Chapter 137: End of a Life
A/N: Thank you for your support everyone! As always, I’d like to give special thanks to the readers who voted, sent gifts, golden tickets, reviewed/commented! Each one adds extra fuel to the inspiration for this story!
Shout out to June 2026s Top 3 GT gifters! LilaB, DaoistWKE6Lf, Jubba_jam! HUGSS
Back to the story~
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Meanwhile, kilometers above the ground, a certain plane had balanced itself, avoiding some debris, from a distance.
In the whole continent, it was the only commercial plane still in the sky. The others...they had either fallen to the ground or the sea, or had disintegrated mid-air.
It had been a while since the meteorites had fallen. He had already stabilized a few kilometers above ground. However, while there was no more falling debris, there was no place to dock.
He kept going inland because the sea was too turbulent, and there were too many aftershocks so the tsunamis and violent waves continued indefinitely.
It was a good decision for him not to keep looking for landing spots in the sea. In fact, even in the points of the ocean farthest away from an impact, one could feel the ripples, let alone points in shores where the ripples had most prominent effects.
In the end, the pilot, Helios, couldn’t wait for things to calm down and headed further inland in hopes of a change, but the situation was the same.
He had to fly around while waiting for the ground to calm, and the passengers still conscious tensely did the same. In that time, they saw how the earth changed. They saw how large gorges formed, how several buildings crumbled under the violent shaking of the ground, and even how small hills formed in some areas.
"SHIT!" Helios cursed over and over, trying not to get too distracted by the utter destruction he could see from the cockpit.
With a hand on the wheel, he used the other to slap the main pilot over and over, just hoping he could have someone here to assist him.
He had been holding on with the hope this guy, who had decades more experience than him, would wake up. However, he soon realized the body was cold and stiff, and he could only grit his teeth.
"SHITSHITSHIT!"
He had gone to a few airports that he knew, but one was chaotic and burning and the other one had a gorge forming in the middle of it. If he tried landing there, he’d be more likely to join them in hell.
The other places had buildings or forests, and forest fires.
The sea was a no-go, but the desert was possible. Even if there were still earthquakes, there wouldn’t be much to fall on them.
Hopefully, there was no more shaking in the desert regions, too. Otherwise the whole plane could get buried in the sand just by existing there. Those sand dunes were usually deeper than they look.
Fortunately, the plane still had a bit of fuel and there was indeed a small desert not too far away. It was a cold desert located in the northwestern part of their country.
Rather, only a small part was part of theirs, the rest was part of Micara’s northern regions.
He manoeuvred the plane to go around, slowly heading down. He took note of the direction of the cities and towns, hoping to remember where to go next. He didn’t want to go far away, but the initial parts were too rocky, or the sandiness was blocking his sight.
He descended as slowly as he could, at an angle that should minimize the impact on the people inside the plane.
Five hundred meters, a hundred meters, fifty meters, ten meters—
BAM!
The entire plane shook as the plane’s underbelly touched the dunes. The dunes weren’t flat, so the vibration and impact varied and was a bit unpredictable, making the shaky landing even scarier.
The sand cushioned most of the fall but the shock was still massive and it still felt like people fell from the roof of a bungalow.
BOOM!
CRUNCH!!
"Wuuuuwuwu!"
People gasped when they heard a few necks breaking. Their eyes were shut as they were kept in place by their seatbelts and their oxygen masks. They could only hope that their family members’ necks were intact.
However, that was not the end of it. There were many rocks beneath the dunes, many Helios could not detect even if he stared at them for an hour.
Some hills were bigger than others, others sharper. Unfortunately, a part of it was hidden within a dune the plane was heading towards.
Crack!
Boom!
Smash!
And everything turned black.
For many people, it was permanent.
...
Helios groaned, slowly opening his eyes while enduring the pain that greeted his awakening. He looked at his body, relieved it was all in one piece, but he definitely was battered.
If he had a mirror, the number of bruises in his body might be terrifying. Hopefully, he didn’t have any serious internal injuries going on.
He took deep, deep breaths before he even attempted to move. He knew any movements would be painful, so he mentally prepared for it. As he did so, he looked around the cockpit.
The mirror of the plane had been damaged, and a sharp rock protrusion had entered through it. The other pilot’s stomach had been stabbed, but he was already dead before landing, so Helios could only be thankful the rock didn’t land in his direction.
Helios groaned as he sat up, dragging his feet towards the cockpit’s exit. When he opened the door, his blood froze. A sharp rock had embedded into the plane, and several stewards and stewardesses were impaled.
"U-ugh..."
"H-Help..."
He flinched when he saw one of them move. He hurriedly went to him, frantically helping, applying the first aid techniques he knew of. It wouldn’t be easy, since a massive part of the rock was through his stomach. Pulling him out of it could make things worse.
All he could do now was to hurriedly control the bleeding of the wound. However, before he could even grab bandages or cloth, the hand that had grabbed him loosened up, softly falling onto the floor.
There was no movement or sound following anymore. He shakily placed a finger on the man’s pulse and over his nose, realizing there was no sign of life anymore.
Helios’ jaw clenched, and his eyes reddenned as he looked at the other corpses. He shut his eyes before they opened again, his long legs taking him towards the rest of the plane.
Hopefully, there were other survivors.