There was a lot of white all over. It was on the ground, blowing in the air, and even starting to accumulate on me. What disturbed me is a lot of the white was tinged red. I didn’t think snow was supposed to be red. I shut my eyes, trying to block out the pain and confusion. After a few haggard breaths, I opened my eyes again and looked down at my hands. They still had the handcuffs on them, but the chain that held them together in the middle was broken. Everything was starting to click now. Our plane crashed. That realization hit me with a sickening clarity. Immediately I turned my head to the right. Nick was still strapped in his seat. He was unconscious and there was blood all over him. A sob caught in my throat.
“Nick!!“ My voice was barely audible. Shit. Why was I the first to wake up? My head was pounding and I felt blood running down my face. It still hurt to breathe and my ribs felt like someone had slammed them with a two by four.
“Lizz?! Are you okay?” Brian’s anxious voice called.
“I don’t know. I think so. Are you?” I rasped back.
“I’m pinned. The seat in front of me was shoved back and it’s stuck. I can’t even budge it.” He sounded like he was in pain. “Is Nick...”
“I don’t know Bri. There is a lot of blood.” My eyes welled with tears, but blinked them back. I needed to stay focused. “Kyung?”
“She’s breathing, but other than that I don’t know.” He replied. I could barely see his outline from being across and in front of me. I felt like my vision was messed up or something. I had been in so many planes in my life and I knew that they weren’t supposed to be spread all over the place like this. There were sharp chunks of metal everywhere.
I decided that I needed to get up. I very cautiously eased out of the seat. The pain in my ribs was excruciating and my shirt was all bloody. My face was sticky with it too.
I looked closely at Nick and was relieved to see that he was breathing. I gently shook his shoulder. “Nick, come on wake up.” He stirred, but didn’t open his eyes. I felt a little relief that he was at least responding so I turned my attention to Brian. He was a mess of cuts and lacerations, much like I was.
“Anything broken?” I whispered.
“I can’t tell, everything hurts too much.” He smiled wryly. I tried to pull the seat that was keeping him pinned to his. The strain sent shooting pains through me and that made me dizzy.
“Whoa Lizz!” Brian exclaimed, watching me sway. “Take it slow okay?”
I shook my head and tried to move the seat. It wouldn’t budge. Damn! Brian’s color wasn’t looking very good. It might have been from the biting cold though.
“Lizz, you’re going to have to wait until someone can help you. It isn’t moving at all.” He whispered. I turned around to Kyung’s seat next to Brian. To my shock and relief, she really didn’t look that bad. Her chest was rising and falling at a steady pace. I wondered if it would be better to let her wake up on her own, considering the shock that she had just come out of. I looked at Brian, my eyebrows raised.
“I’d let her be, she looks okay for the most part.” He said softly. His color was growing paler and paler. That really worried me, but I didn’t want him to see that. I looked around the rest of the plane and then something dawned on me.
“Brian, we’re alone. Where’s Terri and Marcus and all them?” They were nowhere to be seen.
“I don’t know. That isn’t good.” He mumbled in return. He shut his eyes. I was extremely concerned, but I didn’t want him to see how upset I was. That might make him even more upset. I started walking back towards Nick, but stopped when another wave of dizziness hit me full force. A fit of coughing, much like I haven’t had much experience with for months, overwhelmed me and I leaned over an empty seat. I put my hand over my mouth and when I was done I noticed flecks of blood on the back of my hand. Shit! I was coughing up blood?! That was serious.
“Lizz?” Brian called, worried.
“I’m fine.” I choked out. Right fine. Covered in blood, messed up ribs, and now coughing up blood. Granted, I had done that before, but this was from a different reason. I turned my attention to Nick.
“Come on Nick. Wake up okay?” I gently patted his face to try to get him to come to. His eyes started to flutter and I smiled. Then I was slammed with another wave of pain, this one so intense that it brought me to my knees, gasping for breath.
“Lizz?!”
Brian could only watch as Lizz crumbled to the floor. Her body was wracked
into coughing fits and then he saw the blood in her hand.
“Oh my god, Lizz!” Brian cried out.
Lizz could only cough, periodically broken by her gasps for air. She weakly
held up a hand, hoping that Brian would just leave it alone for now, she didn’t
want to cause a panic in anyone at the moment.
The wind was whipping through the broken cabin of the plane. The snow was
starting to drift. Kyung slowly got up, her hands were still handcuffed.
