13 Floors in Every Direction

Chapter 11

Location: airplane
"Ladies and gentlemen thank you for choosing Southwest airlines. I'm your captain for this morning's flight from JFK to LAX. I hope you enjoy your flight."

Within about half an hour the plane had reached cruising altitude and everyone could get up and move.

"Hey, are you ok?" Lance asks Jade after he gets up. Jade just nods as he looks out the window next to his first-class seat.

"Are planes supposed to be this quiet? Like I know they weren't this quiet last time." He is so confused and Lance can hear it in his voice that he is scared.

"Yes they are and you will be fine, ok?" Again Jade nods still looking out the window.
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"Attention passengers this is your captain speaking we have arrived at Los Angeles the current time here is 1:30 in the afternoon. I hope you have enjoyed your flight with us today on Southwest."
"Ok we don't have much of a layover here so we need to hurry," Lance says getting up and grabbing their bags out of the overhead cabin.

"Wh- oh ok," Jade follows confused about what lance is talking about.

"Ok we have a few minutes hold this I'll be right back." Lance drops his backpack in Jade's arms as soon as they get to the terminal and runs off. Jade is just standing there completely dumbstruck, deep down in the center of his chest Jade can feel the twisting and turning of the fear grabbing hold of his lungs. He tries to ignore it, he tries to distract himself by counting the lights on the ceiling. It works, for a minute but not long enough.

After about five minutes Lance comes walking back with the same bouncy stride he uses when he's excited about something. Jade notices a small box in his hands as Lance approaches to reclaim his belongings.

"Are you ok? You look paler than usual?" Jade nods.

"What's in the box?"

"Chocolate."

"I thought you just went to the bathroom?" Jade says a bit confused.

"I did but then I found a candy store and the chocolate was calling to me, so I bought some. What's in the bag?" Lance says looking at the bag next to Jade on the ground.

"What bag?" Jade looks to the ground. And immediately his whole world comes falling down to nothing.
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"Jade!!!" A man screamed running into Jade, they both fell into a fox hole just as an explosion happened that rattled every part if Jade's body. The man had placed himself on top of Jade in the fox hole and remained that way for explosion after explosion. Jade could hear the screams and yelling of his buddies as they were picked off one by one. After what felt like a lifetime the explosions stopped and the man got off of Jade and lay next to him. Both men looking up at the darkened sky as small raindrops hit their faces. All was still for a brief amount of time before a bang that shook the sky and an unexploited bomb landed not 4 feet from Jade's face. Both men held their breath before Jade pulls out a cigarette and lights it. Taking a long deep breath and letting it out again. The man reaches over and takes it out of his mouth and takes a long drag.

"I thought you didn't smoke?" Jade says in a quiet voice.

"I don't." The man replied taking another long drag. Jade couldn't even muster a smile and pulls out another, lighting it and putting it in his mouth.
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"Hey new guy, put this on." Jade looks up as a red armband in tossed onto his lap. The same logo that was on all the flags that hung around Berlin and that he was forced to fly. He knew what it meant, it meant he was a German under Hitler's rule. But that didn't mean he agreed with it.