Chapter 13
Hattie
“Is that… a parachute?” Hattie whimpered.
The plane was going down. It was going down! And quickly! The world was spinning outside the windows. There was smoke! That bang.
They were going to crash!
Oh, god, they were going to die!
And then Rodger was there, stepping from the cockpit, parachute on his back. And for a second, she felt a flash of relief.
Did they have parachutes? Were they going to be okay?
Then, Rodger lifted a gun and pointed it at Tuvo.
“Tell him not to move,” he snarled, walking to the side. Towards the door of the plane.
“What are you doing?” Hattie asked, breathless and teary eyed. Tuvo hadn’t needed her to translate the warning. He understood enough without words. He snarled, hands clenched tight into fists, moving to keep his body in front of Hattie.
“I’m protecting humanity,” Rodger said, head up and proud. Like he was doing something noble and self-sacrificial.
“Protecting us from what?” Hattie gasped, confused and terrified.
“Creatures like him,” he narrowed his eyes on Tuvo. “Humans don’t need to simper up to aliens. We’re fine on our own. No one asked for their protection. Their patronizing treaty. They’re here to steal our women and nothing else!”
“What are you talking about!?”
“Shut up!” He pointed the weapon at her, earning a growl from Tuvo as he covered her completely. “A monster fucker like you doesn’t get to speak. You’re as much of an animal as them! You can die alongside him!”
She still didn’t understand. This hatred, this burning loathing, was so strange to her. She couldn’t imagine his way of thinking to even try to relate.
But she didn’t get a chance to try.
Rodger, face pinched in determination, grabbed the emergency release lever of the door.
“No!” Hattie screamed.
He pushed down the lever.
Keith jumped from where he had been crouching, forgotten.
The door was sucked out into the sky along with the air in the plane.
Hattie screamed as Keith yanked back on the parachute harness, his other hand grabbing onto the edge of the open cockpit.
Rodger’s gun was sucked from his hand. His feet yanked out from under him. His head cracked against the wall and his body went limp.
The pressure equalized and his body dropped. Keith stared at him, eyes wide, as though shocked by his own actions.
Tuvo took off, running to the front of the plane. He threw himself into the cockpit as Hattie, shaking, stepped forward.
“Is he… dead?” She whimpered, hoping she wasn’t staring at a corpse. She wasn’t strong enough to know she had just watched someone die. The roar of the wind was too loud though, and she had to shout the question again.
“I don’t think so,” Keith yelled back. He blinked then seemed to reach some kind of decision. He dropped down beside Rodger and began yanking at his harness.
Tuvo ran from the cockpit, walking right past him to Hattie.
“What is it?” She asked, reaching for him. Needing to touch him. Tuvo was here. It was going to be okay because Tuvo was here. Even if they were still dropping in a spiral. Even if she was still terrified and crying.
“I don’t know how to operate this vehicle,” Tuvo growled, frustrated. “It’s not Standard. And I think he disabled it anyway. We need a plan.”
“He had a parachute. Maybe…”
She looked past him to Keith, who was yanking the harness onto his own body with a grim, determined look on his face.
And her first thought was that he was sweet, but Tuvo should really be doing that.
Tuvo would be strong enough to hold her and Keith as they fell.
He could get all three of them safely to the ground so long as the parachute held.
It wasn’t exactly the right time to worry about weight limits; they would just have to risk it.
But then Keith stood and gave them a look that was part determination, part regret.
“Keith?” She said softly. Almost definitely too soft for him to hear over the rushing of wind in the cabin. “What…”
“I’m sorry!” He yelled through clenched teeth. “I’m not ready to die! And I’m not giving my life up for either of you. It’s every man for himself!”
“Keith, wait!”
Too late.
He took a running jump, like it was a video game, and launched himself out of the plane. Taking the only parachute with him.
Hattie stared at the open door in disbelief. Stunned into silence.
“Come on!” Tuvo grabbed her by the wrist and pulled.
She shook her head but didn’t resist as he took her to the door.
She whimpered to see how close the ground had come. They were nearly right on top of it. A direct fall from this height would kill them. The crash would kill them too. They really were going to die.
“Tuvo,” she looked at him, tears pouring down her face. “I have to tell you-”
“Tell me later,” he ordered, crouching. “Get on my back.”
“But…” She protested, even as she moved to obey. She climbed onto him, putting her arms around his neck, her thighs on his hips.
