New Tales of the Gobi Desert
SKH Lam Woo Memorial Secondary School, Tong Yik Hei Jeffrey, Fiction: Group 3
I
t was a stifling day, with a temperature of over 30 degrees Celsius. I rubbed my eyes and
glanced at the clock hung on the wall. It was nine o’clock already. After a quick breakfast of
toast and hot chocolate, I leapt into my rusty jeep and headed to the Beijing Airport, which
was about a hundred kilometers from my home. I had to arrive at ten o’clock as the flight I
would pilot was scheduled at eleven o’clock.
Fortunately, the traffic to the airport was freely flowing and I arrived without any delay.
Whistling cheerfully, I got myself into a massive, grey cargo plane and started to read the map
and course for this flight. The destination of the flight was Russia’s Kadala Airport and I had to fly
over the Gobi Desert directly. The plane would not carry any goods or passengers and the flight
time was expected to be about seven to eight hours if the weather was fine. After double checks
on the plane’s parts and engines, the ground crew signaled us to take off. Together with the
copilot, we steered the clumsy plane into the runway and revved its engines to full power. Like a
horse racing in full speed, the plane accelerated and rose into the air.
It was a smooth journey and we arrived right above the Gobi Desert after couple of hours.
Through the canopy, there was the mysterious Gobi Desert. The Gobi Desert was simply a sea
of sand, with a few rocks and plants lying on it. To have a closer and more detailed look at the
Desert, I lowered the plane’s altitude. The scenery was clearer and I could make out some Gers in
the Desert, which were small huts that people in Gobi Desert lived in. Besides, there were trails
of animal’s footprints on the sand and some camels wandering all by themselves. Gusts of wind
swept by and left ripples on the sand. There were also a few people, probably merchants, walking
slowly on the desert. There were a few camels beside them and lots of luggage on the camels.
Barely after a few seconds, the merchants disappeared from my sight.
We flew for another one hundred kilometers peacefully until we met the most disastrous
condition pilots met. There was a flock of birds flying at our one o’clock direction.
“Turn left!” David, my copilot shouted.
We grabbed the yokes tightly and turned left. The cargo plane swiveled to the left quickly,
but there wasn’t any sign that showed we had got rid of the birds. The birds were flying straight
towards us!
We managed to make the plane dive but it was too late. Some of the birds hit the windscreen,
leaving a few cracks on it. The rest of the birds hit our plane’s wing and tailfin. Suddenly, the
plane shuddered and lost its power. I glanced out of the cockpit and realized that the engine on
the right wing was on fire. Black smoke poured out of it and flame soon consumed the whole
engine. After a few seconds, it exploded like a firework, tearing off the wing and sending debris
everywhere. It was no doubt that we would crash, but I grabbed the yoke and tried to have an
emergency landing. To my horror, the yoke was out of control and the plane spun towards the
ground like a dive bomber. I braced myself just moments before the plane crashed. The shock was
so huge that everything went black.
I was woken up by the intense heat of the burning plane. There was a gash on my forehead
and blood ran down my cheek. All of a sudden, the distinctive smell of fuel reached my nose. I
had to leave right now or the plane would explode.
