Three hours earlier...
"...Are you sure we could trust whoever is waiting? Are they going to give us the money and even provide us with a getaway? Just how did you find this people?" Asked the female with a sigh of admiration.
"I didn't need to find them. They reached out to me." The one who proudly replied was a male. There was a brief pause before he continued, "Where do you want to go once we get the money? I'll take you anywhere you want."
The female squealed, making the two women outside frown and cover their ears in displeasure. She was a worthy opponent to the blackboards being scratched with nails. Nasty.
"Baby! Really?! Then I want to go to..." The female paused and thought about where she wanted to go. "Sicily, Hawaii, Bali, Tokyo, and Rio de Janeiro!"
Yet the man who asked the question told her darkly, "I'm not sure if we have money for that..."
The women had to take a step back when they heard the next lines. "What the f*ck you mean you don't have money for it?! Do you want to die?!" The female was enraged at her partner for going back to his words after only a minute.
"Babe! BABE!" Called out the man before more curses spew out of her mouth. "I was going to add, the money not only be able to take you to those places but all over the world if you wish!"
The woman seemed to calm down after hearing the words and spoke coquettishly. "Stop bullying me, babe! I almost fell for that!"
"I'm sorry I bullied you, but you were too cute." The man apologised with a honey-dipped voice.
The two women simultaneously gagged silently. If they heard any more, they were sure they were going to get incurable diabetes. But they had to listen.
"If you are feeling bad, show with action! Physically!"
Oh my god. Thought one of the women outside. They knew what was coming.
"Sure. Come here." Said the man with a raspy, deep voice as if he had been in the desert for a long time and his throat was drier than a pile of dead leaves in the autumn before winter.
If one wasn't concentrating, they would have thought the couple had stopped talking and focused back on the sky but with closed eyes and held breath, the suppressed moaning and groaning were very audible.
"No! No! Let's go back!" One of the women held onto the other's wrist from wreaking havoc right there, and whisper-shouted.
"Fine!" The other raised her hands and the air, and they began crawling away from the cockpit door. But of course, she wasn't satisfied and spat on the door before she turned her back.
Under normal circumstances, the two hijackers would have heard it, but their ears were full of non-family-friendly sounds, and thus, they didn't notice sh*t.
After the two eavesdroppers made their way back and got into position, each and everyone in the business class cabin exchanged looks with determination and graveness. Five women and six men, including the actress, the second pilot and the young cabin attendant.
Eirene was still kneeling on the floor, and her neck was decorated with explosives. But unlike how she was looking when she first had them, she looked alive, and one could see hope in those quietly flaming obsidian eyes.
After all of them were done exchanging looks. There was a moment of dead silence before shrills, screams and shouts erupted from those mouths as if mass murder was happening.
Of course, Karen and Benjamin didn't ignore that and rushed to the sight. As they barged into the cabin with guns in the air, they saw two men fist-fighting to their ends. One was already nose-bleeding, while the other had cuts and red spots on the face.
It stunned them for a second and that was enough for the rest to take action as thoroughly planned.
When the cabin attendant realised something was amiss, and she tried to locate her index finger on the trigger, she was brutally hit on the side of the face with a wine bottle.
Benjamin, who was coming to her aid as she fell, was soon met with his own share of revenge as he felt a shiver down his spine. Before he could fully turn around, he was hit on the head with the very handgun Karen handed to Issac right after shooting him in the arm and convincing him to join.
The couple fell on the floor painfully and defencelessly.
The passengers didn't waste any moment and hit and kicked them with all their might. Some even bit on them, penetrating the skin and letting them cry out of desperation and pain.
In the beginning, the female hijacker helicoptered her leg and arms when she was laid down and screamed as if auditioning for a horror movie, but that gradually quietened down.
"That's enough. You'll risk killing them if you do more."
Upon hearing, the beating stopped, and the crowd stepped back from the couple with heavy breathing.
"Tie them up and make sure they can't escape. Even locking them from the outside works."
The pilot could barely keep his eyes from closing when he saw a figure standing over him coldly. "...Eirene...Queen?" But those eyes had the chance to be opened wide when his groin was kicked with the sharp heel.
"You have no right to call my name with that loathsome mouth." She spat out icily and walked away as the pilot felt his limbs being bounded.
