I was just sitting there minding my own business. I had been on a plane before but this one felt different. Maybe it was just because the baby in the row next to mine kept screaming, and her mother couldn’t get her to calm down, but I felt that wasn’t the cause.  There was a quiet humming on the plane and was normal, along with the smell of the leather plane seats, and the sound of the luggage clattering in the overhead bin. I noticed a distinct smell that I had smelled before, it was smoke. I immediately started feeling my chest heaving. I could feel my heart racing and tears ready to fall, unable to control what was coming out of my mouth. I felt numb. I tried calming myself before I caused a scene, but it was already too late.
You can probably relate to the feeling of being embarrassed, but this was beyond any embarrassment that I had ever felt before. People staring at me for all sides except for my right, where a window sat staring out into the endless blue sky with white marshmallow fluff scattered around. I had two flight attendants standing over me, both with a different expression on their faces. The first one looked terribly frightened of me and was slowly backing away. The second  looked as if she was bored and her body language gave off the intention of her wishing I would just ‘get over myself’ and move on with my life.
I couldn’t help it. I was crying and my mascara was running like rivers down my face. I was a wreck and there was no fixing me. I tried making out words but everything was spinning. I thought the spinning was due to my mind racing with the thoughts of me possibly dying any second, but no. I looked up, red lights flashing everywhere along with people screaming. I knew I should have said something about that frightening smell of smoke burning plastic. I looked out my window, hoping I was imagining things, hoping to look out and see that beautiful, plain blue sky, but no. I saw fire and smoke, burning what seemed to be the last bit of happiness this plane was hauling.
People, along with luggage, seemed to be flying everywhere. Everyone was screaming. I looked over to my left and my heart dropped. There sat the young mother, seventeen at the oldest, clutching her newborn with what little strength she seemed to have left in her. I don’t know why what happened, happened, but it did. Everything was a blur. The smell of the alcohol and orange juice spilling over the snack carts near the back of where second class was divided into first class, and that young woman. She unbuckled her seat belt, just barely not falling, stumbling through the chaos and hand her tiny baby girl to me. I tried to hand her back, but I couldn’t. Not with the look of despair the young girl had.
“What’s your name?!” I tried screaming over the noises all around me.
“I’m Haven,” she choked out.
Then she turned a pasty white, and fell to the floor. I looked out the window to see what little time I had left in the world just to look out the window, and see that my time had just about come to an end. Thirty seconds at the most. I held onto that dear child and said my prayers in an instant. Then I felt it. We hit the ground, harder and louder than anything I would have imagined, but then I felt as if we were sinking and everything was being jerked all around. The world around me then fell into a inky black state, with flashing red lights around us, just like you would see in a sinking submarine movie, and everything turned absolutely noiseless.
  I smelled fish. That smell is not very pleasing, but it’s very terrifying when you’re in a plane. I felt as if I was in liquid cement that was just starting to harden, but how would that be possible? I heard hard breathing and looked around me and everything came flashing into my mind. The red lights, the smoke, the screaming, that young mother with her tiny baby girl. The mother stumblong with the plane falling and handing the baby to me. Then what happened?
I looked to my lap, praying that baby had survived this fall and there she was. Out of all this trauma and she was sleeping peacefully in my arms. I looked to my right hoping to wake up out of this nightmarish reality and go back to the airport, just to go home and never have this happen. But what would have happened to this baby? I suddenly thought about what was happening. No one was moving, no one was screaming, no one was here. So where was here? I looked out my right, towards the window just to see something moving in this black sheet of… water?
Suddening something came swimming up faster than a car on the highway towards me and smashed right into it! The entire plane shook and all throughout my window, I had a spiderweb crack and water started squirting in at me.
I screamed and got up just realising that water surrounded me up to my thigh. I had to get out of there. I tried to remember where the exit was but everything was still spinning. I got up to see bodies floating everywhere. I looked to the seat where the young mother had fallen into after she handed her infant to me. There she was, lying in her seat, covered in blood and just lying there. It broke my heart more than any heart wrenching movie I had ever seen.
