I'll Be There For You

SAMEER

Year: 2342

Month: September

Date: 13

Destination: Southern part of Eastern Earth – Earth

Sameer was very excited. He was seeing so many air crafts. The very latest models. He couldn't help but think about the story behind each plane.

Every plane had a story. Of how it was built. How long it took. Who all contributed. How were its initial designs. Everything. Aeronautics fascinated him. The sole reason he had joined the Resistance was so he could get to check their huge stock of crafts.

Sameer longed to engineer a plane of his own design. It was his dream. And standing here, amidst a sea of such designs, he felt something tug at him. One day, my planes are gonna be here too.

Ankit bumped into him. He focused on his friends. He was proud of Neha. Whole heartedly, amusingly and annoyingly proud of her. All the others acted as if she had committed a crime. As if she had gone to get herself killed. Well, ok. She did go to get herself killed. But still. He didn't think it was stupid. In fact, he should have gone on with her.

Sameer was the only person she had actually told about her plans. He didn't tell anyone that though. He didn't wanna die before seeing Zeroa.

She knew he could be trusted. And she knew he was as crazy as her. So she told him. And all he said was, "I would have come too, but it's laundry day and I don't want to piss Ankit off even further. It gets annoying after a while."

He probably will be kicked to death once they do figure out. But, what they don't know can't hurt them.

The Resistances planes usually stood in particular spots. They looked like ordinary planes but obviously, weren't. This time, their plane was parked in a spot right in the middle of all planes.

Huh. That's odd. Usually, their planes were at far corners. Sameer, Ankit, Roshan and Naina were going to fly over to the North eastern airport to meet the new girl. No one knew who it was. The General hadn't said anything.

He glanced at his companions. Roshan was bouncing from one foot to the other and was talking to Naina. Naina was firm on the ground in her heavy boots. She kept adjusting her gloves. He'd noticed her do it all too often.

And Ankit was just standing there muttering something to himself. He usually went inside his own shell before some big mission. So Sameer and his thoughts were left alone.

He was the newest member of the Almighty Resistance before Naina joined them.

He hated the Central Powers. Absolutely hated them. Nothing they did ever brought peace to this unlawful planet. They had turned it upside down. Just for the sake of getting rid of a few million people to control a population freak. That isn't how things work. You don't just decide who lives and who dies. You don't decide the fate of the world. You don't decide to alter its very nature. He was born to a doctor and a police officer. So he had been taught his moral values pretty tight.

It was his second nature to identify what was wrong and what wasn't. And that's why, he'd gone along with Neha's decision.

"Sameer, get your ass here.", Naina called to him from the door of the plane.

All his friends had boarded and he was the only one left. He jogged to the steps of the door and took two at a time.

Once inside, a young man stepped forward.

"Welcome kids. I appreciate what you're doing for your friend here. But I need to be real for a second. What you are about to try to pull off is seemingly impossible. But I have seen what all of you can do. And I have seen what you all can do together. That's why, I will impress upon you the fact: You HAVE to get Neha back. You are not allowed to die. You are to go there, find her and come back safely. And if you get caught-"

"We kill ourselves before the enemy tries to force any information out of us." All of us cut him in the middle and chorused back.

He gave us a wobbly smile and sat in the front.

All of us buckled up.

Sameer's adrenaline rush was so high he could barely control it. This is it. This is it.

Another man came out of the cockpit. The pilot. He gave each of them a salute and they all nodded back.

"When we reach the airport, we'll be expecting another member I'm told?"

"Yes.", Roshan said.

The pilot nodded.

"Do you know who it is?"

All of them looked at each other with worried expressions. They didn't. They had no clue who it was. Sameer and his friends were going on a rescue mission to save someone and the general had assigned someone completely foreign to all of them. And he hadn't seemed happy with that.

The pilot saw their expressions and without saying anything, he headed back inside.

It was a 3 hour flight. Sameer opened a file on the screen in front of him and a bunch of old movies scrolled in.

3 hours. That was enough to watch a movie. So he settled in, ordered a drink and picked one.

His excitement would just have to wait.

***