Chapter 1: The Death Dance Maiden(Oneshot)
Kate twisted in discomfort, slamming her elbow into the back of Darby's head.
"Ouch!" Darby yelped. "You can't keep moving all the time, Kate. There's only so much room!"
Kate sighed. It was pointless to apologize again. Last night, Tracy told her that she was banned from the row they had shared. Airplane seats just were not meant for two teenage girls, especially one like Kate. She was at least five inches taller than most girls her age. Being tall was hard enough before the force fields came down; it was even worse now. Her size made it impossible to fit into small spaces, which were the only safe places to be anymore.
Kate got up and scooted through the crammed aisle in the dark. All the seats were double capacity and many were filled by adults with small sleeping children on their laps.
"And just where do you think you are going?" asked a deep voice.
It was stupid for her to think she would make it to the open door hatch without detection. "I need some air, space, and sleep, Mr. Jacks," she whispered, exasperated.
"And just where do you think you'll find sleep out there in the fields, Kate?" Mr. Jacks sat up and shifted his bulldog's weight from his stomach to his lap. The old dog groaned in protest. "I've seen that look before, Kate," Mr. Jacks continued. "You almost got yourself killed the last time you tried it. Please, honey, stay here. Get some rest. Lay down on the aisle floor for sleep . . . it's safer."
"I can't take another night like this. I've got to try." She rushed out the open hatch and jumped down to the platform of the metal rolling stairs. They were not tall enough to reach the edge of the doorway as they should. They were made for smaller planes.
She ran past one plane after another. They were all parked in the hangar, just as they had been the day the force fields came down around the airport, trapping fifteen hundred people inside. The force fields seemed to be electromagnetic prisons, although no one knew for sure what they were made from or for what purpose. They appeared around cities and small towns, around farms and islands, and even around tiny villages in the middle of Africa. They were everywhere—and nobody knew who put them there.
At first, when the electricity still ran and stranded passengers could get television and wireless signals, rumors spread that it was some strange homeland security protective measure, since the first appearance of the strange, blue-tinged force fields occurred only around airports. By the end of the day, the rumors stopped and the terror spread as people started disappearing, popping out of existence right before the eyes of others. Nobody knew where they had gone or if they were still alive.
It was the same every day now—if you got caught in the open for too long, you could pop right out. It was certainly one way to leave the airport.
Kate was determined to find a safer way out. The airport food supplies were almost gone. She was getting desperate; they all were. Even if a way out led to another zone, trapped by another field, it was still one step closer to her family. Her parents and sister were in Baltimore while she was trapped in Philadelphia. She had been stuck there, between flights, as she returned from a lacrosse tournament with her teammates.
She skirted through the opening left between the doors of the hangar and followed the wall of the building to a line of dense bushes that led away from the hangar to the edge of the force field. As she moved through the bushes on her hands and knees, she could feel the air around her body grow heavier and thicker with each breath. Each time she exhaled, her lungs itched and ached.
She continued to crawl toward the blue light of the force field. The light intensity of it increased with each inch she gained. It made it harder to open her eyes, but she forced them open against the light.
When the blue light turned to red and was followed by a deep burn within her eyes, she knew she was close enough to try again. From her side pocket, she pulled out a small broken mirror. It seemed such a simple object. Too simple for it to work really, but she had exhausted all her other ideas. She figured all the well-educated people trapped around the world had certainly tried all the high-tech options by now. Why not try something not so techie?
She inched the mirror toward the force field, reflective side up, bracing herself for the same result she had witnessed with all her other attempts—red hot flame, and her object burning her fingers before turning to ash in her hands.
When the mirror touched the field, the light reflected back to Kate's face at first, blinding her. The heat was so unbearable that she shifted her head and hand to protect her face. The mirror's angle changed when she shifted, reflecting the light up and away from her face just long enough for her to see a clear and open space underneath it.
She quickly raised her hand over her head and the space below the mirror got higher and thinner. She stood up and the space expanded. It was just enough for her to fit through and she did so without hesitation or thought to the consequences. All she cared about was getting out.
She fell through to the other side and immediately ran to a nearby tree to hide quietly. She had made it out, but to what? If she was in another field, she couldn't see its blue edge from where she hid.
As Kate calmed her heart and attempted to slow the adrenaline pumping through her veins, she heard an echo of a small distant bark. She looked to her left and saw Mr. Jack's old bulldog sitting expectantly near the edge of the force field on the other side, his tail wagging.
Kate's hand flew to her mouth. Oh no, what had she done? She left people in need behind her. She couldn't run away without letting them know how to get out. For all they knew, she popped out of the force field, like so many others. Nobody would believe she had escaped.
She patted down her jacket. Where was that marker she found yesterday? She located it in her left bottom pocket and flipped the mirror over. In dark purple she wrote, "Use this to get out, from Kate."
She edged back to the force field with the mirror between her teeth. When she reached the edge of the field again, she pushed the mirror, reflective side up, through the field with a nearby stick. When the mirror reached the other side, the stick flamed out and turned to ash.
She could see the old bulldog tilt his head to the right before approaching the edge. He snatched the mirror with his mouth, mimicking Kate's actions, and galloped quickly to the open hangar doors.
She waited and waited, curled up behind the tree line, hoping she would see Mr. Jacks peek out from the hangar doors with the mirror in his hand. She needed to know he had received the mirror and seen her message. But when she woke to sunlight, hours later, nothing had changed.
She couldn't stay to wait any longer. To be out and exposed for so long was dangerous. She needed protection, food, and a new mirror for the next force field edge she encountered. She turned away from the airport, filled with fear and guilt.
"And just where do you think you are going?" asked a deep voice. It was followed by a small bark.
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