Tangents, vol 1 Read online

  “Maybe if we go to sleep, we will wake up at home?” Anna said quietly, unsure if she was actually articulating it or if the question appeared only in her head.

  “Maybe,” Rick replied. He really wished for that to happen, but was unable to imagine falling asleep; he was too tense. He was thinking of Mon and, suppose he actually was where he was, he was worried she would be upset he was not coming back home. “Being all alone here is what’s really freaking me out. As if we were colonizing a planet,” he said.

  “Okay, let’s go, shall we?” Dan finally said. “There’s really no pointin staying here. Like Rick said, we need to look around. Come on.”

  He helped Anna get up. Rick stood up as well and they beganwalking again.

  “Guys,” Anna said.

  “What is it?” Dan replied.

  “I think I can see my shadow.” Anna stopped and started waving her hand to show them the dark reflection on the road. “Look”.

  Rick looked at the sky. “The sun has moved.” He looked at their shadows. “Looks like we’re heading west.”

  “We need to pay attention to how fast it’s moving. I cannot even imagine being in the woods at night. Anna, what time is it?” Dan said. Anna looked at her watch, “It’s 1:00 a.m. Jesus, I got here almost exactly twelve hours ago.”

  “Let’s move,” Dan said. They all continued to walk. The sequoias were looking down at them ominously as if they were ants to be crushed. They seemed lugubrious.

  “So, what do you do, Dan?” Anna asked as they were walking.

  “Oh, I’ve got the best job in the world. I sell insurance policies.”

  “Do you?”

  “Yes, I sit by my desk every day from 9 to 5, I answer the phone, I click on the computer and I sign, probably, hundreds of papers on a daily basis. People come to my office, I sell them life insurance, traveling insurance, or they take out comprehensive coverage. Lots of fun,” he said quite sarcastically.

  “You have a steady job, not everyone can say the same,” Anna said.

  “Oh, it’s so steady I’m afraid I might die of excitement someday, seriously.”

  “Can you afford that?” Rick laughed.

  “Yes, I have a life policy, thanks for asking. What do you do, Anna?”

  “I was a college teacher.”

  “Oh, what did you teach?”

  “Creative writing, academic writing and American literature. I’m not sure if you know, Dan, but our friend here, Rick, actually Richard Lawrence, is one of the newest assets in contemporary American canonliterature.”

  “Really?”

  “Really. I’m sorry, Rick, I didn’t recognize your face at first. You, um, you look younger than on the cover of the book we read with the students,” she sighed.

  Rick stopped and turned around, surprised and a bit confused.“What?”

  “Oh yeah, what you didn’t know? Two-way Mirror is one of thenewest classics we’re reading with the students.”

  Rick was looking at her stunned. “Two-way Mirror?”

  “Oh shit, you haven’t written it yet, huh? Right, it came out in 2007,” she said embarrassed.

  “Ha, spoiler alert,” Dan said and laughed a bit nervously. Rick tittered and he had no idea what to say.

  “Sorry, Rick. Wow, this is really weird.”

  “No, it’s okay, thanks for, um, telling me, it’s, um, it’s nice to know, I guess.”

  “What is the book about?” Dan asked not sure at first if he should rather ask him or her. “It’s funny, a literature teacher can tell me, but not the author, the author doesn’t know yet. This is just sweet. Seriously, I’m a bigger fan of this place with every minute.”

  “Nah, I won’t say. He needs to write it, you know? I have no idea what inspired you, I won’t tell.”

  “No, please don’t. That would be just too weird.”

  “Sure.”

  They continued walking. “But it’s good? The Two-way Mirror?” Rick asked.

  Anna smiled. “It’s very good.”

  Rick sighed and said nothing.

  “So, I wonder what has brought an insurance agent, a college teacher and a writer to this God-forsaken place? Any ideas?” Dan asked.

  They had none.

  ***

  “Anna, can you hear that?” Rick stopped and asked. They had been alking for about an hour since their short break.

  “What?”

  “I think I can hear – water.”

  Anna’s eyes immediately got more attentive. They were all very quiet, trying to hear the sound.

  “Oh my God, yes! I can hear some kind of a stream!” She said.

  “Where is it coming from?” Dan asked.

  “From the woods,” Rick replied. “I think it’s there.” He pointed to the left side of the road.

  “Let’s go,” Anna said.

  “Rick, Anna! We must not lose our way back! We absolutely cannot be in the woods during the night!” Dan shouted.

  All three of them started going in the direction of the sound and after a few minutes, they found a small, swift stream. It was flowing from a gigantic rock, covered with moss, hidden among the trees. Anna ran toward it, kneeled and started drinking. At first she was catching water in her hands and drinking from them, but then she just bent, held her hair with one hand and started drinking directly from the source. Rick and Dan came and also kneeled to drink some. The water was cold, deliciously refreshing. Rick splashed it on his face and neck; it felt great to chill a bit.

  A few minutes later they were all sitting by the stream, looking round.

