MidReal Story
Airborne Epidemic: Fight for Survival
Scenario: I am in an airplane with lots of passengers
Create my version of this story
Emily Carter
concerned passenger, friends with Mark and Sarah, short blonde hair, resourceful and empathetic.
Mark Johnson
retired doctor onboard, friends with Emily and Sarah, tall with greying hair, logical and calm under pressure.
Sarah Lee
flight attendant, knows Emily and Mark professionally, petite with sharp features, brave and quickwitted.
The first sign was a cough.
It was a small, unassuming sound that came from the woman sitting two rows in front of me.
I didn’t think anything of it at the time.
It was just a cough, after all.
People cough all the time.
But then she did it again.
And again, and again, and again.
It was like she couldn’t stop herself.
I glanced around to see if anyone else had noticed, but everyone else seemed to be asleep or watching movies or reading books or doing whatever it is that people do on long-haul flights to pass the time.
I went back to my own book and tried to ignore her, but I couldn’t help but notice that she was starting to fidget in her seat as well.
She kept shifting around like she couldn’t get comfortable, and then she started rubbing her hands together like she was cold even though the cabin was warm enough that I’d already taken off my sweater and stuffed it in the overhead compartment.
I sighed and tried to focus on my book, but by then it was too late.
She’d already gotten inside my head, and I found myself listening to her every move, every sound, every breath.
It was driving me crazy.
I was just about to flag down a flight attendant and ask them to do something about her when the captain’s voice came over the PA system, announcing that we were about to begin our descent into New York.
I’d slept through the entire flight.
I couldn’t believe it.
I’d been so sure that I was going to be awake the whole time, that I was going to be bored out of my mind and desperate for something to do, but instead I’d fallen asleep almost as soon as I’d sat down in my seat and slept like a log for the next seven hours straight.
I’d even taken a sleeping pill before takeoff to help me relax and drift off, which might explain why I was so groggy and disoriented when I woke up.
I stretched my arms above my head and blinked a few times to clear my vision.
“Hey,” said Sarah Lee, who was sitting next to me in one of the jump seats in the back of the plane.
She was one of the flight attendants on board today, and we knew each other from previous flights we’d worked together.
“How are you feeling?”
“I’m fine,” I said.
“Just a little out of it, I guess.”
She smiled and motioned toward the main cabin where the passengers were starting to stir and get ready for landing.
“We’ll be on the ground in about thirty minutes,” she said.
“I just wanted to check in and see if you needed anything before things got too crazy.”
“No, I’m good,” I said.
“Thank you for asking.”
She nodded and got up from her seat, disappearing into the main cabin to do whatever it is that flight attendants do in the final half-hour before they prepare for landing.
I watched her go and then leaned back in my own seat and closed my eyes, hoping to catch a few more minutes of sleep before we landed.
But it was no use.
I was wide awake now and completely alert and aware of everything around me.
I could hear the other passengers talking and laughing and moving around in their seats as they got ready for landing.
I could hear the hum of the engines and feel the vibration of the plane as it started to descend toward the ground.
And I could hear that woman coughing again.
She’d started up not long after I’d woken up, and it seemed like she couldn’t stop herself.
It was a loud, violent sound that came from deep inside of her and shook her whole body when it happened.
It sent a shiver down my spine every time I heard it.
I opened my eyes and looked around to see if anyone else had noticed, but most of the other passengers were still asleep, their eye masks pulled down over their faces to block out the light.
A few of them were starting to stir since we were getting close to our destination, but none of them seemed to be paying any attention to her.
Sarah reappeared a moment later and sat back down in her seat next to me.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking, but what’s going on with that woman up there?”
“I’m not sure,” she said.
“She started coughing a little bit after takeoff, but it seems like it’s gotten worse since then.”
“Do you think she’s okay?”
“I don’t know,” she said with a shrug.
“It doesn’t look good, though.”
“What do you mean?”
