━━Calamity¹

seven.

chapter seven
catching up

Few hours out of Shore, among the meadows, was an airplane wreck.

Too much trouble, Simone had called scavenging a mangled up plane, too much work removing obstacles to find a way inside when they were on tight leash about the deadline Simone brought up a few days ago, but most of the group, save for Alina's ever-present reluctance, had agreed to scavenge as if the soldier's influence over them had weakened.

Now, staring through the windows of the the creaky hull overgrown with vines and greenery, rusted and bent, Alina noted packed suitcases of clothes and different backpacks strewn across the plane floor, most of them opened and scavanged. She hoped they would find something more of use, and joined Mikkael and Felix attempting to open the door while Denise walked around the hull in an attempt to find some other way inside.

"Shit won't let up." Felix commented, pushing his shoulder into the door.

"Other doors?"

"Only one. Probably locked from the inside."

Alina stared between the lock and the axe that hung loosely on her trousers. She waved a hand toward the two as if telling them to step away, swung the axe over the lock a few times before a click echoed and the door screeched open.

She patted Mikkael's shoulder and gave a smile to Felix before shouldering open the door to step inside — the blue carpeted floor, strewn with useless clothing, suitcases and abandoned items, squeaked beneath her boots, the white seats dusty with grime of age. She picked a backpack from the ground to rummage through it, finding a halfway torn book from which she tore a few pages for kindling and continued down the narrow passageway through the plane.

Alina opened the door leading into the captain's cabin and rummaged through the few compartments without much luck, for whatever useful items had been on the plane were long scavanged. She settled into the captain's seat to stare at the innumerable controls before looking through the glass toward the field that was barely visible due to the vines above.

Felix entered the cabin and threw her a plaid button-up and a pair of fingerless gloves, settling into the co-captain's seat with his hands on the buttons clicking aimlessly.

"Always said I was gonna be a pilot one day after we leave New Hope." He leaned on the command table with a nostalgic expression, lips in a thin line and eyes almost glossy.

Alina laughed, shrugging off her jacket to dress into the button-up and sitting back down. "We had dreams, Lix."

He smiled. "You still have them."

"One of us has to."

"And you're just as annoying as before."

"Says the guy who begged me to let him meet Wendy." They laughed, all the worries about survival, Crawlers and Simone's mess with Dante as if melting away, for in that moment it was just them and the memories of the past sweeter than any dream.

Alina grew serious then, placing a hand beneath her chin as she glanced at Felix only to see him already staring at her with that questioning glint in his eyes. "You ever wonder where she is now?" She asked.

"It's been a while. I'm pretty sure she's married." Felix answered, his voice soft.

"Me too. Remington, wasn't it? The detective's older son?"