by Brad Manuel
“You’ve been cold? I was in New York, you were in South Carolina.” Avery rolled her eyes at him. “It’s going to be incredible. I might run into the ocean with all my clothes on.” she had a grin on her face, as did everyone in the first class section.
The excitement was palpable.
Peter looked out the window. An hour ago he was exhausted, falling asleep in his chair. Now he was full of energy, ready to land the bird. “You see anyone?” He asked Ahmed.
“No smoke, no cars moving. Nothing.” Ahmed slept for most of the trip from Los Angeles to Seattle to be rested and ready to help while they were over the ocean. He looked out the window at the large city. Honolulu was below them as Peter had brought the plane in low. He dropped the landing gear and the last fliers fell from the plane.
Peter brought the plane higher to allow him to see the Lihue runway from an appropriate distance. He pointed to the island. “There she is.” Peter grabbed Ahmed’s upper arm and began shaking it back and forth. “God damn, there she is. We made it. I had my doubts, but we god damn made it!”
Ahmed turned. “Wait, what? You had your doubts? What do you mean?”
“Nothing, never mind, I’ll tell you over a tall glass of pineapple juice, just get ready to pull the cord on that emergency door and feel the heat of the sun.” Peter studied the maps of Kauai and knew the location of the airport, as well as the direction of the runway. It did not matter which end of the runway he started his landing, those rules were gone. Peter knew Lihue was equipped to handle 777 landings, but he was not sure how much wiggle room he had to stop the plane. There was a difference between ‘you can’ land the plane and ‘it’s easy’ to land the plane.
The runway stretched ahead of them. It was clear of planes and apparent obstacles. “I’m glad we timed this correctly. Arriving at night would have been problem.” He chuckled.
Ahmed was not amused. “Exactly how many concerns did you have that you did not voice?”
Peter touched down as close to the beginning of the runway as possible. When all of the wheels were on solid ground, he slowed the plane. He did not stop at the end of the runway. He turned the jumbo jet towards the airport.
Screams of joy erupted from the cabin.
Ahmed patted Peter’s shoulder. “Great landing, Captain. Great flying.”
“Thank you Ahmed. It was my pleasure.” He steered the plane next to a stair truck, parking a few feet from a gate ramp.
The strong and stoic pilot powered down the engines, put his face in his hands, and sobbed.
57
Antonio opened the door of the plane. Hot air blew inside and hit him in the face.
“Damn, it’s hot here. I mean, it’s like 80 or 85.” He pulled an emergency handle, inflating a giant yellow slide from the doorway, and creating a path to the ground. He cradled a car battery tightly on his chest, both of his arms curled around it like he was holding a baby. He sat down on the side of the plane, extended his feet out, and inched his behind onto the slide. When his butt was off the end, he slowly made his way down. He used his feet to moderate his speed. He set the battery on the ground and turned around.
John and Hank looked down at him.
“It’s all good.” Antonio yelled to them. “Let me get the truck started and I’ll bring the stairs over.”
John jumped out and slid down to the tarmac. “You think you get all the fun?” They made their way over to the stair truck. “What do you want to do, get the stairs over and then see if we can get the ramp?”
“Yeah, let me get the truck going. We can get everyone off, and I’ll move the ramp over so Kelly can walk the animals into the terminal.” The keys were in the stair truck ignition. Antonio expected them to be. He turned the key, and got a respectable light up of the dash, but the truck did not turn over. He popped the hood, and installed the new battery. The truck turned over immediately. With John’s direction, Antonio guided the stairs flush against the rear door of the plane.
John ran up the stairs and knocked on the door. It popped open with Emily’s smiling face on the other side.
“Welcome to paradise, ma’am. Please watch your step.”
Emily nodded to her brother in law. She held a second battery and wore a set of jumper cables around her heck neck like a scarf. She walked down the stairs towards Antonio.
“Tony!” She yelled over the wind on the tarmac. “Let’s find a vehicle!”
Antonio got out of the truck and met her for the walk. “Are we looking for a big hotel van? Maybe two vans?” He asked her.
