Hissers by Ryan C. Thomas

The jet engines sounded too low to the earth. As the lights grew brighter, the sounds got louder. Nicole, Connor, Seth and Amanita stood fixed on the top of the hill, eyes watching as if in a trance.
    Then…
    It swam down through the lowest layer of clouds, a massive steel beast angled at some sixty degrees. If the angle was any steeper it would be in a complete nosedive, its speed in excess of five hundred miles per hour. The wings tipped too far to port, showing the four teens the metallic underbelly of the craft and the collection of desperately winking safety lights. It threatened to roll over but whoever was flying it was fighting to roll it back and it pitched like a canoe on heavy waves. The tail swung, as if the plane were skidding in the air.
    Connor heard the screams from next to him, knew it was his friends, but could not register it as more than background noise. The thunderous sound of the plane almost drowned out all sound and threatened to burst his eardrums. He knew nothing of the plane’s make, just that it was giant and fast and flying the wrong direction. Down!
    He felt his pulse race and his body go cold with sweat as his brain finally made sense of what he was seeing.
    Nicole grabbed his arm and screamed in his ear. Her grip threatened to rip his skin off. He couldn’t understand what she was screaming, couldn’t turn his head away. She was in hysterics but he didn’t care. He was frozen.
    The plane slammed nose first into the ground with a force that shook the entire town.
    Connor, Seth, Nicole and Amanita fell backwards as the concussive wave of heat from the explosion screamed up the hill and slammed into them. All four threw their arms up over their faces and yelled but there was little coherence in anything they cried before they were hurled backwards into the dirt.
    “Jesus Christ!”
    “Oh my God!”
    “I’m on fire!”
    The last was not true, but their close proximity to the crash, and the severe temperature of the fireball, made it feel like they were.
    The blast wave passed over them with a howling whoosh . Connor sat up and rolled to his knees. He crawled on all fours back to the edge of the hill and looked out over the town. The fireball was turning black with carbon smoke, debris flew in every direction, almost like a fireworks show. He could see something soaring through the air at them, something large and on fire and coming at a speed too fast to outrun.
    The thing in the air was on a trajectory for them.
    He turned back to his friends, trying to issue a warning from his quivering lips. He saw Nicole standing up, brushing dirt from her eyes, trying to get her bearings. Suddenly he felt like he was on the soccer field again—the ball in front of his feet, the goal a few yards away and closing, adrenaline pumping, a massive defensemen chasing him, threatening to sweep his legs out. He sprinted at Nicole and hit her full force in the stomach, hugging her, driving her to the ground, spinning as they fell so she’d land on him instead of the other way around.
    The force of the impact knocked the wind out of him. He looked up and saw her looking down at him, total surprise and fear written in her eyes. He watched as the massive, flaming wing of the airplane sliced through the air above them, missing them by mere feet.
    It severed the trees around them like a scythe through wheat, crashing through the woods with the squealing protest of twisting metal. Tree tops and bifurcated trunks toppled to the ground, rumbling against the forest floor. Branches exploded outward and struck the dirt with enough force to crack a skull. The flora rained down on top of them, cutting their bare arms, breaking their skin like BBs shot from an air rifle at close range. For a fleeting moment Connor thought his actions would be for naught, that they’d be shredded by the trees, but the wing lodged itself in a towering pine with an ear-splitting crunch, gave one last creak, and finally came to rest.
    “You