Fear or Fury?

Recap:

One of the flight attendants came rushing out of the staff room, a tall dark-haired Asian man and slammed a beeping red light which instantly shut the emergency door that was left open by Seth's bloody suicide.

Chapter 5:

As expected the engine instantly caught on fire, a small one, fortunately, which caused the plane to start tilting to its side. The dimly lit atmosphere was vanquished when all the lights automatically turned on. Simultaneously, oxygen masks propelled downwards above every seat, it's ironic how the masks that are supposed to help us calm down and stay alive served as a tool to make the situation ten times scarier.

Hysteria spread like wildfire.

Could I have prevented this? I think to myself.

Is this how I die?

Is this how we all die?

"Ladies and Gentlemen, this is your captain speaking, I am aware of what just happened back there. If we follow our safety protocols we will all survive this. Please administer the yellow oxygen masks that are dangling above your seats immediately, make sure to put yours on before helping a loved one or a child.

Once you have your masks on I advise all of you to reach for the parachutes under your seats. I repeat, each passenger has a parachute under their seat and the only chance you might get at survival is grabbing it right now. I will be shutting down the airplane's engine once we are at a low enough altitude to attempt a safe crash landing on the deserted island Kebechet which is only three thousand feet away from us. Our crew on board will help you locate your parachute, please remain calm, this is not the first time I fly a burning plane"

I immediately rushed to check under my seat for the parachute, ignoring the dangling mask as I rattled through the bags underneath.

I couldn't find it.

I lifted my head, masked up, and then bent down to search for it again.

Still nothing.

"It's just my stupid luck," I think to myself, "I can just take the one under the seat next to me, no need to panic, right?".

I turned towards Mr. Seth's area and started moving through the things on the floor vigilantly, hoping that if I moved the bag a little to the left, somehow a parachute was going to spawn, but there was nothing.

"I don't have a parachute" I yelled out while making eye contact with Tess and three other flight attendants who were silently panicking in front of their staff room.

When I looked back at the rest of the passengers though, I realized something, a lot of them didn't have parachutes either. I see a few who had locked themselves in the emergency crash position, with their parachutes held tight to their chests, and others who hid it under them or near their luggage, keeping them out of sight was the only way to guarantee their own survival. The fright and panic of the unlucky slowly channeled into anger towards the crew,

"Where are our parachutes, if we don't get some my daughter's going to die!!!!!"

"Crash??? We're going to crash into the island"

"We can't find our parachutes!!"

"What the hell is a Kebechet?!"

In the midst of the sea of noise and complaints, which surprisingly enough had more frustration than fear, I was able to notice the bald man from earlier sitting on the closest seat to the cockpit, he's gotten himself into an altercation with two of the airplane crew, preventing them from joining three of the remaining ones in tending to the rest of the passengers. I assumed the argument was about the parachute deficiency at hand but I couldn't make out everything they said.

"How could you be so stupid to let a man like that on board, I mean didn't I point him out to you earlier? I called you to my seat and I pointed towards him and his little accomplice and you did nothing about it!" He was condescendingly yelling at Tess the way a parent would yell at their child when they mess up.

"Hey! Can you calm down, we're just trying to do our jobs here!" retorted one of her coworkers in an aggressive tone.

"It's okay Juro," she said while calming him down for a second, before turning to the middle-aged man and attempting to reassure him that everything was going to be okay and that the plane was going to land safely.

He completely dismissed what she was saying and interrupted her mid-sentence to snap back at Juro with a witty comment about how he didn't know how to do his job.

Before she was able to come in between them again, Tess was distracted by an old passenger who approached her. It was the grandma who was asleep across from our seats earlier.

"Please help us" begged the old lady

Tess bent towards the shorter lady and put her hand on her shoulder to show that she was listening and that she was there for her.

"I have a daughter and a grandkid, and none of us have parachutes, I'm not asking you for three, I only want two to ensure their safety, please just two", the old lady pleaded with her slightly teary eyes and both her hands squeezing the handles on her purse.

"I really appreciate how much you care for your family, but I-", before she could finish her sentence, she noticed how heartbroken the grandma looked, ready to do anything for her family, even sacrifice her own life.

Tess looked up in my direction and her eyes noticed the grandma's daughter as she comforted her crying twelve-year-old. How could anyone say "No" to them, especially when it's your job to provide parachutes for all of us in the first place. She then turned towards the staff room before looking back at the old lady compassionately.

"Wait here, I'll go see what I can do."

"Thank you so much," said the old lady while reaching up to gently caress her shoulder.

When the grandma turned around she had no emotions on her face whatsoever, it's almost as if the pleading was just an act.

On her way to the staff room, Tess whispered something to Juro but it didn't seem like he noticed from how loud his bickering with the middle-aged man was. Matter of fact, all of the voices were getting louder, with no parachutes, no updates from the pilot in what felt like minutes, and the seemingly fast drop in altitude, everyone was losing their minds.

I, however, was slowly but surely getting accustomed to the situation. I was still scared but I had to calm down if I wanted to get through this. I've accepted the fact that the plane was going to crash, but people rarely die in plane crashes anyways. I just need to find a parachute for myself, and then I can help others find parachutes and we'll be able to survive this, or at least I will.

The pressure started to subside I assume, since I saw flight attendants and some passengers taking their oxygen masks off, which means we're almost at the Island. I remove my mask and seat belt so that I'm not limited to this area in my search for a parachute.

"Ladies and gentlemen this is your captain speaking again, if you haven't already noticed the Island is visible from the windows now which means we are closer to our landing, please remain calm as I turn off the engines in order to extinguish the fire on our right-wing. In the meantime please remain seated with your seat belts on, and hold your parachutes close just in case, we can get through this".

I look outside the window to see what the island looks like and I notice a vast area of land filled with jungles and a few bodies of water in between. I noticed a few hilltops and a small mountain as well. The east side seems to have a heavier abundance of trees and vines, whereas the west side has a fairly thick shore.

A few moments pass as I get up and turn around to look for a place where I can start my search for a parachute; I notice the mom and her son prepping for the crash in the seats right behind me, an empty space underneath the two deserted seats next to the emergency exit, a lady in a fancy pink dress anxiously staring at the pink carry on from the opposite aisle, she was rubbing her thumbs on each other as she contemplated whether to run and grab it or not. The couple in front of her on the other hand was tightly holding on to their parachutes with no other concerns than each other, they were whispering about how they would be together even after death.

At the back of the plane is a single door leading to the only bathroom on board, it compensates for a lack of another with its size and comfortable placement. To the sides of the door are two plain aluminum walls with an overarch that begins the extension for the overhead storage. In the right side of the empty space in front of it was one of the flight attendants trying to help the young black man calm down his crying ten-year-old daughter, and in the window seat in front of them was another passenger who had their head down with a parachute held between their chest and their lap.

I made a mental note to help the pair find parachutes once I find one for myself, an endeavor that unfortunately hasn't been fruitful yet. The lucky passengers who had parachutes under their seats were obviously keeping them for themselves, and the vacant seats that did have parachutes for whatever reason have already been ransacked by other passengers.

Even though we were all furiously curious about why the flight didn't have enough parachutes for everyone or why they didn't distribute them correctly, none of us cared at the moment to ask the flight attendants for an explanation, our only concern was how we could get one.

All of a sudden we heard what sounded like a small explosion and the plane picked up speed tremendously. An illuminating orange light shone through all the windows' open curtains on the right side. I could tell it was coming brightest from right behind me because of how dark the shadow I've suddenly cast on the floor was.

I slowly began to turn towards the source.

When I finally saw it, my skin lost all color...