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Two hundredLike a feather
"All right," Anilov said, just as Delbaugh said, "Easy, easy," and they bothto make it
One hundred meters
Nose still up
Perfect, perfect
Touchdown and TWANG! -the tires barked on the blacktop sih re, so he said, "Power number one!" and pulled hard to the left Yankowski reh he had said it was all a crock, and he responded to Delbaugh’s throttle co dipped, just as they had been told it would, but their quick action pulled the plane left, and the right wing cah issued a new throttle co to hold the craft to the left They were rolling along, rolling along, the plane shaking, and he gave the order to reverse engines because they couldn’t, for God’s sake, continue to accelerate, they were in h speed, rolling, rolling,and slowing now, but rolling And the right as tipping down again, accoe-fatigued steel-trouble in the joining of wing and fuselage, Jim had said-succuht and once-in-a-century crosswinds Rolling, rolling, but Delbaugh couldn’t do a daet out there and reweld the joints or hold the da, but the right wing still going down, none of his counter down, and down, oh God, the wing Holly felt the plane tipping farther to the right than before
She held her breath or thought she did, but at the sa frantically
The creaks and squeals of tortured e for a couple of rew ht A sound like a cannonshot booer compartear collapsed
They were sliding along the runway, rocking and jolting, then the plane began to turn as it slid,Holly’s heart clutch up and her stoest carnival ride in the world, except it wasn’t any fun at all; her seatbelt was like a blade against herher in half, and if there had been a carny ticket-taker, she kneould have had the ghastly face of a rotting corpse and a rictus for a sers’ screa was not the worst of it For the most part their voices were drowned out by the screaainst the pavement and other pieces of it were torn loose Maybe dinosaurs, sinking into Mesozoic pits of tar, had equaled the volu on the face of the earth since that era had protested its de pitch and thunderous volume It wasn’t purely a machine sound; it wasthat it ht have been the combined, tortured cries of all the denizens of hell, hundreds ofat once She was sure her eardruiven, she raised her head and looked quickly around Cascades of white, yellow, and turquoise sparks foah an extravagant fireworks display Six or seven rows ahead, the fuselage cracked open like an eggshell rapped against the edge of a cerah, too ain
She heard herself chanting at the deck in front of her, but she was caught in such a whirlpool of horror that the only way she could discover what she was saying was to strain to hear herself above the cacophony of the crash: "Don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t, don’t " Maybe she passed out for a few seconds, or maybe her senses shut down briefly due to extre was still The air was filled with acrid odors that her recovering senses could not identify
The ordeal was over, but she could not recall the plane coh her She raised her head, sat up, ready to whoop with the uncontainable thrill of survival-and saw the fire
The DC-10 had not cartwheeled The warning to Captain Delbaugh had paid off But as Jim had feared, the chaotic afterers as the i the entire starboard side of the plane, where jet fuel had spilled, orange flaing aboard a submarine in a sea of fire on an alien world Some of the s had shattered on ih those apertures, as well as through the ragged tear in the fuselage that now separated economy class from the forward section of the airliner
Even as Jiot shakily to his feet, he saw seats catching afire on the starboard side Passengers over there were crouching or dropping down on their hands and knees to scra flaed her as she struggled to her feet He looked past her at the Dubroveks Mother and child were uninjured, though Casey was crying
Holding Holly by the hand, searching for the quickest way out, Jim turned toward the back of the aircraft and for aLike a voracious blob out of an old horror movie, an aed and cru everything over which it rolled Smoke He hadn’t instantly realized it was smoke because it was so thick that it appeared to have the substance of a wall of oil or mud
Death by suffocation, or worse, lay behind theo forward in spite of the fire ahead Flae on the starboard side, reaching well into the cabin, fanning across more than half the diameter of the sliced-open aircraft
But they should be able to exit toward the port side, where no fire was yet visible
"Quick," he said, turning to Christine and Casey as they cao!" However, other passengers from the first six rows of the economy section were in the aisle ahead of theht attendant was doing what she could to help, but progress was not easy The aisle was littered with carry-on luggage, purses, paperback books, and other itee co steps, Ji sent that his eyes teared at once He not only choked on the first whiff of fued with revulsion, and he did not want to think about whatbehind him in addition to upholstery, foam seat cushions, carpet, and other elements of the aircraft’s interior decor
As the thick oily cloud poured past hian to vanish They appeared to be stepping through the folds of a black velvet curtain
Before visibility dropped to a couple of inches, Jio of Holly and clutched Christine’s shoulder "Let me take her," he said, and scooped Casey into his ariftshop was in the aisle at his feet It had burst open as people tramped across it He sahite T-shirt-I LovE LA: with pink and peach and pale-green palm trees
He snatched up the shirt and pushed it into Casey’s s, as was everyone around hih it!" Then he was blind The foul cloud around him was so dark that he could not even see the child he was carrying Indeed, he could not actually perceive the churning currents of the cloud itself The blackness was deeper than what he sahen he closed his eyes, for behind his lids pinpoint bursts of color forhostly patterns that lit his inner world
They were maybe twenty feet froe He was not in danger of getting lost, for the aisle was the only route he could follow