For the first time in a long time, Milford woke up to land. Well, he didn't exactly wake up to land, he woke up to Pablo's face looking down on him. "We're here," they said as if it was no big deal.
Milford was so excited that he did a sit-up to get up faster. He ran to the bow to see where they were docked. There were beautiful, white buildings that looked stacked upon each other, all with red roofs and many windows. He also noticed numerous people walking alongside them, most of them tourists holding iPhones and cameras in their hands.
Ajax was behind him looking like he hadn't slept in ages. Milford turned around and asked, "Did Max ever apologize to you?"
"I'm not telling," Ajax grumped.
Max walked by Milford, completely ignoring Ajax as if they weren't there. "Max, how are we gonna get Ajax through all of this land without people freaking out?" Milford asked them.
"They said something about swimming around Africa and places like that to meet us in China," Milford heard Pablo say in the distance.
"Wow," Max mumbled. "Wait, you can swim for that long and that far without getting tired or anything?" Milford asked Ajax.
"Yeah," Xiam murmured, still sounding mad.
This didn't impress Milford.
"Okay, you two. Apologize. Now." Milford felt too much like the adults he usually hated for doing this kind of thing, but he didn't care because he was just too annoyed with both of them.
Immediately, both Ajax and Max started to protest, both saying that they didn't do anything, which was pointless.
"Damn it, just say you're sorry!" Pablo was the one who said this. Ajax and Max could both tell that Milford and Pablo were clearly annoyed with them both, so they shook hands, but right after they wiped them on their chests.
Pablo said it was around noon, so they had to leave in order to get a move on.
Milford saw Ajax uncaringly putting the letter Milford wrote for his parents in a bottle, looking in a random direction, and doing a tossing motion. The bottle was out of their hands instantly. One second it was there, another it wasn't. Milford looked in the air and saw no bottle flying.
"Ajax, how far did that just go?" He asked them. "About 50,000 miles per hour," Ajax responded.
Then, all of them had to say goodbye to Ajax for now.
This wouldn't be particularly hard on Milford since he knew he could take care of himself, but he would still miss them in that one part of his heart that cared for everyone and would worry if they ever got caught or noticed by humans. Ajax, however, didn't seem to care for anyone as they walked to the side of the boat, nodded, and jumped into the sea. Milford tried to look at them swimming away, but in less than three seconds, they were nowhere to be seen.
"Finally, I don't have to worry about anybody trying to kill me now," said Max with relief.
"And they don't either," Milford replied.
Finally, with all of their armor and swords packed, they walked off of the boat and onto the dock.
"So, what are we gonna use to get through Portugal and everywhere?" Milford asked Pablo.
"An airplane, of course."
Max stopped in his tracks. "Wait, you said airplane?" They asked, sounding afraid.
"Yeah, why?"
"Oh, no no no..." Max sounded like they were in genuine fear. They clutched their forehead tightly.
"Why, what's wrong?" Milford asked them.
"I have a huge fear of airplanes, man!" Max yelled. Some people nearby glared at Max for screaming, but kept walking.
"You never told me that, Max," Milford said in disbelief.
"I keep these kind of things to myself, you know?" Max explained.
"You're either going on or not coming with us, because I haven't ordered plane tickets yet, so make your choice," Pablo told Max.
Max looked shocked. "O-okay. I-I guess I'll come with you guys," they stuttered with sweat all over their face suddenly.
Pablo and Milford looked at each other awkwardly. "Yeah, well let's get a taxi while I get the tickets," Pablo said.
The three of them all ran towards the sidewalk and traveled towards the part of town that had streets instead of boardwalks. They all found a black car with a green hood that was labeled "Taxi" on a sign. Pablo whistled to it and the vehicle parked onto the side of the road. They opened the door on the passenger's seat side, and the driver said something in Portuguese, which Milford suggested was "Where to?" Pablo said something back to the driver in that same language. The driver nodded in agreement. Pablo told the two others to get into the backseat, which they did.
When the driver drove back into the mix of cars, Milford had to ask Pablo, "You can speak Portuguese?" Pablo turned their head and nodded. "I know about ten of 'em and about eight aren't from any of the Americas." Milford was amazed. Pablo could tell, because right after that, they said, "Yeah, I like to waste my time on a lot of things, like watch 500 episodes of something in less than a week, or see how long I can grow my hair out. I don't have a job."