He stood, jerking her legs up and around so they twisted around him more koala style.
He was too broad for her ankles to lock together, but he pulled them tight.
He then grabbed her arms and did the same, making her fear she was going to choke him, even knowing that choking a domini was nearly impossible.
They were made to carry people, their young specifically, on their back.
But Hattie was hardly the weight of a child. And they were still free falling.
“Whatever you do,” he yelled, standing in the doorway of the plane. Air rushed past them, beating at her until she hid her face in his neck. “Do not let go!”
“Tuvo, please…” She had to tell him. She just couldn’t die with that lie to herself in her heart.
“Hold on, Hattie!”
He jumped.
She screamed.
They fell.
Air rushed past. Her grip tightened reflexively as she cracked her eyes open. And wished she hadn’t.
The Earth was rushing up to greet them. The waving tops of massive trees rustling as though to welcome her home. To her ultimate home.
Tuvo tilted his body. Falling headfirst, almost perpendicular to the ground. Both hands reached out and she saw, for the first time, the flash of his black claws.
And they were huge!
Not just wide but long. Gleaming and deadly in the sunlight.
He wasn’t going to…
Was he…
Hattie’s grip tightened further until the muscles in all four limbs shook. Her eyes closed and she, again, buried her face against his neck.
“I love you,” she whispered, knowing he couldn’t hear it over the rushing wind, but needing to get the words out before she died.
They hit the canopy with an explosion of leaves. Branches and twigs struck her arms and legs like the sting of a whip – white hot agony that only made her grip tighter.
Tuvo grunted as they hit something. She felt the blow of it ripple through his body, but it was gone in an instant. Then again. This time, his grunt was accompanied by the cracking, shredding of wood as their momentum suddenly slowed.
Hattie opened her eyes again. She didn’t know why she tortured herself.
They were under the canopy now, and the sight of the ground rushing up to them was no better than the waving leaves. They were so high up. The tree was so huge.
But they were slowing down.
Tuvo’s claws had stabbed into the tree. He did it again, cutting into the bark of the forest giant, sending out a shower of splinters, as their bodies jerked down. He let go quickly, but almost immediately used his other hand to grab the tree again. Then, both hands.
He was shredding the tree, but they weren’t free falling. They didn’t come to a halt, but their descent was slow enough that, when he finally let go, he landed in an easy crouch with another grunt, his claws sinking into the damp forest soil this time.
Immediately, he jumped forward, avoiding the shower of branches and twigs and leaves that came crashing down after them.
Still in a crouch, breathing hard, Tuvo looked back allowing Hattie to tilt her head and look straight up. There was actually a hole in the canopy above them. Proof that they really had come down from the sky.
Neither of them moved, just stared upwards. Was he as shocked as she was? What was-
BOOM!
Hattie jumped, crying out in fear, at the huge blast that rocked the forest. For an insane minute, she wondered if they were blowing up or something.
But then she remembered they weren’t the only things falling from the sky.
That had been the plane. Crashing to the ground. She couldn’t see where it landed through the canopy, but she felt it shake the ground. All the bird calls and animal sounds suddenly went silent as the beasts were scared into stillness.
That could have been them. That was them.
A sob broke her lips as she began shaking violently.
Because she had just dropped out of the sky. How had she survived leaping from a crashing plane? No, that hadn’t just happened. That hadn’t happened-
“Hattie!”
She was crying in earnest now. Tuvo had to pry her arms from around his neck, her legs off his waist. She didn’t want to let go. He was safety. He was protection. She had nearly died. She had just fallen from the sky!
“Hattie, breathe!”
Tuvo had finally got her off him, back on her own two feet. But he had taken hold of her shoulders and was bending low to look her in the eyes. She clutched his wrists, desperate to hold onto him because if she let him go, it was certain death.
“You’re okay, Hattie. You’re okay,” Tuvo whispered, gently brushing her hair from her face. She had the completely insane thought that her hair must look crazy after falling like that.
That thought made a single laugh burst past her lips. Quickly followed by another. Then another until she was hysterical, tears falling down her face.
Insane. She had lost her mind. She had died. She had to have died. This wasn’t real-
Tuvo grabbed her, slamming his lips over hers.
She gasped, shocked into silence at the heavy warmth of his kiss.
He was kissing her.
Tuvo was kissing her.