Текст книги "The Variables"

Автор книги: Shelbi Wescott

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Текущая страница: 22 (всего у книги 31 страниц)

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

“You will let me say everything, do everything, organize everything. Put your gun away and follow me,” Blair instructed to her motley band of stowaways.

“You have a plan then?” Darla asked, turning on the safety and tucking her gun into her pants.

“No,” Blair said and she stormed ahead of them. They crashed through the long grass and down a small embankment and arrived at the makeshift runway. The solar panels for the System were no longer running; the panels now faced toward the dirt, the automated hum from before notably absent.

Darla followed right behind Blair as they climbed up the steps to the small passenger plane. Frank bounded up the steps after her, and Dean, Grant, and Ainsley followed behind in silence. Grant looked around the plane; several of the seats were already filled with the bags from the guards inside the EUS. They had brought their things to the plane early in an effort to expedite an escape after slaughtering the Copia residents. Such meticulous planning had gone into the ruse, and Grant couldn’t help but think of Dylan’s face that morning. Allowing Grant to tag along at breakfast wasn’t out of kindness: it had been out of pity.

He wished he could ask his friend how he could spend time with him, playing cards, talking into the wee hours of the morning, all the while knowing that there were orders to kill him. How was it possible to be so callous? Grant felt sick to his stomach. He had thought they were his friends.

The pilot of the plane, a middle-aged man in a white button down shirt, was sleeping in first class. His mouth was open and a thin stream of drool slid down to his chin. Blair stood over him, her clothes streaked with dirt, her blonde hair tangled around her shoulders. She watched his chest rise and fall, and then turned to the rest of the group, a resolute look cemented on her face. Here was the man who would take them away from Brixton and into the belly of the beast. Everything hinged on his cooperation, and they could all see fear and confusion on Blair’s face—she had no idea what to do next.

“Wake him,” Darla commanded.

Blair glared at Darla and put her hands on her hips. “You already forgot the rules,” Blair said. “What if he refuses? What if he calls my father and tells him that we’re arriving with three additional survivors. You have no contingency plan? Are you prepared to shoot him and fly this plane yourself? And then...” she raised her eyebrows, “how do you expect to handle his disappearance? I told you to let me say everything, do everything. Everything.”

“Fine,” Darla said. She leaned back against one of the leather seats in first class and crossed her arms. “I’m preparing myself to be wowed by your everything.”

“Don’t be patronizing.”

“Then don’t be incompetent.” Darla pointed to the snoring pilot and then to her wrist, tapping it methodically over a non-existent watch.

Grant took in a deep breath and exhaled slowly; the arid climate of Nebraska hurt his lungs. He never knew how much he could miss fresh oxygen. Even when the System tried to pump in its filtrated air, it wasn’t the same, and Grant would long for sun and wind and open places. He’d dream of running free along the tall grass. Maybe just running all the way back to Portland.

He watched Blair as she leaned down over the captain and kicked the bottom of his black shiny shoes with her heels, which were still caked with Private Ryley’s dried blood. Kicking his shoes proved futile, so she moved to jostling his shoulder; the pilot snorted and then jolted awake, his eyes scanning the faces peering down at him.

“Afternoon, Hank,” Blair said when his eyes focused on her. He sat up straight against the leather seatback and took in the scene: a dubious group of dirty, smelly, bloodied passengers. “I need to discuss a change in plans.” Then she looked around her and turned back to him before he could answer. “Alone.”

Hank assessed Blair and then everyone else; he scrunched up his face and tried to ascertain if he was supposed to know the people on his plane. After a second, he said, “You lead the way, boss,” and he stretched upward and slid out of the seat, without much acknowledgment to the others. He motioned to the back part of the cabin and they went that way together, Blair pulling the curtain between first class and the remainder of the plane closed as she walked by—it zipped along the metal rod like an exclamation point.

The group waited and attempted to eavesdrop, but they were too far back to make out any discernable words. Darla stood at attention near the curtain and scrutinized the weary faces in front of her.

“He doesn’t have to take us anywhere,” Ainsley said. “Wouldn’t he have, like, allegiances?”

“He’s a pilot, not a soldier,” Dean added.

“Well, what’s preventing him from taking the whole plane down somewhere in rural New York?” Ainsley added. “I don’t like this. I’d rather drive.”

