Jack sighed. His younger brother Brian had vomited on the airplane again.

10 years ago, his father Percy Fawcett had left London in search of the famed 'Lost City of Z', with a team of explorers as bold and experienced as himself. From all the legends he heard it was an ancient civilization of great wealth that once stood in the middle of a relentless and impenetrable rainforest. Many humans of the New World have recounted their tales of this great city to his father, who met with them over the course of many expeditions. This lead him to make the decision to find the remnants of that civilization. Jack wanted to go with him, but his father convinced him to instead take care of his brother and mother, fearing that the region is too dangerous for him. His father had left for the journey as planned and had gone missing with the others ever since.

Many say that his father and his crew were dead. The search had already stopped for a long while.

The sayings were nothing more than a rumor with no explanation. As his father once proved, assumptions lacking backbone meant nothing.

The reason why Jack and his brother are on this airplane, flying from Malaysia to Beijing, was because they were coming back from Brazil. It was a cheap, if not extremely roundabout way home [his father was well-known, but they weren't that rich] and it gives them a few good things to talk about to others when they get home. They no longer had the whole summer. Over the years, they had made a visit to nearly all of the rainforests there in the never-ending hope of finding something. Something that can provide even an inkling as to what really transpired. They just had to find the right place. And while the locations they've travelled to were vibrant dreamscapes paired with the nuisances of bugs, they didn't find anything 'relentless' or 'impenetrable'. 

"You doing alright?"

"Like that's possible," groaned Brian as he recovered from his unpleasant episode, slumping into his seat and staring out the airplane window.

Jack sighed, "If you say so..."

He turned to the screen attached to the seat in front of him and tried to entertain himself, bored out of his mind. He was barely halfway through a movie that mildly stirred his interest when he began to grow sleepy. That's when he felt a weight on his shoulder. He turned his head to see his little brother resting himself against him. Smiling softly to himself, Jack turned off the movie and hugged him, slowly falling into a gentle slumber.

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By the time Jack woke up again, it was to a strange, choking feeling. He could tell something was definitely wrong. As his vision temporarily cleared, it was obvious that masks have just been dropped, people were starting to pass out, and the airplane was starting to slowly change directions. He didn't hesitate. He shoved the air mask before him into his face securely, then hurried to put one on his brother, as he was somehow still asleep despite the commotion. 

It wasn't until after he helped as many people as he could that he realized that the plane was going in a circle towards the middle of nowhere, over the dark expanse that was the ocean.

~~~~~~~~~

— Atlas Sterling

If you can figure out the inspirations for this story then you get a star.