Afterwards.

Chapter; The Third

It had been two days since the gunfire incident. Lillith, Confetti and Ocean were all sitting on the floor, watching Atlas with a reserved expression in their eyes. Atlas flicked through her phone, desperately attempting to find as much useful information on the internet as possible, before it shut down for the rest of eternity.

She checked the hundreds of online websites, looking for any scrap of human life other than Hecate. Nothing. Then she scrolled through the social media apps. Still nothing. Atlas sighed. It was worth trying in any case. Soon enough, any hope of finding anyone's location would flicker out.

The room was entirely lit in darkness. Atlas had wanted to conserve as much energy as possible, so she hadn't bothered using the light switches or opening the fridge yet. She still had a few valuable fruits and vegetables that needed to be kept cold for as long as possible.

Subconsciously, she looked through her messages with Hecate. While Atlas was entirely capable of being in complete isolation, the human contact helped her focus her thoughts. Even if it was just slightly. The two had gotten on surprisingly well, and they had made a plan to travel to the other's house by any means necessary. Hecate lived down in Melbourne, too far for Atlas to drive to and back again without losing all her fuel. So, Hecate planned on leaving sometime within the next two weeks.

Atlas placed the phone down on the small, round table in front of her. There wasn't much to do other than wait. It'd be better to use this time for something productive. She went to open the balcony door, when a loud ping split the quiet air.

She turned around, her phone screen having lit up. She wandered eagerly over to the table again, hoping for another sign of human life, disappointed when it was, in fact, a message from Hecate. 

A feeling of annoyance bubbled in her stomach.

However, the feeling disappeared almost immediately after she read the message. Her blood turned to ice.

>Please, help, someone's in my house and they have a gun, they've killed my cat

Without losing a second, Atlas wrote back;

<I'm on my way. Stay hidden.

Atlas hadn't planned on travelling to the airport for another few weeks, but it would be faster than driving, and if Hecate was in immediate danger, there wouldn't be time to spare. She placed the phone in her pocket and went to grab an apple or two. She lived an hour away from the airport. Once she arrived, she'd need to find a Cessna 172. There were a large number of planes she knew how to fly, but the Cessna would be the fastest and most durable in this situation. Plus, its runway needed to take off was only 220m. If she found an open road, she'd be able to land it with ease.

"The plane will travel at a speed of 124 knots, and the distance between Sydney and Canberra is 246km, however we both live slightly outside of the areas, in opposite directions. Most likely 300km from each other. 300 divided by 124 is roughly... 2.5, give or take. 2.5 hours should be just enough to fly over there, pick her up and fly her back here. Just have to hope there's enough space over there to land the plane."

Atlas paused for a moment, going over the calculations in her head. She nodded to herself, then sprinted the pick up the firearm kept in one of the cupboards. It was difficult to get a license for them in Australia, but Atlas was surprisingly convincing, as well as paranoid. The thought of them taking her back to the course scared her beyond reason. 

Lillith stood immediately and galloped behind her as she ran down the stairs. There wouldn't be a need to fill the food bowls. She'd be back in roughly 5 hours, if everything ran smoothly. With her luck, however, it probably wouldn't. She opened the car door for Lillith and hopped in after her, opening the garage door with a clicker.

Atlas couldn't for the life of her navigate on her own. You could drop her off in a grocery store and she'd still get lost.  So it panicked her seeing the low battery on her phone, the only source of direction she had. The GPS navigation built into the car had been broken for years, her parents had refused to get it fixed.

Lillith seemed to notice the grim situation and sat silently, watching the road ahead. The sun was beginning to rise, and mist surrounded the lower layer of the car. 

It would be rather lovely if there wasn't the threat of murder hanging over Atlas' head.

                                                                                   ~~~~~~~~

They had finally made it to the airport. There had been a delay of half an hour, Atlas' phone having run out of batteries, causing her to become hopelessly lost. Thankfully, she had recognised a bridge nearby, which led her swiftly to the correct area.

Atlas and Lillith jumped out of the car, abandoning it completely. There wouldn't be a point in going back for it, now that they had a plane. In the worst case scenario, she steal one from a neighbour's house. Crime was a necessary activity as of now.

She wandered through the empty halls, filled with an eerie sense that travelled through her veins. The once bustling airport was now dead silent, the intercom system occasionally crackling with static. It made her skin crawl. Lillith gazed around with Atlas' fear reflected in her eyes.

Eventually, they arrived at the gate that would lead down to the Cessna.

 By this point, they had spent almost two hours getting here, the extra half an hour accounting for the time spent searching the airport. That was one hour longer than Atlas had planned on spending.

Hecate could be dead right now.

She shook her head. She was here already, negativity wouldn't be enough to turn her around. The nagging doubts in her head tended to disagree, however.

The girl and the dog made it to the grounds of the runway, and Atlas immediately recognised the model of plane she had flown constantly a few years ago. Relief washed over her. Not much seemed very normal at this point, but this was the same plane as before. It was familiar.

She lifted Lillith through the door and strapped them both in. Turning the plane in the direction of the runway, her doubts came back at full force. What if she wasn't ready to fly? What if she crashed the plane and left Hecate to die in the process? She shook her head again.

She hadn't received an official plane license out of luck. She knew what she was doing.

Storm clouds began brewing in the distance, yet if the sound of thunder was apparent, Atlas had drowned it out. Her brain locked into place and her fingers flew across the controls, unlocking the landing break and increasing the acceleration to maximum.

Moments later, the Cessna 172 began climbing through the air, with Atlas and Lillith still safely inside. Two more hours and they'd make it to Hecate, Atlas thought as she punched in the coordinates. Just stay alive for two more hours.

The thunder rumbled ominously in the distance.