LORRAINE COULDN'T FEEL HER HAND. Her entire right hand, fingertip to wrist, was completely numb. She thought for a moment that perhaps she'd broken it. It was hard to tell when she had an oxygen mask jammed over her face, her ears were ringing and Mari had a death grip on her hand.

Oh, maybe not broken, then.

It was more noise than Lorraine had ever experienced in one place. Mari was shrieking, there was a banging noise from right behind her, there were so many individual screams that they layered in the air and she couldn't seperate them in her head. 

Laura Lee had stopped praying and was reaching behind her to grip onto Lottie's arm. They were so low in the sky that a shadow fell over the plane.

This wasn't a level of turbulence that you could recover from, they were going to hit the ground and it was going to happen any second now. 

Lorraine couldn't move. Mari was sort of rocking back and forth in her seat as she cried, but Lorraine couldn't get her limbs to respond to her brain. 

Something came tearing down the aisle; the drinks cart - and it caught Lorraine right in the elbow. A shot of pain went searing through her arm, but she couldn't even acknowledge it. 

Mari's head was practically in Lorraine's lap and Lorraine curled herself over. Her oxygen mask didn't feel like it was actually giving her anything to breathe with. 

She could see trees outside. 

It all hit her in one. The roar of the plane as it collided with the ground, so loud that Lorraine thought it must have produced visible waves.  Her arm crumpling between the seats, the warm wetness of blood coating her left side. She was thrust forward, into the seat in front of her but she felt so dizzy she didn't even know if she was facing up. 

And then everything stilled. 

It felt almost anticlimactic, the way the plane got after the crash. It was dark, there were no engine noises, it didn't move. The only light was from the sun streaming through the windows and the parts of the side that had been torn off in the impact. The only thing she could hear was Mari's laboured breaths beside her. 

Lorraine tried to lift her left arm to unclip her seatbelt, but it was too heavy. There was a deep gash going from the side of her wrist down half her forearm, and her jeans were coated a dark muddy colour as blood dripped down from her fingertips. 

Her other hand was taken hostage by Mari, so she had to elbow her friend to get her to move. "Help me," she gasped, almost inaudible through her mask. 

Mari seemed to get the message though, letting Lorraine's hand go and reaching over to unclip her. She helped Lorraine get her mask off and the two of them forced their way into the aisle. 

Lorraine was just about to say that it felt like the worst was over when from right behind them the entire bathroom area was engulfed in flames, including the flight attendant. 

Mari yanked Lorraine away before she could even tell her left from right. There was a group of girls in front of the emergency door, shoving it open. It was bloody, it was hot, there was almost something animalistic about the whole thing. 

The door burst over and they all fell over each other trying to escape. Laura Lee turned back and helped a dizzy Lorraine and a limping Mari away from the wreckage, and it was only then that they were able to take a breath in. 

The sight was horrifying. 

They were in some sort of forest, smoke coated the air; parts of the plane had caught some of the trees on fire. There was debris everywhere. The ground was so caked with blood it was a wonder there was any left inside them. 

Lorraine almost couldn't help the scream that ripped from her throat. Her arm was bleeding, she couldn't see out of her left eye. She had Laura Lee on one side and Mari on the other, but most people were wandering, disoriented. 

One girl in front of them was actively on fire, rolling in the dirt as she wailed, trying to smother it. 

Taissa tore through the group, coming to a stop in front of where the three of them were seated. She opened her mouth to say something but before her voice could even hit the air, the back half of the plane was exploding. It let out a ploom of fire, and every single one of them stumbled back several feet. Lorraine was on her hands and knees, trying to clear her throat of whatever was in there. 

Blood splattered the rock she was holding and Lorraine let her head fall back, finally able to breathe through her mouth. She raised her right hand, now with a semblance of feeling to it, to her eye, wiping whatever was impeding her vision away. Her fingers came back bloody.  

It didn't do much, but she could see now. She could hear Taissa yelling, Lottie yelling, Misty yelling. 

She stood, trying to find something to cling onto. She'd lost Laura Lee when they'd ran, and Mari was sitting with her head between her thighs. 

People seemed to be following Misty, who was yelling something that sounded completely alien to her. Lorraine followed anyway, locking her sights onto Lottie. She grabbed her hand and when Lottie turned around, she almost couldn't look at Lorraine.

There was a gash above her eye that was leaking blood. Her top was torn on the side of her stomach where part of her seatbelt had ripped off and sliced her open. And her arm, underneath all the blood, was turning a deep blue from where the drinks cart had hit her. 

"Oh, god," Lottie couldn't help but gag, looking away so as to hopefully not get vomit on her friend. 

They didn't have time to dwell on it though, not when a huge part of the plane had fallen right on Coach Scott's leg. "Coach!"

Coach Scott looked on the verge of passing out. "Hey, girls, is it, uh...?"

Misty gaped at him. "Yeah."

"Can you move it?" He collapsed back against the ground, laying flat. 

The small group that had gathered all rushed to grab ahold of the plane. Mari, still limping and held up by Laura Lee, put her hand on the back of Lorraine's back to spur her into action. 

While they all lifted, Lottie and Misty each grabbed one of the coach's arms and pulled. Lorraine's arms burned as they all held it up. She felt tears welling up in her eyes from the pain and it was almost a relief to be presented with Coach Scott's mangled leg.

"Oh, fucking God!" Lottie screamed.

