Aberrant: 2011 - A bitter pill to swallow [Complete]

[SuperCav]

Warning, may contain some minor graphic content.

10 October, 2008

British Airways Flight 8032

Somewhere over the Atlantic...

"William, can you handle this isle, I need to powder my nose."

Bridget has been having a pretty good go of it. Although what she ate in Spain 12 hours ago before arriving in London for her Trans-Atlantic shift to New York is starting to work on her intestines.

She steps into the Women's stall and starts her peronal business. Grabbing an Airmall magazine to burn the time. Regretting her choice of diet recently.

"Hmm, now they tell me." An ad for Pepto Bismol with a smiling Cestus Pax grinning back at her tells her the error of judgement in taking proper essentials on long work runs. "Then again, when have we ever seen Pax bound up?"

She leans back, in amusement, thinking of the irony.

Then, there is a rattle... thumping.

"What the...?" She gets up and gets proper before returning to the cabin. A few passengers are shook up. "No need to worry everyone, just some turbulence." She reassures the passengers, while wondering if this is the only exitement of the trip.

"Bridget?" William walks back over to her, whispering in her ear. "The pilot just dold me we're going to fly low to avoid some high-level turbulence for a bit. Under 20,000. He's going to turn on the seatbelt sign shortly.

A ping sound, followed by the fasten seatbelts please sign happens promptly afterward.

"Looks like we get a sit-town break, eh Bridget?"

Bridget just smiles and takes her seat near the front of the aircraft.

That's odd... Why are we flying so low?

Then the aircraft shudders violently, as if a great hand rapped the airplane soundly. Bridget hadn't even gotten her seat-belt on, and she hits her head on a nearby counter, going unconcious. Her glasses flying off into the isle. The last thought on her mind was great... those were a 50 pound perscription!

...

...

...Bloody hell

That... Hurt.

She opens her eyes, and everything is black. She tries staggering to her feet, but feels so light, yet she feels like she's moving through heavy mud... cold heavy mud.

Where... where am...

She feels around and feels a face, she moves her hands and feels a sickeningly soft object on the head or...

Oh god... no...

She gasps, and feels water rush into her lungs. She wretches, writhes as her body tries to expel the water out... but then... it is like she was acclimating to it.

She takes a couple more breaths with her eyes closed and calms down.

Okay... there is a logical explaination for this...

She opens her eyes, and there is a soft blue light now. Her vision is completely blurry from not having her glasses on, but still some detail can be seen. And what she sees she wishes she hadn't seen.

She tries to scream from the horror before her. As if she was in an abbatoir that only butchered her kind. But all there is is reflex.

She collapses to the floor of the wrecked aicraft. covering her eyes.

My god... what... what happened here? What is... am I dead?

She feels her hair, and pulls it front of her, and sees it glowing...

Wait, why am I breathing... feeling things? She pushes aside a mangled cart. She sees her uniform is in tatters, but somehow she herself is unharmed.

Did I? The thought chills her blood. I better get out of here!

She madly swims about, looking for any way to help her journey back to the surface... but then she realizes how far down she is.

No... no... after this I am not going to die now!

Instinctually she looks for a life jacket. A good number are either shredded, or wrecked when the CO2 cartridges ruptured from the extreme pressure...

Wait... the demonstration vests... Those are inflatable by mouth!

She swims over and finds an intact vest. It was put into a steel cabinet, and it didn't have cartridges in it.

Wait, I'm breathing water, this wouldn't be any good untill I get to the surface... Then again, there is no guarantee I'd make it...

She puts on the vest, and starts moving around. Well... at least they can see me if I do make it. She looks around for a large enough hole to swim out of, then starts her journey...

[SuperCav]

Bridget swims for an hour, the weight of 2.5 kilometers of water pushing her back, only her hair lighting the way. She feels more and more tired as she struggles. No light above her at all.

Dammit... I'm not going to die here!

She feels herself start to weaken, not hitting the wall, but she feels her breathing become heavier. Feeling what seems like adrenaline start to pump through her veins.

To hell with this, I'm gonna live!

She surges foreward... and surges more... and more. As if she was literally pulling the water around her like a madwoman. She could hear the water rushing by her, and the turbulent wake of it.

She was supercavitating. Moving faster than anyone could normally. Her quantum energies pushing her through the water in a slipstream. A thin bubble of water surrounding her, effortlessly sliding through the ocean.

Then she sees it. Yes! Keep on pushing Bridget! You're getting there! Don't give in!!!

She grits her teeth, and forces herself to take it to the next step... and then the light was blinding, followed by the hardest belly flop she had ever done.

She opens her eyes wide, and tries to gasp for air. Coughing out all the salt water she still had in her lungs. After a couple long moments, she was breathing air again.

"Now that.... that w..w..was..." The thought of who she left behind begins to flood into her mind.

"William... no...." She curls up... and cries. 240 people... all dead. Except for her.

"It's... not fair. IT'S NOT F...FfffFAIR!!!" She punches the water, and a wave like a battleship shell hitting the water ripples out from the strike.

She grits her teeth, knowing she expelled more energy doing that. She takes a couple breaths and calms down.

"There'll be time for that later... I gotta survive... for them..." She takes in a breath, and starts inflating her vest. "By now someone should know the flight is missing... should be a few hours before anyone attempts a rescue..."

She starts to see the sunrise of a new morning.

"Now to wait..."

She leans back, and closes her eyes, spread eagle in the water. Letting her hair glow, to help with spotting her.

Now to wait...

3 hours later she hears a helicopter. She rises up fast, and looks for where the sound is coming from and sees a US navy emblem on a large helicopter.

"Yes! YES!" She starts shouting. "OVER HERE! OVER HERE YOU BEAUTIFUL YANKS! YES OVER HERE!!!" She waves her arms violently, splashing, tossing water around, trying to make it ovbious something was there. Alive. HER.

Then she sees a door open. She stops flailing and she starts blinking her hair. The wench operator looks suprised as he starte to reel down a rescue swimmer to Bridget.

"How the hell did you survive, Ma'am?" the swimmer says before seeing her glowing hair. "Oh... now that might explain it."

After he puts her into a harness, he grabs her and signals the wench operator to reel them up. Bridget leans into the chest of the swimmer, hugging him tightly.

Then she lets herself finally cry.

"It's alright, Ma'am. You're safe now... and in a whole new world I suppose."

It's 4 hours before she is back on shore in New York, and another 12 before she is back in London. She lays back in her bed at the Rashaud clinic, overlooking Parliment and Big Ben.

All she can think of was William. With those she left behind.

FIN