Prologue
"Pilot, return to base. I repeat, Pilot return to base."
With her senses on edge, her grip over the yoke tightened, and she squinted at the blinding light. The noise filtered through the noise-cancelling headset, the engine roaring against her; something wasn't right and she should turn around, but she couldn't.
"I repeat, turn around Pilot." The sense of urgency in the flight instructor's voice increased.
"I can't, Officer, it's pulling me."
"What is pulling you Pilot? I said turn around, it's an order!"
"I'm trying to!" Panic was filtering through the headset communication system, while she desperately pulled at the aircraft's controls. "This plane is not moving! Not one bit!"
"Turn around, final warning!"
But she knew better; there was no way she was getting out of this one, not this time. Whatever the light's source was, it wielded some form of control on the plane, its trajectory set by it. She was flying straight to the light, and there was no stopping now, not when she was this close.
"PILO…"
High pitched static filled her ears and she winced at the invasive noise, momentarily closing her eyes. But when she opened them again all she saw was a bright orange shimmer amidst the darkness. Eyes widened, she observed through the window at the space surrounding her. What was this? Turning around so she was perched upon the back of the aircraft's seat she tried to see where the darkness begun, or even ended, but there was nothing. Just darkness and shimmer, a contradiction on its own.
With a quick shake of the head, she came back to the control panel and tried to make sense of her situation. The controls were unresponsive, nothing was working, not even the altimeter. And her breath became quickened, struggling to keep the air in. This was not good, not good at all. Focusing on the horizon, "or at least where the horizon would be", she started the countdown. Six, five, four, three, two, one. Taking a paused breath in, she felt the fog in her mind retreating until it was her own again.
Her eyes found something she could not identify in the horizon, small points, like stars. But these stars did not emit any light at all, they were blank and devoid of any colour whatsoever.
"Those aren't stars"
Bodies were floating through the shimmer, thousands, millions. Billions. Who knows. A mass devoid of life. She tried to maneuver the aircraft around them, but the controls remained unresponsive. When the bodies started hitting the plane she shut her eyes and winced. But she felt nothing. Slowly peeking through her eyelids she found the bodies parted around her vessel like water. She started wondering if this was the Acheron river, if this was her way to the afterlife, and started to rummage through her pockets for a coin to pay the ferrier. Finding nothing, she chastised herself for being so stupid. Had she been safe she would have been sitting by the banks of the infernal river, but she was floating through it, alone with no guide. But there were no banks in sight, or any indication of the river's end for that matter. Just as she was preparing to lose her remaining sanity, she locked eyes with one of them.
Pressing herself against the other side of the cockpit, she maintained eye contact with him, observing until the body floated away like all the others. That's where she saw the end, where the shimmer was the strongest and the nothingness of space didn't conquer anymore. Straight where she was headed.
In her last second of conscience, she was once again blinded by a light stronger than the first one, and felt her eyes roll to the back of her head through her closed eyelids.
Words in italics represent thoughts.
Feedback is loved and appreciated, unlike almost every character in the Infinity War's finale.