Chapter 27
The day after Chen Zhen's plane crashes:
"Asiana Airlines flight 719 from Qinghai to New Delhi was inexplicable lost over the Himalayan Mountains. Authorities are still looking for the black box recorder to see if there was any technical difficulties in the c.o.c.kpit. As of right now there was no radio contact immediately before the crash. Most of the debris is in a very remote area of the mountains making any kind of rescue attempts extremely perilous. Authorities are trying to arrange personnel mountain climbing experience to venture into the Himalayan Mountains to retrieve the black box and see if there is any possibility of survivors. This is Amanda Smith with Fox News."
Li Moxian turned off the television and hugged her knees to her chin crying. She had been up all-night listening to the different news broadcast hoping to hear something new. Her worst fears had come true. She hated when Chen Zhen had to leave for work, even though she knew it was to support their family. She had asked him multiple times to try and transfer to a local office. But it would have been a huge pay cut for him. Chen Zhen grew up in an impoverished home. He wanted more for his kids. He didn't want them to want for anything. So when he got out of college and got a job as an IT for an international telecommunications company, it was a dream come true for Chen Zhen.
Chen Zhen had met Li Moxian in college. For him it was love at first sight. They shared a coding cla.s.s, and Chen Zhen was dumbfounded when Li Moxian asked to be study partners one day. After stuttering and stammering over his words Chen Zhen finally agreed. At first he thought she just wanted to get her hands on his notes since he had the highest average in the cla.s.s. But the more time they spent together, and the more relaxed Chen Zhen became around her, Chen Zhen slowly realized she liked him too. Well it was more like she just told him straight out that she liked him one day. They began dating and before they knew it they were inseparable.
Li Moxian remembered Chen Zhen proposing to her with a ring made from a gum wrapper. He promised that as soon as he could afford to he would get her the biggest diamond. Li Moxian didn't care about that, she was happy just being with him. Chen Zhen was fortunate to get a job right after graduation. Their coding teacher was old friends with someone in HR at the telecommunication company. He wrote a recommendation letter for Chen Zhen that really help him get hired. In the beginning Chen Zhen's job was like an all expense paid vacation for Li Moxian. Chen Zhen would bring her along when ever he could. Even though he was working all day, they would spend their nights sightseeing. After two years of working Chen Zhen could finally afford the diamond he promised her.
When they found out that Li Moxian was pregnant, they agreed that their whirlwind lifestyle needed to come to an end. The headquarters to the company that Chen Zhen worked for was located in Boston, Ma.s.sachusetts. They found a lovely little ranch home down on Cape Cod. It was a long commute from the office, but most of the time Chen Zhen was flying overseas anyway, so he didn't mind. Chen Zhen was willing to do anything for his family. Li Moxian knew how much he hated flying, and since she wasn't travelling with him anymore, she hated it when he flew also. Especially like this trip, where Chen Zhen had to fly to multiple sites to upgrade the company servers. Chen Zhen's department was severely undermanned. He sometimes had to do the work of three to four men, and because Chen Zhen was just that good at his job, he always got it done.
As Li Moxian was wiping her eyes a call came in from Chen Zhen's job. They were finally notifying her that Chen Zhen's plane was in an accident. They haven't been able to find out if he was able to survive the crash. They were letting her know that it would take several weeks before they could confirm his status. Before his status was confirmed the funds for his company issued life insurance policy wouldn't be able to be dispensed to her. Li Moxian just hung up the phone. She didn't have the emotional strength to listen to them right now. She knew they were just doing their job, but to her this was her life. How was she to explain to her kids that their father could be dead? Li Moxian laid down on the couch and sobbed uncontrollably.
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Nathan McDaniels was a former special forces marine. He had seen plenty of action in the middle-east. He hated what he considered senseless violence. The war over there made no sense to him, so as soon as he could got a job offer from a private sector, he wholeheartedly accepted. He thought he would be doing security for corporate execs doing overseas business deals. But to his disappointment he was mostly playing babysitter to rich spoiled businessmen on safari, or some company camping retreat. So when he got the call that he was needed to explore a remote crash site to see if any of their companies employees who were onboard survived, he was surprised.
The helicopter Nathan was riding in had just flown over the major wreckage of the crash. It was in a place that had no safe landing zones. Most of the wreckage seemed to have fallen in a ginormous hole that was at the foot of a mountain. The best the helicopter could go was fly low over the mountain next to the crash site and Nathan could traverse down the mountain to the site. Nathan made his way to the side of the helicopter and hung his legs out the side door. He pulled his s...o...b..ard out from under his seat and strapped it to his feet. The pilot looked back and gave Nathan a thumbs up. Nathan returned the thumbs up and hopped out of the helicopter. He started his decent from about the middle of the mountain. This was remote inhospitable land, if Nathan hurt himself there wasn't going to be anyone coming to save him anytime soon. The different nations were to busy trying to point the finger at someone to get anything done. It had been almost a week and they were trying to plan how to get rescue workers here. The reason Nathan could get here so quickly was that he didn't have to deal with government jurisdiction and bureaucratic red tape. Nathan hated the fact that if someone did miraculously survive they would probably be dead by now anyway. That was another sad fact, due to the remoteness of this crash site, the different governments of the world already wrote these people off as dead without even trying to save anyone.
The weather was extremely cold where Nathan first started down the mountain. But as he travelled further toward the crash site the weather was getting inexplicable warmer. As Nathan got to the rim of that humungous hole in the ground he had to remove layers because it was to hot to keep his winter gear on. Nathan had underestimated the size of this hole when he was in the air. It would take him a day to hike around it to the other side. Nathan began to notice that the ground around the hole had no snow on it. He could even see plants growing around the rim. These plants looked like new growth. Nathan was trained to identify helpful and harmful plants in the wild, but he didn't seem to recognize any of these plants he saw here. Nathan also noticed the air seemed fresher here near the rim. He couldn't explain it but for some reason he just felt better just standing here. Nathan began to feel filled with energy, he took off running around the rim. He ran for hours non-stop without feeling tired. The distance that should have taken him a whole day to travel took him only a couple hours.
Nathan began to route thru the wreckage looking for the c.o.c.kpit of the plane. He soon found the c.o.c.kpit and retrieved the black box. As he played back the recording Nathan was instantly confused. He knew his Mandarin was a little rusty, but he could have sworn they said the plane was attacked by a lightening dragon?!