The Autumn Aircraft: Avery's Recruits (5 page)

“Yeah, guy loves you like Asians love homework,” Danny said.  “Isn’t that right, Alan?”

Alan chuckled.  “Shut up Danny.”

6

             
“Should I be worried?”

              Alan raised his eyebrows.  They were inside a bowling alley just before 12am.  Alan had purchased couple of games, some food, and rented shoes for everyone.  Now they were seated in front of the monitor meant for keeping score.  Danny was dipping his fries steadily into a small container of ketchup and slipping them into his mouth, one by one.

              “About what?” Alan said.

              “The proof.”

              “Oh, that’s right, the proof.”  Alan, mockingly, slapped his forehead with an open palm.

              The lights flicked off then and the strobe lights came on.  They were now swallowed in a world of bright stars that glided from the slick bowling room floor to the walls and up to the ceiling.  Some people cheered and the sound of bowling balls being rolled down the lanes by the hands of eager and inebriated players filled the room.  A Kendrick Lamar song, three or so years old, played on the speaker system and as Alan listened a number of memories, all nostalgic, flashed in his head.  When he had first heard the song there wasn’t a concern about the end of the world, only a concern of going to his MMA classes, running, meditating, and practicing his katas.  That and making sure that he maintained his grades.

             
Please Don’t Kill My Vibe

              Please Don’t Kill My Vibe

             
Oh, how it took him back.

“Give me the proof Danny,” Alan said, putting his hand out.  Without even looking away from his fries, Danny handed him what looked like a sleek black smartphone.  “This probably isn’t the proof that you expected but you’re going to have to ask the question, who else could do it?”

              Bell raised her eyebrows. “Do what?” She was clearly uneasy, probably wondering if she had made a mistake, and considering the words she would use when she begged Arnold for a place back on the team.

              “Check this out,” Alan lifted up the smartphone, tapped the screen twice, making it ripple.

              Bell’s eyes widened.

              Alan held the water-like screen toward her face.  “Keep your eyes on the screen now,” he said easily.  “Think of it kind of like counting sheep because you’re going to start to feel calm.  A feeling of relaxation will overwhelm you.”

              Bell said nothing, her mouth opening slowly.  Somewhere that seemed far off she heard Danny say,

             
“Think of it like being high as fuck.”

7

             
It occurred with the swiftness of a blink.  That’s all it took for her to open her eyes and find herself in a world of blackness, in what seemed like being stuck in limbo.  There was, however, light in the center of the space, almost like a spotlight in a theater act.  But everyone in the bowling alley, including Alan and Danny were gone.  Nowhere to be seen.

              “Hello?”

              Her heartbeat sped up.  For the moment, there was nothing.  Suddenly, her stomach felt very heavy, so heavy in fact, she thought it might make her knees buckle.

             
Wasn’t I just looking at the strange rippling of a smartphone screen?

              “You’re good,” a voice said.  “Don’t worry.  And all of this will occur much quicker in the real world than it seems to here.  Now that’s nice to know, isn’t it?”

              Bell took a deep breath, recoiled a step.  She put one hand out defensively.  “Okay, where the hell am I?  Why don’t you come into the light please…sir…do that favor for me, would you?  This is freaking me out, something I’m sure you must understand.” 

And he stepped out, right into the center of the room, wearing all black.  He was a dark-skinned black man, probably sixteen or seventeen.  He had his hair cut into a fade.  The start of a mustache was visible on his face.  His eyes were, dark, deep. 

This guy looks like he’s been through a lot,
Bell thought. 

And it wasn’t just because his eyes seemed dark.  They seemed…well, very tired.  It didn’t take long for Bell to realize that the man before her was Avery Johnston.  Suddenly breathing was difficult.  It felt as if her chest had tightened, as if a giant, metallic hand closed over her lungs.

“What the hell’s going on,” she said, getting down on a knee.  “Let me…let me out of here.”

“Overwhelming, isn’t it?” Avery said.  “Yeah…I know it is.  Just know that it’s okay Bell, I’m not here to hurt you.  I’m here to help you, here to show you that this is real.  The sole purpose of this is to make you a believer.”

“Are you really here though” she asked, looking up at him as he slowly approached.  A tear fell from her eye.  “Am I…is this uh…am I in a…a
dream
?”

Avery shook his head and when he came within a foot of her took a knee so they were level.  For a moment he only watched her, almost as if he was trying to get a read.

“I don’t understand what’s going on,” Bell said.

              Avery nodded.  “You will.  Trust me you will.”

              “Are you…are you
God? 
Or maybe
a
god.”

              Avery gave a small smile.  He shook his head.  “Not even close.”

              “What is all this then?  I don’t understand.  I was just with Alan and his friend Danny in a bowling alley and I blinked and suddenly I’m here.  This doesn’t make sense.  None of this makes any sense to me.  I mean…do you know what it’s like when your brain is trying to process too much at once?  That’s what this is to me.  Where is everything?  Where am I?  I feel like a blood vessel is going to rupture in my head or something.”

              “In the bowling alley.  You haven’t left, Bell.”

              “How do you know?”

              Avery only smiled at that.

              “Is this…is this supposed to be your proof?”

              Avery straightened up.  “It’s the best I can do for now.  There is no ship to show you Bell.  But I can show you a display.”

