Flight 3430

by Druga, Jacqueline

“You mean after I am done playing or in general with life??”

  “After everything.”

  “That’s a pretty open-ended question, Gabe,” Tom said. “After Gainesville?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, that’s easy. I got you and your brother, I’m good. I’ll do whatever you want to do. Stay in Gainesville or not. To be honest though, I was hoping there’d be a way to get to Gene. I hate to think of him in Billings, just stuck there. Make plans, you know, before everything shuts down and it will. I mean phones.”

  “I agree,” Gabe replied. “I think we should get Uncle Gene. Unless he thinks Billings is the place to stay.”

  “That’s an option.”

  “But I was thinking, after it all settles, and it will according to Uncle Gene. After that, I’d like to go back to Fort Collins. Find mom and Casey, I know … I know the chances of them being alive are slim. But I need to. I need to say goodbye.”

  Tom nodded. “I think that’s a great idea. I think you need that. We all do. We need to go home, resolve things. Who knows, maybe Fort Collins was spared, right?”

  “We won’t know until we go.”

  “How would we do that?”

  “Well …” Gabe tilted his head. “I know how to fly and am learning that 737. We don’t need anything that big, but once the world is safe, hell, we have a year’s worth of fuel stockpiled at airports across the country. We’re good. Unless the government is up and running and nixes that stuff.”

  “You know I highly doubt that.” Tom glanced at his slot machine. “Somehow your skill will be a commodity. Amongst other things. Things that are more important than money, that we can get.”

  “You talking about doing a sort of king pin in the apocalypse sort of thing?” Gabe asked.

  “Maybe … I always wanted to start my own business.”

  Gabe laughed. “Let me think on it.”

  “We’ll ask your brother. Speaking of which …”

  Gabe saw it on his father’s face. The pleasant look dropped fast and Gabe spun around.

  Owen moved quickly to them.

  “What’s wrong?” Tom asked.

  “She’s gone.”

  “Who?” Tom questioned. “Who is gone?”

  “Delaney,” Owen said. “I went to wake her and she wasn’t there.”

  “She’s probably in the bathroom,” Tom said.

  “I knocked.”

  Tom huffed. “There are a number of rest rooms, Owen, she probably went to one for privacy.”

  “Dad, she’s not here.”

  “She’s here,” Tom stated and stood. “We’ll just look for her. But trust me … she’s not gone.”

  <><><><>

  “She’s gone,” Trevor the flight attendant said. “I looked in every bathroom.”

  “We called her name over and over,” Gabe said. “You don’t think someone did something to her, do you?”

  Jeff looked down at his watch. “As much as I hate to say this. We have spent twenty minutes looking for her. We need to go.”

  Owen looked at him. “We have an hour. We can look some more.”

  “That is only an estimate,” Jeff argued. “Right now we’re safe. Who knows when things will go bad again.”

  “I get that,” said Owen. “I do. But she has been a huge help. We can’t just say, ‘we can’t find her, oh, well, let’s just go and abandon her.’”

  Gary spoke up. “We have spent a lot of time searching this airport. Has anyone thought about the possibility that she left the airport?”

  “And go where?” Owen said. “She’s not from around here. Who does she know?”

  “Oh my God,” Tom said with discovery. “I know where she is.”

  <><><><>

  Jeff looked torn. He scratched his head and grumbled. “What do you want me to do?”

  “We have an hour,” said Owen. “Give me forty-five minutes to see if my father is right.”

  “You really think you can go out there, find her and get back here so we can take off in forty-five minutes?”

  “Yes.” Owen nodded.

  “Son, it’s not feasible,” Jeff said. “It’s a hundred degrees, one hell of a walk for you unless you find transportation and even then, forty-five minutes. You want me to put the lives of a hundred and forty people at risk so you can find this woman. She left. I know it’s cold, but she left on her own accord. So … she should be on her own. Did it occur to you that maybe she doesn’t want to be found?”

