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Sole Survivor
“Everyone on the plane was calm. That’s the thing I remember most. There was a
baby somewhere behind me, crying. My friends, Roxi and Anne, were talking about
some guy they met. No one knew what would happen.”
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“Oh my God! And then he smiled at us!” Said Anne.
“Uh huh, great.” I replied. I wasn’t really interested. I mean it’s sweet that she
would try to make me not think about my fears of flying, but I can’t be distracted. It will
still be there in the back of my head nagging me. So I figure, why not face it head on?
“Fred! Are you even listening?” Anne said, interrupting my thoughts.
“Not really, it’s just I don’t feel like talking.” I tell her.
“Oh.” She says immediately understanding. My parents died in a plane cash when
I was five; I guess that’s where my fear comes from.
“Excuse me. Hello, everyone. This is the captain, we should be getting some
turbulence soon, which might delay our flight a bit, but we should arrive at our
destination at eight pm on Thursday, December 5th.”
“Ooh. Aren’t planes so exciting dear.” Said the old lady sitting behind us.
“Um, sure.” Anne replied.
“Oh, I just love flying, it’s so much fun.” She said, extremely chipper.
The plane started shaking for about a second. The baby started crying louder. I started hyperventilating.
“Fred, are you okay?” Roxi asked, in a concerned tone.
“I think so.” I took a few more breaths. “I just got really scared.” I swallowed the lump in my throat. The flight attendant started going up and down the isle to make sure everyone was okay.
“Ladies, are you alright?” She asked.
“Yes, but could we get some water?” Anne asked.
“Of course, anything else?” She replied.
“No, thanks.” I said.
Suddenly the plane started going down. Everyone was tilting forward.
I started hyperventilating again. I was clutching the arm rest, holding on for dear life.
“This is the captain, again. Please do not panic. The engine blew out and we’re crashing to the ground, if you just stay calm and remember to...”
“Oh my God, we’re going to die!” I screamed.
The plane started going down faster. Everyone was screaming, I could barely hear my thoughts, which were probably making me panic even more. Suddenly there was a bang and everyone bolted forward. You could see the snow on the ground, there was blood everywhere. I threw up on the chair in front of me. Anne reached over me and unbuckled my seat belt. There was blood everywhere on her beautiful face.
“Come on. We have to get out of here.” She said.
I absentmindedly followed her. Roxi got up, too, and followed us. We were just getting up when the plane tilted to the side and we could see outside. It was snowing really hard. There was blood everywhere. I think that Roxi had gotten really hurt when we crashed because she was cut up everywhere, and there was a cut on her head. While I was thinking the plane started making sounds.
“I think it’s going to explode!” Anne screamed. We started running towards an exit. I looked behind us and it was like the fire was chasing us. I started running faster. We were finally outside, then there was this sound, like a waterfall, it was roaring. I looked behind me and I realized the sound was of the explosion.
“You guys, we made it.” I told my friends. When I didn’t hear a reply I started looking around. Roxi and Anne were lying on the ground a couple yards from behind where I was standing. “Roxi, Anne!” I called their names. I started screaming my head off.
I ran over to where they were. I got to Roxi first. She wasn’t breathing, so I knelt down and checked her pulse. The only problem was that it wasn’t there. “No! This isn’t happening.” I heard myself say. Then I went over to Anne. She was so close to death, I knew I couldn’t help her.
“Go, save yourself.” She mumbled.
“No, I can’t leave you. I’ll just sit here and die.”
“No. You have to live, Fred. If you don’t, who’s going to tell people about my legacy.” She told me, a little more clearly, trying to make a joke.
“I’m not leaving you, I can’t.” I started crying as she took her last dying breath. I don’t know how long I was sitting there before her words hit me. She was right. How were people supposed to remember my best friends if I wasn’t there to tell them about their courage.
As I was thinking this it was like I was seeing the world from another person’s point of view. The plane, which was on fire, was starting to fall apart. And pieces were flying everywhere. The fire was spreading around. I realized that if I didn’t get the hell out of there, then I wouldn’t even get the choice to live.
I saw myself standing up and walking away from the fire. There was blood all over me, but I knew I had to go and find somebody to tell them about what happened. So I started walking. I guess it was colder than I realized because all of a sudden, I just dropped to the ground and couldn’t get up. I guess that was the moment I returned to my body because the last thing I saw was two people from Red Cross walking toward me from my spot on the ground. That was when I blacked out.
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“Are you okay?” The Canadian Guard asks me.
“Yeah. It's just hard to believe that I'm the sole survivor of a major plane crash."
Sole survivor, guess I may be changing my family's luck with planes.
THE END
- by caliactress |
- Fiction
- | Submitted on 11/12/2008 |
- Skip
- Title: Sole Survivor
- Artist: caliactress
- Description: It's a short story I wrote for class and everybody really liked it. Hope you do, too.
- Date: 11/12/2008
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Comments (4 Comments)
- Phoenixica24 - 06/14/2012
- I can see why he would be so cold at the end, he's probably in some form of shock, and his emotions shut down to protect his sanity. Once you get to a certain level, your body says 'this is bad' and shuts down whatever's threatening you.
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- Live Sideways - 10/29/2009
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His friend, and everyone around him just met horrible, gory ends before his very eyes. He's covered in blood.
"Are you okay?"
No, I don't think he would be.
But otherwise, good effort. There were enjoyable parts here and there, and you managed to pull off proper grammar, which is more than I can say for many people on this site.
One thing about the dialogue - try reading it out loud. If it doesn't sound like something a normal human being would say, revise it. - Report As Spam
- Julia Dream - 12/16/2008
- This was incredibly unrealistic. I mean the personalities and emotion of this person. Who just says, "Yeah. It's just hard to believe that I'm the sole survivor of a major plane crash." if they aren't a cyborg or missing a soul or something? This person lost his friends and survived an incredibly traumatic experience, and all he has in response is a cheeky, "Well, gawrsh, I guess my family's luck has changed! Doop-dee-doop!"? Plus, the punctuation for the dialogue was wrong.
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