The Calling (Darkness Rising) (3 page)

She nodded.

“And it’s not like landing a plane, right?” he continued. “You just set her down, nice and—”

A yelp from Hayley cut him short. I wheeled to see the pilot shoving her aside as he started for us.

Hayley screamed, then said, “He burned me! Oh my God.”

I could actually smell burned fabric, and there was a brown patch on her shirt. As the pilot lurched forward, I swore his eyes glowed.

“Hey!” Daniel said. “Hold on!”

The pilot yanked Sam out of the seat and slid in.

“Just put her down here,” Daniel said. “We lost—”

The pilot pulled up on the control stick and the helicopter started to climb. Too fast though, lurching sideways. The helicopter spun. A treetop passed the windshield. Nicole shrieked.

The helicopter dropped. The pilot swore and reached for something—

The tail hit the tree. Metal crunched as everyone went flying.

“Seat belts!” Daniel shouted as the helicopter lurched.

I heard Corey yell, “Holy hell!” and looked back to see a hole in the tail end of the helicopter.

Daniel yanked me onto his lap, and managed to get the belt over both of us.

“Kenjii!”

She stumbled to me and I grabbed her with both arms, wrapping them around her as tight as I could.

I heard Nicole yell, “Dad!”

And then we hit.

T
HE HELICOPTER LANDED NOSE
down and tilted onto its side. My head cracked against Daniel’s and I must have lost consciousness for a moment, because next thing I knew, water was flooding in.

The helicopter creaked as it teetered, and I knew we must be perched on an underwater ledge … over what could be a very deep body of water.

I twisted to tell Daniel, but he was already pushing me toward the other side, saying, “I know.” Then, “Everyone! Get over there!”

I glanced back to see Nicole and Sam sitting there, just staring. Corey bent over Hayley, then picked her up. She lay like a rag doll in his arms.

“She’s okay,” he said. “Just unconscious.”

“Dad!” Nicole shrieked.

I turned toward the front seat. The pilot was dead. He’d gone out the windshield, and was now draped over the crumpled front of the helicopter. Tendrils of blood snaked through the water all around him.

Mayor Tillson still wore his seat belt, but he was wedged in, the crushed dashboard pinning his big chest. Blood dribbled from his mouth.

I pressed my fingers to his neck. No pulse.

“He’s—” I began.

“No, he’s not!” Nicole shoved me so hard the helicopter rocked.

“Let’s get him out of there.” Daniel looked for Corey, who was still holding Hayley. “Sam? Give me a hand? Nic and Maya, stay over by the door with Kenjii and keep that side weighed down.”

Sam and Daniel grabbed the mayor under his armpits and pulled, but he wasn’t budging, and with every wrench, the helicopter rocked. Daniel bent to peer under the crushed cockpit, and Sam checked her uncle for a pulse. When Daniel came back up, shaking his head, she shook hers, too, biting her lip and blinking hard.

Daniel turned to Nicole. “He’s gone, Nic. There’s nothing—”

“No, he’s not!” she shouted. “You’re only saying that because Maya did. You always listen to her.”

Everyone stopped and stared. Sweet, quiet Nicole stood there, her face twisted with rage, hair coming loose from her ponytail, spiking around her face, her mascara running.

I moved up to Daniel and Sam and whispered, “She’s in shock. Let me see if I can get his legs free.”

“There’s no use,” Sam said. “He’s—”

My look shushed her. I squeezed in as far as I could to get a better look, but the slightest movement made the helicopter rock.

“You need to get off,” Daniel said as he crouched beside me.

“Of course she does,” Nicole said. “You’re always worried about Maya. Why? She doesn’t deserve—”

Sam spun on her. “Shut the hell up!”

Daniel and I stared at both of them. It was Corey who murmured, “Nic didn’t mean it, guys. She just lost her dad.”

“And I just lost my uncle,” Sam said.

“Take Nicole out,” Daniel said. “Please. Before—”

The helicopter groaned again and began to tilt.

“Off!” Daniel shouted. “Everyone off!”

He grabbed the door handle. Sam and I helped, all three of us yanking until it finally opened. Water poured in, but it only came up to midcalf. Land was a few meters away.

Corey went first, carrying Hayley. Sam, Nicole, and I followed. The helicopter jerked. I lost my footing and plunged backward into the icy water that filled the cockpit. Daniel grabbed my arm and Kenjii swam to me, taking my shirt in her teeth and hauling me until Sam could pull me out, Daniel right behind us.

The helicopter gave one final wail, metal scraping on rock, then rolled off the ridge into the deep water.

“Kenjii!” I shouted.

Sam and Corey had to hold me back as I fought and screamed for my dog. Daniel jumped in. He’d barely gone under when Kenjii surfaced. I ripped free from the others and waded to the edge as Daniel climbed back onto the ledge. Kenjii’s nails kept slipping on the underwater rocks, but with me pulling on her collar and Daniel pushing from behind, we managed to heave her up.

