Chapter 905: A Calm Flight?

Two and a half hours later...

As the trip continued relatively smoothly in the air, everything was looking great as the sun reached its peak.

Only half an hour left for this boring flight... until a sudden bang rang in everyone’s ears.

The plane immediately took a nosedive before recovering to normal, taking everyone by surprise as nobody had their seatbelts on.

"What the hell was that?"

As Zhangfei rushed over and knocked on the cockpit door, Xiaoyun and everyone else had already tightened their seatbelt.

"Major Zhang, one of the engines blew out."

Within seconds, the co-pilot’s words shocked everyone. Fortunately, the pilot quickly spoke up to reassure everyone.

"We can still fly in the air. There’s no need to panic, sir... This plane is more than capable of flying on one engine."

"I really hope so."

"PAN-PAN, PAN-PAN, PAN-PAN. Ningxia Control, this is Chinese Air Force transport aircraft Y-20, callsign Air Force 20501.

We have an engine malfunction on our number two engine. Aircraft remains controllable, but we request—"

The cockpit door suddenly closed as Zhangfei headed back over to his seat, strapping his seatbelt as the message cut off.

"How did an engine suddenly blow out?"

Xiaoyun curiously asked, seeing one of the engines on the right releasing a bit of smoke right out the window.

"I got no clue. Maybe we hit a bird or something... Or maybe some part of the engine malfunctioned."

Everyone remained seated in complete silence. There was nothing they could do other than pray for the best.

To put their trust in the two pilots in the cockpit and in the third engineer to fix the thing wrong with the plane.

"Holy shit!"

As the plane took another nosedive for a few seconds, several of the soldiers panicked as the strap attachment snapped.

Pallets full of cargo fell directly on top of them, nearly crushing them if the plane didn’t fly straight again.

"You guys good?"

Zhangfei immediately asked, not daring to get up from his seat as other soldiers quickly intervened to lift the cargo back up together.

"I-I’m good."

"Same."

"Only a scratch."

Just as the soldiers pushed the cargo back over to the other side, the third man sitting in the back of the cockpit suddenly came out.

"I need someone to come with me to the back."

"I’ll go with you."

One of the soldiers quickly followed the engineer towards the back as the plane started to visibly slant downward.

They were descending faster and faster, dropping from above the clouds to being able to see the mountains and hills down below.

"X-Xiaoyun, a-are we really going to be fine?"

Houqin worryingly asked after seeing the smoke near the engine getting even bigger than before.

"We’re going to be fine."

Despite the confidence on Xiaoyun’s face, he was just as scared. Not once had he thought of a military aircraft malfunctioning like this.

"Major Zhang, we might need to emergency land somewhere else instead of landing at the base’s airport."

As the cockpit door opened once again, everyone could hear the constant beeping coming from the inside.

"Do whatever you think is the best decision."

"Affirmative—"

Just as if things couldn’t get worse, a young soldier on the left side of the aircraft pointed directly out the window.

"Oh my god, the left engine is on fire!"

"You cannot be serious. No wonder the plane can’t be controlled for shit! Fuck! Fuck! Fuck!"

Everyone could hear the co-pilot complaining out loud as the cockpit door remained open, seemingly as if the door control was lost.

"Luo Pi! Have you checked the switches?" The main pilot calmly asked out loud as his voice traveled down the aircraft.

"I did! Nothing is working! The circuit is completely toast—"

Before the engineer could finish talking, a loud bang rang in everyone’s ears once again. Yet, looking outside, the smoke from the engine started to dissipate.

"Mayday! Mayday! Mayday! We’re emergency landing at... at Guyuan Airport. We request immediate support!"

"Guyuan?"

Both Xiaoyun and Houqin could see the faces of the soldiers all turning pale, seemingly as if they were landing at the worst location possible.

"Can we not land anywhere else?"

Zhangfei asked out loud as he looked out the window, only to see them flying over the hills into the suburban part of a city.

"We have to land, sir!"

Seeing the main pilot raising his urgency, Zhangfei had no choice but to accept it, as the pilot had already started their landing procedure.