Darla stole a peek behind the curtain and then motioned for the group to quiet down. “This gets us there faster and with authority," she said.

“Darla’s right...you don’t have another choice,” Grant added. Everyone turned to look at him. “You don’t know these people...but if anyone thinks you exist, they are going to work exceptionally hard to make sure that you don’t. Huck Truman doesn’t like his plans to backfire. He takes it personally.”

“It’s a Truman quality,” said a voice. The curtain ripped open and Blair stood inches from Darla, with Hank by her side. She looked over to Grant and stared at him for a long time, evaluating his presence, and when her focus broke, she cleared her throat and pointed to the pilot. “Well, it’s our lucky day.”

“Oh, yeah?” Darla tried to sound nonplussed.

“Hank will land us right on target at Old Orchard Beach. Once you are all safely hidden, we’ll call for the chopper to take me and Grant to Kymberlin, our home.”

“What does Hank get out of this?” Darla asked.

Ainsley took a step forward, too. “Why should we trust that he isn’t going to go running to the authorities the moment we land?”

Blair’s head spun to Ainsley and she flashed her a look of warning. Then she looked to Darla, “Discussion of payment isn’t necessary. Hank is helping us, and he’ll be properly compensated. That’s all you need to know.”

“Jesus,” Darla breathed. When she looked at Blair, she caught the cautioning glare, too. “Look—”

But Blair interrupted. When she spoke, her voice was wavering, hovering just above a whisper, threatening to break. “No. You look. I saved you from the System, and I’ve secured safe passage. And soon,” she paused and looked to the ground, “I’ll help you reconnect with your son.” She paused, as if the words burned her tongue. Then she swallowed, and met Darla’s eyes. “You don’t know anything. You don’t know about me or my family. But you have to trust me, because you don’t have any other choice. I know that. But it’s true. You don’t.”

“You can trust her,” Grant said, sensing the tension, before Darla could reply. “I trust her,” he added, catching Blair’s eye.

Blair looked away. To the ground, she mumbled, “Thank you.” Then she slid past them and into the cockpit, and the pilot followed after her.

Before Hank shut the door, he turned to the group and cleared his throat. “Nice to meet you all...and I mean it...but here’s the deal. Short runway. Lots of speed and altitude fast. Better sit down and buckle up. This isn’t your average takeoff.”

Hank had called it. They propelled through the air at breakneck speeds before reaching cruising altitude. The group had scattered around the small plane: Grant and Dean sat in the back, sitting next to each other but not talking. Occasionally, Dean would reach over and mess up Grant’s hair and smile. As a reply, Grant would smooth it back in place and smile back.

Ainsley flipped through a dated inflight magazine with deliberate and apathetic flicks of the wrist before falling asleep stretched along a row of seats.

Darla sat and looked out the window to the world below. Her last plane ride, her wife had been by her side. They had been trying to entertain Teddy, letting him unwrap a new coloring book and crayons as a treat. When they landed in Portland, the world was going crazy and people were dying, she was worried. But she didn’t know that soon the virus would take one of the most important people from her life in an instant. She didn’t worry about falling in love again some day; she had no intention of letting another person slip into her life. She was still married. She was still in love. Her family might be broken, but she wouldn’t let it beat her. Only Teddy mattered now.

If it hadn’t been for Ethan, she and Teddy would be dead, too. That powerful realization was enough to keep her awake at night.

Sometimes she wondered if she made the right decision.

Survival was a powerful instinct and the desire to live and fight took over without much forethought. Ethan offered her life and she took it, not understanding what that life would look like.

From the front of the plane, Blair emerged, and she scanned the empty seats. She glanced at each passenger before making a beeline to Darla. It was too late to feign sleep or look engrossed in a magazine, so Darla just watched as she waltzed up the aisle and stood above, and tapped her fingers against the cloth seat back.

“May I sit?” Blair asked and pointed to the seat on the aisle.

Darla motioned that it was okay.

Blair sighed and leaned her head back. The plane caught a bit of turbulence and the cabin jerked for a second before settling back into smoothness.

“How is everyone?” Blair asked.

Darla shrugged. “Tired. Good. A bit wary.”

“Wary?”

“They just want to make sure that the plane lands...and that the pilot upholds his end of the bargain. Our lives depend on it.”

