I felt like shit. My so-called boyfriend was offered a job on the other side of the country.
"You've got to understand, honey. In this company, you have to work in a variety of different positions to have a chance to move up."
"They aren't offering you any more pay?"
"Not really."
"No better title or more responsibility?"
"No, but to be on a management track, I have to work in a bunch of different parts of the company and in different parts of the country."
"I could move there with you, and find another job."
"Honey, that's not fair to you. I'm going to be working long hours, doing some traveling, and in another year, I'm likely to be moving again."
"But Brian, what about us? I thought we were starting to build something together."
"Jen, honey, I'm five years away from having my career at a point where I'll be looking at a serious relationship."
"So this wasn't serious to you. It sure as shit felt serious to me."
"Honey, we've had a lot of fun together."
"Fun? All this has been to you is fun?"
"Look honey, relax."
"Relax, my ass. Get the hell out of here. If you don't want me as part of your life, we can start right now."
"Calm down, honey. I've still got a couple of weeks before I move. We can have some fun together until then."
"Fuck you, Brian. Get out, now!"
Brian went to try to hold me. I held out a hand to stop him, and pointed at the door.
"Fine, honey. Have it your way. Give me a call when you calm down and think it over."
"Don't hold your breath, bitch. Just go."
Brian turned and left, shaking his head.
I'm Jen, well Jennifer, but my family and friends call me Jen. I'm 24 years old, with an MBA from a good college and a pretty decent job. I stand about 5'6" and weight about 130 pounds, with brown hair. I have a pretty trim and fit figure. I should after spending an hour every day at the gym. Still I have a nice shape and b-cup breasts. I occasionally get offers of modeling, though about half of those folks seem to want me to take my clothes off to do it. I don't need that, I make enough money at my real job. I'm not afraid to be seen without clothes, I've been to some topless beaches, I just don't get any thrills from exhibitionism.
I've had a few boyfriends along the way. I'm certainly no virgin, but I am a little picky. It was really a pain to find out that the boyfriend that I thought was really something, turned out to be a huge zero. It wasn't like he was the only guy interested in me. God knows, I could find any number of guys, but about half of them were married, just looking to mess around and a bunch of the rest either had no desire for a real relationship or were so damned clingy that I couldn't stand them.
At any rate, I was 'on the market again', but I wasn't sure I wanted to jump right back into something. For now, I'd just let folks think I had a serious boyfriend. It helps keep down the number of guys hitting on me. I wasn't ready for the free-for-all of going back onto the dating market.
I worked the rest of the week, not telling anyone about breaking up with Brian. Some of the other women were going out drinking Friday, after work, but I really felt like shit and didn't feel like joining them. I told them I was planning a quiet weekend with my boyfriend, then picked up some Thai food after work. I had a couple of Netflix movies I still hadn't gotten around to watching, and figured that would keep me busy.
Brian called me several times, but I let it roll over to voice mail. I did briefly listen, to some, but basically he just wanted to hang out and screw for the couple of weeks before he moved. Nothing else had changed. I didn't need that or want that, I just wanted to put Brian and everything related to him behind me. Gradually people I knew figured out that Brian and I weren't a thing any longer, and I began hanging out with the girls after work occasionally.
I got a call from Susan, one of my sorority sisters from college. She was planning a trip out west, hiking through the wilderness for two weeks, and asked if I was interested in joining her. She said there were two other women already planning to go, but that a foursome would be even better. I thought about it and realized that two weeks in the wilderness with three other women and no men might be just the thing to flush Brian out of my mind. I called her back and accepted.
I talked to my brother Tom, and told him what a shit Brian had been and that I was planning the wilderness hike with the women. He told me that I was better off without Brian and that he thought that was a great idea. Tom has a plane and his private pilot's license, and told me he would gladly fly me out there to join the other women.
Tom is just over a year older than I am, about 6'1" and 175 pounds, fit and blond. He's good looking and you'd think he would have a string of girlfriends, but he's always been a little shy and lacked self confidence with women. He dresses kind of nerdy and wears glasses, though he might be able to get by without them. Well, he needs them for driving or flying, so he wears them most of the time. My brother is really a sweet guy.
The trip was planned for about three weeks away, which gave me time to get vacation lined up and to get the clothing and gear I'd need for hiking and camping. I'm hardly a great woodsman, and certainly no survivalist, but I spent a little time studying edible plants, nuts, and berries in the area where I'd be. We were all planning to take ample food with us, but just in case our food supply was raided by bears, raccoons, or whatever, I wanted to be prepared.
