THE HOLE

D. T. H A N N A H

© D. T. Hannah, 1993
 The Hole
D. T. Hannah.

Robert returned from the plane toilets, this was going to be a bad flight he could
tell, almost every time he had flown alone he was put next to someone who would be sick
every five minutes or would take up too much room. This time he had been placed by a
pair of girls, one who hadn't stopped talking since take off, she talked about everything
from school to people she didn't like to the worst songs in the charts to the most annoying
habit guys can have. Thank goodness he had scored a window seat and thus something he
could at least look at undisturbed.
He reached his row, four seats, a young man around the same age as the girls, on
the aisle seat with his head buried in a worn book and his walkman turned up just loud
enough for everyone around to hear the base, shifted in his seat to let Robert past without
even glancing up.
Robert pushed past the first and most talkative girl, but the other undid her
seatbelt to make it easier to get past...
There was a sudden whip crack noise, a violent jump forcing Robert to hold onto
the seat in front for support and a terrible tearing metal noise. Robert looked up and his
seat, his window, the entire wall was gone opening up to a panorama view of faraway
mountains, fields, clouds and miles and miles of nothing.
The hole started at the floor line and continued halfway up the curved wall of the
plane, Robert saw he was standing on a platform half a meter from a drop one wouldn't
survive. Suddenly he was drawn to the hole, he was being sucked out of the plane by the
air pressure , he tried to grab onto something but he clutched at pieces of the broken wall
lining that came off in his hands and swiftly the floor of the cabin disappeared to reveal
even more miles of nothing.
Twisting and turning out of control he saw the land spread out before him and the
plane still getting smaller. Robert screamed and screamed and screamed, there was no
answer save the endless whistling in his ears and the constant battering of the wind on his
already squinted eyes.
The fields made an irregular criss cross pattern on the ground, soon Robert could
make out large buildings, then roads, then cars and trees and animals. He was going to
die, had people survived falls like this before? Robert had heard about some who had
fallen into water or snow covered trees, there were no bodies of water here and it was
midsummer but he might get lucky and get caught by trees, if he could steer towards a
group of trees perhaps.
Robert spread his arms and legs out like he had seen skydivers on the television to
try and control his descent, he found by altering his position he could steer fairly well and
the new position slowed his descent somewhat.
The biggest clump of trees he could see was just under him now, it got clearer, he
estimated his height at about five hundred meters, he could see animals grazing
contentedly on the crest of a hill. Four hundred meters and the small bushes could be seen
quite clearly. Three, and the clump of trees suddenly became sparse. Two, Robert tried to
aim for the biggest tree, if he was caught by a flexible branch he might survive. One
hundred meters and he passed through the tree without any resistance and felt an odd
kind of regret as the ground came up to meet him. He was dead before the pain of his
shattered limbs reached his brain.
 Sarah sat on the seat next to the window seat, its occupant was due to return any
minute, Jo continued to talk, Sarah hated sitting next to unknown men for long stretches,
she always felt they would turn around and start chatting her up, ( not that she felt she
was worth their time.) Jo, on her other side was still chewing her ear off about what John
or Mark or whoever it was this time had done, she nodded and mmmmmm`ed whenever
she felt it was necessary but never really entered her own opinions into the conversation
Jo had sustained for the past hour almost by herself. Not that Sarah didn't like Jo, it was
just she never was a great talker.
The man who sat on the window seat returned and looked uncomfortably at the
task of squeezing past three people, Jo hardly noticed him pushing past and didn't pause
for a second in her conversation, Sarah decide to give him a little room so she unbuckled
herself and pushed herself away so her legs took up as little room as possible, he walked
a little easier by and...
