by A. G. Taylor
“Sarah!”
She half-turned back to Robert.
“It’s okay, nothing’s happening,” she said. “Watch another DVD or play a game.”
Her brother narrowed his eyes, just like he always did when he wasn’t going to take “no” for an answer. At ten, Robert was almost four years younger than Sarah, but she realized he wasn’t stupid.
“Okay, okay,” she said, flipping the TV to the news station. “There’s been a meteor crash. It hit somewhere in the middle of Australia. You know what a meteor is?”
“Of course I do,” Robert said, rolling his eyes. “A lump of rock flying through space. And if it’s crashed to earth it’s called a meteorite, actually. Miss Dobson says…”
Sarah could tell Robert was about to go into one of his speeches about what his teacher said on a subject, which he did from time to time. She always teased him about being in love with Miss Dobson, which drove him nuts.
“Fine, you know more about it than I do,” she said, putting on the cheap, chunky headphones the attendants had provided rather than listen to her brother go on.
On the news, the presenters were doing much the same things they had been doing fifteen minutes before: watching the satellite footage, making guesses about the size of the cloud and repeating numbers for people to call. She got the feeling they really didn’t have that much new information to give.
Robert tugged on her arm again and she pulled off the headset with a look of annoyance.
“I don’t like it, Sarah,” he said, a note of fear in his voice.
Behind them the voices had gone up a notch in volume. The angry man was still shouting and some other passengers had joined in. Nicole was trying to calm everyone down. It didn’t seem to be working.
Across the aisle, Sarah saw Daniel also turn in his seat. He’d finally taken off his mask and removed the ear plugs. He rolled his eyes at her and shook his head.
“Some people, eh?”
The Aussie lilt to his accent still sounded alien to her. How could they have a dad who spoke like that? And he dressed dorky too, in a jacket and shirt that made him look like an elderly professor, although Sarah knew he wasn’t that old.
“Make them stop shouting, Sarah,” Robert whined, grabbing at her arm. She was about to turn and tell him to shut up when Daniel leaned across the aisle and offered something to him.
“Do you like kangaroos?”
Robert looked at him, a little taken aback. He’d kept his distance from Daniel since their first meeting in the hospital, instinctively mistrusting anyone who was an adult and not Mum.
“Sure, I guess,” he said after a moment. “I’ve never seen one for real.” He took the object from Daniel’s hand.
“Those are my photos,” Daniel said. “I’ve seen loads. Was going to give them to you when we reached Melbourne, but perhaps you’d like to see them now.”
Robert started leafing through the little album and Sarah looked too, despite herself. The photos showed shot after shot of kangaroos in the wild, probably taken out in the bush somewhere.
“Cool,” whispered Robert. “Could you feed them?”
“No, those were wild animals,” Daniel explained. “But if you keep flipping there are some pics that were taken when I visited one of the wildlife parks. You can buy a bag of food and they eat from your hand.”
“Wow. Look at the size of that spider!”
“Yeah, that was a huntsman I snapped when I was camping. It was as big as my hand, but it’s the little ones you have to watch out for really. Some of them can kill a man with their venom. Hold on to the album for a while.”
With that, Daniel sat back in his seat with a wink to Sarah. Engrossed in the pictures, Robert had completely forgotten the noise of the arguing passengers. Sarah had to admit it had done the trick and she felt she owed Daniel something, against her better judgement.
“Thanks,” Sarah said quickly as she looked back up the aisle.
Daniel smiled at her. “No worries. I’m sure it’s going to be okay. You don’t have to be afraid.”
“Who said I was afraid?” she replied defensively, suddenly regretting trying to be nice to him after all. Clearly he still thought she was six years old.
She was about to say something more when, without warning, the dimmed cabin lights flicked on at full power. A calm voice of authority from the cabin speaker cut through the noise.
“This is your captain speaking… Please could all passengers return to their seats and fasten their seat belts. Stand by for another announcement.”
Silence fell in the cabin. People who were out of their seats quickly returned to their places and sat quietly, as if they’d been told off by a teacher. Up and down the plane, seat belts clicked as they were fastened. The attendants walked back towards the middle of the plane, in control again. Nicole looked a little red-faced following the disagreement, Sarah noted.
A minute later the speaker delivered another message.
“This is Captain Klein… As you’re probably all aware, there’s been an incident below us. At present I can’t give you too much information about the meteorite. If you’ve been watching the news, you probably know as much as I do. All I can tell you is that you’re in the safest place right now. We’re either going to fly round or over the dust cloud, but even if we do have to go through for a while, our GPS system will keep us right on track.”
Someone down the front of the plane let out a cheer and a ripple of applause spread down the aisles. Sarah stole a look at Daniel. Although he was listening intently to the message, she noticed he wasn’t clapping.
“We’re expecting to land in Melbourne in just over two and a half hours. Until then, I’d like all passengers to refrain from using mobile phones and keep seat belts on. There’s been some magnetic disturbance due to the impact and we don’t want to take any chances. The cabin crew are now going to run through emergency procedures once more. So sit back, stay calm and we’ll be in Melbourne before you know it.”
