Forced Freefall

Chapter 9

I was tired. I was dirty. I was numb with exhaustion. I was so completely and utterly uncomfortable that I actually could not remember much more than the last few seconds or minutes. My entire mental focus; which was lasting quite longer than a few minutes, was to find a way to get rid of this weird feeling I felt.

    The sensation was, at first, not very bad. A simple headache that was set off by the rapid beating of my heart, the continuous stress of being a rebel, or even the smoke that had hit the airplane and bled through the window that was open just a tiny, tiny crack would have sufficed as the explanation for my odd illness. But of course, my danger-provoked mind was not going to take something that simple as an answer.

    And so, despite the same quite peculiar symptoms I had contracted, as well as my sleepiness, I was exercising my brain while I tried to figure out a cause and a cure for the painful disease. Because of my effort, I had no knowledge of anything prior to the last ten minutes or so.

    Finally, after what felt like and what I thought certainly was, an eternity of pain and suffering, I gave up on my search for answers and let my grip on the situation crumble. I did not need the answer if it would be this unbearable to merely focus on accomplishing that goal.

    Therefore, I pushed all thoughts of the excruciating throbbing away. I had to scrub roughly to reach all the cracks, but I did it. And surprisingly, I actually did not feel any more pain. So, I decided to slowly inhale, and then exhale. As I did so, there was no possibility that I would feel that pain for a long time. I was over the moon that I was wiped clean of the virus. But now, to survive. To not collapse like Sadie and Cliff had. Speaking of which, I reminded myself to check on them.

    The slow ‘ding’ of the radar was very irritating. But it was probably the one thing keeping me awake. But to keep down my annoyance, I walked to the area where they both had collapsed, grabbed a few bags of pecans and started nibbling on a few. The plane was on autopilot, thankfully, so I could sit back and relax for a moment.

    I folded my arms so that they were crossed along my chest, rested my feet on the couch cushion in front of me, and managed to feel slightly less stressed out when an alarm buzzed. It was a dull ringing, only meant to be heard in the cockpit, but soon magnified into something almost deafeningly loud. I even saw Sadie flinch a little. I slowly got up, grabbing a lukewarm water bottle to quench my very dry mouth. After this night, I had learned that nothing was really as big a deal as it seemed to be.

    But there was absolutely no way that I could have been more wrong. As soon as I opened the door to the cockpit (so slow it was almost funny), I saw that the radar had picked something up. Something terrifyingly dangerous and deadly.

    An enemy ship.

    I ate half of the pecans in one bag, and drank every last drop of water in the bottle. Instantly, a transmission was heard inside our plane.

    “Hello, sergeant Oscar, we thought we should assist in escorting you to the Known World Air Force Headquarters. Do you copy? Repeat, do you copy?”

    The man had a very interesting accent. I decided to send a message via text, not voice: Our verbal communication systems are unreachable and broken at the moment. I apologize sincerely if this is any kind of inconvenience.

    I received the answer via text, as well: Our communication is down? Who is accompanying you?

Sadie Dexter, sir. She is the only one who survived. Isaac Jordan killed the others. I managed to overpower him, but not before Clint Bernard and the rest of the television crew were slaughtered by the psychotic murderer. The two of us are indeed in mourning. It was almost fun to do this, speak of myself in such an unpleasant manner. But that is what I had to look like, I suppose. To become the most disgusting savage killer that ever walked the earth. But what truly made me not a killer? I had killed everyone aboard the airplane, save for myself and Cliff. And I also watched as Cliff ran off and attacked the crew. Even now, I sit here and do nothing about the two people who are passed out from exhaustion behind me. I am a selfish idiot, too worried about my own survival that I will not help the two people who are the reason I am actually alive.

Enough, I told myself. It wasn’t worth distracting myself. I was piloting the plane that held all of us, after having no knowledge just hours before. I was the one lying literally to the face of our greatest enemies, as they lay unconscious, surely not to be returning to a better shape for hours. And I would sit here, doing my best to survive for not only myself, but all three of us. I am pretty good at it, I think. Well, the autopilot is, at least.

Sorry there have not been any chapters for a LONG time. But I have been busy, something is wrong with my Google Docs, and it is hard to update while this is happening. I might update again this week, just to make up for the wait.