Rosa Jardine’s head flopped forward, after the old, battered plane she was a passenger of jumped suddenly. The other passengers in the cabin with her also jerked forward in their seats with the shuddering, erratic movements of the 1969 DHC-6-200 Twin Otter. Rosa blinked quickly for a bit, looking as if she was trying to understand her surroundings after waking from a deep sleep. She saw her son, Theo, sitting in the seats across the aisle from her, looking back at her anxiously, and nervously petting the head of the Husky sitting on the floor near his feet. The old man sitting next to her grabbed her hand, and she looked into Kenji’s brown eyes, seeing the same alarm she felt. 

The plane tipped one of its wings to the ground, and Rosa could see the ground through the yellowed, scratched cabin window. She stopped breathing on seeing how close the desert floor was below them. A pretty young blonde woman stumbled from where she was squatting over her mechanical legs, but was able to keep herself from falling to the floor by grabbing a handle near the cockpit entrance beside her. She reached over and pressed a button on the legs folded under her, turning them on. A series of red LED lights along the length of the legs lit up, and the three-toed feet flexed to help her balance and keep her upright. Through the cockpit entrance, Rosa could see the back of the heads of Hanyo Soon and Skoaler, both of them gripping the controls and rapidly flipping various switches on the dashboard controls. 

Hanyo turned his head to the passenger cabin and shouted, “Hold on everyone, it’s going to be a bumpy ride!” He caught Rosa’s alarmed look and smiled slightly at her, adding, “Don’t worry we’re going to land soon!” Rosa looked out the window, seeing they had levelled out again, but were flying dangerously low, the desert floor only few dozen feet below them. She looked away and closed her eyes tightly, squeezing Kenji’s hand. The plane rattled loudly with the propellers running at full throttle, and Rosa would open her eyes long enough to see the bushes and rocks whip past them under the afternoon sun, and close them again. She could hear that Theo’s dog, Arfie, was whimpering slightly and that Theo was trying to quietly reassure him, with an unsure “It’s OK, boy.”

“Is this really necessary?” Jola shouted into the cockpit, hanging tightly onto the handle and trying hard not to topple as the small plane swerved back and forth, low over the ground. She didn’t get an answer from the pilots, and gritted her teeth as she struggled to keep herself from toppling.

After several minutes, the plane stopped its swaying motion and levelled out. Rosa opened her eyes tentatively and peeked out the windows to see that they weren’t so close to the ground anymore and were now cruising at a higher altitude. She relaxed a bit and let go of Kenji’s hand, and looked over to Theo to see that he had gotten out of his seat and was crouching with Arfie on the floor, still looking a little scared. 

Jola let go of the wall handle and extended her mechanical legs in full, so her head was almost touching the cabin ceiling. She turned to face the cockpit and addressed Hanyo sharply, “What the hell was that? Is this flying bucket of nuts and bolts about to fall apart?”

Hanyo looked back at Jola with annoyance, saying, “This bucket of nuts and bolts, as you say, has never failed us, so you better-“ Hanyo stopped talking on seeing his co-pilot’s grimace and slow shaking of his head, and calmed down as he added, “- oh yeah, there was that one time we almost, well. Anyway.” He sheepishly grinned at Jola and shrugged his shoulders at Skoaler’s stern face, and turned back to flying the plane.

“Lovely!” Jola said under her breath, and turned her attention back to the passengers in the cabin. She let her mechanical legs fold underneath her again, and she squatted down low to the floor, looking around for her arm. She stretched down to look under the seats, and caught the nervously blinking eyes of Theo, still holding tight onto his Husky, who’s blue eyes look just as nervous and was panting slightly. She saw that Theo was clutching onto her arm, and her expression softened. She smiled broadly and reassuringly at he boy, and said gently, “Theo, I think you have something of mine.”

Theo looked down at the metal arm with the pincer on the end, lined with the same red LED lights that were glowing on Jola’s bird-like legs, and carefully got up out of his seat and down the aisle to stand beside Jola, He handed over the arm to her, and inspected the end of it, at twist connector that attached to her elbow, which had a matching socket implanted into what was left of her limb. His confidence and curiosity returning, he asked “So all you have to do is plug it in? Do you feel anything?”