  Owen looked at Gabe. “She’s not in the right frame of mind. She lost her family, like all of us. I can’t … I can’t abandon her.”

  Trevor the flight attendant spoke up. “After losing everything, I am willing to bet she wants to be left alone. Let her go. This is the destiny she wanted.”

  “I can’t accept that,” Owen said. “Again, she’s not in the right frame of mind. She can’t be.”

  “You don’t know her,” said Trevor. “None of us do. None of us know anyone. Why do you feel so strongly about a stranger?”

  “A survivor,” Owen said. “Something fucked up happened to this world and there aren’t that many of us left, I am not giving up on anyone. I’d look for you.” Again, he faced his bother. “Gabe?”

  “I go where you go,” Gabe said. “You want to look. I’ll go with you.”

  “Me, too,” said Tom.

  “I’m in,” Gary stated.

  “Fine.” Jeff tossed out his hands. “But I tell you this, I have too many lives counting on me to get them to Gainesville. You aren’t back in forty-five minutes, I take off.”

  Owen nodded. “I understand.”

  “Good,” Jeff said. “You have forty-five minutes. But son, please, don’t let your attempt at valor be your death sentence. Like you said, there aren’t that many of us left, your life matters, too.”

  <><><><>

  Naval Operations Support Center - Billings, MT

  Hearing Wiley utter the words, ‘I think our threat has passed.’ Didn’t make Gene feel any better, he had other things on his mind.

  Tom and his sons.

  “Focus on Vegas,” Gene told Wiley. “We need to focus on Vegas and that region.”

  The truth was, both Gene and Wiley both knew it was a matter of time, less than an hour or two before another eruption. More than likely it would be the last, but would they get out of Vegas in enough time.

  Eventually the world would release all the pent of methane it had been harboring. Some areas faster than others and Gene already saw that in his own readings near Billings. After the final eruption, the high levels were gone. They showed no signs whatsoever of returning to the prior climbing levels. Everyone in Billings but him and Wiley were gone. At least from what he could see and hear.

  The dead silence confirmed Billings was a dead town.

  Gene put the warning out, but too many didn’t reach for oxygen, they reached for their car keys thinking they could outrun it.

  There was no outrunning it, just like Gene tried to tell Tom.

  For as much as Gene cringed and disagreed about the move to go search out a woman the Foster men had met on a plane, chastise them about the irresponsibility of their heroic efforts, he couldn’t. Because it didn’t surprise him one bit.

  He didn’t put it past Tom, nor did he put it past his lifelong friend to tell his sons to go.

  Knowing the boys, they weren’t leaving their father.

  Gene told them to be careful and make a plan, find a way that if they couldn’t get out of Vegas before it turned dangerous, they needed to find a way to breathe.

  There was a fourth man with them, Gary the fire fighter. He conveyed through Gabe that he had an idea, but it wasn’t a long term one.

  Tom was confident that they would return to the plane before it took off, there was no doubt in Tom’s mind.

  Gene wished he was as confident.

  Wiley, however had no doubt that they’d make it back to the airport.

  “I have been to Vegas dozens o
f times. Tom knows the hotel, knows the floor, all they have to do is find transportation and they make it. Trust me.”

  Gene did. But not on that. His gut screamed for Tom to get a Plan B.

  Just because they knew the hotel, didn’t mean this woman was there. It was a guess on Tom’s part. And Neither Tom nor his sons said what they would do if they got to the hotel and she wasn’t where they thought.

  Would they give up, keep looking or leave?

  Time truly was of the essence.

  Gene immediately went to where they could go.

  Where was the closest place that was safe.

  The problem was they could only gauge safety on areas they knew and monitored. For all they knew, a lot of the country was still alive and well.

  If that was the case, however, would there be some sort of news from somewhere. Something on social media.

  The internet was slow but still running in Billings and the last post Gene saw was a day before.