“You should hear her,” Sarah said, her brow furrowing in concern.
“It sounds like she’s coughing up a lung.And she keeps coughing and coughing and coughing, like she can’t stop herself.I don’t know if she’s sick or what, but I’m starting to get a little worried about her.”
I listened for a moment and realized that she was right.
This woman wasn’t just coughing anymore; now she was wheezing, too, making this harsh, crackling sound every time she tried to take a breath.
It sounded like her airways were closing up, and she was having trouble getting oxygen into her lungs.
She was in distress, there was no question about that.
But what could I do?
I’d been a flight attendant for almost ten years now, and I’d seen my fair share of medical emergencies on board, but I was by no means a doctor or a trained medical professional.
I could call for a doctor, sure, but I couldn’t do much more than that.
All I could do was watch and wait and hope that this woman would be okay until we landed and she could get the help she needed on the ground.
I was about to suggest that very thing to Sarah when the woman let out a particularly loud and violent cough and then doubled over in her seat with one hand pressed against her chest, like she was in pain.
“Are you seeing this?”
I asked Sarah, my heart pounding in my chest as I watched her struggle to catch her breath between coughs.
“Yeah,” she said, looking even more concerned now than before.
“I think I might go check on her.”
“Do you want me to come with you?”
She shook her head and put a hand on my arm to stop me from getting up out of my seat.
“I’ll let you know if I need any help,” she said.
I nodded and sat back down, trying to shake off the feeling of unease that had settled over me as I watched her walk away toward the front of the plane, where the woman in distress was sitting.
I saw her talk to one of the other flight attendants and point toward the woman’s seat, and then I saw them both glance back at me before they disappeared into one of the galleys together.
I turned to find Mark watching me from across the aisle.
“Do you want me to go tell them who you are?”
I nodded and got up out of my seat before heading over to join him.
“I don’t think it’s anything serious,” I said once we were alone.
“She just looks like she’s having a hard time breathing.”
Mark looked at me like he was thinking something, but he didn’t say what.
Instead, he turned and followed my gaze, just in time to see the other woman reappear from one of the galleys with a medical kit in hand.
The two flight attendants I’d seen earlier seemed to be talking to each other in hushed voices, and when they saw me coming, they quickly dispersed, like they didn’t want me to know what they’d been discussing.
I shook it off and smiled at Sarah, who was making her way back toward us now with a small bottle of water in hand.
She held it out to me with a look of concern on her face.
“Mark looks like he could use it,” I said, even though I knew he hadn’t asked for it.
She laughed and handed it to me anyway.
“He does look a little pale,” she said.
“He’ll probably need something stronger than water here in a few minutes if this keeps up.”
I gave her a look and took the bottle of water from her hand before turning back to Mark and passing it off to him.
He took it with a grateful smile and popped off the cap, taking a big gulp before he set it down on his tray table and turned his attention back to me.
“So what do you think?”
he said, his voice pitched low so he wouldn’t be overheard by any of the other passengers nearby.
“I think we should probably wait and see how she’s doing first before we ask for that medical kit,” I said, my eyes darting toward the galley where all three of our flight attendants were now gathered together.
I didn’t want to make them suspicious or anxious about what we were planning on doing next.
For all we knew, they had already called for a doctor and we would have one waiting for us when we landed.
Mark gave me a look, like he didn’t like that idea, and he was about to say something when we were interrupted by another loud, violent cough, followed by a choked off gasp, like she was struggling to breathe all of a sudden.
We both turned toward her, and Mark got that same look on his face again, like he was thinking about something that he didn’t want to say out loud.
I knew what that look meant, and it made me even more worried than before.
If it was what we thought it might be, then we were in serious trouble, and there was nothing we could do about it except try and keep ourselves safe until we landed.
I sighed and sat down heavily in my seat, while Mark went back to watching her in case she needed any more immediate medical attention that we could provide her without getting into too much trouble with our flight crew.