Pablo didn't feel like saying anything else, because they had to put their mind on the time and airline and everything, so they turned back around to look on their phone to schedule.
Milford, however, looked out of the window and stared at the everyday people that were either walking, getting into their cars, at restaurants, or at businesses or shops. He thought of how all of those people would feel knowing the world was going to end soon. That they were all going to die.
With that thought in his head, he came to a sudden realization. Marcus was going to kill his parents with that nuclear blast. He had about five days to stop them, according to what he saw in the future vision. Since they were taking a plane to China, Milford was confident in getting there in less than three days. Where was Marcus? They would find out.
Twenty minutes later, all three of them had gotten to the nearest airport. The three of them all got out of the taxi, Pablo paid the driver, and the cab drove away.
"We have twenty minutes," Pablo told Max and Milford.
"How did you schedule that so fast?" Max asked as they race-walked into the door.
"I have my ways," Pablo told them.
They raced towards the jet bridge, tickets in hand. They gave them to the woman in front, and got to their proper seats, all while Max was looking as scared as ever.
As Milford sat down, the pilot announced that the plane was about to start up, suggesting that they were all just in time. The three of them were panting.
Milford noted that there was a man sitting next to him that looked to be in their mid-forties. They didn't look suspicious, but Milford thought anything could happen on this plane trip, so it was smart to at least pay the smallest bit of attention to not only him, but everybody else as well.
He stared at the chair behind him with confidence on his mind as the plane prepared takeoff. He felt it right down to the bone as if it seemed that he was going to succeed in killing Marcus. He had to or he couldn't live with himself afterwards.
Max, of course, was absolutely terrified, holding on to Pablo's hand with horror. Pablo's hand was turning red because of Max's squeezing.
"This is like when my ex had that baby," Pablo muttered.
Milford thought about that statement. "W-wait, Pablo, how old are you?" he asked.
"Me? I'm twenty-six," Pablo answered, a sigh following. "Life lesson, don't have sex before you're eighteen, okay?" They told Milford this with complete sincerity in their tone. Milford felt like laughing, but he only nodded.
Once the jet grew horizontal, Max gradually let go of Pablo's hand. They were still gripping, but slightly less over time. Pablo sighed, sounding annoyed, and asked a nearby stewardess for some coffee.
Milford didn't know what else to do, so he decided to watch the news on the mini-television on the back of the chair in front of him. He wasn't in the mood for getting headphones to listen in, but rather look at the headlines and think of how terrible they sounded every couple of minutes. He also peered around to see what everyone was doing, such as a young man who was listening to the White Album on their iPhone to the left of Milford, and an elderly woman reading a newspaper. This process continued for an hour.
That is until a force skewed the plane to turn to the right, knocking everyone and everything in that direction. Screams and cries were everywhere.
"What the hell!?" Pablo shouted in confusion, although it wasn't very audible compared to the other passengers.
"See? I knew something like this would happen!" Max screamed at the top of their lungs.
The pilot seemed to be struggling, almost fighting with the mighty force. Milford shot his head towards one of the windows towards the left in anger.
Nothing.
There was no sight to be seen in the clouds that were covering the view. Milford was so shocked that he didn't notice the emergency oxygen masks come down upon everyone.
The plane suffered another fatal hit as Milford noticed a wing tear off of it. Milford was thinking nothing but rapid, negative thoughts. Max's panicking wasn't helping either.
Then, Pablo abruptly tore off their seatbelt and carefully crawled to their fallen suitcase and opened it. Milford saw them throw away things such as clothes, papers, and a few sunglasses. Three flat-looking backpacks were suddenly in their grasp. In a panic, Pablo went towards both Milford and Max and handed one of each to both of them.
"Quickly, they're parachutes! Put 'em on!" Milford contributed, ignoring everything in the background and focused on his survival the most, and so did Max.
Milford noticed the escape hatch above. He looked at Pablo for approval, to which they nodded. Milford really didn't have any other choice, so he clicked his seatbelt open, jumped to the lever, and pulled to see what would occur.
The air was like a vacuum. It sucked Milford, Max, and Pablo through the small square almost impossibly and in a millisecond, Milford saw clear, blue sky.
Milford was actually spinning and near-impossibly managed to see two figures spinning right along with him, which he figured were Max and Pablo. There was little to no air for breathing. His panting, if you could even call it that, was tiny and they didn't ever last long.