Suddenly there was a loud bang and the whole plane shuddered, Sarah was hit by
a violent wind and she looked to see the entire wall peel away , the man standing up was
pulled out immediately, screaming and so would Sarah, had she not been clutching the
armrests. Paper was being tossed around, it swirled around and into the hole like the last
few moments of an emptying bathtub. More of the wall fell away into nothing as did the
floor, an invisible force ate away at everything, the seat next to Sarah fell away into the
abyss and the armrest she held onto to prevent herself from being sucked away shuddered
and began to sink. The force of the winds pushed Sarah over and she rolled towards the
hole with only a broken piece of chair clenched in her hand, knowing she could be pulled
out she dropped the armrest and grabbed at something else. The bolted legs of the seat in
the row in front.
Sarah grabbed the leg with both hands and rolled over, she felt her legs hang over
the edge, being smashed against numerous sharp objects, the sideways motion of the
outside winds caused her to twist around, she was losing her grip on the leg of the chair.
Suddenly she was wrenched away from her only hope as her fingers lost grip, she
was pulled towards the edge and rolled out the cold shock of having nothing under her
was instantaneous.
With the sound of a rope suddenly being pulled taught, something wrapped
around her wrist and ripped her arm upwards, her entire weight fell under that arm with
the pain of breaking bones. Her spine twisted, her head whipped down, her legs thrashed
out and her wrist burned as whatever it was tightened around her wrist and pulled up
taking skin, muscle, sinew, ripping to tattered shreds. Sarah lost consciousness.

Captain Perry relaxed in the pilot seat, one hour left and all was going perfectly
well, John Fields, the co-pilot did not find it so easy to calm himself, being his first flight
on a commercial air liner he was suitably nervous. Perry raked his fingers through his
short auburn hair, it was not really a bad thing having a nervous co-pilot, they did
everything by the book and usually noticed problems before they even showed up in the
console but you have to be careful about giving them the reins because they can get pretty
jumpy...
 Suddenly there was a loud cracking noise and the plane gave a violent lurch that
first seemed to Perry like a bit of turbulence that didn`t show up on the instruments, but it
wasn`t quite the same and the noise came from behind. Then a sudden wind blew up in
the cockpit scattering paper about.
Perry looked at the instruments, rapid decompression, but nothing other than what
was caused by the explosion or whatever it was. Fields had jumped up and was a looking
out of the windows as if he was trying to see something wrong with the engines, the
instruments said there was nothing amiss even though the plane was handling something
akin to the turmoil inside.
`Mayday, mayday.` Perry spoke into the radio, `This is flight 435, come in.`
`What is it flight 435?` a weary voice came over clearly, thank God.
`We are experiencing rapid cabin decompression, we are requesting permission to
land at the nearest airport.`
`Flight 435, you are scheduled to land at the Sydney Airport.`
`You don`t understand.` Perry almost shouted, gripping the wheel as the plane
dipped unexpectedly. `There has been some sort of explosion, we are experiencing rapid
cabin decompression and problems maintaining a stable course.`
The individual at the other end sounded more interested. `An explosion?` Perry
watched as Fields made the emergency announcement and released the oxygen masks.
`Yes, we need to land as soon as possible.` Perry felt he was repeating the
obvious.
`Hold on a sec.` the line was empty for a long time, Perry had to readjust how he
held the wheel to keep a strait line many times before the unknown speaker returned.
`Okay, you have clearance to land at the nearest airport,` he then gave the co-
ordinates which Fields entered into the flight computer.
`I hope we make it.` Perry muttered to himself. He turned the wheel, the plane
only just turned as it should `I just wish some one would come up and tell me what
happened.`

`Well as you can see the cattle has become fairly distraught.` The farmer drawled
to the camera.
`And how much money do you think the airline has cost you since their
commercial route has been switched over to pass directly over your farm?` The reporter
prompted.
Will barely stifled a yawn as he held the camera pointed at the slow farmer, he
had met a lot of farmers since he had become a cameraman for the areas tiny television
station local news, normally they were fairly ok. guys, but this man was as slow witted as
the farmer reputation spoke of.
`Yes, well, I cant really calculate that properly at this stage but I estimate if this
keeps up I may not make a profit at all this year.` He continued relentlessly, he was
obviously exaggerating, the cows didn't look to distraught to Will.
