Her next idea was even scarier. What if she hadn't arrived in heaven? What if her afterlife entailed sharing hell with Xin?
Her eyes widened as a protest formed on her lips. She was welcomed by a new vision of hell. A strange flickering illumination ruptured the shadow. Tangled metal...acrid smoke...a tree branch sticking through the front window.
The aircraft. As she reoriented herself to where she was and what had just happened, a sharp puncture of pain ruptured the right side of her head.
They'd collided. She yanked her head to the side in order to see Xin. She noticed his gaze on her in the flashing light.
"Thank God," he exclaimed. "I thought you were dead for a second there. Is everything okay with you? "
She flinched and reached up to touch the side of her head, where a goose egg had risen and was extremely sensitive to her fingertips' tension. "I think so, although for a minute, I thought I was dead, too. So, how about you? "
"I'm fine. But something is on fire. "We need to get out of here as soon as possible," he said as he cuffed himself. "We'll have to leave through your door. My door will not open."
Mieun unbuckled her seatbelt and stood, wobbly on her feet as her head reeled from a sick pain. She pushed her door open and returned her attention to Xin, who was still seated.
"Are you on your way? " she worried, seeing flames bulging in what was left of the plane behind them.
"My left leg appears to be trapped," he said, clenching his teeth and tugging on his leg.
Mie observed him as he worked to free himself. She noticed dots of perspiration above his upper lip as the flames grew hotter and illuminated the cabin. As the leg finally came free, he cursed and yanked, half-falling from his seat.
"Go!
" he yelled, pushing her toward the door.
She paused and looked out the window at what was left of the plane. The wings had been severed, abandoning only the small fuselage wedged between two towering trees and delayed eight feet above the ground.
"We're trapped in the trees," she explained.
"How close to the ground are you?
" he inquired, his voice trembling.
"I'm not sure for sure. About eight or nine feet—" He tossed her from behind before she could finish her sentence. She screamed and flailed her arms for a split second, as if by some magic she could fly.
When she hit the ground, her knees buckled and she fell facedown. Before she could raise her head, she heard Xin collapsing nearby. A loud grumble accompanied his landing.
He was standing tall over her in an instant. He yanked her to her feet by grabbing her arm. "We have to get away from the plane," he explained. "I'm not sure if it'll explode or not, but we can't risk it."
He took a step forward before collapsing against her.
"You're in pain."
"I'm fine—it's just my leg. "It got twisted or something." He took another step, then cursed loudly as he nearly fell. "We have to get some distance. "You'll have to assist me."
She slid beneath his arm, allowing him to rest strongly on her shoulder. They moved away from the plane, deeper into the dense forest that encircled them, step by step.
Trees and mangled plane parts were everywhere, and as they walked away from the burning crash site, Mie marvelled at the fact that they had fled with their lives. They would have collided with a tree trunk if they had been a few inches to the left or right, and neither of them would have lived.
"OK, we should be about a hundred feet away now," he said after they'd moved about a hundred feet away from the crash. Mies took a seat next to him as he eased himself to the ground.
They both stared at the burning plane. Flames licked cautiously, as if hesitant to devote time to consuming the plane.
"How long until it explodes?
" she inquired.
"I'm not sure. I'm not even sure it will happen. There was no fuel left, so it was possible. I hope it does."
She looked up at him, surprised. "Why? "
In the orange glow of the flames, he turned to look at her, his taut features visible. "An explosion may be the only thing that gets someone's attention and brings help quicker. Otherwise, who knows how long it'll take for somebody to find us."
They sat there, watching the flames flicker here and there before bursting into a full-fledged inferno. The adrenalin rush and shock that had briefly gripped Miebe began to fade with each passing minute.
Iam. Her first rational thought was the name of her son. She shivered as she realised how close he'd come to losing his mother.
She felt pain in places she hadn't realised she had pain, and her headache with nauseating intensity.
Except for the crackle of the fading flames, the night was silent. The blackness of the night became more profound as the flames faded. No, because the sky was not visible through the treetops.
The descending darkness was broken by moonlight..
She felt a flutter of fear in her stomach for the first time since the crash. "Can you tell me where we are? " she inquired.
"I'd say somewhere between Kansas City and Branson."