“Dammit,” she mumbled as she tried clumsily to grab some blankets that
were stored above the seats. Taking a thick blanket, she covered Brian as
best as she could. His color was almost drained from his face and he was
nodding in and out of consciousness which indicated two of several
possibilities to her. One, he was suffering from the effects of the cold or
hypothermia and two, he could have internal bleeding. Kyung was hoping it
was just the cold.
Kyung made her way over towards Lizz and Nick. Lizz was leaning against a
seat, gasping for air. Her breathing was coming in short, quick gasps,
wheezing with each breath she took. Looking at her throat Kyung knew
instantly that one of Lizz’s lungs had to have collapsed.
“Shit!” Kyung cried out.
Lizz looked up at her questionably, she was worried that Kyung saw
something wrong with Nick that she hadn’t noticed yet.
“Wha.....what’s....(cough)....Nick?” Lizz gasped.
“Hush, try to concentraite on breathing Lizz,” Kyung sternly reprimanded,
praying she wasn’t letting onto the panic that was filling her mind. She was
hoping that the lung hadn’t been punctured by a fractured rib. “Lizz, honey,
I’m just going to check something okay?” Kyung stated as she slowly raised
the left side of Lizz’s blood stained shirt.
Lizz watched the expression on Kyung’s face, trying to decide what she was
thinking.
Kyung ran her fingers lightly across Lizz’s ribs, trying to determine as best
as she could whether or not any rib was broken. After doing so, she didn’t
feel 100% comfortable with the next request but figured it was the only
possible thing she could do to help Lizz.
Taking ahold of her hands, Kyung looked into Lizz’s face, their eyes locked.
“Lizz honey, I know this is going to hurt like a bitch, but I need you to do
this for me, okay?”
Lizz stared, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion.
“I need you to take a deep breath for me, as deep as you can like you’re
gonna blow up a balloon.”
Lizz shook her head violently. “Gonna..... hurt.... too... much!”
“Lizz! Listen to me! You’re lung is collapsed and you have to take a deep
breath and expand it again otherwise you will die!”
The word die shook Lizz up. At first she decided to herself that this was
what she deserved, she knew that this would be her ticket out of living, but
when she looked into Kyung’s eyes and then over at Brian, she knew that she
had to live, at least for now. She closed her eyes tightly, and braced herself
for the worst pain she could imagine and took a deep breath in.
My breath caught before I could make it deep enough. It hurt too much. “I can’t Kyung... it hurts.” I whimpered. I was taking rapid, shallow breaths and the pain was getting worse.
“Lizz, you have to! There is no choice here!” Kyung cried, her eyes filled with terror.
I shook my head miserably. “It...won’t...work...” I gasped.
“You have to have faith Lizz! You have to try! Please. I almost lost you seven months ago and it nearly killed me. I cannot lose you!“ She pleaded.
I shut my eyes and the image of my family flashed through my mind. I knew they had to be worried sick about me. Then images from seven months ago flashed. It was people’s eyes that I remembered. My family’s when they finally could make it down to see me. Kyung’s when she broke down after hearing that I was more than likely going to die. Brian’s when I would ask him about Nick and he would have to give me bad news, knowing that every time, my heart broke a little more. Then Nick’s when our eyes locked right before I passed out in his room the day Terri got caught. My eyes still shut, I used every ounce of strength and determination within me to take the breath that would keep me alive just a little longer.
Kyung watched with a mixture of relief and horror as her best friend opened her eyes and took that breath. It was Lizz’s eyes that Kyung couldn’t tear herself away from. They were so filled with pain that Kyung wondered how Lizz was strong enough to do it. The torment was a merciless onslaught that tried to beat her down. Kyung was almost relieved when Lizz passed out. She couldn’t look into those eyes any longer.
Kyung’s medical knowledge kicked in and she busied herself with seeing how bad condition Lizz was in. She had a nasty cut just above her eye that left a trail of blood all down her face. She definitely had a few broken ribs. Lizz was very fortunate that it was a small puncture to her lungs because otherwise taking a deep breath would have had no effect. Kyung shook her head. Lizz was a walking miracle it seemed. Only now, if she didn’t get help soon she wouldn’t make it through this one. Other than that, she just had a lot of scrapes. She noticed a bandage on her arm and wondered what had happened. The last several days were a blur to her and she couldn’t recall very much. She made sure Nick was covered up as much as possible. She had a hard time telling what was wrong with him since he hadn’t woken up yet. She didn’t want to disturb him too much cause that might send him into shock.
