Leanna O’Regan sat opposite the zippered entrance at the far end of the orange, conical inflatable raft, which would bulge inward with each slap by the man outside, dangling from its edge in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. Leanna was scowling, wrapping her arms around her knees and pulling them closer with each bellow from the man outside demanding to be let back into the raft. “Leanna! Let me back in! Let’s talk! What did I say?” the man…
Dante Valderez sat calmly on the bench at the back of the cabin of the military helicopter, steadying himself with his black-gloved hands and glancing out the windows with his cold black eyes showing over the rim of the respirator covering the lower half of his face. The sky was starting to light up in the twilight of the early morning, and he could make out the boulders and plants of the desert valley floor speeding away below them. He…
Rosa Jardine watched the beautiful young woman striding crane-like away from the airplane on her mechanical legs, looking through the cabin window from her seat in the 1969 Twin Otter DHC-6-200. Rosa’s son Theo strained to look from his seat across the aisle from her, trying to catch a glimpse of Jola Winters sprint back to the aircraft hanger. The old man sitting behind Rosa, Kenji Nobu, was watching Jola’s progress under the crescent moon back to the silver Datsun…
Dante Valderez poked at the freshly cut flowers scattered on the ground in the bright spotlight from the resting helicopter nearby with tip of the sword he found in the spring-fed pond of the oasis. He started stabbing the sword deep into the furrows of the ravaged garden, pulling the blade out and moving a few feet to force it into the ground again. Beyond the glare of the helicopter spotlight, the crescent moon sank past the edge of the…
Leanna O’Regan leaned out of the door of the orange conical life raft and reached into the dark ocean water, splashing it on her face. She gasped, surprised by how cold the water was, and looked up into the starry night sky. The crescent moon was hidden behind some solitary thick clouds, so she could clearly see the broad band of stars making up the Milky Way stretch across the sky. She shivered a bit and scanned the watery horizon…
Rosa Jardine stood in the dimly lit, cramped airplane hangar with her hands on her hips, making the print of the crane on her yukata appear to be resting from a long flight. She was scowling darkly at the hurrying figure of Hanyo Soon, the handsome young man who only gave her flashes of a grin as he quickly prepared the dilapidated 1969 Twin Otter DHC-6-200 for flight. Skoaler was busy loading the plane with various boxes and containers, surprisingly…
Dante Valderez had closed his eyes again, and was sitting tall and still on the large helicopter’s rear cabin bench, across from Lucretius Angelus, who was shifting uncomfortable on his bench in his wet uniform. He looked out the window beside him, down to the dark mountain ranges dotted with the occasional light, far below them. He could hear Dante breathing steadily behind his mask, and looked back at the black uniformed man, his eyelids and scarred forehead relaxed. Lucretius…
Rosa Jardine pulled her arms tightly around Hanyo Soon’s waist and so pulled herself closer to the young man on the back of the racing motorcycle, resting her head on the shoulder of his black leather jacket, with the wind tugging at her pinned up hair and whipping the long sleeves of her yukata around her. They sped down the empty desert highway, followed by the silver Datsun 280Z and another motorcycle. She looked back at the car following them,…
Leanna O’Regan was laying on her side on the undulating fabric floor of the covered orange life raft, her head resting on the rolled up light grey jacket and her eyes lightly closed. She had gathered her long black hair together and pulled it to one side over her shoulder under her. She was only wearing a white t-shirt and shorts, and pulled her legs up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her, shivering in the ocean spray…
Dante Valderez looked with his blank, dark eyes at the crescent moon glowing in the starry sky, the cold ocean air still roaring in from the opened side door of the speeding black helicopter. Some wispy clouds drifted across the moon’s partially lit face, breaking Dante’s gaze. The black-uniformed man sitting rigidly at the back of the helicopter turned to look at the thin, young man sitting on the bench in front of him, wet and shivering under a light-grey…