  “What time is it, Anna?”

  “It’s 2:30 a.m.”

  “The sun is visibly lower, and it appears to turning red. I think we really need to get back to the road. It will be good to find some place safe before the night comes.”

  “Why don’t we stay in the woods?” Anna asked. “We have water ere, maybe we can find some food, I mean, on the road there’s nothing but the road.”

  “Once the sun goes down, we won’t be able to see anything in the woods, it’s too dense. The ground is bumpy. On the road it will at least be a bit lighter, we’ll have a bigger chance to see where we’ll be going, the ground is smoother. I mean, I wouldn’t want to risk twisting an ankle walking in the woods,” Dan replied. “Also, who knows, there might be some animals in the woods, too big for us to handle.”

  “All right, let’s go,” Anna sighed, feeling she was rather out numbered than convinced.

  They went back to the road. Feeling less tired, at least a bit refreshed, they were able to walk a bit faster.

  “If there’s water near here, perhaps there really are some people living near as well? I mean there has to be someone,” Dan said.

  “Look!” Anna shouted and pointed ahead. Rick and Dan immediately looked in that direction. The forest was ending, there was another field ahead of them and there was something shining in the rays of the setting sun, something made of metal.

  “What is it?” Rick asked.

  “I have no idea, can’t see it properly, it’s too far.”

  “Can’t see any details, but I am sure it’s something made by humans,” Dan said.

  “Come on,” Rick said and they all moved.

  Chapter 5

  When they got out of the woods, they had about a mile to get to the object shining ahead of them. The sun was now quite low and it was becoming a gigantic red bowl hanging on an invisible thread right above the horizon. It was enormous. Anna thought that apparently everything was supposed to be big there, wherever that “there” was – trees, endless woods, never-ending fields, and now the sun. She realized she was glad there was nobody else but them, God only knew what the people or creatures living there would look like.

  The wind started blowing. It was quite warm, but Rick, Dan and Anna had a feeling it was getting more and more gusty with every minute, they all dressed up warmer. The night was approaching, it was obvious.

  When they were able to see the mysteri
ous item clearly, they discovered it was in fact an airplane wreck. They stopped for a moment and looked at it with awe.

  “Jesus Christ,” Rick whispered.

  “It’s not crashed, it’s just – old,” Dan said. The plane had no visible marks of any catastrophe on it. It was an old, moderately big, white, quite badly tattered plane fuselage with one wing. The other one was lying on the grass just under it. On one side it was fouled up by very tall grass and lianas. It was firmly standing on two gigantic wheels.

  They came closer to the plane. The outside layer was either rusted or dirty, it was impossible to tell which airline the machine was flying for.

  “I think we need to get on board,” Rick said looking up at the fuselage. “We need to hide for the night.”

  All three of them walked around the plane trying to figure out how to get inside. The door was closed, none of the windows were shattered, which was good, the plane looked like a safe shelter. There were, however, other things to worry about, namely, how to get to the door in the first place; they needed to climb their way up, which did not seem to be an easy thing to do.

  The fuselage was about thirteen feet high above them. Unfortunately, the wing that was still attached to the plane was on the side with no door. Dan walked around the plane and told Rick and Anna that, surprisingly, there was only one door on the plane, no emergency exits. This meant that reaching them - their only possibility to get inside – would be far more complicated than they had assumed. However, all of them agreed, they would need to get on board, and fast, as the evening was getting nearer with every minute; it looked like during the day, the sun would hardly move, but once some kind of a noon phase passed, the day was ending much faster than anyone would expect.

  They started discussing different options on how to get to the door. The back of the plane was a bit lower than the front, something they decided to use for their advantage.

  “Anyone has special agility superpowers? No?” Rick smiled and looked at Anna and Dan.

  “Suppose, I might try to climb the back of the plane using those lianas, I guess,” Dan said. “But even if I get to the door, I would have to open it from above, lying on the top of the fuselage. That would certainly limit my options. And I might fall.”

  “Not if you tie the lianas around your leg.” Anna said. “How about this, you climb the plane, and Rick and I will find something to help you open the door with.”

  “There’s an emergency handle that needs to be pushed down, I somehow need to reach it from the roof. Besides, even if it works, how will we get inside the plane?” Dan asked.

  “We might try to tie up our jackets and sweaters, and, Dan, once you’re on the top of the plane and open the door, you might try to pull us up, as if you were using a line.” Rick suggested.

  “Oh, come on man, I’m just an insurance agent, I suppose I can try to open the door, but, pulling people –“, Dan said through his teeth.

  “Or we might use the lianas, what do you think?” Anna said. “Dan, you get up there, try to open the door. Once you do that, and while you have your leg tied with it, you can help me get on the plane. Then we’ll think of how to get Rick inside.”

  “I’m not moving or doing anything unless we find something to open the damn door with. Everything you want me to do with climbing and tying and pulling makes no sense unless it leads to me opening the door. People, you have no idea how risky and dangerous this whole plan is. This is something I’d call “affordable premium.” Dan said.

