(Emily, I'm Sorry)
ACT ONE—CHAPTER EIGHT

1996

Emily's head throbbed, her vision slowly returning. Despite the ringing in her ears she could hear the distant noise of someone calling out her name. The smell of smoke filled her lungs, a cough escaping her lips.

"Emily! You have to get up." The figure above her shook her shoulders rapidly, "Emily, please!"

Emily's vision came into focus and panic filled her, the plane crashed. That was real.

Natalie pulled her to her feet, dragging her out of the burning plane. Hysterical screaming echoed through the plane...or maybe that's just the way it sounded to her.

Emily and Natalie basically fell on to the forest floor. "Emily? Can you—can you hear me?"

Emily could hear the blonde, but her brain just felt so cloudy...she couldn't muster up a response.

All Emily could think was about the horrifying fact that she had no idea where Ash was. The brunette was yet to be spotted amongst the panicked girls.

"Ash—have you seen Ash?" Her words were slurred, flowing together to the point Natalie couldn't understand her.

"Em, you're not—you're not speaking clearly." Natalie frowned, her hands on either side of her shoulders.

"Emily!"

The blonde snapped around, still partially leaning on Natalie for support, "Thank God," she whispered.

Ash reached out for her sister, pulling her into a hug, "I'm so sorry, I shouldn't have reacted like that earlier I just—"

"I know," Emily whispered, breaking the hug.

That argument felt like a lifetime ago to Emily. At the moment she wouldn't even care if Ash never wanted to talk to her again.

Emily was just glad her sister was alive. A chorus of exclamations pulled her fully back to reality.

A scream of her own escaping her lips at the sight of Misty hovering over Coach Ben, blood splattered all over her face.

"What the fuck, Misty!?" Emily exclaimed, her stomach tied in knots.

Misty didn't reply leaning down and applying pressure to his leg, "Help me move him."

The team listened, not knowing what else they could possibly do in such a situation.

"Alright, the bleeding is slowing down," Misty looked at the man's leg, "We need to disinfect it, somehow. Um—maybe something from the bar cart?"

Misty looked up at the group, "There wasn't one. It's cheaper that way." Lottie spoke.

"Maybe somebody brought contraband," Laura Lee offered up, and all eyes fell on to Natalie.

"Okay, wow," Natalie leaned against a tree lazily, and a very tiny smile tugged at Emily's lips.

"Well did you?" Misty questioned.

"Obviously." Natalie deadpanned, "but I stashed it in my bag, and god knows where that is now."

Emily sighed, this was quite literally a nightmare come true.

"Guys, how about this?" Van held up a bottle of some sort of remover, "Hey thats mi—a great idea, Van." Jackie spoke a nervousness creeping into her tone.

Misty stood up rapidly, reading the contents of the bottle, "This could work!"

The curly haired blonde crouched back down, dumping the contents of the bottle over Coach's leg. The man shot up, screaming in agony, "Is it bad? How bad is it?" He shouted.

"Well the good news is—" Misty started and Taissa swiftly cut her off, "You're going to be fine. You got pretty banged up, but Misty is doing a really good job."

Taissa turned towards the girl, "Right, Misty?"

Emily distanced herself from where the man was laying, trying to force away the sick feeling that rushed through her.

"Hey, you okay?" Natalie questioned, softly, her eyebrows furrowed in concern.

Emily's eyes flooded with tears, "I—I think so."

"You're bleeding," Natalie gently pushed away some of the blonde hair from Emily's forehead, "It doesn't look to deep."

"I can barely feel it," she murmured, "It's probably shock. Who knows how many of us could be suffering internal injuries."

Anxiousness dripped from her tone, "What if—what if no one comes after us?"

"Don't say that, Em." Natalie dismissed, holding eye contact with the Jensen girl, "They'll find us. There's some box somewhere in this mess, that's going to tell them exactly where we are."

Emily nodded, trying to relax, trying to ignore the feeling of her breathing being constricted.

A sharp scream echoed through the trees, "Laura Lee," Emily breathed, looking around for the source of the sound.

