Emma was a tree, standing twisted and old on an African plain. The orange sun slid down a grapefruit colored sky as a pride of lions padded gently besides her. A majestic father with his gal and 2 cubs. Peering out from eyes embedded in the rigged bark, she focused intently on papa lion’s face until it began to shift its shape. He looked directly back at her, and soon the face was no longer feline, but human. 5 o’clock shadow and all, it was her Gabe. She felt a longing to run to him, but her roots of course forbid this. Suddenly, the ground shook and Gabe ran off, and Emma emerged into a narrow room full of concerns. Stretching her joints as best she could, she connected with reality and felt confused, even deceived, as she rolled her shoulders, wrists, and ankles. It couldn’t have already been 6 hours; judging by the light in the sky, it was barely 4pm.

“This is your captain speaking,” a voice broke in. “The Department of Homeland security and TSA have grounded all flights, effective immediately. They’ve given me 10 minutes to land this thing…and I’m going to be very honest with you all because you deserve nothing less…this might not be a smooth ride.” Passengers fidgeted and began to exchange murmurs of anger and concern, but were cut viciously short by a sharp whistle from the head flight attendant. The pilot continued.

“I need your absolutely undivided attention people. We have exactly one shot at this, so I have exactly no time for your panicking or problem solving. As your captain, all of your lives are now in my hands. I ask that you sit tight, do only as your told…and perhaps pray.”

The whole plane rattled suddenly; the lights flickered. “Folks, something is happening to the plane – we’re losing power. The closest airport is too small for us to land, but I’m going to slow us down the best that I can. Over and out.”

Emma thought ‘over and out’ was too dramatic. In her line of work, things went wrong every day. It was the people in uniform that made it okay, so she had faith was in the captain.

Without warning, the plane shuddered once more, but this time the lights went out for good. Not unlike cresting a hill, weightlessness swept across the cabin, and then they began to fall. They fell first like a hat, then like a ball, then like an arrow. The passengers couldn’t keep quiet any longer and several began to scream. The scream of the rushing air rose above their own, and soon was a deafening impression of a dentist’s drill.

Emma watched their descent through her window, and could pick up how the pilot was trying to slow them down. Without power, the plane was an over-weight glider rocketing forward at 300 mph, and downward at about the same rate. It winged back and forth like a rocking bobsled, in an attempt to create wind resistance. They burst through clouds to the site of dirty brown foothills which rolled away like slept-in sheets. Trees were sparse, indicating to Emma that they might be at a high elevation. The plane sailed diagonally toward a dirt and grass runway at a terrifying rate of speed. Emma had now accepted that this was an emergency, and assumed the crash position. After the first power blip, the captain had dropped his landing gear early, so at least they had something to break their fall.

Hitting the dirt runway at 200 mph, dropping at 250 or so, sent both wings off vertically into the air, and many seats into the ceiling of the cabin. Without no one left conscious, the metal menace dug a deep trench in the runway as it continued forward, and off it’s farthest end. Sliding down a grassy hill, the final destination became the intersection of two rocky creeks, and the plane hit it with a mighty splash, damming the waters from their natural flow to the south.

The names of the creek were Embargo and Baughman, and their cool water vanquished a potential inferno with the persistent wayfaring of their flows.

***

The cold wind howled as Emma lifted her head, searching for signs of life. Flicks of burning shrapnel filled the torn riverbed like stars. She held her shoulder as she stood up, slow and careful just in case her almost certain state of shock wasn’t masking any kind of real injury. It was about 50 degrees and chilly, she could gather, and it did look to be about 4:30-5pm local time. The sun had just made it behind some hills off to her right but still hit the tips of twin peaks to her left. The landscape was dry and full of craters. In the moment, it felt almost lunar.

She examined herself. Blunt trauma to the right shoulder, likely due to a flying seat in front of her, but no broken bones. A few shallow lacerations to a calf and back, but all surface-level issues. She twisted and turned her extremities to confirm that full mobility was hers; it was. A strange euphoria washed over her. Despite a few bruises and scratches, she had made it through the crash unscathed. As if by an invisible set of strings, she snapped into action and turned her attention to hunt for remnants of the over-head bins. If she could find her kit, she might be able to save some lives, and maybe figure out what happened here.