I walked on just to see more heartbreaking and blood. I found it incredibly hard to walk until I realised that the reason for this was because the plane was sideways. I didn’t know how I hadn’t realised this, but at least I knew now. I needed to find my way out before it was too late and save this baby. I didn’t care what I had to do, I would give up my own life, just to save this small child from drowning.
I saw the opening and it didn’t seem to be covered in water. I prayed that there was any land at all near this plane. If there wasn’t I was going to have to find a lifeboat on this plane, and fast. It seemed as if the aircraft was sinking by the second, or maybe it was just my anxiety again. I slowly walk towards the doorway, trying to to get my hopes up. I grabbed the handle with my right hand while holding onto the baby in the other, then I stopped.
“What’s your name child?” I whispered to her, as if she would answer.
She gave me the blankest stare I had ever seen. She had some curiosity in her ebony eyes. I couldn’t help but feel my heart break. She was this innocent child. Her black hair dropping in locks around her neck, along with her ebony eyes and light brown skin. I knew I needed to find her name, so i stepped away from the door. I went back to the heart wrenching scene of the child’s you mother and stooped to gather her purse. I walked back to the door and tried to push the door open. It was jammed.
Great. I thought. I just wasted my time on this plane, trying to save this child and witness all of this horrificness, just to be stuck here to die. I’ve her mother down. I’ve let the people on this plane down.
I couldn’t stop here though, I needed to keep moving. I gently put the baby, along with the purse, down onto the dry seat that was closest to me. I walked into the emergency closest and found just what I was looking for, a crowbar. I marched to the door with pride and strength in my step, put the crowbar in between the door and the wall and pried it in all ways that existed.
There was a loud crack, and the door swung open, nearly falling off of it’s hinges.
I cried out, “Praise the great lord above!!” with great delight.
It looked as if we were at a boat port somewhere, but it seemed that everyone there had been long gone since 1975. There was old signs around the property and a fence too. I carefully stepped back a few steps to grab the baby and the purse. I then, as gently as I could, jumped out of the plane onto the ground, which was about a 5 food drop. I walked upto the building that seemed the most stable, hoping to find some shelter. I opened the door and saw that I was at an old lumber mill. Everything was still in working order from what I could see, but everything was abandoned.
There was a working refrigerator, but nothing was in there. I decided to keep looking and, to my amazement, there were brand new clean sheets in the office that I had found, on the south side of the building, along with a brand new, never sept in before, king size bed. The baby started crying so I quickly got the sheets put on the bed and put the purse down onto the desk, and we both layed down to get some rest for the night, and within 10 minutes, we were both sound asleep.
The next morning I woke up determined and hungry. If this place had a bad and a refrigerator, why wouldn’t it have a phone? I started searching but quickly gave up because I was overcome with the feeling of hunger, and the baby started to cry. I walked outside and saw the plane was still there. I hated the thought of it, but I knew that I was going to have to go back on there to find some food.
I climbed inside and when to the kitchen on the plane. I heard some pots and pans clatter to the ground. I froze.
“Hello? Is anyone there?” My trembling voice managed to squeak out.
I saw a shadow walking towards me and then there out popped a head. I screamed and in a second, I had a hand around my mouth.  I slowly brought my hand up to pry the arm away from my mouth.
I whispered, “Who are you?” and the arm around me dropped away and i turned to see the flight attendant that was terrified of me when I was having my anxiety attack on the plane. We both just stood there in awe staring at each other. We then started crying and held onto each other, I couldn’t even explain how happy I was to see another adult human being to be standing next to me, very alive.
“I thought that everyone had perished in the plane crash!” She exclaimed. “My name is Aleigha Fredricson. I don’t think I ever had the chance of telling you that before this horrific accident happened.”
Aleigha and I walked to the kitchen and grabbed as much food as we could, and then we headed back to the  abandoned lumber mill. I had to go calm the baby down, she was crying for her mother and food. I felt terrible because I could fix her hungry, but I wasn’t able to bring back her mother.
