Page 7 of Nothing Special X: The Last Stand

He hated this. Hated that it made him appear weak.

“You know I don’t like flying,” he whispered harshly.

“I know you don’t,” Ruxs said, lowering his voice. “But you said you’d do it. You took the Valium, right?”

“Yes,” he hissed.

“Okay, give it time. It’ll kick in before the layover. Then you can just sleep the last leg.”

He’d taken it right before he’d left home. It wasn’t doing a damn thing but making his tongue feel thick while his brain continued to scream for him to run.

God was getting more visibly agitated by the second. Day, Tech, and Free, on the other hand, looked entertained. Which only made Green more homicidal.

“I’ll drive and meet y’all there,” he muttered, taking a few steps back.

Day laughed. “You mean meet us there next week?”

“Honestly,” Tech said, adjusting the strap of his bag, “the odds of dying in a car crash are about one in a hundred. But dying on a plane is so rare the odds couldn’t even be calculated last year. So yeah, driving makes more sense.”

Green turned on them with a scowl sharp enough to kill on spot. “All of you fuck off.”

The gate agent lifted the microphone. “Final call for boarding.”

Perfect. A countdown. Exactly what his nerves needed.

“I’m going to my seat,” God said. “You both better have your asses on that plane before it takes off.”

He turned and walked away, not looking back, because of course he did. Just walked casually into that death portal as if he were getting on a ride at an amusement park.

Green dragged both hands through his hair and started cursing. Quietly at first, then louder when it didn’t help. “Fuck. Fuck this. Fuck that plane. Fuck this whole trip.”

Day laughed harder. “You didn’t happen to just watch Cast Away, did you? I mean, sure, everyone else died, but Tom Hanks does make it off the island…four years later.”

Green lunged for his lieutenant before he could think better of it.

Ruxs caught him around the waist and hauled him back against his chest.

“Day,” Steele called over his shoulder while heading down the jet bridge, “leave him alone.”

“I’m just saying,” Day said, still grinning as he boarded.

Free examined Green with that fascinated expression he got when certain human behaviors offended his brilliance.

“During the westside bust, you jumped from a second-story balcony onto a moving SUV, with three men shooting at you, and didn’t die… but you can’t get on a commercial flight where you have, statistically, a one in eleven million chance of dying? I’m so confused. And I’m never confused.”

Green was furious that everyone kept acting as though his fear wasn’t understandable. God wielded two Desert Eagles handguns at the same time but had a crippling fear of rodents.

The gate agent stared at them with strained patience. “I have to close the doors now.”

Free and Tech went through the door, leaving him and Ruxs.

The airport turned too quiet.

The gate area was mostly abandoned. The glass windows reflected only the two of them, and beyond it sat the huge, waiting, steel-bellied animal with its mouth open, ready to swallow him whole.

Something caught his eye below the wing.

Movement.