The crisp morning air was gone, replaced with the somewhat bland and stale smell of the inside of an airplane. On board were the year's freshmen nominees, all from East Bell High School. They had all been chosen, along with the other freshmen at EBHS to take a special survey, sponsored by the newly made program American Trips for Freshmen (ATF). The program was made to promote "pride and Americanism," but for the teens it was more or less an excuse to miss two weeks of school and visit some exciting place. This was the ATF's first trip, and they had picked Fairbank, Alaska as their destination. If the trip was a success they would continue their program. They had chose EBHS at random to receive the survey. Only a little less than half of the freshmen given the survey were qualified to go on the trip. Of that half only some had the money, materials, and parental permission to go. As a result, of the 106 freshmen qualified to go, only forty-four were actually going.
The forty-four freshmen aboard the plane were giving the airline attendants the runaround. While the kids were having the time of their lives, the attendants were moments away from calling it quits. In their eyes, the freshmen were scarcely better than two-year-olds.
"Mrs! Mrs!" One of the boys, Jason Powell, exclaimed from the back of the plane. "This idiot right here is annoying me! Can you kick him off the plane?"
Jackson Wallston, Jason's best friend, laughed and said, "No, he's bothering me! Kick him off, kick him off!" The attendant glanced over at them and walked away down the aisle, rolling her eyes exasperated.
"No, don't go!" Jason shouted, laughing.
"Could you just stop?!" Kristen McGrim, who was sitting behind Jackson and Jason, exclaimed annoyed. "You both should be kicked off the plane." Jason and Jackson continued laughing.
"Hey! I'm supposed to sit next to you!" Lola Baxen complained from the front of the plane. Stephan Collins, her latest boyfriend, and Alexander Waters, his best friend, looked up at her confused. They were both sitting in their seats.
"You still can," Alex said, "There's still one more seat next to him."
"Yeah Lola," Stephan added, still a little confused at Lola's outburst. "I saved you the seat next to the window, just like you wanted." Lola frowned.
"Where's Sally supposed to sit?" Lola asked as Sally Ford stood beside her. Stephan looked from her to Alex. There were only three seats on the right side of the plane for each row, and on the left there were two seats. He had been planning on sitting between Lola and Alex. Apparently, though, Lola had other plans.
"But Lola, I had already told Alex he could sit with us," Stephan explained. "Sally can sit in one of those seats," he pointed to one of the seats on the left side of the plane.
"I want to sit next to Sally!" Lola pouted like a three-year-old. "So either you tell Alex to move, or I'll go sit somewhere else." Stephan looked at Alex regretfully and, with an annoyed sigh, Alex got up and sat in the row behind Stephan, next to Jonathan and Joe Fairlight.
"Lola?" Jonathan asked Alex.
"Yep, spoiled brat," Alex said.
"I heard that!" Lola said from her seat between Stephan and Sally.
"Good!" Alex shouted back.
After a quick stop at Chicago, where the kids boarded another plane that was specifically for the ATF program, the freshmen found themselves a few hours away from their destination in Alaska. The commotion from earlier had vanished as time went by. Many of the kids were sleeping, or trying to at least. Some stared out the window or talked with friends.
"Ally?" Sky Flick asked quietly, unsure if her friend was sleeping or not.
"Yeah?" Ally Wolfe answered.
"Were you sleeping?"
"Trying to," Ally said with a slight laugh. Sky nodded.
"Chloe's asleep. I don't see how she can though!"
"Well, good for her."
"Do you know how long it is till we get there?" Ally thought about it for a while before shaking her head. Sky sighed, obviously bored.
"Do you want to sit next to the window? You can see the mountains very good. Soon we'll be right above them...oh and look at those clouds! They're very dark. You know, it would be pretty cool to see a thunderstorm from this height. Well, actually I think that may be a bit of a bad thing," Ally said as she looked out the window, which was easy since she was sitting in the window seat. Sky looked past Ally and felt her stomach do flips.
Those clouds are dark, Sky thought nervously to herself, are we gonna land soon? We better, or else we're gonna end up in the middle of a storm!
Another bolt of lightning appeared out of the dark storm clouds surrounding the plane. It was followed by deafening thunder and several feminine screams from within the plane.
"We're gonna die! We're gonna crash and die!" Lola screamed, tears coursing down her face, ruining her overdone makeup. As a strong gust of wind shook the plane, she buried her face in Stephan's shoulder. He tried to comfort her, but it was a difficult task when he was terrified himself.
"Please remain in your seats with your seatbelts fastened," said the pilot over the speakers, "We're getting ready for an emergency landing in Jasper, Alberta." Stephan sighed, relieved. Everything will be okay, he thought to himself, we'll land and wait out the storm. We'll be okay...
