Four black specks looked like they were hovering in one place but as Ted watched they gradually they got bigger and the whining sound got louder. He stumbled and almost fell backwards, his city boots slipping on the dry leaves, trying to keep his eye on the specks. Then he ran through the trees, whining getting louder, brittle fallen branches snapping underfoot. He had made it as far as the lake when they came crashing down from above. He dove for the water but they scooped him up in their net before he hit the surface, struggling now and twisting in the rope web as they flew him up above the trees, his bare arms getting all cut up. He couldn’t really see them from down there, just black silhouettes against the sun. They looked almost human, flying like airborne superheroes.
The forests and lakes below looked like the satellite view on a map website. The rope net seemed to be straining and a hole tore open where one of his boots was pressing against it. This caused him to grab hold of the rope, trying to hug it to him.
There was a strange-looking freighter plane ahead of them, a bulky, industrial hulk that seemed to be standing still with the speed they were going. A door opened on the side and Ted was thrown in, net and all, tumbling on the metal floor getting badly banged up.
The door shut and Ted saw he was surrounded by feral girls dressed in rags, staring at him with huge eyes. He crouched like an animal in the net and they stared silently, slowly closing their circle around him. Then he scrambled in the net, looking for the hole his boot had gone through, but found himself getting more and more twisted and his blood from the rope-cuts was smearing everywhere. One of the girls with matted blonde hair pulled out a shining dagger and he tried to tumble away from her but only rolled himself into the girls on the other side of the circle, who took a firm hold of the ropes.
The blonde girl rose up and came down hard with the knife, cutting into his right arm and the skin burned and sizzled as though the knife had been heated in hot coals. Ted launched himself at the girl and pinned her, struggling, under the net. With the net pulling at him, he lurched for the knife but she twisted her wrist and cut him again with it. The other girls were upon them now, trying to tear him off the girl who was getting scraped by the rope as well. Soon they’d pulled him off and held him against the wall, a jumble of rope and blood, and the girl with the knife got up slowly, inspecting her wounds, looking at him angrily, raising the knife to stab him again.
When she swung the knife he jerked around and it cut some of the rope. She swung it again and it cut some more rope and his ribs too a little but he didn’t care about that. She began furiously swinging the knife and he got more rope cut and pulled another one of the girls who held him into it, making her squeal and jump away. This was enough for him to break free from the net and the girls holding him. He ran, fingernails clawing his skin, knife tip just missing the back of his neck, toward the front of the plane where he struggled to slide a dirty metal door open. The girls were on his back and they threw him back down on the metal floor. He grabbed the blonde girl’s leg and she fell and this time he went for the side door he had been dropped in through. He shoved down a lever with a red handle which caused an ear-piercing alarm to go off, but also the side door to open. Wind blasted in and he held on to the edges of the opening. The girls retreated, covering their ears.
Below was that satellite view of the countryside, lakes, fields, trees, a barn here and there. Ted held tight to the edge of the opening and swung his leg outside, where he was just able to reach the wing. Then he was out, clinging to the wing with bloody hands. The girls pulled the door shut and he was alone out there. The sound of the plane and the wind was deafening and it was freezing. He tried climbing up the outside of the door, to maybe try to break into the cockpit but the wind whipped him back until he was clamped onto the tail of the plane, the edge cutting into him. Then he was free, flying through the air.
He felt completely relaxed and at peace for some reason, plummeting down as the plane continued toward the horizon. He did some flips in the air, some impromptu acrobatics until he realized he should be trying to somehow slow his fall or perhaps direct himself in some way. The ground was coming too quickly though and at this point there was really nothing he could have done to save himself. He pulled it out his cell-phone, almost dropping it, and tried calling Steve. Steve picked up right away.
“Steve! I’m fucking falling a million miles an hour towards Earth from this plane. I’m about to die actually.”
“What’s all that noise?”
“It’s the fucking wind! I’m about to DIE Steve! These are my last words!”
“Your what?”
“There were these girls and they had a knife and—“
“Ted. Relax. Take a deep breath.” Ted wanted to make a sarcastic remark but his time ran out and he hit the ground and instantly disintegrated into dust.
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