[JEMMA]

Black surrounded them. Large flashes of lightning burst through the black from time to time. They were flying right through a storm! That explained the turbulence at least. Everything should be fine. Planes were built to withstand that kind of thing.

"Hello everyone," came a voice over the intercom. "This is your captain. I just wanted to reassure you all that this is completely normal. We are flying through a storm that we hadn't known about, but everything is under control. Our flight has not been extended and everyone will be stepping out onto Rome, Italy within a few hours so just relax and enjoy."

Kyle looked around at the other passengers that he could see from his position. No one seemed to be upset at all. People just talked with one another and some were even laughing and pointing out their windows at the storm around them.

"Can anyone read me?" The captain must have forgotten to turn his intercom off. "Anybody? We have no visibility and our radar's going crazy. I've never seen anything like this before. Our computers are shutting down! Hello! Anybody?! Help!"

Everyone stopped laughing at that point. People went from laughing as they looked out the window to absolute fear washed over them as they pleaded with the black clouds.

Kyle looked back out his window to watch the clouds again. There was something strange about them. It didn't seem natural. He had flown through storms before, but this one was different. He leaned into the glass as he focused his eyes on one spot. Something seemed to be moving inside of them. Long black tendrils seemed to be curling and whipping around just behind the opaque darkness of the clouds.

"What is that," he heard one person shout in shock. He was sure everyone else was seeing the same thing he was.

Kyle watched as one of the black vine-like things whipped out of the clouds and smacked the side of the plane, causing it to shake violently once more. The plane began descending quickly and he could see smoke billowing out of one of the engines.

People started screaming and crying as another one of those things whipped the plane from the other side. A loud roaring sound drowned out the screams as a rip started to spread across the top of the plane. It looked like the plane was about to rip completely in half as the rip grew in width.

Kyle looked down the aisle to see Eliza falling onto her back and rolling toward the opening rip, which had spread around the plane and to the floor. He barely knew the woman, but he had always been the kind of guy to put himself in danger to help others. This was no different. He leaped over the tear and caught the falling woman just before she slipped through it.

It was strange. Even though the tear was completely around the plane and growing, the plane wasn't pulling apart. Eliza held onto him as tightly as she could as he looked around. The black vine-like things were spreading around the entire plane. They were the only things keeping them from falling from the sky in two pieces.

Then everything went white and silent.

Kyle woke up still holding Eliza, who was still gripping him as well. He looked around and seen the plane was motionless. This rip was still there and in the same place, but the vines were gone. People were standing up and looking around just as confused as he was.

"Are you okay," he asked Eliza.

"Thanks to you," she said with a forced smile as she was trying to hide her fear. "Where are we?"

Kyle let go of the woman and stood up. He looked out the window to see that they were setting on the ground.

"I have no idea," he admitted as he watched people start to run out of the door of the plane. "I believe we might find out soon though."

"What the fuck," Eliza breathed as she stood up and looked out the window too. "This isn't real."

"Feels real enough," he stated as he started for the door as well. "Let's get off this death trap."

Eliza followed him off of the plane. He looked at the ground around them to see the black vines lying around the plane as if it was crushed to death in an attempt to save them from their doom.

"This isn't happening," he heard a woman cry.

"Wait, where's everyone else?" Someone called from the scattering crowd of people.

Kyle looked around to see that the person was right. The plane had almost a hundred passengers on it before the attack, but now it looked closer to twenty here.

"Okay everyone listen up," a voice called from the door of the plane. "I know you're all scared. Trust me when I say I am too, but we have to stick together here. Wherever we are, we are not on the coordinates that we were supposed to be on. We have no idea where we are."

"How the hell did that happen?!" One person spat.

"I have no idea," the pilot explained. "The GPS had us right on schedule, but there's not supposed to be land between our location and the mainland. This is somewhere new."

"I've been telling people that we're too reliant on technology for years now," came another voice from the crowd. "Looks like I was right."

"That's something to be happy about?" Came another voice in an angry tone.

"We should stick together and head north from here," the pilot said, ignoring the comments and trying to keep everyone calm. "If we head further inland than we might find some locals that could shed some light on where we are."

"Fuck you," called a man in the back. "I don't think we're going to listen to the man who got us here in the first place." The man marched from the back toward the pilot. As he walked passed Kyle, he could see that the man had his hands closed in a fist and noticed that his shoulders were tensed.

"Calm down sir," the pilot ordered with his hands out as he was stepping out of the plane and onto the ground. "Let's think this through."

