I decided to start writing this random idea that floated into my head. So, yes, enjoy some words.
Please comment/critique/whatever! I'd love some feedback.
Edit: I re-wrote the last few paragraphs because they were a bit rushed, and they portrayed the character wrong... they're much better now. c: And, wow, this ended up being a lot longer than I intended. Silly writing being so descriptive.
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Please comment/critique/whatever! I'd love some feedback.
Edit: I re-wrote the last few paragraphs because they were a bit rushed, and they portrayed the character wrong... they're much better now. c: And, wow, this ended up being a lot longer than I intended. Silly writing being so descriptive.
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Chapter 1
"What the... where..."
Amber started to say something, but her words were lost in the fogginess of her mind. Everything seemed hazy. She tried to open her eyes, but the world was too bright and they clamped shut again instantly. A groan fell from her lips. Her head pounded, but the pain felt distant. A thought strayed into her mind from somewhere implacable, a sudden knowledge: something had happened. Something, though she wasn't quite sure what it was. She couldn't think straight. All her thoughts were half lost beneath the incessant ringing in her ears.
She sat herself up, rubbing one eye with a wrist. The other hand was stretched out, and she groped around blindly, trying to gather some information about her surroundings. Cool, moist mud spread between her fingers; plants were flattened by her palm. Wisps of earthy scents hung in the air. Above her, the sound of rustling leaves filled the air - but no bird calls, she noticed with absent-minded curiosity.
"But... but I thought I was on... a plane." The thought tumbled from her mouth the minute it entered her head. She forced her eyes open again, fighting the light that at once made her feel drowsy and dizzy. Her mind seemed to be clearing a bit: she could remember being sat on the plane - yeah, Manchester to Heathrow; she remembered falling asleep, no matter how hard she was trying to stay awake; and she remembered...
Ignoring her surroundings, she dipped a hand into the pocket of her jeans and pulled out her iPhone. A few big shards of shattered glass - ruptured by a lightning bolt that arced across it - was all that remained of the screen, fit together like a jigsaw puzzle. She crossed her fingers as she pressed the power button, and - yes, it's working. A few seconds later she was looking at the last text she had received. She had got it during the flight, though she would have swore she'd turned her phone off. Just before she fell asleep, in fact.
It read: "Brace yourself."
She had puzzled over those words for a few minutes during the flight. It had been sent by an unknown number; she had never gave anyone besides her friends her phone number, so she wasn't quite sure how that was possible. But then a wave of tiredness had overcome her, and she had fell asleep. And woke up here. She dragged her eyes from the splintered screen of her phone, but she already knew what she would see.
The carcass of a passenger jet lay in front of her, misshapen, beat-up and missing many of the metal panels that made up its flanks; it was rolled half onto its side like a dog wanting a belly-rub. Most of the windows were shattered. The wings were nowhere to be seen - which made it look like some sort of pale nightmarish worm, and, true to that, it had furrowed an arrow-straight clearing in the forest that now surrounded it. Branches jutted - half-devoured - from the chasm that has once been the cockpit. Around it, chunks of metal rubble and a couple of old seats lounged amid the tropical foliage.
"Brace yourself, indeed."
Her voice rasped in her throat, and she wondered how long she had lay there, unconscious. For that matter, how did I even end up outside the plane? she thought to herself as she picked herself up from the heavily vegetated ground. A few startled insects launched themselves away as she rose; as an afterthought she sent a scowl after them, noticing the itchy bumps on her arms that were obviously bug-bites.
The sun hung in the centre of the sky as if from a string. The heat was intense, and the shelter of the forest trees seemed almost tempting until she had a good look into their depths, and realised how easy it would be to get lost in there - even more lost that I already am. And she didn't like the way the trees seemed to be watching her. A strong gale lashed the topmost branches of them, turning the canopy into a whirlwind of shimmering leaves and flailing branches; but beneath the roof of leaves the forest was completely silent. Not a whisper of sound tainted the air. She decided that was worse.
Every sound she made sounded as loud as a gunshot in the eerie quiet of the jungle. It sounded wrong; she couldn't help feeling that something didn't want her breaking the silence. But no matter how hard she tried, her own sounds followed her, as loud as thunder. Even when she tried to move quietly, the tall shrubs that surrounded her rustled too loudly, clutching at her clothes as she passed. Whenever a twig snapped under her foot she would flinch, breath held. She felt eyes drilling holes into the back of her skull, but, when she turned around, nobody was there.
Her solitude weighed even heavier on her as she moved closer to the plane, a nagging voice in the back of her head insisting that nobody else could possibly be alive... and that she was all alone out here. The humidity of the place sapped her strength - not only physically, but mentally too. She had never been much of a 'people person', but she would have given anything to have someone else with her right then: another voice to break the silence, another set of eyes to watch her back. This place seemed absolutely devoid of life. She had yet to see even a hint of bird or mammal - she hadn't even seen any insects since those few she had startled before. This place is unnatural. I have to get out of here. But first...
