On Fire Falling
Flying over the city looking for the traffic violators and
feeling the parachute on my back slipping, I smelled something peculiar. The
smell of something burning. My eyes began to sting. I looked down and saw no
fire below, but soon I was engulfed in smoke and intense heat. I realized the fire
was not on the ground, but on me.
I let go of my parasail and began to free fall. As I fell, I
tried to swat the fire on the backpack containing my parachute. I swung and
swatted, then I began to spin out of control. I had to make the decision to
either lose the backpack, which was on fire, and fall to the ground, or to use
the parachute and burn to death in the air. I knew I had no more than 30
seconds to make the decision. After 30 seconds I’d be too close to the ground
for the parachute to be of any use, and I’d probably be fully burning by then
anyways. With no time to think I unclipped my backpack and let the burning
parachute go. This was it. I was going to hit ground and splatter. Then I saw
it. A hot air balloon almost directly below me! I angled my body to steer
slightly towards it. I was approaching quickly. BAM. I hit the black balloon
with incredible force, sending it rocking through the air as I slid down the
side. I scrambled to grab hold of something. Right as I was about to go falling
again, I caught grip of one of the ropes hanging off it. I was safe! I could
hear my heart pounding in my ears. I began to laugh. Incredible. I survived. I
began to lower myself down the rope to see who was in the balloon. When was
able to see, I saw that there was not a person in it, but an odd looking
machine. I got in and stood next to the machine. I saw that ‘NASA’ was written
along the side. I realized that the machine was a satellite, and that this
balloon was taking it into space. I began to cry. Whaa whaa whaa. Why didn’t I
just stay on my parasail and drop the backpack from there? Because I panicked. My
sobbing became uncontrollable. WHAAA! WHAAA! That’s when I knew that I had to
jump, again. I stood on the edge, said goodbye to life, and then I jumped. I fell
through the air, but this time it was much more serene and calm. I could see
the Earth getting closer. I was going to hit solid Earth. I closed my eyes and
cringed. Here it comes. An incredible explosion rang in my ears, but I felt
nothing. I kept falling. Why was I still falling? I opened my eyes and saw
darkness. I was falling in darkness. I looked above me and saw a line of light.
The line was getting narrower by the second. I was falling through the Earth.
But how? There must have been an Earthquake that split the Earth right as I was
about to hit. I was exploring other options as I splashed into a body of water
and sunk like a rock. Oh my God! I frantically swam towards the surface. I was
crying and I swam with all my might. I reached surface and gasped in deep
breaths of air. I could see nothing, and became thoroughly creeped out. I began
to scream for help when I heard another very loud splash. I quit screaming but
the tears came back, and it wasn’t long before another person emerged gasping
for air. “Hello!” I said. “Who is it?” A female’s voice responded. “I’m
Jackson, I fell into this hole not two minutes before you.” I said. “Where are
we? Why you crying?” She asked. I didn’t like being made fun of for crying and
so I told her I’d dunk her under the water if she asked me that again, then I
let her know that I had no clue where we were either.
