I have finally finished my AP Econ Final!! Hallelujah! It was kinda hard but like, whatever it's over. So only one left! Ahhhh! And it's a three day weekend, so that's nice. Is anyone doing anything fun? I know we're all stuck inside but I hope I can find something exciting to do. Maybe I'll organize my closet...

Anyway, there were definitely mixed responses from the last chapter. But if you're still here and reading it, thank you!

Also thanks for being patient about this faily slow update. Luckily the school year was shortened so when school gets out I should have more time. This chapter kinda got away from me and is pretty long haha. Without further ado, please enjoy!

Our seat pod was overlooking that right wing of the airplane. From there, I could see the engine attached to the wing was smoking. A lot. And I even thought I saw a little flame spouting from the turbines in the engine.

Erica was curious about what I was looking at, so she leaned over to look out the window. She swore loudly.

"That's not good," I said.

"Ya thank?" She said sarcastically as she started banging on the pod door.

The door slid open to a cranky looking agent.

"What is it?" He asked gruffly. I merely pointed out the window. He squinted and realized what we were freaking out about. His entire face turned sheet white and panic filled his eyes.

"Agent Hale!" He squealed, voice getting ten octaves higher, "Get over here now!" This caught the attention of the rest of the plane.

"What's going on?" Zoe asked from the nearby pod. The guards opened their pod doors in case we need to do an emergency landing or protocol of some sort.

Audrey came over to our pod and looked out the window. She barely had any reaction to it. Wow, the Hale sisters really don't really react to much.

She simply left the pod and told our panicking guard, "Initiate emergency protocol A-14-R2. I'll see if the pilot can find a location for an emergency landing."

"What about the prisoners?" The guard asked.

Audrey gave him a hard look, "We're not going to leave them to crash on this plane. Explain to them A-14-R2 and get them prepared." With that she swiftly left and headed towards the cockpit.

The guards then explained to us what emergency A-14-R2 was. It sounded more badass when it was put in the fancy term. The protocol was merely to put a parachute on and pray for the best. We all had parachutes under our seats concidenty (there must be an issue if the CIA always has parachutes under the plane seats). From our experience with spy school, we all knew how to put them on and operate them, save for Hailey. But Zoe was helping her and explaining it to her.

I wanted to still talk to Hailey, but this was definitely not the time. But if we died here, I also didn't want to die without telling her. The scary reality of the situation hasn't fully set in for me or anyone else yet. The engine was merely smoking, it's not like it was bursting into flames or anything so there was a sense of security at the moment so far. We were just preparing right now, not actually doing anything.

Working a parachute is fairly simple. After you jump and gather a bit of air, you pull this pin on your backpack which deploys the parachute. If the parachute is too high or low in the air, there are certain lines you can cut with your knife attached to the slide. There are about five lines on each side of the parachute once it's deployed. You can cut certain ones to adjust the height based on the wind.

We all sat anxietiously in our seats, except for Erica. She was unfazed by all of this. No surprise there. The guards were also preparing for an emergency jump with their own parachutes. It was very evident that the agents, except Audrey of course, on this mission were not in any way the creme of the crop. These seemed to be the people who barely eked by in training (and would probably be my co-workers if I stayed with the CIA) and were not cut out for this. I mean, this was supposed to be a simple go-to-Nebraska-to-pick-up-some-nonviolent-criminals type of mission. Now it was turning into a potentially dangerous plane crash. Some guards were freaking out worse than us. One guy I think may have passed out due to a panic attack.

Suddenly, we heard a large boom. Instinctively, we all took cover in our seats. Many people, including the guards, screamed loudly. My scream was higher pitched than I care to admit. I immediately looked out my window, where the loud sound occured. The engine that was flaming was missing entirely. Wonderful.

"We lost an engine!" I shouted over the chaos.

"What?" Our guard squealed, "We lost an engine?!" He started hyperventilating.