“He will,” Blair said with a defensive tic.

“Look, it’s none of my business, but—” Darla said, shifting her body against the window so she could look at Blair without turning.

“Oh, please.” Blair didn’t move. She waved Darla away. “You don’t know me, but I’d prefer if you spent at least an evening in my presence before assuming that the only thing of value I have to offer anyone is my body.”

“Fair enough,” Darla said. And then after a moment, “But you’re confident? That’s he’s trustworthy.”

“Do you think I’m trustworthy?”

“Grant vouched for you. So, I’m trusting you. I didn’t say it was easy.”

Blair didn’t answer right away. And when she did, she changed the subject. “My brother and I never married. Neither of us,” Blair said. It was such a non-sequitur comment, but Darla didn’t push back. She just kept looking at the woman sitting next to her, watching the way she let her long legs drift out into the aisle of the airplane, and the way she kept tucking a wisp of hair back behind her ear. Blair didn’t look right at Darla as she spoke; she let her eyes settle on the seat in front of her, and she picked at a sticker on the upright tray table. “You see...how do you do that? Invite someone into your life and fall in love with them and then say...I have this secret.”

“We all have secrets,” Darla interjected. She knew as she said it out loud that it wasn’t the same.

“Oh, yes. Normal secrets. But my family didn’t have normal secrets...we had secrets that came equipped with clauses. Secrets that could kill you. My father would not have hesitated to dispatch his men if he thought I had compromised any part of his plan. He’s not loyal, my father. That’s the scary part. My brother and I just knew from early on that we wouldn’t get to live out an ordinary life.” Blair unhooked and hooked the tray table. She drummed her fingers on the armrest. When she finally looked at Darla, the dark circles under her eyes were prominent. She let all her sadness seep through. “And now the world is gone...and what hope do I have now? It wasn’t unreasonable to want to be a part of something outside of myself. Everyone else had families. And I was alone. He was alone, too. We were both broken...it wasn’t unreasonable for me to think that we could be good for each other.”

“I’m not following,” Darla said. She tucked her legs up under her.

“Teddy.”

It took Darla a second to respond. “My Teddy.”

“I thought you were dead.”

“My Teddy?”

“I looked at him and saw a boy without a mother.”

Darla was quiet. She looked down at the blue and gray patterned carpet in the middle of the plane.

“We had that in common. It was something I could understand. I’ve spent my entire life trying to understand how a woman can bring you into the world and then forget you existed. You don’t recover from that, you know. I wanted to tell Teddy that his mother didn’t have a choice...that she didn’t leave him. It may sound ridiculous, but I thought that maybe if he knew the truth, then he’d have a chance to be normal.”

“Because your mom left you?” Darla asked.

The question hung in the air and Blair batted it away. “I don’t need to indulge in a therapy session about my childhood.”

“I’m just trying to under—”

Blair sighed and then stood up; Darla wanted to reach out to her, but she restrained herself. “It seems stupid to you. That I attached myself to a kid that’s not mine. I shouldn’t have said anything. Shouldn’t have told you. But I didn’t know you were alive...and it changes everything...don’t you see? And now...”

“Sit back down,” Darla said softly and she pointed to the seat, but Blair ignored her. “I’ll even say please, if you need me to.”

She had started to cry. “What do I do now? It feels like such a loss.” She wiped away her tears and then looked at her wet hands with frustration. “When do I get to keep anyone that matters to me? Why is that too much to ask? So stupid. So stupid.” Her eyes were pleading. “How can I be so angry that you exist and yet so relieved that you are alive at the same time?”

The statement hit Darla like a sucker-punch, and she stared up at the woman whose love for Teddy was laid bare. She had thought of Teddy every waking hour since he had been taken from her; she had imagined his tears, his cries, and his calls out to her. It was the Teddy shaped hole in her own heart that hurt the most, and Darla had not for a second contemplated that anyone else could love him the way she did.

“Saving me cost you more than I realized,” Darla said to her. She rubbed her eyes as the plane bounced. “Blair...thank you. I can’t repay you.”

“No, maybe not.” The plane jolted again and Blair held on to the back of the seat to catch her balance. “But it’s not about me anymore. It’s so much bigger than me. I want to help you because Teddy deserves his mother...not some substitute. I want to keep him, Darla. But I can’t. Now that I know everything you did to get back to him...I can’t.”

