The Last Tribe (70 page)

Peter’s voice interrupted the
movie.  “About an hour, stretch your legs if you need to.”

The adults were antsy and nervous. 
The kids, entering their twelfth hour of media, were ready to get off the
plane.  Even the animals in the back grew increasingly restless. 

Kelly did not want to use
additional tranquilizers or sedatives on the animals.  She was sure she could
manage them for another hour, probably close to three hours at their current
doses.  Her biggest concern was the bull.  If he woke, he would get rowdy with
the cows and surrounding animals.  She assured those who came to see the
animals, that the bull would be asleep for several more hours.  Secretly, Kelly
was not as confident.  She had tranquilized horses, but never a bull.  In
theory the weight to sedative ratio should be the same, but theory and
practice?  Kelly prayed the big animal with horns and a temper would stay
asleep.

Greg and Rebecca sat quietly for
most of the flight.  They occupied seats in the last row of first class next to
a window.  Matt and Avery sat in front of them, and turned around often to pester
the couple.   Greg and Rebecca played cards, a travel version of scrabble, or
talked quietly.  Rebecca was the only one who knew Greg was secretly afraid to
fly.

Towards the middle of the flight
Matt goaded the teens into playing Monopoly.  The game lasted over three hours,
and most of the plane watched parts of the match.  The long flight reminded
Greg of the days he spent stuck in the Webster cottage, snowed in or weather
bound by negative temperatures.  If he had not been afraid of flying, the
twelve hours would have been a breeze. 

Towards the end of the flight, even
the stoic Greg felt the excitement of landing. 

“I can’t believe we are going to
make it.”  He gripped Rebecca’s hand tightly.

Matt turned around and put his palm
in the air for a high five.  Greg released Rebecca’s hand and slapped his
brother’s.  Avery knelt backwards in her chair to face them. 

“This is so exciting!”  She
practically yelled.

Craig wandered into first class
from the video game marathon. 

“Are we almost there?”  He asked. 
His eyes were wide open and bloodshot as if he had watched television for a
week. 

“Better grab a seat, Craig.  We are
about to land.”  Matt pointed to the aisle seat next to Rebecca.

“Do we know what we are going to do
when we land?  Are there going to be cars?  Do we know where we’re going to
stay the first night?  I’m hungry.  Can someone get me a drink?”

Rebecca stared at the boy.  He was young,
but should not have whined like a four year old.  “You can go grab some chips
or crackers up there.”  Rebecca pointed towards the steward’s area.  She had
never been as helpless as Craig appeared to be.

Craig asked if others would like
something, and despite the ‘no’ replies, he brought back two boxes of goldfish,
an assortment of chips, and bottles of water. 

“So what are we going to do when we
land?”  He asked again.

Matt put a chip in his mouth. 
“Well, we’ve done some advanced planning.  Don’t get too worried.  Tony was
smart enough to load five new car batteries into the hold.  We will swap out
dead batteries and get cars or vans working.  We have studied guide books and
found several places for tonight.  It’s going to be afternoon when we arrive,
but we’ll be exhausted.  We just want beds for the night.  Food?  Eat what you
can right now.  I believe we are hoping for fruit and other things to
materialize tomorrow.  I doubt we’ll do dinner tonight.”

Peter’s voice came over the speaker
again.  “If you look out your window, you’ll be able to see the islands of
Hawaii.  We’ll fly lower over Honolulu.  We should be on the ground in less
than 20 minutes.  I have received clearance from the tower.  We are number one
to land.” 

Some of the adults chuckled.  Craig
did not understand.  “But there aren’t any other planes.”  He said to Matt.

“That’s the joke.”  Matt told him. 
“Anyway, yes, we are ready for when we land.  I’m not sure it’s going to be a
bang bang operation, but we know what we’re doing.”  He looked at Avery.  “You
have any idea how excited I am to be warm?  I haven’t been warm in like six
months.”

“You’ve been cold?  I was in New
York, you were in South Carolina.”  Avery rolled her eyes at him.  “It’s going
to be incredible.  I might run into the ocean with all my clothes on.”  she had
a grin on her face, as did everyone in the first class section. 

The excitement was palpable. 

Peter looked out the window.  An
hour ago he was exhausted, falling asleep in his chair.  Now he was full of
energy, ready to land the bird.  “You see anyone?”  He asked Ahmed.

“No smoke, no cars moving. 
Nothing.”  Ahmed slept for most of the trip from Los Angeles to Seattle to be
rested and ready to help while they were over the ocean.  He looked out the
window at the large city.  Honolulu was below them as Peter had brought the
plane in low.  He dropped the landing gear and the last fliers fell from the
plane. 

