Michael (The Airel Saga, Book 2) - By Aaron Patterson Page 0,93
It wasn’t just Kim. It was everything.
Eventually they fell asleep together, her head resting on his chest, his arms around her.
I was absolutely starving. I wasn’t quite awake yet, but I was aware of the hunger at least. There was something in the air too; a voice. It was tinny. I opened my eyes. We were on a plane. Oh, yeah. The plane. The tinny voice was the captain. Hex. That’s right.
“…cruising at Mach point eight. We’re currently slowing and on final to Ascension Island in the south Atlantic. We’ll be landing at Wideawake Airfield in ten minutes for refueling. We’ll have a layover of a few hours per Miss Ellie’s request, so you can walk around a bit and eat a meal, perhaps see the sights. It’s up to you. All the arrangements will be taken care of. Please buckle up and prepare for landing. This is the captain speaking.” The intercom clicked off.
I looked around. Michael was stirring, but he wasn’t quite up yet. Ellie sat across the way. She looked up and smiled at me. Kim was still out like a light. Boy howdy. That must have been some cocktail.
I looked out the window. All I could see was wisps of cloud and ocean. It was still daytime. How long have we been flying? Did I hear him say south Atlantic? Wowza. I couldn’t figure it out in my head, but I was sure of one thing: it had to be tomorrow already. My stomach growled.
I could feel the plane descending and slowing, and my ears popped.
As we got closer and lower, I could see quite clearly the endless sea. There was nothing else out here. It seemed like we were getting really low and I hoped there was some kind of island or land out in front of us, because it sure looked like we were getting ready to crash into the water.
Just when I started to become really alarmed, a bit of rocky shore flashed by under the wing. I was instantly relieved to find that, no, we weren’t trying to land on the open ocean. Touchdown came swiftly and gently.
Kim never stirred.
I elbowed Michael gently. “Hey. Get off me, dude.” He had draped an arm over me and was drooling on the expensive leather seat. He gave a snort and blinked his eyes and looked around. “Oh. Hi. Sorry.” He drew back his arm and sat up.
The airplane was slowing to taxi speed, and Hex meandered it over various runways to a row of big metal buildings where other planes like ours were parked.
“How long were we out?” Michael asked.
Ellie spoke up. “Fourteen hours. I guess you needed some rest, hey?”
I stretched luxuriously now that I didn’t have boyfriend draped all over me. “No doubt,” I said, peering out the window.
Hex’s voice came over the speakers again. “It’s a balmy twenty five degrees outside and the weather is perfect. Enjoy your day. This is the captain speaking.”
Did he say twenty five?! “But it looks so nice out!” I said.
“Celsius,” Ellie said.
“Oh. Duh.” I felt so stupid. “Why did I not know that?”
“Because you’ve been snogging your boyfriend for over twelve hours, girlie. Anyone else wouldn’t even know their own name.” She smiled and I felt all gooey inside again. What is it about this Ellie character?
The plane stopped and we stood. Bishop came and opened the outer door with a huge smile and the three of us got out, blinking and squinting in the bright sunshine.
“What about Kim?” I asked.
“Oh, sweetheart, she’s not going to wake for days. She’ll be fine,” Ellie said.
“Days?! Holy crap! Do we need to get her on an oxygen machine or something?” I asked, more concerned than ever.
“No, no. Trust me, girlie,” Ellie said with a serious look in her eyes. “It’s better this way.”
CHAPTER XIII
WE TOOK A TAXI to Georgetown for some grub. Of course when I say taxi, I mean tiny little minivan piled to overflowing with, like, almost twenty people in it and on it. It didn’t help that the driver thought he was Enzo Ferrari himself, the way he blasted down the thoroughfares.
“I find you veddygood place to eat!” he said to us, flashing his pearlywhites.
And it was true. The food was astonishing. I had never had fish so tasty in my life. Fish! It was likely because most of my prior experiences with seafood were deep fried and square, served up with plenty of tartar sauce.