  He had taken a walk to clear his mind and to shake his nerves. After grabbing a couple iced teas and chips from a convenience store, he returned to the center and to Wiley.

  Gene’s eyes were glued to his phone, having just sent a text to all three Taylor men asking what was happening and waiting for a response.

  “I guess they are out there,” Gene said as he walked in. “Are levels in Vegas okay?”

  “From what I am getting,” Wiley answered, “Yes.”

  “They must be busy, they haven’t gotten back yet. Then again, I just sent the texts now …” Gene paused. It registered to him that something was off about Wiley’s tone. It was soft, almost depressed. When he looked up he saw that Wiley’s expression confirmed that. “What’s going on?” he asked Wiley. “Please don’t tell me there’s more bad news.”

  “It’s like being dropped in the ocean during a violent storm, and saying, ‘here comes a wave’ and then being totally shocked by that.”

  “I truly don’t understand what that means.”

  “We’re in a storm, me giving you a lightning report shouldn’t come as a surprise. So I’m saying me giving more bad news shouldn’t be a surprise, you should expect it.”

  “Christ.” Gene pulled out a chair and sat down. “What?”

  “Speaking of water.”

  “We weren’t talking about water.”

  “I was, you know, the ocean, a storm.”

  “What the hell, Wiley?”

  Wiley placed his hands on the keyboard and clicked, bringing up an image.

  “What am I looking at?” Gene asked.

  “The northern east coast. Storm surges, and they’re going to get worse. From satellite images water has come inland, about two hundred miles.” He turned his head to Gene. “Reston is gone.”

  “We expected that.”

  “Yeah, well we didn’t expect Susan to be there. She went to get her family.”

  “Maybe she got out. Last we talked to Gainesville, she was safe.”

  Wiley nodded.

  “What is Gainesville saying?” Gene asked.

  “Nothing.”

  “Nothing? They don’t know?”

  “No, I mean nothing. I can’t get a hold of anyone there.”

  “In Gainesville?” Gene asked.

  “Last image showed Florida wasn’t submerged, but the storm front is bad.”

  Gene sucked in his bottom lip as he inhaled. “I’m going to believe communications are just down. They’re down. Susan is fine. Gainesville is fine. We can’t lose everything. We just can’t.”

  His eyes cast upward to the monitor.

  Gene wanted more than anything to believe the words he spoke. The logical and scientific side of him believed in those words, but his heart felt differently.

  The fight for life and devastation wasn’t over. They weren’t done losing … not yet.

  SIXTEEN – EARLY FLIGHT

  Las Vegas, NV

  Firehouse Number Eleven was a bust. Not that Gary claimed to know where every single fire station was in Vegas, nor did they have time to check them all. The internet was still running which enabled GPS and for the group to search out the fire stations that were located on the way to the hotel north of the strip. They needed to get the Self Contained Breathing Apparatuses, just in case. The first station, Number nine had eight masks. They didn’t need eight masks but they needed the canisters. They were able to get ten, but one was empty. He didn’t let any of them know that, he just tucked it in his bag.

  He conveyed that he had hope they’d find more at another station, but that was a bust.

  There were only masks.

  “Someone cleaned this out,” Gary said. “I thought that was the case in the last station because there were none on the trucks or in storage.”

  “So someone else is alive?” Tom asked.

  “Were,” Gary said. “They’d be out of air by now and they wouldn’t know another eruption was coming unless they had contact with someone.”

  “Let’s hope they did,” Tom said. “Let’s get going.”

  They loaded back into the cab they retrieved from the airport. It hadn’t been running when the event hit. Parked on the side, keys in the ignition, driver on the ground on the sidewalk.

  Gabe did the driving.

  “After we find Delaney,” Gary said. “We need to get right back to the airport.”

  “Where are we now as far as time goes?” asked Owen from the back seat.

  “Seventeen minutes in,” Gary answered.