"Keep it together Chad!" Another guard yelled at him. Our guard, Chad, I guess, took his inhaler out of his pocket and puffed it many times.

This gave me flashbacks to when we were all flying over Mexico to get to SPYDER's base at that resort. But this time, instead of flying over a Mexican forest, we were flying over a clump of trees in Virginia.

But something occurred to me in this chaos. Why was everyone freaking out? According to my calculations, an aircraft can still glide perfectly well without one or even both engines. Yes, we might lose altitude and will still have to make an emergency landing, but it should be a safe and controlled one. Even if both engines fail, the airplane is no longer being pushed forwards, therefore in order to keep the air flowing over the wings, the aircraft must exchange energy through losing altitude to maintain forward airspeed.We don't need to jump or anything. Any good pilot should know this. Why weren't they alerting the rest of us?

Before I could tell anyone anything, Audrey came rushing back. She looked concerned, but not panicked.

"We've gotta jump," Audrey said simply.

"WHAT?" Mike shouted.

Audrey nodded, "We just lost an engine. This is the best place to do it, too. We're over some plain Virginia fields and should make for an easy parachute landing. Prisoners will jump first and we'll follow directly after." This did not ease the nerves of any guard, but they followed her orders.

"Wait why can't we just do an emergency landing in the plain fields?" I asked Audrey.

She narrowed her eyes at me, "Don't ask questions. Do what I'm telling you." I get she was trying to maintain that facade, but this time I really wanted her to listen to me.

Reluctantly, we started getting up and lining up next to the emergency door. According to Audrey, we were jumping before any of the guards.

"Wait, guys!" I tried to talk to my friends as they were doing final checks on their parachutes, "We don't need to jump! The plane should glide until we have a safe place to land! There's no use!"

But no one was listening to me. They were all checking each other's parachutes.

Erica was going to jump first, since she had the most experience. Zoe was going to follow her and Hailey after that. I was going after Hailey and Mike was pulling up the back.

"Look Ben!" Zoe finally shouted at me after she was done checking her parachute, "I trust myself and a parachute a lot more than I do a plane with one engine. We're jumping."

"But we-" I was cut off by Audrey yanking the emergency door open. The sound of rushing air was deafening and the air was threatening to yank us all out right then. We grasped on to whatever we could.

Erica was calmly grabbing the handle next to the open door, ready for the signal to jump. We were hovering over some plain, bare farm fields with a giant forest of trees just North of them.

"Erica, GO!" Audrey yelled over the rushing wind. Erica calmly jumped out of the plane, like she was jumping into a swimming pool. After a few seconds of freefalling, she safely deployed her parachute.

But suddenly, strong winds came out of nowhere and aggressively sent her towards the trees, not the safe farm fields.

"We've gotta adjust course to land on the farm fields!" I yelled at Audrey, who was standing there, looking out and looking very concentrated.

But, without warning, Zoe jumped too.

"Wait!" Audrey screamed at Zoe, but it was too late. She didn't wait for the signal. Hailey, trusting Zoe a lot more than Audrey, jumped a few seconds after Zoe.

Suddenly, it was my turn. "Wait, are we changing course?" I yelled at Audrey.

Before she could answer, Mike started screaming at me, "Just GO Ben! If we change course now, that'll take at least a few minutes and we'll be separated from the rest of them. I don't trust us alone! Stop being a baby and jump! Or I'll push you out!"

I took a shaky breath, and looked out. Wow, we were high up. Obviously not as high as regular cruising altitude,but still very high up. I faintly saw Erica's parachute on the ground in the forest and Zoe preparing to land as well. Hailey was gliding and was seeming to do fine.

"Ben GO! I'm going to push you!" Mike yelled from right behind me.

Not wanting Mike to push me, I impulsively jumped out of the plane.

The adrenaline hit me hard and I was free falling for a little bit. Not going to lie, it was exhilarating. It's not every day you get to go skydiving.