The fuselage towered above her, white and terrible, loose panels screeching in the wind with the sound of a great beast dying. The plane looked so big now. Parts of it had been skinned away at the front, leaving a few rows of seats exposed; from here, they looked empty. No smell hung in the air - always a good sign, that. It was rolled on an angle away from her, the rear door about a metre-and-a-half above the ground. Amber stared at it for a while.
She knew she had to go in there. She had to check the plane, and see if anyone else was alive. But she was terrified of what she might find in there - she had seen dead people before. It wasn't an experience she was eager to repeat. So cold... She shook her head aggressively, trying to scare those memories away. Not now. Not right now.
Looking around briefly, she figured the best way to get in the plane was just to climb straight up there. It wasn't too high, and her new hobby - rock climbing - had made her arms strong. The plane looked stable enough, if on a bit of a dodgy angle. It was unlikely there was anything dangerous in there. Besides, maybe, some broken electricals or something. She didn't know much about planes. Realising she was stalling, she grabbed onto the ledge that was the floor of the plane, and pulled herself up.
It was quiet in there. It was quiet outside too... but in here it seemed to be intensified by the staleness of the air, and the walls that now surrounded her. The floor knocked loudly under her feet. It felt like she was intruding on something - perhaps the joint grave of all her fellow passengers. She didn't bother denying to herself how likely that was. Instead, she tried to steel herself for what was undoubtedly awaiting her further down the aisle.
The floor lurched at a sickening angle beneath her feet.
She approached the passenger toilets, and had the irrational urge to knock. Fool. Nobody's going to be using the loo. Still, she opened the door slowly, palm splayed on the greyish plastic. It scraped as it opened. It got jammed half way, but she didn't bother forcing it open further; she stuck her head through the gap, and, as expected, there was nobody in there. No corpse, thank god.
Amber withdrew from the bathroom, and turned towards the rest of the plane. It wasn't particularly dark in there. Light streamed in through the windows and the gaping hole at the nose; it was murky though, and full of shadows. They shifted as she moved. The last row of seats in the plane was in front of her. She could have looked around the rest of the plane, but her eyes were fixed on them, as if if she stared at them intensely enough she would be able to look straight through.
Her footsteps seemed to echo louder and louder as she approached; she was breathing too fast, but she couldn't stop. Her heart thudded hard in her chest, and her head thudded in the same rhythm, like a drum beat. She stared at the back of the chair. Just look, coward. Just look. She readied herself... then looked.
The seat was empty.
Breathing again, she allowed her shoulders to relax a bit. No dead body. No sightless eyes staring at her. She let her gaze slide from the vacant seat to the rest of the plane; she could some of the other seats, and none of them had people in them. None of them at all.
She checked each seat, just in case, then reluctantly checked the cockpit too. A huge tree jutted through what once might have been a window, crushing one of the seats. The other was nowhere to be seen. For that matter, neither were the pilots. They couldn't possibly have escaped that, Amber thought, cogs turning in her head.
On a whim she retraced her steps, back to the area where all the passengers had been seated. Above the seats were storage compartments; she opened one, expecting someone's luggage to fall on her face. But it was empty. A spider hunched in the corner, and she thought it was dead before it leapt into a frantic sprint before her eyes. In her surprise she let go of the door, and the compartment slammed shut.
She searched them all, and found nothing. Then she searched beneath the seats, and still found nothing. Not a crumb of food, not a single stray pencil. It was as if the plane had been disinfected before it had been thrown into this forest. The seats didn't have any smell to them, and they could have been new but for the ones at the front that were torn and dirt-stained by the descent.
"Dammit, this doesn't add up. Nobody could have been on this plane."
She took her phone out of her pocket again, and looked at the screen. Brace yourself, the text read. How could anyone have possibly known that the plane was going to crash? And why didn't she remember it happening? And where the hell was everyone?
As if on cue, a new sound faded into existence outside the plane: the sound of clumsy footsteps in the thick foliage outside. Many of them. Amber ran over to the door and stood, back against the wall beside it. She didn't know why she was being wary, but with all these strange things happening she figured she couldn't be too cautious. She listened.
"What the... well, there's how we got here. I knew I remembered a plane!" One voice said loudly, a girl's, maybe around Amber's age from what she could tell.
"Hello! Is anyone alive in there? Hello-," another voice yelled, English but with a tinge to the accent that could have been Scottish, before it was interrupted by a third voice saying "Shut up." harshly. Then someone started muttering, and someone else started moaning.
Amber stepped out into the doorway, saying, "yes, someone is alive. Though only one person, I'm afraid. Everyone else is gone."
