Flight (6 page)

“Did you hear that?” someone
asked. Several of the crew had gathered in the corridor that led to
the command cockpit. Irina had returned and was in her chair, and
the rest just crammed together where they could. Stanley noted that
even Sherry joined them.

“No worries. That’s just probably
the Hrwang vessel that will escort us. I can’t believe we get to
meet them,” he said.

They received another message in a
foreign language.

“This is the Captain. We’re sorry.
We still don’t understand.”

They got a one word
reply.

“You’d better look out this
window, Captain.” Irina made room and Stanley leaned over her to
look out her window port. There were several large ships in view.
It was impossible to tell how large they were because Stanley had
no frame of reference, but they seemed huge. He could see the
Earth’s moon behind them.

“We’re home,” Stanley said. “Just
like that, we’re home. I didn’t even feel anything. Did anyone feel
anything? I didn’t feel anything.”

There were muttered agreements. No
one else had felt anything either.

“I can’t believe we’re home that
fast. Just like that!” He snapped his fingers. “It’s like
magic.”

Irina continued to glare at
something.

Stanley shook his head at her and
grinned, putting his hand on her shoulder. The occasion was so
momentous that he could let bygones be bygones.

“Commander, let’s go meet some
aliens.”

14

With Eva and Mark separated and
cuffed, guards holding rifles on each of them, the two female
border guards tore the jeep apart. They removed all their gear and
separated it out on the road. They took panels off the jeep and
even pulled the seats out. They searched everything.

At one point Eva thought they were
going to dump the extra fuel out of the five gallon jerry cans, but
they didn’t.

Eva’s knees hurt, so she rolled to
lay on her side, stretching her legs out. Shay, her guard, didn’t
say anything, but kept looking at her in ways that disgusted her.
She kept her face passive, helpless.

It seemed like the guards had been
going through the jeep for hours, but it had probably only been
about thirty minutes. Then one said something that caught Eva’s
attention.

“What’s this?”

The woman had pulled the glove box
out, and underneath it she found a leather badge wallet. She read
it disbelievingly.

“Mark Dornbush.” She looked down
at Mark, who had rolled over onto his side like Eva. “Who are
you?”

Mark didn’t respond.

“I said, who are you?”

When Mark didn’t answer the second
time, his guard kicked him.

“The lady is talking to
you.”

He kicked Mark again.

“This one’ll talk,” Shay called to
the others. Great, Eva thought. She was going to get beat up by
Moron again.

He reached down and grabbed her
and twisted. Hard.

Eva didn’t cry out. She pictured
kicking her legs, sweeping his out from under him, taking the man
down, and wrapping his head between her shins. The right kind of
pressure and she could kill him. Theoretically, anyway. No one had
ever actually killed anyone that way. But if he hurt her again, she
was ready to try.

Before she decided to do anything,
he stopped. She heard a vehicle approaching.

He looked away from her, staring
at whatever was incoming, not paying attention to her, and she
tensed, ready to strike. She was fed up with these
idiots.

She glanced up at the machine gun
to check on it, and it was trained directly on her. At least that
guard wasn’t stupid. She’d have to wait.

The approaching vehicle, another
white SUV like the one in the parking area, came to a stop and
someone jumped out of the passenger side, yelling.

“What in Sam’s name are you
numbskulls doing? Let me see that.” He strode over to the guard
with the badge wallet. She meekly handed it to him. He tore it out
of her hand, glanced at it, and shook his head. He held it up and
waved it at the group. “I could tell from the video feed these guys
were some kind of federal agents. What do you all think you’re
doing? Do they look like terrorists to you?” He glared at the
border guards like they were misbehaving children. “You’re lucky
these two haven’t killed all of you yet. And you, rocks for
brains.” He stomped over towards Eva and her guard, jabbing his
finger at the man. “I’ve been watching her. She’s almost killed you
five times already. I’m not sure what’s holding her
back.”

The man wore a National Guard
uniform with the rank of major, but Eva decided he knew more than
just the run of the mill weekend warrior. Maybe the cavalry had
arrived.

The major put his face inches from
Eva’s guard. The guard cowed.

Eva enjoyed the tirade that
followed. It ended with the officer taking the guard’s rifle away
from him and ordering him to uncuff her. The guard, Shay, obeyed,
moving slowly, getting the key from the female guard, shuffling
back, and undoing her cuffs.

As soon as Eva’s hands were free,
she thrust her right hand upwards, her fingers bent back out of the
way, and caught Shay on the bottom of his nose with the heel of her
palm. He crumpled and she stood up.

Guns were pointed at her, but she
noticed the female guard, Lizzy, smiling. The National Guard major
waved the guns off.

“You’re lucky you all aren’t
dead,” he shouted to his people. “I attribute that to the
professionalism of these agents. Now put all their stuff back, just
like you found it.”

He moved closer to Eva and put his
hand out. She took it.

“Sorry about your man there,” she
said.

“No, you’re not. He had it coming.
I’ll court-martial him, but he’ll get off easy. We need every able
body we’ve got.”

“How’d you know?”

“How did I know you were some kind
of agents?” he asked. “I could tell as soon as I started watching
the surveillance feed. Have you ever seen a cougar cornered by
dogs?”

“No, sir.”

“I did, this
afternoon.”

“Dogs can be dangerous,” Eva
commented.

“They might hurt the cougar, but
you know what happens next.”

