Technical Difficulties

My eyes fluttered open to hear the screams of several people around me and the plane violently shaking.

"Andrew! Wake up!"

Ziya was clinging to my shoulders, desperately trying to wake me up.

"What the—Ziya, why is the plane shaking?"

Confused and worried, I unbuckled myself.

"I don't know. We heard a loud bang and suddenly, the plane started—"

Before she could finish, the nose of plane tore away from the front, sucking everyone into an endless void of emptiness.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAA—"

I jolted upright in my seat, drenched in a cold sweat. The eyes of several people staring gave me chills, looking at me like I was a freak. I suddenly realized that it all was a nightmare.

But why was it so... real?

"Ayo, you good bro?" Jarun asked.

"Y-yeah. Just a dream."

Jarun pursed his lips. "Welp, looks like you won't be dreaming for too long."

"Huh?"

"Look."

He pointed at the window. Outside was a hazy image of clouds, which meant that the portal process was almost over.

You're probably wondering 'What's the difference between the portal and the plane?' Well, when an object—including humans and animals—goes through a portal, the process is instant, almost like teleportation. But, the more the mass an object has, the more time it takes to come out the other side of a portal. Thus, since a plane has to go through a portal (Mainly because we haven't built a way to travel through space fast enough), it takes around 2-3 hours to get to the other side.

So when a human steps through a portal, they don't have much mass, so it's like jumping or walking through a window of water.

"Ah. I see. Guess there really isn't a point in going back to sleep now."

At that exact moment, a loud explosion could be heard on the left side: where the left wing's engine was. Everyone crowded near the window and watched in horror as flames and smoke trailed off of the engine.

A panicked voice came over the intercom.

"D-due to some technical difficulties, the plane will be landing shortly."

A guy next to me yelled in anger. "Yeah, no shit sherlock! The whole fucking engine is destroyed!"

Everyone started to whisper to each other, panic rising more and more around us.

I didn't know why, but I had a scary feeling that this was...

My eyes widened with fear. The plane was about to tear apart, just like in my nightmare. No, this wasn't like my nightmare. This was the nightmare.

I swallowed before yelling out to everyone. "Shut up! If you couldn't tell, this plane is about to tear apart."

The same guy who yelled at the captain earlier turned his anger to me.

"Oh yeah? And what the hell makes you think that?"

"Oi, what's your name?"

He puffed up his chest. "Sebastian Thomas."

He had thick, messy burgundy hair that parted to the right. Surprisingly, he had green eyes, ones that didn't at all match his look. A small scar could be seen on his lower lip. As for his clothes, he wore a tan, plaid shirt with rolled up sleeves and a dark brown vest. To top off his strange attire, he wore ripped black jeans and sneakers.

I stared him dead in the eye. "Sebastian, are you that stupid enough to not even observe the situation? The entire left wing is starting to rip away from the plane. Not only that, but the nose is also fucked up."

His face went as pale, whiter than flour. Sebastian lowered his head and shut his mouth, but I could tell he was shaking with rage.

"Jarun, can you fix this?"

He shook his head. "It would take too long. By the time I could even try to fix it, we'd all be dead."

I smashed my fist into an empty seat next to me. "Then I'll make some damn time. Ziya, can you manipulate your strings at will?"

"Yeah I can do that."

"Good. I need you to use your strings to tie the nose and the wing to the ship, while Jarun fixes them."

He took a step back. "W-what?"

"C'mon we both know you can do it."

"Yeah, but I've never tried to fix an object this big before though."

"Quit wasting time and fix the damn plane. Ziya already has the strings attached."

"Ergh, fine," he grunted.

He took in a deep breath and pulled out his chasm crystal.

"Fusion," Jarun whispered to himself.

A small explosion of light burst out of the crystal, transforming Jarun into his true form. Jarun stretched out his palms as he murmured his usual chant.

A girl from the crowd screamed. "What the— what is that—"

"Will you guys shut the hell up for two seconds and actually try to help!? If you couldn't tell already, we're already in a pretty tight situation."

