The skies several kilometers above sea level were not exempt from the chaos exploding, even if most were hundreds of kilometers away from it.

A 31-year-old young man gasped as he looked out the window.

"What is happening..." he mumbled to himself, his voice cracking as he felt the energy drain out of his body, his eyes reflecting the destruction happening at a distance.

Was ’destruction’ even the apt term in this case, though? He was watching the face of the planet change in front of his own eyes...

The explosions were not near them, but they could see its effects all the way to where they were.

"Daddy! Daddy! Wook! Pewtee!" the four-year-old little girl, whose cheeks were sticking on the window, pointed in excitement.

Indeed. For a baby who had just learned to tell circles from squares, such large-scale change was indeed a fascinating sight.

The man, Ethan, was looking at the same thing, but his expression was blank, in stark contrast to the child’s bright expression. He stably held down the little girl, trying to get her to sit down properly, though he remained silent, unable to utter a response to her excited chatter.

For now, his ears were ringing, a bit too shocked by what he was seeing and unable to actually absorb what was happening.

The other passengers were the same. Regardless of which side of the plane they were on, considering their breadth of view, they would see something disturbing happening.

This time, the plane had already descended below the clouds, and the atmosphere was clear enough (at least for now), so people could see hundreds of kilometers away.

Horizons bloomed ominously, the sky below blowing upwards and causing turbulence. It could have been a beautiful sight, but it only brought despair to anyone who saw.

Passengers held on to their chairs, their nails wanting to bury into them. Some seemed unaffected by the shaking, opting to lean towards the windows as white flares expanded beneath the clouds.

They watched as several parts—big and small—of meteorites rammed onto their planet, creating large-scale destruction all over the place. The earth cracked, forests burned, and—even if they didn’t see them—corpses piled up all over the globe.

When this realization dawned on them, people started screaming and crying, calling for the people tens of kilometers below them as if they could be heard.

"Kyaaa!"

"Nonono!"

"That’s my city!"

"Nooo! Mother! Wuuuu—"

"Wife! Wife!! My son!!"

Even when the turbulence seemed to temporarily calm, people’s hearts and minds were thoroughly shaken.

Ethan’s daughter, Evie, who had just been excited by the unusual sight, heard the people’s cries and stopped talking.

She then looked at her father’s pale face, and she soon realized that this beautiful sight...might not be so beautiful after all.

She was already held down during the turbulence, but now she sat down properly on her own, suddenly well-behaved. It seemed like her young face also lost blood, turning pale. She was suddenly afraid, just because the adults were.

Realizing this, Ethan forced himself to calm down and patted her head, pulling out an awkward smile.

"It will be alright," he said, his voice cracking, but in reality his eyes were already burning with tears. He had witnessed his hometown swallowed by a tsunami. His family was there.

This was a vacation he took for the first time with his daughter, who had lost her mother a year ago.

They visited his wife’s maternal family. He had no idea that he might never return to his own household, with his parents and siblings.

Across the aisle from them was another man with large eye bags and long hair. He was gritting his teeth so hard that one could hear it, and his nails had buried into the armrest.

His name was Sanchez, and he was afraid of flying. He was the kind who’d faint while rappelling at an indoor climbing facility.

Frankly, it was a miracle that he was still conscious, though his expression made it look like he was high on something.

Sanchez was a major introvert, the kind who neighbors probably hadn’t encountered in over a month. His job was a graphic artist, so he didn’t really need to go out much.

However, it was his sister’s wedding, and he lost track of the date and time (a common problem among homebodies), so he had no choice but to go on air. He had also wanted to try to face his fears.

He had a commission to make a cover of an apocalypse novel. He was curious and read its contents, and for some reason, it struck him. It made him realize that the way he was now, he wouldn’t be able to survive a day.

So...he wanted to try to take that step forward. Heading out, he managed to do so, though he blacked out a couple of times and he cried when his ears felt like they were popping out.

