Chapter 8 - SEVENTY-THREE SECONDS TO ESCAPE
"No."
Arthur wouldn't look at me.
"Arthur."
"Take the recorder."
"No."
"We don't have time for this."
"You heard Mara."
He handed Lily back to me, then started pulling at the access panel.
"I've been here eleven years, Garrett."
"That doesn't mean you get to decide you're expendable."
"It means I'm already dead in every way that matters."
"Bullshit."
He laughed sadly.
"You sound like Margaret."
The brass key remained in the lock.
Arthur turned it again.
The panel opened.
The orange flight recorder sat inside.
No black wire this time.
No Mara.
I pulled the recorder free.
It was heavier than I expected.
"How are we supposed to carry this and Lily?"
Arthur pointed toward a strap attached to the casing.
"We'll manage."
My phone read 10:46.
Thirty-one minutes.
"We need Mara."
Arthur shook his head.
"If the Hold took her, we can't—"
A pounding sound interrupted him.
Three knocks.
From inside the wall.
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
I remembered the galley window.
"Don't answer."
Tap.
Tap.
Tap.
Then Morse code.
I didn't know Morse code.
Arthur did.
He listened.
His face changed.
"What?"
"She's saying... open... floor."
We looked down.
A rectangular maintenance plate sat beneath our knees.
Arthur jammed the crash axe under it.
Pulled.
The plate opened.
Mara's hand shot upward.
I nearly yelled.
We grabbed her.
Pulled.
She emerged gasping from a space no larger than twelve inches deep.
Her uniform was torn.
Blood streaked her face.
But she was alive.
Arthur stared.
"How?"
Mara coughed.
"The Hold made a mistake."
"It doesn't make mistakes."
"It does around Lily."
The baby reached toward her.
Mara smiled weakly.
"Exactly."
We helped her sit.
"What happened?"
"I saw the reset mechanism."
Arthur frowned.
"The what?"
"It's not a machine."
She pressed a hand to her ribs.
"It's memory. The Hold forces everyone back into the last moment they felt safe enough to stop fighting."
"That's why the cabin changes."
"Yes."
"And you escaped?"
"I remembered why I boarded."
"Hannah."
Mara nodded.
"Guilt kept me here for twenty-five years."
"You boarded in 2001."
"From my perspective, yes."
She looked toward Lily.
"But guilt also showed me the way out."
The intercom sounded.
Daniel's voice.
"Passengers of Flight 237."
Arthur cursed.
"He has the cockpit."
"At eleven seventeen, an emergency exit will become available."
Mara looked at me.
"He's telling them."
"To anyone who wishes to leave, please proceed to the rear cabin."
Seats began creaking overhead.
The sleeping passengers were waking.
Daniel continued.
"One passenger must remain behind to stabilize the crossing."
Arthur whispered, "He's going to make them choose."
"Failure to select a volunteer will result in the loss of all passengers."
Footsteps moved above us.
Dozens.
Mara grabbed my arm.
"We need to get upstairs."
We climbed.
The cabin was chaos.
Passengers filled the aisle.
Some looked human.
Others flickered between human and monstrous forms.
They were frightened.
Confused.
A mother held two children.
A young soldier shouted questions.
The little girl with the rabbit sobbed.
Daniel stood near the cockpit.
"Listen to me!"
Everyone quieted.
"We have less than thirty minutes."
He pointed directly at me.
"That man has the device that can open the breach."
Every face turned.
"He also knows only one person may cross while everyone else remains."
"He's lying," Mara shouted.
Daniel smiled.
"Am I?"
No one knew whom to believe.
I didn't fully know either.
"Garrett!"
A woman pushed through the crowd.
Hannah.
The real Hannah.
I knew immediately.
She looked the same as before, but this time her eyes weren't desperate.
They were clear.
Lily cried.
Hannah stopped.
Her entire body shook.
"My baby."
I held Lily toward her without releasing her.
"Hannah?"
She nodded.
"Thank you."
Daniel's face darkened.
"You don't get to speak."
Hannah looked at him.
For twenty-seven years of stolen time, every ounce of fear seemed to leave her at once.
"You never owned me."
Daniel's expression twisted.