After a few seconds, it was time for me to pull out the parachute. I yanked on the pin in the backpack. I was expecting to feel that familiar pull of the parachute deploying and catching the air, which would slow my speed down significantly. Instead, there was no slowing down at all. It's like it didn't even deploy. I was plummeting to the ground.

If I thought adrenaline hit me before, it was nothing like the adrenaline I was feeling now. I looked up and around and noticed that my parachute did indeed deploy. The issue was that all of the ten lines supposed to be supporting the parachute were tangled up. The parachute was in a messy ball above me. It was catching none of the air it was supposed to. It was like I wasn't even wearing one.

I processed all of this in half a second. I faintly heard Mike yelling to me to cut the ropes. That made sense. If I cut all of the ropes, at least I avoided the risk of me getting tangled in them and limiting my body movement. It's not like they were helping at all.

Using the knife, I cut all ten ropes. The parachute flew off behind me. I didn't have time to worry about that now. I was literally falling to my death without anything to help me.

Random safety tips from spy school started popping into my head. Suddenly, I remembered one about parachuting. Using my prior knowledge, I spread my arms and legs out, looking like starfish. The point of doing that was to increase drag and increase surface area to hopefully slow my fall down. I was hoping the trees would somewhat cushion my fall.

I heard whooshing from above me. Mike was tucked into a dive ball, decreasing his own drag, and coming in very fast, even with his perfectly deployed parachute. He was coming directly at me. I had no idea what was going on, but kept my starfish position as it was reducing my speed a little bit.

Mike was getting super close to me. Like dangerously close on normal times. I honestly thought he was going to smack right into me from my back. Once he got super close, he went into the position I was in, the starfish. That slowed him down significantly. Without warning, he glided right above me and grabbed my arms. I get what he was doing. He literally caught me so I wouldn't hit the ground with full force. Mike was smart. That took a lot of skill. And he also saved my life.

We luckily landed safely in the forest near the others. They were all watching his mess unfold with horror on their faces. When we landed safely, Hailey let out a sigh of relief.

Zoe cut us free from the parachute. When I finally had a chance to breathe, I went over to Mike.

"Thanks man," I said, "You saved my life."

Mike shrugged it off, "It's all good. You'd do that for me." And that was all that was said about the matter. Mike and I knew each other well enough that we were grateful for each other and could express that without words.

"And plus, that's why you should have been checking your gear instead of telling us all not to jump," Mike joked. I smiled.

I looked up, expecting to see a guard or someone jumping. But the plane was nowhere to be found.

"Where'd the plane go?" I asked, very concerned for Audrey.

"They changed course after Mike jumped. I think they're finding somewhere else nearby to land for a safer landing spot. It was dangerous to jump into the forest," Erica said.

"I'm glad you're both okay," Hailey said, but not looking at us. It seemed sincere, but I think she was still mad at me from before. And yet I still don't know what it was about. But now I'm fully committed to her and willing to express that, hopefully she'll tell me and forgive me. We'll see.

There was a beat where we all were just looking at each other.

"Uh, what now?" Mike asked.

"Wait for the CIA?" I suggested.

Erica shook her head. "We want to go back to the people who captured us? Um I don't think I want to do that. Plus we don't even know where they went. It could take a long time for them to reach us. I think we should start heading to Washington DC. We were only like thirty minutes away from when we jumped. We just have to head North East, like the plane was doing. Sooner or later we'll probably find someone that could help us."

"Like... walking?" Mike said, indicating very clearly he did not like that idea. None of us were too on board either. We were tired and that might have been the last thing we wanted.

But knowing that it was the only option we really had at that point, we leaded off. Some of us (like me and Erica) had our phones still in our pocket but Zoe lost hers on the way down. She wasn't too happy about it, but Erica just said she'll buy her a new one. Oh how nice it would be to be rich. But the issue was there was absolutely no service out here.

