“Then you’ll have to find another way in,” Hernandez interrupted. His voice was gravelly, and Peta could tell it took way too much effort just to speak. He was trying to sit up and Devon quickly maneuvered himself so Hernandez could lean back against his legs. “You’ll be crossing into Guyana, and then Suriname. Even if they somehow have enough forces left to guard the border crossing, which I doubt, it shouldn’t be difficult to find another route, or else overpower whoever’s left.”
Eddy pulled the side door open then, and stuck his head in. “I’d suggest we leave. Now.”
Marty jumped up and leapt past Peta with his tongue lolling, and a wild look in his eyes. He slammed into Jason hard enough to knock him backwards, and then tried to climb onto his lap, obviously worked up. As Eddy followed the dog inside with his arms full of snacks and water, Peta got a view of the open tarmac behind him.
“Who’s that?” Devon called out, before Peta had a chance to react.
Three people were running across the wide span of cement, two of them in uniform. One of them was bringing their rifle around to point it at the helicopter.
“Time to go!” Eddy shouted as he dropped the food and hauled Hernandez roughly to his feet. “Word got around that there’s a ride out of here, and we’re suddenly very popular.”
Peta slammed the door shut, and then shook Tyler awake as Eddy and Jason helped Hernandez into the pilot seat. “I thought the base was still under military control?” she asked, not convinced by his explanation.
Eddy glanced back at her. The roar of the engines coming to life made the helicopter vibrate with energy, and he stuck his arms out to brace himself in the opening to the cockpit. “I think the corporal who came out to greet us last night was using that term very loosely. In fact, I’m pretty sure that’s him, his girlfriend, and probably his best bud coming to see us off.”
“Is there room?” Tyler asked groggily.
Peta balked at the suggestion, and was then quickly ashamed by her reaction. She could imagine how much unrest there was in a city as big as Panama. Military base or not, if it was overrun, nowhere would be safe from looters or riots.
“They’re sick,” Eddy said bluntly. “All of them. And from the calculations Hernandez has, we’ll be coasting into Barinos on fumes with the weight we’ve already got. It can’t be risked,” he added, matter-of-factly, before turning to face the cockpit.
“Um, guys!” Devon yelled, the noise of the aircraft increasing. “Might wanna get us off the ground. I think that guy is about to start shooting!”
Ping!
The statement was underscored by the rather subtle sound of a bullet ricocheting off the side of the helicopter, next to the door where Peta was kneeling. Falling away from the noise, she dropped to her stomach, below the level of the windows. Reaching out, she tugged at Tyler’s arm and pulled him down next to her. She’d managed to fulfill her promise to Bill so far, and she intended to keep the kid alive for as long as she could.
A second bullet rang off the metal as the helicopter lifted and rapidly ascended. It was closely followed by a third.
Peta prayed the guy was a bad shot, or at least didn’t know the best spot to hit them. She closed her eyes and waited for more. Or for the sound of a sputtering engine, or the same smell of smoke that filled the cabin the last time they crashed.
Her eyes snapped open.
As she expected, Tyler was curled up in a ball, hands pressed over his head and against his ears. After a few more minutes had passed without further incident, she closed the couple of feet between them and without thinking, wrapped her arms around him.
“We’re okay,” Peta whispered, pulling at him gently until he sat up. When he hesitantly lowered his arms, she took his head in her hands and forced him to look at her. “We’re okay.” When she was sure he was in control, and he offered her a small nod of confirmation, she let him go.
To her relief, he smiled sheepishly before shaking it off, and grabbing at one of the bottles of water that was rolling around on the floor. “Looks like Eddy scored us a vending machine,” he said, picking up a candy bar and bag of chips.
Devon caught the bag of chips Tyler threw at him, and then cautiously went to look out one of the windows. Peta joined him to stare out at the massive city falling away below them. Smoke rose from numerous locations, and the whole area was dark and unmoving as far as they could see, out to where it met the sea.
“Good riddance, Panama,” Tyler said, offering a half-hearted salute.
Peta continued to watch as the buildings were replaced with rising mountains and dense vegetation. She tried not to think of the hundreds of miles of dangerous, untamed terrain they still had to travel, let alone how they were going to do it. “Goodbye, civilization,” she whispered.
Chapter 5
TYLER
Somewhere over Colombia
Peta hadn’t said much for the past hour, not since they divvied up the snacks and reclaimed their spots on the floor of the helicopter. Tyler sat looking out a window, watching the endless mountains and increasingly dense jungle flow past beneath them. They weren’t flying that high. At least, not nearly as high as commercial planes. Jason said something the day before about how the helicopter’s upper “deck” was eighteen-thousand feet. And that they were flying quite a