The skin from the knee down was completely flat, as if he'd been drained off all fluid and bone, now it was just hanging loose. Coach Scott had seemingly passed out from the pain and now it was Mari's turn to throw up.

Taissa was beside herself, shaking him to try and wake him up. "Coach? Coach!" That only lasted a few seconds, though, before she was shooting up to wrap her arms around their goalie. "Van!"

From behind the two of them, Misty re-emerged. Lorraine hadn't even realised she was gone, so out of breath. Misty was walking with purpose, and to Lorraine's horror, an axe clenched in both her hands. 

She reached Coach Scott and, without even a second's hesitation, hefted it above her head and brought it down on Coach Scott. 

Blood splattered her face and Mari stopped vomiting long enough to stumble back, away from Misty. 

Nat seemed to agree. "What the fuck?"

All of them, all of the varsity players, all the JV reserves that Lorraine didn't really know. Everyone who had made it out of the plane in one piece stood there and stared at Misty as she unclipped her belt, yanking it from her jeans. She put her glasses back on her bloodsoaked face, Coach Scott's blood dripping from her teeth, before leaning down and tightening it right above his knee. 

She looked up, a rabid look in her eyes. 

They all stared back at her.

"Help me move him!" She ordered. 

No one dared argue with her, not when she was covered in Coach Scott's blood and seemingly the only person with any idea of what they were doing. 

Once they got Coach Scott situated, Misty set her sights on Lorraine. She ripped up part of her jacket and weaved it around Lorraine's arm. "This is the best I can do for now, it needs to be changed in an hour."

She looked at Lorraine's eye, still leaking blood from above. "That's going to need stitches," she sighed. "Do we have any superglue?"

"Y'know, I don't think I brought any with me," Lorraine said bitterly. 

Misty brushed it off. "I'll find some. We need to close that cut. You're lucky, it could've got your eye."

Slowly, they all started patching each other up. Lottie stumbled over to Lorraine, looking somewhat disoriented. The two girls sat there in silence before Lottie leaned over so her head was on Lorraine's shoulder. She was still shaking. Lorraine didn't say anything. 

Misty went back to Coach Scott after a while. "All right, bleeding's slowing down. We need to disinfect it somehow. Maybe something from the bar cart?" She turned back towards Lottie.

Lottie frowned. "Uh, there wasn't one." She said foggily. "I mean, it was just soda. It's cheaper that way."

Laura Lee looked up from where she was sitting with Javi, Coach Martinez's younger son. "Maybe somebody brought contraband," she said pointedly. 

There was silence as they all looked over at where Nat was standing. "Okay," the blonde raised her eyebrows. "Wow."

"Well, did you?" Misty pressed.

Natalie scoffed. "Obviously. But I stashed it in my bag, and god knows where that is now."

The luggage hatch had blown open when they were still in the air, so most of their bags were missing. They had a small collection that they'd gathered into a corner, just a few people's suitcases that hadn't fallen until the last second or that they'd dug out of the compartment.

Van was looting through them and held up a plastic bottle filled with a clear liquid. "Guys, how about this?"

Jackie went to protest. "Hey, that's m-" she looked at Van, then over at Shauna. "...A great idea, Van," she smiled, pained. 

Misty read off the ingredients. "Witch hazel, isopropyl alcohol. Actually, this could work. Okay." She bent down by the coach's leg and gently began pouring it over where his leg came to a stop. 

Coach Ben screamed in pain, trying to sit up. Misty pushed him back gently. "Lie back, lie back." 

"Oh, Jesus!" If Lorraine had eaten anything that day she'd probably have hurled at the sight of how fucked up his leg was. "Fuck my leg!" He had both Misty and Laura Lee holding him down at that point. "Oh, fuck! Is it bad?"

None of them said anything, instead just exhanging sordid looks. 

"How bad is it?" he struggled to get the words out. 

Misty hesitated. "Well, the good news is I-"

Taissa butted in. "You're gonna be fine, Coach." She smiled unconvincingly. "You got pretty banged up, but Misty's doing a really good job. Right, Misty?" She grabbed Misty by the arm and dragged her away from Coach Scott. 

Lorraine sat back so she was fully laying on the ground, looking up past the trees at the sliver of sky that was available. This shouldn't have been happening, she should be in Seattle. 

Lorraine had no one back in Wiskayok, no one except her brother. If Mike showed up at the house right now, he would have no idea his little sister was stranded in the middle of god knows where. 

Apart from Coach Scott, Lorraine hadn't actually seen any adults since the crash. She knew that there was basically no chance the flight attendant had survived, but what about the pilots? Coach Martinez? 

So far, all she had was an assistant coach with a missing leg. 

Lorraine looked up at the sky.

────────── ⋆˚✿˖° author's note
okay soooooo i know it's been a bajillion years since i last updated.

but things really picked up for me for a solid month there, and i just did not have the energy to write anything at all. things have calmed down enough for a little while until i believe they're going to pick up again in november when i have my final college exams, but please believe me when i say i'm doing my best. 

i really did miss writing for this fic, i have such such deep plans for lorraine and lottie and laura lee and mari (and mayhaps even jackie???? shhh) that i don't just wanna let them go, so i'm going to keep trying my hardest to get updates out.

thank you guys so so so much for your patience and thank you even moreso for reading this chapter, i hope you liked it, i'm thinking that they might start to get a little bit longer now that we're in the wilderness but it really depends.