FLYBY (b. bradshaw)

𝙏𝙃𝙄𝙍𝙏𝙔-𝙎𝙀𝙑𝙀𝙉

She felt the nip of the cold, powdery snow against her cheek first.

The encrustation pain didn't hit until until her eyes started to flutter open. She was half inside her aircraft, half outside of it. She clawed at the ground, forcing herself out of the burning hunk of metal. She ripped off her mask, coughing up blood.

Blood stained the white snow, though she couldn't tell exactly where it was coming from. She managed to flip onto her back. A blood curdling scream ripped through her lungs as she landed hard on her shoulder. Remembering she was still in enemy territory, she bit the inside of her cheek as she continued to scoot farther away from what had once been her plane.

She must've been ten feet away before she finally collapsed, her arms and legs so numb that all feeling had been lost. Her hair was crushed with blood and frozen snow , and the tears that streamed down her bright pink cheeks turned to trails of ice.

She covered her mouth to keep the sobs contained. It didn't really matter anymore if anyone heard her. She was completely and utterly alone; the world around her undisturbed.

Her eyes grew heavier the longer she laid there. It felt like hours but she knew it was mew minutes. Every second seemed to be in slow motion, as the pain in her body turned to a dull throb.

"Okay," she hissed quietly to herself as she pushed herself off of the ground. "You got yourself into this shit, Lilah, now how the fuck are you gonna get out of it."

Her shoulder was in such a disturbing position that Lilah gagged at the sight of it. The right side of her chest was tender, and the lightest press made her puke onto the white powder ground beside her.

Lilah sat in a pool of her own blood. A trail of it lead from her aircraft to where she now rested, tense and alert. She felt down her suit until the warm sticky blood covered her hand. A few of her stitches were now gone.

"Shit, shit, shit, shit," she kept repeating in a hushed tone. There was no way she could drag herself, or even survive the next few hours until search and rescue was dispatched.

If search and rescue is even going to be deployed, she reminded herself silently.

She'd made her choice, a choice to sacrifice herself. Whether Warlock was going to let her became a martyr was in his hands, loosing her life was now in his hands.

"No one to save you now, Lilah, you're on your own" she muttered to herself as she found a shard of glass and slashed open the leg of her her flight suit.

She ripped a piece of her parachute off and shoved it into the open wound. She bit her tongue to contain the scream that ripped through her throat. She was about to start on her shoulder when she heard it.

The low rumble of an engine.

She dropped her parachute from off her back, the weight dropping off and the sudden shot of adrenaline alike giving her enough energy to get to her feet. Her leg dragged behind her, barely throwing herself into a run, each movement heavier and more sloppy than the last. She managed to climb behind a few logs before she collapsed completely.

Stars flashed in her vision as she shaded her eyes from the harsh sun. The snow beneath of her was longer cold as she fought to contain her breath.

An enemy helicopter appeared over the trees. Lilah didn't dare move or breath as she watched it circle her burning jet. Once it seemed satisfied that she was no longer inside of dead, it turned the other way and started searching.

A few minutes, she'd been given a few extra minutes.

She curled up the best she could, starting to shiver. No longer did she have to heat from plane. She closed her eyes and listened, praying that the helicopter stayed north.