We reach the town the next day, thanks to my constant, persistent nudging. It’s more of a village, really. The houses are wood, and if they even have paint, it’s peeling. I tell the others to stay hidden for a second, while I check it out.
“I recognize this place,” Oh’Rian steps forward. We all turn towards her. “It’s where I landed when I first came here.”
“Alright,” I say. “Rian, Caelum, and Stella come with me, the rest of you guys chill.”
Coal shifts. “But what if it’s dangerous?”
“Yes, because isolated villagers pose such a threat,” I say. “Stay here.”
I turn and walk out of the trees quietly. I don’t see anyone outside, but I can hear the faint hum of life from the few houses and businesses. The streets aren’t even paved; they’re just dirt and gravel.
“You know he was just worried about you?” Oh’Rian keeps pace easily with her long legs. “It’s kind of sweet actually.”
“What? No-" I sputter, “Coal is a lot of things, but sweet is not one of them.” She gives me a look. “I can take care of myself.” I mutter, glancing behind me. Caelum and Stella are making small talk, or with Stella, probably discussing the meaning of life.
Oh’Rian shrugs. “Would you have said the same thing if Caelum asked?”
I stop, and then have to run to catch up with Oh’Rian. “Yes, I would have!” She makes a suspicious mmhm noise but I carefully choose to ignore it.
I would’ve said the same thing to Caelum. Wouldn’t I have? Well he didn’t say it, so I couldn’t have replied that way even if I wanted to. So it doesn’t matter. At all.
Now cross, I follow Oh’Rian through a series of passages in between the cottages. We reach a shed that looks like it could fall on top of us any second. She walks straight into the squeaky door though, and I peer inside suspiciously, resting my hand on the door jam. It creaks, and the wood shifts ominously.
“Careful,” Caelum’s hand grabs my shoulder and pulls me back. “Don’t want it to collapse on you.”
“Oh,” I say, stepping away from the doorway. “Um, thanks.” Oh’Rian glares at me pointedly. I make a face at her. So what if I didn’t say anything? All he did was make sure the roof didn’t fall on me. What’s so wrong about that?
Oh’Rian pulls out a plank, revealing a keyboard. Her fingers fly over it and then a door slides up in the back of the shed. It’s all very spy movie-like. I follow her into the tunnel-like thing and then down a ramp. It’s dark but then I hear the click of a switch and am blinded by the sudden flash of white as lights in a warehouse turn on. My jaw drops as I see a helicopter just sitting in the middle of the floor. It’s black and sleek and shiny and awesome. I walk towards it.
“No.” Oh’Rian says. “You have no idea how to fly a helicopter.”
“I had no idea how to drive a truck and I still managed.” I tell her, itching to get inside the cockpit.
“Yeah, and you crashed it.” Oh’Rian points out, “Now step away from the chopper. We need to get the others,” she reminds me. Defeated, I sigh.
“I will retrieve them.” Stella volunteers and races back up the tunnel.
I turn away from the helicopter and follow Oh’Rian into another room branching off from the warehouse.
“There are some uniforms in here you can change into.” She says and I look where she’s pointing. There’s an entire rack full of all black clothing.
“Does your mom not know what color is or something?” I ask, rifling through the hangers for something that will fit.
Oh’Rian laughs good-naturedly. “She says it’s a statement.”
“It’s a type of statement,” I mutter, selecting something at random because I honestly can’t tell the difference.
I change into the black pants and nylon-like material pullover shirt, but I keep my boots and jacket because I still want to feel like Tide. I walk out the door and see Stella has in fact retrieved the others, and they too are decked out in black. We look like some sort of dysfunctional family of penguins.
“It’s a James Bond convention.” Caelum says.
“I was going for the Happy Feet reunion.” I turn and my sentence sort of trails off when I see him. The black color only brings out his silver eyes even more and I can’t stop staring at them and now he’s smiling and I can’t really remember what I was talking about and oh my god what is happening to me?
“Even the chopper is black,” Caelum is talking. “We all match.”
“How amazing,” I say sarcastically, “Now we can run away in coordination.”
“Don’t forget in style too.” Caelum laughs.
Averting my attention from the teal flecks in his eyes, I watch Oh’Rian walking over, holding helmets and earphones.
“Trust me,” she says, handing them to me. “You’ll want them.”
