28. Bastian

BASTIAN

I decided I was going to try to sleep, or at least pretend, so that Sterling wouldn’t feel the need to berate me for the entire flight. I closed my eyes when an unsettling murmur began to ripple through the cabin…

Followed by one or two cries of dread…

Followed by someone saying, “Is that a car on the runway?”

I opened my eyes, glanced out the window and gasped. “Oh fuck! Benji? Maggie? Is that Connie… and Lonnie and Ronnie?”

For a second longer I stared at the Chevy trying to keep up with the plane about to take off, my brain almost unable to process what I was seeing. Then suddenly my fingers were fumbling to get my belt unbuckled.

“What are you mumbling about now?” said Sterling. “Wait, what are you doing? You can’t unbuckle your belt, we’re about to take off.”

The belt flapped loose.

I jumped to my feet and started clambering over the top of Sterling.

“What the fuck!” he shrieked.

I landed face down in the aisle, then quickly picked myself up as I looked for the nearest exit, shouting, “Stop the plane! That’s my family out there!”

Panic swept through the cabin.

I saw the purser pick up the phone to the cockpit.

I saw the nearest exit and ran for it.

That’s when I heard a booming voice behind me shouting, “Air Marshal! Freeze!”

But I didn’t freeze. As I felt the plane begin to power down, I grabbed the lever on the door. “But that’s my family out there! I need to get out of— zzzz-zzz-zzzz-zzz-zzz! ”

A taser hit me and my entire body turned into a bolt of electricity, jumping and jigging and jolting uncontrollably before my legs turned to jelly…

And the whole world faded to black.