  “Meaning what exactly?” Rick asked.

  “Meaning that if a client of mine was to do something like this, especially during some kind of a wind storm and at night, I wouldn’t even offer the person the insurance.”

  They started looking around the area searching for sticks, rocks, anything that might have helped. Anna was walking away from them, in the direction of the fields. It was already pretty dark, the sun was leaving red and purple gushes on the sky and the first stars were becoming visible.

  “Anna, don’t go so far away!” Dan shouted. He could hardly see her at that point.

  “I’m okay, I just –“, she wanted to shout back, but she felt her ankle twisting unnaturally as she stepped onto something. “Oh my God!” she screamed while falling on the ground.

  “I’ll help her,” Dan said and rushed toward Anna who was already up.

  “You’re okay!?”

  “Yes, something’s lying on the ground, I didn’t see it.”

  Dan looked down and at first he had problems seeing what it was.

  “What is it?!” Rick shouted from the distance.

  “I don’t know yet!” Dan shouted back and reached out to touch the object, which now looked like a quite thick, dark stick. He touched it and started lifting it up.

  “Oh my God,” Anna whispered. “It’s a ladder.”

  ***

  Rick could hardly see anything clearly, it was almost night outside. The wind was now quite intense, howling and picking up all sorts of twigs and small rocks from the ground, making looking ahead and seeing anything even more difficult. He saw Dan and Anna picking something up from the ground and was doing his best to see what it was. They were now walking slowly to him.

  “Rick, you won’t believe this.”

  “What?”

  “It’s a ladder!” Anna said.

  “A ladder?! What, in the fields?”

  They did not reply, only put the ladder in front of Rick. It was high enough to reach the plane’s doors.

  “Unbelievable,” Rick said quietly.

  “I’ll go first and open the damn door,” Dan said. “Make sure the ladder doesn’t fall.” They leaned it on the fuselage and both Rick and Anna were holding it tight while Dan was slowly, carefully walking up; the steps were creaking as the ladder was partially decayed. It did not seem safe, but they all knew it was their only chance to get inside the plane.

  Finally, Dan reached the door and pulled the handle. It opened. He looked down at Rick and Anna and waved to them. They were watching him and waved back.

  “Thank God, they’re not locked,” Rick said relieved.

  Dan opened the door wide and got inside. He turned around and yelled:

  “Come on, what are you waiting for?!”

  Rick and Anna couldn’t hear him well, the wind was now very strong.

  “Oh Jesus, Rick! Look!” Anna shouted and pointed at the forest. Rick looked into that direction and saw some kind of a cloud appearing, piling up above the forest. It was moving fast, becoming bigger with every second, sticking far above the gigantic sequoias.

  “What is that?!” He shouted.

  Anna looked at him not knowing what to say. She was terrified.

  “Come on! Move!” He said and pointed up. “Climb!” Anna started walking up the ladder, her heart was beating like crazy, she was trying to walk as fast as possible. Dan was at the door, reaching his hand to help her get in.

  “Anna, don’t walk that fast, the ladder is in a very bad condition, t’ll break!” Dan shouted. While in the middle of the ladder, she looked at the woods again and saw the cloud was now gliding toward them. The wind was very strong; it was bending smaller trees. Anna thought that the wheat fields had to look like a stormy sea, like waves moving from left to right, and that she’d like to see that, but it was too dark. She looked down and saw Rick looking at the cloud as well. He looked up at her and waved his hand hastening her, showing her to move up. Anna started climbing the ladder again and just as she was to grab Dan’s hand, the top three, most decayed steps, cracked, and she slipped down. She hissed with pain, feeling the skin on her calf getting painfully scratched.

  “Anna, get inside!” Rick shouted from the ground. She reached out to Dan and he pulled her in. They immediately looked down at Rick who was now climbing up the ladder. The wind was mercilessly shaking it making him pause after almost every step.

  “Come on, Rick, the ladder won’t hold up much longer!” Dan shouted.

  “Oh m
y God!” Anna looked up at the sky.

  “What the hell is going on?!” Dan said terrified. The black cloud was now very close. It covered everything within their sight, it was so dark, they had problems spotting Rick on the ladder.

  “What is that?!”

  “I have no idea, but it looks like it’s – it’s alive!”

  The cloud was now very close to Rick, who was trying to walk steadily up. He heard the buzzing sound all over him, looked around, having his eyes half-squinted because of the wind, and realized the cloud consisted of thousands of insects. Unnaturally big wasps, dragon flies, bumblebees, crickets, even ladybugs.

  “Oh Jesus!” He said and covered his mouth. The bugs were now all over him, sitting on him, making him much heavier and thus not allowing him to walk up any bit faster. He could feel them in his hair, on his ears, their legs were sticking to his back and arms, penetrating his ears, irritating his skin. The buzzing sound was almost deafening.