She nodded and rubbed her wrists.
It felt good to get the cuffs off.

Mark walked over to her, also
rubbing his wrists. He had a slight grin on his face.

They stepped back and watched the
guards put everything back together. It took them over fifteen
minutes and by then, Eva’s former guard had woken up and risen to
his feet. His face and shirt were covered in blood. Eva hoped she’d
broken his nose.

He glared at her and she pointedly
ignored him, knowing that would infuriate him further.

Eventually he was handcuffed and
placed in the major’s vehicle. The major shook Mark’s hand and the
two exchanged smiles.

“I hope you’re off to do something
important,” the major said. “Someone needs to.”

“We’ll try.”

“Fighting aliens, maybe?” the
major asked.

Mark shrugged. “We’ll
see.”

“Good luck. May God be with
you.”

“Thank you.”

Eva added a thank you also and
climbed back into the jeep. Even her Glock had been returned to the
spot where she’d tried unsuccessfully to hide it.

The gate went up, the tire
shredders went down, and they were on their way again. Mark drove
ninety.

When they were out of range of the
machine gun, he slowed down to a normal seventy.

“What was that between you and
that major?” Eva asked.

“He looked like a pro. Former
agent. Or maybe special forces. Not sure.”

“What’s he doing as a weekend
warrior?”

“Who knows? Maybe he just wanted a
quiet retirement. They’re not all losers.”

The back of Eva’s head wanted to
argue with him. It still hurt. She definitely should have kept her
mouth shut. She looked at her hands and her fingers were bruising.
She was lucky Shay hadn’t hit her harder.

She wiggled her fingers for a
while and nothing seemed to be broken.

After that she sat back in her
seat, quiet, reviewing the entire incident. She considered what she
might have done differently, besides not trying to antagonize her
guard. She worried about their next encounter.

“If the Utahns are getting that
touchy, can you imagine what the rest of the country is like?” she
asked.

“I don’t want to.”

Eva’s thoughts troubled her. The
major’s comparison of her to a cougar also bothered her, although
it flattered a little. She finally voiced what was on her
mind.

“Would we really have killed all
of them if the cavalry hadn’t arrived?”

“If that’s what it took,” Mark
replied. “I don’t know how we would have dealt with the machine
gun, though.”

“He’s what kept me from trying
anything. He seemed to be the only one on his toes.”

“It’s only gonna get worse. And
there probably won’t be cavalry next time,” Mark said.

“What are you suggesting? We shoot
first and ask questions later?”

“If that’s what it takes,” Mark
replied grimly. “If that’s what it takes.”

15

The hospital was dark.

None of the street lights in the
empty parking area were on. Jayla pulled up to the emergency room
entrance and tried to look inside. It was as dark inside as it was
out. There were no ambulances anywhere.

She sat in her SUV for a while
looking at the sliding glass doors. They were mostly closed, an
inch or less gap between them.

Jayla felt alone.

The entire town must have
evacuated and that had included the small, rural hospital. No one
sat inside to help Jayla with her sister. No one waited to rush out
with a stretcher to put her sister on, to give her an IV or feed
her somehow like Jayla couldn’t. No one stood ready to test her
sister with a rape kit that would exonerate Jayla from the beating
she gave the old man.

Like the ski resort, a large hill
stood between the hospital and the location of the meteor strike.
The facility had been spared. Rocks still littered the road
however, and Jayla wondered how far south the debris field would
extend. If she continued on, she’d be picking her way around them
in the dark.

She almost wished she’d stayed in
her father’s cabin, but being alone in the dark up there, in the
mountains with that monster, was out of the question. She shivered
thinking about it.

She checked the charge on her SUV
batteries. Too low. She wouldn’t get far without a recharge anyway.
Electrical vehicles were economical, but with no electricity for a
recharge, she wasn’t going anywhere.

Jayla tried to think logically.
Tried to ask herself the questions her father would ask her. Tried
to reason out her situation.

Nothing came.

Exhaustion overwhelmed her. She
cried for a while, still staring through the emergency room sliding
doors, hoping an answer would appear.

“Get it together, girl,” she said
aloud eventually and wiped her tears. She looked at Jada, who
stared glassily at nothing. She put her hand on her sister’s arm
and told her she loved her and would be right back. With the
shotgun in one hand and a flashlight in the other, Jayla carefully
stepped out of the SUV and locked the doors behind her.

She shone the flashlight through
the glass doors, but the dim beam didn’t reveal anything helpful to
her. She was grateful at least that she didn’t have to worry about
zombies hiding behind closed doors.

The doors didn’t open
automatically. She chided herself for even thinking they might. No
electricity meant no electricity.

She put her hand in the gap
between the doors and pushed on one of them, but the door didn’t
move. She pushed harder. Still no movement.

She set her flashlight down,
aiming the beam at the gap, and got a better grip on the door with
her hand. She couldn’t push it. She moved to the side and tried
pulling, but the result was the same.

Trying to push or pull with the
shotgun in one hand was awkward. She reluctantly set it down. There
might not be any zombies, but there were other monsters she was
afraid of. The shotgun helped.

With both hands on the edge of the
door, she pulled. The large glass door wouldn’t budge.

She reasoned the problem
out.

She needed leverage. Something
that would help her move the door. She looked at the shotgun, and
it was a lever.

Jayla put the barrel into the gap
and pushed, worried she might break the gun in two. But the barrel
and the stock held. And the doors still didn’t move.