Project Airborne

by Johnson, Cassandra

  “Brian and I can go to the pharmacy while we’re out today and see what they have as far as antibiotics go. Anytime I get sick, that’s the only way to knock it out.” Logan told the two women as he took a drink of the coffee and exhaled the sound that Kaige had only heard men make in bad romance movies when they were doing a love scene. It conjured some embarrassing thoughts in her mind that she quickly put away for another day.

  “That’s a great idea, plus it will be good just to have them on hand in case anyone else gets sick and odds are we probably will.” Megan smiled, moving around the living room to take a seat on the couch beside Kaige.

  While she drank her coffee, Kaige’s strawberry blonde eyebrows pinched together in thought, trying to remember the last time she’d seen a doctor for a cold. It had been years, normally she just fought it with things she could buy over the counter because she refused to see her doctor, not because she didn’t like the man, he was a lovely man and a wonderful doctor, but sitting in the waiting room while she was already miserable was something she saved for when drastic measures needed to be taken.

  Getting up, her house shoes were making little scuffing noises over the hardwood, then there was the sound of her medicine cabinet opening while she looked around at the different medicine, she had in there that she’d completely forgotten about.

  “Ah hah!” Her shout of triumph was heard from the bathroom while she came back out doing a mild cha-cha-cha type of dance while holding two bottles in her hands.

  “Advil for my fevers and body ache, plus I found an old prescription of some amoxicillin.” Smiling, she shook the prescription bottle. No matter what her doctor said she never finished a prescription and this bottle had three pills in it. That was at least a day’s dose to get her started. “Better eat before I take them though, I vividly remember these giving me some digestive issues the last time I took them.” Sitting the bottles down among their other cold fighting brethren Kaige plopped down on the couch once more intent on finishing her coffee while it was still hot.

  “We’ll get more today.” Logan nodded, humming into his coffee cup.

  Megan however, leaned forward and picked up the prescription bottle, reading it.

  “Kaige, I’m not sure you should be taking these pills. How long have you had them?” She asked.

  “Eh, couple years. Worst comes to worst either they have lost their potency, or they are super potent with age.” That was her logic, which had also always been her mom’s logic on the matter. “I’ll be fine.” Kaige added with a smile to make Megan feel better.

  “If you say so, but if you start feeling strange or worse, I don’t want you taking any more.” Megan warned her, but she found Kaige suddenly laughing, snorting softly before she began to cough and held her robe over her mouth so that she wasn’t spewing her germs all over Megan.

  “You –you realize how redundant that sentence is, Meg?” Kaige giggled. “Literally any antibiotics that Logan and Brian find are going to be months old. They aren’t making any fresh batches.” Kaige giggled.

  The realization dawned on her face, but Meg shook it off quickly.

  “Well, either way. I want you to be safe, and that goes for all of us.” Somehow, Megan had taken on the mother role in their weird family and she looked at Logan too when she said this before standing up. “I need to go across the hall and check on Tobey and Tom, see if they are up yet. Do you want some breakfast?” Megan included them with a quick smiled.

  “I’ll fix myself some oatmeal and take the antibiotics over here, I don’t want to spread my germs over into your apartment.” Kaige sighed, although she was sure they were already all over Megan at this point and she was afraid of Tobey gets sick.

  Megan took her coffee to the apartment next door, leaving Logan and Kaige alone together. It wasn’t as if they shouldn’t have been alone together, they went on scouting missions together all the time before Brian came to join them, but she still felt a weird nervousness in her stomach. When they worked together it was a little different because they talked about work things. Now they were in a strange comfort zone together where they could walk around in their PJ’s and drink coffee. It was as if they had completely skipped a step in their friendship and leapt straight into the zone where you could ask them to bring you a cigarette while you were pooping. That was some love for your fromance, a friend’s romance as Kaige dubbed it.

  “Want me to make you some oatmeal?” Logan looked up at her over the brim of his coffee cup, using his free hand to scrub his fingers over the stubble on his chin.

  “Only if you’re going to make some for yourself too. I don’t want to put anyone else out. Megan’s been so nice making sure I take my medicine.” Kaige shrugged with a small smile.

  “I think that I will have some.” Logan grinned lazily while he set his coffee cup down.

  While Logan got busy over the fire, Kaige began to fold up Megan’s blankets, taking them and her pillow in the kitchen, somehow the thought of keeping them farther away from herself made it so that her germs weren’t spreading all over them. She’d need to wash them for Megan as a thank you, as well as a lot more.

  “According to Megan I had a dream about hearing a plane last night, did you hear anything?” Kaige asked curiously.

  She couldn’t remember what happened the night before, maybe it was the medicine or just being sick that was clogging her memory but now she was curious. Had there been a plane or was Megan right and she was only dreaming? Kaige liked to think that she had a solid grasp on reality, but the things that went on in the human brain while it was sleeping were complex and could vary from person to person. Kaige also knew she had a hard time letting things go and once she sunk her teeth in she was like a dog with a bone. When she was tracking down insurance companies querying why they weren’t paying a claim she’d done some work from home once when her mother wasn’t feeling well, and she said that on the phone she was like a pit bull, whatever that meant.

