Forced Freefall

Chapter 10

After unknowingly snoring for an hour, I felt the kind of lingering pain you get when something thin and light hits you in the face, especially when you are colliding with the object (or it is colliding with you) at a high speed.

The sensation, I discovered, was coming from the red mark on my cheek left by Sadie’s hand when she slapped me. Cliff stood beside, his arms crossed with a stern impression on his face. It looked like they were my parents and I had just done something wrong, then hid somewhere to sit and avoid them. Either that, or I had just been found guilty of something, and was just being woken up in the courtroom.

For quite a while, we stared at each other. And when I was satisfied with the length of the awkward seriousness, I curled into a tighter ball on the pilot’s seat, closing my eyes and starting to breathe slower. The slap that came this time was much rougher, much harder, and much slower.

When I opened my eyes, I spoke for the first time in hours. “Excuse me, but I wasn’t the one who fainted in the middle of nowhere. And just because the ninja next to you decided to curl up on the ground too doesn’t mean that I was the one that was supposed to be piloting. I’ll have you know, former Mrs. Bernard, that had I been the one who had fainted while carrying this slim professional, than you would have had not one way of realizing how to control the ship. Do not even think for a second that I did anything wrong, little Miss treadmill.”

An astonished glare was the only reply I got. But Cliff actually stepped in. “I understand that you also were a little sleepy, and I also know that we both did something wrong. But people can’t win wars by going against their only allies. You wouldn’t be here without me right now.”

I responded immediately. “Who had that gun to your head on that plane again, Cliff? Theoretically, we both would be dead without me.”

Cliff also had a quick comeback. “Why don’t you go and map every corner of an island you already know? I ran around on the same paths I had ran on before. For you, Isaac. Not for me. I had an entire mental database of maps that I could tap into at any time.”

This time, it was me who did not respond. But as I opened my mouth to speak, Sadie finally uttered something.

“Stop it! Who’s gonna win this? The guy who lives longer? The guy who doesn’t fall asleep first? Let’s just plan our infiltration of the facility, and suit up for it.”

Before long, we had done exactly that. Apparently, I was to climb into the pit of pecans, and swim to the bottom, while Sadie and Cliff were escorted to a house that Cliff owns twenty-five minutes away, and they will have me and the pecans delivered there. No security inspections will take place. When I reach their house, I will go in their garage, and then they will take me out and give me my final list of things to do. What a way to become a rebel. Lay in pecans for hours and then hide in a garage. And even better, to make sure I’m not seen, I will be exiting the garage through the sewers.

    I just can’t wait! But now, I find out there’s more! In my waste-clad clothes, in my wet, yellow shoes that I have not taken off in a month, I will have to run all the way to the big city, which, of course, will follow by me searching for days on end until I finally find the Iron Inferno. If I am not dead already, I’ll have to prove my worth and then, finally, I will have a chance to actually make an impact on this brewing war.