Aleigha went and found the makings of a fire while I put the dried food packets together and put water in it. We had fish, peas, and a small side of macaroni. We shared with the baby and she finally stopped whailing. I handed her to Aleigha and soon they were both sound asleep. I decided that now was a good time to go and try to find out the baby’s name, so I went into the office and looked through the mother's purse.
I found regular things like her sunglasses, wallet, drivers licence, chapstick. I opened her wallet and found many pictures of the little girl. I looked on the back of the first photo I found and saw on the back, her name was Flora May. She was only 8 months old and from the looks of it, her mother was a single mom, and only 17 years old. My heart lurched and I started crying, weeping for the loss of the young mother and how that young child wouldn’t know her growing up.
I looked around some more and to my great joy, I saw a phone on the other side of the building in a telephone booth. I squealed with joy and went running to it, waking Aleigha and Flora in the process. The two made their way over to me, very slowly, as if trying not the disturbed the hope that filled this building.
I slowly grabbed the phone off of the receiver and dialed 911. I sat there and waiting. Nothing happened.
My heart sank to the bottom of my chest. I felt so disappointed that the phone didn't. My hopes were so high and now they were just crushed. I put the phone back onto the receiver and sat down. I tried to be strong because that's what it seemed like we all need at the moment, but I couldn’t. I sat there and I cried. We were on a possible island and there was no tract of people, cars, or even any roads anywhere.
Aleigha slowly walked towards me and sat down next to me.
“It’s okay. It wasn’t your fault that the phone doesn’t work,” she said gently.
“I wanted to go home. I wanted you to go to your husband and forget this ever happened,” I said through tears.
“I know you want to get home, so do I, and I’m sure Flora wants her mother too, but we can’t fix that with something we don’t have,”
The three of us just sat there in silence, crying our hearts out. I gently picked up Flora May and held her. I put my head on hers.
I gently whispered to her, “I’m so sorry.”
It was as if she heard me and grabbed onto me to hold me the same way that I had been holding onto her tiny body. She held onto me as if I was the only one keeping her alive, but really it felt as if I was the one killing her.
Holding onto Flora gave me a new sense of hope. I needed to find a way to get us off of this island.
“I’m going to figure this out,” I said to Aleigha, “I’m going to either find a way out of here or I’m going to die trying. You can sit her and feel bad for yourself or you can get up and help me,” I said in a strong, commanding voice.
Aleigha stared at me as if I was crazy, but then her expression softened. She slowly stood up. Then she started smiling!
“I wondered how long it would for me to break through that hard surface of yours just to get you to help us,” she said with a smirk. I had no idea what to even say to her, but at that moment, I didn’t care. She was the one who actually started to save all three of us.
I then decided on what I was going to do. I was going to get up and I was going to figure out what was wrong with that phone and I was going to save us.
These two young girls with me were going to survive and I was going to help them. We were all going to get off of this island, and we were going to do it together no matter what happened.
I stood there and I looked at the phone, wondering how I could possibly fix this old piece of junk with what little experience I had with fixing electronics. I just prayed that with what I knew would be enough.
Aleigha stood there with a curious look in her eyes. I watched as she walked to the bedroom and got a blanket fo Flora. She gently set her down on a camping chair that we had found in the office when we first crashed.
“Wait a second. I’ve seen this before in my history class,” Aleigha stated.
“Please tell me that you know how it’s mechanics work,” I pleaded.
“I think I can,” she said with hope in her eyes.
Aleigha studied the old phone and gently put her hands on it. She gave it a light tug and the front came right off. She set it onto a band to the right of her. She looked at the wires with terror in her eyes.
“What if I mess up or totally ruin the phone so we have absolutely no chance of getting away from this place?” she mumbled, “I want to get away from here and I’m so scared of ruining something.”
“You’re going to fix this. I know you will. Believe in you!”
“What if I don’t believe in myself though? I have three lives on my shoulders and I could kill all of us without even trying to,” She said, nearly yelling and holding back her tears.
“That’s the reason you need to try. You’re the only one who even has a chance of saving us,” I cried.