`So if...` The reporter started, then suddenly a plane noise could be heard. Timing.
`Will, get some shots of that.` He said.
Will, grateful to get something else to do, panned up to get a shot of the offending
aircraft. It passed overhead quite close and Will heard some panicky lowing from the
cows, he dropped the angle down to take a few scenes of the animals making a hasty
escape from the `winged doom`.
He pitched back up to the plane which was making a fair amount of noise now
and even when Will wasn't looking through the zoom, it was close enough to see the
small square windows, Will began to see how this farmer was so worried about his
livestock. Then just as the plane was directly overhead, there was a brief flash of light on
the side below the windows in front of the wing, then over the noise of the engines an
even louder explosion noise was heard. When the resulting smoke dissipated, there was a
huge hole in the side, all sorts of debris flew out. Shocked, Will zoomed in.
Then out of the hole a distinct shape could be seen, a large mass, four limbs, a
head, it was undoubtedly a person. `Oh my God.` The reporter exclaimed, `Its a man.`
Will kept the camera on the falling individual, it twisted and turned, then it
seemed to gain control like a skydiver would, however, unlike a skydiver, no parachute
opened to arrest its descent. Will tracked the tiny figure until it disappeared behind some
trees. In the background Will heard the reporter scramble to the station car where a
mobile phone was set up, moments later his voice was screaming for an ambulance. Will
doubted that would be necessary.
Will panned back up to the crippled plane and... `Oh my God,` on a rope coming
from the hole hung a second figure, through the zoom lens, it was undoubtedly a young
girl.

Craig looked up from his novel, a few rows away his little brother gorged himself
on another individually wrapped biscuit, he was grateful he hadn't been put next to him
like on the flight up that was bad. Of coarse little brothers went away if you ignored
them, and Craig did that with the help of his walkman and his Faith No More tape turned
way up. This wasn't a bad seat, even though there was no window seat, the girl next to
him had talked to her companion since takeoff but Faith No More had solved that
problem also.
The guy that did have the window seat appeared at Craig`s side obviously
wanting to get back in, Craig shifted to let him pass without looking up, the Tom Clancy
novel was getting to a good bit...
Craig felt the plane jump just like turbulence, but then a sudden wind blew Craig
almost out of his seat had he not been wearing his seat belt. There was a gaping hole
where the wall should have been and he looked up in time to see a man get sucked out
screaming, the other girl was lifted up as she hung on to the arm rests, they ripped off and
she was dragged closer to the edge only just grabbing a leg of a chair as she went over the
edge.
The girl next to Craig seemed to be having trouble staying in her seat and with
horror Craig realized she wasn't wearing a seatbelt either, instinctively he grabbed he arm
and she grabbed his arm but also reached out to her companion who had lost her grip on
the chair leg and rolled out, gone.
`Sarah!` she screamed but there was no answer but the howling wind and after a
while even it died down to a dulled roar. Soon it became apparent that this wasn't a safe
place to be, the whole row of seats was rocking freely and the only thing preventing the
girl from disappearing out of the hole was Craig`s grip.
The gas masks fell down from openings on the ceiling just as the preflight
demonstration by the stewards said but Craig ignored it as he helped the young lady over
away from the hole, suddenly a male steward appeared holding onto the armrests as he
ran along the aisle low. He helped the girl up and Craig out of the unstable seat. The girl
was weeping openly for her friend and Craig felt pretty shaken up too, all he could think
about was the fatal drop for the two people, nothing to save them, no parachute, he
doubted there was any water around even if that worked.
A second steward showed up shouting above the noise of the wind that the copilot
had seen something, maybe an important part dangling on a cable from the hole, someone
would have to lean over the edge and look, he said it looked like when they made an
emergency landing it could get caught under the landing gear and make all sorts of
trouble.
`We`ll get a rope and hold you in place,` The other stated pushing past the
distraught girl and heading off to the forward end of the plane.