  Owen said. “We have twenty-eight minutes. It takes six to get back to the airport.”

  “Allow ten,” Gabe said. “Just to be on the safe side.”

  “If …” Gary said. “If that plane takes off before we get back, we need to find more canisters. Each canister’s only a half hour. It’s gonna take you how long, Gabe, to get a plane and refuel. At least an hour. That’s our air before we’re even off the ground.”

  “I can do it faster, get us enough fuel in the plane,” Gabe said, “To get to Billings. Gene sent a text that’s a safe spot. We get there we’re good and can refuel for Gainesville. Just doing half the tank, that would save us twenty minutes.”

  “Twenty minutes is a canister,” Tom added.

  “I still have to teach you how to switch them,” Gary said. “We need more. Just to be on the safe side.”

  “If the plane takes off,” Owen said. “That still gives us time to get to the airport and find a plane before the eruption.”

  “Finding and fueling a plane aren’t the issue,” Gabe stated. “They’re there. I should have refueled one last night just in case. But I was tired and didn’t think. We can get back and do it before the eruption.”

  “The eruptions,” Tom replied. “Aren’t scheduled. We don’t know. It could happen right now. We’re relying on a two minute warning from Gene. And Gary is right, we can’t take a chance. Maybe you boys get to the airport, get the plane and we look for air.”

  Gary shook his head. “We don’t separate. We can’t. This is also assuming we get to the hotel, find Delaney with ease and she’s ready to run out the door.”

  “We can convince her,” Owen said. “I’m positive. I don’t think she’s here to die. She knows another eruption is happening. I think she’ll come.”

  “That’s barring,” Tom added, “We don’t run into any delays getting to the hotel.”

  “What delays could there be?” Owen asked. “I can see it ahead. We’re almost there.”

  The car came to a sudden halt, causing them to jerk when Gabe slammed the brakes.

  Gabe looked at Tom in the front passenger seat then into the mirror, making eye contact with Gary. “We’re not making that plane.”

  Taking the side streets seemed like a good idea. Even from the airport they could see the wrecked cars on the freeway overpass.

  The had moved down the secondary roads without incident until they neared the strip.

  Everything didn’t just come to a standstill, it was a
disaster. The event happened early in the morning; Owen could only imagine what would have happened if it were later in the day.

  They attributed the lack of cars on the back streets to the early hour, but the cars that were on the roads had to have been traveling at high speeds. That was evident by the way the cars were flipped, slammed into each other and the buildings. Windshields were busted not from just the accidents, but from the bodies being ejected.

  Grabbing their gear, they left the car, knowing they could get back to it and to the airport with relative ease.

  Walking through it all was like walking a war zone.

  Visions that Owen would never be able to erase from his mind or memory.

  Glass, body parts. As they walked past a corner pawn shop, Owen saw the horrifying sight of remains, two people that were smashed against the exterior wall of the building. Flattened against the brick like swatted flies. They had to have been thrown from a car or struck by one at such a force, that was the only explanation.

  Walking down a block that was a mile’s worth of gruesome heartache. Finally, they turned down a small alley behind the open parking lot of the hotel where they hoped to find Delaney.

  Even at a distance Gabe saw the wide glass doors of the hotel open and close constantly, it wasn’t until they were at the rotunda and valet area that he saw the reason.

  A body lay in the archway, only the feet extended out, stopping the doors from closing and causing the doors to go into an infinite cycle.

  It was not the Vegas he expected or knew.

  Thankfully not many cars were in the valet, not a lot of bodies either.

  Unlike at Salt Lake City, where Gabe never saw beyond the airport, Gabe, his brother and father were being given a reality check.

  Gary saw it firsthand, was in the middle of it and merely said, ‘People dropped over and died.’

  A basic description less any adjectives or emotional comments. A description that gave little to prepare them for what they faced.

  In thinking about it, even if Gary would have shown pictures from his phone, it wouldn’t have prepared him.