Toward the plane's midsection Sky and Ally were trying to calm down Chloe, who had woken up as the storm grew increasingly worse.
"It's okay Chloe, they just said we'll be landing," Sky said. Ally nodded, trying to look as cheerful and confident as possible.
"No! It is not okay!" Chloe exclaimed, almost hysterical. "This was supposed to be fun, but it's not!" She took her off seatbelt and was about to head to the back of the plane to hide in the bathroom when Sky caught her by the hand.
"Sit back down!" Sky commanded.
"Don't worry Chloe," Ally said, "We'll be down on the ground soon-"
Ally had no time to finish before the plane turned abruptly, and the back half of the plane tore off, along with Chloe...
Everything was white...and cold. It took Ally a moment to realize she was buried underneath some snow. With only her jacket and jeans to keep her warm, she was freezing. Quickly, she pushed herself above and out of the snow. Outside it was fairly dark because of the storm, and loud with the howls of the wind blowing snow. Around her was only snow, and she could tell she was on a slope, whether or not it was the slope of a mountain or large hill she wasn't sure.
Where is everybody? Ally wrapped her hands around her sides in an attempt to get warm and stood up.
"Hello?!" She shouted as loud as she could, but her voice was lost in the stormy weather. She tried again and was only answered by the roar of the wind. Unable to locate her friends and classmates, she tried to remember all that had happened previously.
Okay, I was on the plane talking to Chloe and Sky when--when the back of the plane came off with Chloe in it. Everyone started screaming after that and...we crashed? Ally couldn't quite remember what had happened at that point, and she guessed she must have fainted.
Suddenly, she saw a burst of fire from some distance away, followed by faint screams and shouts. She headed in that direction and within minutes found herself in the midst of the plane's wreckage.
As blinding as the snow from the storm was, most of the kids were rooted to the ground, too scared to move. Some were screaming and crying with fright, others looked dazed and utterly confused, and still some more were crying out for help. Only a few had managed to keep calm, among them Stephan and Alex.
"Stephan! Stephan, I need help," Alex called out. His best friend followed the sound of his voice and soon found him struggling to lift a dislocated plane seat off someone. Stephan wasn't sure who it was, but he quickly bent down and helped Alex lift up the seat. Underneath was Joe, although he was barely recognizable. He had a large gash on his forehead, and blood was seeping out fast.
"We got to cover that up soon," Stephan warned Alex. Joe let out a moan as he raised his hand to his forehead. He pulled it back when he felt the blood.
"With what?" Alex asked. Stephan looked around and saw the plane seat. Quickly, he went over to it and started to rip off a strip of the torn fabric. Alex watched as Stephan wrapped the cloth around Joe's forehead.
"It's not really good, but it should work," Stephan said. He and Alex than lifted Joe up and carried him to a large remaining part of the plane.
The front of the plane had crashed into the side of a mountain, and the pilot, along with the rest of the plane crew, died instantly. The several kids in the first and second rows died as well, and the others were either dying or already dead in the aftermath of the crash. The storm wasn't helping the survivors, nearly all were freezing and in shock.
"Sky! Sky!" Ally shouted out for her friend. At first she heard no reply, but then she caught Sky's voice.
"Over here!" Sky shouted and Ally followed her voice to where Sky was sitting in the snow with several other shocked kids. Ally was glad to see that her friend only showed a few minor injuries, mostly just some cuts. She looked pretty sane, too, unlike those sitting with her.
"Come on Sky, we need to help the others," Ally said as she pulled Sky to her feet. The fourteen-year-old girl looked at her friend of three years and slowly nodded. Ally smiled and started looking around for someone to help. It didn't take long for her to spot someone. A boy several meters away was lying rocking himself while holding his left wrist in a death grip, blood seeping through his fingers. Ally and Sky went over to him, stumbling a bit in the soft snow, and Ally was quick to bend down next to him. Even though it was dark, she recognized him to be Alex Seth, whom everyone just referred to as Seth.
"What's wrong Seth?" Ally practically shouted to be heard above the wind. Seth didn't seem to notice she was there and she gently shook his right shoulder. "What's wrong?" He finally looked up at her and she thought she saw tears in his eyes. His right hand was shaking badly as he slowly lifted his left wrist up.
"My h-hand, my hand-d," he managed to choke out. That's when Ally realized his left hand was gone up to the wrist. He was using his right hand to cover up the area where his other hand used to be in an attempt to stop the bleeding. Yet, he was still bleeding profusely.
"Sky! Get something to wrap his, um, just get something we can wrap with! Hurry!" Ally shouted to Sky, who quickly looked around for something to use. She saw Stephan and Alex Waters a little away tearing strips of cloth off a plane seat and went over.
