Final Winter

‘Man, who the fuck knows?’ the cabbie said, the lilt in his Jamaican voice pronounced. ‘Maybe an accident. Maybe a drill. I dunno.’

Brian waited, hands folded, staring ahead, looking at the line of red taillights stretching in front of them. He said, ‘You own a cellphone?’

‘Yeah.’

‘Can I use it? It’s an emergency.’

‘No, man, I’m ‘fraid you can’t use it.’

‘Why?’

‘Cuz I don’t have it here. It’s back at my place.’

Brian said, ‘I thought you said you had a cellphone.’

The cabbie said, ‘You didn’t ask me if I had one, you just asked me if I owned one. Right?’

They still weren’t moving. Screw this.

Brian opened the cab door, stepped out, and started running towards the fences on the other side of the highway. If the cabbie was screaming at him, Brian didn’t hear it over the noise of the jets.

~ * ~

AirBox 107 sat at the end of the runway, its engines idling, the white lights of the runway stretching out ahead. Carrie kept switching her gaze from the displays to the runway. Sean waited next to her, then said, ‘Something’s up.’

‘Why?’

‘We’ve never waited this long before, that’s why.’

Carrie said, ‘Be patient, will you?’

Sean said, ‘Some would say I’ve been too patient already.’ She thought of what to say, when the tower controller’s voice came over their headsets.

‘AirBox one-oh-seven, tower.’

‘One-oh-seven, go ahead,’ Sean replied.

‘Stand by.’

‘One-oh-seven.’

Carrie looked at Sean and he said, ‘Look over there. By the freight hangars. Lots of lights.’

She did just that. He was right. A number of red and blue flashing lights.

‘You’re right,’ she said.

‘You should learn to listen to me more often.’

Carrie waited and said, ‘Some people would say I already listen too much.’

‘Which people?’

Carrie said nothing, waited.

Then the tower came back on.

‘Airbox one-oh-seven.’

~ * ~

Adrianna Scott had scouted out this place months ago, and now she waited with anticipation, a pair of 7X50 binoculars in her hands. She was in a small park on a hillside, about a mile away from the airport. Among the picnic tables and swing sets, all empty, she waited. She looked around her, saw how empty the place was, and felt a wonderful sense of satisfaction. This place would never be used again by the people of this country and soon grass and saplings and trees would once more cover this cleared area.

She lifted up the binoculars, focused them on the runway. She could make out long lines of yellow and black AirBox jets, heading out for departure.

‘Soon, papa, soon, mama,’ she whispered.

~ * ~

Brian bent over, vomited, and then stood up, wiping spit from his chin. Before him was an access road, bordered by a chain-link fence that butted up against the runway. What the hell to do now? There was nothing before him except the fence. No phones, no guard shacks, nothing.

Damn!

He looked up and down the length of the fence. Noted the lampposts. Noted the power lines. And the cameras, of course, the—

Security cameras.

Only chance. The only real chance.

Brian took out the pistol he had lifted from the Memphis cop, started running the length of the fence, shooting the pistol into the air, raising as much hell as he could. If the airport security team was on the job, if these cameras were manned, they would see a crazy man with a gun at the end of this runway, apparently shooting at the soon-to-depart aircraft.

It was the only thing he could do.

~ * ~

Sean said, AirBox one-oh-seven, go ahead.’

‘Tower, AirBox one-oh-seven, cleared for takeoff, runway three six center’

‘AirBox one-oh-seven, cleared for takeoff runway three six center, we thank you.’

Carrie held onto the throttles tight, started pushing them forward. She felt the engine thrust push her back into the seat as the runway lights started accelerating past them. Sean started calling out the speed and then V-1, the speed at which take off was imminent: ‘Sixty. Seventy. Eighty. Vee-one, rotate.’

Carrie pulled the control yoke back. ‘Vee-two,’ Sean said as she felt the jet break free from the ground, Sean now indicating that they were at their climbing speed in case they lost an engine. They were airborne.

She said quickly, ‘Positive rate, gear up,’ and Sean moved a wheel-shaped lever with his left hand. There was a clunking sensation as the nose wheel came home.

‘Gear up,’ Sean said.

As the speed increased, Carrie called out, ‘Flaps five.’

The flaps moved to their position, and then she said, ‘Flaps up.’

‘Flaps up,’ Sean said. ‘We’ve got a clean aircraft.’

The tower controller’s voice came over the radio. ‘AirBox one-oh-seven, change to departure.’

Sean said, ‘AirBox one-oh-seven’ as he changed the radio’s frequency. Then a different voice announced itself: ‘AirBox one-oh-seven.’

‘Departure, AirBox one-oh-seven, passing feet for five thousand,’ Sean said.

‘AirBox one-oh-seven, climb to one zero thousand, heading zero two zero, proceed to CENTRALIA when able, and proceed via your flight plan.’