“We need to go,” Tom said.
“We need to make sure everyone knows how to put on and use their SCBA,” Gary told him. “This will only take a moment.”
They all had their masks and Gary gave the fastest explanation he could, telling them, “When you have twenty-five percent left a low air alarm will sound. Keep in mind, use slow breathing, conserve your air. I will help you change canisters.”
“Dudes, we gotta go,” Gabe said.
Owen reached and pressed the down button. “So we all have two canisters, right?”
“Yes,” Gary replied.
“No. We’re one shy,” Tom added. “I saw it. One is empty. He has it. With each being thirty minutes, he won’t have enough to hold him “
Delaney asked. “Can you do that Buddy breathing thing?”
Gary shook his head. “No. I mean we can, but it could be deadly if someone doesn’t know how.”
“We just need to get to the plane,” Gabe said. “If we get there, there’s oxygen in the cockpit.”
Ding.
The elevator opened and blasted the foul smell of rotting bodies.
Gabe held the door. “We don’t have a choice. We have to go down.”
They all stepped in and over the bodies, taking the elevator to the lobby.
Ding.
The doors were barely open and Owen flew out. The second he did so, he vomited violently.
He bent half over, trying desperately to control the upheaving.
It was uncontrollable. How he held it in for so long he didn’t know.
“We have to move.” Tom grabbed his arm. “Let’s go.”
With the force of his father’s pull, Owen stumbled over his own feet, nearly falling, before his foot splashed in the puddle of his own regurgitation.
He wiped his arm across his mouth, eyes watering and barely could think as they all ran out of the hotel.
The goal, he assumed was to get to the car. They had to go across the parking lot, to the alley and then another block.
Once they got to the car, then to the airport, it was only a matter of time until they were safe.
Gabe led the way, running fast. Faster than he realized the rest of them could keep up.
As they hit the end of the lot where it met the back alley, Gabe stopped running.
His arms went out and he looked up.
Owen felt it, the slight rumble of the ground, but it wasn’t that as much as the near violent uprising of birds. Like a freak migration they flew over them. The birds were daring, focused on making an escape.
That was all Owen needed to see.
It was happening.
He felt so vulnerable. His hands shook as he grabbed for the mask. He thought it would be easier, but it wasn’t. Everyone else seemed to get theirs on, but he fumbled with the strap. Suddenly he felt it, the air seemed like sludge and Owen began to panic.
He put the mask to his face and reached to turn on the oxygen when he felt the hand over his and the oxygen moved against his nose and mouth.
He gasped, breathing it in.
Gary fixed Owen’s mask, gave a thumbs up to him, and grabbed his shoulder with a grip of reassurance.
Owen’s heart raced out of control. Was it that close for him or was it his imagination?
Gary checked everyone’s SCBAs and when he was done, they walked at a quick pace, not run, to the car.
Eight minutes.
It took eight minutes to get from the car to the airport.
During that time, Tom remained calm, controlled his breathing, unlike Owen, who out of everyone, breathed faster, and that worried Tom. Especially, since his low air indicator came on.
Gabe tried to tell everyone not to worry. They only needed to fuel enough to get to Billings and once they got to the airport and on the plane, there was the pilot’s emergency oxygen.
The only one that seemed concerned they were down one canister was Tom.
He didn’t show it.
During that drive he let Gene know they survived the eruption and were on their way to the airport. That he would message again when in the air.
All that in between checking on Owen.
Gabe drove through the delivery gate at the airport and drove like a bat out of hell to Terminal C.
Tom recognized the apron, and the red and white plane, a little smaller than the one they flew for Flight 3430. It was two gates down from where they had their plane parked at C Twenty-Six, attached to the bridge.
That had to be the one Gabe was talking about taking.
Tom and Gabe had moved the bodies of the two ticket agents and three people seated at the gate.
He remembered thinking that the plane was probably getting ready to take off, and a few people, like him and his sons were eagerly early.
Either that or they ran out of money and had nothing else to do but sit at the airport and wait for their flight.
Gabe had mentioned he didn’t think many were on the plane, maybe a few flight attendants.
Gabe and Gary immediately sprang into action when they pulled close to the plane. Both jumped out of the car. Gary retrieved the fuel truck, while Gabe raced for the airstairs rolling them to the other side of the plane that was not attached to the jet bridge.
He signaled for them to wait while he climbed up.
Tom watched him pull out the lever on the door, turn it and push it. He secured the stairs and went inside.
Soon, Gary arrived with the truck, stepped out and run up the stairs.
Tom looked down at his watch. Six more minutes had passed since they arrived.
What were they supposed to do? Just wait there? Head up? It was hard to understand anyone, between the sound of his own breathing and the mask of the SCBA.
He wanted them to hurry, needed them to hurry.
Time was running out on Owen’s cannister and Tom needed Gary to change it. He wasn’t confident that any of them other than Gary knew how to change the air, especially with how nervous Owen was. When it came to his son’s life, Tom didn’t want to take a chance on anyone touching that cannister but Gary.
