“Ladies and gentlemen, the plane is experiencing a wave of turbulence. All passengers, please put your seat belts on and remain seated at all times.”

 

Dara quickly strapped on her seat belt as the lights began to dim, feeling a little nauseous from the continuous shaking of the plane. She never really liked riding on airplanes, but this trip was an opportunity that she couldn't miss. She was on her way to the Philippines for her studies after being sent there by her university. They even got her a first-class ticket for the plane, which wasn't surprising since Dara was one of the top students.

 

“Excuse me..”

 

Dara felt a tap on her shoulder and turned to her left. A guy was holding out a pink MP3 player in his hand.

 

“I think you dropped this.”

 

“Oh, thank you! I didn't even realize that I dropped it.” Dara graciously took the MP3 player back and set it back into her bag. She fidgeted a little and groaned when the plane suddenly swooped down a few feet in the air.

 

The guy seemed to notice her actions. He smiled, his eyes squinting. “Scared of airplane rides?”

 

“No, not really. It's just that all of this shaking is making me nervous. It feels like the plane's about to drop out of the sky any minute now.”

 

“Yeah, I know what you mean.” He nodded, his cap falling to cover his forehead. “I hope the turbulence wears off soon, otherwise-”

 

“Youngbae and girl-I-don't-know, quit talking. You two are loud as hell.” Someone sitting on the left side of the guy mumbled sleepily. “Some people here are trying to sleep.”

 

Offended, Dara glared at the blond haired guy, who still had his headphones on. He ignored her look and closed his eyes.

 

“We weren't even talking that loudly..!” She whispered-shouted.

 

“Don't be so rude, Jiyong.” Youngbae nudged the sleepy guy with his elbow before turning back to Dara. “Sorry, he can be really cranky sometimes.”

 

“It's fine.” Dara shrugged. She wasn't going to let her airplane ride be spoiled by anybody. Turning back to her bag, she took out her earphones and MP3 player. She put the earphones on and the music before closing her eyes, wanting to distract herself from her worries.

 

 

 

 

 

A few hours slowly passed by. By now, everybody was used to the shuddering of the floor underneath them. Turbulence wasn't much of a problem anymore.

 

Dara was still listening to her music when suddenly, the lights in the aisles began to flicker repeatedly. Then they all fizzled out completely. The engine of the plane came to a halt, leaving them all in silence.

 

She raised an eyebrow and turned to Youngbae, who seemed just as confused as she was.

 

“What the...” Jiyong took off his headphones and squinted at the darkness in front of him. The plane began to shudder violently than ever before, causing some of the luggage to be thrown onto the aisle. A stewardess gasped in surprise as a large bag landed inches from her foot.

 

“Ladies and gentlemen-” The captain of the plane began to announce from the speakers, a hint of panic in his voice. “There has been a-”

 

His voice was cut off and was replaced with the sound of static and crackling. The plane started to lurch to the left, causing all of it's passengers to panic as they were thrown to the side, only being held in their seats by their belts. Jiyong hissed in pain and cursed when his shoulder smashed into the steel wall next to him.

 

 

This cannot be happening. Dara thought, her eyes growing wide with fear as her head hit the top of Youngbae's shoulder. Youngbae appeared to be calm, but his eyes seemed otherwise.

 

The plane straightened itself before dropping a couple feet from the air, causing screams to break out from the passengers. By now, even Jiyong seemed terrified. He clutched the sides of his seat and glanced at Youngbae, who returned his look of pure terror. Adrenaline coursed through their veins.

 

“Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god.” Dara repeated in a high-pitched voice, staring at the ceiling. She held onto her bag tightly and screamed with the others when the plane started to plummet, tail-first. She didn't know what to think. Her stomach dropped sickeningly as the plane began to fall even faster.

 

When the plane came into impact with the ocean, the back-end exploded into pieces. The people riding first-class were thrown forward from their seats, battered but unscathed. After momentarily recovering from shock, Youngbae quickly stood up and grabbed Jiyong and Dara by their wrists, urging them to move from their seats.

 

“Hurry! We don't have much time!” He whispered desperately, tugging the both of them to the emergency exit. Water began to pool underneath their feet. Dara began to cry as she blindy stumbled after him. Reaching the front of the aisle, Youngbae hastily pulled open the flap on the top of the airplane and lifted her through it, before doing the same to Jiyong. He hoisted himself up and yelled for the other people to go through the emergency exit. Some of the passengers were still in shock, staying still in their seats.

 

Once outside, the three of them saw that the waters were relatively calm, but that didn't lessen the danger that threatened them all. Dara shivered on top of the aircraft as Jiyong opened an outer compartment that contained the life vests . It was a good thing that he had read the safety instructions manual at the beginning of the flight.

 

“Put this on!” He threw an orange crumpled life vest at Dara, who grabbed it and quickly began to blow it up. Jiyong tossed another vest to Youngbae and grabbed another one for himself. He didn't even bother to think of the other passengers in the plane at the moment. Some of them were probably already dead. Right now, all they could think about was themselves.

 

After strapping on the life vests, Youngbae pulled open a large compartment and grabbed the end of the life boat, which thankfully was already inflated. He jumped onto a wing of the plane and set the boat on the water. He quickly motioned for Dara and Jiyong to hop on. They didn't need to be told twice.

 

 

Once all of them were on, the three of them pushed the boat towards the ocean. It unsteadily floated away from the large airplane, which was starting to sink faster than ever. Dara clasped a hand to as she heard the desperate cries that were coming from inside. Youngbae felt guilt creep into his system as he saw that the surviving passengers were still struggling to climb up the emergency exit.

 

“We can't do anything for them now.” Jiyong said grudgingly, paddling the blue water with his bare hands. Wanting to calm his hammering heart, he looked up at the blue sky and studied his surroundings.

 

The weather was sunny and warm, which made their situation seem so ironic. Fluffy white clouds were scattered across the sky, and a flock of white birds were flying from the north.

 

Birds... Jiyong bit his lip thoughtfully. If there are birds flying in the sky, there must be land nearby.

 

He nudged Youngbae and pointed in the direction where the birds had come from.

 

“That way's our best bet.”

 

Seeing the birds, Youngbae nodded and began to help Jiyong paddle the boat forward. Dara shook herself awake from her trance and began weakly paddling from the back of their life boat. They knew that they had no time to dwell on what had just happened moments earlier. They had to reach land before nightfall.