Flight

Chapter 18

Flying for five hours gave Kallisto lots of time to think. She couldn't believe what had happened. She was almost happy that she was separate from her friends because she didn't want to hurt anyone. At the same time, however, she wished she could be next to them. It was depressingly quiet in the sky. She almost regretted refusing Marcus's offer to sit on the roof.

As she soared above the van, she looked around. The land around her had changed fast from dry desert to grassland. It was amazing how quickly the landscape could change.

Just like her own mood.

Kallisto couldn't stop beating herself up over the incident. She had been perfectly conscious during the entire thing. She could have stopped. But noooooo, she had to keep beating the dead horse. She had to make it worse. She had to hurt her friend. She wished she could take it back. Take back everything that she said and did. Allison didn't deserve to be treated like that. She was her best friend.

She was knocked out of her thoughts by the sound of a siren about a hundred feet below. She looked down to see a cop behind the van. She flew lower until she could see the driver in the side view mirror.

It was Marcus.

What was he doing driving? The others new of his fear of driving, didn't they? Then his words hit her like a sack of bricks. I didn't want to seem like a buzz kill.

Marcus, Kallisto thought, why do you have to be like that?

She glided down to the ground and landed softly behind the police car. She watched as the officer got out and walked to the van's window. She heard the officer ask if Marcus knew he was going too fast. When Marcus denied, he was asked for a license and registration. Marcus's face turned white. Kallisto figured that now would be a good time to make an appearance.

She ran behind the van. Then, calculating her movements carefully, she ran to the officer and punched him in the throat. That made him crumple onto the floor like a rag doll. She told Marcus to scoot into the passenger seat and she sat in the driver's seat. She sped off at almost light speed. By the time the cop was fully conscious and standing upright, Kallisto was almost fifteen miles away.

"Wha-where did you come from?" Marcus asked. "How did you know we needed you?"

"Let's just say I'm a good guardian angel." Kallisto looked behind her and saw that the officer was chasing them. "Lovely. Well, hold on to all of your valuables, this is going to be a fun ride."

Kallisto stomped on the gas. The meter steadily rose until it was over ninety-five miles per hour. The van hit a bump that launched them higher than it was supposed to. They came down so hard that Allison hit her head on the back of Kallisto's seat.

"Ow!" She screeched.

Kallisto turned around, shrugged, and said, "I told you to hold on to your valuables."

"LOOK OUT!" Marcus screamed. A slower car was right in front of them and they were closing in on it fast. Kallisto swerved so hard that they ended up on the opposing side of the freeway. Cars were zooming towards them while honking and screeching to stops.

"You're on the wrong side!" Allison squealed.

"I know what I'm doing!" Kallisto yelled back.

"Don't kill me! I have a life to live!" Blake sobbed.

"I can't go back, the cop is there," Kallisto said.

"We're going to die on this side!" Marcus yelled. He reached for the steering wheel and gave it a yank. Kallisto started pulling on it too. They swerved over the median a few times before Allison screamed, "Stop playing pinball and CHOOSE A SIDE!"

"Fine!" Kallisto roared, letting go of the steering wheel. This led to Marcus pulling on the wheel hard. The van hit a pothole, flipped three times, then landed back on its wheels.

"Whoa..." Kallisto said, awestruck, "that just happened."

"The cop is right behind us!" Allison exclaimed. "GO! GO! GO!"

Kallisto stepped on the gas pedal and they sped off. They raced past unsuspecting drivers. They didn't know what was happening until the police car passed them too. It was hard to maintain their speed because the cars around them were going almost twenty miles per hour slower.

Kallisto looked behind her to see if the police had given up. He had not. In fact, he had two more cars with him. Perfect. Then an idea formed in her head.

"Hey, Marcus, how far are we from state line?"

"We are about twenty miles away. Why?"

"They can't cross the border." Kallisto said happily. "How long will it take us to get to the border at our speed?"

"Umm..."

"Roughly twelve minutes." Blake said confidently.

"Sweet," Kallisto said with a smirk, "I can roll with that."

Kallisto pushed hard on the gas pedal. She swerved around cars trying to loose the cops. The cars almost never moved out of the way. They seemed almost more "in the way" than normal. Just then, something beeped. A light on the dashboard turned on.

"What's that?" Kallisto asked Marcus.

"We have a flat tire." Marcus said.

"WHAT?"

"Well, maybe if you guys hadn't been playing ping-pong on the median..." Allison sighed.

"Don't start." Kallisto said, sternly. Allison huffed and crossed her arms. Kallisto glared at the light. "How are we going to fix the tire? More importantly, how are we going to get away?"

"Yeah." Blake agreed. "It's already slowing us down."

"Just try to go fast." Marcus said.

"I'll try," Kallisto said. She pushed as hard as she could on the gas pedal. Not long after, she saw pieces of torn tire fly up behind them.

"I think we need to stop to change the tire, guys," Kallisto said. As if on cue, the police said on the loud speaker, "pull over and change your tire."

Kallisto kept going, though. She could see the state line sign that said Missouri. She needed to get across. She knew what she had to do.

She slammed on her brakes.

"Why did--" before Marcus could finish, the police zoomed past them. The police realized their mistake too late. Kallisto was already on the opposing side, going roughly fifty miles per hour. She crossed the border. She was no longer under their jurisdiction.

She drove on for twelve miles to ensure that they were safely inside of the state. Once they were safe, Kallisto pulled over.

"Now what?" She asked.

"I packed an extra tire," Blake said. Everyone turned and glared at him.

"Why didn't you tell me before?" Kallisto asked, frustrated.

"Because I just remembered." Blake said with a stupid smile plastered on his mug. Marcus face palmed.

Allison messed up his hair. "You really are blond."

This led to everyone cracking up.
"Allison, why are you so rude?" Kallisto asked.

"Because it's funny."