Delaney’s heart beat faster and her own breathing increased as it seemed like a lifetime for Gary and Gabe to get out of that plane.
Her own low air indicator had gone on, she could only imagine that Owen’s was near empty.
She watched Tom get ready to help Owen change when Gary waved from the door of the plane.
Like an overprotective father, Tom rushed from the car, holding up the cannister to Gary.
Again, Gary waved and after indicating they should go first, Delaney stepped aside for them to go up.
She was on the third step when Gary yanked Owen inside. When she got to the top and inside, Owen was already in the cockpit. She peeked around Tom and Owen wasn’t wearing the SCBA. It looked like he was holding his breath.
He just had that look.
It was hard to see everything or how exactly Gary ejected it. But after reaching for the control panel, from the side of the copilot’s chair, Gary pulled out a full face oxygen mask and placed it on Owen.
It looked like it conformed to his face with suction, like the masks on the SCBAs. Owen’s shoulders dropped some in relief and he gave a thumbs up to her and Tom before sitting down.
Delaney and Tom inched their way from the cockpit area to the main cabin.
Gary checked both their tanks.
“You’re still good. I’ll be back,” Gary said muffled. “Have a seat.”
Delaney nodded. The plane was different, smaller than Flight 3430. It had a first-class, where the other plane didn’t. The first-class cabin had three seats in a row. A single seat on one side of the aisle, two on the other. Delaney sat in the first row cushy aisle seat and Tom sat in the row next to her in the solo seat. It was hard to sit back with the small tank on her back. That would change once they switched tanks, the replacement cannister wouldn’t be put in the harness, they would just switch the hoses to the full tanks they held. Tom stil
l carried the canister he intended to use on Owen. Delaney clutched her own like a security blanket.
Arms wrapped around it, holding it against her chest.
She kept replaying the fast instructions Gary gave on how it was easy to change. They had what was called a snap connection, for a fast, easy switch. It was a safety feature. Although doing it alone, meant she had to hold her tank.
Gary had left the plane again, down the air steps. The other door, the one connected to the airbridge was closed. She wished Gary hadn’t left. But he did. He returned only briefly to bring up the black bag with the remaining cannisters, then he left again.
Sitting there, she thought about how he and Gabe boarded the plane first and for a few minutes. She supposed it was to check and make sure it was clear of bodies. She didn’t see any. Smelling them would come when they took off the mask.
That would happen when they were off the ground and high in the air.
It was an invisible killer so it was hard to believe that a threat even existed.
She leaned to the right, to peek out the window. She saw the fuel truck and assumed Gabe was filling the plane. Moving back to her seat, she tilted her head to try to see into the cockpit and see Owen. She saw his head, it moved left to right like he was looking at things.
The alarm on Delaney’s air picked up pace and she looked down. She was at five percent. She breathed a lot faster than Tom did, so his probably hadn’t gotten that low yet.
It was time to change her cannister, she couldn’t take a chance.
She leaned over and peeked out the window. Saw Gabe returning the fuel line. Was he done? Was there a problem? She wondered. Maybe the plane had already been fueled. More than likely, if the plane was at the gate, it was ready to go.
Reaching to change her tank, Gary and Gabe returned.
Gary must have seen her reaching for her tank, because he immediately came over and stopped.
“I got it,” he said. “Relax.”
“How’s Tom’s?” she asked.
Gary tilted his body and peered. “He’s at twenty percent. He has about eight minutes. Let’s change you first.”
Delaney nodded, relieved, she really didn’t want to change her own canister. Gary was the professional and she’d rather trust it to him.
Owen could have turned around and looked, but it was easier to watch the tiny eight inch camera monitor on the control panel. Only after he calmed down and knew he was okay. After he realized they’d be off the ground and out of danger soon enough, he saw it.
The image on the screen was directly outside the cockpit, but a simple turn of a knob brought in the galley and then the main cabin where he saw his father and Delaney in first class.
He kept switching views.
Gabe securing the door, then Gary changing Delaney’s canister.
He watched Gabe stand with their father, before stepping away. They spoke briefly, Owen hadn’t a clue what was said.
In the midst of Gary changing Delaney’s tank, his dad began to change his own. Owen could see Gary trying to help, but Tom signaled he was fine.
Then Gary took a seat a couple of rows behind his dad and Delaney grabbed for a canister.
Owen slightly panicked.
Gary was changing his own, was Gabe okay? Should he have changed his air. Maybe he did outside and Owen didn’t see.
Just as he had panicked thoughts of his brother running out of air, Gabe entered the cockpit.
He released the pilot’s oxygen, then removed his SCBA mask, sat down and placed on the pilot’s oxygen.
Reaching to Owen, Gabe lifted the headphones from the arm of Own’s chair and showed them to Owen.
Owen placed them on.
Gabe adjusted his headset, hands reaching to levers and buttons.
“You okay, Brother?” Gave asked. “Mask coms are on. Press that little com button if you want to talk so I can hear you.”
Owen did. “I am. I’m good. You?”
“Fine. Everything is good. All secure. We ready to roll?”
“I am,” said Owen.