I had several pair of jeans and shorts, tops, hiking shoes, socks, bras, panties, a sleeping bag, pots, pans, and anything else I thought I would need and be able to carry. It ended up being heavier than I'd like, so I pared it a bit and checked with my friend to see what others were bringing. I cut it back to clothing, a sleeping bag, and some food. I had a pack with the clothing and food, and could carry the sleeping bag on top of the pack.
I really got excited - four women and no men for two weeks in the wilderness. After the fallout with Brian, I needed a real break from my normal daily life. I needed something to snap me out of it all. Tom was kind of amused by all this. Since he is a computer nerd, the wilderness was his idea of a real bad time, but he was happy for me and wanted to do what he could to help. He was in the mood for a vacation and said he'd go a little further west after dropping me off and have some fun of his own.
As the day arrived, Tom came over to my place to help me gather my stuff. He loaded it into his car and we drove to the small private airport where he had his plane. It was a general aviation strip, with zero commercial flights, primarily used for a handful of private pilots and some flight training. It was well out of the way of any major airports.
We loaded my gear onto his plane and he went to talk to the folks running the tower. He gave them a flight plan and found that few planes were taking off or landing that morning. Most of their activity was on weekends when the students and weekend pilots got active. We were flying out on a Friday, so it was pretty light. Tom fueled up the plane and radioed and got permission to take off.
We got up in the air and I began to understand why Tom loved this so much. There is a real feeling of freedom flying in a small plane. It is quite different from a commercial flight. The flight went pretty smooth, and we stopped to eat, refuel, and stretch our legs in the Midwest. We learned there was a frontal system moving down from Canada, but there were few storms associated with it, so it looked like smooth flying.
I leaned back and took a nap as Tom flew. We had talked quite a bit during the first leg, but after discussing our lives or lack thereof, and all the rotten politicians we hated, we were kind of talked out. It was peaceful in the air and I loved it. I woke later to find Tom veering off course. It seems that at the leading edge of the front, some nasty storms had developed. Tom changed course to avoid them.
He wanted to go far enough to avoid problems but not too far from our original course. I could see the nastiness from the storm front, but Tom told me not to worry. We veered quite a bit to the south, and Tom thought we were pretty much clear of it, when a lightning bolt hit our small plane. It knocked out the engine and the electronics, including the radio.
Luckily the plane was older and used mechanical steering mechanisms, but still we were in trouble. We were going down, and we hadn't been in radio contact with anyone in a while. It was a mountainous region and Tom was trying to find some place to set the plane down with what little momentum we had left. There were no large clearings and really no flat areas big enough to set down.
Tom glided the plane as far as he could and we started to come down along a mountain ridge. He steered the plane to follow the line of the ridge, but that was only so much help. We slipped lower until we started to hit the tops of the trees, at which point things went all to hell. The plane seemed to disintegrate around us and we were thrown from what little remained.
I hit the trees and some brush, which probably kept me from being killed, but it still hurt like hell. I passed out and when I came to I was lying among the trees in the forest. I called out Tom's name and heard some sounds off to one side. I walked that way and found occasional plane debris as I went. Along the way, I also found my sleeping bag, so I picked it up.
I found Tom about a hundred yards away, near the edge of a cliff. He was standing near the edge, looking down, where plane wreckage was covered largely by rocks that fell, knocked loose by the crash, likely. We were now alone in the wilderness with not much more than the clothes on our back.
We checked the immediate area and also found a tarp that I'd packed, which could be used either as a lean-to, or as protection from the weather. We both had our phones, but neither of us could get a signal in the mountains. We turned them off to save battery power.
"Jeez, Jen. What the hell do we do now?"
"Where are we? How far from civilization?"
"I didn't see many signs of civilization for the last bit of the flight."
"Well, Tom, I guess we start to work our way down the mountain and see if we can find any traces of people."
"Assuming we don't starve first."
"There's plants, greens, nuts, berries, and small animals."
At that point the edge of the storm seemed to be approaching, so we took the tarp, tucked part of it under us and put the rest over us and held tight to it and each other. There were winds, lightning, thunder, and a lot of rain. We huddled together as it blew over us. By the time it was gone, it was starting to get dark.
We used the tarp to make a lean-to. I had a knife that I'd been wearing, so I cut some small branches for the supports. Tom cleared an area and gathered wood for a fire. We needed to be careful. At this point we sure as hell didn't want to burn down the forest around us. Still, we needed a fire to keep animals away and to help us keep warm.
At night, it can get cold up in the mountains. Even in the summer it regularly gets down into the 40s or 50s at night. We had my sleeping bag, which I'd borrowed from a friend, and luckily it was a double.
"Jen, should we be sleeping together in a sleeping bag? I mean, I'm your brother, that seems a little much."
"Tom, it's going to be too cold for us not to. Besides I'll try not to molest you."