The man began swinging his fists, connecting with the pilot's head over and over again as the poor pilot just collapsed to the ground with his hands up. The man didn't seem to be stopping either.

"You fucking killed us all," the man was shouting. Kyle could hear the raw sounds of flesh and bone connecting to flesh and bone. A sound he knew all too well.

Kyle ran over to the man and placed his arm on his chest. He started pushing the man back when he turned to look him in the face.

"You're next big guy," the crazed man shouted through closed teeth as he pulled back and swung his fists.

Kyle ducked the swing and slammed his own fist into the man's stomach. He grunted in pain and fell to his knees.

"Stop," Kyle ordered as he extended a hand to help the pilot up. One of the pilot's eyes was swollen shut and he was spitting blood, but he'd be okay. Kyle had seen worst. Hell, Kyle had been through worst.

"Let's head north," Kyle shouted so that the shocked crowd could hear him. "Someone help this asshole up." A few people ran toward the man and helped him up as Kyle guided the pilot toward the thick forest ahead. "I hope you're right about this."

"I have to be," the pilot said through his teeth. "Thanks for helping me."

"You really are some kind of hero aren't you?" Eliza said as she caught up with the two and started walking beside Kyle.

"Heros and decent human beings are different things," Kyle said as he looked around the woods. "I just try to be a decent human being. That's all."

"You're my hero," the pilot argued.

"Mine too," Eliza agreed.

The forest was strangely quiet. Not sounds of animals, or bugs. Just silence. It was eerie.

An hour went by with no change to the scenery as the group walked through the forest. The sun began going down, stretching long shadows across the forest floor as the group of semi scattered people began to whisper to each other in fear.

"We're fine people," Kyle tried to reassure them, but it didn't seem to help much.

Just when Kyle was beginning to doubt his own words, the forest abruptly ended at a dirt path. He followed the path with his eyes and could see the darkening outlines of houses in the distance. He smiled to himself and the pilot, who was able to walk without help after a few minutes earlier, walked up beside him and patted him on the back.

"Told you," he laughed as they began walking toward the houses.

"I think I might change my job," Eliza stated as they neared the small cluster of houses. "This may have just ruined flying for me."

"I can't say that I blame you," Kyle stated with a laugh of his own. He couldn't believe their luck! They crashed onto some strange land for a moment, he thought they were surely dead, but now there they were. Approaching civilization once again. Maybe it would just be a headliner to build his advertising campaigns for some quick cash.

Something was strange about it all though. He couldn't narrow it down at first, but when they got closer he realized it.

"Where is everybody?" He asked. There were probably ten houses here and yet no people around to see. No lights were on in the houses and not a single sound could be heard except the sound of wind in the distance.

"That's strange," Eliza said, her smile fading away.

"Maybe they all go to bed early," the pilot suggested, but it didn't seem right.

As they made it to the first house, Kyle approached the front steps and was about to knock on the door when he looked to the side to see a sign. Someone behind him screamed in shock, causing him to quickly turn to see the woman with short red hair from earlier on the plane holding her hands up to her mouth and her eyes opened wide.

"That's my name," she shouted as she pointed at the sign.

Kyle turned to look at the sign more closely.

"Holly Chantelle, Gavin Von"

"What is going on? That's my name next to yours," the pilot stated as he walked up to the sign.

The sky was getting darker and it seemed like the sounds of the wind were increasingly getting closer as well. Kyle had a feeling that they all needed to seek shelter soon, but he didn't exactly trust these houses. Who built these structures and how did they know their names.

"We need to check the other houses," Kyle stated as he started jogging toward the closest house to the one they were just at.

"Eliza Shepard and Joe Barren," he read out loud.

Eliza ran up to him and her eyes went wide as she began shaking her head. "This can't be happening."

"You called my name," a deep voice called from behind Kyle as he wrapped his arms around the frightened Eliza. He turned to see the man from the plane. The man with shoulder-length black hair and dark eyes. He had shoulders as broad as his own and held himself with assurance.

"Are you Joe Barren?" Kyle asked. The man nodded as he looked at the sign of confusion. "How?"

"I don't know," Kyle admitted as he looked around to see everyone walking from house to house until they found their own names. They had to figure out what was going on, but that would have to wait. The first thing they had to do was find shelter for the night, for the wind was almost on them and the shadows were taking over everything around them.

"Alright listen up people," he shouted so that everyone could hear him. "I know this is scary, but we have to find somewhere for the night."

TBC