Atlanta

My body froze into a state of shock, my eyes boring into Danielle's. Even when she turned away, frantically searching for some kind of help or solution, my sight remained on the side of her head. Suddenly I wished we were back in Glasgow, locked up inside our flat; it seemed more prefferable than being 10,000 feet in the air and knowing that in not even half an hour we could be dead.

"We have to land the plane." I blurted out suddenly, not even realising my mind was planning on speaking my thoughts aloud. I turned to Dani hesitantly, and she shook her head, her eyes looking moist.

"We don't exactly have a choice." Gradually more and more ideas hit me, and eventually I knew what we had to do.

"You know how to land a plane, don't you?" She looked uncomfortable, but nodded hesitantly. She didn't seem to be very confident about that. I sighed and pulled out the map, pointing to the line I had drawn to show our general location on the east coast. "Start to lower the plane." Dani gave me another uncomfortable look. "Well, we don't have much choice. We'll die anyway, right?" Almost trembling with fear, she began flicking switches and pressing buttons, and gradually the plane began to droop.

"Where are we going to land?" she barely made out, through a shaky voice. In reply, I pointed to the line on the map.

"Once we break through the clouds, we can see the shape of the land, and hopefully we'll be able to piece together our exact location, and then we can hone in on the best place to land."

"And where are we going to find that?" I held up my phone, shrugging.

"Google maps?" She stared at me for a few seconds, before bursting into nervous laughter.

"Will that even work?" I sighed, turning my phone on.

"Worth a shot, right?" We both continued our gaze forward, and the clouds slowly started to part, and land came into our view. I referred back to the map, and began to piece things together. "See that there? That bit of land seperated from the mainland?" I pointed to the map. "That must be part of Delaware, right?" Danielle looked out to the land we were flying past and nodded a little.

"I guess. But Elle, how are we gonna land? It doesn't matter if we're in Ohio or Kentucky, we need somewhere safe to land!"

"I know, I know!" I protested, and continued my inspection. The plane was drooping lower, and by Dani's increasingly worried expression, the last ounces of fuel were slowly dripping away. I compared the map and the view in front of us (which it felt like we were zooming in on) once again, and concluded that we were flying over North Carolina.

"Oh god, I was way off track wasn't I? Alaska's in practically the complete opposite direction!" Dani moaned as she gripped the lever tighter.

"Danielle, Alaska's the least of our worries now." My voice started to get louder, as the plane was dropping so fast I felt the insides of my stomach turn to jelly. "Why are we falling so fast?"

"I'm preserving the last of the fuel for when we land, so we don't crash. In order to do that, we have to kind of, well, fall." I gulped, trying to steady and focus myself, but I was struggling.

"Ok, we're going in the direction of Alabama." I informed her, trying not to rip the map from gripping it so tightly, and keeping my eyes on either the map or the land outside. It seemed so surreal, seeing real land right there - in front of us - but being so high above it. Well, we were a lot lower now, so much we could see cities.

"Any idea where you'll think we'll land?" She asked, quickly glancing over to me and the map. I shook my head furiously.

"Too early to tell!" The plane's engines were getting noisier as the pressure got higher and we seemed to be increasing speed. "Danielle! Is there anyway you could slow it down somehow!? We're going way too fast!" I called over to her, and she nodded.

"I'm on it!" She shouted back, and we gradually started to fall at a more comfortable speed. As silly as that sounds, It definitely made me feel a lot more comfortable than before. The landscape began to appear more clear, and I thanked god when the 'google maps' app on my phone started, in our exact location.

"YES! It's worked!" Dani glanced over at me curiously, and I held up my phone. "We're just coming into Georgia right now."

"Should we try and land in Atlanta?" I quickly scanned around the area, again comparing it to the sight ahead us.

"We're heading right for it. I'll look up places to land!" I began scrolling and tapping across my phone, zooming in on and around Atlanta. "Okay, we have three options! If we land a little earlier, we have to aim for Gwinett Country Airport, it looks like a 'P' made out of boxes." She nodded immediately, understanding. "If that one's too close, we'll go for DeKalb Airport in North Atlanta. That one looks like a big 'I' with boxes. You with me so far?"

"Yeah! What about if we miss that one? She called out, and I scrolled over a little more on my phone.

"The last one's Fulton International, I doubt we'll get much further than that."

"What does it look like?"

"A seven, or a triangle!" She nodded in understanding, and I followed our path once more, feeling uneasy as we were fast approaching land. "You putting the fuel back on yet?"

"Not yet! Not till we're ready to land!" I glanced to my phone once more, and the page had disappeared. I let our a cry of devastation, and after a few clicks I discovered that there was no internet acess.

"No internet!" I informed her, and she groaned.

"We're gonna have to make do without then!" I gazed out over the mass of green, with the occasional glump of buildings. In normal circumstances, I would have been excited to be over the United States of America, never mind landing in it, but currently I was just stressing over whether I would ever be able to breathe fresh air again. I gazed out into the distance, when a seemingly familiar sight caught my eye.

"DANIELLE! LOOK! THERE'S THE DEKALB ONE!" The massive 'I' shape made itself clear, and we were slowly approaching it. I felt the plane jerk slightly, before the fall seemed to be a lot smoother and more controlled. "You put the fuel on didn't you?"

"Yeah!" She called over. "We need to get lower!" The airport became closer and closer, but we both knew we weren't low enough for a land, and things seemed to be getting more tense than they already were. When Dani pulled the plane up slightly, I didn't even complain.

"Will we make it to Fulton? It's still a couple miles away!" For a minute or so, Dani said nothing. She was probably more terrified than me.

"We have to!" I nudged her arm to make her bear right a little, setting us up on direct course for the airport. The city of Atlanta was clear on our left, and we could almost begin to see the detail in some buildings below us. The next few minutes would be the ultimatum of our flight - of our lives. We either made it, or we didn't.

Our speed increased to try and fill the gap before we ran out of time, and the city of Atlanta rushed past us on our left. Our main goal was to find the airport.

"There! The seven shape!" Dani pointed to the runway not too far ahead, and immediately started slowing and lowering the plane. The plane turned slightly, as she adjusted it to be directly straight-on with the runway. The airport looked packed to the brim with planes, but none seemed to be running, and the runway was absoloutely deserted. I started to consider whether Atlanta, Georgia or even the whole of America had been hit harder and earlier than we had.

Danielle's scream broke me out of my thoughts immediately, and I refocused to see the runway rapidly approach us. There was no turning back now - the plane was too low to pull up and try again, and there was nowhere near enough fuel to last us to the next airport. The plane was going too fast, and we both knew it.

"BRAKE DANIELLE, BRAKE!"

"I'M TRYING!"

There was a loud thud and the plane bounced slightly as it hit the ground, but it was only seconds before it braked so hard that we were both thrusted forward. I tried to ignore the pain in my back, and focus on the fact that this terror would be over soon.

"COME ON YOU PIECE OF SHIT! STOP!" The plane had slowed considerably, but the other end of the runway was becoming much closer than we'd liked. There was nothing we could do but keep the brakes on, and pray to god.

The plane got slower, but we got closer to the end of the runway. The grass beyond it seemed unstable, and we were more than nervous to see how the wheels of the small plane would react. I felt Danielle squeeze my hand, believing that these were the last moments of our life, and I gave her a nod, unable to produce a smile, and we both screwed our eyes shut, waiting and hoping.