"Everyone, hold on tight!"

As the engineer and the soldier rushed back to the front, everyone was holding on to their seatbelt for their dear lives.

"Zhangfei, you promised me this flight was going to be safe!" Xiaoyun questioned as he couldn’t hold in his anger any longer.

"The plane had been flying fine for the past two years! How am I supposed to know it goes wrong today?"

"We should have stopped when the lighting was not working properly..." Houqin quietly murmured as she thought back to the start.

Everyone fell back into silence as there was no point in complaining. All they could do now was to prepare for the inevitable rough landing.

"How’s the hydraulic pressure?" The main pilot calmly asked.

"Three green. All landing gear indicators are showing down and locked." The engineer said out loud.

"Understood. We’re committed. Keep your eyes on the instruments." The main pilot answered.

"Speed is stable. One hundred and fifty knots." The co-pilot said out next as his panic from earlier vanished.

As the conversation traveled into the back, everyone could see them reaching closer and closer to the landing track down beneath them.

"Runway is clear. Wind is coming from the southwest, approximately fifteen knots." The co-pilot pointed out.

"Fifteen knots? Mine says thirty knots."

"Hydraulic pressure is dropping again." The engineer warned as he tightly held onto the guardrail.

"How bad?"

"Still holding, but I wouldn’t count on the backup system."

"Copy. Keep monitoring it."

"I think your Pitot tube is broken, sir. The speed doesn’t feel that fast." The co-pilot pointed out again.

"You’re right."

"One thousand meters before touchdown." The engineer warned again as he noticed the monitor rapidly decreasing.

"Landing checklist—"

The cockpit door suddenly slammed shut on its own, as if the power had been restored for it to close on its own.

At the same time, everyone could see the smoke re-emerging from the engine, even more so than before.

Soon, they all felt a violent crash.

The seat beneath everyone shook in waves after waves as the landing gear made contact with the ground.

A loud screeching sound as all of the wings slowed down as much as they could, going further and further beyond the initial runway.

"Shit shit shit."

Soldiers were beginning to panic as the plane drove out of the concrete landing strip onto the dirt path beyond the airport driveway.

Fortunately for them, the airport fences had been broken down long ago. Nor was there any abandoned airplane blocking the way.

It was all endless flat plain, enough room for the plane to decelerate more and more as all the cargo bounced back and forth.

The strap also surprisingly managed to be held together compared to the one earlier, as it firmly attached to the clip on the plane floor.

"Holy shit, we made it!"

"Thank the fucking god!"

All of the soldiers were celebrating. Xiaoyun and Houqin both let out a sigh of relief as the plane came to a stop.

The only one whose face hadn’t changed was Zhangfei, whose face had only darkened as he kept looking out the window.

"Major Zhang! We had landed!"

As the cockpit door opened, all three of them were welcomed with warm hugs as several of the soldiers rushed to them in happiness.

Even Xiaoyun and Houqin couldn’t help but smile towards them as their faces were full of gratitude for the landing.

"I knew you’re the GOAT!"

"Never doubted you a single time!"

"I owe you for this."

"Everyone! Take out your gun and get ready to fight."

The sudden interruption ended the celebration early. But when they looked out the window, they understood why Zhangfei did it.

A line of black dots.

Zombies on the horizon. The ground was shaking as if there were tank mutants coming their way.

"Major, s-should we run?" The engineer nervously asked as the smile from earlier had all disappeared.

"We aren’t outrunning them on foot. Everyone! We have to fight this until reinforcements come."

Hesitation.

All of the soldiers knew the fight was nearly impossible. The only thing they had were rifles and a few grenades.

They didn’t even have heavy weapons other than a mounted machine gun in the back, and it only had one ammo box.

"He’s right... Better die trying than to give up. Can one of you guys open the door?"

Xiaoyun’s sudden volunteer caught both Zhangfei and the soldier a little off guard, but it quickly snapped them back to reality.

"Come on! Get it moving!" Zhangfei ordered.

"Yes, sir!"