A small ding-dong interrupted them.

Hank’s voice came over the speaker, “Alright y’all, we’ll be landing shortly and...as the last plane to arrive my margin for error is small. If I miss it, I’ll take another go. But let’s just buckle ourselves up. Bumpy doesn’t begin to describe what’s coming.”

Hank dropped the plane down on to the Maine coastline and hit the small runway on the first try. From Darla’s vantage point, she could see the lights of a city out at sea as they came in from the south. She couldn’t help but gasp. It was unlike anything she had ever seen before. A tower grew upward to the sky and five arms stretched outward to other mini towers. Off of those towers were smaller structures and mounds, and the whole thing seemed to float above the water. It was lit up against the backdrop of the horizon with thousands of tiny white lights. That was what they were up against—a fortified city on the ocean.

When the plane came to a stop, Hank emerged from the cockpit and held up his hand. He stared at each of them in turn.

“They know I’ve landed. I had to call it in. They’ll be sending a helicopter over for me, Blair, and Grant within the next ten minutes.” He looked at Blair and she stood, and cleared her throat.

“Wait until we’ve left. Only then is it safe to leave this plane,” she announced. “When you exit, there’s a little amusement park. Go there. There’s shelter. Don’t leave. Don’t try to venture out. And wait for me.” She had taken off her heels mid-flight and she shifted her weight on the balls of her feet. From beyond the airplane, Darla thought she could hear the steady sound of chopper blades cutting through the air.

“That’s it?” Darla asked. “Wait for you? For how long? With what resources? There’s food there? That’s unacceptable. I want to see my son. Now.”

“It’s not that easy,” Blair added in a rush. “I’m doing everything I can...”

“I’m a mile away from my kid and you want me to go spend my time hiding in some empty funland? No way.” Darla hit the seat in front of her, and let out a disgruntled sigh. Her hands were shaking and she turned from the group to gather her emotions. “This can’t be happening...”

Frank sensed her anger and barked in her direction. Blair reached for his leash and tugged on him to quiet him down.

Dean stepped forward toward Darla, his hand outstretched, and then he moved back. He wrapped his arms around Grant instead and gave him a hug, holding him for longer than Grant felt comfortable with. When Grant pulled back, he noticed his father was crying.

“Hey—” Grant said, concerned.

“We just found each other again,” Dean said. “Feels wrong to just let you go.”

“I have to go, Dad.” Grant leaned in and hugged his dad again. “I’ll be back soon. I promise. But I have to go.”

“I know you do. I know.” Dean tousled Grant’s hair. “You come back to me, okay? You’re all I’ve got now and I am not going to lose you.”

Blair ducked to look out the plane’s side window and she swore under her breath. “We all have to go. You don’t have much time. Look, Darla, Teddy is safe with me. And I will bring him to you as soon as I can. Give me time,” Blair said, her voice pleading. “Time means a good escape...time means you and Teddy will be safe forever...”

“How much time?” Darla asked.

Blair shrugged, frowning. “Until I have it all figured out...how to get him to you, forever, safely. Don’t you see? It’s not like I can just go and get him, and come back here. What am I supposed to say? How am I supposed to explain that? There’s more to it than that...if you want to be safe, forever, if you don’t want to spend your life wondering if the bogeyman is coming back for you, then you’ll wait. And you’ll trust me.”

“I can’t—” Darla said. “I can’t just...not do anything.”

“We have to,” Dean said. He patted Grant on the back.

The pilot made his way to the emergency exit and lifted the hatch and deployed the slide. It unfurled and plumped up and settled on the sand below. He took the leap first, sliding down the bright yellow plastic to the ground, and Blair followed. When she reached the bottom, she called to Grant to join them and for everyone else to stay hidden until the area was clear.

The helicopter was closer now—a tiny dot against the backdrop of the blue sky.

Grant turned to his dad.

“Do what she says,” he said to Dean.

“Hey,” Dean said. “Don’t worry about me. I’ve been through a lot to get to you. We’re a tough group...we’ll be fine.”

“Dad—” Grant started and stopped. He looked down the slide at the pilot and Blair below, and he ran his hand through his hair. “I love you.”

