Eirene stood at the entrance as everyone on the ground looked up at her. The almost three hundred passengers had their eyes on the woman with a gun pointed at her temple by another woman smirking triumphantly.
"Since I am kind, I'll give you five seconds to say your last words." With that, the female cabin attendant began counting down. "Five, four, three, two..."
"Tell them I love them, and I'm sorry."
"One." The hijacker sighed like she was disappointed with the actress and hit the metal exit door twice. With that, the sound of the engine became louder, and the aeroplane began moving across the semi-desert.
Eirene stood helplessly at the opened entrance as she watched Jaxon running to catch up with the plane flying away.
"I'll find you! I'LL FIND YOU!!" He screamed as he ran, going against the wind created by the turbines.
Eirene nodded as she screamed back, "WE'LL BE FINE!"
----
Jaxon stood on the dry soil and watched the white aeroplane he was in just minutes ago fly away fast.
The people who he gained the trust in the jacking hurriedly came to his side. "What should we do? We don't know where this place is!!"
"It's a f*cking desert!" A big male customer shouted and kicked the nearby small ball of a bush which only hurt him instead. "AH!"
Nobody came to assist the man who brought that on himself.
An elderly woman supported by a young couple wiped her tear, "I was supposed to go to my daughter's wedding. She'd be worried sick."
The young woman on her side said quietly, "At least we are out of that thing. God knows what could have happened if we'd stayed any longer."
A young girl, the teenager that witnessed Eirene's bloodied face when waiting for the restroom, murmured, "I feel so bad for Eirene Queen, and others left there. We have to do something."
"Do something?! Are you mad, little girl? We barely made it out breathing and we still got our damn handcuffs!" The man who kicked the bush tried to chew off the plastic string around his wrists.
The boyfriend, supporting the grandma from the other side, eyed the man with annoyance. "They are called zip ties."
"They are the same thing!"
"They are not."
Amidst the noise, Jaxon shook his head for focus. It didn't matter that he was a former navy. He was a man and didn't stand a chance against the gigantic aircraft, especially when it was already high in the sky.
The ex-navy turned to the crowd and loudly announced, "Everybody, please calm down. We are out of the plane, and that is all it matters. I know many of us want to save the rest of the people there, but right now, we have to focus on our survival first."
"With this f*cking thing on?!" The big man asked with fuming anger and showed off the uncut plastic.
Calmly, the manager twisted his hands here and there and within seconds, freed his hands. Before any questions could be asked he said, "The easiest way to remove this is by just bringing your hands above your head and bringing them down with as much force as possible to your stomach. If you can't remove it that way, there is a small locking bar and if you lift it, it will loosen it."
The crowd did the ways they were told, and soon, everyone's wrists were free.
Jaxon then told them to make a pair of two in numerical order instead of counting everyone and remembering each of the names.
"Now what are we going to do?" The now little less agitated big man looked around. "There is nothing around here and our phones are gone." His number was twenty-two, and his partner was a well-built tall man with disturbingly vivid blue eyes.
"As you can see, we see no housing nor a single person. But when we were landing, I saw a big gray building, most probably a military base by the coast." Carrying the elderly lady on his back, Jaxon pointed to the dark blue ground in the distance. "The only way out of here is by the sea."
----
"Don't do anything stupid." Karen pointed to each and everyone sitting in front of her with tied hands. When she felt satisfied, she walked out of the cabin and a few seconds later, banged closed the cockpit door.
The eight people that were chosen to be left behind, four women, and four men, were on the verge of breaking down. The crew of the plane were all let out apart from the hijackers themselves. The eight people were average-looking.
Their head and body were already past their emotional and physical capacity of what they can experience in a lifetime.
Although they had assigned seats and weren't allowed to communicate with each other, they each sat as close as possible to the person next and held hands among them.
Minutes after the female hijacker left their sight, they finally made shifted their attention towards the newcomer the actress.
Eirene sat with her hands behind her back on the aisle. Around her pale neck were multiple explosives like one fancy necklace. Her legs were still tied with a rope, and instead of a tablecloth, duct tape made her unable to say a word.
"I'm so sorry." A middle-aged woman with tears streaming down her cheeks apologised to the actress, who nodded in return.