The steward looked at the girl, then at the other passengers clutching mask's to
their face with one arm raised in front of their face to ward off any flying debris, then at
Craig. Craig knew what he had to do. `Ill help you.` he volunteered.
They tied a slim rope around the waist of one of the male stewards, two other
stewards, Craig, and the young lady who when asked said her name was Jo, took hold of
the rope and braced themselves. The steward got down on his hands an knees as soon as
he entered the row of seats and crawled all the way to the hole, the unpredictable winds
and sudden dips in the planes flight made the long crawl a hairy process. There was
visible shaking in the stewards limbs, finally he made it to the edge and leaned out, the
wind whipped at his hair even more than it did inside, he leaned out even farther, then
almost fell back in shock, the rope holders almost panicked and dragged him back but
soon it was apparent he wasn't going to fall.
He crawled all the way back and as soon as he was in shouting distance, around
three feet with those winds the others gathered around.
`There`s a girl hanging on the end of the cable. She isn't moving.` The wind made
long sentences difficult.
Jo cried out. `Sarah! We have to get her.`
`We cant.` He answered. `The cable comes out somewhere lower in the plane, I
cant reach to pull her up and she doesn't seem to be moving either so she cant climb up
herself.`
`But we cant land the plane with someone hanging below, they would be dragged
along the runway if they don't go under the landing gear first.` another steward argued.
`Cant we hook the cable with something and pull her up?` A third steward said.
`With what? a barge pole?` he asked, `Can anybody think of anything that could
be used to hook the cable with that much weight on it?`
Silence.
`Look.` He said finally. `Someone has to go down and hook a different rope onto
her so we can pull you both up.` He looked at the slim ropes, `Someone small.`
Jo said `Someone has to save her she`s my friend.` She broke down, she would be
no good.
`I`ll go.` Craig said.
The steward looked at him seriously. `Good lad.`
Taking one of the seatbelt extensions, Craig fashioned a sort of harness that
resembled those used in abseiling, the slim ropes were used to tie the inflatable rafts
together should the plane crash land in water, there was no real necessity for strength and
they were chosen to take up as little space as possible.
 The plan was simple. A rope, tied securely to a bolted down chair, would run
down to Craig, pass through his harness and go back up to the stewards who would raise
and lower him accordingly. He would pull three times for more slack, two for less and
once for `bring me back fast.` He would be lowered down on the rope and once he
reached the girl he would put another harness on her, also around the rope, untangle her
from the cable, and signal to be pulled up. Simple but shockingly scary.
As a precaution, he put on a small backpack and in it a spare rope and some
devices he saw that seemed strange in the emergency kit, handles that clipped onto a
rope, if you squeezed the grip, you could slide easily up and down the rope but released
and they grabbed the rope with enough force to hold three grown men, Craig hoped he
would not have to use these.
The winds increased as Craig backed towards the hole, how could he think of
agreeing to hang out of a plane? for a moment Craig considered swallowing his pride and
backing out but then he looked at the stewards braced to hold his weight, the other
passengers who were watching and Jo, biting her lip as if she sensed that he was thinking
of quitting. So many people depended on him making it through, but no one as much as
the poor person hanging down there. How could he think of chickening out when
someone was still hanging down there? Could she chicken out and come back up? He
was her only hope and nothing was going to stop him from reaching her side.
Suddenly the edge of the floor was there, like an abyss it yawned its indifference
to this tiny persons defiance to its immense size, the wind screamed, howling
unintelligible warnings but Craig focused all his willpower onto that lone helpless being
as soon as he leaned experimentally out the hole he was hit with gale force winds, so
strong that he lost his balance and was slammed against the side. But he regained his
balance, leaning into the force at what seemed to be a forty five degree angle, he leaned
right over, now he was horizontal and there was no place to put his feet, the white body
of the plane curved away uselessly.
Craig kept leaning over, his feet were above the rest of his body and finally when
he had long passed the extremity of sane positions, he pushed away, getting a bit of slack
at the same time and he was hanging free. Totally trusting his life to the strength of the
others above, he was spun about by the wind uncontrollably, for a terrifying moment he
thought the rope was unwinding and he almost screamed, had it not been for the
intolerable dryness in his throat.
