Page 15 of Savage Mates

The way the plane was vibrating was terrifying. I glanced out the window at the lightning crisscrossing the sky. Suddenly, there was another loud popping sound as well as a bright flash.

“What the hell is that?” Carrie was panicking, her entire body shaking as she leaned across Peter to see better out the window.

“That was lightning hitting the engine,” he answered. While his face was white as a sheet, he was doing a good job of keeping the tone of his voice calm.

Meanwhile, my stomach was doing flip-flops.

Another quick descent was following by strange whirring sound.

“What is happening?” Carrie moaned.

“Everyone just stay calm. They are highly skilled pilots.” Dr. Abbott was my age, pleasant enough and his credentials were through the roof.

Yet as with the others, I was leery of him and there was absolutely no reason why.

“Okay, ladies and gentlemen, I’m not going to lie to you. I’m going to try and land this plane. We lost an engine and we’ll come in hard, but we should be fine. Just prepare yourselves for a rough landing.”

Hard.

I’d seen a couple of pictures of the facility where we were headed, which was located on a wooded incline. While the surface had been cleared allowing for the military buildings to be above sea level, the landing strip had appeared short. Any miscalculation and we’d take a nosedive into the ocean or the dense jungle.

I only prayed Dr. Abbott was right and they’d landed in a violent storm.

The plane continued to rock, the storm as intense as any I’d ever experienced. Another bag fell from the overhead bin, tumbling toward us. It felt as if we were going faster even as the plane’s nose took a sharp dive.

Another crack of lightning hit. This time, we were pitched into utter darkness.

“Fuck,” I hissed under my breath. Now I had a death grip on the armrests. Flashes of light continued outside the window for what felt like a lifetime.

Suddenly, we were free from the storm and a slight orange glow appeared outside the window from the setting sun.

“Look. Sunlight!” Carrie pointed.

“Don’t get too excited,” Peter said under his breath. “The plane still needs to touch down and the engines stopped.”

I shot him a look, hoping he got the message. The last thing we needed was for anyone to become hysterical.

Another thump pushed a scream from her mouth.

“It’s okay,” I said forcefully. “It’s just the landing gear dropping.” Leaning over, I peered out the window at the ocean. Shit. The surface was close and we weren’t slowing down very much.

Suddenly, as if on my command, the pilot pulled the throttle and we all heard the remaining engine powering down. A few seconds later, I was able to see land. I knew just enough about planes from my father that I realized we weren’t out of the woods yet.

We were definitely coming in for a landing. Too fast. Too hard. Jesus Christ. I could see the end of the runway from where I was seated. The pilot wasn’t going to make it.

My life flashed in front of me, images of my parents and Jonas, my childhood lion friend, and Simba. And my classroom and… No, we were going to make it.

“Brace for impact,” I said absently and dropped my head into my arms, interlocking my fingers behind my head. The vibrationscontinued to be horrific, jarring in a way that left me feeling woozy.

The second the wheels hit the ground, the plane jerked again as the pilot threw back the throttle. More rattling.

Squeals.

The plane wasn’t slowing quickly.

Trees flying by the window.

And just up ahead? The edge and a steep drop-off.