Because Eirene was locked in the crew's cabinet since the beginning, she didn't know the situation outside. After she was separated, all the passengers were confiscated of their valuables and anything that could tell the time and place. They also had their hands tied in the front.
The woman who apologised to Eirene was chosen to be the one to wear the bomb first. But when Karen was choosing which passengers could go, and she was one of them, she was asked if she wanted to change with somebody else. Without a second thought, she moved her head up and down as if possessed.
She had a loving husband, and after a long time of trying, she finally got pregnant recently, and she thought giving up the explosives would get her out.
She was wrong.
Once the cabin attendant removed the deadly necklace, she smiled and placed it on the actress's neck gently as if it was made of gold. "Voila!" The female hijacker then turned to the pregnant woman and pointed at the kneeling actress on the carpeted floor. "Look, you are free!"
Nobody said anything at that point. They were speechless. It was clear the cabin attendant was beyond insane in finding the situation funny.
When Karen did not get the reaction she wanted, her mood turned one-eighty degrees. She fired a shot at the row of seats. there was no trace of that happy smile anymore on her face. Veins were popping out of her forehead, and she was visibly shaking.
The woman's temper became violent and unpredictable as she fired another shot. This time, the bullet scratched Eirene's right cheek as it flew by and landed in the seat.
No one wanted to go against the armed woman, especially violent and decided to go back to the way they were, which was the current situation.
The business-class cabin was filled with the sound of the pregnant woman crying.
"Dear, we'll be-"
Just as another passenger tried to comfort her and silence her, they heard a sound of a door followed by two pairs of footsteps.
Instantly, the cabin went dead silent that even a condenser mic wouldn't be able to pick up a single heartbeat. Not a single soul tried to find out who was approaching and kept their heads down.
Seconds later, they heard someone taking a deep breath.
"Are you alright? Did they do anything?" There came a soft male voice different from the pilot or the male cabin attendant.
Surprised but happy gasped from those who dared to look up. From the clothes, they knew he was the second pilot older had shot and was supposed to be unconscious. Clearly, the younger man was not unconscious and was on their side.
Luca quickly placed his index finger on his lips, which some copied and obligated. They felt like they were finally found a bright light at the end of a long, dark tunnel, but the light was soon destroyed by the darkness.
From behind the pilot showed up the young male cabin attendant.
Obviously, they weren't going to let their long-awaited hope die in front of their eyes and within in hands reach.
"STOP!" The young pilot shouted, but he wasn't fast enough
A man had launched at the hijacker. Jumped on him with a metallic fork he had hidden under his sleeve and brought down the utensil on the carotid artery at the young man's neck.
Blood splattered. People screamed as the cabin attendant fell on his knees and grasped the place where he had been stabbed.
Before people could process the scene in front of them, their nightmares returned.
"KEEP YOUR F*CKING MOUTHS SHUT!" A series of gunshots followed. Immediately, unsettling silence returned. Benjamin with Karen by his side glared at them. "WHAT THE F*CK'S THIS?"
----
"Woah, Woah, Woah, easy there."
"Who are you?"
Circled by a dozen of armed black men and machine guns pointed, the let-go passengers all raised their hands with frightened expressions. If it weren't for Jaxon's remaining calmness, they would have long been in panic mode and shot to the upper realm.
"We are the people from the hijacked plane from Doha, Qatar. We were let go about thirty minutes ago. We just want help and the police."
The armed forces exchanged looks among themselves, and the leader-like figure asked Jaxon, "Say your names. Identification cards?" He had a thick accent when he spoke in English, indicating that that was not his first language.
"My name is Jaxon Ezio Easmon, but our identification cards were taken away on the plane so I cannot prove it to you, and neither can the rest of us. All we are asking is some assistance in medical care and the police." When Jaxon showed the elderly, clinging onto his back and barely able to keep her eyes open from the exhaustion, the armed men finally decided to talk into their radio strapped on their vests.
"Follow us." Soon they said and brought the group into the high-walled facility.
Those who needed medical attention were treated by the doctors in the facility and other who were relatively okay were brought for questioning.
Jaxon took the lead and was waiting for a phone to be given to call Interpol when a loud voice caught his attention.
"HE'S GONE!" It was the big man who got hurt by kicking the bush. "My partner's gone!"