Spiral (The Salzburg Saga Book One) (5 page)

It felt like a rock falling
, Nina thought dazedly as her stomach rolled. Sick with fear, her hands fumbled with the seatbelt as she tried to snap it back on. Once it did finally snap back into place, she laid a hand over Ange’s ice cold one. “It’s okay, Ange, you–" She stopped short when she saw that Angela had fainted, slumped in her seat, out cold. Nina locked eyes with Neil, and saw the horror that was no doubt evident in hers.

“Is he still in there?” she demanded.

“He is.” Parker’s hands shook as he buckled his own seatbelt. Across from him Justin snapped his into place. “He won’t come out.” Parker swallowed. “He won’t come out of that cockpit.”

“We’ll be okay.” It was Shayna who spoke. Her face lay pressed against Luke’s wet cheek. The baby continued to cry, clearly absorbing the fear from everyone.

“Yes,” Nina said in as strong as voice as she could manage. She wished she had Shayna’s faith but she was struggling.

The jet nosedived again. Bile shot up Nina’s throat as her stomach itself flung somewhere behind her. She had to swallow her scream as the small jet shuddered and all the lights went out completely.

The death spiral. She’d heard about it before, whispered among those people lucky enough to survive it to tell their stories. She’d hoped never to experience it. Yet now she was. She grabbed the emergency evacuation manual with hands that shook so violently she nearly dropped it.
Why I didn’t pay attention to this earlier when Emily was demonstrating it?
The question raced through her mind as terror seized her. Now, the words outlined in the evacuation guide just blurred in front of her eyes.

They were heading for the snowy landscape fast. She could see it clearly outside her window.

A sudden shrieking came from somewhere overhead, and a moment later, the jet began barreling downward at an unnatural and terrifying ninety-degree angle. Nina was beyond fear—fear had been several minutes ago. Right now, as the jet spiraled down to the snow covered ground, her life flashed before her eyes. Angela was still unconscious, and Nina forced her friend’s head down before quickly balling herself into a ball and covering her head with both hands ii the brace position.

The jet slammed down. The noise and impact was incredible. To Nina it felt like the worst train crash imaginable. The jet bounced up, came back down on to its nose and began to cartwheel. It drowned out all sounds of their screams. Nina couldn't keep the brace position, and she bounced upright with her arms over her head. Though her seatbelt kept her glued to her seat she was still thrown around viciously, every limb she possessed struck something hard and solid. From the shouts and screams from the others she knew they were experiencing the same treatment. She could do nothing but bear the assault in silence, the frequency of each blow making speech impossible. Just as she hoped it would soon end, something heavy landed on top of her head and she lost consciousness.

CHAPTER FOUR

She couldn’t move; couldn’t see. Her lids were glued together. Her mouth felt like a block lay wedged inside it, her throat burned, and a throbbing pain beat at the base of her head. She smelled smoke, thick and pungent, but she didn’t know where it came from.

And she was cold, icily so, her face damp with it. She shuddered.

“Nina? She moved.”

A man’s voice, she noted, but one she couldn’t identify.

I am alive,
Nina realized in wonder
. I’m alive,
and she almost wept with gratitude.

“Neen?” Another man’s voice, and this one familiar to her:
Neil.

“We have to check for broken bones before moving her,” the other man whose voice she didn’t recognize said.

She groaned in protest. She didn’t want to be moved. Her body would surely fall apart if she were.

“Neen? It’s Neil. I think she’s awake.”

She felt sure of it, but when she tried to speak, nothing came out.

“You’re going to be okay, Neen,” Neil whispered. “I’m just going to make sure you haven’t broken anything.” With a light but thorough touch, he ran his hands over her sides. “Nothing feels broken.” His voice rang with relief. “Just that bump on her head.” Gently, he lifted her eyelids.

So they weren’t glued together after all,
Nina realized as the light hit her pupils. A moment later, her legs were being lifted and placed on something solid.

With a soft moan, Nina forced her eyes open and blinked against the harsh daylight that immediately bombarded them. Neil’s face hovered over hers. He had cuts and bruises all over his face, and his jet-black hair had sprinkles of dust in it. He sat crouched on his knees beside her.

