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I stopped transmitting and listened. Static.
"SOS!" I said. "Emergency situation. Helicopter over Vancouver Island. Pilot unconscious. Repeat, pilot unconscious!"
The helicopter dropped again.
Corey bent to look at the control panel. "You need to--"
"I'm working on it!" Sam snarled.
"Here, let me--"
I didn't see what Corey did, but the helicopter pitched to the side, hard and sharp. Corey fell onto the mayor. Kenjii barked, claws scraping the floor as she slid onto the unconscious pilot.
Sam swore, her hands shaking as she reached for a lever. "Everyone sit down. Just sit down!"
The helicopter lurched again and Sam's hand hit something. A crack and a rush of air. Nicole shrieked. This time, Hayley joined her.
"The door!" Corey said. "Holy hell. The door's open!"
"Everyone hang on!" Daniel yelled. "Maya, grab Kenjii!"
I lunged for the dog's collar and, just then, I heard a gasp. Everyone was yelling and wind rushed through the half-open door and I shouldn't have heard anything. But I heard that gasp.
"Rafe!" I screamed.
As I turned, I saw a blur of motion. Rafe, his eyes opening as he sailed across the floor of the helicopter. Out the open door.
TWO
I DIDN'T THINK. I shoved Kenjii into the safe nook between the front seats and scrambled toward the door as the helicopter jolted again, righting itself.
Daniel lunged for me and missed. Wind rushed in through the open door. I could barely breathe, barely see. Then I saw Rafe's hands gripping the bottom frame.
Rafe's hands slipping from the bottom of the door.
I dropped and grabbed his wrists just as he lost his grip. As he fell, I shot forward. I kicked wildly, trying to hook something with my legs. Then someone caught my foot and I stopped with a jolt.
I didn't need to look back to see who had me. The same person who'd had my back since we were five. Daniel.
"Corey, get over here!" he shouted.
The helicopter lurched, and I slid again, Daniel still holding my ankle. My hands were locked around Rafe's wrists, his around mine. Then Corey caught my other foot, and the helicopter leveled off.
I could hear them shouting inside. Their words came in fits and starts, sucked away by the wind roaring past my ears. And in those first few seconds of confusion, I didn't really even understand what had happened. I could hear the wind. Feel the wind. Taste it even. But it took a moment for me to crack my eyes open and realize I was hanging outside the helicopter.
Hanging outside the helicopter.
The earth bobbed and whirled below us, trees and rock and water spinning into a blur.
"Don't look down!" I thought it was Daniel, but then realized Rafe was staring up at me.
"I've got you!" I shouted.
He smiled, this weirdly calm smile. "I know."
"Just hold on!"
"I am."
