Madam President ✓

107. Pain

Melissa

I look around at the faces of the people I've come to call my family, knowing the seconds we have left are numbered. As Alex pinches a purple wire with her fingers, her pocket knife getting closer- my stomach churns.

The chances of it actually being the right one is one in twenty something. I weigh my odds. While none of them are good.... I'm so much more likely to survive a fall from a few hundred feet than an explosion less than fifty away from where I'm sitting.

I think about grabbing one of them and pulling them out with me- but there is truly no time. My back presses against the hard metal casing, and my left elbow nudges the opening latch- which requires a few hundred pounds of pressure from the inside to open while in air.

Without thinking, I slam my elbow into it as hard as I can. There's a sickening crunch I don't feel, adrenaline coursing through me so fast I don't have a chance to- and then weightlessness.

My brain goes into an even stronger survival mode. Why did I do this? Fuck what was I thinking-

I see the underside of the plane for just a few seconds, falling so fast I'm almost a hundred feet away when the bomb goes off. I feel a short-lived twinge of grief- then a calmness washes over me as my brain fights the emotional part of itself.

The wind created is so strong it accelerates my fall.

Pieces of metal and glass fly everywhere while the flammable materials and parts send black smoke into the sky before they've even hit the ground. I try not to think about the people trapped inside.

  I begin to close my eyes- but a large piece of glass lodges itself in one of them. Still, I feel nothing.

  Something hits my fingers. Right now, it feels like a simple tap- though I know it's probably much worse. I avoid looking at any part of myself, with the intention of just-

  Any train of thought is knocked out of existence when I hit a lake back first. I was wrong.

Everything happens in less than a second.

  Adrenaline only covers so much- and it doesn't prevent you from hearing your injuries. I'm lucky enough to not feel mental pain- for now at least.

  Something in my left shoulder snaps.

  My ankle twists around at an angle none ever should.

  I can almost feel the bruises forming, growing darker by each millisecond.

  The plane finally hits the ground right beside the lake and sends a strong wave through it that pushes me to the bottom. I feel a pop near my tailbone.

My head hits a rock- somehow avoiding unconsciousness, and another slices the skin from my ankle to knee.

  Red seeps from me, dying the water.

  I try not to think about the internal bleeding caused by just hitting it.

  My lungs burn.

  My eyes widen as I realize something: I'm still alive.

  I stare through the water, mesmerized by the tall flames peeking over the lake's edge. A sense of peace washes over me. Maybe this isn't such a bad way to go in the grand scheme of things. I mean it has to be better than dying at ninety from some form of cancer.....

Burning.

  Flames lick my lungs- the first things I've felt fully.  The muscles in my nose and upper chest involuntarily contract- trying to force me to take in oxygen. When they're met with water the flames burn more, spreading through my torso.