Flight 3430, стр. 33

There was something ominous about the night, and she couldn’t put her finger on what it was. It felt weird, the air, the sound, she had never heard the low hum of a storm in the distance.

They made it to Dulles Airport in under twenty minutes, taking the back road to the maintenance entrance and speedily driving across the grounds to the edge of the runway where their plane was parked.

The mobile staircase was attached and the door was open, just how they left it.

When Susan stepped from the van, she knew whatever killer storm brewed wouldn’t be long. The sky lit up with lightning, and seconds later came the fierce crash of thunder.

The pilot rushed to her. “I’m headed in, getting things ready. Get them aboard. We have to take off, fast.”

Susan nodded her understanding, as she waved her arm, guiding people from the van to the plane.

“It’s two miles away, Mama,” Brandy her nine year old daughter said.

“What?” Susan asked confused, trying desperately to just get people to hurry from the van and onto the plane, while trying to hear her daughter over the deep demonic wind sound.

“Two miles,” Brandy repeated. “You taught me. Count the seconds after the lightning, divide by five and that’s how many miles away the storm is.”

“You’re right.” Susan shielded her eyes, the fine mist still falling steadily. She turned to Bill. “Get the kids on the plane.”

Bill nodded and lifted Maddy into his arms, resting the girl on his hip. He took Brandy by the hand and seven year old Stephen stayed close.

She watched them get to the staircase and Susan looked up. It didn’t make sense. Lightning, thunder, wind and mist, yet, she could still see stars in the sky. Where were the storm clouds if it was only a couple miles away?

Susan took that as a good sign. Clear skies. Safe flying.

She made it up the staircase before the last of the people, and from the doorway, like a volunteer flight attendant, moved the remainder of the people hurriedly into the cabin of the plane.

The engines fired up and whirled. As the last person entered, the pilot emerged from the cockpit.

“I have the door,” he said. “Go sit. Tell people to buckle up. We won’t waste time. I don’t see it, but I can feel a hell of a storm.”

“I know. Thank you, I’ll tell them.” Susan stepped away, looking over her shoulder as the pilot secured the door and quickly returned to the cockpit.

As she walked down the aisle, she called out, “Please buckle up, we are taking off. Make sure you’re buckled.”

She spotted Bill and the kids seated midway. He held Maddy on his lap. Brandy was in the middle seat and Stephen in the middle.

The row behind them was empty. Susan took Maddy from Bill, gave a reassuring smile to her children and husband and took a seat in the row behind them.

She set Maddy in the middle seat and took the one by the window. No sooner did her rear touch the seat, the plane started moving.

The pilot wasn’t kidding. He wasn’t wasting any time.

Through the corner of her eye the lightning flashed and brightened everything. Quickly she buckled and secured Maddy’s belt, then her own as the plane picked up speed.

“Is it okay, Mommy?”

“Yes, baby.” She clenched Maddy’s hand. “It’s fine.”

The plane moved faster, then turned some, Susan guessed to get on the actual runway.

That gave her a sense of relief.

Not long, they’d be in the air.

Lightning flashed again and her eyes shifted to the window.

The plane moved faster, plowing down the runaway.

Holding her daughter’s tiny hand, views focused out the window, the lightning flashed again. Suddenly, an area lit by the moon was completely dark.

It looked like the night swallowed everything around them.

Nothing but black.

Susan was certain the storm clouds moved in until the lightning lit everything again. The long bright flash of light showed Susan it wasn’t a storm. The dark of the night didn’t encompass things and it wasn’t clouds.

It was water.

A huge wall of water.

It barreled their way, the brightness from the lightning afforded her the opportunity to see, even if only briefly, a huge ship in the wave that headed their way.

She wanted to scream ‘oh my God’, but she didn’t want to alert anyone.

The plane was moving, fast.

Go. Go. Go, she beckoned in her mind.

The pilot could do it. He could get them off the ground before the water arrived.

The speed in which the plane moved told her they were close to take off.

It was tense, her heart raced. She felt as if she were in some action movie in a race against time.

Her eyes went from the window to her daughter, then back to the window.

She squeezed Maddy’s hand so tight, then exhaled in relied when she felt the plane lift off.

Susan had been holding her breath, she exhaled when she felt the plane begin to rise.

Her relief was short lived.

“Mommy?”

Susan turned her head to her daughter.

CRASH.

The water slammed into the plane with such force they were like the baseball and the water was the bat.

The plane didn’t flip.

The force caused a quick impact jolt to the left then sailed the plane hard to the right.

She grabbed for Maddy, at the same time, she saw her husband and son shoot to the other side of the plane. Susan couldn’t look, she closed her eyes tight not wanting to see them hit anything.

Horrified screams filled the cabin of the plane, and Susan clutched her youngest daughter for dear life. The plane flipped to the side and a thunderous crack rang out. It was deafening, causing her ears to ring and Susan to