She tried stretching her neck but stopped when searing pain came with the movement. She lay on a long mat spread out on the snow. Several feet away sat an enormous heap of disintegrated metal. The jet, she suddenly remembered in horror, and moaned. She wanted to ask where they were but was afraid to.

“It’s okay,” Neil said. The other man bent and squatted down beside her. His face was drawn and grim. Smoke stains and snow powder lay caked in the creases of his jacket. His hair also carried dust and debris. His clothes were ripped and soiled with dirt. Nina recognized him as the captain as he eyed her critically.

“Neen.” Neil managed a wan smile. “You’re back.” He indicated the man beside him with a slight jerk of his head. “This is Jake; the captain of the jet.”

She had to swallow twice to enable speech. “Hi,” she managed, and then coughed as the words scraped against her sore smoke-chocked throat. Her gaze shifted to the mangled remains of the jet again only several feet from them. Its broken wings and parts of its once elegant cabin strewn across the white snow while smoke billowed out from three different sections of it. How had this happened? She focused on Neil again.

She forced herself to speak, even as her dried lips trembled with the effort. “Did…did everyone else make it out safely?”

Neil lowered his lids, effectively shielding his eyes. “Don’t try and talk now.”

Her stomach clenched with fear. “Neil–?”

“We need to get out of here,” Jake cut in. “We don’t know if that thing’s going to blow. And she’s cold, put this over her.”

“I - I’m okay.” Her voice was hoarse and she fought to make it stronger. “I’ll get up. I can walk.”

“No, you can’t,” Neil said. “We’ll carry you.”

Now she felt like an invalid. “No, really, I can–”

He shook his head, which made her want to roll her eyes.

“I’ll take her if you like,” Jake offered. “Can you take Ben’s sack?” He lifted Nina and moved away from the shattered jet; trying not to wince at the strain it caused his bruised arms. He was lucky to be alive; he knew that. But the crash had left his mark on him; he was battered and bruised all over.

He would have sprinted from the jet if he’d had the strength. As it was, he didn’t know which part of his body ached most. Somewhere over the last two hours since the crash, he hadn’t been able to isolate one pain from another. But the bodily pain he could deal with; the situation he now found himself in was a different matter altogether.

He looked down at Nina. Blood and dirt streaked her face. Her bottom lip was split, and the bump she had sustained at the base of her head needed more treatment. His chest twisted painfully as he watched Neil take Ben’s black rucksack. Only hours before, he’d teased Ben about the bulging rucksack. His friend’s penchant for always packing medication and his lucky antique cricket bat was well known among
Jets by Gwynne
. Yet the medication in Ben’s rucksack was what they now desperately needed.

But he couldn’t think about that right now, or he’d break.

Jake avoided looking around again. He’d already seen the snow – miles and miles of it – that surrounded them as far as he could see. They were nowhere near the thriving town of Kitzbűhel. They’d crashed too early for that. They were in the backcountry and completely alone. Their neighbors weren’t a thriving skiing community but the tall dark snow-capped mountains.

He felt caged.

His dark shades dimmed the vivid cornflower blue of the sky, the sun peeking through it, almost seeming to smile down at them yet adding no warmth to the cold sterile atmosphere.

A cold sweat broke out on his top lip as he trudged along with Nina in his arms. His eyes were gritty, there remained a constant ringing in his ears and throbbing at the base of his neck, and his nose where Hugh had decked him throbbed like a sore molar.

“Want to take a break?” he called out to Neil, hoping the man would say yes.

Neil stopped and turned to him. Neil’s face was drawn; his mouth slack but he shook his head. “Tempting,” he shouted back. “But we need to get her back so she can change into her ski clothes. She’ll freeze otherwise.”

Jake gave a grim nod. The other man was right. Nina stirred in his arms and he looked down at her waxy face. Her eyes, dull with pain, squinted up at him.

“How’re you feeling?” he asked. Then realized that was probably a dumb question.

“I - I’ve had better days.” Her teeth chattered as she spoke. “Thanks for…c-carrying me.”

“Don’t mention it.”

“How much–?” An explosion shook the whole area, making them both jump and cutting off her words. “Oh, my gosh,” she gasped. “Was that…was that?”