  “Did I hear about your dream or did I hear a plane?” Logan asked, teasing her as he glanced back to see what she was doing now.

  “The plane, Butthead.” Kaige smirked back at him as she was straightening the couch cushions.

  “I didn’t hear a thing; Brian and I were drinking last night.” He told her, as he pushed the boiler up to the coals of the fire. He wasn’t as good at this as the others were. Logan had never really cooked before, not that he didn’t try, but the nuances of making food that didn’t consist of tossing it in the microwave was too complex for him. He was also used to having a working stove as well. He could fry eggs and bacon, he even made homemade hash browns sometimes, but this? It just didn’t come naturally to him, but he was certainly willing to try for Kaige.

  “I guess the mind can play crazy tricks on you when you want something bad enough.” Kaige said softly, picking up the pack of cigarettes and lighting another one, the smoke haloing around her head while she thought, trying to dredge up some memory of the night before but none came. Real or dream, she didn’t like having gaps in her memory.

  “True.” Logan shrugged somewhat, but his thoughts seemed to be somewhere else. “Did you give Megan the pregnancy tests?” He asked, bringing her back to the here and now.

  “I did, before I lost the day. I didn’t tell her you were the one to overhear them arguing in the hall. I thought maybe it would make things less awkward for you and the rest of us. I wouldn’t want her to think that we’re talking about her behind her back.” Kaige explained as she thumbed her cigarette into the ashtray even though there wasn’t any ash to deposit.

  “Thanks,” Logan didn’t like the idea of Meg thinking badly of them, plus they weren’t really talking about her, not in the way that others might have misunderstood. “How did things go?” He asked, turning in his seat to put his full attention on her.

  “The tests came up negative, so I’m going to assume she isn’t pregnant, but I’ve heard of false negatives happening with those things, but she took two of them.
Surely they aren’t that unreliable otherwise people wouldn’t keep buying them.” Kaige said with a tip of her chin.

  Logan didn’t have much knowledge on the subject, so he couldn’t speak on the matter. He’d never had a pregnancy scare with any girlfriend he’d ever had and if there had been one, he was never told about it. Pouring oatmeal into the boiling water, it never looked particularly appetizing to him even as a kid, but he’d learned how to doctor it up until it tasted good and was also no longer ‘good for you’ anymore.

  “You could probably benefit from orange juice too.” Logan murmured, changing the topic again while he stirred the oatmeal around in the boiler.

  “Too bad we can’t just run to the corner mart and grab a jug.” She laughed a bit, scooting further into the couch cushions and curling up, feeling her energy already beginning to drain severely. She hadn’t even been out of bed a full hour.

  “I’ll figure out something.” Logan told her, eyeballing the oatmeal for a second before pouring it into two bowls and pouring sugar over it, sliding one towards Kaige as he sat on the floor on the other side of the coffee table watching while she took the pills he’d seen her taking before when they first came here to this apartment building, then the antibiotics she found in her bathroom.

  “You don’t need to worry about that, Logan. Just focus on what you and Brian need to pick up when the two of you leave the apartment today.” Kaige told him, swallowing the pills as she sat back on the couch with the bowl of oatmeal, spooning some into her mouth. Frankly, she’d never been a fan of it, but food was food now and you couldn’t thumb your nose up at it.

  “I found some seed packets at Lowe’s when we were there before.” Kaige sniffed faintly. “The way I see it, by the time it begins to warm up we can start planting and at least add fresh vegetables to our diet. All this canned shit can’t be that great for us.” Kaige pointed out, only vaguely recalling that she’d dumped all the packets into the zipper pocket at the front of her backpack when she had to rearrange for the condoms and pregnancy tests.

  The inside of her backpack literally looked like she was going to an orgy party.

  “That was good thinking.” Logan said, around his mouthful of food, realizing that he could have let it cook a little longer because it felt hard to chew. He was determined to get better at this.

  18.

  Kaige wasn’t sure how many days passed before she felt well, but she was certain that it was somewhere within the range of three to five days before she woke up in the middle of the night to the same sound that Megan said was a dream. It sounded exactly like a plane and for a small instant, she almost rolled back over and went back to sleep, to ignore the sound that was vividly conjuring images in her mind. Then, her eyes snapped wide open and she shot out of bed, hurrying to the window as she had the first night, this time, the plane was flying was visible, at least the lights were.

  Kaige could see the one white and one red light blinking in the sky as it steadily moved away, if she had to guess to the direction, she would say North, but she was never good with direction unless she was dealing with Google maps.

  Standing in front of the window, she watched until the lights were out of sight and the sound of the propellers had disappeared.

  Turning away from the window she went back to her bed, looking at her watch. It was a little after four in the morning and not once had they ever seen a plane during the day, this was only the second time Kaige had heard one at night.

  None of this made sense, why the hell would there be planes flying overhead at this time in the morning? Obviously, there were survivors, but these planes? Kaige got the distinct feeling that they weren’t looking for others, if they were, wouldn’t there have been people on the ground and not just doing a random fly over when it’s dark and there would be no way of seeing someone?

