“No. We’re one shy,” Tom added. “I saw it. One is empty. He has it. With each being thirty minutes, he won’t have enough to hold him “
Delaney asked. “Can you do that Buddy breathing thing?”
Gary shook his head. “No. I mean we can, but it could be deadly if someone doesn’t know how.”
“We just need to get to the plane,” Gabe said. “If we get there, there’s oxygen in the cockpit.”
Ding.
The elevator opened and blasted the foul smell of rotting bodies.
Gabe held the door. “We don’t have a choice. We have to go down.”
They all stepped in and over the bodies, taking the elevator to the lobby.
Ding.
The doors were barely open and Owen flew out. The second he did so, he vomited violently.
He bent half over, trying desperately to control the upheaving.
It was uncontrollable. How he held it in for so long he didn’t know.
“We have to move.” Tom grabbed his arm. “Let’s go.”
With the force of his father’s pull, Owen stumbled over his own feet, nearly falling, before his foot splashed in the puddle of his own regurgitation.
He wiped his arm across his mouth, eyes watering and barely could think as they all ran out of the hotel.
The goal, he assumed was to get to the car. They had to go across the parking lot, to the alley and then another block.
Once they got to the car, then to the airport, it was only a matter of time until they were safe.
Gabe led the way, running fast. Faster than he realized the rest of them could keep up.
As they hit the end of the lot where it met the back alley, Gabe stopped running.
His arms went out and he looked up.
Owen felt it, the slight rumble of the ground, but it wasn’t that as much as the near violent uprising of birds. Like a freak migration they flew over them. The birds were daring, focused on making an escape.
That was all Owen needed to see.
It was happening.
He felt so vulnerable. His hands shook as he grabbed for the mask. He thought it would be easier, but it wasn’t. Everyone else seemed to get theirs on, but he fumbled with the strap. Suddenly he felt it, the air seemed like sludge and Owen began to panic.
He put the mask to his face and reached to turn on the oxygen when he felt the hand over his and the oxygen moved against his nose and mouth.
He gasped, breathing it in.
Gary fixed Owen’s mask, gave a thumbs up to him, and grabbed his shoulder with a grip of reassurance.
Owen’s heart raced out of control. Was it that close for him or was it his imagination?
Gary checked everyone’s SCBAs and when he was done, they walked at a quick pace, not run, to the car.
Eight minutes.
It took eight minutes to get from the car to the airport.
During that time, Tom remained calm, controlled his breathing, unlike Owen, who out of everyone, breathed faster, and that worried Tom. Especially, since his low air indicator came on.
Gabe tried to tell everyone not to worry. They only needed to fuel enough to get to Billings and once they got to the airport and on the plane, there was the pilot’s emergency oxygen.
The only one that seemed concerned they were down one canister was Tom.
He didn’t show it.
During that drive he let Gene know they survived the eruption and were on their way to the airport. That he would message again when in the air.
All that in between checking on Owen.
Gabe drove through the delivery gate at the airport and drove like a bat out of hell to Terminal C.
Tom recognized the apron, and the red and white plane, a little smaller than the one they flew for Flight 3430. It was two gates down from where they had their plane parked at C Twenty-Six, attached to the bridge.
That had to be the one Gabe was talking about taking.
Tom and Gabe had moved the bodies of the two ticket agents and three people seated at the gate.
He remembered thinking that the plane was probably getting ready to take off, and a few people, like him and his sons were eagerly early.
Either that or they ran out of money and had nothing else to do but sit at the airport and wait for their flight.
Gabe had mentioned he didn’t think many were on the plane, maybe a few flight attendants.
Gabe and Gary immediately sprang into action when they pulled close to the plane. Both jumped out of the car. Gary retrieved the fuel truck, while Gabe raced for the airstairs rolling them to the other side of the plane that was not attached to the jet bridge.
He signaled for them to wait while he climbed up.
Tom watched him pull out the lever on the door, turn it and push it. He secured the stairs and went inside.
Soon, Gary arrived with the truck, stepped out and run up the stairs.
Tom looked down at his watch. Six more minutes had passed since they arrived.
What were they supposed to do? Just wait there? Head up? It was hard to understand anyone, between the sound of his own breathing and the mask of the SCBA.
He wanted them to hurry, needed them to hurry.
Time was running out on Owen’s cannister and Tom needed Gary to change it. He wasn’t confident that any of them other than Gary knew how to change the air, especially with how nervous Owen was. When it came to his son’s life, Tom didn’t want to take a chance on anyone touching that cannister but Gary.
Delaney’s heart beat faster and her own breathing increased as it seemed like a lifetime for
