Rescue ~ Chapter 2

This chapter felt really muddled to me. IDK. What do you think? Is it clear? Does it seem realistic? And how are Melody's reactions to everything?

~.~.~.~.~.~.~.~.

Chapter 2

            Jason rushed to his sister’s side and pushed his head next to hers to look out the window.

            “Jason, we’re crashing!” Melody screamed, pressing her hands against the window. “Oh, God help us, please!”

            “Melody, look at me.” Jason soothed.

            She pressed her face against the window, sobbing hysterically.

            “Melody, look at me!” Jason grabbed her head in both of his hands and made her face him.

            “I knew this would happen! I knew-”

            Jason brought his hand to her mouth. “Don’t talk like that. This is just-”

            “No! You don’t understand, Jay! Listen to me! I-”

            “Melody, don’t talk.” He shook his head. “Don’t talk.”

            Screams rose from all around them. The woman with the two year old sat in her seat rocking the child back in forth as she shrieked and her husband wrapped them both in his arms and tried to calm them. Others were in similar situations. Some cried, some screamed, while others just sat and stared.

“Melody, listen to me. It’s going to be okay. We’ll always be okay, remember? You know we’re always safe, right? Aren’t we always safe with Christ?”

            Melody nodded as she choked on sobs, but she calmed down.

            “That’s my girl.” Jason raised his hand to push the golden hair out of her face. She noticed his hand was shaking almost uncontrollably.

            “You’re scared.” She said, taking his hand.

            “It’s just another step into life, right?” He said.

            Melody drew her eyebrows together, but she didn’t sob anymore. Silent, hot tears streamed down her cheeks as she gazed into her brother’s eyes. His whole body was shaking, but his eyes remained steady.

            Jason looked out the window and knew that there wasn't much time left. The ground got closer with each moment that passed.

            “Mel,” he said looking back at her. “I want you to close your eyes and don’t open them again until…well, when you open them again…”

            “Don’t say it, Jay. I know. I know.” She looked back out the window then threw her arms around his neck and closed her eyes. “I love you, Jason.”

            Jason wrapped her in his arms and held her tightly as he closed his own eyes. “I love you too, baby.”

            As shouts continued to fill the air, Melody squeezed her brother as hard as she could and tried to steady her breathing. She raised a prayer for her mother and father and then buried her face on Jason’s shoulder, trying to be as prepared as she could be.

            A hand landed on her shoulder and she was jerked back, out of Jason’s grasp. She shrieked and clawed for her brother, who ran after them as her kidnapper dashed towards the front of the plane, practically dragging Melody behind him. He had a ski mask over his head so she couldn’t see his face, but she recognized his voice as he shouted for people to move. It was the same voice that had come over the speakers a few minutes before when the plane was hijacked.

            Melody scratched at his thick arm and screamed at him as they approached the door of the airplane near the front where another masked man stood. “Not without, Jason!”           

“Shut up!” The man shouted in his thick German accent.

            “No!” Melody thrust her foot into her captor’s shin as hard as she could.

            He stumbled, then turned and backhanded her across the face. She tasted blood as it filled her mouth and a stream of it tricked down her chin.

            “Not without my brother!” She shrieked, lurching back for Jason as he snatched at her hand.

            She was yanked back and the man turned to his masked comrade, shouting, “Grab the boy!”

            “What?”

            “I said, grab him! Now!”

            A sack was shoved over Melody’s head, forcing her into darkness. She heard Jason shouting and then a thud just before she felt herself being pinned against someone’s body and then the floor was out from under her.

            Wind smacked at the cloth sack over her head as she flew through the air, still being held tightly in a pair of strong arms. She tried to scream, but the speed at which they were falling was too great and she could barely snatch in a breath.

            There was a splashing sound just before she felt herself engulfed in water and was freed from the grasp of her captor. 