Dean nodded. “Of course, son. Now stop or I’ll think you’re trying to say goodbye.” He gave him a little push and Grant took the hint. He started to walk toward the slide without looking back.

“Stop!” Ainsley said and Grant paused to look at her. She slid out from behind her seat and held up an airsickness bag. “Here,” she said and extended it toward him. He balked a bit before reaching out and grabbing the white paper from her. Up close he realized that she had written a note in the margins, her girly script wrapped itself up the sides and around the back. “For Ethan,” she said. “Make sure he gets it, okay?”

“I can’t—” he said, stealing a look at Blair waiting for him down below. “There’s no way she’ll let me risk it,” he added in a whisper.

“Please,” Ainsley pleaded. “I’m begging you. I need Ethan to read it. I need...”

Grant looked at her, the girl with the angular face. He couldn’t help but stare at the sharpness of her features, the deep hollows of her cheeks. He caught a glimpse of the note as he folded it into fourths to put in his pocket. I’m sorry I couldn’t say it until now, she had written. The thickness of the bag created a bulky square against his leg and he patted and smoothed it down. “I’ll make sure,” he said and Ainsley didn’t thank him or smile, instead she ducked back down into the seat, her wide eyes the last thing to dip out of sight.

Grant waved to his dad, then turned and bounced down the slide and hit the bottom after catching some air toward the ground. Blair extended her hand and helped him up. In unison the pilot, Blair, and Grant turned toward the sound of their incoming ride. Even Frank pulled on his leash and lifted his nose toward the sky, anticipating the next adventure. Together they ran along the sand toward the noise, disappearing out of sight. And then they were gone.

The Old Orchard Beach Carnival was once a place of joyous laughing and good-natured screams, and everything had been painted in shades of cotton-candy pastels. A giant clown gaped down at them from the entrance off the street—a scary caricature with wavy pink lips, a red dot nose, and a lopsided tongue—and Darla grimaced as they walked underneath its vapid stare. Without lights and people and happy children, the park was a sad spectacle of rusting metal, torn tents, and discarded garbage. And as the sun set over the back of the town, a brisk wind flapped through the fenced-in park, which created a chill that was inescapable. All around them darkness fell, casting strange shadows around the enclosed area, and submerging the towers of the city Blair had called Kymberlin into  darkness.

They wandered between the old games—Skee-ball, balloon darts (little remnants of colored rubber still nailed to the barren corkboard), the bottle toss—and in and around the defunct rides. Two letters had fallen down on the sign to the Dragon Swing and it simply read: ragon Swng. The opening to the Tunnel of Love ride was dark and uninviting; the red heart cars moved right and left as if steered by unseen riders.

“I don’t want to stay here,” Ainsley said, wrapping her arms around her thin body. “This is beyond creepy.”

“The creepiness factor doesn’t compare to a basement with breeding rabbits. I’ll take freedom,” Darla said.

“I’m with Ainsley on this one,” Dean added. “I think the joy of nighttime is that we won’t have to look at all the creepy clown shit.”

“Creepy clown shit,” Ainsley repeated, punctuating each word and staring right at Darla. “Speaking of which, you think that clown café has something worth eating? Candy bars?”

“After all this time?” Darla shrugged. “We’ll scrounge what we can. And then tomorrow we’ll explore...find some necessities. We can pull the bags off the plane and go through those. Bet some of those boys packed food for their flight home.”

Dean wandered a few feet ahead of the girls. He stood looking at the wall separating the fun center and the beach. “Can they see us?” he asked to no one in particular.

Walking up beside him, Darla put her hands on her hips and followed his gaze. “No,” she answered. “They’re too far out. Blair wouldn’t have put us in danger.” It was a declarative statement; she had said it as if it meant something, as if she knew it was truth. But the truth had never felt so tenuous.

“What are we in danger from exactly?” Ainsley asked, joining them. She shoved her hands deep in the pockets of her sweater and hunched up her shoulders near her ears.

Darla closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the waves crashing against the sand. Just beyond them was a beach with scattered planes on their makeshift runway, and beyond that the distinct flickering lights of a place they would never see or experience. Her shoulders slumped, and Darla opened her eyes. “Evil,” she answered, as the Ferris wheel creaked above her head. “Pure, unadulterated evil.”