There was more applause, a little quieter this time. The flight attendants started demonstrating where the emergency exits were, like they had done at the start of the flight. Everyone seemed to be paying attention this time.
Sarah looked over at Daniel, who was frowning.
“Is there something wrong?” she asked after a moment.
He looked round at her, as if surprised that she had spoken to him.
“Oh… It’s nothing…”
Sarah sighed and leaned a little closer so that Robert couldn’t hear.
“Stop treating me like a kid, okay?” she said quietly. “You weren’t clapping like everyone else. Why?”
He looked at her for a moment, as if considering carefully what he said next.
“If anything happens, you and Robert stick close to me.”
“What do you mean, if anything happens?”
Daniel glanced up the aisle to where Nicole was demonstrating how to put on one of the oxygen masks.
“It’s probably nothing,” he said casually, looking away. “Better safe than sorry.”
It was then that Sarah realized something important. Daniel thought the plane was going to crash.
3
When things started to go wrong, it happened so quickly nobody seemed to know what to do.
The cabin quietened down following the captain’s announcement. People stayed in their seats and stopped demanding information from the attendants. Most of them seemed totally engrossed in what was on the news channels, although from what Sarah could see there wasn’t much new information there. A few people talked and laughed as if nothing strange was happening at all.
Robert soon lost interest in what was going on and started watching Finding Nemo for the millionth time.
Sarah picked up the forgotten photo album from the side of his chair and leaned across the aisle to give it back to Daniel. To her surprise, he had his mobile phone open and was writing a text. She craned her head round to see what he was writing:
FLGT PROB – PCKGE SAFE – WILL DLIVER, DELAY POSS.
“Hey, you’re not supposed to be doing that,” she said, causing him to look round in surprise.
He shrugged and angled the screen so she couldn’t read any more. “I don’t think one text’s going to make any difference, do you?”
“What if everyone on the plane thought that?”
“Well, I’m not everyone.” Daniel took the album from her hand with a wink and pressed send on the phone.
A shudder passed through the plane and the cabin jerked to the right, throwing Sarah forward. Daniel reached out and caught her arm. If she hadn’t been strapped in she might have fallen into the aisle.
The plane righted itself and they met each other’s eyes.
“Just a little turbulence,” Daniel said, grinning. She laughed, almost forgetting that she disliked him.
“Hey!” Robert cried out beside her. Sarah looked round and saw that the DVD player in his lap had gone dead.
The plane shuddered again, this time so violently that some of the overhead lockers sprang open, spilling cabin baggage onto the heads of passengers. The whole cabin rolled to the right, sending loose objects flying through the air.
Sarah held on to the arm of the chair, steadying Robert with her other hand. She met his eyes and saw he was terrified. She was about to tell him not to worry when the lights in the cabin went out.
Up and down the aisles people started screaming. At the other end of the plane something heavy crashed down and a woman cried out. Two seconds later the lights flicked on again, only much dimmer, making it difficult to see exactly what was going on.
“This is your Captain…” the speaker began and then abruptly crackled and died.
Sarah felt her stomach sink, just like it had when the plane approached the airport in Hong Kong. However, this time the feeling was much stronger and more sudden. The plane was descending – fast. The engines roared with a deafening intensity. She looked round at Daniel.
“What’s happening?” she shouted above the din.
“We’re going to land!” he called back.
“We can’t land!” she cried, knowing it sounded stupid. “We’re not at the airport yet!”
Daniel shook his head and motioned downwards with his finger. “Bend over and put your head between your legs. Put your hands over your head or hold the seat in front. Tell Robert to do the same.”
With that, he unclipped his seat belt and reached up to grab a bag from the overhead locker. Sarah hastily told Robert what to do and did the same herself, watching Daniel from the corner of her eye. He pulled a silver glasses case from his bag, as if to check it was okay. Satisfied, he replaced the case and stuffed the bag under his seat before buckling his seat belt. Sarah frowned – she had never seen Daniel wear glasses. As he glanced in her direction, she looked away. Sarah had the strangest feeling she’d seen something she shouldn’t.
However, there was no time to think about that. The feeling of rapid descent intensified, as if the plane was rushing towards the ground even more quickly. Luggage and objects that had fallen out of the lockers were sliding down the aisle towards the front. Stealing a look round the chair, Sarah saw Nicole strapping herself into a little seat that folded down from the wall.
“This is it!” Daniel yelled as the cabin levelled out, as if the pilot had managed to raise the nose of the plane. The engines roared even louder, drowning out all other sound in the cabin.
An impact juddered through the entire plane, causing Sarah to jump in her seat and then come back down again so violently she bit her lip. It was as if the plane had hit something and then bounced back up in the air. She wiped her mouth, tasting blood, and looked round at Robert. He had his head between his knees but his whole body was shaking. She reached over and put an arm round his shoulders.
The plane hit the ground again, harder this time, and kept moving for a few seconds. We’ll be okay, Sarah found herself thinking. She remembered pictures of the desert in Australia, so flat and empty. Probably not that much different from landing at an airport, just a few more bushes and rocks to look out for. Right?
