn’t see any now, but I’d seen them from the airplane window. It was like something specific had happened to both the sky and the earth. Whatever it was had knocked out all the plane’s systems. And if that was the case, no help would be coming. We were on our own.
“I don’t know,” Charlie said, “waiting here seems like the smarter option. Who knows what’s—” he waved his arm around the mostly empty field save for a few scattered trees “—that way, or that way. We might get lost.”
“We’re already lost,” I said, picking up my duffel bag. “But suit yourselves. Good luck.”
“Hey!” Emily said. “You have all the food and water.”
“I’m the one who got back on that plane and collected the food and water,” I said, my jaw tight. Still, I wasn’t going to leave them to die, even if Charlie had lied about me and Emily had willingly believed his lies. That stuff seemed insignificant at the moment. I opened my duffel bag and tossed them each a bottle of water and a handful of the individual-sized snack bags from the minibar on the plane. Then I rezipped my bag and headed away.
“Wait!” Emily said. I halted, turning again. She shot a glance at Charlie, hesitating, as though she was waiting for some form of permission from him.
“I’m losing daylight,” I gritted out, anger suddenly warming me like an internal fire. Good, I’d stay angry. My nose felt like a damn ice cube.
“It’s just…” She shifted from one foot to the other. I glanced down and noticed that she was wearing a pair of hot pink heels. “I think we should stay together,” she said in a rush of words punctuated by puffs of white vapor. “Strength in numbers. There could be predatory animals out here.” Her eyes darted around and then back to Charlie.
Charlie’s gaze shifted around too. “Maybe you’re right,” Charlie said. “There could be a town or something over that hill. It’s impossible to see from here.”
I’d honestly been looking forward to ditching them. But… God. What if she died out here? What would her parents say if they knew I’d just left her to fend for herself? I looked down to Emily’s heel-clad feet once more. “You can’t walk in those.”
She followed my gaze. “Oh…well, these are my most comfortable heels and all I brought.”
Christ. They were already holding me back and we hadn’t even started walking yet. I glanced at Charlie’s feet. They appeared about the size of my own. She wouldn’t fit in either of our shoes. “Do you have a pair of slippers?” I asked.
“Slippers?” Her brow dipped. “Um…yes. Hold on.” She bent to her suitcase and dug through it, retrieving a pair of pink fuzzy slippers.
I reached out and took one, turning it over. There was a thick layer of rubber on the bottom. “These’ll work,” I said. I took a pair of socks out of my duffel bag and tossed those and the slippers at her. She caught them against her chest, her mouth opening slightly. “Put these and the slippers on and let’s go.” She clutched the socks and slippers, her expression morphing into confusion. “Sixty seconds,” I said, “and then you can catch up.” I wrapped the duffel bag’s strap around my body, balancing the weight on my back. “Or not.”