The Last Forester

The Pilot Part 5

(Tallica)

To be honest, I have a bad track record with people.  Kinda how I set Milo on fire, I did something similar with Benny Salvatore.  I crashed one of his planes, so him seeing me will probably trigger some bad memories.  Yea, I am not telling Milo or that Hugh guy about my past actions.  I pulled into Benny's driveway.  I really didn't trust this Hugh, but he was a werewolf and could be useful to finding Skye.  But I am one hundred percent that Arabella will kill me when she finds out that I have brought a werewolf into the kingdom, even if he is harmless.  I stepped out and they followed my lead.  I walked to the little shack, which was his office, where Benny offered rides over the California landscape.  He made a decent amount of money too, until I crashed one of his planes and he only has one left.  Benny walked outside, noticed me coming up the drive, and ran back inside, locking the doors.  

"Oh, come on," I mumbled walking up to the door.

"Is there a good reason why everyone who sees you runs in terror?" Hugh asked, hiding his grin. 

"Oh, be quiet before I knock that smile off your face," I growl, and strode up to the door.  "Benny, open the door."  

"You crashed my plane, Tallica!  Go away!" Benny yelled with a hint of his Mexican heritage coming through the closed door.   Benny Salvatore was Mexican with the typical black hair, tan skin, and matching black eyes.  His short stature had nothing  to do with his ability to fly planes and man, could he soar high in the sky.   

"I didn't mean to and I need your help.  This time, I won't fly the plane," I smiled sweetly at Benny who peeked out the window.  "How much for you to take us to Montana?"  

"About eight hundred bucks," Benny smirked.

"You have to be kidding me?!" 

"Nope, that's how much it will cost."

"Well, I'm not paying that ridiculous amount of money."

"Have fun trying to find someone to charter you to Montana without a permission from an adult.  Bye."

"Fine, I will pay you the money and you will fly us to Montana," I growled.  Benny waltzed out with a smirk on his lips.  He stuck his hand out and I lay the cash in his palm, shaking my head in disappointment seeing how a mortal bested me on a deal.  

"We leave in the morning," Benny looked at the setting sun.

"Wrong.  We leave now," I corrected him. 

"We can't leave now, it will be dark," Benny turned to walk back into his office.  

My hand smacked into his chest, stopping him in his tracks.  "I may come off as easy to push around, but let me tell you this...." I paused to add drama to the moment and my eyes flashed with fire.  "People do not cross me."  I turned him, pushing him in the direction of his covered plane.

"Okay, we leave now," he mumbled something in Spanish.  He walked to the plane and began to uncover it.  Underneath the tarp, a gleaming red helicopter sat ready to fly. "Get in, she's fueled and ready to get in the air."

Milo walked past me, saying, "Man, I have always wanted to do this.  This will be awesome!"

Hugh trudged past me, rumbling, "This is my worst nightmare smooched into one massive heart attack.  I'm going to die."   

I held my laughter back, "This is going to be fun."  I sat in the front seat next to Benny, with Milo behind the pilot and Hugh at my back.  I pulled on my walkie-talky to be able to speak with Benny as the boys in the back did the same with Hugh slightly freaking out.  

"These doors are shut right man?  They won't open if I happen to past out on them?" Hugh swallowed hard and looked pale.  

"Relax, my man," Benny laughed, looking back at him.  "Benny has your back.  The doors won't open unless we crash."  

As Hugh's face dropped, Benny hurriedly soothed him.  

"Which we won't of course, but flying at night often heightens the dangers.....I'm going to shut up now," Benny gave up trying to make it sound safe.  The helicopter started with a growl.  The rotters turned faster and faster until we started to lifted off the ground.  

"This was a mistake.  Take me back down dude," Hugh shouted at Benny, who began to lower again.

"No, he's fine.  Get us to Montana!" I yelled over Hugh's hysterical pants of breath.  Benny lifted us back up and set a course for Montana, using the town name I gave him.  "Hugh calm down!  You are perfectly fine!  Listen to the engine, it always helps.  Focus on the engine!" I yell back to him, while Milo smiled out the window looking down on the city lights.

"This is awesome!" Milo shouted with glee.   

"This is going to be a long flight," I rolled my eyes as Hugh finally calmed down with Milo's declaration. Benny and I talked all night long while Milo stared out the window and Hugh kept his eyes closed, head pressed against the seat.  After hours in the air,  I noticed Hugh was listening to something with his head cocked to the side.  "What is it?"

"You don't hear that?" he asked, puzzled.

"Hear what?" I questioned, turning to look at him.  Since he was werewolf, his hearing and strength was five times stronger than the normal person.

"The helicopter engine..." he paused.  "It sounds different."

"Different how?  Like different it doesn't matter, or different we could crash different?" I implored with my voice slightly rising.

"The second one, yup, the second one," he sounded calm for being the one to be panicking earlier.  

"Benny..." I drew out his name as I turned to him.  

"The vitals are all normal, I swear no one has touched my helicopter," Benny checked the vitals and flipped several switches.  He froze, "Unless..."

"Unless what?  Speak up Salvatore!" I yelled getting frustrated.

"Some dude with salt and pepper hair, plain eyes and face was snooping earlier and I ran him off, but maybe he messed with it," Benny was horrified as he watched the vitals carefully, looking for changes.  

"You just described the man in my nightmares.  You do know that right?" I sarcastically spoke my head in my hands.   A low, hazardous beep began and the red lights blinked on the dash board.  With my heart in my throat, I watched as it sent Benny into rushed, but deliberate action.  

The helicopter dropped by a couple feet, and I gasped.   

"No one panic, but the oil levels are all but gone, and the engine is over heating," Benny stated as the helicopter dropped more and Benny's hand tightened on the cyclic stick.   "Brace for impact.  We're going down."