            Panic surged through her body as she fought to remove the sack from her head, but she was grabbed again and felt herself being dragged upwards. The sack was ripped off of her head just before she bobbed to the surface of the water and snatched in a labored breath. In a glance she saw that she was in the ocean. 

            Twisting around, she saw that the same man who had jumped from the plane with her was holding her, but his mask was gone, revealing his face of sharp features and a head full of blond hair.

            “Where’s Jason!” She screamed, searching for him.

            A loud whistling sound rang in the air and she watched as the plane continued to speed downwards, then smash into the water in the distance, disappearing completely within a matter of seconds.

            She let out a scream as she found herself being dragged through the water.

            “Where’s my brother?” She shrieked again, smacking at the man who held her in his iron clutches. She kicked and punched and tried to free herself, but he was too strong and squeezed her around the waste so tightly that she strained to breathe and became lightheaded.

            “Jason!” She called, looking around. “Jason!”

            “Shut up!” The man snapped, as he treaded water with seemingly little difficulty.

            “Where is he?” Melody gasped out, her strength weakening.

            “Over there.”

            “Where?” She glanced side to side several times, then turned her head to look in front of them and saw the other man who had been in the plane, dragging a limp form behind him.

            “Jason!” She shouted.           

            “Shut up!” The man snapped again.

            She twisted around to watch her brother and saw that he was being dragged onto land. How had she missed it before? There was only a narrow shore before it became a thick wooded mass as far as the eye could see. It looked like a jungle, but that was impossible. There were no jungles in this part of the world. But, then again, how did she know where on earth they were?

            As they approached the land, she could hear her captor’s breathing getting shallower and more strenuous. His arm that held her around the waste shook and they’re pace slackened. He was growing tired. Maybe this could be her chance.

            She waited until she could feel sand under her feet, then she sucked in a deep breath and swung her fist around, landing it in the man’s eye. He let out a scream and reached up to pull her hand away, but she raised her other and smashed it into his stomach. He released his hold on her and she kicked at him with both of her feet as she began to swim to the shore.

            She cried out and swam after her, gaining on her quickly. She had never been a very swimmer, but she could almost run now that the water was getting more and more shallow.

            She reached the shore and scrambled to her feet, barely stopping to breathe before she charged towards the woods. As she ran, she looked around for Jason and the other man, but she didn’t see either of them and continued until she was in the woods where she stopped.

            The cries of her captor could be heard not far behind her. She tried to gasp in breaths, but her lungs felt heavy and she couldn’t get a deep breath in. She felt the air growing thicker and she heard the familiar wheezing sound coming from her throat.

            “No,” she gasped. “Not asthma now. Please.”

            Her legs shook as she tried to keep her eyes open. Her heart beat hard in her chest as her head started spinning.

            “Melody.” She didn’t recognize the voice and couldn’t keep her eyes open enough to see who was speaking.

            Her lack of oxygen from the asthma attack caused everything to go blurry and her knees shook. She couldn’t support her weight anymore and collapsed on the ground.

            She lay there, trying desperately so snatch in air, but couldn’t even think enough to focus on breathing so she let out a long breath, and then stopped trying to breathe completely.           

            She felt herself being lifted and carried along. She told her to try to get a breath in, but her mind was so weak that it was easier to try to live without it. She closed her eyes and let herself go limp, but not unconscious.

            “Melody, wake up.”

            She opened her eyes and looked up to see another man that she didn’t recognize, carrying her and speaking to her. It had been nearly a full minute since she had taken in a breath, but couldn’t even try in the position she was being carried. In a desperate effort she slammed her hand into his chest and pushed herself out of his arms so that she fell to the ground.

            The man knelt down beside her and tried to pick her back up, but she shoved him away and put her fists in a ball, then laid her chest down on top of them, pushing down until she could snatch in a breath.

            She rolled over and laid on her back, gasping in air and forcing oxygen back through her system.

            “Are you okay?” The man asked, bending over her.

