Chapter 384: Thousands of Stars
"Chief Chambers! Look at this!" A young DEU officer comes into the chief’s office, a piece of paper in his hand, and he has a full-on panic expression on his face, complete with a pale face and out of breath.
He looks like he might pass out any second.
"How many times do I need to tell you to calm down!" Chief Chambers barks. He glares at the young man, who immediately clamps his mouth shut, but his pale face and panic-stricken expression are still very evident.
Chief Chambers sighs. "Okay, alright. What is it?"
The young officer clears his throat. He puts the piece of paper on the table, in front of Chief Chambers.
Chief Chambers looks at it. "Okay, what is it, Simon? What is this?" He gestures to the page.
"It’s a report, Chief!" Officer Jason Simon states, stating the obvious.
Chief Chambers takes a deep breath, trying to hold back his rising anger.
"I know it’s a report, Simon!" He barks.
Officer Simon looks confused. "But, you just said—"
"I know what I said! What is the report about?!" Chief Chambers can no longer hold his anger, he erupts.
"Oh, that, yes! The report is about a dungeon that suddenly opened on the shore of St. Lucas. The team’s still calculating the level. But we’ve already got reports that several tourists were sucked into the dungeon, sir."
He blinks, looking very uneasy.
Chief Chambers takes a deep breath. "Out with it, Simon. What is it?"
Officer Simon swallows. "One of those tourists is your nephew, sir."
"WHAT?" Chief Chambers gets up abruptly and grabs the paper. It only states that an unknown-level dungeon opened, along with its location, no list of victim reports included.
Chief Chambers grabs his phone and his gear, nearly running to the door, then stops. He looks back at Officer Simon.
"Simon! What the hell are you waiting for?! Go get Team Alpha ready. We’re heading to the dungeon. We’ll clear it." He talks rapidly, already dialing his sister’s number.
"Maude? Yeah, I heard, so it’s true. Okay. I’m on my way!" His focus shifts entirely, and he leaves the office without another word to Simon.
Lieutenant Cole is strapping on her last weapon when Chief Chambers bursts through the gear room door.
"Chief!" She gets up and salutes.
He nods briefly and continues gearing up without a word.
"I’m coming with you, Chief. We’ll get your nephew." Lieutenant Cole says, confident.
"Mmm." He nods, barely listening. His mind is full of his nephew’s face.
They finish gearing up and head together to where the rest of the DEU Sentinels are already gathered, ready to move.
"Ready? Let’s GO!" Chief Chambers shouts.
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"Your Highness! Answer me! Sonia!" Elder Loujt shouts, lifting a plane seat that’s flipped upside down. He flips a few more pieces of debris aside, searching, but he can’t find her.
He feels something hot and wet on his head. He touches it, looks at his hand, and finds blood. He’s bleeding from a head wound. It doesn’t surprise him. His skull feels like it’s about to split in two.
But he needs to know his princess is safe. He looks around, trying to determine whether she’s lying under debris somewhere. It never occurs to him to use his mana and sense her signature instead.
He clenches his teeth and shouts again, dragging himself through the wreckage.
Around him, what was once the economy cabin of Aurenvale Air flight ARV 998 looks nothing like its pristine self. The massive plane has broken into three major sections, with smaller pieces scattered everywhere between them.
The part where Elder Loujt stands now has no ceiling. He can see thousands of stars clearly overhead. Under any other circumstance, he’d stop to admire the sky, he’s always loved starry nights.
But as he looks around, he understands he needs higher ground to find Sonia. He scans the wreckage for a vantage point and decides to climb onto another section of the fuselage.
He moves toward it, only to discover a large open wound on one of his legs, one that needs immediate attention.
He exhales in frustration. Once again he scans his surroundings, looking for anything he can use to address it.
Around him, people are coming to, reacting in fragments. Some scream for help. Some cry, helpless, unable to do anything else. Others shout for the people they’ve lost track of.
Fire and smoke are everywhere. So are the bodies.
