Flight #319 - Chapter 2

F L I G H T #3 1 9

By Mctrip7

Rating: PG-13
Genre: Suspense, Angst, Romance
Archive: Trip
Disclaimer: I understand that all the characters belong to Paramount and will not be sold.
Summary: Sorry, T”Pol. You had your chance.

~~~~~

CHAPTER 2

They seemed to be coming down at a steeper angle now. Oops, leveling off again - now down again! Nausea wasn't far away. The stewardess went to sit on her seat in the galley, but she was up in a minute to get some passenger back to his or her seat. Everyone began to pray. Trip and Laurie joined in the Our Father with them. It struck her that in the midst of terror, there aren't any different faiths, they were all children of God and were asking their Father for His help.

Suddenly there were shapes outside the window. They were at tree level! The plane began to fish tail as they hit the trees. The pilot was definitely fighting for control. Then they seemed to glide, then fishtail, then bounce - then all over again. Suddenly a THUD, then screeching, swaying. THEN EVERYTHING WAS DEAD QUIET!

Tucker snapped up and tugged Laurie with him. "I'll get the door open and you start the people this way,” he motioned.

“Where is the stewardess?” she asked.

"She's lying in the galley with the other one. Get one of the passengers to bring them out.”

She had her orders and she hopped to. "Yes, Sir,” she nodded to him. You know the smile he gave her!

At first, they really had a hard time getting people to move. Laurie helped carry a little girl for a mother who had two others to shepherd. Then other passengers began looking around to see who needed their help.

Meantime Trip carried a handicapped lady down the slide. She was so scared. He had to climb back up on the ropes. Laurie thought he favored his left arm, but he couldn't have carried that lady if it had been bad, she reasoned.

By now they were beginning to smell smoke. People were moving and then suddenly they just froze. They looked like they were in a trance, and Trip had to bodily pick them up to get them moving. One lady dragged her ring across Trip’s face when she was made to let go of him. She really didn't mean to but there it was – an inch long gash.

Laurie knew there was a first aid kit in the galley somewhere. Voila! She grabbed some antiseptic spray and a bandage and made him close his eyes and soaked him. A very crude bandage.

The fire was beginning to move their way. Since the full plane had ninety-five passengers, they were practically dragging people out. Another stewardess appeared from somewhere and asked about the pilot. Trip told her, “We haven’t seen either the Pilot or the co-Pilot . They probably have their own escape hatch.”

She headed for the cockpit. Tucker started to follow her but was intercepted by an elderly passenger.

“Mr. Tucker, wouldn’t it be safer to stay on the plane until help comes?”

“Mr. Barton, we don’t know how long that will be and there’s always a danger of fire. We need to evacuate as soon as possible...like right now.”

Laurie kept pushing people to move ahead. Some of those a little farther back were starting panic. One of their pushes knocked Laurie and Agnes Scott, an elderly lady, to the floor. Laurie skinned her chin on the grid. She tried to help Agnes up, but Agnes couldn’t stand. Another passenger let Agnes lean on him until they got to the slide. Laurie was reaching for the next person, bloody chin and all.

Trip came back and asked, “Could one of you men help me? The pilot's foot is caught and he is bleeding profusely from a gash on his neck.” Two men scrambled ahead and went with him. They had to bring the pilot back through the cabin in order to get the make-shift stretcher out. The cut on his neck had nicked an artery and he was covered in blood. Trip had inserted what looked like a pen in the wound and the flow of blood had all but stopped.

Trip said, “The co-pilot, Rob, is coming around but doesn't know where he is.” He brought Rob to the head of the slide and told him when he got a passenger, he was to put him on the slide. Rob seemed to be able to handle this.

As Laurie came forward to relieve Rob, she looked out at the ground. Everyone was standing close to the plane. She shouted to them, “Move away - move into the trees.”

Trip came up behind her and said, "Oh, my God, they're going to be blown up!! They have to get back. We're going to try to get the pilot down the slide and I'll try to hustle them into the trees.” He said he would be right back.

People who heard what Trip said were immediately pushing to get out. “He did say ‘blown up’, didn’t he? Have they found something?” The line really started moving.

The back of the plane was getting pretty smoky. They were even beginning to feel the heat. It had only been ten minutes, but it seemed like hours since they started.

Laurie moved near the door She could see Commander Tucker herding people into the woods. His clothes were all dirty and he was definitely favoring his left arm. With the bandage on his face and his shirt half out, he really looked like some kind of a bum. But, everyone was taking orders without complaining.

One lady, whose arm was badly burned, came up to Laurie and asked, “Please help me with my son? I can't wake him up.” Really alarmed, Laurie asked the next person in line to take over and hurry the people along. Then she pushed through to follow the woman. Mrs. Stoeckel had been sitting quite a way back and the flames were already a few seats behind her. Laurie helped pull the young man out into the isle and tried to stand him up, to no avail. They did manage to get him between them and pull him forward. Fire was all around them now.

“Go up front and ask one of the men to come and help us, please,” cried Laurie. Mrs. Stoeckel just stood there. She didn’t seem to understand.

“Go, go, go . . .get help!” With that, the woman turned and ran forward. Laurie had decided she would have to put the boy on the floor and drag him. As she was tugging, she looked up into Trip’s caring face. She couldn't stop the tears as he reached down to lift the boy.

He kissed her gently on the cheek as he said, "We've got to get out of here. We suspect a bomb blew out the cargo compartment!"

By now they had reached the slide and eased the boy down. Then Tucker took her in his arms and jumped forward. Everyone on the ground was clapping and shouting, “Everybody's out!”

"We've got to get to those trees as fast as we can,” whispered Trip. “When we hit the ground, start running. I’ll get the rest of them to follow.” He pushed her forward, and she took off.

Looking over her shoulder, Laurie saw that the remaining passengers were moving in her direction, but Trip wasn't coming. He started back up the ropes to the plane. As the people got to her, she sent them on their way; but she headed back to the slide on the double.

"Trip, what's wrong? I’m not leaving till you come with me!" She started climbing up the ropes.

He appeared in the doorway with what looked like a radio. He was visibly shaken when he saw her there. "What are you doin’ back here? It could go up at any minute. You should’ve stayed in the woods.”

“I thought something had gone wrong and you might need me.” He looked pretty spent.

On the ground once again, he took her arm and propelled her toward the trees. They had only covered half the distance when it happened. The detonation was earth-shattering! Tucker and Laurie were thrown forward and they hit the ground about 20 feet from where they were. Several men from the last group came running back to help them.

Rob reached Tucker first. Trip wasn’t moving. Laurie was attempting to crawl in his direction, when someone came to help her. By the time she got to Trip’s side, he was trying to turn over and Rob was trying to help him.

“Where’s Laurie? Did she make it?” He was spitting out a little dirt along with the words, but he seemed to be in one piece.

“Trip, there really was a bomb on the plane!” Laurie whispered to him.

TBC

Continue to Chapter 3

Return to Chapter 1

Back to Fan Fiction Main Menu

Have a comment to make about this story? Do so in the Trip Fan Fiction forum at the HoTBBS!

Three people have made comments

oooohhhhh, nasty.
This is a great chapter again, and i'm really interested in seing how it plays out :D

hopefully, we soon find out whats wrong with Trip, and i hope the 2 of them get together she seems nicer to him than T'pol :D

I'm really enjoying this story! PLEASE continue soon!!!

This chapter made a bad day a lot better. I enjoyed it very much. I just wonder how Trip and Laurie could know all the passenger's and pilot's names and how Trip could know there was a bomb? Please update soon.