The plane smelled of plastic, cleaner, and too many people crammed too close together. Sarah Hollings smiled brightly at the stewardess as she made her way down the aisle, checking her ticket quickly to make sure she had the right seat. Sarah smiled at the little boy bouncing up and down in his seat despite his mom's best efforts to get him to sit still long enough for her to buckle his seat belt.
Sarah found her seat quickly, sitting down, grateful that it was an aisle seat. She smiled at the man next to her, a well dressed businessman who nodded to her and went back to reading the magazine in his hand. Next to the window was a younger guy, who Sarah checked out quickly and then put out of her mind. He wasn't her type, too skinny, with dredlocks that let her know that his hair probably smelled bad.
The cabin was full of chatter, some people eager to take off, others talking to the people next to them, and still others grumbling about being put in such close proximity to the other passengers. The stewardesses moved back and forth, helping people get settled with smiles that seemed to Sarah to already be forced.
When the door closed people seemed to relax slightly, everyone knowing that it wouldn't be long until the plane would be lining up to take off. Non-stop, Seattle to Hawaii, the flight would be a long one, but Sarah couldn't wait to get there.
One of the stewardesses moved up to another one, talking quickly and quietly, before they both moved down the cabin, looking at people in the seats. They stopped at the seat in front of her, where only a single older man was sitting.
"Sir, I hate to bother you, but would you mind moving?" One asked.
"Why?" The man asked. Sarah couldn't blame him for sounding irritated. The last twenty minutes everyone had been waiting they'd spent getting comfortable and now the stewardesses wanted him to move?
"We have to... um.. load a late trio of passengers, and they need to sit together," The stewardess said quietly.
"How about upgrading me to First Class then?" The man said, somewhat eagerly.
The two stewardesses looked each other, and Sarah could see something pass between them.
"Fine, sir," one said. "If you'd get your luggage and follow us?"
Sarah watched as the man got his single suitcase from the overhead rack and followed the stewardesses toward the front of the cabin. Sarah felt a surge of jealousy as he left, idly wishing it was her.
After a few minutes one of the stewardesses opened the door, stepping back. Sarah watched as the woman looked startled, like someone had spoken to her, and took another step back. Sarah frowned, wondering what was going on, until the new passengers moved into the cabin.
The first was wearing a blue windbreaker with US MARSHAL on it. He looked over the cabin and the stewardess moved into the aisle, making a motion for the man to follow her. The second caught her eye and she found herself staring at him.
He was big, not huge, but definitely a big man. Six foot, built like a linebacker with wide shoulders and a thick neck. The left side of his face was scarred, his left eye covered by a black eyepatch, the corner of his mouth twisted by a thick scar that ran from the corner of his mouth, up to the side of his nose where it vanished under the eyepatch. He was dressed in military camouflage and Sarah could see that he had several patches on his chest. She didn't know what they meant, but she could read the US ARMY and STILLWATER A. on two of them.
Sarah noted that he started to look around the plane, his one green intent and focused, but the man behind him, a big man in a US MARSHAL windbreaker pushed him forward. She could see his shoulders tense for a moment, and wondered why one was slightly lower than the other.
They two Federal Marshals moved the big military guy to the three seats in front of her. The first sat down, and Sarah saw that, despite her expectations, the big guy wasn't chained or restrained.
"Sit down," The other one said.
The big military guy sat in the middle and the trailing agent sat on the outside seat, next to the aisle.
Conversation on the plane had stopped when they first walked on, but now it was a low buzzing murmur.
"I'm not a prisoner, don't treat me like one," The one eyed man rumbled.
"No talking," the one by the aisle snapped, his voice full of irritation.
The big man sighed and leaned back. "I don't know why you've got a bug up your ass, the Soviet Union collapsed four years ago, I doubt I'm on anyone's list any more."
"What did I say?" The one on the outside aisle asked, this time real anger flooding into his voice.
Sarah wondered why they were treating the man so rudely if he wasn't a prisoner, and why he was being escorted by the police.
