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The airplane hummed around the passengers, vibrating the seats and luggage in the overhead compartments. They had yet to leave their position on the tarmac.
“See,” Alec leaned over to Gretchen. “I had plenty of time to get on the plane.” He huffed in exhaustion, still getting settled into his new spot next to her. “And why did I need a drink?” He poured the amber liquid from the miniature bottle into the glass the flight attendant handed him. The round globe of ice bobbed as the whiskey embraced it. He eyed it with disgust, knowing his head would throb once they landed in Vegas. The moment of self-loathing drifted away as he took the first sip.
Silence lingered. Gretchen had just relayed her conversation with the Director to Alec. It turned out, he had a similar meeting with their boss. He didn’t flinch at the mention of someone inside potentially being the culprit behind her experiment’s destruction and the fire. Their boss said the same to him. In their conversation, the Director had also suggested Gretchen had something to do with the fire. He even asked Alec to question her about it on the flight. Alec kept that part of his meeting from Gretchen, knowing it wouldn’t help their situation now.
Alec thought back to the moment the leadership forced him to leave the facility. The enclosure he created housed an entire population through renewable resources. After the fire, nearly all unessential employees were pushed out for safety reasons. The civilians who called the place their home could stay, which included all the test subjects from the trials. Gretchen and Alec were fast-tracked to the nearest city to stay in a hotel until given further orders. Since then, Alec hadn’t seen her.
“Take another sip,” Gretchen finally whispered to Alec, breaking him from his memories. “You’ll need it. I have something to tell you.” She paused as she took a sip of her soda. “Well, to show you, I guess. I wish this plane would just get in the air already.”
“This delay won’t last long.” Alec’s stomach clenched as the brown liquid coated his stomach.
“I’ve told you about Caroline, right?” Gretchen breached the subject.
Alec held his breath as the whiskey stung his insides. “Yeah, your first project partner,” Alec shrugged. “What of her?”
“Someone updated one of our files this morning. It was regarding the machine. I think they added to the document to warn me...” she trailed off as the plane rolled forward. She passed him her phone.
Alec took the device from her and pressed his thumb to the screen, brightening it. He scrolled for a moment to see the length of the file; it was pages long. He glanced at her and she rolled her eyes, letting out a deep sigh. He smirked and scrolled back up to the top.
The file was from twenty years prior. He scanned the title, “Blood Trials 1: The Effects of EMP.”
The first trial.
He scanned the file, looking for words that stood out. Then, without warning, a paragraph shone through. The font was slightly off, though it wouldn’t be noticed by most. He had an eye for things like this. Gretchen shifted in her seat, seeing he’d spotted the information correctly.
Alec tried to make sense of the words. He understood the science behind them, but it was out of context and the details included his project, his electric dome. There was a date and time: today, mere hours from now. The file was twenty years old. Someone obviously tampered with it in order to send this message to Gretchen.
“Wait, what does this mean? Who sent this to you?”
“The machine is going to be tested,” she ignored his second question.
“They wouldn’t move forward without us. They need me in the room to pull up the protection protocols.” Alec’s mind swam with the idea, with the mayhem he would have to endure if they did not reach Las Vegas before the trial launched.
“Are you kidding?” Gretchen turned to face Alec. “They don’t need you. Yes, you developed the force field technology, but you had an entire team of people helping. They all know how to run the program.” She flipped her hair behind her shoulder. “I’m more worried about civilians getting caught in the crossfire. The Director knew I was close to blocking the pulse through our blood.”
Alec could barely make out the last words, her voice growing quiet, contemplative. “Where are they pinpointing the pulse to land?” Alec asked, glancing back at the phone.
“It doesn’t say.”
Minutes ticked by. Alec continued to look at the files, his mind busy, no longer reading, but calculating. He glanced at his watch with irritation and worry. The plane moved further from the gate and made its way to the line of aircraft waiting to depart. Alec tried to do math in his head, contemplating their location and the time it would take to arrive in Las Vegas.
