Fight Or Flight

Fight or Flight- 14.5

Eustass Kid shut his eyes just seconds before his entire body lurched forward against his seatbelt and his head slammed violently against the hard backing of the seat in front of him.

His vision swam and he had to try and blink away the black spots appearing in front of his eyes. They danced sporadically with the dropped air masks and he clenched his eyes shut—knowing full well he would throw up if he stared at them for too long.

In his arms, Law's body went limp. Kid wasn't sure if it was the shock or the crash itself that had his new acquaintance passing out, but that didn't matter as yet another crash shook the entire area.

Kid lurched forward again and could feel something jolt free from his prosthetic and force the robotics into a vice-grip around the hand of the Marine Corps medic beside him.

An IED, he thought. Another damn IED!

Through the deafening ringing in his ears he could hear screams cut short and drowned out as terrible rending of metal sounded from somewhere in the bazaar behind them.

Kid wanted to scream as well—to call for backup, or a retreat under enemy fire—but it seemed as though every time he opened his mouth he got a lungful of either smoke or salty ocean water.

Water?

Looking to his left, Kid watched with blurred vision as the medic's vaguely familiar face lolled to meet his from the arm of an airplane seat.

Why was there an airplane seat in the middle of the desert? And why was Trafalgar Law in camo?

Kid felt more than heard Law's unconscious cry of agony as they lurched once more and the seatbelt crushed into the tan man's ribs.

That cry seemed to be the only thing able to shake Kid out of his trance.

The plane had stopped moving, was the first thing Kid—addled as he was—noticed. The second thing was the rapidly climbing water level. Already the flooding was reaching past his legs, and he knew that it wouldn't be stopping anytime soon. Glancing to his left, Kid jumped at the sight of the water reaching Law's slumped chest and tried to pull the tattooed man up and away from it. He stopped when he heard the man's groans as Kid pulled him against the seatbelt.

"Shit..." Kid murmured beneath the cacophony of screams and destruction surrounding them. "Shit, shit shit!"

Managing to remove both of their seatbelts, Kid didn't even have time to think before another tremor shook the plane, and a wall of water had both Kid and Law tumbling towards the door to the cockpit.

Kid hit head-first again, and just barely managed to hold his breath. Had it not been for the water surrounding them he would have been blinded by his own blood. He was blinded by the sea instead.

Gritting his teeth, the battered man kicked against the water with all his might, blindly feeling his way towards an emergency exit and eternally grateful to have listened to the flight attendant's shpeal earlier.

The door opened in a burst of bubbles, and Kid found him and Law being sucked out of the plane and into the open water, only a few measly feet separating them from the sandy floor.

Taking the chance, his lungs burning, Kid dove down to get a good foothold, bunched up the muscles in his aching legs, and shot up to the surface.

A few extra kicks and he could breathe again.

Kid began his one-armed swim. He wasn't sure where to yet, he just knew he had to get them away from the wreck before it sucked them back down again. Beside him, Law's head broke the surface with a cough.

A quick glance back and Kid could see the man's eyelids fluttering.

"Stay with me!" Kid called to him. "C'mon Law, stay awake!"

But he knew it was no use as Law's eyes were already beginning to slide shut again and he let out a mutter of "I am awake..."

It was another half an hour of swimming before Kid finally collapsed onto the island's sandy beach. A half an hour of pure adrenaline and the primal animal instinct to survive.

He made sure Law's head was away from the water, then Kid splayed out on the sand and finally, blissfully, went unconscious.