Aleigha just stood there, then finally understood. She had the look of shock on her face and turned away, shaking her head yes.
“Okay, I get it. I can do this,” she finally understood.
She studied the wires and knew what she had to do. She reached into the old phone, hoping not to electrocute herself. She pulled out a few things of trash and moved some of the wires around and sparks went flying everywhere like fireworks on the fourth of July.
She screamed and turned away, protecting her face from the electricity.
“That’s a good sign,” she said, “it at least has some electricity to it so we know that it should work.
Aleigha finagled with the wires a little bit longer while I just stood there, hoping and praying that this young woman would be able to save our lives.
She stepped back a few inches and put the shell of the phone back onto it. She wiped her face with the back of her arm and turned towards me.
“Do it.”
I walked to the phone to take her place in front of it.
I dialed 911, hoping that this was the number I was supposed to use here for emergencies. I listened and then I heard it,the dial tone and I hadn’t realised it, but I had been holding my breath the entire time. I gently put the phone to my ear to my ear and listened.
“This is 911. What’s your emergency?” stated a female’s voice on the other end of the phone.
“Thank the lord!!” I cried.
I could hear the woman that had answered drop her headset due to me yelling in her ear. I felt bad but I couldn’t help how excited and full of a new hope I was filled with. I heard the muffling sound of her picking the headset up and putting it back on. She took a deep breathe to calm herself.
“This is 911. What is your emergency?” she stated with irritation in her voice.
“My name is Levana Wood. I am here with my friend Aleigha Fredricson along with an eight month baby named Flora May. We were all on a plane together and it crashed,” my voice cracked with sorrow and bitterness, “It’s now halfway in the water and on land. Everyone seems to had died, except for us three.” I spoke quickly, frantically, and sorrowfully, hoping the lady on the receiving end understood what all I was saying.
I hadn't expected to be this emotional. As I listened, there was no sound coming from the phone.
“Hello?” I asked.
Finally after a good 30 seconds of standing there, wondering if something had happened between the phones, I heard a quiet voice.
“Was there a young woman, the age of 17 on the plane with you?”
“Yes ma’am,” I said.
There wasn’t any sound in the background again so I listened harder. Then I almost dropped the phone due to the sound of someone sobbing on the other end. It was the lady that we had been talking to.
“My daughter, Haven Presley, was on that plane with her baby,” she struggled to get out between breaths, “Her baby’s name is Flora May Prestley,” she sobbed.
My heart sank and I had absolutely no words to comfort her. I wanted to help but at this moment, I had gone through so much pain and sadness the last few weeks that my heart felt cold as ice.
“I’m so sorry for your loss, but at least she’s in a better place now,” I whispered gently.
Aleigha and I took turns explaining to the woman what had happened when the other wasn’t able to finish the horrific story.
There was so much emotion that happened during that time. It only took ten minutes to explain the story but it seem as if all the emotions in the world had been spilled out.
I could hear other ladies and a few men around the operator, who was now nearly unconscious from crying so much. Someone grabbed the operators headset and now it was a man’s voice who was talking to us.
“We are finding your coordinates now. It will take about 15 more minutes for us to find your location” Said his deep sorrowful voice. He needed to take a second to calm down so he wouldn't start crying either.
“It seems that you are using some type of old phone that was made in sometimes during the 1800’s.”
Aleigha held Flora May while I went and gathered what little supplies we had with us. We were going to be saved! I headed back to the phone and listened for another 5 minutes of someone typing on a keyboard.
Then a beeping in the background noise of the operator’s room started happening.
“Is everything okay over there?” I asked quickly.
“I’ve got it!” Someone shouted from the other side of the phone.
Aleigha nearly jumped out of her skin and sent Flora May in a tantrum, screaming like a
“I’m sorry to the three of you for startling you, but we have found your location and rescuers are on their way.”
It seemed as if everyone let out a sigh of relief. We had had a terrible few days and finally, everything would be going back to almost normal as we would be getting saved in about an hour. It seemed too good to be true.
