Flight 12

FLIGHT 12 – a serial novel by Travis Creel

Author's Note: This entry does not advance the plot. But with so many characters and plot threads, I thought it might be useful to produce a sort of Status Report to review where each of them stands. After Chapter 12 seemed like a logical place, to fit with one of the story's motifs.

If you have a good handle on who's who and what's what, you can skip this and wait for Chapter 13, which will continue the story. I can't submit two segments at once, so I will submit Chapter 13 the day after this is posted.

By the way, although the climactic events are due to occur on December 31 and the characters are only experiencing December 2, we're about a quarter of the way through the story. – T.C.

GENERAL SUMMARY

On November 30, a plane from Miami to Aruba encounters mechanical problems. Twenty-four male passengers are put on ZTA Flight 12, which encounters turbulence so violent that it breaks apart in midair, sending them plummeting toward their deaths in the waters below. To their astonishment, however, those seated on the right half of the plane find themselves on a strange island, alive and intact. They congregate at a multi-colored, penis-shaped tower; the tower floor is patterned as a dodecagon (twelve-sided figure) with wedges in corresponding colors.

While hunting for food, water, and rescue, the men encounter similar (but single-colored) dodecagons in the forest. These dodecagons seem to provoke intense, even bizarre, sexual reactions in some survivors (but not in others); sometimes a brief image of an animal (e.g. a goat or rabbit) is seen. The men find wreckage from several other ZTA planes and a map containing the sites of the twelve Federal Reserve banks – which correspond to the men's respective home cities.

They are unaware of the danger that lies (literally) beneath.

Below are brief character sketches and the events that have affected them, organized by location.

AT THE PHALLIC TOWER

• SETH HERRICK, our protagonist, is searching for his boyfriend Abe Derisian, who was seated on the left side of the plane and may be dead (although we know he isn't). Twice he has awakened unexpectedly naked. Seth has assumed a leadership role in the group; a mysterious note tells him that only he can get the group off the island – but to do so he must remain in the nude.

• Seth has come to rely on the input of HARRY MANCINI, a fat gay man embarrassed by his physical appearance. Harry notes that the island seems to be `all about sex', heightening sexual tensions that had been kept under the surface. Harry has picked up on the multiple occurrences of the number 12: there are 12 survivors in their group, they all have birthdays in December (the 12th month), the tower is painted in 12 colors, the dodecagons have 12 sides, and they were all on ZTA Flight 12.

• AUGIE STAPLETON is a conservative Christian horrified by the act of homosexuality – although he once engaged in fellatio in high school, an incident which shocked him. He has just been influenced by a dodecagon, which causes him to strip and ask for Ray (next paragraph) to fuck him; he doesn't remember doing that. Augie's girlfriend' Jordan was put on a separate flight which safely arrived in Aruba. More on her' later.

• When first met, a survivor identifying himself as cattle rancher CODY BENSON seemed unaware that he had even been on a plane; Harry and Seth discern that he suffers from dissociative identity disorder; his other two personalities are RAY and GARY ONSLOW. While Cody seems asexual, Ray is gay and randy and attempted to seduce Augie. Gary is shy and comes out rarely. A yellow dodecagon triggered Cody's change of personality into Ray.

• After going to sleep fully clothed the first night in the tower, PAUL ETON wakes up wearing nothing but a jockstrap – which he cannot remove. The previous day, a blue dodecagon caused him to strip and attempt to kiss DAISUKE OMI. Hopeful that the blue dodecagon will free him of the jockstrap, he seeks it out. He sees a six-foot blue phallus in one corner, to which he is irresistibly attracted, and embraces it. Immediately, he is immobilized, experiences a sensation like being fucked, and falls into the earth as the dodecagon collapses beneath him.

• ED NIEMANN is a British knight, transplanted to America, traveling with his disagreeable son, LEO; Leo arrived at the tower late and sopping wet after a rainstorm; he borrowed clothes from others while his dried overnight; but in the morning they have disappeared.

• Other tower residents include LUCAS HEIDEKKER, TIM FALLON, JASPER ADENA and VIC TORRANCE, whose stories haven't emerged much yet. Vic has a lover named Miles who is in Aruba.

ELSEWHERE ON THE ISLAND SURFACE

• The twelve passengers from the left side of the plane have also miraculously survived. They assume that the passengers from the right side have perished in the plane crash. Among them is Seth's lover ABE DERISIAN.

• STAN KOWALCZYK, a straight man considering leaving his wife, had been on the right side of the plane until the flight attendant, Percy, insists that he change places with the man across the aisle: Cody/Ray/Gary in his Ray persona. Stan and Ray comply, reluctantly, confused as to why Percy considered the switch important.

