“The sun’s been up for over two hours,” Jason said with obvious agitation. He glanced at the other sleeping forms of Devon and Tyler.
Eddy and Marty were gone when Peta woke up, and she assumed it was for a bathroom break. She stared at Jason for a moment, waiting for him to make eye-contact with her before saying what was on her mind. He was a large, rough-looking man with a couple-weeks growth of beard and hard, green eyes. His brown hair was unkempt, and she had a feeling that even before their apocalyptic circumstances, he wasn’t overly concerned with his appearance. Which she might have found attractive in another world, but at the moment it only added to her frustrations. It made it harder to read the guy, and she always relied heavily upon her initial intuition when meeting people. But Jason was guarded. His walls were so thick that it would take a bulldozer to get through, and whether it was because of his time as a Marine or he was just a dull shell, she couldn’t tell.
“What?” He was openly staring at her.
Peta blinked and had to force herself not to look away. How long had he caught her studying him? Shrugging it off, she frowned and concentrated instead on what she wanted to say. “Unless you’re also a pilot, we need him functional for as long as possible. Forcing him to stay awake until he literally collapses isn’t going to help.”
“That was his decision,” Jason countered, referring to the harrowing scene from late the night before, when Hernandez passed out briefly while they were still in the air. “I tried to get him to stop as soon the sun started to set. Flying VLOS… um, by visual line of sight is dangerous enough right now. We don’t need to take unnecessary risks.”
Peta considered his answer, and had to admit that she believed him. She had no reason not to. Some of the angst she’d been allowing to build up ebbed, and she leaned forward slightly. “You were also a medic with the Marines, right?”
He nodded, his eyes narrowing.
“What do you think our chances are of getting the same kind of greeting we’ve managed so far?” She was referring to the chain of military bases they’d stopped at for refueling and to sleep. Fortunately, the severely understaffed and collapsing bases hadn’t questioned the obvious military helicopter flown by a military pilot, with some sort of official-looking paperwork Garrett had given him.
Peta hadn’t dug into the details of the logistics too much early on, but since they were at the southern end of Panama and getting ready to cross over into South American territory, she was beginning to worry more about it.
During their brief conversation the previous night, before they all fell into various levels of fitful sleep, Hernandez commented that they were running out of bases. She wanted to know what that meant. They were presently sitting in a far corner of Howard Air Force Base, near Panama City. They still had over two-thousand miles to go before reaching Suriname, according to their maps, and the helicopter had to stop every five to six hundred for fuel. If there weren’t any more bases, she had no idea what they were going to do. They were already knowingly flying on borrowed time. The ash plume was continuing to spread, and would eventually force them to the ground.
Peta raised her eyebrows questioningly when Jason didn’t answer her question right away. Finally, she saw an expression flitter across his face that she recognized. Sitting back, she tipped her head accusingly at him. “What aren’t you telling me?”
A brief grin, and then the wall was back in place. “This is the last base.”
“What—”
Jason held a hand up to silence her. “Before you try to find someone to blame, I just found out last night. It was why Hernandez was hellbent on making it here. The maps and information Garrett had someone from avionics put together, mapped out a visual flight plan for him, but it pretty much ends here. Today will be our last push to make it over a substantial mountain range and to a city called Barinos, in Venezuela. We’ll be lucky if the ash doesn’t ground us first.”
“But he’s so sick,” Peta said quietly, the fight gone from her voice. She knew Jason was right, but she also knew Hernandez was dying.
“Yeah, he is,” Jason confirmed. “You’ve seen enough of The Kuru to know he’d already be dead by now if it wasn’t for the cocktail Garrett gave him. It isn’t just the ash and the fuel that we’re up against the clock with.”
Peta nodded in agreement. Knowing what was ahead of them, and what still had to be done before losing Hernandez as a pilot, changed her priorities. As much as she hated to acknowledge it, he was going to die whether he slept or not. By not facing it, their whole mission was being put further into jeopardy.
“What will we do once we’re in Barinos?” Devon was propped up on an elbow, watching them from the other side of the Helicopter. Tyler and Hernandez were asleep in between them.
Jason shrugged, glancing at Peta. “If The Kuru is as widespread in South America as it is in the States and Mexico, we shouldn’t have any trouble finding available ground transportation. Our main issue will be getting enough gas.”
“And the borders?” Devon pushed, sitting up. He rubbed at his face and then unsuccessfully tried to flatten his hair, which had taken on more of an afro appearance the past few days. “Because I’ve been to a couple of these countries over the years, and travel isn’t what you’d call easy or friendly.”
Peta winked at
