Shane McCutcheon

Shane suddenly became aware of her own breathing. Each breath was difficult to take as it felt like something was sitting on her lungs. Like something was pressing down on her chest.

She struggled to open her eyes, but it was so hard. Her eyelids had never felt so heavy and it felt like opening them would require too much energy. Energy she didn’t have. The whole world seemed to be spinning rapidly and everything looked like she was seeing it through some sort of kaleidoscope.

Then she heard it – his voice, and that was enough to force her eyes open in spite of the stinging sunlight.

“Shay?”

She could barely make out his silhouette in the bright daylight but he was there. She couldn’t have imagined it. She wanted to sit up and put her arms around him, but a sudden pain in her side held her back and she let out a quiet moan.

Jodi Lerner

Weightless.

That was the first word that popped into Jodi Lerner’s head. It didn’t register that she was cold. It didn’t register that she was wet.

Only lightness.

Her head suddenly pulsed violently behind her eyes, and she unconsciously reached to up to touch her fingers to her temple. She barely noticed how hard it was to move. She felt so exhausted and so ill she could hardly form a coherent thought. What the fuck had happened here? She didn’t felt like this when she had boarded the plane. Had she caught a virus? Had it been the food?

Her lungs unexpectedly burned. Instinctively, the artist drew breath… only to have her mouth fill with salt water.

Jodi opened her eyes in one startled movement.

And only then did she realize that she was underwater.

Shay McCutcheon

Shay leaned over, panic and hope warring on his small face. "Mom! Are you okay?"

Carmen Morales

Carmen de la Pica Morales was searching high and low for her sister, and she was about five minutes away from having a panic attack. Where the hell was she? She felt as if she had searched everywhere around the plane, but kept checking anyway. She didn’t want to go closer to the wreckage, for fear of finding Patricia dead among some of the bodies she had already seen.