• After landing just offshore, the left-siders sleep overnight on the beach, with Stan forming a triangular pillow group with Abe and a young man named AL CASEY. Stan awakens alone and nude, later encountering an equally nude (and perplexed) Al. The two find a six-foot black phallus and subsequently find themselves trapped by dildos that spring out of the ground. They are speared anally by one of the dildos and sucked down into the earth below.

• PERCY, husband to Hamish (next section), is helping him collect' the twelve left-siders. Nine of them, including Stan and Al, were stripped naked and thus vulnerable to one of the penis gardens' designed to capture them and bring them underground. Percy requests permission to leave three left-siders clothed and track them down, hoping to seduce them before sending them on to Hamish. He succeeds with the Bahamian PIERS THOMPSON, and is still searching for Piers's friend THEO SEBOLD – and Abe.

UNDERGROUND

• BARRY RUSSELL, the plane's pilot, finds himself in some sort of underground structure under the control of a dominant man named Hamish DiSalvo. Although Barry is an experienced bdsm dom, Hamish informs Barry that he will be his boy', orders him to strip, and has him fucked by seven men Hamish calls his lieutenants'.

• HAMISH has several other lieutenants and holds all the left-siders captive save Abe and Theo. Hamish has collected a lieutenant from each of several previous ZTA flights (cf. the multiple wreckages referenced above); other young male passengers from these flights are kept captive for a while, then seem not to be around anymore.

• STAN, after being captured by a penis garden, finds himself in Hamish's domain and assigned a cellmate named IAN O'LEAHY, whom we have met before in a flashback (see below).

IN ARUBA

• Augie's girlfriend' JORDAN MURDOCK and sister JEN learn that Flight 12 has vanished. Jordan is a biological male, a fact he has kept from the naïve and clueless Augie. Knowing that the religiously conservative Augie wouldn't go much past first base until their wedding night, Jordan planned to have the operation' without ever telling Augie of his birth gender. Now that Augie is `dead', he guiltily realizes he is relieved that he won't have to go through with the sex-change; he wants to remain male.

• Jordan and Jen resolve to sue ZTA after learning of Flight 12's disappearance. They are assisted by MILES KING, whose partner Vic is on the island. They research ZTA, finding no website, but Miles uncovers a link to a Swiss company called Stimulever, Inc. A hacker friend, Nick, finds Stimulever's address seconds before the page is pulled from the internet.

IN FLASHBACKS:

• In Cleveland, a year ago, Seth and Abe meet, have a sexy first date and a disastrous second one. Seth, having been encouraged by his friend Ian to be aggressive', goes too far and handcuffs Abe to the bed over Abe's objections. Ian, regretting that Seth misinterpreted his advice, attempts to fix them up for a reconciliation, which works: Abe proposes a third date with no sex. At a restaurant, Ian happens' to find them and tells Abe that he was part of Seth's complicated history. Intrigued, Abe invites Seth back to his apartment for an impromptu `fourth date' – and a history lesson.

• In a separate flashback, Ian relates how he mysteriously arrives at the island and is pitted in a sexual competition against a fellow plane passenger (with the same name as another of Seth's past boyfriends). Defeating (raping) him, Ian is rewarded with a post as one of Hamish's lieutenants and is informed that `you get to keep your balls'.

• In the Philadelphia area, a teenage Harry is humiliated on Grindr after he posts his picture and others notice how overweight he is. Later, in college, he is `invited' to join a supposed gay fraternity, led by an Israeli student named URI, only to have them call him a fat pig and pour barbecue sauce over him while chanting derisive slogans. Harry resolves to remain closeted the rest of his life.

• In Texas, a teenage Augie is invited on a hunting trip by his classmate ALFONSO. Alfonso suddenly drops his trousers and invites Augie to give him a blow job which Augie, overcome by lust, does. Both belong to a very conservative church, which kicks Alfonso out, but Alfonso protects Augie's identity and his involvement in the incident is not discovered. Augie resolves to start dating girls.

• In Richmond, a teenage Paul is harassed by a classmate, ANTHONY, who offers him a ride home – only it turns out to be Anthony's home. Slipping him a Mickey Finn, Anthony strips Paul to a jockstrap and fucks him.

• In Portland, Stan argues with his wife Magda, who proposes separate vacations before joining each other for a week in Cartagena. Magda is thinking of moving out; Stan is unsure whether the marriage is worth continuing.

IN SWITZERLAND:

In a prologue set a month into the future – on New Year's Eve – JESÚS, chairman of a corporation (Stimulever?) discusses with board members the impending launch of The Project', whose success is not guaranteed. It depends upon a singular act of will by a figure they call The Trigger Man' – who seems to be Seth. The board warns him that if The Project fails, they may seek new leadership.