He looked down after the spinning slowed somewhat to see the helpless figure
below, there she was, the cable had by some amazing piece of luck wrapped and knotted
around her wrist. The jolt and the necessary tightness of the cable had done its damage
and even five meters away with the wind constantly beating at his eyes, Craig could see
blood flowing freely from beneath the cable, down her arm.
He was level with her and whoever it was leaning over the edge and instructing
the rope holders did a fairly good job, he stopped right next to her. He then saw the full
extent of the damage done to the arm, the cable had evidently tightened around her elbow
and her weight dragged it to the wrist taking skin and revealing raw skin and tissue
beneath. Craig had nothing to cover the wounds near the cable where the blood was but
up and down the arm, the wind had dried the blood and it had turned a horrible black
colour.
Hurriedly he put on her harness and tied it, around the rope, as he was doing so
she raised her head and tried to talk, all that came out was a quiet croak.
He finished the harness and kicked his supporting rope twice so they would pull
him up a little bit, now her weight was on the harness instead of her arm, he had to get the
cable off, the tightness was squeezing her arm and above her hand had turned a dark
purple colour.
She tried to speak again. Craig tried to comfort her like they do in the movies.
`What`s your name?` He asked as friendly as he he could.
`Sarah.` She got out.
`My name`s Craig and we`ll just have to undo this knot and then we can get back
up to the plane, Okay Sarah?` She nodded weakly.
Unfortunately, the cable was wound too tight around Sarah`s wrist for Craig to be
able to untie on his own, the only thing he could do was to bring the cable up with her
and get the crew to help. Then he had a better idea, reaching back he pulled out the spare
rope and the two rope grippers. He attached the grippers to the cable and the rope to the
girls harness, tying them all together, it would only do unnecessary damage to her already
wounded arm for her to pull up the cable by the bloodied wrist. Craig looked at the rope
left over, leaving it to trail all over the place would make it hard for the crew to pull them
up, a job hard enough as it was, so he coiled it up and tied it off around his own harness,
to prevent it unraveling in the fierce winds.
They were ready to return to the cabin of the plane, Craig double checked the
ropes and knots, he signaled once to let them know to pull back up, the slim ropes
creaked menacingly, Craig could only hope they could take the two`s weight all the way
up. The rope began to move and they began their long journey up to the hole...
Suddenly the rope snapped, one moment it was creaking under the strain and the
next it provided no support whatsoever. Craig grabbed it in a futile attempt at saving
himself but it was anchored to nothing, and he fell unchecked to his doom.

The girl looked around, where was she? now she remembered, she was in a plane,
then she fell out of a hole, then she was hanging onto a metal rope and a boy was putting
a harness on her, so that she wouldn't hang just on her arm - then she looked at her arm,
black and bloodied and the circulation in her hand was being cut off, it was dark purple
and she couldn't feel anything above the wrist, below was pain. Frantically she tried to
undo the rope but she was too weak, the boy had tried to undo it too but he couldn't
either, he said they were going up somewhere, where was she? She tried to clear her
dazed senses and suddenly it was clear.
The boy was tying her to himself and then they were being pulled up, but what
happened? she was down here again. Oh yes, his rope snapped and he disappeared...
Oh my God he fell, trying to save her. The rope that tied her to the cable was the
only thing that saved her, the boys rope was gone and she was hanging on the metal cable
alone. she looked around, there was no more help, she was going to die, hanging about
ten meters below the shiny white underside of the plane, it could be ten miles for all the
good it did her.
Suddenly she felt a rocking motion that couldn't be made by the wind, it took a
few moments to work out what it was. The rope that was attached to the cable by a
strange pair of clip things, ran to the seatbelt like harness the boy who had introduced
himself as Craig had put on her. The rope then continued away to nothing, but it was
taught and moving, Sarah strained so she could look straight down and there was Craig,
on the end of the rope pulling himself up arm over arm.
