‘Mom,’ Eric asked. ‘What’s that noise?’
‘Just stay there, pumpkin. Mom needs to check something.’
Probing the cockpit, she scanned the equipment for the radio receiver. She prayed for it to speak again. Then it did, the quietly distorted voice filling the cockpit – directly beneath the co-pilot.
‘Bugger,’ Elaine muttered to no one. She rubbed her eyes.
Was it cruel to involve her son in the hideous task of moving the co-pilot’s body? Did it make her a bad mother, or was she just doing what was necessary? The fact remained, she couldn’t lift the man alone, and Eric could.
Upon request, he casually hauled the co-pilot from the panel and gently placed him back in his seat, the whistling crackle amplifying. Leaning over the panel, she fiddled with the controls and blurted desperately into the receiver. ‘Hello…is anybody there?’ Nothing responded. She tried again but only white noise sang back at her.
Teri appeared in the doorway. ‘I found a first aid box and a tool kit. Threw them out on to the sand. Stewardess was clinging onto the medical kit like her life depended on it. Whatever the bitch's life depended on, it wasn’t that.’
Elaine explained to her about the radio. ‘I just don’t know how to use the damn thing.’
‘Can I get my magazine now, mom,’ Eric persisted.
‘Pumpkin,’ Elaine said firmly, ‘another time, okay!’
‘But I hadn’t finished reading it.’
‘I know that, kiddo, but we don’t have time right now.’
‘But mom, I was reading about the new –’
‘Forget the fucking magazine, retard!’ Teri snapped.
Eric reeled like he’d been slapped. His eyes widened into large confused discs.
Elaine stood rigid. ‘What did you say?’
Teri didn’t hesitate. ‘I told this big goofball to forget the goddamn magazine!’ And then to Eric, ‘Don’t you get it, dumb ass, we were in a plane crash, your magazine is gone. It’s smoke, dust, fucking ash!’
Elaine took a step forwards. ‘How dare you –’
‘Save it, Grandma, you don’t frighten me! I’ve seen autopsies with more life in them than you!’
‘It’s okay, pumpkin,’ Elaine assured her son. ‘We’ll find your magazine.’
Teri scoffed. ‘Whatever.’
‘Just get out of here!’ Elaine yelled. ‘You’ve done enough damage, you snotty little brat. You think you know hardships? You couldn’t walk a day in my son’s shoes!’
‘They wouldn’t fit me,’ Teri smirked and turned on her heel, leaving a wake of devastation in Eric’s head.
The big man was frantic, disorientated. He was focused on his hands, his twiddling thumbs. Nervously stepping from foot to foot, he didn’t know how to stand.
Rallying to her son, Elaine began to soothe him with practiced words and platitudes. It would take at least an hour to bring him back, she knew this from experience. It broke her heart to see him this way. Eventually he would push the attack from the forefront of his mind and into a box in a shadowy corner like he’d learned, but the process of getting him there was a hardship nobody needed right now, least of all Eric.
The crackle of static continued to interrupt the silence.
Elaine's eyes rolled gently closed. They hadn’t come here for this.
19
The final whispers of light had retreated over the horizon by the time James and the others staggered back into the camp. The moon seemed too close, illuminating the white sand in long glowing strips. Waiting patiently, Abbey prayed they’d be returning with good news.
And they were, for sprawled out on the sheet of steel was the still form of a man, his chest rising and falling gently beneath his shirt. She couldn’t help noticing James, toned and golden, wearing only shorts and boots, the remnants of his shirt wrapped around the unconscious man’s leg. She shifted her gaze away when he caught her looking.
‘My god, you weren’t joking,’ she gasped.
‘Did you ever doubt me?’ Oli wheezed.
‘This way,’ Abbey directed. ‘We’ll put him in one of the tents.’
Without a word, Anthony abandoned his post and walked down to the shore. Watching Anthony leave, Oli looked to James in confusion.
‘Just let him go,’ James muttered.
‘What! How is that fair?’
‘Oli,’ he said firmly, ‘let him go.’
‘Fucking slacker,’ Sebastian grumbled, earning raised eyebrows from James. ‘I’m just saying out loud what everybody’s thinking, chief. Don’t see why we should break our balls when your man gets to shirk off. He's bloody weird anyway.’
‘I second that,’ Oli agreed.
‘You saw how he was with the bodies,’ Sebastian said. ‘You telling me that was normal?’
James shrugged. ‘One problem at a time, huh?'
They raised the pilot once again, Abbey taking the absent corner. It took only a couple of minutes to get him settled into one of the tents and feed him some water. Sebastian too decided he was shattered. He told the others he was going for a walk along the beach to clear his head, and when he came back he insisted he was going to sleep like one of the deceased.
‘Where’s Elaine and the others,’ James asked.
As if on cue Teri came sauntering along the sand alone, the lit tip of her cigarette dangling from between her lips. She was carrying something.
‘Speak of the devil.’
‘Yeah, literally,’ Oli murmured.
As Teri neared, she dropped her goods onto the sand. ‘Happy? First aid box and a tool kit.'
‘Where are the others?’
‘God knows. The retard had some kind of breakdown, so I left them to it.’
Oli bent down and scooped up the first aid box. ‘If I didn’t know better, I’d think you were talking about Eric.’
‘Smarter than he looks, this one.’
‘So how about calling him Eric?’ James suggested.
‘Whatever,’ Teri scoffed and walked away, planting herself down in her usual spot by the trees. She lit another cigarette.
All eyes turned to the pilot’s tent as
