FLIGHT 3430
Jacqueline Druga
Flight 3430 - Jacqueline Druga
Flight 3430 - Copyright 2020 by Jacqueline Druga
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any person or persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.
Without the help of my beta group and these amazing people, this book would be a mess. Thank you to Paula Gibson, Al J. and Connie N for all your help!
Cover Art
Jacqueline Druga
And
Christian Bentulan
www.coversbychristian.com
ONE – WHO KNEW
Interstate 90 East – Montana 44 Miles East of Billings
Nothing indicated that Dickie Wilson’s day would be any different. He didn’t have that super gut feeling he always relied upon with his job in sales. Dickie had the best gut instinct around. People always called to ask how he ‘felt’ about things.
His mother always said he should have been a psychic, but Dickie loved his job selling insurance. It wasn’t just the regular kind of life, car, home, it was also hazard insurance. Things everyday folks didn’t think about, but the rural communities did. Those who faced the challenges of tornados, storms and other natural disasters. Events which impacted them personally, but also financially, because their businesses were affected.
He always made money right before tornado, drought or devastating insect season. Some people didn’t know there was such a thing as drought or insect season, but ask any farmer, they were just as devastating as any other natural disaster.
Dickie’s company carried it all. If it wasn’t mentioned in the policy and a client thought about it, he had an underwriter put it in.
Nothing … absolutely nothing wasn’t insurable.
He recalled one time, a truck stop asked for ‘damage by urine’ to be put into his policy. Dickie had it put in never thinking a claim would be sought, sure enough, six months later some drunk took a wayward piss outside the stop and shorted the entire electrical system.
How that happened, Dickie still tried to figure out.
This day started out normal. He left Billings; his first stop was Hardin, then Montana for three days and onward to Rapid City, South Dakota.
Two weeks straight of traveling and meetings.
The only bad feelings that swirled in Dickie’s gut were the slight, sudden clouds he could see over Hardin which meant his outdoor meeting would be inside, and the fact he was hungry.
He had a two PM meeting before checking into his room at the Homestead Inn and Suite, Dickie needed a snack badly. Chocolate frosted donuts sounded good.
The truck stop was just on the edge of town, and Dickie pulled into the lot of Love’s Travel Stop.
Not only was it time to get some snacks, but he figured it would be a good time to gather up road trash he had accumulated in his front seat. He gathered the empty cigarette packs, soda bottles, take out burger wrappers and napkins, tossing them in a plastic convenience store bag. With that in his hand, he opened the car door and stepped out.
It took him up until he placed the bag in the trash before he realized he didn’t see anyone. He wondered if the store was even open. He grabbed the door handle to the shop and pulled.
It wasn’t closed.
Those chocolate donuts were calling him.
Dickies stepped in the store and looked immediately to his left. There wasn’t a clerk behind the register, which was odd.
Maybe the clerk was in the back.
Luckily, the six pack of mini chocolate frost donuts was on the display right up front. Dickie lifted two packs and walked to the back of the store to the coolers. He’d get some water, then fill one of those jumbo thirst buster cups with diet soda.
On the way there, he grabbed a bag of chips, then pretzels. It was when he opened the cooler he caught sight of it through the corner of his eye.
In shock, Dickie dropped the donuts and snacks as he jumped back, slamming his back against the cooler door when he saw the legs.
The pair of legs, awkwardly positioned like a dropped baby doll, poked out from the aisle.
“Hello!” he called out. “Someone?” Slowly he took a step forward to the aisle.
The body of a younger man lay on the ground. A giant, thirst buster cup lay on the floor and the blue liquid was spilt around the body.
The man’s eyes were open and bulging, his mouth agape, his chest heaved outward as if he died mid inhale.
“There’s a dead guy here!” Dickie called out and raced to the front of the store. “Hello?”
The clerk wasn’t there. He spun, thinking, perhaps the worker was in the rest room as he charged down another aisle to the back and stopped cold when he saw another body in the hall by the bathrooms.
“Holy shit,” barely emerged from his mouth when he turned and ran to the counter again. He had left his phone in the car and would use the stores to call the police.
His hand slammed on the counter as he pushed the waist high gate to get behind the counter, but Dickie didn’t make it far.
There he saw the clerk on the floor. Her head against the undercounter cabinets, and like the man with the thirst buster, her mouth was open and eyes bulging.
It was time to get out and call for help.
He was in there less than a minute and saw three bodies; that was enough for him.
Dickie raced back to his car, lifted the phone and called 911.
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National Earthquake Information Center (NEIC) US Geological Survey – Golden, Colorado.
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