Now, he was heading home, and he had to witness the apartment he was renting crashing down...

....

Even though the initial turbulence had passed, everyone was still shaking.

In fact, hundreds of planes had already fallen by this time. Some fell as they were directly hit by the meteorites, while most were destabilized just by the force of their entry, even if they weren’t actually close.

There were also plenty whose pilots and other important personnel lost consciousness due to the turbulence, leaving the hundreds of passengers alone as they fell to their deaths.

This flight was a bit lucky because they were far away from the impact when it happened. However, they were not exempt from death, even from this first disaster.

Even the smallest meteorites coming from the sky would hit the planet with force far superior to several nuclear bombs. They would displace a large amount of soil or rock from the place they landed on, called ejecta, and these new projectiles were not only numerous but also still very, very deadly.

In the grand scheme of things, they were small debris, but each ’splatter’ could easily take down hundreds of lives if they landed in the right place.

Somewhere behind the plane, a small piece of ejecta—a tiny speck compared to the main projectiles—flew past them. It went so quickly they did not see it at all.

It was small, but the force was no joke to the small ’ants’ called humans.

The shockwave slammed the aircraft sideways as if struck by an invisible hammer. The plane immediately lurched in another direction, quickly losing its balance against the wild winds of the world, seeming to rush down to its death.

The plane twirled mid-air and every loose item scattered with intense violence, hitting whoever was unlucky enough.

"KKYAAA!"

"NOOOO!"

"MUMMY!"

"Dear God in heaven...."

"Amitabha..."

The oxygen masks dropped down from the ceiling, and people shakily placed them in their mouths, tears and snot—and blood, if they got hit by debris—covering their faces.

They heard various alarms in the plane, along with the loose items falling and flying around, hitting people, and there was even a passenger and a stewardess being thrown around.

Ironically, this stewardess was out of her seat because there were passengers making a scene. After the turbulence, she stood up to assist, asking the passengers to take their seats.

Now, those very passengers pushed her away, causing her to completely lose her balance and drop farther away from her seat.

"That..."

"It’s not my f—Kyaaaa!" The flinchy passenger was hit by someone’s laptop bag smack on the face.

Sanchez happened to be near the scene, which fortunately distracted him for a bit. However, his state was getting worse and worse now, and he wished he could just lose consciousness already so he’d die in peace.

He even peed on his pants. He’d really rather not wake up!

Sanchez’s brain was going everywhere in panic, though he was essentially succumbing to his future death. Though he couldn’t fall unconscious due to the excess adrenaline, he slowly found peace while his pants were wet with piss.

It was here that BAM! The stewardess slammed on the seat in front of him, and Sanchez watched as her neck bent at an awkward angle.

Crack!

"KYAAAA!"

And she lost consciousness from terror and the diminishing oxygen supply. Soon, many others also fell unconscious, and whether or not they’d ever awaken again was unknown.

...

In the cabin, the situation wasn’t much better. Especially because the pilot...also lost consciousness.

"Shit!" The co-pilot, Helios, cursed as he gripped the wheel as tightly as he could. The plane was still twirling around. If he was unable to regain momentum, it would only get harder to do so, and by then they might as well succumb to the fall.

He shifted his gaze to look at the pilot, a middle-aged man called William, who had fainted the moment the plane got imbalanced. "I TOLD YOU TO HOLD BACK ON ALL THAT BARBECUE!" he screamed and cursed, but he knew it was useless.

This was his first flight as an official co-pilot! However, he was trained, and he had good grades; he told himself over and over, brainwashing some confidence into himself.

He was also a veteran, so there was that. It was just that he hadn’t driven such a big bus with more than a hundred people inside.

Fortunately, the wings and engines were intact. An airplane’s wings were stronger than people think.

This situation was not hopeless. This was what he chanted over and over, all while gritting his teeth.

It was NOT Hopeless, damnit!

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