All the Space Between Us (A Deathless Series Story)

Episode Twenty-Four: Screams

"If you had asked me before the world ended if I would have enjoyed living in the apocalypse, I would have first asked you to clarify, because I was quite young. But then I would have said absolutely not. The truth is, though, in looking back over my life, I've been incredibly lucky. I have an amazing family, I've experienced the deepest of loves, and I've seen the world. I wouldn't take a moment back, but I would have filled those moments with as much as I could. Admittedly, there were some that I wasted."
-Eleanor

ESTHER

When I finally come to, the only thing I can hear is the churning of plane engines. When I was little, Mom and Joe took me on a plane to visit Petra with them.

Mom.

Wherever I am in this plane,—it feels like they've locked me in one of the bathrooms, though it's pitch black, so all I can do is run my cuffed hands over the faucet and sink—I am here alone, which is exactly how I feel knowing my mom is dead. I studied the principals of the Deathless in school, and I know that I'm technically one of them, I guess... but their whole philosophy is bullshit. When you die, you're dead. There's no wind in this bathroom to let me know she's still with me, there's no happiness inside me knowing she'll live on through our stupid memorials and buildings. She's gone, and putting her name on things isn't going to bring her back.

She used to take up space in this world, and now that space is empty. I can't do anything but cry now, despite my mouth being taped shut. Why did I waste so much time being angry with her?

The plane jerks and jumps. It sounds like we're landing. The sliding door to the room I'm in opens, and as soon as light pours in and my eyes adjust, I see I was right, I'm in a bathroom. Kay stands before me in her stupid uniform.

"Take your friend, sister," some Rotmo guy says off to her side.

Kay reaches in and yanks me by the arm to pull me out of the bathroom. "Time to go, Es," she mumbles beneath her face covering.

I wish I could respond. Instead, I glare at her.

I think she understands, because she says, "It will all be worth it soon."

She pulls me from the back of the plane, down the aisle of seats, and out the side door. We walk down a staircase toward the tarmac, and that's when I realize where we have landed. Sloped temple roofs pierce over the horizon, and a sign that reads, "Welcome to New Japan. Under the protection of Emperor Oshiro," greets us to our right.

Kay's Rotmo "brothers and sisters" storm the small airport entrance above which the sign hangs, and the sounds of gun shots and screams explode in the air. Kay begins to walk with me in tow toward the fray. Without protection of any kind, I'm scared of retaliation fire from the New Japanese, so I dig in my heels and wriggle to break free of Kay. She takes my arms with both hands to hold me steady, looks me dead in the eyes, and orders me to stay at her side.

I decide to take a risk: I head butt her. Her hands move from my arms to her head as she holds it in pain, so I make my run for it, away from the airport. I lift my cuffed hands to my face and tuck my chin under, so I can reach the tape over my mouth. Once I pull it free, I scream, "Help," but as soon as the shriek leaves my body, I'm tackled to the ground. My elbows scrape raw against the tarmac and all the air escapes my lungs in a low grunt.

"What did I say, Es?" Kay yells into my ear. "Stay with me."

"Screw you, Kay," I yell in response. "You Rotmo animals killed my mom."

She pauses for a moment. Mom helped raise Kay too. Then she says, without her usual Kay tone, "We all have to make sacrifices for the cause."

"Sister," another Rotmo asshole yells to Kay. "Leave her, she's already caused enough trouble. She's not worth the cause."

"We need her," Kay argues as she slaps a new piece of tape across my lips and gets me onto my feet.

"Your compassion is admirable to some, but it's a sign of weakness among us," the guy says.

Before I can process what I'm seeing and react, the Rotmo guy lifts his gun and swiftly shoots me in my gut. I scream in pain, forcing the tape off the corners of my mouth. Kay cries out, but the Rotmo guy lifts her over his shoulders and carries her off, leaving me on the tarmac to bleed out.

I try my best to stabilize my breathing; but I think this might be my end, and the thought only makes me panic. I'm crying and coughing and panting, my limbs are frozen with shock, and I can't think of anything but the pain.

Just then, the sound of another plane engine pierces through the chaos, and from the corner of my eye, I see one land on the other end of the tarmac.

My blood is so hot, and it just keeps running down my side and onto the ground.

"Esther," I hear someone scream.

Then my vision goes blank.