He then noticed that the parachutes were activated by both Max and Pablo in the distance and he caught up to his senses. Milford, against the force of the wind, moved his arm to the string and abruptly pulled it, to which there was no problem as the parachute opened up. Milford's weight caught up with him as well, as he was pushed down for a few seconds as a reaction, then it softened up a couple of seconds later. Now he was floating down like a balloon after losing its air.
He wondered how long it would take for him to fall down to wherever he would land. Were they above the ocean or ground? If it was sea, then he'd have better been ready.
He used his inner clock to keep track of time. It must have been two minutes of descending and sky before he saw the one thing he didn't want to.
A lake. "Damn it all," Milford thought to himself.
The water was extremely cold, which was a wake-up call to the usual summer weather. The parachute falling atop his head didn't help either. Milford barely managed to stay afloat, but, luckily, swam upwards to gain more air.
He decided to, while staying how he was, look at his surroundings first. He turned, or swam, around and saw a bridge that must have been two-hundred feet of stone. It was one wide, huge curve with many consecutive arches to help rowboats pass through most likely. There were also stone lions on the beginnings and ends of the handrails. That was the only good part about all of it. The bad part was that there must have been twenty tourists staring at him in amazement and confusion, which was what he just then noticed. Most of them were Chinese, and others were of other origins.
The travelers started to yell at him. Milford couldn't understand them, but he absolutely knew they wanted him to get out of there, to which he responded immediately. In alarm, he swam as fast as he could to the end of the bridge (to where the stone lions were), and climbed out in difficulty. It was like getting out of a pool without using a ladder.
When Milford got out, he was dripping, sopping wet, which did not make him feel good in the slightest. Everyone was staring at him, and if everyone technically wasn't, it certainly felt like it.
Milford decided to get into the shade to dry off quicker by going under a nearby tree. He wondered where Max had landed as he rolled up his parachute. Milford looked up at the sky for answers and saw a silhouette landing (with a parachute, to inform him it was either Max or Pablo), near some trees. Milford sighed as he got up and went towards where they landed.
As he ran, Milford noticed that it must have been around six hours ahead of time than in Portugal, because the sun made it look like it was late afternoon outside.
Soon, Milford managed to catch up to Max, who he just learned fell when he saw them walk from the trees at the other side of the bridge. Max had more than a few scratches on him, some on his arms and his legs, some on his face.
"That wasn't the best landing," they commented to themself.
"Where's Pablo?" Milford asked him.
"The last time I saw them, they were floating away from me. I think it was left, the direction he was going," Max answered.
They paused for a moment to think of exactly where he could have gone. "Oh!" Max pointed his finger in a direction that was to Milford's right. "That way, 'cause I remember spinning around slowly once," they clarified, much to Milford's appreciation.
There was one problem, though. To the right of Milford was pure sea. "Damn," Max mumbled, realizing what was ahead of them.
In a cold sweat, Milford looked up to see if there was any sign of Pablo. At first, he couldn't see them, but then, he caught eyesight surely after, reassuring his fears.
The semi-bad part was that they were about to sink into the ocean. Both Milford and Max suddenly heard them shouting something directly towards them. Unfortunately, it was hard to make out and caused Max to say, "What?" Milford shushed them because he couldn't hear. Milford took a listen for about ten seconds before he made out what Pablo was shouting at the top of his lungs. "He's telling us to stay here. We should wait for him to swim over. They should be fine," Milford told Max.
"So we just hang out?" Max asked. "I guess," Milford told them.
It took Pablo twenty minutes to swim over towards them both, surprisingly. While that was going on, Milford and Max both sort of caught up, telling each other both of their own experiences with the plane and their parachute landings.
Max described theirs as the worst experience of their life and said his mom would kill them knowing that he went on a plane. Milford, however, said that it wasn't something someone did every day.
He thought of all of the citizens on the plane, if they'd survived or not. In their honor, he did a sign of the cross for all of them and their families, but only when Max wasn't looking. It was a habit of his.
When Milford heard dripping, he turned around to see Pablo behind him, soaking wet up to their neck. There were only drops of sweat covering their face, however.
"What are we waitin' for? Let's go already."
In a matter of two hours, the trio managed to get a room in Crowne Plaza after around 40 minutes of walking. The rooms were surprisingly cheap, proving so by Pablo saying that they could stay for two nights if they wanted. Milford and Max agreed, although they probably wouldn't need to stay that long.
