“They’re opening!” Samuel said.
“Must have been programmed into the hangar somehow,” I said.
As soon as the doors opened even a crack, the monsters started pouring into the hangar. They could do nothing to us as the plane wheeled forward, crushing them beneath the front wheels.
“We can’t take off as long as any of them are blocking the runway,” Samuel said.
The plane’s landing lights flashed on, revealing a sea of crawlers, their white glowing eyes staring back at us from the darkness. They pushed toward the plane as if of one mind.
“We’re not going to make it,” Makara said.
As soon as she said that, the plane stopped. In the back, I could hear something moving.
“What’s going on?” I asked.
“Obstruction noted,” the voice said. “Engaging in vertical launch mode.”
We all fell to the ground as the floor lifted up from under us.
“Find a chair and strap in,” Samuel said. “We’re taking off!”
I found the seat behind the copilot’s chair, and strapped myself in. As everyone else found seats, the plane paused, levitating in midair. The thrusters turned again and engaged. We surged forward, the acceleration pushing me back into my seat.
We arced upward, toward the night sky, leaving the Great Blight under us. I looked out the window to see the dark world fall away.
I could only hope there was a runway to land on when we got there.
Chapter 18
We had been on the plane an hour. I headed to the back, out of the cockpit and into the cargo area. I found a seat where I could get a moment of peace before the plane descended.
Next to me was a circular window, and I could not stop looking out of it. For the first time in my life, I saw the moon and stars. They sparkled, countless, dotting the midnight sky. I never imagined there would be so many. Though beautiful, they made me feel sad, in a way. We had lost so much because of Ragnarok. It would take decades for the fallout to dissipate enough for them to be seen again from the surface. How many generations would that take? Would there even be another generation to watch them?
“You look quite pensive.”
I nearly jumped out of my seat. It was Anna.
“You snuck up on me.”
She sat next to me. My heart raced as I felt her shoulder touch mine.
“Sorry if that was weird, earlier,” she said.
It took me a moment to realize she was talking about holding my hand.
“No, it wasn’t weird at all. I guess I just didn’t realize…”
I trailed off, and looked into her eyes. She wanted me to go on, but I couldn’t bring myself to. I didn’t want to assume too much.
“I almost wish we didn’t have to go back down,” Anna said. “The stars are better company than those monsters.”
Anna seemed distant, for some reason.
“You alright?” I asked.
She sighed. “I don’t know. Guess we’ll find out here in a few, right?”
I smiled. “Guess so.”
She smiled, too. I felt a moment of tension, of expectation. I really wanted to hold her at that moment.
“Anna, I just wanted to say…it wasn’t weird at all. In fact, I….”
She waited for me to finish. Why were these things always so hard?
“I’m glad you decided to stay,” I said. “Because…”
Anna smiled. She touched my face with her right hand, and I was glad for the darkness, because it felt like my face was on fire from blushing. That was when I wrapped my arms around her. She leaned into me, the warmth of her body nestling into mine. My heart raced; I couldn’t believe it was happening, that this beautiful girl might actually like me.
She leaned her head against my shoulder and closed her eyes. She seemed content to just be held.
I held each of her hands with my own, and rested my head on top of hers. As I felt myself dozing off, I felt happy and peaceful for the first time in a while. I just hoped we survived whatever it was that waited down there, because I didn’t want this to be the last time I held her.
My stomach suddenly lifted as the plane descended, rousing me from sleep. Bleary-eyed, I saw Anna next to me also getting up.
“Already?” she asked.
“We should probably go back up front,” I said.
We both stood, but Anna did not take her eyes off me. She stared into me, as if searching for something. I brushed a strand of her hair from over her eye. I grabbed her hands, and was about to lean in and kiss her…
Some turbulence rocked the plane, sending us both to the floor. The plane rocked for the next few seconds before it steadied.
Anna heaved an exasperated sigh. “We better get up there.”
I was frustrated that the moment was shattered by something as mundane as turbulence. My main fear was that we would all die down there before I even had the chance to kiss her.
Anna and I stood and went to the cockpit. We strapped ourselves in, and readied ourselves for what promised to be a rough landing.
Within fifteen minutes we would know whether we were going to live, or die.
We entered a layer of red clouds, and the stars above were lost for good. I didn’t know if I would see them again.
The LCD map showed that we were above Bunker One. I had no idea how that thing could even position us. I thought that most, if not all, satellites were no longer operational. But apparently there was something up there positioning us.
The clouds broke and there was a mountain right in front of us, coated in snow. We would hit it in seconds.
“What the hell?” Samuel grabbed the control stick and tried forcing it left. But the control stick was locked in place.
Makara grabbed his hand. “What are you doing? You can’t fly this thing!”
“Better me than crashing into that mountain.”
“Stop,” Anna said. She pointed. “I see something.”
There was a straight line on the mountainside. At first I couldn’t see what it was. I realized that a long landing strip was built into the side of the mountain. It was illuminated with lights along its length.
“It’s taking us there,” I said. “It was right all along.”
Samuel let go of the control stick. The plane veered to the right, arcing toward the runway.
“I can’t believe we’re back,” Makara said. “It’s so long ago that it happened.”
“Yeah,” Samuel said.
Makara and Samuel were both from Bunker One. They had escaped it as kids from this very landing strip, back in 2048 when it fell to an attack of monsters. During the attack, both of their parents died, as well as most of the other Bunker inhabitants who could not escape.
The landing strip was empty. The lights suggested that someone was inside.
“Looks like they’re already here,” Samuel said.
“I wonder if they know we followed them,” I said. “Did they go to Bunker 40 because they knew about the planes?”
“Maybe,” Lisa said, “but we need to get ready. We’re almost there.”
The long runway stretched out before us. I could hear the plane’s wheels deploy from the bottom of the hull. We descended toward the mountainside.
That’s when I saw that the runway was not completely empty.
A few crawlers covered the runway. We landed with a thud, the skidding wheels nearly sending me out of my seat.
The brakes automatically slowed the plane, but from time to time a crawler crunched under the wheel, rocking the plane and throwing it off-kilter.
The edge of the runway was fast approaching, and there was nothing but darkness beyond. We were slowing — but it would not be enough.
“We need to jump out,” Samuel said. “Come on!”