“We’re looking for something that will start. That’s the first priority, Tony. A vehicle we can get started after it’s been sitting in the sun and salt air.”
Antonio took the battery from her. It was the chivalrous thing to do. Lihue was a small airport, closer in size to Lebanon than Manchester or Boston.
Emily found it was too hot to exert herself beyond walking quickly.
“It’s warm, huh? I’m not used to this much heat.” Beads of sweat formed on her forehead. They made their way to a large parking area. There were rental cars, rental vans, hotel vans, and a local shuttle van. Emily pointed to the shuttle. It was large enough to bring the entire group. “Can we start one car and jump a few more off of that battery? I know we’ll probably take two or three groups from here.”
“It’s all about finding the keys.” He told her. They walked to the shuttle. It was parked in the fire lane, left in what appeared to be a hurry. Antonio pried the bus doors open and searched for keys. He came up empty. He was drenched in sweat. “Let’s go with our first plan, hit the rental counter where we know there are car keys. It’s too hot to mess around like this.”
“I agree.” Emily was in shorts and a tee shirt, and was still warm. The sudden climate change was too much for her body to handle. She followed Antonio towards the terminal, leaving the jumper cables next to the car battery he put down on the sidewalk.
They approached the rental car area. Antonio walked behind the counter and opened a cabinet holding dozens of car keys.
“We want SUV’s, right?”
“Yeah, for now.” She answered, wiping her forehead again.
Antonio pawed through a cabinet of keys on the wall, pulling off chains with SUV models scribbled on the white tabs; Tahoe, Escalade, Explorer, Expedition. He handed the keys to Emily.
“That’s seven, good enough for now.” She flicked her head in a ‘let’s go back out’ motion. Emily looked around the airport. It was empty. There were no bodies, no bags, nothing.
Antonio put one set of keys in his pocket, a mustang convertible. He was going to drive the car until it stopped working. Emily was already outside, and he hurried to catch up with her.
Dan and Ahmed stood on the curb waiting for them.
“How incredible is this?” Dan asked. “No humidity, 80 degrees, unbelievable!”
“I thought there might be bodies or something, but this place is empty, deserted. Now that I think of it, I didn’t see any planes.”
Antonio looked at her. “What’s the first vehicle?”
She held up a set of keys and clicked the panic button. Lights on an SUV in the second row flashed weakly, the horn gave a half hearted blare before stopping.
“I’d say that battery is dead.” Antonio picked up their new battery and walked to the vehicle.
Emily used the key to unlock the door. She popped the hood and waited for the boy to do his magic.
“Try it.” He told her after a minute under the hood.
Emily turned the key, and the SUV came to life. “Yes.” She said to herself. The fuel tank was full, as they hoped all of the rental cars would to be. She cranked the air conditioning, and waited to see what Antonio wanted to do.
“Keys?” He asked her. “I want to see if we have the ones for the trucks on either side of this one, you know, make it easy to jump.”
“I’ll go back inside and get them.” Dan walked behind the two trucks and noted the license pla
tes, makes, and models. “I’ll be right back.”
Antonio took a spot in the air conditioned car until he saw the lights flicker in the SUV to his left. He got out and opened its door, popped the hood, and jump started the car. With a system developed, they soon had seven SUV’s running.
Antonio pulled the new battery from the first SUV, inserted the old battery, and jumped it from one of the running vehicles. He walked the new battery into the terminal to use on the telescoping ramp.
From the windows in the terminal he saw everyone was off the plane. Supplies, food, and water brought for their initial days, were rolled down the yellow inflatable slide. Antonio watched three SUV’s drive onto the tarmac. The little kids jumped in the air with excitement and the adults clapped.
Antonio looked down at his watch, already switched it to local time. It was 5:30. He was exhausted, but like the rest, he had work to do. He had to get the gate door open, the ramp motor working, and the ramp over to the plane for Kelly to walk the animals off the jet.
They also had to find a place to sleep tonight.
