“Paige, come and meet one of my classmates,” Willow said loud enough for everyone to hear.
Nobody else knew about the text, but by the slight frown on AJ’s face, he knew something wasn’t right about this situation.
Paige nodded and walked toward the girls. With the way Willow was looking at her, even though she still had a smile on her face, Paige realized her plan.
When she was close enough, she took the gun from the back of her pants—the gun she’d snatched from that female guard—and pointed it at Tilley’s head. Paige hated herself for doing it, but it was the only way.
“Don’t come any closer, or I’ll shoot her,” Paige warned the agents.
“Drop your weapon now and raise your hands in the air,” they commanded, pointing their own weapons at Paige.
“I don’t think so,” Angela said calmly. She pointed a gun at one of them, and she looked ready to use it. But Paige really didn’t want it to come to that. They were just doing their jobs.
For a moment, everyone was silent, including Tilley. Paige had to fight the urge to apologize to her.
“We’re now going to board the plane,” Paige informed them and started walking backward with Tilley toward the plane.
“Just do as she says,” Tilley pleaded.
The men guarding the plane became nervous at seeing them approach and raised their rifles.
“Put the gun down!” one of the guards ordered Paige. A tiny red light danced across Paige’s body, and if she didn’t steel herself, she would pee her pants from fear.
“No,” Paige replied with resolve. “We’re boarding that plane, and if you try to stop us...” She left the sentence hanging because she really didn’t want to threaten Tilley’s life again.
This already made her an enemy of the state, but desperate times and all that.
“Do as she says,” one of the agents ordered the soldiers. “Stand down!” he barked, and they complied.
Relieved, Paige backed onto the plane. Dave was the last one who entered, and he closed the door behind them.
Smart.
“I don’t know what your plan is, miss, but this is not the way,” one of the agents said, trying to reason with her.
She realized they’d surpassed that stage a long time ago. Completely ignoring him, she urged Tilley toward the pilot’s cabin. Stepping inside, she pointed a gun at the pilot.
“Take off now and take us to the Maryland NASA compound,” Paige commanded.
“What the hell is going on?” the pilot yelled, looking at all of them
“We have the president’s daughter, and we’re going to Maryland. So, don’t think of doing anything stupid,” Paige warned, trying to be menacing, but she was still just a college girl surrounded by trained killers.
Still, she acted as if that wasn’t bothering her. The pilot simply continued to stare at her.
“Why Maryland?” one of the agents asked.
Paige sighed. This clearly wasn’t going to work on brute force alone, she realized. Maybe if the told them the truth, they would be more likely to comply.
“There are spacecraft’s at NASA that can take us off the planet. My father’s there. He can get us on one of the space shuttles.”
The agent looked taken aback, but the pilot actually nodded.
Still, not wanting to take unnecessary risks, Paige handed the gun to AJ. “Watch them.”
He nodded and sat behind them as they prepared for take-off.
* * *
AJ took the gun from Paige and settled behind the pilots. They all exited the small cabin, leaving him alone with the pilots. AJ sighed in relief.
The pilots were on board with the plan, and they were finally taking off and getting out of this crazy place. He wasn’t in Fort Hamilton long, but he’d already grown sick of it. He hoped their next place would be better.
It was pretty rough in some of those moments—having to knock out an innocent guard and threaten the president’s daughter—but eventually, they pulled through. Even Tilley was on their side, which he thought was cool.
“Traitor!” His constant and not-so-silent companion decided to join in the party.
AJ was impressed he’d managed to stay quiet this far. “Francis, long time no speak.”
“You will not get away with this! You will pay!”
“Take a chill pill, Francis. Just enjoy the ride.” AJ grinned to himself because he’d won. Again.
“I will not let you do this!”
“You can’t stop me. We’ve been over this. You can’t control me. I’m Batman!” AJ joked, lowering his mental voice to sound more like his favorite character, but played by Val Kilmer, of course.
“I will stop you,” Francis said ominously.
“I will send you the postcard asshole,” AJ snickered, feeling quite good about himself, but that changed in a flash.
* * *
Leaving the cockpit, the rest of the people spread out to take their seats. Dave and Peter were in the back, and by the look of things, Peter was freaked out. Page wasn’t sure if it was more about the kidnapping or the flying, but Dave tried to calm him.
Willow sat wide-eyed with Tilley, who looked pretty calm about the whole situation.
I guess she’d probably gone through kidnapping training, Paige thought.
“I’m sorry it had to be this way,” Paige told her in a hushed voice. “We all just needed to make them go to my dad’s base. There are shuttles there that are going to help us get off the planet.”
Tilley just nodded and leaned toward Paige. “I know,” she whispered. “It was my idea,” she said, winking.
Paige’s jaw dropped. She really was the coolest person on the plane. Paige took a seat across from her and started looking out the window as the plane hit the runway before pulling up and taking off. Her breath caught in her throat as she saw all the spaceships hovering in the sky.
She literally lost count on how many there were; they simply faded into a blur on the horizon. They looked like hungry eagles, waiting to attack their prey.
