Unbecoming Humans: Part 2

Chapter 22

"Will they be able to trace your hack?" I could tell Nima was trying to mask the worry in her voice.

"Don't worry. I covered my tracks. The upside of our systems being shut down is that the only way they should be able to track us is if they manage to lay eyes on us."

"Without our instruments, we won't be able to know if they find us unless they're right in front of us." Nima's jovial nature was gone again. Her expression was serious and her eyes focused on the horizon.

"I might have an idea." Before Nima could say anything more, I ducked beneath the dash and started studying the wiring. I fiddled around with connections, occasionally asking Nima if there was any change in the systems, or prompting her to flip a switch. I was struggling to puzzle through the electrical systems, a task that normally would have taken me no time flat. Sweat beaded on my forehead and frustration twisted the muscles of my neck and shoulders when a warm, soft hand settled on my back.

"Aria, look."

Nima's gentle tone caught my attention and I peeked my head out from under the dash. She was pointing out the windshield. Stiff from crouching in so small a space, I hoisted myself back into my seat so that I could look out. I had been working so long that night had fallen. The full moon glinted off the rhythmic waves below. An endless expanse of stars blanketed the sky

"I should get back to work." I started to duck back beneath the dash, but Nima stopped me, weaving her fingers through mine.

"Aria, no-"

"I'm not anywhere near having this fixed." I kicked at the dash in frustration.

"We'll be fine without the instruments. Can we please just have this moment?"

I studied the earnestness in her expression, the gentle furrow of her brow and the way her golden-brown eyes sought to restrain me with their plea. I let go of my growing contempt for technology and relaxed into the seat, allowing the hint of a smile to play across my lips. The act was contagious and Nima followed suit.

We said nothing for a long while, the peace of the scene punctuated only by the chop of the rotor blades and the roar of the wind around us. I jumped when Nima's voice crackled softly over through the headset.

"One night, before I came to Eden, Tessa and I went patrolling in the hills around Winona. We stopped outside of the creepy abandoned house at the top, your house." She turned to glance at me with a bright smile. It warmed my heart to see her smile again, like a moment of sunshine on a dreary day. "We stopped to catch our breath for a few minutes, sat on that big rock in the yard and stared up at the stars." She looked out the windshield again.

"I remember that rock. I used to play on it. I would pretend I was queen of a castle on a hill until Mother came out to yell at me that I was going to hurt myself. It's ironic really. I guess being the queen of everything isn't quite how I imagined it when I was five."

Nima chuckled and then looked right at me. But she wasn't just looking at me, she was seeing me - all of me - everything that I was, for better or for worse. That look would have been unnerving coming from anyone else, but from her it felt like an all-consuming embrace, a place to rest my weary soul.

"We've crossed paths in so many places at the wrong time. It feels like our spirits have been searching for each other all our lives. I know everything that's happening is horrifying, but I feel like I am home with you, even in the midst of it all. I love you, Aria. No matter what happens, I know that I can't be without you, and that it will all be okay because I'm with you."

My heart was fit to burst in that moment. There were no words to express everything that I was feeling, so I threw myself into her arms instead, careful not bump into the controls of the helicopter. Caught up in the moment, I forgot that we were wearing headsets and the mouthpieces clashed with only inches left between us. We both giggled and Nima smiled her show-stopping smile while she hurried to untangle the microphones. She had hardly finished pushing them out of the way when she gathered my shirt in her fists and pulled me in for a long deep kiss. When we finally pulled away I felt lightheaded and I knew it wasn't just from the altitude.

"I love you, too," I whispered, failing to remember where we were and that my microphone was no longer within range of my voice. It didn't matter. I could tell by the way Nima smiled at me that she had read my lips and received the message. Nima pulled her mic back to her mouth and I felt an irrational twinge of jealousy at its proximity to her luscious lips.

The wires at my feet crackled, reminding me that I had work to do and that we were still on the run. I gave Nima one last smile before I ducked beneath the dash again. It must have been at least an hour before I started making some progress to get the electronics running again. I had given up and removed my headset, after it slipped off my sweat-slick head several times.

I jumped and banged my head on the bottom of the dash when Nima suddenly grabbed my arm. Her eyes were wide as she stared through the windshield, but without my headset I couldn't make out her words. I disentangled my limbs from the web of wires and the structure of the helicopter through which I had woven my limbs to fit in the small space. As I clapped my headset over my ears again and sat back in my seat I saw what had Nima looking so worried.

A mass of thick swirling clouds had blocked out the starlight just ahead of us, crackling with white hot lightning. Each bolt illuminated the thick wall of rain pouring from the bottom of the storm.

"I've been watching it for a while, but I thought we were going to miss it. It's moving so fast and suddenly it's right on top of us," Nima said through the headset.

"Can't we go around it?"

Nima shook her head. "It's moving too fast. We can't outrun it now."

"Will we make it through," I asked, trying not to be alarmed. After everything we had been through I felt certain Nima could handle Mother Nature's fury. I wanted to know if she shared my confidence.

"We don't have a choice," she replied, her expression steeling with determination.

Right on cue the helicopter lurched in a rough patch of air. I took the hint and fastened my seatbelt.

"How are the electronics coming," Nima asked.

A small pang of guilt gripped my stomach. Failure was not a feeling I was accustomed to. "They're not."

"Shit," Nima spat under her breath. "Hang on. Things are going to get messy."

She was not wrong. I braced myself in my seat as the helicopter began to bounce and pitch in every direction, tossed about by the violent storm that had engulfed us. Lightning streaked through the sky, blinding us over and over, making it impossible to see through rain drenched windshield.

With no instruments and no view of the horizon there was every possibility that we were flying straight into the ocean or the side of a mountain. Our only hope was Nima's unwavering ability to be excellent at most everything. I prayed that ability stretched to navigating deadly storms.

Her expression was tense and stoic as she squinted through the windshield. It was like she had built an invisible wall of concentration around herself, and I dared not disturb it. I did my best to be as unobtrusive as possible while she fought to keep us alive, but the violent tossing and turning of the helicopter was testing even my strong constitution. I was growing sore and nauseous every time my body slammed into the seat or against the door of the helicopter.

My only consolation was that my stomach had no time to gather itself to expel its contents in between sudden drops. I was growing light headed and I longed to lose consciousness to escape the merciless thrashing of the storm. All the fight had gone out of me and I was simply existing out of instinct when a dark mass loomed before us, too close, too big, and coming at us too quickly.

"Fuck! Hang on!" Nima yelled, wrenching on the helicopter's controls. But it was too late. A solid mass of land rose up from the belly of the storm and met us head on. I heard the screeching of metal mixed with my own screams before everything went black.