Demicore

Chapter 17

“Diving into the river after the special components to that car wasn’t fun either,” Katlin reminded her. “We had to wait for the dead of night and take lights with us on special cables so we could be pulled out – with the car parts – if necessary.” She laughed a little at the memory of it. The parts that were then top secret to them were now publically obsolete, but they were the first building blocks that the craft they were now in was built on. One look at Sonya and she could tell her sister was thinking the same thing. Sonya fingered the navigational systems of the second Supercraft prototype. They both wondered how Erik was fairing in the better craft.

“The storm has shifted, just a little,” Sonya told them, changing the subject again, “the flight on this craft is very limited, so we are going to have to go around instead of over.”

“Flight?” Elizabeth asked.

“Yes,” Sonya replied as though it were natural, “As a rule, things that can hover and dive can also fly – at least on some level. Small buildings are no issue for us right now as you may have noticed thus far on our trip even though we’ve tried to avoid most of them. But the cabin pressure just isn’t quite right yet for the heights necessary to travel above a storm on the Atlantic.”

“And you’re sure it will be ok if you need to dive into the ocean to avoid being tossed around in the storm?” Elizabeth asked.

“No, which is why we are going around it. We can sustain for a decent amount of time skimming just under the surface if it is relatively calm, but it would slow us down enough to negate the advantage. In a storm things are much rougher. We are not going to chance the beating the weather will give us. It just isn’t worth the gamble.” Sonya checked all of her gauges again. She was glad to have her mother back. Really she was. She was also just a little… frustrated with how much it was slowing them down. She had to answer a lot of questions that were just common sense and then there was lugging around another person with gear…

She had really wanted to tell Elizabeth to just wait for them at the lab or the house or anywhere as long as she had a beacon. But her father would have skinned her when they found him if she had… provided they found him intact… She always tried to be logical about things. Realistically, they had no idea what was going on with him so they had no clue what he was being driven to or by, let alone what state they would find him in if they could catch up with him.

Elizabeth felt like they were in some weird science fiction movie. The only thing that wasn’t a blur as they flew past at God-only-knew what speed (she wasn’t even sure Sonya did) were things far enough in the distance that they couldn’t be made out. She had no idea what the terrain was supposed to look like, so she had no idea if she was looking at rolling hills, mountains, plains with the curvature of the earth or something man made. Her seat was comfortable, though, the way it seemed to know and contour to her body and paired with the faint hum of what she assumed was an engine it lulled her into a dream-filled sleep.

She pictured the things she had heard them say in her sleep. Everything seemed to be in some sort of red haze. She had feelings she was sure belonged to someone else, but couldn’t identify whom. She dreamt of making love to Erik on a boat house and waking so afraid of being pregnant that she had started to throw things and ended up sinking to boat before he could tell her he had a vasectomy. But hadn’t that been a decision they had made together when she was sick with her second pregnancy?

She woke in horror when she was splattered with Joey’s blood when Erik started feeding him through the chipper.

“I told you we were too close to the edge of the storm!” Katlin’s voice range out as she yelled at Sonya and furiously tried to restore the shield around them.

“There is no way I could have predicted that tiny little fish was going to get blown into the sensor! Nor could I just know that the storm would be moving this fast in our direction. I am working my fastest to get us out of here, now if you will just connect those wires to the power supply and-“ Elizabeth stopped listening. She spurred into motion getting the gear covered so the rain and salt water didn’t ruin anything. She told herself that they knew what they were doing, so they would all be out of this in just a little while safe and whole and Erik was already on the other side of it in a craft that wasn’t leaking… There was a buzz and the ‘bubble’ came back on, protecting them from the rain and the waves.

The craft returned to the edge of the storm where the rain and the waves were smaller and continued to move in for all Elizabeth could tell was a straight line, though she new that was not likely the case. She was getting hungry and hoped that one of the packs at their feet contained some sort of food that didn’t involve catching anything out of the ocean. She wasn’t listening to the conversation going on in front of her. It didn’t matter. She felt hopeless… lost and waiting. Someone said something about the craft arriving at the African shoreline and not moving.

That could either be very good – meaning that he found what he was looking for and was waiting for them – or very bad – meaning he had crashed. She tried hard not to let her mind see him mangled on some rocks being eaten by birds and whatever else… There was endless ocean for she had no idea how long. It felt like forever passed in a few minutes. Then a line appeared on the horizon that made her heart leap. It was small but she knew that was just distance that was growing ever closer.

Deciding that she could forgive him of anything as long as she could have him back alive and whole, she began to become impatient and prayerful. On the outside, she was still and watchful. In her heart, she was begging God to bring the man who loved her enough to defy death back to her.

Elizabeth watched Sonya and Katlin checking dials and read outs. Something was scanning for life and coming back negative. “The craft has been still too long, I’m sure he set out on foot,” Katlin tried to reassure her mom.

“Odd place to stop if you ask me,” Sonya commented to her sister, “Cameroon is a small country that is mostly jungle so thick you can barely breathe. It’s no wonder the craft is still if the tracking system is correct. The only way to travel through that place is on foot or in the mini craft – which, by the way, won’t make this journey.”

As they glided up the rocks at the shoreline, they took note of the thick jungle. Apparently the tracking system was right. To Elizabeth, it looked like a scene from Tarzan.

“I’m doubting he took anything with him that is going to allow us to track him, so now what do we do?” Elizabeth asked.

Katlin was back in the craft using the communication system to contact the government and request permission to be there, quoting they were doing some research and promising they would not disturb or pollute their surroundings or infringe upon the people. When she emerged smiling, they knew she had been successful.

“I can track him at least five meters into the jungle and I am fairly certain he left a decent trail beyond that,” Sonya reported. They began to pull out the packs and gear up for the hike. Elizabeth took a moment to be proud of these girls and of Erik. They were rich beyond her ability to grasp and yet they were not afraid to go wandering into the jungle on their own to search for him. She was afraid. She was somewhat pampered and knew it. She didn’t know if she could manage to track a man through the jungle without… well… But if he can live for a hundred and fifty years and bring my mangled body through a portal, I can traipse through a jungle for him… God help me!