Despite the work ahead of him, Antonio was excited and happy. He did not believe they would make it to the island. He was prepared to die in the air, or have the plane land in a city somewhere other than Lihue. He never believed he would be standing on a tropical island at the end of their day. Antonio was a pessimist, often proven wrong, but correct enough times to believe he was ‘unlucky.’ His pessimism led him to ‘just join a gang and get it over with, you’re screwed anyway.’
He was happy to be wrong. The scene on the tarmac, watching Cameron, Wendy, and Bridget jumping up and down, clapping their hands, made him feel warm inside. He banged on the windows from the terminal until the people turned and looked at him. Antonio began to dance a goofy, out of character happy dance. Within seconds the young kids emulated his moves and the adults smiled and laughed.
His dance over, Antonio returned to his task at hand. He turned the handle on the gate door, expecting to find it locked. It was open.
“This must be my day.” He said aloud.
He walked down the corridor to the telescoping booth close to his plane. He was four feet away from the door. He could have jumped, but the cows and pigs needed to walk. He popped open the access panel on the control system, finding the same red and green wires he identified in Manchester. He hooked the wires to the battery. There were no lights or sounds letting him know he had power. Antonio grabbed the control knob, said a quick prayer, and pushed it in the direction of the plane. The compartment moved.
When the ramp was against the plane, Antonio knocked on the door. He heard the lock click and levers turn on the other side. He could have opened the door himself, but it was easier to unlock from inside. The door popped open and Peter stuck out his hand.
“Great work, son. Great work.”
Peter looked exhausted. The adrenaline rush that carried the old man through the last hours of the flight was gone, leaving the 68 year old haggard and tired.
“You’re the hero, Pete. You the man today.” Antonio displayed rare emotion, wrapping his arms around Peter in an unsolicited hug. “You earned the king size bed tonight.”
Peter hugged the boy back. He hoped to stay awake long enough to find a bed, any bed, let alone a king sized bed.
“Follow me, Peter, I’ll take you to one of the cars, drive you around to the group. You’ve done enough driving for one day.” Antonio kept his arm around the tall man, letting Peter shift some of his weight to him. Antonio could tell the man was almost asleep on his feet. They walked through the airport and towards the largest of their SUV’s available.
“Jump in the backseat and lay down. We’ve been napping all day. You take a break.”
Peter did exactly that. He was a former soldier and long haul commercial pilot. His body was used to exerting itself up to and beyond the point of exhaustion, then collapsing for recovery. Peter climbed into the third row of the large SUV, used his hands for a pillow, and fell asleep within seconds.
Antonio jumped into the driver’s seat and brought the car around to the airplane. He exited the SUV quietly, pushing the door shut softly. He let everyone know that Peter was asleep in the back.
The group stuck to their plan; get off the plane, get the animals off the plane and somewhere near the airport with food and water, find shelter, sleep.
The road system on Kauai was not intricate. The adults studied and memorized the area while in Hanover. Six SUV’s pulled away from the jumbo jet, four trunks carried chickens, one trunk had goats, and the last brought food and water. Hubba sat between Emily and Todd in a front seat.
Hank, Kelly, Paul, Karen, and Dan remained at the airport to tend to the cows, bull, and hogs. They waved as the SUV’s pulled away, promising to be close behind.
Kelly led the groggy bull off of the plane and towards baggage claim. The animals were spending the night free range in Lihue’s empty airport. It was an open area that did not have glass windows. A breeze blew through the transoms. The area was warm, but would be fine for the evening.
“We’re going to be back tomorrow. These animals aren’t going anywhere.” Kelly pointed towards benches and tables, directing the construction of makeshift pens to segregate the pigs from the cows and the bull.
“Anyone want to hit the beach?” Dan wore a smile and a bathing suit. His sweat soaked shirt clutched in his left hand.
“Hell yes!” Hank replied, pulling off his sweaty t-shirt.
They jumped into the last SUV, rolled down the windows, and headed towards the initial meeting spot, a beach resort near the airport. The survivors banked on finding a few empty rooms in the massive hotel.