No, more like an army, ready to engage with the enemy.
And that thought made her shudder. It looked as if the human race had already lost.
Not being able to withstand that sight, Paige leaned back and close her eyes, taking a few deep breaths.
It was all going to be ok. We just need to get to Dad, she repeated like a mantra.
Suddenly, she could feel Willow’s hand gripping hers in support, and she squeezed back.
Paige couldn’t believe she was actually there with her mother and Willow. When she received that first phone call from her father, she didn’t really believe it was possible, even if she tried her best along the way. But even after experiencing all they had and going through all that led them here, this moment still felt a bit surreal.
Paige pulled the phone from her pocket with one hand while still not letting go of Willow’s with her other. She silently cheered that she still had bars on the device. She wanted to call her dad again and tell him they were right on schedule.
“Hello?” Her father’s voice soothed her instantly, even if it was urgent and hushed.
“Hi, Dad.”
“Oh, God, did something happen? How are your mother and sister?”
“Everything is fine. We’re on a plane and heading to your base,” Paige reassured him.
She could hear him sigh with relief. “They’re getting the shuttles ready to leave. Hurry. I’ll stall them until you get here.”
The plane jolted, and her phone went dead as lights started to flicker in the plane.
What the hell? Paige thought, looking at the black screen of her phone. She tried powering it back on, but nothing happened. It was just dead, worthless. Still, that wasn’t her biggest concern at the moment. She couldn’t help but wonder if they’d encountered some usual turbulence or if the pilot was affected by the virus.
The last pilot that caught the virus crashed on the Brooklyn Bridge, Paige thought as she beg
an to panic. I need to check up on AJ.
She started to get up from her seat, and the plane jolted again, slamming her right back down. The glasses that stood on a nearby minibar crashed to the floor, shattering on impact. One of the agents cursed.
“Paige, what’s going on?” Willow asked, her eyes going wide. It was obvious she’d tried to be all brave, but she had a fear of flying ever since she was little. This was extra scary for her.
“I don’t know, but I’m sure it’s nothing,” Paige said. Though it wasn’t technically a lie, she realized it was more like a wishful thinking.
AJ came running out of the pilot’s cabin.
“The pilots have lost control!” he announced with obvious worry. That put additional strain on the already worried passengers.
“How?” Dave asked.
AJ shook his head. “I don’t have a clue! I’m not a pilot!”
Just as he finished that sentence, the plane began to nosedive. Paige felt pressure building inside her stomach, and her ears felt like they’d explode. She felt some unknown force pressing her from all directions. She tried to hold onto something, anything, to not end up on the ceiling, but she wasn’t fast enough.
“Umpf,” she lost all the breath inside her lungs from hitting the ceiling, and she wasn’t the only one.
Only Peter, Tilley, and Willow had fastened their seatbelts and remained safe. AJ was flung to the back of the plane, and he hit the wall with a loud bang.
The plane lost all its power. One of the secret service agents accidentally ended up in a toilet while the other managed to crawl toward the seat Tilley was in. He protected her with his own body, making sure she remained safe.
Now that’s dedication, Paige thought until she was forced to pay attention to her own situation.
She grabbed the edge of a luggage compartment, which prevented her from sliding around like a pinball.
“Peter!” Dave yelled, trying to get to his brother, but he could barely remain where he was let alone walk in a straight line.
Tilley grabbed the seat handles as if her life depended on it.
“Mom!” Willow cried out, grabbing tightly onto their mother as she literally slipped through her daughter’s fingers while plane fell from the sky.
Despite what was happening to her, Angela looked as though she was trying to remain calm, but she also looked like she was close to exploding at the same time.
Suddenly, the plane leveled off, and the power came back on. All their bags and other objects that weren’t nailed down inside the plane or secured in some other way dropped back down, Paige included. She smacked down on the floor, hitting her head in the process while one of her mother’s heavy bags dropped on her back.
“Ouch,” she grumbled, trying to stand up. Surprisingly, despite the bruises, sore muscles, and headache she could already feel coming on, she felt all right.
“That wasn’t as fun as I imagined it,” Dave announced, standing up. A couple of his joints cracked as he stretched.
“We need to land!” one of the pilots yelled from the cockpit.
* * *
AJ started to get up, but his leg was hurt when he landed on it wrong.
“Oh, we can’t have that,” Francis said. As he finished speaking, a strange feeling coursed through AJ’s body, and his leg stopped hurting.
Cool, AJ thought, moving it back and forth and making sure it worked one hundred percent.
“Aren’t you going to say thank you?” Francis snapped.
“For what?” AJ played it cool.
“I help you, and you need to return the favor!” Francis sounded angry which only made AJ want to tease him more.
“If this is one of those crap Seedling speeches, save it. I’m not interested.” AJ snapped back.
“You should be,” Francis said ominously. “They’re coming.”
“Who is coming?”
Francis laughed inside AJ’s head. “Do you really think that what just happened to your silly little plane was an accident?”