As much as this sucked, it made me kind of happy. It reminded me of trudging through the hot mexican forest with Mike, Zoe, Erica and... oh wow Murray. I haven't thought about Murray in years. I wonder if he is still trying to make it as an evil mastermind. Or maybe he's trying to make a better life for himself. Ha. Who am I kidding? It's Murray.

More realistically, this was almost the exact same situation I was in all the way back, twelve years ago, when Alexander and Erica and I were stuck in the wilderness. The type of terrain was similar to that. We were walking between trees, on faces of giant flat rocks and even across rivers. It would be exciting if I wasn't hot, exhausted and worried about my relationship with Hailey.

Hailey wasn't walking with or really near me at all. She mainly walked with Zoe, who she was getting close with. Hailey loved to hear funny parenting stories from Zoe. At one point, even Erica and Hailey were having a conversation to the point where Erica was actually laughing. Her laughing isn't as rare as it used to be, but it's still uncommon. It made me happy that Erica likes Hailey. It took a weight off my chest.

Mike, my forever best friend, walked with me in silent support. We didn't talk, but we walked together.

Finally, I decided I should talk to her. To figure out why she was avoiding me, and to finally tell her how I feel.

As we were walking on this flat dirt landscape, I interrupted the conversation between Zoe and Hailey.

"Hey, Hailey, can I talk to you?" I asked timidly.

She didn't seem too happy, but reluctantly fell into step next to me.

"What?" she said harshly.

"I um... wanted to know why you were mad at me." I said.

Hailey gave me a hard look, "Are you serious? You know why."

Why does everyone assume I know why they're mad at me? I have no idea.

"I don't know why. And I don't want you to be mad at me, Hailey. Will you tell me what's wrong?"

She gave me a hard stare, "Are you kidding me? If you can't figure that out then I don't think this- us," she gestured between us, "can work."

"No, Hailey, please," this is not how I wanted this conversation to go. In front of us, Erica, Mike and Zoe were walking in a line, pretending not to be listening in, but it was evident they were.

Hailey let out a big sigh, "Are you seriously going to make me say it Ben? You really want to make me say it here?!"

Having no idea what she was talking about, I just nodded.

"Ben, I'm not blind! I'm not an idiot, contrary to what you think!" Hailey yelled at me.

"What?" I asked, sounding quite dumb. Was this whole thing about the fact she doesn't think I think she's smart? I think she's brilliant! She's a freakin neuroscientist! That takes more brain power than an accountant!

"You know what, Ben! I'm saying it! I don't care if that certain someone hears!" She yelled at me, "I'm not an idiot! I know you were only holding hands with me and pretending to be affectionate with me at the coffee shop to make Erica jealous!"

I had nothing to say to that. It surprised me, to say the least. But I guess it shouldn't have. Whether I realized it or not, I was doing that.

Before I could come up with a response, she kept going.

"After I confessed that I had some feelings for me and that I wanted to pursue something, you AGREED and then pulled this BS? Do you even care about me, or are you using me? Are you just using me to be with Erica?! Is that all I am to you?! Did you even mean the fact that you like me?!"

Wow. I'm an as*hole. Hailey was right. I was using her to try to make Erica jealous in the beginning, especially at the coffee shop. I didn't know she picked up on that, and I understand her anger and frustration. That wasn't cool of me at all. But after that talk with Zoe, I realized that I wanted Hailey, not Erica. And Erica and I even talked about it. But Hailey knew none of that. She probably thought I was a douche just using her to get to Erica, which is what I was technically doing. Wow.

I didn't know what to say.

"Wow, Hailey, I-I'm really sorry," I said sincerely, "I didn't mean to hurt your feelings in any way. I really care about you and I-" She cut me off very angrily.

"So you admit it?!" Hailey shouted at me.

"Huh?" I said, confused.

"So you admit that you were using me to try to be with Erica? Right after saying you want to pursue something with me?!"

"Um..." I had no idea what to say. Time was running out. I didn't want to sound insensitive but to a degree that was what I was doing, "Hailey, I can expl-"

"No." She cut me off firmly, "You've said enough. If you are the kind of person who uses other people like this, I want nothing to do with you."

