Nemesis - Book 3 of the Hunted series.

Chapter 14 - Memories (Beginnings.)

A/N - This is a long chapter and is Anne remembering everything. :) Feel free to read it - I did edit it a bit, add some things- or if you've already read Beginnings, you can probably skip it. hehe 

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I fell, and fell, and fell and...

Suddenly I was on the plane in LA, all memories of Nick and everyone else gone, as the seatbelt sign blinked off. Exhaustion and hunger nagging at me from a very long flight.

"Please make your way out carefully and thankyou for flying with Continental Airlines."

I stood awkwardly in my seat in the cramped plane, as everyone rose, sliding sideways and standing there for a second. One look at the crowded aisle though and I flopped back down in the seat and waited. Crowds didn't bother me, exactly, but why push and shove? I just had to wait.

Stress made my heart race. Or was that the exhaustion? Or was it because I was really bloody tired? What time was it in Australia anyway?

A fifteen hour flight did not make for a happy Liz when sitting next to a gassy man and his kid who whined all the time about the noise of the cabin. It hadn't helped that he'd nicked half my dinner when he thought I was asleep. I woke up to find it half gone with my drink missing. No way could I afford to spend $5 for another one so I shut my mouth and kept quiet.

I was really thirsty now though.

Breathe. Just breathe and think about your prize. A cruise! Just ...focus on that. I sighed, breathing in and out slowly, until most of the people had exited the plane. Then I stood up, lifting out the heavy laptop bag ...

But it wasn't there. Nothing was there.

This was not going well.

I grabbed for my bag, checking it, finding that my wallet was also gone. What the hell! My passport was there, the details about the flights and my competition details, but my wallet and my phone were missing. This was just getting worse and worse. I felt something hard in my pocket, fumbling for it, finding that I'd at least thought to put my proof of age card there. ...well, actually, I'd gotten lazy and slid it there at the Melbourne airport and forgotten to put it in my bag.

I moved up and down the plane, checking the other overhead compartments, ignoring the stares by the flight attendant people, finding the same thing. Nothing.

"You all right, Miss?"

"Someone took my bag and my wallet." I breathed harder, deeper, trying to not panic. Fuck. Fuck. What a way to start a holiday. I couldn't afford to replace that laptop, not while I was a full time student, I couldn't even afford to replace the phone.

They led me off the plane, my fingers white around the handbag, and I sat there, breathing hard, face white. Don't panic. Don't panic. Don't fucking panic. Details taken. Promices to check security cameras. Did planes even have those? I told them about my lunch going missing. No reseponce, not even a bat of an eyelid, like that didn't matter.

I had this feeling I'd never see that stuff again. Oh sure, they'd try, but ...

I sat there in a small waiting room for three hours while they pretended to help, trying to tell them that I had to get another flight, that I had to go again and I needed my stuff. I had no money. I couldn't afford to replace what was gone.

Other people sat there in the waiting room, coming and going, but I suspected that they'd been dragged into that room for other purposes. Some of them had literally been dragged and were handcuffed. Fantastic. I was in with the drug smugglers.