“Gretch,” Alec leaned toward her. “If this timeline is right, we won’t make it to Vegas before they begin.”
“It’ll launch in about two hours,” Gretchen sighed deeply. “That’s why Vic wanted me to stay behind.”
“Vic? When did you talk to Vic?” Alec recalled the mousey Elder who helped lead the facility, always giving off an odd vibe. Despite this, Alec still trusted him without question or thought. He pulled Gretchen’s shoulder, urging her to look at him. She refused. “Tell me when you spoke with Vic.”
“We’re going to make it. If the plane takes off in the next ten minutes, we’ll be at the airport when the machine launches. We can contact the office for a pickup, but I think it’d be better to get a hold of someone personal. The Director wanted us in the air during this experiment. This delay isn’t by chance.” Her words were mumbles, thoughts being spoken aloud. Clearly she was ignoring Alec.
She pulled her phone from Alec’s hand. He watched her fingers dance across the screen, navigating through emails and text messages faster than he could comprehend.
“We need to get off the plane,” Alec whispered.
Gretchen’s hands paused. She shot her gaze to his. “No way,” she shook her head. “The test is launching from Vegas. If you want to be a part of it, we need to get there asap.”
“What if we don’t make it?” Alec sat up in his seat and felt a bead of sweat trickle down his back. He pulled his phone from his jacket pocket and scrolled through his contacts. He shot off a text, praying his prediction was wrong. “If Vic said to stay, you should have stayed.”
“Stop. Vic was overreacting. We’ll get there with time to evaluate the aftershocks,” Gretchen hissed. “Or are you just so worried about your little bubble project?”
Alec could sense her tone, her jealousy. “Hey, don’t be like that. Just because my experiments succeeded when yours imploded doesn’t mean you can be a bitch about it.”
Gretchen’s face reddened, his words striking her with force.
“It didn’t implode. There has to be an explanation. My idea is more realistic to save human life. Your tool only saves the wealthy. I want to help everyone. You want to limit who gets protection.”
“The bubble, as you call it, won’t just protect the wealthy.” Alec’s thumb tapped on the armrest between them, unable to control itself. “I’ve just confirmed the wide expansion of its abilities. It can reach across the entire country now.”
“There’s no way.” Gretchen turned to him. “You only just succeeded in protecting the community.”
“And if it weren’t for your little fire forcing us to pause our experiment, we would’ve been able to complete the next trial run before this...”
“That’s why you want to get off the plane?”
“Partly. I wasn’t thinking about my protection, if that’s what you think.” He rolled his eyes, his jaw clenching with irritation. “Vic said to stay, that’s reason enough. It wouldn’t surprise me if they test the limits of the machine against the force field. But it’s finicky. I should be there to make sure all the numbers line up.”
The pair grew silent. The soft buzz of passenger conversations surrounded them. No words were distinguishable against the mob of noise. The lights dimmed in the cabin.
“What can we do now? They won’t let us jump from this thing on the runway.” Gretchen locked eyes with Alec. There was a pause, an air of confusion about what to do next.
“Excuse me,” a voice came over the plane’s sound system. “Pardon for the interruption. We are next to depart.” The pilot’s voice was strained and dragged through the recycled air of the cabin. A chorus of sighs and exhaustion echoed his words.
The distraction came at the right moment, killing the electric energy circling around the colleagues. They both leaned into their seats, still reeling with thought, but too spent to voice their opinions further. The plane began its turn to the runway and the lights in the cabin dimmed further.
The plane lurched forward, pinning them to their seats.
Alec pulled his phone from his pocket, feeling the vibration of a text. He unlocked the screen as he felt the plane lift from the ground.
The wheels of the plane rumbled into their compartments. The sound of the doors closing banged from beneath, giving finality to their situation.
The text on Alec’s screen drained the blood from his face.
Get off the plane!