"Guys, I need some of that! For Seth!" Sky exclaimed. The two boys looked up at her and Stephan grabbed two of the strips and followed Sky to where Ally and Alex Seth were. Stephan bent down in front of Seth and looked from him to Ally, who indicated Seth's left wrist. Stephan looked and saw it was missing, and he felt his lunch from the plane start to come up. Quickly, he swallowed it back down and gently took Seth's left wrist. He tried to pull Seth's right hand off so that he could get the wrap on, but Seth wasn't letting go. It was only with Ally's help that he got Seth under control, and quickly he started to wrap the stump where Seth's hand used to be. Noticing that two strips of cloth wasn't enough, he told Sky to get more. She came back with two more, and he used those. The bandage wasn't the best, but it was keeping the blood inside Seth's arm. That was enough for Stephan.
With Seth fixed up, Ally and Sky looked around for someone else to help. They, as well as Stephan and Alex, continued to work for the next two hours, and eventually the storm started to die down. By that time, however, it was night and they still couldn't see well. They grouped everyone together, and the frightened teens thus spent a restless night on a mountainside.
Morning couldn't arrive soon enough.
The early light of dawn approaching brought a welcomed relief to the agitated teens. Now able to see clearly, some of the less injured kids got up to inspect the damage left by the plane. The cockpit, fuselage, and first two rows of seats were decimated, and those in them burnt dead. Neither Stephan nor Alex wanted to see people they once knew, now lifeless, and only Chandler Deroad, who was the tallest and most strongly built freshman there, gathered up the courage to see who had died in the cockpit and first couple rows. The pilot and plane crew were all dead, he instantly recognized their bodies. Recognizing the kids in the first two rows, though, was more difficult. These were people he had actually known, and he almost decided to leave the job of figuring out who they were to someone else.
C'mon Chandler, he encouraged himself, stop bein' a wimp. Just hurry up an' see who they are...
With that bit of self encouragement, Chandler got down onto one knee to get a closer look at the burned bodies. It was difficult to recognize them, with their bodies and clothes burned, but they still had most of their more prominent features that helped in distinguishing them. Eventually, Chandler identified the five bodies, and, doing his best to keep his lunch from yesterday in his stomach, he left the wreckage and headed back to where Stephan and the others were sitting. Seeing him coming back, Stephan and Alex stood up. Lola, who hadn't left Stephan and Alex's side since they found her that night, got up as well and wrapped her arm around Stephan's. He welcomed her closeness as he braced himself for Chandler's report.
"The pilot and crew are all dead," Chandler informed Stephan and Alex, "And so is Megan and Devonte Sell, Miranda Tavners, John Johannson, and Ashley Littleton."
None of those kids had been well known in school, which made their deaths less painful than what Stephan had been preparing for.
With that taken care of, Stephan and Alex set about checking those who they had helped in the aftermath of the plane crash. A few, Josh Bake, Hanah Green, Jake Winston, and Lauren Teen, had died during the night. Somehow Joe, Alex Seth, and Triston Steven, who's left foot was smashed broken and also had a large cut on his left thigh, survived the night. They had suffered the worst from the plane crash, physically that is. Mentally, Sally Ford suffered the worst. She hadn't said one sane thing since Stephan and Alex found her, and they wondered if she had been knocked on the head during the crash.
"So, nine are dead...other than the plane crew," Alex said grimly. Stephan gave a sigh. He had been close friends with Jake Winston for years, and knew both Hanah and Lauren well. The only time he had really been close to Josh was in seventh grade during P.E., but he still felt pain by his death.
The deaths of the four kids had more effect on the others than the other five, especially Jake Winston and Lauren. Stephan felt they should do something in honor of their fallen friends, and he decided they should hold a short memorial.
It was Alex who first voiced Stephan's thoughts. "Stephan, do you think we should have a funeral for them? Jake Winston, Hanah, and the others?" Stephan nodded.
"Yes, but I don't know if we should bury them. That would take a lot of work and we already have to worry about what we're gonna do, now that the plane's destroyed and we're on a mountain." Stephan looked at the remaining plane survivors. Including himself, they numbered seventeen. Seventeen teenagers.
A sudden gust of wind made Stephan shiver, and he wrapped his arm around Lola's waist, partially to warm up and partially because he enjoyed her presence. He had always liked her, ever since he first met her three years previous. He knew she wasn't the most caring or even the nicest person around, yet he found himself still drawn to her. Since her character wasn't exactly pleasing, he had wondered if he only liked her because of her looks. She had dark golden hair, and creamy white skin. Her cheeks had a natural blush, which at the moment was nearly red with the cold of the weather.
"Did you hear what Stephan said?" Jonathan asked Patel Gowda and Joe as the three sat beneath one of the plane's wings. Joe and Patel shook their heads. "He said we're gonna have a funeral, for those who're dead."