And just like that, everything made sense. “Oh, shit!”
* * *
Paige watched AJ struggle to stand. He was rubbing his back and walking funny, but it passed in just a few seconds. Paige figured the injury hadn’t been as bad as it looked.
“The pilot wants to land?” AJ asked curiously, walking toward Paige.
Paige looked around, making sure everyone else was ok. She sighed in relief when everyone seemed fine, aside from being shaken. “You’re not landing yet!” Paige yelled back.
“AJ, where’s your gun?” Paige asked so only he could hear her. Since she couldn’t ask her mother for it, she needed the other one, fast.
He shrugged. “Don’t know. I must have dropped it somewhere.”
Dave stepped closer to them. “Keep your voices down. You’re not as quiet or inconspicuous as you think.”
Even though both secret service agents fussed over Tilley at the moment, they eyed Paige, Dave, and AJ. I It was only a matter of time before they tried to subdue them.
“We need that gun,” Paige repeated quietly.
“You mean this gun?” Dave said nonchalantly, getting it out from behind where he hid it, back of his jeans.
Paige could have jumped on him and kissed him right then.
“I saw where it went, so I figured I should snatch it before someone else did.”
“You rock, Dave,” Paige said, accepting the gun.
She didn’t waste time to do what was needed. She moved to the pilot’s cabin again and pointed the weapon at them. She was relieved the pilots didn’t look infected.
“We need to get to the base. For all our sake,” Paige warned.
“You’re asking us to do something impossible,” the pilot argued.
Paige was just about to remind him who held the gun when the plane started to plummet again. Paige started to skid forward, but she managed to hold herself against the door frame. Dave and AJ weren’t so lucky, and they slammed against the wall on each side of her.
Each of the boys had something colorful to say about that experience.
Something hit Paige in the back, but she was too busy staying upright to care what it was. Not too long after, the pilots managed to regain control again.
“What the hell is going on?” Dave shouted at the pilots. Paige wanted to know that herself.
“We don’t know,” the pilot replied reluctantly. “But whatever it is, I’m afraid we won’t be able to fix it again. If we lose power one more time, we will crash for sure.”
“Paige, it’s him!” Angela suddenly yelled.
Paige looked to where her mother was pointing. And of course, because her life wasn’t complicated enough, she was pointing at AJ.
Not this again! Paige silently complained.
“Mom, please stop. We have bigger problems!” she snapped, losing her patience.
“He is the problem!” Angela insisted.
And before Paige could react or find a way to calm her mother, once again, Angela was up from her seat in a flash with her gun raised. She shoved Paige out of the way and grabbed AJ, holding the gun straight to his temple.
Oh, for crying out loud! Paige wanted to scream.
To make things even worse, Angela started pulling AJ toward the door, as if she wanted to open it. AJ looked at Paige, and there was real fear in his eyes. He was pleading her with them to do something.
“Mom! What are you doing?” Paige started shouting.
“What needs to be done!”
She obviously hated AJ for some reason, but surely, she wouldn’t harm her or Willow. The secret service agents drew their weapons once again and pointed at the both of them.
This turned into a nightmare pretty fast, Paige thought in exasperation.
If they subdued Angela and got a hold of that other weapon, it was game over for their little gang. They would be royally screwed. Even if they did get to Maryland in one piece, the agents wouldn’t let them find Paige’s father. They gro
up would be locked up someplace, and they’d throw away the keys.
“If you open that, then we’re all going to die,” Paige said, trying to reason with her.
“Not if you sit down and put on your seatbelt,” Paige’s mother replied in a calm voice.
AJ was beyond terrified, and that made Paige frantic. “You’ll die, too!” Paige cried out as Willow started to cry.
“That’s fine with me,” Angela replied with a small smile, looking her directly in the eyes. “It means you’re safe.”
“Please don’t do this. It’s not him,” Paige pleaded in desperation.
“Don’t do this, Mom,” Willow chipped in, struggling to speak through her sobs.
“Dammit!” Angela yelled as she lost her grip on AJ. He moved quickly to stand beside Paige. She shielded him with her body.
“Paige, get out of my way!” Angela ordered.
Even if they were about to die, she wasn’t going to let her mother shoot AJ first. “No,” Paige said sternly.
“I have to do this,” Angela insisted.
“I want you to put the gun down,” Paige said, trying to stay as calm as possible. That wasn’t an easy thing to do in such a dire situation. “This has nothing to do with AJ. He’s an innocent, just like me or Willow.”
“This is it!” the pilot yelled. “Go to your seats, NOW!”
But Paige couldn’t move, not as long her mother aimed the gun.
“Paige, we have to land,” AJ told her, but she shook her head.
Everyone paid attention to AJ’s words, but Paige shook her head, glancing at him over her shoulder.
“We’re not at the base yet,” she replied stubbornly.
“It’s the spaceships, Paige. They’re messing with the plane. We have a choice: crash or land,” AJ insisted.
Inhabitable (Invasion Survivor Book 2) Page 9
