Dreamcatcher D9: Opening

Buffered by an extra strong dose of courage, the group descended to land on the outer shell of the Nothing that is Bertha’s sister. Flare, a chaos being known as a chodonex, noted she could not follow inside as her essence might be lethal to Trouble, but she could pierce the exterior shell and get them a better chance of getting inside. With the shell cut open a black fog of distorted and painful memories billowed from the wound. Reaching deep inside the painful chill that the smoke seemed to carry, a latch was finally found buried deep inside near the tail section of the plane that the group found they could finally reach the core of the Nothing.

The interior of Trouble has the exact same layout as that of Bertha. Inside the plane, there is no foul smoke, but there is also no sound from the engines short of a choking, intermittent gurgle that might be an engine trying to turn over. The only sound that does dominate the interior is the low, steady whistle of wind blowing over the holes in the right side of the hull. Unlike the dreams you came from, the air here is cold, moist, and briney. It is the air of the North Sea over which Trouble carried her dead crew back to England before she became this creature. Despite being the same size and shape as Bertha, something about this place feel vast and empty. It isn’t something seen with your eyes but rather it is something you can all feel with your hearts.

What is immediately visible from here is the tail and waist gunners. The tail gunner has no head, and his dog tags dangle from what is left of his neck. At least he never knew what hit him. You’d have to pull him from the seat to know he was a hare. The starboard waist gunner’s torso has been turned to hamburger while the port gunner took most of the slower speed shrapnel to the back. From the way he is slumped over his gun, one can guess he tried to hold on as long as he could. Up ahead near the bomb bay, the bottom half of what may be a deer is lying on the ground below the access to the upper turret. The lower ball is still closed and its contents hidden. Too far up ahead to see are the chin gunner, navigator, and bombardier, but with the way the wind runs through the plane, they probably won’t look much better. The two people that cannot be seen from here or even guessed at right now are the pilot and co-pilot.