"That certainly narrows it down," she commented. Fear was accompanied by a healthy dose of rage. "I thought you said you were a fantastic pilot."
"I am. You're not gone, are you? " He didn't look at her, instead keeping his gaze fixed on the last embers of the fire. "I apologise for not being more specific about where we are."
"I guess we're not going to make it to Twin Oaks." She desperately tried to embrace her anger, which she found more palatable than the fear she was fighting. "I cannot believe it. I can't believe you lost control of the plane."
"I didn't do it on purpose," he explained flatly.
Her cheeks flushed, and she inhaled deeply. "Of course not," I say. "I'm sorry," she admitted reluctantly. "I'm annoyed."
"It must be contagious," he said, taking a deep breath and plucking at the torn sleeve of his suit jacket. "This was my favourite suit, and it's now destroyed."
She looked at him in disbelief before noticing a small curve at the corner of his mouth. "Did Xin Shei make a joke? "
"You don't sound surprised. "I have a good sense of humour."
"You could have duped me," she said. "I don't think I saw you smile once in all the years I was married to Loi." In fact, she'd always found him rigid, cold, and slightly disapproving—and exceptionally attractive. That dichotomy had made her feel extremely uneasy. "So what do we do now? "
"If I had my cell phone, I'd call for help. Unfortunately, it must have fallen out of my pocket during the crash or as I scrambled out of the plane. So the best thing to do now is to stay close to the plane and hope help is on the way."
But what if help wasn't on the way, she wondered? But she was terrified of the possible response. She scooted back to lean against a tree trunk, unsurprised when he followed her lead and joined her.
She cast him a sly look as he leaned back and closed his eyes. Under different circumstances, she would have revealed in his unkempt appearance.
She'd never seen him in such disarray in all her years of knowing him. His rich dark hair was overly tousled, and a smudge of smoke or oil adorned a cheekbone. His suit jacket was ripped and dirty, and his shirt, which had been immaculate when they took it off, was now wrinkled and blackened.
She frowned as she remembered how he'd appeared on her doorstep earlier that evening. He'd not only stood in her doorway, but he'd filled it with his presence. Xin, at six feet two, had the physique of a natural athlete. He carried himself with a masculine grace that drew women's attention, broad-shouldered and slender-hipped.
He wasn't, however, attractive in the traditional sense. He had striking features, dark eyes that revealed nothing about his inner self, a thin mouth that rarely smiled, and a hawk like nose that gave his face a cool arrogance.
She exclaimed as her gaze shifted to his legs. His slacks had ripped, exposing his knee. The skin had been slashed open, and the deep wound bled profusely.
"Xin, your knee hurts a lot," she said. "It's gushing."
He blinked and looked down at his knee. "Everything will be fine. "It's not bleeding that badly," he said as he turned to face her. "Of course, rip off your T-shirt and wrap my wounds if you feel the need."
"As if I'd give up a perfectly good T-shirt for you," she laughed. "I'll cut you a deal," she said. "If you can cut a bunch of tree limbs and build us a nice little lean-to .
She'd felt a strange and frightening pull toward Xin from the moment she met him. And she had fought it for the nine years of her marriage to his brother. She had purposefully avoided spending any time alone with Xin. And now they were all alone in the middle of nowhere. She tried to ignore her unease.
"I think we've seen too many movies," he admitted. "Besides, I wouldn't throw away a good lean-to."
Although he was simply responding to Mei's comment, she appreciated the slight coolness in his voice, a coolness that reminded her she wasn't sure she even liked Xin Shei.
Somewhere in the distance, a light flashed. Mie leapt to her feet. "Did you notice that? " she inquired. She felt a rush of excitement and relief. "Perhaps it was a search helicopter's light."
A loud rumble resounded overhead as soon as her words left her mouth. The rumble was caused by cold air colliding with warm air, not by a search plane.
"I don't believe it's a search and rescue helicopter," he said. "I think we're in for a rainstorm."
Mie glared at her companion as the first fat raindrops fell from the sky and splattered on her upturned face. "I believe I despise you, Xin Shei," she declared emphatically.
"Believe me, Mei, before this is all over, I think the feeling might just become mutual."
He laughed, and the unfamiliar sound of his laughter sent a familiar heat spiralling through her—an uncomfortable heat.