Captain Daniels opens his eyes, disoriented. He blinks several times, trying to clear his vision. Nothing changes. It takes him several seconds to understand that he’s blind. He can’t see anything. Only black.
The smell of burning flesh is so strong he’s certain it must be him. But he feels no pain.
"Am I dead? Is that why I don’t feel anything?" He says it out loud. "But if I’m dead, I shouldn’t be blind."
He lies there, unable to move. He tries lifting both hands, waving them in front of his face, but he can’t see them at all.
"Ah." He sighs. "I really am blind."
He laughs at himself. "This was supposed to be my thousandth accident-free flight." He laughs again, bitter this time. "Serves me right for bragging about it to everyone." He sighs, pauses.
"I have to try to see if anyone survived." His voice shifts, more determined now. "I need to see for myself."
Then he laughs out loud. "Listen to yourself, Joshua Daniels. You’re delusional. You’re blind and you still want to see? Pfft." He mocks himself openly.
"Alright. Enough talk. Let’s find out if I can even move." He braces himself, and finds that he can, technically, move. But he can’t get up.
"Huh? I’m blind and crippled?" He says. "Come on."
He can’t joke about that one. Not being able to walk feels worse to him than losing his sight ever did.
"UGH!" He cries out in frustration.
He lies quiet and unmoving. A few seconds later, he feels something wet against his cheek and realizes he’s been crying silently, without noticing when it started.
He takes a deep breath, holds it for a few seconds, then exhales loudly.
He repeats it a few more times, trying to calm himself. On the last exhale, he catches voices somewhere in the distance. He strains his ears, holding his breath.
When he realizes those voices are calling his name, his entire mood lifts and he shouts at the top of his lungs. "HERE! I’M HERE!"
He lifts both hands and waves them as hard as he can, hoping it might catch someone’s attention.
He listens for the voices again. He smiles wide when he realizes they’re getting closer. He shouts again. "HERE! HERE! I’M RIGHT HERE!"
He isn’t mistaken. The voices are getting louder.
"I can hear someone shouting! Captain Daniels, is that you?" A female voice calls out.
"YES! I’M HERE!"
The woman turns to the others. "Right down here! I can hear him answering. Hurry!"
Daniels hears more and more voices buzzing somewhere above him now, and he laughs and cries at the same time. Relief floods through him all at once.
"I’m right here!" He’s half crying, half shouting, his voice no longer loud, he’s losing his breath trying to hold back the tears.
Above him, people are working hard to dig him out. He’s buried under debris and pieces of the fuselage.
"Alright, we’re getting closer, Captain! Hold on!" The first voice, which he’s now identified as Melissa Edwards, one of the flight attendants, calls down to him. "Close your eyes, Captain! There’s a lot of dirt and small debris coming down!" She instructs.
Daniels follows her command and shuts his eyes, even as he thinks to himself, It won’t make a difference, Mel.
"Okay, guys. This is the last piece. If we lift this, I believe we’ll find our pilot under it. Let’s work together to lift it." An unknown male voice says.
"Yup. Let’s do it." A second male voice answers.
Captain Daniels can hear them straining, puffing with effort to lift whatever it is, he can’t see any of it, only lie there helplessly, listening.
When that final piece finally lifts away, the first thing he notices is that he can see thousands of stars. He blinks several times.
His rescuers fuss over him while he stares, dumbfounded, at the billions of stars scattered across the night sky.
"I... I can see? Are those stars? Or am I dreaming?" He says quietly, unheard by anyone around him.
"Captain? Captain, are you okay?" Melissa calls out. She turns to one of the rescuers. "Dr. Hugh, he’s not answering me. Can you please check him?"
Dr. Hugh, a surgeon and one of the passengers, steps closer and crouches down. He pulls out a flashlight and begins checking Daniels over.
A few short seconds later, he stands and smiles at Melissa. "He’s alright. I believe he’s in shock. Let him adjust to his bearings."
The doctor scoffs to himself, glances around, and sighs.
"He’ll be in even more shock once he realizes we’ve landed in hell."