With that, she stormed ahead and didn't look back. I was stuck, like my feet were rooted to the ground, and did nothing. I didn't know what to do.

We kept walking for another ten minutes. Hailey was way in the front, I was way in the back and Zoe, Erica and MIke were in between us.

After about ten minutes, Zoe walked ahead to talk to Hailey and surprisingly, Erica came back to talk to me.

"Is it true?" She asked me bluntly.

"What?" I replied, sounding miserable.

"What Hailey said. Did you use her to try to make me jealous?"

I didn' want to let Erica know. That's embarrassing and makes me look like an even bigger jerk.

"Well, I-" I was quickly cut off.

"It's a yes or no question, Ben," she said coldly.

"Yes," I admitted drearily.

"Hmm," was all Erica said. It didn't seem like she was mad or amused or flattered at my attempts. I already admitted to her that I was into Hailey. She just seemed disappointed in me, which somehow was worse.

"Erica, look, I'm really, really sorry. I-"

Erica cut me off, "I'm not the one you should be apologizing to." That was true. Very true. I was thinking of a response when Erica yelled out to everyone.

"Guys, it's getting dark. I don't know, I guess we should find somewhere to spend the night? And maybe something to eat?" With all that's been going on, I didn't even realize it was getting very dark and my stomach was growling.

Erica found this nice little clearing and with all of our help, fashioned some branches and logs together into a makeshift fort. We were near Washington DC. I could hear the city and even see the city lights peaking above the trees. But it was still too far to walk tonight. We were going to have to go the rest of the way tomorrow.

Zoe and Hailey went to go look for some berries to eat. Even though my stomach was growling, everything that happened with Hailey was making me sick. I was sick. I didn't have much of an appetite.

I ate very little, even when Zoe and Hailey got back with some berries. It was pitch dark out and Mike, Erica and I were using our phones as flashlights. We still didn't have any service.

Even though it was early, only around nine o'clock, we were all mentally and physically exhausted. Erica was going to take the first shift, in case a bear or something came. I was too tired to even care and I fell asleep fast.

After a few hours, Zoe was shaking me awake. I thought my shift was at 3am-ish? It seemed to be only eleven at night.

"We hear voices," Zoe whispered into my ear. Everyone else was awake, too. Erica was standing up, prepared to take on whoever was out there. The rest of us were sitting very quietly, not daring to make a sound.

The people approaching were making no effort to hide their noise, however. They sounded like bulls, stumbling around in the forest.

"Dammit!" One of them swore, "I think I ran into a spider web." The voice sounded somewhat familiar, but I couldn't place it, as they were still far away.

"Ugh I thought she said they were going to be close by!" Another one grumbled. Erica tensed, prepared for a fight.

The people finally got close enough for us to make out their silhouettes in the dark. It was two men, with two flashlights. We didn't have our flashlights on.

Once they got close to the camp, Erica attacked them. She punched the first guy directly in the face while kicking the other guy in the side. The first man howled in pain, clutching his face. The other guy, however, recovered very quickly. He leaped up and threw a well timed punch at Erica's face. She ducked it jsut in time. Since he commited so much force into the punch, missing her face threw him way off balance and she used that unbalanced weight to grab his arm and painfully wrench it backwards. Erica shoved him down face first into the soft dirt and pinned him down. Her knee was on the back of his neck and she had painfully and unnaturally twisted his arm and pinned in on his back. He groaned in pain. The other guy, who Erica punched first, knew it was a lost cause and stayed down.

We were used to this spectacle, but Hailey wasn't. She gasped and winced at their expense. There was also new respect on her face for Erica.

Now that the threats were contained, Mike and I approached them with our flashlights on. Hailey and Zoe were close behind us. When we shined the light on their faces, I couldn't contain my shock.

Erica was pinning Jawa to the ground and Chip was clutching his face against a tree. What were they doing here?