Surviving The Sierras

By Rowena Banks

"Surviving the Sierras" is told through the eyes of twelve year old Jessica. Jessica, Crystal, and Sarah, along with their mother are traveling together when their plane experiences technical difficulties and drops angrily to the ground. The girls are faced with harsh snowstorms, hunger, coyotes, mountain lions, and broken bones, and never lose hope.

"The buzz of voices penetrated my scattered thoughts as I noticed a woman rocking back and forth holding her stomach, the woman next to her looked towards heaven, while holding her hands together. I began to freak so I watched my mom closely to gage her fear level. She seemed okay. Fortunately, my little sisters, Crystal and Sarah, weren't aware of my terror yet. Just then the plane began to plummet. The plane spun, and so did my brain, preventing me from focusing on anything. The noise bounced in my ears, and the murmur of prayers became overwhelming."

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Aug 1, 2013
• ISBN: 9781483503431

Book preview

Chapter 1

The Flight

The buzz of voices penetrated my scattered thoughts as I noticed a woman rocking back and forth holding her stomach, the woman next to her looked towards heaven, while holding her hands together. I began to freak so I watched my mom closely to gage her fear level. She seemed okay. Fortunately, my little sisters, Crystal and Sarah, weren’t aware of my terror yet. Just then the plane began to plummet. The plane spun, and so did my brain, preventing me from focusing on anything. The noise bounced in my ears, and the murmur of prayers became overwhelming.

I screamed, Mommy! We should be praying!

Grabbing each other’s hands we prayed, Dear Lord, we ask for your protection. Please put a ring of guardian angels around us and keep us safe. Please keep us together, Lord. If it is our time to meet you, please let us go together or keep us safe together. We love You. In Jesus’ name, Amen.

Closing our eyes we clasped each other’s hands. The force of the dive pushed Mom and Sarah back into their chairs. The last thing I remember was feeling helpless as my body, restrained by the seat belt, pressed heavily against the thin straps and my arms unable to move. Oh, please don’t break!

Tall, eerie pine trees with broken, fractured limbs littered the hillside. Snow covered canopies stood between heaven and me. My hands groped my body discovering I was still buckled into my seat next to Crystal. I quickly inspected her, roughly shaking her because she wasn’t moving yet.

Crystal, regained consciousness and slowly opened her eyes, Jessica, wu wu what happened? Where are Mom-m-my and Sarah? I’m s-s-scared.

Stop crying! I yelled, being overly harsh, unnerved by her stuttering. Hearing us, Mom came running with torn pants flapping, and her long blonde hair messed up and falling out of her ponytail.

Jessica, Crystal… Oh thank you, Lord. Thank you. She was on her knees throwing her arms around us as she buried her face in our laps. Sobbing hysterically, she rubbed her face on one of us then the other. I could see our plane behind her, but she kept blocking me so I couldn’t get a good look. Without an explanation Mom told us to stay put and she would be right back. We waited and waited for her to come back. Shivering, I unbuckled myself and then Crystal so we could get up and do jumping jacks to get our circulation flowing again. In stunned disbelief, I stared at the mangled piece of metal that was once our plane. The bottom of the plane, where the cargo was kept, was either flattened or torn off and the wings were nowhere to be seen. The plane was almost completely camouflaged with snow.

After what seemed like an eternity, Mom came back with Sarah. At six years old Sarah was tall and lean for her age. Her fair skin was a novelty in our family but with her blue eyes, freckles, and silky strawberry blonde hair, she was elegant even at her young age. She looked so tiny trudging next to Mom in the deep powder, confusion written all over her face. How did we escape this without a scratch? God must have a reason for keeping us alive. Our seats had been sucked out of the emergency exit, and landed a few yards apart as if gentle hands had lifted us out of the plane and tenderly placed us under a tree.

Jessica, help me put this seat upside down on top of yours. We can make a little tunnel to stay warm in. Jessica, at ten years old, is as strong as a horse. Even though she is two years younger than I am, she is almost as strong, but my determination and unwillingness to give in always make me the victor!

The bitter cold air stung my lungs making it difficult to speak. We must have been unconscious for quite a while judging by the amount of snow