Personal Log – Commander Quinn Carter

Entry Five

The Plane didn’t make it to Brazil.

I was Waiting in the tower with a few of my troops, gathered to watch the takeoff, and everything seemed good on the radio.

The weather was good. It was a clear night with a big moon, and the pilot was confident. They were just about to begin the takeoff procedures when the radio crackled back to life, and we heard a horrifying scream.

There was chaos. I couldn’t understand what was happening, and as the noise from the other end rang out, and we called through to try and get a response, I saw the plane begin slowly moving down the runway.

Viande.

Carne.

Meat.

There it was again. At first, I thought I was imagining it, but rising up through the screaming and confusion on the radio were those words from Laurie, louder every time.

The plane hurtled down the runway, its wheels lifting from the ground as it took flight.

I could hear a struggle, and as the plane soared over the water, it suddenly nose dived down into the waiting waves of the ocean, and the radio fell silent.

I have no idea what happened. I sent a boat out to see if we could find any survivors but there was nothing. It seems to have sunk. We don’t have the resources to search for a wreckage.

I’m… well…

I’m really shaken up if I’m honest.

Nobody was Supposed to die here.

It wasn’t ever going to be a pleasant place, but everyone was supposed to get out alive.

In the space of a few seconds, I’ve lost a nurse, three soldiers, a pilot and one of our maintenance crew. They all had lives back home. They had families and friends, plans for when their deployment was over.

I’m still in the tower, watching, as if the plane will just burst from the blue ocean and return them to me.

I need to call their families. I’m supposed to let the ministry of defence do it, but they were so unbothered when I called and told them what happened, I’m worried they’ll butcher it and make the impending awfulness even worse for the relatives, so I’ll do it.

Having thought about it, it’s actually quite weird. I called the MOD and told them that a member of staff had become violently ill, and then hurtled towards the bottom of the sea with a planeful of people, and they didn’t even seem shocked.

Heartless bastards.