"Tim LaHaye & Jerry Jenkins - Left Behind Series 1 - Left Behind" - читать интересную книгу автора (LaHaye Tim)

Rayford wanted to be strong, to have answers, to be an example to his crew, to
Hattie. But when he reached the lower level he knew the rest of the flight would be
chaotic. He was as scared as anyone on board. As he scanned the seats, he nearly
panicked. He backed into a secluded spot behind the bulkhead and slapped himself
hard on the cheek.
This was no joke, no trick, no dream. Something was terribly wrong, and there was
no place to run. There would be enough confusion and terror without his losing
control. Nothing had prepared him for this, and he would be the one everybody
would look to. But for what? What was he supposed to do?
First one, then another cried out when they realized their seatmates were missing
but that their clothes were still there. They cried, they screamed, they leaped from
their seats. Hattie grabbed Rayford from behind and wrapped her hands so tight
around his chest that he, could hardly breathe. “Rayford, what is this?”
He pulled her hands apart and turned to face her. “Hattie, listen. I don't know any
more than you do. But we've got to calm these people and get on the ground. I'll
make some kind of an announcement, and you and your people keep everybody in
their seats. OK?”
She nodded but she didn't look OK at all. As he edged past her to hurry back to the
cockpit, he heard her scream. So much for calming the passengers, he thought as he
whirled to see her on her knees in the aisle. She lifted a blazer, shirt and tie still
intact. Trousers lay at her feet. Hattie frantically turned the blazer to the low light
and read the name tag. “Tony!” she wailed. “Tony's gone!”
Rayford snatched the clothes from her and tossed them behind the bulkhead. He
lifted Hattie by her elbows and pulled her out of sight. “Hattie, we're hours from
touchdown. We can't have a planeload of hysterical people. I'm going to make an
announcement, but you have to do your job. Can you?”
She nodded, her eyes vacant. He forced her to look at him. “Will you?” he said.
She nodded again. “Rayford, are we going to die?”
“No,” he said. “That I'm sure of.”
But he wasn't sure of anything. How could he know? He'd rather have faced an
engine fire or even an uncontrolled dive. A crash into the ocean had to be better
than this. How would he keep people calm in such a nightmare?
By now keeping the cabin lights off was doing more harm than good, and he was
glad to be able to give Hattie a specific assignment. “I don't know what I'm going to
say,” he said, “but get the lights on so we can make an accurate record of who's here
and who's gone, and then get more of those foreign visitor declaration forms.”
“For what?”
“Just do it. Have them ready.”
Rayford didn't know if he had done the right thing by leaving Hattie in charge of the
passengers and crew. As he raced up the stairs, he caught sight of another attendant
backing out of a galleyway, screaming. By now poor Christopher in the cockpit was
the only one on the plane unaware of what was happening. Worse, Rayford had told
Hattie he didn't know what was happening any more than she did.
The terrifying truth was that he knew all too well. Irene had been right. He, and
most of his passengers, had been left behind.



CHAPTER TWO
CAMERON Williams had roused when the old woman directly in front of him