Hiraeth: Cities To Embers

3.8 - Québec Overhead

She stood silently at the desk.
The lady sitting on the other side looked at her, "are you alright miss? Do you have a reservation?"
She spoke softly with an Irish accent, "yes I do."
The lady nodded, looking at her, "ah yes, here you are... Doctor... Alison Malarkey?"
Alison nodded, "yes."
The lady tapped on her keyboard, "you are flying... first class to Barcelona international airport. Correct?"
Alison nodded, "yes."
The lady smiled, "thank you for flying with Heathrow Air today, enjoy your stay in Barcelona."

Alison glared, "goodbye," she stepped away, "good luck."
The lady continued to smile, her eyes now shifting, "what?"
Alison looked at her ticket and at the clock on the wall.

There was a small group watching a TV screen.

A woman in the group whispered, "is that America? Is this a prank? Why are they all on the ground?"
Alison sighed, continuing silently toward the plane.

Hours Later

Johnathan began banging on the door to the cockpit, "hey! We need to turn back! We left people behind!"
Alison stood silently beside him.

Liam sighed and stood up, "call me if anything happens."
Sophia nodded.

As Liam opened the door, Johnathan rushed in, "we have to go back."
"There's nowhere to land." Liam's voice was blunt.
Johnathan muttered, "we have to go back. You left people behind."
Sophia turned around, "we had to leave them behind. A plane almost crashed right into us..." she turned back to the control panel, "we can't go back. When this blows over, we will send for someone to go back for them."
Johnathan sputtered his words, "a-and what if... what if it doesn't blow over? What if it's real and-and you left Lucy there? Her son is here."
"We will make sure somebody gets them."

"Yeah and what about me... and Adam and Adrien? You took us from our hometown and we don't even know where we're going. Adam is twelve years old. He is terrified."
Liam scoffed, "we're all terrified. We have no idea what is happening... you were watching it on the news, right? We didn't. We have no idea what is happening outside right now. I have a wife and a son... I'm terrified because I have no idea if they'll be there when I get home."

Johnathan glared at him, "I have a wife and son too. I want to be with them again... I don't want to go with you, I want to go to the evacuation site. Take me there and I'll take Adrien and Adam... then you can all go back to England."

Sophia sighed, "that's if we can find the evacuation sites."
Johnathan spoke with hesitation in his voice, "what... do you mean?"
Liam glanced out the window and with a blank expression he replied, "we're picking up nothing about evacuation sites... more and more frequencies are switching off, shutting down or playing the same shit: some playing old records, some quoting the bible, some just playing national anthems... that's about it."

Johnathan's expression was cold, "so what now? You're making me drag two kids around the entire damn planet?"
Sophia answered, "there's nothing else we can do now. As the pilots, we have a duty... a responsibility. It is literally our job to keep these passengers safe while on this flight."
"Well right now... you need to think about what the passengers want."
"All of these passengers are European... we are returning to Europe. That's that."

Liam sighed, "I'm going to the toilet."
Sophia waved weakly with a sigh, "this is... certainly an experience."

Johnathan sat in the chair behind her, "so what exactly is the plan? I overheard these two passengers speaking... there was a fire in Barcelona? What exactly do you plan to do if we can't land anywhere? What if wherever you decide to land is just as bad as what happened in Gander?"

She paused for a moment. There was a stillness in the air between them.
"If what happened there happens again... everybody on this plane will die," she sighed pitifully, "I'm not going to sugarcoat it... that's the long and short of it. We have limited fuel, limited supplies... we had two more routes and then this plane was supposed to be taken out of service there... I honestly don't think this plane will last much longer. We're lucky if we get back to London in this thing without it smashing into the ground."

Johnathan questioned, "if you were going to Barcelona, why did you have so much fuel? Enough to get all the way to Canada?"
"This is a 787. We were supposed to have way more passengers... up to eighty, and I was supposed to get off in Barcelona and Liam was supposed to head off to Detroit."

She heaved a heavy sigh, glancing at the radars, "yeah... and by the look of things, we're not far from passing it."
Johnathan glanced over, "so can't we land at Detroit? You can drop me and the boys off... and we can figure it out from there?"
Sophia disagreed with his idea, "not a chance. We're too far north... if we turn to Detroit, we won't have enough fuel to make it to Alaska. If we land at Detroit - which might not even be possible because of all the planes falling out the sky right now - we would get caught in the... whatever this is."

Johnathon did not surrender, "so that's it? You're gonna drag us across the planet?"
"Yes," Sophia glared at him, "we are."
Johnathan sighed, "I'm not finished here..."
He walked out of the cockpit and back towards the cabin.

As she stepped out, Alison walked towards the cockpit.
Liam walked in beside her.
After a moment of awkward silence between the three, Alison walked in and approached the silent Sophia who was still staring blankly at the maps and radars.
Alison shut the door to the cockpit.

Sophia turned around, "hello?"
"I'm Alison. We... haven't met. Sophia, I need to tell you something."
"You need to tell me something? About what?"
Alison stared silently, "about everything. There's a few things you need to know. Before we go any further."

Liam's face grew colder than it had already been.
Sophia furrowed her brow, becoming rather unnerved.

Chapter 3 - END