13.3 Abscond

Walking briskly, you hurriedly make your way to the small craft. Its keys were never located, meaning you had already anticipated hot wiring the engine. Though it's something you've never done personally, you think you can manage it. After slowly forcing the slightly warped door open, you quickly slip inside the interior. You let out a small curse when the door groans loudly when being pulled shut. Moving hastily, you pull out a small pocket knife and jam it into the ignition. It's a trick you heard about from your ex and one you hope won't fail you now.

If you thought it had been hot outside it's even more so stuffed in the small metal compartment. Almost instantly you find yourself sweating profusely. Struggling to keep a good grip on the blade's handle, you begin twisting it around forcefully. A sudden shout from outside alerts you of your discovery. Cursing again, you feel yourself panicking as time slips away.

"Come on, come on." You mutter anxiously, your clammy hand threatening to lose its hold on the blade.

The shouts are growing louder, urging you to move faster.

"Please start," You beg softly, pushing your weight against the object in an effort to wedge it in deeper. "Please start."

As if hearing your pleas, you feel the blade slip past another of the lock’s mechanisms. Twisting with all your might, you finally hear a click before the engine turns over. Not wasting any time, you thrust the center stick forward and feel the plane lurch. A sudden slam against the side of the plane notifies you of your pursuers arrival. Thankfully, the craft begins picking up speed, putting distance between you. The sound of your name being called falls on deaf ears as you concentrate on the take off. It's been years since you've even been a passenger on a plane, let alone flown one. Even then it was just casual as you had no intention of gaining a license.

Bracing yourself, you take a small pause before roughly jerking the center stick back. Your stomach drops as the craft veers upwards. A deep exhale escapes your lips as you steadily continue gaining altitude.

"Oh my god." You laugh nervously while looking out the window to see the forest below you. "This is probably incredibly stupid."

Trying your best to ignore this revelation, you refocus on flying. To your relief, it all comes back to you fairly quickly. After all, flying was never the most difficult part. A sudden knot forms in the pit of your stomach as you remember your area of struggle. Landing had never quite been your forte unfortunately. Additionally, now that you've taken off it occurred to you that you'll also need to find a suitable location in which to land.

"That's okay." You lie to yourself quickly, while fidgeting with some of the dials. "I'm sure I'll find a long empty stretch of land that hasn't been damaged."

On top of all of this, you'll also have to hope your fuel lasts until dawn as it's now currently impossible to see below without lights. Glancing nervously at the 3/4 full tank indicator, you breath out nervously. The wristwatch you've been wearing has long since run out of batteries, making it hard to tell the exact time of night. You're sure you had waited several hours since sunset before leaving, still you haven't always had an accurate measure of time. The uncomfortable heat felt inside the stuffy cabin only exacerbates your self-doubt.

After squirming around uncomfortably, you finally set the craft on cruise flight. You're somewhat unsure of its reliance given the crafts slap job of a repair. Leaning back, you quickly strip off your oversized yet confining pair of pants. Instant relief washes over you as you're no longer restricted by their weight. You stretch slightly before resuming control over the plane. Time passes by slowly as you continue forward into the dark unknown. The gauge on the fuel indicator lowers with each passing hour. Eventually, you find yourself on less than a quarter tank. Another long hour goes by before the first rays of dawn finally arrive. By then you're nearing an empty tank. While the provided light is a welcomed sight, you're unable to relax as a stretch of forest is still before you.

Having been unable to see, you did your best to steer in the right direction. Unfortunately it seems you ran parallel to the forest rather than cutting across it. Cursing under your breath, you quickly pull out your map and try to determine your location. There's no landmarks to give you a good gauge of your direction until you happen to pass by a large river jutting through the land below. This brief glimpse provides you with a general idea of where you might be. With the tank running dangerously low, you know you only have one shot at guessing the right direction to head towards. After one final glance at the map you're **** to make a decision. Tilting the plane slightly to the right, you hope you've made the correct choice.

The seemingly vast stretch of forest ahead quickly diminishes your hope. Just as you're resigning yourself to your fate a sudden patch of empty land ahead catches your attention. Hardly daring to hope you continue in its direction just as the gage dips past E. The engine begins sputtering just as you clear the edge of the forest and enter the empty space. Unfortunately, as you had expected the area is heavily damaged by the fallen meteors. Large craters and crevasses cut through the ground, leaving little safe space to land. Trying to aim for one of the untouched areas, you begin your descent. Once you've reached the appropriate altitude, you go to lower the wheels. A loud metal grinding pierces your ears, telling you something has gone wrong.

"They're stuck." You groan, anxiously pushing back hair from your face. "Damn, this is gonna be rough."

It's not impossible to land without wheels but it sure as hell isn't ideal. Gingerly nudging the center stick forward, you slowly begin descending the craft. If you can time it just right you should be able to meet the ground just at the beginning of the largest stretch of undamaged terrain. Muttering a faithless prayer under your breath, you continue gently easing the craft lower. Just as you're nearing the strip of land, the propeller grinds to a halt.

"Shit!" You gasp, hearing the engine finally fail.

The small plane begins descending far faster than you'd like. You've never had to perform a dead stick landing before and feel your nerves rising as you continue falling. While you're not plummeting straight down, you can feel the craft gaining speed. At this point all you can do is clutch the steering column and hope your harness doesn't fail. As much as you tried, you could not prepare yourself for the sudden impact. Gasping again, you feel your body lurch forward before you're suddenly met with black.