She and Natalie rushed over to where the girl stared up at the tree above her, Emily cursed under her breath at the sight.

"Dad!" Javi cried out, "Dad!"

"Holy Maccaroni, is that—" Misty stared up at the Man in the branches, "He's gotta be dead, right?" Natalie asked.

"At the looks of where he was impaled—probably." Emily whispered so only Natalie could hear.

"Okay...who has the best arm?" Jackie asked, "I do Jackie."

Emily rolled her eyes, "You aren't seriously suggesting we throw shit at him?"

"You know Coach, who fell out of a fucking plane?" Taissa added.

"Oh yeah that's so smart. You're on fire today, Jackie. Oh wait! That was supposed to be me, huh?" Sarcasm dripped from Van's tone, clearly something had happened when they were all trying to get out of the plane.

"What?" Tai looked at Van, confused.

"Okay, guys stop it!" Shauna stepped in, "We need a plan here."

"We could lower him with ropes," Laura Lee offered up.

"Yeah, if we had any. It's not like we were going to the rock climbing championships or something." Emily spoke, crossing her arms.

"Vines then! I don't know?" Laura Lee exclaimed.

"For fucks sake, Laura Lee we're not going to Tarzan him out of the tree." Natalie exclaimed.

"You got a better idea?"

"Than shoes and vines? Sure! Let's just cut the fucking tree down?" Natalie replied, and Emily shook her head, "Nat."

"Dad? Dad!" Travis called out, running toward the tree.

Several exclamations of his name followed, and Shauna moved to hold back Javi.

"He is going to fall out of that tree." Emily muttered, "I can't watch this." She turned away.

"This is all I could find!" Misty rushed over, handing out blankets to make a make-shift net of sorts.

"The branch is going to break! Get back, Travis!" Emily called out, and the teenager scrambled back. Sure enough seconds late the branch fell to the ground, dirt billowing up in its wake.

Darkness fell over the sky, and the team huddled around a fire that they started with the help of Natalie's lighter.

"I'm sure the plane had an emergency transmitter sending out a distress signal." Shauna brought up, softly breaking the silence, "They'll be here to rescue us by morning."

"Still," Jackie spoke up, "Maybe we should conserve some food, in case they don't get here until later in the day."

"You wanna save the corn nuts?" Van asked, cutting a slight glare in Jackie's direction.

Emily quietly exhaled, leaning against her sister's shoulder, stealing a short concerned glance across the fire at Natalie.

"You okay, Laura Lee?" Tai's voice broke the silence, that had fallen back over the team.

"This is all my fault." The girl whispered, and that of course caught the team's attention.

Emily pressed her lips together, she just wanted sleep.

"I did something really bad. I kept screwing up in my piano lesson last week, Mrs. Brovy kept yelling at me. F sharp, F sharp, F sharp." Laura Lee whispered, "I just, I couldn't take it anymore. So I called her a bad word. Just in my head but— God heard me.  And now we're all being punished."

"What did you call her?" Tai asked, "C*nt" she whispered.

Emily held back a laugh and Ash whacked her in the shoulder. That was until laughter broke out amongst the whole team, "I steal shitty clothes from TJ Max." Lottie spoke up.

"What?" Van asked, turning towards her.

Ash smiled, the brunette had been with Lottie one of those days. It was a good memory, most of what she had with the other girl was good memories.

"I return them and I get credit that I never use... and I have thousands of dollars in TJ Bucks."

More laughter echoed through the group, and this time Emily spoke up, "I have a stash of really shitty liquor, in box labeled Barbie dolls."

Emily left out some of the story...but the goal was to keep it light hearted.

"Wow, look at you little miss perfect," Jackie joked.

The whole team continued speaking out their most absurd stories, but before Shauna could say a word, yet another scream pierced through the air.

It belonged to Coach, Misty had cauterized his leg. Which Emily knew was one of their only choices anyway...it didn't mean she expected Misty to take action that fast.

"What the fuck, Misty?"

"I had to stop the bleeding. For good."