Pulse ; No Power

by Skylar Finn

  “But there were survivors,” Ailani insisted. “What if my sister was one of them?”

  “You’re setting yourself up for disappointment,” the fireman said. “The survivors didn’t survive much longer.”

  “We won’t bother you,” Walt jumped in. “We’ll check on her flight and come right back out. It shouldn’t be a problem—”

  The firefighter jabbed his index finger into Walt’s chest, pushing him several feet away. “What shouldn’t be a problem is people like you coming along and making my job harder than it has to be. The airport isn’t safe. A lot of it is still on fire. I might not have a truck or a hose or anything else to change that, but I can stop you two from doing something stupid. Turn around and go back to wherever you came from. You’ve been lucky to get this far. Maybe you’ll make it out of this mess, but you sure as hell won’t make it if you start picking through the carnage here.”

  Ailani opened her mouth, determined to argue with this man until he allowed them through the doors, but Walt pushed her behind him.

  “Of course, sir,” he said. “We’re sorry. We didn’t mean to cause any trouble.”

  “Walt, what the hell?” Ailani resisted as Walt pushed her away from the door and its guardian. “Stop pushing me.”

  The firefighter crossed his arms and watched until he was satisfied with the amount of space Walt had put between Ailani and the airport entrance. Ailani pulled her arm out of Walt’s grasp. It was hard enough to walk without him dragging her along.

  “What was that?” she demanded once they were out of earshot of the firefighter. “We came here to find Keiko, dead or alive, and I’m not leaving until I figure out which category she fits into.”

  “You think I don’t know that?” Walt said, checking behind him to make sure none of the other wandering firefighters were listening in. “I’m not an idiot.”

  “Then why—”

  “Because that guy wasn’t going to let us in, no matter what we said,” Walt answered her unfinished question. “We would have wasted time arguing with him. It’s easier to find another way in.”

  “How are we supposed to do that when there are firefighters crawling around the entire place?” Ailani asked him. “They’re guarding every door.”

  “Yeah, at the main entrance,” Walt said. “But they don’t have enough guys to cover the entire airport. We’re not dealing with that. Do you have Keiko’s flight information on you?”

  Ailani pulled the folded note out of her pocket and smoothed it out.

  “What’s the gate number?” Walt asked, reading the note over her shoulder.

  “Twenty-five B,” Ailani answered.

  “Then we head for gate twenty-five B,” he said. “Screw those guys. Come on.”

  He took her hand and pulled her along the perimeter of the airport. Firefighters glanced at them as they went by, but most of them paid them no mind since they weren’t attempting to come inside anymore. They made their way around to the back of the airport. Walt was right. The number of firefighters died off dramatically. In fact, they were so busy manning the main entrance that none of them had bothered to check the other terminals.

  Thankfully, both Ailani and Walt were familiar with the airport’s layout from having to fetch actors, producers, and other industry members as a part of their PA jobs. Even so, they were used to driving to the appropriate pick-up place, not walking to it, so it took an annoying amount of time to find the gate where Keiko’s plane was supposed to have landed. They hiked across a lane to reach it, and when they did, Ailani felt her heart freeze over.

  Keiko’s plane—identifiable by the airline’s emblem and the number on the empennage—was in ruins. If Ailani had to guess, it had touched down right as the EMP hit. Most of the damage wasn’t from a crash landing, but from a fire instead. The plane was mostly intact, not scattered around like the ones that had fallen out of sky, but the metal was charred and twisted, as if an electrical fire had raged on for hours.

  “Ailani,” Walt said, his voice shaking. “Are you okay?”

  She stepped into the debris, placing her feet carefully to make sure she didn’t catch her skin on any sharp shards of metal. As she looked into the body of the plane, bile rose in her throat. Many of the passengers hadn’t made it out. The aisles and seats were crowded with burned bodies, as if they had all rushed for the emergency exits at the same time. There had been too much panic, and that panic had betrayed them all while the fire consumed the plane in record time.

  “Ailani,” Walt said again. “Don’t look for her. You shouldn’t see it.”