            “Where-” she breathed out. “Where’s Jas-Jason?”

            “Out cold. Are you okay?”

             She sucked in a few more shallow breaths, then raised herself on her hands and looked around to see that she was definitely in some kind of a jungle. But, she didn’t see her brother anywhere. “Where is he?”

            “He’s safe. I’ll go back and get him now, if you’re sure you’re okay.”

            “Who are you?” She looked up into the young man’s face. She hadn’t noticed how young he was until now. He couldn’t be more than a year or two older than herself. His eyes were almost black and his hair was sandy brown, curly and hanging in his eyes.

            “My name is Derek, but we don’t have time for more right now. Here.” He helped her stand up and pulled her to a large tree. “Can you climb?”

            “What?”

            “Can you climb a tree? Look,” he yanked a thick vine down. “Use this and try pull yourself up. Sit up there until I get back. Don’t move until then, do you hear me?”

            “Who the heck are you? And why should I listen to you?”

            “Do you want to get out of here and see your brother again?”

            Melody just stared at him as she pressed her hands in the middle of her chest, trying to open up her lungs more and breathe deeper.

            “Just do it and wait for me.” Derek paused. “What other choice do you have right now?”

            Melody opened her mouth to reply, but stopped. He was right.

            “Okay,” she said.

            He turned to leave, but turned back around and looked at her. “You’re not going to do that again, are you?”

            “Do what?” She said, looking back as she grasped the vine and rested one foot on the trunk.

            “That breathing thing.”

            “It was an asthma attack. And no, I’m fine now.”

            “Okay, wait here.”

            And wait she did. Once she had pulled herself up into the tree, she sat for hours, waiting for Derek and her brother. But they didn’t come.

            She looked up and tried to see the sky, but it was blocked by the thick treetops all around. The humidity was intense and caused her breathing to become labored again, but she was able to relax and avoided another attack.

            She distracted herself from the panic that kept trying to overtake her by focusing on breathing. It was becoming more and more difficult again, but she set her mind on it and managed to keep from getting to light headed again.

            Melody waited and waited, she knew not how many hours, but the already dim forest grew to almost completely dark as she sat in the tree.

            The longer she waited the harder it was to keep her mind calm. Where was she? Where was Jason? She supposed everyone in the plane had died. That mother and her baby. All those people, dead. Why? What had they done? And why was she alive? Had their mother heard of the crash? Did she think they were dead, too? She wished she could call her and tell her that she was okay. But, that wouldn’t do any good. How did she know how much longer she would be okay for? And what about Jason? Where was he? Where was that Derek. She knew she shouldn’t have trusted him.

            The questions swelled in her mind until she couldn’t take it. She hadn’t noticed until now that she was nearly hyperventilating from the stress and that her heart was pounding hard and fast, threatening another one of her panic attacks. She had to move or she would have a full blown attack and she never knew  what that could mean.

            She grabbed onto her vine and swung her legs down so that she could slide down it, but her hands were shaking and she slid only a few yards before losing her grasp and crashing to the ground.

            She lay on her back for a minutes before sitting up and shaking her head, to try and clear it.

            Glancing around she wondered if she should try calling for Jason.

            She stood up and looked into the woods, straining to focus.

            Suddenly, a light shining in her eyes blinded her and she raised her hand to block it.

            “Over here, Duerr!”

            The man who had jumped from the plane with her, who’s name was apparently Duerr, emerged from the shadows and laid a hand on her shoulder.

            “Thought you got a way, eh?” Then he turned and called over his shoulder, “Good work Patterson! You got them both. Dietrich will be pleased with you. Not bad for an American!”

            Melody looked behind Duerr to see Derek standing there, holding onto one of Jason’s arms. Her brother’s hands were bound together with rope, but she couldn’t see if he was hurt or not in the darkness.

            “Come on.” Duerr shoved her forward. “We’re taking you to see Dietrich.”