After a short struggle he worried might be his last, Kyle finally reached the exit. He released Ed and thrust his head out of the smoke-filled cabin. The outside air was hot and thick with humidity, but free of the dense, suffocating smoke that filled the airplane. Inhaling deeply, Kyle didn’t think he’d ever prized a breath so much in his life. After a quick second breath, Kyle lifted Ed, gave a powerful tug, and they plunged out the door. The two men tumbled down the yellow emergency slide, coming to a stop at the bottom.
The roar and heat of the flames pushing him forward, Kyle rapidly scrambled to his feet and shook Ed, but he just moaned and mumbled incoherently. With all the strength he could muster, Kyle draped Ed across his shoulders and set off toward a crowd of survivors who had gathered a hundred yards from the wreckage. He struggled with his load and stumbled on the uneven ground, twice falling to his knees, then rising again, until finally making it to the cluster of passengers.
Three men from the crowd came forward and helped lower Ed to the ground, then Kyle collapsed in a heap, coughing and completely spent. His whole body felt limp as he lay on his side and struggled to catch his breath, but his eyes stayed locked on the airplane, which was now almost entirely engulfed in flames.
Through the smoke he could see the flight attendant and the unconscious man at the bottom of the emergency slide. The attendant leapt to her feet and pulled on the motionless body, dragging it only a few feet before stumbling and falling to the ground. Two men from the group started to run towards her just as a massive explosion rocked the area and knocked them, and others standing nearby, off of their feet. Kyle turned away from the explosion and shielded his face with an arm, the heat from the fireball burning the skin on the back of his neck. Debris hit the ground around him, and people, already deep in shock, screamed and ran further away. Too tired to run, Kyle crawled to Ed and knelt over him, using his body as a shield against the debris.
A scrap of smoking metal landed a few feet away and bounced past. Exhausted, Kyle reached up with his arms in an attempt to cover the back of his head. When the sounds of the falling debris stopped, Kyle turned back towards what, just minutes before, had been a modern jet aircraft, but was now just a heap of burning wreckage, with smoke billowing in black, oily clouds from its twisted skeleton.
Ed stirred and looked towards Kyle, but his eyes were empty and far away.
“Ed, you with us?” Kyle asked, his voice weak and dry.
Ed stared blankly, like he’d been roused suddenly from a deep sleep, but didn’t answer. When he tried to get up, Kyle grabbed his arm and held him down.
“Just relax,” Kyle said. “You were hit hard. There should be an ambulance here soon. They’ll want to check you out.”
Ed resisted briefly, then relented and sat back down while Kyle scanned the wreckage of the airplane for any sign of the flight attendant. She had been just a few feet from the bottom of the slide when the explosion happened, but that area was now a smoldering pile of rubble with no sign of any survivors. The body of the airplane had broken in half just behind the wings, causing the tail portion to fall backwards onto the ground. Jagged, twisted openings covered the plane’s body, as if someone had ripped away the skin of the airplane to peer inside, the exposed seats suspended precariously in the air. A few scorched pieces of fabric dangled limply below what remained of the rear emergency exit. Nearby, dozens of small fires burned in the grass surrounding the wreckage, the twisting ribbons of smoke the only movement Kyle could make out in the vicinity of the plane.
Kyle turned reluctantly away, wondering how many people had died, and what loved ones they had left behind. Instinctively, he reached for his cell phone to call home and let his wife know what had happened, but his phone wasn’t there. Then he remembered tossing it into his carry-on after making his last call home.
“Ed, you got a phone?”
Ed’s eyes were still vacant, but he seemed to be slowly coming around. “I do,” he said groggily, then gingerly pulled his phone from his pocket and handed it to Kyle. “Where do you think the fire trucks are?”
Kyle took the phone and flipped it open. “I don’t know. They should be here by now; we’re not that far from the terminal.” As Kyle dialed his number, he stood and strained to hear the sirens. “You don’t have service,” he said, handing the phone back to Ed. “I want to get a hold of my wife before she sees the news. This is going to freak her out pretty bad.”
Ed took his phone and looked at the screen. He pushed a couple of buttons and tried to make a call, then put it back on his belt. “How’d I get off the plane?”
“You were a little out of it, so I helped you.”
Ed rubbed his head, and Kyle dropped to the ground beside him. “I don’t hear any sirens, Ed. I don’t know what’s going on.” Kyle looked towards the airport but could see only the tops of the buildings from behind the berm of dirt. “They should be here. There are a lot of people hurt.”
Looking around, Kyle noticed several other people trying in vain to use their phones. “There must be some kind of jamming device. No one’s phones are working,” he observed.
“My phone worked earlier,” Ed said matter-of-factly. “How’d you get me off the plane?”
“I had to drag you. Figured your family might want to see you again.”
“Do you think everyone made it?”
Kyle shook his head. “I don’t.” He paused. “I think we were about the last ones. There were still a few people in there when we got off, but I don’t think they made it.”
Ed looked at Kyle, his eyes becoming more alert. “Thanks. I appreciate you helping a stranger. I hope I would have done the same.”
“Don’t be too grateful. I almost left you behind. I was pretty scared.” Kyle stood back up. “Wait here. I’m going to see if I can tell where the emergency vehicles are. It’s like they don’t know we’re here.”
Kyle walked as quickly as his worn-out legs would go back towards the berm that had launched the airplane. It was some distance away, and required him to climb to the top in order to see the buildings of the airport. Another man from the airplane was already on top of the berm, frozen, one hand shielding the sun from his eyes as he stared into the distance. Kyle crested the short hill and as he reached the top he felt the air suck from his lungs as the scene unfolded in front of him.
The other passenger turned when he heard Kyle gasp. “Is this real?” he asked, his voice cracking.
Kyle recognized the man from the boarding area. “I don’t know,” he replied, barely able to speak. His head swung slowly from side to side. “I’ve never seen anything like this in my life. It doesn’t seem possible.”
Deer Creek, Montana 16:20 EST
Jennifer pressed the power button on the TV one more time, then gave up and went back to putting the groceries away. As she carefully squeezed the eggs onto the crowded bottom shelf of the fridge, it dawned on her that the fridge light was out. She looked at the stove and saw that the clock was blank as well.
“Hey, Spencer,” she called out, “I think I know what’s wrong with the TV.”
Spencer was sitting on the floor in the corner of the kitchen, hard at work on a large dinosaur puzzle. A pterodactyl’s eyes peered from the piece he was using to scratch his head. “Are you done with the groceries? Are you going to fix it now?” he asked excitedly.
“No, not yet,” she answered. “Mommy can’t fix it. I think the power’s out,” she said with an exaggerated frown. “Can you do me a favor?”