He gasped as a hand caught his and squeezed, tightly. Kailee looked as nervous as Gary felt, reaching out for comfort even if it came from him. Gary stared at her for a long moment, then turned his hand around to clutch hers tightly. Moments later, the aircraft started to move, juddering forward inch by inch. Flint cried out something that sounded like “Tally Ho,” then hit the accelerator. The plane lunged forward with terrifying speed – Gary remembered, suddenly, the fence at the edge of the field – and clawed its way into the air. Moments later, the shuddering started ...
“We’re not going to have a comfortable flight,” Flint called. He didn't seem worried. If anything, he seemed delighted. “But don’t worry. We’re perfectly safe.”
Gary didn't believe him. Outside, he could see the aircraft’s wings; they seemed to be moving up and down in line with the turbulence hitting the craft. He felt sick to his stomach as the plane shook again, even as he left the city behind. Somehow, he managed to look down and see just how small the city actually was, certainly when compared to a CityBlock. If Yates was right, there were more people in the average CityBlock on Earth than there were on the entire colony world.
There was a final shudder, than the turbulence started to fade away. Gary felt Kailee relax slightly, although she didn't take her hand from his. It wasn't sexual, he realised; it was nothing more than the desire for human contact. He looked away from her, ashamed of his own thoughts. In a way, he really was little better than Darrin or Barry. The only real difference was that he didn't have the nerve to push a girl into sex.
But that would be dangerous here, he thought. They could legally kill someone who was trying to rape them.
“As you can see, if you look to the right,” Yates said, “there are large steamboats on the Jordan heading northwards. Those boats carry most of the supplies from the spaceport to the various new settlements. Right now, the Governor is opening up a whole new county for settlement, while the other settlements are maturing and starting to expand on their own.”
Abdul stuck up a hand. “Are there no roads?”
“None that go far from the city,” Yates told him. “The local ecology fights back savagely against attempts to cut roads through the trees and forests, so right now it isn't worth the effort of building them. Later, the colonial authorities intend to start building proper roads to link together the various settlements, but that will need another fifty to one hundred years. As it is, what roads there are need to be cleared time and time again.”
Gary nodded, looking down onto a jungle. It seemed thick, utterly impenetrable. The only gap in the trees was the winding river. It looked small from high overhead, but the boats suggested that it was actually quite large. A thought struck him and he held up his hand.
“Why did they put the city there?” He asked, when Yates nodded at him. “The forest makes it difficult for anyone to get out to the farms, doesn't it?”
“It’s the easiest place to access the river,” Austin said. “There are actually quite a number of settlements on smaller islands; they were established first, during the early years. Boating and fishing was well-established before they set up the first farms inland, using the river to transport goods. Later, they just moved the spaceport to the mainland and burned enough of the forest away to keep it clear.”
Time moved by slowly. Gary watched as the forest gave way to something else, a pattern that looked almost like a very scrubby desert. But there was no way to know for sure, not with his very limited experience in geology. Earth’s geology had been largely immaterial for a very long time, according to the starship’s files. The giant megacities were utterly untouched by earthquakes, weather or anything else that had once bothered the planet's inhabitants. But inside, they were boring. And traps for humans too weak or ignorant to try to climb out.
I won’t be going back, he promised himself, as he started to doze off. The sound of the engine was almost hypnotic; besides, Barry was several seats away, behind him. Whatever happens, I won't go back to Earth.
A dull thump ran through the aircraft suddenly, followed by an abrupt lurch to one side. Gary felt himself shocked completely awake as an alarm sounded, followed by a torrent of swearing from Flint. The dull roar of the engines grew louder, then faded away to nothingness. Gary realised, as the swearing grew louder, that the aircraft was in real trouble. They were practically falling out of the sky ...
“Stay in your seats,” Yates bellowed, so loudly that Gary jumped. Everyone was starting to panic, even Barry. Gary had never seen the oversized boy panic before. “If you unstrapped yourself, strap yourself back in now!”
