I take my seat in the middle of the plane. I have the window seat So I will be able to watch the clouds as they whisk by the windows and see all of the views the flight has to offer.

A man squeezes down the little aisle and plops down next to me, taking his assigned seat for the ride. The seat next to him is still empty by the time the plane begins to move. I grab my book and begin reading it as the plane lifts into the air.

I try my best to avoid bumping or rubbing against him at all. I don't want to make this long flight any more awkward than it needs to be. It is already weird that the plane has taken off and he hasn't moved over to allow an empty seat to sit between us. It is quite cramped between him and this window.

I fly through my book in record time. It only took me an hour and a half to finish this one completely.

"Ladies and Gentlemen, we seem to be  experiencing quite a bit of turbulence so can you please fasten your seat belts right away. Thank you." The pilot says over the speakers. The seatbelt light turns on almost immediately after he's finished speaking to us.

I turn to the man next to me. I notice he's grabbing for my seatbelt. He lifts it from underneath him and connects it to the other side in my hand. I thank him with a nod and return to my book.

Movement outside the plane catches my eye. The wing seems to be bouncing around awfully hard in this wind.

"Are we going to crash?" The man to my right asks quietly, noticing the same thing I am: small pieces of the plane rushing by the window.

"This is your captain speaking. We'll have to make an emergency landing at the next closest airport." My heart rises up into my throat. I can feel every beat. A cloud of quiet panic covers the passengers as they hear the captains words.

The plane begins to rattle, sounding like a terrible earthquake, causing more panic amongst the various aged passengers. They begin to cry. I grab on to the arms of my seat as I watch more pieces of the plane whip past my window.

Oxygen masks fall from the roof, alerting the passengers that it is time to apply them. I think back to the flight attendants' instructions on how to apply these. I can't seem to remember them now. It would have helped if I had listened instead of reading my book...

An intense amount of pressure builds in my head and my vision becomes cloudy. I feel the plane spinning around me as if it is just a rollercoaster and this is just one of the many intense loops it goes through on the ride.

I turn to look beside me as the stranger lifts my mask over my head, strapping it securely before even bothering to touch his. Suddenly, the mask does its job and makes breathing easier though the pressure in the plane is dropping rapidly.

The flight attendants rush around the plane in a panic, securing everyone with their masks and attempting to keep everyone calm.

The plane dips for a moment in the sky.

My stomach spins.

I feel sick.

We are going to crash.

I grip the armrests on my seat and stare at the floor beneath me. The man next to me peels my fingers off of the plastic and squeezes his hand into mine. "Sorry, I just don't want to be alone right now." I nod. I don't know what is going to happen next but I do know that I don't want to be alone either.

Everyone panics as they see that the plane is making an alarmingly rapid decent from the sky. We are racing towards our sure deaths in the ocean below. I know everyone on this plane is thinking the same thing as me: we are all about to die.

This feeling of helplessness is the worst. Neither myself nor the other passengers have a way to help our failing plane. All we can do is hope the captain is skilled enough to get us to safety.

All of this is happening so quickly. The impact of the plane against the water slams me forward into the seat in front of me. My hand is ripped away from the stranger beside me as I try to shield my body from the rapid movement.

A sense of calmness falls over the plane. For a moment, it is clear that everyone feels safe now that we have landed.

The lights within the plane flicker and then fade to black. The plane creaks as it rocks with the waves in the ocean surrounding us. I look beside me to see blood running down the stranger's cheek from the impact on the seat in front of him.

Everyone begins shuffling out onto the battered wing of the plane and sliding into the water with their flotation devices.

"Wake up. We are evacuating the plane." I shake his shoulder. No response. "Come on, we have to go now." No response. 

I grab his floatation device and secure it around his neck and then mine. I lift his arm and throw it around my neck, lifting his limp body out of his seat and dragging him down the aisle.

As I slide out of the plane with the unconscious stranger by my side, survival kicks in. I only have two options here. Either I live or I die. I am not going to die like this. And I am not going to let him die like this either.

AN: let me know what you think!!