Chapter 39.

Flight Plan.

Sarah Reyes.

Time/Area: July 31st, 2013, In the sky outside of Paris.

“Got it?” Doc asked, trailing her finger over the map.

I nodded slowly, checking the paper once more, “Yep, I think so.”

Right now, we were somewhere over the Atlantic Ocean in the private airplane we had found back at Paris. To be completely honest, I thought we'd still be in Paris at this point; I just figured there’d be something keeping us from getting out. I don’t know…I guess I found it hard to believe something actually went right these last couple of weeks.

Yeah…weeks. We weren’t able to leave exactly when we got to the airport. See, this jet was currently on an autopilot system, and since we had no idea if the thing was even operational before we took off, Doc wanted to take some time to test the plane’s system first. Spoiler, ‘some time’, turned into two weeks. It was okay though, virtually no monsters even came all the way out there, and the airport had a surprising amount of random snacks in emergency crates lying around. Those were supposed to be loaded onto the actual planes, but obviously no one was using the airport a lot so we found a bunch in storage rooms. Jordan may have been an idiot, but his money made that fact hard to see sometimes.

Currently, we were in the cockpit, soaring through the clouds as Doc explained our flight plan. I sat on the rather uncomfortable co-pilot’s chair just behind some buttons I had no clue how to operate while Doc sat beside me at the helm. There was no reason for our seating, really; the plane was doing all the flying. We found the map we were looking at in a cupboard next to the control panel in the front of the plane. Doc made it useful through a marker she found alongside that, and drew a simplistic yet monumentally important route she had plugged into the auto navigation system on it for reference.

Doc had predicted which areas would have the highest level of infection and had plotted a course around them to keep us safe in the air, and although everything she was saying was based purely off of speculation, it made me feel safer having some idea where the monsters were. Of course, nothing was completely accurate, but I’d cling onto anything at this point- even if it was a flat out lie.

The route took us around the most dangerous part of the Atlantic ocean, through Greenland, a bit of Canada, and then stopped at a private Energis Airport in New York City- which should have at least a little more people than the airport we were previously at.

“Unless…the same thing is happening over there…” I thought, cursing myself almost right after. I couldn’t think like that. Thoughts like that blinded me from my goals, and an apocalyptic event was probably not the best thing to go into unfocused.

Focus.

The Inverse project’s gas form, as Doc had told me, spread through the air quickly, and planes leaving France had a lot to do with that. Doc assumed the planes that were heading out of the country and into the western part of the planet helped transmit the virus through the air, not to mention the actual people on the planes. Regardless, it made the western edge of the Atlantic dangerous, or unnecessary at the very least. Once we got around all that though…I’d finally be home.

I could finally see my parents.

See Damien.

I smiled, looking up from the map and gazing out the front window just past the controls.

The hum of the engines kept the quiet from feeling unnerving as we whisked through cloud after cloud, cutting through the moonlit sky like a blade.

Despite the view, I couldn’t help but think of my brother.

I leaned back in my seat, “I wonder what he’s up to…”

Others might think it fake, but there’s a sort of bond between siblings, and even though Damien is significantly younger than me, we were really close. I found myself thinking of him more than my parents, not cause I loved them any less, but I just…I didn’t know. All I wanted for him to do was just relax and not worry about me, but I knew that he wouldn’t be doing anything like that. Heck, no one was probably doing that. Based on our phone call, New York already knows something is going on in Paris, so the world probably knows at least that much. But what didn’t they know? Was Energis blamed for this yet? Did anyone know about their involvement? What were the other Energis workers even thinking right now? Had…had monsters already started popping up over there?

“But remember,” Doc started, pulling me out of my thoughts, “We’re going to have to refuel in Greenland.”

I coughed, spinning in my chair,

“Yeah, about that,” I halted my spin, facing Doc, “Um, where exactly are we landing in Greenland?”

Doc sighed, running a hand through her brown hair,

“The Unstable Energies Energis plant’s private airport.” She responded,

“It’s in this remote place called Siorapaluk.”

I blinked, “What a mouth full- I didn’t even know Jordan had an airport over there..”

She groaned, “He didn’t, his sister does. Delilah…”

Doc said her name like she was the Devil or something,

“Delilah Johnson, huh?” I turned back to the window, “She bad news?”

Doc snorted, “Understatement of the year, but yeah, very bad news.”

I raised my eyebrows, swinging back to Doc,

“Okay… Do we even know if she knows what’s going on?”

She shrugged, “Nope, we don’t know who knows what anywhere.”