Man, what a strange feeling it was shutting people down instantly.

"How long do you think its going to take to fix the plane?"

"Judging by the size of the damage, it's gonna at least take 10 minutes.

I clenched my fists. "Shit. The plane isn't supposed to land for another 5 minutes, judging by how clear the image of clouds are outside. By the time we reach the exit, the plane wouldn't be fixed, and this whole thing would tear itself apart trying to exit the portal."

"D-does that mean we're all gonna die?" someone in the crowd yelped.

I turned to the group that was crowded together.

"Probably."

They all started to panic and jump on each other, screaming and yelling like little kids. A couple were crying while rocking themselves back and forth.

"Now, just because you know you're gonna die, doesn't mean that you can't try and change that. After all, you wouldn't have gotten on this plane if you were scared of dying," Ziya calmly said.

And the fact is, she was right. The moment those words left her mouth, it seemed like everyone began to calm down almost instantaneously. The two that were sobbing were now wiping away the tears from their faces.

Suddenly, the captain's voice came on the intercom again, the same panick still in his voice.

"D-due to some technical difficulties, the plane will be landing shortly."

Wait, didn't he just say that?

Abruptly, a horrific thought came to mind. I sprinted towards the nose of the plane, where the pilot and co-pilot were. My hand flew towards the handle of the door, desperately trying to open it, but it was no use. In exchange, I did a better plan.

I took a couple steps back and braced my shoulder as I rammed into the door with every ounce of strength and fiber in me. The next thing I knew, I was flying towards the floor, along with the door. I jumped up to my feet, clutching my stomach while looking around for both of the pilots.

Both of the seats were empty.

"Shit! This plane was running on autopilot!"

I yelled in panick at the group. "Does anyone know how to fly this thing?"

There was silence until Sebastian raised his hand. "I was in an Aviator club and learned to fly with my dad when I was a kid."

I could feel a grin form on my face. "Perfect. Looks like you'll be the pilot. I'll be your co."

He shrugged. "Ight."

Sebastian sat down, flipped on and off a few switches and put on a headset. I sat down next to him.

"You know what to do, right?" he asked.

"Yeah."

"Good enough for me."

Without warning, the plane started to shake. 'We're almost near the end of the portal,' I thought.

"It's just like in my dream. The plane started to shake, and we were all sucked into the void."

He looked at me in shock. "What?"

"Nevermind. What we need to do is gather everyone up front to get read to jump when this thing tears apart."

He nodded. "Hm."

I took in a deep breath. "Jarun! It's no use anymore!"

Jarun lowered his arms and nodded. "Alright. I did the best I could to keep it together in the meantime."

"Ziya! Wrap more string around the wing and the nose!"

"Already did it..."

"Then just gather everyone up front."

"...ok zoomer..." Ziya replied, annoyed.

Within seconds, I had a weird vision of the plane being hit by something. The thing was, it was super vivid too, just like the nightmare.

"Hey, Sebastian, we need to raise the plane up. Like, right now."

"Huh? Why?"

"Just do it!"

"Fine!"

At the same time, we both pulled up, lifting the plane up by quite a bit.

To my surprise, a large ball of energy flew directly through the place where the plane just was. If we hadn't moved, we would've exploded without any doubts.

Jarun rested his forearms on both of mine and Sebastian's seats. "Good call, Andrew. We would've just been a heap of shrapnel if hadn't moved. But how did you know that there was something going to hit us?"

"I dunno. Just a lucky guess, I think," I said without hesitation.

"We're almost to the exit, just a little more. When I tell you to, Ziya, release all of the strings on the front of the plane. Everyone, jump through the exit when the time is right, got it?"

Everyone nodded in agreement. "Good."

In the distance, a large white area could be seen: the exit.

"That's our queue. On three: one."

"Two."

"Three!"

The nose of the plane ripped away from the plane, and we all jumped into the abyss, hoping that we all made it through the portal.