First Light by Bill Rancic

Author:Bill Rancic
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-10-05T17:16:23+00:00

11

As darkness closed in around the crash site and it started to dawn on them that they might be out in the woods all night, the surviving passengers of Flight 806 started to realize they were hungry, that they hadn’t eaten since breakfast. Kerry and Phil volunteered to go to the front galley to check for the food stashed there for the first-class passengers—fruit and cheese and crackers, bread and pastries and coffee, soup and pasta and grilled chicken that had long gone cold. The galley wasn’t exactly overflowing—it had been only a six-hour flight, after all—but between that and what Bob had brought back from the tail, there was enough for everyone to ease their hunger until the morning, and their inevitable rescue.

Under the direction of the flight attendant Kecia, they broke open the first-class liquor supply, too, bottles of Scotch and gin, vodka and beer, good California wine. Kerry opened a small bottle of gin and had drunk half of it before she remembered her missed period, put the cap back on the bottle and the bottle in her pocket. Maybe gin wasn’t such a good idea under the circumstances.

“You okay?” Phil asked.

“Yeah. Just saving the rest for later.”

They passed out the alcohol, which warmed them and made them relax, and soon everyone was falling asleep, the cabin filling with the soft sound of snoring and the rustling of people settling down for the night. Lit by a single flashlight, which gave everything the look of a slumber party for the damned, the cabin had been cleared of broken seats, debris and bodies, which were now outside in the cold, already half-buried in the snow.

Kerry didn’t want to think about all those bodies, the people who had been alive just this morning. She squirmed and tried to get more comfortable on her hard, cold piece of floor, but no matter which way she turned, something was poking her—a person, a piece of metal, a bit of plastic.

“Can’t sleep?” Daniel said in her ear, tightening his arms around her.

“Not really,” she said, drawing up her knees to her chin for extra warmth. “I know you’re going to wake me in an hour or so anyway.”

“No choice. Beverly says I need to wake you every couple of hours to make sure you’re still conscious.”

“I wonder if anyone’s ever told Beverly she’s a royal pain in the ass,” Kerry whispered. Beverly was, in fact, asleep at her back. Either she didn’t hear Kerry’s insult or didn’t care.

Daniel looked over Kerry’s shoulder at the sleeping nurse. “I think she would consider that a compliment,” he said.

Kerry reached up and touched his face, feeling the stubble beginning to pop on his chin; it had been nearly a full day since he’d last shaved. She wasn’t sure she’d ever seen Daniel with so much beard—he said beards made him itchy—but she decided she liked it. It lent his appearance a bit of roughness that made him even more appealing, new almost, both familiar and strange at the same time.

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