The aircraft twisted again, then fell. Gary clutched at Kailee, holding her hand tightly as panic threatened to take over. Outside, he saw flickers of light ... and smoke streaming from one of the engines under the wing. What the hell had gone wrong? The aircraft lunched – for a moment, Gary was convinced it was going to heel over completely – and then righted itself. But the ground was coming up alarmingly fast.
“Brace,” Flint snapped. The note of alarm in his voice chilled Gary to the bone. “Get into brace position now, damn you!”
A dull beeping echoed through the cabin as the lights failed. It sounded like the end of the world. Gary found himself praying, although he wasn't sure who or what he was praying too; somehow, he managed to let go of Kailee’s hand long enough to get into the right position. Moments later, there was a thunderous crashing sound ...
... And Gary fell into blackness.
Chapter Twenty-Three
This ensured that many public schools within the Empire became nightmarish hellholes for their inhabitants. Bullying, rape and even murder were common. Gangs stalked the corridors, searching for victims ... and recruiting for the larger gangs that ran criminal operations within the Cityblocks of Earth. In fact, during the final years of the Empire, there were war zones that were less dangerous than Undercity schools.
- Professor Leo Caesius. Education and the Decline and Fall of the Galactic Empire.
Darrin fought his way back to awareness slowly, through a haze of pain that made it hard to think. The dull ache from his back, made worse by the chair ... he tried to remember where they were and what had happened, but his memory refused to cooperate. He forced his eyes open and looked out upon a scene from hell. Tangled metal lay in front of him, the front of the plane smashed open; a body sat next to him, blood pouring down towards the ground.
He’d been on an aircraft, he remembered, suddenly. The thought seemed to galvanise his mind. He’d been on an aircraft and the aircraft had crashed. And he'd been sitting next to Yates ...
Somehow, he managed to undo his straps and stand upright. He appeared to be uninjured, as far as he could tell, but his entire body was shaking. Yates was bleeding from a nasty wound to the chest, a piece of metal having rammed itself through his body, pinning him to the seat. Darrin felt sick, then horrified; a couple of inches to the left and it would have been he, not Yates, who had been badly injured. He stared at the older man, unsure of what to do, then stepped past him and out into the aisle. Yates wasn't the only one who’d been badly injured.
Austin pulled himself to his feet. Darrin felt a flash of relief – he didn't have the slightest idea what to do – then caught sight of Honey. Her head had been smashed to a pulp, leaving a bloody stump sticking out of her chest. Darrin’s chest heaved and he turned away, a moment before he was violently sick. He’d seen entertainment flicks far gorier, but this was real. It had an impact far beyond the worst of the snuff flicks he’d seen. Beside Honey, Harold was also dead. The boy had barely made an impression on Darrin; he’d been quiet, rarely speaking to anyone. Now, he was dead.
“Stand up,” Austin ordered, raising his voice. In his stunned state, it took Darrin several moments to realise that he was addressing everyone else. “If you can move, stand up.”
Darrin let out a sigh of relief that surprised him as Gary and Kailee managed to stand up. Kailee had a nasty-looking scratch on h
er forehead – blood was trickling down her face – but she otherwise looked intact. Gary was holding her hand, surprisingly; the nerd looked as shocked as Darrin himself. Austin looked down at Li, who seemed to be injured. One of her legs was bent out of shape.
“Help me get her out of the plane,” Austin ordered.
Darrin hastily took Li by the shoulders and tried to get her to stand up. Austin slapped his arm, hard enough to force his mind to focus, then motioned for him to unbuckle the entire seat. Between Austin, Gary and Darrin, they managed to use the chair as a makeshift stretcher to carry her out of the plane. Thankfully, Li seemed to have been knocked out completely. It would have been much harder to move her if she’d been screaming at the time.
“Stay here,” Austin ordered, when they had put several metres between themselves and the crashed plane. “If you know how to bandage her leg, do so. And wait for me.”
