The Autumn Aircraft: Avery's Recruits Read Free

Aircraft .”
    He snapped his fingers and the security guards became unfrozen, then he strolled into the hall and yanked the bladeless knife from the other security guard’s throat.
    At least in person, that was the last time anyone in the cafeteria ever saw Avery Johnston again.
     
    2
     
                  “What’s the point is all I wonder?  We have the best weapons in the world, Alan.”
                  “It’s how I calm myself.”
    “But for hours, man?  You could be putting that time to better use.”
    “Like what, Danny? Fucking girls?”
    “Ah, whatever.  You’re never going to see where I’m coming from.”
    Alan chuckled.  “You’re sure right about that.”
    A protest is what Alan noticed and he headed in its direction.  As expected, parents were going to react, spouting off crap about school safety when, in fact, school officials—and that included security—were only running out the clock so there wouldn’t be chaos before everyone kicked the bucket.  Alan was willing to guess that teachers, school security, and countless others were told a whole host of lies to help keep the masses calm.  Probably some bullshit about how it was all a lie or about how they would be given a chance to live if they just followed orders.  When the soldiers started showing up (Alan thought they’d have the better part of the decade long countdown to start worrying about that) was when there’d be trouble.  For now, all Alan had to do was confirm the truth about the word spread by Avery, and collect recruits wherever he could. 
    “So you must’ve heard,” Danny said as they came to a stop just outside the crowd of protesters.
    “About Antarctica?  Yeah, I heard.  It will be as painful and as brilliant a location as they come.”
    “Any idea when we’re heading out?”
    Alan pulled out his special issued smartphone and looked at a text that had come through.  He furrowed his brow and shoved it back in his pocket.
    “January next year, I think,” Alan said.  “I’m surprised he didn’t tell you.”
    “No, I heard.  Just forget.  A lot going on, you know.  Hard to retain all of it sometimes.”
    Alan nodded.  “Yeah, that’s understandable.  Anyway…I just received a text from who is soon to be America’s most wanted man.”
    “Yeah?  And…”
    “We have to attend a party tonight.  Apparently, he thinks it’s a way to have his finger on the real pulse of the city.”
    “Will he let us drink?”
    “No.”  Alan looked at Danny with a slight frown.  “Even if you could, you said you didn’t drink, so why do you want to?”
    “I just never reached that age where I needed to drink.  But I want to get myself ready for when I do.  Remember, I’ll be twenty one in just over four years.”
    “And millions will be dead by then and the world will have changed dramatically.  Somehow, I think your priorities will be a little different when that time comes.”
    Alan and Danny fell into silence and listened as the crowd used the beautiful weather to protest in front of Montview High.  They held picket signs, they jumped up and down, and they tried out a variation of chants, seeming to try to catch lightning in a bottle.
    You guys will never find the magic words, Alan thought.  Because you’re on the wrong side of history.
    “There’s a lot of people here,” Danny said.  “It makes no sense.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    “No one was even really hurt.  Protests like these, with four hundred or more people, are for the real school tragedies.  When a freshman brings a gun into the school and shoots up a bunch of kids and it’s discovered he’d been making threats and turning in papers with questionable content in English lit, that’s a tragedy.”
    “Okay?”
    “It’s a tragedy when a kid commits suicide because he was bullied so much and the teachers did nothing, and the parents had failed to teach their kid about the importance of standing up