The Last Flight
Discovery College, Krijn Toor, Fiction: Group 2
I
kept on hearing the steady drumming of the motor, and thought, I do not want to be here. I
clenched my teeth. I want to be back home. Where everything was normal. I thought back
to how it was before Dad got moved from Seoul. We were a happy family there, a big house,
nice school, Dad had a good job. We were happy there. But then ING went bankrupt in
Seoul. Dad was broken. We, as expats, were forced to move back to the Netherlands. Back to the
rain. Back to the cold. Forced back into the person that I was before. To the person I chose not to
be... I breathed in the metallic air of the airplane and closed my eyes hoping that when I opened
my eyes, I would be back at Seoul International School, with my best friends, John and Kallik.
I opened my eyes. I was still in the airplane. I opened the aircraft window, trying to distract
myself. I blinked for a few seconds at the harsh, unnatural light flooding out of the window.
After my eyes adjusted to the bright light, I gazed down and let my eyes meet the breathtakingly
beautiful landscape folding out in front of me. I heard a static burst, and my mind came back to
the present. I turned to the speaker and heard the metallic speaker projecting the captains voice;
“ We are now flying over the North-Eastern Tibetan Plateau. I expect we will be landing in 7 to
8 hours. Our flight attendant will be coming through to you as soon as possible with drinks and
food. We are having slight turbulence at the moment, but it is expected to end soon. Please enjoy
the rest of the flight with Korean Air.” I tried to rest, and my eyelids grew heavy. I closed my
eyes for a few seconds. I had the feeling that it was more than a few seconds. When I opened my
eyes from my slight sleep, I looked straight into a oxygen mask. I heard the pilots and the flight
attendants screaming; “Keep calm! Put on the oxygen masks!” But I could hear that they were
trying to calm themselves as well as the passengers. But somehow, it all went slowly into my
head, as if it was all on another planet. Then I snapped back into reality. We were crashing. The
“slight” turbulence had grown. We were crashing. I immediately put on the oxygen mask. I curled
up in a ball. Then the impact came. It was a shock that went straight thought my body. I thought
I was dead. When I thought the crash was over, I dared to look up again. The plane was in ruins.
I immediately started looking for my mom and dad. I shouted; “Mom! Dad!” No reply. I franticly
searched the wreak. “Mom! Dad! Are you there?” Still no reply. They were dead. I had to face the
truth. I was the last survivor. I wanted to cry out in agony. Everything I love, or had loved, was
dead or gone.
I had to get out of the wreck. I choked in the smoke and tried to get up. I felt a sharp pain
shooting through my leg and looked down. I had cut myself on a piece of torn metal. I struggled
out of the plane wreck, slowly and painfully. I scrambled over the wreck and looked around me.
The beautiful landscape that I had seen from above now looked like a barren no-mans land. But I
had to survive.
In the distance I could see the city Altai, which I had seen on the airplane route map. It was
north of me, and I made that my target. I would have to cross the Gobi Desert, which would be a
challenge, but now my one and only priority was to survive. And nothing more.
I put my mind on standby. I had to get to Altai.
I was starting to feel hungry. In the airplane, I had skipped the inflight meal. That felt like days
ago. I foolishly started running, believing that if I ran long enough, I would reach Altai in no time.