I hold my helmet under my arm and scan the warehouse. I can count seven heads, not including myself. Where is he? I finally find Coal leaning against the far wall, not making an effort to move near the chopper. “Here,” I shove my helmet at Caelum and start to walk.
“Where are you going?” he calls after me.
“I’ll be right back,” I say. “You can have shotgun.”
When Coal sees me, he crosses his arms in silent rebellion. “Don’t tell me you’re staying after all this,” I say, reaching him.
“I’m not going to an island made by the person who trapped you in a cell after killing an innocent girl.” He says, not budging.
I’m not even kidding when I say that if he were to stand in front of the helicopter right now, the only thing to tell he was even there would be his face. Unlike Caelum, who seemed to look lighter with the contrast, Coal looks like an assassin in the new get up. I’ve almost lost hope of being able to convince him to come, when I see his eyes aren’t completely black. I can work with this.
“We’re not even going straight to the island,” I try. “We have to stop at some other coastal town first and take a boat from there.”
“I don’t care.” He says obstinately.
“Come on,” I plead, “You can stay there if you want, can’t you just come now?”
“No,” He seems to be glued to the wall. “You can’t push me off a cliff this time.”
I flounder for something to say, but I’m beginning to think it’s pointless. He can’t just leave me like this. I won’t have anyone to insult or talk to. He’s my best friend, believe it or not.
He’s more than my friend.
He’s like my brother that’s not my brother anymore. He can’t leave. He can’t just stay here and expect me to leave him. Dying is one thing, he can’t leave me. I can’t think of anything that will convince him. I stand there, feeling the urgency to move, but not willing to go unless Coal comes with me.
“Please?” I say, because it’s the only thing I have left.
He doesn’t move an inch. “No. I’m not going.”
“Why not?”
“Why should I?” Coal asks, and there’s something underneath that. Pain, but different. More like despair almost. Like it’s hurting to not come, but he’s scared it’ll hurt more if he does.
This isn’t the Coal I’m used to. His body is rigid, staring forward angrily. I need to get the idiot I know back. But I can’t figure out how to convince him. It suddenly dawns on me that he really isn’t coming, and there’s nothing I can do about it. The shock hits me like a brick in the chest, leaving me struggling to breathe right. This can’t happen. I won’t let this happen.
“Because I need you!” I almost shout, throwing my hands out, going to the truth as a last resort.
He looks confused by my outburst and his taught position loosens. I take this chance and snatch his hand, dragging him forward. I step behind him and bulldoze him to the helicopter.
“Wait, what?” Coal looks over his shoulder at me. I ignore him and jump through the door, still death gripping his hand because I’m afraid he might walk away. I pull him up and slam the door shut behind us.
Reaching forward, I grab my helmet from Caelum. I pick up another one from the floor and hand it to Coal. He’s still looking at me. I stare down at the ground, shoving my helmet on. Oh’Rian, after checking that everyone is good, starts the engine and the blades start to rotate. Her shoulders are shaking slightly and I have the feeling she’s laughing at me. The blades spin faster and faster and the thought passes through my mind that we are in an underground warehouse. The noise of the motors and the rushing air is too loud for me to talk, and I’m not sure how to use the radio in the headset, so I just cross my fingers that Oh’Rian knows what she’s doing.
Thankfully, she does, and frighteningly close to hitting the ceiling, it opens. Yes, the ceiling opens. Like a book, the roof breaks in half and splits so the chopper can fit through. I peer out the window as much as I can and see the doors closing. They have fake houses on top of them to fit in with the rest of the village. I see a few curious people shielding their eyes and looking up at us with shock, but they quickly become tiny specks as Oh’Rian pulls on the throttle.
I hate to admit it, but Oh’Rian was right. There was no way I ever could have even tried flying this thing. Not only was I unaware of the whole “fake ceiling” mechanism, but there’s too many buttons, switches and blinking lights on the dashboard to count, much less recognize. Oh’Rian understands it though. She flicks a switch here, pushes a button there, and we don’t crash. Magic. There’s more to Oh’Rian than meets the eye.
I lean back on the floor and try to gather my thoughts. The noise from the helicopter fades into the background. I do need Coal. I’m not sure what would have happened if he hadn’t gotten come with me.
You wouldn’t have left.
Part of me knows it’s true. But then the other part says I would have gone with the others. I’m really confused. I do know that I said a little more than “I need you” though. I sigh inside my helmet, fogging up the glass, and let the systematic chopping sound of the rotor blades lull me to sleep.