Dan pointed to black smoke rising in the distance. He drove towards the smoke and they pulled up to the resort within a few minutes.
Dan drove up to the check-in circle, jumped the curb, and steered towards the beach. He used sidewalks and open areas, passed a black muck filled pool, and stopped at the top of the sand. A bonfire blazed on the beach while everyone swam or waded in the ocean.
“It looks like they started without us.” Paul unbuttoned his madras shirt.
“So much for our list of priorities.” Kelly opened her door and walked towards the water.
The latecomers nodded to Peter, resting comfortably in a lounge chair near the fire, and waded towards a gathering of people.
“Welcome to your new home.” Bernie said to Kelly, putting her arms around her in a hug. “It’s been a long trip.”
“So the whole idea of finding beds for the night? We’ll do that when?” Hank asked Todd, standing with Emily and watching the children splash around in the water.
“See those cabanas? We can sleep in those.” Todd pointed to a dozen beach cabanas with fabric draping down their sides. Hank was about to respond before Todd started again. “I know, I know, we’re being the grasshopper and not the ant. Look, it’s been a long day. We’re in Hawaii. Tomorrow is going to be another long day of hard work. Let’s blow off some steam.”
Hank looked at the beautiful sandy beach and the inviting Pacific ocean. An abandoned resort sat behind them. The goats were tied to a tree and munching on tropical plants. Hank gave his brother a pat on the back before diving into the water. He popped out of the water and waded towards the goats. He wanted to see what they were eating.
“Pineapples.” Hank said to himself when he got close enough to the plants. “Son of a gun, there are pineapples everywhere.” He scanned the area and saw that coconuts littered the ground around the palm trees, while bunches of green orbs hung high above the ground, below the fronds.
“Todd!” He yelled back to the ocean. “You have a chef’s knife in one of the trucks?”
“The one without chickens. It’s in the box with the cookware. Why?” Todd cupped his hands around his mouth to cut through the noise of a stiff breeze.
“Pineapples! Lots of ripe pineapples right here! Fruit!” Hank turned to go to the cars when he realized he did not
know where the cars were. “Hey, where are the trucks?”
Todd was halfway to the beach after he heard the word fruit. “I’ll help. We didn’t even think about food, just ran to the water.” He pointed towards the parking lot on the other side of the hotel. “We obeyed pedestrian traffic laws.”
They ran barefooted, using the balls of their feet and trying to not step on anything sharp. The light was fading slightly as the sun approached the horizon behind the east facing resort.
Six SUV’s were parked in a row next to the front of the resort. Wild chickens surrounded the open trunks, inspecting their caged brethren.
“This is mildly off putting.” Todd said as he shooed chickens away from his car.
“Sorry the chickens scare you.” Hank pulled a plastic box from the back of the truck and removed a large cleaver. “Nice!”
“Yeah, I picked that one up at the mall in Raleigh. Sweet, huh?” Todd pulled a chef’s knife from the box along with a flashlight. They walked back to the beach. Hank carried the entire plastic box filled with dinner supplies and cooking implements. Faint shades of orange and red filled the sky behind them. It was officially dusk.
“If we are going to find places to sleep other than the huts on the beach…” Hank said to him.
“Yeah, I know.” Todd looked towards the lobby of the hotel. “I’ll see if I can find a master key or something to open doors. We might have to kick doors down to get in.” He held up the chef’s knife, handing it to Hank to put back into the plastic bin.
Todd went to find room keys. He hoped the batteries powering the room locks still worked. Salt air and eight months of time were not on his side.
58
During the early stages of the plague, when the disease was ravaging South America, Europe, and Asia, there were few travel restrictions for U.S. citizens within the U.S. Still, no one made trips to resort islands like Kauai. Tourists already on the island quickly departed. International travel was suspended, but European and Asian tourists fled the small island for the international airport on Oahu. Almost every plane in Hawaii was at the Honolulu airport. The handful of tourists who remained on Kauai died in the hospitals. Locals passed in their beds. The island was deserted and pristine.
