Page 34 of From the Noblest Motives
I must look a little grumpy. Shudder was about to reach out to Damien and end his social indecision, when Floyd rolled an unusual vehicle out of the hangar. Personal ornithopters had gone out of style over a hundred years before, and this one looked like one of those kits that air enthusiasts would order to build their own. On second thought, it looked like someone had used several different kits.
"Floyd?" he croaked out. "Is that thing safe?"
"Sure, sure." Floyd patted the windscreen. "Don't go far, but she goes. Three seater. Hop in."
Damien walked around it once, looked underneath and nodded. "Brewster motor. Retrofitted."
"You know it?"
"My skimmer back home. Very reliable."
Floyd grinned and pulled Shudder to his feet. "You hear, quake man? Very reliable. Come on, before we lose the light. She's not a one I like to take out in the dark."
The front pilot seat was the single, so Damien helped Shudder into the bench seat in back. There were harnesses but no doors, and normally Shudder would've found the whole thing exhilarating, an adventure, but as Floyd got the ornithopter's wings buzzing, he realized he was just too tired for adventure. The bouncing liftoff was terrifying, and he clutched Damien's knee in panic.
"It's all right." Damien mouthed the words and laced their fingers together.
It shouldn't have helped, but somehow Damien managed to give off an impression of rock-solid stability, as if the ornithopter could turn upside down and he wouldn't budge, their joined hands the center pin around which the world spun.Our hands fit. So beautifully. I feel like I fit next to him, and no one's made me feel that way since Blaze. I can't think straight right now, so I shouldn't be thinking about this at all.
Once airborne, the ornithopter flew smoothly, with dragonfly precision, as Floyd skimmed the treetops to keep their visibility as low as possible. Easy to see how the swamp people relied on him for their own transportation hub manager, as he piloted the airborne vehicle as deftly as he had the watercraft.
Shudder squeezed his eyes shut and clung to Damien, the swift and sometimes jerking flight making his stomach flop.I love flying. It's fun. But I guess not when you're sick. Finally, the buzz of the carbon wings changed pitch, and the ornithopter descended in short, queasy drops. The struts thumped down, and the wings whirred slowly into stillness.
"We're down," Damien offered as he unbelted Shudder. "You can open your eyes."
"Okay." Shudder kept his eyes firmly shut. "Is Blaze here?"
"Not yet." Damien's voice came from his other side. He must've gotten out already and come around. "He said sunrise, and the sun's just setting now. We'll rest here."
They helped him to a spot under the trees where they could watch the road and remain hidden. Shudder stretched out with his head pillowed on Damien's thigh and fell asleep again. He was dreaming of an approaching storm, thunder rumbling in the distance, when he woke to the hum and tire crunch of an approaching vehicle.
"Blaze?"
"He's coming." Damien patted his shoulder. "Floyd's flagging him down."
The vehicle noises were soon replaced by the stomp of boots familiar to Shudder as Blaze making a purposeful, conspicuous entrance.
"How is he?" Blaze said in a whisper that could've woken a rock.
"He's right here." Shudder managed a wave and started the slow process of sitting up. "I'm awake. Better now that we're on the ground."
Blaze shot Damien a look of concern. Damien just shook his head. Fine. They were going to gesture around him as if he were an invalid. Which he was, so Shudder tried to keep the annoyance from his face. Shudder even forced back the sigh when Blaze picked him up and carried him to the truck. He was worried. While it warmed a couple of chambers in Shudder's heart that Blaze was obviously still so worried and that Damien had been so careful to understate it, he just wanted to use his own feet.
"Bailey, it'll be all right," he said softly as Blaze placed him in the truck's backseat. He reached up to touch that anxious, drawn face. "Promise."
"This isn't like falling off the wall at school," Blaze grumbled, leaned their foreheads together, and drew a slow breath. "This is some deep shit. But we're in it with you now."
"You always paint the loveliest word pictures for me."
"Shut up, Eugene." But the words were said with clear affection, the hint of a smile peeking through the concern, which made up for the use of his given name.
Damien was speaking earnestly to Floyd, obviously thanking him, and shook his hand before joining them in the truck. Unusual Damien behavior, to say the least.
"Floyd says the road's mostly unused," Damien offered as he buckled in. "But federal aerial patrols sweep over every week or two."
Shudder lay down across the seat and bunched a blanket into a pillow. He wanted to keep listening, but he was just so tired. Happy he'd been found, deliriously happy to hear their voices—but tired.
"We need a healer," Damien insisted.
