A fighter plane flew low, cutting through the air, shredded with bullets. The machine was broken—smoke poured from its frame, its body unstable.
"I am in danger! I repeat, I am in danger!" the pilot's voice cracked through the radio, brimming with fear.
The half-broken plane shuddered, smoke trailing thick and black, before it suddenly began to spin. With unstoppable force, it plummeted toward the ground.
By that time, the pilot had already accepted his fate. After all, what could he do? There was no escape.
Mike, a war veteran with five years in the military, had long known that he'd given his life to others the day he joined the army before the war days. And yet… his heart still beat faster and faster at the thought of dying.
With grief weighing heavy in his chest, he whispered a last, trembling goodbye into the radio.
He closed his eyes. Readied himself for the blow.
The plane struck the ground—BOO—but no sound. No explosion. No fire. Just silence. Too silent. Something was wrong.
Mike opened his eyes.
There was nothing. A void. A place where nothing should ever exist—yet somehow he was there. Floating in emptiness, between life and death, where even time seemed to hold its breath. The sight ominous.
The unsettling vision infront, frightened him. He tried to scream but he could not hear anything. It was suffocating as if he was he a fish out of water. He drifting through the space gasping for air, he thrashed his hands and limbs, desperate for survival. Grunting. Growling. screaming—but no voices.
Then, suddenly, he felt something solid, a ground appeared beneath him.
After he realized, he could not breath though, couldn't feel a thing. He catched a sigh of relief. But, not for too long.
Mike got up from the ground.
"Where am I? Did I… die? Where is this place?" he asked himself.
It seemed he was standing on something solid but he could not see it. When he reached down to touch the ground, his hand slipped through the invisible surface. He could not grasp it, could not feel it… There was nothing, nothing at all—yet somehow he could stand and walk.
Far above the endless horizon, a faint glimmer of light shone. It illuminated him, just enough to see his hands, body and limbs.
Maybe there was still hope…
Driven by that fragile thought, Mike began to walk toward the light. He walked… walked… WALKED… through the lonesome unsettling empty, silent space.