Peter brought the plane higher to
allow him to see the Lihue runway from an appropriate distance.  He pointed to
the island.  “There she is.”  Peter grabbed Ahmed’s upper arm and began shaking
it back and forth.  “God damn, there she is.  We made it.  I had my doubts, but
we god damn made it!”

Ahmed turned.  “Wait, what?  You
had your doubts?  What do you mean?”

“Nothing, never mind, I’ll tell you
over a tall glass of pineapple juice, just get ready to pull the cord on that
emergency door and feel the heat of the sun.”  Peter studied the maps of Kauai
and knew the location of the airport, as well as the direction of the runway. 
It did not matter which end of the runway he started his landing, those rules
were gone.  Peter knew Lihue was equipped to handle 777 landings, but he was
not sure how much wiggle room he had to stop the plane.  There was a difference
between ‘you can’ land the plane and ‘it’s easy’ to land the plane.

The runway stretched ahead of
them.  It was clear of planes and apparent obstacles.  “I’m glad we timed this
correctly.  Arriving at night would have been problem.”  He chuckled.

Ahmed was not amused.  “Exactly how
many concerns did you have that you did not voice?” 

Peter touched down as close to the
beginning of the runway as possible.  When all of the wheels were on solid
ground, he slowed the plane.  He did not stop at the end of the runway.  He turned
the jumbo jet towards the airport. 

Screams of joy erupted from the
cabin.

Ahmed patted Peter’s shoulder. 
“Great landing, Captain.  Great flying.”

 “Thank you Ahmed.  It was my
pleasure.”  He steered the plane next to a stair truck, parking a few feet from
a gate ramp. 

The strong and stoic pilot powered
down the engines, put his face in his hands, and sobbed. 

Antonio opened the door of the
plane.  Hot air blew inside and hit him in the face. 

“Damn, it’s hot here.  I mean, it’s
like 80 or 85.”  He pulled an emergency handle, inflating a giant yellow slide
from the doorway, and creating a path to the ground.  He cradled a car battery
tightly on his chest, both of his arms curled around it like he was holding a
baby.  He sat down on the side of the plane, extended his feet out, and inched
his behind onto the slide.  When his butt was off the end, he slowly made his
way down.  He used his feet to moderate his speed.   He set the battery on the
ground and turned around. 

John and Hank looked down at him.

“It’s all good.”  Antonio yelled to
them.  “Let me get the truck started and I’ll bring the stairs over.” 

John jumped out and slid down to the
tarmac.  “You think you get all the fun?”  They made their way over to the stair
truck.  “What do you want to do, get the stairs over and then see if we can get
the ramp?” 

“Yeah, let me get the truck going. 
We can get everyone off, and I’ll move the ramp over so Kelly can walk the
animals into the terminal.”  The keys were in the stair truck ignition.  Antonio
expected them to be.  He turned the key, and got a respectable light up of the
dash, but the truck did not turn over.  He popped the hood, and installed the
new battery.  The truck turned over immediately.  With John’s direction,
Antonio guided the stairs flush against the rear door of the plane. 

John ran up the stairs and knocked
on the door.  It popped open with Emily’s smiling face on the other side.

“Welcome to paradise, ma’am. 
Please watch your step.” 

Emily nodded to her brother in
law.  She held a second battery and wore a set of jumper cables around her heck
neck like a scarf.  She walked down the stairs towards Antonio. 

“Tony!”  She yelled over the wind
on the tarmac.  “Let’s find a vehicle!” 

Antonio got out of the truck and
met her for the walk.  “Are we looking for a big hotel van?  Maybe two vans?” 
He asked her.

“We’re looking for something that
will start.  That’s the first priority, Tony.  A vehicle we can get started
after it’s been sitting in the sun and salt air.”

Antonio took the battery from her. 
It was the chivalrous thing to do.  Lihue was a small airport, closer in size to
Lebanon than Manchester or Boston. 

Emily found it was too hot to exert
herself beyond walking quickly.

“It’s warm, huh?  I’m not used to
this much heat.”  Beads of sweat formed on her forehead.  They made their way
to a large parking area.  There were rental cars, rental vans, hotel vans, and
a local shuttle van.  Emily pointed to the shuttle.  It was large enough to
bring the entire group.  “Can we start one car and jump a few more off of that
battery?  I know we’ll probably take two or three groups from here.”

“It’s all about finding the keys.” 
He told her.  They walked to the shuttle.  It was parked in the fire lane, left
in what appeared to be a hurry.  Antonio pried the bus doors open and searched
for keys.  He came up empty.  He was drenched in sweat.  “Let’s go with our first
plan, hit the rental counter where we know there are car keys.  It’s too hot to
mess around like this.”

“I agree.”  Emily was in shorts and
a tee shirt, and was still warm.  The sudden climate change was too much for
her body to handle.  She followed Antonio towards the terminal, leaving the
jumper cables next to the car battery he put down on the sidewalk.

