Chapter 6 - The Freefall
My shoulder slammed brutally against the hard plastic paneling, knocking the breath completely out of my lungs.
The entire aircraft groaned under the immense structural stress as it banked at an impossible, terrifying angle.
Luggage bins burst open instantly, raining heavy suitcases, laptops, and oxygen masks down upon the screaming passengers.
I slid helplessly down the heavily sloped aisle, desperately clawing at the carpet to stop my momentum.
Valerie was thrown forward, her silenced pistol skittering far out of her reach and sliding under a row of seats.
The Air Marshal capitalized on the chaos immediately, launching himself over the fallen beverage cart.
He tackled Valerie violently to the floor, pinning her arms behind her back with swift, practiced precision.
"I have her secured!" the Air Marshal shouted over the deafening roar of the screaming engines.
I scrambled back up the steep incline on my hands and knees, my only thought focused entirely on reaching Mason.
He was still huddled safely beneath our seats, crying silently but completely unharmed by the falling debris.
"It is okay, baby, Mommy is right here," I gasped, pulling him tightly into a desperate embrace.
The plane slowly leveled out, the terrifying gravitational forces easing up just enough for people to breathe again.
Tyler had clearly executed that extreme maneuver on purpose to throw Valerie off balance.
He was fighting fiercely to save us from inside that locked, damaged cockpit.
I looked down at the burner phone still tightly gripped in my left hand.
"She is restrained. The aisle is clear," I texted Tyler rapidly, my thumbs slipping on the slick screen.
A minute passed in absolute, terrifying silence, broken only by the quiet sobbing of the passengers.
The burner phone did not light up with a reassuring response from my husband.
Instead, the main cabin speakers cracked to life with a loud, piercing static sound.
"This is your Captain speaking," Tyler’s voice echoed, sounding breathless and in immense pain.
"I have managed to stabilize our altitude, but the co-pilot severely damaged the primary flight controls before he passed out."
A collective gasp rippled through the terrified cabin as the gravity of his words set in.
"I am bleeding heavily, and I cannot hold the manual yoke steady for much longer on my own," he confessed over the intercom.
I felt a cold wave of absolute dread wash over me as I stared at the closed cockpit door.
"Sarah, I need you to come to the front immediately," Tyler's voice crackled, devoid of any professional pilot composure.
I stood up on trembling legs, leaving Mason in the care of a terrified elderly woman sitting across the aisle.
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I pushed past the Air Marshal and the furious, restrained Valerie, reaching the heavy, dented cockpit door.
Before I could even turn the metal handle, a thick, bloody hand suddenly smashed against the small reinforced window from the inside.
