Kelly shuddered. The movement went through her whole body. ‘They’re all over me,’ she said in a high, panicky voice. She was battering at her flying suit with her mittened hands, heedless of the pain. Her feet thundered on the pedals and the microlight shook from side to side.
Ben leaned over. He couldn’t see anything — either on her or in the foot well — although it was difficult to know for sure because she would not keep still.
Kelly looked at him with wild eyes. ‘Do something! They’re crawling all over me!’ She shook violently again, but this time, mercifully, with her feet away from the pedals. Her blonde hair came free of her baseball cap.
Ben made a decision. He couldn’t continue flying with her in that state. He would have to find somewhere to land.
He looked out of the window and got a surprise. They must have gone quite a distance because instead of featureless red terrain he saw a cluster of isolated buildings and a huge white dome.
He’d aim for that. It was his best hope of getting help.
Beside him, Kelly shuddered and batted the air. Maybe she was having some kind of fit. Or maybe something had bitten her and she was reacting to poison.
‘Kelly,’ said Ben, ‘I’m going to land. Talk me through it.’
Kelly was trying to scratch herself but the bandages stopped her. ‘Just get us down!’ she managed to say.
Ben felt a trickle of cold sweat down the back of his neck. She wasn’t going to be any help. He would have to take the plane down on his own.
He tried to remember what they’d done before. He had to find a long, straight stretch of clear ground to use as a runway — well, that shouldn’t be a problem. He brought the plane down to 500 feet and studied the layout. A high steel mesh fence enclosed an area of several acres. As well as several long single-storey sheds there was a large white dome. The ground between the buildings was striped with vehicle tracks. He wondered if it might be some kind of power station. But why out here in the desert, a thousand kilometres from civilization?
At one end was a clear stretch of land with no buildings on it, only a fence. There were no rocks strewn across it either — that was a bonus. It seemed tailor-made for landing a plane. There was also a bright orange windsock fluttering gently against a flagpole. Well, you couldn’t get more handy than that. Except … he couldn’t remember. Was he meant to land into the wind or against it?
And now he thought about it, where had that strong wind disappeared to? The microlight was steering easily again. The orange windsock down below was hardly stirring.
Kelly gave another scream and squirmed in the seat. She put her wrist up to her mouth and tried to tear at the bandages with her teeth. Ben put his hand out and pushed her hand away, stopping her.
She rewarded him with a snarl. ‘I need to scratch!’
He had to let go of her wrist. He needed both hands on the controls. Especially as he was now at 300 feet. ‘Fine,’ he snapped back. ‘Don’t blame me if the burns go septic then.’
Kelly bit the bandage and pulled.
Outside the window, the features on the ground were getting bigger. Before, Kelly had made him fly circles over his intended landing site to check it out. There was no time for that now.
The plane started to wobble as it encountered air currents stirred up from the ground. Ben worked the pedals and stick to keep it level. I can do this, he thought. Easy peasy.
He looked at his airspeed. Still 70 knots — cruising speed. They needed to be going slower. He’d forgotten about that. He pushed the throttle right down.
The revs needle dropped and above his head the engine fell suddenly silent. He’d closed it down too far. The plane had stalled!
He opened the throttle a little more, his heart in his mouth. Fortunately the engine restarted, its beat steady and true.
He was lined up on his runway now. The ground was a lot closer. He could see pebbles like the grain in an old photo when you enlarged it.
Suddenly the plane lurched. The altimeter dropped to 20 feet. Then it swung the other way to 2000. The airspeed needle beat from side to side like a windscreen wiper. The GPS screen went blank, then flashed up a message in block capitals: ERROR.
‘That doesn’t happen in Microsoft Flight Simulator,’ thought Ben.
He tapped the dials, then looked at Kelly, hoping for help. She was unravelling her right bandage, twitching her shoulders up and down to try to scratch them on the inside of her jumpsuit.
His instruments were going haywire. Now how would he get down safely?
Outside, the ground was very close. The vehicle tracks had become distinct tyre marks and were getting further and further apart. He tried to guess how far he had to go but his unpractised eye hadn’t a clue. He’d just have to guess.
He put the throttle right down and eased the nose up.
It suddenly occurred to him that if the instruments were out, the controls might not work either.
The front wheel bumped on the ground, then the back wheels followed it with a thump. Not the right way to get down, but at least they were on the ground. The only problem now was stopping.
The engine stalled again. He’d landed closer to the end fence than he intended and was freewheeling towards it at high speed.
He squeezed on the brakes hard. The nose slewed round and his view of the fence disappeared in a cloud of red dust.
He only hoped the brakes would pull them up before they slammed into the fence.
Something prodded his chest so hard it made him jump in his seat. It was like the kick of an electric shock. He took his left hand off the throttle and brushed it away, but the sensation seemed to jump to his leg. He jerked his leg and the plane swung around as his foot caught the pedal. Something ran up his spine — something that felt like it had a lot of legs. He forgot about the brake and the pedals, let go of the stick and tried to undo his seat belt so that he could get this creature off him. Another one ran across his shoulder. Then they started coming up his thighs and arms. He tried to get them off, his hands flailing against the roof of the cockpit and the window.
Gradually the awful crawling sensation stopped. He realized the plane had stopped too. Kelly had her bandaged hands around the brake like pincers. Cautiously she let go and sat up slowly. One bandage was trailing from her right hand. Outside the windscreen the dust was settling. They had stopped just metres from the steel mesh fence. At a speed similar to fifty miles an hour it would have sliced them like cheese in a grater.
Kelly let out a long breath. ‘You felt it too?’
She seemed to be normal again.
Ben was still getting his breath back. ‘Yeah. What was it?’
‘I don’t know,’ said Kelly. ‘I thought it was insects or something at first. But it was more like an electric shock.’
Ben nodded. ‘Maybe there’s some exposed wiring.’
Kelly put her arm up to wipe the sweat away from her forehead and looked at the trailing bandage in surprise. She held it out to Ben. ‘I don’t think I should have done this.’
She hadn’t actually managed to get much of it off. While Ben tied it up around her wrist she looked over the back of the seat. ‘I wonder where we are … Uh-oh.’ She went tense.
Ben turned in the seat and looked behind them. The dust was blowing up again. Was it a dust storm?
Then they saw a big bright light looming out of the sky like a spotlight, and heard the noise. The entire sky was roaring. The light was getting lower and closer. What was it?
Next they made out the high whine of jet engines.