They approached the rental car
area.  Antonio walked behind the counter and opened a cabinet holding dozens of
car keys. 

“We want SUV’s, right?”

“Yeah, for now.”  She answered,
wiping her forehead again.

Antonio pawed through a cabinet of
keys on the wall, pulling off chains with SUV models scribbled on the white
tabs; Tahoe, Escalade, Explorer, Expedition.  He handed the keys to Emily. 

“That’s seven, good enough for
now.”  She flicked her head in a ‘let’s go back out’ motion.  Emily looked
around the airport.  It was empty.  There were no bodies, no bags, nothing. 

Antonio put one set of keys in his
pocket, a mustang convertible.  He was going to drive the car until it stopped
working.  Emily was already outside, and he hurried to catch up with her. 

Dan and Ahmed stood on the curb
waiting for them.

“How incredible is this?”  Dan
asked.  “No humidity, 80 degrees, unbelievable!”

“I thought there might be bodies or
something, but this place is empty, deserted.  Now that I think of it, I didn’t
see any planes.” 

Antonio looked at her.  “What’s the
first vehicle?” 

She held up a set of keys and
clicked the panic button.  Lights on an SUV in the second row flashed weakly,
the horn gave a half hearted blare before stopping.

“I’d say that battery is dead.” 
Antonio picked up their new battery and walked to the vehicle. 

Emily used the key to unlock the
door.  She popped the hood and waited for the boy to do his magic. 

“Try it.”  He told her after a
minute under the hood.

Emily turned the key, and the SUV
came to life.  “Yes.”  She said to herself.  The fuel tank was full, as they
hoped all of the rental cars would to be.  She cranked the air conditioning,
and waited to see what Antonio wanted to do.

“Keys?”  He asked her.  “I want to
see if we have the ones for the trucks on either side of this one, you know,
make it easy to jump.”

“I’ll go back inside and get
them.”  Dan walked behind the two trucks and noted the license plates, makes,
and models.  “I’ll be right back.” 

Antonio took a spot in the air
conditioned car until he saw the lights flicker in the SUV to his left.  He got
out and opened its door, popped the hood, and jump started the car.  With a
system developed, they soon had seven SUV’s running. 

Antonio pulled the new battery from
the first SUV, inserted the old battery, and jumped it from one of the running
vehicles.  He walked the new battery into the terminal to use on the telescoping
ramp. 

From the windows in the terminal he
saw everyone was off the plane.  Supplies, food, and water brought for their
initial days, were rolled down the yellow inflatable slide.  Antonio watched
three SUV’s drive onto the tarmac.  The little kids jumped in the air with
excitement and the adults clapped.

Antonio looked down at his watch,
already switched it to local time.  It was 5:30.  He was exhausted, but like
the rest, he had work to do.  He had to get the gate door open, the ramp motor
working, and the ramp over to the plane for Kelly to walk the animals off the
jet.

They also had to find a place to
sleep tonight. 

Despite the work ahead of him,
Antonio was excited and happy.  He did not believe they would make it to the
island.  He was prepared to die in the air, or have the plane land in a city
somewhere other than Lihue.  He never believed he would be standing on a
tropical island at the end of their day.  Antonio was a pessimist, often proven
wrong, but correct enough times to believe he was ‘unlucky.’  His pessimism led
him to ‘just join a gang and get it over with, you’re screwed anyway.’ 

He was happy to be wrong.  The
scene on the tarmac, watching Cameron, Wendy, and Bridget jumping up and down,
clapping their hands, made him feel warm inside.  He banged on the windows from
the terminal until the people turned and looked at him.  Antonio began to dance
a goofy, out of character happy dance.  Within seconds the young kids emulated
his moves and the adults smiled and laughed.

His dance over, Antonio returned to
his task at hand.  He turned the handle on the gate door, expecting to find it
locked.  It was open.

“This must be my day.”  He said
aloud.

 He walked down the corridor to the
telescoping booth close to his plane.  He was four feet away from the door.  He
could have jumped, but the cows and pigs needed to walk.  He popped open the
access panel on the control system, finding the same red and green wires he
identified in Manchester.  He hooked the wires to the battery.  There were no
lights or sounds letting him know he had power.  Antonio grabbed the control
knob, said a quick prayer, and pushed it in the direction of the plane.  The
compartment moved. 

When the ramp was against the
plane, Antonio knocked on the door.  He heard the lock click and levers turn on
the other side.  He could have opened the door himself, but it was easier to
unlock from inside.  The door popped open and Peter stuck out his hand. 

“Great work, son.  Great work.”

Peter looked exhausted.  The
adrenaline rush that carried the old man through the last hours of the flight
was gone, leaving the 68 year old haggard and tired. 