 In moments he was at her side and he tied himself a little closer leaving the rest of
the rope to hang away uselessly. Sarah looked ahead at the planes flight path, a large hill
seemed to shift to the side to reveal a plain and off in the distance thin criss crossed strips
of grey showed undoubtedly the proximity of the airport.
Sarah tapped the otherwise occupied Craig on the shoulder and pointed the
destination out, he looked at it for a while then shouted:
`We have to get above the height of the landing gear at least or we will be
dragged along the runway.`
`How?` She yelled back.
`We have to climb up the cable.`
He grabbed the rope and tied it onto one of the rope clips, he then looped it
around one of his feet and then tied it back to the clip. Taking another section of rope, he
did the same to the other foot, he looked at her and said: `Ready?` She wasn't sure what
he was doing, nor what he expected her to do but she grabbed the cable with her good
hand and prepared to take as much of her own weight as she could.
He, with Sarah hanging underneath, put all his weight on one leg, and released the
clip over the other foot, so that allowed it to slide up, then he shifted their combined
weight to the other leg and slid the other clip up the cable. He continued this for ages,
grunting under the effort but making no other sound, Sarah could only hold the cable with
her good hand to stop the pair from being whipped about uncontrollably. Her wounded
arm still had the cable coiled tightly around but the bleeding had stopped and she had
ceased hoping for the circulation to be restored to her black hand, all she wanted was to
live.
Sarah looked out at the approaching airport, it was only minutes away, the plane
began to descend. They were right under the plane, the cable came out of a large hole in
the underside but it was too far away to reach the hole and allow them to climb back to
safety. Suddenly Sarah realized what their only alternative was: to hang underneath while
the plane landed.

The rope moved twice. Jo called: `Take it back a little bit.` and the braced crew
pulled on the rope lifting the young man after he put the harness around Sarah.
`What`s going on?` a steward called out.
Jo looked over the edge, holding tightly the rope she was anchored with. `He`s
trying to undo the cable.` She leaned back, she couldn't believe she was doing this,
hanging over the edge of a fatal drop where unpredictable winds threatened to lift you off
your feet. But this was what she had to do, if the boy could volunteer to go over and save
a complete stranger, she should at least help her own friend. She peered over, he seemed
to be couldn't more ropes between them, she put her hand on the rope to detect any more
signals. A few days ago the mere thought of doing something like this would make her
knees weak, she had once tried abseiling and couldn't bring herself to back over a simple
fifteen metre drop, even in front of sniggering classmates. But now she had accepted this
responsibility without question, without fear, it was something she had to do for
somebody else. This was a new feeling in her, she looked at the straining crew, a feeling
she felt she was not alone in.
The rope was kicked once. `Bring them back.` Jo called out. the crew began to
haul the two up, there was a noisy grating sound above the creaking of the rope and noise
of the wind and engines. Jo looked over the edge and saw that the slim rope had worked
its way over to a dip in the jagged torn section of the hole, it was rubbing up against a
sharp piece of metal. Before Jo could react it suddenly dug in to the rope and in horror, Jo
realized the rope was going to snap. She threw herself at the rope grabbing it below the
cut just before it snapped. For a few seconds she felt she could hold the two below, and
then the rope slipped out of her grasp.
The crew fell back in a pile as the weight they were braced against disappeared,
they knew what happened and just sat there in shock.
Jo leaned out over the edge to see if she could still see them and... `Hey they're
still alive!` She cried.`They're hanging on the cable!`
`Both of them?` A steward called.
`Yes!` She shouted excitedly. `We have to get them back.`
`We cant.` The steward said. `We have no more rope long enough.`
`But we have to.` She yelled, `If we don't, they'll die.`
`There's nothing we can do.` was the resigned answer.
Suddenly there was a scream and everyone looked over to the other side of the
plane, a large man was having some sort of anxiety attack, thrashing around and hitting
anyone that tried to hold him down, a middle aged lady next to him had one of his arms
but her nose was bleeding freely. The stewards forgot this lost cause and ran to assist the
man leaving Jo to watch her doomed friends.
