Ashes Of The Throne | Part I

Chapter 46 | The Dark Way Down

She gasped with the snap of the winch; the air left her lungs as anger gripped her senses. Eko quickly lost sight of her world; the only thing she could hear over the cracking thunderstorm around her was the now splintering roar of destruction that forced her chest to cave in under the realization of what had now happened, of the person she couldn't grab hold of to save.

No, no, no, no.

The ship jerks to the right, instantly avoiding the debris and chaos; Jesse, in complete control, quickly flung the aircraft around, forcing both Toni and Eko to roll across the floor, hitting the other side of the metal wall with a resounding crunch.

To barely avoid the wing collapse, Jesse straightened out the aircraft, allowing respite for both Eko and Toni, who were staring up at the ceiling, dazed from the jerking movements; with enough time to catch their breath, the aircraft rolled again.

"The hell!" Richie snapped, grasping the side of a railing to keep himself standing. Jasmine was at the front of the ship yelling over the top of Jesse's screams, both equally as incoherent to the rest of them.

Alerting Eko back to her world, sky blue blinked open, rolling to her side; she felt Toni already gripping her waist, trying to get her to stand, hauling her to her feet. He pushed forwards towards the open doors, but they snapped shut before him to protect the passengers from falling out.

Unbuckling herself from the harness as fast as humanly possible, Eko found Toni bolting ahead of her towards the front of the aircraft. None of the windows was giving him the view he needed. Richie followed suit, swearing as the ship rolled side to side.

Kicking off the tangled buckles and harness lines entirely, stumbling briefly when her legs were caught, Eko managed to free herself from her own panic and bolted forward. She made her way to the front of the aircraft, where there was a continued screaming match between Jasmine, Toni, Richie and Jesse, all but feeling the craft moving and circling the palace as they slowly started to descend.

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Matthew retreated rapidly to the balcony doors and inside Seraphina's room. He watched in enough time as the balcony gave way and collapsed before him.

The rain is relentless, a hurricane of water coming at him thanks to the aircraft's propellers pushing it his way as his friends above tried to avoid any falling debris.

"M-att...hew?" he barely heard the crackle of Jesse's frantic voice in his communication device on the side of his wrist.

"I'm here," he confirmed, steel eyes searching around him. The palace again trembled; without hesitation, Matthew bolted towards the doors that led back to the main palace; he had to get out of there.

"The buildings are collapsing." Jesse repeated in urgency, watching the monitors and scans of the flash in red predicting the imminent collapse.

"I know, I'll be fine. I'll meet you on the ground."

"You sure?" the red-haired expressed again, eyes scanning the system updates and now the timing of the breakdown of the palace, yet all she could hear was Matthew's laughter.

"Am I sure?" honestly, it was comical. Jesse could already hear him smashing through some of the rubble and walls if she had to guess from the noise.

She smiled and relaxed as Jasmine rushed back to the cockpit beside her.

"Get out safe. The system predicts that the palace will completely crumble in about three minutes."

"Piece of cake."

Toni entered the cabin first, followed by Richie, both men watching as parts of the palace collapsed again and fell around them onto the ground.

"Where is he?" Toni's first panicky question came, leaning on the panel, and the hologram recalibrated again. Eko was next in the cabin, their bodies crammed in together.