Episode 1.1: “Pilot”
Kurt Walters slowly got up out of his seat in the waiting area and picked up his backpack. He was not looking forward to this trip. He had been forced to go to the Moscow Olympics for The New York Times. This was not exactly Kurt’s first career choice. He had wanted to be a filmmaker, but his path to that plateau had been stalled when his college film festival movie, Rogue Runners, was destroyed after winning the festival. His dorm, which contained his computer, camera, and movie, had been burned down when a group of students forgot to douse the flames of their cigarettes. Kurt wasn’t one of them.
Caroline Smith Merrien looked to her right and grumbled. Here came Zach Merrien.
“Zach, I don’t think you got the right dressing,” Caroline complained.
“It was ranch, right?” Zach asked,
“Thousand Island.” Caroline sighed aloud. “How long have we been married? Two years? And we’ve known each other how long? Four years?”
“All passengers please make your way to gate C15 for departure to Moscow, Russia, on Flight 427. This is boarding call number 1.”
The loudspeaker told everyone it was time to go.
Wyatt Forrest picked up his magazine off the floor. It was Sports Medicine Weekly; Wyatt was the athletic trainer for the United States Olympic baseball team. He had recently been featured in that magazine for his work with the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball team. He had helped pitcher Brandon Allen come back from Tommy John surgery to win 20 games with the Mariners the previous year. Seattle had gotten within 2 outs of winning the World Series.
Jayson Turner handed his boarding pass to the guy at the gate.
“Thank you sir,” the guy at the gate said. He scanned Jayson’s boarding pass, handed it back to him, and said, “Have a good flight.”
Selene Jonson was reading Atonement when she heard the boarding call. But she didn’t respond immediately. It took someone coming up to her to get her to get up.
“Ma’am, are you taking the flight to Moscow?” Kurt Walters asked.
Selene looked up. “Oh, yeah, I’m sorry.” She fumbled with her book before calming down and stuffing it into her travel bag.
Selene was a scholar on the way to Moscow to interview an American living in Russia’s capital for her new book. She wasn’t sure what it was going to be called, but it was about the increase of trading between America and Russia over the past 20 years.
“I noticed you talking to the guy at the counter and figured that you might want to get on this plane,” Kurt explained.
“Yeah, yeah, I’d like to,” Selene said. Rather nervously.
Carlisle Manning glanced around, wary of anything that might be dangerous to him. Carlisle was a CIA agent. Of course he was undercover here, but he was on his way to Russia to catch a flight to Iraq to investigate the death of the Iraqi prime minister.
He was not married. He had no kids. He had no relationship of any kind. He didn’t intend to have a relationship of any kind.
He took his ticket, which indicated he was in row 32, seat H, and walked up behind Donny and Jamie Geffen.
Donny and Jamie Geffen had been married for four years and were finally getting some vacation time. Donny’s stressful job as vice president of advertising for the Youngstown Corporation, a company that produced home appliances, had not allowed for much if any vacation time. The Geffens were going to transfer to a plane to Rome in Moscow. They were going to tour the countryside and spend some quality time with each other
Currently, their marriage was under a lot of stress. Donny had been unable to turn in a big report on time and he was taking a lot of heat from his boss. He had a hard time not taking it out on the only other person who lived in his apartment: Jamie. This vacation to Rome was meant to ease the stress and have some fun as a couple.
Ryan Havens grabbed the bag below his seat and hopped up. Ryan was a teacher of tae kwon do, the popular martial art form. He was on his way to China, to Beijing, the location of a huge international martial arts conference.
He glanced to his left and noticed Ashlie Adele. Ashlie was preparing for the Moscow Olympics as well. The swimming team was her place, and her butterfly was considered among swimming circles to be one of the most graceful.
To Ashlie’s left was the doctor Byrne Averill. Byrne was at first considering a career in professional soccer but changed his mind after his application of CPR to a fan at a match had changed his mind. He found that he liked helping people in need of medical assistance.
Right in front of Byrne was Simon Brennan. Simon was an accomplished piano player, world-renowned. But he was not known very well in Los Angeles. New York City? Different. Simon was going to Moscow to play at the famous Moscow Opera House.
The plane had been loaded. The flight attendant asked that all portable electronic devices be turned off. The plane left the gate.
Kurt picked up the cup that held his Coca-Cola and sipped it carefully. He looked across the aisle and saw the girl whom he had talked to in the airport.
She was busy, reading a magazine and listening to an iPod.
Kurt sighed. Girls, he thought. How is it possible that they multi-task like that, seemingly all the time?
Simon closed his eyes and imagined the scene:
The crowd was applauding. Simon Brennan, the world’s greatest pianist, calmly stepped onto the stage and waved his hand to the crowd. He took his seat at the piano and began to play…
Ryan chose the song: “Let It Be” by Blue October. The techno-electro-pop began flowing through his ears. He looked in front of him.
Donny and Jamie Geffen were watching a movie on a video iPod. To Ryan, it looked like Be Kind Rewind.
He chuckled. Ryan enjoyed the Jack Black-Mos Def dramedy.
Zach and Caroline Merrien glared at each other through their glasses.
“Zach, come on. You know that I don’t like pecans,” Caroline continued on her grumbling.
“I’m sorry, Caroline. It’s kinda hard to please you sometimes, you know.”
Caroline slapped Zach hard across the face.
Wyatt Forrest and Carlisle Manning ended up sitting beside each other.
“Hey, I’m Wyatt Forrest,” Wyatt said to Carlisle with hand extended.
Carlisle took it and shook it. This is interesting. Not that many people like this in my business, he thought. “Nice to meet you, I’m Carlisle Manning,” Carlisle returned.
“What do you do for a living, Carlisle?” Wyatt asked.
Oooh, Carlisle thought. Let’s see, the last cover I took was as a substitute teacher in Oakland. We’ll go with that.
“Actually, I’m a teacher,” Carlisle lied. “I teach high school in Oakland.”
“Ah, that’s cool,” Wyatt responded.
“How do you stay alive?” Carlisle asked.
“Oh, I work for the Seattle Mariners. I’m their athletic trainer,” Wyatt said.
“What are you doing in Moscow?” Carlisle questioned.
Ashlie Adele and Jayson Turner looked at each other across the aisle. Ashlie leaned across the aisle.
“Jayson, you doing okay?” she asked.
“Yeah, I’m good,” Jayson affirmed. He patted her on the back. “Don’t worry about me, cuz.”
The plane shook violently.
The captain’s voice came over the loudspeakers. “We are experiencing some turbulence. So would all of you please fasten your seat belts.”
Kurt tightened his seat belt.
The plane shook again.
Wyatt and Carlisle glanced up at the top. Carlisle thought he saw a little bit of sunlight…
Ryan looked out the window. The wing had been cut in half.
Donny and Jamie removed their earphones and looked around.
The plane shook once more.
Jayson and Ashlie grabbed their armrests.
Selene looked up from her magazine…finally.
Simon removed himself from the stage in Moscow and looked up.
Just in time to see the plane split in two.
