Jack was the first to pile into the helicopter they were assigned to. Roger followed in behind him, followed by Rapper and then Larry and finally Ralph. Ralph felt uncomfortable, claustrophobic. The pilot closed the helicopter door behind Ralph. He looked out the window and watched as the other boys lined up in front of the remaining helicopters, climbing inside in a controlled manner.
The pilot climbed in the front door and closed and locked it behind him. He turned around in his seat and pointed to a bag of sound-proof headphones on the ground in front of them. "You're going to want to wear these for take off. You'll be able to connect and hear each other through them if you want to communicate at all. Otherwise, the sound of the blades will be too loud without them. Mine can connect too, so if you boys need anything during the flight, feel free to press the blue 'request' button on the side of the headphones and I'll turn mine on."
Jack dove for the bag and pulled out the first pair of headphones, passed the bag to Roger, who then passed it to Rapper. Rapper took his pair and handed it off to Larry. Once Larry grabbed one out, he hesitantly and awkwardly held the bag out to Ralph. The older, brunette boy reached in and took a pair before Larry dropped the bag with the extra pair in it onto the floor of the aircraft.
Even with the headphones on, the loudness of the helicopter blades starting to spin above them startled Ralph. He was beginning to wonder if he was the only one who had been feeling an overwhelming surge of emotion over the past couple hours since the Marines arrived. All the pain, loneliness, fear, trauma, grief, guilt and despair he'd been bottling up for lord knows how long started bubbling to the surface of his mind. He felt like crying, and had for the last two hours, but the tears had stopped flowing after the Marines took control of the situation. Ralph turned to catch a glimpse of Larry's face as he sat right beside him, pressed between him and Rapper. Larry too looked stricken, traumatized, afraid of what was to come.
About 10 minutes after the helicopter blades started whirring, the aircraft began to lift slowly off the ground. Ralph looked out the window and one of the other helicopters was already flying several hundred feet above them. The other two had yet to take off. Ralph watched out the window as they got higher above the ground. He glanced down at the island, watching as it got smaller and smaller. He still couldn't believe that they were really getting off the island for good. He hadn't fully comprehended that this rescue was real. He felt like he was going to wake up from this dream on the island any minute now, only to find himself waiting in horror for Jack to make his next barbaric move.
But the island continued to get smaller and further away. As unreal as it felt, it didn't change the fact that the island was no longer their home away from home. Ralph turned his head to look over at Jack in the other window seat of the helicopter. He too was staring out the window, a stunned look on his face as the island shrunk from his view. It wasn't long before they were high enough up in the air for the island to turn into nothing but a mere spec before it disappeared from their view completely.
"Ralph?" someone spoke into the headset; the headset that all five of them could hear on.
Ralph practically jumped out of his skin at the unexpected sound of his name. He turned his head to see who had spoken. Roger, Rapper and Jack were intensely staring at Larry, but Larry wasn't looking at them; he was looking at Ralph. Of course the voice had belonged to him. As he took a second to think about it, Ralph realized it was too young and high pitched to belong to any of the others.
"Yeah?" Ralph found the courage to respond.
"What's flag state jurisdiction mean?" the 5th grader asked the older boy who used to mentor him back at the academy. Looking at him now, the blood, dirt and charcoal fading from his face, Ralph saw a little glimpse of the boy he used recognize.
"It's the division of the law that has jurisdiction over handling crimes that occur in the middle of the ocean, outside of any country's borders" Ralph explained to the younger boy.
"Crimes?" Larry questioned fearfully.
Ralph looked the boy dead in the eyes and nodded. Behind Larry, he could see Jack and Roger staring at him like hawks. He couldn't tell what they were thinking; if they were angry or worried. Perhaps it was both.
Ralph turned away from Larry and glanced back out the window. He used to enjoy watching out the window at the tiny-looking world below him as he flew. Now, he thought about how far of a drop it would be if the helicopter started to go down. He thought about whether or not he'd have time to put on a parachute, if he could find one. He thought about what would happen if there wasn't a lifeboat or lifejacket on board. He thought about all the things that could potentially go wrong with a helicopter that could cause it to crash. Ralph couldn't stand to look, but at the same time, he couldn't look away.