“The last of the jet,” Jake muttered.

She shuddered violently. “We were so close.”

He’d known the jet would blow. That was expected and inevitable. What mattered was they no longer had anyone in it. What he hadn’t expected or been prepared for was for it to remind him of how little control he had, how little control any of them had. “Almost there,” he told her. He spotted the makeshift resting place area only a hundred yards away where the others waited huddled together, shaken and numb. The meager personal belongings they’d managed to salvage from the jet rested in bundles beside them.

Nina struggled to crane her neck to see the group. “Did everyone make it out?” she repeated.

His mouth was a grim line. “You’ll see soon enough,” was all he could say.

CHAPTER FIVE

Fear threatened to choke Nina. The lead pilot wasn’t answering any of her questions and neither was Neil.
What was going on?
Where was everyone else?
She wished she didn’t have to ask those questions, yet she found she had to.

She could see the pilot was in pain. She could see the gray cast to his skin, his mouth drawn, and the slight wince with each step he took. She couldn’t see his eyes; his dark sunglasses shaded them.

Where were they?
she wondered in confusion, and were they completely alone out here? The jet had crashed but where?

Her eyes had adjusted to the sunlight, and with it, isolation surrounded them in nothing but thick snow and mountains. She gave a low cry of relief when Jake and Neil finally stopped and she spotted Angela. Jake gently laid her down on a mat beside Angela, who immediately leaned over her.

“Neen.” Eyes awash with tears of relief, Angela took Nina’s gloved hand in hers. “They got you out,” she whispered.” They said they would.”

“Ange,” she whispered. Overwhelmed with relief to see her safe, Nina grasped her friend’s gloved hand and absorbed the strength in it. “Ange, you’re all right.”

“I fainted.” Angela sounded horrified.

Nina managed a smile. “You did faint but you’re awake now. Shayna and Luke?”

“We’re here, we’re fine.” Shayna bent over Nina then. Her mouth was almost blue from the cold and her lovely shiny hair hung limp and bedraggled around her drawn face. “Emily’s over there. Luke’s sleeping.”

“Parker?” Nina queried.

Then she saw him.

He lay on a mat three feet away on his back with Hugh who was also lying down. Hugh’s chest rose steadily. His eyes were closed.

He’d made it out of the crash that he’d caused.

Black soot streaked both of their faces. Blood dripped from the corner of Parker’s mouth. Justin was the only Drayton awake, and he sat resting against his tall and stuffed back pack, his arms wrapped around his drawn up knees. Debris covered his face too, but out of the whole group, he looked to have sustained the least injury. He looked over at Jake. “Can I do anything to help?”

Face pinched and stiff, Jake collapsed beside Emily, digging his gloved fingers into his eyes. “Manage to reach anyone?” he asked Justin without looking up at the younger man.

Justin grimaced. “No. No signal yet.”

“Let’s focus on Neen now,” Angela said softly, her voice somber. “She was the last one out of the jet.”

A sudden thought struck Nina.
Where was her luggage?
All her client files.
Her cross-body bag
. She had been carrying it when the jet went down. “Neil,” she croaked. “My - my handbag?” she croaked. “Did it?” In the back of her mind she knew it was crazy to worry about something so trivial, but right now she needed to have been able to have something – anything – to connect her to a time before the horror of the accident.

“It’s here.” Angela gave a wan smile and tapped a lump of dirty tan leather that was sat at her hip. “You still had it across your body when the guys got you out of the plane.”

Nina reached for her bag and held it tight. Though ripped with dark burn stains it was a wonderful sight to her eyes.

“Ben had meds in his rucksack,” Neil said. “Let me get it.”

Her eyes widened with surprise. “You were able to save other luggage?”

Neil gave a bitter shake of his head. “Hardly. Only you and Jake have stuff because you had yours in close proximity to you. The rest of us didn’t. Parker suggested we wear as much on us as we can, and now I’m grateful I listened. It’s why I have my phone and a couple of other pieces inside my ski jacket.” He grimaced. “But luggage? We couldn’t risk our lives to stop for those.” He moved to Ben’s rucksack and opened it.

Angela watched Nina slowly open her handbag. “I feel naked without mine.”