The Jungle

Chapter 14: 51

A half hour later, Juliet and the rest of the passengers had finally persuaded the pilot and copilot that they weren’t terrorists and that no one wanted to hijack the transportron. She stood  inside the cockpit, making emergency calls over the plane’s radio while Bahati sat and held Caroline’s hand while Warren sat numbly beside her, staring at the fire blanket that covered Macbeth’s body and face.

“She was so young,” he whispered. “I mean, I always knew she was younger than me and all there was between us was a one night stand, but… Caroline, I honestly think I was starting to love her.”

“Shh,” Caroline whispered, stroking his hair and holding his head to her chest like a mother holding a little child. “Warren, she died an honorable death.”

“I know,” Warren replied. “Just… In the month that we spent in Singapore, she became one of my closest friends.” He sighed and pulled away from his sister, clenching the arm rests of his seat so tightly his knuckles turned white. “Now what am I supposed to do? Everyone’s paired up but me. Juliet and James are a thing now, and you and Bahati… I have no idea what to call it, but it exists.”

Caroline was mortified. “Shame on you, Warren. He and I are just friends.” She turned indignantly away from her brother and released Bahati’s hand. The native arched an eyebrow.

He didn’t understand the attachment people still retained over dead people. It hurt, but why were the people here so emotional on the outside? Kupata frowned upon outward displays of emotion in front of other people. He had been taught this philosophy since he was old enough to understand that emotion makes people weak. On the island, weaknesses were deadly. Crying in Caroline’s arms when she told him Joto was dead was a rare occurrence to him. It was the first time since he was a child that he had cried. He had made himself weak.

Why, then, did he still want to cry sometimes when he thought of Joto? In the month he had spent recovering, he should have been able to bury his guilt because he was used to it. He was used to hiding his emotions from everyone and always being a flat, blank mask to show the world. Perhaps he really was just as human as everyone told him he was. In that plane, on that specific dy, at that specific hour, he began to come to terms with the fact that deep down, he was still one of them. His “genes” (or whatever Juliet called them) may have been different from everyone else’s, but that did not make him inferior. In fact, quite the opposite. It made him stronger. Just the fact that he had snapped the metal contraptions Green had put on his wrist were proof of that. They had underestimated the strength of the Kupata and as a result were defeated. Bahati thought it might be easy to beat them in battle. But first, they had to get off this plane.

“How much longer?” he asked Caroline.

At that moment, Juliet entered the cabin. She smiled warmly at her team and James came and joined her in front of the people. “Okay, guys,” she said to the entire plane. “I just thought I’d let you know that as of right now, our emergency beacons have been disengaged. No one can track us. We’re heading to a safe place in the District of Los Vegas. We flew over our intended destination of LAX. Since some of you have family who care about you, I suggest you get on your phones and make contact with them. I would hate for them to worry, especially since the disappearance of this plane will likely be chocked up to terrorism. You’ll have to stay under wraps for a while, but I think you’ll be okay. We have quarters and rooms prepared for you in the place we’re going to land this thing.”

There was a sudden flurry of movement as people whipped out their phones. Bahati could see glass glittering everywhere as they dialed their loved ones. He took Caroline’s hand again as Juliet readied herself to speak again.

“The place we’re going,” she announced, “is a place formerly known as Area 51. There the government did weapons research in the twenty-first century on up until its declassification and abandonment four years ago. It’s also partially to blame for the Great Alien Scare of 2202. That’s A.D. for those of you who are idiots.”