Chapter Sixteen: Tyler

The girls have finished bringing their carry on into the now cleared out first class. I stay by Steven. He's still a little drowsy, but I know he'll get past it. He's my brother after all.

Mariah is picking up trash around the seats and dumping it in a bag she found lying around. We cleared out the corpses, not their trash. Diane on the other hand is watching the rain fall down. It makes a steady drum sound on the plane above us. The water falls down in a waterfall effect over the entrance.

"I have an idea." she tells us and goes up the plane to the bathroom. She returns with towels and soap. Leaving the towels at her seat, she walks to the edge of the gap and disappears into the curtain of rain. Her blurry form moves its arms up and down.

"She's cleaning the blood off." Mariah says. She finishes picking up the aisle she was at and walks into the rain also. I look down at myself. I don't have a lot of blood, but boy am I sticky. I can't leave Steven though.

Diane is the first to come back. She grabs a big towel and pats at her hair and rubs her legs and arms. She lays it down on another chair to dry. Steven groans next to me. She looks over our way. Her face softening, she grabs a smaller towel and heads back to the rain. Her hand disappears and reappears. Diane walks up to me with the sopping rag.

"Go on and wash up. I'll stay by him." She tells me.

I nod and go down to the water. I pause at the curtain. The spray feels cold. Before I decide against it, I shrug my shirt off. I don't need to get it wet. Then I turn back to the hole and plunge in.

The water is freezing, but it's just what I need for my sore everywhere. I tilt my face up, open my mouth, and fill it with the sweet water. After I swallow, I look around to see Mariah a ways away. Half of her skin is blood free.

She is rubbing soap on her leg with one hand. Her other hand holds the soap. I walk over and take the bottle from her grasp. She stops what she's doing and looks up at me. I see she's a little surprised at my appearance. Then again, I took my shirt off.

She looks down at the soap and lets go. I smile at her and squeeze some out. I hand it back and walk a little bit away. I rub it all over my arms, legs, and chest. My back doesn't feel like it has a lot of grime on it, so I leave it alone.

When I'm sure all the soap is gone, I walk back through the hole in the plane. Mariah is still drying off her hair. She pauses to hand me a towel. I accept it and ruffle my hair with it. It must look ridiculous because she giggles.

I dry off my chest and notice that Diane is gently washing my brother's blood spots off, working around his stitches. She's also talking to him. Talking about her home and her friends. At some points, she starts crying and I see his mouth move to comfort her. I smile at that. My brother, ever the charmer.

Author's Note

I wrote this one.