  But Ailani couldn’t help herself. She clambered through the plane, checking each ruined body for a feature that she recognized. It was rough. Most everyone had been burned beyond recognition, but Ailani could tell by the general shape of the bodies which ones were older, younger, or about Keiko’s age. She reached someone near the emergency exit in the middle of the plane, someone with a patch of tan, unburned skin on their knee that was the same color as Keiko’s complexion. The person—the girl—had pinkish-orange nail polish on. It was Keiko’s favorite color.

  Ailani fell to her knees. “No. Please no.”

  “Ailani!” Walt called from outside. “Someone’s here.”

  Ailani, her heart in her throat, touched the unmarred skin on the person’s knee. It was cold and hard. She took in a deep breath. She’d expected her world to fall apart at this point, but shock set in first. She felt nothing, but she knew she’d feel something horrible in a few minutes.

  Walt hopped onto the plane, his hasty steps kicking aside a seatbelt and rattling Ailani’s head. “Hey, there’s a woman outside. I think you should talk to her. She might know—” He cut himself off at the sight of the body. “That’s not her.”

  “How do you know?” Ailani asked.

  “Her teeth.”

  Ailani wrinkled her nose. “What?”

  Walt pointed to the body’s mouth, the flesh of which had been burned away to reveal a set of charred teeth. “I’m an amateur model. One of the first things employers look at is your smile. I know smiles, I know teeth, and I’ve seen enough pictures of Keiko to know those aren’t her teeth.”

  Ailani stood up and examined the body’s mouth. At the same time, she pictured Keiko’s sunshiny smile in her head. Sure enough, she recognized the differences too. Keiko’s teeth were nearly perfect—she had never needed braces, something Ailani always envied her of—but this person’s canines were rotated outward, making them look more pointed. It definitely wasn’t Keiko.

  Relief flooded through Ailani’s chest, but she tried to keep it at bay. Just because one dead body didn’t belong to Keiko didn’t mean Keiko had actually survived the crash.

  “Hello?” called a voice from the burned entrance of the aircraft. “I’m still waiting.”

  Walt helped Ailani navigate the wreckage and get back outside. The woman in question waited patiently on the flightline for them to emerge. She was older, maybe in her mid-sixties, and wore her hair tied in a bun at the base of her neck. She had on a long-sleeved shirt that was far too big for her. It had a picture of a bass splashed across the front of it, and Ailani assumed it didn’t belong to the woman originally. The woman held her hands in front of her, fingers interlocked, as Walt and Ailani climbed down from the plane.

  “Sharon,” she introduced herself. When she extended a hand, it shook with involuntary tremors. She withdrew it and intertwined her fingers before either one of them could shake. “I was on this plane when it crashed.”

  “You were on this flight?” Ailani asked. “What happened?”

  “It caught fire right before we touched down,” Sharon explained. “The front end of it exploded, but I was sitting near the back. I managed to get out before the fire did too much damage, though not completely uninjured.” She turned around and lifted her shirt to show Walt and Ailani a half-healed burn that covered a large portion of her lower back. “Do the two of you need something? Maybe I can help in exchange f
or some of that food you have on your back.”

  Ailani and Walt swapped a look, automatically suspicious of anyone who took interest in their supplies. Walt’s hand drifted to his waistband, reaching for the gun.

  “There’s no need for that,” Sharon said. She’d caught his hand disappearing behind his back. “If you don’t want help, I won’t bother you, but if you want someone to wrap that cut on your calf properly, I can do it.” She pointed to Ailani’s leg. The bandage was drenched in blood, as was Ailani’s shoe and sock. “For a snack and some water.”

  “You have medical supplies?” Walt asked.

  “Possibly,” the woman replied vaguely.

  Ailani was less concerned with the woman’s first aid supplies. “Did anyone else survive this crash? Did anyone else make it off the plane with you?”

  Sharon hesitated. “Who wants to know?”

  “Ailani Ho,” she said. “My little sister, Keiko, was supposed to be on this flight. She’s seventeen. We came here to find her. She’s about my height, maybe an inch shorter. We look similar, but she has darker hair and eyes. Have you seen her around anywhere?”

  Sharon studied Ailani from head to toe. She sighed and waved. “Come on. Follow me.”