Not long after, the couple fainted and were bound. Benjamin was thrown into the economy class toilet, while Karen was stuffed in the tight space of the food trolley.
As soon as they disappeared from their sight, cheers filled the entire plane, louder than those at concerts or sports championships. Some cried tears of joy and fear while some simply slanted into their seats, no longer going against gravity and stared into oblivion as if receiving messages from aliens.
Their nightmare had finally come to the final chapter. Those long nine hours of the journey were coming to an end.
Originally, Karen was supposed to be stuffed in the overhead compartment, but when they did, and the roof broke, they had to find another place.
They despised her more than Benjamin since she inflicted fear and pain more than he did. They wanted to find her a most uncomfortable place.
It was Issac who suggested they stuff her into the food cart. By that time, he had already won their trust by handing out the weapons, letting himself be tied at the wrist and distributing them with food.
And Yvonne, the cabin attendant who hid in the crew's cabin, took care of people, while the three who planned the ambush took back control of the plane.
It didn't take long before passengers began looking outside, and the cheers died. The two women who had eavesdropped on the couple's conversation told everyone that the plane was going to land in South Africa, yet, they were in the middle of a vast ocean, and the nearby land was on the horizon.
Did the two hear it wrong? That was a chance as they only heard it through the thick metal door and sometimes, the voices were hazy.
"What's going on?"
"I thought we are going to South Africa."
"Why aren't we flying over the land?"
Various anxious questions were thrown but no one was there to answer them.
Just as a few people were about to ask about the situation, Issac emerged from the cockpit with a fairly relaxed expression.
"What's going on?" A man asked.
Issac then answered, "I also don't know, but Luca was saying maybe the captain was too drunk and high that he drifted off the course." He then remembered something and spoke up. "Will you help me find the controller for the explosives around Ms Queen's neck? If accidentally stepped, that might end her life."
"You are right. Let's focus on that." With that, those who could move started searching for the controller they had never seen.
----
"Do you know where we are?" Asked Eirene as she looked out the windshield.
"...No," Luca answered honestly. "But we need to find a land and prepare for an emergency landing."
"Okay."
The cockpit became silent. It was neither an awkward nor a happy one. The young pilot with gunshot injuries stole glances at the actress standing beside him, but she was deep in thought and didn't seem to notice it.
Just as he opened his mouth to say the feeling he held in his heart for so long, Eirene suddenly shouted, "WATCH OUT!"
Instantly, Luca followed her gaze and found a commercial aeroplane, bigger than the one they were in, coming straight towards them. He, of course, lowered the plane but as the other flew above them, he could hear the exposed wheels of the other scratch on the roof.
The aeroplane was now nose-diving into the ocean.
Luca composedly pulled the control wheel but froze. The wheel wasn't moving. It was stuck in the position of diving.
----
The private jet that carried the model and the university students took another turn when another piece of information from Jaxon came in.
It took them a good hour before they found the aeroplane that was all over the news on the unused, unpaved road.
Since the jet was smaller, they landed safely in the distance away, ragged farmland and the group walked over to the aeroplane.
They didn't recklessly get near the plane and watched from afar. When there was nothing they could spot, Ares came back into the jet and into the cockpit where Sophie and the pilot were trying to communicate with the other plane using radio calls.
The pilot spoke something into the radio and got a reply shook his head at the two behind him.
Before Sophie's hand could reach the button, another hand slid in like a lightning. "Eirene?! Ms-ms Queen? It's me, Ares! It's okay! Nobody is around. Come out. We won't do anything. We've called the authorities. It's safe."
"That's not the problem," Was the first thing she told them, "The exit doors are not working. We have tried to open them, but they won't budge. We thought of escaping through the windows, but they were too small. We are trying to break the windshield, but we need help."
On cue, Sophie exited the small aircraft and approached the head of the bigger one. Sure enough, she could see people inside banging on the window, making the glass vibrate violently in place.
As much as the bystanders wanted to help, the aircraft was massive, and there was no way they could get on top of the nose, even if they were three times taller. And fortunately or unfortunately, the lost wheels did not tilt the front of the aeroplane, allowing people inside to stand steadily but not allowing help from outsiders.