Earlier she’d sent Elaine off with her son to salvage the wreckage. In a haze of cigarette smoke, Teri had volunteered to go with them. It wasn't pretty in there, but somebody had to do it. Everybody was doing their part. All except Sol Delaney, the evasive Australian; nobody had seen him since he was flipping suitcases. Nobody missed him either.
Elaine and the others had been gone for about three hours. In the meantime, Abbey and the girl had built six temporary quarters along the sand. They'd lashed some branches together in bizarre frameworks, and thrown blankets over them for protection from the sun. So long as it didn’t storm again any time soon, the tents would hold up just fine.
Collapsing onto the sand, she coaxed the girl to sit with her and watch the setting sun. With no apprehension, she sank down onto the sand and rested her head on Abbey's shoulder as they watched the dazzling spectrum of colour washing over the horizon.
Chancing a peek at the girl, Abbey spotted the damp in her eyes. She hugged her closer, both of them shivering in the evening heat.
18
‘You really want to go back in there?’ Teri asked.
‘No, not really,’ Elaine replied. ‘But Abbey’s sent us for supplies. No better place to look.’
Teri stepped back. ‘Fuck that!’
Elaine glanced at Eric who was idly examining the underside of the battered carriage. ‘Please don’t use that language in front of my son.’
‘What, fuck?’
‘Or in front of me.’
Teri flicked a cigarette butt on to the sand. ‘I don’t see what the problem is. Eric hasn’t even noticed. You’re the only one bitching?’
‘Listen, you little brat,’ Elaine uttered vehemently. ‘I don’t care what you do in your own time, and I don’t care who you do it with. But while you’re in the company of me or my son, you will refrain from using foul language.’
Teri smirked. ‘Or what?’
‘Or for the love of God, I will put you on your lily-white arse, and believe me, you won’t get back up.’
‘Whoa,’ Teri uttered. ‘Momma bear got some stones.’
Elaine held her stare.
Shying away, Teri sparked up another cigarette.
‘Mom, are we going back inside?’ Eric called out. He was eying the darkness from beneath the emergency exit.
Earlier that morning, they’d exited through this very door. Nobody wanted to go back inside, not a soul. But somebody had to. They needed water and blankets. Cushions. Food provisions. Anything that would aid the preservation of those left alive. And if this was her duty, her contribution, she wouldn’t argue.
‘I’m not going in there,’ Teri declared. ‘I’ll stand watch.’
‘Stand watching for what?’
Taking a drag, Teri said, ‘I don’t know, cannibals. Or something.’
‘Cannibals?’
‘Look, I don’t know. Whatever involves me not going in there, man.’
‘We’re all going in, Teri, no exceptions. Eric, you okay with that?’
The big man whipped his head around. ‘Okay with what?’
‘Of course he’s okay with it,’ Teri grumbled. ‘He retarded. I’m not okay with it, entiendes? Me, I’m not.’
‘I don’t care what you’re okay with, Teri! It’s very simple. The sun will be gone in the next hour and I’m fairly sure you don’t want to go in there in the dark. I’m not standing here bickering about this anymore. Get your tattooed backside onto that plane and help us search for supplies.’
‘Christ...’ Teri mumbled. ‘Gimme cannibals any day!’
Elaine smirked. ‘The amount of ink in your skin, you'd be like chewing on a pen.’
One after the other, Eric boosted the women into the darkness then hauled himself up. In the gloom, Eric and Teri waited for Elaine to give them instructions. When she was through, the three of them peered hesitantly into the dim cabin.
‘Can I get my magazine, mom?’ Eric asked.
‘Another time, pumpkin. Right now we just need the essentials.’
‘But I hadn’t finished reading it,’ he muttered glumly and moved away into the darkness. ‘It has to be here somewhere.’
The magazine was long gone, thought Elaine. She had just avoided broaching the topic with her son.
The first layer of dust had now begun settling over the bodies, the smell of decay denser than before. Nothing else had changed and so they passed quickly through. Between the cockpit and business-class, Elaine remembered seeing supply cupboards. It was as good a place as any to start.
Eric still didn’t seem too perturbed by the devastation. He moved nonchalantly along the aisle as though the death and carnage all around was merely a performance. Until now, the only death he’d know was their pet cat, Whiskey, but that didn’t stop her wondering just how he’d cope when she suddenly wasn’t there one day.
No longer visible in the gloom, she assumed Teri had gone in the opposite direction. Or back outside.
Thankfully the area behind the cockpit was body-free, the small recess lined with steel lockers. Inside they found small tins of Pepsi, bottled water, bags of peanuts, sandwiches.
The cockpit door slightly ajar, a narrow bar of light sliced into the gloom. Gingerly she reached out and pushed the door inwards, the evening sun filling the recess with quiet light.
A crackle startled her, and she registered it for what it was: a hiss of radio static.
‘My God,’ she gasped, pushing her way into the tiny control room.
Before her, two uniformed males were sprawled, pushed up onto the instruments with the brute force of the impact. With the pips had come the responsibility of several hundred people, on top of the burden of having your skull pulverised in the event of an emergency landing. Once the plane was down, all pips became null and void, and both pilots had shared the same fate.
The third seat off to the right was