"You're about two seconds from getting on my shit list," The uniformed man rumbled. "Keep it up, and you ain't making it the end of the runway."
"Shut it, Riley," The Marshal by the window said. "Man's not a prisoner. Corporal, that's enough."
Sarah was burning with curiosity as the men in front of her fell silent.
Up ahead the door was closed and the stewardess launched into the speech about how to connect the seat belts. Sarah paid dutiful attention, nodding at the right parts, following the instructions, and snapping her belt shut.
The mystery of the man in uniform was forgotten pretty quickly as the plane taxied and eventually took off. The g-force of the take-off pressed Sarah back into the seat and her stomach dropped as the plane almost stood on its nose for almost a minute.
Once it leveled out, Sarah felt better. After a few minutes one of the stewardesses stood in the aisle.
"Welcome to Hawaiian Airlines Flight 382, flying from Seattle to Honolulu. Our flight time will be approximately six hours," The stewardess smiled. Sarah listened to the whole spiel, thrilling at the fact they'd be at Hawaii at 3 PM local time and the weather was going to be a bright and sunny mid-90's.
Sarah had dieted all spring to fit into the two swimsuits in her luggage, had really pushed herself in her yoga class and on the track. She'd managed to drop fifteen pounds, as well as spend some time in a tanning booth so she wasn't deathly pale. She had her hotel reservations, already paid up, and couldn't wait to spend the entire summer on an island paradise.
Three long years of working toward her degree, taking summer classes to help her GPA, working at what on-campus jobs were available to save up extra money, living off of ramen noodles and the cheapest food she could afford. Her aunt, who was a school superintendent in California, had been proud of Sarah's devotion and paid for her to have an entire summer in Hawaii.
Sarah dozed off fantasizing about Hawaii.
----------
lizard.dll log.txt
scanning...
...scanning
...scanning
...no targets found
system interrupt
scanning...
...scanning
...scanning
...no targets found
-------
Sarah woke up when the plane suddenly jerked, screaming in fear as she suddenly went weightless for a second before the seatbelt bit into her cruelly. There was another heavy bump, almost a thud, and the oxygen masks suddenly dropped from the ceiling.
The plane heeled over, making more people scream, as Sarah groped for the gas mask. She grabbed it, pulling the elastic strap over her head, and screamed again as the plane heeled over the other way.
"Put your head between your knees," She heard a man yell. The snap of command in the voice made her follow the direction without question. The men closer to the window were still trying to get their masks on as she leaned down, covering her the back of her neck with her hands.
The plane pulled upward, but she could feel, somehow, that the back of the plane was swinging back and forth, each swing seeming to get wider and wider.
The plane started tilting to the right, then suddenly began spinning, slowly, and Sarah could feel that the plane was dropping fast.
Please, God, no, I don't want to die. It's not fair, I was going to Hawaii. I studied, I was a good girl, I don't want to die, Sarah thought desperately, her thoughts almost screaming.
The plane suddenly leveled out, straightened out, and there was an eerie silence.
The engines went out, she thought to herself.
Around her people were still screaming, still shrieking in fear. She felt herself go cold, prickly, as it sunk in that she was going to die.
"BRACE YOURSELVES!" the same man bellowed, his voice crushing the screams under.
I wonder if the seat really can be used as a flotation device? she wondered.
"IMPACT IMPACT IMPACT!" the man's voice roared out.
There was a sound, not even noise, a crushing impact that made her black out.
Flight 382 hit the Pacific Ocean, skipped twice like a stone, the wings tearing off. The fuselage tore apart, one of the engines the pilot had been trying to restart suddenly igniting and tearing free of the wing before hitting the water and exploding.
Out of 152 people...
...12 and a half survived
brun r_complex_survive.bin
WARNING! MASSIVE NEURAL DAMAGE! WARNING!
HIGHER FUNCTIONS OFFLINE!
