Chapter 1 (1/2)

Chapter 1: A Strange Flight

The first time I took a plane was when I was about to graduate and start an interns.h.i.+p at a company three thousand kilometers away from school. I wasn’t able to buy a train ticket, but considering that I had never taken a plane despite my age, I used a phone app and purchased an on-sale plane ticket that was cheaper than a train ticket.

If I knew that something like this would happen, I would never have taken the plane!

I remember, it was a very sunny day. Because the plane was at 7am, I arrived at the airport at 5am. It only took me two hours to get my boarding pa.s.s, security check, check in my luggage, all these unimportant things, and finally I boarded the plane before it was even 7am.

But as soon as I got on the plane, something felt off. Even though it was my first time on a plane, the me who has a habit of “baidu”ing1 everything knew that the oxygen mask above our seats wouldn’t pop out unless there was a loss of air pressure in the plane’s cabin.

But we’re still boarding here. What was the situation of all these oxygen masks popping out? Was this how they treated people with cheap tickets?

The pretty flight attendant explained to us and said it was okay, and that these were from the overhaul from before. They didn’t have time to put them back because they were afraid that the plane would be delayed. All we had to do was put the oxygen masks back up.

Since the ticket I bought was on sale, and it was my first time on a plane, I was dispirited and didn’t have the courage to ask too much. The pa.s.sengers in the economy cla.s.s seats were probably just like me. I saw someone asked a couple questions, but the flight attendant didn’t give a straight answer.

There was nothing that could be done about it. Recently, someone beat up a flight attendant and it was all over the news. No one dared to question the flight attendants and risk seeming ill-mannered.

Just like that, I struggled to get on the plane, all the pa.s.sengers got on the plane, and all the oxygen masks were put back to where they belonged by the flight attendants. But for some reason, the way the flight attendants were looking at the pa.s.sengers was making me uncomfortable.

The plane started to move down the runway, the plane’s cabin started shaking, the engines were roaring, and just as the plane was lifting off from the ground, I felt a sudden drowsiness. My eyelids felt heavy, and I pa.s.sed out.

I didn’t know how much time had pa.s.sed, but when I woke up, it was all dark outside the window.

Wait a second!

How long did I sleep?

I quickly rubbed my eyes and looked outside the window again.

Pure blackness. You wouldn’t be able to even see your fingers in this darkness.

That’s impossible. My flight was a morning flight at 7am, total flight time was only 5 hours. Even if I arrived, it would’ve only been 12pm at noon. How is it possible that the sky is all dark?

Is it possible that I slept past my stop? Or does the sky just look so s.h.i.+tty here?

After all, this was my first time on a plane, and I didn’t know what was happening, so my thoughts ran wild.

But at this moment, I realized something even more shocking!

The plane that was originally full was now almost empty with about 10 people left.

What is going on?

I suddenly realized that I was in huge trouble.

Other people were also starting to wake up one after another. None of them seemed to know what was going on. Some were shocked, some were confused; there was even a girl who burst into tears immediately.

I didn’t know what to do either. I pressed the flight attendant call b.u.t.ton, but no one responded.

It seems like the flight attendants disappeared mysteriously just like the other pa.s.sengers!

What the f.u.c.k is going on?

Just when I was starting to panic, a husky voice sounded the flight announcement.

“Welcome aboard the Wailing Flight. There are 15 people on board, only a few will live to get off the plane!

If you want to live, please listen to the rules carefully!

1. Everyone onboard is a pa.s.senger, but there are three “Howlers” hidden amongst you. At 1300 hours, voting will commence. Every five hours, you will all vote out a person who you think is a Howler, and you will need to kill that person.

You are free to choose any method to kill the person, but if you don’t, the plane will crash automatically, and everyone will die!

2. Three hours after each voting, everyone will fall asleep for an hour, and the Howlers will wake up 30 minutes before everyone. Howlers will acknowledge their accomplices, and they must choose one pa.s.senger to kill.

You are free to choose any method to kill the person, but if you don’t, the plane will crash automatically, and everyone will die!

3. Among the pa.s.sengers, there are one captain, one security guard, and two flight attendants.

After each voting, the captain is allowed to check one person’s ident.i.ty as a Howler or a pa.s.senger, but cannot check other special roles.

Before the security guard falls asleep, he can choose to protect one person so that person wouldn’t be attacked by the Howlers, however he cannot protect himself.

The flight attendants know who each other are.

4. Your role card is in your pockets. Looking at other people’s role card is not allowed. You may not destroy or leave the plane cabin. You may not skip the rules and kill other people, or else you will suffer a horrible death.

5. If all the pa.s.sengers die, the Howlers win. If all the Howlers die, the pa.s.sengers win. The winning side gets to live and get off this plane, in addition you get to share a 50 million U.S. dollar prize!

So, please, scream! Tremble! Try your best to survive!”

After hearing the announcement, I felt completely baffled.