              He straightened up and snapped his fingers and the sound reverberated through the space as if they were in a large, quiet building.  A three-dimensional outline of what must’ve been the aircraft appeared.  The outline was probably the size of your basic automobile, round and thin.  The display floated in midair, spinning slowly just above Bell.  From where she knelt, she could see within the outline and what looked like the blueprint of the rooms, the front and rear section of the aircraft.  She could tell by the sheer detail and the fact that she had been told that Avery intended to save one million that the ship must’ve been far,
far
bigger.  There were thousands of lines, countless angles.

              “How are you doing this?” she asked, finally getting to her feet.  When she did, her top half was suddenly inside of the aircraft display.  The blueprint of the walls, the corridors, and the ceiling rotated slowly around her.

              “Don’t really have time to explain it.  I just want to give you a preview of what the aircraft is going to look like when it is done.  I know there’s no definition, no exterior and exterior color.  But this is its essence.  This is
the Autumn Aircraft.
”

              “You said the
Autumn Aircraft.
”

              “This is what you’ll be a part of.  It’ll be your job to protect the aircraft, get recruits, and serve as a soldier for the cause.  The cause of
this
aircraft.  What this display will be used to create.  Because when everything comes down on us, it’s going to come down hard.  We have access to a technology that wouldn’t be seen on Earth—if Earth survived—for countless years.  In fact, the technology we have access to is not even something that we fully understand.  Not something that
I
fully understand.”

              “And you want to take us to the nearest habitable planet?”

              “Yes.”

              “How far is that planet?”

              “Two hundred and thirty two light years away.  Out of planets in the habitable zone, it is the nearest guarantee.”

              “And where did you get this information?” Bell asked, and stepped out of the diagram of the aircraft.  “NASA?”

              Avery smiled and shook his head.  “No, not NASA.”

              “And let’s say I go along and I help to get a bunch of people to go along with this lifesaving aircraft, what are we going to do when the U.S. government, the Chinese government, and the Russian government decides that they want to take the ship for themselves?  What are we going to do about nuts who think this technology is evil and want to sabotage it?  Is your technology going to be enough to deal with all of them?  What about spies, assassins, bombs.  Corporations?  They will use TV, funnel in millions, hell,
billions
for nothing other than to slander you and turn you into the bad guy so the people turn against you.  That is, unless you give up everything and tell them all you know.  And Avery, how
do
you know all you know?”

              “Well, it…I will say, was all found out by accident,” Avery answered, his eyes fixed firmly on hers.  He looked intrigued by her line of questioning.  “If you had happened upon what I had, I would think you’d be doing the same thing.  And as far as all the government forces are concerned, I’m going to need enough people on my side, that’s for sure.  The technology we have, with the right amount of people, would make us untouchable.  Hell, it’d make us downright terrifying.  But that’s only with the right number.  Now the right number doesn’t mean most of the world, or even half of it.  I just need an army of my own—which I don’t have right now to defend the cause.  It’s simple technology that’s keeping me from being behind bars right now.”

              “Why did you go back to your school like you did?  You could’ve just kept away, kept quiet, and continued to make moves under the radar.”

              Avery smiled, snapped his fingers and made the diagram disappear.  Then two metal chairs appeared in the center of the open space, facing each other.  Avery put out his hand and invited Bell to take a seat in one and when she did, walked over and took a seat in the other.

              “The people who are going to help me need a face,” Avery said.  “Without a face, I couldn’t get enough people to put their lives on the line for the cause.  God is faceless, Bell, and look where He got them.  Not my personal belief, just what a vast number of people are thinking.  Without a face, they would think that all of this is a fiction because they’ll already be on edge because of how having faith in God supposedly let them down.  Everyone’s always looking for a reason not to believe something, no matter what they hear.  And some are always searching for a reason to do the opposite.  To believe.  The world’s different now and with the countdown clock clicking down the final days, transforming at a rate we’ve never seen before.  This demonstration I show you along with my face is the proof, the type of proof it’s going to take for enough people to join this cause.”

              “How many are a part of the cause now?”

              Avery smiled.  “Seven, and that’s only if you come along.  There will be more.  Next year, our numbers and set to swell significantly.”

              “And this count you have now.  This includes you?”

              “Yes, it does.”

              Bell took a deep breath, took a brief look around the room, her bottom lip sucked in.  Then she put her eyes back on Avery.

              “This ship, how big will it be?”

              “It might vary, but I would guess about two hundred thousand feet long and ten thousand feet tall upon completion.”

              Bell blinked.

              “Yeah, it’s like Texas’s little brother,” Avery said.

              “Are you kidding?”

              “Anything but.”

              “But how…how the hell are you going to have time to build it.  There’s no way you can get the manpower to build it, Avery.  No way.”

              Avery chortled, almost as if he’d expected her to already understand.  “Trust me, that’s not going to be a problem.  Building the aircraft, in fact, isn’t the issue.  The issue is protecting it.  You see, if I wanted to, I could avoid getting people to help protect it, build it, and try to get the passengers and go on faith that it will all be all right.  But when word leaks to the wrong person—which it would—they would come at me and the unprotected aircraft with a force I wouldn’t be prepared to handle.”

              “Even with the technology?”

              Avery gave a small smile.  “We need the soldiers.  And I need you.”

              Bell took a deep breath and looked momentarily down at the tips of her sneakers.  They were scuffed with the dirt and oil of countless days spent trekking through the woods to help build Arnold’s hopeless space vessel.  She looked up at Avery.