99.95% OF DEEP STORAGE EPROM AVAILABLE
75.5% OF RAM AVAILABLE
PERSONALITY OVERLAY OFFLINE
PRIMARY DIRECTIVES
000A SURVIVE
000B RECON
000C FOOD
000D SHELTER
000E BREED
000F GATHER RESOURCES
00AA LETHAL FORCE DEFENSE
load core_survival.bin
running 000A
brun autonomous.sys
brun mil_survive.exe
000A ENGAGED
scanning...
...scanning
...scanning
000B SUCCESS!
target acquired 000C000D000F 85%
target lock
moving to target
energy levels optimal
structural damage minimal
survive
survive
survive
Sarah crawled up on the beach, spitting out sea water, coughing and gagging. Her arms and legs burned with the effort as she dragged her charge up onto the sand and looked down at it. It was mad, screaming, waving its little fists around, its eyes screwed shut as it screamed in fear.
"It's OK," she gasped, dragging the baby-carrier further up the beach. "It's OK," she sobbed. She managed to get them both up onto the flawless golden sand, staring at the lush green foliage only a dozen or so paces more.
Sarah fell to her knees, putting her forehead against the sand, and screamed. Her scream intertwined with the infant's, both of their cries rising to a high, hysterical, inconsolable pitch.
After a moment she raised up, tears streaming from her eyes, and looked at the baby.
"What? What do I do?" She wailed. She turned around and looked at the ocean, staring at the rolling blue water.
Debris was starting to wash up, and Sarah stood up as she saw a person wash up onto the beach. She was face down, in a pantsuit, and Sarah realized the woman was missing a shoe.
"Lady! Lady, are you OK?" Sarah asked, rushing down into the surf. "Lady?" She grabbed the woman's sleeve and pulled, rolling her face up.
The woman's face was blue. Sarah stumbled away, vomiting into the surf.
The baby was still screaming. The sound of it made Sarah look up, up at the sky. She could see contrails in the air where the plane had spun out of the sky, see a puff of white that must have been the explosion she heard, and more smoke to the ocean.
I survived. I'm alive.
She stumbled back over to the infant, who was still screaming.
How did she survive? How did I survive?
She squatted down, her fingers fumbling at the catch. It took her three times to get the catches undone, release the harness.
"Mama!" the baby screamed as Sarah pulled her from the carrier.
"Evenflo Flotation Safelok Seat" was on the cushion.
"You got lucky, sweety," Sarah said, trying to calm the baby, patting its back. "Your momma loved you very much when she bought that."
She looked around, trying to hold it together, the horror of the crash fading as a numbness began to fill her.
It took her a moment, her eyes seemed to have problems focusing, for the green blur only a dozen steps away to finally solidify into thick green jungle. Tropical plants were at the edge, with palm trees and bamboo turning the edge of the jungle into a solid wall of green.
Sarah looked to either side of her, already beginning to sweat under the hot summer sun. The beach stretched to either side, golden sand glimmering in the hot sun.
She could see something sticking out into the water only a little ways away.
"Is that... a dock?" Sarah asked the baby, who was busy laying her head on Sarah's shoulder, sobbing.
Sarah stumbled, barefoot, down the beach.
"If there's a dock, there's people," She said, patting the baby's back.
She could see a small building almost to the jungle. The dock slowly got closer, revealing itself to be a cement creation that stuck out into the ocean for further than made sense to Sarah.
"Please, please, let there be someone," Sarah kept repeating to herself as she drew closer.
She moved up the concrete steps, which seemed partially buried in the sand, and onto the dock, moving toward the building.
She stopped when she saw the letters stenciled on the cement of the building.
It took Sarah a moment to make sense of the letters, and when she did, she sunk down to her knees, curling over the baby slightly and sobbing anew.
US NAVY - RESTRICTED ISLAND
NO TRESPASSING
NO SERVICES
NO PERSONNEL ON STATION
stared back at her, the faded paint peeling.
----------
target reached
engage 000B
load jungle_survival.bin
FLORA/FAUNA IFF LOADED 100%
load wilderness_survival.dll
load wilderness_construction.dll
engage 000B000F
survive
survive
survive