“Yeah, all I have to do is twist it into here, and then turn it on,” she said, pressing a small button on it, “and I feel a tingling sensation in my upper arm to my shoulder. I’ve learned control the fingers on the end, to open and close them, but I don’t feel what I’m touching or grabbing with it.” She quickly checked the LED lights and turned back to shout at Hanyo, “How much longer until we land? I’m going to need to recharge, “ and winking at Theo, “in more ways than one!”

“And I need to go… really bad now!” Theo added.

Hanyo shouted over his shoulder, “Ten minutes, if I keep pushing the old girl hard!” The twin propellers were whining very loudly now, and the whole aircraft was vibrating, almost as if it were in pain. “The landing strip is in view, and if you look out the right side of the cabin, you can see the Diamantes Brillantes resort. Fasten your seatbelts and put your seat trays in the upright position, because here we go!”

Jola gripped the cabin handle, while Theo scrambled back to his seat. Rosa grabbed Kenji’s hand tightly and called over to Theo, “Put your seatbelt on! Arfie should be OK under the seat.” She looked over to Kenji, to see that he had pulled out of his shirt the transistor radio he had brought with him from his now vaporized home. 

He had turned it on and was twisting the tuning dial, trying to find a station to listen to, saying, “I wonder if there’s any news of what happened at Joshua Tree park? I hope I can pick up any transmissions this far south, from Preacher Bob or even CIM broadcasts.” He found a faint but clear station, and turned up the volume, putting the radio close to his head.

“- first a fire on a hillside in Ojai, now powerful blast in the Morongo Valley? What is the next sign, my dear friends?” a nasally voice bleated in pious outrage, breaking up from an interfering signal of a radio station that was playing Elvis Presley.

“Preacher Bob,” Kenji whispered to Rosa, who was half-listening to him, and alternating her attention to her son and the handsome pilot she could see through the cockpit door. She looked out her window and could see a large complex of low buildings, dotted with swimming pools and palm trees, surrounded by a high wall with towers at its corners.

“This Diamantes Brilliantes looks more like a prison or fortification than a resort,” Rosa muttered, noting that a white pick-up truck with armed men in the back was rushing towards the landing plane, dust kicking up behind it.

“- you ain’t never caught a rabbit, and you ain’t no friend of mine!”

“- original delight in flames, now threatened sanctuaries without names!” Preacher Bob cut in on “Hound Dog”, making Kenji’s eyes widen.

“A transmission!” Kenji whispered loudly, putting a finger to his lips.

“The children of the cooperative!
Our hearts are beating loudly, strongly, proud!
Attacks are planned upon places we live,
Call out to everyone, ‘Disperse the crowd!’”

Kenji almost dropped his radio and coughed as the Twin Otter’s landing gear hit the bumpy ground, making all the passengers lurch forward and jump in their seats. The plane’s propellers roared as the it slowed, and through the windows all there was to see was dust and flying sand surrounding them.

“- well they said you was high-classed, but that was just a lie!” Elvis interrupted Preacher Bob’s message, and continued playing as the dust settled around them, and the white pickup truck Rosa saw earlier was now driving along side of the taxiing aircraft. 

“The time has come to find our voice, and shout,
‘Find shelter from the artificial suns!’
Their light brings darkness, pain, without a doubt,
Our freedom screams in terror; peace, it runs.”

Kenji had a concerned, puzzled look on his face, oblivious to the several men riding in the vehicle outside his window, who were carrying rifles, waving them at the plane to signal it to stop. “Preacher Bob is being especially apoplectic this afternoon, but that’s his schtik. Is it a clear warning, or is there something between the lines he’s trying to share?” Rosa clutched at his arm, as a loud banging could be heard on the cabin’s side door, making Arfie jump up and charge over to the door and start barking loudly at it.

“Everyone stay cool!” Hanyo commanded everyone, making his way from the cockpit to the door at the back of the cabin, pulling back Arfie and carrying the ball of cash under his arm. “This is what they really want, that’s the easy part. Explaining all you people, well that’s going to be tricky!”
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*** This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental. ***