Ralph suddenly recalled the memory of the day they boarded the plane to England. He had graciously given Jack his window seat.
"Watch as we take off, it's super cool to see how everything gets smaller and smaller. It's like our world that seems so big, is shrunken down to a spec and it kinda makes it feel like your worries aren't as big either .... Once the sun comes up in about three hours, you'll see how pretty the ocean looks from here. It's incredible. You can see all the little islands like tiny specs in the ocean."
He remembered saying the words, but he couldn't remember what it felt like to believe them. Ralph was certain that Jack hadn't believed them for very long and certainly didn't believe it now either as he glanced out his own window.
That might be the only thing he and Jack have left in common, Ralph considered.
A few hours into the flight, Larry had fallen asleep. His heavy head rested unaware on Ralph's shoulder. The older boy wasn't sure how he felt about being close to one of Jack's hunters like this. But was he really a hunter anymore? Were any of them?
About halfway through the flight, both Rapper and Ralph had also drifted off to sleep. Ralph's head rested against the cold, hard glass window he'd been looking out for hours before. Roger had closed his eyes too, but Jack knew he wasn't really asleep. He doubted Roger would sleep at all before he was back home in his own bed. Jack peered over the others and watched Ralph as he slept. Jack glanced down at his United States Marine Corps: Search and Rescue Team t-shirt, the same one all the others were wearing; himself included. Seeing them all in matching clothing made Jack's stomach burn up inside. It forced him to look at Ralph like he was one of them; the way he used to back when they wore identical Bainbridge Military Academy training clothes, and identical cadet uniforms.
In this moment, Jack was struggling to remember why he had been so keen on killing Ralph. What exactly had he done that set him off? Was he scared Ralph would get in the way? Was he a threat to his tribe's security? He didn't know anymore. Jack was certain that he'd had a good reason at the time, but looking at the sleeping boy now, he couldn't put his finger on what it had been.
By the last hour of the flight, everyone had woken up at some prior time. Ralph only slept for maybe 20 minutes at the most. Both Larry and Rapper were out cold for at least a couple hours. Jack was surprised that Ralph didn't follow suit with them considering how long he'd been hiding and running at full speed during this last morning on the island.
"Prepare for landing" the pilot turned on his headset to announce to the boys not long later. "Make sure headsets are on properly in order to prevent damage to the ears and/or hearing impairment."
Ralph secured his headset in place and looked out at the heliport they were about to land on. He could see that the search and rescue helicopter that had taken off before them arrived successfully, and assumed it wouldn't be long before the other two came in behind them. He couldn't believe he was back in the United States. It had been over a month since he'd had any hope of ever being part of American civilization again. And here he was, back on American soil.
Once the helicopter was landed and turned off, the pilot removed his headset and instructed the boys to do the same. They unbuckled their seat belts as the pilot came around and opened the door. Ralph climbed out first, followed by Larry, Rapper, Roger and then Jack. Ralph couldn't even begin to process the fact that this was really happening. There was some nagging part of his brain that had him convinced it was all still part of some very vivid dream, a fantasy that would never be a reality.
The five boys followed the Marine pilot through the airport until Ralph saw Maurice, Sam, Eric, Andy, Will and Patterson standing huddled in front of their pilot. It would be hard to miss them in their matching black sweatpants and white Marine Corps rescue team t-shirts. Their pilot led Ralph's group to join the others as they waited for the last two rescue flights to come in.
"We have do something about Ralph" Roger whispered as quietly as he could so nobody but Jack could hear him.
Jack swallowed nervously as he turned to stand closer to Roger. "Now?" he whispered back.
"You heard 'im on the helicopter. About the flag state shit. You have any idea what will happen once the authorities are involved?" Roger pushed.
"The authorities already are involved" Jack argued in a hushed tone.
"We need to take care of it before it's too late" Roger pressured his friend.
"How do you suppose I do that? We don't have that kind of power anymore" Jack reminded him.
"Figure it out, Chief."