"A funeral? How we gonna do that? I'm not burying them in this snow," Patel retorted.
"I don't know, we'll probably just say some things in their behalf or something. Cause I doubt they really plan on burying them, I'm surprised they aren't planning on what we should do now that the trip is ruined," Jonathan said. Joe nodded in agreement. He was still lightheaded and feeling under the weather from the loss of blood by his head wound.
"Hey, have you noticed that part of the plane is missing? Like, the whole back is gone," Patel suddenly remarked to Jonathan. Both Jonathan and Joe looked at the torn-up plane and realized that Patel was right. Nearly half of the plane was missing.
"How'd that happen?" Jonathan wondered aloud.
"It tore off," Ally said as she sat down next to Jonathan, having overheard the conversation from her spot next to Sky. Jonathan, Joe, and Patel looked at her expectantly and she explained.
"During the storm it broke off when the plane turned suddenly," Ally said. "I saw it happen, though I'm not sure where it is now." Jonathan looked at Patel shocked.
"I heard something tear, but I didn't know it was the plane!" Patel exclaimed. "So, that's why there only, like, fifteen people here. Do you think the others in the back half of the plane are still alive?"
Ally shrugged. "I hope."
"Okay guys, can I get everyone over here?" Stephan called out. Slowly, all the kids left their places and gathered around Stephan. Once he had everyone together Stephan spoke. "Well, you all probably know by now whose all-died...and I thought that maybe, since we can't bury them, we can just have a short memorial. We can just say a few words for them..."
Some distance away from Stephan and the sixteen other teens, another group of freshmen was just beginning to awaken. The plane's missing half had landed on a nearby mountain, but the snow and wind had caused it to tumble down to the mountain's base. Surprisingly, the half-plane had remained mostly intact. Even then not all of those within the plane had survived.
The first to see the sun rising was Chris Waldren. After the back half of the plane had broken off and tumbled down the mountainside, he quickly took charge as the self-proclaimed leader of the group. The crash had left him with only eight kids. Originally there had been seventeen kids in the plane's back end, including himself, but the crash and weather conditions had killed eight of the freshmen. Unlike the more organized rescues by Stephan, Alex, Sky, and Ally in the front tip of the plane, Chris hadn't been able to save his injured friends, resulting in their deaths. Not that he was to blame, or any of the other eight surviving members.
"What a night," Jason said as he got to his feet, after spending a rough night sleeping on the ground. Chris gave a brief laugh, and looked over at Jason.
"We better start looking for the others, the rest of the plane must've crashed somewhere," Chris told Jason.
"Yeah, I guess we should. Jackson, wake up!" Jason suddenly shouted, giving his friend a playful shake. With an annoyed sigh, Jackson sat up and tiredly rubbed his eyes. He than took in his surroundings with disappointment.
"So, all that really did happen," he said to himself, shaking his head unhappily. Jason gave him a sympathetic pat on the shoulder, his smile and lighthearted manner gone.
Adam Fairlight, woken up by the talking, looked around at the wreckage. The plane's tail end was mostly together, although badly wrecked up. Lying in various areas were debris and parts of the plane, as well as the bodies of those who had died. Adam was careful to not look at them closely, not really wanting to know who was dead and who was not. They were at the mountain's base, surrounded by snow, but Adam could see a forest not too far away. He wondered momentarily if the other part of the plane had landed there but reconsidered when he remembered that the plane had been flying in the opposite direction.
"Is everyone up?" Chris asked no one in particular. A few voices replied yes. "Who's all here?"
"Me, Jason Powell," Jason said.
"Me," Jackson said. Along with them Adam, Daniel Rose, Nick Greenberg, Chloe, Trevell Stanberg, and Kristy Struck had survived. Chris didn't bother asking who had died, he didn't want to know.
"Okay, first things first. We need to find the others. I think they're somewhere on that mountain," Chris said as he pointed to the nearest mountain, "Since we had been heading in that direction when we crashed."
"Yeah, they're probably there," Adam agreed.
"Do you think they'll hear us if we shout?" Trevell asked. Adam shook his head.
"We better not try. This snow is pretty soft, it could cause an avalanche easily," Adam said to Trevell.
Chris looked over his eight companions. Nearly all had injuries of one sort or another, but none that would prevent them from being able to travel. For the most part, they only had bruises, scrapes, and cuts. Those with severe injuries had died during the night.
"Come on guys," Chris said as he started to head toward the mountain where he believed the rest of the plane and kids were. Jason and Jackson looked unsure at each other, before Jason started off after Chris. Jackson quickly joined him and the rest of the group followed suit. Without a second glance behind, the small group headed to the mountain where Stephan and the rest of the kids were at.