Darrin watched helplessly as Austin walked back towards the plane, then turned his attention to Li. She looked fragile, one leg clearly broken and hanging off the seat. Darrin found himself exchanging helpless glances with Gary, unsure of what to do. Did they bind up the leg and prevent the bones from separating still further or would that merely make it worse? On Earth, they had been warned – many times – not to give medical aid without the proper qualifications and waivers. After all, someone could sue, either for impersonating a doctor or for providing bad medical care.
Li whimpered suddenly and Darrin came to a decision. Pulling off his shirt, he started to use it to bind up Li’s leg. If she wanted to complain, she could do so later. Kailee stood next to him as soon as she realised what he was doing and held Li’s leg still. Darrin pulled the shirt as tight as he could, then tied the arms together. It wouldn't stay in place for very long, but hopefully it would last long enough for Austin to come back and tell them what to do. Or for help to arrive from the city ...
He looked around for the first time, taking in the desolation of the surrounding landscape. He didn't know anything like enough to tell where they were; all he could see were scattered trees and something that resembled grass. In the distance, he could see mountains rising up towards the sky. Birds – clearly disturbed by the crash – were flocking away from them as fast as they could go.
Darrin sat down, feeling faint. They were far from civilisation, far from anyone who might help them ... and they were completely alone.
***
Austin gritted his teeth as he made his way back into the plane. The Earth-born hadn't realised it, as far as he could tell, but one of the engines had definitely caught fire. If the flames spread to the fuel tank, the entire aircraft would explode, taking the bodies with it – and Austin too, if he were still onboard. He heard someone moving and blinked in surprise as he saw Barry, stumbling to his feet. The oversized kid was bleeding from several minor wounds, but he looked generally intact, if stunned.
“Get out and walk away from the crash site,” Austin ordered. He was prepared to slap Barry if necessary, but Barry nodded and started to totter towards the hatch without hesitation. Austin opened his mouth to point out that there were plenty of gashes in the hull, then pushed the thought aside. Barry was too badly stunned to notice “Hurry!”
He turned and started to work his way through the rest of the craft. Steve and Abdul were both trapped under a piece of fuselage; cursing his decision to send Barry away, Austin pushed and pulled at it until the two boys could wriggle free. Like Barry, they had cuts and bruises, but seemed largely intact. Austin pointed them towards the nearest gash in the hull, then checked Yuki and Honey. Both of the girls were definitely dead. In front of them, Samantha was stunned, but alive. Austin shouted at Steve and Abdul to carry her out, then kept moving forward. Flint’s body was so badly wounded that Austin knew there was no point in checking for a pulse, while Yates was trapped.
Austin swore as he looked down at the older man. He’d come to respect Yates, in the handful of days he'd known him; seeing him wounded and trapped was horrifying. And there was nothing he could do; the piece of metal pinning him to the seat was also the only thing keeping him alive. Maybe a proper medical team could have kept him alive while cutting him free of the plane and shipping him to a hospital, but Austin knew that no such team could arrive in time. Yates was dying right in front of his eyes.
“No hope,” Yates said. He had to say it twice before Austin heard him properly. “Get them back home for me, all right?”
“Yes, sir,” Austin said. He knew it would be difficult, almost impossible. But he wasn't about to simply quit. Besides, his thoughts pointed out, where was he going to go? “I don’t dare move the piece of metal ...”
“Internal damage,” Yates said. His voice was very quiet, almost a whisper. “Don’t worry about me, son. Just get them all home. Keep an eye on them. And watch that Barry. He’s trouble.”
“I know,” Austin said.
The thought made him scowl. He’d heard enough to know that the others all had potential, but Barry didn't seem to have noticed repeated wake-up calls. But then, he had been taught bad habits from a very early age. Austin knew precisely what his parents would have done if they’d caught him bullying another child, assuming he survived the experience; he wouldn't have been able to sit down for a week. Perhaps there was someone worthwhile inside Barry, but no one had ever given him the discipline he needed to bring it out.
