Between the two of us, I managed to get dressed. Casey was babying me as much as my family, even though he was still recovering too. I went along with it, knowing it was only a matter of time before I lost part of them forever… no, until my time came.
CHAPTER
39
I gave them an hour more, then slipped into the room, she was asleep. Lutz lay next to her, his arm draped over her. She slept with her hand clutching one of his t-shirts.
Lutz didn’t look at me. “She’s dreaming of…”
“You don’t have to share.” I whispered. “Hope she had some closure.”
“We both did, but it’s time for me to go.” He embraced her one more time, kissing her cheek, then slipped away. “I’ll join you later.” He disappeared, clearly not wanting to say the final words to her. Or hear them. Probably for the best.
I went to Sabina and watched her sleep for a few more minutes. When her eye movement changed, I put my hand on her shoulder. She murmured, then blinked. “He’s gone.”
“Yes, until the ceremony to release his Spirit. You don’t have to go if it’s too much.”
She sighed, pulling the t-shirt to her face. “I should, but I really don’t feel the need now. Can I go back to sleep?”
“Of course. Stay. Dream a little more.” I left her as she held Lutz’ t-shirt to her face. She was instantly back to her dreams.
In the living room everyone waited. Quietly. Next to the door were my parents’ suitcases. Joey had joined us. I went to the patio where he was talking on the phone. “Yeah, we’ll be there on time. Just have the clearances.” He hung up. “You should be with mom and dad.”
“And not get a few minutes with you?”
He tucked his phone into his pocket. “I never was good at saying goodbye. Ask my ex-girlfriends.” He tried to make it sound funny, but neither of us laughed. “Just finalizing the plan. Not an easy task in this day and age, making us all disappear.”
“Monumental, to say the least. Not at all thrilled that I have to be the one to do it.”
He leaned against the patio railing. “Most of the elderly are opting to pass with their current tribes. What happens on the Res…”
“Stays on the Res. Yeah, but a thousand or so people all dropping dead at the same time will be noticed.”
“It’s all in the staging.” He looked away when I winced. “A hundred years ago, no one would notice. But as things got so regulated, we knew we had to have a plan. The last fifty years we’ve been putting people in the right places. With your recovery and hearing taking this long, we had extra time to finalize the arrangements.”
“Glad my inconvenience worked out for you.”
Joey laughed. “You’re definitely healing, Sis. Chucky was afraid the Ci’in sucked all the spunk out of you.”
I shrugged. “Then he should have been at the hearing.”
“Yeah, heard you were tearing them up with the witty come-backs. Lutz said he never laughed harder.”
“Tell me about it.” I joined him against the railing, leaning on my good hip. My chest felt tight. “This is way harder than I thought it would be. I’m sure it’s hard for everyone else too.”
“It is, but deep down it’s what we all want. Even you.”
“Yeah, but doesn’t make tonight any easier.” I leaned my head onto his shoulder. “I’m going to miss you.”
Joey wrapped his arm around my shoulder. “Ditto, Sis.”
We stood outside for a little while, before Daniel opened the door. “It’s time.”
Inside everyone was waiting for us. I turned to look up at the evening sky. It was clear of clouds. The stars would be bright tonight. “Okay. Let’s go.”
Chucky carried me down the stairs and into the truck, sitting me in the back between my parents. Casey drove and Joey was in the passenger seat. Daniel, Frankie and Chucky followed as we drove across the city to the Yuma airport.
“Everything is ready?”
Casey rolled his window down, showing an ID and getting waved through. Joey gave the guard a nod before we drove on. “It’s all arranged. We’ve got people all over the Nation in place to process us through the airports.”
Casey turned to drive between two large hangers.
“We’ve arranged a flight to take us to a Pow-Wow outside of Miami, a leased Boeing Super 7. Unbounds have been converging at collection points for the last two weeks.”
“A Super 7?” We emerged from between the buildings and I saw the massive airplane ahead of us. “That’s huge. What’s the capacity, 5-600?”
“Big enough to resolve at least half our problem of disappearing.” Joey’s face tightened up as we followed the guide lane onto the tarmac.
It took a moment, then my stomach took a turn. “You’re going to crash it with everyone aboard? You can’t do that. You can’t kill yourselves. The pilots. The crew.”
“Hush, Din’ah!” My mother took my hand, squeezing it hard. “You know that’s not how it works.” Using my real name made me focus on who we were under the flesh.
“A Super 7 holds 800 at max capacity. We’re about half-full now. Then we head to Chicago, then down to Ft. Lauderdale. That’s the flight plan.” Joey turned around. “I’ll text you when we’re over open water.”
“The pilots and crew?”
“Unbound Ci’inkwia. Legitimate Boeing flight crew.” My father answered. “Every generation prepared for this, we just never shared it with everyone. Need to know.”
“And it will be painless.” A comforting pat of my mother’s hand accompanied her reassurance.
“Remote autopilot will carry the plane past Florida, down into the Puerto Rico Trench.”
“The military will scramble jets as soon as the plane goes off course and gets no response from the pilots.” I knew how that worked. Everyone did. The war on terrorism was unending.
“They’ll see it’s heading away from populated areas and will fly in for a visual. If they get one they’ll see the pilots are down and assume something went wrong with