“You’re the hero, Pete.  You the
man today.”  Antonio displayed rare emotion, wrapping his arms around Peter in
an unsolicited hug.  “You earned the king size bed tonight.”

Peter hugged the boy back.  He
hoped to stay awake long enough to find a bed, any bed, let alone a king sized
bed. 

“Follow me, Peter, I’ll take you to
one of the cars, drive you around to the group.  You’ve done enough driving for
one day.”  Antonio kept his arm around the tall man, letting Peter shift some
of his weight to him.  Antonio could tell the man was almost asleep on his
feet.  They walked through the airport and towards the largest of their SUV’s available. 

“Jump in the backseat and lay
down.  We’ve been napping all day.  You take a break.”

Peter did exactly that.  He was a
former soldier and long haul commercial pilot.  His body was used to exerting
itself up to and beyond the point of exhaustion, then collapsing for recovery. 
Peter climbed into the third row of the large SUV, used his hands for a pillow,
and fell asleep within seconds.

Antonio jumped into the driver’s
seat and brought the car around to the airplane.  He exited the SUV quietly,
pushing the door shut softly.  He let everyone know that Peter was asleep in
the back.

The group stuck to their plan; get
off the plane, get the animals off the plane and somewhere near the airport
with food and water, find shelter, sleep. 

The road system on Kauai was not
intricate.  The adults studied and memorized the area while in Hanover.  Six
SUV’s pulled away from the jumbo jet, four trunks carried chickens, one trunk
had goats, and the last brought food and water.  Hubba sat between Emily and
Todd in a front seat.

Hank, Kelly, Paul, Karen, and Dan
remained at the airport to tend to the cows, bull, and hogs.  They waved as the
SUV’s pulled away, promising to be close behind. 

Kelly led the groggy bull off of
the plane and towards baggage claim.  The animals were spending the night free
range in Lihue’s empty airport.  It was an open area that did not have glass
windows.  A breeze blew through the transoms.  The area was warm, but would be
fine for the evening. 

“We’re going to be back tomorrow. 
These animals aren’t going anywhere.”  Kelly pointed towards benches and
tables, directing the construction of makeshift pens to segregate the pigs from
the cows and the bull.

 “Anyone want to hit the beach?” 
Dan wore a smile and a bathing suit.  His sweat soaked shirt clutched in his
left hand.

“Hell yes!”  Hank replied, pulling
off his sweaty t-shirt.

They jumped into the last SUV,
rolled down the windows, and headed towards the initial meeting spot, a beach
resort near the airport.  The survivors banked on finding a few empty rooms in
the massive hotel. 

Dan pointed to black smoke rising
in the distance.  He drove towards the smoke and they pulled up to the resort
within a few minutes. 

Dan drove up to the check-in
circle, jumped the curb, and steered  towards the beach.  He used sidewalks and
open areas, passed a black muck filled pool, and stopped at the top of the
sand.  A bonfire blazed on the beach while everyone swam or waded in the ocean.

“It looks like they started without
us.”  Paul unbuttoned his madras shirt. 

“So much for our list of
priorities.”  Kelly opened her door and walked towards the water.

The latecomers nodded to Peter,
resting comfortably in a lounge chair near the fire, and waded towards a
gathering of people. 

“Welcome to your new home.”  Bernie
said to Kelly, putting her arms around her in a hug.  “It’s been a long trip.”

“So the whole idea of finding beds
for the night?  We’ll do that when?”  Hank asked Todd, standing with Emily and
watching the children splash around in the water.

“See those cabanas?  We can sleep
in those.”  Todd pointed to a dozen beach cabanas with fabric draping down
their sides.  Hank was about to respond before Todd started again.  “I know, I
know, we’re being the grasshopper and not the ant.  Look, it’s been a long
day.  We’re in Hawaii.  Tomorrow is going to be another long day of hard work. 
Let’s blow off some steam.” 

Hank looked at the beautiful sandy
beach and the inviting Pacific ocean.  An abandoned resort sat behind them.  The
goats were tied to a tree and munching on tropical plants.  Hank gave his
brother a pat on the back before diving into the water.  He popped out of the
water and waded towards the goats.  He wanted to see what they were eating.

“Pineapples.”  Hank said to himself
when he got close enough to the plants.  “Son of a gun, there are pineapples
everywhere.”  He scanned the area and saw that coconuts littered the ground
around the palm trees, while bunches of green orbs hung high above the ground, below
the fronds. 

“Todd!”  He yelled back to the
ocean.  “You have a chef’s knife in one of the trucks?”

“The one without chickens.  It’s in
the box with the cookware.  Why?”  Todd cupped his hands around his mouth to
cut through the noise of a stiff breeze.