Too young for war

chapter 6

I feel like this chapter is a little boring, I just wanted to write it done, because my goal is to write at least two chapters every day, but as i though I had plenty of time to write, I forgot. And now it's pretty late, so I wrote this a little fast🫠 sorry😶‍🌫️

The plane gives a sudden, unexpected jolt, and I'm thrown backward in my seat.

I look over at Nazeera and Ella panicked.

They seem to be as confused as I am—-What in the world is happening?

The plane jolts again. This time harder.

And then, once more.

"What is going on—" I say scared.
Nazeera is quick up on her feet to run over to the cockpit.

I believe she is going to check the dashboard.

I follow her.

"We've lost one of our engines," she says, her words barely a whisper.

"Someone is shooting us out of the sky."

tears build up in my eyes, from fear, because we're going to die.

"What? How is that—"

But there's no time to discuss it.

The plane jolts once more.

and this time the emergency oxygen masks fall out of their overhead compartments. Sirens are wailing. Lights overhead blink rapidly, insistent, sharp beeps warning us that the system is crashing.

"are we going to die—" I cry out.

No one says anything.

"Aaron—" I say panicking, as I walking over to him to take his hand.

"no one is going to die." Nazeera tells me.
"We have to try to land the plane," she says. "We have to figure out — Shit," she says. She covers her mouth with one hand. "We just lost another engine."

"So we're just going to fall out of the goddamn sky?" This, from Kenji.
"We can't land the plane," Aaron says.

"Not like this, not when we're missing two engines. Not while they're still shooting at us."

"So what do we do?" Nazeera says.

It's Ella, at the door, who says quietly, "We have to jump."

and now I can't breath.

"What?"

"What are you talking about?" Kenji says.

"Love, that's really not a good idea— We don't have any parachutes on this plane, and without them—"

"No, she's right," Nazeera says carefully.

"It'll work," Ella says looking at Nazeera. "Don't you think?"

"Honestly, I have no idea," she says. "But it's definitely worth a shot. It might be our only shot."

Kenji is beginning to pace. "Okay, someone needs to tell me what the hell is going on."
Aaron has gone pale. "Love," he says again, "what—"

I squeeze my eyes shut, as Aaron strokes my back two times before all his attention is on Ella and her plan.

"Nazeera can fly," She explains. "If we all find a way to secure ourselves to one another, she can use her powers to bolster us, you can use your power to bolster her power, and because there's little chance either of you could use that much of your strength while still carrying our combined weight, we'll eventually, slowly, be dragged down to the ground."

Nazeera glances at the dash again. "We're eight thousand feet in the air and losing altitude quickly. If we're going to do this, we should jump now, while the plane is still relatively stable."

"Wait—where are we?" Kenji says. "Where are we going to land?"

"I'm not sure," she says. "But it looks like we're somewhere over the general vicinity of sectors 200 through 300." She looks at Aaron.

"Do you have any friends in this region?"
Aaron shoots her a dark look. "I have friends nowhere."

"Zero people skills," Kenji mutters.

"We're out of time," Ella says. "Are we going to do this?"

"I guess so. It's the only plan we've got," Kenji says.

"I'd rather not—" I say looking down, squeezing my fingers into my palm, trying to stop the shaking, but as you are in a plane, which is falling, I believe it's hard not to shake from the panic.

"I think it's a solid plan," Aaron says, and shoots me a hesitant, but encouraging look.

"But I think we should find a way to strap ourselves together. Some kind of harness or something—so we don't lose each other in the air."

"We don't have time for that." Nazeera's calm is quickly giving way to panic. "We'll just have to hold on tight."

Kenji nods, and with a sudden heave, shoves open the airplane door. Air rushes in fast and hard, nearly knocking us off our feet.

Quickly, we all link arms, Nazeera and Aaron holding up the outer edges,
me in the middle of kenji and Ella.

"you two better hold her tight, and Elena, do not let go, hold as thigh as you can, can you promise me that-?" Aaron says giving me a look that shows how serious he is.

"we'll hold her thigh." Kenji says.

and with a few reassuring shouts through the howling wind—

We jump.

It's a terrifying sensation.

The wind pushes up fast and hard and then, all at once, stills. We seem to be frozen in time, whirring in place even as we watch the jet fall, steadily, into the distance.

Nazeera and Aaron appear to be doing their jobs almost too well. We're not falling fast enough, and not only is it freezing up here, oxygen is scarce.

"I'm going to drop my hold on your power," Aaron calls out to Nazeera, and she shouts back her agreement.

Slowly, we begin to descend.

We drift downward, unhurried, the wind pushing hard against our feet. And then, suddenly, the bottom seems to drop out from under us, and we go shooting down, hard, into the terrain below.

I scream.

I hear Ella do too, if it wasn't Kenji who screamed—

before we pull to a sudden stop, a foot above the ground.

Both kenji and Ella squeezes my arm.

And then we fall to the ground.

I land badly on my ankle and wince, but I can put weight on my foot, so I
know it's all right. I look around, now seeing that we're not alone.

Aaron puts his arm around me, pulls me close. He takes Ella's hand saying:

"Together," he whispers. "No matter what."