He hesitated, unsure of what to do. As a younger child, he’d watched helplessly as one of the indents suffered an accident and bled to death, despite everything his fellows could do to help him. Austin had already known that death came to everyone – his grandmother had died when he was old enough to miss her – but seeing the indent die had taught him that death could come suddenly. And, no matter what some people claimed, there were times when one could do nothing, apart from making sure that the dying didn't die alone.
“You can't stay here,” Yates said. His breathing was starting to fail. “Get the hell out, son.”
His body shuddered one final time, then fell limp.
Austin took one final look, then stumbled to his feet and headed towards the nearest gash in the hull. It tore at him to leave the bodies in the aircraft, where they might be burned or eaten by wild animals, but there was no time to bury them now. Cursing his own oversight, he stopped, walked back to the pilot’s seat and retrieved the medical case from under Flint’s body. It wouldn't do the pilot any good, but it might help save other lives.
Outside, he walked around to look at the engine. It was smouldering darkly, suggesting that the fire was on the verge of going out. Austin wondered briefly if they could drain the remaining fuel from the plane’s tanks, but failed to come up with a practical way to do it safely. Instead, he turned away from the aircraft and hurried back towards the rest of the group. They all looked relieved to see him.
Darrin caught his eye. “Where’s Yates?”
“Dead,” Austin said, shortly. He saw the look of astonishment – even panic – in their eyes and scowled. This was why he’d been taught, right from birth, never to grow too dependent on anyone. “What have you done to Li?”
“Bandaged up her leg,” Kailee said. Her forehead looked to have stopped bleeding, thankfully. “Is she going to be all right?”
Austin considered, briefly, what he should tell her. Someone from Meridian would know basic emergency medicine as a matter of course; they’d know that Li needed better medical care and attention than they could provide. But someone from Earth ... for all Austin knew, they were as ignorant about matters medical as they were about everything else. Li would be fine if she had a proper doctor, but the closest doctor was at least seventy miles away.
“I think she needs treatment,” Austin said, shortly. He knelt down beside the girl and started to feel her leg. It was broken in at least one place, he decided, wishing that he had more practical experience. But he’d never been interested in devoting himself to medicine full time. “We’ll have to make her a splint.”
&
nbsp; He looked around, crossly. They could probably scavenge everything they needed to make one from the plane, but he didn't dare go back to the hulk until after the fire had gone out completely. A glance at the sky told him that it was likely to rain, sooner rather than later, and that might put out the fire, yet being drenched to the skin was unlikely to be good for any of them. He snorted inwardly a moment later. There was no prospect of shelter unless they went back to the plane.
“Leave her for the moment,” he added. They’d have to build a makeshift stretcher too, if they had to trek cross-country to the nearest settlement. He opened the medical kit and produced a set of cloths. “Kailee, let me see the cut on your forehead.”
A girl from Meridian might have protested – foolishly – that there were others who needed medical attention more. Kailee just stepped over to him and bowed her head, allowing him to see the cut clearly for the first time. Blood had stained her dark hair, dripping down over her clothes and skin. Austin wiped the cut clean of blood, then examined it quickly. Thankfully, it didn't look deep enough to be dangerous.
“I’ll put a plaster on it,” he said, retrieving one from the pack. “It should heal on its own.”
He moved to Steve and Abdul, both of whom had cuts and bruises too. Gary and Darrin looked fine, apart from bruises; Barry looked mutinous at the mere thought of allowing someone else to inspect his wounds. Austin rolled his eyes, then left Barry alone where he was sitting on the ground, staring at nothing. At least he wasn't causing trouble. But then, living through a crash would be enough to stun anyone.
Kailee caught his arm. “Austin,” she said, “how long will it be before they find us?”
***
Gary had been eying Barry nervously, but when he heard Kailee’s question he turned to hear the answer. On Earth, everyone was told that the emergency services responded promptly to any distress call, but everyone knew that there were places in the lower levels where the emergency services never bothered to go at all. They were just too dangerous, Gary had heard; thugs like Darrin and Barry attacked the medics whenever they made an appearance.
The Empire's Corps: Book 07 - Reality Check Page 21