Page 37 of Leveling

Chapter 24

Beckett climbedinto the helicopter and stuffed his belongings under his seat. The seat beside him was empty, causing his stomach to lurch. He latched his shoulder belt, pulled his headset on, leaned back, and closed his eyes.

The helicopter lifted and swept in a turn to the East. Beckett searched from his window for Anna. The horizon was empty, the blue sky cloudless, the glistening ocean barely rippling. Beckett scanned below and found her—much smaller than he had imagined. So small he could barely see her move. Almost still in the wide expanse of the sea.

She was headed north.

Where was she going? What was she—

Hansworth said, “What’s that?” His sudden, amplified voice caused Beckett to jump.

Once Beckett recovered he said, “A young Nomad woman I gave a pack to this morning.”

“Hooweee, that’s a sad sight. A Nomad by herself won’t survive out there for long.”

Beckett turned sharply, “What?”

“Where’s her family—she didn’t mention why she was alone?” Beckett looked from Hansworth to Janson.

Janson said, “Nomads are never alone unless something awful happened. Didn’t you see the documentary about them?”

“No, I—”

Janson said, “Oh that’s right, you were already here on the Outpost. It was called, Last of the Water People, or something. They travel in large families, they lash together at night, they need their group for protection, extra rafts for supplies. A lone Nomad is a dead Nomad. That’s a fact.”

Beckett grabbed his shoulder, “We have to go back!”

Janson shoved his hand away.

Beckett banged his fist in his seat, “Fuck, we have to go back. We have to go back.”

Janson said, “Cool it Stanford. We’re not going back. We don’t have the fuel.”

Beckett gripped his armrest staring back out the window at a tiny Luna, “We’ve got to go back. We can’t...”

Hansworth shook his head. “You did what you could do, right? Gave her the pack, told her to go east.”

Janson said, “It’s not your fault she lives like a Nomad. What more can you do?”

“Go back, go back and—”

Janson said, “I’m not dying for some lone Nomad. We don’t have the fuel. And seriously how much effort has the Government put into Nomad relocation and settlements? We shouldn’t worry about them, they made their choices.”

Beckett craned around trying to keep Luna in view for a little bit longer. “We have to go back, we can’t leave her alone out there, we can’t.”

Janson ignored Beckett and asked Hansworth, “Did you see the documentary?”

“Yeah, wasn’t that weird how they’re named after animals, Latin names, old school?” Luna’s tiny figure slipped from view.

Beckett yelled, “Aargh!” And unleashed a barrage of furious punches on the back of Janson’s seat.

“Stanford you better...” Janson unlatched his belt and lunged at Beckett, grabbing his arms, pinning them to his body, twisting around his neck— “You going to cool it? You going to calm down?”

Beckett wanted free, but Janson’s forearm was pressed into his throat. He tried to get away, but he couldn’t breathe or think or even—

“You going to keep struggling?” A needle jabbed into Beckett’s bicep, then Janson released his chokehold with a shove.

Beckett collapsed over his knees, hands to his head, no no no no no.

The helicopter rode east leaving Luna far, far behind.

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