the giant structure right in his path. He torqued the yoke hard and missed the gnawed metal edifice by a hair. His action came with quick consequences as the flyer went into manual mode and shook violently. He fought as hard as he could to keep the nose up and straight, but it wasn’t easy, especially when more steel structures appeared. They were unquestionably Towers, many larger than the Crown itself. Most had been worn away to skeletal frames while others had toppled into the sea.
A second shudder ran through the ship and the warning he’d been dreading appeared: FUEL CELL DEPLETION IMMINENT. The kilometer display blinked twice before the screen went entirely blank with a spark. Smoke filled the cabin. Robinson wanted to scream.
Then he saw the silhouette of land in the distance.
Unfortunately, the flyer was losing altitude and speed. It had gone from thirty meters over the surface to ten. The engine was trying to compensate but didn’t have the juice. When the ship dipped again, the boy knew in his heart he would never make land.
Almost as if he were being punished for the thought, a final shudder shook the flyer. The rear thruster sputtered and the vessel lurched. The boy grit his teeth and wrapped both hands around the yoke to hold the ship up, but its engine’s gasps were unrelenting.
It’s impossible to say why he called out to his mother in that moment. He knew she was dead, but he still found comfort in her spirit. He’d set his course by her numbers but never considered that she might be his true north. Even as the ship fell to a meter above the water, he smiled at the thought, If only she could see me now . With a deep breath, he threw both feet onto the instrument panel and pulled the yoke with all his might.
The nose rose just as the first wave clipped the bottom of the flyer. The ship bounded across the surface of the water several times like a rock skipping over a pond. The boy fought to hold on to the yoke, but it was ripped from his hands as the next wave met the ship flush. His body was thrown with incredible force, the leather straps cleaving at his flesh as his head sprang forward with a snap. The ship tumbled and spun, its bones and body breaking, but when it settled, the cabin was intact.
A single blinking light revealed it was also upside down.
He was alive, but the ship was quickly sinking. He groped for the locks of his straps and fell in a painful heap to the inverted ceiling. And then he heard a pop.
It came from the view screen at the point of the bird’s impact. The glass had splintered under the pressure of the crash and water had begun trickling in. Robinson shook his head, pleading for it to stop, but the fissure inched its way toward the outer edges of the view screen. The trickle increased. With no place to hide, Robinson did the only thing he could; he strapped a carton of rations across his chest in the hope that they might help him survive.
The view screen exploded.
The wave hit him like a thunderbolt, slamming him against the back wall. He felt little of the impact. His body was too shocked by the freezing cold water to register anything else. The cabin filled so quickly that he barely managed a single gulp of air before the water closed in around him, the swirling deluge tossing him around like a toy.
Weightless and dazed, Robinson knew he had to move quickly, but in the torrent of water, he had lost all sense of direction. His mind floundered and debris spun around the cabin, caught in a vortex of underwater eddies. The air in his lungs quickly dissipated and the fear of drowning sent waves of panic shooting through him.
And then he felt a slight tug at his neck. At first, he thought it was debris, but as his hands touched his mother’s locket, he knew his prayer had been answered. It was pulling upward, the oxygen inside of it defying gravity in its own quest for escape. He let its buoyancy guide him.
As he passed through the view screen, Robinson felt the sting
A second shudder ran through the ship and the warning he’d been dreading appeared: FUEL CELL DEPLETION IMMINENT. The kilometer display blinked twice before the screen went entirely blank with a spark. Smoke filled the cabin. Robinson wanted to scream.
Then he saw the silhouette of land in the distance.
Unfortunately, the flyer was losing altitude and speed. It had gone from thirty meters over the surface to ten. The engine was trying to compensate but didn’t have the juice. When the ship dipped again, the boy knew in his heart he would never make land.
Almost as if he were being punished for the thought, a final shudder shook the flyer. The rear thruster sputtered and the vessel lurched. The boy grit his teeth and wrapped both hands around the yoke to hold the ship up, but its engine’s gasps were unrelenting.
It’s impossible to say why he called out to his mother in that moment. He knew she was dead, but he still found comfort in her spirit. He’d set his course by her numbers but never considered that she might be his true north. Even as the ship fell to a meter above the water, he smiled at the thought, If only she could see me now . With a deep breath, he threw both feet onto the instrument panel and pulled the yoke with all his might.
The nose rose just as the first wave clipped the bottom of the flyer. The ship bounded across the surface of the water several times like a rock skipping over a pond. The boy fought to hold on to the yoke, but it was ripped from his hands as the next wave met the ship flush. His body was thrown with incredible force, the leather straps cleaving at his flesh as his head sprang forward with a snap. The ship tumbled and spun, its bones and body breaking, but when it settled, the cabin was intact.
A single blinking light revealed it was also upside down.
He was alive, but the ship was quickly sinking. He groped for the locks of his straps and fell in a painful heap to the inverted ceiling. And then he heard a pop.
It came from the view screen at the point of the bird’s impact. The glass had splintered under the pressure of the crash and water had begun trickling in. Robinson shook his head, pleading for it to stop, but the fissure inched its way toward the outer edges of the view screen. The trickle increased. With no place to hide, Robinson did the only thing he could; he strapped a carton of rations across his chest in the hope that they might help him survive.
The view screen exploded.
The wave hit him like a thunderbolt, slamming him against the back wall. He felt little of the impact. His body was too shocked by the freezing cold water to register anything else. The cabin filled so quickly that he barely managed a single gulp of air before the water closed in around him, the swirling deluge tossing him around like a toy.
Weightless and dazed, Robinson knew he had to move quickly, but in the torrent of water, he had lost all sense of direction. His mind floundered and debris spun around the cabin, caught in a vortex of underwater eddies. The air in his lungs quickly dissipated and the fear of drowning sent waves of panic shooting through him.
And then he felt a slight tug at his neck. At first, he thought it was debris, but as his hands touched his mother’s locket, he knew his prayer had been answered. It was pulling upward, the oxygen inside of it defying gravity in its own quest for escape. He let its buoyancy guide him.
As he passed through the view screen, Robinson felt the sting
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