The Wild Robot | The Boy, the Fox, and the Wild

Wild Things

Storms way out here was common...well, more than common anyway, which is why this shipping lane was typically avoided. They just had to pick this specific route to get to MC-7 faster, didn't they? And it had to be us for something to go terribly wrong...

The inside of the airship rocked uncontrollably as red flashing lights appeared in the dark cabin. Panic and fear set in...clamoring from the crew down the hall. The wind blew in from an opening into the hull...the door into the cockpit had swung open...

MAYDAY, MAYDAY, MAYDAY!

DESCENDING 10000, WE'RE LOSING PRESSURISATION! BAD WEATHER!

NEGATIVE, MASKS DID NOT DEPLOY!

030 INITIAL, HEADING 130!

5 SOULS ON BOARD

I quickly looked out my tiny window to see the fast-moving layer of clouds passing by...and the bullets of snow along with them. I snapped my head toward the corridor again...somebody was fast approaching...wobbling towards me.

"Mark!" I exclaimed with a high-pitched shrill. He could barely hear me from all the noise coming from the cabin...

"Brace yourself, squirt...it's a water landing" he helped put a life vest on me, and as he did, I could see the despair on his face...the sheer panic too.

He doesn't think we'll make it, does he?

Mark then gave me what seemed to be a bag with something in it, "break the seal, pull the string to inflate..." he then passed my small brown bag from the overhead compartment.

"What's going to happen!?" I shouted back to him as he looked at me in the eye, "listen...you"

He didn't finish his sentence: the cabin darkened and then a violent jolt sent everything forward! Unbeknownst to me, the airship began to fill with water rapidly. I am suddenly ejected...ending outside of the ship in the air as my chair's parachute deployed.

The wind was howling, pushing me around violently. I managed to look below me to see the raging waves coming closer and closer...along with the sinking wreck of the airship that was being consumed by fire.

I yelled in panic...thrashing in my seat: I'm not a very good swimmer.

The raft! I'm about to hit the water!

With some struggle I open the life raft and deploy it just below me. I got out of my chair and that's when I slammed into the freezing water! Once I breached the surface, gasping in shock, I pulled the raft closer to me and quickly got in.

Once I know I'm out of the water I searched everywhere for Mark and the others...but not a sound came from the wreckage...not a cry for help...nothing. It's not like I could get to them either...the current is taking me away from them!

"Mark!!!" I shouted at the top of my lungs, but my voice is drowned by something that was coming...

I look to my side and find myself in a more precarious situation: there's a wall rapidly approaching...a gigantic wall of water!

I braced myself, but nothing could prepare myself for it. I felt the seawater wash over me...almost capsizing my small circular vessel. The sheer impact thrashed me around violently without end. I hoped that the worst was over; however, soon more and more waves struck me as I held on for dear life and cried out.

...

The next thing I knew I felt my face against something cold and coarse...as if it was all a bad nightmare. Unfortunately, it was not a dream...but wait, it looked like sand...wait...dry land!?