Jo peered over the edge again, the boy seemed to be climbing up the cable taking
Sarah with him! she tried to call out in support but the wind whipped her words away.
The plane began to descend, the airport must be near, the only thing Sarah and the
boy could do would be to hang under the hull of the plane in hope that they wouldn't be
lower than the landing gear. Soon they disappeared under the plane and Jo felt a pulling
at her own rope, she looked around and a stewardess was trying to get her attention.
`Were landing now, you have to find a place to sit.` she said. Jo looked at the
hole, realizing there was nothing more she could do, she nodded and crawled back.
The stewardess led her to a spare seat next to the stewards seats, they handed her
a gas mask and surprisingly she realized how hard it was to breath, the mask fed not so
fresh but much more breathable air.
`Ladies and gentlemen would you all please assume the crash positions.` the
announcement was made and everyone leaned against the seat in front, the stewards and
Jo, who were by the door and had no seat in front, leaned right over and gripped their
ankles.
The plane dipped and shuddered but all Jo could think about was the two people
underneath. As the plane came in the engines whined even more now there was a hole to
let the noise in, than a normal landing would. The wheels hit the ground with a pair of
squeals and the irregular movement of flying became a smooth ground based roll.
The stewardess next to Jo unbelted and opened the door, Jo followed, he
stewardess then performed a few actions that started a hissing noise and a huge yellow
slide inflated all the way to the ground, she helped Jo slide down first, as she was first to
the door. Out side was a panorama of emergency vehicles, they had been warned of the
emergency and were stationed there, a man in an orange plastic overcoat arrested her fall
and helped her to her feet before he turned his attention to the next passenger sliding
down.
Jo ran round to the side of the plane to see what had happened to Sarah and the
boy, if they had survived the landing or not, ignoring the ambulance officers asking if she
was alright, she ran to the where the hole was and stopped short. The two hanging
precariously on the cable under the plane, were gone.

Craig felt the cold hard hull of the plane, it was angled down towards the airport
runway, this was it, this was the moment, if they survived this, they might have a long
and fruitful life. The plane dipped dangerously, a sudden thought hit Craig, if the plane
were to crash land, like one of the wheels collapsed or wouldn't come out, then they were
finished. Sarah looked at him and held in a fierce embrace, this could be the last goodbye
or the first hello they may share.
The ground came up staggeringly fast and for a moment, Craig thought they were
still low enough to hit the ground but a tortured scream from the wheels heralded a stop
to the tarmac`s grim rapid advance and the ground was speeding smoothly under them.
They were safe.
there was a sudden jolt on the cable and Craig suddenly realized that the
remainder of the cable was trailing on the ground, right next to the rear landing gear, it
slid under the wheel again and the cable jolted again, this time tearing some of the
structure that held it in place. He saw that if it rolled over the cable, it would be ripped
out carrying the helpless people with it, in a frantic panic, he grabbed the cable and
started to pull it in. but it was too late, the cable rolled under the wheel for the third time
and the cable snapped.
Suddenly they fell to the ground and rolled on the hard surface of the tarmac,
tangled in the cable and the ropes. Craig saw the wheel of the landing gear pass within
centimeters of his head as it passed by. Finally they stopped rolling.
Craig looked up. The plane was a fair distance away, surrounded by flashing
lights of emergency vehicles of all sorts, he tried to untangle himself from the cable but
an excruciating pain shot up his leg, it was twisted around from the fall, broken. Apart
from a few huge bumps and gashes he was ok.
He saw the unmoving form of the other a few feet away, ignoring the pain in his
leg he crawled over to see if she was alright, when he reached her, her eyes opened
hesitantly. She was alright.
He hugged her warmly, they had survived something together, she hugged him
back, finally he said:`We`re gonna be ok.` They remained it the fierce embrace until an
ambulance drove over to their assistance, the second hello.