LOTF: Before and After

Phase 1: Chapter 8

"Shit, sorry man" Jack laughed as Ralph pulled his headphones off.

"You scared me" Ralph said unnecessarily.

"I said sorry" Jack laughed.

"Have a nice nap?" Ralph poked fun of him.

"Shut up" Jack laughed, punching Ralph's arm. "Are we almost there?"

"Half an hour out" Maurice said from the adjacent seat before Ralph could answer.

"You ever been before?" Jack asked Ralph.

"To England?"

"On a plane" Jack clarified.

"Oh, yeah, tons of times. We went to Hawaii the winter I turned eight for my birthday. Plus my grandparents live in Wyoming so we fly out to see them at least twice a year cause they're old and don't like the hassle of flying to Georgia. Why? Have you ever been on a plane?"

"Once" Jack confessed, "when I was four."

"That's a long time ago" Ralph observed. "Where did you guys go?"

"To look for my mom" Jack said simply. The boys in the adjacent seat turned their heads to stare at Jack, as did the boys sitting directly in front of them. Ralph didn't know what to say, so he changed the subject in hopes that the others would turn back around.

"We'll get to eat pretty good once we board" Ralph explained. "It's a nine hour flight. So prepare for jetlag when you get off, it'll take a night or two for you to adjust to the time change."

"Lookin' forward to it" Jack responded as he dropped his hands into his lap, on top of Ralph's makeshift sweater blanket. Ralph made no attempt to take it back before they arrived at the airport.

Since they were taking a military plane directly to the base in Menwith Hill, England, they didn't need to spend hours waiting in the airport. All the boys and Captain Benson had to do was be cleared by security, present their IDs and boarding passes and they'd be on their way.

They were sitting in rank order as well on the plane, next to the same people they sat with on the bus. Ralph was assigned to the window seat, but let Jack have it since it was his first flight in nine years.

"Watch as we take off, it's super cool to see how everything gets smaller and smaller. It's like our world that seems so big, is shrunken down to a spec and it kinda makes it feel like your worries aren't as big either" Ralph told Jack as they buckled their seatbelts.

The couple few hours of the flight were in darkness. They boarded the plane just after 0230 hours in Georgia and the rest of the country was fast sleep as they flew over top of it. It wasn't long until they were over the North Atlantic Ocean.

"It's boring to watch out the window. All I see is black" Jack observed as he stared into the night.

"That's cause it's dark" Ralph replied. "Once the sun comes up in about three hours, you'll see how pretty the ocean looks from here. It's incredible. You can see all the little islands like tiny specs in the ocean."

Jack shrugged his shoulders and turned on the little TV that hung on the back of the seat in front of him. Ralph pulled out a book he'd brought for the plane ride and crushed 4 chapters before he fell asleep.

When Ralph woke up, the sun rising in beautiful colors outside the plane window. He checked his watch; 0502 hours. Jack was looking out the window intently, watching as they flew above the Atlantic.

"Bored yet?" Ralph asked as he rubbed his eyes to force himself awake.

"Getting close" Jack said as he turned his attention to his friend. "Sleep good?"

"Considering where we are, pretty good" Ralph claimed.

Shortly after, most of the boys were awoke and conversation floated throughout the plane. There were now about three or so hours left in the flight. Ralph and Jack were in the midst of a game of chess that they'd proped up on the arm rests between their seats.

All of a sudden, the chess board started to shake and the pieces fell to the floor as the plane swerved quickly and aggressively to the left. Water bottles, devices, personal items, TV remotes and everything in the boys' seats throughout the plane had fallen to the floor. Some of the overhead bags on the righthand row fell down onto their heads before hitting the ground. Ralph felt the plane start to shake intensely for several seconds until it seemingly steadied. It's just turbulence, he concluded before verbally assuring Jack and a few others around him of this. Just as he made to reach down and try to retrieve the fallen game pieces, another abrupt drop hit, and the plane started to shake; like really shake. The faces around Ralph wore startled expressions, some more fearful than others. Then before he knew it, the plane dropped again, but this time it didnt steady. It continued to shake and drop quickly and consistently, rocking from side to side, knocking the items on the floor from one end of the plane to the other. Confused remarks and questions shifted into cries of panic all around. Ralph felt like he was being pulled down, like he was in a real fast elevator that was taking them from the highest floor in a building all the way to the basement.

"What's going on?" Jack called out as he covered his head, shrinking to make himself small in his seat. Ralph looked around and saw several other boys doing the same. He hardly had time to notice that the panic and screams around him were increasing in intensity as quickly as the plane was descending.

"I think the plane's going down!" Ralph called back to Jack, his voice lost among the heart-wrenching sounds of a tragedy about to happen.