Page 6 of Kneel for Me
Wehadto survive.
The impact was rough, knocking the breath from my lungs. Metal scraped and twisted. Bent and screamed. A harsh shout ripped from my throat at the impact, and I was pretty sure I heard Adrian yelling, too. The cabin lights went out, swallowing us in darkness, and then, the plane broke in half, and the back half of the plane crashed down to the ground roughly, making my teeth bite into my tongue. Blood exploded in my mouth, but I could barely focus on the coppery taste through the ringing in my ears.
Lifting my head, I blinked dazedly around me. Adrian was already moving to unfasten his seatbelt, and then, he was reaching over to undo mine. Grabbing my hand, he tugged me up from the seat, and we moved from the safety of our chairs.
Then, we just stared.
We were nowhere near home. It was dark outside, but I could make out snow and mountains. We were in some valley, which could be either a good thing or a bad thing, depending on how I looked at it. Bad because we weren’t going to get any kind of signal down here so we could get help. Good becausehopefullywe could follow the valley and come to some kind of civilization, where we could get assistance there.
But we had the elements to contend with, and that wasn’t a fucking good thing when it was the dead middle of winter in Russia.
“Fuck,” Adrian breathed, and for a moment, his hand tightened around mine. Like he was seeking comfort from me.
Fuck was right.
“We need to see what we can find,” I rasped, my throat raw from screaming. “We’ll need extra clothes. Thick coats if there are any on board. A backpack so we can grab flashlights, flares, thermal blankets if we have any, nonperishable food…” I was thinking out loud, already moving to search for what we needed in all the carnage and destruction. My hand still hadn’t left Adrian’s, and I didn’t want it to. It was dark, and I needed him there with me so I knew he was safe.
“Ah, shit,” he grumbled.
I turned to follow his gaze, grimacing at the sight of the flight attendant. She hadn’t made it. Her neck was twisted at an awkward angle, and she had a piece of plane jabbed right through her midsection. Her mouth was open in a silent scream, her eyes wide and unseeing. When she’d seen us napping, she’d probably decided to take a nap, too. She’d probably had absolutely no warning that she was about to die.
Adrian’s bag had fallen out during the crash and was sitting in the snow. He let go of my hand to snatch it up. After tossing it onto one of the seats, he yanked the zipper open, fishing out a puffer jacket, a gun, ammo, and two knives. He tossed me one of the knives, which I clipped to my leather belt.
“Here,” he said, thrusting another puffer jacket at me. I took it graciously and immediately slid my arms into it since my simple button down wasn’t going to be anything near enough to keep me warm in these temps, and my suit jacket, if I found it, would be pointless. “I packed two because I didn’t know how fucking cold Russia would be.”
“Well, packing two just saved my life, so thank you,” I told him, meaning it. Now wasn’t the time to be a cocky asshole with him. Our only goal at the moment was survival. Hell, it would be our only goal for the next however many days it took us to find some sort of civilization.
He blinked at me for a moment like he was surprised by my words before turning away. I went in search of a flashlight we could use and managed to find one in the crew member area, along with the flight attendant’s backpack. I dumped all her things out, finding nothing of value, but kept her backpack. Then, I scanned the shelves, finding water, peanuts, granola bars, and some other nonperishable stuff we could definitely use.
I found a couple of throw blankets. They weren’t great, but they were better than nothing, so I rolled those up and stuffed those in the backpack as well. When I made my way to Adrian, he had the essentials we needed from his bag—clothes, mostly—set to the side. When I set the bag down, he shoved them inside.
“We need to go ahead and start moving,” I told him. “We can rest when the sun is out. I know that doesn’t make much sense, but?—”
“The sun will provide a little more warmth. Might keep us from becoming hypothermic,” Adrian said, cutting me off. “I know.” He shouldered the backpack before I could. “Did you happen to find any gloves?”
I shook my head. “Just keep your hands inside your pockets or your sleeves. We’ll alternate holding the flashlight and carrying the bag.”
He nodded. When we stepped out of the wrecked plane interior, I swung the light around, grimacing at the front of the plane. The pilot had been sent airborne, his body half-hanging out of the flight deck window. Adrian muttered a curse before turning away. Blowing out a harsh breath at the amount of paperwork I’d have to do when I got back because of this shit show, not to mention the fucking phone calls I’d have to handle, I began marching through the snow.
“Did Mark not fly with us?” Adrian asked as we moved further and further away from the plane.
I shook my head. “No. He wanted to visit some family stateside before heading back. I told him that was fine.” And thank fuck I had. I truly liked Mark’s company. Having him dead would have been a huge inconvenience.
“The pilot and flight attendant?” he asked.
I shook my head. “Mere paperwork.”
I couldfeelhis glare through the darkness, and if I wasn’t in such a foul fucking mood, I might have found it amusing.
“That’s harsh. They were your employees,” he told me.
I shook my head as I tromped through the knee-high snow. “This is life, Adrian.Ourlife. I have no doubt there’s some kind of foul play here. The pilot had locked himself into the pit,andhe gave no warning that we were in danger. When that engine went out, he had a job to do, which was to warn passengers of the danger we were facing and give us orders. I’ll have someone extricate his body and run tests—make sure there’s nothing in his system, like some kind of drug. And make sure he wasn’t dead before the crash even happened.”
“Some kind of drug?” he asked.
I shrugged one shoulder. “I don’t know,” I told him honestly. “An autopsy will tell me more. For now, forget those two even existed.” I flinched when snow began to come down, bringing wind with it. I gritted my teeth, my cheeks already fucking frozen. “This is about to be hell.”
Adrian blew out a harsh breath. “It’salwaysfucking hell when you’re involved.”