  Putting her robe on, she went into the living room and tossed another log onto the fire before she got something to drink and sat down on the couch.

  As she lit a cigarette she considered what Brian had told them the day he arrived, about the helicopters, in the dark, she couldn’t see what kind of aircraft it was, but Kaige knew for sure that it didn’t spell out anything good for them.

  Showered and dressed, Kaige sat at the breakfast table surrounded by her friends eating a bowl of oatmeal, the normal conversations that took place during the morning while people were still attempting to pry their eyes open and she watched them. Tom and Megan were back to their normal selves and it appeared that Logan and Brian were like brothers separated at birth.

  Tobey sat next to her, and every now and then he would lean his head over against her arm.

  “I heard it again last night, the plane sound.” Kaige looked at them. “And I saw it this time, not physically, but I saw the lights from the plane.”

  “You’re sure of this?” Brian asked, setting his spoon down in his bowl.

  Megan had told everyone about Kaige’s dream and at the time it was easy to believe that she’d hallucinated the entire thing but happening a second time was no coincidence. Kaige knew that there were other people out there, more dangerous than the zombies that they spent their lives hiding from. This time, Kaige wasn’t dreaming and she had proof, perhaps no physical proof that she could show them, but she wasn’t known to be a liar either.

  “I’m absolutely sure, Brian. I saw it from my bedroom window.” She explained, pouring more coffee into her cup. “It was flying in just the right direction away from the house, so I was able to see the lights and I watched them until they disappeared over the rest of the houses in the neighborhood.” If that wasn’t enough to prove that she wasn’t dreaming this then Kaige had no idea what else she had to do.

  It wasn’t as if she could film it, Kaige wasn’t even sure where her old cell phone was anymore. Once the electricity went out, she couldn’t use it anymore, not even as a flashlight or to see what the time was. Kaige was pretty sure that it was in a drawer somewhere in her bedside table.

  “I think we need to check it out.” Tom spoke up suddenly, making them all look at him. Normally, Tom was the quiet one. He was much more concentrated on what he should be doing for his family rather than going on these strange missions that Kaige or even his wife and Logan thought of, but this was different. A plane meant something, possibly a return to normal social order.

  “We should.” Brian agreed. “I’m willing to bet what you saw are military helicopters.”

  “Who knows, maybe that is where the rest of the survivors are?” Megan asked. “They could offer us a lot of help, we’ve managed to stay off the radar of zombies so well that maybe the military overlooked us?” Megan smiled, she looked hopeful, like her energy was renewed by the possibilities, but there was something that Kaige, Logan and Brian were all thinking but didn’t want to mention just to dash Megan’s hopes.

  Just because it appeared that the military was out there, it didn’t altogether mean that they were looking for survivors and those were the painful thoughts that kept springing to Kaige’s mind all night.

  “Can you lead us in the direction that you saw the lights going in?” Brian asked Kaige once the conversation fell silent.

  “I can.” She nodded up and down quickly. “We can go today.” Because there was no way she was going to wait any longer, she already had enough time to think about what she saw while she paced her living room waiting for the rest of the house to wake up.

  “Hold your horses, Kaige. You can’t go out today. This is the first time you’ve been well enough to get out of bed.” Megan complained.

  “I will not hold my horses and I feel much better. More than good enough to go with Brian and Logan today.” Kaige said.

  The determination in her voice told Megan that there was no way she was going to be able to convince Kaige to put this off any longer and relented, sinking into her seat.

  “I don’t think this is a good idea. If there are people out there, you can still find them, just not right now.” Megan tri
ed to persuade her, but it didn’t look like it was going to do any good.

  “I’m going to get my coat and I will be outside waiting for you guys.” Kaige said, getting up and pushing her chair back into the table before she left. Of course, she knew that Megan was only trying to look out for her best interests. She’d just begun to get over her cold, but now there was something else that Kaige needed to do and it may finally be the answer to all their questions, there was also the fear that was gnawing at her gut. Military helicopters were flying over, who knew how often, if they were looking for survivors, they wouldn’t be hiding under the cover of nightfall, if they wanted to find them, they would have already –the sheer fact that they hadn’t been spotted just didn’t feel right to her. Something was wrong and Kaige needed to have her fears confirmed now rather than later when it might be too late.

  Once Kaige was gone, the rest of the table quickly disbanded, Tom had firewood to chop and Tobey helped Megan with the dishes.

  Megan didn’t know how to feel about this, she was elated that their lonely journey might finally be coming to its end, but it felt wrong.

  There was something else bothering her, it kept nagging at the back of her mind, but she couldn’t put her finger on it.

  Whether she realized it, Megan was feeling the same way Logan, Kaige and Brian, but they had the courage to seek the answers, not matter what the cost might be.

  Gathering her coat, Kaige stuffed her feet into her boots and went outside and waited for the guys to come down. It wasn’t as cold today, especially with the sun rising, she already knew that it might be warmer by midday today. It was a good day to leave the house.

  Breathing in the fresh air, Kaige tilted her face towards the sun, allowing her skin to soak in the vitamin D that she’d been missing while she was laying underneath the toxic cloud of her cold germs in bed.