by Ryan Casey
After that, nothing but silence.
Nothing but peace.
Nothing but that sunset, and my beautiful family.
Together.
Chapter Forty-Eight
Three weeks later…
Sarah took a deep breath as the helicopter’s blades started to spin.
It was a beautiful spring morning. A thin layer of frost had settled across the grass, soon to melt in the brightness of the sun. She wondered, as her feet had crunched their way across the grass on the way towards here, when she’d next step on that grass. Or if she’d ever step on that grass again. She had to believe she would. She had to believe that one day, she’d be back here, back home.
But for now, it was time for a new journey. Time for a new step.
The biggest step of all.
She looked around at the extraction point. She’d called this place home for a whole three weeks. It turned out there was something of a waiting list to leave the power-free and head towards a new world of power. And Sarah wasn’t exactly right at the front of it.
She’d been nervous, initially. Cautious. After all, the events of the showdown with Ian were strong in her memory; vivid in her mind.
The events of that entire day were something she’d rather forget—and sooner rather than later.
She remembered the heat from the flames. She remembered the splitting, searing pain that split its way through her belly, and right through her body. She remembered the taste of blood, strong against her lips.
But more than anything, she remembered the moment Alex had pushed her out. The moment he’d forced her out of the crate.
Looked her in the eyes.
Then disappeared behind the flames.
She felt fear and sadness cover her body when she thought back to that moment. After all, she knew how it had played out—and how differently it could’ve played out.
But she was still here.
She was still here.
She turned around and looked at the people facing her.
Hailey was there. Beside her, Will.
Then there was Ellie and Kaileigh. The kids had little excited looks on their faces. Which was a nice change, especially after everything they’d been through.
“Have you ever been on a helicopter, Sarah?” Kaileigh asked.
Sarah smiled. She thought back to three years ago when she and Alex had gone on a helicopter tour of the Twelve Apostles on the south coast of Australia. She’d been excited, all for it. But it was Alex who had been cautious. Something he’d read about the statistics and the chances of a helicopter accident compared to other methods of transport.
She smiled when she remembered. His damned trust issues were still getting in the way, all the way back then.
“I have,” she said. “And you know what? I think you’re going to love it.”
She saw the excitement spreading across Kaileigh’s face. Beside her, she saw Ellie, puffing away on her e-cigarette, looking content as anything, the passion fruit fumes filling the air.
As her eyes met with Ellie’s, she was taken back once again to that fateful day three weeks ago. Her memory of what’d happened when she’d been dragged out of the crate was hazy at best. But she remembered seeing gunshots blasting all around the other side of the crate. She remembered hearing a shout, hearing cries.
She remembered seeing Ian’s people.
Some of them fleeing.
Some of them dropping their weapons, surrendering.
Some of them fighting…
But more than anything, she remembered seeing Ian.
He was shot. No doubt about that. His leg was bleeding—badly.
But he was crawling his way across the ground, eyes firmly squared on Sarah, like there was one final thing he had to do, one final power play before it all ended.
She watched him crawling towards her as the flames inside the crate started to go out.
She watched him moving closer and closer, his knife in hand, and she tried to find the strength inside to resist; to fight.
She watched him reach her; watched him stop, right beside her, and lift his knife.
“You don’t get to live,” he said. “Neither of you do.”
He lifted the knife. Raised it into the air.
Then…
A hand tightened around hers.
She looked to her right, brought out of the memory, back into the helicopter.
“You okay?”
Sarah smiled when her eyes met Alex’s.
There were a few burns on his face, no doubt about that. In fact, he’d taken many burns. The lower half of his body had seen the worst of it. Some of them were so bad that he’d be stuck with them for life.
But doctors and medics at the extraction point had said he’d made a remarkable recovery. He was back on his feet in a record amount of time. The fact that he’d survived at all was amazing in itself.
But the medics told Sarah he’d survived because he’d believed in himself. But also that he’d trusted them. Even when it was hard, he’d trusted them.
She smiled back at him. “I’m okay,” she said. “Just… anxious.”
“About?”
She put her free hand on her belly. “About whatever’s coming next.”
The helicopter blades started to move faster. The sound of the engine got even louder. And as it loudened, as Sarah sat there beside her husband, she thought back to that day once again, those final moments—at least she’d thought.
Alex, burned, wounded, had stepped out of the crate.
He’d slammed a large chunk of rock against Ian’s head.
And then he’d done it again.
And again.
And again.
And in the end, he’d taken Ian’s prized knife out of his fingers.
He’d taken his handkerchief.
“You’ll remember the day you lost your fear factor,” he said. “It’ll be the last thing you remember. Someone defying you. You’ll look into my eyes and you’ll remember.”
Then he planted the knife into Ian’s heart.
When he’d done, he wiped it with Ian’s handkerchief. He put it back in Ian’s hand.
And as Ian took his last breath, he tightened that grip on his knife.
“Look at me,” Alex said.
Ian coughed. He spluttered. His smile started to drop. The facade started to disappear.
Alex pressed that knife down harder. “Look at me.”
And at that moment, at that fateful moment, Sarah saw something different in Ian’s eyes.
She saw fear.
After that, there was nothing.
Ian went silent. Still.
Alex collapsed by Sarah’s side.
“We’re going to be okay,” Alex said, hand on Sarah’s belly now. “None of us know what’s going to happen. None of us know how it’s going to play out. We don’t know how we’re going to be, how our child’s going to be. But we do know that we’ve got each other. And that we trust each other. And as long as we’ve got our trust, we’ve got a future. All of us have a future.”
Sarah tightened her grip on Alex’s hand, then rested it on her belly alongside hers. “I love you, Alex.”
He looked her in her eyes, then he smiled. “I love you too.”
The pilot leaned around, looked at them all in the back, smile on his face. “You ready for take off?” he said.
Sarah looked at Alex. Then Alex looked back at her, and they each looked at one another.
“Any chance I can get another real smoke before we go?” Ellie said.
They laughed. All of them laughed. And as the helicopter lifted off the ground, Sarah felt happier than she’d felt in years. And she felt certainty. Certainty that everything was going to be okay. Certainty that, no matter what, they were going to pull through. Because they had everything they wanted. They had each other.
The helicopter lifted.
Sarah held her breath.
She watched the ground get further beneath h
er.
She watched the extraction point disappear below.
Then she watched as the land gave way to sea, and they disappeared into the distance, into the rising sun.
In her belly, she felt the kick of her daughter’s foot.
And she knew right then, as she held Alex’s hand, that everything was going to be okay.
I smiled as I held my little girl in my arms, stared into her beautiful dark brown eyes.
“Hello, Ophelia,” I said.
Above my head, the light flickered.
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The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author. Any reference to real locations is only for atmospheric effect, and in no way truly represents those locations.
Copyright © 2017 by Ryan Casey
Cover design by Damonza
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Published by Higher Bank Books