Total pages in book: 51
Estimated words: 45957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 45957 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 230(@200wpm)___ 184(@250wpm)___ 153(@300wpm)
Grabbing the handle, I tried tugging it open. I snarled under my breath when I found the door to the cockpit locked. I knocked roughly on the door, but I didn’t get a fucking thing from in there. The flight attendant wasn’t around either.
What the fuck was happening?
The plane jerked roughly again, and then, it got marginally quieter—like one of the fucking engines had gone out. I barely had time to brace myself before the plane began to shake and sputter. I didn’t know where that goddamn flight attendant was or why the fuck the pilot had come on to tell me what the fuck was going on, but I knew we were about to crash. Knew it deep in my gut, and my gut never led me astray.
I needed to get to Adrian.
I sprinted for the back of the plane, slamming into the seat next to him just as the plane began to nosedive. “Adrian!” I barked. His eyes snapped open, tired dark eyes looking at me in annoyance. I quickly fastened in my seatbelt. “I don’t know what the fuck is going on, but an engine has gone out, the pilot is silent, the flight attendant is MIA, and we’re about to crash.”
“What?!” he barked at me, his eyes now wide and frantic.
I gripped his face in my hands, trying to keep my nerves steady. It wouldn’t help if both of us panicked. Ninety-five percent of people survived plane crashes, and I was about to make damn sure that we were part of that ninety-five percent. I was not fucking losing him, and I wasn’t goddamn dying before I got to even have him.
“Breathe,” I told him as we descended further and further down, our speed increasing. My gut swooped, but I ignored it, focusing on him. “We’re going to survive this. But you need to hold on.” Releasing him, I brought my legs up, curling into the tightest fucking ball I could manage because it was the only thing that made sense to do. It might keep my legs from snapping on impact. Adrian, without having to be told, did the same thing I did, then tucked his face down.
We had to survive.
The impact was rough, knocking the breath from my lungs. Metal scraped and twisted. Bent and screamed. A harsh shout ripped from my throat at the impact, and I was pretty sure I heard Adrian yelling, too. The cabin lights went out, swallowing us in darkness, and then, the plane broke in half, and the back half of the plane crashed down to the ground roughly, making my teeth bite into my tongue. Blood exploded in my mouth, but I could barely focus on the coppery taste through the ringing in my ears.
Lifting my head, I blinked dazedly around me. Adrian was already moving to unfasten his seatbelt, and then, he was reaching over to undo mine. Grabbing my hand, he tugged me up from the seat, and we moved from the safety of our chairs.
Then, we just stared.
We were nowhere near home. It was dark outside, but I could make out snow and mountains. We were in some valley, which could be either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how I looked at it. Bad because we weren’t going to get any kind of signal down here so we could get help. Good because hopefully we could follow the valley and come to some kind of civilization, where we could get assistance there.
But we had the elements to contend with, and that wasn’t a fucking good thing when it was the dead middle of winter in Russia.
“Fuck,” Adrian breathed, and for a moment, his hand tightened around mine. Like he was seeking comfort from me.
Fuck was right.
“We need to see what we can find,” I rasped, my throat raw from screaming. “We’ll need extra clothes. Thick coats if there are any on board. A backpack so we can grab flashlights, flares, thermal blankets if we have any, nonperishable food…” I was thinking out loud, already moving to search for what we needed in all the carnage and destruction. My hand still hadn’t left Adrian’s, and I didn’t want it to. It was dark, and I needed him there with me so I knew he was safe.
“Ah, shit,” he grumbled.
I turned to follow his gaze, grimacing at the sight of the flight attendant. She hadn’t made it. Her neck was twisted at an awkward angle, and she had a piece of plane jabbed right through her midsection. Her mouth was open in a silent scream, her eyes wide and unseeing. When she’d seen us napping, she’d probably decided to take a nap, too. She’d probably had absolutely no warning that she was about to die.
Adrian’s bag had fallen out during the crash and was sitting in the snow. He let go of my hand to snatch it up. After tossing it onto one of the seats, he yanked the zipper open, fishing out a puffer jacket, a gun, ammo, and two knives. He tossed me one of the knives, which I clipped to my leather belt.