From beneath the floor of the cabin came the terrible sound of metal tearing and then another impact. On the left side of the plane something exploded with an almighty booming sound. At the edge of her vision, Sarah saw fire leap up at the window.
Suddenly the whole cabin seemed to spin round to the right, as if the plane was now sliding along sideways rather than forwards. The sound of the engines had lessened and Sarah could hear the cries of the other passengers once again. The walls and floor were shaking so violently, she wondered if the whole cabin was going to split apart and spill them out into the desert.
Then, just as suddenly as the ordeal had begun, it ended.
With a heavy thud, the plane came to a halt, rolled a little to the right and then settled back at a slight angle. The interior fell silent for a moment as people unfolded themselves and looked around, amazed they were in one piece. Sarah looked up the aisle and saw Nicole hastily unbuckling herself from her seat. The woman moved to the exit door and started operating the emergency release handles.
Sarah unclipped her own belt and turned to Robert, who was looking back at her with tear-stained eyes.
“Is it over?” he asked, voice very small.
Sarah nodded and ran a hand through his hair, just like she’d seen Mum do the time he fell off his bike and cut open his knee.
“We’re going to be okay,” she told him.
All around, people were struggling out of their seats and rushing into the aisles, heading for the doors. A bottleneck quickly formed, with people at the back pushing and shouting as they desperately tried to get to the exits. So much for an orderly evacuation, thought Sarah. She started to move as well, grabbing Robert’s hand, but Daniel shook his head at her.
“Wait, Sarah!” he called. “You’ll get trampled by these idiots.”
Sure enough, so many people were trying to pile into the aisle at once that they were starting to fall over the top of each other in their haste. Some of them were nursing wounded arms and heads from the crash. They stepped on one another in the confusion. Robert gripped Sarah’s arm tighter.
Sarah looked back to where Nicole was heaving open the emergency door, while another attendant tried to hold people back for a moment. And that’s when it happened…
The door swung open and a cloud of choking red dust flooded into the cabin, driving people back down the aisles. Outside a storm was raging and now it invaded the plane. Too late, Sarah raised a hand to her face and got a mouthful of the sandy dust as the cloud enveloped her seat. She bent forward, coughing and rubbing her eyes.
Seconds before, people had been desperately rushing towards the doors, but now they struggled back, away from the dust storm that was tearing through the cabin. We must have landed in the cloud, Sarah thought to herself as she shielded Robert’s face and looked round at the panicking passengers through watery eyes.
“Come on,” a voice ordered. She looked up to see Daniel standing beside her seat, a handkerchief held over his nose and mouth to stop the dust. From his shoulder bag he produced a T-shirt that he ripped into two pieces and handed to her.
“Hold this over your face.”
She took the material gratefully and gave the other piece to Robert.
“We can’t go out there,” she protested as Daniel started pulling her to her feet. “We’re in the cloud!”
“We can’t stay here,” he said, looking round as someone pushed past him roughly. People were piling up at the back of the plane now, trying to get as far from the open door as possible.
“We can’t breathe out there!” Sarah argued, pulling away violently.
Daniel bent his face close to her ear, so Robert couldn’t hear.
“This plane is going to explode. The engine is on fire. Do you understand?”
Sarah met his eyes for a second and could see that he was deadly serious. Through the nearest w
indow yellow flames were visible in the storm. She said nothing, merely nodded.
Daniel took her arm again and led her up the aisle while she held onto Robert’s hand, shielding their faces as much as possible as they went. The door was stuck open and the inside of the plane was slowly filling with more and more red dust. It swirled in the air and settled over the floor and seats, giving everything a strange, brownish hue.
At the door, Nicole stood with her hands covering her face. She was dust-covered and almost unrecognizable. She waved them back as they approached.
“Wait…!” she cried, stepping forwards.
Daniel ignored her, pulling them to the edge of the doorway where the storm was raging with massive intensity. On the threshold Sarah resisted, holding Robert to her. She almost lost the piece of T-shirt and got another mouthful of dust, making her retch. This was madness. She turned to protest.
Too late! Daniel pushed her in the small of the back and she toppled forward, pulling Robert with her.
She expected to fall, but instead hit the rubbery surface of an inflatable emergency chute and slid forwards. It was like being on a funfair slide for an exhilarating few seconds.
They hit the sand and rolled forwards, tumbling over each other in the dark.
“Come on!” Daniel cried, landing behind them. “Don’t stop moving!”
He pulled them onward again, only this time in the darkness they couldn’t see where they were going. Robert started sobbing, but Sarah didn’t let go of his hand.
They went on, stumbling over the uneven ground and tripping on plants for what seemed like an age before Daniel finally stopped. He hauled them down next to a ridge that provided a little shelter from the storm.
In the darkness Sarah could just make out the faces of her brother and Daniel as they crouched close together. The cold was starting to bite through her jumper and she realized that she’d left her coat in the plane.
“I think we’re far enough away!” Daniel yelled over the wind.
Sarah felt a surge of anger rise. They could have stayed in the cabin. It would have to be safer than being stuck out in the dark, cold and dust of the desert. Mum would never have put them in such danger! Some father Daniel was turning out to be! She opened her mouth to tell him she was going back and taking Robert with her—