  Ailani limped along behind Sharon without question, but Walt was more hesitant to follow. He caught up as Sharon led them across the flightline in the opposite direction, toward a line of planes that had not been in flight at the time of the EMP blast. They were in perfect condition, a decent place to hide if you didn’t have anywhere else to take shelter.

  Sharon led them to a plane in the middle of the lineup. She approached the belly and knocked a specific rhythm against the metal. She paused and knocked again. A moment later, the door to the plane opened and someone lowered a ladder to the ground. Sharon gripped either side with her unsteady hands and started up.

  “Come on,” she said to Walt and Ailani. “It’s safe, I promise.”

  Ailani climbed up and Sharon helped her into the body of the plane. The classic plane smell was a weird relief to Ailani. She got to her feet and dusted the soot off the front of her shirt as Walt made his way up behind her.

  Without warning, someone careened into Ailani at full force. She caught a glimpse of blonde hair and tan skin, but it wasn’t until she inhaled the familiar coconut scent that accompanied Keiko no matter how far she traveled from home did Ailani recognize her little sister, alive and no worse for wear.

  “Keiko?” she gasped, holding the girl at arm’s length to get a better look. Sure enough, it was her little sister. Her left arm had a burn like Sharon’s, extending from her wrist all the way up to her shoulder. Nevertheless, Keiko beamed and hugged Ailani again, unaware of her delicate, healing skin.

  “I can’t believe you’re alive!” Keiko said. “How are you alive?”

  “Me?” Ailani said. “I thought you were dead!”

  Keiko screwed her face up in an expression that made Ailani laugh. “I thought I was going to die too. I thought I’d never see you again.”

  Sharon put a gentle hand on the girls’ shoulders and guided them farther into the plane so they weren’t blocking the aisles. “What do you say we all have a snack and catch up? I can patch up the two of you in the meantime.”

  Keiko looked around Ailani and spotted Walt for the first time. “Oh! I didn’t see you there. And you are?”

  Ailani stared sheepishly at the floor as Walt gave her a questioning look. She talked to Walt about almost everything, but when it came to filling in Keiko about the different facets of her life, Ailani had trouble connecting the dots.

  “I’m Walt,” he said, shaking Keiko’s hand. “I’m Ailani’s best friend. I’ve heard a lot about you.”

  “Walt.” Keiko mulled the name over in her head before her eyes finally lit up with recognition. “You’re the Instagram guy!”

  Ailani was surprised Keiko had remembered the detail about Walt though she had only mentioned him once or twice. It was a mark of Keiko’s incredible ability to connect with any human she happened to interact with.

  “That’s me,” Walt said, beaming.

  “Makes sense,” Keiko said. “You’re gorgeous.”

  Walt blushed and waved off the compliment, but Ailani had known him long enough to know when he was flustered. “Stop it, girl.”

  Sharon tapped Ailani’s shoulder, a reminder that Ailani had been on her feet for several hours when she shouldn’t have been. All at once, the strength and adrenaline drained from Ailani’s body, and she collapsed in one of the plush first class seats. Keiko, worried, sat next to her. She spotted the bandage on Ailani’s calf and pulled her leg up to have a look.

  “What happened?” she asked, unwrapping the bandages. Sharon bustled to the back of the plane, opening a few overhead storage compartments to find what she needed. They had used the compartments to hide their gear. Ailani caught glimpses of extra pillows, emergency blankets, and a meager supply of food.

  “I got bit by a wolf,” Ailani said. “And Walt got shot.”

  Keiko whooped, a weird vocalization that startled Walt. Ailani understood it immediately. It was Keiko’s non-verbal way of saying, Holy shit.

  “This is deep,” Keiko said as she revealed the full extent of Ailani’s wound, “but it actually doesn’t look too bad. You did a good job cleaning and wrapping it. Your worst mistake was walking so far when it was fresh. You need to give it time to heal.”

  “I had to find you,” Ailani said. “How do you know all this stuff anyway? Since when do you do first aid?”

  “Since the plane crash,” Sharon answered for her. She’d returned from the rear of the plane, her arms full of bandages and ointment. “I’m a retired doctor. I’ve been teaching Keiko some of the basics. Seemed the smart thing to do considering the situation.”