Of the 211 passengers, 4 crew, and pilot and co-pilot, 2 passengers and the co-pilot were left alive. Emma… Still unsure how she made it through so cleanly, she returned to where she’d woken up and pieced together a theory. Looking at the orientation of the wreckage and seats, it appeared she’d been thrown from the plane entirely. She’d somehow avoided her seat slamming full-force into the ceiling too…but how? A snapshot of memory flashed behind her eyes, and it was clear. She hadn’t been wearing her seat belt.

“Miss? Excuse me, Miss?” a man called to her. “Do you know where we are?”

“Looks like it could be Colorado, but I’m only guessing. Why, you from around here?” She recognized immediately that it was the co-pilot, Jim.

“Yeah, actually, so weird. I grew up in Colorado Springs. I think this is somewhere West of there…”

“Well, that’s better than nothing to go on. You sure you can walk like that?”

Co-pilot Jim Tallant was leaning on a rod from the interior framework of a broken seat, using it as a cane. His right ankle was shattered in the impact, and minor internal bleeding seemed possible by his level of pain.

“You don’t get answers by sittin’ around doing nothing. What are you, some kind of detective?”

“Ha, I wish, my husband is though. I’m a medical examiner, we work with DC metro homicide.”

“No kidding! So you’re one of those CSI people?”

“Yes, you could say that. Please, sit here, I’m worried about your internal health.” She grabbed a battered suitcase and pulled it to his side. He gingerly let himself fall back to it.

“Thank you, Miss. Do…you have a name?”

“Emma.”

“Emma, nice name. Anyway, my cell phone’s busted. Do you have one on you?”

“I do, but the thing won’t turn on. It doesn’t look like it was damaged, and I could’ve sworn it had a charge…it’s like something took all of the power away from it.”

“Well, yeah, that’s exactly what happened.”

“Huh?”

“We didn’t get a lot of details, but it sounds like the country’s under attack.”

“How…what??”

“I have no idea. But it looks like there was a definitely threat of electro-magnetic pulse, which wipes out all electrical charges in its path. I don’t quite understand how an entire country could be affected by something like that, but that’s what happened. We got hit with the trace of a pulse, but then a direct hit took us out.”

“My God…that’s terrifying. I…I’ve got to find Gabe.”

“Who?”

“My husband, Gabe. We we’re flying back home today, to Boston, but from separate points. I came from LA, and he was out of San Fran. If the same thing happened to him, he could be anywhere…”

“All depends on what their pilots tried, and hopefully succeeded, to do, but he’s likely somewhere to the North then…”

They looked north into the peaks, which stacked high into the clouds. Emma shivered.

“What about the other passengers? You’ve got to stay to help them; I have no first aid training.”

“Neither will make it another hour without immediate emergency care…they’re slipping out of consciousness now, it looks like, so it’s better to just leave them that way. I just don’t have the resources with me to do what it would take.”

“I just…wish I could do something. I wish we could’ve done anything. But we just couldn’t. It was out of our hands…”

Emma stepped to Jim and put her hand on his shoulder. “You and the captain were heroic in what you accomplished. You saved lives, including your own, and that’s important too.”

“I don’t feel like a hero.” Jim’s expression grew dim and closed. “I’m tired.”

“Rest. Help will be on the way soon; I’m certain of it. You can’t crash a plane in this country without somebody noticing.”

“You’re from the city; you don’t understand this part of the world. Some places in the rockies don’t get electricity normally. And people don’t like to meddle. I’m going to rest, but then I’ll try to walk to the nearest town. It’s likely right down that road and to the left; think it’s South Fork or Del Norte.”

“Alright. I’m going to head that way then. Thank you for everything.”

“Thank you. I hope you find your detective.”

“Me too.”

Emma found a dirt road which connected to a paved interstate, heading south.