“I feel like Ice Man in Top Gun.”
Owen laughed. “Do you need me to do anything?”
“Do you know how to fly an ERJ-175?”
“No,” Owen laughed.
“Neither do I.” Gabe began to move the plane.
“Dude, it’s not funny.”
“I’m not joking.” He looked at Owen. “Let’s hope for beginners’ luck, right?”
“No. Not right.”
Gabe laughed.
Whether his brother was joking or not, it didn’t matter. They had to lift from the ground. What choice did they have?
Gabe’s voice over the speaker was easier to hear than on a full plane, even with the mask and oxygen flowing. He called it Flight 3430 B and they were taking off. He’d turn off the seatbelt sign when they hit thirty-thousand feet and the air was safe.
She was confident in Gabe, but had no clue that was he wasn’t confident in his own abilities.
The plane quivered and shook slightly as he barreled down the runway. Like any flight she had ever taken, she grabbed the arm rest and closed her eyes.
When she felt the plane lift from the ground, she realized she had been holding her breath, the sound of it bounced back at her.
It wouldn’t be long. Five to ten minutes.
She was envious of how in control Tom was. Even in the seat across the aisle she could hear his breathing. In ... out. Slow.
Unlike her, he didn’t have that seat next to him to rest his second tank, it rested on his lap like a toddler.
He did what was called box breathing. Slow breathing in for a second or two, then holding it before letting it out just as slowly.
It was hard not to hear him, being right next to her and being a larger man, she could hear him.
In ….
Pause.
Out.
Pause.
In … out….
In.
The moment it took longer than a few seconds to hear that exhale, Delaney shifted her eyes and saw Tom’s hand. It gripped the arm rest, knuckles white.
A flap of her belt, she jumped to her feet and as soon as she stood before him, she heard what she thought was a hiss.
It was hard to tell with the engine noise.
Something was wrong, definitely wrong. Tom’s eyes were wide and he wasn’t breathing.
If his tubing, like she suspected, sprung a leak, then he inhaled the poisonous gas, putting him in an almost instant inebriated, helpless state, rending him unable to fix the hose.
Gary flew forward not even a second after she did.
Immediately, he fixed the hose.
It was too late. Tom didn’t breathe.
What to do. What to do.
A split second memory of her inflight autopsy told her the gas was in his lungs, trapped there. She could see his expanded chest.
Even if it wasn’t in there, free flowing oxygen wasn’t going to be enough to jump start his breathing. He needed to inhale.
Hurriedly, she felt for a pulse. One was still there. It was faint.
Delaney knew what she had to do and there was no time to waste. She wasn’t even sure medically it was the thing to do to someone alive, but the alternative was worse. It was a long shot that she had to try.
She inhaled the biggest breath she could take into her body and held it.
Quickly, she unstrapped the suction mask from Tom, tossing it aside, and took off her own.
Gary blasted, “What are you doing?”
Hands extended, palms flat, she slammed into his chest, giving on solid push, before opening his mouth, sealing her mouth to his and exhaling every bit of that air she had inside of her into him.
It took everything she had not to follow instinct and inhale after she delivered that breath.
Mouth locked to his, she reached out for the mask.
Gary must have known what she was doing, she saw through the corner of her eyes
as he brought the mask in.
As soon as she felt the plastic touch her cheek, she pulled away. Not before realizing, what she had done … worked. At least she believed it did.
Tom blinked.
The exchange was fast.
Gary had the mask on Tom within a split second of removing her mouth.
But Delaney was still without air.
Her own lungs were depleted, and her mask dangled against her hip. For the life of her, she couldn’t get it. It seemed an impossible task.
The rising plane slanted the flooring and caused her to wobble in her balance.
I have it. I have it. Delaney frantically thought as her fingers touched her mask.,
Then finally she had it, brought it to her face and once it was sealed, she wheezed in a huge breath.
It all lasted at most ten seconds, but it felt like a lifetime.
She plopped back to her seat wanting to cry.
Exhausted and fearful that maybe everything truly was in vain, she looked to her left.
Gary was before Tom and then both men turned to look at her.
Weakly Tom lifted his hand in a thumbs up.
She exhaled, releasing all tension she held in her body. It was too much. It overwhelmed her. There in that seat, heart racing out of control, for many reasons, Delaney just cried.
EIGHTEEN – FULL BUT EMPTY
Naval Operations Support – Billings
News of the survivor named Kyle was a happy factor in a forty-eight hour period that was nothing short of emotional annihilation.
And Gene hadn’t really lost anyone. He didn’t have anyone to lose. He could only imagine what the people out there, the ones that lost everything were going through.
He felt like a third party monitor. In actuality, he was.
Kyle would report any more eruptions to Gene, if any. Gene was hopeful they were done. Atmospherically, levels at all of their probe sites and buoys were calm, normal, actually lower than normal.
It was his hope to find a way to get Kyle out of Ligonier before nightfall. His bird warning system wouldn’t work so well for him then.
Although Kyle did say he slept with a mask on.
Flight 3430 Page 14
