Flight

Day 3 - Zach

"What are we gonna do?" Chrissie asked me slowly, I was still by her bedside after two hours when she asked me this. "What d'you mean?" I said, half asleep. She looked up at the ceiling 

"We only have seventeen days... That's not very long." 

"I don't know what we're going to do, we need to find more kids. Nice ones." 

"Still. Seventeen days is only 408 hours, or 24480 minutes. That's not long at all."

"When you say it like that."

"Stop!" I yelled, I sounded angry but I didn't want to, I had been patrolling the kids wards when I found a boy who looked about my age, maybe a little younger, he turned around, he looked terrified and then carried on walking. I ran up to him, "I desperately need your help." I told him

"But you don't know me," he was walking with a crutch, I suspected that was why he was in hospital. I sighed at his comment. "Duh." I said slowly, "I just need a band of kids, to help me find someone  who is missing and we only have seventeen days, please help, we're looking for a 6 year old named Katerina who went missing in an accident. And we can't do it unless we get lots of people's help." He smiled

"Oh I'd love to help, since it seems like a cause very close to home." I frowned.

"What do you mean?" I asked him, the smile faded from his small face and he went to sit down quietly. "You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." He shook his head

"I have to get used to telling the story, otherwise I'll keep it locked up... And that's no good." I nodded

"Why don't you tell me a bit about yourself first." He shrugged

"My name is Zach, I'm 12 years old and I don't live too far from here, I am in hospital because of an injury in my foot. And it's my fault my sister is gone." 

"What?" I asked slowly, I meant to sound sympathetic but it came out slightly scared. 

"My sister, Eleanor, she was only 4. And it was last summer, it was really, really hot one night and I didn't want her to be hot. I went into her room and opened the window, that night someone came in and took her. And I'll never forgive myself."

"That's not so bad... I mean it's not your fault." Zach nodded

"But it is, I opened the window, the window which the person crawled through, we tried to look for Eleanor... She was found... But she was dead." 

"But wait, you said you didn't want her to be hot... You only meant to help her." Zach  took a deep breath. "But I killed her."

"Don't do this to yourself. It's not fair, to live with that kind of burden." Zach looked like he was in some sort of trance, his eyes fixed on a spot straight ahead and when he spoke there was no emotion, but hollow words. "But I will always live with it. Forever. That's why I'll help, maybe if I do this good thing, and help find somebody elses sister, the weight of the world will lay off a bit." I smiled at him

"I'm so glad you'll help, I don't know how many other kids we'll be able to find, but they're demolishing the crash landing site, where the plane crashed, in seventeen days. That's not very long."