The Forsaken

about the noise of this airplane, like being in a giant womb. Except for the part where we could crash and die at any second.
    But we don’t crash. Instead we stand there watching the screen.
    Liam finally turns to me. “I heard what you said earlier. In the pod, I mean.”
    I start to blush. So he heard me after all, but he didn’t say anything back. I feel a little embarrassed. “I thought we were going to die. That’s why I said it.”
    He takes my hand as I look up at him. “It’s okay. You know I feel the same way.” I hug him tightly. “Right before the feeler took me, at the very last instant, you were the only person I was thinking about. And then when I woke up, you were right there. The first face that I saw.” He kisses the top of my forehead. “I never thought I’d fall in love on the wheel.”
    I shut my eyes. “Me neither.”
    We hold each other for a long time.
    It finally becomes clear we’re not going to be landing anytime soon. Yet neither of us wants to go back into the pod, because we don’t want to lose our connection to the outside world. I tell Liam everything that happened since he got taken: about Veidman, Sinxen, and the barrier, and the Monk being Minister Harka. Liam listens in sadness, horror, and amazement.
    Eventually, we explore the entire aircraft and survey the other sealed pods, coming back to the aircraft’s view screen every few minutes to make sure everything looks okay. We’re unable to thaw the other occupants, even though we try all kinds of different methods. But what worked in the specimen archive doesn’t work here, and without Clara’s intervention, the occupants remain frozen.
    We also search for any items we can use as weapons when we land, but the plane yields nothing that isn’t bolted or welded down.
    “I think we’re losing altitude,” Liam finally calls over the engine noise.
    I tilt my head to look at the monitor but still see only blue sky. I’m guessing we’ve been airborne for several hours. “We’re coming down?” I feel my gut clench up. I’m not ready.
    “We’re moving hyperfast. We might have gone a couple thousand miles already. We’d better get back into the pod, so we’re safe when we land.” I can hear the tension in his voice.
    I wish we could stay in the air forever. Suspended in the clouds, like a twinkling star, or like one of those butterflies from the island river, never having to face what’s in store for us. Never having to face the consequences for leaving the wheel.
    The images on the video screen suddenly start sliding, and I realize the camera is moving again.
    “Whoa!” I yell, not understanding what I’m seeing. Now we’re just staring at a rippling golden surface.
    Liam leans forward, scrutinizing the image. “I think those are sand dunes.”
    “What? We’re already over land?” I stare at the monitor, perplexed and scared.
    The image starts to make more sense the farther we go, and I realize that, inexplicably, we’re flying over an unbroken stretch of desert. It’s unpopulated and completely sparse. I’ve never seen anything like it. It’s like the water just turned into sand underneath the aircraft without us noticing.
    More desert unfurls, like an endless stretch of unrolled canvas. Somewhere in the distance is the horizon.
    “Let’s go back now,” Liam says. We tentatively move down the center of the plane and find our pod.
    I take one final glance back at the view screen. We’re so low now that I can see dust clouds rising up from the sand, like banks of fog.
    My ears get stuffy for a second, and then they clear as we keep descending. Wherever we’re going, I sense that we’re almost there. Maybe just a few minutes away.
    “There’s gotta be some kind of landing strip or runway around here,” I yell into Liam’s ear as we climb into the pod, curling up again and closing the pod door as best we can. “We’re their specimens! It doesn’t make sense for them to let us crash and die in a desert.”
    The aircraft slows even more, like it’s coming in low. I clutch at Liam.
    The roar of the engines becomes deafening again. The plane is going to touch down soon, whether there’s a runway around here or not.
    “What happens when we land?” I ask Liam, refusing to acknowledge the fact that crashing seems far more likely. “Do we fight?”
    “If we have to.”
    I can barely hear him because of the noise. I curl up against him tighter. I try to get some air from the oxygen mask,