We waded through the knee-deep water toward the tiny island. As soon as I was on land, I let myself collapse and would have stayed there if Daniel hadn’t caught me under the arms and propelled me to higher ground. I was about to drop on the grassy bank when Corey shouted, “It’s Hayley! She’s not breathing!”

I stumbled to where he crouched beside her.

“I was sure she was breathing before,” he said. “I should have let you check.
Damn
it.”

Hayley lay on her back in the long grass. Her skin was tinged blue.

Daniel steered Corey away as I ripped open Hayley’s shirt and started chest compressions. He sat Corey down and told him to stay there, then returned, and took over the compressions while I breathed into her ice-cold lips.

On my third breath, I felt her chest move. On the fourth, she coughed. We got her sitting up and breathing.

“Wh-what happened?” she said, looking around. “Where’s the helicopter?”

I told her. She just sat there, nodding, like it wasn’t sinking in, but when I asked if she understood, she snapped that she wasn’t stupid, and I backed off.

I kept backing off until I found a flat place to sit. Daniel slid in behind, arms around me, letting me lean back against him. Kenjii came over and put her head on my lap and I cried then. Just cried.

When I could finally speak, I twisted to face Daniel and said, “It’s my fault Rafe’s dead.”

“No, it isn’t,” he said fiercely. “I’m the one who knocked out the pilot.”

“How? You never touched him?”

“I—I don’t know. I startled him or something.”

I shook my head. “You didn’t. I don’t know what happened, but it wasn’t your fault. I’m not talking about the crash anyway. I mean that if it wasn’t for me, Rafe wouldn’t have fallen.”

“No, Maya. He let go. I saw it. He made a choice and there was nothing you could do about that.”

“I—”

“He did the right thing. If he’d held on, you’d have fallen, and maybe me, too. I know it doesn’t make this any easier, but he did the right thing.”

“That’s not what I mean. He should never have been on that helicopter. If I’d let them wake him up, he’d have insisted on staying to find Annie.”

Daniel shook his head. “They’d have put him on that helicopter whether he wanted to go or not.”

“But he’d have been awake. He wouldn’t have fallen—”

“If he resisted getting on, they’d have sedated him, just like they did with the mayor. You know he’d have resisted. Nothing would have changed.”

When I tried to look away, he caught my chin and turned me to face him.

“Nothing,”
he said.

My eyes filled with tears again. “It doesn’t seem real. The fire. The people in the forest. The helicopter crash. Mayor Tillson. Rafe.” I looked up at him again. “It can’t be real. I’m asleep. It’s a nightmare. Tell me it is.”

He hugged me so tight my ribs protested. “I wish I could.”

His voice cracked and I hugged him back, as hard as I could.

Someone cleared his throat behind us. It was Corey. He crouched and said, in a low voice, “I know this is a bad time, guys. I’m really sorry. But the girls—They’re freaked out and they need someone to tell them what to do and … that’s not me. They want one of you two. Daniel, I’ll stay here with Maya if you can talk to them.”

I wiped my sleeve over my eyes. “No. Sitting here isn’t going to help.” It just gave me a deep, dark pit to lose myself in when I really couldn’t afford to be lost.

We both got up and followed Corey.

Nicole and Hayley were huddled in the long grass, staring out at the island to the west. Vancouver Island. Our island. Shrouded in fog.

The girls were shivering. Even Sam, leaning against a tree, twisting the bar in her ear, was trembling, though she kept giving herself an abrupt shake, as if annoyed by her weakness.

I had to give myself a shake, too—a mental one—as I took stock of our surroundings.

With the fog rolling in, I couldn’t tell how big our island was. But it had looked small from the air. The ground was rocky, with patches of long grass and scrubby trees.

The sky was overcast, so dark I thought night was coming until I checked my watch and realized it wasn’t even six.

Mom had been in Victoria when the forest fire broke out. Was Dad with her now? Were they waiting for our helicopter to land? Planning what we’d have for dinner to take my mind off the forest fire?

Had
Dad’s helicopter gone to Victoria? Was it only our helicopter that had been diverted or…?

“Maya?” Daniel said.

Don’t think about that. Can’t think about that
. We needed to get some place warm and dry before dark.

I whispered that to Daniel. He gestured for me to walk with him.

“We’re going to scout the island,” he told the others.

No one offered to come along. No one said a word. They just nodded, their gazes as empty as I felt.

“We need to tell them everything,” Daniel whispered as we walked away. “Otherwise, they’ll want to wait for rescue. Which we know we can’t do.”

“Because we don’t know who’ll come for us. Real rescuers or fake ones.”

He nodded.

“I’ll…” I struggled to get my brain in gear, but I felt like I was still out in the water, fighting to keep my head above the surface and wishing I could just sink into peaceful oblivion. I blinked hard. “Sorry. I’ll talk to them.”

“No, I will. You just need to back me up. Can you do that?”

I nodded.