Scene 42

The Wrecker could see the concern on my face as I scanned the cloudbank ahead of us.

“What is it?” he asked.

“That bank of clouds ahead,” I replied. “It’s the leading edge of a reality storm. The Pipes of Creation are being used to overwrite reality again.”

“What’s that mean for us?”

“It means we’re in for a rough ride. Everyone, fasten your belts,” I said to my companions. “We’re about to go through another storm and I don’t know how hard it’s going to be to fly through it.”

“Can you avoid it?” Steven asked.

“It’s too big and moving too fast. All I can do is try to punch through it as fast as I can.”

I flew the plane straight towards the bank of clouds and quickly plunged into the clouds. All around us I could see lightning flash and the sound of pipes was almost deafening. Winds buffeted the plane so hard the controls were almost jerked from my hands several times. The Wrecker grasped the copilot’s controls to assist me, yet it was still hard to keep my grip.

Rain pelted the craft, soon followed by hail. One exceptionally large hailstone struck the windshield and a large crack appeared.

“What’s going on?” the Wrecker asked. “This storm is worse than any I’ve ever seen.”

“When the pipes are used to change reality,” I explained, “the border between the different realities is hit by these storms. It’s like the old reality is fighting the new one.”

Outside the plane, the lightning flashed in all the colors of the rainbow. The hail changed into raindrops, then globs of mud, and then to hail again. Winds hit the plane from every direction imaginable, yet we kept flying.

“We’re almost through,” the Wrecker announced as the clouds began to thin.

At that very moment, a large bolt of purple lightning struck our aircraft, shearing off the right engine and propeller.

The Wrecker and I struggled to maintain control as the plane rocked violently and began to descend. We left the clouds and saw the open water below us.

“We can’t stay airborne, we have to put it down,” I told him.

“Let’s do it,” he replied.

Together, we used all of our combined strength to keep the plane level and in a controlled descent. We approached the surface of the water faster than either of us wanted.

“Brace for impact!” I yelled back to my companions as we struck the water.