Air Born | Generation Icarus #1

Tyler - Don't Get Caught

With a serious face, Miguel intoned, "Abuelita believed that we have a purpose, and all those people outside the hospital did too. I believe that we are being tested, and I pray that we will not be found wanting." He sounded like a priest. Then he grinned and his voice slipped back to normal. "I'm sure we won't."

"What could our purpose possibly be?" As I threw up my arms, my wings shifted in a slow, copycat movement. "Do you seriously believe we're meant to be angels on Earth? Because I'd make a freakin' terrible angel. I can't sing for shit, to start with."

Miguel laughed. "I'm sure your singing won't have a major effect on it either way."

"You haven't heard me sing. The last time didn't end well."

He held up his hands. "Musical talent and ultimate purpose aside, what are we going to do now? We'll need supplies. How much money have we got?"

"I've got a couple of hundred bucks left."

"I've got double that. Enough to keep us fed for a while. Maybe even buy a tent."

"I don't think we'll get free delivery out here," I said, nodding at the rugged surroundings.

"You might be famous, but I'm a nobody," Miguel said lightly. "We're not all that far from town as the crow flies, so to speak."

It'll take you all morning to get back to the trail and then walk out to the town, let alone buy food and haul it back up again."

"I'm fitter and stronger than I look. And I can move much quicker now that it's daylight, and I know where I'm going. You stay here and try to fix the place up a bit. Deal?"

We both laughed and shook on it.

"Just don't get caught," I said.

He smiled. "If I do, I won't give you away, promise."

"That's not reassuring."

He laughed again. "It won't come to that, promise. See you soon. Ish."

I watched him go, with his fake glasses and big old jacket and all the money we'd put together, with a mixture of relief and dread. What if he didn't come back? Then I'd have no friends, no hope, no clue, and no money.

But Miguel was just like me. Whatever that meant. Plus he'd hitchhiked all the way from Mexico City to find me. There was absolutely zero benefit to him in selling me out.

I put all the great outdoors survival training that Dad and the Civil Aviation Patrol had drilled into me to good use. In no time at all we had a respectable, well-hidden base camp, with a bivouac for shelter and a fresh supply of firewood. I felt ridiculously proud of myself.

Miguel would not be back for hours, so I decided to start looking for a suitable place for flight training. Somewhere that we'd have room to move, without bumping into a tree every time we so much as flicked a wing. I hiked in expanding circles through the heavy undergrowth and rocky ground of the forest that surrounded our campsite with no luck at all. It started to rain. Hard. Lack of sleep made my movements slow and heavy, and almost as loud as Miguel's had been the night before. I was wet, cold and miserable and my doubts about him returned.

So, in the gloom of the endless rain, when I was nearly an hour out from camp and I overheard distant voices, I was too fatalistic to bother running. Instead, I concealed myself up a tree, and waited.

The group of six — three guys and three girls — all about my own age, were arguing. While I listened, my blood pressure rose as I realised they were there to hunt me down and turn me in for the reward. Although they were so loud and incompetent, I soon realised they were actually the least intimidating hunters I could imagine. They argued about whether to continue looking or go back. About who had carried the heaviest pack and therefore should not have to pitch a tent. Then they fought over how they would divide the reward. Finally they had a heated debate on the proper protocol for taking a piss or a poop in the woods. Within minutes, they'd dispersed, still bickering, into the undergrowth, leaving their equipment completely unsupervised.

The opportunity was too good to ignore. Moments later I was on my way with a tent, two sleeping bags, and a really nice hunting knife that had belonged to the most offensive guy of the whole group.

Re-energised, I made my way back to the campsite as swiftly and quietly as possible. The rain had finally stopped just in time for me to add my new acquisitions to our base. Despite being absolutely starving, I felt strangely optimistic about the near future.

And then it occurred to me that by stealing from the hunters I had confirmed to the world that I was here. All I could do was wait for Miguel to return.

And hope that he was the only one on his way to find me.