Five Minutes Before Integration Day

  Raul Sanchez looked out the window of the Boeing 787 aircraft and sighed. All he could see was the wing. As usual.

  “I never get a decent view,” the young man grumbled to himself as he pulled out his diplomatic passport to check the seat number on the ticket stub he had tucked between two pages, wishing that he could have been seated next to his colleague and current crush, Amanda.

  Raul had only been at the U.S. Embassy in Cotonou for about six months, working in the Political and Economic reporting section, when the “monster attack” happened. No one really believed the government’s explanation that there was an undiscovered species of predator that was human aggressive, instead blaming the attacks on the terrorist group JNIM. The killing of the police officers in the nearby town of Ouidah led to endless meetings among Embassy leadership, with the upshot that all American employees were confined to the city of Cotonou proper until the situation was sorted out. Then Washington sent out instructions for all non-essential diplomatic personnel to be recalled, from all Embassies and Consulates, everywhere, ASAP. They even issued blanket waivers to the Fly America Act, allowing staff the flexibility to use any carrier they needed, as long as they were on a plane back to D.C. the next day.

  The new Foreign Service Officer was not happy about being kicked out, but he understood the logic behind the decision. Still, having to leave his residence right after he received his long-awaited shipment that contained the majority of his personal belongs was really annoying. Someone else would eventually come along, repack everything, and send it on its way to wherever Raul was assigned next, but that meant he’d be living out of a pair of suitcases for a while again. And that got old really fast.

  After receiving the news, the young man and the majority of his colleagues had made the trip from Benin to Togo by land (since the airport was completely off limits), completing the drive of about 150 kilometers (95 miles) in about four hours due a hold up at the border. Despite having assistance from the Embassy in Lomé, the border guards were reticent to let the group in without prior authorization, and it took a few phone calls to get things sorted out. Thankfully, they arrived at the airport on time. Had they missed their flight, they would have had to have flown through Europe, something they had been instructed to avoid if possible.

  The whine of the engines powering up shook the young man out of his reverie and back to the present. They were finally taking off. Raul was on the taller side, and his legs were already starting to feel cramped. He checked his ticket stub one more time and groaned internally as he confirmed the duration of the flight: over eleven hours in the air. He looked out the window again and saw nothing but wing.

  “Just fantastic,” he complained.

  The plane took off without incident and began its ascent, heading southwest out over the ocean for about a minute to clear the area before turning sharply to the north. But just as the plane began its turn, everything just stopped. The whine from the engines, the cabin air system, the tablets mounted into the headrests, everything. Generally speaking, such profound silence can be enjoyable for many, especially after being exposed to a noisy environment like an airplane. Specifically speaking, for those in the aircraft, it was terrifying.

  After a moment, two new things happened. The first was that Raul suddenly felt a great deal lighter, as the plane’s upward momentum ceased. The second thing was text appeared in front of Raul’s face.

  Raul shook his head, wondering if the stress of the past few days had finally caused him to snap like he always knew he would. He looked out the window to see what was going on. The wing looked it like it always did, but he thought that he could spot a sliver of the ocean not that far below them, and a bit of cloud going the wrong direction. There was only one conclusion to make: they were falling. That was when the screams and panicking started.

  “Think Raul, think,” the young man said to himself, furiously trying to remember the safety briefings that he had seen before all airlines changed over to video briefings that were high on production quality but low on actual safety information (the best of these being the one by Uzbekistan Airways). They were still over the water, which meant that the front of the aircraft was going to get flattened and submerged. Conversely, the back of the aircraft would be flung up higher into the air and take longer to sink…assuming that he could survive the collision.

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  The young man pulled out his smartphone to try to confirm this via and internet search and hit the power button three times before remembering that all electronics were out. Looking at the three people that sat between him and the aircraft’s aisle, he muttered a preemptive apology and then leapt over them, grabbing the seatbacks with his arms to help propel him.

  The maneuver went far better than he had expected, and he realized that the words that had flashed up in front of his face seemed to be telling the truth…he was in fact stronger than he had been a few moments before.

  Sprinting down the aisle while still processing his newfound power, he stumbled a few times before spotting an empty seat near the rear of the plane. He vaulted towards it, floating much higher than he expected. That was bad, because it meant that the plane was falling much faster than it had been just a few moments ago. Slamming off the ceiling, he adjusted his angle as best he could and managed to catch the seatback, eliciting a few startled cries from those around him. Then he pulled himself into the seat, buckled in, and leaned forward. Somehow, he managed to get into one of the FAA-approved “brace for impact” positions.

  Raul felt a surge of power flow through him even as his own panic began to mount. What on earth was going on? What was this strange text that was giving him strength, and was the plane crashing because of it? Was that why Washington had recalled everyone from the field? Did the government somehow have advanced notice that this was going to happen? If so, why put everyone on airplanes? Raul knew that the odds of surviving a water landing in a commercial jet plane were astoundingly low, but maybe reaching level two had made him stronger? Wait, no the bigger bonus would have come from the other thingy, the one that said everything he had was fifty-percent better. How strong was he exactly?

  As if reading his mind (which it totally was), the strange display popped back up.

  Raul’s mind was racing as he examined the two options that he felt could help him survive the impending plane crash: Not Exactly Street Legal and What Doesn’t Kill You. While he had certainly struggled reaching the 3/3 language score in French at the Foreign Service Institute and would have loved a bonus to learning languages, the Special Ability called Ambassadorial was something that would pay long-term dividends, not help him in the short-term.

  He really wanted to take the Not Exactly Street Legal ability. It looked strong, it would work on any weapon or armor, and it seemed to have strong synergy with both his Tool Use skill and his Innovate skill. Having played more than his fair share of board games, Raul knew that stacking bonuses on top of each was usually better than picking a group of strong but unrelated abilities. But the only thing he had within reach was the flotation device under his seat, and there was no way he’d be able to get it out and tinker with it before they crashed. That meant he only had one real option.

  Now that Raul had received the ability, he wondered how best to activate it. Should he get someone to punch him really hard? That could give him resistance to bludgeoning damage, which is probably what he needed to survive a plane crash, but what if he wasn’t braced when the plane hit and…

  The plane slammed into the water at a very suboptimal angle, the pilot not having had the tools needed to finesse the plane’s heading and position due to the loss of all avionics. The pilot, copilot, and all of business class were instantly crushed to death by the massive impact. Further back, the plane’s fuselage screamed, the metal crumpling somewhat but remaining intact. For a moment, at least. Then the plane snapped in two entirely, sending the back third of the plane plummeting into the ocean. Raul and those around him smashed into the water with a huge splash. As water began to enter the slowly sinking aircraft, the sound of waves mixed with the groans of the injured.

  Raul finally opened his eyes. He appeared to be in one piece, and those around him also seemed to be okay. None of his colleagues were in sight, but that was all right. With the extra bonuses from this video game thing they were in, he was pretty sure that no one that survived the crash would drown. The endorphin rush from having made it to the other side of a lethal situation wiped all the thoughts of government conspiracies, a global loss of communications technology, and the hundreds of dead passengers and crew right out of his mind. His main concern at the moment was the tremendous buyer’s remorse that he had for picking a Special Ability that hadn’t even been needed.

  “Computer, or whatever you are,” he said out loud as he began to retrieve his life vest from under his seat. “How do I undo a Special Ability choice?”