Up In Smoke

Once the plane disappeared over the tree line, Cadence began to count. She wasn’t sure why--it just seemed like the right thing to do. “One, two, three,” she thought to herself. For the second time that day, she heard the jolt of an aircraft making hard contact with the ground, followed by a plume of smoke beyond the trees. “Ten, eleven, twelve….” She felt Meagan’s hand in hers, absently listened to Sam begging to be shot on the ground behind her. “Fourteen, fifteen, sixteen…” heard Pam’s vehicle coming to a stop not far away. “Twenty.” It had been twenty seconds, and nothing. She felt tears at the corners of her eyes, and slowly began to walk in the direction of the downed plane.