Page 26 of Heart of the Sun

I let out a small scream, turning my cheek as the warmth billowed toward us. “Grab the stuff,” Tuck said, foisting the loaded blanket at Charlie and then turning toward where the pilot lay. “I think the plane’s about to blow.”

I could smell the fuel now, closer and more pungent as though Tuck had stepped in a puddle of it. I bent, grabbing the handle of my suitcase.

“Did you get the phones?” Charlie asked.

“Yeah,” Tuck said. “Maybe we can get some service but I’m not hopeful.”

“What if we can’t?” Charlie asked. “It’s cold as fuck out here.”

Tuck ignored him, heading over to the dead pilot.

“What are you going to do?” Charlie asked.

Tuck didn’t answer him. He seemed to be in some zone, or on a mission only he had been given. He bent and picked the dead man up under his armpits. His jaw was set, muscles bunched, dirt smeared across his cheek, the pilot’s blood on his clothing as he adjusted his weight and began dragging him across the ground. Charlie and I stumbled along behind him. “I’m going to get his body a safe distance away from the fire and then figure out where the fuck we are,” Tuck murmured almost as if to himself.

Seconds later, we all hit the ground when a giant boom filled the air, an explosion creating a whoosh of heat. I screamed, covering my head as flying debris crashed to the ground with a thud.Close. Too close.Breath sawed from my lungs as I lifted my head moments later, taking note of Charlie and Tuck just rising as well. Flaming pieces of what had been the plane were scattered on the ground nearby. Behind us, the entire body was engulfed in fire. Tuck’s eyes met mine. “Are you okay?”

I nodded jerkily.Yes.But he almost hadn’t been. Thirty seconds longer in the plane, and he’d have gone up in flames.

chapterfourteen

Tuck

Day One

I hated the thought of leaving behind the body of the man who’d saved our lives and given his own in the process, but there was really no other choice. He now lay between two massive evergreens in the middle of the field we were in, his body covered in the rocks I was able to gather, hopefully offering some protection against scavengers.It’s the best I can do for you. I’m so sorry, man.My hope was that we could find help and send a crew in to recover his body.

From the corner of my eye, I saw Charlie and Emily rummaging through their suitcases and changing into warmer clothes. Wherever we’d crashed was frigid. As I arranged the rocks around Russell’s body, I tried to determine how far we’d flown and where we might be. I’d been angry and stewing and because of that, my internal clock was likely off. But my best guess was that we were either in Indiana,or Illinois. Had we traveled far enough to be in Ohio or even Pennsylvania? Maybe, but I didn’t think so. I’d never been to the East Coast, but it was early December, and it was cold as hell, maybe even on the verge of snow, and so we definitely weren’t in Arizona or Colorado. Plus, no mountains or desert. Maybe Charlie or Emily would have a more accurate guess. I assumed they’d flown this route at least a few times. But frankly, I didn’t much feel like talking to either of them. They hadn’t so much as offered to help grab what we could off the plane. They’d stood aside and watched me do it. They were clearly useless. Unless one of them could get their phone to work.

I placed the final rock on Russell’s cairn—the best one I could manage anyway. I had balanced larger ones on top, so he was mostly covered. I turned away, the lump in my throat making it difficult to swallow. I didn’t even know the dude, but he deserved better than this. I made a mental note of the landscape here, and the direction of the sun, so as soon as possible, I could send the authorities to collect his body and bring it home to his family. He’d been wearing a wedding ring that I’d removed and put in my pocket to return to his wife.

“Nothing,” Charlie was saying, staring down at his phone and pressing buttons and then holding it up to the sky as he turned in circles. He’d done the same thing thirty minutes before when he’d taken his and Emily’s phones from the blanket I’d used as a sack to collect what I could from the plane. “It won’t even turn on.”

“Same with mine,” Emily said, staring down at hers. I’d looked for my own phone but hadn’t seen it anywhere. It’d likely rolled under something in the mayhem of the descent and the crash, but since we had two phones and the smell of jet fuel was strong and worrisome, I had decided it wasn’t worth the risk to search for mine.

“They weren’t low in charge, so maybe they got banged around in the crash,” Emily suggested,turning hers over as though there might be evidence of damage on some part of the device.

“Even if it starts working, we’re probably too far out in the middle of nowhere,” Charlie said, his expression glum as he put his phone in his pocket.

The blanket from which they’d retrieved their phones lay open on the ground, the water bottles, snacks, and other items I’d deemed useful still inside. Of course, I hadn’t had any idea where we were or what we might be up against, so who even knew if I’d gathered anything useful, other than food provisions.

All I did know was that we seemed to be in the middle of nowhere, the sun was lowering in the sky, and Charlie was right about one thing: it was cold as fuck.

Emily had put on a white jacket with a fur collar and a pair of tight black leather pants, but she was still shivering. “Do you have anything warmer than that?” I asked.

She looked down at her outfit and shook her head. “I have a pair of pajama pants.”

“I’d put them on. Layer up.”

She appeared ready to argue, but then nodded, bending toward her luggage. Charlie had put on a jacket too and was sitting on his suitcase, fiddling with his phone again.

I opened my duffel bag and pulled out a jacket and some boots, and then tossed the useless clothing items on the ground and began transferring the things I’d gathered from the plane into the bag.

“What are you doing?” Charlie asked.

“It’ll be easier to carry this,” I told him, zipping it closed.

“Carry?”

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