  She handed the bandages and other supplies to Keiko, and Keiko got to work. She cleansed the area with anti-bacterial wipes first, being gentle with the ruined bits of Ailani’s skin. Ailani watched her sister work. The only times she’d ever seen Keiko so focused were in the water. She wore the same stern expression catching waves as she did practicing medicine.

  “So what’s been happening around this area?” Walt asked, taking a seat nearby. “We’ve been in Malibu.”

  “I can’t say we know too much,” Sharon said as she observed Keiko’s work. “We’ve kept to ourselves for the most part. We only venture out to search the airport for other supplies. Figured it’s best if we keep a low profile.”

  “How did you two meet?” Ailani asked.

  “Keiko saved my life.”

  “No, I didn’t.”

  Sharon ruffled Keiko’s hair. “Hush, you.” She turned to Ailani and Walt. “I wouldn’t have gotten out of that plane if it weren’t for Keiko. I was still wearing my seatbelt when it caught fire. Couldn’t get it off.”

  Keiko finished washing Ailani’s wound. As Sharon handed her a package of butterfly bandages, her hands shook violently. She caught Walt and Ailani’s questioning looks.

  “Parkinson’s,” Sharon said. “Part of the reason I couldn’t take off my seatbelt. The entire reason as to why I had to retire from the medical field early. It’s hard to do stitches when your hands have a mind of their own.”

  Keiko used her teeth to rip open the butterfly bandages. Carefully, she pinched together the skin around the deepest gouge in Ailani’s leg and taped it in place with the bandage. Sharon leaned over Keiko’s shoulder to check her work.

  “Nice job,” Sharon said. “Barring any major complications, that should heal pretty well.”

  Keiko grinned, pleased with Sharon’s compliment. Though they had only met a couple weeks ago, it was clear the two of them had formed a fast bond. Keiko placed two other butterfly bandages to close up the other large divots then wrapped Ailani’s wound with a fresh bandage.

  “You’re up,” Keiko said, pointing at Walt. “Take a seat.”

  Ailani and Walt switched positions. As Keiko started working on W
alt’s bullet wound, which hadn’t been cleaned in a day or so, Ailani tested out her leg. With Keiko’s better bandaging, she could put weight on it without feeling like it was going to burst open and spill blood everywhere.

  “Don’t do that,” Keiko ordered sharply.

  “She’s right,” Sharon added. She made Ailani sit in another chair and brought her a water bottle from Ailani’s stash. “Prop your foot up. Drink this.”

  The water bottle distracted Keiko from Walt’s wound. “You have fresh water?”

  “Just a little,” Walt answered. “Enough for us to hike here, but we can’t carry much because it’s so heavy.”

  “They have food though,” Sharon said. She hadn’t forgotten their deal. Medical supplies for sustenance. It didn’t matter that Keiko and Ailani were related. A deal was a deal. “We should consolidate and form a plan.”

  Ailani turned her backpack upside down, revealing the stash of energy bars and beef jerky. “There’s more in Walt’s bag, but we don’t have enough to keep all four of us going for very long. What have you guys been eating?”

  “Not much,” Keiko admitted. “Peanuts and pretzels for the most part. We raided the meal delivery truck, but that stuff needs to be refrigerated. After a couple of days, it went bad.”

  Now that she was paying more attention, Ailani could see how thin Keiko was. Her cheeks had lost their plumpness, and her clavicle was visible through her thin T-shirt. She’d lost all the muscle mass she’d built up from surfing in a few short weeks.

  “So we need a plan?” Walt asked.

  Keiko nodded firmly. “Yeah, we need a plan.”

  12

  Coming up with a plan wasn’t as easy as it sounded, especially with four different brains on the case. After Ailani and Walt took a much needed nap, the four of them set up a meager dinner in first class and sat down to talk about it. The food spread wasn’t much—some dried beef and a couple of cereal bars—but Sharon and Keiko chowed down. They didn’t touch the pretzels and peanuts, but Ailani and Walt, who hadn’t tired of those snacks yet, snacked happily on them. Water was a different issue. Walt and Ailani only had as much as they could carry, which was about a gallon each. Sharon and Keiko had more—having lifted it from other aircrafts and storage areas—but they were down to their last box of one-liter bottles.