Sirens screeched as Jeremy tried to see through the hot steam filling the small engine room. If he didn’t get the engine under control, the blimp would crash.
“Let me,” his grizzly captain growled, the steel edge of his wrench digging into Jeremy’s wrist.
“Sir?”
Another gasket sputtered. Sweat dripped down the men’s faces, and their baggy tan jumpsuits clung to their bodies.
“You don’t get paid enough for this, kid. Get to the parachutes. Get back to your family. I’ll fix this metal beast.”
“But sir, you have a family–“
“That’s an order.”
Unease set in Jeremy’s chest, but he didn’t dare disobey an order.
“Yes, sir,” he coughed.
As he spun around, another gasket blew. The heavy heat oppressing them thickened.
“Don’t look back, kid.”
Jeremy didn’t, pushing through the doors and joining the panicking crew as they rushed to escape the falling blimp.
As he retrieved an emergency parachute, the engine bay creaked, steam leaking through metal plates. Captain! More creaks, more sizzling steam. He knew what was coming next–he’d worked in that engine room since the blimp’s first sky voyage.
“Jump,” Jeremy shrieked.
He leaped over the metal railing, with the two crewmen next to him following immediately. The gray clouds swallowed Jeremy too quickly, the cold atmosphere tearing at his body as he struggled with his chute. Just as he contorted himself to look over his shoulder at his chute, the engine room exploded.
Smoke, fire, and metal rained above him. The metal blimp spiraled into a nose dive, its engine bay completely gone.
“Captain!” Jeremy shouted, but the man was gone.
Someone would have to tell his family.
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