When they opened the brown, wooden door, they found the room had two beds, each with white covers and pillows. There was a cushioned seat that was next to them on the right colored lime green. Max immediately ran towards it, leaping over one of the beds miraculously. However, his landing wasn't great considering he hit himself by his head, impacting the arm and thus falling. They seemed fine, though, as there were no bruises or anything when they poked their head out from the side of the bed and climbed onto the chair.
Milford asked Pablo, "How are we gonna change our clothes and all that other stuff?"
Pablo paused for a moment in thought. "...eh. I'll let it slide, I guess. I wouldn't know if you guys's parents would approve, but I do!" Milford still insisted on buying a t-shirt or something, but Pablo said they would buy it later.
Milford then asked to go to a vending machine down the hall, since he was hungry. The last thing he ate was a tiny snack bag on the airplane. Pablo agreed to give one dollar each to both he and Max, after they would get money from an ATM, which was where they went straight after they said it.
"How did he not lose his credit card?" Milford mumbled to himself, wondering about the plane crash.
Max switched on the TV. "Internet killed television, but I forgot my phone," Max said, trying to be funny. Milford stared blankly.
"Oh, they have HBO!" Max exclaimed as Milford heard Game of Thrones blaring. "Turn that down!" Someone shouted faintly behind the wall. "Better listen," Milford suggested to Max, who heed and turned down the volume 5 bars.
"I never got into this show," Milford commented. Max slowly turned towards him with an awkward facial expression on his face.
"How could you not?" Max responded tensely, yet in a joking way. They were good at improvising jokes.
Milford had watched movies like The Lord of the Rings, so he would think of watching it sometime. "Okay. I don't wanna get spoiled, so I'll just go to the bathroom," Milford said as he got up and went to the lavatory doorway next to one of the beds.
He did his business then decided to look in the mirror above the sink. He hadn't showered in so long, dried dirt and grass covering his face and body, including his band t-shirt that he had worn for... How long was it, a week? 4 days? He didn't know.
Then something happened that Milford couldn't explain. One moment he was tired and standing in the same place, then he blinked and was wet and naked in the shower. His eyes turned wide. Milford hesitated for a few seconds before opening the curtains to show the entire bathroom. Along with his other clothes, his band t-shirt was on the ground, still dirty.
"Damn it, what am I gonna wear?" Milford whispered to himself. As if on cue, Max yelled to him, "Oh yeah, what are you gonna change into?" Milford heard Pablo walk into the room not even 5 seconds later. "The hell did I just hear?"
"Wait, why were you gone so long?" Max asked them. Pablo didn't say anything for a few seconds. "I like flirting with foreign girls," they mumbled, sounding ashamed.
"You're gonna have to go back down and get me a shirt at a store or something," Milford yelled to them.
Once again, Pablo paused, according to what Milford thought, in disbelief. "I have your two dollars," Pablo said, sounding annoyed. Milford heard them throw it on the bed, then walk out and slam the door.
Milford stood in the shower for more of an amount of time than he wanted to. This was mainly because he was trying to figure out how he'd... He couldn't describe it. Milford didn't remember anything between looking at himself in the mirror to taking an entire shower. It had to have been something, but he couldn't be sure.
He walked towards a towel, which was hanging in a closet left of the sink. He dried himself off, then proceeded to sit on the toilet seat until Pablo came back with a bag of clothes.
"I got them from some dumb Chinese apparel store," Pablo said in an annoyed, tired tone. Milford saw the bag it came in being thrown by the door. "You're welcome," Pablo mumbled.
"Y-yeah, thanks," Milford said. He wasn't scared, but he was a bit cautious.
Once he unraveled the clothes from the bag, Milford found a generic, white t-shirt, some yellow, mustard-colored shorts, and some white socks and boxers. He walked out of the bathroom after putting the towel back where it was to find Max already asleep and Game of Thrones having been turned down so they could stay that way. Milford found that peculiar because it was only 5:00 p.m.
Pablo was laying down on the bed opposite to Max, looking worn out.
"You okay?" Milford asked them.
Pablo slowly turned their head to face him. "I jumped out of a plane today."
Milford smirked. He was feeling a bit weary as well. "Why don't we all go to sleep now?" he suggested. Pablo let go a few seconds to think about it. He tilted his head in approval. "Alright."
Milford saw Pablo get up to draw the shades in the big windows next to Max's bed, but he stopped them and offered to do it himself, to which Pablo agreed. Once that was done, Milford collapsed on the bed next to Max and everything was forgotten in less than a minute.