We were sitting there waiting while the rescue team was getting ready for their departure to come get us. Aleigha seemed very wore out and Flora was getting very cranky. I held and rocked Flora for a half an hour before she finally fell asleep
About an hour past when I finally heard the light rumbling sound. I looked towards the sky and in the distance, I could just barely make out the shape of a plane, colored yellow and red.
“Aleigha! Wake up now!” I said, waking up poor little Flora.
“What is it?” she said drowsily.
“Look! Over there!” I yelled, pointing to where the plane was coming.
She instantly jumped to her feet and started running towards the plane wreckage.
“What are you doing?” I yelled, “Are you crazy?!”
“I’m going to get a flare from the back. And for your information, Yes! I am crazy,” she said laughing
She climbed inside and within 2 minutes she popped right back out of the door. Aleigha started jumping around like crazy and set off the flare. I knew right then, that the plane had spotted us.
It made its way over to our island and landed on the sand. Out climbed five rescuers, three women and two men. Aleigha sank to the ground weeping with happiness and the two men rescuers put her on a gurnee to carry her to the plane. I could smell the food they had on there and see the 24 pack of bottled water.
One of the woman rescuers came over to me and took Flora from my arms. That’s when I noticed a large black lady and other two rescuers were holding back on the plane.
“Let a woman go!!” she was screaming, “That’s my granddaughter!”
I realised that this must’ve been the woman from 911 headquarters. She came running towards us and plucked the baby right out of the rescuers hands. She then gently turned around and properly walked back to the plane. The rescuer turned back to me with surprise in her eyes.
“Are you ready to leave?” she asked kindly.
I wanted to say yes but I couldn’t, not without knowing everyone of that plane was fully dead and that if anyone was alive they would come with us.
“I am but I’m not at the same time. Please check the plane wreck for any survivors.” I said sadly.
The rescuer nodded her head and signaled for the other 4 to go help her. I sat there for another half an hour while they searched the plane, then one of the males popped out and started yelling and someone to go get something from the plane, but I was too far away to be able to hear what it was. I was guessing something like a dozen body bags.
I curiously watched and he got went and got about 15 body bags and 2 gurnees.
What could they possibly use a gurnee on if everyone is dead? I thought.
I got up and walked over to the plane, I couldn’t help my curiosity. When I got closer, I heard crying. Then before I knew it, they were hauling filled body bags over the edge of the plane into the sand and my heart sank. It was all too real for my taste of mystery, suspense, and horror. 
The crying never stopped though and that’s what had been confusing me. The next thing I heard was someone screaming, “My baby!! My baby!!” in sobs. I couldn’t see her yet, but I knew who it was. It was the mother of the little baby.
They hauled her out of the plane in the gurnee carefully. She was covered in blood soaked bandages and she seemed to be much more skinny than I remembered. Then she stopped crying, she noticed me.
“Please,” she said, “Where’s my baby girl? Please tell me she’s okay. Or if she died, please tell me she died peacefully.”
I couldn’t say a word. I was so happy she was alive but my heart was broken for the other people who were dead, but all of them seemed to be over 50 years old. I just started and her and she started crying again but stopped midway because she started having a coughing fit.
They hauled her into the plane and there came a cry of delight from both mothers, to see their daughters alive. The woman rescuer that had come to comfort me came up to me again.
“Let’s get you home,” she said.
Gently she put her hand on my back and we walked together to the rescue plane. When I stepped onto the plane, I lost it. Not because of terror, but because of being alive. I survived! Along with a baby and two other women.
The young mother got all of her injuries covered and cleaned, she was even strong enough to sit up. Flora had already gotten baby food and was now sleeping in her grandmother’s arms.
“Let’s eat,” said the grandmother, “It’s been a long week.”
We all prayed and then sat in silence as the island faded from our sight. Another rescue plane would be going back the next day, back to the island to pick up the dead bodies and then they would be getting calls from 911, explaining the situation.
Out of all this that I had suffered throughout this week, I felt proud and happy. I learned to never say that I wasn’t blessed and I needed to thank the lord everyday.
I was blessed to be alive.
I was blessed to have survived.