I sat in the small airport as the sun rose slowly over the mountains. It was summer, and a warm one at that. The small airport in town was a central for bush planes that, while they never really went to far, they did usually help get across the deep forest of Alaska.
It was a different game here than what I was used to; in the woods I was from you never went far to find someone, usually another hunter was within usually about a mile, an easy distance to see a flare at night or hear a rifle. But here, here if you were downed: you were dead.
My mom signed up for the traveling nurse program the year I joined the service. For the last five years I've been cruising the world and the battlefield as a marksman, while she's been cruising the world and its hospitals as a nurse. For the last six months she's been here in Alaska, a place she'd always wanted to go.
For the last month I'd been here to visit, and if in Texas you blinked to see the weather change, then here you feel the sunshine. I had planned on visiting one week, then leaving via traditional plane, but every time the plane planned on leaving a snag was made by the weather.
After visiting a local bar though, a bush plane captain heading to a city in Canada agreed to take me along with some other passengers for about $200. Along with this I could also take my some of my stuff (aside from the hunting rifle and the like). He said he'd be here about 0700 to load the plane and that we'd be taking off at around 0800.
I stood as he entered and followed him to the plane, perhaps I was paranoid, but I didn't really trust anyone with my things. I loaded my suitcase into the cargo hold, some shirts and pants with thermal linings. "What about that backpack?" The pilot asked me.
I smiled at him. "This has the stuff you said I could bring, and that I'm only bringing because I don't like flying." He nodded and asked what exactly I had within it. "A canteen, a knife, some paracord, waterproof lining, a coat, a set of matches, and a signal mirror. Same shit I had in the survival kit in the military."
Studying the bag he nodded. "Seems a little light, but I suppose you know how to use it effectively." Shrugging I walked into the passenger bay. It was still about a half an hour till take off, he could sleep for now.
"THIS IS THE CAPTAIN SPEAKING! WE ARE GOING DOWN! I REPEAT: WE ARE GOING DOWN!" Yelled the captain over the small planes intercom. I had only my reflexes helping me now. I looked out the window to see we seemed to be caught in a storm.
I looked to see we were about a mile from the eye of the storm. In the eye I saw something strange, almost a shadow, seemingly of a person. "Who knew god lived in Canada!" I yelled to myself before securing myself. I tightened my seat belt as much as I could, drove my thick backpack down ahead of my legs to secure them, and braced my upper body against the seat ahead of me.
One last time I glanced out the window to see we were much closer now to the eye of the storm and still approaching. After what felt like an eternity he felt the crash, and then he was out.
