The boy immediately snapped out of it and started tapping buttons on the aircraft and steering it down as quickly as he could. The plane quickly started descending at a sharp angle.
“Woah!!”
The trio lost their balance, falling forward as the gravity inside the aircraft tilted along with them. “Hold on!” Arthur yelled and grabbed the chair. Alarms started going off inside the cockpit indicating that there was something abnormal happening.
Arthur looked up at the swarm of bats they were approaching and his face paled visibly. ‘We won’t make it. We won’t goddamn make it!!’
Feeling his heart sink in at the realization, Arthur quickly turned to look around him. His mind raced to find a plan but there was nothing he could really do. There was only hope and prayers.
At that moment, the door to the cockpit opened as the others rushed in, fighting the shifting gravity to the best of their abilities.
“What the hell is going on?!” Danny yelled.
“We’re approaching a swarm of monster bats! Brace yourself for the impact!” Arthur threw himself on the ground. At the same time, the aircraft reached the swarm.
*BANG*
The impact was brutal, sending everyone down to the ground. Nobody could keep balance as the monsters hit the aircraft from every single angle. The wood cracked as if it was being smashed with a hammer continuously.
“Shit!!” Arthur covered his head trying to avoid all the glass and debris flying everywhere. The alarms continued ringing loudly in his ears. Nothing made sense as all chaos hailed down on them.
A few cruel seconds passed just like that while the aircraft continued going down, passing through the swarm of monsters. On the outside, bats smashed into the body of the plane from all angles. The impact made them burst into pieces of flash, dying instantly.
Seeing that, the rest grew even more agitated and started flying everywhere in a frenzy, making the impact even more brutal. Left and right, the aircraft struggled to stay out of their way and that lasted for almost 30 seconds.
Eventually, the collision stopped completely, leaving behind only the noise of the alarm.
Arthur opened his eyes slowly and looked up. Immediately, he saw a piece of wood falling straight toward him. So, he quickly rolled to the side, barely dodging it in time.
“Are you guys ok?!” He asked as he rose up. The entire cockpit was a huge mess. His friends were lying on the ground everywhere.
“Shit, that hurts!” Herculia growled as he grabbed his arm. He had fallen on his left arm upon impact, twisting it slightly.
“I’m fine…” Emmy replied while pushing a piece of glass off her.
“Me too.”
Seeing that they were all conscious, Arthur turned to the two dwarves to check if the impact didn’t hurt them. However, what he saw didn’t please him at all. The two dwarves laid on their chairs motionless as the aircraft continued descending at a rapid pace, moving through the clouds beneath.
“Finlay?! Serko?! Hey, can you hear me?!” Quickly, Arthur checked their pulses. His heart beating in his throat afraid that the two children were harmed seriously from the impact.
‘They have a pulse’. He thought to himself feeling their necks. ‘They aren’t dead… Fuuh, thank god.’ Exhaling a small breath, Arthur quickly looked up at the cracked windshield. The hits have completely destroyed it, riddling it with even more holes. However, even those cracks couldn’t hide the reality of the situation… The aircraft was falling.
“We need to stop the aircraft.” He muttered and shifted his gaze to the control panel in a hurry. But, all he saw were complicated buttons and options with no labels to indicate what each thing would do. ‘How do I stop it from going down?!’
“Uh… This? No, this… Uh, what should I do?” Arthur started to panic internally. At that moment, he felt a tap on his shoulder. Looking back in a hurry, he saw Danny.
“Get out of the way, I will stop it!” He declared.
Arthur looked at him for a moment before he moved away. He didn’t even need to question whether Danny truly knew what he was doing or not but he had to trust him. They didn’t have time to argue back and forth.
The latter then quickly looked at the panel and started tapping several buttons. Then, he grabbed the steering wheel and moved it up. Immediately, the aircraft stopped descending.
Arthur looked around him in shock as the normal gravity returned to the cockpit. His legs didn’t struggle to keep him standing anymore.
“You did it…” Arthur exclaimed in disbelief.
“… We aren’t out of the dangerous waters yet, the goddamn aircraft is barely intact. Many components have been damaged and one of the propellers lost two blades.” He replied. “What should we do, Isla?”
Looking back at Isla, the latter stood up and walked to Danny. “Try to keep it in control as much as possible. Herculia, Emmy, go check the interior of the aircraft… I’m afraid we might have some company on board. Kill them all.” She said.
Due to the impact, several bats pierced the wood and got into the interior of the aircraft. Isla could feel their presence even from her position.
“Let’s go.” Herculia pushed his friend as they opened the door and quickly left.
“Help me get the two kids off the chair. We need to wake them up.” She said as she picked up Finlay. Arthur nodded and lifted Serko before they emptied a spot and put them down gently. The two kids were still unconscious for some reason.
Arthur pulled out a flask of water and sprayed a small amount on their faces. However, that didn’t seem to work at all.
“Dammit, they aren’t responding,” Arthur grumbled as he looked up at Isla. “What should we do?”
“…” The girl thought for a moment before she pulled out two health potions and quickly poured them into their mouths. Immediately, the small scratches on their bodies started healing. However, that didn’t seem to have an effect on their unconscious states.
‘Did they suffer severe concussions? That doesn’t make sense. A healing potion should heal even that and wake them up quickly.’ Isla frowned. Knowing the magical effect of these potions, it made no sense why it didn’t work.
“We need to wait a little. They might wake up on their own.”
“… We don’t have time. We don’t even know for how long this thing will hold on. Can we make an emergency landing anywhere, Danny?” Arthur asked.
“… I… Don’t know. I don’t have any vision of the current place we are flying over. If it’s not an open plain, I can’t do an emergency landing and even that would be seriously dangerous in this state.”
“… Shit.” Arthur cursed as he stood up. ‘What should I do? Think, Arthur. The aircraft has been heavily damaged, we don’t know if it can hold on for longer. We also don’t know if we can land or not… This doesn’t sound like a nice situation, huh, game? At least give us a goddamn opportunity!’
No matter how he looked at it, Arthur could only see a disaster. Taking a gamble and deciding to land without knowing where you were was simply too much of a risk. At the same time, staying in the air was a horrible idea as they didn’t know if they could even fix the aircraft mid-air. Not to mention that the only ones who could possibly do that were unconscious and not showing any sign of waking up.
However, unbeknownst to Arthur, the situation was only about to get worse. While he and Isla were busy taking care of the two children, Danny was trying to keep the aircraft stable the entire time.
Every now and then, he would tap on certain buttons and move the steering wheel a little. He wasn’t sure if this was truly helping or not, but he was simply following everything he learned about aviation to the best of his ability. At some point, he tapped on another button to stabilize the aircraft, and that was when he noticed something seriously off about it.
The button didn’t work. Then, as if fate was mocking him, the entire control panel shut off completely.
A//N: Don’t forget to give the book some golden tickets for good luck! :3