"You cheated."
"I left."
"You humiliated me."
"You hurt me."
"You took my child."
"She wasn't yours."
The passengers began murmuring.
Hannah faced them.
"He sabotaged the aircraft."
Daniel shouted.
"It was an accident!"
"He opened the breach."
"You don't know that."
"I watched you."
Silence.
Hannah pointed toward the aft section.
"When the electrical systems failed, he opened the service panel. Something entered this plane through him."
Daniel's burned arm began smoking.
Passengers backed away.
"He is the anchor," Hannah said.
Mara inhaled.
Not Arthur.
Not me.
Daniel.
Daniel looked terrified.
"No."
Hannah turned to me.
"The Hold told us someone had to stay because Daniel made us believe the rule."
Arthur stared.
"A false rule."
"Yes."
Mara looked furious.
"Twenty-seven years."
"The Hold needs one willing prisoner to maintain the cycle."
Hannah nodded.
"And Daniel volunteered the first night."
Daniel shouted.
"I was trying to survive!"
"You promised it people."
His face went white.
Hannah's voice broke.
"Every time the breach opened, you guided someone else aboard."
I thought of the gate attendant.
The strange boarding.
"Why?"
"Because if enough new people came in, the Hold allowed Daniel to keep himself intact."
Arthur stepped toward him.
"You fed us to it."
Daniel ran.
Passengers screamed as he shoved through them.
Arthur pursued.
"Stay with Lily!" he shouted.
Mara, Hannah, and I followed.
Daniel reached the rear galley and pulled open an emergency exit.
Impossible at altitude.
Wind did not blast inward.
Instead, beyond the door was Denver International Airport.
The gate.
B7.
Normal people walking past.
Real life.
My phone changed.
11:16.
One minute.
Daniel turned.
"If I cross first, it closes."
Hannah screamed.
"No!"
He lunged toward the doorway.
Arthur tackled him.
They hit the floor.
11:17.
The entire aircraft shook.
The doorway blazed white.
Mara shouted.
"Seventy-three seconds!"
Passengers surged.
I strapped the recorder across my chest.
"How many can cross?"
"All of us if Hannah is right!"
Arthur and Daniel fought beside the door.
Passengers began running through.
A soldier.
The little girl.
Her mother.
The businessman who had vanished earlier.
Each disappeared into the airport beyond.
63 seconds.
Hannah touched Lily's cheek.
"Take her."
"You're coming."
"I will."
"No sacrifice."
She smiled.
"No sacrifice."
52 seconds.
Mara began directing passengers.
"Move! Don't stop!"
Arthur pinned Daniel.
"Garrett!"
Daniel kicked him away.
Arthur struck the wall.
Daniel scrambled toward me.
"Give me the recorder!"
"No."
He attacked.
I turned my body to shield Lily.
His fist struck my jaw.
I fell.
The recorder slid across the floor.
Daniel grabbed it.
38 seconds.
He ran toward the exit.
Hannah stepped into his path.
He froze.
"Move."
"No."
"I'll kill you."
She smiled sadly.
"You already did."
Daniel shoved her.
Arthur hit him from behind.
The recorder flew.
Mara caught it.
29 seconds.
"Go!"
Passengers crossed.
Twenty seconds.
Hannah took Lily.
For one beautiful moment, mother and daughter stared at each other.
Lily touched Hannah's face.
Then the baby's expression changed.
She looked behind Hannah.
Toward the empty aisle.
And started screaming.
Not crying.
Warning.
Mara looked forward.
"Oh, God."
The cockpit had disappeared.
In its place was a wall of darkness racing toward us.
Fifteen seconds.
Arthur shouted.
"EVERYBODY OUT!"
Hannah pushed Lily back into my arms.
Ten.
Mara jumped through.
Nine.
Arthur shoved Daniel down.
Eight.
Hannah grabbed my hand.
Seven.
We ran.
Six.
Daniel caught my ankle.
Five.
I fell.
Hannah went through the doorway.
Four.
Arthur kicked Daniel's hand loose.
Three.
"GO, GARRETT!"
Two.
I jumped.
One.
May you like
And just before I crossed, I looked back.
Arthur was still inside.