“Except for Damien.” I thought, biting my nails anxiously. I was getting uncomfortably used to this feeling; The feelings of fear, concern, adrenaline. It felt like my body was almost anticipating them as they rushed through me.

Doc sighed, noticing my expression, “Hey, let’s try to think of a cure again..”

I glared, “Didn’t we already try that?”

She rolled her eyes, “Yea, and you got close.” She continued, “Didn’t we just need a stabilizer for your stabilizer?”

I slowly nodded, “I mean, yea but-”

“Then what’s so hard?” Doc asked.

‘Y-you’re making it less complicated than it is!” I huffed, causing Doc to cross her arms,

“Isn’t that a good thing?” She suggested, “Where did you get the stabilizer again?”

I leaned back into my chair, thinking back to the almost glowing blue liquid I had found in the Bronx, “Synth Plant…I snuck in,” I responded, “so if anything, Synth probably has what we need.”

Doc rubbed her temples, “But Synth doesn’t know that we need it..and if we make it to New York, we won’t have the backing to get him to help.”

I tilted my head, “I mean, Damien is dating his daughter, so maybe Synth would trust us more..”

Doc laughed, “First off, assuming Damien knows who he’s dating, we would probably receive the opposite treatment,”

She had a point there.

“And secondly,” Doc continued, “Since we’re already landing at Greenland, we could just try to get Miss Delilah on our side, which would provide enough to at least do something.”

Now I was confused, “Wait,” I said, “I thought she was evil?”

Doc smiled, “Yes, but I doubt she’d turn down an opportunity to go down in history as the woman who made the cure for all of mankind.”

Another good point,

“Th-that could work!” I exclaimed, smiling.

Doc coughed, “Yeah, but that’s still assuming that she says yes, and Synth actually was working on a stabilizer.”

My glare returned, “No, It’ll work. It has to.”

Before Doc could say anything to this, I asked another question,

“So what kind of plant is Unstable Energies anyways?” I queried, sitting up, “Aside from what I’ve heard from your complaints about the New York board, I don’t really know much about Energis.”

She looked down in thought, “Right…It’s actually supervised by the U.S government,” She explained, “it does a lot of weapons research.”

I blinked, “I-is like… Greenland okay with that?”

Doc waved me off, “Of course they are.” She said, “The U.S has maintained a military presence in Greenland since World War two.”

I nodded, “Okay,” I whistled, “then that makes sense.”

After sitting in silence for a couple of minutes, Doc’s eyes suddenly widened.

I stood up, instantly on edge while calculating how likely it was for a monster to fly, “What’s wrong?”

She pointed under my chair,

“Battery charger..” She breathed, “How did we not notice this?”

I smiled in relief, bending down and pulling out my de-powered smartphone to plug in.

But I stopped,

“Does the internet even work anymore?” I asked, “Like...are Satellites available for communication?”

Doc just shrugged, “Countries might not be able to contact each other, but either way, a charged phone is a useful phone.”

“Welp, can’t argue with that.”

I plugged it in, happy when the blue light signified its charging.

I heard Doc sigh, “You should get some sleep Sarah,” She said, folding a blanket on her lap, “Grab one of these from the cupboards if you want, we should be ready for a landing in the morning.”

Getting up, I followed her advice and found a blue sheet from a nearby cabinet, wrapping it around myself before sitting back in the Co-pilot’s seat. Aside from most of the emergency crates from the airport, this thing came fully stocked.

A couple of the crates were still on the jet, so we had a ton of snacks. They also had packaged water bottles so we were never thirsty. We had been avoiding any public water fountains in Paris for obvious reasons. We didn’t really know if the water was infected, but why take the risk?

“See you in the morning Sarah,” I heard Doc say, noticing the above roof lights dimming as Doc turned a knob on the control board.

She looked almost proud of herself, which worried me since that meant she had literally just turned a random button and hoped for the best.

I shuffled in my seat, trying to get comfortable, “See you Doc..”

I took a deep breath before closing my eyes, quickly falling asleep.

-

I began dreaming,

Dreaming of my Family's reaction when I would show up on our apartment’s steps.

They would be so happy, so relieved that I was safe. Then we could get the last piece of the cure from Synth, and everything would work itself out…somehow.

We had gotten this far, right?

Afterwards, I’d take Damien to Mr.Drake’s bagel place and we would laugh the whole day.

Maybe we’d even go to the pool. I already had planned a pool day sometime this week anyways.

Yeah,

Everything really would be alright.