“Kyung?”
Kyung jumped up and made her way to Brian. His was sheet white and he didn’t look like he was breathing very easily. “Brian! Are you okay? Do you need another blanket?”
Brian shook his head. He was frustrated that he was pinned into the seat and it was starting to make him claustrophobic. He tried to push it away. “Lizz...Nick...?”
“Lizz’s lung collapsed and if she doesn’t get help soon, it will happen again. It is reinflated now, but I am really nervous about it. Nick is still out. I covered him and we’re just waiting for him to wake up. It shouldn’t be too much longer.” Kyung explained.
Brian nodded, his eyes falling shut. He tried to fight it, but it wasn’t doing any good. He was out a moment later. Kyung was the only one awake now so she decided to go look outside the plane. All she could make out was snow and trees. She guessed they were in the mountains somewhere. Who knew where? For all she knew they were in the friggin Alps. Her eyes scanned the surroundings and then did a double take when she saw movement towards the plane she started to yell out for help, but when they got closer, her words died on her lips. It was their kidnappers.
“Oh shit,” Kyung cursed under her breath. These were the last people on
earth she wanted to see approaching. Her eyes scanned the snow that was
building up outside the wrecked plane and stopped when she saw the
unmistakeable vision of a hand sticking out of the snow. She gasped.
Kyung turned around and headed back into the plane. She silently prayed
that the kidnappers were only returning to grab their belongings and head
out to a highway that could miraculously be nearby. Her heart sank as she
heard them coming closer. Nick was starting to moan from his seat, this was
not a good time for this to be happening, Kyung thought to herself.
Adjusting the blankets around his neck, Kyung spoke soothingly to Nick,
hoping she could buy time until he became conscious.
“Sh-h-h Nick, it’s gonna be okay, you need to keep quiet.”
Kyung winced when she heard Terri’s shrieking voice.
“I don’t care if it’s murder or not, he has to pay for this! First my money and
now my Kurt! I hate him! Nick Carter better have died in this crash if he
knows what’s good for him!” Terri broke down into heart wrenching sobs.
Kyung stepped away from Nick. She hoped he remained quiet, maybe she
would think he was dead. She wondered if she could pull it off.
“So I see one of you survived the crash,” the mother spat at Kyung.
Kyung dared not say anything to agitate her kidnappers, she stood there,
staring at them, her mouth agape.
Marcus and Terri walked directly to where Nick was sitting. Terri poked her
finger into his side.
“Well, what about mister perfect? Did he make it?”
“No,” Kyung lied, hoping she would take her word.
“How come his skin is still warm?”
“He just died you bitch, can’t you see that? He’s dead! And if we don’t get
help soon, Brian will be and Lizz next,” Kyung urgently added.
“Whoppee shit, do I look like I care?” Terri glared.
As the kidnappers started grabbing blankets and other belongings, Nick
moaned again. They stopped short, Kyung’s heart caught in her throat.
“That was Lizz, she’s got a punctured lung,” Kyung stated quickly.
“Awful deep moan for a girl,” Marcus observed.
“She’s in pain, you’d do the same if you were too,” Kyung corrected.
It was unfortunate that Nick decided it was time to start coughing. All eyes
were fixed on him at that moment. Marcus rushed over to Kyung and slapped
her across the face with an open hand.
“You damn lying bitch!” Marcus spat.
“So the wonderful Nick Carter is still alive?” Terri laughed. “We are gonna
have fun now, aren’t we mommy?”
“Just like a party, ain’t it? We will make him pay for his crimes. That Lizz
has gotten everything she wanted in life and you didn’t get squat,” Marcus
observed.
Nick’s eyes fluttered open and then they grew wide as he sureveyed his
surroundings.
“Wha...what ‘appened?” He whispered.
“Plane crashed, are you okay?” Terri asked sweetly.
Nick thought for a moment. “I think so.” He looked over at Brian and then at
Lizz laying on the floor. “Are those people okay or are they dead?”
”He said those people” Terri thought to herself.
“Honey, I think they’re going to be alright. I’m just more worried about you,
babe.” With the words spoken, Terri smoothed the hair off of Nick’s
forehead and kissed it.
